Best Atlanta Falcons all-time draft pick: Defensive End
Claude Humphrey.
Final answer, and it is not close.
Humphrey, drafted No. 3 overall by Atlanta in 1968, played his first 10 NFL seasons for the Falcons, piling up a Hall of Fame resume in the process.
He became the only Hall of Fame defensive end Atlanta has ever drafted, when he was inducted into Canton, via the senior ballot, in 2014. He ranks as one of 11 players in the Falcons’ Ring of Honor, where he was placed in 2008.
Though he rode out the final three years of his career in Philadelphia, Humphrey did most of his damage as a Falcon. He is the only former Atlanta player in the Hall of Fame who spent more than half his career with the organization.
Despite playing in the pre-sack era, Humphrey is widely considered one of the best pass-rushers of his time, tackling the quarterback in the backfield 126.5 times — a total that would slot into the top 20 sack leaders in NFL history. Sacks were not named an official statistic until 1982, the season after Humphrey retired.
He started his career quickly, claiming the 1968 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award before debuting on the second-team All-Pro squad in his second season. That nomination kicked off a stretch, during which Humphrey made either the first- or second-team in seven of the next eight seasons.
He appeared in six Pro Bowls (1970-1974, 1977).
After missing the entire 1975 season due to a knee injury, he returned and continued his dominance.
In 1977, he helped spearhead assistant coach Jerry Glaville’s Grits Blitz defense and contributed early in the season to Atlanta’s first-ever playoff appearance the following year.
In 2016 — the Falcons’ 50th year — the Atlanta Journal-Constitution knotted Humphrey with Tommy Nobis for being the best player in franchise history.
Other candidate(s): Patrick Kerney
