NFL Rumors: Falcons not trying to trade for Bruce Irvin

Atlanta Falcons GM is denying reports that his team might be trying to trade for Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin.

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Day two of the NFL Draft is Friday and there’s been rumors the Seahawks are interested in moving up and further rumors that the Falcons might be after linebacker Bruce Irvin after Seattle is reportedly declining his fifth-year option. However, Thomas Dimitrioff, the Falcons GM, is denying that his team is trying to get a trade going on Friday, according to AJC.com.

Dimitrioff spoke on 92.9 The Game on Friday morning and said that he didn’t give the Irvin trade a second thought, noting that the linebacker is still under contract. The original report for the rumor was a league source cited by Pro Football Talk. The idea gained some steam due to some peripheral coincidences, such as the fact that Irvin is a native of Atlanta and the fact that Irvin’s former defensive coordinator is Dan Quinn, the Falcons new head coach. PFT suggested that the deal could be made during the draft, which also seemed logical, considering Dimitrioff has made trades in seven of his last drafts.

The deal did not happen though and the Falcons picked Clemson’s Vic Beasley. Interestingly enough, Beasley was compared to Irvin at times last night, something one draft analyst took exception to and then Bruce Irvin took exception to HIM.

U hoe too RT @RossTuckerNFL: People keep comparing Beasley to Bruce Irvin. Is that supposed to be good?
— Bruce Irvin (@BIrvin_WVU11) May 1, 2015

There are definitely some questions here regardless. It’s entirely possible that Dimitrioff’s answer was more of a non-answer. Trades happen for players under contract all the time. It’s not like Irvin being under contract has much to do with whether he will be traded or not. It’s not completely out of the question that the Seahawks and Falcons are still talking about this, just obviously not during the first round. The chance was slim anyway that the Falcons would trade their first round pick for Irvin, who has largely been panned as, if not quite a bust, close to it.

Irvin started out as a defensive end, but was asked to switch to linebacker. Since then he’s largely been a role-player, coming in as a rotational pass rusher. He’s definitely had some success there at times, but not enough for the Seahawks to consider paying him big money when they still have Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner to lock up.

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