- 6 days ago
The Atlanta Falcons shook the NFL world by signing Tua Tagovailoa to a one-year deal. But is this actually a move toward a championship, or are they just repeating the Kirk Cousins mistake? Dukes and Bell break down why Tua might be the exact same player as Michael Penix Jr. and why this reclamation project is a massive risk.
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00:00So how are you feeling now?
00:01I mean, seriously, you've had time to think about it.
00:03You've had time to digest some of the moves that the Falcons made,
00:07specifically the Tua move.
00:09And for those of you who are saying it's overplayed, it's not.
00:13Atlanta!
00:13What's going on?
00:14It's Dukes and Bell on Sports Radio 92.9 The Game.
00:17We start off every day and every hour by saying, hey, man.
00:20All right, Mike Bell, we got to dive in.
00:22It's been an interesting 24 hours.
00:25I was listening today to some of the morning shift.
00:27I had some errands to run and then had the folks from Window Hero come out,
00:32which I'll talk about a little bit later.
00:33Got to get your house clean, man.
00:34I mean, like, it's unbelievable.
00:36Exterior, unbelievable job they did today.
00:38Windowhero.com, cheap plug.
00:40But with that said, the Falcons did sign a linebacker last night.
00:47And remember, none of these deals become official until Wednesday,
00:49but late signing of linebacker Christian Harris.
00:52Now, we're going to start here, but we'll get into Tua.
00:54The only reason we're starting here is because this Kate Nellis thing now
00:58still has us wondering where they're going to go and what they're going to do.
01:01Mike, I'd love to feel like they're still going to bring him back,
01:04but you look at this linebacker room and you go, okay, well, maybe they're not
01:08because Harris comes over from the Houston Texans.
01:09But here's the thing with Harris.
01:10It's kind of hard to figure out what he is.
01:12He only played 18 games the last two seasons in Houston.
01:15His first two years coming out of Alabama, he hit the ground running.
01:1774 tackles the first year, 101 tackles the second year.
01:21But since then, he's been a backup and he's been a guy off the bench.
01:25So immediately, I would say he can't give you the production of Kate Nellis,
01:28but he is way younger.
01:29He's 25.
01:30But my first reaction is kind of just the bench depth.
01:33But unless they see something else and Ulbricht's going to go get in a laboratory
01:37and turn this guy into something better and get him maybe back to what he was
01:41in his second year in the NFL.
01:42Don't know.
01:42But as long as the Brian Diablo is back, I feel better about it.
01:45Yeah, look, I feel the same way.
01:47I do not think he fills the void, but when asked about Kate Nellis,
01:51now this goes back weeks, okay, because Ian Cunningham got the job
01:55and we were trying to figure out some of the things that they were going to have
01:57to address.
01:58His quote was, quote, I won't get into that.
02:01When asked about Kate Nellis and his value to the team
02:04and what Jeff Ulbricht had said, he says, I feel like for Kate,
02:08and he's a free agent, we will see how that goes moving forward.
02:11He's a guy we obviously were evaluating and thinking there are a lot of linebackers
02:17in this market, and I feel like we really have to take a look at our cap situation
02:21and our roster moving forward.
02:22So that's what he said weeks ago in regards specifically to Kate Nellis.
02:26Now, outside of this signing with Christian Harris, Mike, everybody's talking,
02:31everybody is talking about the Tua signing, and there's a reason.
02:36Again, this is why it's not overblown.
02:38Everybody is going two things, Mike.
02:40One, what are the Falcons doing?
02:43What are they doing?
02:44Because we saw this just a few seasons ago where they signed Kirk Cousins' game,
02:47$100 million, went and drafted Michael Penix.
02:49Now you're bringing in two often injured quarterbacks.
02:52What are you doing?
02:53And then the other thing is, is Tua going to be the guy here?
02:57Because that's what people are asking.
02:59Is he going to be the guy?
03:00Is he going to start?
03:01Is it truly going to be a competition?
03:02If he wins the job, what does that mean?
03:05If he wins games here and leads us to the playoffs, if it was to lead to that,
03:08what does it mean?
03:09Or, Mike, have they told Tua you're playing four games and then it's Michael Penix's job?
03:13Right.
03:14I don't know.
03:15I really don't.
03:16I mean, we'll start with the money.
03:18Cheaper than Flacco, because it is.
03:20But Flacco played as Devansky's offense, and he's also, I don't care.
03:23I heard Ryan Clark going off.
03:24He had some funny stuff.
03:25They've had the left-handed stuff.
03:26Who cares?
03:26Who cares?
03:27You know, the one thing that I found more interesting, I find it interesting,
03:31doing the deep dive, talking to our buddies down in South Florida,
03:34is how much Mike McDaniel had Tua in the shotgun slash pistol.
03:38So we're getting back to the same schematic issue we had with Penix.
03:42That Tua, when you're going to ask him to perform under center and do some play action,
03:46that was not what he was doing for the lion's share, Carl, down in Miami.
03:50Yeah.
03:50So you got two left-handed quarterbacks.
03:52Okay, they're left-handed.
03:52So on.
03:53Two oft-injured quarterbacks.
03:54And two quarterbacks that basically played out of the pistol and shotgun in the pros.
03:58They're the same dude.
04:00Right now, they're the same guy.
04:03Mike, you know, I said yesterday, I'm out on this.
04:06I'm not a fan of it, necessarily.
04:08I want to win as a fan of the Falcons.
04:10I want us to win games.
04:11I want us to win meaningful games.
04:12I want us to be in the playoffs.
04:13Right.
04:14But if you're telling me Tua is an upgrade, I'm asking you how.
04:17Now, if you're simply going to tell me he's played more games than Michael Penix,
04:20that fact is true.
04:22But what Mike just said, when you've played 89% of your snaps in either the pistol
04:27or shotgun, what does that sound like, Atlanta?
04:31It sounds like what we've been dealing with, with Michael Penix.
04:35And all last season, Mike said, why don't we go under center more?
04:37Why don't we do more play action?
04:39Right.
04:39Why don't we?
04:40Guess what?
04:40The new head coach in Kevin Stefanski, that's what he wants to do.
04:44He wants to be under center.
04:45He wants more play action.
04:46He wants his quarterback, follow me, to turn his back to the defense to give the
04:52illusion of fakes so that I can pause a safety or a linebacker or a corner for two
04:58or three seconds, Mike, and all of a sudden I'm hitting a wide-open guy down the
05:02field.
05:03Michael Penix didn't do all that, and neither did Tua.
05:06They are the same dude right now.
05:08And if you're going to tell me this is an upgrade, I don't necessarily buy that.
05:12But fundamentally, Mike, we are in teaching mode.
05:15And by the way, let me also say this.
05:16He had Cheetah on one side and Waddle on the other.
05:20You know what the formula was?
05:22Let me hit both of those guys five yards and let them run.
05:25Correct.
05:26Everything was done.
05:26One thing Stefanski has done in his career, good with the timing.
05:29So I do believe that Tua could deliver the ball, to your point, quickly.
05:34It might not be the sexiest thing with yards after the catch.
05:36But don't forget, McDaniel, they built everything for Tua Tungabailoa.
05:40The whole offense, with all those weapons you just laid out, with a great running game,
05:44with A-Chain, and they couldn't do anything.
05:46And here he is.
05:47Here he is with the Dolphins paying $52 million of his salary to not be a Dolphin.
05:50What do you guys think, man?
05:52Has your opinion changed?
05:53If you didn't get a chance to jump in on the show yesterday, we definitely want to hear
05:56from you.
05:57404-726-0929.
05:59It's so funny.
05:59Because every channel...
06:00I felt like I was in the Matrix last night.
06:02I got home, every channel I went to, Tua Tungabailoa in Atlanta, Tua signs with Atlanta,
06:09Tua signs for a little of nothing.
06:10I'm like, can I get away from this?
06:12Yeah.
06:13Can I...
06:13No.
06:13I want to turn on a movie, and it would have been Tua starring in the damn movie last night.
06:17No.
06:17And this morning, same boat, NFL Network, everybody's on it.
06:21So I just...
06:21And I hate to do this, because everybody uses it, but I did.
06:24What are you going to do?
06:25It's the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme.
06:28Oren.
06:29I just wrote, Carl, with the Falcon signing, Tua, we now have two often injured left-handed
06:33QBs who play in the pros, almost exclusively from the shotgun pistol, badly for the starting
06:37gig, with the fans scanned records saying they want the quarterback to understand it
06:39with play action.
06:40And Spider-Man pointing at it as a doppelganger.
06:43Yeah.
06:43Look, that's it.
06:44Isn't this where we are?
06:45I mean, you guys tell us.
06:47I mean, am I getting this wrong?
06:48No.
06:48What is it am I getting wrong?
06:49You tell us.
06:50Am I losing my mind?
06:52I don't like it.
06:53It doesn't make sense.
06:55He doesn't do anything that much different than the guy you already have.
06:58Now, if that's what you wanted, so be it.
07:00And the Reclamation Project thing, I'm so happy that we want to be the team to fix Tua.
07:07Yay!
07:08Now, the other way of looking at this, he is simply a stopgap and don't sweat it.
07:13Don't even start to get as angry as we're already.
07:16One and done?
07:17He's definitely one year and done.
07:19I'll bet you a steak dinner that Tua is not here next year, and he's not even starting
07:23by Halloween.
07:24How's that?
07:25The Penix Jr. is under center by Halloween.
07:26So you have no confidence that he can lead us?
07:29Zero.
07:30I have no confidence.
07:30I think he's a cheap fit.
07:32I think it's a year where we talked about the cap, and no one's really hung up on it
07:37because we're in the middle of the road, and we still have some options, but we're not
07:40restructuring guys.
07:41They're not going to get in that mess that Terry Fontenot inherited.
07:44They're going to try to keep it clean and lean.
07:45Matt Reinex lived it.
07:46So I don't have any confidence in Tua.
07:48I have a sliver of confidence in Penix Jr., and the only way we're going to see him is
07:53when he's finally healthy.
07:54We don't know when that is.
07:54I'm guessing week five, six.
07:56We'll find out.
07:57I don't like the look of it.
08:00I don't.
08:01That's why.
08:02And I'm not going to Madrid.
08:04Oh, good for you.
08:05Yeah.
08:05I'm out.
08:06Because neither am I.
08:07I'm out.
08:07I'm out.
08:07I'm not.
08:08I'm not going to spend five grand to go watch a team, which I have no idea what's going
08:12to be.
08:13Yeah.
08:13You know?
08:13I'm sorry.
08:14Call me a monkey's uncle.
08:15I'm just not.
08:15I'm not doing it.
08:16Prove it, man.
08:17Not this year.
08:17Fool me once.
08:18I'd love to see our team start five.
08:20I beg God.
08:21Please let us start five and oh, six and oh.
08:24I'd love to see that.
08:25But the reality is, it doesn't feel that way right now.
08:30And the thing we've been spending the most time on, not only on this show, guys, obviously
08:34around the country.
08:35Tua signs for a little of nothing.
08:37Atlanta signs too.
08:39Everybody's talking about it.
08:40Here's the thing.
08:41The reason why is because we thought we fixed this two years ago.
08:45And here we are right back in the same place.
08:47404-726-0929.
08:49You can tell us we are overreacting.
08:51You can tell us this isn't a big deal.
08:54Maybe you agree with Mike and say, well, he won't even be starting.
08:56Then what's that look like for this team if he doesn't perform well?
09:01What does that look like?
09:02And Mike, I'm being a little facetious here when I talk about, you know, what if he does
09:08perform well?
09:09What does that mean long term?
09:10Look, the most improbable and most probably impossible thing to happen is Tua leads us
09:16to the playoffs.
09:17Michael Penix can't play, Mike.
09:18And all of a sudden, his career is revived.
09:21And then you have a real decision to make.
09:22And it's something I talked about to you guys today on Behind the Curtain.
09:25Check it out, guys.
09:26We do it every day.
09:27It's our pre-show.
09:28And you can check it out on social media, all our social media platforms.
09:31But that's the thing.
09:32Like, it's almost a worst-case scenario, Mike, when you say he comes in and balls out, and
09:39then you have to make a decision because then it's not one and done.
09:42Then it is he's still young enough to be a guy that can get another big bag.
09:46Do you even want to involve yourself in that?
09:48And this is where I go, don't make that mistake.
09:51Yeah, I really have a hard time seeing Tua getting his second act together here.
09:56You know, I'm just going to stick to my initial point.
09:59I just think that of all the options to be the spackle, until we get Penix Jr. out there.
10:04And by the way, this organization, I'll say it again, they, on the record, may say one
10:09thing, but in the back room, they feel another way.
10:11What are they saying in the back room?
10:12You know, it makes financial sense to see if Penix can make this work.
10:16I mean, he's one hit away from being kaput.
10:18But we got him for three more years.
10:19Let's see if we can make a go of it and build this thing around him.
10:22And we're going to have a chance to do that this year.
10:24It's just not going to be 17 weeks.
10:26Of Penix.
10:27So, I think, if you're getting hung up on Tua, I just, and by the way, as a Falcon fan,
10:32I would love to see it.
10:34It would be one of the craziest stories we talk about.
10:36You know, we mentioned, you know, what happened with the Super Bowl, with Sam Darnold.
10:40I mean, Tua's brand is as bad, well, better than Darnold, because he actually did some
10:44things.
10:44He has a good record.
10:45He's won more than he's lost.
10:47He's got 120 touchdowns and 59 picks.
10:49But still, if he came down here, and we're talking about a pro bowler, Tua Tungabailoa,
10:53well, I guess we'll have to pivot and roll with that.
10:55But I don't see that happening.
10:56Let's talk to Alex in Lawrenceville.
10:58Alex, what are you thinking about the Falcons' moves?
11:00It's Dukes and Bell.
11:01Hey, man.
11:02Man, I think it's just a smart football move as far as, like, you're saving money.
11:07You only spend, like, a male 1.3 or whatever they're spilling on the guy.
11:11And then you've got to look at it like this, too.
11:13Kirk Cousins is an older injury quarterback.
11:17Even though Tua's injury pro, he's a younger guy.
11:19He still has a, he can prove himself.
11:22People thought Sam Darnold was done.
11:24Right.
11:24You know, you just certain things, you've got to look at it from a youth.
11:28He still has a little bit of youth to prove himself.
11:30You know, we can't just, you know, throw away these guys
11:33and they ain't even crack 30 years old.
11:35You know what I'm saying?
11:35So he has the opportunity to prove it.
11:37And it's low risk.
11:40It's even higher reward.
11:42Well, it could be a lower reward.
11:43But it's not that high of a risk.
11:45Right.
11:46Well, I will say this.
11:47Except for us losing.
11:48Well, again, and the other thing about, you know, by the way, Tua,
11:50he's got career earnings of $124 million.
11:54So, I mean, when we talk about discarding these guys,
11:57I mean, throwing them to the ash heap of NFL history,
12:00he's doing okay.
12:01I mean, he's okay.
12:03I'm okay.
12:04Because they had to come up with it.
12:06They had that four-year, $212,000, again, $42 million signing bonus,
12:11$167 million was guaranteed.
12:12So, I mean, with all due respect to his feelings, blank his feelings, okay?
12:17Play better football.
12:19We've got to stop this, though.
12:21We have to, and by the way, many of you have stopped the example I'm about to give you.
12:25And we've got to stop this one now.
12:27Because there's such an outlier that it never happens in sports.
12:33The first one is, well, he could be Tom Brady.
12:36It's not happening again.
12:38A six-round draft pick is not winning seven Super Bowls, okay, over a 20-year period.
12:43Stop.
12:43That comparison is so far out there.
12:46It's why there's only one.
12:48Well, everybody gave up on Sam Donald.
12:50There was a reason.
12:52And there won't be another who plays on five teams, Mike, you know, in eight years.
12:57And all of a sudden now becomes a Super Bowl champion.
12:59These are such outliers to what the norm is where guys get, and Mike's right,
13:04first-round picks, quarterbacks get second, third chances.
13:07But the reality is if you look around the league and the history of the league,
13:11even in those opportunities, they normally don't pan out.
13:15No.
13:15I mean, you could say, you know, I mentioned Jim Plunkett.
13:18Remember we talked about him before the Super Bowl?
13:19He was the first overall pick.
13:21He was terrible in New England.
13:22He went to the 49ers, a bad 49ers team, and then won two Super Bowls with the Raiders.
13:25The only other guy, I mean, Joe Theismann couldn't even get a cup of coffee in the NFL.
13:29He had to go to Canada.
13:31And Joe Theismann, you know, would have probably won two Super Bowls
13:34had the Raiders not mailed it in against the Raiders.
13:35But he won a Super Bowl.
13:37And Joe Theismann, for a while, Carl, was one of the top, you know, quarterbacks in the league.
13:40Yep.
13:40But you're right.
13:41It's few and far between.
13:42You know, Zach Wilson ain't going to make it.
13:44Justin Fields ain't going to make it.
13:46Where's Trey Lance, Mike?
13:47Yeah, Trey Lance is a great nothing burger.
13:49J.J. McCarthy's up in the air right now, as is Michael Penix, Jr.
13:51Where's Anthony Richardson?
13:52Yeah, forget about it.
13:54I mean, like, these are the—so we've got to stop with this.
13:56Oh, it happened for Sam Darnold.
13:58Okay, name another guy that's happened to.
14:00I've given you three in 55 years.
14:03Michael and Alpharetta.
14:04Danny, we're going to come back to your phone calls.
14:06404-726-0929.
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