00:00Let me ask you this.
00:00Have you always felt that this team has had the talent to win this division
00:04the last three years, and it was just we shot ourselves in the foot so much
00:07from either coaching or players or whatever that we just didn't get it done?
00:12Or general manager because we didn't have a kicker,
00:15although the kicking game cost us two games.
00:18I think it went beyond that.
00:19I think all of those certainly added up.
00:21But I think, just honestly, you didn't have the quarterback play,
00:25and I don't know if we're going to have the quarterback play this year.
00:27Maybe you do.
00:28And if you do, I think you certainly can win the division because there is talent.
00:32You've had talent in recent years.
00:34I would say two years ago, right, the pass rush was a real concern,
00:37and you can start to have some conversations.
00:39Last year, the pass rush was great, obviously.
00:41You just didn't have the quarterback.
00:42The Mariota years, the Desmond Ritter years, all of that.
00:46You never had good enough quarterback play to truly win
00:49at a high enough level in the NFL.
00:51Do you this year?
00:53Find out.
00:54Right.
00:54And the great debate rages on, and that brings us to Mr. Voice
00:57because now, as far as I can tell, Wednesday starts a week from tomorrow.
01:00Is that correct?
01:01Yeah.
01:02So it means we're counting down to Falcons camp.
01:05Nine days until we see that jump that Jalen Walker is going to make in year two.
01:09He's going to be a beast.
01:12See?
01:12It doesn't always have to be about Michael Penix Jr.
01:18Now, Oren, since Carl's off today.
01:20I'm kind of impressed about that one.
01:21I was hoping for something more juicy.
01:23I've got to be honest.
01:24I think Carl is Mr. Voice, and Carl took so much heat over the Penix stuff.
01:28He's dying to die.
01:28I want to make one thing clear.
01:30There's only one Mr. Voice, and it's me.
01:34Again, I think Carl was feeding this material to Mr. Voice.
01:38I think the pushback is so great that now it's very vanilla, if I'm honest.
01:42It's very benign.
01:43So Mr. Voice felt the heat from the streets.
01:44That's what you're saying.
01:45Well, certainly on our text line, we have guys going, here we go again.
01:49Here we go again.
01:50Well, here's that chance at it kind of like, all right, well, Mr. Voice,
01:52I see what you're saying right now.
01:53Get back on Mr. Voice's good side.
01:55Well, I was going to say maybe Mr. Voice is Daniel Flick, because ironically,
01:59Daniel Flick had the article about Jalen Walker being a player needing to make the leap,
02:04and then here is Mr. Voice saying Jalen Walker's going to have a big jump.
02:09Have you heard Daniel talk before?
02:10Yeah, actually, I have.
02:11His voice is pretty good.
02:12I was going to bring up speech pattern and such, but I didn't want to get too scientific.
02:17Daniel says a little bit like Opie on the Andy Griffith show, if we're honest.
02:20So, yes, maybe not the lower end of the base.
02:23You know, in today's day and age, in technology,
02:25they do have things that can change the inflections of your voice, so you never know.
02:30Hey, man.
02:31So, one thing for sure, I love Jalen Walker's game.
02:33We love this guy from the moment we interviewed him the first time after the draft,
02:37because like so many guys that come out of UGA, not everybody, but a lot of guys,
02:41they sound like CEOs.
02:42Same conversation we had with Zachariah Branch.
02:44I had guys that were hitting us up on the text line while we were talking to Zach Branch,
02:48going, man, I can't wait to see this guy play for the Falcons.
02:50He gets it.
02:51That's the kind of guy.
02:52Same thing when you heard our new Hawks.
02:54You know, when you heard like Zuby Ejafor, right?
02:56Or you hear Flemings.
02:58You know, you feel like, okay, you know, these guys, it's like they get it.
03:03Nothing's going to work, and we're not going to know until we see them on the hardwood or on the
03:06grass,
03:06but you just, you feel good hearing it, because they sound like adults.
03:10You know, like they get it, which not everybody who comes through the doors does.
03:13And then the season comes, and that's when we actually will find out.
03:17Look, we've seen some great talkers who are not great players, and vice versa.
03:21We've seen guys that are terrible in the media that are some of the best players that have ever taken
03:26to the field.
03:26Correct.
03:26So, yeah, I will say this about Zachariah Branch.
03:30I want to hesitate on some of the touting of Zachariah Branch.
03:35Yeah, only because it's been a, like, I don't know if you've seen, I'm sure you have, Mike,
03:39some of the unguardable, untouchable, nonstoppable, and I'm like, all right, guys, let's calm it down a little bit.
03:48I want him to have a huge impact this year, but let's not make him, you know, Puka Nakua, Jackson
03:53Smith, and Jigba just yet, you know?
03:55You know what, again, Abe here to throw cold water on everything.
03:58Have you seen the comments?
03:59I get it.
04:00Look, to compare him to Tariq Hill, that's silly over your skis.
04:03I get that.
04:04I'm just saying we haven't had this type of athlete on this team in a while.
04:09Look, Calvin Ridley, before, you know, things went haywire, you know, with the gambling, was that guy.
04:13Julio Jones is arguably, you know, Matt's probably the greatest Falcon,
04:17and the greatest guy to ever dress out.
04:18I would maybe put Mike Vick and Julio neck and neck, maybe Julio with the edge.
04:22Julio in his prime, before he started wearing down, was unbelievable and could do it all.
04:26Could stretch the field, could make the tough possession catch, fight for that yard.
04:30But this is a guy that you can use, I think it is Stefanski offense, as like,
04:34and I know we overuse the phrase Swiss Army Knife, but I just think Zachariah Branch has the potential.
04:39Only time will tell.
04:40Look, absolutely, I think most Falcon fans are more excited about Zachariah Branch than Jahan Dotson.
04:44And that's where I was headed next, is to your point, when you compare it to a Ridley who was
04:48the one,
04:49or Julio who was the one, and we talked about Jahan, I think it doubles back for Zachariah as well.
04:55These are guys that can be lost defensively, because you have to focus on Bajan out of the backfield,
05:00you have to focus on Kyle Pitts, you have to focus on Drake London.
05:03If you can then get the ball to Zachariah Branch in space, with cornerback two trying to find his way
05:08towards him,
05:09and he makes that guy miss, it's done. It's a touch.
05:12And so, he's not the one with that athletic skill that everyone's going to be focusing on.
05:18The fact that he's got all that that you just set up, and is probably the fourth or fifth focus
05:24by a defense,
05:25that's what excites me.
05:27I know this team is going to win, and we have plenty of time, we always do with the obligatory,
05:33look at the schedule, trying to figure out how many games.
05:35We kind of tripped into that conversation, thinking about where would we be before the Madrid game.
05:39That'd be week nine, so are we five and three? Are we four and four?
05:44I'll take both of that. All of that.
05:47And again, if we are under 500, how do we get there?
05:51I mean, guys, I get it, we're going to find out, but did Tua start, and it didn't go well?
05:55Well, and then Pennix was finally 100%.
05:57See, that's the great debate we've had, and no one's really given us a straight answer.
06:01The reporters, Mark Raimondi, and back, it was D-Led a few months back, tried to get this information.
06:06How do you get Michael Pennix Jr. on the field once he's 100%?
06:11Because you don't really have time, I would say, for him auditioning once the season starts.
06:17The week is so compressed, you know, the game install, film this and that.
06:21How does Michael Pennix Jr. get on the field if Tua wins that job in the camp?
06:25Well, only if Tua spits the bit so badly?
06:27I would say, first off, it starts there.
06:28If Tua's good enough to hold the job, then you're not giving Pennix an opportunity.
06:32Now, that would require not being three and six at the bye, right?
06:36That would require, you know, you mentioned five and three heading into that game week nine.
06:42Like, if you're five and three, Tua's doing a heck of a job, right?
06:46If it's Tua at that point.
06:48And so, yeah, there's a scenario where you don't get that.
06:50I know you and I have talked a while back about the setup of the mini bye and the Thursday
06:56night football into Monday night football.
06:57And maybe there, you know, if you start out 0-3 and maybe there's some timelines there.
07:03But it really is just going to depend on Michael Pennix and if he's ready to go.
07:08His best case scenario to see the field this year is a quarterback competition.
07:12Not to be ready in season and hope Tua's not good enough.
07:16Right.
07:16Now, as we've said, and we've had these conversations, and again, some guys want to hear what they
07:20want to hear.
07:21We've never said Michael Pennix Jr. can't do the job, can't win the job.
07:25Just telling you, historically, it's tough for a guy in his position with an injury history
07:28to do all those things you want him to do.
07:30Now, we're going to find out if he can.
07:31And as we said, and it's no big secret, any team, and we touched on this for guys who
07:36missed the show yesterday, better for the Falcons if Pennix Jr. does because then you've
07:40got a little more flexibility with your cap because you've got a guy who's playing on that
07:43third, this year's the third year, next year's the fourth.
07:46The fifth year's already slotted.
07:47They've already agreed to what that option would look like.
07:49And then, you know, we can finally have a guy you're feeling good about.
07:53But it's, you said yesterday, to make it about one hit away for Tua, everybody's one hit
07:58away, potentially.
07:59Yeah, yeah.
08:00And there are different types of hits.
08:02Obviously, one's up top, one's down low.
08:04The one injury that just changes your trajectory of your career.
08:08Look, everybody in the NFL hasn't had an injury.
08:11Hell, Thomas Davis blew out three ACLs in a row and still played at an unbelievable level.
08:14Yeah.
08:15Tom Brady only had one big knee injury.
08:16Peyton had to deal with a number of things in two different parts of his career.
08:19Do you think you're only seeing one quarterback this year?
08:22I think we're going to see both quarterbacks this year.
08:24Because I don't believe, I don't have a strong feeling about either one.
08:28Now, again, that doesn't mean I'm rooting against him.
08:30Again, it's ridiculous that I have to make these caveats.
08:32I've got to be honest, the real question, are you more likely to see only one or three?
08:37See, there you go.
08:39And then, as I said, to start this whole preseason and offseason, our best quarterback might not
08:44even be in a Falcon uniform.
08:45You know, he might be playing college ball this year.
08:47You know?
08:48Tell me I'm wrong.
08:49Show me I'm wrong, man.
08:50We're going to find out.
08:51Carl says...
08:52Jumping right past Jack Strand, huh?
08:54You...
08:55Hey, if we're looking at Jack Strand, we are going to have the first pick of the other draft.
09:00We're going to have the first pick of the other draft.
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