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Atlanta Falcons: Recruiting worthiness coming out of HS

By Jeff Benedict

TAMPA, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 29: Julio Jones #11 of the Atlanta Falcons warms up prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 29: Julio Jones #11 of the Atlanta Falcons warms up prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Falcons
TAMPA, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 29: Julio Jones #11 of the Atlanta Falcons warms up prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

The Atlanta Falcons will have one of the best offenses in 2020.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of college athletics and fans love to talk about highly rated and ranked their players are. Ranking services love to say they rank based on where a player will be drafted by NFL teams in the future. How elite were the members of the 2020 Atlanta Falcons coming out of high school?

If you are unfamiliar with how recruiting rankings work, here is a quick breakdown. Each service ranks kids into five categories – a five-star, four-star, three-star, two-star, and unranked. Most college coaches swear they don’t use these rankings to identify who they will offer, though most of them do.

The most universally recognized ranking services are Rivals, ESPN, 247Sports, and 247Sports Composite. As we exam the Atlanta Falcons offense, we will use the rankings of the 247Sports Composite because this specific rankings identifier is actually the average ranking of each player using the top seven services and it will give a much clearer ranking of each player overall.

Looking at the roster as currently constructed, just three offensive players were rated as five-star college products and all of them are in the same position. Julio Jones was the highest-rated prospect while Hayden Hurst will be the lowest-rated college football prospect that will start for the Atlanta Falcons in 2020.

Wide receivers Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, and Laquon Treadwell were all highly rated prospects and all of them lived up to that ranking throughout college. All were drafted in the first round of their respective NFL draft.

While Julio and Calvin have certainly lived up to their billing, it has been a different story for Treadwell. Both he and the Atlanta Falcons are hoping that a change in scenery, scheme, and quarterback will help him find the skills needed to play like a first-round NFL talent in 2020.

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