Which Falcons should you expect to see this Friday night vs Detroit Lions? | Training Camp Show

Which Falcons should you expect to see this Friday night vs Detroit Lions? | Training Camp Show

[Music] [Music] All right. All right. Well, we’re just a couple days away from the start of preseason week 1 in the 2025 NFL season. Thank you guys for joining us for the AT&T training camp show. Taylor Vismore Dave Archer. Let’s just get right into it. We’ve got a bunch of big storylines that have happened so far this week. Let’s start right off the top with Caleb McGary. Signed a 2-year extension. Signed a three-year deal back in 2023, but now with this extension, it will keep him through the 27 season. When you see Caleb McGary, I mean, we’ve talked about it so much about the continuity of the offensive line. Why was this such a key extension to get done? Well, first of all, the guy has been a guy that lines up for you every every weekend. 92 of 93 games he’s been a he’s been in the offensive line. Here’s some of the some of the things we’re talking about with Caleb Gary, the big Viking as we call him here. When you see him, the first thing I Where is Thor’s hammer? I keep looking for Thor’s hammer. I expect him to be following around with that thing. the guy is is legitimately become a stalwart on the offensive line. When you start talking about being the fifth best W uh offense and you talk about running the football at a certain level and throwing the ball to a certain level, he’s a big part of that. And obviously when you play out on the edge, he’s a gigantic human being that really is difficult uh when he sets his feet to get around. He’s a big part of what they do in the run game. We’ve seen Bjon Robinson and we’ve seen Tyler Algier get in behind his big body, him and Lindstöm on that side. and that’s become a a dynamic duo really on that side. So, two guys who were were drafted in the first round and it’s really cool to see him get that. He he earned that opportunity to get that extension. So, excited about him. Yeah, you bring up Chris Lindstöm and how these two have kind of become a duo. I mean, they literally came in together when they were drafted. They were both drafted in the first round and then but when you look at this whole offensive line as a unit, this front office has put in so much time, money, and resources into making this one of the best offensive lines units in the league. You have Jake Matthews who’s a first um a first round pick. You have Matthew Berseron who was a second round pick. To my understanding, they were trying to get back up into the first round to get him, but they decided to wait and get him in the second round. You also have Caleb McGary, Chris Lindström, both first round picks like I mentioned earlier. And then you have Ryan Nel who is a center. We’ll get to that center conversation a little bit later in the show. But here’s the thing about this offensive line group that I love. They’re really quiet. They’re not really flashy. They’re not in the news. And that’s something that Raheem Morris has even called out the media about. Look, we know that you guys want to talk about the edge all the time, but this offensive line has an edge group as well. The word of the offseason has been edge to bring some of that edge to our defense, to bring some of that edge to our team. Um, just in general, kind of like our old line had already had, right? Our old line has edge. Um, nobody talks about our old line having edge, right? So, it’s like bringing the edge to the defense, getting those guys together, getting those guys to go out there and play. All right. So, like Raheem Morris said, they have this edge on the offensive line. But I think the reason they have this edge is because of how healthy they can stay, which has kind of caused kind of questions for this offensive line moving into 2025. I know that you’ve mentioned it a couple times. It’s been mentioned throughout the media a couple times, is that center position. There is not a ton of depth at that center position behind Ryan Nel. If you remember last year, he came in for Drew Dolman. After Dolman went down, got hurt. Nel filled in that role beautifully. Um, and now he will assume the position as a starting center. So, let’s talk about the center position. After Newsel, who’s there? Who can we lean on? Who can this Falcons uh fans learn about as we look into the preseason this? Well, as you watch the preseason games, Jovon Gwyn is going to jump out at you. Jovon’s number 52. Uh, he has not played much. He’s only played in two games in his career as an Atlanta Falcon. Been a part of the team for the last three seasons. Was drafted in the seventh round out of South Carolina. This guy played a ton of football as a Gamecock. He played in 47 of 49 games. Played both center and guard. Was an outstanding player in the SEC. Just has not gotten his opportunity. He now is the Ryan Noo, if you will, for this year. Remember Ryan Nel has played in some 14 to 16 games over the last two seasons uh in back in backing up Drew Dolman. Now Newsel steps into that number one spot. And so the natural progression Jovon Gwyn steps up. I’ve had a chance to talk to Dwayne Leadford who’s our offensive line coach. He talked about how excited he is for Jovon Gwyn because Gwyn is one of the strongest players. he said physically one of the strongest players on the football team certainly and from what I understand one of the strongest guys in the building completely. So they’re excited about his ability. He’s a he’s a small package which a lot of times your centers are. He can come off the ball off the ball. He’s got low center of gravity and they’re excited about getting him up to speed. Now, after that, even with Gwyn in the mix, you mentioned there’s not a lot of depth. That the depth is okay, I think, but it’s inexperienced depth. When you start talking about Matthew Synrich, you talk about Michael Gonzalez, even Josh Gray, who they who they uh signed in in free agency, a college free agent out of Oregon State, played tackle his entire career at Oregon State. They project him as a center. He’s 6’5, 305, 310 lbs. They love his feet. He’s getting some snaps at center as well. So, the depth behind Ryan Na who’s played quite a bit the last couple seasons is there, but it’s inexperienced depth and that’ll be something we’ll have to watch for during training camp. That’s right. And obviously, and during those preseason games are some opportunities for these centers who are trying to get a little bit more experience, find a little bit of a higher snap count. They will probably be in those preseason games as we move along in training camp. Let’s go ahead and move on to the secondary because we’ve talked all through training camp about this secondary. It’s a large group of people, the quarterbacks, the safeties, the Nicholls. There’s a bunch of people in all three of those positions, but someone that has stuck out to you recently is D. Alford. Why has he been sticking out to you and what have you seen from him so far? I think it’s a there’s a couple of reasons why DE stuck out for for me is I thought he took a lot of undue criticism last season uh in some of the failures that happened some in the secondary uh as we tried to adjust to another system that we had after a system prior to that. So, I thought D did a really good job of of keeping his head down, keeping his nose to the grindstone and working in the off seasonason to get himself ready to play today or play play this season. Um, and I think that he blocked out all the noise. It’s hard to play that position. You and I discussed this last week on the show about that’s different than playing corner. He’s got a two-way go and I thought that his adjustment, remember he played in the CFL, was signed last year, came in here and got a chance to end up end up playing and he played a ton. So, I like the word where the way D has has taken on the task of being a better player. I think he has been and the reason is his his play. He’s done a really good job in what wants to do with the aggressive style up front. They’re playing a little bit more man coverage in the secondary. He’s matching guys extremely well now. He’s he’s got some pretty stiff competition that he’s going to be going against, but I really like the way D has stepped to the task. I think he has put his best foot forward and I think we’re going to see that this season. Yeah, you mentioned that again. We talked about it last week, but Nickel a little bit different than the quarterback position, but a quarterback that I want to talk on, touch on really quickly is Mike Ford because he’s returned back to Atlanta after leaving for a couple seasons. He’s back uh the quarterback and and we normally see him on special teams. That’s really where his forte is. He’s very good on special teams. What can we expect to see from Mike Ford the next couple of weeks? Well, savvy veteran. This guy’s been around for a while now. You mentioned he went to we had him for a little while. He went to Detroit. He came back here. Uh they liked him so much that they brought him back. I I think that his bread is buttered for the most part in what he does in special teams, but I think his versatility to not only play corner, which is his trade, was a slide inside nickel, and he started playing more nickel this week. I thought that there was a lot of conversation about deafford and Billy Bowman, who we’ll talk about in a little bit, but I felt like that that Mike Ford was getting left out in the mix. Ford stepped in and did some good stuff in there. He’s a physical dude that plays, has some savvy. He’s got the experience. He knows he knows what the ins and outs are, literally, of what playing in the slots’s about. And he also can bounce outside and play play corner for you. So, the versatility is there. And watch out for this guy on special teams because he’s probably one of the best gunners in punt coverage in the National Football League. Yeah. All right, let’s go ahead and talk about the preseason game. It’s preseason week one. The Falcons are hosting the Detroit Lions for preseason week 1 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That game is on Friday. It starts at 700 p.m. Now, look, there has been so much conversation not just with the Atlanta Falcons, but with the NFL about why what are we doing with preseason? Are they’re going to play the the starters? Are they going to play their ones? Are they going to play their twos? Who are you going to play? What is the preseason? What is every team looking for when they play these preseason games? So, an enormous question going into this is who will we be seeing moving forward in the preseason? Raheem Morris spoke to the media earlier in the week to discuss if quarterback number one, two, three, or four. Who would be starting for the Falcons going into preseason week one? Pennix won’t get out there and Kurt won’t get out there. So, we’ll see Stick. We’ll see uh Emory. Um, that’s probably the the the the most definitive thing that I can tell you right now. All right. So, Eastston Sick and Emry Joint Jones, those guys will be sharing some snaps as they take on the Detroit Lions. What have you seen from these two quarterbacks? There are four. There is only room for really three quarterbacks on this roster. Who do you see going forward in this team? And what do you see from them so far? Well, we we’ve used the term uh experience. And so if you start to base it on that, Eastston stick has some experience. He’s played in he’s played six games in the National Football League. He has four starts, played out on the West Coast. He’s a kid that played a ton of college football, was very successful at North Dakota State. I think 49 and three as a starter. Um and he’s a tremendous athlete. A lot of times when you have to get to your third quarterback, you’re going to pair down your system significantly. You’re not going to go to all the stuff that that Pennix is going to be throwing in week one. If you have to have stick on the field, it’s going to be a paired down scenario where uh you might need to lean on his athleticism. This guy’s a tremendous athlete. I think you’ll see that on Friday night. I think he’s going to get out of the pocket and run. Emry Jones is a similar type guy that uh didn’t have as much success in college. Played in a couple of different places, finished his career in Cincinnati, but he’s a a dynamic athlete as well. So, those are the two guys you’ll see on the field. I think that uh I like both the players. I think they they’ve approached it with a great attitude because they know that there’s not a number one spot here and there’s not a number two spot here. They’ve embraced their opportunities. They haven’t gotten a lot of reps. And quite frankly, Friday night is going to be a major audition for both those guys for exactly what you’re talking about, Taylor. Who makes this team is the third quarterback. That audition is going to happen on Friday night. and that’s going to be their first real taste of being on the field with the with the guys trying to put points on the board. Yeah. So, let’s go ahead and cut talk about the guys that they might be throwing to or the guys that are going to be on the defensive side of the ball. Obviously, Raheem Morris was spo spoke to media earlier in the week asking about, you know, who’s going to be playing, are the rookies going to be playing? And he said it’s pretty fluid right now who’s going to play. Obviously, Michael Pinnick and Kirk Cousins will not be playing, but it sounds like he really wants the younger guys on this team, including the rookies, to start. That could be Xavier Watts. It could be Billy Bowman Jr. Even the first round picks in Jaylen Walker and James Pierce Jr. could be seeing some snaps. Let’s talk about some guys that fans might not know a ton about. Who are you looking at to see big games from in in these next three weeks of preseason? Well, I think that guys that have kind of flashed for you in training camp and and I know it’s a guy that you you actually turned me on to David Sills, the wide receiver. We talked about him. He’s he’s been in a couple of different places in his career. actually kind of had a an on-again off-again career in college where he was at West Virginia, then went to a junior college and went back to West Virginia, was originally recruited as a quarterback, came back as a wide receiver, had a good career as a mountaineer, but he’s really stuck out and he and he’s he’s a big tall receiver that understands uh leverage and coverage. He understands how to get open. He catches the football as you’re seeing some of the highlights of David Sills during camp. I think he’s a guy that you’d like to see continue to take progress because in all honesty, you and I talked about this last week. We talk about guys that can play and there’s a ton of guys that can play at the receiver spot, but you just don’t know very much about them. Yeah. And so the experience level, you know, past the Drake London’s, Darnold Mooneyies, and Ray Ray Mlouds and Cadrell Hodge to a certain extent, you’re not really sure. I mean, you I think you think it can play, but you’d like to see it. I think David Sills is one of those guys you’re expecting to see some stuff from. Yeah, I love that you bring up the whole entire wide receiver room because I think you’re right when what you said after the Drake the Drake Londons and the Darnell Mooneyies and the Ray Mlouds of this team. Who’s going to fill in those spots after the fact? And how are they going to they can’t necessarily might not be able to hit that echelon that Drake London might be able to hit every single Sunday, but who’s going to fill in for that four, five, six role in the wide receiver room? I think David SS is a great person. I think Nick Nash is another name to look out for on Friday. I also think um Casey Washington is another guy. You saw him come in. He had a great uh camp last year. He’s having a great camp this year. And I think he’s a guy that you see every day at practice, whether it’s full pads, high high practice, high intensity, or even a walkthrough. He’s giving it his all. He has the want. He has the desire not just to make the team, but to be a big player for this team moving forward. Well, think about being able to plug and play in moments in games. And and you don’t have to go very far back. And I think a lot of fans will remember. Let’s go back to the overtime game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers here in Atlanta. Tremendous football game. Um, but Drake London catches a pass in in overtime and gets knocked to the ground. Has to come out of the game. Who comes in the game for him? Cadrell Hodgej comes in the game for him and the next play catches a little turn route, makes a guy miss and goes 50 yards for a touchdown to win the football game. Those are the moments where if a Casey Washington or a David Sills gets an opportunity, those are the moments you’re looking for to step up and make some plays. And these guys are certainly trying to put their foot forward in being that guy, that fifth, sixth guy on the roster. Yeah. All right. So, we gave you a couple of guys on the offense that to look out for to watch for their numbers and their names on the field. We also gave you the rookies. Who knows what their snap count is going to be, but it does sound like from what Raheem Morris did say earlier in the week during pressers that the um all four of those main um rookies uh Billy Bowman Jr. Xavier Watts, Jaylen Walker, and James Pierce Jr. will potentially be on the field for how long? I have no idea. I think you’ll see Nelson, too, the big tackle. I think that all five of the rookies are going to play and and that’s that’s exciting. We got a chance on Wednesday in the in the in the scrimmage uh to see uh Jaylen Walker on the field which was cool. We had not seen him kind of full go. He was full go. Did a really did some good things. We saw some of the power out of him. He’s projected to play on Friday night. So excited about that. Yeah, very exciting. So, make sure to come out to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to check out the Falcons take on the Detroit Lions at 700 p.m. Um, the rest of the preseason schedule. We will have Tennessee hosting Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium next week on the 15th. And then the Falcons will be on the road for the 22nd of August taking on the Dallas Cowboys. If you guys want to be able to see these Falcons practicing to getting ready for these preseason games and ready for week one, there are just a couple more opportunities for you as the Falcons prepare to host the Tennessee Titans for the joint practices on the 12th and the 13th and then the 11th will be uh open as well. That just won’t be joint. That will just be the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah, a lot of team reps going on in practice. So, if you want to see Pennix and you want to see Drake London and Bjan Robinson and some of these guys that aren’t going to play potentially in the preseason, they’re doing a lot of team reps and trying to simulate as much as they can uh a game for these guys. We saw it in Wednesday in the scrimmage where the ones were going against the ones good on good all a lot of great battles at I mean Drake London had some monster catches against AJ Terrell. It was really fun to watch. If you want to see him come out to those open practices, especially against Tennessee be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re really excited to have you guys here at Fl Branch, but also excited to host you guys at MercedesBenz Stadium. We will be with you guys next week for another training camp update, but until then, enjoy your weekend, enjoy the preseason, and we will see you next week.

With the first preseason game right around the corner, Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris sheds some light on which Falcons fans will see this Friday night as the Detroit Lions come to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take on the Atlanta Falcons. Taylor Vismor and Dave Archer are back to give you all the news from this week at the Falcons’ 2025 AT&T Training Camp.

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