The Atlanta Falcons, in year one under Arthur Smith, find themselves entering Week 16 on the brink. A slow start and some key losses have kept the Falcons scratching and clawing all season long in an effort to stay in the playoff race. With a little help from the rest of the NFC, Atlanta is still very much in the hunt despite not being at .500 since early November. With the team's decision to embrace tight end Kyle Pitts early in the 2021 NFL Draft, the team feels committed to trying to win sooner rather than later under quarterback Matt Ryan—a decision I'm committed to following through on in today's exercise: A 7-round 2022 mock draft to try to piece together enough talent to help the Falcons take the next step and move out of the "in the hunt" club and into the "in the dance" for next season.

A challenge for sure, but the Falcons aren't barren with cornerstone pieces, which allowed me to attack this draft with the idea of complementing those pieces and staying true to the ideologies that we've seen Atlanta attempt to undertake under new management this season.