Falcons are rapidly approaching a brutal reality with popular trade candidate

The Atlanta Falcons aren't exactly in a position where they're blessed with the luxury of elite cornerback depth. Behind A.J. Terrell, it's Mike Hughes, Avieon Terrell, Sydney Brown, and Billy Bowman Jr. as the main contributors, with Cobee Bryant and Darnay Holmes not too far behind.

That's a solid room, but not crowded enough to justify making a trade to clear things up. Besides, you can never have too many cornerbacks in the NFL, because god forbid one of your guys go down with an injury, you don't want to have to turn to a bunch of PS-level guys who are traffic cones in coverage.

That's what the Falcons did last season. When Hughes went down, Bowman was already shut down for the year, so Bryant and C.J. Henderson were pushing for snaps behind Terrell and Dee Alford. But that hasn't stopped the trade speculation in Atlanta's CB room from sparking before training camp.

The Mike Hughes trade speculation is getting quite loud for the Falcons

It's not like either Terrell brother or Bowman is going anywhere, so that means the most popular offseason trade candidate the Falcons have right now is Mike Hughes. Ever since Avieon Terrell was drafted, Hughes' starting spot--and future with the team-- have both been put under the microscope.

However, trading him is not the most optimal decision. Yes, the 29-year-old is coming off of a down year, but he's still one of the better cornerbacks on this roster. When he got hurt, the secondary was much worse without him, so while he's a subpar CB2, he could still be a solid CB3 in the short-term.

The unfortunate part is that the former first-round pick probably isn't a long-term starter for this team, so if a contending team offers the Dirty Birds a fourth or fifth-round pick for him in the weeks leading up to the season, I can't imagine that the draft-pick hoarding Ian Cunningham would say no.

The Falcons aren't exactly in a position where they're built to contend right now, so why not deal away their most feasible trade candidate? Hughes is still a player they have use for, and while they shouldn't be super motivated to trade him, the UCF product may not have much of a place in this new era.

The issue here is that it's a very up-in-the-air decision that won't have much of an end in sight. The trade speculation with Mike Hughes will persist on days that end in "Y" and eventually, there will be an inflection point where Atlanta will have to weigh the pros and cons of trading him and just decide.

Today's best reads

• Falcons are banking on prized rookie to turn major weakness into a strength
• Falcons are quietly molding Jeff Ulbrich’s successor right before our eyes
• Falcons have no business trading any cornerstones after trade value projection
• Falcons would be making a serious mistake by acquiring All-Pro wide receiver
• This one offseason move will ultimately doom the Falcons in 2026

This article was originally published on bloggingdirty.com as Falcons are rapidly approaching a brutal reality with popular trade candidate .