00:00His goal is to be ready for week one, and if so, then you better be ready to take all
00:07the slings and arrows, Mr. Penix, that comes with it.
00:12What do I mean by that?
00:14Well, if you don't play well, you're not going to get the benefit of the doubt, because you
00:21should be ready to go, right?
00:22If you don't play well, they're not going to say, oh, well, you know, aw shucks, he's
00:29coming off another surgery, no, aw, well, shucks, you know, he had to learn a new offense,
00:36no, aw, well, shucks, you know, there was a regime change at offensive coordinator and
00:41head coach, no, no, no, no, no, none of that, none of it, it's who is better, period, Tua
00:50or Penix, and if Tua wins the job, and Penix says he's ready to go week one, then you gotta
00:58just deal with it.
00:59It's the harsh but true reality of trying to figure out if you're a franchise quarterback
01:05in the NFL.
01:06It's Chris Thompson and I, Turtle, live in the Key Studios with you until 10 o'clock.
01:10We'll keep you posted on Braves, Marlins as well.
01:12It's still locked in at 3-2-1.
01:16Let's see what Justin thinks about this.
01:18Justin, go ahead.
01:20Hey, yeah, so I had a weird kind of question for you, kind of different from some of the
01:26questions that we've been talking about.
01:27So I was talking to a few friends this past weekend about the city of Atlanta and being
01:34a sports city, and we got on the topic of how many championships should we expect from
01:43the owners of these organizations every, like, five to ten years?
01:47I know that's kind of like a weird question, but is one championship every five years, like,
01:53too much to request from the owners?
01:57Well, I think you gotta look at it situationally, right?
02:01And if, Justin, here's a way to tie it back into today's conversation, how can you expect
02:06a championship from the Falcons when they don't know who their quarterback is, right?
02:11Well, that's fair.
02:12That's fair.
02:13That's fair.
02:14So, but if you want to look at the other teams in this, so let's look at right now, right?
02:18Let's look at every team in the city and project out for the next five years.
02:23Falcons, I would say, it's an incomplete.
02:26Like, you can't, you can't really say yes or no, is it fair to expect a championship?
02:30Because if you don't have the bare-bones foundation of knowing who your quarterback is, I don't
02:36really think you can judge it.
02:38Because it's impossible, it's impossible to say when and if you'll find the quarterback,
02:42and we all know it's as simple as, if you don't have the quarterback, you can't win.
02:47So, I think we have to push the Falcons off to the side.
02:50Atlanta United, I think based off the way they started, you should have absolutely expected
02:57a championship every five years, but look at the last five years compared to the first
03:02five years.
03:03Oh, it's been awful.
03:05It hasn't, it hasn't even been remotely close to the success that they had early on.
03:12So, was that a lightning in a bottle scenario?
03:15I mean, we've seen it in other sports, right?
03:17Look at the Vegas Golden Knights, right?
03:20They won a title like in their third or fourth season a couple of years ago in hockey.
03:24So, there is precedent of doing that, but then you've got to see the sample size of what
03:30happens after.
03:31Didn't the Carolina Panthers go to a Super Bowl like a couple of years into their existence?
03:36So, we've seen that happen before, but my gut would tell me with the way Atlanta United's
03:42going right now, the answer would be no, that it's not fair to expect a championship every
03:47five years.
03:48Braves?
03:50Absolutely.
03:51I would say if they don't win at least one more Super Bowl, one more World Series within
03:56the, we'll call it like the prime of the careers of their core with Ronnie, with Olsen, with
04:03Riley, with Sale, then it is a massive disappointment.
04:07Now, let me ask you this, do you view the 90s run as a disappointment because they only
04:15won one?
04:17Not necessarily, and let me like reframe the question a little bit.
04:21I think if we can pull all the teams together and get maybe one championship every five years,
04:26that would be great.
04:27But I don't view the 90s as like a catastrophe.
04:32Like, it is a dynasty, and I remember watching the, there was a Braves game, I think it was when
04:36they hammered the, God, I can't remember who it was, but even them talking about like the
04:41dynasty of the 90s, like you only won one championship, but it was still a dynasty and
04:46it was incredible to watch.
04:48Yeah, because you got the, whatever it was, 13, 14 division titles in a row, right?
04:52To go along with it.
04:53Now, Oren, that's the difference.
04:54This, this regime hasn't won 13 straight consecutive division titles.
05:00They have a world series, but they have not been consistently dominant as a matter.
05:05And it was an, that's an interesting question.
05:07404-726-0929, a nice little curve ball thrown into the proceedings there.
05:12But again, to bring it back to the, the topic of the night, it, you know, how can you judge
05:18the success of the Falcons right now until they figure out who their quarterback is and
05:22move forward with them and build the team around that quarterback?
05:26I don't think you can count like X many years until you know that, like, I don't even think
05:32the stopwatch starts until you figure that out.
05:35And it also coincides with the fact that this is the first year of this new regime.
05:41You know, if this was another year of Terry and Raheem, you could be more critical, I think.
05:46But, you know, is it fair to expect a title every five years?
05:51I mean, it should be Atlanta's, or in Atlanta's, what, the seventh largest market in the country
05:57for sports?
05:59So you're damn right you should expect a title every five years.
06:02But it doesn't work, we know that.
06:04It doesn't necessarily work like that.
06:06Right now, Georgia's up.
06:09Braves are up.
06:10Hawks are ascending.
06:13You know?
06:15United's down.
06:16And the Falcons are down.
06:18So you got a really mixed bag of where all the professional teams are in the city.
06:24And, you know, even if you want to count, like, you know, the dream.
06:27But, Oren, would they finish in second place last year?
06:30Yeah.
06:30I mean, so the dream we're even close to doing it.
06:33All right, let's see what Doc has to say.
06:35Doc is up next.
06:40Only in Atlanta you can go to the World Series five times, win one, and people still consider
06:45you a dynasty.
06:46That's ridiculous.
06:47Divisions mean absolutely nothing.
06:49So, anyway, I called you a couple weeks ago and told you that Michael Pence will be back.
06:52And clearly, he's clear to be back.
06:55Can I look at the quarterback situation in a different way?
06:58Suppose they both do well.
07:00That is possible.
07:02I mean, Tua has proven that he's a Pro Bowl-type quarterback, and he's had two years of injuries,
07:08and he's probably over that.
07:09Michael Pence may actually become the Michael Pence we think he is.
07:12So why don't we look at this from a different perspective?
07:14Suppose they both do well.
07:15In that case, I'm starting Tua.
07:17What do you think?
07:18Well, here's the thing, Doc.
07:19It depends on that is the essence, we'll call it, of Matt Ryan, Kevin Stefanski, and Ian Cunningham's
07:28job then, right?
07:29Like, it then becomes their butt on the line to make the determination of who should be the
07:36starter.
07:36Like, that's literally what they get paid for.
07:39If those two guys have a fairly even competition, let's say they both play a little bit in the
07:44preseason, and it's essentially a stalemate, well, then they need to sit in a room together
07:48and say, okay, here's what we think.
07:51I think Tua projects better as the starter, this is why.
07:55Or I think Penix projects better as the starter, this is why.
07:58And they need, and Doc, they need to work through that.
08:01I think if you put in Tua, you have a better chance for early success, because he's a proven
08:07quarterback, and if he shows you during training camp and the preseason that he's the Tua that
08:12was the Pro Bowl quarterback, he could easily step in and have success.
08:16But to me, Penix has the higher ceiling.
08:18That's what I think.
08:21Oh, 404-726-0929.
08:23Appreciate, Doc, for checking in.
08:26That's what I think.
08:28I think if Tua starts right away, it's because he had a really good camp, obviously, and because
08:33he had a good preseason.
08:34So if you put in Tua right away, these guys, again, these guys are not doing this to appease
08:41themselves here or try to make themselves seem like the smartest guys in the room.
08:45They're doing it because they think it's legitimately the best thing for the organization.
08:49So they clearly have looked at the tape from the last couple of years from Tua.
08:53They're watching him now, and it's going to be up to them, again, to sit in the film room
08:58and say, are we getting the guy that was the all-pro quarterback in 2023?
09:05Or are we getting the guy that was the disaster from the last couple of years?
09:09Or are we getting somewhere in between?
09:12And do we think that either the 2023 version or somewhere in between is better than what
09:19we're going to get from Penix?
09:20Penix, and that's what they need to decide, and if they think so, they'll play Tua, and
09:25if they don't, they'll play Penix.
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