Falcons Made a Mistake
The Atlanta Falcons in this past April’s National Football League Draft addressed the defense, since they addressed the offense in the offseason prior to the 2008 season. Not even a month after the Draft it already looks like the Falcons made a huge mistake.
Falcons first round pick, which was 24th overall, defensive tackle Peria Jerry left Saturday morning’s mini-camp with a reportedly sprained right knee.
Falcons head coach Mike Smith told reporters that Jerry consulted a doctor, but it is not known yet if the injury was serious.
Unfortunately for Falcon fans they are going to have to wait a while. The reason being is that with knees an MRI needs to be done to make sure none of the ligaments or cartilage in the knee is damaged.
Also, they need to wait for swelling in Jerry’s knee to go down a little before they can do an MRI.
That means Falcons fans are going to have to wait till sometime later in the week for the results.
However, it should have never came to this. The reason is that the Falcons never should have taken Jerry.
Jerry has acquired an injury prone reputation as he missed for games as a freshman with a ankle injury, had foot surgery following his sophomore season, and just before the 2008 season, his senior year, he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the same right knee that he injured Saturday.
So, why did the Falcons select Jerry knowing about his injury history? The reason is that Smith fell in love with Jerry’s explosiveness off the ball when the ball is snapped.
When teams fall in love with one aspect of a player, and does not look at the overall picture, those picks usually are busts.
The next defensive tackle taken in the Draft was at 32nd overall when the Pittsburgh Steelers took defensive tackle Evander Hood.
Only time will tell who got it right and who did not, but I am already inclined to say Pittsburgh after all they are the defending Superbowl Champions.