- 4 days ago
The Morning Shift let you hear a chunk of their interview with Falcons Head Coach Kevin Stefanski, and discussed why losing right tackle Kaleb McGary is a tough loss, but shouldn't cause Falcons fans to panic. They reacted to the plan for Falcons tight ends Kyle Pitts, Charlie Woerner, and Austin Hooper.
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00:00I am Allie with Mike and Bo. Dylan's hanging out behind the glass and we had a chance to talk
00:05to
00:05Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski yesterday. Asked him about when Caleb McGarry started to
00:10let the Falcons know that he was going to call it a career. Yeah it's been something that he's
00:15obviously been thinking about and made us aware of and in situations like this.
00:22I have the utmost respect for this game and for Caleb and these are decisions that each player
00:28has to make on their own and they have to of course they talk to their family and they could
00:32talk to their teammates and talk to us but this is a decision that guys make on their own and
00:37we
00:39I certainly trust Caleb in this decision and I wish him nothing but the best and as a football team
00:47you know while you lose a teammate that you think really highly of that then we need to
00:51obviously find ways to move forward and that's what Ian I know is working hard on it and making
00:57sure that we as you put this roster together you have to keep those type of things in mind.
01:01Well speaking of Caleb and Gary I want to talk a little bit more in depth about the offense that
01:05you guys are going to roll out with Tommy Reese and with two quarterbacks you have battling
01:09obviously Caleb and Gary big wide zone guy I've been wide zone here for a number of years I think
01:13I
01:13can probably count on both hands the amount of times last year coach you saw a puller in this
01:17offense is there anything that you can give us about personnel packages or gap scheme versus zone
01:23scheme when you guys are going through the tape from last year and understanding the personnel
01:27you have but also trying to implement what exactly you want to be and the identity that you want to
01:32establish anything in more in depth you can give us on how that's coming it's a good question and I
01:38think honestly every team is having those discussions right now and it's there's two parts to the answer
01:46here number one it's your personnel and until you get through the draft you don't exactly know your
01:52personnel you want to get through the draft before you can say okay here are our guys and here's
01:56where we feel like the strengths are here's where we feel like we need to mitigate a little bit
02:01so I'd say part of it is waiting until you're through the draft the other piece of this is when
02:07it comes
02:07to the run game and you mentioned wide zone and gap scheme I do believe that there's a way to
02:14complement
02:15what you do best and if wide zone is what you do best that there's ways to complement it with
02:20other
02:20schemes I also do believe though if you try to be good at everything you won't be good at anything
02:25so I do think there's value in in identifying the schemes that you feel like fit your guys best
02:31when it comes to the run game you know I think we're lucky in that we have runners and we
02:36have
02:37an offensive line and we certainly have an offensive line coach where we we can lean into different
02:41schemes whether that is wide zone the majority whether that's gap scheme as a majority whether that's a
02:47g scheme where you're blocking down the tackle pulling guards those will all be determined based
02:51on our roster where we feel like we are coming out of the draft and then you get through the
02:57offseason
02:57program you get through training camp and sometimes you say you know what hey we thought we're going
03:01to be good at this I actually think we're best at this so those are all things that have to
03:05be
03:06worked through and I think if we're as coaches if we're worth our salt we're constantly just looking
03:12at this thing and what what matches our players best uh but I do believe all you know to reiterate
03:17you can't you can't try to be good at everything and I've you know just been doing this where
03:22you try to hey we're going to be good at this we're going to be at that man it's hard
03:25because then you
03:25don't get really good at any one thing I just I loved everything about that second part of that
03:31answer when he's talking about Caleb McGarry and understanding personnel but also understanding that
03:35can't be good at everything you have to kind of pick I the first part of his answer he's like
03:40you know I think there are things to be good at with your personnel and then there's ways to
03:44compliment that and what I heard that's not what he's saying but what I heard was you know I don't
03:50know why they didn't run more bootlegs I don't know why they didn't utilize plays to compliment the
03:55wide zone the last couple years we're not going to run that much wide zone but it is interesting to
03:59me
03:59and we need to find more ways to compliment what these guys do well yeah it's a lot wrapped in
04:04there
04:04uh I'll just go ahead and touch on that real quick because that's where you were I I believe that
04:08he
04:09he he's I believe that's been the problem for our offense the last few years we didn't compliment
04:14the run game with other little little things you could work in or like the bootleg right and and
04:21that kind of stuff and maybe doing some of those g scheme things that we could do but we just
04:26didn't
04:26have we didn't need to do a ton of it but if you mix it in here and there it
04:29complements the wide zone
04:31right um yeah if that if if that's what you're looking for let's go to the Caleb McGarry thing real
04:38quick
04:38because then I want to touch on something that he just said which maybe have some might have some
04:42foreshadowing of the draft a lot of people are
04:49seemingly panicking it feels like about losing McGarry and I'm a big Caleb McGarry guy I there's
04:55something to be said about a guy that just comes in and does his job doesn't cause you any problems
04:59he play he just plays now was he perfect no and if you remember at the end of the 24
05:04season
05:06there was a lot of angst about from the fans and some media about was he the guy to to
05:12be the
05:13right tackle moving forward because he he didn't have a great end to the season and then they signed
05:18that two-year three-year extension whatever it was and then it just kind of felt like oh well he's
05:24our guy and everybody kind of just was you know okay with all right well that's our that's our right
05:32tackle moving forward then the injury and Elijah Wilkinson filled in and whether you like him or
05:36not whether he was a moron on social media with his posts or not which he was he played pretty
05:42admirably last year and for the most part I don't think you missed a lot it's not in the past
05:46run
05:47game a little bit but in the past protection he didn't do any worse if not maybe slightly better
05:52than Caleb McGarry did yeah no I completely agree um there there is and as I I tried to say
05:59this so
06:00many times last year there seems to be a misrepresentation remember the conversations
06:02we had going into that season last year knowing that Michael Penix was going to be the starter is
06:08like oh well you can't have Caleb McGarry on the blind side got it you got to flip the tackles
06:12you
06:12know you can't you can't possibly go throughout the year with Caleb McGarry on the blind side and so
06:17yeah I think there's a misrepresentation of of where that story is kind of gone and and you know what
06:23it is right now um but Caleb McGarry is a good player I think that Caleb McGarry probably would have
06:29been one of your best guys in a gap scheme shockingly enough because I think what he did on the
06:34back
06:34side of these plays was very gap scheme friendly in some of the double teams that he was able to
06:40you know actually move people and get people north and south but we won't know um obviously now with
06:46uh you know with Bill Callahan taking over and everything else and Caleb McGarry stepping away we'll
06:50we'll never quite get that picture solved yeah and and real quick Jawan Taylor is an extremely talented
06:56player that you come in and replace and the problem with him is is he he he's just been a
07:03little bit
07:03of a of a penalty issue and some of that is just his technique the way he starts um I
07:09don't believe
07:09he's jumping starts or anything like that as some have tried to allude to it's just you're you're
07:16Mike playing offensive line I don't know if you guys know this but especially that tackle all the
07:20the whole the whole line on both sides it's a timing thing and you're trying to time the snap
07:26count the defense is doing it you're also trying to do it and and a lot of times you've got
07:31guys that
07:31are that that know where they're going and they're quicker than you I'll give you the perfect analogy
07:35that we always use all right everybody's played I don't know about Dylan Mario Kart 64 and it's not
07:41the OG that's not the OG all right but any kind of Mario Kart that you've played what do you
07:46do when
07:46you can I can hear the sound in my in my head right now if you're waiting on that green
07:51light
07:54and what do you do you hit the you charge up bro you're trying to charge up yeah and you're
07:59trying
07:59to hit that thing at the right time so you get the burst facts every now and then what happens
08:03you spin out a little bit right we hit it just a little bit early yep and we spun out
08:08a little bit
08:08all offensive linemen are doing the same exact thing when it comes to the cadence everybody's trying
08:13to time that boom boom boom now might be a head twist might be a head bob might be a
08:18clap might
08:19be any kind of thing any kind of signal but you are all trying to do the same thing and
08:23time it up
08:24sometimes you spin your tires sometimes you get it just a little bit early Jawan Taylor has been
08:28guilty of getting it just a little bit early um you know along with some lining up in the backfield
08:34and some handsy stuff but the hack in the Mario Kart 64 is you have to hit it on the
08:37second bump
08:38yeah and then you get the boost that's where you hit it yeah slightly after the second bump pops up
08:43exactly exactly that's all he's trying to do he's trying to say Jawan Taylor's looking at the center
08:48looking at the head bob and going you know what if I can get it right after that second one
08:52I'll be off the line of scrimmage before the defense and honestly it might the reason he's
08:58probably getting these false stars is because his feet are so good he's quick yeah I mean yeah it's
09:03it's so good so good another piece that we got from Kevin Stefanski yesterday is Bo asked him
09:09his plans for Kyle Pitts Charlie Warner and Austin Hooper well you can never have enough tight ends
09:15you know so we we and I say that jokingly just because uh you know I've been accused of of
09:23loving
09:23this position but um I I love the position because of the versatility it brings to your football team
09:29and I say that because defensive coordinators they want you just to line up in the same formation they
09:35want hey you're in 12 personnel we want you to line up in 12 like formations as an offense what
09:43we want
09:43to do is make life hard on those defenses and part of that to me is is how you deploy
09:48your players
09:48on a given play and I think tight ends who have the ability to line up in wide receiver positions
09:54or
09:54have the ability to line up as a fullback uh you know there's great value in being uh versatile
10:00on Sundays because it's it becomes a moving target for the defense so why the tight end position I think
10:06is one area where you have the ability to line guys up in different spots and it really it's no
10:11different you've seen over the years of wide receivers that can line up at running back or
10:14running backs that can line up out outside at wide receiver like positions it's all in it's all in the
10:19vein of trying to be difficult for the defense to defend uh and and the guys that we have on
10:24this
10:25roster I'm very excited about because they can all do different things they can all line up in
10:29different spots they can present different challenges to to the defense they're all smart
10:33and that's another big piece of this because as I'm talking about hey we're gonna line you up here
10:37line you up there you gotta be able to handle that mentally and uh we're very very lucky to have
10:41guys that can handle it there's somebody that was listening to that or was listening when it
10:45happened live yesterday go see told you Kyle Pitts gonna play wide receiver Austin Hooper will be
10:51your regular tight end and Charlie Warner will be your fullback and and it's like yeah that'll
10:56absolutely happen I was gonna say pretty spot on but it won't happen every play and I think that's
11:01what he's trying to say is that the versatility of being able to move guys around well you're still
11:06gonna ask Kyle Pitts to do tight end stuff when you feel like he has an advantage to do tight
11:11end stuff
11:12I there's a whole look when he brought up g-schemes earlier and things I got a question
11:17yesterday like what's a g-scheme like well you need a good blocking tight and it's I'm like we'll get
11:22there but there's a lot of a lot of depth to um to that entire conversation that includes tight ends
11:28I feel like no we gotta go to break and Ali's like dude let me get on time before Conte
11:33yells at us
11:34but I I do think that's the first time we've heard Kevin Stefanski really go in depth about stuff
11:39since he's been like about schemes and about what he wants to do and even took a shot at himself
11:44with the I know I've been accused of you know liking tight ends like well it's a it's today's game
11:51it's in a really important position a versatile one as he
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