INDIANAPOLIS -- Appearing before the national media for the first time as Falcons Head Coach, Mike Smith went through a press conference covering everything from his theories on defense to what the Falcons plan to do in the NFL Draft.
Smith didn't reveal any hard-hitting strategy, but he also made no attempt to hide the importance of Friday's coin toss that awarded Atlanta the third overall pick in April's Draft and the options it presents for team building.
"Thomas (Dimitroff) did a great job on the coin flip yesterday so we got our first win," Smith said. "Picking at No. 3 is big for us because I know we’re going to get an outstanding football player at that spot. It also opens up a number of different avenues for us in terms of how we want to pursue this."
The Falcons have a plethora of options with a top three pick, but most of the chatter this Combine week has centered around the quarterback position, especially after Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan made comments complimenting the franchise and saying he thinks he could help teams at the top of the Draft.
"It's exciting for me," he said. "I think a lot of teams might be looking at quarterback and Atlanta may be one of them.
"I think I'd be a good fit."
Smith had not heard the comments, nor has he gone into detail scouting Ryan as a player. He did say the team plans to meet with Ryan before the end of the weekend.
Quarterback remains Atlanta's hot position among Draft talkers as Smith agreed on the positions importance to the game.
"In this league I think the teams that are successful are the teams that have great quarterbacks," said the coach, who listed "intelligence," "character" and "accuracy" among his key attributes when evaluating the position. "You look at the playoff teams from this past season and you’ll see the majority of them have outstanding quarterbacks. I think it’s a quarterback-driven league and I think we have to look at all avenues in terms of free agency and the college draft. I think there are a number of quarterbacks here at the Combine that we have a lot of interest in."
The Falcons philosophy, according to the coach, will center on stopping the run and running the football. That, of course, brings a few other positions into the mix when evaluating the rookie class.
"Those guys are really fine football players and I think there’s going to be a number of guys that will be under consideration at that spot," he said of defensive linemen Glenn Dorsey and Chris Long. "With my defensive background I look forward to watching those guys on tape.
"Their track record at the collegiate level has been outstanding. Both of those guys have been very productive throughout their careers. That’s the most knowledge I have about them. I have not had the opportunity to watch them."
As defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars Smith enjoyed the services of Pro Bowl defensive tackles Marcus Stroud and John Henderson. He said the Falcons are "still a few pieces away" from creating a Jaguars-style defense, but Smith stressed plans to build offensive and defensive schemes around the players on the roster and after free agency.
"The thing we’ve done -- the first thing we did when we got together as a staff –- is evaluate our roster," Smith said. "We went through that process and we’re continuing to go through that process. We made some roster moves. Those are decisions that are often tough to make… But we feel they were decisions that were best for us in the long term as well as the short term. The next thing you’ve got to do is (remember) free agency is coming up. That will be starting next week so we had to evaluate the free agents as well."
The Falcons take a break this week from free agent evaluations to focus on the Combine, but Smith said he and Dimitroff have been having twice-daily discussions about the direction of the team.
"I don’t think it’s a daunting task at all," Smith said Saturday when asked about a time line for success. "The league is very close. There’s not a whole lot of difference between 4-12 and 12-4. What we have to do as a staff is define what our players are capable of doing and put a system together that best suits them."
