Profile: Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff

The "Profile" feature is a feature we will be doing here on The Birds' Nest Blog to give the Falcons fans a little bit more insight into the backgrounds of the people responsible for making our franchise what it is. It will cover people in our front office and on the field and help analyze the moves the franchise is making.

Today we will cover Falcons GM, Thomas Dimitroff. "TD" was the breath of fresh air the Falcon's organization needed after the fallout of the 2007 season. He came to Atlanta with high praise from the New England Patriots where he was the Director of College Scouting. As many of you are aware, the Patriots were notorious for drafting well (Tom Brady was a sixth round pick), and never made a lot of noise in the free agency. It was all about acquiring players that were "value picks," or players that were overlooked by other teams, but had the ability to play at a higher level than their peers in a particular scheme. You can view the Pats draft history here, and their free agent history here. Now what does this have to do with the Atlanta Falcons? Well, if you look closely, there are obvious similarities between the franchises. Some fans have been screaming this off season about our lack of activity in the free agent market, but if you read between the lines, you can catch a glimpse of what TD is trying to do. The Falcons are still technically in a rebuilding phase, even though they had a terrific season last year. Dimitroff is trying to build a successful franchise that will be successful for a while to come, a dynasty if you will. Sound familiar? This is following the model that Dimitroff helped create in Foxborough which is why the Pats were able to reach so many superbowls without drastic changes to their roster. His basic strategy for the Falcons is to find young, capable players in the draft that can come in right away and contribute to the team. Just take a look at last year's draft. In 2008, the Falcons had at least half of their draft picks come in and make an immediate impact on the team. Some of the notable mentions include Matt Ryan, Sam Baker, Curtis Lofton, Chevis Jackson, and Harry Douglas. By building through the draft TD is sticking to his strengths, but let's not rule out what he is doing with the free agency either. As some of you may know, the Falcons are in position to receive compensatory picks in the 2010 draft for the free agents we lost this year depending on a number of different factors, but that is a very different and very long article all together. The point is that Dimitroff is setting up the Falcons to continue to build through the draft for the next few years at least with the ultimate result to be a great young franchise that has the opportunity to be better each year with the younger players continuing to build on the previous years' successes as they develop and progress. This is most definitely a good strategy or a good "process" (as coach Smith calls it). The thoroughness of Dimitroff and the rest of the organization is certainly refreshing and appears to be the model for how to build/rebuild a franchise. So, with all of this in mind, let's just sit back and see what Dimitroff does this offseason. He has yet to show us that he is anything other than brilliant and that his is a strategy that works. If after reading this article you are still unsatisfied with how quiet the Falcons appear to this offseason, then maybe you should consider being a fan of a team where the organization plays fantasy football with real players (see: Redskins, Cowboys).