00:00And as OTAs continue, we are sizing up this season, how all the pieces are coming together.
00:06And there is an all-pro out there that could be a fit for the Falcons.
00:10Joe Petonio is still a free agent.
00:12He has not made a decision on retirement.
00:14He started 178 games over the last 12 seasons for the Browns.
00:19He could be reunited with Kevin Stefanski.
00:22Would you guys be on board with this?
00:23I think it's intriguing, especially if you're talking about building depth in an area where we've discovered that depth is
00:31awfully important.
00:34Yeah, here's the problem.
00:36I don't think it works because I think a guy like this is going to say, I want to start,
00:42or I want to have an option to start.
00:43And the problem is he's been a guard.
00:47He was a tackle, I believe, in college.
00:49He's been a guard his whole career.
00:52And you don't really have an opening for a guard.
00:56You have, to me, I think you have two of the better guards as a combo in the league.
01:00Now, I don't know what they're going to be as far as in this new system with Big Bill Callahan
01:07and what maybe Stefanski wants to run.
01:11But this is a guy that's around 6'4", 320, 325-ish.
01:14Which, the only thing that I would say is if he came here, he would have to be, A, okay
01:22with being a reserve.
01:25Or, B, is there a way to make him a center or move somebody to a center?
01:31I don't think you're going to cross-train him.
01:34But if he wants to come here, if he's resigned to the fact that, hey, I'm going to be, what,
01:4035 midway through the season.
01:42I want to get a few more years out of this.
01:45I'll take less money, come in here, know my role.
01:48Because I do believe that Grant makes a great point about the depth part of this.
01:52Is that, look, you need depth everywhere.
01:55And you've brought in some guys for depth.
01:57But where do you stand with that?
02:00Because this is the, this would be one of the best options.
02:04Because I can go ahead and tell you, this is a better option in depth than a rookie in Oniwala,
02:10or however you say his name.
02:12Oni Onwa.
02:12Oni Onwa, thank you.
02:14Or Kyle Hinton.
02:16He's a huge upgrade over that.
02:18So, and I know that you have Cam Dewberry, who's the guy that's going to compete, you know, like an
02:24undrafted rookie free agent.
02:26But so, yeah, he immediately makes your depth better.
02:29But where does it sit on money?
02:31Is he cool with knowing that he's a depth piece?
02:34And those are the first two things you've got to get out there right away, or it doesn't work.
02:40If Kevin Stefanski was interested on having him on the roster, would he not have already had a conversation with
02:45Ian Cunningham in free agency and been like, let's get this done?
02:48I'm sure they've had a lot of conversations about a lot of different guys.
02:51But as the free agency evolves, too, maybe you can start circling back on available options, especially around a time
02:57like this where you're still assembling the pieces, training camp's still a little ways away.
03:01And, you know, again, I guess Joel Batonio has to make a decision about, you know, if he wants to
03:07play.
03:07But if he does want to play, and Kevin Stefanski being here as a draw, I'm just saying there's some
03:13smoke there.
03:13I don't know if it's necessarily coming from Flowery Branch.
03:16I think that as we are about to enter June, it probably makes more sense for Batonio to wait it
03:24out no matter what.
03:26Because you get into July, you get into camp.
03:30What happens every year in training camp?
03:32Guys get hurt.
03:33Guys get hurt.
03:34Preseason, they get hurt.
03:36You get into the season and you realize you didn't have the guys you thought you had.
03:41You know, there's a guy that you have signed in here or you just realize that you're thinner at that
03:45position than you needed.
03:46And then you start looking at it as camp breaks.
03:50Sometimes guys sign then.
03:52And then there's also the thing where, and I'm pretty sure it's still a deal.
03:55I don't, I don't, I know I heard scuttlebutt about the rule change and I just can't remember if it
04:00actually changed.
04:01But no big word drop, Dylan?
04:03Yeah, come on.
04:05Man.
04:05Big word.
04:06He's got things going on back there.
04:07But once you get into the season starts, after that first week, you can go sign these guys and they
04:15don't get paid their full salary.
04:19If you sign a guy now, right now, if you sign a veteran like this, he's, and he's on your
04:25roster after week one, he's going to, or starting week one, he's going to get,
04:31if an injury buyout or whatever he was supposed to get, there's a way that works in, right?
04:36Yeah.
04:37But after that, it's kind of like, hey, we brought him in, didn't work, he's gone, no harm, no foul.
04:41He got what he was here, what he was paid per game, and that's it.
04:45So I just think probably for Petonio, he's probably going to wait until that middle of camp, maybe after camp.
04:51Because the options may all of a sudden appear.
04:54And he gets, he can go find a better situation for him, whether it's money, whether it's just starting, or
04:59whether it's playing for a potential, you know, contender.
05:03Or is it all three?
05:04It could be, you never know.
05:06It seems like it's going to be TBD on that front.
05:09Now, we did get some projections on how some of our rookies are going to do.
05:13Avion Terrell is projected to get 25 tackles, half an interception, over 317 snaps.
05:20And Zachariah Branch, 21 catches, 252 receiving yards, a touchdown.
05:24On special teams, though, 34 kick returns, over 874 yards, 23 punt returns, 234 yards.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Would you consider that a successful season for these guys?
05:36The Zachariah Branch one, I would have to look at the totality.
05:41One touchdown to me would be a little bit disappointing in receptions.
05:47And I want more than 21 catches from a guy that I think is going to come in here and
05:51be a...
05:53I mean, that's basically averaging like a catch a week or two on a handful of weeks.
05:58I just really feel like they're going to look for a little bit more.
06:01And he creates some exciting opportunities to feature in a role that they just, I don't think, really had last
06:08year.
06:09And I think that that projection, Grant, is looking at him as exactly the way UGA used him.
06:16Which was just, you know, little screens, little kind of gadget plays, so to speak.
06:22Make it happen.
06:23I would love to see, I would hope that they have a plan for him to be expanded and use
06:30more of the field.
06:31Because he's a guy that, if you talk to people in Athens, if you hear some of the guys that
06:37really do,
06:38like the Greg Cosells of the world who just do this amazing film breakdown,
06:43they see him as a guy that can run every route and be way more of an expanded role.
06:48So that would be a little bit of a disappointment.
06:50Only 21 catches.
06:52And now that the return stuff, I'm all for.
06:55But I also think he's a guy that's a red zone weapon, as you taught some people.
06:59So one touchdown to me would be a little disappointing in the receiving game.
07:03What about Avion Terrell with 25 tackles, half an interception?
07:06I think he's going to get a full interception.
07:08I think we talked about that earlier.
07:09I really feel like that's the way to go.
07:11Maybe a couple.
07:12I mean, there's a lot of excitement about the Terrell brothers.
07:17But it's got to be more than just that story.
07:18It's got to be what happens on the field.
07:20And I think both of them, if you go back and look at not only what we've seen out of
07:24AJ
07:24and his pro career, but just looking and projecting forward from what Avion is able to accomplish
07:29at Clemson, he has the ability to be a disruptor.
07:32And I think that's going to be a net positive for the Falcons.
07:35I think we're going to get some moments out of him that are going to be a lot more exciting
07:39than half an interception.
07:40Yeah, and the 25 tackle thing for me, I think he's going to start nickel most likely.
07:46That's where I would project.
07:47If I was going to project him as a starter or how he would play the most at the beginning,
07:51it would be that nickel because he's done it in college.
07:56His mentality, the way he plays a position, really eases into that.
08:00And I just don't know where Billy Bowman's going to be with the Achilles.
08:03An Achilles injury is so hard to come back from, in football especially, so I'm not sure
08:10where that's going to be.
08:12And if he isn't at nickel, and he only makes 25 tackles, and he plays 8 to 10 plus games,
08:19I would say, did he not stick his neck in there enough and kind of really get dirty in
08:25that run game?
08:25And it also doesn't fit the mold of who he is as a player.
08:28He is a guy that will play.
08:29He likes to come up in the run game and lay a hit on him.
08:32So is A.J.
08:34And you look at A.J.'s first year, he only played 14 games.
08:37He had like 75 tackles.
08:40So that would be a little low to me.
08:42Would it be, though, cool if somehow he and A.J. kind of convened on an interception
08:48and they're wrestling for it?
08:50And they split it?
08:51They're like, the play's over.
08:52They're fighting each other on the ground for that interception.
08:55And the league creates the rule that we can split interceptions?
08:57Yes, yes.
08:58Because we did find out that there is no tie-goes-to-the-runner-in-baseball rule.
09:02Earlier in the show.
09:03That's a myth.
09:04The tie does not go to whichever defender maybe has grabbed it first.
09:09I don't know.
09:10To piggyback on all that, what if the half-interception rule ends up being named the Avion and A.J.
09:16rule?
09:16Or just the Terrell rule.
09:17The Terrell.
09:18That's even better.
09:18The Terrell rule.
09:19I don't think that's going to happen.
09:20I think A.J.'s going to be like, you take it, little bro.
09:22And he's going to let go.
09:22Hell no.
09:23I think so.
09:24I'd be like, that's my ball.
09:25Give me that ball.
09:26He's the older brother looking out for his younger brother.
09:28Anyway, Kendall Daniels, we've got a couple more of these rookies in their projections.
09:32Kendall Daniels has 128 snaps, recording 17 tackles.
09:37Harold Perkins, 7 tackles over 53 snaps.
09:41Cool.
09:42No way to know that.
09:44Cool.
09:44Next.
09:45That's funny that they did a projection for that.
09:47I do like the fact, Allie, that the snap counts are in there, right?
09:52Because it's kind of impossible to know that one guy literally is a year away from changing
09:57a position.
09:59Two years away, I guess I should say.
10:01And he actually, believe it or not, we talked about all that, Avion.
10:04Kendall Daniels could play a nickel-style role because he kind of played a nickel-style role
10:11in college when they had him, when they moved him out from safety to linebacker at times.
10:17Some of the film you watch on him is out there.
10:20Harold Perkins, I think he might have more, I think they had him, what, seven tackles
10:26is what you said or something like that?
10:28I think he might have more than that on special teams alone because he's a special teams,
10:32he's a guy that's kind of really projected to special teams.
10:35Those guys will be all about snap counts, how much they play, and honestly, what the
10:41plan is for them because that is something you have no clue of knowing right now is what
10:44the plan would be for those two guys with Jeff Ulbricht's mind.
10:48Do you think you would have a shirt that says, I'm a special teams guy?
10:51No, I don't think we need to open that can of worms.
10:53I'm just asking.
10:55Seems like those shirts are very popular these days.
10:57They could be.
10:57They could be even more popular in the next seven to ten business days.
10:59Yes.
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