Anticipating what the Falcons’ defense could be entering a season has been largely a difficult conversation for the past decade. Besides a few years when optimism was understandable, most summers had everyone asking ten different questions with hope leading off each response.
Hope isn’t what a winning strategy is built on. Assembling a few steady veterans and a group of mid-round picks to generate consistent pressure doesn’t work. Giving high-round draft picks numerous opportunities when it’s clear they aren’t good enough to start doesn’t work.
That is something Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn learned the hard way.