South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said that he’d like to see the Falcons trade up to secure his rights in May’s draft, something that Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff called “great to hear.”
Dimitroff downplayed Clowney’s words, saying he thought the player was saying that to everyone. He didn’t say that a trade up in the draft order was out of the question, however, and told Mike Florio of PFT as much at the combine in Indianapolis last week. On Monday, he added that the team could make a move in the other direction as well.
“Look, like I’ve said, I’ve been very clear about this, we will always be open for business. We will always be open to move up and back, depends on what’s right for us,” Dimitroff said on NFL Network, via the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “Again, I feel really comfortable with where we are at six, but there are opportunities on both sides of six.”
You wouldn’t expect a general manager to say anything else in February, of course. If Dimitroff does want to move up, he’s got a couple of former colleagues to call in the effort. Rams General Manager Les Snead and Jaguars General Manager Dave Caldwell, whose teams pick second and third respectively, both used to work for Dimitroff in Atlanta and may be getting a phone call from their old boss in the coming months.