00:00As the Falcons get ready for week one, we've now seen the initial roster,
00:04got the practice squad lined up.
00:06Let's take a look at the strengths with this team.
00:09Where do your eyes go on that?
00:12I would assume we have the same one.
00:14I don't know.
00:14I would go to the defensive backfield.
00:17I think you've got arguably one of the top three best safeties in a league,
00:23and then you can say the word arguably again,
00:27another guy who is not a top ten safety in Xavier Watts.
00:30He's on the cusp of being one based on his rookie season.
00:34And then you've got A.J. Terrell is what he is.
00:38He's the closest thing this team has had to a shutdown corner in a very long time.
00:44And I would even consider that because people just don't even go.
00:47They don't even throw at him most of the time.
00:50With Mike Hughes on the other side, Avion Terrell entering the fray,
00:53you know, the Billy Bowman, I wouldn't expect to play week one,
00:57but I do expect him back sooner than later since he's been cleared with Sidney Brown.
01:02I mean, you've added depth to this roster and the back half.
01:07I mean, Darnay Holmes probably had one of your better camps,
01:13had to come back to the practice squad to be around this team still.
01:18To me, that's such a strong sign of where you are in the defensive backfield.
01:23And Avion Terrell, like I said, you know, it's just, it's deep.
01:27And it is, to me, the strength of the defense.
01:30And you might need it to be because you just don't know
01:33where you're going to get pass rush from other than scheme.
01:37Yeah, I think, and I completely agree with you,
01:40I think the only other place I would even attempt to point,
01:43and really the storylines are very similar, would be the offensive line.
01:47Like, you have a couple of guys up front on the offensive line.
01:52You have four guys, just like you do in the secondary,
01:54that you feel pretty good about.
01:55And then you have a fifth that's kind of a wild card.
01:58And in the secondary, that's the nickel spot.
02:00For us right now on the offensive line, it's the right tackle spot.
02:03Like, we, there's some ups and downs that you could take into consideration there.
02:07But I'm with Bo, like, you look at, he says, Jesse Bates, arguably top three.
02:12I'd say definitely probably a top three safety,
02:14but arguably the best tandem at safety in the NFL.
02:17And Mike Hughes, to me, is a victim of something that always happens
02:23with this fan base and a lot of other fan bases in the NFL,
02:26where when a unit's not playing well, you point at the name that you feel like
02:31is like the newcomer or the lowest paid or whatever it is,
02:34and you just kind of point at him.
02:35And you're like, oh, that guy's fault.
02:37Like, it's just not always Mike Hughes' fault.
02:39And I think when I look at his play over the last couple years,
02:42for what he is and for what he's been paid,
02:45he's been exceptional in my opinion.
02:47So I look for him to take a step this year too.
02:49I would say it differently.
02:51I don't disagree at all.
02:52I would just say it differently.
02:54To me, he's the guy that gets picked on the most just because he's not AJ.
02:59I mean, I think guys throw intentionally away from AJ,
03:02and they say, well, we'll go to the other side, and there's Mike Hughes.
03:04And you don't travel DBs most of the time either.
03:09I would say maybe 15% to 20% of the time you'll travel the DB from what I'm thinking,
03:14my knowledge, and maybe it's more, maybe it's less.
03:18But he just has more opportunities.
03:21And look, the NFL, the really good quarterbacks and really good receivers,
03:26you're not going to have a 40% completion percentage against those guys.
03:33They're going to get closer to 50% to 55% because it's hard.
03:37It's one of the hardest positions in all of sports
03:41because everything you do is completely reactionary.
03:45We got the news yesterday that I just mentioned that Josh Thompson
03:48was signed to the practice squad.
03:50I know it's practice squad, but still no Zach Harrison.
03:53Yeah, no.
03:54No Zach Harrison anywhere else either.
03:57I don't know.
03:58I said this yesterday about the Zach Harrison thing.
04:00I'm going to say it again.
04:02This is to me where I have to remind myself because I preach it all the time,
04:06but I have to come back to the fact that we don't always know everything.
04:08And what it is on the surface usually isn't what it is underneath.
04:12And I don't know what that means in this given scenario on his end
04:16or on the front office's end or on the position coach's end
04:19or on the locker room.
04:20I don't know.
04:22But I think there's something else going on there that would have this situation
04:26because the play on the field has been good.
04:29And I know that there's conversation about, hey, anybody that hasn't been healthy,
04:34well, then you go sign numerous people that haven't been healthy
04:37over the last couple of years.
04:39And so I don't necessarily think that's it either.
04:41But head scratch for me.
04:43And I haven't really dug into Josh Thompson yet,
04:46but we'll see what happens there.
04:47I think that there is still one spot open,
04:51so Zach Harrison could still land there.
04:54I think if I read it right, maybe I'm off on that.
04:57But I don't know what's going on with that.
05:00I do find it funny that people attack J.D. Bertrand for Zach Harrison
05:06not being on the roster.
05:07And that was the, wow, let's see, why is he on there and he's not?
05:12And I always think about it, well, there's a really, really good chance
05:17they're not linked.
05:19There's a really good chance that they were always going to keep, what,
05:26five inside linebackers, and they knew they could get Josh Woods
05:31to the practice squad and they knew they were going to put J.D. on the IR
05:35and that just made it a neat, that way you put him on the IR
05:38and you do that, and that was the way that they had to do it.
05:42And the Zach Harrison cutting was probably more of a Jervon Dexter situation
05:47or maybe even a Jared Ivey than J.D. Bertrand.
05:50But I don't know because I like Zach Harrison.
05:53But Mike Nelson, he's like, we don't know everything.
05:56What was he like in the meetings?
05:58Was he late a lot?
05:59I'm not saying he was.
06:01I'm just asking the question of why in their mind that he has played well
06:06at times they felt he was expendable.
06:09And I just don't know.
06:11None of us do.
06:12None of us do.
06:13And too many times have I been on that side of it where I've heard things
06:17about players being let go.
06:18And there have been members of the media that have said, oh,
06:23these guys are idiots to let this player go.
06:24And having seen the locker rooms of it, I'm like, do you have no clue?
06:27Like absolutely no clue what you're talking about.
06:30And look, if I did know, which sometimes I hear things,
06:36I wouldn't be saying I don't know.
06:38I would be saying, well, I think this.
06:39But I haven't heard one thing about this one.
06:43And so it is a little bit confusing.
06:45But my bigger question is if you think he was, you know,
06:51the people that are so up in arms about it, why did anybody else pick him up?
06:58Do you expect any more changes before week one?
07:01Yeah.
07:02I don't know if you'll go into week one with four quarterbacks.
07:07But I think that there's that.
07:10But other than that, do I expect changes?
07:13What I would – I think it's probably not what you mean,
07:17but what I would say to that is I believe there'll be guys on the practice squad
07:21that are active on week one,
07:23and there'll be guys on the active roster who are inactive.
07:25And that is not uncommon.
07:28But I do believe that I would – honestly, I would tend to lean towards –
07:34well, here's one thing I know.
07:36Jack Strand will not be active week one if you carry four quarterbacks.
07:39And Cooper Rush will probably be the emergency quarterback only.
07:46Therefore, I believe that there will be a third running back active most likely.
07:51And I don't think all – what you have now – do you have ten offensive linemen?
07:55Not all ten will be active either.
07:57Yeah.
07:58No, you won't do that.
07:59I can't – we used to go in with seven most of the time.
08:03No, it's – I don't know.
08:04Like, the answer to that question, Allie, is I don't know if there's going to be
08:08anything that happens in the next – well, we got nine, ten, ten days,
08:11whatever the number is.
08:13But I would be willing to bet you following that game there's going to be a ton
08:17because the veteran, you know, where you lock in your price for the year
08:22if you're a veteran and you're on a week one roster,
08:23that's when I would see a lot of shuffling coming.
08:26But we'll see, man.
08:28I think it's – I think this is going to be a moving target for most of the season.
08:32And usually, a lot of the conversations we have leading up to week one,
08:35they play themselves out anyway because of injury and, you know, other situations.
