Rundown
Over the last few years, the Atlanta Falcons have taken some high risk high reward offensive players in the draft. Most notably, taking Florida TE Kyle Pitts 4th overall in the 2021 draft & Texas RB Bijan Robinson 8th overall in the 2023 draft. When you’re taking skill position players that high (especially at non-traditional positions such as TE & RB), you better have an offensive line and quarterback situation your firmly trust. While they’re still working on the latter, the offensive line has been solid and they added to it when they drafted Syracuse OL Matthew Bergeron 38th overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Bergeron was a stalwart along the offensive front for the Orange. As a three year starter and four year letterman, he racked up accolades earning two time All-ACC honors and also piled up over 39 starts and 49 appearances. As a native Canadian, he’s a barrier breaker or sorts as they are not known for producing power five level players and especially not linemen. One interesting note about Bergeron is his versatility. He’s started at both right and left tackle extensively. Going forward, he projects to be a key cog on the interior of the offensive front as a guard.

Play Style

As for his play style, he’s one of the more athletic offensive line prospects of this draft cycle. Beautiful pass sets, effortless fluidity, great punch timing, and supreme balance overall. That ability shows up big time in his pass blocking. There were some concern about his ability to be domination run blocking, but those were quickly dispelled as the evaluation process truly began. Bergeron also quieted most concerns with his performances at the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine. He’s another example of beauty being in the eyes of the beholder when it comes to skillset as he has all the size and ability to play on the exterior as a tackle, but for this organization he fits right in at guard.