00:00He did such a good job on Thursday.
00:02When I tell you he called it, he called it and how good Zachariah Branch.
00:07And he told us, like, Falcons are really interested.
00:10And I was like, oh, he can't get his Georgia hat off.
00:13Sure enough, like, he was just on it.
00:15I had so many people go, like, Rusty said it.
00:18Rusty called it.
00:19Well, he said during G-Day that all the Falcon guys were so many of them.
00:23But then all of a sudden, they were all milling around.
00:24But as soon as Zachariah Branch started going through his workout, everything just focused on that.
00:31You know, there's no way they could take him in the second round.
00:33And they were definitely looking at him in the second round.
00:36I think, you know, you heard what I said.
00:37I think impactful for where they got him and what they needed.
00:41It'll be one of the best picks of the last 10 years.
00:43Because Zachariah Branch is going to be in this football team for a long time.
00:46Make plays.
00:46Special teams.
00:47We're fixing our special teams.
00:49And he was maybe the best portal, if not, you know, one of the best or the best transfer portal
00:55they've ever had.
00:58And, listen, size was a factor.
01:00Maybe a little bit of the stuff the weekend before may have turned teams off a little.
01:05Rusty said not a bit at all, but we'll see.
01:08But he did drop to the third round.
01:09Yeah.
01:09I mean, I'm saying just like, I don't, you know, I don't, listen, we thought he'd be a first two
01:15rounds, right?
01:16So the drop to the third round to the Falcons was teams deciding for multiple reasons that they have other
01:23needs.
01:24Our need is receiver.
01:25And that receiver room changes immediately with the guys we picked up.
01:29I mean, we were like so bad at special teams.
01:31Looks like we fixed that.
01:33We were so bad in the receiving room.
01:35That was the worst collection of receivers after Drake London with the whole absolute nonsense of Ray Ray McLeod and
01:42Darnell Mooney.
01:43And, you know, the rest of the guys, God bless them, but they're practice squad guys.
01:46So, like, you know, Turtle did a show last night saying, listen, after the draft, looking at this team, looking
01:53at the NFC South, are we now a contender to go to the playoffs?
01:56I don't know.
01:56We could easily be 6-11 and not in the mix.
02:00We could be 9-8 and win the division, right?
02:03I was in New Orleans.
02:04They think they did amazing in the draft.
02:06They got two Georgia guys they love.
02:08Carolina loves what they went and did.
02:09Tampa is usually the favorite.
02:11It's a bad division.
02:12That's the best thing we got going.
02:14We don't have a quarterback is the difference between which team is not like the others.
02:18They at least know who their starter is going to be day one.
02:21We do not.
02:22Yes, but, listen, I don't have a ton of face in Tua Tungvaloa.
02:26As I said, the Michael Panix storyline that he can't play is just getting way overstated.
02:31Like, who knows?
02:32Michael Panix could come back week three and have a great year and we'd go to the playoffs.
02:35I don't know what Michael Panix Jr. is going to be and people are just absolutely throwing him out and
02:40saying, like, I mean, there's a pedigree there, right?
02:43It may not have been the pick we needed to take with Kirk Cousins and he may not have had.
02:47But, listen, he's playing for Raheem Morris and that offensive staff, Zach Robinson, compared to this staff, all the guys
02:54they've hired around him now.
02:56It's almost like there's a serious, you know, mindset in the building and let's see how good he could be.
03:02So, listen, the NFL is fascinating.
03:05I'm glad you brought up pedigree because your takeaway is from the draft.
03:08My greatest takeaway is the pedigree of player that this staff chose, which was Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington, LSU, and
03:18Ohio State.
03:19There was not a Montana State.
03:21There was not a South Beach University College.
03:24There was none of that.
03:26These are proven pedigree universities.
03:28Yes, and the only thing I will say is because of the portal, there's so many less guys non-power
03:36four.
03:36It's almost like if you have any game and you're in the non-power fours, the Mountain West or the
03:41Americans or whatever, where the guys used to get drafted.
03:44Now, again, I know you like the big programs.
03:45I agree with you.
03:46But it's even harder now because as soon as you show who you are, you're ending up.
03:51Now, again, you don't end up at Ohio State, Clemson, and Georgia.
03:54That's different.
03:54Falcons aren't good enough to take a risk with a draft pick.
03:57Troy Anderson, right?
03:58Please stop saying those two words together.
04:00And I know he's still on the team, and I can't.
04:02Please.
04:03I know.
04:03But, I mean, my point is certainly there's great picks in the smaller schools.
04:07I get it.
04:08But when you're not good enough to get it wrong, especially with only five picks, and listen, they came in
04:14with five.
04:14You walked away with six.
04:15Okay, good.
04:16What do we know?
04:17We don't know anything.
04:18It's just like, what's the kid's name at LSU, Bo?
04:23Harold Perkins.
04:25When you go to programs like that, there's a chance there's a guy that's just not playing because the scheme
04:33doesn't fit, right?
04:34And he talked about it yesterday, Bo, about why the scheme didn't work for him in that last couple of
04:42years.
04:42Brian Kelly came in in Perkins' sophomore season and basically changed how they used him.
04:48So, I guess that's him not fitting the scheme.
04:50Yeah.
04:50But in his freshman year, he was allowed to just get after a quarterback and he played on the edge.
04:55Yeah, he had eight sacks, lots of force for him.
04:58That's why you draft kids from Georgia.
05:00Like, Oscar Delk, do you know how excited they are in New Orleans?
05:03Oscar Delk's numbers are so pedestrian when you think about all-time tight end numbers.
05:08But, again, when you're playing at a school that has got pros in the entire room, tight end room, has
05:16got, you know—
05:16Well, that's what I mean about pedigree.
05:17When you go to those schools—
05:18Every NFL team is looking at what these big-time, prime-time schools.
05:23And that means—
05:24It's sexier.
05:25When you're picking in the fifth or sixth round, there's a lot of reasons why that guy didn't get as
05:28much juice at Clemson and Georgia and LSU.
05:31And sometimes this is just an opportunity now to even be way better than they could have been in college.
05:36So, I think that's a really good point about the program.
05:38And the other thing I really encourage you to go find today is Ken Segura did a deep dive with
05:43the Terrell family, with Avion and AJ, and broke down the numbers.
05:48Do you understand these two guys never played on the same team together, ever?
05:52There's a six-year difference.
05:53Their parents are blue-collar, hard worker, great morals, great standards.
05:59And I just thought, God, this is such a good story for our team.
06:02I think you'll just enjoy it.
06:04Now, it's—you know how I love that kind of stuff.
06:07Yeah, you love the feel-good stories.
06:09I think you'll just enjoy a nice read today.
06:11Hey, I think there's nothing more ridiculous than grading the Falcons on their draft.
06:18They didn't pick till 48.
06:20So, okay, you're going to give us a C+, a C-, like, you can't even—what do you grade them
06:27on the job they did for where they were picking and, you know, what opportunities were in front of them?
06:34Of course, they didn't do as well as the Giants and the Cowboys and the Jets, who had multiple number
06:39ones.
06:40So, like, the whole grading system is just—is nonsensical to say the Falcons didn't do well, because I thought the
06:46Falcons exactly what they needed to do.
06:47And I think that we just—the beauty of what we do is we don't know how this season plays out.
06:55And by the way, the draft experts, they don't know either.
07:00Mel Kuyper, out of his last mock draft, got four picks right.
07:05Daniel Jeremiah got three picks right.
07:08And Todd McShay got seven.
07:10And those are the big three.
07:12Yeah, that's why we—
07:12Nobody knows nothing.
07:13That's why we talk about chicken parmesan and bring Ford Fry in instead of doing six weeks to the draft.
07:18Because that you are right about.
07:19Yeah, because that we know.
07:21And, like, to belabor the draft for, like, two months when we really know nothing and they're not going to
07:26share anything.
07:26It's just like the dumbest press conferences in history are the interviews with GMs the day before the draft.
07:34It is so stupid.
07:36Yeah.
07:36And the Rams—
07:37Meanwhile, we did—
07:37Did you see?
07:38Ty Simpson came out and go, oh, yeah, we were on DEFCON private.
07:42Met with Sean McVay.
07:44Hours met with him quietly.
07:46They said, keep it under wraps.
07:47Don't say a word.
07:48No one knew a thing.
07:50Yes, but Sean McVay did say that his look on the podium, which now he can't deny.
07:55He says, well, I was trying to show Matthew Stafford that I wasn't overly excited.
07:59He also came out and said it has nothing to do—this was something away from this facility, y'all.
08:03I have a life outside of here.
08:04I shouldn't have shown my face.
08:06I don't know.
08:07Mixed messages.
08:08I love Drew Butler's take.
08:09You know, I'm not saying—I totally—he thinks it's a horrendous pick.
08:13Well, we don't really know, now do we?
08:15Well, no, of course not.
08:16But, I mean, that's what—you know, we're paid to give our opinion.
08:19He's like, when you're one player away, you could have had—who is it?
08:23You could have had Reuben Bain one pick later, and you're going with a guy that could play quarterback in
08:29two years and not even a great one.
08:31I don't know.
08:31We'll see.
08:32He also says that's in bed.
08:32Pull up the tapes from when the Falcons took Matt Ryan over Glenn Dorsey, because it's likely the same conversation.
08:39What are you doing?
08:41You know, we don't know nothing.
08:42Matt Ryan started a lot more games, I think.
08:44That's what I'm saying.
08:45But the day after the draft, everybody was killing him.
08:48Yeah, I mean, look, that's the nature of—
08:50We don't know nothing.
08:52We know who they picked.
08:53We know nothing.
08:54We know they have a quarterback, and they're close to a Super Bowl, and they went and took a reach
08:59at six—what is it, 16?
09:0112, wasn't it 13?
09:03Okay.
09:03What number pick was Simpson overall?
09:0613?
09:0713?
09:08Because it was our pick, Falcons' pick.
09:09Right.
09:10At 13, you're taking a quarterback when you're one player away from really possibly getting over the top.
09:16So, whatever.
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