The rival Atlanta Falcons are now on the clock with the nineteenth overall pick in our second annual community mock draft here at Canal Street Chronicles. This, of course, means a visit from the guy we love to hate to love and lead blogger of SB Nation's Falcons blog, The Falcoholic - Dave the Falconer. You know he's got something good, so make the jump to find out who he chose and what he had to say about it.
Thank you very much, Dave the Falconer, for your participation.
With the nineteenth pick in the 2010 CSC community mock draft, the Atlanta Falcons select...
Sean Weatherspoon, LB, Missouri
I get to pick the guy I wanted and the guy Saints fans wanted in one fell swoop? This is a happy day, indeed.
Despite two off-seasons worth of overhauls, the Atlanta Falcons remain a team without a clear defensive identity. Their front seven hasn't generated enough of a pass rush to really make opposing quarterbacks sweat, and the secondary has careened wildly between mediocrity and flashes of brilliance. There's hope in both those areas, but the problem is a lack of uniform quality. The year Kroy Biermann emerges as a quality pass-rushing option at defensive end, John Abraham starts to look like biblical Abraham. When Curtis Loftonturns into a monstrosity so terrifying that half of Tokyo screams and flees, Mike Petersonpoops the bed. When safety Thomas DeCoud becomes the secondary's finest player, Erik Coleman's wheels fly off so quickly he kills NASCAR spectators in Daytona. And so forth.
That's why Weatherspoon makes sense. The Falcons have always had quality linebackers, and the three guys in the middle of the defense can affect everyone behind and in front of them with their play. The team's already wooing the Missouri linebacker, and his combination of size, speed and talent is such a huge upgrade over Peterson on the outside that the Falcons' entire defense can't help but look better with him starting. I'd go so far as to say that Peterson is the weakest link on the entire defense, considering that Coleman's heading to the scrap heap with last year's second-rounder, William Moore, returning from injury. Outside of the line, our offense is doing just dandy. If we're ever going to stop you bastards....er, Saints....from dropping comical amounts of points on our collective heads, we have to improve the defense right damn now. Weatherspoon does that. He's got the 40 times, he's got the bench press numbers, he's got the on-the-field talents and scouts drew little hearts around his name in their notebooks throughout the NFL Combine and Senior Bowl.
More importantly, he's got enough pass rushing skillz (it's more hardcore with the z) that he can at the very least free up our guys inside on the defensive line, where Peria Jerry and Jon Babineaux both offer quality penetration, the kind you usually only get with a bottle of wine and the music of Marvin Gaye. He can also drop back into coverage. In 2009, Mike Peterson's complete inability to do either of these things reached such epic proportions that Ken Burns is filming a documentary about it. Peterson couldn't have covered your wide receivers with a blanket. Mike Peterson is so bad at blitzing, he's still chasing after Drew Brees. Even if Weatherspoon is only three-to-four-times as good as Peterson, he'll vault the Falcons to a 25-0 record in 2010. I'm pretty sure that's possible.
So the Falcons get an immediate starter at a position of weakness on the weakest side of the ball, hundreds of Falcons fans can stop driving me insane with their crushes on Weatherspoon, and I get to take credit for all of it. Can't knock that.