00:00Let's start it out here with this team as they play tonight against the Green Bay Packers.
00:04First two weeks, first eight quarters of football, who are the Falcons or do we not know yet?
00:11Yeah, I think it's fair to say, Dan, that we don't know who the team is yet.
00:16I don't think you've had a chance to get a full breath of what Tommy Reese and Kevin Stefanski's offense
00:21can look like.
00:22Simply because you've been kind of working under with handcuffs on.
00:26You've had a guy that signed on July the 29th running your team from a quarterback perspective.
00:33No offense to Cooper Rush, but just doesn't know the team, really hasn't spent the offseason learning the nuances of
00:40the offense.
00:41And the two guys that are going to potentially be those guys is Michael Penix and Tua Tungvaloa.
00:47They're both available tonight for the game, and Michael will start.
00:50He's the guy that you'd hoped you started your season with.
00:53He wasn't quite ready physically, maybe even mentally a little bit.
00:56He's ready to go.
00:57And so we're going to get a chance to see maybe the full breath of what this offense can be.
01:02Is he at a crossroads right now, Michael Penix?
01:05I'm trying to figure out who he is.
01:06As you know, organizations.
01:08I mean, I look at your roster, David, and I see a pretty good roster.
01:12Damn good old line.
01:13There's some players on the defensive side.
01:15I'll get to B. John Robinson here in a second.
01:18But if you can't figure out that position, you can't win in this league, as you know.
01:22Is this a crossroads here this season in 2026 for Michael Penix?
01:27I think it certainly is one for the organization.
01:30I don't know.
01:31You know, we've seen so many rebirths of quarterbacks, Dan, across the league.
01:35You've documented some of them on your show, whether it's the Sam Darnolds of the world, even Jameis Winston, who's
01:41going to get another opportunity in New York.
01:43So I don't know that you necessarily die off as a quarterback, but certainly from a franchise standpoint, they need
01:50to figure out, is Michael the answer in Atlanta?
01:53I think he's shown glimpses of that in his couple years here, getting a chance to start late in his
02:00rookie year as he replaced Kirk Cousins.
02:02And then, of course, last year was named the starter, played decently here and there, and then got injured against
02:09Carolina a year ago in a game he probably was playing his best game of his career.
02:13You're leading Carolina 20 to 10, 21 to 10 at halftime.
02:16He's 11 of 12 for 160 yards.
02:19He's got Drake London going.
02:20He's got Bajon Robinson going.
02:22And then all of a sudden he goes down with a knee injury, and you're left wanting, as a Falcon
02:26fan, as to, okay, what is Michael Penix?
02:29What can he be?
02:29And so I think you're dead on in the fact that for the organization, this is a crossroads moment.
02:36You need to figure out if he's your guy.
02:38You know, you've spent the eighth overall pick on him a couple of years ago.
02:41Is he that guy, or do you need to begin to look towards what's going, coming out in college?
02:47David, do you agree with this statement I've been saying for the last year?
02:51Organizations let quarterbacks down more than quarterbacks let organizations down.
02:56You know, Tom Brady made a great point a year ago when he said, hey, you want to rank these
03:01quarterbacks and put all these quarterback lists together.
03:03Let's start ranking some of the offensive coordinators that you're putting with some of these guys that are in the
03:08league, too.
03:08Because people really don't look at the coordinators and the quality guys that you put around them.
03:12And as you just mentioned with Sam Darnold, look at Darnold.
03:15He's with the New York Jets.
03:16He's going nowhere.
03:17He goes to Carolina.
03:18He's nowhere.
03:19All of a sudden, he goes with Kyle Shanahan.
03:21Then you put him up in Minnesota with another good play caller.
03:23Then you put him with Clint Kubiak in Seattle.
03:27They win a Super Bowl.
03:27Do you believe in that statement that organizations let quarterbacks down more than quarterbacks let organizations down?
03:34Yeah, I don't know.
03:35I don't know if I'd go quite that far, Dan.
03:37But I do think that there is some instances, and you just listed a couple there, that would indicate that
03:42that's part of it.
03:43I mean, from a quarterback perspective, you hope that the quarterback can raise the talent around him.
03:48We hear that all the time.
03:49He raises the ability of the guys around him.
03:51Well, the organization's got to put guys around the quarterback that allow him to do that or can raise his
03:58opportunities to make plays.
04:00And then from a coordinator standpoint, am I playing a kind of game that facilitates or gives the guy that's
04:07squeezing the trigger for me an opportunity to be the best version of himself he can be?
04:11And so you're trying to tie all of that together.
04:14That's why football is so great.
04:16You and I had a chance to play this game.
04:17There are so many variables that are attached to the game to try, okay, am I fitting this the right
04:23way?
04:23Does this offensive line fit what I do from a run game standpoint?
04:26Do I complement that with my play-action game?
04:29Does my drop-back game facilitate the guy that I'm throwing the football to?
04:33Do I have enough weapons that can make long plays, make short plays into long plays, things like that?
04:38So there's so many variables.
04:40That's why this game is so cool, and you don't know every Sunday what you're going to potentially get.
04:45Because, oh, by the way, the team on the other side has been scouting you, and they think they've got
04:50a pretty good idea how to shut you down.
04:52That's why I love pro football, and college football as well.
04:55But pro football in particular, Dan, we had an opportunity to do it, and there's so many variables attached to
05:00it.
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