Piece by: Joshua Julian
As humans, it’s natural for us to play the blame game whenever something goes wrong in life. After all, every event has some kind of causation, and as long as we were not the main cause of an event, the person who was should be shamed and called out for their role. The same principle holds true in the sports world.
Whenever a team-player relationship becomes fractured, it becomes the job of journalists, fans, and armchair quarterbacks to figure out what caused this breakup, and to assign blame. But while most are fairly straightforward, the Julio Jones vs. the Falcons situation is one that does not have an obvious culprit, at least not in the current regime. Looking to the past, the person who drove the wedge between franchise icon and franchise becomes obvious, and he should not be let off the hook. His name: Thomas Dimitroff. His crime: wasting the prime of one of the greatest QB-WR duos ever due to poor player evaluations in both the draft and free agency.
Former GM Thomas Dimitroff is the main reason the Falcons have struggled to break through the glass ceiling of expectations every year. Besides a solid run from 2011-2013 and the magical Super Bowl 51 run, the Falcons were never better than expected. They always either played about where everyone thought they would, or below the expectations of the fans. How is this on the GM, you might ask, and not the coaches or the players? Well, former head coach Dan Quinn deserves a share of the blame, yes, but he was a defensive-minded head coach, so his area of the blame lies mainly in the Falcons’ lack of anything resembling a threatening defense from his hiring in 2015 to his firing this offseason. And, he can only coach the players he is given, and Dimitroff was always very hit or miss in his player evaluations.
First, the draft. To give credit where credit is due, Dimitroff was always a good drafter in the later rounds. Joe Hawley, Devonta Freeman, De’Vondre Campbell, Ito Smith, and Mykal Walker in the 4th round. Ricardo Allen, Grady Jarrett, Damontae Kazee, and Jaquizz Rodgers in the 5th. Russell Gage in the 6th. Consistently, Dimitroff has found starters on Day 3 of the draft, and he should be commended for that. However, his history of drafting on Day 1-2 is a mixed bag to say the least.
The good on Day 1? Matt Ryan. Julio Jones. Jake Matthews. Calvin Ridley. Chris Lindstrom. The bad? Peria Jerry. Sean Weatherspoon. Vic Beasley. Takkarist McKinley. Sitting in the middle are Desmond Trufant, Keanu Neal, and Kaleb McGary, who were all decent pickups, but Trufant always struggled with playmaking and was more of a #2 corner, Neal played a total of four games in two years for the team and was never able to regain that Pro Bowl level he flashed after he got healthy last year, and McGary has battled inconsistency and injury so far in his career.
Yes, Dimitroff hit on almost half his first-round picks, which isn’t terrible, and he was able to snag two future Hall of Famers. However, once his Day 2 draft history comes into the equation, that’s when the holes start to develop. Curtis Lofton, William Moore, Tevin Coleman, Deion Jones, and Austin Hooper encompass his hits. All of these players were varying levels of effective in Atlanta, but when weighed against the misses, it gets to be painful. Chevis Jackson, Corey Peters, Akeem Dent, Peter Konz, Lamar Holmes, Robert Alford, Ra’Shede Hageman, Dezmen Southward, Jalen Collins, Duke Riley, and Isaiah Oliver. Also, note that, among the “hits”, only Deion Jones, Curtis Lofton, and William Moore were second-round picks. Looking at that list, at best, Dimitroff’s draft history is iffy. And that depends on your level of confidence in guys like Oliver, McGary, Marlon Davidson, and Deadrin Senat. At worst, it looks like a ton of wasted opportunities to add cheap talent.
So, naturally, the alternative to drafting, if a team needs to add talent, is free agency. Very rarely do superstars reach the market, but it can still be a place where youngish guys get their first chances to play major snaps, or a team is able to add veteran talent to supplement the talent they already have. But, in the case of Dimitroff, there are very few “success” stories from the free agent market. Michael Turner provided a year or two of elite production at the running back spot, and Alex Mack was the anchor of the Falcons’ offensive line in their run to the Super Bowl. That’s the end of the list.
The Falcons, in Dimitroff’s term, threw big money, meaning $20 million+, at: Dunta Robinson, Paul Soliai, Tyson Jackson, Brooks Reed, Mohamed Sanu, James Carpenter, and Dante Fowler Jr. Just…ouch. To provide some brief context, Robinson was paid about $56 million to be a shutdown corner, which he very much was not. Paul Soliai was exactly who he had been his entire career, but he was just grossly overpaid as a space-eating nose tackle in the first place. Tyson Jackson, a failed #3 overall pick, was given $22 million because he was coming off a career year, which meant he had 4 sacks and 34 tackles.
Why he got that kind of money I will never understand. Brooks Reed was similar to Jackson, in that his deal looked like an overpay from day one, and while he was a decent run defender, he only racked up 7 sacks in 4 years with the team. Mohamed Sanu was a good, solid wide receiver for Atlanta, and his hands were unparalleled. But $32.5 million? For a #2 who lost his effectiveness 5-7 yards from the line of scrimmage? That’s an overpay, through and through. James Carpenter was brought in to be the left guard, and while he’s held that job for two years, he has been far from good. Let’s just settle on inconsistent and call it a day. As for Dante Fowler Jr., he still has time to turn it around, and the switch to Dean Pees’ 3-4 defense could be the boost he needs. But a $45 million guy getting 3 sacks in his first year is far from a good look, so he’ll need a bounce back season to make that sticker price look a little better.
As stated above, Thomas Dimitroff is not wholly to blame here. Dan Quinn shares a big part of the blame for his failure to put together a competent defense. Kyle Shanahan should take some too, for his inability to waste clock in the Super Bowl. As should Dirk Koetter, for neutering a talented offense with terrible play calling. But in the end, those coaches could only use what was placed on the squad for them, and Kyle Shanahan was the main reason the Falcons were even in the Super Bowl. Koetter was always coaching from behind because the defense was unable to stop, well, anyone. And Dan Quinn, for all his faults, wasn’t always given the best personnel to work with.
So, while he isn’t the sole person responsible, Thomas Dimitroff is the main culprit behind the Falcons’ demise and Julio Jones’s impending divorce from the team that drafted him. And if you listen closely, you may be able to hear a Falcons fan somewhere softly crying themselves to sleep.
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