00:00Other things to talk about.
00:00When you see, I want to talk from the gut as a Falcon fan for 50 years
00:05because I always defer to you because, you know,
00:07I obviously grew up with different allegiances.
00:10When you see Matt Reining, Cunningham, and Kevin Stefanski,
00:15when you see them in Athens.
00:16Three sprinter vans.
00:17Right?
00:18When you see all that, are you filled with a sense that truly things
00:24are different in flowery branch?
00:27No games have been played, no draft picks, no signings.
00:31Well, we signed Tua, but there's some other guys.
00:36I'm such a Falcons fan that I'm cautious.
00:39I hope this is right.
00:41But you don't say we finally have the right people.
00:45No, no.
00:46I don't know that.
00:47I hope so.
00:48I think Matt Reine was a hell of a – to bring him in, yeah.
00:50I have no idea.
00:51Right.
00:52Listen, Tua is our starting quarterback.
00:54I have no idea.
00:55You want the glass half full or glass half empty?
00:58I know this.
00:59It's a damn good place to start, to go to Athens, to dig in and say,
01:03we got to make sure – we don't have to draft them,
01:05but we better make sure we don't miss on them.
01:07They're right off the road.
01:08And Kirby Smart has a direct line of communication with Matt Reine.
01:11They are friends.
01:12They talk.
01:15And I think it's a great start.
01:17I said this last week when you weren't here.
01:20God, I got stuck with Abe.
01:23I don't want to say it's a rebuilding year.
01:27I want to be careful.
01:28But I'm telling you right now how their spending stake,
01:31this is an evaluation year.
01:34They're looking, okay, who can we win with in 27 and who can we not?
01:39Because we're going to have draft picks.
01:40It's going to be a historic quarterback.
01:43We don't know what we got.
01:44Stranger things have happened.
01:45They got Bajon Robinson and Drake London.
01:47We'll have them in 27 too.
01:49I know, but, bro, after eight years out of place.
01:52And by the way, you know Abe's probably listening in there.
01:54He just heard his feelings.
01:55I love Abe.
01:56Dude, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:57Abe knows we're good.
01:59After what Mike Bell did to him the last three days.
02:02You might go after him pretty good?
02:03Oh, yeah, he gets him.
02:04Because Abe likes to fight him?
02:06So Abe said something about a girl, and when he did –
02:08he said in his running club there was a girl that he helped train.
02:13And when Mike Bell heard that, he goes, wait a minute,
02:15there might be a chance for something.
02:17He ducked into him.
02:19You know about Abe's living room, right?
02:21That he's got like eight televisions in his living room.
02:23I promise you, I tell people all the time that I'm obsessed with sports.
02:28Yeah.
02:28Doesn't even come close to Abe.
02:30Right.
02:30That guy is another level.
02:32He would absolutely murder Jeopardy.
02:34They would throw him out of there.
02:36Right.
02:36Sports Jeopardy, they would throw him out.
02:37But when you see that brain trust in Athens –
02:44At stake, I've done it too long.
02:45Right.
02:46I've done it too long.
02:47So you –
02:47I hope.
02:48I hope.
02:49I'm not going to tell you this is going to work.
02:52I hope it does.
02:53I hope it does.
02:55Listen, Kevin Stefanski is not coming in here, you know,
02:59having blown away the National Football League with, you know,
03:02playoff team after playoff team.
03:04Tua Tunga-Valoa was literally dumped by his team with one of the worst
03:09cap hits in history.
03:10That's fine.
03:11I mean, and listen, you've got a guy that's won in the NFL a lot of games.
03:14His touchdown-to-interception ratio is outstanding for Tua.
03:18He is a professional quarterback that also was literally run out of town.
03:23And that's our starter.
03:25Right?
03:26We don't have a first pick.
03:28James Pierce Jr. needs to be probably released and will be by the team.
03:31Like, there's just so many – we didn't keep some of the guys.
03:36Obviously, we would have loved to keep on the defensive side of the ball.
03:40Let me tell you something.
03:41We're spending one-year deals.
03:43Yeah.
03:44You're getting a lease here.
03:46You're not buying a piece of property.
03:48Right.
03:48You're signing a one-year lease in Brookhaven.
03:52Which could be costly.
03:53But at that second pick, which is 47 –
03:5848, I think.
04:00We still get a good player.
04:01I'll be honest with you.
04:02Me and Mike Johnson were talking earlier.
04:04It wouldn't shock me if we trade down on that.
04:08Well, you did hear Ian Cunningham say,
04:10we'll never have this few draft picks.
04:12He's sick about it.
04:13Yeah.
04:13He's literally sick about it.
04:15Oh, yeah.
04:15The money.
04:15He just can't believe –
04:17What they're eating.
04:17Oh, yeah.
04:17Yeah.
04:18Well, just the fact that we have this few picks.
04:20He's like, how do you build an organization with five draft picks?
04:22I did talk to a Bears guy that night because we were talking about Caleb Williams,
04:25and I told him I watched him throw in high school, how good he was,
04:28and he was very complimentary of Ian coming here.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Listen, you know, there's 31 other teams that are desperate to win.
04:36The National Football League is king of the world.
04:38We can talk about all the problems in college basketball,
04:41and there's a lot of them that make it less compelling.
04:44NIL and the portal is college football.
04:47The March Madness views will not show that.
04:51It's a spectacle.
04:53March Madness is different, but there's real concerns.
04:56But my point is the National Football League is king of the world.
04:59Oh, yeah.
04:59It's absolutely king of the world.
05:00And there's 31 other teams.
05:02College football and NFL.
05:04They're spending hundreds of millions.
05:05They'll spend hundreds of millions on facilities, on scouts, on multiple coaches,
05:11on analysis, on data.
05:13Every single team is doing what the Falcons are doing for the most part.
05:17And, listen, they don't have a guy running football that's never done it a day in his life.
05:21And that doesn't mean Matt Ryan wasn't a good hire.
05:24But to Rusty's hesitancy, I mean, how excited can you get about Tua Tungvaloa
05:29and a group of guys?
05:30Ian Cunningham has never been a general manager.
05:32Kevin Stefanski has been head coach in Cleveland, where they've been bad.
05:36And, you know, Matt Ryan, as he says,
05:39I've never worked a day in my life.
05:42I don't even know what that is.
05:43So why would we sit here under all that guise and say,
05:48man, it's going to be something else.
05:49You grew up in a different place.
05:51Bo will relate to this.
05:52You grew up in a different place.
05:53Not saying it's right or wrong, but where I grew up,
05:56you used to go to the thing called the flea market.
05:59And you'd go get some baseball cards,
06:00and somebody's selling old T-shirts and all that.
06:03Your grandparents would give you $30,
06:06and you would try to buy as much as you can with $30.
06:11That's what we're doing right now with players.
06:13We're trying to spend as least amount of money
06:15and get as much as we can.
06:17Yeah, because we're just not in a good place.
06:18We don't have it.
06:19Yeah.
06:20And we will, but we don't have it this year.
06:22But we already have it.
06:23That's why it's an eval year to me.
06:25But we have.
06:25We still, listen, we still could.
06:27We're not at rock bottom.
06:29We're not.
06:30We have some freaking stars.
06:31We have some really good pieces to build around.
06:33It would take extreme lightning in a bottle
06:37for us to make a real run next year to round two.
06:40It would take extreme.
06:41Now, the good thing is,
06:43if this coaching staff is damn good,
06:45and Matt Ryan and those guys work together,
06:46and we're doing well,
06:47we have another very good solid draft,
06:49we're going to be talking about different stuff next year.
06:51I know people don't want to talk about 2027 draft.
06:54I'm in reality.
06:55It's supposed to be a historic quarterback draft.
06:58It's already deep as you know what in players.
07:00I promise you it's loaded.
07:01If the over-under on Tua Tungavaloa starting games is four and a half.
07:06Over.
07:07Over.
07:08I take over.
07:09Even though you think Michael,
07:10even, you think Michael panics because that's injury?
07:13You think Tua does enough?
07:14I think he can do enough.
07:17I think he's going to be,
07:18the more I've really not tried to give too much into it.
07:22I listen to Randy Mack talk about things.
07:24I listen to different people talk about things.
07:27Mike Bell brings up a good point too.
07:29We mentioned this on here.
07:32Pennix is not going to be able to throw and do all these things in the offseason.
07:36It's going to be Tua leading all this.
07:38Right.
07:38He's going to get a big league,
07:40and he's also an experienced quarterback.
07:43I'm not saying he's going to take it and run off with it,
07:45but if you give me the over-under four and a half games,
07:48I'm taking the over.
07:48But there's also no equity in,
07:53or that's probably not the right word.
07:55Listen, for Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris,
08:00their entire careers were on the line with Michael Pennix Jr.
08:04Their entire careers.
08:06There was nobody,
08:07not Michael Pennix's mommy or auntie or best friend,
08:11were more vested in Michael Pennix than those two.
08:13The risk-reward was unbelievable.
08:14And that's why he doesn't have a job.
08:15I mean, those guys lost their job.
08:17These guys have zero.
08:18We didn't draft them.
08:20We didn't make that cockamamie trade.
08:22We don't have any loyalty.
08:23We didn't watch the workout in Washington.
08:25We got quarterbacks next year we're looking at.
08:30We're scouting America.
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