Matt Miller on new life directions, Smith & Fontenot reactions, Free Agency & NFL Draft, and looking back

Matt Miller, the NFL Draft Scout, joins Matt Tabeek to react to the Smith and Fontenot hires, share his knowledge on Free Agency and the NFL Draft, and spends some time looking back on memorable Draft moments and what is next for his career.  0:00 Intro 0:19 Topics 1:03 New life directions 12:05 Reaction to Smith & Fontenot 16:09 Free Agency & NFL draft 32:17 Looking back & unexpected Drafts 35:25 Future Atlanta Falcons football

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, Matt to be here. Another episode of Bird
Noises presented by Bows, a podcast about the Atlanta Falcons
and mostly everything else. Today we have an exciting guest
joining us, Matt Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report, which feels
weird to say. He was there for her teeth at
least a decade, and he's got some new and exciting

(00:22):
things he's doing. Now we're going to talk about that
and some of the changes he's got going on in
his life, and and lots of exciting things for all
you draft knicks out there. We're gonna talk about Arthur Smith,
the new head coach, and the new GM Terry Fontin
now and get Matt's reaction to those new hires. We're
gonna talk, of course, free agency, the draft, mock drafts,

(00:45):
Matt's latest, what he thinks the Falcons are going to do,
and we're gonna talk a little bit about, you know,
some of his his his whiffs and his other mock
drafts where he's nailed it and some you can give
him a chance to talk up what he's doing. And
then we're just gonna end it with what do you
think the Falcons are ultimately going to do? Um? But Matt,

(01:09):
welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks, I mean, no pressure
right to first appearance. Let's talk about all the bad,
bad predictions you've ever made in your career, So that'd
be fun. I actually love that part of it, so
that that would definitely be fun. I appreciate you guys
beg your time for me. Like you said, it's still
weird for me for people to be, you know, to say,
Matt Miller. You know for ten years you've heard Bleacher

(01:30):
Report after that, and so it's still, uh, it's still
weird for me to hear. So I'm kind of listening
to see how other people say it so that I
can steal it. So formally bleacher Report, I think that
works well. Now it's the draft Scout, so, um, you know,
so many people you know lived and died by your
your mock drafts and all your insight there and you're
you're all the great content that you created there for

(01:53):
a decade. Um, tell us about what the decision to
leave in in in you know, what you're doing now
and why you're doing it and why you're excited about it.
And I'm excited about it. But you know, just tell
us a little bit about what you've got going on. Yeah,
I think you know one thing. It's kind of an
inside baseball type thing. But you know, those of us
who work at you know, networks or big, big companies,

(02:14):
we're under contracts a lot like players are. And so
two years ago I signed an extension. I was actually
in Atlanta for the Super Bowl and signed an extension
A to your deal and said, oh, you know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna give it two more years. It didn't
really feel like I had done everything I needed to
do a bleacher report or tried to build all the
things I wanted to build there. It's like, let's give
it two more years and hopefully can accomplish some of

(02:36):
those goals and maybe be positioned to either stay or
go do some other things. So about a year and
a half in, I was like, yeah, this is I
just felt I'm gonna be honest, man, I felt like
I was able to get lazy in that role. Because
once you establish like what your brand is established, right
like once people, once you have so many followers on
Twitter or you know, like you don't have to work

(02:58):
as hard, and that's that's not me. And so I
looked at the fact that I was writing one article
a week, I was doing a couple podcasts a week.
That's just not me. I want to be writing every day.
I want to be right, it's not. Everybody listening is like,
this guy is crazy. But you know, I made a
name for myself in this industry by by just working
my tail off. And I looked around and was like,

(03:18):
I felt like I had made it to the peak
of the mountain there, and so I was like, I'm
thirty seven. I was thirty six at the time that
I made this decision. I thought, Man, I hope I
still have a long time left in this industry, and
I feel like to do that, I needed to diversify.
I needed to get back to writing more often. I
needed to be in charge of my own brand a

(03:39):
little bit more and be able to do the things
that I want to do, you know, to podcast as
often as I want to, to write as often as
I wanted to, to do things like this with you guys.
And so I have a ton of admiration for the
people who started Bleacher Reporter, for the people who are
running it still. But I really just felt like I
had done everything I could do there and ten years,
the very long time in sports meet to work somewhere

(04:01):
and it's so it's better sweet. It was like a divorce,
you know of and it's still weird. You know, people
still tag me and the stuff. I'm like, you know,
where's Matt at or you know, they'll ask me where
what my co old co workers are doing. It's like, guys,
I don't know, I don't. We don't talk anymore. So
it's it's been it's been weird, but it's also been
really energizing. It's been rejuvenating. It's nice to have to

(04:22):
work hard. So it's been fun. That's awesome to hear it. Yes,
that is a long time to be at one place
in this biz. But you know, it does feel weird.
I know when you you would tweet it out hard
to say this is my last my last mock draft
at bleacher Report, and I'm going, what's going on? What's happened? Right?
I think a lot of people were, and you know,

(04:43):
you know, contracts go, there's only so much you can
talk about, and there's you know, deadline. You know, there's
days where you can say things, and so I think
a lot of people were, like, I think a lot
of people thought I was quitting you know, like getting
out of the business altogether. And I had a big wait, like, wait,
I'm not not going anywhere. I'm just I'm not well,
I'm going somewhere different. I'm not jumping out of it. Yeah,
I mean just because I mean, so many people lived

(05:05):
and died with your content, love your content, and uh,
you know, I know I do, and I know a
lot of people who do. And so yeah, I guess
there is that. But it's like Matt Miller's going to
go somewhere, Someone's hiring them or something because it's Matt Miller.
But glad you have that faith in me. It's been terrifying.
So that's good. I'm sure it's gonna be great, and

(05:26):
we'll get into all the cool things you're doing. But
at the end of the day, it's it's all really
good for football fans. It's all really good for people
who you know, this is like the season of hope,
right Yeah, in a lot of ways, you're like Santa
Claus because I'm not seriously, because everybody feels good about
their team right now, and and then you know, free

(05:49):
agency is right here, you know, six weeks away, and
then the draft and you know it's like Christmas, and
then you've got guys like you saying this is what
your team's gonna do, and this is how you're going
to get bad or this is what they need. It's
like if there was a person who predicted what you
were going to get for Christmas, you know, or little
kids could go to their website like what am I
getting for Christmas? It is a lot like that, and

(06:11):
I think that, you know, the favorite part of my job,
of course, like mock drafts drive this industry, my favorite
party is being able to talk to fans about who
the players are because you know, there there are a
lot of diehard draft fans out there who know as
much about the players as I do, honestly, but then
there's a i think a larger collection that don't you know,
they're casual fans or they're you know, they might be

(06:32):
a big college football fan, but they don't look at
those players through the prism of how do they project
to the next level. So my favorite part is, you know,
really January one until May one, when you get to
talk to those Atlanta Falcons fans who you know, maybe
they don't watch a lot of football outside of the
SEC and they want to know about the players who
are a good fit at number four overall and and

(06:52):
how can you get this team back into a super Bowl?
And so that's the fun part is started to talk
about those players that fans might not have heard of.
And also there's I mean, there's a huge section of
NFL fans this shocks me that don't watch a lot
of college football. And so they started a clean slate.
I want to know, Hey, who are these guys? Who
should we be looking at? Yeah, it starts right now
for him, right. It used to be you'd buy the

(07:14):
magazines sport and in all the draft guides and that
kind of thing, and then you start kind of educating
yourself on these guys or they just go through the
mocks right, well, you know, these are the these is
what the experts are saying. These are the these are
the thirty two guys. I need to thirty two, forty
two whatever it is, you know, because most mocks are
first round. So now you're seeing you know, full seven

(07:35):
round mocks like that you're doing. And people, what one
thing I want you to talk about here for a second.
It's just I don't think people realize the amount of
time and research that you put into it. It's not
like you're just watching some YouTube highlights here or you
know what I mean. You're actually you're you're watching the games,
You're taking notes, You're going to the Senior Bowl, You're

(07:57):
going to bowl games. You're you're watching the velocity of
these guys on the sidelines. You're, you know, when they're
throwing balls, and you're you're sizing them up, and you're
kind of watching their body language. And I mean, you know,
all they have to do is just go to your
YouTube channel or listen to your micd up or and
we'll get into all that stuff. But how just talk

(08:18):
about the process and just the amount of time you
put into your mock draft for example. Yeah, I mean
it's a full time job, you know, is the biggest thing.
And I really try to model what I do after
how a team would do it. You know. That was
that was my dream growing up. I wanted to be
I wanted to be a general manager, you know. That
was I was obsessed with it. So even as a
you know, a young child, I was I wanted to

(08:39):
learn how they did their job, and so I read
every book I could find about Bill Walsh and Mike
Holmgren and then that becomes Bill Belichick and Sean Payton
and you know, the the Ted Thompson or the Ron
Wolf excuse me, you know, dynasties that he's built. So
just trying to learn how those guys do the job
and then advanced that, you know, through connections. Like you said,
it's this year was different because the Senior Bowl was

(09:00):
the only time I watched college football in person this year.
But it is so much of traveling every other weekend
was pretty normal for me until the pandemic hit to
watch players in person, also to interact with you know,
readers and listeners. But then, you know, a huge part
of this it is, you know, it's it's getting whether
you know, being on the road and having someone else
drive for a couple hours so you can sit in
the backseat with your iPad and a notepad. I always

(09:22):
have like a million of them beside me, like right here,
there's always a couple and so that's a huge that's
honestly the biggest part of my job is watching film.
On top of that, in this industry, you have to
have connections, I think, to hit a certain level of credibility,
and so the other part of that is, you know,
keeping up building those relationships. It's making the connections and

(09:42):
then keeping them going because they truly are a lot
of times it's a friendship. Other times it's almost an
information sharing type relationship. So you have to keep those
connections up. And as people change jobs, you got to
keep track of that. You know, Okay, you might have
a guy who was you know, you got a connection
to the Falcons. They everybody, Okay, Now that guy's maybe
with the Browns, so you got to try to find

(10:03):
a new end with the Falcons. And and it's you're
constantly trying to you know, build that rollodex basically. Then
there's the you know, multimedia side of it that you mentioned.
It's writing, it's podcasting. I do a local radio show
where we talk national sports for two hours a day,
trying to dip my toe into the YouTube waters a
little bit more, tweeting, instagramming. It's it truly is, and

(10:25):
it's it's awesome. It's the best job in the world.
It is a lot of work, and it all goes
back to that, you know, that foundation of like I
will write three hundred scouting reports by myself this year,
and so watching film on five hundred players essentially, because
you know, in the past, I've sat at a desk
on draft weekend and I don't know yet what it's
going to look like this year for me that those

(10:45):
three days in April. But you know, normally I would
be sitting there and if a players picked, you have
to be be able to speak intelligently about them for sixty
to ninety seconds. What do they do well? Will they
not do well? Is there anything in the background we
have to know, or anything injury related we have to know. Oh,
and they've just been drafted by a team. How do
they fit there? So it's there's really a lot that
goes into that so that you feel prepared to speak
on anyone at any time. Basically unbelievable. I believe it, though,

(11:11):
Uh you know, and I'm sitting here thinking about you know,
I spend four and a half hours a week. I'm
starting to feel really bad about myself just putting together
a one round mock. And basically it's like I'll watch
a little bit here, I'll read a little bit here,
I'll see you know, I'm like, you know, there's like
a plethora of different mock drafts that come out too
and I'm like, yeah, there's this guy thinking you know

(11:33):
what I mean and so, and then you're trying to gauge,
you know, what you know about the team and what
they what you think they really need and compared to like,
you know, the talking heads out there there are saying,
you know, the Falcons are going to do X, Y
and Z, and it's it's really really it's it's a
lot of fun. And I'm sure a lot of people
are listening to you right now going, oh man, this

(11:53):
sounds like a dream job. It is, too, it really is.
Don't let me, don't let how tired I look today
changed back? It really really is a dream job. Well,
let's take all that knowledge. And you said you can
speak intelligently sixteen to ninety seconds on prospects. Let's tap
into your brain. But first, let's talk about the moves
that the Falcons have made. You know, They've brought in

(12:15):
Terry Fontneau, who spent his entire career in New Orleans,
and then Arthur Smith, who's been you know, through a
number of head coaching changes but has been in Tennessee.
Two guys that have really kind of come up through
those programs. And what was your first reaction when you
think of that pairing and you think of Arthur Smith

(12:35):
and what he did, like with Ryan Tannehill in that offense,
and Derek Henry became Derrick Henry. You know, we all
know what he studied he was in Alabama. But then
and then you also mixed that into that philosophy that
Fontno is going to bring, you know, being under Mickey
Loomists and you know, people like you know, he's been
influenced by Ozzie knew some of that kind of thing.
So your impressions and what you think of that marriage, Yeah,

(12:59):
I think he's a home run. And I think this
was kind of a controversial opinion. I actually thought Arthur
Smith was the best head coaching candidate available in this cycle.
And I know it's a little bit of a hot
take because Eric b Enemy is a great, great candidate,
and I think Brian Dables a really good candidate. I
did not at the time no Urban Meyer was going
to be available, so that changed, but right so of

(13:21):
the people who were available, I thought, you know, like
the things I've heard about Arthur Smith, the job he's
done in Tennessee, the ability to build a versatile offense,
you know he's not beholden to one scheme, one type
of personnel. We've seen that in Tennessee where they really
changed things once Ryan Tannehill became the starting quarterback that
I loved that about him, and you know, knowing enough

(13:42):
people who know him, who speak so highly of what
he's been able to accomplish at such a young age.
And the ability to coach every position on offense, I
think is a huge part of it, because too often
we get guys who, oh, pay you're a quarterback coach,
coach the quarterbacks, and he can't coach the rest of
the offense. And I think with Arthur, what you love
about it is he's run and pass game. It's not
and not to you know, speak ill of anyone else

(14:04):
in the NFL who might be, you know, heavy on
runner pass. I think that balance is super important for
whomever was going to hire him. I think in Atlanta
it works really really well because you have a established
a very good quarterback in Matt Ryan, and you have
pieces in the past game where if the run game
could be approved through the off season. You have to
love the matchup there. As far as Terry Fontno goes,

(14:26):
I like this move for a couple of reasons. Number one,
you heard a rival. So I love when you can
do that, when you can take division rivals, like when
you could take Big Brothers one of their weapons. That's
what you want to do every chance you get. But
I think also someone who not only has a pro
and college getting background, but somebody has a playing background
as well, you know, going to college tu Lane, that

(14:47):
is that. I love that because I think too often
with these GM hires in the past several years, teams
have gotten a little bit cute. It's like, let's hire
a cap guy who's going to scout for you, or
let's hire someone from TV. Okay, well, like TV and
real scouting are very very different. You do you know
a lot of times you have a producer and you're
helping you out. Well when you're on TV. You don't
have that when you're sitting in a war room. And

(15:08):
so I think, and you know, kind of ignoring some
of the hype and some of the noise, they went
and just grab somebody who knows how to evaluate and
has been doing it, like you said under Mickey Loomis,
you know, with connection to what they've built down there.
You know, Jeff Ireland being such a great scout as well,
like you've learned from some of the best and throwing
the you know, the influence of Sean Payton and just
seeing how they run their organization that has been so successful,

(15:32):
you know, the last fifteen years, maybe a little bit
more at this point. I think that's a huge part
of it, because you not only do you want someone
who can scout, you want someone who can you know,
establish and maintain culture. And you know, you guys have
an owner down there who's who's been great at that.
But I think now, you know, with with Thomas Dimitrov
there and what they had, you know, maybe it got

(15:52):
a little bit of stale, and so now you're injecting
in some of what a forty year old general manager
who never brings some excitement to the table. I think
that's a very good thing. Well, I'm sure Feles fans
are gonna love hearing that from you. Well, those two
men are going to have to make some tough decisions
coming up. Every team has tough decisions when it comes

(16:13):
to the cap, right, But you know, we the Falcons
have their challenges there and they've got some big contracts.
There's been a ton of speculation, you know, about Matt
Ryan's future, and you know, even Julio Jones and Arthur
m Blank, who you just referenced, you know, yesterday, said
that he'd be shocked if they did anything with Matt.
And you know, just I have said in the mail

(16:33):
bag I do every morning. It's just it makes no
financial sense to move on from Matt. And Matt hasn't
been the issue here. Matt has been playing at a
really really high level. Matt's been thrown I think he's
you know it clips four thousand yards ten years now.
It's he's very productive, and they've had some other issues,

(16:54):
but it's so easy, as you know, to just point
the finger at you know, the most important position on
the team. Yeah, so you know, just what are your
general just general thoughts there is the team kind of
heads into free agency. Yeah, I mean, I'm with you.
I think my only thing with Matt Ryan would be
he's you know, he's getting a little bit older. But
what does that even mean in the NFL anymore? You know,

(17:14):
I mean there's this guy in Tampa Bay who's forty
three and still looks pretty good. I don't know if
anymore on this podcast, right, Drew Brees playing for a
long time, and so with Matt Ryan's like, okay, he's
thirty five, but you play in the southeast, number one,
it's like weather's not a concern. You plan a dome
number two, which is gorgeous, by the way, and you
have weapons, and you have a team that's invested in

(17:35):
the offensive line through multiple first round draft picks. So
I look at it and say, like, I'm with you.
I don't think Matt Ryan's issue at all, and I
would I would be more prone to let's try to
fix what's around him instead of let's throw the baby
out of the bathwater here. And I think you know
that number four overall, I know there's a lot of
conversation about you don't expect to be drafting this high

(17:58):
very often, so maybe you should get the quarterback of
the future. And I think that is the only reason
that you know, when I'm doing a mock draft, that's
some reason I entertain a quarterback at four. Because the
depth of this year's class, there's four really good ones,
and the fact that okay, let's maybe this is a
you know, an Aaron Rodgers situation where you gotta guys
get a little bit older. Let's we're in an odd
position where there's value, maybe you go ahead and draft

(18:20):
the next guy. But you know, if a quarterbacks drafted
at four, it's not because Matt Ryan's not a good quarterback.
And if a quarterbacks drafted at four, I would you know,
gather that you say they're going to sit on the
bench for a couple of years and try to learn.
So I think that's the other side of this conversation.
In a class with three excellent wide receivers, one just
dominant tight end prospect, two very good offensive tackles, Yeah,

(18:42):
I mean it's would you rather support Matt Ryan for
four years or draft of you know, potential replacement who's
gonna ride the bench for a couple of years, and
that you know they're having that conversation in green Bay
right now, would be traded up to get a guy
and then the quarterback you already hadn't gonna win an
a VP award doesn't look that right on paper right now.
So I think that you know, the Falcons will be

(19:04):
you know, they're going to talk about green Bay when
this decision comes up off, Well, look what happened there?
You don't you know, it looks like a wasted pick.
At this point, there's the off season maneuvering with the quarterbacks.
It's been unlike any offseason I've seen. And we just started.
We're still the Super Bowls yet to be played, and
you've got there's you know, the Jared Goff Matt Stafford deal.

(19:25):
Then there's the chatter coming out of Philadelphia, rumors about
Carson Wentz's future. You know, there's you know, obviously Deshaun Watson.
If you know Matthew Stafford can command that hall, what
does Deshaun Watson command? I mean, there's so many questions now,
So that's I guess, you know, in Matt Ryan isn't
the issue here. But like you said, do you kind

(19:48):
of have that you take the best player available. And
let me ask you this, since you are the draft
expert here, you know, I think at one point you
had six first round grades on quarterbacks. You had Kyle
Trask up there. Yeah, where are you now with the quarterbacks?
And at number four, let's get right into it. Let's

(20:10):
get right into the mock, and let's get right into it.
The Falcons here. What you know, being at number four,
it's very attractive position. You have a lot of teams.
Now you have Carolina maybe looking Detroit's taking care of theirs.
You know, what does Philadelphia do? They go aligne dB
you know receiver. I mean, how do you think this

(20:31):
plays out right now? Aside from the obvious one? Trevor
Lawrence at number one? Yeah, I know, I first, yeah, right, yeah,
he's going first. He's really really good. I think the
there are dominoes that have to fall to figure out
exactly what's gonna happen right now. I know that that's
not the answer everyone wants, but you know, sitting here
early February for the Super Bowl, it's what happens at

(20:52):
number two Because the New York Jets have three options.
They can keep Sam Darnold and draft someone to help him.
They can keep Sam Darnold and trade the number two pick,
or they can use the number two pick to draft
a quarterback and trade Sam Darnold. So we really have
there what the Jets you're gonna do? And you're the
big act, right yeah? Right? And connected to that is
what's gonna happen with Deshaun Watson. Now you know that's

(21:14):
a whole other gigantic question mark, but you know the
Jets have been very connected to Deshaun Watson, never whether
he wants to go there or not with his no
trade classes a separate, separate conversation altogether. But the Jets
are the big domino because they could take a quarterback,
and then you have Miami at three. They seem simulate,
don't need a quarterback. Think a wide receiver comes off

(21:35):
the board there and then you guys sitting at four.
So you know you could be looking at QB three
or wide receiver two, tight end one on the board
and they're all very good values. Now, as far as
the quarterback grades, I have four with a true round
one grade. As you mentioned, I was at one point
throwing six in the first round, just because there are
so many teams that need one. So Trevor Lawrence is

(21:55):
a unicorn. He's great. We can move on Zach Wilson
at BYU, Justin Fields at Ohio State, Trey Lanson nor
Dakota State. I think are all tremendous prospects. In a
year without a Trevor Lawrence, I think we would be
talking about each of them as worthy of a number
one overall selection. I think you know you can compare
them to a guy like like Kyler Murray coming out

(22:15):
like I like them more than I liked Kyler Murray,
to be quite honest. And last year was a little
different because Joe Burrow had had the best year a
college quarterback has ever had, and that that kind of
changed and things. But these four quarterbacks are all really
really talented to where, you know, if ownership in this
new regime says, let's get a guy behind Matt Ryan
and Justin Fields is sitting there, and you have an

(22:36):
opportunity to grab a quarterback who has the arm to
make every throw. He's a very very good athlete, he's
a great leader, he's very intelligent. He just needs a
little bit more coaching. He needs rounded out a little
bit more. And that's a dream scenario for a guy
who you look at Justin Herbert and what he did
for the Chargers this year. Justin Fields like arguably has

(22:56):
more raw talent, you know, And so it's okay if
you could have that guy and he just hangs out
for a year and two and learns, that's a pretty
good spot to be in as well. If I'm wrong, Matt,
but didn't Justin Herbert, I mean, he had been talking
about Yea his first round, first round, first round, and
it just felt like the chatter leading up to the
draft that he kind of was slipping a little bit
for some reason. And yeah, that happens. You almost get

(23:18):
prospect fatigue where you know, and I'll be honest, this
happened to me. You know, for two years, I said
this guy's gonna be QB one. This goes to be
QB one. And then you start to you start to overthink, like, well,
he doesn't get off his first read very often, or
you know, they really don't let him run a whole
lot there. I wonder if he can do it, and
you start to almost create questions because you've seen a
player of a song. And that's where I think front

(23:40):
offices have a great advantage because you're going to have
another guy in the room being like, you're crazy. He's
been good for years. Let's not overthink this. You know
where he's just really good. So I do think, you know,
there was a little prospect fatigue, and then you know,
the rise of Joe Burrow definitely changed some things too.
Zach Wilson. You look at his body of work, he's
you know, people are saying, wow, he's really, you know,
moving up the boy. But when you look at what

(24:02):
he's done for three years now, um, he's pretty impressive.
And you talk about how Quickie processes things and he's
got the he checks the boxes physically, you know, and
he um, he's you know, we had thirty three touchdowns
and three picks and two of them were tip balls,
and Mom was a hail Mary. I mean, right, And
I guess the big knock on him is what the competition? Yeah,

(24:24):
that's about it. I don't He's not gonna be as
big as he's listed. I think that's the you know,
he's probably gonna be sixty one and not six. But
I even know if we care about that anymore, you know,
like is that I was big of a deals used
it right. You know, Drew Brees did okay at six foot,
so I think was Zach. You know, the only question
will be level of competition and say, you know, he
did struggle a little bit against Coastal Carolina, so you'll
want to you know, you'll want to check that box.

(24:47):
My thing with like a Trey Lance in North Dakota State.
Ye right, Everyone will say to you level of competition,
and I always fire back, well, what about his supporting cast,
because his supporting cast wasn't as good. So when you say, okay,
well he wasn't playing SEC defenses, well, I'm playing with
SEC receivers either, So you have to have the context, right,
You got to have those things have to work together.

(25:08):
Whereas mac Jones at Alabama, no one played a tougher
schedule a quarterback this year, but he did that with
you a first round receiver and Heisman Trophy winner, and
DeVante Smith early in the year had Jalen Waddle and
last year he had four first round wide receivers and
an offensive line full of nflers. So which would you
rather have a guy who's had to carry a program

(25:28):
and maybe not play a super tough schedule or a
guy who's been surrounded by great talent and played a
tough schedule. There's there's no right answer. That's what makes
this job so hard, is Okay. I've seen Trey Lances,
Zack Wilson win ball games by themselves. I love that
trading them, but I've never seen them do it against
a Clemson or Ohio State or Alabama. So there is

(25:49):
like a catch twenty two to all these prospects. So
a lot's going to change. We know that a lot's
gonna change. In free agency, a lot's going to change,
you know, as as some of these quarterbacks might may
or may not be moved. Um, there's gonna be stories
that come out, just like recently the story that was

(26:09):
you know about Micah Parsons, and I think that's actually
an older story that's kind of taken on legs. Again. Um,
if you you know, I don't know what the GM
of the Jets is going to do. It sounds like,
you know, they may Seam Darnold was not his pit correct.
So let's just say that they they you know what

(26:31):
they say. Let's let's let's you know, let Sam Donald
can have a shot somewhere else and they move on
and they take a quarterback and then to h they
either give the receiver or a lineman. Um, what do
you think? Who do you think is the best player?
What on your big board? Who is who would be
number four? In that instance? If if the Falcons went

(26:54):
best player available, best player available would be one of
the offensive blindman kitchen Margin or Slater from Northwestern right,
Penny Sylvan Oregon, or Reshaan Slater from Northwestern Now I
think Falcons fans would probably start throwing things at me
if they took another offensive tackle in the first round. So,
m so it becomes more of like a who's the
best player at a position of need? And depending on

(27:17):
what Miami, did you know which wide receiver that is?
It would be most likely Jamar Chase or Kyle Pitts
the tight end slash wide receiver. I don't I wrote
the list. Can you really go with need? Though? I mean,
you know, I always like to tell fans, you know,
the tram Blazers, right went for me, Michael George, Right,
they went with me. I mean, I thinkually have in

(27:39):
this conversation with somebody this morning. Actually, of when you're
drafting in the top I mean, really, if you're drafting
in the top five, you should take the best player
available because you're passing up on a great prospect. Right,
if you're a top five player, you're a great prospect.
So do you want to pass up on a great
player to fill a need? That's like a thirty three
percent chance they hit in the first round. So if

(27:59):
I was drafting in the top five, maybe the top ten,
you got to ignore need. You know you're gonna be
drafting in what picked thirty six and rat two you
get need there, you know, or field needs with free agency.
That's that you know, I've heard Bill Belichick said before.
You know, we use free agency to field needs the draft.
We're taking good players. So you know that's no salary
caps a little bit of an issue right now, but

(28:20):
you know that's that's one of the keys. It's okay,
if you're at four, who's the best player? Because at
the number four overall player in a draft should being
all pro. And so if you get that right, then
would you have an all pro or would you rather
check that box? You know of what that might be?
You think that's Sewell or Slater? Yeah, in that scenario,
what would be and h or maybe you know, this

(28:42):
is where you get into things like do you trade back?
You know in that situation. But uh, you know Sewell
and Slater whether you know they're both left tackles in
my opinion, but you know, could they both be all
pros at guard? Yeah? They could be. But then you
you get in a lot of questions off of this.
You know, that's a very expensive offensive line. You know,
paying another lineman top five money will be very expensive.

(29:05):
At some point. So there's a lot of dynamics that
go into play, and I think the Falcons are a
unique team because, at least in my opinion, there's not
one clear cut oh my god, we have to fill
it need. And even if there were, let's say, an
edge rusher, it's like, we gotta get an edge rstur.
You gotta get an edge rusher or there's not one
that you would draft it for just there's not There's
no Chase Young this year. There's no Nick Bosa. The

(29:28):
top edge rusher a fifteen number fifteen overall and that's
Quitty Pay from Michigan, Michigan. Ok. Yeah, do you have
him higher than the Russo ken their neck and neck.
It's the edge class. This year is interesting because, like
I said, you know, fifteen is Pay sixteens Russo, and
then I want to say, like twenty is Jalen Phillips

(29:49):
from Miami. There's a lot of guys grouped together mid
first round, and I think, you know, I have a
mock draft that's coming out next week. They come up
the board together in the twenties. It's just like you
get to the Titans and these guys just start flying
off the board, so you know, but at four that's
a gigantic reach to take an hedge rusher. So it's again,
you want to I think in a perfect road, do

(30:10):
you try to fill your needs through free agency? You
don't thinks you don't think, sir tan Or I really don't. Okay, No,
I mean Farley, Like Farley, if we had a combine,
he probably could have run well enough and people would
be like, oh, okay, Like there we go. That's you know,
that's a Jeff A Couta type player. Um, but him

(30:33):
opting out this year and then no combine. There's a
long time in between seeing this guy play football. So
I would be surprised if either player. We don't see
many corners go top five either. That's a you know,
I know Jeff Akudo went you know, three last year,
but historically corners don't go very early. Kind of had
a rough year, um, but they had a lot of
other issues too. Detroit, I can say that. I don't

(30:55):
know if you can it's Detroit. Um let just okay.
So Matt Ryan's in the last three years forty two,
forty eight and forty one, that's how many times he's
been sacked it's a lot. Now, some of that can
be covered, some of that can be the quarterback, but
that's a lot of sacks. So even though Falcons fans

(31:20):
may not like that pick, but if you're getting an
All Pro and he's going to play ten years and
you can keep Matt Ryan upright at least if he's
here as you know, another year, two years, three years,
it's not a bad pick, right, and I think we
can look at teams. It hasn't resulted in a Super Bowl,
but you know what Dallas did by building their offensive line.

(31:41):
I think you know, in Kansas City they have a
number one overall pick and Eric Fisher and they have
a very high priced free agent and Mitchell Shorts. They're
both hurt right now. You know when they were healthy.
That's one of the best offensive book ins in football.
So you know, the New Orleans Saints, they've invested through
free agency a little bit, but mostly through the draft
and building their offensive line. So it would be you know,

(32:01):
I think two years after drafting Caleb McGarry. It might
surprise people, but if you're just going best player available,
it would be one of those offensive blamemens. All right, Well,
let's talk about some of your drafts. Have you ever
nailed I mean, what's the closest that you've ever come
in all the mock drafts. Have you ever gone back
and just kind of graded yourself and just said, okay,

(32:23):
this one I was, I had twenty eight, right, what's
what's what's been the best that you've done? And then
has there ever been like a prospect where you just
kind of stood on the mountaintop and you said, oh,
my gosh, this guy is going to be an all
pro this and that, what are they doing? And it
was it with oh that Definitely a lot of those.

(32:46):
I think it's on the mock draft thing. I will
go back mostly just to see my drafts are what
you hear, right. Mock drafts are predictions. You take all
the information and you predict. So I will go back
and see like who to me? Like who just straight
up lied to me and used me and led me astray.
So I will go back and do that. As far
as like like grading them like report card style, I

(33:10):
don't do that. I know there's some places that do.
Last year, I think I did pretty well because it
was somewhat predictable. So I don't want to give myself
a lot of credit. But I think last year, you know,
I think I had Tua and Herbert flipped, and I
think I had Derek Simmons flipped. But I think otherwise
in the top twenty, it was pretty pretty close. So

(33:32):
but don't holp me to that that standard is impossible.
It's like March Madness. No one's Bractet's perfect right now.
As far as guys that i've you know, jumped up
on the table and said they're gonna be all pros,
it's usually the opposite. Actually, it's usually the other way around,
where you are like, this guy is not good, he's
gonna be a bum Derrek Henry's the most famous one
right now. So I think of a guy who I

(33:54):
watched it Alabama and just thought, this is not this
is not what the NFL is going to. The NFL
at that time, you know, it was all these smaller guys,
speed plays, let's get outside the tackle box. You gotta
be able to catch, and just could you know, I
didn't see someone saying we're gonna go back to like
nineteen ninety five and just run the ball down your throats,

(34:14):
you know, and like it's in hindsight it's so predictable
of defenses are getting smaller, people are in nickel coverage
seventy percent of the time. Let's just run the ball
down their throats at these two hundred and twenty pound linebackers.
It right, you were feeling pretty good about Henry there
for a little while, right, I mean like, oh, the
first year and a half, I was like, right, you
guys don't know you're talking about And then man, yeah,

(34:38):
and you know Mike Rabel and Arthur Smith, Yeah, should
have known. Yea. Yeah, Like when Rabel got hired, it's like, great,
this see me smash from on football and I'm gonna
be wrong. So Derrick Henry was one that I was, oh,
just gigantic with, you know. It was like, man, this
guy sent me a short yardage back. I want to
play fullback. But it still though, No, Derreck Henry's great.

(34:58):
I think he's the best running back in football. Last
two years. I well, every time I watched him, I'm like,
how do people not even try to tackle him? Which
is easy for me to say at home when he's
not running at me. But Derrick Henry's ability to run
away from defense is the most confusing thing in the
world to me, because he's like, he is fast, but
he's not He's not that fast, right, but he's he's

(35:19):
phenomenal for sure. So I know your last mock for
the Falcons you had Michael Parson's going up there. Do
you think he falls? I do. Um, Like you said,
there's a story out there of um, you know, some
hazing issues of Penn State, some you know, immaturity. I
think that's, like you said, it's an old story that's
not new information. Um. I have not heard a team

(35:42):
yet say like, hey, we're gonna there's gonna drop him
out of the first round. It's nothing like that. But
also teams haven't interviewed him yet because of because of COVID,
and so I think that will be something that we
learned a little bit later. Um. I think he's still
drafted in the top twenty, but as far as being
a top five pick, probably not anymore. Okay, And if

(36:03):
you had to just kind of what do you think
the chances are the Falcons at this point. I'm just
putting you on the spot here because it's fun. Take
a quarterback. So I will, I'll, I'm gonna tell you
i'd like I said, I have a seven round mock
draft coming out next week. I do not have the
Falcons taking a quarterback February eleventh, right, February eleventh, seven rounds,

(36:25):
no quarterback in round one for the Falcons. Well, let's merge.
Let's merge that final thought. I want to just get
your take on what you think the Falcons future is
going to shape up. Like, you know, the fans here,
it's been three non playoff years seven to nine, seven nine,
four wins since the Super Bowl. You know, Dan Quinn,
you know, was beloved here. It just didn't work out.

(36:46):
And so now they've got this new regime who really
you know, Terry's saying all the right things. He's like,
you know, I'm not afraid to draft strength on strength,
and Arthur's saying, you know what, we're going to be accountable.
Everyone's accountable. But you know what, we're going to adapt
to what we have. And so and I'm going to
put guys in a position. He's going to be a
play caller too, but he's going to put guys in

(37:06):
a position that he believes is gives them the best
chance to succeed. So they're going to be adapt there's
no and then you got Demps, the defensive coordinator who
you know got He made a great impression his first
pressor and he he basically just said, look at you know,
we're gonna be multiple up front and simple on the
back end, and we don't when people ask you four

(37:29):
three three four, he says yep Sonaltimore philosophy hybrid. Yeah,
that's where he came from Baltimore at one point. So yeah,
so what what do you think they ultimately do and
what do you think that you know, what, what's your feeling.
I know you said it's a home run higher, but
what do you think this team looks like moving forward? Yeah?

(37:51):
I think the biggest thing I would expect offensively for
them to take some of the pressure off Matt. You know,
I think that's a big reason that Arthur was hired
was Matt Ryan does not need to developed, but you
need a scheme that takes pressure off him. And like
you said, those getting sacked forty plus times can't happen.
So whether that's more play action, quicker route combinations, more
power run, I would That's what I'm expecting more of

(38:12):
just the Tennessee offense, you know, is just get the
ball out quickly. Bryan Tannehill has not turned the ball
over a lot there because there's a lot of throws
that are not gimme throws, but they're allowing him to
quickly find his read get the ball out and they're
what I would consider low risk type throws. And so
I look for that. And again, the run game is
huge here, so and that should help you know, the

(38:33):
offensive line. Every offensive linement's happier when they're moving the
ball forward instead of instead of going backwards. So I
look at that. I do think, like you've said, when
I look at what Terry Fontneau brings to this team
is again the pro and college scatting experience. But you know,
being part of an organization that they don't they haven't
missed very much in New Orleans when it comes to
draft picks, and they've done that by forecasting. You know,

(38:56):
there's sometimes drafting two to three years ahead, but they've
hit on that. You know, go back to the twenty
seventeen draft class is one of the greatest ever because
their ability to say and the twenty seventeen is one
of the greatest draft classes ever, and they didn't get
Patrick Mahomes. They missed him by one pick. Think about that,
so it's still one of the greatest. So I think
just they're the style of player that they identify. And
then we've seen you in other years where they identify

(39:17):
guy in Marcus Davenport, Okay, let's go get him. So
they can be aggressive if need be. But I think
they stacked their board exceptionally well. And so I think
just that strategy. You know, you're going from a little
bit of a different group, you know, from Dimitrov being
more of a Bill Belichick disciple and that lineup thinking
to now you've got this Sean Payton, know, Mickey Loomis

(39:37):
type front office. It's going to be run here. So
I think you'll see a big difference there. Now. I know,
you know, if I were ever interviewed for a job,
you got to walk in there and say it's this
is how many years is going to take to be competitive?
And I think for Atlanta the key is because you
have Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, you should be competitive
this year. You have to be competitive year one. How
long will it take to make this team a competitor

(39:58):
because the salary cap, I mean what you're two year three, um?
And then the question is how much longer does Matt
want to play? So I think the first question you
got to check off the boxes is asking Matt, how
long do you want to play? Are you trying to
play till you're forty or longer? That seems to be
the benchmark these days because if if he's you know,
he's been hit, like you said, one hundred and twenty

(40:18):
times the past three years, he's been sacked. If that's
taking his toll and he's starting to think about I'm
getting a little older, want to do some other things,
then you have to take the quarterback. Ryan's there, Yeah,
he's he's he's been healthy. I mean he's the one
little thing two years ago. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's
missed what three games? Yeah, so you know he's he's

(40:40):
been really durable, right, absolutely. But I do think the
question is if if he's if there's a doubt or
excuse me, if there's a chance he could retire in
the next four years, you have to take the quarterback.
And my my reasoning behind that really with Matt. With
Matt Ryan is your quarterback, you're not gonna be drafting
the top five again. I mean, he's just he's too good. Um,
and I think this staff is too good. So if

(41:02):
he's out over the course of somebody's rookie contract, then
then I would pull the trigger on a quarterback there.
But as I said, I don't have them doing that. Yeah,
So let's segue into your February eleventh and your your
budding empire here. So I mean, you've got the NFL
Draft Scout, tell us, just go through it and just
tell us, because I know you've got this product. You've

(41:23):
got you know, you've got your YouTube channel. What a
draft knicks get when they subscribe, and what are you
giving them? Yeah, trying to give them everything. To be honest,
Like you said, the Draft Scout is already up. You
can go there today. There's some you know pieces that
I've been able to put up his previews, but fully
launches February eleventh with a seven round mock draft, followed
very quickly by a top three hundred big board, and

(41:44):
then my Scouting Notebook column will be coming back, which
is all the like news or rumors that I hear
from around the league as well as just you know,
the thoughts on the off season. So that'll all be
launching February eleventh right now people are getting you know,
we're doing virtual happy hours scouting clinics. We did a
live draft the other night where thirty two general managers
got to run their team. Right, so a Falcon's fan

(42:05):
got to come on the clock at four, Okay, make
the pick, right, Yeah, so they make the pick. There
were trades. I mean, this thing was crazy, but you know,
there's a clock. They had three minutes to make their
make their move, and so it was a great time
looking forward to the next one. But as you said,
in this day and age, you have to diversify. So
you can't just write, obviously, So there's the articles and

(42:26):
everything that will live on the draft scout dot com.
I do a radio show every day from two to
four which people can stream anywhere in the world. It's
called miked Up based in Jopaam, Missouri. And so that's
just my chance to be a baseball fan. You know,
how many and how many how many drafts and how
many pieces, like how many pieces you put putting up,
give or take a day or a week. Yeah, So

(42:46):
my goal on the written side is three articles a week,
kind a radio show every day, two podcasts a week.
Monday morning Friday morning. It's called Two Guys Are Growing
a podcast and yes it's NFL NFL Draft college football
with a little bit of you know, humor and tailgating
and things like that on the side. Where can they
find all this? Man, The easiest way to find everything

(43:08):
is just go to Twitter and follow me at NFL
Draft Scale. There's a link in the bio. You click
it and it'll show. Okay, here's a link to the website.
Here's a link to the radio show. Here's a link
to the YouTube, the podcast everything. Because everything you said
it's you know, it's not. I don't just work one
place anymore where you could go to bleacher Report and
hope to find everything that I was doing. I will
say this is much easier because even my friends and

(43:30):
family would be like, I'd drop a mock draft and
be like, where's your mock draft? Like it's in the
Bleacher Report, aft be like where, I have no idea where. Now,
anytime I write an article, if you're a subscriber, it
goes right to your email in box. So as soon
as I hit publish, you don't have to like the
whole article goes to your in box. You don't have
to like click a link, you open the email. Boom,
there's yard trying to simplify it. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

(43:52):
That's smart, man, This is this is good stuff. How's
how's it going so far? You got a lot of
people signing up for what? Yeah? I've been pretty transparent
about it. We've got around nine thousand people signed up.
Not all nine thousand or paying. Of course, I'm not
making that kind of money. Guys settled down, but nine
thousand people have signed up to get the you know,

(44:13):
the articles that are free and keep updated on what's happening.
So spread the word because I've been doing giveaways like
crazy too, like giving away hoodie is like the one
I'm wearing, giving away signed helmets, maddened copies, like I
want this to be fun. I want to incentivize because,
like I said, I don't I don't think charge of
people seven bucks a month just for read my work
is worth it. I'm not that good of a writer,

(44:35):
let's be honest. So I want to have fun with it.
I wanted to be a community thing. I mean, if
you think I am, that's great, I appreciate that, but no,
I want it. I want it to be fun. I
do I want it to be a community. Um. I
have a love hate relationship with Twitter, So more the
more I can get off Twitter to talk to draft bands,
They're going to do that. So we actually started with
the discord server. So there's like seven hundred people in

(44:56):
this discord server all day talking about the draft and
you know we have rules, no politics, religion, no trolling.
You know, he's having fun with it. I love it. Well, well,
I'm gonna have to dive into some of the stuff
and uh and get my hands on some uh some merch.
I love that hoodie by the way. Yeah, they've been
popular so far. Count me up for signing up. I'm

(45:18):
going to do that right after this show. Um, I
am a big fan of yours, as you know. And uh,
you know, I think eventually, you know, you're gonna put
Mel Kiper and Todd mcshell business hopefully. So now I'm
just kidding, I'm okay joining them. Yeah here's the uh
Mel is my icon. He's the reason I have a job.
You know, he started this industry's I actually never met

(45:41):
him though, so really yeah, like you know, I've met
mcshey a couple of times. Super super great guy. Daniel Jeremiah.
You know, like I consider them, you know, guys I
look up to and like it's cool that they've given
me their phone number. So when I meet Mel Kibra
probably faint, that's to fan me. Yeah, he's he still
got the pomp door going right, he got it got here. Well, Matt, Hey,

(46:05):
I really appreciate you coming on, and I want to
do it again as we get closer to the draft,
and I would definitely love to have you come on
to just talk about, you know, everything you're doing, how
is it going, but also just get your reactions to
what the Falcons ultimately end up doing and FREEC and
the draft, and as this thing kind of progresses and builds,
this roster comes together. It's always fun talking to people

(46:27):
like you that actually know what they're talking about. And
I really really appreciate it. You've been great and I
wish you the best of luck with the NFL draft.
Scout took hopefully people sign up for that. I appreciate it,
and yeah, I'm happy to call on any time. I
actually find myself a lot more free time and up
my own ball. So if you hit me up, like hey,

(46:47):
I want to do a podcast, Yeah, sure, sounds great.
Awesome Matt, thanks so much. I have a great weekend
you too, Thank you guys, und