Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder and what to expect from OTAs | Falcons Final Whistle

Tori and Scott break down what to expect from Falcons OTAs and minicamp, including storylines to follow during this practice-heavy portion of the offseason program. Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Casey Hayward, among others, will be top of mind for players to keep a close eye on as we move forward. But, as always, the primary focus will be on quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, everybody, and welcome to another edition of The
Falcon's Final Whistle podcast, brought to you by Windows eleven.
I'm Scott Bear along here with Tory Mcellanian to quote
the Lion King Whomba. Most specifically, Wow, our trio's down
to two. Oh that one so good. Here here's what
I was gonna do. I was gonna be like, you know,
on the episode of New Girl where they think Nick

(00:22):
is going to die and they're still they're at the
bar and they're like, and Winston's like, this is a
sad song. I was like, that's kind of what this
feels like without crisping. Yeah. Normally there is a chair
over here occupied by our dear friend and colleague Chris
rim who did his last podcasts last time, and then

(00:44):
he took a brief sojourn in Portugal and now he's
gonna go to a little paper called The New York Times,
which is what I say every time I mentioned his
career pathrooms. Also, honestly, I saw a comment the other
day that said Chris had the best voice of the podcast.
Agree with that so too. I think my voice is
incredibly annoying, and and I do I think it's so annoying,

(01:09):
and so I honestly very rarely to like listen back
to the podcast because I'm like, oh gosh, I can't
hear my voice. Well, there there will be no more
sultry tones of Chris rim but we are as we
move through the summer, we are going to start having
guests on the podcast. Get some fresh energy in here.
But that's all for the future. Another shameless plug before
we get started on what will be an Ota Primer

(01:32):
podcast where we delve into everything that the Atlanta Falcons
are going to do over the next two and a
half or three weeks, including I believe it's ten OTAs
that officially started that there first of ten on Tuesday,
and they run through a mandatory mini camp if I
can say that right in mid June, and then they
go real quiet until training camp. Um. But before we

(01:54):
get to that, just a quick promo. On June third,
clear your calendars, go down to Mercedes ben Stadium to
watch the Falcons Ota practice. That's gonna be awesome. Yeah,
And then after the practice, we're gonna do a live
episode of Falcon's Final Whistle with me with you and
who knows and a player. Yeah, a player dot do's dot.

(02:18):
It could be anybody from your imagination. Maybe it's Grady Jarrett.
Maybe it's Lorenzo Carter, who we're gonna get too later
in this podcast. It could be one of the new
NFL draft picks. You're gonna have to show up to
find out. And also there will be time for you
guys to ask questions too, So all that stuff is
gonna be fun. June third, Mercedes Benz Stadium be there
or B Square. Before we get to all that coming

(02:40):
up next week, let's focus on what's coming up right now,
and that's the offseason program is starting to ramp up
a little bit. Now. Are they putting pads on? No,
they're not, so there's still elements that this isn't a
full training camp period, but it's the first time that
we get to see the veterans and the rookies interact.
The first open Otia where we can all take lots

(03:02):
of bad cell phone pictures and tweet them out is Thursday,
So stay tuned for lots of content coming up about
that tory kind of what are you expecting? What do
you kind of want to see from like from this
OTA period when there's so much roster turnover heading into
twenty twenty two. I think that's the main thing. I
want to be able to see this group performed together.

(03:24):
I know, you know, OTAs is kind of you know,
it's not training camp. OTAs is really the first chance
that we get to see this group together, and I
think that's what I'm most looking forward to. It's not
necessarily that I want to see them go out and
compete like how they will in training camp. I just
want to see what this team looks like together. I
want to see what this offensive line looks like all

(03:45):
lined up together. And I'm not just talking about the
I mean the A team, however, the first team, however
you want to say, I'm talking reserves. And I want
to see how these receiving weapons actually look out on
the field all together. I know we've been talking about
how tall they are, how big they are, how they
actually coincide. And then also just some pairings that I'm

(04:07):
looking forward to seeing. I'm looking forward to seeing these
draft picks go alongside some of these veterans. I'm excited
to see Rashaw and Evans and Troy Anderson work side
by side. You know, It's that kind of stuff that
we've been talking about for months, but now we actually
had the first opportunity to actually see these groups working together. Yeah,

(04:27):
and we are going to dive into all of the
players that we are interested to kind of get that
first look, that first glimpse of in a Falcon's uniform,
some of these draft picks, and of course we're going
to have a lot of quarterback talk, as you would
expect for a team with Matt Ryan now on the
Indianapolis Colts and Desmond Ritter the third round draft pick
and veteran Marcus Mariota in Flowery Branch here getting ready

(04:52):
to kind of lead that offense. But before we do
all that, a big thank you to our sponsor, Microsoft,
Windows eleven, the official operating system of the NFL in
the Atlanta Falcons, the all know Windows eleven is here
to bring you closer to what you love, like this
Falcons Final Whistle podcast. Learn all about the awesome new
features of Windows eleven at Windows dot com. So, I mean,

(05:13):
let's start with the most popular position obviously, Yes, exactly,
Let's go straight to that right tackle position battle and
kind of go from there. The quarterbacks coming in. This
will be the first I mean, rookie minicamp doesn't count
because Matt Ryan wouldn't have been there anyway. So this
Thursday will be the first time the media will be

(05:34):
in front of a full squad Falcons practice without Matt
Ryan there in over a decade. In over a decade, Yeah,
all the thirteen plus years. That's gonna be different. Yeah,
different isn't bad, but it's gonna take some adjustment, right
for the for the new quarterbacks coming in, for the
offensive line, working with new guys, for the coaches, for

(05:55):
so many different things. Matt's footprint and his legacy here
is huge. It will go on through the history books, right.
But now that they're turning the page here with OTA's look,
they're gonna make mistakes. There's going to be pre snapped this,
there's going to be inaccurate thrills. So when you see
the tweets come out, right, let's not panic and let's
not put a hierarchy of where Marcus is and where

(06:17):
Desmond is and where Felipe is. Right, But these quarterbacks,
these quarterbacks can move right, and I think it's it's
it's going to be interesting to see what kind of
command they have and how they're able to kind of
run this offense knowing full well that that Marcus is
probably going to be the alpha as we start the
offseason program. Yeah, and I think that's not something that

(06:39):
is unknown, you know, Like I know, a lot of
people are talking about Desmond getting some reps and everything,
and he's going to get his reps. I mean, I
think we're so far away from the start of the
season that to talk about a day one starter and
who we think it'll be is kind of doing a
disservice to the process of OTA's and training camp and
what this coaching staff and learn about Marcus, Mariota and

(07:01):
Desmond Ritterer. So but I do go back even in
saying that, I do go back to what Arthur said
the night that Desmond Ritter was drafted. He was like,
you know, Marcus is the veteran in that room. He's
played a lot of NFL football that matters. He's played
in an Arthur Smith's system, that matters. I think that
they will still be learning about Desmond Ridder throughout the

(07:25):
next three ish weeks and throughout training camp, and they'll
still be learning about Marcus too. I'm excited to see
just these guys out there. I know that goes back
to my very first thing, but like, I really am
excited to see how Desmond pushes Marcus and Marcus pushes Desmond.
I do think that this pairing is going to be

(07:47):
beneficial for both guys, and I think that there's sometimes
you can't say that about every competition in every position group,
but I do feel like you can say that about
these two guys because I think they both and this
is a theme that we've talked about over the course
of the last few months, is like this team has
something to prove. I think this quarterback group, Marcus and

(08:10):
Desmond and Felipe two, they all have something to prove.
Desmond wants to prove that he should have been a
first round pick. Marcus wants to prove that you know,
he was a first round pick and he deserved that.
And he honestly like just getting back into a starting
rotation is or not even a rotation, a starting role.
That's what he's trying to prove that he is that guy.

(08:32):
He still is that guy. And so that to me
is very interesting. It's a very interesting storyline when you're
heading into OTA's and then training camp, and then you know,
the first of the season. Yeah, and when you look
at it. And I was asked in the most recent
Bear mail that came out on Monday, who my biggest

(08:53):
surprise was going to be this season, like a bold
prediction and may type of thing, And I said, look,
you can go ahead an alert freezing cold takes and
that's fine. And when he if he doesn't win the
a starting job being rubbed in my face, But I said,
Marcus Mariota, I just have a feeling that because of
the environment, he knows the scheme and because Desmond Ritter
is here to push him. Desmond Ritter, I thought, said

(09:15):
it so well during his last press conference where he
basically said, look that he looks up to Marcus, he
that they have similar skill sets, that there's a healthy
respect for one another. But they're gonna push each other
and Desmond ridder. For as much as I think that
they'll like working together, I think Desmond wants the number
one job. Yeah, right, But I think that's a good

(09:36):
environment for Marcus to be in. He's not being handed
at anything. If he's gonna want to prove that he's
an established starter in what maybe his last opportunity to
do so. Right, that he's going to need to be
at his best early and learning and then performing and producing. Right,
So I think this is a good environment for him.

(09:57):
I still go back to the fact that he was
a number two over all draft pick for a reason, right, right.
Not every number two overall draft pick works out, But
I think that he has the skill set, especially when
paired with the skill players here that he can and
Cordarrell Patterson in the backfield, I think there's an opportunity
for him to thrive. We're not going to know about
that for three or four months. But back to your

(10:19):
point is that this is a good opportunity to see
these guys running around, to see what it looks like
with a truly mobile quarterback, and to see what Arthur
Smith is going to come up with to accentuate these
guys talents. So I think it's gonna be fascinating. And look,
quarterback is going to be a hot topic. Yeah, we're
going to talk about this for so long. I mean,

(10:41):
this is gonna I think that's fine. I do two.
I mean it's fun because we haven't been able to
say that right over a decade. And that's nothing against
Matt Ryan having an established guy at quarterback that you
trust is a luxury and it is great. Now the
Falcons don't necessarily have that luxury anymore, and it's gonna
be everybody's gonna want to know about this position and
how Desmond Ridder looks, how Marcus Mariota looks, how they're

(11:04):
connecting with Kyle Pitts and Drake London and etcetera, etcetera.
All of that is going to be a topic of
conversation until a starter is named, and even then, even
then it does even if Marcus is starter day one,
I think we're still going to be talking about Desmond
Ritter and his progress throughout the course of the season
as well. Yeah, I think because he wasn't the number

(11:25):
eight overall pick, he was the number seventy four overall pick,
there's no assumption or commitment to him being the long
term franchise quarterback. So at first we have the who's
going to be the day one starter question? And how
do they fit in like into this offense question and
how is Desmond Ritter doing over the course of the
year question. There's also a bigger one. I know Arthur

(11:48):
Smith is focused on twenty two, as I like talking
about twenty three. But the bigger question is, are one
of these guys Marcus Mariota is only twenty eight? Are
one of these guys your long term answer at quarterback?
And that's going to be an overarching question for a
long time, heading into twenty twenty three, when they may
have to make a new decision on the quarterback, or

(12:10):
they may feel really comfortable with who they have and
they can focus on other things. So I think for
all those reasons, it's going to be fascinating to watch
these guys and dissect it. And I'm sure the coaching
staff will like roll their eyes at us sometimes and
we'll drive them nuts because we're going so far into it.
But it's such a unique, so important. Yeah. Yeah, So look,
we're not going to have an answer tomorrow or Thursday

(12:31):
when we start, you know, tweet and stuff out. But
it's all small pieces of information on a bigger puzzle.
So when you're when you're reading the stories on Atlanta
falcons dot com, when you're on social, when you're seeing
these little videos and snippets of action, right, store it away,
add it all up, make an informed opinion down the road,
as opposed to quick Yes, I'm lecturing. Well, honestly, do

(12:55):
you know how far that lecture will go on Twitter?
It will not go very far. We'll not go No.
I mean, I think you're absolutely right. But at the
end of the day, everybody wants to consume immediately. That's
what the game of social media is. You consume immediately,
make a snap decision and a snap judgment, and you're
telling people not to right, They're going to be really

(13:16):
feel like Scott like, let I know all this kind
of high and mighty football as academy academia. There you go.
So Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ritter, Felipe A. Franks, especially those
working with the first unit, are going to be throwing
to a basketball team. The core of pass catchers here,

(13:37):
which if you subscribe to this podcast, if you don't,
please do, has been a major topic of that wide
receiver was a major need. Well, they went out and
spent the number eight overall draft pick on a guy
named Drake London, who, in addition to being a pretty
awesome football player, average twenty nine points per game as
a high schooler in basketball. If you haven't seen his
five forty dunk, do it. But he's six three an

(13:58):
autumn Tad is six five and Kyle Pitts is six
four six four. Yeah, right, that you're that's a big
Cornaro Patterson six two six. I mean, I guess we
can include a six two guys. But the other thing
I think about when I think of all these guys,
Drake London, huge catch radius, Kyle Pitts, massive wingspan, huge

(14:20):
catch radius. So you can be on target or maybe
a little off target and still get a completion out
of these guys. I think that's going to be important
for this offense is they start to kind of get
in sync. But Arthur Smith of course said, hey, look,
I don't distillate against Alamoda Zakias. No, he said, I
don't discriminate under wide receivers under the under six foot

(14:42):
which is nicest, which is super nice of him to say,
And then he goes on to say, I love Alamoda Zakius.
It's one of one of my favorite professionals. I want
to ask him why Oz is his favorite. He said
he said that a few times, yes, and that's nothing
against Oz. Like we've talked to him if few times.
I enjoy talking to him, and he's made some clutch
plays he has but for Arthur Smith to say this

(15:07):
is my favorite professional, my favorite guy to coach. Intriguing.
I will be asking that at some point over the
course of OTAs and or training camp, be on the
lookout for it. Yeah. I think it's gonna be interesting
and to see how this group comes and evolves, right,
because there's so much new here, and there was so
much new that needed to come in because Calvin Ridley

(15:28):
is out for the entire year, Russell Gages in Tampa Bay.
Frank Darby, as we've said a bunch of times, was
the only is the only returner with at least one
reception outside at the time he was tendered yet and
signed his Yeah, thanks for the clarification problem that would
have garnered a couple of years. Oh yeah, I got
your back, bro, Thank you. So as you look at

(15:48):
this wide Receiver corps, I think there's intrigue there that
this is. This is another group where you thought major need.
Can they take care of it all in one year?
And now I think that's still a mayor your question Mark,
But how is that group going to come together? Expecting
a first year wide receiver to be like do what
Justin Jefferson did is pretty difficult, I think because it's

(16:11):
so complicated the position. But going in to see Drake
London against veterans at rookie Minicamp, he's against you know,
tryout cornerbacks and its half speed and now it's still
no contact, but at least it's going to be maybe
AJ versus Drake or Casey Hayward versus Drake. Those are
the types of matchups that, even if they're not truly physical,

(16:31):
that I really want to to see play out. Yeah.
And I also I've noticed this when I sit and
I write stories about the Falcons offense, just over the
overarching idea of the Falcons offense, I tend less to
write wide receiver corps and just receiving weapons. Ye, because

(16:53):
I think you can't put Kyle Pitts with Drake London
and with Brian Edwards and he not he's a tight end.
And Arthur Smith, I think, would say he's a tight
end first and foremost. That's our tight end. And so
I think even though he is gonna be one of
the most important receiving weapons, same exact thing for Cordarrell Patterson.

(17:14):
He's a running back, but he's one of the most
important receiving weapons that I think is the scope of
what this offense wants to be is that they have
and it comes up all the time, the versatility to
keep defenses on their toes, not knowing what they're going
to do with CP, not knowing what they're going to
do with Kyle, not knowing what they're going to do
with Drake. I think that is what makes this Falcon's offense,

(17:38):
and Arthur Smith in the entire offensive coaching group, I
think that's their goal is they want to be a
confusing offense. And so when you're talking about wide receivers
and how important it was that they rebuilt that position,
to me, it's more. It's it's more than that. It's
more than just the receivers or the wide receiver. It's

(18:00):
all about these other pieces as well, So the six
round tight end. John Fitzpatrick had his first rookie minicamp
press conference the other week. Within five minutes of him
taking the podium with a microphone in front of him,
he said a phrase. He said, positionless football. Yeah, already,

(18:22):
already we're here. He'd only been there in Flowery Brands
for like forty eight hours, and he'd already heard the
term positionless football, which I think goes to what you're
saying is that they You're right to say, all right, well,
Kyle Pitts can only be involved in this because he's
a tight end or you know what I mean, to
bring their positions in. I've been asked a lot, well,
how much is Cordero going to play in the backfield?

(18:43):
Do we need to put an RB by his name? No,
it's just why at the end of the day, it
doesn't matter. I know Arthur Smith is very like he
gives he gives you a hard time, or not you
a hard time, but he gives people a hard time
about depth charts, like during the season and he just
kind of like man like depth charts aren't a thing,
just kind of like we know, it's one of those
things where it's like soho, so who cares about who's starting?

(19:07):
If Kyle Pitts isn't out there the first nap, it's
that package, like you know, it's it's very interesting to
me how they view what they have versus what I
think traditionally we view lineups and how they're used. And
we're going to see skill players moving all over the place,
and to forget about Brian Edwards in the basketball team.

(19:29):
He's six foot three, right, So yeah, he's gonna fit
right in. But in order for the skill players and
the quarterbacks to do what they do, you need a
pretty good, steady starting five. Yeah. Upfront on the offensive line,
it could be that the offensive line looks exactly like
it did last year. Yeah, Caleb mcgari at right tackle,
Chris Instrument right guard, Matt Hennessee center, Jalen Mayfield left guard,

(19:51):
Jake Matthews left tackle. It could be, but it could
It's very possible that that gets jumbled up somewhat, and
I think that that's going to be Again, we gotta
wait till Pad's get on before we know what's going
on there. But just I think offensive line is going
to be really intriguing to see not only who lines
up where, but how they operate with a truly mobile

(20:15):
quarterback and how they operate it, I think is going
to be fascinating because there is some competition there. Now. Well,
I think I've said this before, and maybe I said
on the podcast or maybe I wrote and I'm not sure,
but I am very interested in seeing this offensive line
in training camp. I think that group, maybe more than
any other group on this entire team is the one

(20:37):
with the most competition. I don't think that anyone anyone's
position is safe. And I think Arthur Smith has said that,
like we want to He talks about competition and having
competition all the time and finding these nasty guys up
front outside of maybe Jake because you know, they just
extended them for three years, and outside of Chris Lindstrom,

(20:57):
who you know, they just picked up his fifth year.
And I wouldn't put money down on anyone. I think
there's going to be a significant competition. Maybe not now
at OTAs, but when we get to training camp. I
was actually talking to coach Ledford, who's the offensive line
coach a couple of days ago, well actually knows around
the draft when they took Justin Schaefer and I asked him.

(21:20):
I was like, how excited are you to get to
training camp? And he was like, ha, you know you
could just see like the excitement, like, oh yeah, I
want these guys to go like beat up on each
other essentially, And he didn't say that, but I'm paraphrasing, like,
but that's what you want from these guys. You want
to understand who you have and offensive line is such
a interesting position because we're talking about position battles, but

(21:44):
collectively as a group of five, that's really important too,
how they work together. There's a lot of moving parts
when it comes to the offensive line, and I no,
offensive line doesn't sell. It's not a safety topic like
any of that kind of stuff, but it is going
to be so important when we're talking about what happens
over the course of OTAs, what happens over the course

(22:05):
of training camp, and when we get into the season,
and you have to have answers at some point before
you kick the ball off on September when Love right,
because we saw the Falcons offensive line last season kind
of evolved during the course of the year after after
some early struggles because Dalen Mayfield was playing right tackle
a lot that they didn't have a set starting five.

(22:25):
So I think as we move through the offseason program,
as we get into training camp, we start seeing where
some of these new guys are lining up and who's
working with first units. I know our drives, Arthur Smith nuts,
but nonetheless, to see how this whole thing is going
to shake out is really interesting. And it's not like
we're talking about Drake London and we're talking about Dezen Ritter.

(22:47):
We're talking about offensive line play. But I think without
the offensive, without the offensive line play, yeah, there won't
be a lot of highlights to talk about. Now, you're
not going to see Marcus Mario to take off for
you know, five yards if this offensive line camp plot
for him. Now the Falcons defense defense. If you're a
Falcons defender and you're listening to this podcast, one, thank

(23:09):
you too. You feel like a little slighted. We've been
talking about the offense the whole time, and now we're
like running down to the end of it. I'm like, oh, ps,
there's a whole other side of the ball that's been
completely remade. Yeah. Um, so when you get to that
side of it, Um, there's a lot of new pieces there. Yeah.
Who were you most excited to see over the course

(23:31):
of these OTAs? Lineup? Anybody knew, anybody old that you
want to? I mean, I I don't know how many
times I've said this, and I'm gonna say it again.
I feel like this podcast has just been me reiterating
all of the points that I feel like I've already made,
but which is right about where we are. It's time
for some action and the OT exactly going to give
it to us. Yes, finally, um Casey Hayward and A J. Terrell.

(23:54):
I am so excited to see that pairing. Like and
I know that in OTA's it's different because you don't
have the pads on. You really don't have them going
one hundred miles an hour down the sideline or anything
like that. You don't have them bumping all the way down.
I mean that's I'm just excited to see those two
because I think that that those two change what Dean

(24:18):
Peace can do in front of them, and I think
that's really important. I think having Isaiah Oliver back is
going to be really important. I really want to see
what he does this year. I know he's on a
one year deal because I believe, and this again people
might think this is hot take, but I do believe
that he for the majority of his time in Atlanta

(24:39):
has been playing out of position. And it wasn't until
the back half of the twenty twenty season, when Raheem
Morris moved him to Nickel and then Dean Peace kept
him there that we really saw what Isaiah Oliver could be.
And I think, you know now he's coming off of
ACL that sucks. You know, there's no if ins or
butts about it, like it's not good. But you have

(25:01):
this one. He's on this one. You're a proven deal.
He has AJ Terrell beside him, he has Casey Hayward
beside him. And then you have you know, your deep safeties.
You have Richie, you have Jalen Hawkins, you have Eric
Harris is coming back. I mean, I think that this
secondary with AJ Terrell and Casey Hayward kind of being

(25:22):
the anchors of it, changes things for Dean P's and
what he can do. I think that's what I'm excited about. Yeah,
and when it comes to secondary play, you will probably
get a clearer picture of what they're doing and how
they're operating at OTAs and things like that, then you
will the guys up front. But that's not gonna prevent

(25:43):
me from saying a guy that I'm fascinated to see
not only in these early OTAs, but over the course
of the entire offseason and training camp. And that's another
Georgia Bulldog on the team, Lorenzo Carter. He's a guy
that he's had five sacks before. He's a big, strong guy,
intriguing talent. He was one of the early early er

(26:05):
free agent signings I think. And you actually covered Georgia
when he was there. Give us a little scouting report, yeah,
him like what can I what can you exact? Yeah?
So I really enjoyed my time covering Lorenzo Carter. It
was the year that it was him and Nick Chubb
and Sony Michelle and they decided to come back. I

(26:26):
think that was the big That was the big storyline
of that year is when they went to the National
Championship lost Alabama, but we won't talk about that, but
you know one b Baker Mayfield in the Rose Bowl
and then goes to the National Championship and it was
that year that they decided to come back. They all
could have gone into the draft, but they decided to
come back. And I think covering Lorenzo Carter in that year,

(26:49):
he I mean, it was just the picturesque year, even
though they didn't win the National championship, but for a
guy like Lorenzo Carter, it was he it was just
like his length all caught my eye. I mean, you
think about the he the one moment I think that
every Georgia fan or college football fan will remember is
in that rose ball when he blocked the block that

(27:10):
kick and in double overtime, and that was just you
saw his link there, like you saw you saw why
he is the player that he is and so and
I think that talking to him when he first got
to Atlanta, he was talker I guess flowery branch but
you know um, but he was talking about you know,

(27:31):
his He felt like he was finally coming along. And
then he has the Achilles tare and then last year
was all about just trying to get back into the
form that he thought. And then I think you saw
in the last five games of last season what really good.
It's really good what he can be and what he

(27:52):
hopes to be. I mean he had like a sack
and every single uh, every single game the last like
five weeks the season had like a lot of tackles
for loss, Like I mean, it was a significant time
for him. It's showing and I think that's why he
was willing to take a one year deal, is showing
teams that person that you saw for those five games,

(28:15):
that is who I am, not what you saw before
when I was trying to get right with the with
the Achilles all that kind of stuff. It's this guy,
and so I think I'm excited as well to see
what he can does, especially because you know he's going
to play a big role because that outside linebacker group
is so young. They have so much so so young.
Like I was talking to Ted Manicino, who's the outside

(28:37):
linebackers coach, and he was like, you know, it's nice
because you can kind of build them and morph them
into what you want. Because you think Audio Ogan Daiji
is the second year guy. You have Arnold Ebuketti and
D'Angelo Malone, two rookies. These guys are young. They have
a lot that's gonna kind of be thrown at them
in this year, particularly having Lorenzo Carter there as a

(28:59):
guy who really wants to prove like I am the guy.
I think that's it's gonna be good. I think it's
it may not be significant sack numbers good, but I
think for their all their personal growth, it'll be good. Yeah,
and they're gonna need him, as you pointed out, to
play a major kind of stabilizing role. That means good

(29:20):
against a run, that means creating havoc in the backfield,
something that they struggled to contain even slightly mobile quarterbacks.
So we're looking for improvement from this defense, knowing it's
kind of a multi year project, but there's so much
new here, from the quarterback spot all the way through
the defensive backfield. It's gonna be interesting. It's gonna be
tough for us to remember the right numbers for the
right guys. I know, everybody's so different. I think I

(29:43):
think Rashaw and is, Evans is fifty four, and that
was Foyer, and I'm just like, I don't know who
I'm looking at flashbacks. Yeah, and it'll be interesting to
see how these guys come together for the first time.
So be sure to stay tuned to Atlanta Falcons dot
com for all of your Falcons content needs. There there
will be lots of good stuff, and again rate review.

(30:04):
Subscribe to The Falcon's Final Whistle podcast. To our friends
over at Falcons Audible. They're awesome as well, and please
come down to the stadium and say hi. Yeah so
much Frank questions. Yeah, we're super excited to finally be
able to interact directly with fans and stuff like that.
You'll get to see our faces in real life, real life,
and we're going to do all that on June third,

(30:26):
so come on down. Can't wait to see you, and
we'll talk to you soon