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  • 12 hours ago
Mike and Abe get back into Falcons talk as they share thoughts on how the defense may perform this season with some key personnel no longer with the team and the potential of James Pearce Jr. missing some time at the start of the season. As they discuss, they agree Jeff Ulbrich has done a great job with getting the best out of the players and believe the team does not need to change much, however needs to improve in stopping the run.
Transcript
00:00And again, Brandon Dorlis, a video of him doing his thing.
00:03Brandon Dorlis had a great season last year.
00:05I mean, he was money.
00:06You know, we've got guys now, I don't know where you fall on, you know,
00:09having the same, I think the same argument that I throw out at times
00:13about Penix Jr. applies to Braylon Trice.
00:14The odds are surely stacked against him.
00:16He's looking at four guys ahead of him on the depth chart
00:18because he just can't stay on the field.
00:20Same thing goes, obviously, for Troy Anderson.
00:22I think the, I guess my approach is that you're not counting on those guys as much,
00:28so anything you get from them is a benefit.
00:30I don't look at Michael Penix as anything you get from him as a benefit.
00:34I think you need to be getting something from him.
00:36So, yeah, I do think it's viewed a little bit differently.
00:39Also, it's just they've been out a lot longer than Penix is.
00:44I mean, Penix's injury, they've been out essentially almost two full seasons
00:48based on that.
00:50And as it relates to Dorlis, got a really lucky break with his injury
00:54that was not as severe as was initially feared and hoped to get him back
01:00because he was starting to be an impact player.
01:02Now, again, last year, this guy coming in, and we knew the rep about the player
01:08and the rotation with Ulbricht.
01:09Now, again, Jimmy Lake, we talked about all the things that didn't happen.
01:13You know, the first year of Raheem Morris, last year, they get the guy in Ulbricht.
01:18And look, I think Ulbricht, I think he does some good things.
01:20I think there's some things out there which kind of leave me scratching my head
01:23sometimes in how he approaches.
01:25You know, why not keep the pressure?
01:27It's amazing in a game where, and I get you watch all the season,
01:30you're going to have these ups and downs, but it just drives me crazy
01:34that you can be rushing four or five, right?
01:38Whatever your base package is, you've added some extra heat.
01:40And you just created, like, now a third and 15.
01:43And now you're only going to rush three.
01:45And that was the Colts game.
01:47You know, that was Daniel Jones going right down the field on us.
01:49To me, it's like, yes, you can't be Buddy Ryan all the time,
01:53but I just love the idea of if you're going to continue with the pressure,
01:56don't overthink it.
01:57Keep the pressure on.
01:59Come back on your shield or with your shield, right?
02:01I was going to say the exact same thing.
02:03It's just overthinking.
02:04It's the paralysis by analysis, all of that, where it's just like,
02:07well, we've got to change it up.
02:08We'll still be able to get there with three, and we'll have max coverage
02:12and this or that.
02:12It's like, no, man, just don't change it.
02:15It worked on second down.
02:16It worked on third down.
02:17Now do it on fourth down or whatever the down and distance is.
02:21No, I mean, look, he coaches the linebackers up.
02:23I think he has a great chance for some of these linebackers,
02:25whether it's guys we drafted or players that are on these one-year deals
02:27because they just had injuries or their other teams,
02:29it just hasn't gone where they're supposed to go.
02:31He's a good guy to get them right.
02:33Brandon Dorlis played in only two games his rookie year.
02:36Played in 15 last year at eight and a half sacks.
02:38You know, and you talked about the deep hamstring injury, right?
02:41Was it that or was it MCL or whatever it was?
02:43It wasn't.
02:44It was bad.
02:44We thought it might be a full knee reconstruction kind of like the rest,
02:48but I think it was just partial and they got through it.
02:51But, I mean, if Ulbricht can get Christian Harris back on track,
02:53Christian Harris coming out of college was expected to be a big-time star.
02:56Yeah, look, you can go down the list of guys that have just,
03:00for whatever reason, not been good enough in recent years.
03:03Largely, I would say, due to injury.
03:05I think one of them, one or two of the additions,
03:07was due to got pushed down the depth chart.
03:10But, yeah, you're hoping to find something unexpected for value
03:16that you had to spend money on previously.
03:19Right.
03:19And then the James Pierce Jr., a couple of guys hit us up earlier on the text line.
03:22No, we don't know.
03:23The guys ask us almost every day, Abe, about this.
03:25Don't know.
03:26We looked at the Rasheed Rice thing as some, you know, trying to, you know,
03:29okay, here's where there are some timelines and how it played out with his suspension.
03:33Of course, now, in his situation, he failed a drug test administered by the Dallas DA's office.
03:37So now he's back in the Hooskow, and now who knows what happens when the NFL looks at him,
03:41and he might get suspended again by the league.
03:43James Pierce Jr. may have already done that pre-trial stuff way before we got the announcement,
03:47right before the draft.
03:48And so he might be further down the road with this than we were led to believe.
03:52And the Falcons, I'm sure, are aware of it.
03:54The media, they don't tell us.
03:55We don't know.
03:56Let me ask you the question here.
03:57And, again, this is not a definitive statement.
03:59I understand we don't know.
04:01But you definitely feel he's likely to get suspended, right?
04:05Yeah.
04:07What's the minimum?
04:08I think if you look at Rasheed Rice went to jail.
04:10If he doesn't go to jail, he's not getting six games that Rasheed Rice got.
04:13I think they may start at six.
04:14I think the NFL players, you appeal it, you get it down to three.
04:18It could be as little as three games.
04:19Okay, I would be shocked if it's less than four.
04:23Because of the violence, the perception of the violence against women.
04:26I would be surprised if it's less than four.
04:29But I'm also not going to sit here and be like, you know, I don't see how it's, you know,
04:33not eight, ten, twelve.
04:35Like, he could be hit pretty hard.
04:38And I'm preparing for that.
04:39And if you happen to get hit light or appeal and have it shrunk down to whatever it is, then
04:46even better.
04:46Where I would prepare, just me as a fan, where I'm at, I'm preparing for at least four games.
04:53The video, as we said, you know, the stuff that we did, the little parts that we did get to
04:57see.
04:57And again, I get it.
04:58We weren't trying to defend the actions, guys.
05:00It's crazy.
05:01It doesn't make a lot of sense.
05:02It's a guy who's got to get his head right.
05:04I mean, we had the conversation with a lot of Falcon fans.
05:06We had some guys with everything else, you know.
05:08Done.
05:09Go directly to jail.
05:10Do not pass go.
05:10He gets no second chance.
05:11I believe in second chance.
05:12I don't believe in third chances.
05:13I believe in second chances.
05:15And I also think there's things.
05:17Some people, look, I'd love to walk a mile in your shoes where you never had a problem with your
05:21wife
05:21or you never had a problem in a relationship or you never dated somebody who was a little unstable.
05:25You know, and obviously James Pierce Jr. needs to get some help and hopefully he's getting it.
05:28But sometimes it's a two-way street.
05:30We saw it with Marcelo Zuna and his wife.
05:31They were in a toxic relationship.
05:33You know, it's not good for either person.
05:35And Rekia Jackson and her involvement with him goes back to their time in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee.
05:39And somebody in their circle of friends probably said, you know, maybe you two aren't good together.
05:44You know, maybe this is not where this needs to be.
05:47Either way, she and her lawyers signed off on this pretrial intervention.
05:51So it was fine by her.
05:53Again, we're not trying to rationalize the behavior.
05:56But I'm just telling you, I still think it could.
05:58You say four?
05:59I would be surprised if it's less than four.
06:03So you think the NFL hits him with eight and they peel it down to four?
06:05I don't know if it'll be eight.
06:06It might be six.
06:07But I don't think it's going to be like two.
06:10Right.
06:10But the thing is, and we still don't know.
06:12We assume he'll be suspended this year.
06:14But if you go back and look at it, Rasheed Rice had his incident in the spring of 2024.
06:18And then the suspension didn't come down until the season of 2025.
06:23So he was able to compete.
06:24He got injured.
06:25People would mistake that for a suspension.
06:27That's why he didn't see that on the field for the Chiefs.
06:28I would think the Falcons are trying to get the timeline to be a little more honorable in terms of,
06:35hey, he's completed what he's needed to complete for the legal process to have run its entire course, which includes
06:41the entire six-month course.
06:44Let's go ahead and figure out what we're doing here.
06:46Now, the question I don't know is when does the NFL investigation start?
06:52Is it already underway?
06:53Does it wait until the six months and starts the investigation?
06:57And then they have to get through the investigation.
07:00And then the timeline is there.
07:01And then what does that mean for his availability?
07:03So there's still a lot of timeline questions to be answered here.
07:06But I would not expect to have – just personal opinion, no actual fact behind us, I would not expect
07:13to have him week one.
07:14Hey, man, I just saw Data just sent me while you were talking a picture of a capture of what
07:19Carl tweeted out earlier, retweeting the Falcons with Tua rolling out and throwing a football to Zachariah Branch.
07:25And he spells out T-U-A.
07:28Yeah, jiu-jitsu for sure.
07:32Now, I don't know what Carl sees in Tua, but he has been banging the drum.
07:37And I was doubting that Michael Pennix Jr. would be ready to go.
07:40He may still not be ready to go full for camp when it starts at the end of July.
07:44But I am certainly buoyed, and I'm impressed by what I've seen.
07:47And I'm changing my tune.
07:48I think Pennix Jr. will be ready to go.
07:50For a competition.
07:51I think for a competition.
07:52Now, only the coach will tell us, you know, do you get a big enough sample size if he's a
07:56week or two behind Tua?
07:58But only time will tell.
07:59But I don't know if you look at that video and you don't feel a little bit better about his
08:03situation.
08:04If you didn't.
08:04Now, some guys are already telling me, he's going to be fine.
08:06I needed to see something to know that, guys.
08:09I wasn't going to just say, okay, he'll be great.
08:11But, I mean, he's what?
08:12It's November.
08:13So, you've got December, January, February, March, April.
08:15So, six months and just a little bit over.
08:18He's moving around like that off of the partial MCL tear.
08:22Yeah, and you've still got essentially two to three months before what I believe a competition would even really begin.
08:28Again, which is when you get into training camp and go through that.
08:32And, again, we don't know about the preseason.
08:34Look, I'm kind of with you on this.
08:37We all had our concerns.
08:39Maybe you didn't.
08:39I had my concerns.
08:41I know you've had yours.
08:41And I do think the video and the conversation makes it feel at least a little more likely that he's
08:49going to be all right.
08:50But it's still not – still haven't gotten that confirmation of full clearance, 11-on-11, and he's 100%, and
08:56competition is on.
08:57And so, we're always going to be wondering until they come out and say the quarterback competition starts now and
09:02he is a full go.
09:03There are – we're waiting for this comment, Mike.
09:06There are no limitations.
09:07Hey, and the other side to this, how much stock do you put in – give me odds – that
09:12Tua wins the job and doesn't relinquish the job.
09:15And he really balls out and he fits what Stefanski's looking for and the ball comes out.
09:19I mean, odds are tough because you're begging on that.
09:21But I like 20%.
09:23Okay, 5-1.
09:245-1 shot.
09:25Okay.
09:26All right.
09:26Yeah, I'll say 20%.
09:28Okay.
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