As you may recall, I started doing mock drafts here in 2017. Or maybe you don’t recall: I didn’t, and had to look through the archives to find out. Holy shit there’s some stuff back there! Anyhoo, the average NFL career, across all positions, is 3.3 years. Some positions, kickers and coddled QBs last much longer, running backs get hammered into dust in 2+ years. Somewhere Derrick Henry has a covered portrait that is taking a fucking beating.

The point being that it’s fun and pointless to mock a draft, and it’s fun, (and even more pointless), to rate a draft immediately afterwards. What were about to find out is how much fun it is to look back after roughly twice the time an average NFL player lasts, and see who did what and how well.

Also we need the #content. So I’ll be introducing a new feature here where, once a week(ish), I look back at a team and see how they did.

This week it’s, the Atlanta Falcons. Who are never to be forgive for that 28-3 incident. Ever.

The Falcons had 6 picks, a first, a third, a fourth, then three in the fifth. The first round was Takkarist McKinley, a DE out of UCLA. Second pick, albeit in the 3rd round, was Duke Riley, a LB out of LSU. The third pick, in the 4th round, was Sean Harlow, a G our of Oregon State. You can never go wrong with someone familiar with stuffing Beavers, I guess. As mentioned the Falcons had a busy fifth round, spending their three picks on Damontae Kazee, a CB out of San Diego State, (#149), Brian Hill, a RB out of Wyoming, (#156), and finally Eric Saubert, a TE from Drake at 174.

What did that haul result in?

Takkarist McKinley played four years for the Falcons, doing pretty well his first three, (playing in 16, 15, and 14 games respectively, while contributing 5, 7, and 11 sacks. He started the injury parade his final year in Atlanta, playing in only four games, then signed as a free agent with Cleveland, where he had some success before rupturing his Achilles tendon in Week 15 of the 2021 season. He is apparently currently a free agent and considering his health before deciding what to do, or where to do it, next. As for the pick, McKinley isn’t a total whiff here, but when you look at the draft and realize that the Falcons passed up CB Tre’davious White and OLB T.J Watt, it looks a little less than stellar. I’d call it a B- at best.

Duke Riley seems to have secured a decent if unspectacular career as a back-up linebacker. He’s currently on a one-year contract for $3 million with Miami, so good for him. The Falcons, however, paid him $3.5+ million for 51 tackles spread over three years, then traded him to Philadelphia for a safety and a late round pick, throwing in a 6th round pick as well. All in all I would say Riley has done fairly well for himself in the NFL, but that the Falcons didn’t do that well for themselves taking him where they did. C- for the Falcons, A for Riley.

Sean Harlow hasn’t really caught on. His career seems to revolve between several teams, (the Falcons waived him prior to the start of the 2018 season), and the active and practical squads of those teams. He does seem to have caught on in Arizona, currently making $850,000-$965,000 in what looks to be a back-up role. I’m not sure how reliable those numbers are, though. At least he’s on a team. That team, however, is not the Falcons, who don’t seem to have gotten anything out of the pick other than a practice squad player. Good for Harlow for sticking around, D- for Atlanta.

Damontae Kazee is currently with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but seems to have had a solid three years for the Falcons before tearing his Achilles tendon in Week 4 of the 2020 season. He then did a stint with the Dallas Cowboys, where I don’t remember him at all, despite his having started 15 games and having 2 interceptions. Probably says more about me than him. Anyway, the Falcons found an above-average NFL CB at 149 and kept him on a rookie contract until he blew out his Achilles tendon, then let him go. Morally that’s reprehensible, but in terms of NFL draft grades we call that an A.

Brian Hill seems to have had an interesting career. The Falcons wound up waiving him, starting Mr. Hill on a tour through the NFL. He’s has stints with the Bengals, Falcons, (again), Titans, Browns, and 49ers. Despite a couple of 100+ yard games, Hill never really caught on in the NFL and currently plays for the BC Lions of the CFL. Hill’s career really seems to illustrate what a brutal numbers game the RB position is in the NFL. As for the pick, the Falcons never got much out of Hill, at least initially, but they didn’t invest much either and did eventually get over 500 yards from scrimmage, and 3 TDs, (see link above), out of him. Eh, call it a B-. For pick #156 that ain’t bad.

Eric Säubert (the umlauts were inserted automatically; no idea if they belong there or not), was the first player drafted from noted powerhouse Drake since 1983. I’d expect that from UConn, (the Fightin’ Horatios have actually had a number of NFL picks), but has bounced around considerably since then. He is currently with Hippo’s Donks Woo!, for whom he caught his one and only TD in 2021. The Falcons got themselves a player who seems to be a 3rd-string TE, but they didn’t keep him around to find out. If they’d kept him around and gotten a semi-productive player at this position I’d probably given them another B-, but since they essentially made this pick just to eventually waive the player, it’s a D.

No one from the 2017 Atlanta Falcons draft is still with the Atlanta Falcons. Two of them, McKinley and Kazee, seem to be above-average players, with the Falcons having found a bargain in Kazee. A third, Duke Riley, has made a decent career for himself, but to very little benefit of Atlanta. Hill, Harlow, and Saubert were at best practice players, (aside from what look to be two very good games from Hill), and that’s literally half the Falcons draft. I’d like to grade this higher for McKinley and (especially) Kazee’s production, but I can’t because there just seems to be so little long-term benefit to the Falcons. C-, and that might be generous.