Thunder, meet your new Lightning. Lightning, meet your new Thunder.

The very active Atlanta Falcons made another trade in the 2011 NFL draft and moved up to the fifth round to select running back Jacquizz Rodgers from the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday.

Rodgers will likely compliment Michael Turner at running back, a role that was never really fulfilled by the oft-injured Jerious Norwood.

While the 5-foot-6, 196-pound rusher from Texas may be undersized for the NFL, Rodgers is an explosive back who has exceptional short burst quickness. However, he did not post a great 40-yard dash time at the NFL combines, finishing with a pedestrian time of 4.64 seconds.

Rodgers' 40-yard dash time was obviously overlooked by Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, who called Atlanta’s GM "brilliant" for the move and equated Rodgers with another tiny back -– former New York Giants rusher Joe Morris.

The former Beaver rushed for 1,184 yards on 256 carries and 14 touchdowns in his junior season with Oregon State. Rodgers finished with 3,877 yards and 46 TDs in three seasons with the Beavers.

The move could mark the end for oft-injured Norwood. Norwood, who rushed for just eight yards on two carries before getting injured in Week 2 last season, will be a restricted free agent once labor strife is settled and the NFL year begins.

The former Mississippi State standout rushed for 1,955 yards on 375 carries with seven TDs in 57 NFL games.

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-- PHIL FOLEY
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Akeem Dent grew up a short ride on MARTA away from the Georgia Dome. His favorite player was Atlanta Falcons linebacker Jessie Tuggle.

It must have been a great thrill for the Douglass High School graduate and Falcons fan when his NFL career began with a selection that was announced by his childhood idol.

Dent was nabbed by the Falcons with their third-round pick (91st overall) on Friday. The former University of Georgia standout was the third Bulldog selected in the draft

and the second SEC player selected by the Falcons in the 2011 draft.

While some may question GM Thomas Dimitroff's choice to go linebacker with Atlanta's second pick in the draft, the move may make sense if you look at its depth chart and pending free agents.

OLB Mike Peterson and backup Stephen Nicholas will be free agents once the lockout gets settled and the NFL year begins.

According to the AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter, Dent has played in both a 4-3 and 3-4 system at the UGA. When employed in a 3-4 system like the Falcons presently employ, the 24-year-old played middle linebacker, although he played the outside strong-side position in a 4-3 scheme.

Dimitroff told the AP’s Charles Odum on Friday night that the Falcons expect to use 6-foot-1, 242-pound linebacker the same way in Atlanta’s 3-4 system. He is expected to back up Curtis Lofton in the middle, provide depth on the outside and spend some time on special teams.

"He’s a tough, hard-nosed guy who fits our scheme as a (middle) linebacker,” Dimitroff said. “But also can play all three (positions).”

The Atlanta native Dent was a workhorse for Georgia last season, where he recorded a team-leading 126 tackles (66 tackles and 60 asssists) in 13 games. He also had 2 1/2 sacks and 6 1/2 tackles for loss.

Dent left for the pros after graduating from UGA with a Housing degree. He finished his four-year stint at UGA with 240 tackles, 4 1/2 sacks and 12 tackles for loss. He was redshirted as a freshman in 2006.

According to our resident UGA expert Michele Dillard, Dent was the first Bulldog picked by the Dirty Birds since they drafted Tucker-native Thomas Brown in the sixth round (172nd overall) in the 2008 draft. Dent is the eighth Bulldog to make the move from Athens to Atlanta via the NFL draft.

The selection of Dent was just Atlanta;s second in this year’s draft. The team traded a first, second, fourth and sixth round pick in this year’s draft along with a first and fourth rounder next year to move up to No. 6 and select Alabama WR Julio Jones.

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-- PHIL FOLEY
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Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff pulled off a monster draft-day trade that could come to define his tenure as the club’s personnel manager. It could either be the move the team needs to take the team to the Super Bowl or could be the deal where Atlanta gave away way too much.

The Falcons moved up and acquired the No. 6 overall pick from the Cleveland Browns and selected former Alabama wideout Julio Jones on Thurdsay.

To secure Jones, who was the second wideout selected behind Georgia's A.J. Green, the Falcons coughed up this year's No. 1 pick (27th overall), second-round pick, fourth-round pick and sixth-round pick. Cleveland will also receive Atlanta's first- and fourth-round pick next year.

Atlanta could only trade picks for picks in this year's draft because of the lockout.

"We’re very pleased with our move," Dimitroff said in a press conference afterward. "It was an aggressive bold move to get up from 27 to six, 21 spots. We knew that it was going to be an aggressive move and cost us and as an organization, we felt very strongly about the move up for a player that we believe truly adds the explosive, urgent athleticism that we were looking to improve on this team."

The move will give the Falcons a legitimate No. 2 receiver to line up on the other side of the field from All-Pro wideout Roddy White.

"It took me by surprise," Jones told the Associated Press' Charles Odum after the selection. “I feel like they have a lot of trust in me. I’m not going to disappoint."

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Jones departed Alabama after his junior year, where he lead the team with 78 catches for 1,133 yards and seven scores. He has netted 79 receptions for 2,653 yards and 15 TDs in his three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

Adding Jones to a potent Atlanta offense that boasts of rusher Michael Turner, White and Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez will give the Falcons a number of potent weapons around quarterback Matt Ryan.

However, drafting Jones doesn’t come without its share of risks. The Alabama star played through a good part of last season with a foot injury. He has also been prone to dropping the football. Dimitroff did not seem concerned about either issues.

"The injury, we’re definitely comfortable with that,” Dimitroff said. “He obviously has played through injuries. He’s only missed one game in his career. He is a tough, very resilient guy and looking into his injury background, they weren’t injuries that were of concern to us. … I believe that in this league, there are going to be drops.

“There are going to be drops at every level, if you’re picked one overall or number 21 overall. … Some of the best players in the League obviously have those drops. He has 10-inch hands. He’s got very big hands. He’s got excellent hands. He can snatch the ball all around his body. .. We’re very comfortable with that and he’ll continue to work on his concentration and his getting up field and making sure that he secures the ball just like any of our receivers do.”

Jones becomes the third first-round wide receiver in the past eight seasons to be drafted by the Falcons. The Dirty Birds nabbed Michael Jenkins with the No. 28 overall pick in 2004 and White with the No. 27 pick a year later.

In drafting a wideout in Jones, Atlanta overlooked addressing their defense. Many experts thought that Atlanta would use its first round pick on a defensive end.

But Dimitroff and the Falcons are not done drafting. Even after trading all those picks away to the Browns, they still have a pick in the third, fifth rounds and sixth and three picks in the seventh round. The NFL draft continues on Friday night and Saturday.

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-- PHIL FOLEY
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We all know the factors that NFL teams use to assess player talent -- speed, agility, height, weight, strength, character, intellect, etc, etc. But as we saw Thursday night when the Baltimore Ravens failed to make their pick in time and got leapfrogged in the order by the Chiefs, executing this simple act is critical.

So here is how the process actually works.

As soon as your team is on the clock, the individuals working the table in the front rows of Radio City Music Hall get a call from the "war room," which is usually at the training facility. The selection is written down on a pick card including the player's name, position and college:

The card is usually completed in speedy fashion but is not released immediately. Instead, the card is held while the clock counts down. Stated differently, the winding down of the clock generally has nothing to do with the team being indecisive.

Assuming the team isn't 100 percent committed to its pick (a la Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers), the gurus in the war room, then, use the remaining clock time to entertain offers from other teams. They will wait most of their allotted time. The team on the clock might be made an offer it can't refuse. Indeed, this year such an offer was made. While Cleveland was on the clock with the sixth pick overall pick, Atlanta traded up with the Browns giving away a wealth of picks (27th overall, 59th pick/second round, plus first- and fourth-rounders in 2012). If a deal isn't made during the team's allotted time, it then, of course, "makes its pick."

So, again, that brings us back to how does one actually "make a pick." Once a team is on the clock, a runner from the NFL stands behind the team's table. When the team turns around and physically hands its completed pick card to the runner, the team has made its pick (even if there is only one second on the clock).

The delay in announcing it has nothing to do with the actual making of the pick. Once the card is handed in, the pick is officially made and, at this point, cannot be changed.

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-- MATTHEW WEISS
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Last year, the Atlanta Falcons didn’t get much prime time love. This year, they’re getting a lot of national TV R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but it’s going to come at a price.

The NFL released the schedule of every NFL team on Tuesday and if those billionaire owners and millionaire players are able to set aside their differences and settle their pesky little labor dispute, the Falcons are in for one interesting ride to start the regular season.

Atlanta kicks off its 2011 season in the Windy City with a Week 1 matchup against the NFC Central champion Chicago Bears before returning home to face old friend Michael Vick and the NFC East-best Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football in Week 2.

The Falcons then travel to the home of their NFC South Division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers before jetting to the West Coast for a rematch against the Seattle Seahawks, who won the battle for the NFC Worst last season.

Atlanta concludes its five-week “Welcome to 2011” hazing period with another Sunday Night Football matchup against the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

Just plain brutal.

The Dirty Birds have two more games under the lights on Thursday Night Football in Week 15 when the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town before they head to the “Big Easy” for a Dec. 26 matchup on Monday Night Football the next week against the New Orleans Saints.

Atlanta has the 20th toughest schedule in the league against teams with a combined 2010 record of 126-130-0.

The Carolina Panthers have the rockiest 2011 journey, facing teams that went 142-114-0 last season –- but that is what happens when you're terrible and the other three teams in your division either make the playoffs or are on the postseason bubble.

The Arizona Cardinals have the easiest schedule in the league, squaring off against opponents with a combined 113-143-0 mark. But again that's what happens when you play in a terrible division where your division winner finished under .500.

Lockout permitting, the Falcons' complete 2011 schedule is as follows:

Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 11 @ Chicago Bears; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 18 vs. Philadelphia Eagles; 8:20 PM; NBC
Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 25 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 4:15 PM; Fox
Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 2 @ Seattle Seahawks; 4:05 PM; Fox
Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 9 vs. Green Bay Packers; 8:20 PM; NBC
Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 16 vs. Carolina Panthers; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 23 @ Detroit Lions; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 8: Bye
Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 6 @ Indianapolis Colts; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 13 vs. New Orleans Saints; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 20 vs. Tennessee Titans; 1:00 PM; CBS
Week 12: Sunday, Nov. 27 vs. Minnesota Vikings; 1:00 PM;Fox
Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 4 @ Houston Texans; 1:00 PM; Fox
Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 11 @ Carolina Panthers; 1:00 PM ; Fox
Week 15: Thursday, Dec. 15 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars; 8:20 PM; NFLN
Week 16: Monday, Dec. 26 @ New Orleans Saints; 8:30 PM; ESPN
Week 17: Sunday, Jan. 1 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 1:00 PM; Fox

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-- PHIL FOLEY
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