How the Falcons’ draft picks looked to start mandatory minicamp

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons took to the field for their first practice of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, and the action was relatively contained.

Head coach Raheem Morris and his staff have maintained that their approach during this time is as much mental as anything else, and one of the top priorities for the young players is teaching them how to practice in the NFL. The way they’ve gone about that acclimation has been different for each player, but Tuesday provided an opportunity to study each of the Falcons’ draft picks closely.

Here’s a detailed report on how each of Atlanta’s five draft picks looked on Day 1 of mandatory minicamp.

Walker’s reputation at the University of Georgia continues to bear out on the practice fields 45 miles down the road. He was the first in line for edge rusher drills, which took up the middle part of practice. To my eye, he never needed to be told what to do or repeat a rep, and the comfort he showed out there meshes with what Morris said about the No. 15 pick in April’s draft earlier in the offseason.

“He knows how to practice at a very high level,” Morris said. “He wants to get better and better every single day, and he seems like he does. He’s an instant coach. He’s like grits, man. You just tell him something, and he does it the first time every single time.”

What really flashed on Tuesday, though, was Walker’s ability to accelerate through his bend. We saw in college, especially against Texas, Walker’s ability to convert outside speed to power back inside across the face of the tackle, but on Tuesday he looked really flexible coming around the arc. Keep in mind that this was just against practice dummies, but Walker’s pass-rush chops are legit.

As has been the case since he arrived, Pearce is kind of on a unique plan out there on the field. He had a lengthy conversation with assistant head coach Jerry Gray and veteran pass rusher Leonard Floyd during a special teams period, which made me immediately think about to a comment Gray made earlier in the offseason.

“I just remember when I was with Tennessee and I was lucky enough to be on that staff in ’99, we drafted a guy named Jevon Kearse,” Gray said. “This guy was a rookie, and he doesn’t know anything, but all of a sudden at the end of the year, you’re going to the Super Bowl and he has 15 sacks.

“No one is going to know anything about our young guys because they are…