Atlanta Falcons: Hayden Hurst offers new beginnings at tight end

With the Atlanta Falcons making the move of trading for Baltimore Ravens tight end Hayden Hurst on Monday, what kind of player are the Dirty Birds adding?

After losing one talented tight end in free agency, the Atlanta Falcons brought in another talented tight end target to kick off the start of the legal tampering period in the NFL this week.

With the news of now-former Falcons tight end Austin Hooper signing a four-year contract to join the Cleveland Browns on Monday, Atlanta didn’t waste any time in looking for Hooper’s replacement and its next tight end to add to an already potent offense.

The Falcons reportedly completed a deal shortly after the announcement of Hooper signing in Cleveland, bringing in young tight end Hayden Hurst in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens. As part of the deal between the two teams, Baltimore will be sending Hurst and a 2020 fourth-round draft pick to Atlanta in exchange for a 2020 second-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round pick, according to multiple NFL reporters.

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Although losing Hooper to free agency was a tough thing for Atlanta to find out, given his performance most notably during the 2019 campaign in a career-best season to date, the fact that the Falcons were able to quickly bounce back and bring in a player like Hurst is a strong plus early on in the offseason.

With a new face set to line up at tight end alongside Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and wide receiving duo of Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley, let’s take a look at Hurst and why he is a nice addition to Atlanta.

Last year, Hurst finished up his second season in the NFL and with Baltimore after he was selected by the Ravens out of South Carolina with the 25th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

During the regular season, Hurst put together his best season to date while appearing in all 16 contests for Baltimore. He ended the year with 30 receptions on 39 overall targets, recording a career-high 349 yards receiving and two touchdowns within an offense led by Lamar Jackson and company.

With the emergence of Mark Andrews in Baltimore, Hurst kind of got lost in the mix of things offensively in Baltimore, which makes sense why the Ravens would be willing to part ways with the tight end approaching the 2020 campaign.

Luckily for Baltimore, Atlanta became a team that was in sudden need for a tight end, which sparked a deal getting done between both sides in the early stages of the offseason.

Hurst, who will turn 27 years old in August, provides the Falcons with a large target in the middle of the field much like what Hooper presented the Atlanta offense for the past few years. He is still young and is set to make about $1.5 million a year through at least the 2021 campaign, so that offers the Falcons with a nice building block moving forward.

It’s never easy for a franchise and an offense to lose one of the top players in the league at their position the way the Falcons lost Hooper this offseason, but Atlanta will now insert Hurst into that hole while hoping he can grow into the kind of player Hooper became in Atlanta.