Falcons Should Be 'Sellers' at NFL Trade Deadline - Report
NFL teams like to make trades. But nobody likes to make trade more than the good people of Bleacher Report, and away they go ... first with their determination of whether the Atlanta Falcons should be "buyers'' or "sellers.''
And they have one thing, at least, exactly right: As our NFL guy Mike Fisher has discussed (in the above video), Atlanta is "both on a treadmill and aboard a balance beam.''
Meaning?
They are trying to move forward, and it feels like they are moving forward, but are in reality 3-3. That's the "treadmill.''
Meanwhile, surely GM Terry Fontenot and the people in charge recognize just how far the Falcons might be to true contention ... and how a trade for a draft pick might actually accelerate the build, long-term. That's the "balance beam.
So it's hard ... and B/R acknowledges that by writing, "Things are a little trickier with the Atlanta Falcons, who moved to 3-3 in Week 7 and remain in the playoff conversation entering November.''
So why does B/R come to the conclusion that ultimately, Atlanta should recognize itself as a have-not?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, mostly.
B/R cites other reasons and other teams around the NFC, but it is the defending Super Bowl-champ Bucs who provide a measuring stick that Fontenot and coach Arthur Smith might decide is virtually impossible to match up to.
Factually, Atlanta's run - three wins in the last four games - have come against mediocre (or worse) teams: the New York Giants, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. That trio has combined for just four wins.
We buy what B/R is selling in the sense that the right guys to pinpoint are guys who may end up being "rentals'' for the second part of the season.
Does pass-rusher Dante Fowler Jr., have a long-term future here? It seems not. And does he seem like a foundational player ready to vault this year's team into contention? It seems not.
And what of tight end Hayden Hurst? The Falcons talked of a vision of using two tight ends once they used the fourth-overall pick on Kyle Pitts. But the reality is Hurst is a luxury ... and this offense needs to just get out of Pitts' way.
Smith opened the season by saying this wasn't a rebuilding program, that it was something better than that. If the Falcons win this weekend to move to 4-3? Who (besides B/R) is to say he's wrong?
