00:00Most folks say the Falcons did about as well as you could possibly do.
00:03Did you feel that way also or not?
00:05Yeah, I think so.
00:06Look, because you're going to see the draft grades being passed around today,
00:09all of them are docking you for not having a first-round pick
00:11and for only having six opportunities.
00:14You also had a huge gap in your selections right in the middle.
00:18So you selected the Daniels kid out of Oklahoma,
00:20and you had to jump on in them because you didn't draft again until 208.
00:24It's a big gap.
00:26134 to 208 is a big gap.
00:28If you fell in love with him, you've got to jump on him at 134.
00:31Is that part of one of the picks we lost for the Kirk Cousins thing?
00:36Was that this year for the tampering?
00:39God, they're trying to trace that back for a number of days.
00:42Yeah, you're right.
00:42The third rounder we lost?
00:44Going into this draft, though,
00:46it was kind of general consensus that the Falcons had one hand tied behind their back.
00:50Obviously, new general manager, new head coach, not having the first-round pick.
00:54But I'm okay with not having the first-round pick,
00:57considering James Pierce Jr. had 10.5 sacks last year,
01:01and we're still waiting to see if he'll be a part of this football team moving forward.
01:04But, look, I like Avion Terrell.
01:07Dabo Sweeney gave him a lot of love after he got drafted,
01:10saying he's a physical guy.
01:12He can get involved in the run game.
01:14He plays bigger than what he comes in at on the stat sheet.
01:18And being there with your brother, A.J., Mike,
01:21I think that just allows him to get more familiar.
01:24And on top of what they did a year ago with Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman,
01:27getting that back end of the defense nice and young,
01:30guys who want to go out there and play and prove it,
01:32with veterans like A.J. Terrell in the mix,
01:35I think that's a great first pick for the Falcons.
01:37I couldn't agree more, and I made this point earlier,
01:39and I want to share it with you guys as well.
01:41And I don't know your specific situation when you got to the NFL, Drew,
01:45but when you get drafted to the NFL, nobody likes you in that locker room.
01:48I was undrafted, but yes.
01:50Nobody likes you in that locker room.
01:52Nobody wants you to be there.
01:53You think that Harvey Dahl and Tyson Clabo
01:55like to see them spin a third-round pick on me and come through the door?
01:57No chance.
01:58They didn't like me.
01:59So when you already have a guy built in that is the leader in that room
02:03and your brother that you know is going to take you under your wing,
02:05he's going to show you when to eat, when to watch film,
02:08what you should be doing to take care of your body,
02:10it gives you a leg up.
02:11I'm not saying that's going to be what turns him into an all-pro,
02:13but that's a battle he's not fighting
02:15that other rookies are definitely going to have to fight.
02:17How did that manifest itself when you walk,
02:20especially because of all the offensive linemen in the last 30 years,
02:24the guys you just mentioned are probably the least,
02:27in my notion, about the guys who at least like to not like you.
02:33Yes.
02:33They're way up there.
02:34How did they manifest itself?
02:35They're way up there.
02:36Well, first of all, you have to earn those guys' respect.
02:38You just keep your mouth shut.
02:39You keep your mouth shut.
02:40You work hard.
02:41Ask what you can do to help.
02:43Pick up helmets and shoulder pads after practice.
02:45Bring snacks to the meeting room.
02:47Yeah, exactly.
02:48You know, Todd McClure being the savvy vet in the room,
02:50you lean into what he's telling you,
02:52and you hope the other guys just leave you alone for a little bit.
02:54But I still talk to Tyson all the time, and Todd as well, man.
02:57He's good dudes.
02:58And eventually you.
02:59No, but where's Tyson at?
03:00Is he local?
03:01He's living over in North Carolina,
03:02bought a huge plot of land kind of near Wake Forest.
03:05Nice.
03:05Mount Airy.
03:06That's where he's at.
03:07Yeah, he's living the dream.
03:08All right.
03:09Here's another pick that I really do like.
03:10Obviously, I like the Zach Branch pick.
03:12I think he's going to be a great addition to the offense.
03:14They needed somebody who could be a playmaker,
03:17more of a slot guy opposite of Drake London,
03:19and get involved in special teams, which I like.
03:21But I think the pick that has the most upside for the Atlanta Falcons
03:26out of this draft is your second six-round pick in Harold Perkins Jr.
03:30Obviously, a very highly productive player at LSU early in his career.
03:35He had 146 tackles and 13 sacks in his first two seasons,
03:39but then he got injured.
03:40So he's had the ACL.
03:42He's been battling back from that.
03:43But this is a guy with tremendous upside.
03:45Why not use that pick at 215?
03:47Well, and I'm going to make a prediction here, too,
03:49and I have zero insight on this.
03:52But a lot of people look at Harold Perkins as an edge,
03:54and you're thinking about the edge and the sacks and the speed.
03:57And then you look at Kendall Daniel, who's drafted in the fourth round,
04:00and he's listed as a linebacker.
04:01But he's also 246 pounds.
04:03I'm not so sure that those guys at some point don't kind of flop
04:06in that situation.
04:07Maybe you'll see a Kendall Daniels walked up a little bit more
04:09than he was in college,
04:10and maybe Harold Perkins plays off the ball a little bit more than you expect
04:12because of the speed factor with both those guys.
04:15Think about this, though.
04:16Kendall Daniels, 6'5", 242, made the move from safety to linebacker
04:21after transferring to Oklahoma before the 2025 season.
04:24So you're talking about a guy who's got tremendous size,
04:28who was a safety, and then, of course, he took that speed
04:31and moved down to linebacker.
04:32So, again, these are guys that Coach Jeff Ulbrich can look at
04:35and be like, let's see what they're capable of throughout the spring
04:39and then heading into training camp,
04:40how early we can plug them into the defense.
04:42Yeah, I mean, if you think about teams that have emerged in the NFL,
04:48and you can look at a couple of their draft classes
04:50and say they build a championship team, Seattle did that, right?
04:54New England to some degree a couple of years ago with some of their guys,
04:57if you look at the Super Bowl teams.
04:58You know, this was the farthest thing from the year that you're going to say
05:01we built our team around the draft.
05:03Now, the Cowboys may say that, right?
05:05Dallas may say, listen, we went out and built our championship team that year.
05:09This is such an awkward year for us because you know that's not what you were building.
05:14You're not going to go like, oh, we got that one, and we got an early two,
05:18we got two threes, look at our two guys in four.
05:21You look in three years, and you go, wow.
05:23Look at what, like, we were just surviving.
05:26Like, when you're picking that late, you were trying to get through.
05:30Like, Ian Cunningham, you could see it in the opening press conference.
05:34He was sick.
05:34He said, let me make this clear.
05:36This will be the last time that this ever happens.
05:40Like, he couldn't believe the notion that you had so few picks
05:44and were that strapped going into this draft.
05:46Did you guys play the sound of Ontario Thompson this morning?
05:49Yeah, we did.
05:49His phone call, have you seen this?
05:50When Matt Ryan picks up the phone, he's like, Matt Ryan, oh my God.
05:54Are you all serious?
05:55Yeah.
05:55No, but I agree with you, State, because, you know,
05:58when you contrast that with the free agency moves they made,
06:01and I think it was maybe, what are we, 14, maybe with Jawan Taylor,
06:03maybe 15 one-year contracts.
06:05There were two receivers you signed, a couple two-year deals,
06:08but everything's a one-year contract.
06:10And it just, we've had that conversation a number of times
06:12in the morning shift, me and Bo, where it's like,
06:13I feel like they are simply trying to tread water and plug holes for right now
06:18until they can get that full draft class, that full roster of free agents
06:22they can get next offseason and see if they can just literally just develop
06:27the guys you just drafted into being something for that squad.
06:30You're 100% correct.
06:31You know that the collective feeling inside the administrative offices there
06:37between Matt Ryan and Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefanski
06:40and, to a degree, Arthur and Josh Blank is take your time.
06:44We've got three, four years to make sure that we can at least implement
06:48the process and the program that we want here,
06:50and more specifically in 2026, what can we do to just be essentially competitive?
06:57I mean, I don't think you're looking at 10, 11, 12 wins in 2026,
07:00but you get things going and you get 8, 9, 10.
07:04That's a really good way to start.
07:04Well, you're trying to hit lightning in a bottle.
07:07You just don't know any year to year if, you know, look,
07:11I think the Michael Penix dissing is, like, gone way the other way.
07:15Like, we were high on him and now everyone's like,
07:17oh, we'll have a new quarterback next year during that 7-8 quarterback draft class.
07:21I'm glad you brought that up because I have one thought on this,
07:23and I just mentioned the only two, like, multiple-year contracts you signed
07:27for free agents was the two wide receivers.
07:29I think the goal, the only goal for this year's Atlanta Falcons team
07:33is to figure out what Michael Penix is.
07:34I think that's the goal.
07:36Figure out who he is.
07:38Do you have the guy?
07:38If you do, I think they know the answer.
07:40I think they know the answer.
07:41See, I don't.
07:42I think that they are now, there's a reason all those guys
07:46on the offensive side of the ball, former play callers, you know, coordinators,
07:51there's a lot of guys there to coach them, right?
07:53And Matt Ryan doesn't have a choice either way.
07:55Like, I think if you asked him, he'd say, I don't know what to.
07:58Can he get under center?
07:59Well, I think that's part of the idea.
08:01We're about to find out.
08:02It goes back to the point.
08:03We want to know.
08:04Let me ask him real quick because the advantage we have is the division we're in, right?
08:07Carolina wins at 8-9.
08:09I didn't study those drafts that much.
08:10I was in New Orleans.
08:11They were obviously fired up about the Georgia guys that they drafted.
08:14Looked like Tampa moving on from Mike Evans and obviously Carolina.
08:19But anybody jump out at you that now, who's the favorite?
08:22Is it Tampa in the division?
08:24They got Reuben Bain in the first round, the Miami edge rusher, which is terrifying.
08:30Carolina gets Lee Hunter, who we had also talked about at defensive tackle.
08:34They also got Monroe Freelink.
08:36Monroe Freelink.
08:36That was their first overall pick from Georgia.
08:38Dude, I thought New Orleans and Carolina both had really good drafts.
08:40And Chris Brazel from Tennessee, the wide receiver who torched Georgia this past year.
08:45Hurst, I believe, went to Tampa, the Georgia State kid.
08:48So who is the division favorite?
08:53I think that New Orleans got the Delt pick from New Orleans, the Oscar Delt.
08:59Like that, their draft.
09:01Jordan Tyson, Christian Miller, Oscar Delt.
09:03They're not.
09:04They think if Tyler Shuck can play.
09:07And if you look at, what did he go, 5-2 down the stretch?
09:10Yeah.
09:10He was, I think he was 4-1 until he lost to the Falcons.
09:14Right?
09:14In Week 17.
09:15That's right.
09:16So they're like, they look at the rest of the division, and they're like, it's wide open.
09:21It really is, which is why you can't see any.
09:23If Tewitt can stay healthy.
09:24You have the best running back in the NFL in Bajon, right?
09:28You have the best.
09:29You got an absolute dog in Drake London.
09:31Right.
09:31So that's it.
09:32You got a defense whose defensive coordinator is coming back.
09:35Jeff Ulbrick.
09:36You know, like they played really good last year.
09:37They were highly disruptive.
09:38If James Pierce is somehow back in the mix, what have you heard about that?
09:43I haven't heard much.
09:44Which is probably a good thing.
09:46Yeah, mom's the word.
09:47I think that means he's coming back.
09:49I don't think you're going to hear him say, he has our full support.
09:53No.
09:53If he was not going to come back, you wouldn't have heard it now.
09:55You'd have heard it two months ago.
09:56Right.
09:56I mean, right.
09:57They would have just said, we're moving on from James Pierce.
10:00I'm waiting for no reason.
10:02Golly.
10:02They like those whatever programs there are that, you know, they put guys in.
10:08And, yeah, he's going to be in one of those, you know, six-month, you know, outpatient pro.
10:14No, outpatient?
10:15Yeah.
10:16Rehabilitation style.
10:17Yeah.
10:17Anyway, thanks for stopping by.
10:19Great perspective.
10:20See you, Mikey.
10:20Congrats on being number one as well.
10:22Number one.
10:23We'll take it.
10:24What are you doing with all that bonus money?
10:25Are you just, what are you doing?
10:27We'll take it, man.
10:28Paying for daycare.
10:29That's what I'm doing.
10:30All right.
10:30There you go.
10:31He's the number one rated show in Atlanta.
10:34That is the morning shift for his time.
10:36And he just got a big, fat bonus.
10:38So, anybody, if Mike owes you money, now's the time to get it.
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