- 2 months ago
The Atlanta Falcons begin the NFL regular season in just 10 days when they'll face TJ Watt and the Pittsburgh Steelers and are the the only NFL team that is yet to name its Week 1 starting quarterback. General Manager Ian Cunningham spoke to media Wednesday about the tough decision made to the roster over the last few days since preseason ended. Joe Patrick breaks it all down in today's episode of Joe Patrick on Football.
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00:00If there's anything we learned from Ian Cunningham's press conference today, it's that he's got the operational security, the OPSEC,
00:07lockdown, just like Kevin Stefanski.
00:09They don't give anything away.
00:11Welcome back to Joe Patrick on Football, everybody.
00:13I'm Joe Patrick. I cover the Atlanta Falcons for 92.9 The Game, which you probably know or should have
00:17put together because you are watching this on 92.9 The Game's YouTube channel.
00:21Thank you guys so much, by the way, for all the recent support of the show, for actually providing me
00:27with the likes when I beg for them, like Oliver Twist.
00:30But no, in all seriousness, I'll have to find some other gimmicks in which to ask for likes because you
00:35guys have been tremendous with that.
00:37And I will ask again now, but I don't really have a gimmick to go with it.
00:40But thank you guys so much for the support on the show.
00:42The bosses are even texting me like, what's going on here?
00:44This is crazy.
00:46And yeah, we're like the little engine that could here at 92.9 The Game.
00:49The Joe Patrick kind of arm of the operation is full steam ahead.
00:54So that's great to see.
00:56And it certainly feels like it's that time of year, by the way.
00:59It's kind of going off on a tangent already.
01:01But it kind of feels like that time of year where, you know, week one is creeping up.
01:05It's what, 10 days away or so at this point.
01:08And it just feels like there's that anxiety that comes with, you know, the opening of the season.
01:14And I think for a lot of Falcons fans, the anxiety is driven by just kind of not knowing exactly
01:19what this team is, not knowing exactly what they're going to look like.
01:21You know, it's a new offensive scheme.
01:23You don't know who the quarterback is going to be.
01:25And that was basically reinforced by Ian Cunningham today, not giving away anything on who the Falcons starting quarterback will
01:31be when they head to Pittsburgh.
01:33And again, about 10 days or so, which is just fascinating.
01:37I've obviously never kind of been a part of something like this where, you know, covering a team that is
01:41now, as of today, the last team to name their starting quarterback after the Las Vegas Raiders named Kirk Cousins,
01:48former Falcons quarterback, Kirk Cousins, as their starter over Fernando Mendoza.
01:52An expected move.
01:54And with the Falcons, like it doesn't feel like they're even, I shouldn't say all that close to like naming
01:59their starting quarterback, but like, I think it seems pretty clear at this point that they're not going to name
02:02the starting quarterback until the very last moment that they have to, whether that's on Monday when media is expected
02:08to meet with Kevin Stefanski or potentially even on Wednesday.
02:11And I think that there are, if you do want to kind of play out the game of, you know,
02:16using this kind of strategic ambiguity with what your offense is going to look like, depending on which quarterback, it
02:23is worth stretching that out to Wednesday, which could get awkward for them on Monday.
02:27But, you know, a lot of the game planning and obviously teams, you know, it's the opening week of the
02:31season.
02:31So you have a little bit more time to prepare for this opponent, but a lot of the game planning
02:35actually happens on the Tuesday.
02:37That's kind of when they, the coaches will spend their day to get the practice schedule set, at least for
02:42Wednesdays, usually a very big practice, like a very pretty intense practice.
02:45And then even on Thursday as well.
02:47So they kind of get the plan set for the week and like do a lot of their scouting on
02:51that Tuesday.
02:52And of course evolves during the week and it will, especially for the Steelers, but, and especially if the Falcons
02:58wait until Wednesday to actually say whether they plan to start Michael Penix Jr.
03:02or Tua Tagovailoa at starting quarterback.
03:04And, you know, we didn't obviously, like I said, didn't get any information on that from Ian Cunningham today, who
03:09just said, you know, not yet.
03:11They're going to continue to evaluate these guys.
03:15Mark Raimondi from ESPN even asked like, are the other quarterbacks, is Jack Strand or is Cooper Rush, you know,
03:23are they in contention to start?
03:25And there wasn't even an answer on that.
03:27Although I would say that if, if I'm reading the body language, it is between Tua and Michael Penix, as
03:31most of us would expect.
03:32But I think, you know, they were trying, they're trying to be very coy about this and you might as
03:37well, I guess, at this point, it probably doesn't hurt.
03:40As long as the message and strategy and communication is clear, you know, behind the scenes with the team, with
03:48the guys who are going to be on the field, the coaches and players and all that.
03:51But I think that was the big takeaway from today was that they're, you know, the quarterback situation basically is
03:56not resolved.
03:57If you were to ask me personally, you know, I think that they probably are leaning towards starting Michael Penix.
04:03I would give him the edge if we're kind of just, you know, betting on who's going to be the
04:07starting quarterback week one.
04:09But I think they probably, you know, fairly rightly want to see more of him, see how he responds, see
04:16how he progresses this week while he's getting more of these 11 on 11 reps.
04:21So we'll see how that goes. I know a lot of people were upset and people at our radio station
04:26were upset at the way he kind of characterized his, you know, him basically being fine with not playing in
04:33the preseason game.
04:34I believe I said on the show, I think it's perfectly defensible, totally defensible from Kevin Stefanski and Michael Penix
04:40to not want to put yourself in that situation just after resuming 11 on 11s for three practices and then
04:48going into that.
04:48You know, I could see them in another world doing it too, but like if he's literally one of your
04:54options, maybe your best option, and maybe it's kind of them speaking without saying it, that he is their best
05:01option and that he, they are kind of planning to start him week one.
05:03They don't want anything disastrous to happen in that game.
05:07And the other thing is that it's, because I was having this debate with Chris Thomas on our air last
05:13night.
05:14It wasn't really a debate. We were just kind of having a conversation about it.
05:17But I think if you were to ask a player, like, yes, it feels like a game to us because
05:21it's on TV.
05:22We get to watch it. They're in their uniforms. They're selling tickets.
05:25You know, people are going to the games, et cetera, et cetera.
05:27But I think these players, they see it as training.
05:31You know, it's kind of preparation for them.
05:34And if you're, if Kevin Stefanski were to put Michael Penix out there, I mean, my argument would be that
05:40they are not normal reps.
05:41Like they are not the reps that he's going to see week one against the Pittsburgh Steelers and nothing can
05:45really get him ready for that.
05:47Or nothing is going to like, there's nothing they could do in a preseason game or in practice that is
05:54going to like fully prepare him.
05:56Like the only way he's going to experience and be able to get through that, the hits that he's going
06:02to take, the having to scramble, those kinds of things is by getting in there and doing it.
06:06And that is, again, to kind of go back to the anxiety, I think that's kind of the part, one
06:11of the many ingredients in this anxiety stew that Falcons fans have going right now.
06:17There's also, you know, maybe another ingredient is the fear of seeing one of the other quarterbacks because I know
06:24there's some fear about that.
06:24And frankly, the way that the play has been described by reporters of Tua Tagovailoa, where Ian Rappaport has described
06:32the Falcons' feelings on him as like they can't name him the starter because of the play.
06:40That makes me worry about seeing Tua Tagovailoa as well.
06:43So we'll see what ends up happening.
06:45Again, like I said, I would put my money on Penix, but I don't think it will be either Jack
06:50Strand or Cooper Rush.
06:52It will be very interesting to see what happens next week in regards to the roster.
06:55I thought, you know, maybe, or I thought it was very likely that they would ultimately make a move with
07:01one of these quarterbacks,
07:02that we would see some quarterback transactions starting to happen around the league.
07:05But it feels like right now a lot of these teams that are sitting on the four quarterbacks, you know,
07:09remain doing so.
07:10And they've kind of been able to organize their rosters and they'll pluck off of their own practice squads to
07:15make up the numbers that they need in the early portion of the season.
07:19And, you know, we'll see how that develops with injuries and whatnot.
07:22But certainly some fascinating developments in flowery branch with the Falcons and around the league.
07:27And, you know, obviously the other thing that Ian Cunningham really talked about in detail today was the 53-man
07:33roster that was finally set.
07:35And some, you know, maneuvering that's happened since then.
07:38He's called it like roster of gymnastics.
07:41That was kind of a word that stood out because it is, you know, and it's funny that Ian Cunningham
07:46kind of without prompting juxtapose kind of the issue of having four quarterbacks or like when you're going to carry
07:52four running quarterbacks, two running backs.
07:54And then you try to practice squads and guys and especially ones you like and, you know, pull from there.
08:01And that's what the Falcons will do.
08:03We're going to go into a little bit of the moves later, but the Falcons were able to get Tyler
08:06Goodson on their practice squad, which is kind of fascinating considering they got him back on their practice squad.
08:12Clearly the better of the reserve running backs for the team in training camp, while Nate Carter was claimed when
08:19he was waived.
08:20I forget who it was by, but kind of fascinating the way that it all works out.
08:25But, you know, I think every a lot of the things the Falcons have done with regards to the waves,
08:29some of them more controversial than others.
08:32And we'll talk about Zach Harrison here in a second.
08:34But Jeff Scott, I kind of made a note where he mentioned kind of the market research and he's talking
08:39about market research.
08:40Well, he's talking about research outside, you know, their own organization on players and whatnot in the scouting, but also
08:46in the market to understand what teams are looking for, not just the positions, but maybe what kinds of skills
08:53in certain positions.
08:53And there's a lot of work that goes into that.
08:56And that's another thing that stood out from this press conference in general.
08:58Ian Cunningham kind of did it off the top, kind of giving thanks to, you know, a lot of people
09:04in the organization from the equipment people to the people who take care of the fields and everything.
09:10But it just felt to me like there was more like there's more experience front office experience in this building
09:19now than there has than there was, frankly, under Terry Fontenot's regime.
09:24And there's it should, I think, inspire confidence that you have a lot of these kind of top operators, guys
09:30who have come from the top organizations who are really putting their heads together on this stuff.
09:35And like, you know, like releasing Tyler Goodson and then getting him back on your practice squad.
09:40Like they did the work to understand that that was something that they were likely going to be able to
09:44pull off.
09:46Zach Harrison, similar, although I'm sure that they were a lot less certain that they'd be able to get him
09:51back.
09:51I'm still good to be able to get him back on your practice squad.
09:56So I think the Falcons have been vindicated in a lot of the things they've done here over these last
10:02couple of days and maybe even strengthen their squad a little bit.
10:05In fact, I think they have. Let's go through. Actually, yeah, let's go through some of the moves.
10:09I do just kind of want to recap to finish this out, kind of what they've done basically in these
10:14last few days.
10:15There's a lot made of, you know, who's kept on Sunday at 6 p.m. when the deadline hits.
10:21The Falcons kept 13 defensive backs, kind of crazy, like six safeties.
10:28Of course, it didn't end that way. Those guys started getting moved pretty much immediately.
10:32And ultimately, the big ads for this team, the pieces that were basically not in camp and now are on
10:40the team, are three players.
10:42Two linebackers and an offensive tackle. We'll just go through them.
10:45The first one is Yasir Abdullah. It's kind of funny.
10:47These guys are like classes of 23, 24, and 25 in their respective drafts.
10:52So you're getting some young players in. Yasir Abdullah, he comes from Jacksonville.
10:57Just, you know, I think they wanted some more depth at the off-ball linebacker position.
11:00The team put J.D. Bertrand on IR.
11:03They did put Josh Simon on the 53-man roster.
11:06I'm sorry, not Josh Simon, Josh Woods.
11:08But he's more of a special teamer.
11:10And frankly, Yasir Abdullah probably will be too.
11:12Those guys will probably compete for some of the sparing playing time,
11:15but they'll probably both be important special teams contributors.
11:18And I was just kind of reading up.
11:20I didn't know much about Abdullah.
11:21Like, none of these guys have a ton of playing time, except for Jared Ivey.
11:25But Abdullah and Cameron Williams don't have a ton of, like,
11:28playing time in the NFL outside of special teams in Abdullah's case.
11:32But Jacksonville fans, it sounds like,
11:33certainly thought that he was basically like a roster lock.
11:36Mainly because he was a core special teamer for them
11:39on top of apparently having had a pretty good preseason.
11:43So, maybe a good snap?
11:46I don't know if I can say with any certainty that any of these guys are, like,
11:49certainly good.
11:50But I would say Jared Ivey is probably the one that you can really kind of lock in
11:53the most.
11:54It feels like he has kind of the vast array of experience, at least,
12:00having played in the Super Bowl.
12:02Kind of a fun fact about Jared Ivey is that he went to North Gwinnett High School.
12:07So did Tyler Goodson, who we've talked about here.
12:09They were teammates for basically about three years.
12:11Tyler Goodson's one year older.
12:13So, I'll be curious to ask.
12:15I mean, they're pros now, so I assume they played varsity, like, all three years
12:18and that they were teammates.
12:19And we'll see more about that.
12:21But kind of crazy that two guys who, you know, were playing together as kids in high school
12:28are now playing professionally.
12:30You know, it's one thing for two high school players on a high school team to ultimately
12:33be pros.
12:34And not only are those pros on the same team, but they're reporting to work 14.4 miles
12:40down the road from where they played their high school ball together.
12:43So, pretty cool there.
12:45I would say Ivey just kind of, you know, and I'm not like the deepest, I haven't scouted
12:50these guys in depth or anything.
12:51So, I would definitely, you know, take other people's opinions into account, too.
12:53But what he seems to me is to kind of be a different version of a Zach Harrison.
12:57Maybe somebody with less injury issues that Zach has obviously dealt with.
13:02But, you know, he's listed at 6'6", 274.
13:07So, just a big dude, big frame.
13:11And we'll see.
13:12Powerful.
13:12Probably a little bit more compact than Zach, I would say.
13:15But, you know, just has that kind of inside-outside versatility and can play really physically
13:20up front as they obviously coach them to do.
13:23I feel like you feel good getting a Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman.
13:27That's kind of the reputation that they've built at this point in time.
13:31And you just feel like anybody who comes through there is going to be a solid player.
13:35And I kind of feel the same about the third player that the Falcons added, which is an offensive
13:39tackle position.
13:40They clearly needed some depth in.
13:43And that's Cameron Williams.
13:44He played at Texas.
13:46He was in just last year's draft.
13:49So, not the one that recently happened this year, but the one before.
13:53And, you know, he played at Texas.
13:56He's got to be good, right?
13:57He's got to be decent to play at Texas, right?
13:59I don't know.
14:00Apparently, his college tape isn't that great.
14:01But, you know, the Philadelphia Eagles and Jeff Stoutland, the coaching staff, the front
14:08office they've got there clearly liked him.
14:10So, I think you feel maybe a little bit good about that.
14:13And apparently, he had a good training camp and was kind of a surprise to get cut, especially,
14:17you know, in his second year.
14:18So, maybe some depth there for the Falcons.
14:22But always good to kind of be trying to churn.
14:25You want to churn the whole roster, obviously, to try to, like, you know, continue to get better.
14:28But for the Falcons, I think especially at the bottom of kind of their offensive line depth is
14:33where they can really kind of go through some guys, you know.
14:36And teams will often do this.
14:37The Falcons and every team, basically, is, like, always kind of going through offensive tackles.
14:43You want to get looks at guys.
14:44The Falcons brought in some random guy at the end of last year who was, like, 6'10", or something.
14:49Or maybe it was two years ago.
14:50I don't know.
14:50But, like, just get some crazy guys in there.
14:55Let's see.
14:55I thought my notes said tops, but it's actually 2PS, two practice squads.
15:00So, the big ones to the practice squad are, obviously, Zach Harrison.
15:03That's made a lot of noise.
15:04They cut.
15:05They waved the ambassador of strain.
15:07I didn't know you were allowed to wave somebody with a Nate Ali nickname, frankly.
15:12But that's what they did to my boy, Zach Harrison.
15:14But the Falcons got him back on the practice squad.
15:17Maybe in part because of when they released him, which was, like, a day after.
15:20It was, like, a little later.
15:21So, it was kind of behind the wave.
15:23And maybe they kind of got him in between the free agency waves enough or behind, basically, the big wave
15:29where a lot of teams file their claims and kind of finalize how they feel their roster is.
15:34I'm still surprised that, like, a Dolphins or any of these bad teams that are clearly going to be bad
15:40this year wouldn't just take a stab at a guy with the production that he has in his career so
15:44far.
15:44Because, like, what Zach Harrison's done, statistically, is way more than any of these other guys.
15:49But, you know, he's got the injury history.
15:54And, you know, I asked Ian Cunningham about him today.
15:57I thought that what he had to say about him was pretty interesting.
16:00I didn't go so far as to kind of say, like, oh, well, are you concerned about his injury past
16:04or, like, does he have an injury?
16:05He came into camp on the NFI.
16:07The reason I didn't ask is just because they're not going to say, you know.
16:11But he did come into camp on the non-football injury list and obviously missed the last back end of
16:18last season with a knee injury.
16:20But here is what Ian Cunningham had to say about Zach's situation.
16:23Yeah, I touched on it at the beginning.
16:26Those are some of the tough decisions, right?
16:28We put three claims in.
16:33You're guessing what the other 31 teams are going to do, not knowing if you're going to get one a
16:40claim or three.
16:41We were fortunate enough to get three.
16:44You go through it knowing if you get those three claims, what's the decision that you're going to have to
16:48make.
16:50And once we got that, it was, like, as happy as we were, it was a gut punch, too, personally,
16:57just because I knew that Zach was most likely going to be the option.
17:04Yeah, so I think every fantasy football manager can sympathize there.
17:09You know, it's like you have a week where you have a bunch of claims put in and you kind
17:13of assume that they're not all going to go through and that you aren't going to lose some guys.
17:16You might kind of have some attachment to who's maybe, like, had some good weeks for you in the flex
17:21or whatever.
17:21But, yeah, you know, it's – but, hey, they got him back on the practice squad.
17:26So I guess all is fair then as well.
17:27And, hey, listen, like, I'll give the Falcons credit at this point.
17:30Like, I feel like they're super vindicated with this move, even though I was as surprised as, I think, anybody
17:37that they would make this move.
17:39And I think another – by the way, I'm going to go on another slight tangent.
17:43But, like, again, I feel like there was then this reaction to the reaction of Zach Harrison's cutting where people
17:49were like, oh, he's not that good.
17:50And it's like, come on, guys.
17:51Like, I mean, you can be surprised by a cut.
17:55And, you know, I don't know.
17:56And maybe some people were overreacting to it.
17:59But I think it's just all – I think it has the anxiety.
18:03We need, you know, our counseling or whatever, our zen.
18:06Go out, go touch grass or whatever it is.
18:08And I'm not saying that, like, accusatory towards anybody else.
18:12Like, I feel that way myself sometimes when I get too worked up over some of the news.
18:15It's just kind of funny because I am still a Falcons fan at the end of the day.
18:18You know, if anybody's new to this show, I mean, I grew up a Falcons fan, went to – I
18:25think I've been to every Falcons home playoff game since the Mike Vick era started, I believe.
18:36So, I think I have my bona fides, and I still get emotional, just like you guys in some ways.
18:42But it is different.
18:43They also get Jamie Robinson back, safety, who they, you know, get rostered on the 53-man roster, then released,
18:49got him back.
18:49And then they also brought back an old friend, Khalid Kareem, which I think is just a – it's just
18:54like a good fan favorite at this point.
18:56Like, everybody loves Khalid Kareem.
18:58I think he's played well for the Falcons when he's played.
19:02Has certainly had some big hits, some big moments.
19:05I really like him.
19:07Good guy.
19:09No downsides there at all for me.
19:11Maybe other than injury, but like on your practice squad, it's totally fine.
19:14And I did think it was interesting also, Ian Cunningham noted, he's like talking about the practice squad and kind
19:18of how you compose it.
19:20And you – talking about how he wants to have a blend of like you want to have some guys
19:24who are on there who are like definitely developmental players, kind of longer term.
19:29You're probably thinking about them basically being on your practice squad the entire year and then kind of giving them
19:34a shot in the next training camp to try to make the team.
19:37And then you also want to have some guys like a Khalid Kareem who has been this guy for years.
19:42Zach Harrison's in this bucket.
19:43I would say Jamie Robinson's in this bucket where they're more of like, you know, guys who are NFL ready.
19:48And you can pluck off there, elevate immediately, and use on your roster.
19:52And that's all, again, part of these gymnastics, quote, unquote, that Ian Cunningham has been talking about.
19:57Because the only players they've lost basically from their training camp squad who they didn't choose to lose basically.
20:04I mean they waived these players and then we don't know if they would have signed them back to their
20:08practice squad.
20:08But running back Nate Carter, tight end Josh Simon, and then defensive tackle Chris Williams.
20:13Chris Williams was a vested veteran.
20:15So, and, you know, some people might be upset or sad about Josh Simon.
20:20I would say Josh Simon played well in the preseason games that we saw.
20:24But I would say I also saw a lot of mistakes from him.
20:28Very evident ones during training camp.
20:31A lot of drops.
20:33So, maybe not, maybe, you know, I have a different opinion of him than a lot of fans.
20:39But I'm sure the Falcons would have liked to have him just as one of those developmental guys who is
20:43more of a route runner,
20:44as one of the more athletic kind of pass-catching types.
20:46But I think they're also going to like the two that they've got in Jack Velling and Nick Muse on
20:51their practice squad who they got back.
20:53So, that's going to do it for today's episode of Joe Patrick on Football.
20:56Once again, ask for your like, please.
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21:11So, with that said, we will be out of here.
21:14Don't know if we'll be coming back until next week.
21:18Maybe.
21:18We'll see.
21:19We'll see if there's any big news.
21:20But if there's not, we're not going to be there.
21:22It's kind of one of those lock the door down.
21:26Let's compete.
21:26Let's get ourselves ready.
21:28Let's get ready for Pittsburgh in week one.
21:30So, for that reason, I'll be very interested to talk to Kevin Stefanski when Monday comes around.
21:34And we will have had a nice weekend of college football under our belts and all ready to go.
21:39So, until then, we'll talk to you later.