NFL Report: Falcons lack interest in Justin Fields, may trade up for QB in 2024 NFL Draft

Steve Wyche and James Palmer throw cold water on the idea of Fields to Atlanta.

Every offseason, there is a hot name of two that finds themselves tied to the Atlanta Falcons. Sometimes that player lands in Atlanta—Jessie Bates, thankfully—and more often the Deshaun Watsons, the Justin Houstons of yesteryear, and so forth land somewhere else. It’s difficult, especially early in the offseason, to determine how seriously we should take these kinds of rumors.

Take Justin Fields. A Georgia native who figures to be available via trade from the Chicago Bears, Fields is a natural player to link to the Falcons, given that he’s a semi-affordable veteran with real promise and the team has a gaping hole at quarterback. There has been no shortage of speculation on that front, with Fields answering a question on a podcast about Atlanta by making it clear he wouldn’t mind landing there.

Harder to find, of course, has been any concrete reporting about the team’s interest. The expectation that they’ll be interested is there, but we’re still waiting for someone with a track record of scoops to tell us the Falcons will pull the trigger. Instead, what we got from a recent NFL Report podcast with James Palmer and Steve Wyche is some cold water on the prospect.

Wyche is a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter who I often say still has strong ties to the Falcons organization, which I can also tell you is not speculation on my part but a concrete fact. That’s why, even though he certainly doesn’t bat 1.000, I pay attention to what he has to say about the team. What he had to say on the podcast was very dismissive in terms of Atlanta’s chances of—and interest in—getting Fields.

Here’s the relevant discussion:

“I think mentioning the Falcons coming up is a very, very poignant message. I think that is a team that maybe doesn’t look to go the veteran route, I know some people have tied Justin Fields, we’ll go to him in a second…” Palmer said.

“Yeah, I don’t see it,” Wyche interjected.

Palmer went on to say that their sense from talking to Terry Fontenot on their show recently was that he values draft picks and feels good about the roster-building the team has done to set a young quarterback up for success. The relative affordability of a top young quarterback over the course of five seasons and the team’s draft capital availability and cap space to augment the team around him are both relevant, he notes.

“Remember, they have established roster, you could say, on both sides of the ball, to where they could think they could give up a future first round pick to move up from 8. They have plenty of salary cap space, they could make that jump,” Palmer said.

“The Falcons, their new coordinator Zac Robinson is coming from L.A. Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford. That scheme does not fit Justin Fields,” Wyche said.

Guest and NFL insider Gregg Rosenthal joined Wyche in predicting Fields will end up on the Las Vegas Raiders, despite the presence of much-maligned offensive coordinator Luke Getsy landing in Las Vegas after a rough stint in Chicago with Fields. As for the Falcons, it’s clear that they expect the Falcons to draft one, likely after a move to catapult some of the teams likely to pick quarterbacks themselves, with the question regarding how high they’ll need to move.

This echoes what The Athletic’s Josh Kendall said in a recent article, where he left the door open for Fields if the Falcons can’t get high enough in the draft but made it clear that he doesn’t think the quarterback will be the team’s top option.

On the other side of the coin, the Falcons are betting favorites to land Fields, likely because of all the buzz to this point. NFL insider Jordan Schultz also alluded to “building buzz” that the Falcons will be in play for him.

As always, what we don’t know could fill a bucket and what we do know could be squeezed into a thimble, so it’s a question of who you trust. Nobody should rule out Fields to the Falcons entirely—if his market fails to materialize and the Bears get to the point where they feel they have to unload him, Atlanta may be tempted just by his upside and a low price point—but I tend to think Wyche, Palmer, and Kendall are correct and Fields won’t be the team’s top choice. The opportunity is there, even if it is costly, to give a new coaching staff and solid roster a rookie quarterback to build around for the long haul, and one from a class many agree has at least three high-quality young players. I’d be perfectly happy with Fields—I think he has untapped upside he’d be better able to realize in Atlanta with a more competent staff and more weapons—but ultimately I expect the Falcons to do what’s necessary to land one of Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, or J.J. McCarthy.

What do you think, though?