00:00Now, for the last couple weeks, we have been talking about the new guys
00:02coming into Flowery Branch, but obviously with them coming in,
00:05it does put pressure on the rest of the Falcons.
00:08So I want to take a look at the defensive side.
00:10Who do you think might be feeling the pressure the most right now?
00:14So I'm going to start with one that I had to kind of talk myself into,
00:18and the more I looked at it, the more I was like,
00:20okay, this guy needs to hit another level, and it's Jalen Walker.
00:24Wow. Not on my list.
00:26Jalen Walker, I think with everything going on surrounding James Pierce,
00:30with the talk of position flexibility, with his ability to set the edge
00:35after losing some of your best edge defenders off of last year's team,
00:39and now understanding Jeff Ulbrich's system where a lot of the guys around him do not,
00:45yeah, I think it's a sneaky, pressure-packed year for Jalen Walker
00:49to really be able to start the year healthy, to make his presence known,
00:54to really be an impact, like I said, in that run game,
00:56and also for the pass rush to hit another level,
00:59not knowing what's going on to start the year on the other side.
01:04So I think there's so many different ways to look at this.
01:07I think there's contractual situations.
01:08I think there's guys who have to step up.
01:12But Jalen Walker, for me, is one that I think if I'm making a top three list
01:16of people that have pressure on them defensively,
01:18he's going to be on that list for me.
01:19How many guys did you list?
01:20Three.
01:21I got five.
01:23Now, I don't know where to go now because, I'll be honest,
01:27you threw me a curveball there.
01:29I don't think Jalen Walker feels any extra pressure.
01:34I think if I was in his ear, I'd be like,
01:38all you need to do is take what you did last year and build on that,
01:42which five-and-a-half sacks as a rookie created a lot of the pressures
01:45that created sacks for other guys, did play pretty well in the run game.
01:50I would just say, and a guy like him, I just don't think it's needed.
01:56I don't know where to start now, though, because I have four guys,
02:00and one of which is a little bit of a wild card feels pressure.
02:07And I can start there if you want, since Mike started with Jalen.
02:12I actually have James Pierce Jr. there.
02:16And the reason is, is he's going to miss four to six games at some point.
02:21But you need now, the pressure for you is to come in
02:27and show me why I kept you.
02:30Show me why you put the organization through a lot of crap
02:35for your personal behavior, and I kept you.
02:38You better come back out, and I don't expect ten-and-a-half sacks missing,
02:44you know, I don't know how many percentage of the season that would be,
02:48but I would guess maybe a quarter of the season.
02:51But you've got to come in, and you've got to be a model citizen.
02:54You can't miss meetings.
02:56You can't have fights in practice.
03:00You can't be ripping guys' helmets off in training camp
03:03and then swinging it and then looking at the coach
03:06and telling him to blank off when he tries to grab it from you.
03:09You've got to be perfect with your attitude and how you act,
03:13and then you've still got to go out on the field
03:16and not have a huge drop-off.
03:18And, in fact, you need to be on par with what you did last year
03:21based on the amount of games you play.
03:22I am curious to see how Kevin Stefanski will handle
03:24the training camp fighting thing.
03:26You know, that was such a big talking point for us
03:29in last year's training camp.
03:30And, you know, you had the videos and the images of Raheem
03:33kind of, you know, getting in his face, you know, not getting in his face,
03:36but trying to calm him down by getting in front of him.
03:38And, you know, put his hands on his shoulders.
03:40And we were all kind of like, man, I like the edge this guy's bringing
03:43and everything else that goes along with that.
03:45This is not that staff.
03:47Kevin Stefanski is not Raheem.
03:49It's going to be a little bit of a different vibe.
03:51I'm curious to see how that does mesh.
03:53Did you have James Pierce on your list, Mike?
03:55No.
03:56It's interesting to me because you guys are on the same wavelength
03:59a lot of the time that neither one of you had your first picks there.
04:02Yep.
04:02All right, we'll get back to this at 7.
04:04Ben.
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