June 23, 2022 • 23 mins
Scott and Tori break down what they learned during the Falcons offseason program and what’s left unresolved heading into training camp. They discuss Deion Jones, Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder, and which rookies could realistically make an instant impact during the 2022 campaign.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, everybody, and welcome to a summer school edition
of The Falcon's Final Whistle podcast. I'm Scott Beyer alongside
my partner in crime, Tory mclaney. How's it going. It's good.
How's your summer? You know, it's nice that we're keeping
in touch. This is the first time that we've seen
each other in US solid ten days, which maybe a
record probably joined forces last camp. But yeah, and this
(00:24):
isn't like our thirty four thousandth podcasts is thirty four thousand? Yeah, Yeah,
it's congratulations everyone, if you've been listening, congrats on thirty
four thousand to all of those. And as we're kind
of moving through the summer heading towards training camp, we
learned a lot over the course of the offseason program
and the and the mandatory mini camp. We know because
(00:46):
Tory mclaney wrote twenty five hundred or so words about
it at my request. Here's the thing. If anyone read
the Scott and I like switched up and did like
five like storylines observations from camp, and I wrote in that,
(01:06):
I was like, I don't think Scott wrote or read
the other twenty five hundred words that I've already previously
written on this, and then Scott text me was like, um,
just so we're clear, we're desperate for stores, were desperate
stories right now and we're just trying to make it
through the summer and everything's fine. And yeah, everything's fine.
(01:30):
We're good. And so after what is now probably more
like four thousand words between your Mini Camp notebooks and
our top five OTA observations, yes, what's time to move
forward Because we've taken a look at all those notes
and we've decided that there are some lingering questions beyond
(01:54):
all those words that we've written down on Atlanta Falcons
dot com. And there are some lingering questions because there's
a lot of things that just can't be accomplished with
the practice rules of Mini Camp, and there's a lot
of roster movement that may happen between now and training camp.
So as everyone across the Atlanta Falcons fan base is
wondering what are they going to do with this, and
(02:16):
they submit mail bag questions and I'm sure you get
questions on social media, what about this? What's going to
happen here? Well, let's go through four or five of them,
shall we. And of course we're gonna talk about quarterbacks
because that's what we do around here. When you have
an uncertain quarterback situation. There's gonna be some roster movement
as we head into training camp. There's some questions about
(02:38):
inside linebacker Dion Jones. We're going to address all that.
We're going to talk about rookies that may make an
instant impact. And also nobody's worn pads yet. Nobody's more
excited about wearing pads than Tyler Algier. By the way,
every time he has a press conference, he says how
geeked he is to hit someone. Probably that sounds like
(02:59):
a Scott term. Definitely Scott. Yeah, but I love it. Nonetheless,
thank you about Tyler saying geeked. Yeah, I feel like
that would be good for him. Um, you would be
like my brother. I know, he's always so like, relaxed
and calm, but clearly ready to hit someone. What did
you call him? A bowling ball with spikes? Bowling ball
covered in but your knives yet? Um? Anyway, So we're
gonna talk about all that, and there's a couple of
(03:21):
position groups that haven't been able to do what they
really do well, and that's the lineman. Because you can't
put pads on, and you really can't have that full
physical contact. So we can identify what we saw in
seven on sevens and then talk about when they start
playing rough and tumble football. So we're gonna get to
all that stuff, right, Um, let's go back to a
story tory. Hey, I can't. We haven't never done that before.
(03:45):
Surely it'll be a segment on something that we write
at some point. We gotta get sponsored now, I mean
tories stories, Tories takeaways, Tories notebook. It's all right there
for the taking. Um, you wrote an interesting story that
was well received, Thank you everyone for reading it. About
the Falcons roster. Ah, yes, it's how it's disproportioned. Yeah, right,
(04:12):
there's I think now there's twelve wide receivers, seven tight ends.
That's a lot even on a ninety man roster. And
Arthur Smith and you talked about a why do that
now and then transition to make things more even now
I guess give us kind of an explanation of that.
And would you expect to see more big boys join
the team? Yes and yes. Um, so essentially this was
(04:35):
something that Arthur Smith talked about within one of the
very first like open OTAs that we had. He made
the common heres like you see a lot of receivers.
You see that we've signed a lot of receivers, but
just know that that's going to change. This roster is
going to turn over and we're going to add more
to the line, both offensively and defensively as you get
(04:57):
closer to training camp. Because it goes back to what
you're talking about, they get to put the pads on,
they actually get to hit each other. There's actual preseason
games in which they're going against competition right now or
I guess the last month or so, you haven't been
able to do that. So a lot of seven on seven,
a lot of seven on sevens, a lot of kind
of just walk throughs. And when you do that, it's
(05:20):
more of an opportunity to see your skill guys. And
that was kind of what Arthur Smith was saying, is
that this is a chance for us to really get
in the work with your receivers, your tight ends, quote
unquote running backs, even though even running backs you don't
get to see all that much at this point in
time in the off season. In the connection that they
have with Desmond Rider and Marcus Mariota and So now
(05:44):
what I think we're going to see over the next
six weeks is we're going to see those wide receiver
and tight end numbers dwindling down. While they're dwindling down,
I imagine that the offensive and defensive lines are going
to start trending upwards. You're going to get more linemen
in here for training camps, specifically in the preseason. So
to answer your question, that's kind of the overall gist
(06:06):
of what they're doing in terms of the idea of
roster construction. And also, yes, there will be more more
alignment come the end of July on this roster. So
for everybody who's freaking out about it, don't it's fine. Yeah,
we already started to see that happen that they signed
a veteran center Jonathan Harrison, and a defensive linement from
(06:30):
the Saints and Embars. What a shock as well in
exchange for a wide receiver and a running back. So
we were starting to see that flip. One player that
there are question marks surrounding is Deon Jones. Yes, if
you go back to Terry Fontine's Combine press conference, I
believe which they all kind of run together, they really do.
(06:52):
I have no idea when I was going to say
pre draft. At some point during this long, eventful offseason,
Terry was talking about the big contracts. Right, Matt Ryan's
contract has been moved. That's going to help them salary
cap wise in a major way next year. They have
sixty two million dollars in dead money right now, So
(07:13):
they dealt with that contract. Grady Jarrett and Jake Matthews,
they dealt with those contracts. Calvin Ridley obviously is unavailable
all seasons, so that contract is kind of let's put
that off to the side, right. The other one is
Dion Jones. Right, That one hasn't been touched yet, so
there are a lot of questions about are they going
(07:37):
to move him? My mail bag is full of these questions.
Are they going to move with him? What are they
going to do with Dion Jones? Going into it, he
makes a ton of money, He has a cap hit
over twenty million. There isn't a ton of savings. But
now that we're after June first, you get the designation
where you split that cap hit in half, right, so
there is an opportunity to say some cash. There's also
(07:57):
an opportunity to gain even more caps based next year.
As we know, Arthur Smith said that he missed the
offseason program, the on field portions of the off season program,
while recovering from a procedure I think was the term
that he used. So he's not healthy. Can't trade a
guy who's not healthy. But as you evaluate, how do
you evaluate the prospect of moving don or not movingdon?
(08:21):
You know? Kind of pros and conslist this thing for us? Yeah, goodness,
I could write a whole story about it, which I'm
sure I will at some point this off season. I
think when I look at it, it's you kind of
go both ways. You can look at it in terms
of the money, in terms of the cap, in terms
of the dead money, all of those things. You can
look at it as a financial business decision, and then
(08:42):
also look at it as to what you need on
the field. My question in this is how much do
you need? How do you weigh how much you need
D on the field versus how much you need that
relief and or opportunity that moved him provides in twenty
twenty three, Right, those are what I weigh when I'm
(09:04):
looking at this, I guess scenario and when I think
about where the inside linebacker room is right. Now, Yeah,
that's a good point. I don't know if I can
weigh that they have to have Dion out there. And
I know that's crazy to say because Dion Jones has
(09:25):
been such an intricral part of this defense since he's
been here, But I do think, you know, there can
come a time where that's not necessarily like one person
isn't is no longer. I don't want to say needed,
but I just see that you do have Rashaun Evans,
you do have Michael Walker that I think those two specifically,
(09:47):
and then you go out and get Troy Anderson and
you sign some free agents and all those kind of things.
But those two specifically, I feel like can do what
needs to be done to get you through twenty twenty two.
And if Dion's not healthy, fully healthy, and I know
that also plays into Okay, what does a trade market
(10:08):
look like for him? These are all like moving pieces, right,
But I do think like the main the main things
that I wah is financial business decision versus how much
do you really need him physically on this defense? Right?
And that's a crazy thing to say, because he is
a modern NFL linebacker with elite talents, and we've seen
(10:30):
that for with him representing this franchise. You go back
to twenty twenty, his stat line was unbelievable. Yeah, but
ultimately you're right, it's about weighing all these pros and
cons and the fact that draft capital for a team
that is building trying to build a young foundation. Even
if it's a Day three picky, that's a kind of
(10:52):
a big deal. Maybe you could go out. I mean,
you saw what they were able to do on day three. Yeah.
That's what I was going to say, is like, even
if it is a day three pick, you look at
the guys that they were able to get. I think
that someone like Tyler Algier is an important Day three pick.
He's actually going to be an important part of this
running back rotation. I'm not saying that he's going to
(11:14):
go out and be starter day one. That's not at
all what I'm saying. But what I am saying is
I think that they saw this guy slide to that
third day and they really valued that pick because you
have to bring someone in who is going to be
able to help Corderol lighten the load of what Corderoll
Patterson does for the offense in the backfield mainly Cordarrell
(11:36):
Patterson does a lot of other things for this offense,
but let's just talk about that. You know, and I
think when you're thinking about Dion Jones and it's like
how much do you value that Day three value pick
and what that pick could potentially be later on? I
mean you even think about I don't know, Grady Jarrett
was a fifth round pick, finth round pick. He was
a Day three pick. I mean even going back to
(11:59):
foy Aluiken who is now with the Jags, he was
a third day pick. Yeah, Russ Gage was a Day
three pick. Yes, a lot of it. There's a lot
of good play from that, exactly, And so I know
there's a lot of not good players probably that have
come from that. But don't you want to roll the
dice right exactly? And if you get draft capital and
you want to bring in guys into your system that
(12:20):
you want to mold, and you really believe in ada
Ogan Daig, a guy who is probably going to be
a starter at outside linebacker this year in his second year,
fifth round pick. Yeah, these are all guys that, at
this point in time in this organization are going to
make an impact. How much do we weigh that in
terms of how much you value Dion Jones and his
(12:42):
future within the organization, right, And those are all difficult
questions that Terry fon No in the front office have
to evaluate, and we do not, and we do not.
We can just to talk about it, and that is
there's a lot less pressure, right, I would say, But nonetheless,
I do think that there's going to be some pre
training camp movement. Dion Jones is obviously one that everybody
(13:05):
is keeping an eye on. If he's still on the team.
You just have a really, really, really good linebacker the team.
That's not the world's worst thing either, so they've got options.
I think that's a good place for Terry Fontno to
operate from, especially when you look at the depth at linebacker.
There's a lot of different ways that you can move
(13:26):
pieces around to try to be as competitive as possible,
again while setting up your cap situation in the best
possible way, which would be to touch all those contracts,
make them a little bit more palatable, or ship them
as we move through it. Right. You mentioned Tyler Algier
right as a guy who could come in and make
(13:49):
that quote unquote instant impact that fans desperately want and
coaches want to say, hey, let's chill right. So obviously
Kyle Pitts had a massive one. Richie Grant was on
a different track, a different development plan. Jalen Mayfield was
forced into one. So ultimately, you look at this rookie
(14:10):
class and the state of the Falcons roster suggests that
some of these higher picks are going to play a
lot that not everybody will have the luxury of coming
along slowly. I would put Drake London in that class
almost as much as anybody. I would put Arnold Ebacadie
in that class. I think he could play a lot
(14:31):
right away. And sometimes it's unfair. Here's a guy who
spent six months in a job at Interview and the
previous four months in a football season, and now he's gone,
he's going pro. And then he'll be like, okay, just
just play three downs. You're the thirty eighth pick, but
play three downs, or you're the one hundred and eighty
second pick, play all three downs. That's a tough expectation.
(14:53):
Puts a lot of pressure on these guys, and I
think Arthur Smith does a good job of alleviating that pressure.
That's important to him, and I think that it should
be important to put these guys in the best position
to succeed at the track where they can do it,
because how many times, and I'll get off my soapbox here,
how many times do we see young players in bad
situations or young players who buckle under the pressure of
(15:16):
trying to be a franchise savior in week one? You
don't want that, But you have to look at this
draft class and wonder who could be the guys And
we're going to find out during training camp. This is
lingering questions. This is not bold predictions time. But you
look at this draft class and you think, Okay, there
could be quite a few guys here who are going
(15:36):
to play lots of snaps. Yeah, And I think we
almost knew that when we were going into the draft.
I think I remember saying maybe on this podcast, but saying,
this group, whoever it is that they bring in, has
an opportunity to do something that a lot of Rickie
classes across the league won't be able to do simply
because of how many needs the Falcons had on the roster.
(16:01):
I mean, I know, we don't want to say, like, oh,
drafting for need et cetera, et cetera. I think that
you're always drafting for need That's a that's a secret
secret sauces that you're always drafting for need Um, whether
it's this year, next year, the year after that. And
so with that, considering that, I think this Ricky class
(16:25):
has an opportunity to make their rookie year what they
want it to be. I think that they are going.
I think every single one of them is going to
have an opportunity to play some type of role on
this fifty three man roster. And when we get to
that cutdown, I think that even I even think about,
like the two Georgia guys, Justin and Schaeffer and John Fitzpatting,
(16:48):
bring them up. Yeah, I know that they're I don't
first see them. They're not going to come out and
be day one starters, absolutely not. But they're going to
push the guys who are. And I think that is
just as important when Arthur Smith talks about competition, competition, competition,
bringing guys who can push guys and play a different
type of role. I think those two, specifically Justin Schaeffer
(17:10):
can push Jaylen Mayfield at that interior guard position. I
think John Fitzpatrick provides a different type of tied end.
He's not Kyle Pitts, He's never gonna be Kyle Pitts,
but he could be Lee Smith. He could be Lee
Smith exactly. And that's why I think we have to
think about this overall scope of these rookies and how
(17:30):
many opportunities that they have at their disposal. You could
see guys be you talk about Drake Glendon, Arnold mckettie,
Troy Anderson, Tyler Algier, and then we're not even getting
into Desmond Ritter yet. I mean, these guys have the
opportunity to play starting roles and heavy rotational roles. Yeah. Absolutely,
(17:52):
And we're kind of getting towards the end of this podcast,
so I was going to dive into a lot of
the position battles coming up, got all summer to do that.
So let's just get right to the quarterbacks here and
wrap it on that note because we and we're gonna
talk about quarterbacks every time too. But nonetheless, this is
another one of those things that I go back to.
The mail bag is kind of like a pulse of
where the fan base is, and I get so much
(18:14):
of that, Scott, you keep saying it's Marcus Mariota. He's
going to start. He's leader in the clubhouse, He's the
clear number one. At this point, I think that they
want me to say something else. You want you to
say it's Desmond Rider or this is going to be
a showdown and it Flowery brand. I'm not ready to
say that now that we get hurt our movie trailer
(18:35):
voice going yeah. But nonetheless, I think that they want
some big showdown. Yeah, maybe that will develop over the
course of the preseason. Maybe Desmond Ridder will generate some
buzz and some enthusiasm with a preseason performance or two.
But nonetheless, I still think it's Marcus Mariota early. And
I don't think that's bad for Desmond Ritter either. No,
(18:57):
I don't think that's bad for him. No. I mean,
I think the reason why you bring Marcus Mariota in
here is to be to have this other chance at starting.
Arthur Smith wouldn't have brought in just anyone off the street.
He wanted Marcus Mariota because of the history that they have,
because of the chance that they have to kind of
(19:18):
resurrect his career. So in saying all of that, I
think it's really good to have Marcus Mariota in here
for you know, two years, maybe more, maybe less. We
don't know, because I don't think if Desnon Ritter was
the number eight pick, I think this is a completely
different conversation. He was not. He was the seventy fourth
(19:39):
overall pick. That changes, I think the vision that you
have for someone at that position. So I think this
is all good. I think they work really well together
in that quarterback room. I think they're learning alongside each other.
I think they're gonna push each other. I don't mind
that that it's gonna be I don't I don't mind
(19:59):
that it's not going to be desmon or it is
going to be Marcus. I mean, I think this is okay. Overall,
you don't have Matt Ryan anymore. Like I know you're
looking for a franchise quarterback, but I just don't know
at this point in time, you don't have a Matt
Ryan on the roster. Matt Ryan was drafted third right,
third right. Desn'ts drafted seventy four. And I think there's
(20:19):
some confusion because Desmond was the second quarterback taken that
maybe that that he's giving some some kind of falsely
elevated status. But nonetheless, I think we need to go
into it with this lingering, with the understanding that we're
not going to know who the long term solution is
at quarterback in camp or in week one nope, or
heading into the twenty twenty three drafts exactly, maybe not
(20:40):
even then, Like this is such a long process, it's
slow burn. I want people to get that through their heads. Yeah,
and then and I think that that's okay. You want
if you're Arthur Smith, you want options. If Marcus Mariota,
sorry Marcus Mariota takes this job stranglehold style and runs
with it, he's twenty years old. You have a good quarterback.
(21:01):
Your offense is fun and entertaining, which is what Falcons
fans like, entertaining and winning together. Right, And yeah, that's true.
That's why we all go see top Gun more than once. Nonetheless,
you look at that and that's a good thing. And
if Desmond Ritter develops on a slower path or a
quick one and he earns the job or steals it,
(21:23):
that's not a bad thing either. If you come out
of this you say we don't have any after twelve
months or a couple of years, you say we don't
have any long term solution, go back into the draft.
You're not committed to anything long term because the investment
is not great. So we're probably going to talk about
quarterbacks again. I would assume on a future installment and
you can make sure it goes straight to your phone
(21:46):
by subscribing on iTunes, Let's Spotify. How about just the
Falcons channel on YouTube? Have you seen what they're pumping
out these days? That's good stuff. Nonetheless, do all those
types of things I think we're gonna do, like mailbag podcast.
I just came up with that right now, So we'll
ask for questions on social media at that time. But
get them ready. Even if they're quarterbacks, that's fine. We
(22:08):
like talking about them too. Even if you're wondering what
Starbucks drink I'm drinking right now? Yeah, it's uh. I'm
reading it and there are so many instructions. I can't
possibly something about light ice and twenty eight pumps of
vanilla twenty eight seem excessive. Yeah, well that's when I
said what I ordered you one one time. Anyway, we
got to get out of here. Thank you guys so
much for joining us. We're gonna talk to you again,
(22:30):
real real soon. I promise you go find a white
sand beach. That's what all the Falcons players are doing.
They're running and staying in shape on the like on
the white sand beach, and then they're laying on a
chaise lounge under the sun. Yeah, I'm we all need
to do that from time to time because we've got
training camp coming up. Wait, it's pretty soon, so nonetheless,
enjoy your time off. Thank you so much for listening,
and we'll talk to you again, real real soon.
What's up, everybody, and welcome to a summer school edition
of The Falcon's Final Whistle podcast. I'm Scott Beyer alongside
my partner in crime, Tory mclaney. How's it going. It's good.
How's your summer? You know, it's nice that we're keeping
in touch. This is the first time that we've seen
each other in US solid ten days, which maybe a
record probably joined forces last camp. But yeah, and this
(00:24):
isn't like our thirty four thousandth podcasts is thirty four thousand? Yeah, Yeah,
it's congratulations everyone, if you've been listening, congrats on thirty
four thousand to all of those. And as we're kind
of moving through the summer heading towards training camp, we
learned a lot over the course of the offseason program
and the and the mandatory mini camp. We know because
(00:46):
Tory mclaney wrote twenty five hundred or so words about
it at my request. Here's the thing. If anyone read
the Scott and I like switched up and did like
five like storylines observations from camp, and I wrote in that,
(01:06):
I was like, I don't think Scott wrote or read
the other twenty five hundred words that I've already previously
written on this, and then Scott text me was like, um,
just so we're clear, we're desperate for stores, were desperate
stories right now and we're just trying to make it
through the summer and everything's fine. And yeah, everything's fine.
(01:30):
We're good. And so after what is now probably more
like four thousand words between your Mini Camp notebooks and
our top five OTA observations, yes, what's time to move
forward Because we've taken a look at all those notes
and we've decided that there are some lingering questions beyond
(01:54):
all those words that we've written down on Atlanta Falcons
dot com. And there are some lingering questions because there's
a lot of things that just can't be accomplished with
the practice rules of Mini Camp, and there's a lot
of roster movement that may happen between now and training camp.
So as everyone across the Atlanta Falcons fan base is
wondering what are they going to do with this, and
(02:16):
they submit mail bag questions and I'm sure you get
questions on social media, what about this? What's going to
happen here? Well, let's go through four or five of them,
shall we. And of course we're gonna talk about quarterbacks
because that's what we do around here. When you have
an uncertain quarterback situation. There's gonna be some roster movement
as we head into training camp. There's some questions about
(02:38):
inside linebacker Dion Jones. We're going to address all that.
We're going to talk about rookies that may make an
instant impact. And also nobody's worn pads yet. Nobody's more
excited about wearing pads than Tyler Algier. By the way,
every time he has a press conference, he says how
geeked he is to hit someone. Probably that sounds like
(02:59):
a Scott term. Definitely Scott. Yeah, but I love it. Nonetheless,
thank you about Tyler saying geeked. Yeah, I feel like
that would be good for him. Um, you would be
like my brother. I know, he's always so like, relaxed
and calm, but clearly ready to hit someone. What did
you call him? A bowling ball with spikes? Bowling ball
covered in but your knives yet? Um? Anyway, So we're
gonna talk about all that, and there's a couple of
(03:21):
position groups that haven't been able to do what they
really do well, and that's the lineman. Because you can't
put pads on, and you really can't have that full
physical contact. So we can identify what we saw in
seven on sevens and then talk about when they start
playing rough and tumble football. So we're gonna get to
all that stuff, right, Um, let's go back to a
story tory. Hey, I can't. We haven't never done that before.
(03:45):
Surely it'll be a segment on something that we write
at some point. We gotta get sponsored now, I mean
tories stories, Tories takeaways, Tories notebook. It's all right there
for the taking. Um, you wrote an interesting story that
was well received, Thank you everyone for reading it. About
the Falcons roster. Ah, yes, it's how it's disproportioned. Yeah, right,
(04:12):
there's I think now there's twelve wide receivers, seven tight ends.
That's a lot even on a ninety man roster. And
Arthur Smith and you talked about a why do that
now and then transition to make things more even now
I guess give us kind of an explanation of that.
And would you expect to see more big boys join
the team? Yes and yes. Um, so essentially this was
(04:35):
something that Arthur Smith talked about within one of the
very first like open OTAs that we had. He made
the common heres like you see a lot of receivers.
You see that we've signed a lot of receivers, but
just know that that's going to change. This roster is
going to turn over and we're going to add more
to the line, both offensively and defensively as you get
(04:57):
closer to training camp. Because it goes back to what
you're talking about, they get to put the pads on,
they actually get to hit each other. There's actual preseason
games in which they're going against competition right now or
I guess the last month or so, you haven't been
able to do that. So a lot of seven on seven,
a lot of seven on sevens, a lot of kind
of just walk throughs. And when you do that, it's
(05:20):
more of an opportunity to see your skill guys. And
that was kind of what Arthur Smith was saying, is
that this is a chance for us to really get
in the work with your receivers, your tight ends, quote
unquote running backs, even though even running backs you don't
get to see all that much at this point in
time in the off season. In the connection that they
have with Desmond Rider and Marcus Mariota and So now
(05:44):
what I think we're going to see over the next
six weeks is we're going to see those wide receiver
and tight end numbers dwindling down. While they're dwindling down,
I imagine that the offensive and defensive lines are going
to start trending upwards. You're going to get more linemen
in here for training camps, specifically in the preseason. So
to answer your question, that's kind of the overall gist
(06:06):
of what they're doing in terms of the idea of
roster construction. And also, yes, there will be more more
alignment come the end of July on this roster. So
for everybody who's freaking out about it, don't it's fine. Yeah,
we already started to see that happen that they signed
a veteran center Jonathan Harrison, and a defensive linement from
(06:30):
the Saints and Embars. What a shock as well in
exchange for a wide receiver and a running back. So
we were starting to see that flip. One player that
there are question marks surrounding is Deon Jones. Yes, if
you go back to Terry Fontine's Combine press conference, I
believe which they all kind of run together, they really do.
(06:52):
I have no idea when I was going to say
pre draft. At some point during this long, eventful offseason,
Terry was talking about the big contracts. Right, Matt Ryan's
contract has been moved. That's going to help them salary
cap wise in a major way next year. They have
sixty two million dollars in dead money right now, So
(07:13):
they dealt with that contract. Grady Jarrett and Jake Matthews,
they dealt with those contracts. Calvin Ridley obviously is unavailable
all seasons, so that contract is kind of let's put
that off to the side, right. The other one is
Dion Jones. Right, That one hasn't been touched yet, so
there are a lot of questions about are they going
(07:37):
to move him? My mail bag is full of these questions.
Are they going to move with him? What are they
going to do with Dion Jones? Going into it, he
makes a ton of money, He has a cap hit
over twenty million. There isn't a ton of savings. But
now that we're after June first, you get the designation
where you split that cap hit in half, right, so
there is an opportunity to say some cash. There's also
(07:57):
an opportunity to gain even more caps based next year.
As we know, Arthur Smith said that he missed the
offseason program, the on field portions of the off season program,
while recovering from a procedure I think was the term
that he used. So he's not healthy. Can't trade a
guy who's not healthy. But as you evaluate, how do
you evaluate the prospect of moving don or not movingdon?
(08:21):
You know? Kind of pros and conslist this thing for us? Yeah, goodness,
I could write a whole story about it, which I'm
sure I will at some point this off season. I
think when I look at it, it's you kind of
go both ways. You can look at it in terms
of the money, in terms of the cap, in terms
of the dead money, all of those things. You can
look at it as a financial business decision, and then
(08:42):
also look at it as to what you need on
the field. My question in this is how much do
you need? How do you weigh how much you need
D on the field versus how much you need that
relief and or opportunity that moved him provides in twenty
twenty three, Right, those are what I weigh when I'm
(09:04):
looking at this, I guess scenario and when I think
about where the inside linebacker room is right. Now, Yeah,
that's a good point. I don't know if I can
weigh that they have to have Dion out there. And
I know that's crazy to say because Dion Jones has
(09:25):
been such an intricral part of this defense since he's
been here, But I do think, you know, there can
come a time where that's not necessarily like one person
isn't is no longer. I don't want to say needed,
but I just see that you do have Rashaun Evans,
you do have Michael Walker that I think those two specifically,
(09:47):
and then you go out and get Troy Anderson and
you sign some free agents and all those kind of things.
But those two specifically, I feel like can do what
needs to be done to get you through twenty twenty two.
And if Dion's not healthy, fully healthy, and I know
that also plays into Okay, what does a trade market
(10:08):
look like for him? These are all like moving pieces, right,
But I do think like the main the main things
that I wah is financial business decision versus how much
do you really need him physically on this defense? Right?
And that's a crazy thing to say, because he is
a modern NFL linebacker with elite talents, and we've seen
(10:30):
that for with him representing this franchise. You go back
to twenty twenty, his stat line was unbelievable. Yeah, but
ultimately you're right, it's about weighing all these pros and
cons and the fact that draft capital for a team
that is building trying to build a young foundation. Even
if it's a Day three picky, that's a kind of
(10:52):
a big deal. Maybe you could go out. I mean,
you saw what they were able to do on day three. Yeah.
That's what I was going to say, is like, even
if it is a day three pick, you look at
the guys that they were able to get. I think
that someone like Tyler Algier is an important Day three pick.
He's actually going to be an important part of this
running back rotation. I'm not saying that he's going to
(11:14):
go out and be starter day one. That's not at
all what I'm saying. But what I am saying is
I think that they saw this guy slide to that
third day and they really valued that pick because you
have to bring someone in who is going to be
able to help Corderol lighten the load of what Corderoll
Patterson does for the offense in the backfield mainly Cordarrell
(11:36):
Patterson does a lot of other things for this offense,
but let's just talk about that. You know, and I
think when you're thinking about Dion Jones and it's like
how much do you value that Day three value pick
and what that pick could potentially be later on? I
mean you even think about I don't know, Grady Jarrett
was a fifth round pick, finth round pick. He was
a Day three pick. I mean even going back to
(11:59):
foy Aluiken who is now with the Jags, he was
a third day pick. Yeah, Russ Gage was a Day
three pick. Yes, a lot of it. There's a lot
of good play from that, exactly, And so I know
there's a lot of not good players probably that have
come from that. But don't you want to roll the
dice right exactly? And if you get draft capital and
you want to bring in guys into your system that
(12:20):
you want to mold, and you really believe in ada
Ogan Daig, a guy who is probably going to be
a starter at outside linebacker this year in his second year,
fifth round pick. Yeah, these are all guys that, at
this point in time in this organization are going to
make an impact. How much do we weigh that in
terms of how much you value Dion Jones and his
(12:42):
future within the organization, right, And those are all difficult
questions that Terry fon No in the front office have
to evaluate, and we do not, and we do not.
We can just to talk about it, and that is
there's a lot less pressure, right, I would say, But nonetheless,
I do think that there's going to be some pre
training camp movement. Dion Jones is obviously one that everybody
(13:05):
is keeping an eye on. If he's still on the team.
You just have a really, really, really good linebacker the team.
That's not the world's worst thing either, so they've got options.
I think that's a good place for Terry Fontno to
operate from, especially when you look at the depth at linebacker.
There's a lot of different ways that you can move
(13:26):
pieces around to try to be as competitive as possible,
again while setting up your cap situation in the best
possible way, which would be to touch all those contracts,
make them a little bit more palatable, or ship them
as we move through it. Right. You mentioned Tyler Algier
right as a guy who could come in and make
(13:49):
that quote unquote instant impact that fans desperately want and
coaches want to say, hey, let's chill right. So obviously
Kyle Pitts had a massive one. Richie Grant was on
a different track, a different development plan. Jalen Mayfield was
forced into one. So ultimately, you look at this rookie
(14:10):
class and the state of the Falcons roster suggests that
some of these higher picks are going to play a
lot that not everybody will have the luxury of coming
along slowly. I would put Drake London in that class
almost as much as anybody. I would put Arnold Ebacadie
in that class. I think he could play a lot
(14:31):
right away. And sometimes it's unfair. Here's a guy who
spent six months in a job at Interview and the
previous four months in a football season, and now he's gone,
he's going pro. And then he'll be like, okay, just
just play three downs. You're the thirty eighth pick, but
play three downs, or you're the one hundred and eighty
second pick, play all three downs. That's a tough expectation.
(14:53):
Puts a lot of pressure on these guys, and I
think Arthur Smith does a good job of alleviating that pressure.
That's important to him, and I think that it should
be important to put these guys in the best position
to succeed at the track where they can do it,
because how many times, and I'll get off my soapbox here,
how many times do we see young players in bad
situations or young players who buckle under the pressure of
(15:16):
trying to be a franchise savior in week one? You
don't want that, But you have to look at this
draft class and wonder who could be the guys And
we're going to find out during training camp. This is
lingering questions. This is not bold predictions time. But you
look at this draft class and you think, Okay, there
could be quite a few guys here who are going
(15:36):
to play lots of snaps. Yeah, And I think we
almost knew that when we were going into the draft.
I think I remember saying maybe on this podcast, but saying,
this group, whoever it is that they bring in, has
an opportunity to do something that a lot of Rickie
classes across the league won't be able to do simply
because of how many needs the Falcons had on the roster.
(16:01):
I mean, I know, we don't want to say, like, oh,
drafting for need et cetera, et cetera. I think that
you're always drafting for need That's a that's a secret
secret sauces that you're always drafting for need Um, whether
it's this year, next year, the year after that. And
so with that, considering that, I think this Ricky class
(16:25):
has an opportunity to make their rookie year what they
want it to be. I think that they are going.
I think every single one of them is going to
have an opportunity to play some type of role on
this fifty three man roster. And when we get to
that cutdown, I think that even I even think about,
like the two Georgia guys, Justin and Schaeffer and John Fitzpatting,
(16:48):
bring them up. Yeah, I know that they're I don't
first see them. They're not going to come out and
be day one starters, absolutely not. But they're going to
push the guys who are. And I think that is
just as important when Arthur Smith talks about competition, competition, competition,
bringing guys who can push guys and play a different
type of role. I think those two, specifically Justin Schaeffer
(17:10):
can push Jaylen Mayfield at that interior guard position. I
think John Fitzpatrick provides a different type of tied end.
He's not Kyle Pitts, He's never gonna be Kyle Pitts,
but he could be Lee Smith. He could be Lee
Smith exactly. And that's why I think we have to
think about this overall scope of these rookies and how
(17:30):
many opportunities that they have at their disposal. You could
see guys be you talk about Drake Glendon, Arnold mckettie,
Troy Anderson, Tyler Algier, and then we're not even getting
into Desmond Ritter yet. I mean, these guys have the
opportunity to play starting roles and heavy rotational roles. Yeah. Absolutely,
(17:52):
And we're kind of getting towards the end of this podcast,
so I was going to dive into a lot of
the position battles coming up, got all summer to do that.
So let's just get right to the quarterbacks here and
wrap it on that note because we and we're gonna
talk about quarterbacks every time too. But nonetheless, this is
another one of those things that I go back to.
The mail bag is kind of like a pulse of
where the fan base is, and I get so much
(18:14):
of that, Scott, you keep saying it's Marcus Mariota. He's
going to start. He's leader in the clubhouse, He's the
clear number one. At this point, I think that they
want me to say something else. You want you to
say it's Desmond Rider or this is going to be
a showdown and it Flowery brand. I'm not ready to
say that now that we get hurt our movie trailer
(18:35):
voice going yeah. But nonetheless, I think that they want
some big showdown. Yeah, maybe that will develop over the
course of the preseason. Maybe Desmond Ridder will generate some
buzz and some enthusiasm with a preseason performance or two.
But nonetheless, I still think it's Marcus Mariota early. And
I don't think that's bad for Desmond Ritter either. No,
(18:57):
I don't think that's bad for him. No. I mean,
I think the reason why you bring Marcus Mariota in
here is to be to have this other chance at starting.
Arthur Smith wouldn't have brought in just anyone off the street.
He wanted Marcus Mariota because of the history that they have,
because of the chance that they have to kind of
(19:18):
resurrect his career. So in saying all of that, I
think it's really good to have Marcus Mariota in here
for you know, two years, maybe more, maybe less. We
don't know, because I don't think if Desnon Ritter was
the number eight pick, I think this is a completely
different conversation. He was not. He was the seventy fourth
(19:39):
overall pick. That changes, I think the vision that you
have for someone at that position. So I think this
is all good. I think they work really well together
in that quarterback room. I think they're learning alongside each other.
I think they're gonna push each other. I don't mind
that that it's gonna be I don't I don't mind
(19:59):
that it's not going to be desmon or it is
going to be Marcus. I mean, I think this is okay. Overall,
you don't have Matt Ryan anymore. Like I know you're
looking for a franchise quarterback, but I just don't know
at this point in time, you don't have a Matt
Ryan on the roster. Matt Ryan was drafted third right,
third right. Desn'ts drafted seventy four. And I think there's
(20:19):
some confusion because Desmond was the second quarterback taken that
maybe that that he's giving some some kind of falsely
elevated status. But nonetheless, I think we need to go
into it with this lingering, with the understanding that we're
not going to know who the long term solution is
at quarterback in camp or in week one nope, or
heading into the twenty twenty three drafts exactly, maybe not
(20:40):
even then, Like this is such a long process, it's
slow burn. I want people to get that through their heads. Yeah,
and then and I think that that's okay. You want
if you're Arthur Smith, you want options. If Marcus Mariota,
sorry Marcus Mariota takes this job stranglehold style and runs
with it, he's twenty years old. You have a good quarterback.
(21:01):
Your offense is fun and entertaining, which is what Falcons
fans like, entertaining and winning together. Right, And yeah, that's true.
That's why we all go see top Gun more than once. Nonetheless,
you look at that and that's a good thing. And
if Desmond Ritter develops on a slower path or a
quick one and he earns the job or steals it,
(21:23):
that's not a bad thing either. If you come out
of this you say we don't have any after twelve
months or a couple of years, you say we don't
have any long term solution, go back into the draft.
You're not committed to anything long term because the investment
is not great. So we're probably going to talk about
quarterbacks again. I would assume on a future installment and
you can make sure it goes straight to your phone
(21:46):
by subscribing on iTunes, Let's Spotify. How about just the
Falcons channel on YouTube? Have you seen what they're pumping
out these days? That's good stuff. Nonetheless, do all those
types of things I think we're gonna do, like mailbag podcast.
I just came up with that right now, So we'll
ask for questions on social media at that time. But
get them ready. Even if they're quarterbacks, that's fine. We
(22:08):
like talking about them too. Even if you're wondering what
Starbucks drink I'm drinking right now? Yeah, it's uh. I'm
reading it and there are so many instructions. I can't
possibly something about light ice and twenty eight pumps of
vanilla twenty eight seem excessive. Yeah, well that's when I
said what I ordered you one one time. Anyway, we
got to get out of here. Thank you guys so
much for joining us. We're gonna talk to you again,
(22:30):
real real soon. I promise you go find a white
sand beach. That's what all the Falcons players are doing.
They're running and staying in shape on the like on
the white sand beach, and then they're laying on a
chaise lounge under the sun. Yeah, I'm we all need
to do that from time to time because we've got
training camp coming up. Wait, it's pretty soon, so nonetheless,
enjoy your time off. Thank you so much for listening,
and we'll talk to you again, real real soon.
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