00:00and today is the start of mandatory minicamp at flowery branch there's been a lot of speculation
00:04on whether james pierce jr would be in attendance or not he wasn't at otas previously and he really
00:09hasn't been to the facility since his arrest back in february now during his absence james
00:14jr was approved by a florida court for a one-year diversion program avoiding trial the nfl hasn't
00:20handed down any suspension or anything yet and james pierce jr at this point is checked in he
00:25will be there for mandatory minicamp today and tomorrow um and purely from a football standpoint
00:30i am curious uh he did miss otas he's still gonna be working under jeff albrecht so how much do
00:36you
00:37think he's missed or how much catch up will he be doing today and tomorrow i it's it's a it's
00:45a it's
00:45a good question because i'm not sure if any changes because i'm positive there have been some changes
00:51um to the way they're you know going about playing defense because of you know kate nellis and david
00:56onyamada being gone and leonard floyd and all this other kind of stuff so i would say he's yeah i
01:00would
01:01say he's in a little bit of catch-up mode i also think that it's for me i always thought
01:05it was nearly
01:05impossible to get the same amount of intensity in your workouts away from the facility as you do at
01:11the actual facility so there will be there will be some of that for sure but he also kind of
01:17the role of
01:18a like almost a designated pass rusher edge is is very unique in that a lot of times it's like
01:25go
01:25get them you know what i mean that's why you can see these big moves for some edge players where
01:29they
01:29can plug right into the middle of the season and make a massive impact um you know when they're asked
01:33to so i do think that there's a little bit of catch-up i think a lot of that is
01:37in terms of how
01:37good of a shape he you know is actually in but i'm sure he'll hit the ground running because like
01:42she
01:42just brought up jeff albrecht is is still here and it's still a lot of the same stuff he was
01:46utilizing last
01:47year and just because you know in my thought is just because he's not here doesn't mean they're
01:52not in contact right and i i guess to accurately answer the 100% accurately answer the question
02:02which look that's what we do a lot of almost everything we do is speculation we don't know
02:06what most things 100 is that i would say what is what is their role is their role changing for
02:13him
02:13or did they say hey look at times we need you on the field against the run you were weak
02:19against
02:19the run last year you need to we we need to improve that aspect of your game and so that
02:28was
02:28something that they were going to work on like technique or whatever when he was here during the
02:32ota drills or or whatnot and now that they didn't have that maybe he missed out so he's behind there
02:40um personally i i tend to think he's a guy i don't want on the field much if i know
02:45100 it's a run
02:46down right if if their personnel you know looks that's a run personnel i'm i'm not sending him out
02:57there that's my thought i don't mike i don't know what you feel about that but that's the way i
03:00feel i
03:01just don't think he's very good against the run i don't think he does a great job with the edge
03:04so i i would try to keep him off the field now look it's impossible to always keep a guy
03:09off
03:10field in certain situations but that doesn't mean you don't work on that part of the game you know
03:15and he should be but he should be working on that part of his game on his own like as
03:19well well let
03:20me start let me rewind for just a second because honestly i would be shocked if they've had that
03:25level of contact i really would i think that there's probably been a period of time where they're
03:30like everybody just take a step back let's let this thing breathe now between now and training
03:35camp yeah i would expect that there's going to be a pretty you know a big uptick in the contact
03:42that they're having and schematically what needs to be done and i think you can kind of you know grow
03:46those roots right now and start growing towards training camp but until right now i don't i'd be
03:51shocked if they had that level and talk schematically about things because i think that probably
03:56i think i think they've been very careful about when they've contacted him and what they've been
04:01saying i would just say that so i i i would be shocked but yeah i think just in terms
04:06of a football
04:07thing i think you're right i think we have had uh over the last few years those edge outside linebacker
04:15style players that you've looked at and said man that goes that guy's really good against the run
04:20you know what i mean and they've been brought in for specific reasons to you know be over the top
04:25of the tight end and be able to kind of two gap and set an edge and play the you
04:29know the c gap um
04:31i don't think he fits that role but i don't know who does right now so i'll yeah i think
04:36that they'll
04:36probably try to sharpen his skills in that aspect for sure it felt like it was a mutual decision between
04:42james first jr and the falcons to for him not to be at otas now he's going to be at
04:48this minicam it is
04:49mandatory but what do you think the difference maker was because when did this diversion program
04:53start for him it was in may at some point that that was decided and then i believe there were
04:58still some otas where he was not in attendance so what has changed well remember we got the news
05:03the day of the draft that that he was going that that it looked like he was going to get
05:09a chance to
05:10enter this program and then yeah uh to your point in may it was kind of announced that exactly
05:19how it was going to play and then i think it came out that it was going to be a
05:21year
05:23um i i think that when everything initially happened in into january early february i think
05:31the week of the weekend of the super bowl right so it was in february they were like you know
05:34what
05:36stay away to further notice and uh and then i think once he got to that they probably you know
05:42it was probably some contact and it was probably like come and clearly it was come to minicamp i guess
05:49unless something else happens um so i i think they were really waiting and seeing but i'm sure
05:57sometime around the program and look he's clearly he or his agent have been in contact with the team
06:05during this entire process probably updating them of where things were going so that um because you you
06:11don't want to you're already in the doghouse so to speak you don't want to leave the team completely
06:18in the dark on how this process is playing out because the one thing you want is to have them
06:23know everything so you can get back in and and and and be back a part of the team as
06:28quick as possible
06:28i would think i i agree with that to an extent like you said man i i think that and
06:34this this is just
06:35why i have a hard time believing up until now that they've talked much about scheme because i think
06:40that if i think if you're the falcons and you feel like james pierce is there a first time he
06:44ever
06:44gets in front of media which obviously won't be this week but oh yeah i was talking to olbrick
06:49all through may and all through june leading up to it i think that they're like did that would
06:55really kind of reflect poorly on how we've let this process play out that we all along were like hey
07:00here's what you need to be doing this is how we're going to use you this year or worry about
07:04the
07:04suspension later that's why i have a hard time with okay well dub it down to this then and and
07:09maybe
07:09you agree here is it to the point where they're like hey these are the things you need to work
07:13on
07:13from last year your run game was weak blah blah blah like i i find it hard to believe i
07:18i i can meet
07:20you on the fact that they weren't like this is exactly how we're going to use you this is some
07:24film of what we want you to look like next year as far as how we're going to use you
07:28but i also find
07:30it completely hard to believe they left a player who if they were hoping and i let me not use
07:39that
07:39word but because that's i don't want to put words in your mouth but i'm sure the best case scenario
07:44for everyone is he's a part of the team this year right sure because it means it's kind of either
07:48you found innocent or you or you pled down it whatever however it plays out but i find it
07:53completely hard to believe they didn't tell him things they wanted to improve on at all during
07:57the offseason i would say that there's a good chance that that happened before this incident uh remember
08:04that was in the day after nfl honors if i'm not mistaken right yeah um and i'm sure that there
08:09was possibly some kind of exit meeting before that i'm trying to remember when we when when we made
08:13our announcement i guess it was in january right yeah yeah it was nfl honors uh it was the i
08:19think
08:19the day after no i mean when the announcement was made that we had stefanski and oh yeah yeah yeah
08:23yeah um but but again yeah olbrick sticking around and i'm sure usually most of the times you know you
08:29have
08:29this conversation i also think there's a possibility that they probably used um uh a medium there like
08:34you could have passed that information to his agent and not to him directly hey this is the
08:39things he needs to be working on and i think that that's a level of buffer they could have probably
08:42wanted what if there's like a portal now i don't know and i have to i could probably find out
08:47no idea
08:48if that's a thing i could probably find out but but i'd be willing to we have portals that we
08:53can log
08:53on to and and like see classes or whatever that that our company wants us to take that we need
08:58to
08:58be up to date on what if they hey you know what this is obviously it's not a class on
09:03how to become
09:04a better edge defender run edge defender but yeah i mean i don't know man like it's again i don't
09:10want
09:10to belabor the point it just i don't know i'd be i'd be curious to know how much they've talked
09:14to him
09:14or what he has been working on and if the nfl does deem a suspension needed uh when do you
09:21expect
09:21that to come down personally i think it'll come down when the program's complete um i i don't what you
09:28said was in a year right yeah a year so i think it would it we don't know the exact
09:34date right that
09:35the program was reached to and when it started we know that it was late april early may sure we
09:40know
09:40when we were told but we don't know exactly when the date started so i think i think it would
09:44be this
09:45time next year we would know and i'm probably before june 16th but you get my drift i mean
09:53the nfl makes a decision today if they did let's just say they made a decision today
09:59they're basing it off that he's going to have all charges dismissed and this was just a bad look for
10:06everyone right well then let's just hypothetically say something happens and the program is essentially
10:14voided because he violates it in some way shape or form what are they they're going to come back and
10:21suspend him more because it because now he's got charges against him yeah it just doesn't make
10:26sense for the nfl to do it now it just there is precedent rasheed rice is the precedent he played
10:34that year he ended up having a season in the injury i think in october or november of that year
10:39and then in march or april the next year when his case was uh or maybe even may when his
10:45case was
10:46resolved he got suspended yeah i i think it's frustrating for a lot of people that feel all
10:53sorts of ways that that that you're dealing with this but i also completely understand it from
10:58the nfl's perspective from james pierre's perspective from the legal system that sometimes you
11:03unfortunately have to wait till all the terms are satisfied on this kind of thing before you can
11:10kind of put a bow on it yeah i don't believe in any way it's dragging your feet or trying
11:14to move
11:15with a slow pace i think it's just called smart business i think it's just they're trying to be
11:18methodical about it
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