August 6, 2025 • 26 mins
Derek, Dave & D.J. are back to preview the Atlanta Falcons' upcoming preseason game vs the Detroit Lions. They debate the pros and cons of playing your starters in preseason games as well as what the biggest benefits are of having preseason games in general. The NFL also updated some rules and regulations, and the guys dive into how that will look different on Sundays for fans.
0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Football is...back?
3:15 - Importance of preseason games
11:20 - Preseason preview: ATL vs DET
16:20 - New rules & regulations
25:00 - Outro
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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stock items by four pm subject to availability. Hey everybody,
the boys are back here in the Falcons Audible presented by.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
That's DJ Shockley by the way, fresh off of a
interview with Kayden Ellis. This is Dave Archer and I'm
Derek Rackley here. We are back in the studio and
we have the viewers can't see this. We have a
monitor in front of us. We've been told that we
are the big boys in town, so we get a
return monitor, which basically just means we can see what
you guys see, so we can kind of correct some
(00:50):
things or maybe if Arch has his lanyard on, which
he normally does.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Take it off, but shared old school TV.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So we are back for our second one together as
all three of us, your guys is third now as
we are well into training camp for the Atlanta Falcons
in the twenty twenty five season, and we actually had.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
A game played last week.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So the first question is did you watch and did
you care? The Hall of Fame game was last night
Chargers and Lions last weeknight.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I didn't see a snap.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I watched a little bit of it because obviously I
do stuff with my dogs, So I went back and
watched some of it and watched you know, Dan Jackson
was playing for the Lions, and yeah, so it's a
couple of bulledogs. I was just looking forward to see
how they were gonna play, and just to see him
on the next level. It was pretty cool to see that.
But other than that, I was like, what else can
(01:44):
we watch?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But yeah, that much? How about you?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
What was your last year at Georgia?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Last year? Georgia's two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That's pretty special, two thousand and five. He's twenty years
after and still personally invested in how them dogs are
doing well.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Well, it's different because I to know these kids now
on a different level. Obviously, when you know, I'm down
there with them, always in on the sideline all the time,
it's like it's like ours. I mean, these dues all
the time. So he has invested with the Falcon as
much as you know what I'm saying, all us are too.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well, you're saying you've given up on the Golden Gold.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
I'm still watching Iowa stated, I'm a lot further removing Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Stop it because I'm very far removed. I don't go
to any practices or games because I'm busy on Saturdays
and the turnover getting.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
News.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I don't get a football one.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I get one from the school. He'll try to get
some money out of the football program.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So you don't check on Saturdays. Go through and check
the scores.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Scores and see how they're doing. And trust me, I
pull form when they get drafted.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He cares about you guys, minimally. That's what he says.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I got rock obec.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
If they're slinging it for Iowa State, we're in a
Big twelve title game last year, were still invested.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You got the eye roll.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I don't know if you felt it, but I gave
it to you.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I gave it to them and hopefully you saw it
off of the side. So you guys, DJ, you watched
a little, didn't catch much of it. That's kind of
the phase that we're in right now. I'm going to
ask you guys this question, like how important are preseason games?
Arch and I'll and I'll ask that question to you
because it's there's a lot of depends on who you are,
(03:21):
what stage you are in the league. Are you coming
in as a rookie, are you coming in as a
proven guy? But how important are the preseason games in
this day and age because things have changed from twenty
thirty forty years ago.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I almost feel like guys that they're individually important. You know,
this is such an ultimate team game. Yet the guys
that are going to be playing on Sunday against Tampa
are not going to play in this game and might
not play throughout the preseason. So what is the importance
(03:53):
of it? Well, the importance is that there's only so
many reps in practice, right and so you're trying to
rep your ones, your twos, maybe some of your threes,
and so there's there's some guys that aren't are getting
maybe one rep of practice, three reps of practice. That
doesn't add up to very much over ten days, I've
gotten fifteen reps something like that, So they're very important.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
For those guys.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
Not only are the important for you to see them
develop for you, but you're also giving them an opportunity
to put as we've talked about before, put tape out
there for other guys, other teams to see sixteen man
practice squads. So who do I want to keep to
develop as an Atlanta Falcon? And then obviously everybody else
gets to look too. So I think from an important
(04:41):
standpoint that's important. And you may scoff at this, You
guys won't, but the fan ma scoff at this. There
is a procedural thing that you need to get taken
care of for games. Who goes out first where you're
supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's a stupid thing to.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Say, how do we line up for stretching and all
this kind of stuff? Because he out here at Flowery Branch,
they're spread out over three fields right there, you got
half a field because the other team gets it. So
there is some procedural things that you have to kind
of get squared away and get locked into.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So those are some of the things I think for preseas.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, you know, DJ, we're in this kind of era
now where you don't really see a whole lot of
starters playing preseason games. And before I turned this over
to you to get your viewpoint, I thought about and
I went back and I researched two teams from last year,
the two teams that played in the Super Bowl. Okay,
and I, if my research is correct, the Philadelphia Eagles
(05:40):
did not play any of their starters in the preseason.
I think it turned out okay for them. Whereas Andy
Reid is a little bit old school and he likes
to play his guys, right. He likes to give them
a little bit of live bullet action. And anybody could say, well, yeah,
there's a potential that they could get hurt. There's a
potential they could get hurt in week one, or week
six or week nine, right. I think this has come
(06:01):
down to a very individualized decision, most notably for the
head coach. But Rahim Morris has said that most of
the starters are not going to play for the Falcons.
But should starters play in the preseason or is it
truly an individuals Is.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
This from the coach's perspective, is this from the fans perspective?
The fans perspective is I want to see the dudes
out there playing, and I can understand that, but I
think from the coaches perspective, it goes depends on what
kind of guy you have. You mentioned Andy Reeve is
a guy who's the old school's been there, that done it,
and it's worked for them. And we saw last year
DeMarco Hellims go down in the preseason, guy who was
(06:36):
absolutely could have been a.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Starter, making tribute.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
We saw Brenden Trice go down, a guy who obviously
was gonna be a contributor to drafted and wanted to
be one of those guys. And I think that immediately,
you know, say hold on for Rayie Morris, like, you know,
these are two guys that we were going to depend
on going into the season, and maybe if they didn't play,
we had him.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Going towards the year.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So I think, for myself, I don't mind it that
they don't play. I think you have a bunch of
guys who understand what it takes to get ready for
a ballgame. You got a bunch of guys who understands
the speed of the game. And I think fans always
argue if a team starts slow, that it's because they
didn't play in the preseason. They didn't get a real
feel of the game. And I remember a few years back,
(07:19):
I can't remember who it was, was playing somebody and
they played their starters and we didn't, and they just
went right up and down the field. And I don't
know how much maybe they got from that, because those
are not gonna be the same guys you go against
when it comes week one, week two, week three, So
maybe it's a timing thing for them, But for me,
I don't mind it because you got a bunch of
guys who who are gonna do it in practice and
(07:41):
are just talked about the reps. Now, this is flip
when you're in practice your training camp. These ones these too,
they getting a lot of reps in practice. And then
the other part I think that's also has changed is
you're doing a lot of these joint practices as well.
And what people don't see is what happens in those
practices where they go and they're competing there at it
and it's almost it's it feels game speed because you
(08:03):
see another jersey over there, you see another guy with
a different helmet. It's hard to go eighty five to
ninety percent. You're going full speed because you want to
win that particular rep. You want to win that particular drill.
So I think there's some things that have been put
in place to help coaches make a better decision on
if our guys should play. There's sometimes you look up
and you say, you know what, I feel like, our
(08:23):
guys may need some game action, they may need some reps.
I didn't see what I wanted to see in practice.
These guys need to go out and play. They need to,
you know, build this connoit and bond. But you had
a quarterback who played last year, last three ball games.
With all those guys that have, you got an offensive
line that's played a bunch of football for you. You
got receivers backs who played a bunch of ball. I
think in totally you have a group that you feel
(08:46):
good about with how they practice, so when Week one comes,
they're ready to go.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
The data is leaning that direction to guys, and we're
not very far away from probably seeing the preseason games
go away totally. But the data leans towards when you
put guys in preseason games, and you compare that to
injuries and practice. Injuries in the preseason games is almost
three or four times more likely for a guy to
(09:12):
get injured in a preseason game because as we know,
in practice, things are controlled or where you don't drag
guys to the ground, you're not tackling guys to the ground,
which is number one when it comes to injuries. And
then there's a blocking a thud we call it thud
tempo where you come off, you engage, you drive for
two or three steps, and then you release. That takes
(09:33):
some of the stress off those guys too. So but
what we've been watching in practice is an adjustment for
the Atlanta Falcons is they've done away with some of
the ancillary drills and they're going to more team reps.
Jack and I watch this. Instead of having a script
that's got twenty two or twenty three team reps, they're
(09:54):
getting as many as forty five team reps in practice
as opposed to doing seven on seven where if I'm
a dB and we're in seven on seven which is
dbs and linebackers versus running backs, tight ends in the
quarterback and they're not running the football, so I'm I'm
bailing in coverage, I'm playing cover. Or if you get
in nine on seven, which is you guys know as
(10:15):
a run drill, if I'm a safety, in the run drill,
I know they're not going to play action and throw
behind it. There's nobody to throw the ball to, so
it's almost you're wasting your time. You can incorporate all
that seven on seven and nine on seven run and
pass drills into the team concept, and now I'm having
to guess defensively a little bit. Is it screen coming,
(10:36):
is it run game? Is it play action?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
You know?
Speaker 5 (10:38):
And so you're getting those team reps quote unquote team
reps in practice, and that's why coaches are valuing team
the practice time with their ones and twos far more
than they used to.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I went when I was doing the research on the Eagles,
I read a quote from Nick Sirianni who said that
he felt like they could get more out of intersquad
scrimmages and practices against other teams in training camp than
they could in the preseason games. Well, what's coming up
for the Atlanta Falcons intersquad practice this week and then
they got a scrimmage next week or doing against the
(11:13):
Titans coming into town to practice here, so kind of
the same model. Okay, So let's talk about the game
this week though, Falcons playing Detroit. What do you expect
to see in that game, DJ, And what can fans
expect to see if they come down and they watch
that game or they turn it on the television.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I think it's only right you go see some sloppiness.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
You're gonna see some guys, you know, competing, Hall, because
you go see some of the la pinals that you
don't want to see when you got veterans out there,
you got guys who've been around, who played. But I
expect to see a bunch of guys competing, Hall. I
expect to see a bunch of guys going after trying
to win a job, trying to show the coaches that,
you know what, I can take it from the practice
field to.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The actual game field.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
We I don't have a coach behind me, or I
don't have a you know, the big board out there
where I can see the replay again and go back
and talk about it. You're gonna see guys, I think,
try to take that next step in this process. And
the next step is all right, we've had a couple
of Easter training camp. Now you gotta face somebody else
and you don't know what's gonna happen on this particular down.
You know, you get in practice and say all right,
(12:16):
this is a rundown or this is third and short.
Now you got a lot of different situations that you
have to think through and communicate. Now you're gonna see
who can do that with live bullets flying, who can
do that at fast paced? Who can do that when
it really matters, And who's gonna show up? Who's gonna
make a mistake? But then okay, next series that mistake
comes up again, you kind of you do a better
(12:37):
job of overcoming that. So I think they want to
see the guys who can actually take it from the
practice field to the game and say, you know what,
this guy shows me what he's like.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And there's sometimes there are a lot of guys.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Who who are really good practice players and sometimes their
dudes they are just gamers. And I think we will
see some of that. We've seen guys in practice who
are like, they look pretty average out there, but then
they turn it on when the lights come on. So
which guy are you when you get on this field
and play versus a real game?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Shock we made the We had a discussion earlier about
DeMarco Hellms, and I think that's a prime example is
that he was a guy that came out in the
preseason and he started to jump off the field like
all of a sudden, he continued to make plays. Arch
that's what they're looking for, is when they go into
preseason games. It's like maybe there was a guy that
was doing pretty good in training camp, but then to
your point, shock, he gets out on the field and
(13:25):
he just starts making plays. Because at the end of
the day, it's right, not when coaches over the shoulder
or come and giving you adjustment after every play. It's
who can go out there for three, six, nine plays
straight and then just all of a sudden continue to
show up play after play.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Yeah, or exactly, Racket or a guy comes to the
sideline I think you were referring to this shock guy
comes to the sideline after a series and say, okay,
let's do this. You make an adjustment on the sideline,
I want you to play it this way, or this
is what you didn't see. Let's go back, and then
you see him take that immediate information back to the
football field and he transferred that next series. He's a
(14:01):
better player the next series. So all of what you're
saying is guys stepping up and being given that opportunity.
But again, there's a bunch of guys that they're gonna
wrap in this game that aren't getting a ton of
reps out there, so the coaches are wanting to see
it too. Is there something there that we haven't had
a chance to see yet because they're just not getting
enough wraps.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
The other thing I want to see is who's gonna
make the routine plays? And we talk about trying to
do something outside of yourself, but how about just making
the routine block, making a routine catch, getting up to
the second level. Oh I gotta go, and you know,
I got this guy, man and man, I'm supposed to
play outside leverage.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Who's gonna do that?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I think they want to see some of the minute
things as well as opposed to our right, let's do extra,
let's let's try to make these old wild plays. But
also who can do the small things that are gonna
win games for you? Who can do the little things
that say, you know what, this guy is coachable, this
guy's disciplined, he's not making the dumb mistakes, but he's
doing what he's asked of them.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And can you play to that level? Gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
As the resident special teamer here on our three or
trio here, I got two quarterbacks playing on offense, no offense,
but not really had to make your your money on
special teams. That's what's important really about preseason games as well,
is who can the coaches count on to be on
kickoff coverage, kickoff return, punt, punt return, all that third
(15:23):
phase of the game is where they're looking to see,
this guy's been pretty good playing defense or offense in practice,
but like we can win with him on teams.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Right hold on, let me take up for the qbs
here for one moment. Me and Arch were just in
practice there and they're watching and we're talking, we're looking,
and then Art says, you know what, those two guys
right there, that's what it's gonna matter. And they're doing
a punt drill. Those two guys, that's where you gotta
win it. This guy right here talking about a receiver, says,
(15:52):
you know what, this guy is doing this, doing that,
but he's got to make his money over here.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So those qbs we still looking at third. We're not
totally dismissing it.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
You know, we're going to come out of here.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
If you were going to.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Come out here and tell me that you ran down
on in a preseason I was going to call you out.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So the last kick.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, all right, let's take a slight step back from
the field here, fellows, because last week there was there
was a big call out there for a lot of
people in the broadcasting community. Getting everybody up to the
speed on some of the rule adjustments as there are
every single year in the National Football League, and we're
going to kind of summarize them a little bit here.
But some of the main changes this year have been
(16:35):
on special teams, on the dynamic kickoff. They made a
couple of adjustments there into overtime and also into replay assists.
They're kind of expanding a little bit of the capabilities
of replay assists to be able to chime in on
some more objective plays this year. Arch I think you
listened to the majority of the caller.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
We're on it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What's some of the rule adjustments this year that kind
of stuck out to you that you think are going
to be different.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Well, the thing is going to be really different for
the fan will be how they measure for first downs. Yeah, okay,
so now there's gonna be six uh cameras that are
fixed in in the stands that have there's no chip
in the football. Way mayboy thinks there's gonna be a
chip in the football.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
They're good.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
What they're gonna use these six cameras to do is
triangulate big word shock told me what it meant.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I didn't know what.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
But they're gonna triangulate the.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Football Google and uh.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And those cameras are gonna give you the exact dimensions
of that ten yards that you need to get. Now,
you'll still see the chains on the field. That'll be
a visual for both the fan and the players. So
if I'm out of the backfield and I where's the
first down marker? Obviously there's not gonna be a red
line we can see on TV or the camera.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Tell me helmet and I got a little picture in
my space man.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
So so I that gives me a visual word I
need to get to. But when they say okay, we're
we're there's a time out for a measurement. You're literally
gonna see.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
If you've ever watched any tennis before.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
It's gonna be very similar, is it in or out?
And you see this animated ball hitting, That's what you're
gonna see you're gonna see an animated picture. They're gonna
show you the field, the ball, and then they're gonna
the camera's gonna rotate down literally show where the.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Ball or is it short or is it long?
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And then that's that's the way they're gonna do it.
So it's gonna be really weird and different there. They're
also using cameras where they're gonna they're gonna look at
the in lines, the goal lines, are gonna have cameras
fixed in all the stadiums for those shots. How many
times we said, well, they don't really have a camera
angle for that, right. They're trying to fix that. TV
is trying to fix that. So to try to help
(18:41):
you fans and all of us that argue, well, yeah,
I think he's over, Well, then you're trying to pair
two v cameras angles up. You and I have had
to talk about on TV stuff like that with with
games we've done, so that stuff's gonna go away.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Now as far as the rules.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Go, are you gonna be able to tell us about
the kickoff rules or are we gonna let shot or rack
to it.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
There've just been a couple of small changes that have
happened with like if you kick the ball into the
end zone and the ball is caught in the end zone,
it's up to the thirty five now, right, it was
the thirty.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Which and why would they do that? Rack, They're they're
trying to encourage to bring it in return.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Yeah, actually wants you to put the ball because what
are the numbers, Rack, There's exponential numbers as if you
get the ball at the twenty five or the thirty
thirty five yard line, Yeah, I mean your chance is
to score, go way up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
You've essentially given them what a first down and a
half maybe for the old schoolmember reack in the day
when everything's twenty right, So now it's like it's going
to penalize the teams that just blasted into the end
zone to get the fair catch. Well, now the other
team's going to start at the thirty five yard line,
so we're going to try to promote some more returns.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Most of the dynamic kickoff rules are going to stay
the same. However, they did adjust the on side rule
this year. Anytime that you can do it anytime, as
long as you're trailing in the game, and you let
it be known that it's going to happen, So that's
one adjustment that's also gonna happen. And overtime has been
adjusted to reflect what the playoff rule was last year.
That now both teams are going to get an opportunity
(20:10):
to possess the ball no matter what happens in overtime,
So if the first team scores a touchdown, second team
will have the ability to score a touchdown. So those
are some of the adjustments. And to your point, the measuring,
they say, is going to improve the pace of the
game a little.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Bit post right.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Supposedly, we'll see as soon as it goes out in
the stadium, what are they gonna do.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
What I enjoyed too that they talked about was the
infamous hip drop tackle. Obviously, there was a lot of
conversation about sometimes grabbing maybe the name plate as opposed to,
you know, getting all the way inside of a guy's
jersey or soda pads and grabbing his hair and what
it may be. Now they say, he can go back
and look at it and see, oh, did he actually
grab the inside or just grab his name plate? And
(20:51):
now you can be one of those things, all right,
you can overturn that we saw it and it's pretty good.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
That's a little bit of the replay you were talking about.
Now they can't throw a flat on replay assist, but
what they can do is pick a flag up. So
that's what replay assist is. It's all it is is
a shot down to the head official say hey, this
was you guys, can pick that up. That was not
like a boundary shot a guy going out of bounds.
That was something they expanded it to too, as well as.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
The hip drop or the horse callar tackle.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Is if a guy gets hit out of bounds and
they throw a flag for a personal foul, Hey you
get out of bount it.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
They go back and look at it real quickly, replay assist.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Without slowing the game down, and they say, hey, pick
that flag up because he was still in bounds when
he hit him. Those are some of the adjustments there.
I had a chance to talk to Bradley Pinion about
the kickoff and Bradley's been one of the best in
the league prior to the new dynamic kickoff coming in
last year of pounding it out of the end zone,
and that was a big deal because now all of
a sudden, I go go eighty yards and talking about
(21:48):
those percentages you mentioned a first down and a half.
If the percentages go way down, if you've got to
start at your twenty to go score especially go score
a touchdown now if it comes out to the thirty five.
So he said that's big, a big adjustment for him.
He said, he putting the zone. Yeah, he struggled with
it some last year. He says he's really worked on
it in the offseason. That's something you don't even think
(22:10):
about a guy, you know, spending time by himself trying
to kick the ball down to the five yard line
instead of kicking it. But he said he's really worked
on it and feels like he's in pretty good shape
to put that ball in that landing zone and make
him return it.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So that's kind of the interesting part about it is
how how much of the kickers worked on it to
be more precise with it, right, Because if the ball
is either caught or hits in the landing zone goes
into the end zone, it has to be feeled it
and down or it has to be returned. So this
is where I think that the NFL is trying to
get more of the returns back into the game, trying
(22:41):
to get a little bit more of the excitement of
the kicking game, but also keeping it safe in the
same breath. So some of the changes that we've seen, guys,
I think when you think about the first downs or
even the replay assists. We are in a generation where
technology is going through the roof. It was only a
matter of time before the nf fell started adopting all
of this stuff that's going on in It'd call it
(23:04):
the business world, right with all the AI movements and
technology growth, Like, it's only a matter of time before
that stuff taking football.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
When't a movie they put out called The Terminator and
there was a play. It was a group called sky Net.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
It started. It took over like that was thirty five
years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I mean the game.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah what AI Here we are?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I mean here we are?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Yeah, watch out for the termament.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Last thing was they talked about concussions being down from
last year, and obviously the kick off being a big
part of that, uh, but also the helmets a lot
of people wore, A lot of a lot of people
wore obviously the Guardian caps, which were a big deal.
They had what he said, ten to fifteen guys actually
Warming Games last year and they said, now they have
built helmets that are better than the actual Guardian caps,
(23:53):
so guys don't have to actually wear the Guardian caps
in games, but guys have the option to do it
or they want to. But say, concussions are down tremendously,
which is a great thing now if.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
You wear the new helmet, the new one they've got out.
Did you ever see the movie Dark Helmet?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I don't know if I did see that one. Oh boy,
that's how big the helmet is. It's like it's like
the Giant got the big helmets. It's not like that,
you know.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
There's been so much talking about the new helmets guys,
and I've never had a chance to put one of
the new ones on, but I can only imagine how
much they have advanced since even when you and I
were playing in the early to mid two thousands and
back to when you were playing. I mean, it's probably
a completely different world from safety, from weight, from comfort.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I even't put one on in probably twenty minute.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, I look at the helmet that I had when
I was here and with Georgia, I'm like, this looks ridiculous.
Compared to I look at the helmet the guys have
now and the cushion, and you know just how it
feels and looks.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I'm like, yeah, by the way, the movie was Spaceballs.
Oh the guy in Spaceballs with dark helmet, So if
you don't want to know what the helmet looks like,
go watch that movie.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Now, I'm just playing, it's not like that. It's not
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Arch is giving you all the old school classics to
go take a look at it all, right before we
completely derail this thing into a generation that nobody understands. Uh,
that's gonna go ahead and wrap us up for today.
We'll hopefully have a whole lot more content after we
got a game under our belts. For preseason action next
week is the Falcons will be taking on the Detroit
Lions Friday night, seven pm here at home.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And then they've got an intersquad scrimmage this week and
joint practices next week, so things start to heat up
a little bit more in this preseason, this preparation, and
it all is in getting them ready to be ready
for the very first regular season.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And you won't see Kirk Cousins, won't see Michael Penny's
doing this game.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
You won't see.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Er playing in his game, so make sure you watch.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
That would be yeah, you would probably want to watch that.
May the Schwartz be with you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. It's a Falcons
presented by AT and T. That's Shock, that's our tom Rack.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Take care of y'all.
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(00:21):
stock items by four pm subject to availability. Hey everybody,
the boys are back here in the Falcons Audible presented by.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
That's DJ Shockley by the way, fresh off of a
interview with Kayden Ellis. This is Dave Archer and I'm
Derek Rackley here. We are back in the studio and
we have the viewers can't see this. We have a
monitor in front of us. We've been told that we
are the big boys in town, so we get a
return monitor, which basically just means we can see what
you guys see, so we can kind of correct some
(00:50):
things or maybe if Arch has his lanyard on, which
he normally does.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Take it off, but shared old school TV.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So we are back for our second one together as
all three of us, your guys is third now as
we are well into training camp for the Atlanta Falcons
in the twenty twenty five season, and we actually had.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
A game played last week.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So the first question is did you watch and did
you care? The Hall of Fame game was last night
Chargers and Lions last weeknight.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I didn't see a snap.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
I watched a little bit of it because obviously I
do stuff with my dogs, So I went back and
watched some of it and watched you know, Dan Jackson
was playing for the Lions, and yeah, so it's a
couple of bulledogs. I was just looking forward to see
how they were gonna play, and just to see him
on the next level. It was pretty cool to see that.
But other than that, I was like, what else can
(01:44):
we watch?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But yeah, that much? How about you?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
What was your last year at Georgia?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Last year? Georgia's two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That's pretty special, two thousand and five. He's twenty years
after and still personally invested in how them dogs are
doing well.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Well, it's different because I to know these kids now
on a different level. Obviously, when you know, I'm down
there with them, always in on the sideline all the time,
it's like it's like ours. I mean, these dues all
the time. So he has invested with the Falcon as
much as you know what I'm saying, all us are too.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well, you're saying you've given up on the Golden Gold.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
I'm still watching Iowa stated, I'm a lot further removing Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Stop it because I'm very far removed. I don't go
to any practices or games because I'm busy on Saturdays
and the turnover getting.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
News.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I don't get a football one.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I get one from the school. He'll try to get
some money out of the football program.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So you don't check on Saturdays. Go through and check
the scores.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Scores and see how they're doing. And trust me, I
pull form when they get drafted.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He cares about you guys, minimally. That's what he says.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I got rock obec.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
If they're slinging it for Iowa State, we're in a
Big twelve title game last year, were still invested.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You got the eye roll.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I don't know if you felt it, but I gave
it to you.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I gave it to them and hopefully you saw it
off of the side. So you guys, DJ, you watched
a little, didn't catch much of it. That's kind of
the phase that we're in right now. I'm going to
ask you guys this question, like how important are preseason games?
Arch and I'll and I'll ask that question to you
because it's there's a lot of depends on who you are,
(03:21):
what stage you are in the league. Are you coming
in as a rookie, are you coming in as a
proven guy? But how important are the preseason games in
this day and age because things have changed from twenty
thirty forty years ago.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I almost feel like guys that they're individually important. You know,
this is such an ultimate team game. Yet the guys
that are going to be playing on Sunday against Tampa
are not going to play in this game and might
not play throughout the preseason. So what is the importance
(03:53):
of it? Well, the importance is that there's only so
many reps in practice, right and so you're trying to
rep your ones, your twos, maybe some of your threes,
and so there's there's some guys that aren't are getting
maybe one rep of practice, three reps of practice. That
doesn't add up to very much over ten days, I've
gotten fifteen reps something like that, So they're very important.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
For those guys.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
Not only are the important for you to see them
develop for you, but you're also giving them an opportunity
to put as we've talked about before, put tape out
there for other guys, other teams to see sixteen man
practice squads. So who do I want to keep to
develop as an Atlanta Falcon? And then obviously everybody else
gets to look too. So I think from an important
(04:41):
standpoint that's important. And you may scoff at this, You
guys won't, but the fan ma scoff at this. There
is a procedural thing that you need to get taken
care of for games. Who goes out first where you're
supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's a stupid thing to.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Say, how do we line up for stretching and all
this kind of stuff? Because he out here at Flowery Branch,
they're spread out over three fields right there, you got
half a field because the other team gets it. So
there is some procedural things that you have to kind
of get squared away and get locked into.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So those are some of the things I think for preseas.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, you know, DJ, we're in this kind of era
now where you don't really see a whole lot of
starters playing preseason games. And before I turned this over
to you to get your viewpoint, I thought about and
I went back and I researched two teams from last year,
the two teams that played in the Super Bowl. Okay,
and I, if my research is correct, the Philadelphia Eagles
(05:40):
did not play any of their starters in the preseason.
I think it turned out okay for them. Whereas Andy
Reid is a little bit old school and he likes
to play his guys, right. He likes to give them
a little bit of live bullet action. And anybody could say, well, yeah,
there's a potential that they could get hurt. There's a
potential they could get hurt in week one, or week
six or week nine, right. I think this has come
(06:01):
down to a very individualized decision, most notably for the
head coach. But Rahim Morris has said that most of
the starters are not going to play for the Falcons.
But should starters play in the preseason or is it
truly an individuals Is.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
This from the coach's perspective, is this from the fans perspective?
The fans perspective is I want to see the dudes
out there playing, and I can understand that, but I
think from the coaches perspective, it goes depends on what
kind of guy you have. You mentioned Andy Reeve is
a guy who's the old school's been there, that done it,
and it's worked for them. And we saw last year
DeMarco Hellims go down in the preseason, guy who was
(06:36):
absolutely could have been a.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Starter, making tribute.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
We saw Brenden Trice go down, a guy who obviously
was gonna be a contributor to drafted and wanted to
be one of those guys. And I think that immediately,
you know, say hold on for Rayie Morris, like, you know,
these are two guys that we were going to depend
on going into the season, and maybe if they didn't play,
we had him.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Going towards the year.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So I think, for myself, I don't mind it that
they don't play. I think you have a bunch of
guys who understand what it takes to get ready for
a ballgame. You got a bunch of guys who understands
the speed of the game. And I think fans always
argue if a team starts slow, that it's because they
didn't play in the preseason. They didn't get a real
feel of the game. And I remember a few years back,
(07:19):
I can't remember who it was, was playing somebody and
they played their starters and we didn't, and they just
went right up and down the field. And I don't
know how much maybe they got from that, because those
are not gonna be the same guys you go against
when it comes week one, week two, week three, So
maybe it's a timing thing for them, But for me,
I don't mind it because you got a bunch of
guys who who are gonna do it in practice and
(07:41):
are just talked about the reps. Now, this is flip
when you're in practice your training camp. These ones these too,
they getting a lot of reps in practice. And then
the other part I think that's also has changed is
you're doing a lot of these joint practices as well.
And what people don't see is what happens in those
practices where they go and they're competing there at it
and it's almost it's it feels game speed because you
(08:03):
see another jersey over there, you see another guy with
a different helmet. It's hard to go eighty five to
ninety percent. You're going full speed because you want to
win that particular rep. You want to win that particular drill.
So I think there's some things that have been put
in place to help coaches make a better decision on
if our guys should play. There's sometimes you look up
and you say, you know what, I feel like, our
(08:23):
guys may need some game action, they may need some reps.
I didn't see what I wanted to see in practice.
These guys need to go out and play. They need to,
you know, build this connoit and bond. But you had
a quarterback who played last year, last three ball games.
With all those guys that have, you got an offensive
line that's played a bunch of football for you. You
got receivers backs who played a bunch of ball. I
think in totally you have a group that you feel
(08:46):
good about with how they practice, so when Week one comes,
they're ready to go.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
The data is leaning that direction to guys, and we're
not very far away from probably seeing the preseason games
go away totally. But the data leans towards when you
put guys in preseason games, and you compare that to
injuries and practice. Injuries in the preseason games is almost
three or four times more likely for a guy to
(09:12):
get injured in a preseason game because as we know,
in practice, things are controlled or where you don't drag
guys to the ground, you're not tackling guys to the ground,
which is number one when it comes to injuries. And
then there's a blocking a thud we call it thud
tempo where you come off, you engage, you drive for
two or three steps, and then you release. That takes
(09:33):
some of the stress off those guys too. So but
what we've been watching in practice is an adjustment for
the Atlanta Falcons is they've done away with some of
the ancillary drills and they're going to more team reps.
Jack and I watch this. Instead of having a script
that's got twenty two or twenty three team reps, they're
(09:54):
getting as many as forty five team reps in practice
as opposed to doing seven on seven where if I'm
a dB and we're in seven on seven which is
dbs and linebackers versus running backs, tight ends in the
quarterback and they're not running the football, so I'm I'm
bailing in coverage, I'm playing cover. Or if you get
in nine on seven, which is you guys know as
(10:15):
a run drill, if I'm a safety, in the run drill,
I know they're not going to play action and throw
behind it. There's nobody to throw the ball to, so
it's almost you're wasting your time. You can incorporate all
that seven on seven and nine on seven run and
pass drills into the team concept, and now I'm having
to guess defensively a little bit. Is it screen coming,
(10:36):
is it run game? Is it play action?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
You know?
Speaker 5 (10:38):
And so you're getting those team reps quote unquote team
reps in practice, and that's why coaches are valuing team
the practice time with their ones and twos far more
than they used to.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I went when I was doing the research on the Eagles,
I read a quote from Nick Sirianni who said that
he felt like they could get more out of intersquad
scrimmages and practices against other teams in training camp than
they could in the preseason games. Well, what's coming up
for the Atlanta Falcons intersquad practice this week and then
they got a scrimmage next week or doing against the
(11:13):
Titans coming into town to practice here, so kind of
the same model. Okay, So let's talk about the game
this week though, Falcons playing Detroit. What do you expect
to see in that game, DJ, And what can fans
expect to see if they come down and they watch
that game or they turn it on the television.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I think it's only right you go see some sloppiness.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
You're gonna see some guys, you know, competing, Hall, because
you go see some of the la pinals that you
don't want to see when you got veterans out there,
you got guys who've been around, who played. But I
expect to see a bunch of guys competing, Hall. I
expect to see a bunch of guys going after trying
to win a job, trying to show the coaches that,
you know what, I can take it from the practice
field to.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The actual game field.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
We I don't have a coach behind me, or I
don't have a you know, the big board out there
where I can see the replay again and go back
and talk about it. You're gonna see guys, I think,
try to take that next step in this process. And
the next step is all right, we've had a couple
of Easter training camp. Now you gotta face somebody else
and you don't know what's gonna happen on this particular down.
You know, you get in practice and say all right,
(12:16):
this is a rundown or this is third and short.
Now you got a lot of different situations that you
have to think through and communicate. Now you're gonna see
who can do that with live bullets flying, who can
do that at fast paced? Who can do that when
it really matters, And who's gonna show up? Who's gonna
make a mistake? But then okay, next series that mistake
comes up again, you kind of you do a better
(12:37):
job of overcoming that. So I think they want to
see the guys who can actually take it from the
practice field to the game and say, you know what,
this guy shows me what he's like.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And there's sometimes there are a lot of guys.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Who who are really good practice players and sometimes their
dudes they are just gamers. And I think we will
see some of that. We've seen guys in practice who
are like, they look pretty average out there, but then
they turn it on when the lights come on. So
which guy are you when you get on this field
and play versus a real game?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Shock we made the We had a discussion earlier about
DeMarco Hellms, and I think that's a prime example is
that he was a guy that came out in the
preseason and he started to jump off the field like
all of a sudden, he continued to make plays. Arch
that's what they're looking for, is when they go into
preseason games. It's like maybe there was a guy that
was doing pretty good in training camp, but then to
your point, shock, he gets out on the field and
(13:25):
he just starts making plays. Because at the end of
the day, it's right, not when coaches over the shoulder
or come and giving you adjustment after every play. It's
who can go out there for three, six, nine plays
straight and then just all of a sudden continue to
show up play after play.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Yeah, or exactly, Racket or a guy comes to the
sideline I think you were referring to this shock guy
comes to the sideline after a series and say, okay,
let's do this. You make an adjustment on the sideline,
I want you to play it this way, or this
is what you didn't see. Let's go back, and then
you see him take that immediate information back to the
football field and he transferred that next series. He's a
(14:01):
better player the next series. So all of what you're
saying is guys stepping up and being given that opportunity.
But again, there's a bunch of guys that they're gonna
wrap in this game that aren't getting a ton of
reps out there, so the coaches are wanting to see
it too. Is there something there that we haven't had
a chance to see yet because they're just not getting
enough wraps.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
The other thing I want to see is who's gonna
make the routine plays? And we talk about trying to
do something outside of yourself, but how about just making
the routine block, making a routine catch, getting up to
the second level. Oh I gotta go, and you know,
I got this guy, man and man, I'm supposed to
play outside leverage.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Who's gonna do that?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I think they want to see some of the minute
things as well as opposed to our right, let's do extra,
let's let's try to make these old wild plays. But
also who can do the small things that are gonna
win games for you? Who can do the little things
that say, you know what, this guy is coachable, this
guy's disciplined, he's not making the dumb mistakes, but he's
doing what he's asked of them.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And can you play to that level? Gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
As the resident special teamer here on our three or
trio here, I got two quarterbacks playing on offense, no offense,
but not really had to make your your money on
special teams. That's what's important really about preseason games as well,
is who can the coaches count on to be on
kickoff coverage, kickoff return, punt, punt return, all that third
(15:23):
phase of the game is where they're looking to see,
this guy's been pretty good playing defense or offense in practice,
but like we can win with him on teams.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Right hold on, let me take up for the qbs
here for one moment. Me and Arch were just in
practice there and they're watching and we're talking, we're looking,
and then Art says, you know what, those two guys
right there, that's what it's gonna matter. And they're doing
a punt drill. Those two guys, that's where you gotta
win it. This guy right here talking about a receiver, says,
(15:52):
you know what, this guy is doing this, doing that,
but he's got to make his money over here.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So those qbs we still looking at third. We're not
totally dismissing it.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
You know, we're going to come out of here.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
If you were going to.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Come out here and tell me that you ran down
on in a preseason I was going to call you out.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So the last kick.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, all right, let's take a slight step back from
the field here, fellows, because last week there was there
was a big call out there for a lot of
people in the broadcasting community. Getting everybody up to the
speed on some of the rule adjustments as there are
every single year in the National Football League, and we're
going to kind of summarize them a little bit here.
But some of the main changes this year have been
(16:35):
on special teams, on the dynamic kickoff. They made a
couple of adjustments there into overtime and also into replay assists.
They're kind of expanding a little bit of the capabilities
of replay assists to be able to chime in on
some more objective plays this year. Arch I think you
listened to the majority of the caller.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
We're on it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What's some of the rule adjustments this year that kind
of stuck out to you that you think are going
to be different.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Well, the thing is going to be really different for
the fan will be how they measure for first downs. Yeah, okay,
so now there's gonna be six uh cameras that are
fixed in in the stands that have there's no chip
in the football. Way mayboy thinks there's gonna be a
chip in the football.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
They're good.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
What they're gonna use these six cameras to do is
triangulate big word shock told me what it meant.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I didn't know what.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
But they're gonna triangulate the.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Football Google and uh.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And those cameras are gonna give you the exact dimensions
of that ten yards that you need to get. Now,
you'll still see the chains on the field. That'll be
a visual for both the fan and the players. So
if I'm out of the backfield and I where's the
first down marker? Obviously there's not gonna be a red
line we can see on TV or the camera.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Tell me helmet and I got a little picture in
my space man.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
So so I that gives me a visual word I
need to get to. But when they say okay, we're
we're there's a time out for a measurement. You're literally
gonna see.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
If you've ever watched any tennis before.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
It's gonna be very similar, is it in or out?
And you see this animated ball hitting, That's what you're
gonna see you're gonna see an animated picture. They're gonna
show you the field, the ball, and then they're gonna
the camera's gonna rotate down literally show where the.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Ball or is it short or is it long?
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And then that's that's the way they're gonna do it.
So it's gonna be really weird and different there. They're
also using cameras where they're gonna they're gonna look at
the in lines, the goal lines, are gonna have cameras
fixed in all the stadiums for those shots. How many
times we said, well, they don't really have a camera
angle for that, right. They're trying to fix that. TV
is trying to fix that. So to try to help
(18:41):
you fans and all of us that argue, well, yeah,
I think he's over, Well, then you're trying to pair
two v cameras angles up. You and I have had
to talk about on TV stuff like that with with
games we've done, so that stuff's gonna go away.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Now as far as the rules.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Go, are you gonna be able to tell us about
the kickoff rules or are we gonna let shot or rack
to it.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
There've just been a couple of small changes that have
happened with like if you kick the ball into the
end zone and the ball is caught in the end zone,
it's up to the thirty five now, right, it was
the thirty.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Which and why would they do that? Rack, They're they're
trying to encourage to bring it in return.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Yeah, actually wants you to put the ball because what
are the numbers, Rack, There's exponential numbers as if you
get the ball at the twenty five or the thirty
thirty five yard line, Yeah, I mean your chance is
to score, go way up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
You've essentially given them what a first down and a
half maybe for the old schoolmember reack in the day
when everything's twenty right, So now it's like it's going
to penalize the teams that just blasted into the end
zone to get the fair catch. Well, now the other
team's going to start at the thirty five yard line,
so we're going to try to promote some more returns.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Most of the dynamic kickoff rules are going to stay
the same. However, they did adjust the on side rule
this year. Anytime that you can do it anytime, as
long as you're trailing in the game, and you let
it be known that it's going to happen, So that's
one adjustment that's also gonna happen. And overtime has been
adjusted to reflect what the playoff rule was last year.
That now both teams are going to get an opportunity
(20:10):
to possess the ball no matter what happens in overtime,
So if the first team scores a touchdown, second team
will have the ability to score a touchdown. So those
are some of the adjustments. And to your point, the measuring,
they say, is going to improve the pace of the
game a little.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Bit post right.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Supposedly, we'll see as soon as it goes out in
the stadium, what are they gonna do.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
What I enjoyed too that they talked about was the
infamous hip drop tackle. Obviously, there was a lot of
conversation about sometimes grabbing maybe the name plate as opposed to,
you know, getting all the way inside of a guy's
jersey or soda pads and grabbing his hair and what
it may be. Now they say, he can go back
and look at it and see, oh, did he actually
grab the inside or just grab his name plate? And
(20:51):
now you can be one of those things, all right,
you can overturn that we saw it and it's pretty good.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
That's a little bit of the replay you were talking about.
Now they can't throw a flat on replay assist, but
what they can do is pick a flag up. So
that's what replay assist is. It's all it is is
a shot down to the head official say hey, this
was you guys, can pick that up. That was not
like a boundary shot a guy going out of bounds.
That was something they expanded it to too, as well as.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
The hip drop or the horse callar tackle.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Is if a guy gets hit out of bounds and
they throw a flag for a personal foul, Hey you
get out of bount it.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
They go back and look at it real quickly, replay assist.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Without slowing the game down, and they say, hey, pick
that flag up because he was still in bounds when
he hit him. Those are some of the adjustments there.
I had a chance to talk to Bradley Pinion about
the kickoff and Bradley's been one of the best in
the league prior to the new dynamic kickoff coming in
last year of pounding it out of the end zone,
and that was a big deal because now all of
a sudden, I go go eighty yards and talking about
(21:48):
those percentages you mentioned a first down and a half.
If the percentages go way down, if you've got to
start at your twenty to go score especially go score
a touchdown now if it comes out to the thirty five.
So he said that's big, a big adjustment for him.
He said, he putting the zone. Yeah, he struggled with
it some last year. He says he's really worked on
it in the offseason. That's something you don't even think
(22:10):
about a guy, you know, spending time by himself trying
to kick the ball down to the five yard line
instead of kicking it. But he said he's really worked
on it and feels like he's in pretty good shape
to put that ball in that landing zone and make
him return it.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So that's kind of the interesting part about it is
how how much of the kickers worked on it to
be more precise with it, right, Because if the ball
is either caught or hits in the landing zone goes
into the end zone, it has to be feeled it
and down or it has to be returned. So this
is where I think that the NFL is trying to
get more of the returns back into the game, trying
(22:41):
to get a little bit more of the excitement of
the kicking game, but also keeping it safe in the
same breath. So some of the changes that we've seen, guys,
I think when you think about the first downs or
even the replay assists. We are in a generation where
technology is going through the roof. It was only a
matter of time before the nf fell started adopting all
of this stuff that's going on in It'd call it
(23:04):
the business world, right with all the AI movements and
technology growth, Like, it's only a matter of time before
that stuff taking football.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
When't a movie they put out called The Terminator and
there was a play. It was a group called sky Net.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
It started. It took over like that was thirty five
years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I mean the game.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah what AI Here we are?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I mean here we are?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Yeah, watch out for the termament.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Last thing was they talked about concussions being down from
last year, and obviously the kick off being a big
part of that, uh, but also the helmets a lot
of people wore, A lot of a lot of people
wore obviously the Guardian caps, which were a big deal.
They had what he said, ten to fifteen guys actually
Warming Games last year and they said, now they have
built helmets that are better than the actual Guardian caps,
(23:53):
so guys don't have to actually wear the Guardian caps
in games, but guys have the option to do it
or they want to. But say, concussions are down tremendously,
which is a great thing now if.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
You wear the new helmet, the new one they've got out.
Did you ever see the movie Dark Helmet?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I don't know if I did see that one. Oh boy,
that's how big the helmet is. It's like it's like
the Giant got the big helmets. It's not like that,
you know.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
There's been so much talking about the new helmets guys,
and I've never had a chance to put one of
the new ones on, but I can only imagine how
much they have advanced since even when you and I
were playing in the early to mid two thousands and
back to when you were playing. I mean, it's probably
a completely different world from safety, from weight, from comfort.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
I can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I even't put one on in probably twenty minute.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, I look at the helmet that I had when
I was here and with Georgia, I'm like, this looks ridiculous.
Compared to I look at the helmet the guys have
now and the cushion, and you know just how it
feels and looks.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I'm like, yeah, by the way, the movie was Spaceballs.
Oh the guy in Spaceballs with dark helmet, So if
you don't want to know what the helmet looks like,
go watch that movie.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Now, I'm just playing, it's not like that. It's not
like that.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Arch is giving you all the old school classics to
go take a look at it all, right before we
completely derail this thing into a generation that nobody understands. Uh,
that's gonna go ahead and wrap us up for today.
We'll hopefully have a whole lot more content after we
got a game under our belts. For preseason action next
week is the Falcons will be taking on the Detroit
Lions Friday night, seven pm here at home.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And then they've got an intersquad scrimmage this week and
joint practices next week, so things start to heat up
a little bit more in this preseason, this preparation, and
it all is in getting them ready to be ready
for the very first regular season.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And you won't see Kirk Cousins, won't see Michael Penny's
doing this game.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
You won't see.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Er playing in his game, so make sure you watch.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
That would be yeah, you would probably want to watch that.
May the Schwartz be with you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. It's a Falcons
presented by AT and T. That's Shock, that's our tom Rack.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Take care of y'all.
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