Ever since his first press conference as the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, Ian Cunningham has made his love for draft picks clear. In that opening presser, he referred to them as currency, and has reiterated multiple times that 2026 will be the last time the Falcons have this little draft capital.
And as far as things stand right now, he's right. Not only will they actually have a first-rounder in 2027, Cunningham's offseason strategy vastly differs from Terry Fontenot's, as while Fontenot was willing to overpay to get his guys, his successor doesn't mind sitting back and waiting for chaos to ensue.
Since free agency started, Atlanta has lost key four contributors: Tyler Allgeier, David Onyemata, Dee Alford, and Kaden Elliss. You could argue this quartet were the Dirty Birds' most important free agents, but Cunningham didn't mind letting them go because he's playing a different kind of game.
Because of Cunningham's affinity for draft capital that Falcons fans are incredibly well-versed in now, he's okay letting these players walk for a chance at compensatory draft picks. Good GMs want to give themselves as many opportunities as possible to replace departed talent, which is what he is doing.
The Falcons are willing to let their free agents leave if they get compensatory picks in return
Now that Elliss has left for New Orleans, the Falcons are in line to receive three compensatory picks in the 2027 NFL Draft. Atlanta is projected to receive a compensatory fifth-rounder, while they're also projected to land sixth-round picks to compensate for the recent departures of Allgeier and Alford.
This isn't the creme de la creme from a draft standpoint, but it's still good to have those extra choices with the hope of replacing the talent they lost. Right now, the Falcons have six picks in 2027 and no seventh-rounder because of the Michael Jerrell trade, so this would take them up to nine selections.
You can tell that the 40-year-old spent time working under Howie Roseman in Philadelphia, because this is the same strategy the Eagles have been employing for years. Roseman has consistently let talent leave and navigated the draft board perfectly in order to replace them by using the comp picks.
While you can argue that having instant-impact players like Elliss and Onyemata over a lottery ticket of a prospect is preferred, it's hard to deny this is a foolproof plan. The more swings you take, the easier it is to knock a pick out of the park, and capitalizing on having multiple players on rookie contracts is becoming a popular Super Bowl model in the modern NFL.
Hopefully Cunningham's modern front office approach pays off for the Falcons in the long run and is able to capture the same success Roseman did with this method.