Tony Gonzalez traded to Falcons
 

Tony Gonzalez is finally getting his wish.
The Chiefs have agreed to trade the perennial Pro Bowl tight end to the Atlanta Falcons for a second-round pick in the 2010 draft, FOXSports.com has learned.Gonzalez has been the symbol of the Chiefs offense for the past 12 seasons, making 10 consecutive Pro Bowls and six All-Pro teams. Kansas City drafted him with the 13th overall pick in 1997.


Jay Glazer reports.

Yep.

Report: Gonzalez Traded To Falcons
Posted by Aaron Wilson on April 23, 2009, 2:30 p.m.

The Kansas City Chiefs have traded Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for a second-round draft pick, according to Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com.

This marks the first trade between former New England Patriots colleagues Scott Pioli, the Chiefs’ General Manager, and Thomas Dimitroff, Falcons’ General Manager.

Ironically, Gonzalez rejected a trade to Atlanta last year.

Now, though, the Falcons have an established young quarterback in Matt Ryan.

Second rounder this year or next?

awesome! Ryan-to-Gonzalez FTW!

WEAPONS FOR MATTY!!! HERE COME THE DIRTY BIRDS!!!

Don't you think? Like rain on your drafting day?

2010

Serious good TEs in the South now between Winslow, Shockey, and Gonzales. (Although Winslow and Shockey are often injured these days, and have their the U attitudes, and Gonzales is getting up in age.)

When will you do a full drafting version of your song Miss Morissette?

Certainly not a surprise as it's been rumored for a couple of weeks now that he was headed to Atlanta. Hate to see Tony go, but it really was time. He's got a year or two left before he starts to decline and the Chiefs need to improve their defense through the draft.

I need to up my asking price on my 10+ year vets in my MP leagues now. A second rounder for a 12 year guy? Wow.

a good move for the Chiefs really with the new coach and GM. He's been a distraction too much over the past couple seasons, and he does deserve to be on a team that has a chance for the playoffs sooner than the Chiefs likely do. Wouldn't that be ironic if the Chiefs made the playoffs this year and the Falcons didn't?

Awesome.

He's a mentor.

Dur...

This is a poor move on the part of ATL IMO.

2nd round pick for a player with 1-2 years left?

If the Falcons dont win this year *READ*(playoffs) he might just call it quits then and there. Tony is a likeable enough guy, and a good player who used to be a great one. But way past prime.

I'll be the first to admit that I thought the Ryan pick at #3 overall was a tremendous reach. Thats been proven wrong but much of that had to do with Turner. I still say Ryan is 5x better than Flacco, who does nothing for me.

What has to happen for the Falcons to be getting the upper hand on this deal. A pro bowl TE season? NFC Championship game? I dont know, but this looks great on paper for KC.

I'm very happy with this. One second rounder next year for Tony Gonzales? Yeah, works for me.

dunno. 90 catches on a team with no qb and no real rb seems pretty good to me

but id of liked to see this be a 3rd if he retires after 1 year, 2nd if he doesnt type of deal.

either way, i dont think it puts atlanta over the top

No, not unless he can play defense. But it does make the offense just that much better, which will help the defense some.

As a Falcons fan, I don't necessarily mind the trade that much, but Atlanta's receiving game really wasn't their problem last season. I don't see Gonzalez coming in to do much else either. Atlanta's second round draft pick could have been a defensive player that would have helped them more.

But I don't feel that they got a horrible deal either, just not really addressing what I feel their needs were.

It's the 2nd rounder in 2010. I fail to see how this is a bad trade for Atlanta, even if they just get one outstanding year(2009) out of him. They still have plenty of picks they can use this year.

Tony Gonzalez is still an All-Pro player and will catch 80-100 balls this year. Barring a injury, I can't see how this was a bad trade for Atlanta.

I think KC did a good job of getting maximum value for him given that he wasn't interested in staying in KC at this point.

Torn on this trade as a Chiefs fan.

Pros: He's coming off an incredible year and likely doesn't have much more of that performance in the tank. A second round pick for a guy his age is a good deal. His presence in the offense will slow the development of any other TE or WR because Gonzalez will always be the go-to-guy and is too much of a security blanket.

Cons: Young QBs with a weak offensive line need a security blank. We don't have a true heir apparent to take over at TE. Free agent Bobby Engram is now the veteran leader of the receiving corps. Shannon Sharpe as effective until 35 and Gonzalez is 33. He's never been seriously hurt and is a fitness machine -- he could have five more good years in him.

I know it had to happen and this is a reasonable outcome. Given the sorry state of the AFC Worst and the worst-to-first trend in the NFL, I think Gonzalez was necessary if this team hoped to sneak to .500 and maybe flirt with the playoffs. And a lot of Chiefs fans really wanted him to finish his career here.

YES!! Now I won't have to see the Chargers leave him wide open in the end zone anymore!!! woohoo!!!

What about Cottam? Read a lot of good things about him heading into the draft (was hoping the Seahawks might snag him as they needed a lot of help at TE, even as it is now, if Carlson goes down, we're in deep trouble).

He's got the physical numbers, but he's a project right now as a pass catcher. I know that Cottam worked extensively in the off-season on his catching skills. We'll see how that plays out. The difference is that he will likely be the 4th or 5th option in this offense rather than the 1st option like Gonzalez was.

Matty has to be one of the happiest guys on the planet right now.

ugh

If you don't make the playoffs, you just gave up a top 40 pick for a guy who's 34.

Not a good way to build a team.

Furthermore, they could have had him for a 2nd round pick at the trade deadline last year and chose not to. Could have very possibly been the difference in losing the division & 1st round bye to CAR last season.

Well you might get at least one or two chances to relive the memory this year but it won't be as painful this time.

Pre-season, Sat 8/29, 8pm, San Diego at Atlanta.

:D

Their best tight end last season was someone named Peele. They also did not have a legitimate #2 target behind White. Their draft will now be all O-Line & Defense with the possible exception of a late round pick or two.

Okay, but what was the progression last year vs this year? I'd imagine adding Engram will negate the loss of Gonzalez a bit as he's pretty much the definition of a safety blanket, or at least was in his time with Seattle. And if Cottam can work the deep seam with a bit more quickness than what Gonzalez has right now and get Engram working the underneath stuff, could still present some mismatches/keep the chains moving.

Seems to me like they were able to keep a similar level of experience on the field, just moved it a bit further away from the QB at the line of scrimmage and gained a 2nd rounder out of it.

Gonzalez was the one who nixed the deal last year. The Falcons wanted him.

Great pickup for the Falcons. As others have mentioned, the Falcons are getting one of the best catching TE's in the game which will be a huge help to their young QB. And the best thing about this deal is that the Falcons can still find defensive help in the second round since the pick isn't until 2010. Great job by both clubs in getting good value in this trade.

Haha. You know the sad thing will be, the Chargers will have him covered tight because they won't recognize him in a Falcons uniform.

How many teams do you think make the playoffs? :p

Jay Glazer is also reporting that the deal includes Tony's wife October Gonzalez attending at least a few home games this season.

Sources indicate that Falcons fans are very happy with this turn of events.

Meanwhile the current slug for the online edition of the ajc columnist take on the trade

Note: Spellcheck is not an adequate replacement for actual proofreaders.

For the record, it is not his wife. They are 'partners for life'.

No, I'm not kidding. They really did have a ceremony to become 'partners for life'.

There's rumblings that the Chiefs GM and staff are very high on Chase Coffman and hope to get him in the draft. That would make the hole at TE go away in a BIG hurry.

'Shutter' sounds like it should be an anti-twitter web site.

So she changed her last name, but they're not married?

Even if you count the Lions as having a 0% chance, it's still only 6 from 15.

I didn't hear/read/see that at all. Link???

Yeah, it's kind of odd. Tony refused to get married, so they had a 'parters for life' ceremony. I think he's commitment-phobic in regards to being 'married'.

Meh, he's from California. He caught a lot of footballs, so we didn't worry much about it. He's a good guy.

I don't have an article link, but I know that's true. They reported that all over the KC TV and radio media.

That Gonzalez nixed the trade and not the Chiefs? It does not make sense that a guy who asked to be traded would turn down the chance to leave. And I didn't know the NFL offered players of any stature the chance to veto trades (Plummer retiring being the exception)

He asked for the trade and wanted the team to give him the opportunity to have some say in where he went. There were some teams that he would rather just stay with the Chiefs than go play for that team. Evidently a playoff berth and a new Chiefs coach have changed his feelings about the Falcons. I'm sure his options have become increasingly limited as well, so he's become less picky now.

Jay Glazer from last year:

FOX Sports on MSN - NFL - Gonzalez angered and baffled by non-trade

Certainly doesn't read like Gonzalez was turning down anything.

Any links would be appreciated.

Then yes, if you only count NFC teams, Atlanta could definitely be giving up a top 40 pick. Although if you count all NFL teams, not making the playoffs means that the pick would be somewhere between 33 and 52. I agree with your point, but if you had said 50 instead of 40 it would have made more sense.

Pretty incredible turnaround for this franchise in the space of 2 seasons.