Falcons satisfied with draft's final day

By Jay Adams

FLOWERY BRANCH --

Shortly after the Atlanta Falcons made a phone call to Harry Douglas, pro football hall-of-famer Cris Carter made a bold statement.

"Wes Welker is not as good a football player as Harry is right now," the former Minnesota Vikings star said during ESPN's draft broadcast.

Douglas missed Carter's comment because he was busy getting all the congratulatory wishes from family and friends done.

When Carter's comment was finally relayed to Douglas, the Louisville wide receiver didn't quite know what to say.

"Just thank God," Douglas said before an embarrassed laugh. "Just thanking God for everything now. Once again, I'm a dedicated player to the game. I like to work on things I don't do well, work extra and do the things I do well and work on those extra."

Douglas' work ethic, upside and potential are why the Falcons decided to draft the Atlanta-area product. Douglas, from Jonesboro, was taken with the second of Atlanta's three third-round picks during the final day of the NFL draft.

General manager Thomas Dimitroff said Sunday morning before the third round started that the Falcons were going to focus on bettering both sides of the passing game. He knows a little something about Welker, who was a dangerous slot receiver for the New England Patriots last season. Dimitroff was the Patriots' director of scouting last season before being hired by the Falcons four months ago.

"We had everyone on the offense looking at this guy," Dimitroff said of Douglas. "We focused in on a guy who we thought could come in and shore up our passing game and provide us some versatility."

The Falcons continued to address both sides of the passing game in the third round by taking LSU cornerback Chevis Jackson and California safety Thomas DeCoud.

The Falcons added Arizona State linebacker Robert James and Montana defensive end Kroy Biermann in the fifth round and Arizona cornerback Wilrey Fontenot and LSU tight end Keith Zinger in the seventh round.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for the Falcons was their sixth-round selection of Georgia running back Thomas Brown. Brown saw his fair share of injuries in college, including an anterior cruciate ligament tear in 2006 and a broken collarbone last year.

"It was very tough for me," Brown said of convincing teams that he was durable enough to handle the load in the NFL. "In my opinion, it was the biggest knock on me. I was just trying to appeal to (teams) that I was no injury-prone."

The Falcons' final few draft picks left a lot of questions, including perhaps the most obvious: What about the offensive and defensive lines?

The Falcons addressed the left tackle position by trading up in Saturday's first round to snag Southern Cal tackle Sam Baker, but Atlanta moved to skill position players for the remainder of the draft. Dimitroff cited the lack of a good fit for not loading the roster with more linemen through the draft.

"There's no point in bringing a player on the field, thinking he may or may not hit," he said. "I don't want it to be sort of a haphazard approach to bringing a defensive lineman, an offensive lineman who aren't what we believe in as far as the general direction of, 'Let's be about the team, let's be about winning.' "

Dimitroff said he was confident in the defensive linemen the Falcons brought in through free agency. Offensive line, however, does not seem to be an area of concern for Dimitroff and head coach Mike Smith.

The Falcons mostly worked with a patchwork offensive line after injuries devastated what was already a poor situation up front. Several younger players got some valuable playing time last year, but the Falcons' running and passing games were consistently one of the worst in the NFL because of the front five.

"I think these guys that we've got are good, solid football players in terms of their athletic ability and their strength," Smith said. "I think when we get the right mix and the right match together that we're going to have a unit out there that's going to go out there and play hard and compete every day."