Atlanta Falcons: Best player available is a wide spectrum

Atlanta Falcons will draft the best available player.

That is what new general manager Terry Fontenot has said, which has prompted fans to believe the Atlanta Falcons will take a quarterback in the 2021 NFL draft.

After we wrote an article yesterday proclaiming that the franchise would not draft a quarterback, running back or secondary player in the first round, fans chimed in that Fontenot would take the best available player and that would be a quarterback or wide receiver.

What everyone who believes this forgets is that the phrase “best player available” is highly subjective.

No one, not on this platform or any other Atlanta Falcons site has any idea how the Falcons brass will stack their draft board and everything we say is pure speculation. Until the draft actually takes place, no one can be right or wrong.

However, what we do know for sure is that the best player available differs from every person you talk to.

If you look at player draft rankings, they all agree that Trevor Lawrence is the best player in the draft but then they all differ.

Some have Justin Fields at two, others have Zach Wilson, Penei Sewell, Micah Parsons, or Ja’Marr Chase listed as the second-best available.

Best player available is a wide spectrum.

When you get to the fourth spot in the best available, it becomes even more jumbled.

So as sure as you might be that taking the best available player in the draft means that the Falcons are taking (insert player or position), they may not see the best available the same way that Todd McShay, Mel Kiper Jr, Jason La Canfora, Daniel Jeremiah or any other NFL draft opinion you refer to.

The Atlanta Falcons brass may have all of them rated as the best player available at four or they may have none of them, so to be so sure of the direction this franchise will go is fool’s gold, for anyone – us included.

This time of year is a lot of fun because we are able to speculate on the franchise’s next move but a lot of mystery surrounds what this franchise given we have no idea what Terry Fontenot or Arthur Smith value or the direction that they want to go.

The important aspect to remember is that the best player available can and does mean different things to different people and those in charge of the Falcons draft are the only ones who will know what exactly that means to them.