00:00With that said, I want you to explain to our audience what you said to me
00:03because I was kind of taken aback by it.
00:05I'm not going to lie to you because when the news broke, I had no issues,
00:08and I actually was happy that we kind of got past it
00:11because I didn't want it looming all season long,
00:14and I'm talking about the Falcons, how, oh, well, if he has a good season,
00:17we got to pay him, and if he doesn't have a good season, guess what?
00:21They believe in him, and they paid him, and you don't like it.
00:27I said that I don't like it.
00:28I don't understand it from the standpoint of it was completely unnecessary.
00:36Like, number one, he signed the tender.
00:39Which guy?
00:40Pitts.
00:41Okay.
00:41He signed the tender, showed up to minicamp,
00:45showed up to all the voluntary OTAs, wasn't holding out,
00:48and by all accounts was going to play the year under the tag.
00:52I mean, you gave him an extension, and look, I know Drake is not the same.
00:57Drake is a different animal, literally, than Pitts, okay?
01:01And Drake probably deserves a little bit more of the level of consistency for performance,
01:09so I can understand it to a certain extent.
01:12But what do these names have in common?
01:16Matt Ryan, Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ritter, Kirk Cousins, Michael Penix, Tua Tug of Iloa.
01:23Well, they've all been quarterbacks here for the Falcons.
01:26Yeah, those are the six quarterbacks that are going to be throwing passes in six years for the Falcons.
01:31So, you have zero consistency at the quarterback position.
01:34You have no answer for the quarterback position.
01:35You have no idea who the long-term starter is for this team.
01:38You do not have an answer to who is our quarterback next year.
01:41You have no clue.
01:42You might have the answer to week one this year, but you have no idea in 2027.
01:47How can you invest in guys and pay guys when their sole ability to produce is based on who's throwing
01:54the football?
01:55Like, Drake can't get the ball himself.
01:59Kyle can't.
01:59It comes from the quarterback.
02:01And for a guy who is willing to plan to the tag, there is no empirical data point.
02:06There is no regular data point.
02:07Forget about empirical.
02:08There's no data point to back up the idea that Kyle Pitts is going to be able to produce with
02:13Tua under center.
02:14We don't know.
02:16We don't know anything.
02:17Now, you can sit here and talk about Stefanski's scheme and how he uses tight ends.
02:20I agree.
02:20He does.
02:21I have nothing to back that up here in Atlanta.
02:24Nothing.
02:24How can you pay somebody off of the ability to have no precedent for production?
02:31I keep going back to Seattle.
02:32Jackson Smith and Jigba didn't get paid until after the Super Bowl.
02:38Until after they saw 16 games, 17 games rather, and a postseason of Sam Darnold and Jackson Smith and Jigba,
02:46and this is what we can get from it.
02:47They at least had a year.
02:48They at least had 17 plus 20 plus games of data to prove that those two work together.
02:54And if they kept most of the pieces intact, that was going to be okay.
02:58Zero data on Pitts and Tua.
03:00Zero.
03:01How can you pay?
03:02The guy was willing to play.
03:03It was just not a necessary deal to sign out.
03:06Zero, what if he balls out?
03:09Oh, okay.
03:09I'm sorry.
03:10That instead of the 18 million a year, he's going to get 20 million a year.
03:13Big freaking deal.
03:14At that point, what does it matter?
03:16If he balls out, that's a good problem to have.
03:19And especially when you have 100 million in cap space, that's not really a problem.
03:23It's not really a problem.
03:24Again, the breakdown of the deal, don't really necessarily have a lot of issues with it.
03:2915 million over two years.
03:30Third year is kind of funny money.
03:32That's not the point.
03:33The point is that there's a process.
03:36You don't like the fact that Ian committed to him when he did.
03:37I don't like the philosophical commitment to pass catchers when I don't know who my quarterback is.
03:44In what world is the NFL not predicated on quarterback play?
03:48It is.
03:49It's all it's predicated on.
03:50So how can you pay anybody else if you don't have the quarterback situation?
03:55I'm not saying you don't pay your players.
03:56You do.
03:56It's smart to keep your own players in the house.
03:59In a philosophical level, that makes sense.
04:02But the only consistent, the only constant, the only real proof we have on this team of a guy who
04:07can produce day in and day out, game in and game out, Sunday in and Sunday out, is Bajon Robinson.
04:11And that's the guy that should have paid.
04:12Oh, but Zeno, he's got two more years.
04:14Don't you understand you sign the guys when they come up?
04:17Yes, I understand that, dopes.
04:18That's not the point.
04:19The point is, running backs never get better with age.
04:22And it would have been smarter, in my opinion, to extend Bajon now through age 29, because what happens to
04:29running backs at 30, 90% of them, Dukes, what happens when they turn 30 years old?
04:32It takes a turn.
04:33Fall off the cliff.
04:35Down.
04:36Down.
04:36Look what happened to Saquon.
04:38Down.
04:39No, granted, he had a 2,000-yard season.
04:41He always goes down.
04:41But the point is that securing Bajon makes a lot more sense, because guess what?
04:47It doesn't matter if it's Tua, if it's Penix, if it's Dukes, or it's Zeno handing the ball.
04:53Bajon takes care of the rest with the O-line.
04:56That's a constant.
04:57I've got plenty of data points to know, if I put the ball in that guy's hands, good things are
05:01going to happen for my team.
05:02For the most part, you have that with Drake.
05:04He's been fairly quarterback-proof.
05:07The numbers could be a lot higher if he had consistent play.
05:09I think we all can fairly assume that.
05:12Well, the injury played a role when you miss games.
05:15But yes.
05:15We have nothing to bank.
05:17We have nothing to base Pitts' production on at all.
05:20Okay.
05:21So here's what I want to know.
05:23And I told you you probably wouldn't believe it.
05:25Do you agree with this premise?
05:28Here's where I'm at.
05:30And it has more to do with team building.
05:34And it may be something you don't want to hear, but it's just facts.
05:36When you talk about Matt Ryan being the president of football, Ian Cunningham, now our general manager, Kevin Stefanski, and
05:43the plan.
05:45First of all, they're good players.
05:47Yep.
05:48You take care of your good players.
05:50I don't disagree.
05:52But I could have taken care of Pitts at the end of the year.
05:54Okay.
05:54So the timing then becomes the issue for you about when this deal was done.
06:01Yeah.
06:01And I would tell you that mostly this was done not necessarily because Kyle's not deserving, and I don't want
06:08to take anything away from him.
06:09Great.
06:09He was going to get paid, I think, either here or somewhere else.
06:12If that was going to play out that way, I'm glad it's here.
06:14And like I said, I'm glad it's behind us.
06:17But I also think as they start to look ahead and they start to realize, you said it, cap flexibility,
06:23and more importantly, whatever the quarterback situation is going to be, we're ultimately going to have to pay that guy
06:30too.
06:31If it is Michael Penix, right, and you're talking about Bijan being under contract, Penix is under contract as well.
06:38If it is him, down the road.
06:40If it's Tua, guess what?
06:41You're going to have to turn right back around and go, do we want to make this commitment to him?
06:44Well, if he plays well, you're going to have to give him $30 million next year.
06:46Okay.
06:47On the low end.
06:48We had this conversation with Joe Corey earlier this week, Dede, and we were talking about if Tua does play
06:53well, and hypothetically, guys, because we don't know how this is going to shake out, and he plays the season,
06:58has a great year.
06:59What does that look like?
07:01And I said, oh, well, Sam Darnold, three years, 100 plus, right?
07:0430 plus mil.
07:05So, I don't know if Tua is willing to take that.
07:07If he balls out, he may have a marketplace, which right now it doesn't feel like he does, but we
07:12can worry about that.
07:13My point is, you're thinking as you're doing all of this, and this is me talking from the Falcon standpoint,
07:20about the future as well as the present.
07:22So, you've taken care of Drake.
07:24Great.
07:24You've taken care of Kyle.
07:25You know the next guy you're taking care of is Bijan, and that price, he's going to be the highest
07:30paid running back in the league, guys.
07:31He may be the second or third highest paid player in the league.
07:34And so, it's beneficial to get, because again, if you wait two more years, right?
07:39Yeah.
07:39So, he finishes year four, and then the fifth year option, right?
07:42Yeah.
07:42Okay.
07:43That means he's going to be 26 at the time of a new contract.
07:46Correct.
07:46But you're only going to give him a four-year deal.
07:48Okay.
07:48But.
07:49That's it.
07:50Yes and no.
07:51No.
07:51That's the norm.
07:52Saquon got a five-year deal.
07:54You're going to give him a four-year deal.
07:56Okay.
07:56So, here's what I'm going to push back with you.
07:58Okay.
07:58All the running backs want five-year deals.
08:00They all want, regardless of the funny money at the end, they all want five-year deals.
08:05They want five years.
08:06And the problem is, is that that five years is still going to hit you in the cap in some
08:09size, way, shape, or form.
08:10And the issue is, by the way, you know the last running back to fill a five-year deal with
08:17the same team to finish it?
08:18That's why you don't do it.
08:18You want to know who it was?
08:19That's why you don't do it.
08:20Frank Gore in San Francisco.
08:22That's why you don't do it.
08:23Okay.
08:23But that's what he's going to get.
08:25No, it's not.
08:26I'll make you a dinner bet right now.
08:27Fist bump.
08:28He gets a five-year deal.
08:29Fist bump.
08:29I make you a dinner bet five years.
08:32The system and how these teams view players now, it's very similar to the NBA, and you're
08:37seeing it.
08:38It's why they didn't commit four or five years to Kyle Pitts.
08:41He was already under contract.
08:43Yes, we are.
08:44Absolutely.
08:44We're betting.
08:44We're betting.
08:45He was already under contract for this year, to your point about the franchise tag.
08:50Yep.
08:50Guys, this is a two-year deal.
08:51This is a two-year deal!
08:53Okay.
08:53Relax!
08:54Relax!
08:54You could have waited until the end of the year.
08:55It's two years!
08:57But Dukes, you don't spend money you don't need to, especially in a position that's not
09:00a game-changing position like tight end.
09:02Okay.
09:02So let me ask you this.
09:03You talk about need to.
09:04Who are we paying, Mark?
09:06Nobody at this point.
09:07Nobody.
09:08So I understand the salary cap point of the whole thing, but again, you could have given
09:13Bijan a five-year deal, and the chances of him finishing it here in Atlanta before the
09:18age of 30 were much probably higher than if you wait until he's 26 and do it.
09:23And by the way...
09:24That's the difference.
09:25By the way, if I'm Bijan, I want less years, more guaranteed money.
09:30You know why?
09:31Because I can get my ass right back in the marketplace.
09:33Yes.
09:34I mean, there's a fair point to that.
09:35But agents who are worth their salt are getting your running backs five-year deals.
09:40You're going to get your money.
09:42He is.
09:42It's not the years.
09:43But again, the problem is that I have a hard time believing that if he's 26 when they try
09:49to re-extend him, he's taking anything less because guess what?
09:52He knows.
09:53Everybody knows what happens when they hit 30.
09:54So he's going to want the longer term to keep him being paid longer.
09:59Yeah.
09:59That's going to matter more.
10:01You could have given him the five-year deal now to 29.
10:04Here's the other side of that.
10:04We've got to come back.
10:06We've got Grant on the other side.
10:07Here's the other side of that.
10:10Bijan not only wins one MVP, he wins two.
10:13Guess who's back at the negotiating table?
10:16Bijan.
10:18That's the other side of this.
10:19Yep.
10:20Five-year deal or not.
10:21Just win an offensive player of the year once.
10:23I'm just telling you.
10:24So this whole notion like the term, bro, if you ball out, I'm back at the negotiating table
10:29two years from now and the Falcons are like, yes, we're paying.
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