July 26, 2025 • 36 mins
Will McFadden, Tori McElhaney and Terrin Waack share what they've seen from the 2025 Atlanta Falcons throughout the first few days of AT&T Training Camp. They share what the signing of WR DJ Chark means now that WR Darnell Mooney has been injured, as well as why it's okay that the defense won the day today. Steve Wyche of NFL Network then joins the show to share why he thinks Atlanta could be a contender in the NFC South this year.
0:00 - Intro
0:49 - Darnell Mooney & DJ Chark
4:57 - Saturday practice report
12:15 - Camp Champ
15:15 - Steve Wyche on Bijan Robinson
18:45 - "No Excuse"
22:11 - Defensive Line versatility
28:13 - Maximizing Kyle Pitts
31:48 - National perception & playoff push
36:05 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dirty Birds. What's up? The Atlanta Falcons have just wrapped
up their second open practice of training camp. It is
back Together Saturday, Back Together weekend, and we also at
the NFL we are back together. We got Tory mclaney
and Tarren Wack joining us today and we're gonna break
down practice. So up top, we're gonna kind of talk
(00:21):
a little bit about some news that happened last night
before we got here on Saturday for the next practice
with Djhark Darnell Mooney. So we're gonna get into that.
But then second half of the podcast you're gonna hear
from Steve Weisch, who is the chief national reporter at
NFL Network. A lot of great stuff there, So big
episode in store for us today, but let's start off
(00:42):
with kind of the news up top, the signing of
DJ Shark, Darnell Mooney, Tory. Where do you want to
start with those two? DJ or Darnell.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Let's start with Darnell because I feel like that is
the continuation of what happened on Thursday. And as if
you've been following along with Terren's reporting, my reporting, Will's reporting,
you know that Darnell Mooney had a pretty significant fall.
On Thursday's practice, Michael Pennock Junior tried to hit him
with a deep ball, beautiful pass.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It looked like it was going to be a catch,
and then Darnald Mune came down really hard on one
of his shoulders and got up a little sluggish. But
I originally I was a bit like, oh, it's just
it's just because he's mad at himself that he didn't
make that catch, which is probably fair. He probably was.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Like a moment with I Killiard when he was kind
of walking back to the team and he was it
seemed like one of those like, man, you know, you
should have caught that pass and it was and then
like kind of became clear on maybe maybe something else
is a little bit up and then.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah field and that Yeah, that was the thing is
he he ended up leaving and walking with the trainer
off the field and didn't come back to practice. And
it was unfortunate the timing of it because we couldn't
really get a lot of information on Darnal Mooney like
immediately because Raheem Morris spoke prior to practice, and then
there was no availability on Friday because they were doing
a jog through and so it wasn't an open practice
(01:59):
type situation, so we didn't really have all that much
information about Darnell Mooney and the status and injury status
or if it was anything to worry about. That came
down the pike on Friday evening, late Friday evening, nine
thirty nine thirty PM is when we got the text
and we're like, all right, here we go. But it
is a shoulder injury. Don't know the extent of what
(02:21):
that shoulder injury is and don't really know if it's
the same issue that he was working through at the
detail end of last year, which he missed that final
game of the season because of a shoulder injury. So
we don't know the specifics of it just yet, but
we do know that it's going to be a few
weeks that we won't see him, so probably for majority
of training camp, I would say, we're not going to
(02:43):
get to see him out there as much. Now. Today
he was out there walking around with his hat on,
in a sweatshirt, walking, hanging out with Ike Killierd, hanging
out with the other receivers. He seemed to be in
good spirits, had a smile on his face, So I
don't think overall it's something too serious. But I know
that there are a lot of people who are making
the connection of oh, the Falcons have signed a receiver
(03:05):
and there's a starting receiver who's injured. But as Tarin,
I'm sure you can talk more about this. As Kyle Smith,
the assistant GM said today, that's not really the case, right.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The Falcons brought DJ Charkin for a tryout well before
Darnell Mooney was even injured. Like I don't even I
don't know the timeline, but I just know it happened before.
And so this correlation cannot be made. Who knows if
they would have signed him if not. Who knows if
they were going to sign him regardless, The fact of
the matter is the announcement of signing DJ Chark came
(03:37):
out this morning. Reports of the signing came out yesterday
around five pm. I remember everything, and so, yeah, you
can't correlate the two. But DJ Shark is someone who
has experienced in this league, where he was drafted by
the Jacksonville Jaguars, had a rather good run there, even
had one thousand yards in his second season with the
(04:01):
Jaguars before beat bopping three teams in a row, three
years in a row and landing now in Atlanta. So
he's a guy with experience and they kind of needed
depth at that position regardless. So even if Mooney hadn't
gotten hurt, it's very well. Yeah, like I could have
been here regardless.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, you can never have too many defensive backs, you
can never have too many wide receivers, and you can
never have too many alignemen. And I stand by that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I start was a ninety man roster a year round
all the time.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, it's like high school or college when you have
one hundred people on a roster. But I do think
that something that DJ Chark provides, And this is something
that the three of us talked about. Right when he
first he's so fast, he has a forty time. That
is something. It's pretty impressive. So we're talking if we're
talking about taking a top off a defense, this is
someone who has who's shown in this league he has
(04:49):
the ability to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, And I mean, what do we know about Michael
Pennock Jenior. You like to throw the ball deep, so
give him those weapons, give him those options. But Taren,
what did we see from Michael Pennock Junior in the
offense out there in practice today.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Well, it is just the second open practice. I'm going
to say that to start because Pennix that was such
a team. No, I know, because I know the moment
I say this, it's going to be like, oh, but
they were the day before. Yeah, exactly. But Penix completed
five of his fourteen passes. Granted, these are not professional
(05:22):
statistics taken by one of the team officials, people like
I'm here with my notebook on the sideline seeing what
I can and conferring with other media members. But there
were a lot of drops. There were a lot of
passes that hit hands and hit the ground. It wasn't
what you want to see. But again, it's still just
the second open practice. And it's also Michael penickx jun
(05:45):
your second season is first as a starter in training camp,
so you can't read too much into it. Everyone is
probably still getting to know each other, getting to know
the rhythm, getting to know the feel of the ball,
the touch of the ball. He has a zanger and
so that being said. On the flip side, the defense
looked really good in a sense that there were like
three different cornerbacks you had, Mike Cues, Mike Ford, and blanking.
(06:09):
I have it in my camp report if you want
to go look, go look at the camp who all
had pass breakups And then you see DeMarco Hellam's force
a fumble out of Drake London of all people. Also,
you just like it was a beautiful punch out, like
fist ball through arm.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Which is something that is beautiful.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
It was something that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Actually if you go watch the Jeff Ulbrick miked up
from Thursday's practice, there's a part in it where he's
talking to the DB's about peanut punch. He's talking to
them about punch outs and he's talking about where that
that one can?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
My ears go, what that's?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
What that is?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's it's Peanutman Charles Tillman, former defensive back who was
famed for his to punch the ball out.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, it's it's a.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Cute name though even with tex but no, it's so
he was going around and that's what they were doing
on Thursday, and Jeff Olbrick was very pointed in his conversations.
It's like a five second clip of a three and
a half minute miked up, but that showed up from
Thursday into Saturday, and I think that's.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Important DeMarco also was kind of everywhere. People already know that.
I think he's going to have a really good comeback,
and I think he was doing very well before he
got injured. But you could feel his presence on the
field today. He was coming in hot toward London and
punching that ball out and then you could see him.
He almost had an interception one. I think it was
Cadarill Hodge bobbled the pass a little bit, it fell,
(07:36):
but he was right there and could have grabbed it
had he like one step further kind of thing, and
just running around everywhere full speed, And it makes me
think about when we talked to Jesse Bates during the
off season program, where he's like, we call him Bam Bam.
He is the most aggressive person in the safety room.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yea, I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I love a good big babe.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And the third cornerback. Just to give credit where credit
is due, it wasn't a throne books.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
There you go, Yeah, familiar face around here. It is
very encouraging, I think to see the defense starting off
hot at given the amount of resources that they invested
in that side of the ball this offseason. But honestly,
There's a lot of fans out there who were like, wait,
I thought the offense was going to be the leader
of this team. We got Bijan, we got Drake, now
we got Michael Pennant, Like, is it time to panic? Like,
(08:20):
what's going on? We've got a defense out here just
running laps around the offense like toy, Yeah, let's throw
a little water on this fire.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's take a deep breath.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Let's calm down.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
This is Tory's therapy corner.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I steal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
My voice is not one hundred percent back, so it's
saving and calming, and I'm telling you right now, it's fine.
Everything's fine. This is actually pretty normal in the scope
of a training camp because where is the defense? You know,
I always say you can't really get a full scope
of a defense because I don't have the pads on
and they can't full on tackle people. That is ninety
(08:53):
percent of what a defender is trying to do. They're
trying to stop the ball from going forward in whatever
capacity that is, and that's physicality. As an offense this time,
it's really difficult to truly judge when the offense has
kind of an off day that some people may look
at and be like, oh, that looks a little sloppy.
(09:13):
You have no idea what's being asked. And I think
something that was very obvious to me was very early
on in eleven on eleven work, and there was this
moment where it was like Michael Panicks just kind of
overshot I think it was Cadaryl Hodge on on a
little like ten yard out route and he overshot him,
(09:33):
and he Michael Panicks kind of pulled up and like
with his hands and with his body kind of ran
the route for Caderrel and Cadarol's kind of looking back
and you can see they're trying to get the timing right.
And then you have the two's going on the next
the very next play, and they run the exact same play,
(09:54):
and so to me, it's like they're still heavy install
there are still things that they're trying to work on,
the timing and the motions and making sure everybody's where
they need to be. Michael Pennock's understanding where to get
the ball at the top of his receiver's routes, where
he thinks the ball should go, where he's leading them,
and how much these receivers know. Okay, I know if
(10:16):
I get to this part of my route, the ball's
coming at me. So I think that's why I'm not
overly concerned at all. I'm not concerned at all by
I think the performance of the offense today because this
stuff tends to happen as they're trying to work on
more things than it makes the defense look really good
because you're looking at some of these receivers dropping passes,
(10:38):
You're looking at you know, you know, the offense of
guys maybe not holding the ball as hard as much
because they know that a like contact is not coming,
so they're not bracing for it, so a defender can
come in and just kind.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Of be like ooop like.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I think all of those things kind of play
into it. So that's why I'm like, all of this
is great, but take it with a grain of salt,
because there's a lot happening underneath the surface.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
What is really good to see, even with all that said,
is how serious they're taking it though, because I think
about the one play where Pennix threw it kind of
deep to Drake London. It was a little high and
Drake was jumping the grab and it looked like he
had it, but he dropped it, which is on Drake
was so visibly upset he took his helmet and threw it.
I think the helmet bound higher than the ball. But like,
(11:24):
you want to see that from your players at all
times the county seriously.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, yeah, no, one hundred percent. I mean that that
is the intensity that you want to see, especially from somebody,
like it doesn't matter if it's the second open and
practice of training camp or in the middle of the season,
like the urge.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Starter basically, and he's still being emotional and like passionate
about the second practice. Yeah, and that's good.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And then something Jake Matthew said afterwards was that there
was a little bit of a challenge I think specifically
to the defense to bring the intensity, to really amp
that up. So given that context, like I think that's
important that if there is an onus put on the defense,
especially early in camp three, like you set the tone
we want to see it from you, that maybe we
shouldn't really be again hitting the panic button on the
(12:08):
fact that they are bringing it, because that's kind of
what they want to see. They want to see the
energy level that they can kind of go out there with.
So we're gonna get to our conversation with Steve Weisch
here in just one second. But back by popular demand,
we've had a few people reach out and be like, Billy,
what's up. You did a training camp episode and you
didn't have camp Champs, So like, who who should we
be following? Who's gonna win the camp? I don't know,
(12:29):
So we're gonna bring it back. We're gonna you know,
I'm sorry we were remiss. Yeah, we need to leave
it out.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Honestly, I'll be real, like, we didn't even think about
like doing camp Champ again because like circumstances of practice.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
There were thousands of fans practice. Yeah, they could just
name their own camp champ. Just everybody tweet out.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Tho's your camp Champ. But that was the reason we
weren't going to do it. And then there are people
who came up to us like you didn't do a
freaking camp champ on the first episode, and we're like, okay,
we will bring it back.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
So I can. I can hear Steve waiting right outside
of that door knocking, be like, so really quickly, Taren,
We'll start with you, who is your camp champ?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Today?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Today's I'm going to go with David Sills. I feel
like he I know, he caught all of the passes
that he was given the opportunity to with the second
team offense, and I just feel like you could feel
his presence. Yes, it's the second team, but maybe he
gets an opportunity with the first team because of that.
There is an opportunity now given the Darnell Mooney injury
for a wide receiver to step up.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, for me, it is Mike Cues. I thought he
had he had a great practice, and I thought he
had a good practice the other day on Thursday as well.
No one's talking about Mike Cues. And I understand, like
why because you have a j Drelly, you of Jesse Bates.
But Mike Cues matters greatly. As I'm punching my microphone,
Mike Cues matters greatly to this defensive back group, this
(13:44):
cornerback group, and I think that he he came with
an intensity today that I personally felt. And I'll give
one more shout out to the fans who showed up today.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I really are our too.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, it was so great meeting some of you, talking
to some of you. It was it was fantastic and
it really warms my heart and made me feel good
because sometimes I think we can get wrapped up in
maybe like negativity or things that we see that that
isn't that great. But it was really awesome to see
all of y'all hang out with y'all for a minute,
and I know I greatly appreciated the conversations.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
No, truly, this is at the end of the day,
it's a game. It's it's about the fans, it's about
having fun, it's about you know, competing, and yes, all
of that stuff, and like there's a lot on the line,
but it's a sport, it's fun and it we really
felt that energy today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna side
with Tory. I'm gonna say Mike Keys because I think
this was a defensive day to find on that side
of the ball and the secondary specifically, we're really punching
(14:40):
the ball out part mind fist, that's bricks thing, so
we got the fist involved today.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I was between David Sales and Mike Haile Hailes Hues.
It's on my little notebook, but I ended up doing
David to give someone I think that's someone else I love.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, you go.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
People might not know, And to be fair, I've been
doing a Player of the day. We're only on the
second in practice, so we're gonna go with the first
camp champ was Kyle Pitts.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
We have our two. Yeah, Pitts and Mike Cues. So
far great.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I love it giving love to those two players. But
let's give a little love to Steve Weish right now.
Joined now by Steve Wish, chief national reporter for the
NFL Network. Steve, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Oh man, I'm so happy to be here, back home
where it all started. We all kind of short of started,
but yeah, kind of started.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I started. This is this is home, this is where
you come from, this is the place. So we're happy
to bring you back on exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We love to welcome you back, and we want to
start with some news that came out yesterday. The NFL
Top one hundred has been rolling out its rankings. Look
forward to that every single year. But John Robinson debuted
at number sixty two. I'm not gonna lie. I was
a little bit surprised to see him. Kind of that
love you and me both, okay, So yeah, give me
your give me your thoughts on where he was.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
It's so funny and I was thinking about this coming over,
and it's like, if it weren't for Saquon Barkley and
Derek Han, like really, you know, say Quon over two thousand,
Derek Henry ryther in the border, we'd be talking about
how an unbelievable season. Yeah, but Jean Robinson had I mean,
his yardage totals were absolutely insane. Didn't get the end
zone a ton, because it's not how the offense works,
(16:14):
but just the productivity and receiving game in the run game,
the highlight film stuff. I mean, this guy is must
see TV. This is the guy you have to go
to the stadium. You want to watch him.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Right. There are teams you pay to watch, and they
are players you pay to watch. He's a player you
pay to watch. I'm like, sixty two didn't even see
what this guy did. They must not have, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
And that's probably the issue because the team was so
up and down last year. I was like, okay, this
and that, but he was so consistent regardless of how
the offense worked.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I thought he would be I mean.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Honestly like sub forty, like you know, right, like thirty
between like thirty nine or down?
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Does that like, do you think it has more to
do with kind of the running back position, the nature
of it and how it's been a little bit diminished
it feels like in recent years, or do you think
it has or to do maybe with like team success
and if the Falcons become that team that really well,
they played like five prime time games last year, right,
felt like so they were a team on the national radar?
Where do you do attribute?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
So let's get into the real nuts and bolts of it.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
So when the top one hundred, you know, they're asking
players to vote on right, So they asked the players
to beat it out of the Pro Bowl, you know,
whatever type of events where they can get these guys
to do all this plus postseason. So they're voting on
you know, Pro Bowls, this and that and and so.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I think guys kind of get lost. Right. The players
are voting on like, well, I want to put my
team in here.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Didn't I think a recency bias?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Almost?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, it's kind of did I vote for wait, okay
for for Pro Bowl? Or are you know? And so
they kind of forget.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
A lot of a lot of logistics and paperwork. Correct,
I'm a minutia.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I mean seriously so, and this is part of it.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Plus, if you really look at it, it'll say the
top players for twenty twenty five. So there's a projection
and a review that confuses people. Right are we are
we saying this guy is not going to be as
good it's gonna be the sixty second best player because
of why or oh he did so good, we got
to get him. So there's always been this confusion for
(18:09):
as long as this list. I'm at the NFL network, right,
this is where you know it all started, and so, okay,
wait am I voting for this? So there's always confusion
about it because there's always five or six guys. You're like,
why is he so far back? Why is he so
far so high up on the list, And how is
this guy not on the list?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know what?
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Dak Prescott made the list and he played what seven
games last year?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:30):
So okay, So that's voting for the projection, not so
much for the review, and it's it's the mass confusion.
So I think that's I think that's why. Plus the
Falcon is not making the playoffs clearly plays into that
as well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm glad you bring up playoffs because I mean the
main point of I think where this team is right now,
everyone's talking about it in the same breadth, in the
same scope of this is a team that needs to
win games. This is a team that needs to make
it to the postseason. And I know you went on
Dukes and Bell recently and you're talking about that there's
really no major glaring holes in this roster at this
(19:07):
point in time, and that it kind of makes it
to where there are these lofty expectations and almost no
excuse for this team. Can you explain what you meant
when you said all that.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yeah, I won't say lofty expectation, but there's no excuse, right,
there's no excuse. Right, you had to go ahead and
click ahead your backup. You're first with a confusing quarterback plan.
Then it looked like a brilliant quarterback plan. Well now
it's it's operations. So there's no excuse, right, You backstopped yourself.
Now the backstop is the forefront, right, so you got
Michael Pennix, no excuse. You've got not to be John
(19:40):
Robinson with Tyler Algier at running back stud wide receiver
in Drake London, Darnell Mooney is someone who is going
to take a step forward. And the scheme this year
based on a lot of things I've been told. You
got a solid offensive line, you go out and you
finally address the edge rusher position with two young guys.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You bring in Leonard.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Floyd, who's got the familiar with Raheem, a steady element.
Kaiden Nellis You've heard me say, I think he's the
most underrated player in the NFL at inside linebacker. You're
bringing a guy like to Divine Diablo. A lot of
people don't know about him. He can really run, right,
He's one of these tacklings, really really run. You got
a lot of youth behind him, and there's a lot
of talent.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I don't know how much you guys have talked about
this that was injured last year, that's back there looking
forward to guys like Trice right, a high pressure guy
on that defensive front. So now I'm thinking about Raheem
and you know, me being in LA and him being
with the Rams, and how they had all these young
guys right, the Byron Youngs and all these guys come
in and play well early and succeed well early. Now
(20:39):
this is where you hope Floyd is kind of a
veteran cog like Aaron Donald was for some of those guys.
But if you get Brick in Raheem scheme going with
some guys behind him and some guys you can really
run on that second level. I mean there might be
times out there where you see four defensive ends plus
Kaiden Nellis, so you got five pass rushing threats.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Which knew merit.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
You can scheme the hell out of an offensive line,
be it with bluffs, be with actual pressure, things like that.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So they've got no excuses.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Right, we're talking about the brilliance of coaching. We're talking
about youth, we're talking about experience. We're talking about explosive players.
And you do not win in the NFL if you
do not have explosive players. And I'm not just talking
about Bashan who can take a six yard play into
a sixty yard play. I'm talking about guys on the
back end who can pick off a pass or pick
(21:29):
up a fumble and run at thirty yards for a touchdown. Right,
the good offenses people talk about, oh, well, the Chiefs
offense wasn't that great? Well, they don't have to be
great because their defense gets some short feels to operate,
and they've got a kicker who can kick long field
goals if they have to. So getting the ball to
the offense, but also hitting explosive plays on both sides
of the ball. I'm looking at the roster, I'm looking
(21:51):
at the coaching staff. There are no excuses.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We know that the explosive plays are something they were
working with bijon and get the running backs on. But
I love what you said about divine Diablo and they
think a lot about Jeff Ulbrick and what he did
with Foyer, which you know very well how he turned
him into just kind of a tackle machine here in
Atlanta as a former safety. But I want to circle
back to what you were talking about with the pass rush,
and there are a lot of options here. The versatility
(22:16):
is a calling card for this defense. But do you
have any specific pairings in mind that you're really excited
to see on Sundays here in Atlanta? Be it you know,
the two rookies together veteran Floyd in the mix, Like
who gets you excited when you think, all right, those
two guys coming off the edge. I can't wait to see.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
When you talk to wine person like me, when you
talk pairings.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Now you're talking like so you know it's hard to tell,
but I mean, like you saw Pierce a lot of
Tennessee play on the left side. You know, Jalen played
off the ball. So I think you honestly can do
some things. And I think back to what Brandon Stale
used to do when he was with the Chargers, when
he had Tully twea Polo two, Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, Right,
(22:56):
there were different ways where they weren't actually on the
line to get there, but like twea plow who could
be in a wide nine, Bosa could be like in
a seven technique, and then Khalil's in a wide nine
on the other side, and it looks like you've got
this massive gap here, but then you scheme stuff up.
And so that's what I'm looking at this. And like
I said, you've got the two young guys. You know,
Leonard Floyd is gonna be He's a steady like ten
(23:18):
sack a year guy, right, but he's also good against
the run, Like, so, so who's gonna be other guy?
Is he gonna be is he gonna be trice on
one side? Is he gonna be pierced. The one thing
that I know about Raheem is the fact that he
can roll guys through. Like the guys who are are
front five initially, you may only see them once together
(23:40):
that whole game, right, They're gonna be rolling through so
many different packages. But the one thing with some conversations
I've had is they may not have to play a
boatload of nickel. They're gonna I mean, the majority of
your scheme is nickel. But because you have linebackers who
can run and the versatility of young guys who you
can mismatch up front depending on your opponent, you can
sit back with four because you can get pressure different
(24:04):
ways on guys. So you know, they've built this roster
to give them a flexibility that they have not had
in a while, a part because of injuries, in part
because you didn't have speed off the edge. Now they
got speed off the edge. You just hope that they
can figure out how to get to the quarterback, because that.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Is not anything that's two different things.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, it kind of makes me think, you know, when
they drafted Jalen Walker and kind of the first thing
that Raheim Morris said, Jeff Ulbrick said, is like, oh,
we're gonna really have him be a master of one thing.
We're gonna have him be a traditional addresser. When they
say that, do you actually believe that? Because I know
for me, if you're taking Jalen Walker at number fifteen,
(24:43):
over all, the reason you take him is because of
everything you're talking about and where you can can place him.
So when you hear that one, what.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Do you think? I think it depends on the other parts.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Right, So if you have other people who are flexible,
which they do, right, they've built an other flexibility.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So when you've got you know, you guys are probably
too young.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
But you know, Jerry Tarkanian and a lot of these
guys back in the old college basketball, they had this
amoeba offense. Right, we're just scram the guys, removing them. Ever,
there's no true five, they no true two. We're just
moving guys everywhere. Whoever gets the ball in the open shot,
take it. And I think that's kind of more so
what you're going to see here. I would not be
surprised if there will be times where you see four
guys on that de front standing up two point stances.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I mean, peers can drop two. He did that at
Tennessee five six times.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Again, I'm not having him drop.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But you're like, okay, we're talking about getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I became public enemy number one for saying that my
credibility that moment.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
But but I mean, I'm like, like wood Walker. They
now they they've been working mostly at the edge. That's
what he is going to do. But now if all
of a sudden some guy inside starts playing better this
way and you've got other guys, you can roll in
behind him every now and then. Myles Garrett does not
necessarily stick at the edge for Cleveland all the time.
Sometimes he's reduced to tackle. Sometimes they stand up linebacker
(26:01):
over the center. So if you can do that, even
if it's just a mask, these are things that in
today's football, which is all geometry and all math, it
is numerically this way, in open space, you figure out
how to win that way.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Do you think we're ever gonna like in the way
that almost baseball and basketball were kind of like quote
unquote solved. Is the NFL game solvable? No?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I mean again, it depends.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I mean the person that the athletic talent is so
insane right now, I don't think so. I mean, you're
gonna have matchups that are gonna be favorable, but you're
never gonna say, Okay, this team likes to do this
a lot because it's so situational, right right twenty years ago,
you're like, Okay, this team they line up with four across,
they got, you know, on the defensive front. Okay, they
(26:50):
play single tight you know, one one wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
To running backs.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Is like you kind of knew what their identity was.
Now the identity changes on if if you're on the
plus side of the fifty on the right hash yep,
with four minutes on the clock as opposed to eight. Yeah, right,
it isn't. I've sat in on conferences where they do
these analytics meetings, and I come out.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Of there like why, just like Kaleidoscopic, you took one
team and you made like seven.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, it's just like why do you think about this?
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Like you know, you know there are certain teams like
if it's less than a minute, right and they're and
they're and they're driving, it's third down that they are
if they're not gonna get the first I'll say third nine,
they're gonna burn as much clock and then get to
the sideline so they don't burn a time out. But
then the other team is like, great, let them kick it.
(27:40):
We get the ball back with eight seconds left on
even if it's negative thirty on our side, We're not
just gonna take any We're gonna take a shot because
we know with our personnel and our receivers, odds are
we're gonna get a defensive pass interference called at worst,
and we've got to kick. Like they're thinking about this
stuff in may.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It's just too chopped up right now.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, there's too many variables. There's too many. Oh yeah,
that's what makes it so exciting.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Kind of speaking of variables, there is one variable within
this offense that I think a lot of people are
pinpointing as they don't know where this thing is going.
And that has to do with Kyle pits Very early
on in training camp. I know we're only a couple
of days in, but he's looked really good and his
connection with Michael Pennix is there. Michael Pennix has said
(28:34):
how much he does appreciate working with Kyle Pitts and
how much he likes working with Kyle Pits. When it
comes to Kyle Pitts, everybody's trying to replicate what happened
in that rookie year that hasn't happened since. When you're
looking at his game and the fact that he's on
this fifth year and he's playing for his next contract.
What needs to happen with Kyle Pitts in twenty twenty
(28:55):
five to get the best out of him.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
It's interest because you know the contract money is a motivator. Right,
If that's what it takes.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Fine, great, Right, if the money motivates me.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Right, if there's a possibility, if there's a possibility for
him to get seventy five targets, if that's the motivator, fine.
I think that this is too pronged. Part of this
is on Coyle. Pits got to be available, you know,
got to be as healthy as possible. He's got to
play this potential he's when I watch him sometimes he's
(29:25):
like the big man in basketball. If you don't get
them involved early, they can blend into the furniture. You
get involved early, Okay, you got them. They're they're scoring
points or blocking shots. They're disruptive, at the rim right.
So if you get Cowpits going early in this manner,
you now have a quarterback whose first read.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Ain't the check down.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Michael Pennix is going to try to stretch the field.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
That is his game.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
It is a beautiful thing to see. And when you
have a tight end who can get up the seams,
who can do like, Okay, hey, I got an intermediate option.
I'm going to try to get the nine yard game
instead of the four yard where the running back might
be able to catch it and beat him in the
open field because this guy's stood. Okay, okay, so you
get Pit's going on the first drive or two. I
like the connection we have going here, So I think
(30:12):
that's where a lot of this can happen. Because the
one thing with Pennix, he can get under center a
little bit. He's more mobile, trust me, he's a very
good athlete.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
We forget that.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
They forget that.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So there's all kinds of things they can do with
their game that can open up Kyle Pitts. And part
of that's going to be Darnell Mooney. Like I like
you hearing from people's like fantasy football players, no pick
up Darnel Mooney somewhere in your line.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I really said last year when we were we were
literally on the podcast during training camp and it was like,
who is someone people should pick up on their fantasy
team that like you're not talking about, And I was like,
Darnell Mooney, you have to like, this is someone who
actually true. I know people were looking at the pickup
of him like last offseason and it's like, okay, cool,
(30:59):
it's an option, like whatever. But the impact he has
on some pretty significant moments of the last year I
think only enhances what he could potentially be for this
team in twenty twenty five as well.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Can stretch the field, you can move him, he's your
your intermedy and deep there at that guy, So that
opens up stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Up for London.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
They start getting a touch and for Pits, you know,
Bijon's gonna be flexed out for time. So again we
talk about no excuses, so other than injury, there are
no excuses for things not to function.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Well, specifically on offense. I mean, when you look at
the makeup of this offense, like it really does have
kind of the individual parts to make that some like
one of the very best in the league. And that's
kind of been the chatter a little bit here the
first daid of training camp. The expectations are high for
the offense, but the expectations are a little bit. We're
(31:51):
really close, I think, to the expectations here in Atlanta
and hearing from the fans every single day, so kind
of popping our heads above the clouds and getting your
but on, like Raheem and Terry and kind of where
they are and where this whole structure of the roster
and the organization as it currently stands. What do people
think of the twenty twenty five Falcons nationally.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Nashally, I think it's kind of a wait and see
just because they've had high hopes before and as the
Falcon fans know, the rugs gotten pulled out from underneath them.
But I think the Michael Pennock factors is just super
intriguing because everyone knows he's he just throws one of
the most beautiful passes in the league, and he's got
all this great college stuff. But he only had three games, Like,
(32:33):
so how is he going to fit in? And I
know the work in training camp is, you know last
year he was working with the number twos, so he's
spending all off season working with the ones, right, So
what's that chemistry going to be, Like, how long is
it going to take to form? I don't think it's
going to be, you know, taking a long at all
because they're all young guys, right, They're all in the
same It's not a thirty five year old Matt Ryan
trying to work.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, great thing, right, So these are all a group.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
That can grow together, and I think the coaching staff
understands that. So I think a lot of the stuff
is strategic in terms of the way they shape their
defense with the youth. Right, all the front end, the
back end, and the front end are a lot of
young guys, right. Okay, we'll move the linebackers in and
out if we have to, depending, but we want to
(33:16):
be young and young they can grow together, right, Coverage,
make sack sex, you know, our pressure helps out cover.
So I think that part strategic. They've got to be tougher.
They've got to be a tougher football team. You know,
when you look at teams getting to the playoffs, the
Eagles destroy people the Chiefs on defense absolutely not your
(33:36):
teeth out. So they've got to be that type of
team because again, you look at all the speed and
look all the excitement, explosive players we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You think of a finesse football.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Team, They've got to be a team that can mash
because you know what, Tampa Bay on both sides of
the ball, they blow people up and they've got a
really talented football team.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
They're the most under discussed team in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
They got a lot of talent the football team.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So they've got to the Falcons.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
They've got to be able to match that consistently weak
in and week out if they want to be what
they should.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Be to kind of wrap us up. And this is
something that I'm really excited to hear your perspective on.
So let's as a thought exercise, we're going to fast
forward to January twenty twenty six. Okay, we're talking about
the Atlanta Falcons as a playoff team. If that were
to happen, What is one thing that needs to happen
(34:30):
during the regular season over the course of the next
four months to get them there.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
One one will go with the other. Pressure and takeaways. Right,
They've got to get takeaways. Get this offense an extra
possession to a game tonight, a possession or two get
an extra possession or two so that the pressure up front.
Falcon fans have been hearing this for decades.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Now, let's fink it, John, John, let's go and bring it.
I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
I'm glad you did it.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
But but I think that's what is going to need
to happen. Like I said, Tampa Bay is really good,
Like they're their roster's good, They've got a they've got
a culture down there that's really well established.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
They're tough.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
That offense is high powered.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
And defensively, if they can stay healthy, they're going to
be really good. And and so again that's where I
think Atlanta's got a match. But they've gotta be tough
against the run. You know, I hear about some of
these teams like you're dan Quinn and Washington say we're
got we gotta be a line of scrimmage team.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
We know about that on offense.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Go I think it Laramie Tontable they're talking about on
defense because last year they ended up in second and
third and short all the time because they weren't good
on first down. Well, you don't get to rush the
passer unless you're good on first down. So they've got
to be a good first down defensive front and things
like that. So I just think that defensively, I think
offensively are going to be fine fits and starts, it
(35:53):
happens in the NFL, but consistently develop pressure and get takeaways,
whether they're forced fumbles on the back end or their interceptions.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, great takeaways for him. Will be happy to hear that,
takeaways and pressure.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Look at the teams in the playoffs. I think where
they're there, where they rank in those categories.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Awesome. Well, hopefully we are talking to you in January
about a playoff team. All right, but Steve, thank you
so much for taking the time to stop by. Everybody,
please go check out Steve's awesome work at NFL Network.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
All right, thanks for having me, guys, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We will catch you guys again on Tuesday.
Dirty Birds. What's up? The Atlanta Falcons have just wrapped
up their second open practice of training camp. It is
back Together Saturday, Back Together weekend, and we also at
the NFL we are back together. We got Tory mclaney
and Tarren Wack joining us today and we're gonna break
down practice. So up top, we're gonna kind of talk
(00:21):
a little bit about some news that happened last night
before we got here on Saturday for the next practice
with Djhark Darnell Mooney. So we're gonna get into that.
But then second half of the podcast you're gonna hear
from Steve Weisch, who is the chief national reporter at
NFL Network. A lot of great stuff there, So big
episode in store for us today, but let's start off
(00:42):
with kind of the news up top, the signing of
DJ Shark, Darnell Mooney, Tory. Where do you want to
start with those two? DJ or Darnell.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Let's start with Darnell because I feel like that is
the continuation of what happened on Thursday. And as if
you've been following along with Terren's reporting, my reporting, Will's reporting,
you know that Darnell Mooney had a pretty significant fall.
On Thursday's practice, Michael Pennock Junior tried to hit him
with a deep ball, beautiful pass.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It looked like it was going to be a catch,
and then Darnald Mune came down really hard on one
of his shoulders and got up a little sluggish. But
I originally I was a bit like, oh, it's just
it's just because he's mad at himself that he didn't
make that catch, which is probably fair. He probably was.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Like a moment with I Killiard when he was kind
of walking back to the team and he was it
seemed like one of those like, man, you know, you
should have caught that pass and it was and then
like kind of became clear on maybe maybe something else
is a little bit up and then.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah field and that Yeah, that was the thing is
he he ended up leaving and walking with the trainer
off the field and didn't come back to practice. And
it was unfortunate the timing of it because we couldn't
really get a lot of information on Darnal Mooney like
immediately because Raheem Morris spoke prior to practice, and then
there was no availability on Friday because they were doing
a jog through and so it wasn't an open practice
(01:59):
type situation, so we didn't really have all that much
information about Darnell Mooney and the status and injury status
or if it was anything to worry about. That came
down the pike on Friday evening, late Friday evening, nine
thirty nine thirty PM is when we got the text
and we're like, all right, here we go. But it
is a shoulder injury. Don't know the extent of what
(02:21):
that shoulder injury is and don't really know if it's
the same issue that he was working through at the
detail end of last year, which he missed that final
game of the season because of a shoulder injury. So
we don't know the specifics of it just yet, but
we do know that it's going to be a few
weeks that we won't see him, so probably for majority
of training camp, I would say, we're not going to
(02:43):
get to see him out there as much. Now. Today
he was out there walking around with his hat on,
in a sweatshirt, walking, hanging out with Ike Killierd, hanging
out with the other receivers. He seemed to be in
good spirits, had a smile on his face, So I
don't think overall it's something too serious. But I know
that there are a lot of people who are making
the connection of oh, the Falcons have signed a receiver
(03:05):
and there's a starting receiver who's injured. But as Tarin,
I'm sure you can talk more about this. As Kyle Smith,
the assistant GM said today, that's not really the case, right.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The Falcons brought DJ Charkin for a tryout well before
Darnell Mooney was even injured. Like I don't even I
don't know the timeline, but I just know it happened before.
And so this correlation cannot be made. Who knows if
they would have signed him if not. Who knows if
they were going to sign him regardless, The fact of
the matter is the announcement of signing DJ Chark came
(03:37):
out this morning. Reports of the signing came out yesterday
around five pm. I remember everything, and so, yeah, you
can't correlate the two. But DJ Shark is someone who
has experienced in this league, where he was drafted by
the Jacksonville Jaguars, had a rather good run there, even
had one thousand yards in his second season with the
(04:01):
Jaguars before beat bopping three teams in a row, three
years in a row and landing now in Atlanta. So
he's a guy with experience and they kind of needed
depth at that position regardless. So even if Mooney hadn't
gotten hurt, it's very well. Yeah, like I could have
been here regardless.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, you can never have too many defensive backs, you
can never have too many wide receivers, and you can
never have too many alignemen. And I stand by that.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I start was a ninety man roster a year round
all the time.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, it's like high school or college when you have
one hundred people on a roster. But I do think
that something that DJ Chark provides, And this is something
that the three of us talked about. Right when he
first he's so fast, he has a forty time. That
is something. It's pretty impressive. So we're talking if we're
talking about taking a top off a defense, this is
someone who has who's shown in this league he has
(04:49):
the ability to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, And I mean, what do we know about Michael
Pennock Jenior. You like to throw the ball deep, so
give him those weapons, give him those options. But Taren,
what did we see from Michael Pennock Junior in the
offense out there in practice today.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Well, it is just the second open practice. I'm going
to say that to start because Pennix that was such
a team. No, I know, because I know the moment
I say this, it's going to be like, oh, but
they were the day before. Yeah, exactly. But Penix completed
five of his fourteen passes. Granted, these are not professional
(05:22):
statistics taken by one of the team officials, people like
I'm here with my notebook on the sideline seeing what
I can and conferring with other media members. But there
were a lot of drops. There were a lot of
passes that hit hands and hit the ground. It wasn't
what you want to see. But again, it's still just
the second open practice. And it's also Michael penickx jun
(05:45):
your second season is first as a starter in training camp,
so you can't read too much into it. Everyone is
probably still getting to know each other, getting to know
the rhythm, getting to know the feel of the ball,
the touch of the ball. He has a zanger and
so that being said. On the flip side, the defense
looked really good in a sense that there were like
three different cornerbacks you had, Mike Cues, Mike Ford, and blanking.
(06:09):
I have it in my camp report if you want
to go look, go look at the camp who all
had pass breakups And then you see DeMarco Hellam's force
a fumble out of Drake London of all people. Also,
you just like it was a beautiful punch out, like
fist ball through arm.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Which is something that is beautiful.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
It was something that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Actually if you go watch the Jeff Ulbrick miked up
from Thursday's practice, there's a part in it where he's
talking to the DB's about peanut punch. He's talking to
them about punch outs and he's talking about where that
that one can?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
My ears go, what that's?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
What that is?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's it's Peanutman Charles Tillman, former defensive back who was
famed for his to punch the ball out.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, it's it's a.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Cute name though even with tex but no, it's so
he was going around and that's what they were doing
on Thursday, and Jeff Olbrick was very pointed in his conversations.
It's like a five second clip of a three and
a half minute miked up, but that showed up from
Thursday into Saturday, and I think that's.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Important DeMarco also was kind of everywhere. People already know that.
I think he's going to have a really good comeback,
and I think he was doing very well before he
got injured. But you could feel his presence on the
field today. He was coming in hot toward London and
punching that ball out and then you could see him.
He almost had an interception one. I think it was
Cadarill Hodge bobbled the pass a little bit, it fell,
(07:36):
but he was right there and could have grabbed it
had he like one step further kind of thing, and
just running around everywhere full speed, And it makes me
think about when we talked to Jesse Bates during the
off season program, where he's like, we call him Bam Bam.
He is the most aggressive person in the safety room.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yea, I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I love a good big babe.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And the third cornerback. Just to give credit where credit
is due, it wasn't a throne books.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
There you go, Yeah, familiar face around here. It is
very encouraging, I think to see the defense starting off
hot at given the amount of resources that they invested
in that side of the ball this offseason. But honestly,
There's a lot of fans out there who were like, wait,
I thought the offense was going to be the leader
of this team. We got Bijan, we got Drake, now
we got Michael Pennant, Like, is it time to panic? Like,
(08:20):
what's going on? We've got a defense out here just
running laps around the offense like toy, Yeah, let's throw
a little water on this fire.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's take a deep breath.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Let's calm down.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
This is Tory's therapy corner.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I steal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
My voice is not one hundred percent back, so it's
saving and calming, and I'm telling you right now, it's fine.
Everything's fine. This is actually pretty normal in the scope
of a training camp because where is the defense? You know,
I always say you can't really get a full scope
of a defense because I don't have the pads on
and they can't full on tackle people. That is ninety
(08:53):
percent of what a defender is trying to do. They're
trying to stop the ball from going forward in whatever
capacity that is, and that's physicality. As an offense this time,
it's really difficult to truly judge when the offense has
kind of an off day that some people may look
at and be like, oh, that looks a little sloppy.
(09:13):
You have no idea what's being asked. And I think
something that was very obvious to me was very early
on in eleven on eleven work, and there was this
moment where it was like Michael Panicks just kind of
overshot I think it was Cadaryl Hodge on on a
little like ten yard out route and he overshot him,
(09:33):
and he Michael Panicks kind of pulled up and like
with his hands and with his body kind of ran
the route for Caderrel and Cadarol's kind of looking back
and you can see they're trying to get the timing right.
And then you have the two's going on the next
the very next play, and they run the exact same play,
(09:54):
and so to me, it's like they're still heavy install
there are still things that they're trying to work on,
the timing and the motions and making sure everybody's where
they need to be. Michael Pennock's understanding where to get
the ball at the top of his receiver's routes, where
he thinks the ball should go, where he's leading them,
and how much these receivers know. Okay, I know if
(10:16):
I get to this part of my route, the ball's
coming at me. So I think that's why I'm not
overly concerned at all. I'm not concerned at all by
I think the performance of the offense today because this
stuff tends to happen as they're trying to work on
more things than it makes the defense look really good
because you're looking at some of these receivers dropping passes,
(10:38):
You're looking at you know, you know, the offense of
guys maybe not holding the ball as hard as much
because they know that a like contact is not coming,
so they're not bracing for it, so a defender can
come in and just kind.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Of be like ooop like.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I think all of those things kind of play
into it. So that's why I'm like, all of this
is great, but take it with a grain of salt,
because there's a lot happening underneath the surface.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
What is really good to see, even with all that said,
is how serious they're taking it though, because I think
about the one play where Pennix threw it kind of
deep to Drake London. It was a little high and
Drake was jumping the grab and it looked like he
had it, but he dropped it, which is on Drake
was so visibly upset he took his helmet and threw it.
I think the helmet bound higher than the ball. But like,
(11:24):
you want to see that from your players at all
times the county seriously.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, yeah, no, one hundred percent. I mean that that
is the intensity that you want to see, especially from somebody,
like it doesn't matter if it's the second open and
practice of training camp or in the middle of the season,
like the urge.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Starter basically, and he's still being emotional and like passionate
about the second practice. Yeah, and that's good.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And then something Jake Matthew said afterwards was that there
was a little bit of a challenge I think specifically
to the defense to bring the intensity, to really amp
that up. So given that context, like I think that's
important that if there is an onus put on the defense,
especially early in camp three, like you set the tone
we want to see it from you, that maybe we
shouldn't really be again hitting the panic button on the
(12:08):
fact that they are bringing it, because that's kind of
what they want to see. They want to see the
energy level that they can kind of go out there with.
So we're gonna get to our conversation with Steve Weisch
here in just one second. But back by popular demand,
we've had a few people reach out and be like, Billy,
what's up. You did a training camp episode and you
didn't have camp Champs, So like, who who should we
be following? Who's gonna win the camp? I don't know,
(12:29):
So we're gonna bring it back. We're gonna you know,
I'm sorry we were remiss. Yeah, we need to leave
it out.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Honestly, I'll be real, like, we didn't even think about
like doing camp Champ again because like circumstances of practice.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
There were thousands of fans practice. Yeah, they could just
name their own camp champ. Just everybody tweet out.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Tho's your camp Champ. But that was the reason we
weren't going to do it. And then there are people
who came up to us like you didn't do a
freaking camp champ on the first episode, and we're like, okay,
we will bring it back.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
So I can. I can hear Steve waiting right outside
of that door knocking, be like, so really quickly, Taren,
We'll start with you, who is your camp champ?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Today?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Today's I'm going to go with David Sills. I feel
like he I know, he caught all of the passes
that he was given the opportunity to with the second
team offense, and I just feel like you could feel
his presence. Yes, it's the second team, but maybe he
gets an opportunity with the first team because of that.
There is an opportunity now given the Darnell Mooney injury
for a wide receiver to step up.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, for me, it is Mike Cues. I thought he
had he had a great practice, and I thought he
had a good practice the other day on Thursday as well.
No one's talking about Mike Cues. And I understand, like
why because you have a j Drelly, you of Jesse Bates.
But Mike Cues matters greatly. As I'm punching my microphone,
Mike Cues matters greatly to this defensive back group, this
(13:44):
cornerback group, and I think that he he came with
an intensity today that I personally felt. And I'll give
one more shout out to the fans who showed up today.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I really are our too.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, it was so great meeting some of you, talking
to some of you. It was it was fantastic and
it really warms my heart and made me feel good
because sometimes I think we can get wrapped up in
maybe like negativity or things that we see that that
isn't that great. But it was really awesome to see
all of y'all hang out with y'all for a minute,
and I know I greatly appreciated the conversations.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
No, truly, this is at the end of the day,
it's a game. It's it's about the fans, it's about
having fun, it's about you know, competing, and yes, all
of that stuff, and like there's a lot on the line,
but it's a sport, it's fun and it we really
felt that energy today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna side
with Tory. I'm gonna say Mike Keys because I think
this was a defensive day to find on that side
of the ball and the secondary specifically, we're really punching
(14:40):
the ball out part mind fist, that's bricks thing, so
we got the fist involved today.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I was between David Sales and Mike Haile Hailes Hues.
It's on my little notebook, but I ended up doing
David to give someone I think that's someone else I love.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, you go.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
People might not know, And to be fair, I've been
doing a Player of the day. We're only on the
second in practice, so we're gonna go with the first
camp champ was Kyle Pitts.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
We have our two. Yeah, Pitts and Mike Cues. So
far great.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I love it giving love to those two players. But
let's give a little love to Steve Weish right now.
Joined now by Steve Wish, chief national reporter for the
NFL Network. Steve, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Oh man, I'm so happy to be here, back home
where it all started. We all kind of short of started,
but yeah, kind of started.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I started. This is this is home, this is where
you come from, this is the place. So we're happy
to bring you back on exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
We love to welcome you back, and we want to
start with some news that came out yesterday. The NFL
Top one hundred has been rolling out its rankings. Look
forward to that every single year. But John Robinson debuted
at number sixty two. I'm not gonna lie. I was
a little bit surprised to see him. Kind of that
love you and me both, okay, So yeah, give me
your give me your thoughts on where he was.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
It's so funny and I was thinking about this coming over,
and it's like, if it weren't for Saquon Barkley and
Derek Han, like really, you know, say Quon over two thousand,
Derek Henry ryther in the border, we'd be talking about
how an unbelievable season. Yeah, but Jean Robinson had I mean,
his yardage totals were absolutely insane. Didn't get the end
zone a ton, because it's not how the offense works,
(16:14):
but just the productivity and receiving game in the run game,
the highlight film stuff. I mean, this guy is must
see TV. This is the guy you have to go
to the stadium. You want to watch him.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Right. There are teams you pay to watch, and they
are players you pay to watch. He's a player you
pay to watch. I'm like, sixty two didn't even see
what this guy did. They must not have, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
And that's probably the issue because the team was so
up and down last year. I was like, okay, this
and that, but he was so consistent regardless of how
the offense worked.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I thought he would be I mean.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Honestly like sub forty, like you know, right, like thirty
between like thirty nine or down?
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Does that like, do you think it has more to
do with kind of the running back position, the nature
of it and how it's been a little bit diminished
it feels like in recent years, or do you think
it has or to do maybe with like team success
and if the Falcons become that team that really well,
they played like five prime time games last year, right,
felt like so they were a team on the national radar?
Where do you do attribute?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
So let's get into the real nuts and bolts of it.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
So when the top one hundred, you know, they're asking
players to vote on right, So they asked the players
to beat it out of the Pro Bowl, you know,
whatever type of events where they can get these guys
to do all this plus postseason. So they're voting on
you know, Pro Bowls, this and that and and so.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I think guys kind of get lost. Right. The players
are voting on like, well, I want to put my
team in here.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Didn't I think a recency bias?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Almost?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, it's kind of did I vote for wait, okay
for for Pro Bowl? Or are you know? And so
they kind of forget.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
A lot of a lot of logistics and paperwork. Correct,
I'm a minutia.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I mean seriously so, and this is part of it.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Plus, if you really look at it, it'll say the
top players for twenty twenty five. So there's a projection
and a review that confuses people. Right are we are
we saying this guy is not going to be as
good it's gonna be the sixty second best player because
of why or oh he did so good, we got
to get him. So there's always been this confusion for
(18:09):
as long as this list. I'm at the NFL network, right,
this is where you know it all started, and so, okay,
wait am I voting for this? So there's always confusion
about it because there's always five or six guys. You're like,
why is he so far back? Why is he so
far so high up on the list, And how is
this guy not on the list?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
You know what?
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Dak Prescott made the list and he played what seven
games last year?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:30):
So okay, So that's voting for the projection, not so
much for the review, and it's it's the mass confusion.
So I think that's I think that's why. Plus the
Falcon is not making the playoffs clearly plays into that
as well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm glad you bring up playoffs because I mean the
main point of I think where this team is right now,
everyone's talking about it in the same breadth, in the
same scope of this is a team that needs to
win games. This is a team that needs to make
it to the postseason. And I know you went on
Dukes and Bell recently and you're talking about that there's
really no major glaring holes in this roster at this
(19:07):
point in time, and that it kind of makes it
to where there are these lofty expectations and almost no
excuse for this team. Can you explain what you meant
when you said all that.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yeah, I won't say lofty expectation, but there's no excuse, right,
there's no excuse. Right, you had to go ahead and
click ahead your backup. You're first with a confusing quarterback plan.
Then it looked like a brilliant quarterback plan. Well now
it's it's operations. So there's no excuse, right, You backstopped yourself.
Now the backstop is the forefront, right, so you got
Michael Pennix, no excuse. You've got not to be John
(19:40):
Robinson with Tyler Algier at running back stud wide receiver
in Drake London, Darnell Mooney is someone who is going
to take a step forward. And the scheme this year
based on a lot of things I've been told. You
got a solid offensive line, you go out and you
finally address the edge rusher position with two young guys.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You bring in Leonard.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Floyd, who's got the familiar with Raheem, a steady element.
Kaiden Nellis You've heard me say, I think he's the
most underrated player in the NFL at inside linebacker. You're
bringing a guy like to Divine Diablo. A lot of
people don't know about him. He can really run, right,
He's one of these tacklings, really really run. You got
a lot of youth behind him, and there's a lot
of talent.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I don't know how much you guys have talked about
this that was injured last year, that's back there looking
forward to guys like Trice right, a high pressure guy
on that defensive front. So now I'm thinking about Raheem
and you know, me being in LA and him being
with the Rams, and how they had all these young
guys right, the Byron Youngs and all these guys come
in and play well early and succeed well early. Now
(20:39):
this is where you hope Floyd is kind of a
veteran cog like Aaron Donald was for some of those guys.
But if you get Brick in Raheem scheme going with
some guys behind him and some guys you can really
run on that second level. I mean there might be
times out there where you see four defensive ends plus
Kaiden Nellis, so you got five pass rushing threats.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Which knew merit.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
You can scheme the hell out of an offensive line,
be it with bluffs, be with actual pressure, things like that.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So they've got no excuses.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Right, we're talking about the brilliance of coaching. We're talking
about youth, we're talking about experience. We're talking about explosive players.
And you do not win in the NFL if you
do not have explosive players. And I'm not just talking
about Bashan who can take a six yard play into
a sixty yard play. I'm talking about guys on the
back end who can pick off a pass or pick
(21:29):
up a fumble and run at thirty yards for a touchdown. Right,
the good offenses people talk about, oh, well, the Chiefs
offense wasn't that great? Well, they don't have to be
great because their defense gets some short feels to operate,
and they've got a kicker who can kick long field
goals if they have to. So getting the ball to
the offense, but also hitting explosive plays on both sides
of the ball. I'm looking at the roster, I'm looking
(21:51):
at the coaching staff. There are no excuses.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We know that the explosive plays are something they were
working with bijon and get the running backs on. But
I love what you said about divine Diablo and they
think a lot about Jeff Ulbrick and what he did
with Foyer, which you know very well how he turned
him into just kind of a tackle machine here in
Atlanta as a former safety. But I want to circle
back to what you were talking about with the pass rush,
and there are a lot of options here. The versatility
(22:16):
is a calling card for this defense. But do you
have any specific pairings in mind that you're really excited
to see on Sundays here in Atlanta? Be it you know,
the two rookies together veteran Floyd in the mix, Like
who gets you excited when you think, all right, those
two guys coming off the edge. I can't wait to see.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
When you talk to wine person like me, when you
talk pairings.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Now you're talking like so you know it's hard to tell,
but I mean, like you saw Pierce a lot of
Tennessee play on the left side. You know, Jalen played
off the ball. So I think you honestly can do
some things. And I think back to what Brandon Stale
used to do when he was with the Chargers, when
he had Tully twea Polo two, Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, Right,
(22:56):
there were different ways where they weren't actually on the
line to get there, but like twea plow who could
be in a wide nine, Bosa could be like in
a seven technique, and then Khalil's in a wide nine
on the other side, and it looks like you've got
this massive gap here, but then you scheme stuff up.
And so that's what I'm looking at this. And like
I said, you've got the two young guys. You know,
Leonard Floyd is gonna be He's a steady like ten
(23:18):
sack a year guy, right, but he's also good against
the run, Like, so, so who's gonna be other guy?
Is he gonna be is he gonna be trice on
one side? Is he gonna be pierced. The one thing
that I know about Raheem is the fact that he
can roll guys through. Like the guys who are are
front five initially, you may only see them once together
(23:40):
that whole game, right, They're gonna be rolling through so
many different packages. But the one thing with some conversations
I've had is they may not have to play a
boatload of nickel. They're gonna I mean, the majority of
your scheme is nickel. But because you have linebackers who
can run and the versatility of young guys who you
can mismatch up front depending on your opponent, you can
sit back with four because you can get pressure different
(24:04):
ways on guys. So you know, they've built this roster
to give them a flexibility that they have not had
in a while, a part because of injuries, in part
because you didn't have speed off the edge. Now they
got speed off the edge. You just hope that they
can figure out how to get to the quarterback, because that.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Is not anything that's two different things.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, it kind of makes me think, you know, when
they drafted Jalen Walker and kind of the first thing
that Raheim Morris said, Jeff Ulbrick said, is like, oh,
we're gonna really have him be a master of one thing.
We're gonna have him be a traditional addresser. When they
say that, do you actually believe that? Because I know
for me, if you're taking Jalen Walker at number fifteen,
(24:43):
over all, the reason you take him is because of
everything you're talking about and where you can can place him.
So when you hear that one, what.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Do you think? I think it depends on the other parts.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Right, So if you have other people who are flexible,
which they do, right, they've built an other flexibility.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
So when you've got you know, you guys are probably
too young.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
But you know, Jerry Tarkanian and a lot of these
guys back in the old college basketball, they had this
amoeba offense. Right, we're just scram the guys, removing them. Ever,
there's no true five, they no true two. We're just
moving guys everywhere. Whoever gets the ball in the open shot,
take it. And I think that's kind of more so
what you're going to see here. I would not be
surprised if there will be times where you see four
guys on that de front standing up two point stances.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I mean, peers can drop two. He did that at
Tennessee five six times.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Again, I'm not having him drop.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But you're like, okay, we're talking about getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I became public enemy number one for saying that my
credibility that moment.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
But but I mean, I'm like, like wood Walker. They
now they they've been working mostly at the edge. That's
what he is going to do. But now if all
of a sudden some guy inside starts playing better this
way and you've got other guys, you can roll in
behind him every now and then. Myles Garrett does not
necessarily stick at the edge for Cleveland all the time.
Sometimes he's reduced to tackle. Sometimes they stand up linebacker
(26:01):
over the center. So if you can do that, even
if it's just a mask, these are things that in
today's football, which is all geometry and all math, it
is numerically this way, in open space, you figure out
how to win that way.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Do you think we're ever gonna like in the way
that almost baseball and basketball were kind of like quote
unquote solved. Is the NFL game solvable? No?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I mean again, it depends.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I mean the person that the athletic talent is so
insane right now, I don't think so. I mean, you're
gonna have matchups that are gonna be favorable, but you're
never gonna say, Okay, this team likes to do this
a lot because it's so situational, right right twenty years ago,
you're like, Okay, this team they line up with four across,
they got, you know, on the defensive front. Okay, they
(26:50):
play single tight you know, one one wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
To running backs.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Is like you kind of knew what their identity was.
Now the identity changes on if if you're on the
plus side of the fifty on the right hash yep,
with four minutes on the clock as opposed to eight. Yeah, right,
it isn't. I've sat in on conferences where they do
these analytics meetings, and I come out.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Of there like why, just like Kaleidoscopic, you took one
team and you made like seven.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, it's just like why do you think about this?
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Like you know, you know there are certain teams like
if it's less than a minute, right and they're and
they're and they're driving, it's third down that they are
if they're not gonna get the first I'll say third nine,
they're gonna burn as much clock and then get to
the sideline so they don't burn a time out. But
then the other team is like, great, let them kick it.
(27:40):
We get the ball back with eight seconds left on
even if it's negative thirty on our side, We're not
just gonna take any We're gonna take a shot because
we know with our personnel and our receivers, odds are
we're gonna get a defensive pass interference called at worst,
and we've got to kick. Like they're thinking about this
stuff in may.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It's just too chopped up right now.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, there's too many variables. There's too many. Oh yeah,
that's what makes it so exciting.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Kind of speaking of variables, there is one variable within
this offense that I think a lot of people are
pinpointing as they don't know where this thing is going.
And that has to do with Kyle pits Very early
on in training camp. I know we're only a couple
of days in, but he's looked really good and his
connection with Michael Pennix is there. Michael Pennix has said
(28:34):
how much he does appreciate working with Kyle Pitts and
how much he likes working with Kyle Pits. When it
comes to Kyle Pitts, everybody's trying to replicate what happened
in that rookie year that hasn't happened since. When you're
looking at his game and the fact that he's on
this fifth year and he's playing for his next contract.
What needs to happen with Kyle Pitts in twenty twenty
(28:55):
five to get the best out of him.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
It's interest because you know the contract money is a motivator. Right,
If that's what it takes.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Fine, great, Right, if the money motivates me.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Right, if there's a possibility, if there's a possibility for
him to get seventy five targets, if that's the motivator, fine.
I think that this is too pronged. Part of this
is on Coyle. Pits got to be available, you know,
got to be as healthy as possible. He's got to
play this potential he's when I watch him sometimes he's
(29:25):
like the big man in basketball. If you don't get
them involved early, they can blend into the furniture. You
get involved early, Okay, you got them. They're they're scoring
points or blocking shots. They're disruptive, at the rim right.
So if you get Cowpits going early in this manner,
you now have a quarterback whose first read.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Ain't the check down.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Michael Pennix is going to try to stretch the field.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
That is his game.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
It is a beautiful thing to see. And when you
have a tight end who can get up the seams,
who can do like, Okay, hey, I got an intermediate option.
I'm going to try to get the nine yard game
instead of the four yard where the running back might
be able to catch it and beat him in the
open field because this guy's stood. Okay, okay, so you
get Pit's going on the first drive or two. I
like the connection we have going here, So I think
(30:12):
that's where a lot of this can happen. Because the
one thing with Pennix, he can get under center a
little bit. He's more mobile, trust me, he's a very
good athlete.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
We forget that.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
They forget that.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So there's all kinds of things they can do with
their game that can open up Kyle Pitts. And part
of that's going to be Darnell Mooney. Like I like
you hearing from people's like fantasy football players, no pick
up Darnel Mooney somewhere in your line.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I really said last year when we were we were
literally on the podcast during training camp and it was like,
who is someone people should pick up on their fantasy
team that like you're not talking about, And I was like,
Darnell Mooney, you have to like, this is someone who
actually true. I know people were looking at the pickup
of him like last offseason and it's like, okay, cool,
(30:59):
it's an option, like whatever. But the impact he has
on some pretty significant moments of the last year I
think only enhances what he could potentially be for this
team in twenty twenty five as well.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Can stretch the field, you can move him, he's your
your intermedy and deep there at that guy, So that
opens up stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Up for London.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
They start getting a touch and for Pits, you know,
Bijon's gonna be flexed out for time. So again we
talk about no excuses, so other than injury, there are
no excuses for things not to function.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Well, specifically on offense. I mean, when you look at
the makeup of this offense, like it really does have
kind of the individual parts to make that some like
one of the very best in the league. And that's
kind of been the chatter a little bit here the
first daid of training camp. The expectations are high for
the offense, but the expectations are a little bit. We're
(31:51):
really close, I think, to the expectations here in Atlanta
and hearing from the fans every single day, so kind
of popping our heads above the clouds and getting your
but on, like Raheem and Terry and kind of where
they are and where this whole structure of the roster
and the organization as it currently stands. What do people
think of the twenty twenty five Falcons nationally.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
Nashally, I think it's kind of a wait and see
just because they've had high hopes before and as the
Falcon fans know, the rugs gotten pulled out from underneath them.
But I think the Michael Pennock factors is just super
intriguing because everyone knows he's he just throws one of
the most beautiful passes in the league, and he's got
all this great college stuff. But he only had three games, Like,
(32:33):
so how is he going to fit in? And I
know the work in training camp is, you know last
year he was working with the number twos, so he's
spending all off season working with the ones, right, So
what's that chemistry going to be, Like, how long is
it going to take to form? I don't think it's
going to be, you know, taking a long at all
because they're all young guys, right, They're all in the
same It's not a thirty five year old Matt Ryan
trying to work.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, great thing, right, So these are all a group.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
That can grow together, and I think the coaching staff
understands that. So I think a lot of the stuff
is strategic in terms of the way they shape their
defense with the youth. Right, all the front end, the
back end, and the front end are a lot of
young guys, right. Okay, we'll move the linebackers in and
out if we have to, depending, but we want to
(33:16):
be young and young they can grow together, right, Coverage,
make sack sex, you know, our pressure helps out cover.
So I think that part strategic. They've got to be tougher.
They've got to be a tougher football team. You know,
when you look at teams getting to the playoffs, the
Eagles destroy people the Chiefs on defense absolutely not your
(33:36):
teeth out. So they've got to be that type of
team because again, you look at all the speed and
look all the excitement, explosive players we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You think of a finesse football.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Team, They've got to be a team that can mash
because you know what, Tampa Bay on both sides of
the ball, they blow people up and they've got a
really talented football team.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
They're the most under discussed team in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
They got a lot of talent the football team.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So they've got to the Falcons.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
They've got to be able to match that consistently weak
in and week out if they want to be what
they should.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Be to kind of wrap us up. And this is
something that I'm really excited to hear your perspective on.
So let's as a thought exercise, we're going to fast
forward to January twenty twenty six. Okay, we're talking about
the Atlanta Falcons as a playoff team. If that were
to happen, What is one thing that needs to happen
(34:30):
during the regular season over the course of the next
four months to get them there.
Speaker 5 (34:38):
One one will go with the other. Pressure and takeaways. Right,
They've got to get takeaways. Get this offense an extra
possession to a game tonight, a possession or two get
an extra possession or two so that the pressure up front.
Falcon fans have been hearing this for decades.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Now, let's fink it, John, John, let's go and bring it.
I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
I'm glad you did it.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
But but I think that's what is going to need
to happen. Like I said, Tampa Bay is really good,
Like they're their roster's good, They've got a they've got
a culture down there that's really well established.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
They're tough.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
That offense is high powered.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
And defensively, if they can stay healthy, they're going to
be really good. And and so again that's where I
think Atlanta's got a match. But they've gotta be tough
against the run. You know, I hear about some of
these teams like you're dan Quinn and Washington say we're
got we gotta be a line of scrimmage team.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
We know about that on offense.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Go I think it Laramie Tontable they're talking about on
defense because last year they ended up in second and
third and short all the time because they weren't good
on first down. Well, you don't get to rush the
passer unless you're good on first down. So they've got
to be a good first down defensive front and things
like that. So I just think that defensively, I think
offensively are going to be fine fits and starts, it
(35:53):
happens in the NFL, but consistently develop pressure and get takeaways,
whether they're forced fumbles on the back end or their interceptions.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, great takeaways for him. Will be happy to hear that,
takeaways and pressure.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Look at the teams in the playoffs. I think where
they're there, where they rank in those categories.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Awesome. Well, hopefully we are talking to you in January
about a playoff team. All right, but Steve, thank you
so much for taking the time to stop by. Everybody,
please go check out Steve's awesome work at NFL Network.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
All right, thanks for having me, guys, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We will catch you guys again on Tuesday.
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