FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — When it came to the first wave of free agency this past month, Atlanta Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham said prioritizing the long-term health of the roster was paramount. The team cast a wide net, signing 17 new players in a span of two weeks in an effort to accomplish its primary goal for the period: to "elevate the floor."
"There was a certain band of players that we were attacking because we knew we had to try to elevate the floor at a lot of different positions, but also (do so) with limited cap space as well," Cunningham said at Annual League Meetings last week in Phoenix. "We wanted to make sure that we were being thoughtful not just at one position or just spending big at one position, we had to fill a lot of voids at a lot of different positions."
Looking ahead, Cunningham acknowledged this is not really his ideal version of free agency.
In nearly every public appearance since becoming the Falcons' general manager, Cunningham has emphasized the importance of the draft and his affinity for accumulating picks — or, as he puts it, creating more swings at the plate.
The Falcons currently hold just five picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. While Cunningham would prefer to have more, he understands that increasing that number requires two to tango (i.e. cooperation from other teams).
"For us, it's one of those things where we have to go into this thinking we only have five picks. That's worst case," Cunningham explained. "If we come out of it with just five picks, we come out of it with just five picks. We are already looking at different ways to potentially manufacture some more. But if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out."
That doesn't mean the Falcons intend to rely this heavily on free agency in the future. In fact, Cunningham hopes they won't — at least not in the same way. As he told Falcons scouts during one of his first meetings with them in February, he expects this to be the last year the team enters the draft with only five picks.
"That's the hand that we were dealt," Cunningham said of this offseason, "but we are going to try to figure out ways moving forward to create more opportunities, more swings at the plate moving forward."
Still, he emphasized the importance of planning for the current reality.
"Moving forward, you don't want to live in that space," Cunningham said of the Falcons heavy first wave of free agency. "You would like for your draft picks to eventually take the place of those things, but this was a year where we had to attack it this way."
That doesn't mean this approach will define the Falcons going forward — and if Cunningham has his way, it won't.
