00:00How many games does it sound like he needs?
00:02Your guess is as good as mine.
00:04I'm not sure.
00:05I'm really not.
00:06And just for the record, I have a problem with it.
00:08I think that he's doing what's best for him.
00:12I think there's probably a team aspect to it that he feels like is truthful.
00:16But, you know, this whole thing with, what was it,
00:21was it Cameron Wolfe that was making his rounds yesterday?
00:24He was like, yeah, Penix and his team believe that, you know,
00:26that there needs to be more of a ramp up.
00:30I don't know.
00:31Like, when I hear I got to get stronger,
00:35that's not something that happens over the course of a week.
00:38You know what I mean?
00:40Confidence, yes.
00:42Understanding of system, scheme, sure.
00:46But getting stronger, I don't know.
00:47That one leaves me asking a lot of questions.
00:50You can't.
00:51I go back to the people that went in on Kirk Cousins for a couple years
00:56about how he handled an injury situation.
00:59And then the same people are now, and I've seen them, same people,
01:04media members, or so-called media members,
01:05now criticizing Penix for literally doing what they wanted Cousins to do, right?
01:12Which is not put himself over the team
01:14and not worry about what his status was or, you know, winning a job or whatever over the team.
01:23And so now he's not doing that.
01:25He's getting criticized for being, you know, I've seen Soft and all this stuff.
01:29I don't believe any of that.
01:30I'm with Mike.
01:30Mike, if this is what he feels is best for him, then who am I to argue with it?
01:36I'd rather him not be out there seeing ghosts or worried and, you know,
01:41not playing like he's 100% because he's worried about an injury.
01:47That's not – you can't play the – you can't play high-level college football or NFL scared.
01:53And I'm not saying he's scared, but the mentality is if he needs to be stronger,
01:58maybe it's mentally, maybe it's a trust issue.
02:01That's where I kind of look at it.
02:03And so when he says that, I would have a problem if you put a guy out there,
02:10like you said, he wasn't 100% sure.
02:12And I go back and I know that, you know,
02:16the socials were on fire with everything coming out yesterday.
02:18I go back to – I think it was our buddy Steak that tweeted it out.
02:21Steak's like, you know, this franchise doesn't have any allegiance to him.
02:24The people that drafted him aren't here anymore.
02:27I would say the same thing the other way around from a player perspective.
02:29He doesn't have any allegiance to the people that are running the franchise.
02:32Like his allegiance right now is to his own future.
02:36And as hard as that might be as Falcons fans to understand that,
02:41the former player in me is like, yeah, dude, like you have to do what you have to do.
02:45You are your own CEO and your body is your corporation.
02:48And, you know, if he feels like that he needs more time to become more comfortable
02:53to put his best foot forward to make sure he is the future for this franchise,
02:56then it's understandable in my book, unfortunately.
02:59And Pennix was asked yesterday if this was his decision or not.
03:03I mean, we both were having conversations with Coach just week to week,
03:07just quarterback, the OC conversation.
03:10You know, I feel like Coach Spensky does a great job
03:12just making sure he maintains a relationship with the quarterbacks.
03:15And it's awesome to be able to have that in the head coach.
03:17But, yeah, I had that conversation.
03:19I just told him I'm not where I want to be right now.
03:21And, like, I want to be able to be 100% so I can help this team with football games.
03:26And I'm really close.
03:28Really close.
03:30So, yes, it was his decision.
03:32I mean, that was a long way to say yes.
03:34And that's fine.
03:38Look, the whole ramp-up thing, I just don't know.
03:42No, I don't know how much more he needs.
03:45And that's something that only he knows.
03:47And it's – I'm just curious what that looks like.
03:52And I think moving forward on Sunday, you'll see he's obviously going to be inactive.
03:56You're not going to have three quarterbacks active in my mind.
03:59I could be wrong on that.
04:00But in my mind, it'll be – excuse me, Tua and Cooper Rush and Jack Stran will have shoulder pads
04:06on as the emergency quarterback and inactive.
04:09And the only way he sees action is if both guys get hurt and can't come back.
04:14That's the only way the emergency QB can play.
04:16Here's something I'm going to be keeping my eyes on, though, is the relationship between those two and the communication
04:21about it.
04:22They're doing a good job right now on both sides of this.
04:25Michael Penix, Kevin Stefanski, whoever else is involved in this conversation of making sure that they talk about the right
04:31components.
04:32My question then lingers, if Kevin Stefanski doesn't like this, if he's saying, hey, I need you to go, and
04:39Penix is saying, I'm not ready.
04:40Just if Kevin Stefanski doesn't like this, then when does Michael Penix's reps come?
04:45When does he become more comfortable?
04:47Because now you're preparing for a football game.
04:49And now Tua's your starter taking reps to the ones, and now you're preparing Cooper Rush as the backup.
04:55I just don't know, like, if you really want to get in the nitty-gritty.
04:57Kevin Stefanski's either on Penix's side, and he's going to be a part of this ramp-up, and he's going
05:01to make sure he gets those reps,
05:02or it's going to be like, dude, we have to go win football games at some point, and you have
05:06to be a part of this,
05:07and you have to make the decision in and of yourself that you're ready to go out and do that.
05:10If I get a step further, if and when he gets in in the next month or whatever, or whenever
05:18he plays,
05:18let's just put it that way, whenever he comes in and starts, I think he's shortened his own leash.
05:24Like, he can't come in and play poorly for the first couple games and be like, well, I'm getting ramped
05:31up.
05:32Like, because the people on the outside, the fans and a lot of the media and the national people are
05:39going to be like,
05:41well, wait a second.
05:43Like, win is ready.
05:45Like, this thing that you're not ready and saying I want more time to give the team everything and be
05:50100
05:51means when you do get to that moment, you really don't have that courtesy.
05:56Like, he could play week one, in other words, Allie, and say, look, the game speed was a little bit
06:01different.
06:02I had only had this many practices.
06:04But if you get two or three games in a regular season and he hasn't said I'm ready and then
06:08he says I'm ready
06:09and then he goes out there and doesn't play well, that's tricky.
06:14I also look at the fact that with this happening, it's hard for me to imagine he plays in week
06:21two,
06:21no matter what happens.
06:22I agree.
06:23Because you're going to go into a short week, like, because after week two, you go right to Green Bay,
06:29essentially.
06:30And that's on a Thursday night.
06:32You'll be leaving on a Wednesday.
06:34That doesn't really feel to me like a guy coming off this type of injury where he's not been sure
06:40and then playing on a Sunday and then turn around and play him three days later.
06:43Yeah, no, you're right.
06:44Well, and I think all summer we've been waiting to hear who the starting quarterback would be.
06:48And now that we know there are more questions, we're going to continue to talk about this throughout the entire
06:52morning.
