Atlanta Falcons: Off season roster has more G5 players than SEC players

Taking a look at the Atlanta Falcons 90 man off-season roster tells a somewhat interesting story – one that fans across the southeast won’t like.

It is safe to say that most Atlanta Falcons fans, not all but most, are fans of college football teams in the south, specifically the Southeastern Conference – UGA, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, etc…If that uneducated guess is, in fact, true, they won’t like how the offseason roster of the franchise has been constructed.

For years, the Atlanta Falcons fans that also bleed red and black for UGA have been screaming about the fact that the franchise seems to stay away from UGA players. The last time that the Falcons drafted a player out of UGA – 2011 when they took Akeem Dent in the third round.

That probably won’t change anytime soon.

Atlanta Falcons players from Power 5 conferences

Not shocking, the majority (62 percent) of those currently on the Atlanta Falcons off-season roster played college football at a school within the Power 5; Pac-12, Big Ten, Big XII, SEC, and ACC. Conference breakdown of the Falcons roster:

• Pac-12: 11
• Big XII: 3
• Big Ten: 8
• SEC: 19
• ACC: 15

In 2021, five of the eight draft picks selected by first-year general manager Terry Fontenot came from a school within the Power 5 – Kyle Pitts, Jalen Mayfield, Drew Dalman, Ta’Quon Graham, and Frank Darby. In 2020, only Matt Hennessy and Mykal Walker were not from Power 5 schools.

Atlanta Falcons players from Group of 5 programs or lower

This was probably the most eye-opening aspect of looking at the Atlanta Falcons off-season roster.

Of the 90 players on the roster, a quarter of them came from a school located within the Group of 5 conferences. There are four more players on the roster that played in a Group of 5 schools than played at an SEC school.

While the basic law of averages says that will almost always be the case as the SEC has 14 schools while Group of 5 has more than 60, it is a little eye-opening nonetheless.

The Atlanta Falcons also have 11 total players on their 90 man roster that played college football at the FCS, Division II, or Division III level – the most notable from this group, John Cominsky, Jaeden Graham, and Foyesade Oluokun.

At the end of the day, the majority of Atlanta Falcons fans don’t care where guys played college football nor does their college choice mean they will or will not be successful at the NFL level, there are always diamonds to be found on every level.

What fans care most about is their ability to compete and win while wearing an Atlanta Falcons uniform.