#92Noon! 9a Hour 7/26 - Friday Feast!

Mike Florio kicks off the show with PA & Charch on NFL discussion, before some Vikes Bites and then Adversary Intel takes us to Atlanta and vox Wes Durham to hear about the Falcons in training camp!

Episode Transcript

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Shall we begin, Ladies and gentlemen, Nine to noon is more than happy

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to present the Friday Football Feast,sinking local stays so music in the game
life was getting it happy. Wedesmit dot a day my Florio with Pro

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Footballtalk dot Com Florio and NBC's FootballNight in America starts nine to noon with
PA in charge its emergency Florio becauseyesterday at Pro Footballtalk dot Com something pop
that is antithetical to the history ofAmerican sports, where just right out of
the gate, Mike wrote the NFLsuffered its biggest courtroom loss yesterday in the

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history of American sports, fourteen pointone billion dollars for now, and Mike
Florio from ProFootball Talk dot Com joinsus, thanks up, thanks for the
bonus, PFT and outside of thesplashy lead, what fourteen point billion dollars
are you kidding me with this?Holy cow? Well, it didn't happen

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yesterday, Paul, it happened fourweeks ago, And I thought we talked
about this on Wednesday. But Iknow you have a habit of not listening
to me when I regale you withinsights upon the various happenings in the national
Football League. But this is adirect product of the Sunday ticket price gousing
that the NFL has engaged in forthirty years. The approach was very simple.

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They deliberately overpriced Sunday ticket and requiredDirectTV to overpriced Sunday ticket in order
to encourage fans to just watch thegames on CBS and Fox and their local
markets and boost the ratings and boostthe value of the CBS and Fox package.
So yes, that was basically doubledipping, getting maximum dollars from Direct

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TV and maximum dollars from CBS andFox. Jury found that as a Sunday
ticket it's an anti trust violation tothe tune of four point seven billion that
by law gets multiplied by three tofourteen point one billion. Last night's news
was and this came from Ben Fisher, a sports business journal, but it
messages with something I've been hearing.The league might try to go to the
players and say, hey, allthat money we made doing this thing,

(03:23):
we shared with you fifty to fiftyunder the CBA. So if we got
to pay back fourteen point one billion, it's only fair that you pay back
some of the money that you receivedunder this scheme that is now blowing up
in our faces. So that's thegist of what we posted last night.
The prompted you to text me whileI was asleep, sorr, thank you
for nothing, and I aired.That's the A topic. And the owners

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wondering if this loss in court,you know, no matter where it goes,
if part of it can be foistedon the players, that's the a
topic. Do you happen to agreewith that that, you know what?
It should affect the salary cap orthe players. Why at the NFL right
after this came down, does thisaffect the salary cap? And they said

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no. Now what it could dois if you are forced by virtue of
this outcome to reconfigure how you handlethe out of market games, it could
affect revenues because if all of asudden the various teams have to compete with
each other. Because this is whereit all comes from, people are like,
well, what does the anti trusthave to do with it? The

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NFL is thirty two independent businesses,it's not one unitary business, so it
has an exemption when it comes toselling the games to the over the air
network. That exemption for anti trustlaws doesn't apply. The jury found to
Sunday tickets, So if they haveto come up with some different way than
the way they've done Sunday ticket itcould drive down the revenues going forward,

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But the NFL said that as thesalary cap is not an issue. Then
I started to hear rumblings. Hey, you know, this fourteen point one
billion presents money that the players gotand it would be only fair for them
to share some of this burdens.So that's why it's kind of popped now,
because you know, hey, theseowners didn't get so rich by being

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dumb. When when they get dying, they're gonna look for somebody else to
share the pain. And whether ornot they can pull it off, I
don't know. But one thing Idid was I scoured the CBA looking for
anything that would allow it, andI didn't find anything. And this latest
CBA happened after five years after thislawsuit was filed, so they knew what
was out there. If they wantedto drop a little language in there that

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might help them, they could have, but as far as I can tell,
they didn't. Hey, Mike ischarged. It's been a while,
at least a year. I thinkyou've been I think you've been dodging me,
honestly, afraid of the tough questions, something like that. I want
to let me come on on Friday. He've been talking he doesn't want us
to be friends. He wants tohoard me. I think that's exactly what
I think. He's jealous of whatwe've had and it always will have.

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Let's talk about I want to ifthe if the owners do need to pay
this, If, if somehow theyactually end up paying fourteen billion dollars divided
by thirty two teams, it's stillfour hundred and thirty seven million dollars.
Even if that doesn't get applied tothe cap, there would still be a
massive hit. I mean, theseare big numbers, even for NFL franchises.
These are big numbers. Where wouldthe money come from, Well,

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it comes from each team. Andthere was a comment made by Mark Murphy,
the Packer's CEO, within the pasttwo weeks they've got no guidance from
the league yet on how they'd haveto come up with the money or what
the plan would be. And someowners aren't as liquid as others, and
you know, people just assume,well, billionaires, you know, you
just got four hundred and forty milliondollars laying around. It's like the richer

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you are, the more of yourcash is tied up in all sorts of
things other than your bank account.And that's how people get rich. They
play games with money, They investin this, they invest in that,
and at the end of the day, if someone says, hey, I
need four hundred and forty million dollarsin cash, they got They have some
work to do right to come upwith that. And I don't want to
name names because I'm not one hundredpercent sure, but there are owners out

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there, especially the ones that aren'tconnected to some multi billion dollar industry that
allow them to buy the team inthe first place. They're gonna be some
owners out there. They're gonna havea hard time coming up with that cash.
And now, now all that said, the NFL continues to aggressively fight
this case. As a hearing comingup on Wednesday, they want to get

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the whole verdict thrown out. Theywill appeal this thing all the way to
the US Supreme Court. And giventhe way that the US Supreme Court is
currently constructed, and this is nota political opinion, it's a political reality.
The way it's currently constructed, theymight have a good shot, especially
since one of the nine justices hasa Super Bowl ring that Jerry Jones gave
to him thirty years ago. Thatprobably won't make a damn bit of difference

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when it's time to go forward.That justice will still participate in the case
if it happens. So there's alot more still to do, and it's
probably going to take three or fouryears to get The stakes are so high
now that either side, whoever winsor loses, every step of the way,
they're going to keep pushing this thingall the way to the Supreme Court.
There's too much money on the linefor anyone to just walk away without

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taking full advantage of any opportunity totry to turn this thing into a win.
And see that's why earlier in theweek, you know, I think
I brought it up to you,maybe it was a couple of weeks ago
where you know, I don't knowhow somebody like you, very good at
what you do with investigating stuff likethis, would get into it with each
team. But like, if youthink about what's happened with NFL media and

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just how the perse strings have tightenedin so many ways around the NFL,
and I just wonder if that involvesthe individual teams, where if the NFL,
And I wonder if the NFL isanticipating some form of a loss,
so like all of the teams arereally really cracking down and tightening the purse

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strings. I don't know about that, because frankly, I don't think the
NFL expected to lose when it comescomes to the courtroom battles. And this
isn't specific to the NFL. Iwas involved in that world of representing corporate
interests. You get an echo chamberwhere you've got all the true believers,

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the representatives of the company, thelawyers who work for the company, the
outside lawyers when they hire a firmto come in and handle the case,
and they all start convincing each otheras to the merits of their position,
and there's no way they can lose. And the only way we would ever
lose is is somebody was stupid orcorrupt. And they always blame somebody else

(09:33):
other than themselves. And when theylose, they're shocked. They're genuinely shocked.
They never thought in a million yearsthey'd lose. And so what happens.
They keep fighting and keep fighting andkeep fighting and we're right and you're
wrong, and we're eventually going toprove it, and even if we ultimately
lose, we're still going to saywe won. That's that's how the game
goes. So the point is,I don't think the NFL had the foresight

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here to say we better start tighteningthe belt because we're going to have to
come up with fourteen bits million dollars, because I don't think they ever expected
to be on the wrong side ofhis verdict. Has anybody figured out the
math on what guys like me who'vebeen paying NFL Sunday ticket for over twenty
years, if this, if thefourteen billion were to hold, what that
would mean to me Now, Usuallyon these class action deals that I've been
a part of, I you know, like eight years later, I get

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a check for twenty three dollars andI'm assuming at the end of the day
it'll be something like that. I'mnot running out and buying Nvidia shares right
now, but it feels like atfourteen billion there there could maybe be a
pathway for those of us that didget gouged for two decades to actually get
a little something back. What doyou think the class covers two point four

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million residential consumers from twenty eleven throughtwenty twenty two, so twelve seasons are
tied up into it. My guessis there's going to be a unit available
to everyone based upon each year theyhad. So if you had one year,
you have one unit, you gettwelve years, you get twelve units.
But when you look at fourteen pointone billion and kind of did the

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rough mask, because look at theend of the day, and it's going
to be a bigger number because you'regoing to have prejudgment interests, post judgment
interest You're going to have attorney feesby law that are you know, for
ten years of litigation, a giantbill that gets added to that. But
the lawyers are going to get basedupon their agreement with the name. Play
is probably a third of this ifthe court approved it, And I know

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people are going to be like,oh, that's not deserved. They went
out on a limb and fought theNFL for a decade to win this on
behalf of people who had not enoughof a loss that they ever could have
found a lawyer to just handle onecaase that's the benefit of class actions.
You have a company that is diminishingthe rights of people to an amount that's
so small that no one's ever goingto sue just for themselves. You bind

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everyone together, you rectify the problem, and you get a big pot of
money. So once the lawyers gettheirs, I worked it out to about
I'd say between five and ten thousanddollars per person what he said and done.
I think that that's not an unrereasonable number. Wow, I had
my backend. Napton had me atseven hundred dollars. I like yours a
lot. If you had it thewhole time. If you had it the

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whole time twelve out, eleven throughtwenty twenty two, then you're looking at
I would believe between five and tengrand. If this ultimately holds. Wow,
and the other thing too. Itdoesn't cover twenty twenty three with YouTube
TV. The issue still existed lastyear. There's got to be another case
out there already for twenty three.And if they don't change how they make
Sunday ticket available for twenty four,twenty five, twenty six, you're gonna

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have more. They might let itride. That's the thing I've asked them,
Well, what are we be doinghere? You're making changes to how
you do Sunday Ticket. They haven'tdecided yet. They may let it ride,
assuming they're ultimately going to win.If they don't, they're gonna have
another I mean, you can dothe math. If it was fourteen point
one billion for twelve years, ifwe have another four years, that's another

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three billion dollars they're going to potentiallyhave to come up with. Wow.
Speaking of YouTube TV's version of this, I imagine you suffered some of the
same frustrations that I and many othershad last year, where even if you
had Sunday Ticket, YouTube didn't letyou just pick the games you want to
watch. They would they predecided,all right, if you want to split
your TV four ways, here's thefour games you're gonna get, and there's

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three or four variations of those fourgames, and that was it. Now
this year they say they're going tolet you pick the games, which would
be a massive improvement. But Ifound the system they had last year was
hyper frustrating because there'd be whole gamesyou could not see. For those of
us that have got you've got anamazing man cave in your barn, and
you've got all the TVs, butyou still couldn't even get all the games
on all the TVs. It was. The system they had last year was

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terrible. And see I'm at NBCevery weekend watching all the games simultaneously.
I've had direct TV over the yearsfor when my son's around and wants to
go down to the barn. Lastyear, he was home and so he
wanted to watch the game. SoI I mean, I've been paying for

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it and i haven't been watching it. I'm still gonna get my check though.
I want my check, right,But I tell you what I did
this year. I canceled it,and I might redo it. I might
not. But you know, atthe end of the day, even if
the NFL wins this thing, andI'm sure the NFL hates me even more
than they already do for being thisblunt about it, but the reality is

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they have taken advantage of the mostzealous and ardent fans of the sport to
deliberately overcharge them, knowing that theywould pay it more than they had to
charge them so they could discourage thosewho weren't as zealous and avid of fans
from buying the package. And I'veheard from so many fans who have no

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problem with it. That's how muchthey love football. I don't care that
they overcharged me. It's like,well, are you going to tear up
the check when you get it?No, okay, well then you do
care if they ever charged you.But you know, at the end of
the day, win or lose.They have deliberately screwed their fans for thirty
years with this Sunday ticket package.It didn't have to be this way.
And one of the arguments that wasmade at trial they should have ultimately put

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all these games on TV so youcould have your regular CBS and Fox games
for local market whatever get served tothe local market, and then all the
out of market games one on NBC, one on ABC, one on ESPN,
one on ESPN two, one onFS one, one on USA one,
NTNT one on NFL network. Youshould have been able potentially, and

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maybe this is what will happen inthe future. And I think they could
make more money this way if theyjust did it. Every game being played
at one o'clock eastern noon Cornfields ona Sunday is on your TV dial.
You just have to flip from channelsto channel. You have to pay an
extra penny to watch all those games. Yeah, that's how that's how we
want to do. By the way, fantasy players like me have driven a

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lot of this revenue over the years. You're talking about your hyper zealous consumers
of football. That's us. AndI can remember that long time ago,
twenty plus years ago, going todirect TV when they had when they had
just started off some of these services, and they're like, well this,
you know, we think it's justgonna be out of market people. You're
a Cowboys fan who lives in NewYork City. We want to be able

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to find a way to get gamesto you. And I'm like, well,
I'm sure that's a market, butyou don't understand the fantasy players care
about every game on the schedule,not just when they just not just watching
the Cowboys game when I'm out ofmarket. We care about all of it.
I think this is largely going tobe a huge boon to the fantasy
players who've been trying to watch allof the games every week for twelve plus
years. But the charge here's howI got into it. And I remember

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exactly where I was. My wifeand I had just gotten married. It
was thirty years ago. We wereat a furniture store and I saw this
display that explained Sunday Ticket. AndI'm a Vikings fan at the time,
stuck in Pittsburgh Steelers territory. Iused to go to the grocery store and
pick up a copy of the TVGuide and thumb through it every week and
see if the Vikings game was goingto be on that weekend. And I
get to see the Vikings on TVthree or four times all year long.

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So when I saw this direct TVthing, It's like, Hey, one
of these days, I'm getting that. And three years later I convinced it
to let me go buy put thedamn thing on the roof, signed up
for DirecTV service, got Sunday Ticket, and I had to buy the whole
package. And I remember thinking,there's something wrong with this. Why don't
have to buy the whole package?They market it as something for fans who
are displaced. You're a Viking fanin Pittsburgh, you're a Packers fan in

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San Francisco, whatever the case maybe, why do you have to buy
the whole thing? And one ofthe things that came out in trial,
and this is another reason why fansshould be pissed off about this, when
they put the thing out to bid. The last time around, when I
went from DirecTV to YouTube. ESPNwanted to buy it and charge people seventy
dollars for the entire year for thefull package and make a team by team

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package available in the NFL said no. And the NFL's position on this it's
laughable. I've been reading the wholetranscript, all twenty five hundred pages of
it. The NFL says, Oh, we don't control the price of Sunday
ticket, but then they admit overand over again they insisted it's a premium
product, so we're not controlling theprice. But we insisted it's a premium
product, and we're saying no tothe people who would make it available at

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a very cheap price. It's ridiculous, and it's kind of offensive to the
person of average intelligence or just belowaverage intelligence like me. It really is
amazing to see how they've done thisand how they've taken advantage of the networks
and their fans by striking this balancewhere they get maximum money from direct TV

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and maximum money from CBS and Fox. Michael, have a great weekend and
apologies for the text. Last nightat one am, Mountain Mama Time but
I did not hit notify anyway,So I mean, I don't even know
what that means. I don't knowwhat that means either, but it's an
iPhone thing. But apologies and thankyou very much for the time. Okay,
all right, see ye see you. By Mike Mike Florio, ProFootball

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Talk dot Com and Boom nine tonoon on the Friday Football Feast is in
the air. It's PA in chargeand or to buy our sides that list
courtesy of a timber Tech and TimberTechdot com. We continue our Friends on
Foes series this week and we're downto like four teams remaining as the Viking
schedule goes A Wes Durham who's calledAtlanta Falcons games for a couple of decades.

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He will join us about thirty minutesfrom now. He'll be calling games
including Kuzbuz Wes Durham, the Box, Friends on Foes at about nine forty
five and much more coming up todayMind to noon at KFAM. But first
the cash thing. The Fano bigdeck dot Com want to give you a

(19:29):
chance to put a grand in yourhand with the National Cash Contest. Go
to kfan dot com enter the keywordbank. You might win a thousand dollars
that you could put in the bankwith the keyword bank at KFA dot com.
The bikes bites coming up now andplenty of Minnesota Vikings conversation during the
course of the feast and as trainingcamp continues. Today they practice at one

(19:53):
forty five, then they practice againtomorrow and sauce in. We'll be on
KFA in from the exclusive Vikings radioNetwork perch tomorrow from noon until two.
Monday nine to noon will be atthe TCO Studios executing our toil and that
practice. Monday is when the MinnesotaVikings go into path, so the metaphorical

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rubber meets the proverbial road on Mondayfor the Vikings, a lot of teams
around the NFL, and the cohost, Paul Charchion got quite excited where
between segments we were talking a littlebit about the Vikings and the propensity at
this stage of the equation to throwthe ball deep off three and five step
drops. It's very compelling the wayit's developing, and I will see more

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of it today and hopefully I havesome stuff to share next Monday. Here's
bikes Bites. Bikes Bites provided byThousand Hills Lifetime graysed grass fed Beef and
you can go to Thousand Hillslifetime Graysdot com learn about the product, learn
about regenerative agriculture, learn about Mattand this clear Water, Minnesota born company

(21:02):
and you can find their product notonly at the website of Box of Meat
shows up to your doorstep. That'spretty sweet. Or you can go to
Coburns. You can go to yourlocal co op you mentioned tomorrow show PA.
So far we're gonna have Alec Lewison the perch, some more laughter
and fun there and some breakdowns inadvance of practice, and freshly re signed
Christian Darisaw will be joined us atsome point between noon and two as well,

(21:22):
So looking forward to that and tomorrow. If you're out and about,
hanging out in the garage, whateveryou're doing, check out Me and Saucy
noon to two. I want tostart here first, head coach Kevin O'Connell
speaking yesterday talking about the loss ofMakai Blackman who tore his acl the other
day. Spent a lot of timewith him last night and today. This
is a player who's absolutely crushed.I mean, obviously it's been unfortunate to,

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you know, with the Kyrie Jacksonsituation at that position, and for
our team, our guys, fora young player, he'd really established himself
as a guy we were going tobe counting on. So he was very
much looking forward to that opportunity.But as always the best people in the
world to work with him here inthis building every day. Hopefully we have
Makai back here right on the trajectorythat he was as soon as possible.

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So he is going to be oninjured reserve his season ends, and we're
all rooting, of course for asolid recovery for the second year cat out
of USC. Now with that said, well, next man up and sadly,
next man down, PA, therewas an injury yesterday Shaquille Griffin.
Shaq Griffin picks off a pass.I don't know if that was from JJ,
if it was Darnold, if itwas Hall, if it was Mullins,

(22:32):
whoever it was, but he picksoff a pass and then kind of
hobbled to the sideline and hit theturf and then he left practice as well.
Here's defensive coordinator Brian Flores on thestate of the defensive backs room.
I like our room. I likeeveryone at every position. So I think
right now we're in the process ofgetting better on a daily basis, working

(22:55):
on you know, our techniques,you know, specific to that room,
whether it's man covered his own coverage, you know, whatever he's doing on
a particular day. But I likethe guys in that room. I think
they're competitive. I think they're Ithink they're going to work to get better
every day. That's really what we'vetalked about. I should add context to

(23:18):
this, by the way, hehad also mentioned, I mean he acknowledged
the loss of Makai Blackman. He'she acknowledged and both of them have gone
into detail, and the loss ofKyrie Jackson as well. But in the
end, ultimately there's a little bitof coach speak in there. He like
an unbelievable amount. He knows he'sup against there right nothing statement ever,

(23:38):
I'm listening to this going this couldhave been this. You could have recorded
this in nineteen fifty two and madeit about your running back room. Hey,
there was this was It was theultimate example of coach speak right there.
Well, what is he Ultimately,the defensive back room is hurting right
now. It's not address at allnever never brought us seasons over with It

(24:03):
doesn't need to say that with theVikings offense and the defense at this stage
of the of the training camp equation, uh, with this is basically organized
team activities until they get the padson. So as I recall a lot
of the same stuff developed last year, the way it's developing now. Offense
popped out of the gate, zingingthe ball around, they went into pads,

(24:26):
Flores was able to unfurl some ofthe some of the tricks with the
three four hybrid with floaters and whenphysicality is involved, the script flipped and
the defense began dominating practice for afair amount of training camp. And and
we'll see what happens on Monday,because it's it's there are different facets to

(24:48):
this offense compared to what we've seenthe last couple of years. And there's
more speed in certain areas to thisdefense than than we've seen the last couple
of years. So, uh,you know, it's it's Jefferson got over
the top a couple of days ago, Addison got over the top yesterday.
Both Jackson's Trishtan Jackson who went downyesterday and Lucky Jackson. They've had some

(25:11):
nice intermediate to deep hits, anda fair amount of them that I've seen
have been on five step drops.So generally you go, you go on
three you know, bam bam bam, fire or five or seven step drops.
And I just haven't seen a lotof seven step drops. It just
looks like early in the equation.And I did not notice this during the

(25:32):
OTAs I attended her mini camp.What they're trying to do on the five
step drop, you know, andand and minimizing the seven step drops only
protect your quarterback and if you ifyou can pull it off and get yards
after catch and accomplish specifically middle ofthe field, because this offense always has
been predicated on attacking the middle ofthe field mostly, uh, then you

(25:55):
know that that should get the quarterbacksacked less. So they're just a couple
of things developing offensively and then defensively. I think we'll know more Monday and
on when pads go on that Ihaven't seen the last couple of years.
One last bit for you from BrianFlores here he is talking about some things
that he's highlighting for his team astraining camp again. But when you get

(26:17):
into training camp, it's all thefundamentals. It's all the little things.
You know, at the end ofthe day, there's a small margin ferrara
in an NFL games, So itreally comes down to the little things.
So alignment, footwork, hand placement, just those fundamentals, those techniques.

(26:37):
Sometimes we forget that the coaches stillhave to coach little things like footwork,
hand placement, tax you know,right, I mean, you know,
I think sometimes we from the outsideget really blocked into the big picture stuff,
but the coaches have to get reallygranular with a lot of these young
kids, and they're still teaching basicsto young guys that they need to do

(27:00):
better and you know, guys thatthey need to count on. And sometimes
I think we forget that these peopleare teachers, and you know, they're
not just people who come up tothe mic. They've been they've been working
on that level of intricacy with AndrewBooth, who might suddenly need to be
a starter for much of this seasonfor all we know, when maybe that
wasn't necessarily the plan. He's goingto iron out these three things mechanically,

(27:22):
and we're going to work on thosethings. And I think that's a little
bit about what he was talking about. Now, well, well to your
point, just to amplify that,JJ McCarthy. I mean, it's from
the time he got here with rookiecamp through the organized team activities. It's
it's you. I don't properly knowhow to explain this and somebody until somebody
tells me exactly how to explain it. But McCarthy at Michigan, so you're

(27:47):
in the shotgun or the pistol formation, you're right handed quarterback, your left
foot generally is in front. Okay, Well at Michigan there were times his
right foot was in front and theyput him on two and four step drops.
Interesting, right, Okay, theNFL is a three seven. So
you know the work O'Connell put intoMcCarthy and his footwork. And I'm not

(28:07):
saying that you know, they theywent they went hackneyed, or they went
they went antithetical with the feet allthe time, because I wouldn't know,
but getting his footwork right on theshotgun and the drops that that, you
know, that had a lot todo with OTAs. And I just wonder

(28:30):
if the pistol formation is going tobe run a lot more this year with
the Vikings. I haven't seen ita ton. It's it's where the quarterbacks
in the short shotgun and the runningback is behind them, but not as
far as like a single set.So there have been some pistol formations that
they've been using. Well that's atwo step drop, that's a two or
a three, a play action ora give it to him, But it's

(28:52):
also to hold the ball there bitand take a look, and it has
a little read option to it too. So again I just I haven't seen
a lot of that and a lotof Vikings practices you were saying, So
what we're going to get to findout? And you and I have touched
on this in the past, butI think it's fascinating overarching story that will
develop this season. We don't knowwhere Kevin O'Connell's schemes start and end and

(29:18):
where kirk Cousin's abilities started and ended. Now we're going to find out with
a whole season for Kevin O'Connell toplant to not have whatever limitations and positive
things that Kirk Cousins brought to thetable. What does this Kevin O'Connell offense
look like with a different trigger man? Is it going to be stylistically very
similar to what he asked Kirk todo, or is he going to change

(29:41):
it based on what Sam Darnold bringsto the table. And that's going to
be fascinating because we really don't know. And I think one of the very
fair criticisms of Kevin O'Connell last yearwas when Kirk got knocked out, we
saw what I believe was Josh Dobbstrying to run a Kirk Cousins offense,
right, instead of just letting JoshDobbs do the only thing he really could

(30:03):
do, which is run around andyou know, be crazy and make some
improv happen and it'll be I'm lookingAnd Kevin O'Connell has said as much himself
that he should have changed up hisoffense more so I'm excited to see now
with Sam Darnold, potentially JJ McCarthy, maybe it's gonna be Nick mullins.
Whoever, how does this offense morph? And now we get to see I
think we'll get a much better insightinto what a Kirk a Kevin O'Connell offense

(30:26):
really looks like when you don't haveKirk Cousins, right. I dig that
bites by bikes Bykes. This isactually a thank you thousand heels. This
is less of a bite, moreof a nibble. I saw this from
Guesstling just this morning and it kindof sparked the idea of skull Stories.
Ben Gesling on Twitter slash x.The Vikings are hiring former linebacker Jasper Brinkley

(30:49):
as director of player Engagement as I'mout there Wednesday. Brinkley has helped with
the team's rookie program since twenty seventeen. He's been running his own trucking company
as a matter of factlyirement, he'llwork with Les Pico and our keem Bird,
who joins as an assistant director inthe department. Anything pop in your
head from a guy and Jasper startednine I think four of his six seasons.

(31:11):
He kind of jumped out and cameback for a year. Yeah,
Jasper, ye, the thumper,the downhill thumper, the headhunter. Who
he is, you know, doingsome trucking work now post retirement, but
ultimately joining Less Pico's staff. That'sjust kind of cool. And the name
hit me, so I'm like skullstories, right, it's goal stories.
And if it was a pick onefor Polly, you could go to nine.

(31:33):
You could go to the Sunday nightgame against the Arizona Cardinals and E.
J. Henderson and the femur andthe compound fracture and Jasper Brinkley was
the one to replace him. SoBrinkley, who hadn't played much, you
know, during the entire nine season, Well, now all of a sudden,
he's thrust into a spot for ateam that's one of the two favorites

(31:55):
to win the Super Bowl. AndJasper never was noteworthy for his back pedal
and or his pass coverage. Now, granted, he came up the field
in Nickel and that was Lieber inthe Greenway, but Jasper, Jasper really
really stepped up and planned played wellin the time he had the opportunity,

(32:15):
and that would include the NFC titlegame against the New Orleans Saints. So
so yeah, that was a toughspot for Jasper. Was he in the
mix on that Pierre Thomas remember thatGreenway dive over the top of Yeah,
that was like a couple of ramsmeeting on the prairie, locking horns five
feet off the ground, ball comesout. Of course it's ours but but

(32:37):
but the no, I just thatvisualization hit me. I couldn't remember who
it was, but that was whatI remember most about Jasper is the conversation
was a thumper. He's a liabilityin past coverage, et cetera. But
he's gonna he's gonna come up inyour face, he's gonna fill gaps,
and he's absolutely just gonna smash people. And he's pretty damn good at it.
Do you remember which famous athlete Hallof Fame athlete always just talk about

(33:00):
how he just wants to be atruck driver and then started a truck trucking
company. Jeez, well, howabout this though? Is Marcus Sheryl's another
great example of a guy post retirementthat just like he's running like a waste
management company down in the Rochester area. He's opened like restaurants and stuff.
I think, I think that's supercool. Like smart guys that end the

(33:22):
league, but they don't want tostop working, right, You want to
have an agenda, something to do, You want to have a goal to
reach. I think that's awesome.Carl Malone. Oh, I was going
to guess Carl Malone. You see, I thought it was an NFL player,
So I was going to go to, like, who who is of
the trucking new variety. So Iwould have said Lorenzo O'Neil, Madison,

(33:43):
Hedgecock like full Backs, end OrBurley name talking with you guys. Carl
Malone. Carl Malone. He madea hundred million dollars in his playing days,
which, by the way, hadhe been this good as good as
he was now, that hundred millionwould have been probably a billion. Made
a hundred million dollars. But healways talked about all he really wants to
do is get in a semi anddrive, which you can understand, right,

(34:05):
You're a celebrity, You've always beena celebrity, and you just want
to get in your truck, hitthe open road and have nobody in your
business. I can understand that.So then Malone, post career, started
his own fleet called Malone Enterprise Trucking. And as it turns out, uh,
it's a little harder to run runa trucking company than maybe Carl thought.

(34:30):
Two years later it was out ofbusiness. But he would in his
free time, he would jump ina truck and he'd go be delivering logs
or whatever. Right he would.He actually did go. He would drive
his semi around in the off seasonand yeah. He uh, the mailman
delivered in more than more more wasteof life seems peaceful, yes, But
logistics supply chain now a big guys, it's not It's not an easy business

(34:52):
to just decide you're gonna jump into. I'm actually surprised you don't see more
like x NBA big men that justcash Like they just go out and buy
like a and Worth truck, LikeI don't have anything. Like. The
size situation is such that I likehow roomy they are nice or one of
those like million dollar RVs that arehalf the size of a city block and

(35:12):
they've got hot tubs and you knowall that. No, that's super sweet.
That sounds fun. Bites bites broughtto you by A Thousand Hills.
Let me hit you guys with this, get your thoughts on it is this
Nikhil Harry to tight end thing?Like is that real? Is it just
trying to find a spot for aformer first rounder? I mean we got
Tonyan, we got a month OliverMuse. I think there's a Trey Knox
and Sammy Reis on the roster aswell. We have eight tight ends,

(35:35):
including t J. Hawkinson and NikhilHarry discussions about love the big body in
moments as an as an outside widereceiver, but now still trying to carve
out a notch for him in thisleague, Like where does Nikil Harry sit
in things with with upa well withwith Robert Tanyan, I'm glad you brought
him up because when I was rattlingoff, you know, the these intermediate

(35:57):
to deep strikes that that that thatyou know I've seen during during the practices,
Well, Tunyan was part of one. Now it wasn't in the middle
of the field. It was closerto the sideline. But so so therefore,
you know, maybe that was aHockinson play they ran with Tunyan with
Nikhil Harry. It in watching himwednesday, you know, either go in
motion or turn up the field.It's just it's just, you know,

(36:22):
with all due respect, it's justnot as fluid as Tunyan or Hockinson.
Yeah, it just takes a second. But he's markedly bigger than he was
last year. And but with Nikiel, you know, the first round status
with with Belichick no longer counts.So I'm not saying he's in career survival
mode. But I like this move, uh not only not only as Hockinson

(36:47):
insurance, but to give you adifferent look and or option at tight end.
So so what I saw Wednesday waspretty cool. It almost never works
out, to be clear, thewide receiver to tight end conversion. It's
not, it's never. It's notthat it's never happened, right, Antonio
Gates in theory was it was awide receiver's wide receiver in college. I

(37:07):
mean, it can be done,but almost never does a player start an
NFL career play wide receiver for severalyears and then flip the tight end.
Well, how about this specifically withour next guest coming up about seven eight
minutes from now. Now, KylePitts at Florida lined up as a wide
receiver on a majority of his playstanding, but he's a designated tight end,

(37:30):
all right, So to your point, all right, man, I
mean you're a tweener here, Likeif you're in the NBA, you're you're
a one and a half. You'reyou're a point guard who's pretty good,
but not a point guard. You'rea two guard who shoots pretty well but
not as well as a lot oftwo guards. But you're good enough to
fit and and off what we werejust talking about, I mean the the

(37:52):
the tweener status with Kyle Pitts.I mean it's you know, we'll see
with cousins what Pits can do.But overall, wouldn't you say from where
he was drafted in the expectations,I mean, I wouldn't say failure,
but I mean it ain't been great. Pitts was a lottery pick. He's
like seventh player taken in his draftright, and uber, uber athletic and
talented, who languished in Atlanta becauseyou had an offense, You had an

(38:15):
offense designed around and by Arthur Smith, who simply didn't believe in getting the
ball to the players that he'd putthis incredible draft equity in whether it was
Drake London lottery pick, Kyle Pittslottery pick, Bjon Robinson lottery pick.
And then he's feeding cor Darryl Pattersonthe ball constantly. So that will talk

(38:36):
about that when we when we catchup with Falcons, he has a new
Jeff Fisher West West Durham. Ohyeah, I'm I am stunned that he's
back in the NBA and in theNFL. I thought Arthur Smith would be
would be donezo but he is nowtragically your offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, and
I don't think that's gonna end.Well, that's Paul Charchie and I'm Paul
Allen. It's the Friday Football FeastBike's Bites executed by Nordo and second to

(39:00):
Non Fashion as a sponsor, andit is Thousand Hills Lifetime grazed grass fed
Beef. We have been previewing theMinnesota Vikings opponents all week using team play
by play voices. And next afriend on our foe is Wes Durham,
who calls Atlanta Falcons games, anddo we'll chat about dem birds around the

(39:21):
corner. Hollins go to the right, Pitts and Robinson to the left.
Tyler Algiers come into the backfield withTucker Fisk. Here's the toss out here,
going to run to the right,fist try to help him, squeezes
it, Altchier down the far side. Touchdown, Atlanta. How about that

(39:45):
deal with the old adage is right? You draw them a line here and
a line here, and you runthe play in the alley. That's the
voice of West Durham into his twentyfirst year calling Atlanta Falcons games on the
vast and never expanding Atlanta Falcons orradio network. He also calls ACC football

(40:07):
for the ACC Network and ESPN,and the Minnesota Vikings host the Atlanta Falcons
week fourteen, and Wes joins usNow Wes, It's Pa in charge on
the Friday football Feast. Good morning, how are things? I'm great,
my man. How you doing excellent? And and thank you very much for
the time. I know it's beena busy week for you with the ACC

(40:28):
meetings and everything, and you know, just just out of the gate overall
in totality with the coaches and thequarterback. What excites you about the twenty
twenty four Atlanta Falcons. Oh god, Pa, I think, well,
you know, obviously Kirk Cousin's arrivalhas been you know, created a lot

(40:49):
of enthusiasm for this team. Infact, it's probably been eight years maybe
since you know, you've kind ofhad this optimism with the Falcons that you
have this year. I think alot of it to do a Kirk and
to come back from the injury.And then the second part is is that
Raheem Morris, just by his natureis a human being, is positive,
right, And it feels like positivityhas kind of taken over the football team

(41:15):
through OTA's and mini camps and thingslike that. And every time you hear
a player talk about the you know, the training camp that started yesterday or
you know, the preseason work orany of those type efforts, you always
hear something about, we're excited tobe together and build this thing. So
I think that's the number one piecethat's come about, you know, in
the offseason. The second part isis that you know, while not perfect

(41:37):
and nobody is at this stage,Atlanta feels like they've got a lot of
you know, a lot of chancesand a lot of depth being built.
And I think it's really going tobe interesting to watch and see how kind
of this plays out. And whenyou mentioned week fourteen a minute ago,
go that seems like years away,but you know it'll be here before you

(41:57):
know it. And I'm interested tosee kind of how this team starts,
given that they host Pittsburgh to start, then go to Philly on a Monday
night, you know, you comeback and at Kansas City early things like
that. It really is an interestingkind of opening chapter of the book.
I think for Raheem and this team, he was Paul CHARGI nice to talk
to you and meet you. KiksPaul. The presumed premise in paying Kirk

(42:21):
the amount that your team did wasthat the Falcons were a quarterback away from
being a team that could go deepinto the playoffs, Right, And do
you believe that that is the case? Has this team just been held back
by really the very uneven play you'vehad a quarterback for the last several years.
Well, let let's go back tothe honesty tree. Right. I

(42:43):
think I told Pa this at onepoint in one of our phone conversations.
When you have fourteen years of MattRyan, right, And Matt Ryan played
at a very high level for roughlyten or eleven of those fourteen years,
and by that I mean he wasyou know, if you aggregated all the
stats, he was probably a topten quarterback for eleven of those fourteen years.

(43:05):
Okay, and then the Matt Ryansituation happens, and you go pursuit
of Deshaun Watson and you end upwith Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ritter in a
two year stretch, and your quarterbackplay is not just bottom five, it
might be outside the bottom five ina bad way. Right, Yeah,
So you want to make sure thatyou don't have that issue again. And

(43:27):
I think we all realize those ofus blessed to cover the NFL, or
if you're just fans of the NFL, you realize how important quarterback is right
now in the you know, justthe success of any team, because I
think if you take the final fourAFC quarterbacks and the final four NFC quarterbacks,
and I don't have the stat infront of me, I think six
of those eight starting quarterbacks were roughlyin the top ten in total QBR last

(43:52):
year. And that being the case, you better get this position right.
And in the case of Kirk Cousinsand drafting Michael Pennix, you better have
some insurance behind that position. AndI kind of think that's what Atlanta's doing.
And you listened Terry Fonteau and RaheemMarsh talk about a PostScript of the
draft, Paul, you get ayou get at least a calmer feeling about

(44:15):
why they did it, and youunderstand the logic a little bit more.
Even if it was one of thebiggest head scratches on draft night, for
sure, Yeah, that was thatwas a stunner, absolutely one of the
all time shocking draft selections. Imean, I was nobody saw the Michael
Pennock's selection coming. The Falcons havedumped that shouldn't saydump, have put lottery

(44:35):
picks into Bijon Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Drake London and the return on their
draft selection hasn't materialized. Yeah,never been bad players, but they also
haven't been used a lot. Doyou think Kirk Cousins is going to be
the quarterback that really unlocks Bijon,Kyle Pitts, Drake London to live up
to the draft equity this team spenton those picks. Yeah, I do.

(45:00):
And in fact I think that that, you know, the sub standard
quarterback play the last two years isyou know, kind of exploited. No
more than in the three guys youjust mentioned, because I think Kyle Pitts
had Matt Ryan for one year andwas off to a great start and that
Kyle got banged up a little bitas a rookie. Drake London never had

(45:22):
Matt Ryan. Ye, but JohnRobinson never had Matt Ryan and now they've
got And I don't want to dothis to Kirk ort to Matt, but
it feels eerily similar to two thousandand eight when Matt Ryan arrived, and
he had a running back in MichaelTurner, who offset his rookie year.
But now you've got Matt Ryan tentwelve years into his career. Because I
think Kirk's done everything except obviously godeep into the postseason, right me,

(45:45):
He's played at a high level.His percentages are eerily similar to where Ryan's
were. His TV at the interceptionratio is solid. You know, obviously
he's been banged up a couple oftimes, but he's now done it at
two places, and Atlanta's hope andthe third time might be the charm in
terms of the deep postseason. Well, but I think you're exactly right,

(46:05):
Cousins in one swing or one signing, if you will, Atlanta hopes they
found the guy to you know,take the cuffs off Kyle Pitts, take
the cuffs off Drake London. Atthe same time, you know, Jen
becomes much more of a duel threatrunning and catching, And I think that's
why a lot of other people areexcited about cousins arrival, not just him
as a person. And as Patold me, you know, obviously one

(46:28):
of the finest people you'll ever wantto be around in a great team guy,
and I think that too has alsobeen very contagious in the locker room
and the off season as well.We're talking to Atlanta Falcons, Vox,
Wes Durham and last thing on Kirk, he got cleared for training camp.
The achilles does not look like it'sa problem. You were able to see
what he was able to do inthe offseason as well, and any are

(46:51):
there any lingering concerns over the achillesinjury or is it just you know,
full steam ahead right now. Ithink he's a head. I think where
he's where he wants to be accordingto what he said yesterday, and I
think that includes not taking a preseasonstamping games. Now. They will have
joint practices like every team does.They're going to have three days of them
in Miami leading up to the firstpreseason game two weeks from today. And

(47:14):
my guess is that'll be all theactivity you get from Kirk Cousins and when
Week one rolls around with Pittsburgh,he'll be the guy. And I think
that speaks to Kirk's ability to geton the same page as Zach Robinson and
what they want to do from theoffensive catalog and the connectivity he's been able
to establish at least in the workoutsand certainly what they think they can get

(47:36):
done through camp with the guys he'sgoing to go to battle with and week
one. So yeah, I don'thave any issues with that. As I
recall that guy in New England didn'ttake of what PA a preseason staff for
six years, right, Tom Brady, Right, and it worked out.
It worked out okay for him.And I know it's different cats in different
towns, but nonetheless, I thinkthe guys that have proven themselves in the

(47:57):
league don't need to don't to wasteeven three snaps or four reps if you
want to be honest in terms ofpreseason when you're only going to play three
games this year and probably in acouple of years will only be playing two.
It's is like, Wes, whatwhat have you seen in Darnell Mooney?
And the reason I ask he youknow, he comes out of that
bally hooed twenty twenty wide receiver draft. The quarterback play every step of the

(48:22):
way in Chicago was inconsistent, andDJ Moore rolls in and he gets all
the targets and all the balls.I've always liked Darnell Mooney more than most.
I think Kevin O'Connell has a highlevel of respect for him too.
And then now he's with you,guys, what what have you seen in
Darnell? You know, Paul,here's the interesting thing, And it's interesting

(48:43):
when Charsis mentioned those guys that youhope to take the cuffs off of,
right offensively, I would put DarnellMooney and Rondell Moore, who they got
in the Desmond Reti trade in theSaint Camp you know. I mean,
because I'm with you on Mooney.I think he's a guy that you know,
because you know, Chicago had aflash to the Bobby Douglas days a
quarterback, right, I mean,he just never got the ball. And

(49:05):
I think it's going to be reallyinteresting to see how Zach Robinson puts Darnell
Mooney into packages. And I'd useRondell Moore in the same way. I
mean, you know, think aboutthe Rondell More you saw it Purdue and
what you've seen in the NFL,and it feels like he's been underutilized,
right, And I feel the sameway about Mooney. It's gonna be really
interesting. But I'm with you onthe Mooney thing. I think Mooney is

(49:27):
a guy. And I'll give youanother one that Atlanta got in me all
season, Charlie Warner, the tightend at San Francisco who got lost,
you know with George Kittle, rightand Abo Sam. I think Charlie Warner
is in the same package. Now. He may be more of a special
teams guy, but I still thinkwhen you go to like a you know,
a twenty one package offensively, Paul, I think you know Warner can

(49:49):
help you. So that's the otherpiece of this that you feel like Atlanta's
also taking some chances with guys whowant second breasts, if you will,
in their NFL career, and Mooneyand more. I think they found two
of them for sure. How's how'smain man, Grady Jarrett getting around these
days? When when you want me, you want me to tell you he
looks as good as he looked becausehe doesn't love him if you want to

(50:10):
know the truth. I mean,he's come fully, fully back from the
knee injury. And you know,Anya Matta has also been a problem,
you know, in the past fora lot of teams. He's back healthy,
and then they they drafted Rooke arow row Row. Get ready for
that one kid from Clemson now whois getting ready to play his first year

(50:31):
in the NFL and his sixth yearof organized football. Wow? Wow?
How and and and if if I'mmissing something here with Eddie Goldman, I
apologize, I'm looking at the depthchart. But Eddie, Eddie Goldman,
the former Bear, I mean,he's he's buried on this depth chart.
There may be some injury related situation, but he's on the He's on the

(50:52):
roster, So like, I mean, what what what are they expecting from
Eddie Goldman? But they hope hestayed in camp because he's this is his
third crack I think back on theroster, retired, unretired, they want
to play football now it's come back. I mean I don't. I'm kind

(51:13):
of on one of those. Okay, we'll see, I mean, is
he going to be there for thepreseason opener and then I'll kind of say,
well, is he going to bethere for the second game? And
if he makes it to the thirdgame against Jacksonville, then you know they
may have a decision to make.But there's a lot more around that competition
right now, and you can seeit from a depth chart perspective, there's
a lot more around that competition.Now. They drafted you know, Brandon

(51:36):
Dorles from Oregon, who they're reallyexcited about. They got the other kid
from Washington who they took on thedefensive side. There, they're pretty pumped
up. So I mean it,I don't Eddie Goldman, yeah on the
on the camp roster, but ishe going to be on the fifty three?
I don't know at this point,right, Wes, Let's talk about
your new offensive coordinator, Zach Robinson. He's got a very short resume,

(51:57):
he's young, he comes from thesewn veay tree. He was the Rams
passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coached thelast couple of years. He's never called
plays. What do you think youknow about what a Zach Robinson offense might
look like? Yeah, that's thethat's the fun part of our business because
you get to talk to these guysand the first question is, so you

(52:20):
know kind of who influences what you'regonna do? Right? And when you
remember who he played for at OklahomaState and what he's done professionally after his
career ended, it gets pretty interesting. So I'm excited to see not just
what he's put together. And remembernow you know Kevin was out there too,
right, I mean, so there'ssome of that that play involved in

(52:44):
this. It's it's interesting to hearhim talk about the guys who he sat
in meeting rooms with and stuff likethat. And while McVeigh obviously is a
is a principal guy for both ZachRobinson and Raheem Barris when they were in
LA, it's readily evident both guyshave you know, it's picked up other
things from other people. And Ithink Raheem is, you know, Jimmy

(53:04):
Lake came from that staff, youknow, and certainly Zach Robinson did.
And I think that's going to bekind of a I don't want to say
a bowler play, but it's certainlygoing to be a pillar at least.
I think what Raheem's going to tryand build here. What we my presumption
is, Wes, is that newoffensive coordinator, Zach Robinson will bring more
balance to the offense. Needless tosay, Arthur Smith was very run heavy.

(53:25):
They ran the fourth highest running playpercentage last year, and Sean McVay
traditionally has been a really balanced offensebetween run and pass and the presumption I've
got is with Kirk Cousins and allthe money you gave him and Drake London
and the pass catching abilities of JonRobinson and Kyle Pitts, that this offense
is going to look materially different andit's going to look we're just going to

(53:47):
get a lot more passes. Yeah. No, I think you're right about
that. I mean, Dave Archer, who I do the games with,
he thinks Atlanta will be throwing theball probably twenty five percent more maybe than
they did a year ago at thelow end, perhaps depending on like what
Paul I said earlier about Darnell Mooneyand guys like that. I mean,

(54:09):
once the emerging and you guys knowthis, the minute you have one,
you have two. And then ifyou can go find a third guy in
the throw game that you can putinto a variety of formations and packages,
I think that's that creates an airgame that makes defending them tough. And
I think Zach Robinson threw the youknow, I laugh, because he played

(54:30):
in Oklahoma State and he threw ita ton at Oklahoma State because he had
weapons, right, And I thinkthat's kind of what's going to materialize at
least what they're optimistic about materializing inAtlanta for sure. West Durham is called
Atlanta Falcons football on the radio formore than twenty years into his twenty first
of this year, and the Vikingsplayed the Falcons Week fourteen at US Bank

(54:51):
Stadium. I just I had forgottenDave Archer. I'm excited you brought up
Dave Archer's name. I remember himbeing the quarterback of the Falcons and they
ate maybe the mid You got itsomething in that Springs Slinger. Yeah,
Southeastern Idaho. That's it. SoutheasternIdaho. You say, can he made
it to the NFL from Southeastern Idaho. He went snow junior college to Iowa

(55:14):
State and then undrafted to the Falconsand then took snaps with the Chargers and
Eagles, and then finished up inCanada. Won a Canadian football title with
the Sacramento Surge. I think it'scalled PA. Okay, all right,
we'll go with that. US franchisesin Canada, PA. Remember that?

(55:37):
Yeah? Yeah, I think youwant a Canadian title with Sacramento at the
time. If I'm not mistaken.Oh yeah, he's been. He's a
great friend. We've had a blast. I mean, it's like what the
Paul's got in Minneapolis on Sundays.Arch and I don't even have to look
at each other. We've been doinglike two old guys, the Falconets.
You know, we can get backto the Falcons topic for a second in

(55:59):
the final five minutes ish with theelite Vox West Durham. But you know,
I I in the in the bigten U C, L A,
U S C, and I guessI've forgotten Stanford strangely is in the ACC.
And I know that you just gotback from three days of ACC meetings,
press conferences and interviews and stuff likethat. But but the ACC,

(56:22):
uh is it from a casual collegefootball fan standpoint? It no longer is
the case really to look at likethe Clemson Tigers and say everything stops and
starts there? Right? Yeah?No, I think the one thing I
feel fairly good about going into thisyear with the ACC's Florida State and Clemson

(56:45):
are probably going to be the twohighest ranked teams from the AP preseason poll
comes out. But there's many asfive others that could There's many as four
others that I think potentially could finda path to the ACC champion Chip game
and natally, I think they're probablyone maybe two more that if you you

(57:06):
know, line up some things nationally, they could also get in the race.
I mean, look, it's FloridaState, Clemson, and then it
begins a discussion of NC State,Miami, Virginia Tech, Louisville, and
then maybe even SMU in their firstyear because I think they're immensely talented all
offense. And then I wouldn't discountyou know, you mentioned Stanford coming into

(57:28):
the league and obviously SMU, butI think Justin Wilcox at Cal has done
just a hell of a job coachin that team, and he may have
one of the best bocks in thecountry in ja DOT this year. So
I wouldn't rule out Cal, butCal and Stanford at to a degree.
SMU are going to have to,you know, at least have some ease
with the travel at this point becauseit's it's gonna be tough. I mean,

(57:50):
give you an example, Syracuse.I think they're I mean Stanford,
their second game is a Friday nightat Syracuse, they fly home, they
start class on Monday, and thenthey play at Clemson the next Saturday.
So I mean, you know,you start looking at stuff like that,
and you know it's short weeks andeighteen to twenty two year old kids,
and you know how college football rosterscan get depleted quick. At my ranktip

(58:14):
with nil, well, I meanthe Miami, the Dade County area,
Miami for Lauderdale all that. Imean, they can find some anil.
But then you got the transfer portal, which you know just really has changed
the game in so many ways.But the point being here, Wes,
is with the Miami Hurricanes. Youknow, it's the Jimmy Johnson Larry Coker
times. I mean, okay,to say that you're going to have like

(58:37):
five Hall of Famers for four yearson college football teams probably isn't going to
happen. But you know, arethe Caynes ever or are the Canes close
to returning to prominence? Well,Pa, here's my trouble the Miami you
and I remember, I don't thinkcan happen again, right, I just

(58:58):
don't think so. But and maybe a national team of prominence absolutely,
I just don't quite know. Ithink when we talk about is Miami back,
I don't think Miami ever goes backto where they were, but I
think they can be a national youknow, a national power, and they
can be in the mix for theyou know, expanded playoff for sure,
But I don't know that they canever go back to the Bernie Kosar and

(59:22):
the you know, Steve Wallas inthat crowd. I just don't know that
that's attainable. Maybe it is inthe NIL world, but it feels like
that the dispersion of talent is farmore broad now than it was back then,
for sure. All Right, lastone for the Falcons Vox West Durham
and nice enough to join us onthis Friday of the Birch. Maybe the

(59:42):
single best position for the Falcons isone we haven't even talked about yet,
and it's the offensive line. Theoffensive line is great, glittered with first
and second rounders. Pro Football Focusranked Atlanta eighth in pass blocking and number
one in run blocking last year.This is this is going to be the
best offensive line Kirk Cousins has playedwith his entire career. Talk to me

(01:00:04):
a little bit about the impressive offensiveline for the Falcons. I think it
starts at left tackle with Jake Matthews, who's been a pillar of consistency in
his career. I mean, hecomes from the Matthews clan that never took
a day off. It feels likeright, so you go there. I
think last year they found the leftguard of the future in Matthew bergerod the

(01:00:24):
right side with Lenstrom and the Garyhas been particularly steady I think for ye
for the last couple of years.And then you know Drew Dolman was good
at center last year and they wanthim to be great. So you know,
that's the spot that if I toldyou we want to keep an extra
eye on, that's the one we'regoing to watch. I think is the
season un bolds for sure, butyeah, it is a place of positive

(01:00:46):
strength and I think Atlanta's going touse it early. Sure, my man,
thank you very much for the time. We'll stay in touch as we
want to do, and for surewe'll see each other Week fourteen up here
in the cornfields. Thank you verymuch. Wes, have a good weekend
anytime, guys. Great to bewith you. Pa. All the best,
my man, Yes, sir,see your brother West Durham, the
affable and amiable West Durham the boxfor the Atlanta Falcons. Vikings Falcons Week

(01:01:12):
fourteen Coz buzz VIA's former team.It's ten eleven when we return. Sam
Darnold had a press conference yesterday andwe will hear some things he had to
say and react accordingly. But first, the Fan along with big deck dot
com want to give you a chanceto put a grand in your hand with
the National Cash Contest. Go tokfan dot com enter the keyword cash.
The keyword is cash. Just goto k F A N