Matt Ryan wonders if he'll make this team someday. (source: Yardbarker)

I’ve been a fan of the NFL for more years than I haven’t. The 2010 season will be the 24th season I have real, actual memories of watching football. It dates back to my first memories of the 1987 season that concluded with the Redskins dismantling the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.

This will be the 10th year I’ve written about sports, in some capacity or another. I say all that to say, I am a relatively new Falcons fan. In the past I’ve followed the Falcons as I would any other team in the league but recently I have come to define the term fanatic.

In March I started writing for a tremendous fantasy football site and was assigned the Atlanta Falcons beat. The following month I took over this blog. During that time I have spent every waking hour learning the history of this franchise – the struggles, the triumphs and all the in-betweens.

Now that I am a full-blown, red-and-black, dirty bird dancing fool, I wanted to pay respects to the players who’ve come before. That’s the genesis of this project. To determine the greatest players ever to put on a Falcons uniform.

This list will probably cause disagreement among some or vehement outrage among others. There may be cheers and parades thrown in my honor – or more vehement outrage. You get the idea.

If you are a Falcons fan, if no one else can understand, and if you click the jump, maybe you can read… The All-Time Atlanta Falcons Team.

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When the NFL released their list of the 75 Most Valuable Draft picks, the Atlanta Falcons had two names on the list. The problem was one of the names (Brett Favre) stayed in Atlanta long enough for ham sandwich before moving on so we can’t really claim him.

I wanted to offer up my choice for the Top Five Falcons Draft Picks in my lifetime. I was born late in 1978 so I used the 1979 Draft as the cutoff point.

I used two requirements: (1) The player had to be drafted by the Falcons (no post-draft trades). (2) The player had to play at least five years for the Falcons. This means no player drafted after 2005 can make the list yet (Matt Ryan, Curtis Lofton, etc. will have to wait).

Without further ado, I present

Blogging Dirty’s Top Five Falcons Draft Picks since 1979!

Hit the jump to see who made the list!

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