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I dont know much about whos going to be drafted where...but this guy did sound like he could fit into our offense. Any thoughts?

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9376416

That idiot Prisco,...ranks the Falcons 22nd with the obvious talent we have. Since he's talking this guy up?,...no way. Maybe he'll be a great NY Giant or a NY Jet. Then Prisco will be happy. If the guy is drafted by the Falcons, it's a safe bet Prisco changes his mind and says the guy will never fit in Atlanta's system.

Am being a little sarcastic here,...but this Prisco guy is a definite Falcon hater. Ranking the Falcons in his worthless power rankings that low is just ludicrous.

I don't think Prisco is a Falcon hater, but I think he's a Vick doubter. I think he's in a camp of media types that don't believe Michael Vick is going to get any better. Many of these same types are the ones that seem most outspoken/interested in all the Schaub trade talk.

I think many of these same individuals believe it was a travesty that Vick made the Pro Bowl last year with a passer rating of 73, and either attritbute it to Vick's immense popularity or the sheer fact that the NFC was such a poor QB conference.

I won't pretend to try and guess what sort of % exists out there that contains people like Prisco, because my believe is that it's still a minority. The majority of media types I feel are Vick supporters, as many of them are broadcasters, who are in turn human hype machines, or former coaches and players, who tend to be a bit more forgiving than others when it comes to getting it done on the field.

And I don't think this should turn into a Vick gets no respet thread, because that's not my point. But it's very clear to me that there's only 1 reason to doubt the Falcons success, and that's to doubt the success of Michael Vick.

But on the subject of Leon Washington, he would be a good fit for our team. He can catch and run and had a subpar senior year. But prior to his senior year he was getting late 1st round grades as the top senior back in the draft. And he probably arguably still is that since Addai seems to be the only back clearly ahead of him amongst seniors in this year's draft class.

This is a draft class that lacks a lot of power runners. Besides White, most experts believe the next best big backs are Gerald Riggs and Mike Bell. Both have been getting late round grades for the most part, but I wouldn't at all be surprised to see one or both sneak into Round 3 or 4 just because of the lack of quality backs that weight more than 215 pounds.

If the Falcons are looking to find a replacement for Dunn, they can't find a better draft class. Here are many of the players that would probably all be 1200+ yard rushers in our offense:

Reggie Bush
Laurence Maroney
LenDale White
DeAngelo Williams
Brian Calhoun
Joseph Addai
Maurice Drew
Leon Washington
Jerious Norwood
Jerome Harrison

Then you have a number of players that probably wouldn't be ideal lead rushers, but could be very good if they split carries with someone:

Andre Hall
Wali Lundy
Taurean Henderson
Cedric Humes
Quinton Ganther

Just to name a few. I wouldn't be surprised, assuming the coaching staff stays relatively intact to see the Falcons do similar to what the Broncos have done over the past decade in that they change RBs every 3 or so years.

Still, ranking the Falcons 22nd is telling on Prisco. Vic Carucci is also a "Vick doubter" as well.

We must address the running back position. After TJ and Dunn, there's DeAndra Cobb, a 6th round pick,...201st player chosen I think. He broke Michigan State's all-time record for yards per carry and still was a late draft choice, so numbers out of college aren't a true indicator as to how a guy will do in the Pros to start his career.

Any back drafted, unless we were to trade up for New Orleans' pick, by the Falcons will be warming the bench. And too, it's possible that if TJ is somehow traded, the young guy would probably be behind Cobb on the depth chart.

You are amazing there Pudge,...it's all I can do to keep up with the NFC, much less the entire NFL and the college ranks as well. All those players listed shows this draft is deep at the RB position so we should be able to snatch a decent runner after we pick a cornerback to play nickel.

You're right, short of injury or trade, any RB that we draft this year would be lucky to wind up with 50 carries this season. But the Falcons would be drafting a back to play next year, and use this year as a year to learn the offense. It woudl be essentailly what the Steelers did with Willie Parker. Although Parker wasn't expected to make the roster as an undrafted rookie in '04, he impressed them enough in training cmap that towards the end of the year they found a way to get him some work, and were impressed. Then Parker was poised to step up this past year when Bettis and Staley were out.

The problem with Cobb was that he only had a few impressive runs during the summer, so the Falcons had no issues with cutting him in September. His summer performance was not good enough to merit them working him on offense late in the year, esp. when T.J. Duckett was struggling.

I'd be very surprised to see Cobb on the roster this fall. It would indicate one of 3 things IMO if he was:

1) Cobb's play significantly improved to the point that he finished the preseaosn as our leading rusher.
2) The rookie we draft has a worse summer than Cobb did a year ago
3) He takes Rossum's job as the lead kickoff returner.

I'm doubtful on all 3 of those things occurring.