Stockpiling Dawgs

After years of seemingly going out of their way to avoid players from the University of Georgia, the Atlanta Falcons have nabbed two Dawgs in one year for the second straight year. Last year, the Falcons drafted Martrez Milner and signed Tony Taylor as a free agent. History repeated itself today. The Falcons drafted Thomas Brown in the sixth round and are rumored to have signed Brandon Miller as a free agent. When I talked to The Deaner today, he was wondering if Matt Moore is now in charge of personnel for the Falcons...

Paul Oliver Drafted

Paul Oliver is heading to San Diego. The Chargers picked him in the fourth round of today's NFL Supplemental Draft. I'm sure he would have liked to go higher, but he couldn't have ended up in a much better situation. He gets to play for a really, really good team in a warm weather city. He also gets to play on the same defense as Shawne Merriman.

John Kincade of 680 The Fan in Atlanta was all over the Falcons today for not trying to get either Oliver or Jared Gaither, the only other player selected. His argument was that the Falcons 4th or 5th round picks next year will not be better than either player selected today. That could be true, but you never really know with the NFL draft. There is always the chance of getting another Terrell Davis or Tom Brady. On top of that, the Falcons just took Chris Houston in this year's draft, so I'm not sure that Oliver would have really made sense for them. I think Kincade is just trying to stir the pot with the Georgia fans. Everyone knows us Georgia fans wish the Falcons would take more Dawgs.

Paul Oliver In The News

I've seen several things pop up about Paul Oliver recently with the NFL supplemental draft approaching. The supplemental draft will take place on July 13. It sounds like he is most likely to be a 3rd round pick.

Supplemental draft prospects - Yahoo! Sports
All eyes on Oliver - Athens Banner Herald
Oliver on ESPN Radio - Thread from the DawgRun

NFL Draft: Day Two

Dawgs in the Draft
The Falcons drafted Martrez Milner. This came as a complete surprise to me. I thought that if the Falcons drafted any Georgia players it would be Charles Johnson, Quentin Moses, or Tony Taylor. Shows what I know...

The only other Dawg to be drafted on day two was Ken Shackleford. He went to the St. Louis Rams in the sixth round.

Image from AJC.com

No Ware to be Found
The list of Dawgs that were not drafted is quite lengthy.
Tra Battle
Gordon Ely-Kelso
Ray Gant
Daniel Inman
Jarvis Jackson
Nick Jones
Tony Taylor
Joe Tereshinski
Danny Verdun-Wheeler
Danny Ware

Like I said on the DawgRun, I expect all of the above aside from Joe T. will get a shot with a free agent contract.

I'm surprised that both Tony Taylor and Danny Ware went undrafted. What a nightmare for Ware. There is no way to know if he made the right or wrong decision to come out early. Who's to say he would have been drafted next year? Maybe he'll sign with the Denver Broncos and go crazy like Terrell and Olandis.

NFL Draft: Day One

Dawgs in the Draft
It was a long day for both Quentin Moses and Charles Johnson. Moses was the first pick of the third round (65 overall), going to the Oakland Raiders. Johnson had to wait much longer than expected to hear his name called. He went to Carolina with the twentieth pick of the third round (83 overall).

I expected Moses to be a late second or early third round pick. However, I was thinking Johnson woule be early second round and maybe even late first. That was a real shocker to me.

Falcons
It looks like the Falcons had a pretty good first day. They addressed glaring needs on both lines and in the secondary with three of their four picks. With Levi Brown and Adrian Peterson off the board, the Falcons went with Jamaal Anderson at number 8. The Falcons also selected Texas guard Justin Blalock and Arkansas cornerback Chris Houston in the second round. I heard someone on the NFL network say that both of those players have first round talent. They also said Petrino expects Anderson, Blalock, and Houston to all be starters. To round out the day the Falcons took wide receiver wide receiver Laurent Robinson from Illinois State in the third round. Yeah, I've never heard of him either, but supposedly he was a stud in 1-AA.

Are You Ready For The Draft?

Dogs' Johnson eager to take next step
The AJC takes a look at where Charles Johnson may end up.

Combine Crashers
Need to get caught up on footage from the NFL scouting combine? Check out these videos on AtlantaFalcons.com.

Dawgs in the Draft

Two articles from the AJC...

Can’t spell NFL without UGA
Uh, actually you can...

Ware not second-guessing early exit
There is one comment Danny makes in this article that will probably get people riled up.

I probably would have been better off going somewhere I could carry the ball more. But I played for Georgia, in the SEC and won a championship. It was all positive.

I'm going to assume that what he meant to say was...

I probably would have been better off stats wise going somewhere I could carry the ball more. But I played for Georgia, in the SEC and won a championship. It was all positive.

There is no denying Danny could have put up better numbers elsewhere. But, to say he would have been better off elsewhere...I'm sure that won't sit well with some people.

Bulldog Articles of Interest

A couple articles I read that I thought you may like to read...

Battle expects a long wait on Day 1 of draft
I'm not so big on that headline. Tra will most likely have a long wait on Day 2 as well. The article also briefly mentions Tony Taylor and Jarvis Jackson's draft aspirations. I think Taylor has the best draft potential of the three.

Image from AJC.com

Martrez Milner hopes to add to Georgia's tight end legacy in NFL
I love this quote from Martrez.

I do have one thing on my side - guys like Jermaine Wiggins, Randy McMichael, Ben Watson and Leonard Pope in the league that paved the way for guys like myself.

Although I'm still amazed that its Wiggins on that list rather than Larry Brown. I never would have thought that when they were in school.

Image from OnlineAthens.com