ATLANTA — Well, so much for the Atlanta Falcons trading up to land one of the premium defenders of this year's NFL draft.
Instead, they were targeting the offensive line all along.
By simply standing pat, the Falcons ended up with a potential jewel for the foreseeable future, selecting Boston College O-guard Chris Lindstrom at No. 14 overall.
Here's a capsule review of Lindstrom:
**Lindstrom's currently listed at 6-foot-4, 308 pounds. He also has 34 1/8-inch arms, which is typically a good length for offensive tackles.
**Lindstrom projects as a brawling, road-grating lineman, which should be perfect for the Falcons' power-rushing attack.
**At the NFL Combine, Lindstrom ran a 4.91 time in the 40-yard dash, the second-fastest rate among offensive linemen.
**Lindstrom was also very proficient in the other Combine categories, including bench press (25 reps), high jump (30.5 inches), vertical leap (117.5 inches) and three-cone drill (7.61 seconds).
**On a recent "First Draft" podcast, co-starring ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay, the latter lavished Lindstrom with praise, saying he'd be a 10-year staple for whichever team made the pick.
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SUPER BOWL CLOTHING SHUFFLE
It didn't take the super sleuths at 11Alive News long to find an interesting local angle with the Atlanta Falcons' latest Round 1 selection, Boston College guard Chris Lindstrom.
By executing a quick search on Lindstrom's Twitter page, we were shocked (OK, not really) to learn that Lindstrom – a Dudley, Mass. native – had an interesting experience when cheering on the Patriots for Super Bowl 51.
According to a two-year-old Instagram post, Lindstrom's girlfriend apparently changed her all-Patriots outfit during halftime, perhaps viewing the Atlanta Falcons' 21-3 lead at the break as momentary bad karma.
And sure enough, the Patriots would eventually rally from a 28-3 deficit in the third quarter to eventually forge the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
(New England scored the game's final 31 points, including the Lombardi Trophy-clinching touchdown in overtime.)
For his impromptu press conference on Thursday night, Lindstrom wasn't formally asked about the Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl, or his girlfriend's fortuitous clothing swap at halftime.
However, on that night of the great comeback, Lindstrom did post the following message:
"She changed her outfit at halftime and we won ... @maddy_snyder7 is the real Super Bowl MVP."
