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Moves: Trade Schaub to Dallas for their first, 18th overall.
Trade Duckett to Pittsburgh for their 3rd, 96th overall.

Round 1: 15th pick: Jimmy Williams, with the re-emergance of Cromartie, Jimmy drops into our laps at the 15th pick after the Ravens take Cromartie.
18th pick: Eric Winston, with the obvious problems along the O line, the Falcons take a shot on Winston who has unlimited upside. He suffered through the 2005 season still showing signs of that knee injury, but you always hear how it takes 2 years to really get back from a knee. Knowing this, the Falcons see him as a possible franchise LT and take him higher than most thought he would go.

Round 2: 47th pick: Pat Watkins, with the holes at Safety, the Falcons bring in a ballhawk who is also a sure tackler in Watkins. Williams will start at corner, so the need for a good Safety still exists. Watkins is a stellar prospect in that he has the ideal size & speed to become a force in the Atlanta secondary. .

Round 3: 79th pick: Ray Edwards, with the problems at RDE the Falcons decided to sign a FA to fill the void in 2006, but they opt to draft Edwards to fill the role long term. :
96th pick: Marcus Maxey, with their secondary taking a beating last year the Falcons look to bring in another corner to fill any voids that should arrise. Maxey has good size & is surprisingly physical for a Miami corner, and with his speed could eventually become a starter if Jimmy becomes a Safety for the Falcons.

Round 4: 111th pick: Drew Olson, with Schaub gone, the Falcons look for an immediate replacement to groom. It makes sense to bring in the QB that worked under the instruction of the Falcons' new O-line coach.

Round 5: 143rd pick: Rashad Butler, after taking his teammate, the Falcons decide to pick up Butler. His athleticism is very respectable and at the top of the heap for Tackles, but he will need to get stronger & improve his technique to eventually take over for Weiner.

Round 6: 175th pick: Moe Thompson, Looking to bring in another DE to develop in case of injury, the Falcons take a chance on Moe & hope he is as good as his talent would indicate. He is a terrific run stopper and has a world of talent.

Round 7: 207th pick: Derrick Ross, with the epiphany that was TJ Duckett, the Falcons pickup a big masher in the last round to fill TJ's role. At 6'0, 240lbs Ross could get the job done but he will need to get stronger & work hard to become the goal line monster that Duckett was. Adding the top flight O linemen that the Falcons did will help greatly.

The big question I have is do you really believe that someone is foolish enough to give up a #1 for Schaub?

We've already been offered a first for Schaub. Everyone thought we robbed Green Bay when we got a 1st for him. The report from Passthejelly was that 4 teams have offered 2nd or 1st round picks for Schaub.

Please point me in the direction of this report, because it is total news to me.

http://www.google.com

It's pretty common knowledge over at AFMB, so you could search there too.

I saw what you are talking about. Jay Glazer said that several teams have offered the Falcons at least a 2nd round pick or better for Schaub.

It's a revelation to me, and I've heard Dallas and Cincinnati are at least two of those teams. We'll see how it plays out. I am shocked by this tidbit of information, because it doesn't make a lot of sense to me for other NFL teams to want Matt Schaub this badly.

An interesting tidbit is that Nick Saban heavily recruited Schaub to come play for him at LSU when he coached there, so it could be an interesting offseason indeed.

Schaub is going to be wined and dined if we ever let him go because folks are going to want him for the simple fact that he's coming out of the "Vick System". Let's face it...Schaub is a pretty good QB. I really don't want to see him go with Mike being so injury prone. We see what happened when we let Brett go.

I like Schaub a lot, and I'd love to see him stay in Atlanta, but it would be a bad move on the part of McKay & Co. to keep him. I've outlined my views in the latest blog entry about trading Schaub:

http://falcfans.com/blog/2006/02/our-im ... world.html

I don't believe the Falcons will get much more than a 2nd round pick. The only teams I can see being interested in Schuab are the Jets, Cowboys, Dolphins, Bengals, and maybe the Redskins. Although I think the Jets are going to draft one of the big three QB's in the first round so scratch them.

All that being said the Cowboys, Dolphins, and Bengals seem most likely destinations. With this being considered I'd scratch the Bengals simply because they have a ton of cap space and could easily sign someone in free agency (like a Maddox) instead of burn a 2nd rounder.

Between Dallas and Miami I could see either team spending a second rounder. I'm not sure if Dallas makes a trade since they've had a QB carosel the last few seasons. Miami does make the trade if they can't get Leinart, Young, or the Vandy guy (can't remember his name).

I'd say most probably scenario is Miami trades it second and maybe a lower pick (5th or 6th) for Schuab.

I would take a 2nd & a 3rd from one of the top 10 teams in the draft, or a first from one of the teams picking in the middle or late first round areas. If we can't get that I would hang on to him, because he does still have a lot of value for us a a backup. Not to mention we should get some nice picks for him if someone signs him next year.

Let me ask ya'll this....

What would getting rid of Schaub do for our team with Mike being so injury prone? We don't want to be caught in the position the Jets were caught in this year. Have to call Doug Johnson back in? Oh God forbid!

Ok, well what does keeping Schaub do for this team, with the sorry ass defense?...Not saying that the pick we would get for Schaubby would be used on a defensive player, but I wouldn't be surprised. He is a good backup, but he has a high value right now, and that might be gone in a few years...He is young, and in a couple of years his stock will fall dramatically because he isnt "Young" anymore...That would be a shame! Trade him now!

^^^^That was me...what is wrong with the Sign-on thing for "The War Room"

It has happened quite a lot in the past few weeks, where i sign on, and i'm still not signed on. I don't know if this can be fixed or not, but a fixing would be greatly appreciated

Vick really isn't injury prone honestly. He missed a grand total of one full season in five years due to a freak broken leg. I value picks in this draft more than a QB who will probably play 1 or 2 games at the very most.

Not to mention the hamstring pulls and knee sprains of this year. Now don't get me wrong I love Vick....I just don't want to see us give up a good back up when something can happen to us like it happened to the Jets.

Well the problem with that is that a great D can keep you alive if you lose your QB, but even Vick couldn't get us into the playoffs with the D we have now. We need to get solid starters & depth at a couple positions on D and having extra picks would get the job done. For instance, look at what Chicago was able to do while starting a rookie backup most of the year just because they have a great D.

Schaub is an excellent backup, but he's a rarity in the NFL. In terms that there's a better than normal chance that we could win 50% of our games if he started them over a full season as our starter. Most backups would lead their team to maybe 4-6 at most. So I think when you look at it in that context, the likelihood of having a backup as competent as Schaub is pretty low.

That seems to add fuel to the fire that we should keep Schaub rather than trade him, but I'm just saying that in practical terms when you lose your starter, you're season is done, regardless of your backup. Schaub seems to be a special case in that he might be able to lead this team to the playoffs.

But as others started, a good defense and/or solid running game are a backup QBs best friend. If you have those, it really doesn't matter who your QB is. Kyle Orton and A.J. Feeley can attest to that.

I'm in the same camp as the others though, in that if the defense and/or running game cannot pick up the slack, unless we have Tom Brady out there, it's not going to matter very much who our backup is. Not to take blame away from DJ and Kittner, but even if we had a player of Schaub's caliber back then, it may have made the difference in maybe 1 or 2 games. Our running game was respectable, but not the same level as it is now. And our defense couldn't stop anybody. We gave up a 28.3 points per game in those 11 games that Vick did not play in (32.2 in our 9 losses), and frankly nobody in the league is capable of putting that much points on offense to make up for that sort of defensive play.

Do you really think Schaub would have a winning record as the starting QB for this team?

No, I don't think he would, but I think he has a better than normal chance of leading this team to 8 or 9 wins, which could be good enough for a wildcard berth.

I would put Schaub on the borderline of an "elite" group of backup QBs that could be starting QBs in the NFL and if the other pieces are in place, they can be playoff caliber QBs. Others in that group are:

Chris Simms
Brad Johnson
Billy Volek
Tim Rattay
Jeff Garcia
Jon Kitna
Trent Dilfer
Jay Fiedler
Tommy Maddox

The next tier of backups would probably be Patrick Ramsey, Vinny Testaverde, Josh McCown, Doug Flutie, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Blake, Kordell Stewart, David Garrard, A.J. Feeley, Mike McMahon, Tony Banks, Anthony Wright, Koy Detmer, and Ken Dorsey are all what I'd call "quality backups" that are good No. 2s, but probably fit in that range of being 4-6 win QBs. They are the "norm" for what you're looking for in an NFL backup. And most likely Schaub's successor won't be any better.

It seems that it's being overlooked that even someone by the name of Tom Brady was a backup QB. Look what he's done. I know what you guys are saying about the defense needing to get better but we need to be fully prepared and have depth on BOTH sides of the ball.

Indeed, I think Schaub could be better than all the guys you listed Pudge, but there is no reason for us to keep him when he could net some sweet picks in this talent rich draft.

My thoughts exactly Incomparable! Why keep Schaub if we can get something good for him.We have alot of needs and we can build the team much faster with a high choice for Schaub.If the falcon's management can figure this out they are stupid.Of course we need a veteran backup or all bets are off but you do what you have to to build the team and evaluate every option.