00:00And it is goal-setting day for the Falcons.
00:03We've been talking about the offense all morning long.
00:05Left off at Olamide Zaccheaus.
00:08Last season, he had 39 catches for 313 yards
00:12and scored two touchdowns in 16 games.
00:15What would you like to see him accomplish this year?
00:17Would I be wrong in saying that I feel like that's a really good
00:21stat line for him this season?
00:23If you have 40 catches and over 300 yards?
00:30I don't know.
00:32It's hard for me to answer.
00:33Hard for me to answer this without saying if everybody's healthy.
00:37Because that's the only way.
00:40With all due respect to Olamide, who I'm a big fan of,
00:44if he has 40 catches this year,
00:48something went wrong somewhere.
00:52Really?
00:56Well, let's just say Drake's going to catch 100.
00:59Agree or disagree?
01:00Let's just say 100.
01:01Yeah, for sure.
01:02Johan Dotson, or however, I don't know if I pronounced his name right.
01:06Hard J.
01:07Johan.
01:08Johan Dotson.
01:09Thank you, Allie.
01:11Let's say 50 catches.
01:13That's where he should be.
01:15At least 50 catches.
01:16Agree or disagree?
01:18I would love to see him north of there.
01:20I don't know how many Mooney had two years ago when he was close to 1,000.
01:23He had more than that, I think.
01:25Yeah, I would love to see him north of there.
01:26I think Mooney had like 60-something that year.
01:30I'd go with that.
01:31I'd go with 60 then.
01:32If I could design it perfectly, yeah.
01:3464.
01:35So you'd go with 60.
01:36Sure.
01:38Kyle Pitts.
01:41I would say 75 is the number I would set for him.
01:47He had 88, I think.
01:50No, he had 88 last year.
01:52And he had 68 in 2021 when he went for 1,000.
01:56So I would say 70 to 75.
01:59Now I better start doing some math.
02:01I was in my head.
02:02I'm going, okay, then you still carve out room for Zachariah,
02:06and you still carve out room for Bajon.
02:09And Austin Hooper's going to get 20.
02:13So hold on.
02:14I got 100, and you said 60.
02:16And then 70.
02:19We'll say 70 for Kyle Pitts, right?
02:21Okay.
02:22And how many for Bajon?
02:23I say 50 for Bajon.
02:24Yeah.
02:26And Olamide.
02:29Let's get back to Olamide.
02:31How many for Austin Hooper?
02:3420.
02:35I think you're right on.
02:38That's 300 completions right there.
02:41Okay.
02:41You can work with that.
02:42Now, in Tua's best year.
02:45Did you have Branch in there?
02:47I haven't put Branch.
02:48Okay.
02:48Now, this is the problem.
02:49I haven't put Olamide either.
02:50So what is Branch?
02:52What is the real?
02:52Personally, me, I want to see Branch with, if he has the projection from Yahoo.
02:58And I know I'm skipping.
02:58I'm sorry.
02:59I don't mean to skip above.
03:01I hope I didn't mess anything up.
03:02But, like, the projection for Zachariah from Yahoo was 21 catches.
03:07I'd be highly disappointed with only 21 catches.
03:11I want him to have 30-plus.
03:12Because I want to see him be a much more integral part of the offense than that.
03:16Yeah, he's got to average more than one and a half a game.
03:19Right.
03:19There's no way that I can stomach that.
03:21So let's say, let's say.
03:22That's just a gadget player.
03:2340?
03:26So then you're going to get, but then if you go with Olamide at 40, now you're talking
03:29about, like, Matthew Stafford numbers last year from the quarterback spot.
03:32And that's not.
03:32That would be, if you gave both of those guys 40, I think you're looking at my math
03:36is right off the fly without using a calculator.
03:38While I'm talking, it's around 380.
03:41His best year in Tua was, he completed 388.
03:44That was in 23.
03:46He completed 388 passes.
03:48And I'd tell you that Matthew Stafford last year being the MVP was in that ballpark.
03:52I think it was almost 400 completions that he would have had.
03:56So my point is, my only point is, I would, I could take less from Olamide to get more
04:02from the Zachariah branch.
04:04Was where I was going with that.
04:06Because I think 40 catches for, Olamide was here for four years in Atlanta with his first
04:13stint.
04:13He had 94 catches in those first four years.
04:17All right, let me, let me, let me phrase it to you this way then, because this is one
04:20of the more frustrating plays from last year that I used to hate every time we ran.
04:24How many times did Kyle Pitts catch the ball at the line of scrimmage?
04:27Well, I don't know that number, but I can tell you it was double digit probably.
04:31Okay.
04:31So if Kyle Pitts, every time he caught the ball at the line of scrimmage, be it a speed screen,
04:36be it whatever you were trying to get done, which would just, I mean, make my eyes bleed.
04:41Um, because he's not that guy, he's not the accelerator.
04:44That and you had guys like Ray Ray McLeod and other bodies similar trying to block for
04:48him.
04:49My point being is that if you gave every single one of those catches at the line of scrimmage
04:53to Zachariah branch and Olamide Zaccheaus, and I'm talking about Kyle Pitts and Bajon and
04:58possibly even Darnell, because he had a couple of them too.
05:00You try to run the screens with him.
05:02Then I, then, then I would love to know what that number is because I would love to give
05:05every single one of those to Olamide and Zachariah branch and move on from there and just build
05:10off of that in terms of what the structure of the percentages of, you know, disbursement
05:15would be.
05:15Yeah.
05:16Um, I would, I would just lean towards more Zachariah, but maybe I'm wrong.
05:21Maybe I'm over, maybe I'm over estimating what Zachariah branch could be, but I just think
05:26with his, with, with the, with the things he brings, you know, uh, he, he needs to have
05:33more catches and me more of a focal point than if you had, if you were betting on it,
05:39not, not designing it the right way.
05:40If you were betting on it right now, though, who has more Zachariah branch or Olamide Zaccheaus?
05:44I would go with Olamide only for the fact of, I know what he can do in this league.
05:50And that's not a knock on Zachariah branch.
05:52It's just the fact that proven commodity.
05:54Yeah. And let's be real about this. Do I believe Zachariah branch can run more of
06:02the route tree than we saw him? Do I believe that Gunner Stockton, it probably held him
06:08back as far as doing one of those things. I do. I, I, and that's not a knock on Gunner
06:14because Gunner is a good college quarterback, but this is the NFL. It's a little bit
06:19different. The offenses are different. The players are different, but
06:23I've seen Olamide do it. I mean, the guy had 39 catches last season. He had 94 his entire
06:31first four years in Atlanta. So he's obviously progressed as a player through his career.
06:37Well, and I think that, that raises more questions too, because now I'm sitting there
06:40thinking about it and Olamide is more established in the league as far as those numbers go than
06:43anything John Dotson's done. Right. I mean, John Dotson hasn't had over 20 catches since 2023.
06:50Yeah, but let's also not fair. He spent the last two seasons in Philly where he was like
06:55the fourth option because not even, maybe the fifth option you had, listen, AJ, Devonta,
07:02Saquon, who's, who's, who's got a lot of catch targets. I mean, I know Dylan probably knows
07:06him off the top of his head and then Dallas Goddard. I mean, he's the fifth option there.
07:13So, but here you're talking about, you're making him possibly the number two, but you're right.
07:19He's had a better few years than Dotson. There's no doubt about that.
07:22With the math you guys were doing, you had Kyle Pitts at 70 catches and last year he was at
07:2788.
07:28So that's what you're talking about. You want to take away.
07:32If the, if the, if the difference is 18 catches at the line of scrimmage, absolutely. I don't need
07:35him catching the ball, trying to accelerate. It's not his game. It's not fair to him. This is
07:39not for the love. It's not a knock on Kyle Pitts. I'm helping Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts should have
07:44never been put in that position last year to try to have to catch a freaking speed screen and get
07:50behind Chris Lindstrom and get up the field. That's the dumbest thing I can, I can imagine doing.
07:54Not going to, I don't disagree with Mike. Take away. Um, no, I think Kyle Pitts had 88 catches last
08:03season because when Drake went down for those five games, he rolled into Drake's position,
08:09which was probably the smartest thing Zach did in his tenure here was, uh, roll Kyle into that,
08:17that, um, that big slot receiver, that power slot, if you want to, if you will. So
08:27forecasting all of this, you're, you're going with it that, that Drake London is going to give
08:31you 17 games because Drake London missed one game in three years before last year. And,
08:38and then, you know, boom, or excuse me, missed one game in two years. This is his fourth year.
08:45No, this is his fifth year. Yeah. Yeah. So one in four. And then last year he missed five.
08:51So, uh, if I get healthy Drake, I think it does take the targets away from Kyle, which is not
08:56a bad thing for Kyle because we've seen him in the past have less catches and actually more yards.
09:03It just blows my mind as we have this conversation, how quickly this conversation got off the rails to
09:13start the year last year. You know, with Darnell, the first day of training camp where Darnell gets
09:18injured, then you have the Ray Ray thing, the in and out, the I kill your thing, the in and
09:22out,
09:22you're relying on David seals. Suddenly Casey Washington never develops into what we were so
09:29excited about. Remember during training camp? Um, I'm a huge fan of Chris Blair that just kind of
09:35went away. Like it, it, it blows my mind. The study that needs to be done in the 20, 25
09:41wide receiver
09:42room is just crazy. Like it's like a grenade rolled in there. And all of a sudden we were left
09:45with
09:45nothing. Even with that said, like, because you're, it's so, it's so right. I mean, it was, that was,
09:53I know Penix had moments last year where he was just bad with decisions and, and, and accuracy, but also,
10:02you know, this is so much better of a receiving core on paper walking in because I, I trust, I,
10:10I,
10:10Alameda has been much more of a consistent player in his career, like it or not than Ray Ray McLeod
10:15ever was. I, I hear what you're saying, but take yourself back to this moment in time last year,
10:22one year ago. I don't think you could have said that. Well, I don't think you can know why, you
10:27know
10:27why? Because, because you're going off of two guys, excuse me, you're going off of three,
10:35your top three receivers all coming off 2023 Braves years, i.e. career years. Darnell had a career
10:45year. I understand he had a little less yardage, but his consistency and his usage, and that 24 season
10:53was, he had his best career, the best year of his career to me overall. Ray Ray McLeod, far and
10:59away,
10:59I think he had 300 more yards receiving in 24 than he had ever had in his career in a
11:05season.
11:06And then Drake London had more catches, more touchdowns, more yards than he'd ever had in
11:11his career the two years prior. So all your top three guys were coming off career years. No,
11:17hell no. I wouldn't have said it last year if I look at it, but I go back and look
11:19at it this way.
11:21You got a couple of these guys aren't even coming off career years. And I think you're set up more
11:25because I think you're deeper. I do. And that's the thing is like, I think we all felt confident
11:31last year, even in the early part of the season about like Kaderil Hodge. Yeah. And then all of a
11:36sudden he's not dressing up. Another guy. That's what I'm saying. Another guy coming off career
11:39year. That's what I'm saying. Like it's just, it's crazy how fast it went south. No, you've got a
11:45solid point. In the passing game. But you would agree though, this is deeper. If you look at it,
11:49the totality of their career, then four guys coming off career years. I don't know. It's a hard
11:55argument to make, man. Other than Drake. That's a hard argument to make. Because they were
11:59coming off career years. Yeah, I know. But how often did four guys come off career years? All
12:07four repeated, I guess is the question.
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