00:00Ovi Mahaley, former Falcons fullback as well as the current host of the Believe in Falcons podcast.
00:07Ovi, I see you guys said our guy Berge on the show, Matthew Bergeron.
00:11He's one of our favorites to interview every single year at camp.
00:15What insight did he give you on the offensive line and how this thing is rocking and rolling in camp
00:20so far?
00:21Yeah, no, Bergeron was an amazing interview and a great story.
00:26I knew some of it, but I didn't know his full journey coming from old Canada to come and play
00:32for the good old Dirty Birds.
00:33The man has an incredible story, and it's just being told.
00:37But he talked about just the preparation that the team has now where it's just a little more detailed,
00:45a little more I-dotting, T-crossing, and as always, camaraderie is there more than ever.
00:52And as I was telling him, me and Mike were reminiscing.
00:57We went to OTAs that same day and got to see Matthew run around, and we saw our old quarterback,
01:02Matt Ryan.
01:03And we were just talking with Matt about how when we come together, it's like instant chemistry.
01:10You know, when me, Matt, Roddy, Abraham, all the guys that played my era,
01:15there's something special about the culture where you know that you're here for business.
01:20And Matthew said that that same type of culture, energy, is there at training camp or OTAs right now.
01:25When it comes to Matt Ryan, you just mentioned him.
01:28I know, Ovi, at least from my perspective, I've been so thoroughly impressed by the attitude
01:33and the no-holds-barred attitude that he's come with here in his short time as president of football with
01:39the Falcons.
01:40What have you seen? What have you heard from him? Is that Matt Ryan?
01:44Are we finally getting a glimpse into the guy that was in the huddle for all those years?
01:491,000%. The single best thing that Arthur Blank has ever done, and I'm a little biased,
01:55is decide to have Matt Ryan be president of football operations or whatever the title is.
01:59Like, bringing Matt back into the building, bringing Matt into the building in that role,
02:06is going to do nothing but just help us grow and get, it's going to shorten that clock for us
02:12getting back to a playoff team and shorten that clock for us getting to be a Super Bowl team
02:16because Matt, again, he was there.
02:18You know, it didn't go the way we wanted to, but the fact that he was there
02:21and the fact that at one point we were up so much, it kind of shows what Matt was able
02:25to build,
02:26again, with help from his team and his coaches.
02:28But that's the guy that you now have in the building.
02:30And whenever you talk to these young guys, even Matthew Bertrand about Matt
02:35and how he's conducted himself, it was like it's just, it's a dose of reality.
02:41Like, you know, coaches, even those who played the game, they can only give you so much,
02:45you know, interpretation of how to run this play or how to act or how to be a professional.
02:50But when somebody who's done it at a high level in this building
02:53talks to you about some of the, you know, getting details
02:56and how to really be a Falcon or play them the Falcon way, you believe them.
03:01And so I think, Matt, this building is going to show one, two, three, four years out of line
03:07that this is one of the best decisions Dr. Blake has ever made.
03:10And also, what do you think it means to have him being able to have input
03:14on one of the most important quarterback battles this organization has had in a long time?
03:19Ooh, that's a good one.
03:21We talked about that on the podcast.
03:23Yeah, we've gone back and forth from Pennix to Tua, Tua to Pennix.
03:26But being out there and seeing Pennix actually moving around really good.
03:29Everyone said the same thing.
03:30He looks ahead of schedule and we're surprised that he's been moving around this well this soon.
03:37And I'm a doctor's kid and modern medicine is always improving.
03:41So I'm like, if Pennix can become healthy, we all kind of know that they want him to be the
03:47guy.
03:48They want to see what he can do.
03:49They want to be able to kick the tires and see how to move forward.
03:52Pennix move in the future.
03:54And I think that he's going to be that guy.
03:56He's extremely motivated.
03:57So is Tua.
03:58And it will be a quarterback competition.
04:00But I think Pennix has a little more to prove to us and show him the world what he can
04:05do as absolute best.
04:07And we haven't seen Pennix's best yet.
04:09But for a quarterback like Matt Ryan, for I think a future Hall of Fame quarterback like Matt Ryan to
04:15be there, not just judging these two guys, but helping to allow these guys to put their best foot forward,
04:23I think it only helps the Falcons.
04:25I'm sure you and your podcast partner have very specific expertise in this next question.
04:31But John Robinson, I know it's tempting to give him 370 touches again like he had last year.
04:37But Ovi, you only get so many tread on the tires, as they like to say.
04:42How important is it for Kevin Stefanski to make sure he's a focal point of the offense but not run
04:48him into the ground?
04:50It's very important.
04:51I was with Ian and talking about the GM talking about just, you know, Bijon's Bijon-ness and how the
05:00man can do things that no one's seen.
05:02People are running out of adjectives to describe just how amazing he is, but he's also a human being that
05:09has human parts, human knees, human hips and elbows, and those things can be broken.
05:16And you don't want to wear that down to the ground.
05:17That's why I'm so happy to get the other B. Robinson into the building because that guy, he's a solid
05:24human being.
05:25And I'll tell Mike that this guy looks like, you know, not stronger than Mike, but he's definitely a little
05:31more fit.
05:32You know, the body type percentage is a little bit less, and we were joking about that.
05:36Bijon needs to be able to do what he can do when he needs to do it, and that's not
05:40every single carry.
05:42I'd love to have his carries be more meaningful, but again, if we come in situations where we need a
05:48spark, we're giving Bijon the ball.
05:50We had a dope picture that hopefully the product was released where it was a bunch of running backs.
05:55It was Mike and me and Gerald and Bijon and Anton Smith from back in our day, Jerry Snowwood, all
06:05the running backs.
06:06We actually went into the huddle.
06:08We were breaking it down.
06:08Bijon had a little prayer, and we broke it down.
06:11They broke it down, RBs on three, RBs on three, one, two, three, RBs, and they had a slide, but
06:15no one told them about the slide.
06:16So everyone broke it down, everyone slid, my old behind stood there in the middle of the circle saying I
06:22didn't get the memo for the slide.
06:24So hopefully they don't show that part, but the rest of the video was pretty cool, just being back on
06:29the field and breaking it down one more time with the Falcons running backs.
06:34Well, you want to go tit for tat on embarrassing moments.
06:37A couple of years ago, Ovi, 92-9 the game night, we had to go out and do the swag
06:43surf in the middle of the State Farm Arena.
06:46And, yeah, let's say we're not exactly the Hawks players when it comes to smoothness and athleticism out there trying
06:54to coordinate a swag surf.
06:55So I totally understand where you're coming from on that one.
06:58Talk with me.
06:59Yeah, go ahead.
07:00Yeah.
07:01I was like, it's all right.
07:02No one's perfect.
07:02You can't be good at everything.
07:03I tell my wife that I can't be good at everything.
07:05I have to have flaws somewhere.
07:06So that's your flaw, the swag surf.
07:08It's all right.
07:09Yeah.
07:09You know, listen, I can talk into a microphone, not the most coordinated guy in the world.
07:13We're talking with our good buddy, Ovi Mihaly, former Falcons fullback and current host of the Believe in Falcons podcast.
07:20All right.
07:20The wide receiver room welcomes back an old friend, a guy you know, and OZ, Olamide, Zaccheaus.
07:26What does a veteran presence like that help add to a room led by a guy like Drake London?
07:32Oh, it's everything.
07:33The vets have the ability to smooth out some of the potentially bumpy parts of the young players' career during
07:43the season.
07:44Several moments will happen.
07:46I mean, I saw it in real time.
07:47And you asked Brian Finneran or you asked Michael Jenkins about how Brian Finneran helped Roddy White in his early
07:53career.
07:55You know, Jenkins, Finn will tell you that, you know, sometimes Roddy's an amazing player, but, you know, he's young.
08:03And then young guys do what young guys do.
08:05Sometimes they need somebody older to keep them in line to make sure they know where the North Star is,
08:11what's important on the field, off the field, practice, preparation, everything.
08:16So Olamide Zaccheaus being back in the room, it's another vet that's going to have a voice of reason, but
08:23also ability to show leadership through actions.
08:28Because at this point, words can only go so far when you show somebody how to be a vet, how
08:34to be a pro, how to prepare, how to deal with the off-season.
08:37But it's worth an action.
08:39That means something.
08:40And OZ's already shown that he's a guy that can be dependent upon.
08:43What are the toughest things about getting a new voice in the room with Kevin Stefanski being, unfortunately for us
08:51here, Ovi, another new head coach in the building over the last couple of years?
08:55What are the biggest adjustments when a new voice comes in?
08:59A great question because it's not automatic that people are going to say, all right, he's a new coach.
09:05He said it.
09:06I'm going to lock in and I'm going to go ahead and take everything that says at face value.
09:11That does not happen.
09:13A different situation, but Bobby Petrino, he first came in and we wanted to give him a shot because we
09:20didn't know anything left or right.
09:22But after what he was saying wasn't lining up with what he was doing, and especially when we started losing
09:28early on and life's about not just what happens to you, but how you react to it, how he reacted
09:34to it.
09:34It was in a way to where we were like, who's this guy and who brought him in here and
09:41why are we supposed to follow him when there's nothing to follow?
09:45And Kevin Stefanski, at least he has credentials.
09:48Two-time coach of the year.
09:49A lot of his players speak highly about him.
09:52And so having that new voice in the room, it's going to matter very, very early on.
09:57You know, first impressions are very hard to get a second time.
10:01It's going to matter how he reacts to a win, how he reacts to a loss, how he reacts to
10:05the first bad practice, how he reacts when a player tries to challenge him, how he reacts to a knucklehead
10:11making a decision.
10:12Are you going to discipline him?
10:13Are you going to let it slide?
10:13So all these things are going to build the player's level of trust with them.
10:19If you do the right thing, you treat people how you want to be treated, you act as how an
10:25NFL professional Falcons coach should, the guy's going to look at him the way they should, as somebody who's going
10:30to be a leader of men and take them where they want to go.
10:33We've all seen across the league and across the years what great coaches can do for a team.
10:38I think Kevin Stavancey can be the next great coach, but he has to have the full buy-in for
10:43the team.
10:44And you get a certain level of buy-in when there's no pads and you have OTAs.
10:48Once the pads come on, once training camp starts, when things get a little bit, you know, a little dicey,
10:54that's when, you know, that voice is going to be a lot easier to listen to because he's doing what
10:59he said he's going to do.
11:01Before I let you go, what advice would you give to our two young rookies, Avion Terrell on defense, Zachariah
11:06Branch on offense, that are expected to contribute right away?
11:11Oh, it's easy.
11:12You know, find a rabbit.
11:15You know, find somebody on the team or even off the team that is where you want to be, doing
11:23things how you want to do them.
11:25Somebody that's already all pro, pro bowl, shoot, if you've got a future Hall of Famer.
11:29And figure out what steps they took to get there and what steps they took that they'd rather have back.
11:35Like, what pothole they stepped in and just learn from other people's mistakes and learn from other people's successes.
11:42That's what I did when I was with the Falcons.
11:45I was blessed to Michael Turner's old fullback, Lorenzo O'Neal.
11:49I spoke to O'Neal last week.
11:53He was just very giving of his experience.
11:56And I wanted to be, you know, a 14, 15-year fullback.
11:59I wanted to be an all pro, pro bowl fullback.
12:01I wanted to be like him.
12:02And I said, give me everything you got.
12:04And I listened.
12:06So hopefully these young guys will ask the best out there how to be the best.
12:10And hopefully they'll listen.
12:11When they do that, we're in a good place.
12:13Ovi, great stuff.
12:14We'll be checking out Believe on Falcons.
12:16Thanks for the time.
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