Finding Falcons is a series that ventures beyond Atlanta's decision to draft a specific player and reveals the why behind doing so. Exclusive interviews with Falcons position coaches, area scouts and the decision-makers at the top detail the moments that solidified the decision to draft each of the men who make up their 2025 draft class. For five consecutive weeks, we'll tell those stories.

Stories by Tori McElhaney

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — A large contingency of Atlanta Falcons leaders, scouts and coaches had already made the hour trip southeast of the Falcons' facility in Flowery Branch to Athens earlier this spring. They'd already been inside the University of Georgia indoor facility. They'd already had conversations about the draftable prospects Kirby Smart's staff planned to churn out in the 2025 NFL Draft. With a week remaining until said draft kicked off, did they really need to go back? Yes. Yes they did.

This workout was different. For starters, it was more private. There wouldn't be cameras or reporters. Nor would the crowd of onlookers be as significant as it was a month prior. Still, the Falcons brought a group of 10 decision-makers to the college town once more.

They did so, because this workout would finally include Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams — two of the Bulldogs' most notable and coveted draft prospects. With the No. 15 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Falcons were in prime position to see one, if not both, of those players drop to them.

(If you've made it this far in the tale, you know which one).

It's difficult to say the Falcons were not already sold on Walker by this point in the draft process. Falcons outside linebackers coach Jacquies Smith said Walker was on his radar well before he actually met him at the NFL Scouting Combine at the end of February.

"Obviously, Jalon has been a talented player throughout the landscape of college football for a while," Smith said. "But I think my very first impression of him was walking with him down at the combine. You got to see the poise and character that he has. He has a big football family background with his dad being a coach, and you see that, you get that instantly from him."

From there, conversations continued, as they are ought to do throughout this process. Walker's connection with the Falcons brass grew rapidly. The hybrid defensive player even made an appearance at the Falcons' local pro day in early April, a move that not many top-30 prospects make, seeing as local pro days are usually designed for players who could fall to the status of undrafted free agents to get exposure. That wasn't going to include Walker, who, at the time, was coveted as a top-10 pick.

But through all of these meet ups — the combine, Georgia's first pro day, the Falcons' own local pro day — never once did the Falcons get the chance to see what Walker could do, physically.

Sure, they'd watched hours of tape of Walker's time at Georgia. Yes, of course, they'd spoken to countless teammates, coaches and Georgia personnel to paint the full picture of Walker's character. But with a week remaining until draft night, the physical piece had yet to slot into place. Which, ask any talent evaluator, that's a pretty important piece.

"We wanted to see him live," Falcons area scout Shepley Heard said. "That was our big thing. We wanted to see him move around. We wanted to see him do some drops into coverage. We wanted to see him do some pass rush stuff, live and up close, that we weren't able to see at the combine or at the pro day.

"So, we all showed up (in Athens) and saw it."

What they witnessed that day, Heard said, answered every question the Falcons had about Walker.

"I think everybody walked away going, 'Wow,'" Heard said.

Smith: "We got to see him up close and personal, and — to me, honestly, personally — that was a chance for him to make his lasting impression right before the draft."

Not last.

Lasting.

Because that impression? It remains.

"You got to see the explosive traits; him being able to bend and do certain things as a pass rusher that makes us love him, but being able to make that lasting impression right there right before the draft, I think did wonders for him," Smith recalled. "We had already fallen in love with the player and the guy, but getting able to get that impression helped a ton."

That one workout left little doubt, Heard said, that if Walker was available at No. 15 overall, the Falcons would have a difficult time justifying passing him by.

"You can turn on the film. We can watch as a group. You can watch individual film. You can go to practice. You can go to games, you're up in the press box," Heard said. "But I think once you see it really up close and personal? That's when it really hits that OK, this is real."

For the Falcons, a team that has been hungry for pass rush consistency for years, the hope is Walker — along with his first-round counterpart, James Pearce Jr. — can change the culture of pass rush in Atlanta. And that is exactly what Heard said Walker is.

"He is a culture changer," Heard said. "You bring that guy into your locker room and he can change the culture. His leadership is so good. His work ethic is so good. He has a voice. It's not just leadership by example, he has it all. He has leadership by example, leadership by voice — he is so well respected. Along with his physical traits.

"It's hard to find somebody who brings all of that together."

That's why when Walker was staring Atlanta right in the face at pick No. 15 on the first night of the NFL Draft, they couldn't — and wouldn't — blink.

"To me?" Heard concluded. "Jalon is a grand slam for us."