Atlanta Falcons: Is Thomas Dimitroff using sleight of hand?

There is a new name associated with the Atlanta Falcons and the NFL draft and that is K’Lavon Chaisson out of LSU. This would be a nightmare pick for several reasons.

Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff lit off a myriad of reactions when he told a local Atlanta radio show that he was seriously considering moving back in the draft because of how deep he thinks that it is. While we have already argued that this is not the case, the Falcons are now being linked to Chaisson.

Simply put, K’Lavon Chaisson is Vic Beasley 2.0 as far as we know. Watch the film, he relies on speed and speed alone to get to the quarterback. Height, weight, hand size, arm reach are all nearly identical between the two.

The biggest difference between Beasley and Chaisson was college productivity. Beasley came into Clemson as an “athlete” as he was a running back in high school and did not find his spot as a defensive end until his junior year.

His last two years, Beasley had twice as many tackles for loss, three times the sacks and six times as many forced fumbles as Chaisson did during his career. For context, both played the same number of games at their positions. Beasley played 23 games his final two seasons and Chaisson played 22 over his time at LSU.

However, what we don’t know is how well Chaisson would have performed at the NFL combine because he did not participate in any on the field drills. He had his height, weight, arm size, and hand size taken while in Indianapolis.

Beasley, on the other hand, killed it at the combine and solidified his Top 10 pre-combine positioning. If you need a reminder on his combine testing, here is what Beasley accomplished back in 2015. He would have been among the Top 3 in every category in 2020.

• 40 Time: 4.53
• Bench Press: 35
• Vertical: 41”
• Broad Jump: 10’10”
• 3-Cone Drill: 6.91
• 20-yard Shuttle: 4.15

If you are going to waste the Atlanta Falcons draft pick on virtually the same guy you just let walk, then why even participate in the draft. Trade every pick away for practice squad players so fans don’t have to buy into another offseason believing that Dimitroff is making the right moves to get this team back into contention. Sure that seems extreme, but there are a lot of us feeling that way currently.

With rare exceptions, Dimitroff uses sleight of hand when it comes to who he is drafting, most times never coming close to drafting who anyone is expecting. Maybe this chatter coming out of Flowery Branch is just and instead, he will move up to draft a guy like Javon Kinlaw, someone the Falcons could actually use and would bring relief to a much-needed position.