FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Atlanta Falcons break out a chart every year around the NFL draft. The board breaks down the tendencies that general managers around the league have, whether they like to trade up or down or stay put.
Along with the tried-an-true method of getting on the phone, this is another way for the Falcons front office to gauge potential draft scenarios.
"So, you want to know who's actually willing to make a trade, and so it can kind of narrow your process as you're going through that, but those calls are really important," Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said at his pre-draft news conference Wednesday.
Where would Fontenot himself fall on that chart?
"I'm 75% trade up," Fontenot said with a chuckle. "I'm more aggressive."
Is that an indication that the Falcons could be a serious candidate to trade their No. 15 overall pick Thursday night, to either move back or try to get higher up? Maybe.
If Fontenot has proven one thing in his previous four drafts as Atlanta GM, it's that he's more than willing to buck convention. In 2021, the Falcons made Kyle Pitts the highest selected tight end in NFL history at No. 4. Last season, with everyone sure they'd take a defender, the Falcons pulled the trigger on quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8, despite having already given veteran Kirk Cousins a $100 million guaranteed contract a few weeks earlier.
The Falcons seem like a team that would prefer to trade down for more draft capital. They only have five picks -- one each in the first and second rounds, another in the fourth and then just two more, both seventh-rounders. Atlanta traded its third-round pick last summer to the New England Patriots for Matthew Judon and lost a fifth due to a tampering violation.
But just because the Falcons might want to trade down in a draft that has a similar depth of talent in the middle of the second round as it might at the end of the first, it doesn't mean they can just snap their fingers and make it happen.
"The thing about that is it always sounds good, and we are obviously going to look at it -- we're going to make the right decision for the team -- but you have to have a willing partner," Fontenot said. "You see, sometimes someone will say, 'Well just trade down here and do this.' Well, is somebody going to trade? And that's going to depend on what's still on the board at that time."
It's no secret that the Falcons have holes on a defense that struggled at times last year in every aspect, from getting to the quarterback to stopping the run to pass coverage. Even owner Arthur Blank said last month at the annual league meeting that defense would be the focus.
Fontenot, though, always maintains a best-player-available philosophy and warns that trying to reach for a need is a slippery slope. Based on the depth in the draft, it seems like a good defensive player -- the Falcons could use mainly an edge rusher, defensive tackle or corner -- will be there at either No. 15 or if Atlanta traded down. But it's hard to predict how things will shake out.
"If I had a crystal ball, I promise I would be looking in it and I probably [would] have been to four straight Super Bowls at this point, but I don't have that crystal ball, so we'll see," Fontenot said.