August 27, 2025 • 35 mins
Derek, Dave, and DJ react to the Atlanta Falcons' initial roster, sharing what stood out to them as the most interesting stories and the biggest surprises. They also talk about what the answer might to fill the offensive line holes, and finally discuss what needs to happen for this roster to make the playoffs this season.
0:26 - Intro & "actual" football
4:45 - Biggest roster takeaways
15:20 - Remaining roster questions
23:00 - Pushing for the playoffs
33:38 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
stock items by four pm, subject to availability. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome back to the falcons Amo, presented by Anti, your crew,
your trio, the Fellas are back here with you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's d J. Shockley, Dave Archer.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Derek Rackley and guess what we are One step
closer now, one step closer to the regular season. And
I hate the term sometimes with a phrase actual football
because it's still football right OTA's mini cams preseason is
still football, but it's it's the meaningful football and sidebar
(00:55):
for all of us former players and the real players.
You know why else they look forward to the regular season.
Get them check paychecks.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Game paychecks are real once you get into September.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Probably don't even realize that to you getting like four
hundred twenty five dollars a week in the preseason.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Then all of a sudden whoo, something else happened.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
If you weren't aware.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So, just real quick, NFL players and most probably all
the professional sports, when they're when they're contract states, they
don't start getting paid that money until after the first
game of the regular season. So let's just say somebody's
making four million dollars, they don't get start getting their
pro ratus share of that until September. Before then, they're
getting just little spending money like stuff that.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Doesn't need really, just enough to go down.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We're not telling you this to feel sorry for l
NFL player, especially in twenty twenty five, because the money
is outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
However, we'll tell you as a rookie and maybe even
as a second thirty guy, when they gave those free
turkeys away during Thanksgiving, I was right in there, even
though I was getting.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
My regular season game check.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So that's all real, uh, Before we get into the roster,
we want to send the little congratulations to artillery, a little,
a little Irish victory, give me something.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
It was a luck of the Irish full ye state
Roco was doing it.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
All.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
That sounds a lot very English.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I don't care. Whatever it was, it's so good, it's
so good, good so great.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, good the luck of the No, it was you
definitely did the luck of the shock uh Shockley wish.
Just really good luck last week and I think that's
what you carried us through. Yeah, good win for for
Matt Campbell and Iowa State. Rocko becked at quarterback Anthony
Beck's son, kid, that that is coming on. I think
his value is.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Going up, uh every week. Huh yeah. Avery Johnson another
really good quarterback for k State, but.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
A lot of turnovers, slippery field reining all that, they
had to repaint the lines on the field. But the
eye I told you the Iowa State fans would be
there in droves. And let's face it, Hey, am I
gonna might go go out and sit on my front
porch and look at the cornfield, or I'm going to
go to Ireland have some pints. And they went to Ireland,
had some pints, and they were able to carry it
(03:08):
through twenty four to twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
All right, So uh, Arch's Cyclones got a victory in
the first week of the season. Remember he's the one
that says he doesn't like me to say is it
week zero?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
So we'll just call up.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
The week of the season.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Uh, and I was in Kansas last weekend and the
only thing I'll say Kansas came away with a victory
is keep your eye on Jalen Daniels. Not to be
confused with Jayden Daniels. Jalen Daniels quarterback for Kansas. Kid's
a really good player if he can stay healthy. He's
electric with the football. It's always the first one in
the year.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
What years is for him? Can you call him kidd?
Isn't he like thirty one years old or something like.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That when you're our age, there's still a kid. However, yes,
I understand sixty been there, been around a little while,
but sometimes that helps.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
She's got a life for him.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Do a real well in a six year old ed Kansa.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, Actually there was I think there
was a seventh your player there in that game last weekend,
and I got Texas Ohio State this weekend. There's a
seventh year player. And starting to see players that started
their college career in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's crazy. Still on the roster.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Jersey, I don't need to go pro in the seven
eight years and didn't retire all right, Well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Speaking of pro, because we have officially passed the Tuesday
at four pm deadline, the Falcons now have their initial
roster for twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay, so fellas, let's go ahead and discuss this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Let's get it in and out, left and right, top
to bottom, and.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
DJ, I want you to go first.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I want to say, when when you saw the first
list come out, I want to know where did your
eyes go first? What was the position group or player
or thing that you wanted to see? Did he make
it or did he not?
Speaker 5 (04:48):
First thing I went to was secondary. I was really
interested to see what they did because there's so many
talented dudes that we've seen obviously with the secondary, so
many guys in and out. We saw both the rooks
didn't play in the last preseason game, so you kind
of felt like, Okay, these guys are moving into those
spots that we've been talking about. But then I saw
(05:08):
no Jordan Fuller and that kind of that kind of
I stepped back from me and said, wow, I mean
I thought he was coming here to be that other
veteran guy beside Jesse Bache, even a depth guy, because
you drafted a guy to play in that role. We
saw Xavier watch do a lot of good things with
Jesse Base during our practice times, we saw and then
I started to think back. I said, man, you know,
going back to two years ago, the Marco Hellms look
(05:30):
really good. And then we saw when at first prezeas
the game man, he was flying right, he was dropping people.
He he he gives you something. You're like, you know,
maybe maybe we don't need that guys much. And you know,
you think about you bring a guy in and say, yeah,
he's a guy that we really like, we want him
to be in the system. He played for Raw, he
knew him really well. But then you say, okay, we'll
(05:50):
to make sure DeMarco Hellms is fully healthy, got through
preseason fully healthy, played well, and then it kind of said, okay,
well maybe we don't need to add a full safety.
Maybe we can use this spot for a noted position.
So secondary was a big part of it. You know,
Clark Phillips on the roster obviously, a guy who didn't
play a lot in preseason, was hurt, was down. Seeing
Natron Brooks, who had a really good preseason balling inside outside,
(06:16):
played pretty well throughout the preseason. And then a couple
of guys who were like kind of on the bubble
from me was like a Mike Ford Jr. Was a
really good special teams player, had his times on the
defense side of the ball. But all those guys made
the roster and pretty pretty cool to see how they
came up with the amount of guys they had for
the initial roster.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, so ten defensive backs, seven corners, three safeties and arch.
I want to get your opinion real quick on the
safety position because you wonder if they were going to
have the other veteran next to Jesse Bates. But I
think coming out of Notre Dame, everybody looked at Watson
said he's a very mature young man. Seems you always
want to say Notre Dame kid is probably pretty smart,
(07:00):
able to shoulder the load mentally, and it's it's almost like,
do you need a transition? But I think he showed
early on that not only does he have the maturity
to start opposite of Jesse Bates, but then you've got
that tutelage from a guy like Jesse Bates that he
can learn from every single day of the week in
practices and then leading up into the games.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, nothing better than to have Jesse Bates there. Oh,
by the way, you go to go in a room
and there's Jerry Gray and guys like that. So I
think the youngster kind of belies his years, is what
you're talking about. He's more much more mature, And we thought, Belie,
you gonna use that at Georgia.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Just looking up.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, he is a guy that I think is much
more mature than we maybe give him credit for, even
though he's a rookie in the National Football League, former
wide receiver, got ball skills. We've talked about that. Don't
be surprised though, and we talk and you mentioned initial roster.
There will be some adjustments between now and next week
when it comes to what this roster officially looks like
(08:00):
as you get to that number that they like to
talk about as you carry into the regular season, and
I would not be surprised if there's not some adjustments
in this position, specifically as.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Far as the numbers.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think there's going to be some adjustments there, So
just kind of be on the lookout for that. You
can see it at Atlanta Falcons dot Com constantly have
that covered for you if there's adjustments that happen on
the roster, and there will be some. But I agree
with you completely rack. I think that Xavier Watts showed
all the things that you'd hoped you were getting for
a guy that was that led the nation interceptions as
(08:35):
a junior, was a leader on that defensive football team
for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and then what six
interceptions his senior year, and a guy that really spent time.
Remember he roomed with Jesse Bates during training camps, so
to be able to absorb that information, I don't think.
I think you knocked it out of the park. Heats
exactly what he was.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I wanted to get your thoughts on that position.
But let's go outside of that. If you had something
else that you were kind of looking at when you
saw this initial roster posted, what kind of stuck out
to you?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well, I think that what stuck out to me. You know,
I played quarterbacks, So what's the old line look like?
You know, I think you really like the offensive line
prior to the end of last week when we lost
Caleb McGary to an injury. Looks like he's going to
miss some significant time from what Raheem Morris talked about.
And then Storm Norton is a guy that had ankle surgery,
(09:25):
so he'll be a guy that you can get back
at some point during the season. But that's your swing tackles,
So what's going on there? Elijah Wilkinson steps in and
probably we'll start at that right tackle position. Obviously, Again
I talked about the fluid situation what goes on with
the roster, but that looks like what is going on.
That's where my eyes went initially, because you know, you
want to get Pennis protected, you want Bjon running downhill.
(09:47):
But I think that the surprise for me Rack was
what happened in the interior defensive line. Okay, I think
you knew Onyamada, Rower, Row Dorless, Zach Harrison. I think
you had a pretty good idea there. Then where was
the rest of the depth? TQ Graham is a guy
I know they liked a lot. Now TQ is going
(10:07):
to start off on what the pup list right now,
so he's he's not going to be probably available. But
Lacale London, you talk about a guy that came into
camp and won a job on the team. We all
can identify with that, right not coming in as the
heralded guy, and how do I win a job? And
I got kind of a warm spot and thinking, hey,
(10:30):
that's a guy that came in and wanted because that
was a pretty we we felt like it was a
pretty deep roster spot right there, you know. And talking
about Kntavio Street, who's played a lot of ball here,
did a good job in training camp. There was a
number of guys there. Morgan Fox the guy they went
out and got who was a veteran player, but like
Kale London, how.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
About that a guy that they'd.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Elevated off a practice squad a couple of years ago
that played some maybe bulked up a little bit, played
his way onto the roster.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, And I think that was That was one of
the things that I looked at, Arches is sometimes when
we in shock we start talking about the preseason, we
don't get as interested because we see that none of
the starters are going to play in its backups. But
to me, there was a few names on here that
I felt like one roster spots with preseason play.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You mentioned Lakale London, another.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
One I thought about was Josh Woods, and then even
going to the running back position, you could probably make
the argument that Nathle Carter, after his performance in the preseason,
won himself a roster spots.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Exactly at the tight end.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So when when you kind of think about, oh, it's preseason,
I can't wait to just fast forward this to get
to the regular season. There are guys that one roster
spots initially because they embraced the competition. And sometimes it's
whether somebody gets banged up. Sometimes it's just you went
out and played better. You showed the coaching staff that
you deserve to be on this roster. Did you kind
(11:54):
of look at any of those names as well and say,
oh wow, he did end up earning a roster.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Yeah, No, had all three of those guys on on
my list as well. Talking about guys who really flashed
during preseason. Obviously, Josh Wards in that first game versus
Troit was a.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Guy who how about on Friday Night?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean you, I mean running through dudes. I
mean it's just a certain guy that just flashy. You
remember what they did in the ball game, and that
sticks out, That goes a long way.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
How about David.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Seals as well, a guy who, uh, we talked a
lot about the receiver spot and a lot of was
talked about drumming, talking about Chris Blair making plays. We
saw Nash make some plays in that last ball game,
and it ends up being a guy like David Seals
who has the size, who can play inside, play outside, uh,
will play teams as well, and a guy that fits
what they wanted. You look at that receiver Cord. You
(12:40):
got Drake London, who's probably the biggest guy you got,
you know, and then you got Mooney, you got ray Red,
you got k C. Washington, all kind of around the
same size, and you got Seals, a bigger type of
body who they add to that frey of players who
you know probably did really well doing during practice because
you know you saw him, didn't see him a lot
during the games, but obviously he did enough doing maybe
(13:01):
the joint sessions or even in practice that gave you
enough confidence say, you know what, this is a guy
we want to add to our roster and add to
it along with taking seven receivers with agnew at the
end of it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, so, arch I know this is the time to
be optimistic, right we haven't played a regular season game yet,
But how does this edge Rusher group look to you?
And how optimistic how excited are you about what this
group can do this year?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Well, you got to be extremely excited. Rack.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I think because of what you did in April, right,
the two guys you drafted, we saw a great deal
of James Pearce Junior and maybe some of the speed
and everything you expect. Didn't necessarily get to see what
Jalen Walker could bring to the table because of some
soft tissue issues, which I think he'll be fully healthy
when Tampa Bay comes to town. So you're going to
be able to get a full load of Jalen Walker.
(13:50):
Arnold Li Bacadie and Leonard Floyd. Leonard Floyd a known commodity.
You hope he can still get what he's done over
the last five seasons of his career of eight and
a half sacks plus over the last five seasons in
each of his locations. Arnold Abacadie a guy coming on
about do Angelo Malone.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
He started talking.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
You know, I'd be interested to hear what.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You have to say. Raq.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
When we talked a little bit about these guys that
are versatile players, and remember D'Angelo Malone, we talked about
played the edge and that's kind of where he that's
kind of where he got his name out of college,
coming out of Western Kentucky, and just a sack master.
He's been a special teams maven for they played him
an inside linebackers and so his versatility stand inside play linebacker,
(14:34):
Mike Ford, Josh Woods, D'Angelo Malone may be known more
for special teams play, but showed in camp their versatility
to play corner, nickel, linebacker, edge rusher.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think, yeah, and I think we know what we're
gonna get from caderol Hodge when it comes to special teams.
But again, depending on the numbers. That's also somewhere where
you might see a Jamal agnuea David Sills having the
actor in on the kicking game as well. Again, when
I say numbers, we're talking about active on game days, right,
There's actually gonna be these guys that are not going
to be active on game days. So it's just all
(15:09):
depending on health and then who shows during practice that
they're one of those guys that have to be on
the field for special teams because keep your eye on
that third phase of the game. One thing I did
want to note, doubt that kind of leads me into
my next question, is that's been reported that the Falcons
have made a trade for offensive tackle Michael Drell from
Seattle that has been reported. So I want to use
(15:31):
that as a kind of a takeoff point to say,
and I don't I'm not trying to lead you guys here,
because you can go wherever you want. I'm gonna start
with you. Shock is what of the what part of
this this roster do you feel like this has the
most concerned that might still be getting addressed over the
next couple of days or even the next week.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
I mean, it's not even more sugar code.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's where we just talked about an offensive line.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah, because as much as we talk about the skill
guys on the outside of how talented Michael Pennings is
or Drake Lund and Kyle Pitts, all these guys, the
John Robinson, all these guys who are really talented and
guys who can make a lot of plays for you,
if you can't protect the guy that's going to distribute
that football, it's kind of a moot point. So I
think that is one of the top conversations they've had
since Caleb McGarry went down, is how do we feel
(16:15):
the void of that spot because of a lot of
situations of they love to run the football and that's
part of what they want to do. We saw you
know a lot of people may have seen it in
the game situations, but this is a play action offense.
They want to move Michael Pennick. They want to be
able to use the stretch zone to be able to
you know, come out the backside and be able to
throw the football. You want to throw the football vertically.
You want to have time to push the football down
(16:36):
the field, which we know Michael Pennix loves to do.
He talked about it, you know a lot of time
about being able to stretch it vertically. You got to
secure up that offensive line. We know what the other
four guys about. We've seen him. They played a lot
of football together. All these guys are invested in this
league of when it comes to what you can do
in the National Football League, but there's always one piece
(16:57):
and you can't just act like it's not is nulling board,
act like oh, we can just put a tight end
over there, or we can just you know, chip mos
kind of stuff. This guy's going to have to hold
his own over there, and that's gonna be a big topic,
good conversation everybody talks about. Hey, is Michael Penny's backside protection. Yeah,
that's part of it too. And the Falcons do a
good job of, you know, the style of office at
which they do where it's not as dangerous as people
(17:19):
will think in the past, but it's still something that
you have to worry and concern yourself about. So who
feels that void, how they go about doing it, how
Xerob calls plays, according to who's there is a big
topical conversation because you can't you can't just act like
it doesn't exist. And I think you have to go
into a game plan understanding what you have at that
(17:40):
spot and the things that you can do with your offense.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I don't like to get overloaded or analytics, and I
think that sometimes we tend to lean on the numbers
too much. But there is something to Atlanta running the
football when you go back and look at the numbers.
Atlanta ran to the right side. Falcons ran right side
behind big Kalob, but Gary and obviously the all pro
Chris Leinstrom about fifty seven fifty eight percent of the time.
(18:04):
So you flip that over, now it's about forty three
percent over the time to Jake and now can you
change that up maybe, but McGarry had a special ability
as a road grader to come off the ball. That's
a big body, dude. We call him the big Viking
here because that's what he looks like, you know, coming
off the ball. Four and his hammer coming off the
ball with Leinstrom one of the best guards, if not
(18:24):
the best guard in.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
The country in the league. Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
How much does that change now from a game plan
standpoint to where maybe you start flowing the other way?
Does the Michael Pennock's left handed thing comes into play?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Shock?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
How much do you remember with Michael Vick? And this
is just a general statement, how much do you remember
with Michael did we move to kind of a left
handed type scenario because he was a left handed quarterback?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Is that? Is that real? Yeah? It's a real thing.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
And I think more than anything, it's about the comfort
level of the quarterback, and I think he was in
his brain understanding I feel more comfortable obviously as any
quarterback with what I can see, and a lot of
the would come going to that left side. And he
was really good throwing either way, So it was an
advantage for this offense. But it definitely was something that
was thought about when we went in the game plans
(19:11):
or we were talking about which way Mike's like to
move or which way he kind of shifts or motion
that motion but kind of moves within the pocket. That
was a big part of his comfort level. Is that backside?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You know, you guys talked a little bit about play calling,
and I think it's an important thing to talk about.
And I don't want to minimize anything from the projected
starter that we think and Elijah Wilkinson because we're not
at practice every day. I know you guys got to
watch a lot more of training camp than I did,
But maybe there is a lot more comfort level there
than what we think.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Number one.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Number two is, in my opinion because I've seen it
throughout the course of my career, is this is where
play calling from an offensive coordinator perspective really becomes. That's
that's where you can show how good you are. Is
what do you do from a scheme perspective arch to
put potentially protect Wilkinson a little bit, because you're right,
(20:03):
you can't always have somebody over the top of him,
but you can for a large percentage of plays have
something designed, whether it's a running back, checking on the
way out, a tight end starts there, a wide receiver
comes across the formation and gets a little shoulder pad
on this way out. In this route, there's a lot
of different ways arch where you can get everybody else
to help, just kind of push him back on right
(20:24):
if he gets if he gets on the edge, just
to make sure that he's not gonna sitting out there
on island all by himself. When they do have traditional
drop back plays.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, and I think that you touched on it right
there at the beginning. They're probably more comfortable with this
situation with Wilkinson, who played some guard during training camp,
slide not to tackle and be able to do this
because they have confidence. It's not his first rodeo, he's played,
he's played in the league, so they see him every day, folks,
so they have an idea of what this guy can
(20:53):
do and are very confident with him sliding into that position.
You're exactly correct. From a schematic standpoint. We can do
things that helped create, uh, maybe a little bit of
confidence in him. Maybe you're getting confident just like anybody.
You want to get up to speed and so some
confidence kind of get you going and then all of
a sudden maybe we can you can leave them alone.
(21:13):
And I don't know that Jake necessarily goes into the
game at oh, I'm completely locked up.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
That's okay, But tight End wants aship with me too.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I think that was going to have to be the
equation anyway there, rack In Shock, I think that from
a game plan standpoint, there is the entity that they
did not play the starters in preseason. Okay for speaking
from my perspective, and what I got a chance to
do as a player, playing in the games is a
little is a different deal. So there's going to be
(21:44):
a ramp up moment. Hopefully it's just a moment. It's
not a game that these guys.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Are going to have to do.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
And so who helps coax you through that?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Your play caller.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And so if Zach has a really good plan, which
I expect him to have against Tampa, make no space.
Tampa knows they got beat by Atlanta twice last year
and they're coming up here, you know, hoping to try
to take care of business. And they know they got
Penn explaining quarterback, and they know they've got a maybe
the third offensive tackle.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Playing whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So they're going to have a plan for I think
Robinson will counteract that and try to get everybody rolling.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
How else, how cool is it?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Also, you got a guy who coaches the position and
left for who's probably been there and done that.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
How big is that?
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Because you look at you look at Ross's staff, every
single position coach has played that particular position. You're talking
about having a guy who's been there, done that and
can help him as well, and you talk about to
play caller as well, and say, you know what, here's
some of the things that can help you as you
eat your way through this process of going from one
position to another or even within his offense and saying, hey,
(22:45):
all eyes are going to be on you for sure,
but here's how you got to handle it. And I
think that helps us having a guy who's been there,
done it. It helps a guy once you get in
there knowing that guy understands exactly what it's about.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Guys, I want to ask you this question because this
is one that I think a lot of our viewers
and lets are curious about. Now that we've got this
roster that has been announced, this initial roster is this
game the NFL is about winning. Don't make any mistakes
about it. It's about winning and getting to the postseason.
The easiest way to get to the postseason is winning
your division. Shure shack. I want to ask you this question.
(23:18):
This roster that you see, the initial roster, is this
roster built to win a division title and get to
the postseason.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I think it is.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I think you have the pieces in place that gives
you the confidence going into the season that if one,
of course is a big it's a big if. Every
team talks about if those guys stay healthy, and that's
a big part of every season, big part of every
team and everything. You'll go in and saying the same thing.
But I think if you look at this roster from
top to bottom and you go through every position group,
(23:47):
you say, you know what, I feel really good about
that guy. Oh we brought in d Divine Diabolo. Ooh
watching that guy in practice. This guy can run, this
guy can hit. This guy's downhill. Add him with killis
Oh my goodness, just talking about Leonard Floe on the outside,
been doing it consistently for a long time.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
We saw edmy Katie.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Come on.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Last year, you got Rook who's always so hungry. He
didn't get a lot of time last year doing it's
the same way. A lot of guys who are hungry,
ready to feel that void to beat those guys. You
got two young guys who come from uh four young
guys on that rookie class who come from programs where
they're used to winning, they're used to playing at a
high level. Then they got guys around him who can
help them. You feel really good about the talent that's there,
(24:26):
and then the talent on the officers about you know
what it's all about. Look at the offensive line who's
been together and done it minus the one piece that
you gotta add to it. But that's the great thing
about having continuity of front of it. You've got so
many guys who can bring those guys along. And you
got a guy in the backfield who when you do
Fantasy Draft, everybody said he's the number one overall pick
for a reason, like, come on, you can get that
(24:47):
guy to football. And then I mean it's a reason
you got five prize and people are excited to see
Michael Pennix Junior and what he's about.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Uh Falcons.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
When he got him at number eight, when there were
tons of teams who wanted him, so there is a
lot of expectations for a lot of guys on the team.
Drake Lunnon coming up, gonna be one of the top
paid receivers in the game, coming up next. I mean,
you got so many guys who you look at it so,
you know, I feel really good about the pieces, and
you bring them all together and they play at the
level that you expect them to play at. They can
(25:14):
play with anybody.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You're the analyst for the Atlanta Falcons radio network, Okay,
I know you've thought about this team a lot, with
the draft, with free agency, with what you've seen now
with the initial roster. Give me one or two of
your not for Tampa, but one or two of your
overall keys on what you feel like has to be
different this year for the Atlanta Falcons to frankly get
(25:37):
a different result when we finish the regular season.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, I think from a defensive standpoint, which is what
we attacked in the draft, the ability to get teams
in third and long situations, third and medium or third
and long. You have to be able to stop the run.
And I think a lot of people want to talk
about rushing the past or rush the pass or yeah,
(26:00):
but you've got to get yourself in position, you have
to rush to passer. In this day and age, when
coaches are going forward on fourth down, they're playing a
four down game. And so once I get probably to
about my forty five yard line, I'm thinking about going
forward on fourth down. If I can get a reasonable
down and distance, I've got to be able to defend
(26:20):
the run. That's why we talk so much about the interior,
and Shock was talking about the linebackers and Vine Diabolo
coming over. That's one of the areas that my eyes are.
And then Shock you talked about what is a positive
guys being very hungry, It also could potentially be a
detriment to you because you're depending on a lot of
young players to play. So dorles in a rower row
(26:43):
in the middle, the two edge guys that are rookies,
maybe a rookie nickel, maybe a rookie safety starting. You've
got a lot of young players on that side. They're
going to have to play grown up football. So that
concerns you a little bit as well. I think the
upside is through the roof if you see what they
did at the level they were at before, but we
(27:04):
need them to go to the NFL level and are
they ready for that? And does that mean you got
to be patient. You don't have time to be patient
when you look at the rat whether you look at
the schedule, you can't be patient, especially not out of
the box. You've got two divisional opponents your first three games.
You talked about you gotta go win the division. You
got to go get both those games.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm old school at heart, and so I love the
fact that you started with stopping the run because that's
what it does come down to. But I'm gonna give
you my two and then shock. I want you to
give me your one or two afterwards, but my two
are going to be this. Cut it, slice it however
you want. You got to get great play out of
your quarterback position in the National Football League. That's just
how it works, guys. And I saw something on social
media yesterday. Maybe you guys chime in on this as
(27:46):
somebody said, well, maybe this year needs to be one
that was kind of like two thousand and eight where
they ran the footballs early auto mats care I believe
its rookie year.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Kie.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
They ran the football, Michael turn, they played good defense, right, Well,
we can do that, right, we can run the football.
But though you know what, the one thing I also
noticed on the defense that year John Abrahead had sixteen
and a half sacks.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It's a little different, right.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So my two things are, if you're gonna win in
the NFL, you got to play great at the quarterback position.
And I am gonna be one of those guys arts
that says you got to get after the passer. After
you stop the run, you gotta get after the passer.
So teams are built and they win by investing through
the draft. Okay, and I think the Falcons did that.
Michael Pennock's first round are two first round ed rushers. Okay,
(28:31):
and you're right, there's not a whole lot of time
to figure this out, like it's a results based business.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Like do you win or do you lose?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And you can even say, well in college, yeah, they
have the whole academic in college, you gotta win football
games too. Okay, That's what it all comes down to.
So mine is quarterback play in pass rush. What would
be your It doesn't have to be two one, two three,
But what has to happen this year for the Falcons, Like, oh,
you're Jared producer, I'm sorry this is end up being
the fifteen minute podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
All right, go ahead, shot, I'm going to have to
wrap this up at some point.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
I got to I had one and then, you know,
I think. First thing is you have to be better
than you were last in the red zone. I think
last year there were times on both sides of the
ball where you should have been a lot better than
you were inside the red zone. The last one I
think is arch We've talked about this a lot. You
gotta win the turnover differential, and that's a big part
(29:26):
of the ball game because if you could turn people
over in sacks, force them in those third long situations,
force them to turn the football over, that gives more
opportunities to that side of the ball who we all
are excited to see. And if you can win that
part of the ball game that gives you, that gives
you a greater chance of winning more ball games, I
think than anything else. If you can turn people over
(29:47):
and then you could turn those into points, puts a
lot of pressure on the posing teams right away. So
if you could do that, thenk got a great chance.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
One point, I want to know what you guys think
about this. There's a lot of conversation about explosive plays. Okay,
and you go back to Bejon Robinson season a year ago,
fourteen hundred plus yards rushing, fourteen rushing touchdowns. Nine of
those touchdowns came inside the ten yard line.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Okay, So where is it?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
You both talked about down the field throwing the football
with Pennis. That's a piece of it. But how much
do we need the explosives? How much do we need
the thirty yard but maybe the home run touchdown run?
We talked, we there's been some conversation. Bijon did some
work in the offseason about making guys missing the open field.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
He was third in the National Football.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
He wasn't well, that's saying I've got the number written
downe eighty three misstackles third best in the National Football.
But the home the home run ball do is that that?
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Where does that fall in?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
You?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Guys's idea of this is going to be a successful
offense with more Do we need more home run shots?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And the reason here's here's what I would equate this to.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And I know it's not the same, guys, but I
come from a special team's background, and we always talked
about the punt being one of the most important plays
in football because it's the one play where you can
guarantee to change field position of forty yards or more
on one play. Okay, well, how about an explosive play.
Is that not the same thing where you can change
you can flip the field.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You could be on.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Your own thirty or thirty five and you can hit
a fifty yard pass and all of a sudden you
are knocking on the door of the red zone. You
are immediately looking at points. So yes, expulsive plays and
however they come. Whether that's a five yard crossing route
that gets thrown to Jon Robinson he makes three people
miss and he ends up taking it, or it's Drake
(31:39):
London going up over the top of somebody because Michael
Pennix wants to air it out and he's got the
cannon to do it, or however they come. But I'm
a huge proponent of some explosive plays because now you're
taking an offense that's maybe trying to put together an eight, ten,
twelve play drive, and now maybe it's a six play
drive to put points on the board. Not that we're
trying to score fast, but that's explosiveness, getting in the
(32:01):
opponent's scoring territory and ultimately capping it off of the points.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Eighty three missed tackles is not good enough.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Look out, Oh my goodness, cause that just says this
guy's not satisfied. And that's a great, great mindset to
have for me. Similar to what Archi mentioned earlier, the
first thing that comes to my mind is when you
got something like that, Oh, it makes the quarterback so
comfortable he could just turn around and hand it to
this guy and oh yeah, now we're on the other
(32:28):
side of the field, or now it's you know, instead
of first intent, you got another first intent, like you're
not even a worried about you know, second and long.
It helps the quarterback's mindset so much and gives you
the Billity know what, I got a guy that I
don't have to do a lot. I got another guy
I can just check it down to. And that's something
that Michael Penny's talked about is yeah, we want to
be the number one offense in all the categories. But
(32:51):
then he also said, I want to have a better
completion percentage this year.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Well, if he.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Knows I can throw this flat right out hit up
John Robinson and he can pick up eight, nine, twelve,
thirteen yards. Oh, that's gonna take the mindset of Okay,
maybe I got this guy one on one. Maybe I should,
Maybe I just want to take a shot. It's a
low percentage stroll, but uh, I'm gonna get to be
young and he gonna he gonna get me right. So
I think that helps the mindset of the quarterback when
(33:18):
you know you have it they need. Can help his
completion percentage and all of a sudden you're moving the
chains and all of a sudden you're putting together drives,
you're scoring points. I think it all comes together for.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Sure, helps that old lines mentality, right, that balls out.
My guy's not laying on the ground behind that good.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I'm Goodlet's get down with that money, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So that is our initial thoughts on the initial roster
of the Atlanta Falcons as it was just released yesterday
or Tuesday at four pm. And as I mentioned, it's
going to be fluid. It's gonna change probably today and tomorrow,
it's gonna change next week, and guess what it's going
to change throughout the course of the entire season.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Just to be on the rock by the time you
guys hear you don't he could be the third QB
in this one.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Yeah, come on, I can run practice squad stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
No, I think I think they may have.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
The show show show them this stealthy body. Come come on,
stealthy Hey listen.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
We appreciate all of you guys watching and listening throughout
the course of the off season. I know we just
sit here and we talk about what's gonna happen. But
guess week next week, guess what next week going down?
Actually know what is going to happen, and we will
be back for you next Wednesday with a little bit
of a different look and a little bit of a
different feel and juice next week.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Juice they call it a little broadcast and teas in.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The strong sho show it to them that loans.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
That you guys should come check us out next week.
Our episode will be launched on Wednesday, as we will
be getting into game plan, looking at keys adjustments and
what is it going to take to get to want
to know and not only want to know, but beat
a divisional opponent as the regular season is just around
the corner. That's DJ Shockley, Dave Archerround, Derek Rackley. They
so much joining us here on the Falcons Audible presented
(35:02):
by an T and T. We'll see you next week
for some regular season coverage.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Wasn't it yourr nickname as a dog Juice
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(00:21):
stock items by four pm, subject to availability. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome back to the falcons Amo, presented by Anti, your crew,
your trio, the Fellas are back here with you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's d J. Shockley, Dave Archer.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Derek Rackley and guess what we are One step
closer now, one step closer to the regular season. And
I hate the term sometimes with a phrase actual football
because it's still football right OTA's mini cams preseason is
still football, but it's it's the meaningful football and sidebar
(00:55):
for all of us former players and the real players.
You know why else they look forward to the regular season.
Get them check paychecks.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Game paychecks are real once you get into September.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Probably don't even realize that to you getting like four
hundred twenty five dollars a week in the preseason.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Then all of a sudden whoo, something else happened.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
If you weren't aware.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So, just real quick, NFL players and most probably all
the professional sports, when they're when they're contract states, they
don't start getting paid that money until after the first
game of the regular season. So let's just say somebody's
making four million dollars, they don't get start getting their
pro ratus share of that until September. Before then, they're
getting just little spending money like stuff that.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Doesn't need really, just enough to go down.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We're not telling you this to feel sorry for l
NFL player, especially in twenty twenty five, because the money
is outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
However, we'll tell you as a rookie and maybe even
as a second thirty guy, when they gave those free
turkeys away during Thanksgiving, I was right in there, even
though I was getting.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
My regular season game check.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So that's all real, uh, Before we get into the roster,
we want to send the little congratulations to artillery, a little,
a little Irish victory, give me something.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
It was a luck of the Irish full ye state
Roco was doing it.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
All.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
That sounds a lot very English.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I don't care. Whatever it was, it's so good, it's
so good, good so great.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, good the luck of the No, it was you
definitely did the luck of the shock uh Shockley wish.
Just really good luck last week and I think that's
what you carried us through. Yeah, good win for for
Matt Campbell and Iowa State. Rocko becked at quarterback Anthony
Beck's son, kid, that that is coming on. I think
his value is.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Going up, uh every week. Huh yeah. Avery Johnson another
really good quarterback for k State, but.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
A lot of turnovers, slippery field reining all that, they
had to repaint the lines on the field. But the
eye I told you the Iowa State fans would be
there in droves. And let's face it, Hey, am I
gonna might go go out and sit on my front
porch and look at the cornfield, or I'm going to
go to Ireland have some pints. And they went to Ireland,
had some pints, and they were able to carry it
(03:08):
through twenty four to twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
All right, So uh, Arch's Cyclones got a victory in
the first week of the season. Remember he's the one
that says he doesn't like me to say is it
week zero?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
So we'll just call up.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
The week of the season.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Uh, and I was in Kansas last weekend and the
only thing I'll say Kansas came away with a victory
is keep your eye on Jalen Daniels. Not to be
confused with Jayden Daniels. Jalen Daniels quarterback for Kansas. Kid's
a really good player if he can stay healthy. He's
electric with the football. It's always the first one in
the year.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
What years is for him? Can you call him kidd?
Isn't he like thirty one years old or something like.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That when you're our age, there's still a kid. However, yes,
I understand sixty been there, been around a little while,
but sometimes that helps.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
She's got a life for him.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Do a real well in a six year old ed Kansa.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, Actually there was I think there
was a seventh your player there in that game last weekend,
and I got Texas Ohio State this weekend. There's a
seventh year player. And starting to see players that started
their college career in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
That's crazy. Still on the roster.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Jersey, I don't need to go pro in the seven
eight years and didn't retire all right, Well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Speaking of pro, because we have officially passed the Tuesday
at four pm deadline, the Falcons now have their initial
roster for twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay, so fellas, let's go ahead and discuss this.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Let's get it in and out, left and right, top
to bottom, and.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
DJ, I want you to go first.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I want to say, when when you saw the first
list come out, I want to know where did your
eyes go first? What was the position group or player
or thing that you wanted to see? Did he make
it or did he not?
Speaker 5 (04:48):
First thing I went to was secondary. I was really
interested to see what they did because there's so many
talented dudes that we've seen obviously with the secondary, so
many guys in and out. We saw both the rooks
didn't play in the last preseason game, so you kind
of felt like, Okay, these guys are moving into those
spots that we've been talking about. But then I saw
(05:08):
no Jordan Fuller and that kind of that kind of
I stepped back from me and said, wow, I mean
I thought he was coming here to be that other
veteran guy beside Jesse Bache, even a depth guy, because
you drafted a guy to play in that role. We
saw Xavier watch do a lot of good things with
Jesse Base during our practice times, we saw and then
I started to think back. I said, man, you know,
going back to two years ago, the Marco Hellms look
(05:30):
really good. And then we saw when at first prezeas
the game man, he was flying right, he was dropping people.
He he he gives you something. You're like, you know,
maybe maybe we don't need that guys much. And you know,
you think about you bring a guy in and say, yeah,
he's a guy that we really like, we want him
to be in the system. He played for Raw, he
knew him really well. But then you say, okay, we'll
(05:50):
to make sure DeMarco Hellms is fully healthy, got through
preseason fully healthy, played well, and then it kind of said, okay,
well maybe we don't need to add a full safety.
Maybe we can use this spot for a noted position.
So secondary was a big part of it. You know,
Clark Phillips on the roster obviously, a guy who didn't
play a lot in preseason, was hurt, was down. Seeing
Natron Brooks, who had a really good preseason balling inside outside,
(06:16):
played pretty well throughout the preseason. And then a couple
of guys who were like kind of on the bubble
from me was like a Mike Ford Jr. Was a
really good special teams player, had his times on the
defense side of the ball. But all those guys made
the roster and pretty pretty cool to see how they
came up with the amount of guys they had for
the initial roster.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, so ten defensive backs, seven corners, three safeties and arch.
I want to get your opinion real quick on the
safety position because you wonder if they were going to
have the other veteran next to Jesse Bates. But I
think coming out of Notre Dame, everybody looked at Watson
said he's a very mature young man. Seems you always
want to say Notre Dame kid is probably pretty smart,
(07:00):
able to shoulder the load mentally, and it's it's almost like,
do you need a transition? But I think he showed
early on that not only does he have the maturity
to start opposite of Jesse Bates, but then you've got
that tutelage from a guy like Jesse Bates that he
can learn from every single day of the week in
practices and then leading up into the games.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, nothing better than to have Jesse Bates there. Oh,
by the way, you go to go in a room
and there's Jerry Gray and guys like that. So I
think the youngster kind of belies his years, is what
you're talking about. He's more much more mature, And we thought, Belie,
you gonna use that at Georgia.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Just looking up.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, he is a guy that I think is much
more mature than we maybe give him credit for, even
though he's a rookie in the National Football League, former
wide receiver, got ball skills. We've talked about that. Don't
be surprised though, and we talk and you mentioned initial roster.
There will be some adjustments between now and next week
when it comes to what this roster officially looks like
(08:00):
as you get to that number that they like to
talk about as you carry into the regular season, and
I would not be surprised if there's not some adjustments
in this position, specifically as.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Far as the numbers.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think there's going to be some adjustments there, So
just kind of be on the lookout for that. You
can see it at Atlanta Falcons dot Com constantly have
that covered for you if there's adjustments that happen on
the roster, and there will be some. But I agree
with you completely rack. I think that Xavier Watts showed
all the things that you'd hoped you were getting for
a guy that was that led the nation interceptions as
(08:35):
a junior, was a leader on that defensive football team
for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and then what six
interceptions his senior year, and a guy that really spent time.
Remember he roomed with Jesse Bates during training camps, so
to be able to absorb that information, I don't think.
I think you knocked it out of the park. Heats
exactly what he was.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I wanted to get your thoughts on that position.
But let's go outside of that. If you had something
else that you were kind of looking at when you
saw this initial roster posted, what kind of stuck out
to you?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well, I think that what stuck out to me. You know,
I played quarterbacks, So what's the old line look like?
You know, I think you really like the offensive line
prior to the end of last week when we lost
Caleb McGary to an injury. Looks like he's going to
miss some significant time from what Raheem Morris talked about.
And then Storm Norton is a guy that had ankle surgery,
(09:25):
so he'll be a guy that you can get back
at some point during the season. But that's your swing tackles,
So what's going on there? Elijah Wilkinson steps in and
probably we'll start at that right tackle position. Obviously, Again
I talked about the fluid situation what goes on with
the roster, but that looks like what is going on.
That's where my eyes went initially, because you know, you
want to get Pennis protected, you want Bjon running downhill.
(09:47):
But I think that the surprise for me Rack was
what happened in the interior defensive line. Okay, I think
you knew Onyamada, Rower, Row Dorless, Zach Harrison. I think
you had a pretty good idea there. Then where was
the rest of the depth? TQ Graham is a guy
I know they liked a lot. Now TQ is going
(10:07):
to start off on what the pup list right now,
so he's he's not going to be probably available. But
Lacale London, you talk about a guy that came into
camp and won a job on the team. We all
can identify with that, right not coming in as the
heralded guy, and how do I win a job? And
I got kind of a warm spot and thinking, hey,
(10:30):
that's a guy that came in and wanted because that
was a pretty we we felt like it was a
pretty deep roster spot right there, you know. And talking
about Kntavio Street, who's played a lot of ball here,
did a good job in training camp. There was a
number of guys there. Morgan Fox the guy they went
out and got who was a veteran player, but like
Kale London, how.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
About that a guy that they'd.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Elevated off a practice squad a couple of years ago
that played some maybe bulked up a little bit, played
his way onto the roster.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, And I think that was That was one of
the things that I looked at, Arches is sometimes when
we in shock we start talking about the preseason, we
don't get as interested because we see that none of
the starters are going to play in its backups. But
to me, there was a few names on here that
I felt like one roster spots with preseason play.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You mentioned Lakale London, another.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
One I thought about was Josh Woods, and then even
going to the running back position, you could probably make
the argument that Nathle Carter, after his performance in the preseason,
won himself a roster spots.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Exactly at the tight end.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So when when you kind of think about, oh, it's preseason,
I can't wait to just fast forward this to get
to the regular season. There are guys that one roster
spots initially because they embraced the competition. And sometimes it's
whether somebody gets banged up. Sometimes it's just you went
out and played better. You showed the coaching staff that
you deserve to be on this roster. Did you kind
(11:54):
of look at any of those names as well and say,
oh wow, he did end up earning a roster.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Yeah, No, had all three of those guys on on
my list as well. Talking about guys who really flashed
during preseason. Obviously, Josh Wards in that first game versus
Troit was a.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Guy who how about on Friday Night?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah, I mean you, I mean running through dudes. I
mean it's just a certain guy that just flashy. You
remember what they did in the ball game, and that
sticks out, That goes a long way.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
How about David.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Seals as well, a guy who, uh, we talked a
lot about the receiver spot and a lot of was
talked about drumming, talking about Chris Blair making plays. We
saw Nash make some plays in that last ball game,
and it ends up being a guy like David Seals
who has the size, who can play inside, play outside, uh,
will play teams as well, and a guy that fits
what they wanted. You look at that receiver Cord. You
(12:40):
got Drake London, who's probably the biggest guy you got,
you know, and then you got Mooney, you got ray Red,
you got k C. Washington, all kind of around the
same size, and you got Seals, a bigger type of
body who they add to that frey of players who
you know probably did really well doing during practice because
you know you saw him, didn't see him a lot
during the games, but obviously he did enough doing maybe
(13:01):
the joint sessions or even in practice that gave you
enough confidence say, you know what, this is a guy
we want to add to our roster and add to
it along with taking seven receivers with agnew at the
end of it.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, so, arch I know this is the time to
be optimistic, right we haven't played a regular season game yet,
But how does this edge Rusher group look to you?
And how optimistic how excited are you about what this
group can do this year?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Well, you got to be extremely excited. Rack.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I think because of what you did in April, right,
the two guys you drafted, we saw a great deal
of James Pearce Junior and maybe some of the speed
and everything you expect. Didn't necessarily get to see what
Jalen Walker could bring to the table because of some
soft tissue issues, which I think he'll be fully healthy
when Tampa Bay comes to town. So you're going to
be able to get a full load of Jalen Walker.
(13:50):
Arnold Li Bacadie and Leonard Floyd. Leonard Floyd a known commodity.
You hope he can still get what he's done over
the last five seasons of his career of eight and
a half sacks plus over the last five seasons in
each of his locations. Arnold Abacadie a guy coming on
about do Angelo Malone.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
He started talking.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
You know, I'd be interested to hear what.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You have to say. Raq.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
When we talked a little bit about these guys that
are versatile players, and remember D'Angelo Malone, we talked about
played the edge and that's kind of where he that's
kind of where he got his name out of college,
coming out of Western Kentucky, and just a sack master.
He's been a special teams maven for they played him
an inside linebackers and so his versatility stand inside play linebacker,
(14:34):
Mike Ford, Josh Woods, D'Angelo Malone may be known more
for special teams play, but showed in camp their versatility
to play corner, nickel, linebacker, edge rusher.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think, yeah, and I think we know what we're
gonna get from caderol Hodge when it comes to special teams.
But again, depending on the numbers. That's also somewhere where
you might see a Jamal agnuea David Sills having the
actor in on the kicking game as well. Again, when
I say numbers, we're talking about active on game days, right,
There's actually gonna be these guys that are not going
to be active on game days. So it's just all
(15:09):
depending on health and then who shows during practice that
they're one of those guys that have to be on
the field for special teams because keep your eye on
that third phase of the game. One thing I did
want to note, doubt that kind of leads me into
my next question, is that's been reported that the Falcons
have made a trade for offensive tackle Michael Drell from
Seattle that has been reported. So I want to use
(15:31):
that as a kind of a takeoff point to say,
and I don't I'm not trying to lead you guys here,
because you can go wherever you want. I'm gonna start
with you. Shock is what of the what part of
this this roster do you feel like this has the
most concerned that might still be getting addressed over the
next couple of days or even the next week.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
I mean, it's not even more sugar code.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's where we just talked about an offensive line.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Yeah, because as much as we talk about the skill
guys on the outside of how talented Michael Pennings is
or Drake Lund and Kyle Pitts, all these guys, the
John Robinson, all these guys who are really talented and
guys who can make a lot of plays for you,
if you can't protect the guy that's going to distribute
that football, it's kind of a moot point. So I
think that is one of the top conversations they've had
since Caleb McGarry went down, is how do we feel
(16:15):
the void of that spot because of a lot of
situations of they love to run the football and that's
part of what they want to do. We saw you
know a lot of people may have seen it in
the game situations, but this is a play action offense.
They want to move Michael Pennick. They want to be
able to use the stretch zone to be able to
you know, come out the backside and be able to
throw the football. You want to throw the football vertically.
You want to have time to push the football down
(16:36):
the field, which we know Michael Pennix loves to do.
He talked about it, you know a lot of time
about being able to stretch it vertically. You got to
secure up that offensive line. We know what the other
four guys about. We've seen him. They played a lot
of football together. All these guys are invested in this
league of when it comes to what you can do
in the National Football League, but there's always one piece
(16:57):
and you can't just act like it's not is nulling board,
act like oh, we can just put a tight end
over there, or we can just you know, chip mos
kind of stuff. This guy's going to have to hold
his own over there, and that's gonna be a big topic,
good conversation everybody talks about. Hey, is Michael Penny's backside protection. Yeah,
that's part of it too. And the Falcons do a
good job of, you know, the style of office at
which they do where it's not as dangerous as people
(17:19):
will think in the past, but it's still something that
you have to worry and concern yourself about. So who
feels that void, how they go about doing it, how
Xerob calls plays, according to who's there is a big
topical conversation because you can't you can't just act like
it doesn't exist. And I think you have to go
into a game plan understanding what you have at that
(17:40):
spot and the things that you can do with your offense.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I don't like to get overloaded or analytics, and I
think that sometimes we tend to lean on the numbers
too much. But there is something to Atlanta running the
football when you go back and look at the numbers.
Atlanta ran to the right side. Falcons ran right side
behind big Kalob, but Gary and obviously the all pro
Chris Leinstrom about fifty seven fifty eight percent of the time.
(18:04):
So you flip that over, now it's about forty three
percent over the time to Jake and now can you
change that up maybe, but McGarry had a special ability
as a road grader to come off the ball. That's
a big body, dude. We call him the big Viking
here because that's what he looks like, you know, coming
off the ball. Four and his hammer coming off the
ball with Leinstrom one of the best guards, if not
(18:24):
the best guard in.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
The country in the league. Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
How much does that change now from a game plan
standpoint to where maybe you start flowing the other way?
Does the Michael Pennock's left handed thing comes into play?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Shock?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
How much do you remember with Michael Vick? And this
is just a general statement, how much do you remember
with Michael did we move to kind of a left
handed type scenario because he was a left handed quarterback?
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Is that? Is that real? Yeah? It's a real thing.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
And I think more than anything, it's about the comfort
level of the quarterback, and I think he was in
his brain understanding I feel more comfortable obviously as any
quarterback with what I can see, and a lot of
the would come going to that left side. And he
was really good throwing either way, So it was an
advantage for this offense. But it definitely was something that
was thought about when we went in the game plans
(19:11):
or we were talking about which way Mike's like to
move or which way he kind of shifts or motion
that motion but kind of moves within the pocket. That
was a big part of his comfort level. Is that backside?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
You know, you guys talked a little bit about play calling,
and I think it's an important thing to talk about.
And I don't want to minimize anything from the projected
starter that we think and Elijah Wilkinson because we're not
at practice every day. I know you guys got to
watch a lot more of training camp than I did,
But maybe there is a lot more comfort level there
than what we think.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Number one.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Number two is, in my opinion because I've seen it
throughout the course of my career, is this is where
play calling from an offensive coordinator perspective really becomes. That's
that's where you can show how good you are. Is
what do you do from a scheme perspective arch to
put potentially protect Wilkinson a little bit, because you're right,
(20:03):
you can't always have somebody over the top of him,
but you can for a large percentage of plays have
something designed, whether it's a running back, checking on the
way out, a tight end starts there, a wide receiver
comes across the formation and gets a little shoulder pad
on this way out. In this route, there's a lot
of different ways arch where you can get everybody else
to help, just kind of push him back on right
(20:24):
if he gets if he gets on the edge, just
to make sure that he's not gonna sitting out there
on island all by himself. When they do have traditional
drop back plays.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, and I think that you touched on it right
there at the beginning. They're probably more comfortable with this
situation with Wilkinson, who played some guard during training camp,
slide not to tackle and be able to do this
because they have confidence. It's not his first rodeo, he's played,
he's played in the league, so they see him every day, folks,
so they have an idea of what this guy can
(20:53):
do and are very confident with him sliding into that position.
You're exactly correct. From a schematic standpoint. We can do
things that helped create, uh, maybe a little bit of
confidence in him. Maybe you're getting confident just like anybody.
You want to get up to speed and so some
confidence kind of get you going and then all of
a sudden maybe we can you can leave them alone.
(21:13):
And I don't know that Jake necessarily goes into the
game at oh, I'm completely locked up.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
That's okay, But tight End wants aship with me too.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I think that was going to have to be the
equation anyway there, rack In Shock, I think that from
a game plan standpoint, there is the entity that they
did not play the starters in preseason. Okay for speaking
from my perspective, and what I got a chance to
do as a player, playing in the games is a
little is a different deal. So there's going to be
(21:44):
a ramp up moment. Hopefully it's just a moment. It's
not a game that these guys.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Are going to have to do.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
And so who helps coax you through that?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Your play caller.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And so if Zach has a really good plan, which
I expect him to have against Tampa, make no space.
Tampa knows they got beat by Atlanta twice last year
and they're coming up here, you know, hoping to try
to take care of business. And they know they got
Penn explaining quarterback, and they know they've got a maybe
the third offensive tackle.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Playing whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So they're going to have a plan for I think
Robinson will counteract that and try to get everybody rolling.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
How else, how cool is it?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
Also, you got a guy who coaches the position and
left for who's probably been there and done that.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
How big is that?
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Because you look at you look at Ross's staff, every
single position coach has played that particular position. You're talking
about having a guy who's been there, done that and
can help him as well, and you talk about to
play caller as well, and say, you know what, here's
some of the things that can help you as you
eat your way through this process of going from one
position to another or even within his offense and saying, hey,
(22:45):
all eyes are going to be on you for sure,
but here's how you got to handle it. And I
think that helps us having a guy who's been there,
done it. It helps a guy once you get in
there knowing that guy understands exactly what it's about.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Guys, I want to ask you this question because this
is one that I think a lot of our viewers
and lets are curious about. Now that we've got this
roster that has been announced, this initial roster is this
game the NFL is about winning. Don't make any mistakes
about it. It's about winning and getting to the postseason.
The easiest way to get to the postseason is winning
your division. Shure shack. I want to ask you this question.
(23:18):
This roster that you see, the initial roster, is this
roster built to win a division title and get to
the postseason.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I think it is.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
I think you have the pieces in place that gives
you the confidence going into the season that if one,
of course is a big it's a big if. Every
team talks about if those guys stay healthy, and that's
a big part of every season, big part of every
team and everything. You'll go in and saying the same thing.
But I think if you look at this roster from
top to bottom and you go through every position group,
(23:47):
you say, you know what, I feel really good about
that guy. Oh we brought in d Divine Diabolo. Ooh
watching that guy in practice. This guy can run, this
guy can hit. This guy's downhill. Add him with killis
Oh my goodness, just talking about Leonard Floe on the outside,
been doing it consistently for a long time.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
We saw edmy Katie.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Come on.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Last year, you got Rook who's always so hungry. He
didn't get a lot of time last year doing it's
the same way. A lot of guys who are hungry,
ready to feel that void to beat those guys. You
got two young guys who come from uh four young
guys on that rookie class who come from programs where
they're used to winning, they're used to playing at a
high level. Then they got guys around him who can
help them. You feel really good about the talent that's there,
(24:26):
and then the talent on the officers about you know
what it's all about. Look at the offensive line who's
been together and done it minus the one piece that
you gotta add to it. But that's the great thing
about having continuity of front of it. You've got so
many guys who can bring those guys along. And you
got a guy in the backfield who when you do
Fantasy Draft, everybody said he's the number one overall pick
for a reason, like, come on, you can get that
(24:47):
guy to football. And then I mean it's a reason
you got five prize and people are excited to see
Michael Pennix Junior and what he's about.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Uh Falcons.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
When he got him at number eight, when there were
tons of teams who wanted him, so there is a
lot of expectations for a lot of guys on the team.
Drake Lunnon coming up, gonna be one of the top
paid receivers in the game, coming up next. I mean,
you got so many guys who you look at it so,
you know, I feel really good about the pieces, and
you bring them all together and they play at the
level that you expect them to play at. They can
(25:14):
play with anybody.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You're the analyst for the Atlanta Falcons radio network, Okay,
I know you've thought about this team a lot, with
the draft, with free agency, with what you've seen now
with the initial roster. Give me one or two of
your not for Tampa, but one or two of your
overall keys on what you feel like has to be
different this year for the Atlanta Falcons to frankly get
(25:37):
a different result when we finish the regular season.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, I think from a defensive standpoint, which is what
we attacked in the draft, the ability to get teams
in third and long situations, third and medium or third
and long. You have to be able to stop the run.
And I think a lot of people want to talk
about rushing the past or rush the pass or yeah,
(26:00):
but you've got to get yourself in position, you have
to rush to passer. In this day and age, when
coaches are going forward on fourth down, they're playing a
four down game. And so once I get probably to
about my forty five yard line, I'm thinking about going
forward on fourth down. If I can get a reasonable
down and distance, I've got to be able to defend
(26:20):
the run. That's why we talk so much about the interior,
and Shock was talking about the linebackers and Vine Diabolo
coming over. That's one of the areas that my eyes are.
And then Shock you talked about what is a positive
guys being very hungry, It also could potentially be a
detriment to you because you're depending on a lot of
young players to play. So dorles in a rower row
(26:43):
in the middle, the two edge guys that are rookies,
maybe a rookie nickel, maybe a rookie safety starting. You've
got a lot of young players on that side. They're
going to have to play grown up football. So that
concerns you a little bit as well. I think the
upside is through the roof if you see what they
did at the level they were at before, but we
(27:04):
need them to go to the NFL level and are
they ready for that? And does that mean you got
to be patient. You don't have time to be patient
when you look at the rat whether you look at
the schedule, you can't be patient, especially not out of
the box. You've got two divisional opponents your first three games.
You talked about you gotta go win the division. You
got to go get both those games.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm old school at heart, and so I love the
fact that you started with stopping the run because that's
what it does come down to. But I'm gonna give
you my two and then shock. I want you to
give me your one or two afterwards, but my two
are going to be this. Cut it, slice it however
you want. You got to get great play out of
your quarterback position in the National Football League. That's just
how it works, guys. And I saw something on social
media yesterday. Maybe you guys chime in on this as
(27:46):
somebody said, well, maybe this year needs to be one
that was kind of like two thousand and eight where
they ran the footballs early auto mats care I believe
its rookie year.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Kie.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
They ran the football, Michael turn, they played good defense, right, Well,
we can do that, right, we can run the football.
But though you know what, the one thing I also
noticed on the defense that year John Abrahead had sixteen
and a half sacks.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It's a little different, right.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So my two things are, if you're gonna win in
the NFL, you got to play great at the quarterback position.
And I am gonna be one of those guys arts
that says you got to get after the passer. After
you stop the run, you gotta get after the passer.
So teams are built and they win by investing through
the draft. Okay, and I think the Falcons did that.
Michael Pennock's first round are two first round ed rushers. Okay,
(28:31):
and you're right, there's not a whole lot of time
to figure this out, like it's a results based business.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Like do you win or do you lose?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And you can even say, well in college, yeah, they
have the whole academic in college, you gotta win football
games too. Okay, That's what it all comes down to.
So mine is quarterback play in pass rush. What would
be your It doesn't have to be two one, two three,
But what has to happen this year for the Falcons, Like, oh,
you're Jared producer, I'm sorry this is end up being
the fifteen minute podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
All right, go ahead, shot, I'm going to have to
wrap this up at some point.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
I got to I had one and then, you know,
I think. First thing is you have to be better
than you were last in the red zone. I think
last year there were times on both sides of the
ball where you should have been a lot better than
you were inside the red zone. The last one I
think is arch We've talked about this a lot. You
gotta win the turnover differential, and that's a big part
(29:26):
of the ball game because if you could turn people
over in sacks, force them in those third long situations,
force them to turn the football over, that gives more
opportunities to that side of the ball who we all
are excited to see. And if you can win that
part of the ball game that gives you, that gives
you a greater chance of winning more ball games, I
think than anything else. If you can turn people over
(29:47):
and then you could turn those into points, puts a
lot of pressure on the posing teams right away. So
if you could do that, thenk got a great chance.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
One point, I want to know what you guys think
about this. There's a lot of conversation about explosive plays. Okay,
and you go back to Bejon Robinson season a year ago,
fourteen hundred plus yards rushing, fourteen rushing touchdowns. Nine of
those touchdowns came inside the ten yard line.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Okay, So where is it?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
You both talked about down the field throwing the football
with Pennis. That's a piece of it. But how much
do we need the explosives? How much do we need
the thirty yard but maybe the home run touchdown run?
We talked, we there's been some conversation. Bijon did some
work in the offseason about making guys missing the open field.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
He was third in the National Football.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
He wasn't well, that's saying I've got the number written
downe eighty three misstackles third best in the National Football.
But the home the home run ball do is that that?
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Where does that fall in?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
You?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Guys's idea of this is going to be a successful
offense with more Do we need more home run shots?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
And the reason here's here's what I would equate this to.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
And I know it's not the same, guys, but I
come from a special team's background, and we always talked
about the punt being one of the most important plays
in football because it's the one play where you can
guarantee to change field position of forty yards or more
on one play. Okay, well, how about an explosive play.
Is that not the same thing where you can change
you can flip the field.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You could be on.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Your own thirty or thirty five and you can hit
a fifty yard pass and all of a sudden you
are knocking on the door of the red zone. You
are immediately looking at points. So yes, expulsive plays and
however they come. Whether that's a five yard crossing route
that gets thrown to Jon Robinson he makes three people
miss and he ends up taking it, or it's Drake
(31:39):
London going up over the top of somebody because Michael
Pennix wants to air it out and he's got the
cannon to do it, or however they come. But I'm
a huge proponent of some explosive plays because now you're
taking an offense that's maybe trying to put together an eight, ten,
twelve play drive, and now maybe it's a six play
drive to put points on the board. Not that we're
trying to score fast, but that's explosiveness, getting in the
(32:01):
opponent's scoring territory and ultimately capping it off of the points.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Eighty three missed tackles is not good enough.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Look out, Oh my goodness, cause that just says this
guy's not satisfied. And that's a great, great mindset to
have for me. Similar to what Archi mentioned earlier, the
first thing that comes to my mind is when you
got something like that, Oh, it makes the quarterback so
comfortable he could just turn around and hand it to
this guy and oh yeah, now we're on the other
(32:28):
side of the field, or now it's you know, instead
of first intent, you got another first intent, like you're
not even a worried about you know, second and long.
It helps the quarterback's mindset so much and gives you
the Billity know what, I got a guy that I
don't have to do a lot. I got another guy
I can just check it down to. And that's something
that Michael Penny's talked about is yeah, we want to
be the number one offense in all the categories. But
(32:51):
then he also said, I want to have a better
completion percentage this year.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Well, if he.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Knows I can throw this flat right out hit up
John Robinson and he can pick up eight, nine, twelve,
thirteen yards. Oh, that's gonna take the mindset of Okay,
maybe I got this guy one on one. Maybe I should,
Maybe I just want to take a shot. It's a
low percentage stroll, but uh, I'm gonna get to be
young and he gonna he gonna get me right. So
I think that helps the mindset of the quarterback when
(33:18):
you know you have it they need. Can help his
completion percentage and all of a sudden you're moving the
chains and all of a sudden you're putting together drives,
you're scoring points. I think it all comes together for.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Sure, helps that old lines mentality, right, that balls out.
My guy's not laying on the ground behind that good.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I'm Goodlet's get down with that money, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So that is our initial thoughts on the initial roster
of the Atlanta Falcons as it was just released yesterday
or Tuesday at four pm. And as I mentioned, it's
going to be fluid. It's gonna change probably today and tomorrow,
it's gonna change next week, and guess what it's going
to change throughout the course of the entire season.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Just to be on the rock by the time you
guys hear you don't he could be the third QB
in this one.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Yeah, come on, I can run practice squad stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
No, I think I think they may have.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
The show show show them this stealthy body. Come come on,
stealthy Hey listen.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
We appreciate all of you guys watching and listening throughout
the course of the off season. I know we just
sit here and we talk about what's gonna happen. But
guess week next week, guess what next week going down?
Actually know what is going to happen, and we will
be back for you next Wednesday with a little bit
of a different look and a little bit of a
different feel and juice next week.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Juice they call it a little broadcast and teas in.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The strong sho show it to them that loans.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
That you guys should come check us out next week.
Our episode will be launched on Wednesday, as we will
be getting into game plan, looking at keys adjustments and
what is it going to take to get to want
to know and not only want to know, but beat
a divisional opponent as the regular season is just around
the corner. That's DJ Shockley, Dave Archerround, Derek Rackley. They
so much joining us here on the Falcons Audible presented
(35:02):
by an T and T. We'll see you next week
for some regular season coverage.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Wasn't it yourr nickname as a dog Juice
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