{"id":160265,"date":"2025-06-26T15:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/160265\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T15:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:23:09","slug":"did-the-georgia-bulldogs-just-become-best-friends-for-falcons-hawks-yep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/160265\/","title":{"rendered":"Did the Georgia Bulldogs just become best friends for Falcons, Hawks? Yep."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Falcons selected Georgia edge rusher Jalon Walker in the first round of the NFL draft<\/a> in April and the Hawks added the Dawgs\u2019 Asa Newell<\/a> in the first round of Wednesday\u2019s NBA draft.<\/p>\n

ExploreHawks GM Onsi Saleh makes the most of trade, adds Newell in draft-night win<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really cool,\u201d Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh<\/a> said Wednesday night. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool that he\u2019s just down the road, played at Georgia. Yeah, it\u2019s just really exciting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s cool for the state of Georgia \u2014 I really do. Just to have a guy that played up there that\u2019s an Atlanta Hawk now, it\u2019s pretty special. So, just really excited about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s uncommon for two pro sports teams from the same city to pick in-state players in the same year \u2014 the only other instance in either draft this year was the Charlotte Hornets selecting Duke\u2019s Kon Knueppel with the No. 4 pick. <\/p>\n

The Atlanta teams look to have made steps forward with their home-state selections, with the Falcons getting Walker, a high-upside pass rusher who\u2019s projected to help their lagging defense. For the Hawks, the Newell addition brings an athletic option to their rotation. <\/p>\n

The Hawks reportedly considered Newell as an option with the No. 13 pick before dealing it to the New Orleans Pelicans for No. 23 and a 2026 first-round pick. <\/p>\n

It all seemed to work out for the Hawks in taking a hometown option who lived in Atlanta during his childhood and played at UGA for one year<\/a> before entering the draft.<\/p>\n

ExploreJalon Walker bringing Georgia football\u2019s teamwork culture to Falcons defense<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hawks had him on their radar the whole time. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he was right down the road, so it was easy to see him, but no he was somebody we had scouted all year long,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cI just think he was somebody we watched all year long. And, I mean, we just loved him when we were scouting him. Just made sense for everything what we\u2019re about in building a program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Falcons already have seen flashes from Walker in their minicamps<\/a> leading into the summer, and they envision him being a key part of their defense when training camp begins in July.<\/p>\n

ExploreRead more about the Bulldogs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falcons selected Georgia edge rusher Jalon Walker in the first round of the NFL draft in April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2566,223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-160265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114750357843461753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}