Ray Edwards News

The Falcons haven't always drafted well, and not every signing has been a brilliant one.

While many fans enjoy following the NFL offseason because of the hope and optimism that it often generates for the coming year, the free-agency period and the draft can be nerve-racking for veteran NFL players and their families.

Syracuse Crunch players boarded a Springfield-bound bus from the War Memorial on Thursday afternoon with a neatly prepared scouting report of the Falcons tucked away for a little light reading material on their trip.

As promised, I took five of your best draft-related questions straight to Dan Kadar at Mocking the Draft.

Malliciah Goodman wasn't surprised to be asked about his long arms after his first practice with the Atlanta Falcons.

The 2013 Falcons draft was organized around a guiding principle: Get better on defense, for this year and years to come.

I don't know if Desmond Trufant and/or Robert Alford will be the next Deion Sanders or the next Charles Dimry or somewhere in between those two terminal points on the competence spectrum of Atlanta Falcons cornerbacks.

The Atlanta Falcons kept their focus on defense Saturday, adding defensive ends Malliciah Goodman of Clemson and Stansly Maponga from TCU on the third day of the NFL draft.

They may not be first-round targets, but these players are likely still high up on Atlanta's big board.