00:00Mike, let's hear from some of the guys as mandatory minicamp wrapped up with our Falcons in regards to a
00:06couple of different things.
00:07And I want to start with B. John Robinson because now this is their time.
00:11The next five, five and a half weeks, go handle your business.
00:15Stay in shape, right?
00:16Get your body right.
00:17Get prepared for the upcoming season.
00:19Take some time off.
00:20So they asked B. John about, you know, a productive offseason and what he thought about the program and even
00:25the new offense.
00:26Yeah, I mean, it feels great.
00:27Like, you know, just knowing the scheme now and really starting to be comfortable with it, you know, that's always
00:34the goal when there's a new coach and a new O.C.
00:36And I think Tommy and Kevin and Coach Petrie, all the guys, like they did such a great job with
00:42us and learning the whole aspect of the offense and the pass game, the run game.
00:46So, like, for me, you know, now I'm not really thinking about anything anymore.
00:50I'm just going out there and lining up and trying to go be special.
00:53That's great.
00:54Go be special.
00:55But, B, are we going to score points?
00:57Can we put more than 25 points a game on the board?
01:00Ooh, 25, 24.
01:01Can we be that team that scores 28 a game?
01:05That's what I want to know.
01:06You know, Mike, we've been a team over the last few years, about 17.6, 17.8 points.
01:11We can't even get to the 20-point mark.
01:13And that is part of the reason why we've not been successful.
01:16We've had those games, guys.
01:17Of course, we've scored 30.
01:18But to be consistently dangerous in this offense, there are going to be those weeks.
01:23And you've got to find a way.
01:24But, Mike, those big plays and how this offense looks, it's got to look better than it did last year.
01:29Right.
01:30And if you go back and you look at it, and again, we're not talking total points.
01:32Because, you know, for instance, we won the Saints game a couple years ago with a special team's fumble recovery
01:38at an interception.
01:39Ironically, from Troy Anderson.
01:40Remember that?
01:41Taking it to the house.
01:41The team, that was like the 24th.
01:43The team didn't really do anything offensively.
01:44So, sometimes when you look at overall points, it can be a little bit misleading.
01:49But no big surprise.
01:50Who was at most points last year?
01:52L.A. Rams.
01:53That's what we aspire to be.
01:54You're right.
01:54It's so true.
01:56Let me hear Drake London talk about leadership.
01:58Because, again, if your team is player-led, more likely you're going to have a really good team.
02:04Coaches can do a lot.
02:05But, ultimately, you need guys in the locker room to lead the way.
02:08Here's what Drake had to say about that.
02:10I mean, it's very, very important.
02:11And it's easy to follow along when you have guys like Chris Lindstrom, Jesse Bates, AJ, older vets who have
02:18been here, KP, who really, really work hard.
02:21And don't let anything get in their way, whether it's the money, the status, whatever it is.
02:26And we take that to heart.
02:27And then you have guys like me, Bijan.
02:29You could go down the list.
02:30O.Z.
02:31Just people who really, really want to work on everybody.
02:34So, I think it's really, really dope that we have that culture.
02:38Are we sleeping on Jahan, by the way?
02:39Well, he's mentioned him a couple of different times.
02:41Yeah, we just don't know what he is.
02:42Because, again, he was looking up at so many big dudes.
02:44You know, obviously, AJ.
02:46Look, AJ Brown couldn't get the rock, let alone what Jahan Dotson was.
02:49AJ and Turino.
02:51And who is it?
02:52Devontae Smith both going for 1,000 yards.
02:53And tight end gets a lot in that offense, too.
02:56But Dallas Goddard.
02:57So, yeah, he may be a breakout guy for us.
03:00Generally, a guy who's on his third team that's a former first-round pick.
03:03That's kind of wishful thinking.
03:04But maybe with Stefanski, they get some more out of him.
03:08One other thing from Drake talking about Tua and Penix.
03:12You want to know what he thinks about him?
03:14Yeah, I think it's really, really dope.
03:16Two guys who can really just flat-out play.
03:19A little bit different styles.
03:20But at the same time, they're two dogs.
03:23And I'm just happy to have them on my team regardless of anything.
03:25Okay.
03:26Two dogs.
03:27Different styles.
03:28All right.
03:29Two dogs.
03:30Are we going to let the dogs out like the Knicks?
03:32There are different styles.
03:33I see Carl, by the way, for you Penix heads.
03:36He's much cooler today.
03:37He's mellowed out on this.
03:38You realize that in five weeks, Penix will be good to go.
03:40Okay, wait a minute.
03:42Time out.
03:42He is not going to be good to go.
03:45Would you stop with the ventriloquist thing that you're doing over there?
03:48Again, that's Orrin hitting buttons.
03:49I have no idea what you're talking about.
03:50You're saying one thing, and then your mouth doesn't move, and then you say,
03:53Knott!
03:54Penix is going to be fine.
03:56Knott!
03:56Says who?
03:58Everyone.
03:59Top men.
04:01Top men.
04:02Top men.
04:02What top men?
04:03No, you heard Stefanski.
04:04He should be ready.
04:05We've got five weeks.
04:06Five weeks to get healed up.
04:07Coach couldn't even, he couldn't even put his stamp of approval on that.
04:11Now, again, you heard Jesse, but different styles.
04:13I don't have that in front of me today.
04:16Yes.
04:17Different styles.
04:17One guy can move, one guy can't yet.
04:19But eventually, he will be able to do everything.
04:21All right.
04:22We'll see when we get there.
04:23Thank you, Coach.
04:24But that's dated audio, Carl.
04:25What do you mean?
04:26He said, we'll see.
04:27Five weeks from now, we will see.
04:30I just wish you could be as confident, Michael Penix Jr., as I am.
04:34The human beings that we got in there.
04:36I know, Tua.
04:37Right on.
04:37I know.
04:38Let's hear from Jesse Bates.
04:39One of our favorite dudes, man.
04:41Jesse's just a baller.
04:42Mike, he thinks, and he's not the only one, how excited he is about seeing Jalen Walker take
04:48another step this upcoming season.
04:49Yeah, I got to see it a little bit last year, but it's definitely more normalized now.
04:55I think people expect big things from Jalen, not just as a player, but as a leader and a
05:04person on this team.
05:05We need Jay Walker to take another step, and I know he's capable of that, for sure.
05:10All right.
05:10I want to just add this for a second, because when we drafted him, I said, where does he
05:15line up?
05:15It's very similar to what I asked about Avion Terrell.
05:18Now, where do you put him?
05:19And I thought the comment from Jeff Ulbrich was pretty brilliant when he said, look, we
05:25didn't feature him as much as we should have last year.
05:28So now, with no Caden Ellis, you can do maybe a little bit more of that, and I'm not saying
05:33he's going to take Caden Ellis' place.
05:36But Mike, the pressures, the coming off the edge, the being in coverage, he can do all of
05:43those things.
05:43Right.
05:44But can he be great at one of them?
05:46Well, that was the, see, that was the knock on, you know, Jalen was, he's got like the
05:50Swiss Army knife, but do you want one specific skill set, you know, for your guy?
05:54I think you can walk him up, because, you know, is he as big as some of the other guys
05:57that
05:57are the outside linebacker, edge rusher?
05:59No, but you saw him do it at Georgia, and one of the games where they kind of really released
06:02the house, that game up in Minnesota, now granted, J.J. McCarthy was terrible, but they
06:05were throwing him around like a rag doll.
06:07They were.
06:07You know, in that game, him and James Pierce Jr.
06:09Look, I've seen Jalen take on much bigger tackles.
06:12And get there.
06:13And destroy guys.
06:14Right.
06:14So you're right.
06:15I mean, like, but I just, that's my only thing, and maybe we'll talk to Jeff Ulbrich
06:19about this down the road, but can he be great at one of those things?
06:22And when I say one of those things, it's great to have versatility.
06:25But the reason why James Pierce Jr. got 10 and a half sacks is because that's what he
06:28does.
06:28Right.
06:28But I think Jalen, I think in my mind, Jalen can be Caden Ellis.
06:32You know, and now the way things are looking right now, D, I said Divine Diablo will take
06:37Caden's job.
06:38And could Jalen swing it over to what?
06:40Divine.
06:40We're going to find out.
06:41The good news is Ulbrich's got a lot of pieces to work with.
06:43He does.
06:44None of this works, though, as far as those guys in the middle, if you don't get pressure
06:47from the down linemen and the defensive tackles.
06:49And we picked up some dudes from the UFL, from the D.C., whatever the hell they are.
06:54And so we got more dudes.
06:56But yeah, Devontae Maxwell is now listed as the third of the three guys down linemen.
07:01Doorless is great.
07:03Deshaun Hand.
07:03We told you about those comments earlier in the previous minicamp where Deshaun Hand
07:07is a boss, to quote Rick Ross, that apparently this dude is showing out.
07:12And then we got Mason Smith, who you're not that familiar with, but he was looking up at
07:15again, depth chart in Jacksonville.
07:18That's sort of that nose tackle.
07:19And one of the things we'll be talking with Jalen about when we get to camp weeks away,
07:24he worked on pass rush this season, this offseason.
07:26So my guess is, Mike, he knows that is something he wanted to work on and get better at.
07:31It is a skill set.
07:32And we know that from our old buddy and good friend Chuck Smith, who, you know,
07:37taught pass rush in the professional ranks and certainly college and has all these different
07:41clients.
07:42It's a skill.
07:43And Jalen was wanting to work on that.
07:45So that's something he did work on this offseason.
07:47It's Dukes and Bell Sports Radio, 92.9 The Game.
07:49One other thing from Jesse Bates.
07:50Talking about this defense, does he love the defense where it's at, where they're going,
07:54and what about the D.C.?
07:55I've always loved this defense.
07:57And, you know, Brick, you can't ask for a better leader in what he does and, you know,
08:03his presence in the meeting rooms.
08:05I think he has some of the best meetings that I've ever been around.
08:08And we're talking about things that we were talking about in week four last year during
08:14OTAs that we are really digging deep and really figuring out problems, not just, you
08:20know, worrying about what your job is, but what everyone around you is doing as well.
08:26So what's going to separate us is our connection as well.
08:29And that's what Brick talks about that.
08:32He lives it.
08:33And we have to do the same thing, for sure.
08:35I said to you earlier, I think fans in their cars, Falcon fans, you just assume that every
08:39coaching staff thinks this way.
08:41Sure.
08:41If that was the case, no one would ever get fired.
08:44Some guys come in with an approach that, you know, maybe it's a little more laissez-faire,
08:48a little more, I don't know, you handle your stuff and whatever you focus on.
08:50And I like it, whatever it was, it didn't work.
08:53And I think now you see why.
08:54And you've heard players kind of, you and I hear these, our eyebrows go up because you
08:57hear players talking about more accountability, more attention to detail, things that you
09:02just heard right there, you know, knowing everybody's job because you may be asked to
09:05do it.
09:05You know, and that wasn't the case recently.
09:07No.
09:08And on the defensive side, look, as good as we were with the sacks, we do got to be
09:11better at stopping the run.
09:12Okay.
09:13Oh, yeah.
09:13That's why I mentioned those DTs, man.
09:15Who's stepping up?
09:16And the whole connection thing is real because that matters when you have a connected group.
09:21But we're going to see, man.
09:23I love the fact that Jesse's talking in that way.
09:25Like, we're ahead of the game.
09:26We're not just, this isn't basic stuff we're installing.
09:29Like, we're already thinking about things that we did last year and games where we weren't
09:33our best, Mike.
09:34And there are a lot of returning guys on this defense.
09:36That's the other part about it.
09:37I mean, I know we lost a couple of guys, but there are a lot of guys who made plays
09:40on this defense for us last year.
09:41And look, I think the secondary is our strength right now.
09:44When you talk about Watts and Bates and A.J. and the guys we have coming back, we're not
09:49even talking about Billy Bowman and the playmaking ability he has.
09:52I think the secondary is one of the strengths.
09:54Right.
09:54And, you know, I've talked about it for years.
09:56I mean, we've got guys that, you know, Troy Anderson is still on this team.
09:59You know, think about that.
10:00I mean, I don't know what he can do.
10:02I don't know if this simply just was contract manipulation and just, since you didn't have to,
10:06you know, he was off the books last year, but you still have to pay him.
10:09Yes.
10:09They restructured it.
10:10Or maybe can he resurrect himself?
10:13Can Avion Terrell start as your nickel this year on the defensive side?
10:17Or is he going to get a shot?
10:18Will he battle with Mike Hughes?
10:20Even, I mean, why not?
10:21You know, he was projected to be on the cusp of the first round.
10:24Why not?
10:24You know, maybe win the starting job.
10:25And have two brothers for the first time starting a corner opposite each other.
10:28That's a cool story.
10:29I mean, obviously we want picks and playmaking, but that's a cool story.
10:33Falcons have also signed today, by the way, a punter named Matthew Hayball.
10:40Where's he from?
10:42Australia.
10:43Good on you, Mike.
10:44An Australian, and he has been designated as the team's international exempt player.
10:51This was Lenny Craig.
10:53Yeah.
10:53We remember we had those guys.
10:54Right?
10:54Lenny Craig.
10:55The guys were hitting us up.
10:56Man, Lenny Craig looks amazing, man.
10:58Yeah, he can hit it 80 yards.
10:59I don't know where it's going, but I mean, like, everybody in college now has like a 30-year-old
11:04punter.
11:04So Matthew Hayball from down under, he wouldn't be the first to make his way to the NFL,
11:08but until we picked up Jake Bailey to upgrade over what we had.
11:12We did address the worst, you know, field goal kicking situation in the league with Nick Falk, too.
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