Little did we know at the time, but the Atlanta Falcons found an all-time great in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft in Grady Jarrett. Fast forward 11 years, and the same thing may have happened in the sixth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
With the 215th pick, the Dirty Birds selected little-known defensive tackle Anterio Thompson out of Washington. He had little production in college, but when you line him up with what Jarrett was coming out of Clemson, things look scarily similar.
Welcome to the 404, @ThompsonAnterio! pic.twitter.com/vq9tgn3WCs
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) April 25, 2026
It is clear Matt Ryan and co. are taking a shot on a player who profiles similarly to his former teammate.
Falcons find their new Grady Jarrett in the sixth round with Anterio Thompson
Let's start by looking at Thompson and Jarrett's physical profile coming out of college, courtesy of our very own Scott Carasik:
Anterio Thompson athletically compares well to Grady Jarrett. #DirtyBirds pic.twitter.com/OkaGmQajjK
— 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒕 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒌 🏈🇬🇪🇺🇦🇱🇻🇺🇸 (@CarasikS) April 25, 2026
The height, weight, arm, hands, bench, and broad are nearly identical. Intriguingly, though, the newcomer beats the veteran by a landslide in long speed with a 0.31-second advantage in the 40-yard dash. But Grady has a slight advantage in short-area quickness.
The overall college production is where things start to separate. Thompson was a member of four college teams, but only saw the field with Iowa, Western Michigan, and Washington. He played in 33 games and had 65 tackles, four tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks.
Grady played in 48 games and had 144 tackles, 28.5 tackles for loss, and 5.5 sacks.
Thompson didn't get near the opportunities that Jarrett did in college -- Jarrett was Dabo's leader on and off the field and played every snap he could. So while the stats per game don't line up, they didn't get the same number of opportunities on a game-by-game basis.
However, the Falcons know their sixth-round pick isn't a finished product yet. He brings so much athleticism, for a guy at his size, that Jeff Ulbrich and his strong coaching defensive staff can develop. They are taking a low-risk shot on him.
As a dart throw at this stage of the draft, Thompson is an interesting addition to what has been a defensive-heavy draft by Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefanski.
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