Atlanta Falcons 2024 Quarterback Wish List Rankings
Caleb Williams, Southern California
If there was a prospect that feels damn near perfect or even generational in this draft, it's Caleb Williams. The holes in his game come from his height and a deficiency while playing in structure for plays. But what he does well is unlimited. Williams can make any throw all over the field. He's highly intelligent and can read a defense quickly. He does take calculated risks, but those tend to work out for him considering he has just 14 interceptions thrown in his 37 starts as a college quarterback. On the flip side, he does have 31 fumbles through his 37 games. Turnover wise, that's way too many times to fumble a ball, and something he will have to improve on during his career.
The biggest need with a quarterback in Atlanta is someone who can lead the offense and give it a true swagger that they have been missing since the Matt Ryan days. Williams would give the team that leader, that swagger and a guy to build a whole team around. Despite being a turnover-prone player in terms of fumbles, he makes up for it with his scoring ability. Williams understands that being a quarterback is about getting his offense to score touchdowns and scoring a ton himself. 120 touchdowns during his time in college is more than enough to offset the mistakes he made. If the Falcons could get him to score two touchdowns every game, they would win a lot more games.
Williams might be the best quarterback in the draft in the last three years. He's really shown that he has a fantastic ceiling that could be near what Patrick Mahomes is. That's his best-case scenario. But even his worst-case scenario feels like a competent NFL quarterback that a team could build around. That situation is a quarterback similar to Tu'a Tagovailoa who just needed the right coach to help him unlock the skills that he has. Get him into Atlanta with Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson, and the Falcons would at least give him the weapons to work with to help his development.