00:00Shifting over to the Falcons, they did officially sign their rookies yesterday,
00:05Zachariah Branch, Kendall Daniels, Harold Perkins, and Ethan Anyanwa.
00:09One of the major headlines, though, was about Darren Hall being signed.
00:14He was originally selected by the Falcons in the fourth round in 2021.
00:17So kind of a homecoming for him.
00:19What do you think this says in regards to this season?
00:23Does it put pressure on anyone else like we were talking about yesterday?
00:26I think that this is an earlier version of what C.J. Henderson possibly was last year.
00:33I think that's the best-case scenario for him, for Darren Hall.
00:35If you were to sign him and say, all right, because C.J. Henderson was a late signee.
00:39It was a position where you needed a veteran presence, where you needed some depth,
00:43where you needed practice squad guys and guys that could go through and give you a good look
00:48and things like that, or possibly add on special teams.
00:50And that's exactly what it ended up being.
00:51You saw him at the end of the season start to have a little bit of meaningful playing time
00:55and you knew that you could rely on him.
00:58And I think it, you know, you asked the fair foul earlier of,
01:03is this guy going to be on the week one roster?
01:05I don't think so.
01:05Do I think there's a practice squad spot?
01:07Possibly.
01:07But there's a lot left to be played out.
01:09And a lot of times situations like this, unfortunately, will play themselves out
01:13through injury or whatever else throughout the offseason.
01:15But it's not a major headline for me as far as the Falcons go.
01:19I think it's always good to bring in veteran depth and give guys a shot,
01:22especially when they did, you know, have some history here and everything else.
01:26But it's a new regime.
01:27It's a new roster.
01:28It's a new outlook.
01:29It's a new vision, like they like to say.
01:31And so we'll see what happens with it.
01:34Mike, Ali gave you a fair foul earlier about this.
01:37I'm going to give you an over-under.
01:38Over-under, Darren Hall plays 50 snaps for the Falcons this season.
01:4250 regular season snaps.
01:44That's such a perfect number.
01:46That's such a perfect.
01:47Can I include special teams on that?
01:49I feel like it's a cop-out.
01:51It's a little bit of a cop-out.
01:52So I'm going to say no.
01:5450 defensive snaps.
01:5650 regular season defensive snaps.
01:59I'm going to say no.
02:00I'm going to say no on that one.
02:01I'm going to say that there's a couple – I'm going to say there's like two
02:03or three games where he has to fit into some kind of dime package.
02:06Yeah.
02:07But I don't think it's anything where he steps into, you know,
02:10that outside corner role and plays meaningful snaps.
02:13I think that there's a number of pieces they probably like better.
02:15But maybe not.
02:15Like I said, Clark Phillips didn't get drafted by Ian Cunningham.
02:19Kobe Bryant did not get signed here as an undrafted free agent for Ian Cunningham.
02:23So you never know what the flavor is.
02:24And maybe Jeff Ulbrich, who does know those guys, is going,
02:27hey, we need a little bit different body type for that spot.
02:29Also going on at Flowery Branch is rookie minicamp.
02:32Now, if you don't watch on YouTube, I have to tell you,
02:35Mike has a visceral reaction.
02:37I told y'all.
02:38To rookie minicamp every time.
02:40Mike looking like he ate something a little bad this morning.
02:43Bro, and a little queasy.
02:45Let me be very clear about this.
02:47There is a distinct difference in between the workload for a veteran minicamp
02:51and a rookie minicamp.
02:53Like, in a training camp.
02:54Like, so, training camp is work-wise, the hours-wise you put in,
02:58the effort you put in, everything that goes along with that.
03:00Like, upkeep on your body.
03:01That is, like, that's top of the mountain in terms of difficult things
03:04that I've done in my life.
03:06Especially in college, going through Saban's, like, first training camp
03:09was just, I mean.
03:11Brutal.
03:12It was bad.
03:14But rookie minicamp is difficult for other reasons.
03:17Like, it's like, you know, it's like running through a paintball field
03:22without any armor on.
03:24Like, you're just getting hit from every single angle.
03:26You don't know where it's coming from, and you just know it hurts.
03:29And they're going to be dealing with that.
03:31There's going to, and I said this the other day, if the roster,
03:33and I don't know what the roster is, let's just say the roster's 40
03:36because you'll have tryout players that will be involved in minicamp.
03:39You'll have some veteran guys that were rookies last year
03:42that will have to come to this rookie minicamp because they need bodies,
03:44they need players, they need other people.
03:49The amount of fight in each one of these guys,
03:53knowing that 20 to 25 to 30 of these guys,
03:56this could be the last time they ever put on football pads.
03:58And they are going, well, you hear the term all the time,
04:02leave it all out on the field.
04:04Boy, they're about to leave it all out on the field.
04:06So it's just, it's one of those things where you go through this entire weekend
04:10and I know that practices have changed
04:13and you're not allowed to match up with each other
04:16and OTAs just yet and all this other stuff,
04:18but there is always going to be that rookie minicamp feeling
04:21of whatever the line is, three-quarters of them are going to surpass it.
04:25And they are going, there's going to be a cheap shot,
04:28there will be a fight, there will be players all over the ground,
04:31somebody will get tackled, somebody will get blindsided,
04:33somebody will fall into the quarterback's legs.
04:35It just, it's an absolute dumpster fire.
04:37Did you have that perspective though going into it?
04:40I worked with a woman and her son was invited to the Saints rookie camp
04:43and I guess he was walking around like, I made it, I am on it.
04:47And she was like, this guy's about to get his butt whooped, he has no clue.
04:50It's different because the draft picks, like the guys you mentioned earlier
04:54that signed their contracts yesterday,
04:56they're always going to feel a little bit better.
04:58You know, all the way, I would say Avion, Zachariah, and Kendall Daniels
05:01are probably, they're on good footing.
05:03Okay.
05:04Right?
05:04And Ethan.
05:05Well, I think that when you get back to sixth and seventh rounders,
05:08it's not unheard of to move on from those guys.
05:10Okay.
05:11I think it was, who did we lose out on a couple of years ago?
05:13Zion Logue from Georgia that was a sixth or seventh round pick.
05:17And he didn't even make it through, you know, the very first part of the season.
05:20Now he got picked up elsewhere, but when that happens
05:22and you send guys down to practice squad,
05:24you're going to open up that possibility.
05:25So yes, there's going to be certain draft picks that feel really good.
05:29There's going to be players that, like I said,
05:31there's going to be rookies from last year's team
05:32that have to come to this training camp just for roster numbers
05:35and position numbers.
05:36And you're going to say they're on good footing too.
05:38That could be a Kobe Bryant.
05:40That could be a number of other pieces, but we'll see, man.
05:44It just, prayers up, you know what I mean?
05:47Just stay healthy out there, guys.
05:48Just stay healthy out there.
05:49Let me ask you the fair foul that I previewed earlier.
05:52Fair foul, rookie minicamp is tougher than basic training.
05:57That's definitely foul.
05:59Rookie minicamp is tough, but it's tough just because you don't know
06:02where it's coming from.
06:02Now, if you bet that up to training camp, I'd probably, look, I mean,
06:06I have all the respect in the world for our armed services,
06:09so I would never say that that actually is harder.
06:11But training camp is the hardest thing.
06:13A lot of football players say that's the hardest thing they ever did in their life.
06:16It's tough.
06:17It's tough going through that.
06:19So rookie minicamp is just difficult for different reasons.
06:21It's not the workload.
06:22It's the stress.
06:23Yeah.
06:23You know what I mean?
06:24Like, it's the workload in training camp.
06:26Rookie minicamp, it's the stress of going, dude, you don't know where.
06:29I don't know who's going to hit me, but somebody's about to hit me.
06:31What would your words be to these guys going in this weekend?
06:37Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time
06:40because there's going to be guys that are athletically different.
06:42There's going to be guys that are, you know, more developed.
06:44You're going to have guys that you know are part of the team
06:47or have a good chance of making part of the team.
06:49And I say don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
06:51I mean that on the field and throughout the entire process.
06:55If you're supposed to be in the meeting, be in the meeting.
06:56You're supposed to be in special teams, be in special teams,
06:59learn the playbook, go to sleep early, and just, man,
07:03just don't let them have to worry about you.
07:05And if you can do that, a lot of times you can make an impact
07:08in a pretty good way.
07:10Well, the time has come, Mike.
07:12Yeah, I'm pretty nervous.
07:14I am too.
07:15Don't be nervous.
07:16Y'all are going to be fine.
07:17Y'all are going to be fine.
07:19Double J, Mama Johnson.
07:21It's a wild card.
07:21Mama Mac, Susie Mac.
07:24They're going to be joining us for a very special edition
07:27of Fair or Foul.
07:28Dylan will be hosting it.
07:29They're going to answer Fair or Foul questions about us.
07:32They ain't going to be talking about the Falcons.
07:34I can tell you that.
07:35No.
07:35They're going to come in breathing fire about us.
07:36We'll bring up the Falcons again at 8 o'clock,
07:39but Fair or Foul, Mama Style,
07:40is coming up next on Sports Radio 92.9,
07:44the game in the Odyssey app.
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