00:00Now, Tua Tunga-Vailoa and Kevin Stefanski have something very important in common.
00:05They want to prove themselves here in Atlanta.
00:08Kevin Stefanski spoke with Mike Garofalo at the annual league meeting in Phoenix.
00:12Kevin said, there's something to be said when you're fired.
00:15You want to prove people wrong.
00:16You have a chip on your shoulder.
00:18I think where I'm coming into this is where Tua's coming into this.
00:21This is not exactly how you thought it would go, but guess what?
00:24That's the reality, and how are we going to respond?
00:30He also talked about Penix at some point in it, and I think it's a redemption story.
00:36I think all three of those guys have a chance to kind of rewrite their thing,
00:39and it's kind of interesting with Stefanski looking at it that way.
00:46I don't know how much you look in a redemption story.
00:49We've all been fired, right?
00:50I mean, everybody in this room has been fired.
00:52I mean, mine was like, oh, we're laying everyone off,
00:56but it felt like we were fired because we weren't good enough.
00:59You know, it does light a fire in you.
01:03I just wonder how you handle it moving forward
01:07because it's a little bit different in the NFL.
01:10You can't just go all out and in a revenge tour.
01:15You have to do it very calculated, especially if you're the head coach of a team
01:18and make all these right decisions, you know?
01:21Well, and yeah, same for quarterback position.
01:23I would say it's imperative for the quarterback position,
01:26and I think it's a good point because you kind of have to draw the line on if you're a
01:32guy
01:32like trying to make the back end of the roster and you've been cut,
01:34like there's not much room where you can say I'm going to dial it down a little bit
01:39and play the long game, right?
01:41But for somebody like Tua or somebody like Kevin Stefanski or even Michael Penix,
01:44like you just said, I do think that there is a, you know, kind of like,
01:49all right, let's be methodical about this.
01:50I don't think you can't go out there as a quarterback
01:53and just start taking deep shots on every play, you know what I mean,
01:55or trying to hit this play.
01:56Like you have to be methodical about the way you operate the offense.
02:00And I think everybody involved in this situation is poised enough to do that.
02:04You know, Kevin Stefanski, I'm sure that in an article he says, you know,
02:08what were the lessons you learned being fired from the Browns?
02:10He's like, too many to name.
02:11Too many lessons to name because you, I think not only do you learn lessons
02:15about what you did that year and what led to the firing in that season,
02:17but you look all the way back to the beginning of that whole storyline in Cleveland
02:20and like, oh, I should have put my foot down on this when I got there
02:23or I should have asked about this before I got there
02:25or I should have, you know, put this plan in place earlier
02:28or asked about this guy or asked about that guy or drafted this.
02:31So I think there's a lot of different ways to go as a head coach.
02:34And I think the Falcons are all the more benefited for it.
02:37Like, I think understanding that as a head coach,
02:39if you're a guy that wanted to do things a little bit differently,
02:41that, you know, I think that it's sometimes that that's the reasons
02:44at times it can be better to have a guy who's on a second job.
02:48The way Kevin was talking about Tua and Michael Penix in this article,
02:52to me, it kind of seems like if I was reading between the lines,
02:55it seemed like he might be prioritizing mentality in the locker room
02:59and kind of doing a reset in culture for the Falcons.
03:03God, I hate that word.
03:04It gets used so much about locker rooms.
03:07And I struggle with it at times because people not, you know,
03:14that just gets thrown out there.
03:15But sure, I don't know what the culture is viewed as
03:21outside of the locker room.
03:24Because I believe that there's a lot of guys in there
03:26that are the core of this team that play their asses off
03:31and they put everything into it.
03:34I don't think that the culture was necessarily the issue last year
03:39as much as I think you had, as far as the players mentality.
03:45I think there were some complete coaching missteps at times.
03:49And I think there was some front office mishaps.
03:51And then I think there was just some bad play.
03:55The quarterback play was never consistent and your special teams was bad.
04:02I wonder what he looks at as his biggest mistake from Cleveland, though.
04:06Like, what was the number one thing he wishes he could have done over?
04:09Because, you know, for all the Mr. Yo's out there that wanted to tweet at 24-7
04:15that he was 8-26 in his last two seasons,
04:19this guy took Cleveland to, what, two playoff appearances?
04:22Versus, they've only got three since 2000.
04:27He also won a playoff game there.
04:31So it's, he took the worst franchise in the NFL the last 25 years
04:37and took them to two more playoff appearances that we've been to in the last eight.
04:42Yeah, I'm with you on that.
04:43And kind of what I was alluding to a minute ago is, like,
04:46I bet that he wishes that he had ensured that he would have first right of refusal
04:50on draft picks or quarterback situation or a lot of things like that
04:53before he got to Cleveland.
04:54I'm sure that that was probably a misstep along the lines.
04:57I'm interested, though.
04:58I do want to go back because I do think,
05:00I guess I probably look at it a little bit differently.
05:02I do think there were some,
05:04at least a little bit of culture issues in the locker room last year for the Falcons.
05:07I think that whatever was going on with the wide receivers,
05:10I'm not saying whose fault it was.
05:12I don't know whose fault it was,
05:14but there was definitely something rotten inside that room
05:17that we may never know the truth of,
05:20but something was going on that really led to a huge downfall
05:24in that entire room being able to step up into situations
05:27that made this team successful.
05:28Yeah, I think that's a good point.
05:30I thought that, I don't know if that's what hurt.
05:34I mean, Drake London was hurt by injuries,
05:38and I'm not sure if that's what hurt or the guy that just dropped passes.
05:42Darnell.
05:42No, not Darnell.
05:44Ray Ray?
05:45No, I'm talking about White Boy.
05:47What's his name?
05:48Oh, David Sills?
05:48David Sills, who just missed, you know.
05:51How'd he catch a stray?
05:53Because he dropped a touchdown in Tampa.
05:55He dropped a few.
05:56Remember the fourth down conversion, though?
05:58That was a pretty big one.
05:59Yeah, well, you know, he wouldn't have had to catch that one
06:01if he would have caught the touchdown that was wide open in his hands.
06:04Man.
06:05So I think there was just some talent.
06:07I think there was lack of talent there as well.
06:09I don't know what Darnell and Ray Ray decided they were going to do.
06:12And Darrell Hodge, to me, was just, he was another,
06:17he was this guy that probably should have knew his role a little bit better
06:20and not spoke out of line.
06:22I mean, you're a special teams player.
06:24You're not there to, you're not, I'm not, I don't care.
06:26You're not really a, much, you're not doing much from a receiver standpoint anyways.
06:30What did he say, dude?
06:32What did he say that he spoke out of line?
06:34Yeah, he came out, he was one of the Instagram posters
06:37when Ray Ray decided he was going to keep talking.
06:40I got you.
06:41He pile jumped in there.
06:42All right.
06:44So I agree with this, I agree with the wide receiver room,
06:47but I think that was from a mismanagement of leadership in the coaching room
06:52and from the head coach himself at times where he mismanaged how he,
06:56he should have fired Ike Hilliard before the season started.
07:00The word I heard was that he wanted to fire Ike Hilliard before the season started.
07:04After the 24th season, there was, he thought he should have moved on and he didn't.
07:12And that's a mismanagement of the head coach.
07:15And that's, that falls on him.
07:17And then it allowed the, that room to become a cancer.
07:20So.
07:20Ike Hilliard and Yang Weku, just a little bit too long, right?
07:24Just a little bit too long.
07:25Was there anything else that you pulled from this article that showed off the differences
07:30between Kevin Stefanski and Raheem Morris?
07:35Good question.
07:36Well, nothing that I haven't already seen.
07:39I, I, I'm not trying to go ahead and just, I've, I've defended Raheem Morris.
07:43I thought he did some really good things when he was here.
07:46I liked him and I liked being around him.
07:48But just go back to the open and press conference of Raheem Morris to the,
07:53Kevin Stefanski.
07:55Raheem came in and immediately took shots at Arthur Smith and the quarterback room.
08:01Stefanski didn't do that.
08:02Um, for, for, for whatever reason, I go back and say, Hey, I'm only here because
08:06quarterbacks suck.
08:07Basically.
08:08That's essentially what he said.
08:09Am I wrong?
08:10I mean, and so Stefanski decided not to do that.
08:14So that immediately is like, Hey, they're not going to come in.
08:17It's not about, I see that is we're not here to talk.
08:21We're here to just do.
08:23And if that's the case, if they can put the talk on the other side and just go achieve
08:29things, you'll be better off for it.
08:31Yeah.
08:32I, I think there's something to that for sure.
08:34I think that he, Kevin Stefanski was just so much more businesslike.
08:37I think overall, not even in, not even in contrast to Raheem Morris, but really all the
08:41introductory pressers we saw over those couple of weeks with NFL coaches being hired.
08:46I mean, I go to Joe Brady up in Buffalo and it was almost like a, like he just won
08:51an award.
08:51You know, he's given the speech.
08:53And of course that's gotta be really emotional to get at your first head coaching job.
08:56Kevin Stefanski is like, yeah, man, I got fired.
08:59Just ready to get down here and work.
09:00I'm really happy to be here.
09:02You know, it was like a, it was such a contrast to some of the other things we saw, but
09:07yeah,
09:07I'm with you, man.
09:08It's, it's, it is what it is at this point in the year.
09:10Um, you know, hopefully differences in personality and intro pressers can lead to differences
09:16in the way this team approaches most of the game.
Comments