00:00Can we hear Dan Orlovsky on this?
00:01Can we hear number 20 as we launch into this Falcons conversation?
00:04And again, UGA Pro Day is going on today in Athens.
00:08Rusty told us the Falcons brought three sprinter vans full of coaches and scouts.
00:12So as the day unfolds, we'll get more information as that goes.
00:15But here's Dan Orlovsky talking about the Falcons quarterback battle.
00:18Fully expect Tua to be the starting quarterback week one
00:21because of the reality of Michael Penix's health.
00:23Tua, you get half a season.
00:25Reality, both get half a year.
00:26Michael Penix and Tua, you got half a year to prove to us
00:29that you guys can still play.
00:30Now, that can be true.
00:32I'll also saying from 2022 to 2024, Tua is a top 10 quarterback.
00:37And I know it was in a very specific system, Mike McDaniel,
00:41and it was custom-tailored-made for Tua.
00:44But he was a highly-performing quarterback in that situation.
00:48He's performed significantly greater than Michael Penix has
00:51up until this point in their career.
00:52And I know different bodies have worked.
00:54But if I'm Atlanta and I'm Matt Ryan and Kevin Stefanski,
00:57president and head coach, you get half a year.
01:00And if you prove to us that you can play, we'll address it.
01:03But you get half a year or we're moving on to the 2027.
01:06That is a – and I like Dan O.
01:08I love his analysis.
01:09I think he cares too much now that he's got real sensitive
01:12because he says stuff that people come after him.
01:14He's got to apologize and all that stuff.
01:15Don't stick by your –
01:17Yeah, just turn social media off.
01:18Yeah.
01:19Say what you think and stand behind it.
01:20That was dumb.
01:21I'm not going to the season with the anticipation
01:24that you're going to get half a year.
01:25No, the half a year thing doesn't make any sense.
01:26Doesn't make any sense at all.
01:27The other parts of it are kind of what we've been getting towards.
01:30Yeah, but –
01:30And I know Harry Douglas said he felt Tua probably would be
01:33the starter week one too.
01:34Yeah.
01:34Kind of seems like, you know, everybody's at their own different pace.
01:38But the more you think about it and the more you hear them talk about it
01:40and you think about where Penix is at
01:41and what the competition will look like throughout the summer,
01:44kind of feels like a lot of people have gotten there with Tua.
01:47Yeah, but because I believe that if Michael finished out of the season,
01:50one, if you can out of the season, they probably are a playoff team
01:52and we're not talking about this regime
01:55because they'll bring back everybody from last year.
01:57But just because we're talking about that part of it,
02:00the injury part is it's a serious thing about it.
02:03You know what I mean?
02:03Like if, say, for instance, he finished the season and didn't –
02:07they didn't make the playoffs or change the regime
02:09and all those other things, do they bring Tua in?
02:12No.
02:13No, because Michael's probably going to roll with Michael in that aspect.
02:16But then you'll bring another veteran quarterback
02:17but not a guy like Tua as we were talking about yesterday.
02:20So I think that, you know, and I mentioned this yesterday.
02:23Yeah, if Michael didn't get hurt, Tua wouldn't be here.
02:25But now you're in a situation where Tua has the leg up like Rich Eisen was saying
02:30because of the fact that he's going to hit the ground running
02:33as far as the off-season conditioning when they get to quarterback school.
02:36I think they should start next week.
02:38But once you get all those things when you're –
02:41they're going to be in all the meetings room.
02:42They're going to get all the info and all those different things.
02:44But when it's time to go out on the field and do all the things, Tua's going to have a
02:46leg up.
02:47He just is.
02:48He's going to have a leg up.
02:48And when you get to training camp and all those different things,
02:50we still don't know what the status of Michael's going to be
02:53when the Falcons get to training camp.
02:55So when you've got a guy that's been through your whole off-season
02:58and everything like that taking the reps with the starters,
03:01and he's also a proven starter in this league, he's going to have the advantage.
03:05It just is what it is.
03:06So if you're telling me that when they get to training camp and say Michael is ready,
03:11it's going to start even playing, I still won't believe that.
03:14I still think Tua's going to have the leg up.
03:16I think Michael has to go take this job.
03:18I think that's right.
03:18I also think – and I tried – I don't know if I did a good job articulating this yesterday
03:23or not,
03:23or even if what I'm saying makes any sense.
03:25But I just think even if they get to a place where they're on the same footing health-wise,
03:32where Michael can go out there and do everything he's asked to do
03:35and compete with Tua Tungavailoa mano-a-mano in training camp and otherwise,
03:41I just think the nature of what training camp is these days
03:45and the way that teams tend to handle preseason favors Tua.
03:50Michael's not going to be able to do the stuff that I think if he is better than Tua at
03:55certain things,
03:56I just don't think how many opportunities are there for him to show that
03:59in scripted training camp stuff where there's no pass rush
04:02and there's no physicality, there's no improvisation and stuff like that.
04:07Not that Michael's been great at that either.
04:09But if Michael Penix is better than Tua, it's probably on an NFL Sunday.
04:14Tua might be better than Penix and all the other leading up to it in practice.
04:17Yeah, and I mean – and that's the thing with it is when you talk about a quarterback competition,
04:22we always ask – I always ask the same thing.
04:24It's like how – what's going to make it an even quarterback competition?
04:30Are you going to divide the reps in all those different things?
04:33Because, you know, I've been in – I had a quarterback competition a long time ago,
04:36and it was one of those things where we know who we wanted as quarterback,
04:39but we knew who the organization wanted to quarterback,
04:40so they leaned more towards the guy that they wanted to have.
04:44I don't know where Michael's teammates are.
04:46I would be – I would probably – no, I think it's safe to say that they want Michael
04:50to be their quarterback because they don't know Tua.
04:51But then once you get to know him and all those different things, you start seeing like, damn.
04:55You know, and that was the thing with us.
04:56We knew who we wanted as quarterback, but we knew who the organization wanted.
04:59And then when you get out there, like you said, in the structure of practice,
05:02you're like, damn.
05:03You know what I mean?
05:04It was like – it was, okay, we see why y'all like this guy.
05:06But then when the thangs started thanging, it was, you know what?
05:10No, we don't know who we want.
05:11You know, and that's the problem is the thangs don't thang anymore.
05:14Yeah.
05:15You know what I mean?
05:16Yeah.
05:17That's my issue.
05:17It's hard to have a legitimate football competition when there's illegitimate football being played.
05:24It's just hard.
05:25The only, like, genuine quarterback competition I've ever covered was when Russell Wilson was drafted by the Seahawks
05:32and Matt Flynn was paid to be the quarterback.
05:33Right.
05:33That was actually a competition.
05:35Sometimes they say there's competition.
05:37But it's a competition because Russ made it one.
05:38Yeah.
05:39Yeah.
05:39Well, they also loved him.
05:40I mean, they drafted him in the third round.
05:42And Matt Flynn's contract was new money, but it wasn't crazy money.
05:46Like, it wasn't like they paid him $100 million to come be the quarterback.
05:49But it was one of those things that played out over the course of the offseason and the preseason because
05:54they played.
05:55I remember me and my dad and my brother went to the Seahawks preseason game.
05:58I think it was the third one, the one that, like, back then they would take really seriously.
06:02And they were playing the Titans.
06:04And Russell Wilson got the start because he had earned it throughout there.
06:07And it was pretty clear in two drives.
06:09It was like, well, that guy clearly has to be the quarterback.
06:11Like, he can move.
06:12His deep ball's great.
06:13Like, he's just so much more of a threat than what Matt Flynn is.
06:17Not to say Matt Flynn wasn't a good quarterback.
06:19But, like, they played football and figured it out that way.
06:22I just, I don't know what all the Falcons are going to do in the lead up to the actual
06:26season to determine who's the best guy in the football game.
06:30Are you going to play them in the preseason?
06:31I hope they do.
06:32You know what I mean?
06:32I hope they do.
06:33It would be hard to have a legitimate competition and not.
06:36And Presley, when you talk about practice, are they going to have these joint practices?
06:39I'm pretty sure they're probably going to have some.
06:41The Titans will probably come back down again.
06:43You know, do you have those type of things?
06:45And you go by that.
06:45Like, you've got to compete in a live setting.
06:49Not necessarily, even if it's against another team.
06:53You know what I mean?
06:53You've got to be able to do that.
06:54I wanted competition, Andy.
06:56One, because of the way I practiced.
06:57But because when we had the joint practice against the Bucs.
07:00And we had the joint practice against the Titans.
07:01And in the preseason game, I was the best player in that.
07:04How do you do that now when they, like you said, when them thangs ain't thang no more?
07:07When you're not sitting there, you're sitting on the sideline.
07:10And you're, because how, the biggest thing is how fast Michael can get back out there playing.
07:16That's the biggest thing.
07:17That's the biggest thing.
07:17And that's the biggest unknown also.
07:19Like, Tua might just win the job by that, because of that.
07:22Yeah, because you just don't know how long it is until he's actually out there taking these live reps against
07:27competition.
07:28And so, as long as he, the longer he's out, the more and more leeway, or not leeway, the more
07:34and more, like, Tua kind of separates himself from it.
07:38Do I think if they go man for man, battle for battle, and we just going to get it on,
07:41I think Michael wins.
07:42I think Michael wins, but I don't know if they're going to have that opportunity.
07:44I don't know if they're going to have enough of those opportunities.
07:47The thing last year with Daniel Jones and Richardson was they had the equal amount of time.
07:52They had the equal amount of time from when Daniel got there, from when Daniel Jones got there, all the
07:56way leading up to the start of the season.
08:00And everybody just knew it was going to be Daniel Jones.
08:02And it wasn't because Daniel Jones, it was, because Daniel Jones was a good quarterback.
08:06It was because Anthony Richardson just wasn't there.
08:09Yeah, he wasn't.
08:10And then, I think it was a preseason game, right, where he just got obliterated.
08:13Yes.
08:14Like, didn't see what was happening.
08:17Clearly, the coaching staff had to be like, wow.
08:19I mean, if he's still kind of there with identifying what's happening right now on the field, that's bad news.
08:25And also, he got hurt in that same play.
08:27Yeah.
08:28So, it was a mental mistake and a physical injury that came out of it, which helped Daniel Jones.
08:32Yeah, but I mean, I don't know.
08:34It's not very often that you actually have quarterback competitions, certainly in the modern NFL.
08:39No.
08:39I mean, they know who the guy is.
08:41Yeah.
08:42They should have a few years ago with Ritter, but even that, they didn't have a competition.
08:46Uno, Nuno.
