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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The smile on Thomas Dimitroff's face is a bit broader these days.
The career scout turned Falcons general manager is in the middle of his favorite stretch in the NFL calender. The NFL Draft is 67 days away. Free agency starts in little more than a week and the NFL Scouting Combine -- a scout and number cruncher's dream -- begins Wednesday.
"The scout in me really enjoys the player evaluation process of our business," Dimitorff said last week in an exclusive interview with AtlantaFalcons.com. "This is the time of year when our scouts who have been on the road all year come in and tell us about all of the fantastic college players who will be draft eligible in April... The draft process is the lifeblood of our league, and it’s a process that you’d better get right if you want to be successful in this league.”
More than 300 players -- college seniors and juniors granted eligibility for the draft -- have been invited to run through various drills, undergo intelligence tests and be interviewed by interested NFL teams. Fans can watch drills, which include timing and measuring in the 40-yard dash, bench press, three-cone drill, vertical leap, and the 20- and 60-yard shuttle run, on NFL Network and NFL.com.
The Falcons hold the No. 24 selection in the upcoming NFL Draft (April 25-26) after a surprising 11-5 season that saw a spot in the playoffs and the emergence of several key players from Dimitroff's first draft class as a general manager.
It all started at the Scouting Combine.
Dimitroff was hired last January to rebuild a Falcons team that finished 4-12 in 2007. He hired a new head coach (Mike Smith) and the pair made a trip to the Combine with just a few weeks of preparation. The general manager won a coin toss at the annual event to give the Falcons the No. 3 selection in the Draft. That started a whirlwind of good fortune for the team, which acquired Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year Matt Ryan and a host of rookie starters and contributors.
His position in the 2009 draft may not be as high, but Dimitroff carries a full year of scouting reports into this Combine and is excited about what his team and the Falcons coaching staff could learn over the next seven days in Indianapolis. Scouts and coaches have held regular meetings for the past month to compare notes and plan for the week.
"We have very serious discussions about scheme fit, cultural fit, work ethic, competitiveness -- all of the things that we think will make a guy a great player for our organization," Dimitroff said. "A lot of work, film study and discussion goes into the draft process and it is a very time consuming process, but I enjoy every second of it."
The Falcons have more focused needs entering this season's draft. Most experts have the team zeroing in on a versatile tight end, or opting for a defensive linemen with a first-round pick but there's also the matter of addressing depth at linebacker, cornerback and safety.
Dimitroff must also decide how much to add to the roster through free agency, but finalizing a list of targets for the draft is important for any team looking to build for long-term success.
That process continues -- but doesn't necessarily end -- at the Combine. There's plenty more time to keep the scout in Dimitroff smiling..
"I’ve always viewed the NFL Scouting Combine as just one piece of the overall body of work when evaluating a specific player," Dimitroff said. "We also look at how the player performed during his entire college career. A guy is not going to make a big leap one way or the other simply based on the test results from the Combine. We look at the entire body of work before assigning a final grade to a specific player."
MORE ON THE 2009 NFL SCOUTING COMBINE:
- NFL.com: Combine Homepage | Participants
- BLOGS: J. Mike's Missives | Off the Cuff with Mookie Dunkleman
- TWITTER: Follow J. Mike and Matt on Twitter
- FLICKR: Check out the Falcons Photostream
- NFL NETWORK: Combine Workout and Programming Schedule
- WORKOUTS: What Will the players be doing at the Combine?
- RESULTS: Top Performers at the 2009 Scouting Combine
- LAST SEASON: AF.com Combine coverage from 2008
