Falcons have the size up front defensively,but will they stop the run?

0:00So the Falcons do sign Zach Harrison and Mike and I had discussed this back to the practice squad and you said it, they gave him ray reviews. I mean, hearing from me and cutting him and talking about the makeup of the person that he is and how hard he works and there is a personal relationship there. They were trying to keep him and they're able to get him back. They release Kobe Bryant Mike. That was the kid we were talking about over the last couple of years who again was undrafted, you know, we thought he might have had some promise corner and then cam sample also released, but they added and when he was asked today at his press or the general manager for the Falcons about, hey, how much of this is going to change between now and the start of the season? He was like, not much with the 53 practice squad guys. That could change. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's injuries. I mean, again, the uniqueness of having four quarterbacks does sort of hamstring you, but you have seen guys, especially over the years. I mean, we talked about, you know, that special team or the cadaryl, hotge type guy, if he's not under contract, bouncing back and forth. Only so many times you can move them by the way, but you got to basically blanket off the pot with some of your practice squad people.

1:01But this is, you know, a system that is set up for guys to practice and they make decent coin. And then hopefully you can, you can be a practice squad guy and then become a starter and emerge. Now, the idea that Zach Harrison, who was just coming into his own with the injuries, guys, don't take it from me. Take it from Nate Olley. He's position coach. You said they love the effort. It's all about the health. They just were disappointed. He couldn't stand the field last year. Yeah. Look, the size thing is real. We are bigger up front when you talk about nose and doorless and, you know, Smith, Mason, Smith, all these guys are bigger. Great. Can we stop the run? That's what I want to know. And we'll figure that out and find out here pretty quickly. But if you're wondering, all right, man, did they name the starter today? No, they did not. The general manager said they are still evaluating. As a matter of fact, he was asked, how do you evaluate pinnocks without seeing him in a live setting? He is what he said. Those are the cards that we were dealt, right? And I think that's where you've got to be able to evaluate the practice, evaluate, you know, the operation, evaluate the accuracy, the anticipation, the movement, the comfortability

2:07in the pocket. So, you know, those things are we're going to be evaluating in the game too. It's just we weren't, we didn't have the luxury to do so, right? So at the end of the day, it's like we've got to evaluate what we can in the scope of what we have. And then, you know, when it's, when he's ready, when the other guys are ready, we'll make that decision. Hmm. So basically, feeling good enough to throw him out there in a real game situation, even though you haven't had him be in those real game situations. Right. As best we could, the 11 on 11s. Again, we've never have the 11 on 11s versus 7 on 7s been broken down more than on this program. But now it's just a matter of the coaches, are you going to throw some blitz packages? Obviously, there's no contact, but are you going to throw some things which get them off the spot, which create, you know, it's reactions. And how does he do and how do you evaluate it? That's best guess I could give you, right? And how you, how you do anything other than that in an 11 on 11, what otherwise it's the

3:07same old same old, isn't it? I think so. Didn't tell you anything. No. I don't think it tells you. I think I mentioned to defense, you can say with dabbo said, well, we're going to go up against LSU. We're going to see what we got. You know, you got to know what you got going up in the Pittsburgh. Yeah. I'm with you, Mike. I don't know if it changes anything. Here's the good news. Um, if you're cheering for Michael Pinnix and we all are, I would hope we, whoever's going to be on the center, you want them to have success, right? It's been the thing, whether you like or dislike a guy that that's been my whole thing. Um, and, and part of this is he has played in the NFL. He started games. He knows what it feels like. The issue for all of us right now is how is it going to look coming off of this third ACL? That's the issue. It's not that Michael Pinnix is like, you know, deer in the headlights. Oh my God. What do I don't know what to expect? He's done this. But what does it look like and does he trusted enough to make the plays necessary? Or is one of our callers said yesterday, he plays scared, man. Is that the situation? Because I'm not holding on this damn ball.

4:08I got to get rid of him. The ball's got to come out quickly. He's got to process quickly and he's also going to make the determination to pick it up and put him down. Take four yards, take three or four yards, get out of bounds. You know, give with the entire slide. You know, take what that, you know, defense is giving you. But I mean, the reason I'm down with him getting the job, that's why for all the things that's been said and we've had fun talking about the quarterback battle and some guys don't get it. The best thing for the franchise is for him to establish himself as the man. And then we have traction with this guy or not. Or not. And then we get off the pot and we move on. Right. We've got to get the jets. All right. The jets have gone decades without having their quarterback, right without having a guy. All right. The dolphin since Dan Moreno, the, the, the, the, the, the saints are hoping now that's a five year play after after New Orleans. They're trying to find the guy after Drew breeze. Right. And we're trying to find the guy after Matt Ryan. You know, and this is, this is where we've got to get this right. And we've got to know that's why we are so upset about not knowing who this quarterback is going to be two weeks out. Ten days out. Yeah. I don't disagree. We can chime in on that 4047 260929 coach Jerry Maxkina join us here in about 10 minutes

5:12for Kennesaw State. These are an opener tomorrow against the University of West Georgia. And we'll be up in Twin Peaks. Guys, if you go into the game, stop by, have a cold brew and stop in. Man, we'd love to get a chance to see you tomorrow. We'll be up that way. I also want to play this for you, which was Ian talking about completing competing for the playoffs. And I thought this was important. Like, guys, we're just not going through the motions. Guys, guys, work too hard to just show up and go, yeah, we're going to lose 10 games. If you lose 10 games, then you just weren't that good. And that's what happens in the NFL, but Mike, nobody right now, even the worst team, who do you think the worst team is? Whoever you think it is, right, is not showing up week one going. Yeah, I know we're about to lose 10 games. It's just, that's not how these guys are built. So when asked today about, hey, are you competing for the playoffs? Because this notion, like what you haven't figured this quarterback thing out. So you guys might just be, as Mike said, is this a gap year? And here's his response to competing for the playoffs. We're competing to make the playoffs. That's what we're doing. That's why we play, right? You won as many shots on net to allow yourselves the opportunity to get into the dance.

6:15And once you get in, who knows what may happen. So we're constantly, we're going to continue to invest in the roster. That's the main goal. That's why we do what we're doing. So whatever we can do to continue to push us forward, that's what we'll do. That's he in cutting him. And look, as a general manager again, supply the players last year or even the last two years, Mike, some people will say that the players have been on the field. It was the coaching that failed us, right? It's been the coaching that has failed us or our inability to get over the hump and win a couple of games that would have gotten us in the playoffs. Yeah, the 49ers game we've talked about, you know, just basic stuff late in the game. You know, not having a kicker to get you to overtime in the first game of the season, not having a guy that can, you know, get you a kick you need an extra point against the Patriots to force it over. I mean, the kicking game alone. See, that's on the general manager. Fought no one, Raheem Morris had their heads up their butts when it came to the kicking game. And we had this publicity stunt of some German guy, Lenny Krieg, nice guy.

7:15You know, he could kick it 70 yards. No idea where it was going to go. No, you know, but that's it. You, you, but because there's no adults, that's why we talk about adults in the room. That's a prime example. Who lost it? Everyone knew it and you didn't bring in real competition. So guess what? Who screws up again? You cut, then you go to that revolving door of, let's be honest, Jernyman Kickers who have their run and then they crap out too because they're not any good. So that's the franchise. So there's two games right there. Well, those two wins make us division champions. But that's how this team has been, has been run and it took Arthur Blank, having to spend millions out of consulting, having to go, you hired some idiots, you know, who really didn't have their ducks in a row. And now we're trying to clean up. There was some good, some guys are drafted are really, have really done well, you know, but some have not the 2024 draft classes looking like a freaking disaster. Say, but Brandon Dorless. True. No, I mean, if you go man by man right now, it's not cute, right? So that's when I said, gap year to you a couple of weeks back, I think there's elements to that. I think you've got a, they're trying to get better against the run.

8:17They're going to, I guess, issue some sacks to get better against the run. He was asked about that today in the press conference. He sure was. We got a lot more to play. Mike, one more thing here before we talk to coach, uh, Mac and that is, um, Ian was asked about the collaboration thing and I, I used that word. Look, this goes back some years, okay? For those of you who have listened to us for, I don't know, five, six, ten years, whatever it's been, every new front office has used this word and it's, it's a pet peeve. Sort of like my two things can be true, okay? No, they're not. All right. And when we talk about this collaboration, my thing has always been, you talk about the top companies in this country, the Fortune 500 companies, when decisions happen, Mike, comes from one place, one, one voice, I can get all the collaboration I want from everybody and you can tell me what you think, but at the end of the day, you got to have one dude

9:17making the decision on one lady. And that's why when we hear this collaboration thing from Mike and I was like, ah, don't say don't do that because we've been in this mode of we're collaborating and what the hell, what have we achieved? We haven't gone to the playoffs with this collaboration thing. I need decisions and I need to come from one guy and one guy only, that's me. That's how I feel. All right. We're coming back. We'll get more into the Falcons along the way, but we're going to talk some college football We'll coach Jerry Mac next.