Atlanta Falcons Go With Measurables And Take Clemson’s A.J. Terrell In NFL Draft

LSU’s Kristian Fulton was the better cover cornerback, but he’s slight of build, won’t drop his shoulder to stop the run, and is not as long or fast as Clemson’s A.J. Terrell. Fulton will be a good nickel, inside cover guy, but the Falcons could not ignore the size and speed and upside of Terrell, and made him the 16th pick in the draft.

Here is something else the club could not ignore: Joe Whitt, Jr. The secondary coach is the ace in the hole and if anyone in the NFL can polish up Terrell, it is this guy. Ask around the league.

The Falcons selected Terrell because NFL wide receivers have become beasts at 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5 and the remedy is big and fast corners. Terrell is the long guy who can press a big wideout while the zone defense sets up behind him. He is the guy who can make the Falcons’ feeble pass rush better by disrupting timing and making the quarterback pull the ball down.

The question is does he do that in his first season or his second season.

So much depends on Whitt, Jr., and teaching Terrell body position, and deft hand work. Whitt, 41, might be the most important assistant on the Atlanta staff in 2020, or whenever we play football again. Whitt, incidentally, started coaching in the NFL in 2007 with the Falcons.

Look closer at Whitt, Jr. A Yale University document had a story on him describing how Whitt fought back and overcame dyslexia. He was Class President in high school in Auburn, Alabama. He goes back to Auburn every offseason to learn how to teach, which includes working with special needs children. The guy won a National Honor Society Award.

When Raheem Morris leaves after the next football season to get another crack as head coach, Whitt, Jr. will be a defensive coordinator somewhere, maybe the Falcons.

For now, Whitt is the granular teacher who has to address the Falcons’ hole at cornerback. The club released Desmond Trufant as a cap casualty and Terrell must step in. Atlanta felt all along it had a chance at Terrell because he was rated as the fifth or sixth best corner in the draft and he was going to fall right to them. No one saw it coming partly because Terrell was smoked in the national championship game against LSU.

The Falcons likely would have preferred Florida’s CJ Henderson, but he went 9th. Terrell, by physical standards, was the next best corner behind Ohio State’s Jeff Okudah and Henderson.

So the ace in the hole is Whitt, who has coached up the likes of Charles Woodson, Sam Shields and Tramon Williams, who was an undrafted free agent, but part of the Packers’ Super Bowl winning team. Williams played with Green Bay from 2006-2014, a nice success story, and then got paid as a free agent. Shields was a converted wide receiver. Woodson was All-Everything.

Whitt is highly-regarded and he and Morris will show you the Xs and the Os are going to be as crucial as the Jimmys and the Joes.

Terrell will be a project. He used his size to reach, grab, hold, and muscle receivers at Clemson. Whitt and Morris are going to have to get that out of him, or else he is going to be the most penalized CB in the NFL.

The drafting of Terrell means the Falcons will go with second-year Kendall Sheffield as the nickel guy inside, the man who must stop third-and-five and snuff out a drive. It is an incredibly important job in today’s NFL with the quick passing game, which is why LSU’s Fulton is going to be such an important player in the NFL.

If Terrell does not catch on quickly, you have to like where the veteran corner Blidi Wreh-Wilson came from in 2019. Over and over the second half of the season he was getting his hands on footballs. Blidi made plays and the Falcons gave him a one-year deal. The other corner Isaiah Oliver also progressed the second half of 2019.

It could be ugly for Terrell the first crack as a starter. Georgia’s DeAndre Baker was regarded as one of the top corners in the country during the 2018 season and was selected in the 2019 first round (30th) by the Giants and had a rough rookie season. There were games where the receiver Baker was covering caught 60, 70, 80 percent of the throws their way. Baker was finally forced into a reserve role.

The Falcons cannot heap pressure on Terrell, which is what the Giants did. The bet is Joe Whitt, Jr., is not going to let that happen. If there is anyone who can groom Terrell into an impact corner it is Whitt. The Falcons knew that.