Thomas Dimitroff addresses possible trade up but Chase Young would take massive move

[Freddie Falcon]

Getty Images

In 2011, the Falcons traded the 27th, 59th and 124th overall choices in that year’s draft, plus their first- and fourth-round selections in 2012 to move up to take Julio Jones at No. 6. That worked out well for the Falcons.

Falcons fans are rooting for something similar this year. Atlanta holds the 16th overall pick in this spring’s draft.

“I think that’s something that we always consider,” Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff said Friday on 92.9 The Game. “But I think with this draft, I think there is going to be a lot of interesting action between 10 and 20. Again, I would never count us out because, yeah, we are a team that has been active. With that said, this may be one of those draft situations, it does set up an opportunity to potentially move back. As long as I’ve been here, we’ve not been a really active team moving back. But again, this year, may be one of those years where you can truly look at that and acquire a couple more picks in different parts of the draft to used to pair together to get up in another round.”

The Falcons will not re-sign Vic Beasley, the eighth overall choice in 2015, so they are in need of a pass rusher. They also don’t have much cap space to be active in free agency.

They would have to give up a lot to move up high enough — second overall more than likely — to select Ohio State’s Chase Young. Dimitroff was asked about the possibility, though.

“I understand the conversation that’s been circulating. I get that,” Dimitroff said on the radio. “We did make a big-time move for Julio way back when. I’ve always been taught through my years of growing in this business that the General Manager and the head coach know the team better than anyone. The core of where you are, team-building, how you project moving forward. We spent a lot of time back in 11 analyzing our situation and knowing where the organization was, of course. Knowing the talent we had. Knowing where the contracts were and the length of contracts. It takes a lot of research in that way to decide whether if you’re going to make a once-in-a-career type move. Now, as we can say, when that was made, that was in ’11. That was 23 years into a career. Careers can be 10 years, three years, four years, who knows. Organizationally speaking, you don’t make those moves all of the time. They are really thought-out decisions. When you find someone that can be a massive difference-maker within the league and within the team, and you feel like your roster is in the right place that you can potentially give up some of the so-called booty that you need to give up to make these plays or making a trade up. You have to be very, very comfortable with where your team is as far as the roster and such. That’s what you have to be very comfortable with and you have to be very strong understanding of where your team is going into the future.”