00:00uh let's talk about the falcons who um you know they're in uh training uh first one of the first
00:06teams to come out um and uh i think seven or eight teams already getting this week and it's
00:12the familiar cast of characters uh kayla mcgarry announces his retirement not great news hurts us
00:18depth-wise on the offensive line right i would i would imagine though the falcons knew well a hell
00:22of time on that probably having a conversation through his injury that maybe he's not that
00:27serious about getting back or he has trepidation they also know the personality of kayla mcgarry
00:32he's a different cat i don't think money is what drives him i think that he you know he's just
00:37built different and i don't think that hanging around a few more years meant anything to him
00:42so uh another you know shot across the bow for the falcons to now figure out as they look at
00:48not even having a first round pick so stefanski was on yesterday did a great interview with the
00:54morning shift and one of the things um that he talked about was just getting to work in the
01:01building for the first time with a lot of these guys man it's hard because it's like naming your
01:06favorite kid uh i'll tell you what the last few months of being up in flower branch have been awesome
01:13and as coaches i'm thrilled about the staff we've put together we've had so much fun uh putting
01:20together systems and talking about how we're going to plan out everything but it's not the same when
01:26the players aren't there yeah and he's asked which player he's looking forward to working with the
01:30most i want to mention a word there and i think i said this to mayor dickens the other day
01:37and
01:37sometimes you know to other guys that come through he said the word fun like there's a reason why if
01:43you ask a kid in college i want to be in sports management i want to work for a team
01:47i want to be
01:47because there is something about it you know this rustic because you've been around so many
01:51organizations and you work in the field but but like showing up in a building and figuring out
01:57what's going to be our base defense right yeah or i mean that's fun like it's it's a fun job
02:04to be
02:04able to talk football you know there's a reason the x and o part yeah yeah forget about all that
02:11like
02:11we all know college football and college basketball is completely tainted by the nil and tainted by agents
02:16and money and all that we know that there's a lot of stuff about the nfl that is you know
02:20the fear
02:21for your job and all that yeah but when you're just talking ball hey what are we doing today
02:25looking at film talking about um you know what's going to be our third and long packages um we're
02:32going to be uh you know talking draft and everything like that's a pretty nice nine to five job to
02:38show
02:38up at that facility yeah with all these new guys they got everybody the entire building head of
02:44communications is new head coach is new head of football is new right like everybody in there
02:49trying to build a relationship right even before the players get there right yeah i mean it's it's
02:55almost like those college coaches too when they finally get to august you just get to coach that's
03:00what you're in the business to do anyway you know i mean you're there all the other bs it's just
03:05x and
03:05o's it's practice and it's building a team together and that's what the falcons are doing yeah trying to
03:10get some chemistry in the building one of the things he talked about was the draft and ian
03:15cunningham and getting on the same page remember ian didn't hire kevin kevin didn't have ian when
03:21he got there was hired by matt ryan they're building a chemistry what kind of players uh is he looking
03:26for
03:29a lot of those discussions happened when we first got together way back when and talked through each
03:35position things that we feel like are important for our schemes uh and then you get to the draft
03:40you're continuing obviously through free agency through the draft you're continuing those type
03:44of conversations i would tell you within and matt myself on a decision for instance like you're
03:49mentioning with tackle you're taking in as much information as you can so you're listening to
03:53bill callahan you're listening to tommy reese uh you want to understand each one of these players
03:57in terms of their strengths and how they might fit what we do so again remember bill callahan is part
04:05of that pretty ridiculous coaching staff some of the guys they grabbed right yeah and talk about
04:10him maybe one of the great offensive line coaches experienced offensive line yeah yes very experienced
04:15coach kind of hardcore dude old school like they're they're gonna they're gonna get after as much as
04:21you can with that player union contract i'm confident that the falcons gonna get after it in practice
04:26with callahan you know it's funny drew butler was here and uh we were talking about that
04:32anonymous nfl general man uh executive that said i don't understand one thing the falcons have done
04:38don't understand one thing and i was like that's great some anonymous like do you understand signing
04:42a quarterback for under a million dollars that has had seven years experience like what don't you
04:48understand and then we talked about the money they're spending relatively speaking on their kicker and
04:53punter yeah and to me the first thing they said well we're not going to deal with that nonsense
04:59anymore like there's going to be an adult in the room and they're going to fix so they got uh
05:05folk
05:05who's missed i think two kicks in three years yeah nick folk and then uh who they signed is uh
05:12kicker
05:12bailey as our punter and it was like we're fixing those two things right away and you know well why
05:20are you spending so much money on special teams i don't know why they spend in top dollar on special
05:24you see our special teams last year was a disaster an absolute but isn't that a sign that we are
05:29not
05:30effing around like here's the first thing we're going to do yeah we're going to sign the guy you
05:33know why because we lost gains because oh my god between coverage kick coverage kick return snaps and
05:40the and uh remember that the season was hanging in the balance in two games new england and indy the
05:47two best teams on your schedule at that point new england you lose on a missed extra point that would
05:52tie it yes and then in indianapolis you lose in overtime and blow that lead special teams was
05:58terrible throughout but i mean if you don't think that that mattered so again this notion of like
06:04i don't know what they're doing what are they supposed to do i don't i don't yeah we're not trying
06:08to lose we're trying to do the best with what we got and we're not and we don't have a
06:14lot and we
06:15don't want our special teams to be a conversation on sports talk radio every week where you literally
06:21don't know where this thing is headed yes i thought you'd get a kick out of this uh conversation with
06:26jesse bates and he's always the most loquacious and interesting to listen to but he's talking
06:31about jalen walker remember we're supposed to be talking about our two first round picks in year two
06:36we don't have one of those guys we do have jalen here's jesse on jalen yeah jalen walker um i've
06:43been
06:43impressed with him since he walked in the building um i hope that he can take another step in uh
06:48in that
06:49leadership role um i think he has he's more than capable of that um and then obviously just continue
06:55to you know grow as a professional i think last year um you know he took those steps and then
07:00he
07:00got hurt you know and then it was sidelined which sucked uh but i think he can really continue to
07:06to build on the player that he wants to be but also the leader uh that this team needs for
07:11sure
07:12yeah jalen's he's he just needs to stay healthy man and he can stay how big is the upside on
07:18jalen
07:18walker what's the ceiling look like first round ceiling i mean he can play up to that first round
07:24draft now never leave the field be every down he's a three down guy he can blitz off the edge
07:29he can
07:29play inside the box there were people at georgia that thought he had just as much potential inside
07:35but they had to bump him outside they didn't have that guy they didn't have him last year because
07:39when jalen was gone so you look at all those things and um you know that's really for me
07:45i've been on proponent of him i didn't care where he ended up i know a lot about him i
07:49know him i know
07:49people in that building that know him just stay healthy i mean there's no caden ellis james pierce
07:55was never going to be a leader uh but he was just going to be a most dominant player but
07:59his guys start
08:00to fall off jalen walker is going to be a leader yeah period period he's going to run that dad's
08:05a
08:05college dad's a college coach like he's wired like that you know i came to town jesse tuggo was
08:10playing linebacker and and it was clear that this guy was the alpha right the alpha then keith brooking
08:17was here um another one of those guys right playing out of that position running all over the field
08:23um eventually he leaves for dallas i think it is right yep um uh i'm trying to think of uh
08:29curtis
08:29loft man i go back to you know i'm buddy curry i'm i'm late 70s early 80s i mean we've
08:36always had
08:36a linebacker a defensive alpha guy when they're good you know i mean so that that guy jalen walker
08:43is not just a you know a pass rush on the guy on the edge he can play in the
08:47box you can do so many
08:48things with him but uh he is a he is a leader type and needs to take that next step
08:55obviously the
08:56second year yeah be healthy second year it's a perfect timing for him so um
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