- 1 day ago
The Morning Shift dissects Ian Cunningham's first NFL draft as general manager of the Atlanta Falcons. Ali, Mike, and Beau highlight the sibling dynamic of A.J. and Avieon Terrell and evaluate the versatility of sixth-round pick Harold Perkins Jr.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Ian Cunningham has completed his first draft class as GM of the Falcons.
00:06We are taking grades on Ian Cunningham's performance over the weekend on Twitter at 929MorningShift if you want to weigh
00:12in on that.
00:13In round two though, Ian did bring in Avion Terrell, AJ's brother, and Avion talked about how he and AJ
00:19push each other.
00:20Yeah, for sure. For sure. And me and him are going to be going at it too. For sure.
00:26But I'm going to be telling him, lock in. He's going to be telling me to lock in.
00:29So all he's going to do is make us better. Make us better. Two brothers on the field competing with
00:33each other.
00:34It's going to make us better.
00:38I mean, yeah, two brothers competing like that, going after each other.
00:42I just hope that it's one of those deals where they clearly have a great relationship.
00:47I go back to when we talked to him at training camp and you asked him, AJ that is,
00:52and you asked AJ about his relationship with Avion.
00:56And I mean, you can speak on it more than me, but he just oozed about him.
01:01And if they have that great relationship, that clearly means that Avion listens to AJ and probably vice versa.
01:09But this is one where Avion listening to AJ really is going to help him.
01:14Yeah, you can see the emotion on AJ's face.
01:16I'm pretty sure he took a beat before he even answered.
01:19It was like, hang on. I got to tell you guys, I'm so proud of him.
01:22And it was just right there.
01:25So it's exciting to see or to think about what this could mean for the Falcons.
01:30Yeah. And, you know, once you have the realization also that they've never played on the same team,
01:36that's also crazy.
01:37Like you're like, y'all might have played the same position, gone to the same schools,
01:41done all the same stuff, but y'all never played together until you get to the NFL because of the
01:45age difference.
01:46So I think it's special.
01:48And one of the points that, you know, I brought up over the last couple of days is that the
01:53transition from college,
01:54the NFL, moving to a new city, finding new resources, having new teammates, new training room, new strength staff,
02:00all that stuff is a massive part of whether or not these guys are going to be successful.
02:06Development is huge, but it comes along with understanding how to make that happen.
02:11Right. It's not just, Oh, I'm going to put in the work. Yeah, dude, you can put in all the
02:14work you want,
02:15but if you're not sleeping, right, eating, right, taking care of your body, talking to the right people,
02:20knowing when to go watch film, having all these relationships in place.
02:23And it's, it's 10 times tougher. And he is, he is not going to have to deal with that.
02:28He's going to walk into a situation where he is very familiar with the process,
02:33very familiar with the meeting rooms and with the coaches and with the teammates and everything else
02:37that comes along with it. So he is already, to me, three steps ahead of where anybody else would have
02:43been,
02:44had they been drafted in that spot.
02:45However, at the same time though, there is a Terrell reputation. So he's got to live up to everything.
02:51A.J.'s already accomplished. It's like when your older brother or sister is in high school before you
02:55and you're like, Oh, I got to be as good as them. All the teachers know about me already.
02:59Well, the problem is it's not just on the field. It's off the field too.
03:02But that reputation you talk about, like A.J. is, was the Falcons Walter Payton man of the year last
03:07year.
03:08So he, like he, it's not like you're walking in and you're like, well, look, as long as I'm not
03:13a jerk,
03:14I'm going to like, like, you know, I might not be the better player, but if, as long as I'm
03:19not a jerk,
03:19everybody's going to, I'm going to be like, like just as much, but no, you got to like,
03:24you got to be good on the field and off the field and Avion.
03:27So the, you know, Mike's on my, he's, he's set up better.
03:30And I wholeheartedly agree with that, but he's also got tough, tough shoes to fill.
03:36And he's not really filling them. He's just trying to put on a pair of shoes next to him.
03:40Like, but he's got that shadow is a pretty good, pretty good one.
03:44And so, you know, but like, this is a guy that you can, I don't know,
03:49maybe they'll live next door to each other. I don't know.
03:51Personally, I don't like living near family. I like to be as far, you know,
03:54I like to keep like at least a 30 minute barrier between me living where family is.
03:59Just, you need my, I need, I need my space, but they're tight.
04:04So maybe, maybe they got, maybe they, they get houses next to each other.
04:07And they're going to Terrell brothers show up at the carpool. I don't know.
04:11Man, I'll say I lived in the same apartment complex as my sister, different apartment,
04:14same complex though, for a couple of years. It was the best experience.
04:17So I don't know what this distance you're talking about, Bo is.
04:20Yeah. I look, I don't, I like my, I don't, I don't like family being able to show up and
04:25be like,
04:26well, I'm just going to, just going to crash here. I'm like, no, we're good.
04:29Yeah. Yeah. Bo doesn't like surprise pops in from the fam.
04:33He, they need to be scheduled.
04:35Different families, different stages of life.
04:37That's all I can say to that.
04:39No, but again, you know, having AJ in that building, being able to, to kind of shadow him
04:45and genuinely, I feel this way.
04:49The only difference to me and their draft profiles was that AJ is two inches taller,
04:54a little bit rangier than Avion.
04:56I think they're very much the same player, the way they compete.
04:58I think they actually play corner very similarly, can get handsy a little bit at times,
05:03but decent recovery speed.
05:05And, and really is going, they're going to make receivers battle for the ball every time
05:08the ball's up in the air.
05:09Yeah.
05:09They're also guys that are not afraid to, if they see a screen, they'll just, they'll,
05:13they'll, they'll go in there and try to break it up.
05:15They also, you know, a term to ID, they'll stick their nose in there and they'll really bust
05:19up a run play and they're not afraid.
05:20That's why Avion, um, was, has been able to play inside and out.
05:25And he's, you know, obviously we talked about it earlier that that could be the spot for
05:30him starting a season is that nickel position.
05:32Billy Bowman is going to be out.
05:34Uh, I expect for a few, a few games, even if he's not, you don't know how he's going
05:39to come back.
05:40He might, he could lose that job.
05:42Uh, maybe Mike Hughes slides inside and you use Avion on the outside, but it looks like
05:48the future is that Terrell brothers in some way, shape or form, uh, fill in two of the
05:55three corner spots, uh, normally, uh, of what you're in because you're in a nickel type
06:00package about 70% of the time, maybe even more these days, maybe, maybe 75% more.
06:05That's why the run support part of it is pretty, is, is, is so key that these, these DBs now
06:10coming in and being able to play against the run.
06:12That's why the Kendall Daniels situation is really weird because I think he can do that,
06:17but he's so good in the passing game as a former safety.
06:20I do want to move down to one of our round six drafts.
06:23Um, Harold Perkins jr.
06:25Out of LSU, he's having to give up his fandom of the saints.
06:29He says he's not a safe fan.
06:31How difficult is that to completely give that up and switch gears like that?
06:35No doubt.
06:36Um, well, it just depends on how long he's here and how long he's able to make it last
06:41in Atlanta and where, and if, you know, if, and when he goes somewhere else after he leaves
06:45land, I hope he doesn't hope it's a 10, 12 year career here.
06:47And he's, he's unbelievable, but the odds are that, you know, you will probably play for
06:52somebody else in your career at some point and we'll see how long he, he remained here.
06:55But I saw our buddy friend of the show, Tom McClure, uh, Falcons ring of honor inductee.
07:00He was celebrating and he's also an LSU guy and lives in Louisiana and thought it was awesome.
07:04He's like, welcome, get on board, man.
07:06Uh, love to see it.
07:08But I just think with him, there's, there's just so much upside in terms of the speed.
07:12Um, you know, we've, we've had a number of, of conversations over the last couple of days.
07:16And I know that I've seen tweets and Oboe has too, where it's, Hey, what, you know, what
07:20are we missing with Harold Perkins?
07:22What's, what's the deal?
07:23Why is he a six round draft pick?
07:25I just think that he's a guy that has a very refined skillset and a very high upside of
07:31athleticism that when you turn the tape on, it doesn't always say well-rounded three down
07:36player.
07:37Um, and so we'll see if they can turn that into something special, but this is the reason
07:42I've stood on the table since December.
07:44If there's anybody I feel like can do that, it's going to be Jeff Ulbrich and the kind
07:48of scheme that he runs and allowing that athleticism and really show up on any given, any given
07:51down.
07:52Well, it's clearly because he had the smallest hands at the combine.
07:54That's why he fell to the six round.
07:56No, I think injury derailed him.
07:58And I think, uh, um, to me, the, the biggest issue he had was he wasn't a lot.
08:05He didn't play at one spot really is his, his, his whole career.
08:09Um, so his freshman year, he was more of an edge player at LSU and he was really good
08:16there.
08:16If he's drafted after his freshman year, he's a top 10 pick and with his speed and some
08:22of the, some of the, the moves he showed to, to, to create havoc on the edge.
08:27Um, and he did some instinctual stuff too.
08:31And then he has an injury in the sophomore campaign and he comes back last year.
08:37Now, you know, he's, he's essentially just a middle linebacker the way they used him.
08:42And look, I thought he did some good things there.
08:44If you look at his size, he's divine Diablo, uh, divine Diablo, six to two 23 to 25.
08:53Harold Perkins jr is, um, you know, maybe, uh, a fresh haircut under six one and 225 pounds.
09:03He's a four, four guy.
09:05So I think it, I, I, I, you know, the word tweener is used, but guys like this, and it's
09:11not really necessarily the physical traits with him as much as the usage of it.
09:16And it just depends on how, where Jeff Olbert thinks he can use Harold Perkins jr.
09:22The most to me, kind of built like a Dion Jones, um, you know, probably a little bit lighter
09:28than Dion, I think, but he's built like that.
09:31So how do they want to use them and what's their plan?
09:34But the one thing I know he'll do right off the bat is play special teams and be very good
09:38at it.
09:39So I threw it out on social yesterday.
09:41I was asking everyone to grade how Ian Cunningham did with his first draft.
09:45And it seems to be kind of an average of like a B plus a lot of A's, a lot
09:48of B's one C minus.
09:50I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning was on that one, but overall A's and B's, where
09:56would you guys grade him?
09:57I think I'm, I'm in the B range.
10:00Um, you know, and again, you, you kind of, you know, let off a lot of the conversation
10:04day with this.
10:05And I think it's been interesting for me to look at.
10:07It's like, what was the goal?
10:08You know, what was the goal going in?
10:10And I think that if you look at most of the pundits, the Kuypers of the world and whoever
10:14else is out there, it's very much a, well, they only had six picks.
10:17They didn't have a first rounder.
10:18And it's almost like they're detracting you for two different drafts, right?
10:22It's like, well, you should have detracted last year.
10:24If you didn't like the James Pierce pick, you know, you can't track.
10:27Now you're going to detract this year of the same thing, but the pick ended up being a
10:30good one on the field.
10:31There's no doubt about that.
10:33There's no two ways to say that.
10:34So I don't know.
10:36I'm in, I'm in the B range.
10:37I thought that, again, I'm curious to see what they have to say about Kendall Daniels.
10:42I'm very interested.
10:43I also thought that maybe before, you know, round seven, you'd have seen a move on an
10:47offensive lineman with some of the depth we have there.
10:49But overall, I think you really took some high upside swings and swung for the fence,
10:54which is what I'm about in those later rounds.
10:55Find somebody with some elite traits and try to go get them.
10:59I want to get back to that real quick.
11:00You talked about the draft analyst.
11:04Analyst?
11:04Because, like, so the problem for me is the Mel Kuypers of the world didn't like the
11:09James Pierce trade, so they knocked you last year.
11:12And then, even after, he had really, like, rookie of the year, defensive rookie of the
11:20year caliber year, they still didn't like it.
11:23Right?
11:23And so now they're knocking you this year, too, which is, to me, unfair, because it looks
11:29like all of the legal stuff is, other than a suspension, could be way behind him.
11:37So I don't like that.
11:38But, like, I thought they got two guys that can start right away.
11:42Or contribute, like, starters in Avion Trail and Zachariah Branch.
11:47And then with the other four picks, they got guys that could, like, Ontario Thompson could
11:53come in here and be a rotational guy today.
11:56Like, right?
11:57Like, next year, he could be a very, very well rotational guy that rotates in and out and
12:02plays, and that's fine.
12:05Daniels and Perkins and, um, what is it, Onanawa, or however you pronounce it, the left tackle
12:12or right tackle out of Ohio State, or who also played at Rice.
12:17I mean, look, those are project-type players.
12:21But, to me, the Perkins pick elevates it because I just think it's such a high-value pick in
12:28the sixth round.
12:29We're going to have to talk about it later.
12:30I'm not sure that Onanawa's not a guard.
12:32I've been watching his tape a lot today.
12:34We'll get into that later.
12:35He'll be a big guard at 6'7", 330.
12:39That's a big boy.
12:40We are talking draft all morning, so we'll get back into that at 8 o'clock.
Comments