00:00How are we on the list? How are we on the list? That's what I want to know. It's Dukes
00:05and Bell Sports Radio 92.
00:06Thank you. Thank you very much. Because everybody's just looking at certain numbers and I think they're forgetting how good
00:14this D-line was last year.
00:15Now look, let me put this in context. SB Nation, love them or hate them if you want to, say
00:21that the Dolphins have the worst wide receiver room, worst tight end room, worst DB room in the NFL.
00:27But we're on this list. The Atlanta Falcons is having the worst defensive line. Now I want to go back
00:31over this, Mike, because last year we finished 24th in total rushing as far as teams rushing the ball against
00:36us.
00:36We were not a good run-stop defense. That's true.
00:38Were we the second best pass and pass rush?
00:40We were. 58 sacks.
00:42Second most sacks in the league, right?
00:43So that's the thing that's bugging. Falcon fans are like, wait a minute, our D-line was actually really good.
00:47We were much better than people expected.
00:49We lost David Onyemada. We lost Rook. I say lost. We traded Rooka Roro.
00:54Contavious Street, all these guys are gone.
00:56Brandon Dorless, Mike, 27 tackles, 15 throws, 8.5 sacks from Brandon Dorless last year.
01:02And missed some games too. He didn't get the full season.
01:04We talked about Jalen Walker. 5.5 sacks with, I did the math when you were off,
01:08it was something like 1,100 snaps for Cade Nellis and just like 430 for Jalen Walker.
01:14So Jalen Walker's going to have an expanded role, especially if James Pierce Jr. is suspended or whatever.
01:19But I just think regardless, Jalen Walker's going to shine this year and he's going to be a breakthrough guy.
01:23He said today, words can't explain my excitement for this year.
01:27Okay.
01:28Albrecht's going to be using it early and often.
01:30Yeah, no doubt.
01:31I think this is outrageous.
01:34I'll be honest with you.
01:35And this is not me being a homer.
01:36Again, as I said, this kind of clickbait stuff, bro,
01:38that goes down between now and when the camps start,
01:41what's the agenda?
01:43What metrics are you using?
01:44How can you have the second most sacks and have the worst defensive line?
01:48Again, you just mentioned some of the guys that left,
01:50but I think the youth movement is what was powering some of those numbers last year.
01:53Well, and look, Zach.
01:57No, but again, if you want to say, well, you got 10 and a half sacks
02:00just walked out your building because James Pierce Jr.,
02:02you have no reason of knowing when you don't know when he's coming back.
02:06Yeah, but he's good.
02:08Okay, you're right.
02:09But he'll be here.
02:09That might be in the equation for why we're 24th.
02:12All right, fine.
02:12No, we're 24th in allowing 126 yards per game last year.
02:17That number is where we were.
02:18We were not top 10, top 15 against the run.
02:21I get that.
02:22All I'm saying is I don't think we've got the worst defensive line in the NFL.
02:27You can't have the second most sacks in the league,
02:29even with a guy who's not going to miss the entire season,
02:31and be the worst defensive line.
02:33That makes no sense.
02:35We did have to get bigger with the run game.
02:38We do know that.
02:39And we do know that we have had teams run right at us,
02:42and we couldn't stop it.
02:42The Colts ran through us like pooped through a goose.
02:44The 49ers did it too.
02:45But now we've got a guy, and hopefully Mason Smith, two A's,
02:52is going to be the piece that Rook wasn't.
02:55That this guy's a bigger body, and he's going to be able to be the plug in the middle.
02:58Yeah, look, I think you exchange two guys.
03:00You hope they both work out new situations, right?
03:02Neither one was blowing the top off.
03:04That's where that's at.
03:06In his defense, Mason Smith had better players ahead of him.
03:08He did.
03:09As far as DT and that Jaguars line.
03:11But you think about the guys that we went and picked up, right?
03:14The Chris Williams, and you're going, wait a minute, we did?
03:17Yeah, these are all these free agent moves that we talked about a couple months ago
03:20that kind of got lost in the shuffle between that and the draft.
03:24And Mike's right.
03:24The Mason Smith move, the trade for Rook, that's one thing.
03:28But Chris Williams we signed.
03:29They went out and tried to address this, by the way,
03:32through linebacker signings and through defensive line free agency.
03:35I just don't know if we've got difference makers.
03:37Is this D line going to be better than it was last year?
03:39And are you solely going to base that on whether we get 58 sacks or not?
03:43Well, that's just it.
03:43I mean, Deshaun Hand, Mason Smith, and then there's Ontario Thompson,
03:47who's a rookie and a six-rounder out of Washington who's bounced around schools
03:51and no one really says he does anything particularly well.
03:53He's kind of a sum of its parts.
03:55Now, maybe we'll catch lightning in a bottle with this guy.
03:57This is the first Ian Cunningham draft.
04:00But that's why when we went and did what we did,
04:03and we picked up A.J. Terrell's brother, Avion,
04:06a lot of folks thought there were some really stud defensive tackles there.
04:09But, again, Avion was always ranked higher than those guys,
04:12and we took Avion.
04:13Better player.
04:14Yeah.
04:14Overall, we're going to take the best player available,
04:16and allegedly that's what they did, and I think they did do that.
04:19404-726-0929 talking about this.
04:21It's just funny to see a reaction from Falcon fans.
04:23Like, hold up.
04:24I know y'all want to throw our name and a lot of stuff out here,
04:26but wait a minute.
04:27The D line is not one of those areas.
04:28If you want to talk about our quarterback room right now being unsituated, great.
04:32But, like, what we got out of our defense last year was completely unexpected.
04:38No, I mean, this was a defense that, as we said,
04:41a year before with Jimmy Lake, it was lost in space.
04:43We couldn't stop anybody.
04:45We basically turned Bryce Young's career around single-handedly up in Carolina.
04:49And now you've got a guy in Jeff Ulbrich who's the right man for the job.
04:52Now he's the head coach material.
04:54Not sure about that.
04:55But if he continues the trajectory of this thing,
04:57that might be something that happens for him.
04:58He's already been the interim for the Jets.
04:59But he does coach up the linebackers.
05:01The question is going to be the guys that we added who have had chances to be stars in this
05:05league
05:05but couldn't stay healthy for one reason or another or lost traction.
05:08Like, who is it?
05:09The kid Christian Harris from the Texans.
05:11You know, the former Alabama linebacker.
05:13Is he going to pop for this team?
05:15If he goes with Devine Diablo and really picks up, then you've got something.
05:19Perkins, the kid out of LSU, was on track to be a superstar in the league
05:22before he blew his knee out at LSU.
05:24That's somebody that could maybe have a chance out of this team.
05:26Yeah, I think what, you know, again, there's a lot of redundancy,
05:29especially at linebacker.
05:30And I've told you guys this from the jump.
05:31Like, I'm looking at the linebacker room.
05:33I'm going, outside of Devine Diablo, where's the other dude?
05:37Who's, to Mike's point, where's the other guy?
05:39Now, you may get production across the board, Mike, from all these guys.
05:42But, look, I don't expect J.D. Bertrand or even Troy Anderson.
05:46And, by the way, the update on Troy Anderson today, coach said, yeah, still not a full go.
05:52And I'm like.
05:53It's been a year and a half.
05:54Yeah, but he said.
05:55It would have been two years back.
05:56And he goes, we're working through that.
05:58But that thing, Mike, that's out there.
06:00Like, that's so far out there.
06:02I mean, I always felt they kept him around because they still owed him.
06:06So they restructured his deal.
06:07Because when you're on the pump list, you don't get paid, basically.
06:09So they restructured his deal because they had to pay him one way or the other.
06:12Yeah, didn't, yeah.
06:13I mean, we know what he can be when he's healthy.
06:15But it's so far removed from the last time he was healthy.
06:18Beating the Saints in 2024.
06:19Yeah, it's just that that's when I'm talking about this depth at linebackers.
06:22So, again.
06:23And again, Samson, Ebicom, Aziz Ojolari, Georgia fans know Aziz.
06:28You know, just trying to catch it.
06:29You know, again, these guys are all on one-year proof-it deals whether they stay here or not.
06:33So they will be motivated to kick some butt.
06:35Let's hope so.
06:36Sometimes don't believe everything you read, especially if it's on the internet.
06:40404-726-0929.
06:41We are a much better defensive line.
06:43We are not the worst.
06:44Can we improve in the run game?
06:45Yes.
06:46That's why they went and got bigger guys.
06:47That's what Mike was just talking about.
06:48They went and got a couple guys that they feel like, from a size standpoint, is going to help,
06:51especially at that nose tackle position, Mike, which is something that, you know, we've talked about.
06:55We've never really had that for a while now.
07:00And, you know, yeah, I felt all the time about Grady.
07:02I thought Grady was a better piece in a 4-3 front because he's always going to get down the
07:06field.
07:06Is he the big enough guy to be in a 3-man?
07:08I thought he was kind of miscast there.
07:10But part of the reason, you know, I think if you want to say why they think we are what
07:14we are
07:14and the worst run defense, we have got guys like Zach Harrison.
07:18If Zach Harrison was going to be a study to pop by now, he's a role player.
07:21He's a rotational guy.
07:22That's it.
07:23You know, but that's where we're living.
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