Terry Fontenot has made some things happen so far in free agency, and Falcons fans are generally happy with the results so far.
It’s rare to see Falcons fans agree on anything, but we do mostly seem to agree that the Falcons have done a decent job plugging holes during free agency without breaking the bank.
Look no farther than the quote tweets and replies to ESPN’s Seth Walder here.
The Falcons have had a pretty rough offseason so far, imo.
-Overpaid Lindstrom
-Brought back McGary despite pass pro struggles
-Overpaid Onyemata
-Paid sticker price for Bates when safety market was cheap
-Rolling with Ridder/Heinicke instead of (thus far) trying to land Lamar— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) March 23, 2023
I don’t agree with his take here. Chris Lindstrom is arguably the best guard in the NFL, so I disagree that the Falcons overpaid for the stability he brings to the line. Kaleb McGary was a bargain. They may have overpaid David Onyemata a bit, but not in a cap-crushing way. The safety market may have been cheap, but Bates was the best safety available and got what he deserved, in my opinion. And this idea that the Falcons should mortgage the future and ignore all of the holes on the roster to make a splash with Lamar Jackson is just not a smart way to build a roster. I said that last year about the efforts to trade for Deshaun Watson, and my perspective hasn’t changed.
Anyway, Falcons fans united against Seth Walder’s opinion, and they seem to be mostly united in approving of this team’s free agency haul so far.
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A majority of Falcons fans gave the team a B, but 42% gave the team an A! and only 7% graded the haul as a C or a D. Zero votes for an F grade is not something I necessarily expected to see from a fanbase as jaded as ours is, but here we are.
Fans weighed in and shared the thought process behind their grades.
From Bumpyridesince66:
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From LongtimeFalconFan:
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From Akitasrule:
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From Tank4Bryce:
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From GulfCoastCharlie:
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From CombatFalcoholic:
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Obviously we can’t grade the whole offseason off two weeks of free agency, but the Falcons do seem to be off to a good start. Weigh in with your thoughts on the grades in the comments, and tell us what you need to see from the team in the draft to give the offseason efforts an A.
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