After trading their third round pick, the Falcons returned to the draft on Saturday afternoon armed with two fourth-round picks and they emerged with Clemson senior defensive end Malliciah Goodman and Stanford senior tight end Levine Toilolo, the third and fourth seniors taken by the Falcons in this year's draft.
Goodman (6-foot-4, 276 pounds) was drafted with the 127th pick overall, the 30th selection in the fourth round. Goodman is the seventh Clemson Tiger to be selected in the last eight drafts and he brings a lot of experience with him to the defensive line.
After becoming a starter in 2011 with Clemson, he registered two sacks and four tackles for loss and as a senior he had 9.5 tackles for loss, seven sacks and a team-leading and conference-leading four forced fumbles.
Goodman said he spoke with the Falcons at the Senior Bowl and during a private workout for Atlanta at Clemson and felt good about the meetings.
"Atlanta worked me out with strength coaches," Goodman said Saturday afternoon. "...The workout went great and (Falcons general manager) Dimitroff was there. Everything was real good. They were impressed with me and I came up to visit two weeks later."
With their second fourth-round pick, a compensatory pick at No. 133, the Falcons added to their tight end depth chart with the selection of Toilolo.
At 6-foot-8 and 260 pounds, Toilolo represents a large target and he was used as such during his time at Stanford. He caught 50 passes in four years there and 10 of them were for touchdowns. He averaged 15.3 yards per reception in his career and was a 14-game starter as a senior in 2012.
"Coming into this situation with the Falcons, I can't think of a better situation for any tight end than to be able to come into this organization, not only with the coaches they have but also the player personnel they have," Toilolo said Saturday.
Toilolo worked in a tight end-heavy system at Stanford and the offense has numerous pro-style concepts. Toilolo said he traditionally played with his hand in the ground as an in-line tight end, leaving the roaming to teammate and Eagles second-round pick Zach Ertz. Though he wasn't the higher of the two Cardinal tight ends picked, he comes to Atlanta ready to learn behind a future Hall of Famer in Tony Gonzalez and an offense as explosive as any in the league.
"It's going to be like being a freshman again," Toilolo said. "Hopefully I won't get too annoying to him. I'm going to ask him as many as questions I can and shadow him as much as I can and learn from watching the best tight end to play the game. I can't explain how excited I am right now to be a part of this organization and learn from one of the best."
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Malliciah Goodman
Levine Toilolo
