Michael Penix’s BREAKTHROUGH Against Patriots | Why No Trades For Atlanta Falcons at Deadline?

Michael Penix’s BREAKTHROUGH Against Patriots | Why No Trades For Atlanta Falcons at Deadline?

The Falcons signed a new kicker. There was no Kirk Cousins trade. And Michael Pennock showed serious signs of growth against the Patriots. Oh boy, it’s a good day to be me. [Music] You are Locked On Falcons, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Welcome back everyone to another illustrious episode of the Locked On Falcons podcast. Your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So today’s episode is also our All 22 review where I’ll be breaking down Michael Penn’s growth in this Patriots game. We’ll talk about some of the adjustments the Falcons made to divine Diablo’s absence by expanding their big nickel package. Uh but first we’ll talk about the new kicker that the Falcons got uh that is not named Lenny Kig. uh and as well as the lack of activity and the reasoning behind that for the Falcons at today’s Tuesday’s that is trade deadline. But first, I should introduce myself. I am none other than your very humble host. So, so humble. Uh the type of host that would not take credit for saying six months ago that the Kirk Cousins trade is not going to happen. Right. I’m your humble host, Aaron Freeman. Been covering the Atlanta Falcons for almost two decades. Formerly at fans.com. RIP. Still going strong on this podcast. We’re coming up on year nine this November here on Locked on Falcons. And I think each and every one of you, whether you’ve been with us for the last nine seconds or the last nine years, uh that is in every day of this podcast, that means you make it your first listen each and every day. All you got to do is subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. So, let’s talk about the new kicker. Falcons are signing Zayn Gonzalez, formerly of the Washington Commanders, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, uh, after trying him out. They tried him out back in week two. Um, and that’s been the interesting thing about the Falcons kicking situations. They worked out a bunch of kickers after that week one loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and as far as I know, have not worked out any kickers since then. So, they’re just kind of going down the list. They started with Parker Romo. They Ben Sauls was also at that workout and Zay Gonzalez was originally at this workout at that week two workout and now they brought him back in for another workout. He’s tried out officially. The Falcons haven’t signed him as of Tuesday, expecting that to be official on Wednesday. Uh NFL Network is reporting that that move is impending. The Falcons moved on from Parker Romo. And so, you know, I could sit here and wax poetic about the Falcons new kicker, but if I’m being completely honest with you, I’m not going to care about the Falcons new kicker until the new kicker makes kicks. Whether it’s our friend Lenny, you know, I’m a little upset because the Falcons stole my joy this week uh of having Lenny Krie in Germany in his home country, the fatherland. But, um, you know, if if Zayn Gonzalez makes kicks, then we’ll talk about it. It’s similar to I remember when the Falcons brought in Marcus Mario after making the Matt Ry droid. It’s like all right like I guess if if Marcus Mario plays well, we’ll talk about him, but ain’t nobody get you know basically if the status quo is maintained with the Falcons having bad kicking and Zay Gonzalez’s body of work over his like sevenyear NFL career is not particularly one that inspires you with a ton of confidence. But we’ll see. You know, if if they can’t break the status quo, then like the kicking conversation is not that important. You know, a lot of that is owed to my personal opinion, uh, that the season is kind of cooked. If the Falcons going to make the playoffs, they probably need to win like eight games so that they can overcome the tiebreers that they’re probably going to lose to teams like San Francisco and Tampa. Um, as well as potential ones against Seattle and and LA coming up. Um, you know, and basically it’s like I think I said last week after the Dolphins win, like in order for the Falcons to win me back, they got to win three straight. Well, they lost to the Patriots, so now they got to win four straight, right? And if they can beat the Colts this week and then beat the Panthers, then then beat the Saints and beat the Jets in four straight games, then maybe you could consider, oh, maybe maybe this season’s back on track. But, you know, if you’re a true Falcon fan like I haven’t been been for 35 almost 35 years, you know that they’re they’re just going to build you back up, get you to buy back in just enough to let you down in the end because that’s what Falcons do. So, you know, that season being over is kind of a big reason why the Falcons didn’t make a trade at the trade deadline in my opinion. The other two reasons is that they don’t have enough draft capital to really be buyers at this point in time and they can’t really be sellers as we discussed on yesterday’s episode with Tan Diaz because this regime kind of has to save their own skin and anybody who’s worth selling that they could actually get, you know, recoup some draft capital for uh to make up for the fact that they can’t buy is too valuable to this team in terms of winning football games for them to be basically given away. So, you know, the the the the challenge for a lot of folks out there is a lot of casuals, as we call them, the the non- everydayers of this podcast, they may try to convince you that the Falcons were just a couple pieces away, you know, and and that’s why they’re going to be upset that the Falcons weren’t proactive at this year’s trade deadline. It’s like, oh, we we could have we could have gotten Saul Gardner. We could have gotten Quinnon Williams. That’s all we like. No, that’s not all we need. Again, those moves could have helped, but that’s not all this team needs, right? A lot of people like to pretend, and they’ve been doing this for a long time, like to pretend this team’s close. They’re close, guys. But they’ve been wrong the entire time. You know, unlike us who’s been preaching on this podcast, you know that this team is several pieces away for several years, and the Falcons keep operating like, “Oh, that was just one piece away.” You know, but time and time again, I I get proven right here on this podcast. Like, why are you booing me? I’m right. And speaking of being right, did did a transaction happen today? Did Did Kirk Cousins get traded? There was no Kirk Cousins trade. Oh, huh. If only if only there was a very humble podcaster that was out there that was sitting here in March saying that a Kirk Cousins trade wasn’t going to happen. That person could be doing donuts in the parking lot, right? Why Why are you booing him? He was right the entire time, right? Right? And we talked about this back in March where Terry’s strategy is like, I’m going to keep Kirk because I’m leaving here with something. Right? Well, guess what, Terry? You’re going to be leaving here with nothing. Didn’t get no draft pick. You’re not going to get any cap relief, right? You couldn’t even get Kirk to win you a football. We talked about that. Well, the only thing that’s salvageable because the trade ain’t going to happen is if Kirk comes onto the field, Penn misses a couple of games and Kirk goes out there and wins a game for the Falcons to salvage their playoff season. And guess what? The Falcons ain’t making the playoffs. And Kirk came out there and laid an egg against the Miami Dolphins. Terry. Oh, it’s Oh, remember when people were saying, “Let Terry cook.” And remember what I said? Every time people say, “Let Terry cook,” it winds up backfiring on the Atlanta Falcons. It never fails. Right? Y’all letting Terry cook and there ain’t an ounce of seasoning in that house. No salt, no pepper, no ginger, no garlic, no onion powder, no paprika, no cumin, no parsley, no basil, no thyme, no rosemary. Right? No coriander, none of that stuff. Cayenne pepper, nothing. Ain’t an ounce of seasoning y’all letting this man cook. Right? This man is out here cooking, putting metal in the microwave, blowing up houses. He’s he’s splashing grease all over the stove, but you’re like, “Let this man cook.” y’all sitting here defending the James Pierce trade and it’s like, well, why don’t people forget about the Xavier Watts element of Dre. Hey, Xavier Watts is balling. But Xavier Watts alone can’t make that trade worth it, guys. Because guess what? That’s a top 10 pick he gave away. Again, as good as Xavier Watts is is is and and James Pierce has the potential to be, they ain’t justifying a top 10 pick because best guess what? If the F right the draft was today, that would be the 11th overall pick that the Falcons gave up to the Rams. and if they lose this weekend against the the Colts, it’s very likely that that will be like the eighth overall pick that they’ll be on track to lose. So, I sit here and all these people that have been like, let Terry Cook, they’re all terrorists, right? Terry the terrorists, right? And and all his, you know, cabal of terrorists out here talking about, oh, we should keep Terry and we should give him another like what are you are you guys on drugs, right? Stop selling the poppy seeds that the terrorists are selling. You know what I’m saying? But that rant aside, let’s get to what we’re really here to talk about. Not me sitting here gloating about being right as I so often am. Wait, like, why are you booing? Why are you booing me? I’m right. But let’s get into the all 22 review. Let’s talk about something positive for once on this podcast rather than sitting here gloating on the demise of the Atlanta Falcons and the fall of Terry Fontau. Let’s talk about what the rest of the season is really about. If it’s not about making the playoffs, it’s about developing Michael Penn Jr. and what we saw from him this past Sunday against the New England Patriots is going to make us feel much better or at least it makes me feel much better and hopefully it’ll make you feel much better about the future of this franchise in lie of all the terrorists that are actually running this organization. And we’ll break that down as we continue today’s locked on Falcons. Now that the NBA season is back, there is no better place to get in on that NBA action than with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Whether you miss tip off or you’re looking to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has all the live bets from everything from who’s going to score next to those fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine those live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. We love a same game parlay. Bet a little, win a lot. 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So, like I said earlier, the rest of this 2025 season for me, at least here on the on this very humble, illustrious podcast, is all about Michael Penn and whatever other young pieces across this roster that are going to be, you know, joining him as core essential pieces to build around for hopefully a non-terrorist GM and a different coaching regime in the future beyond this season, right? We’ll talk about one of those young pieces in terms of Jaylen Walker later in the episode and his big game uh when we turn our attention to the defense at the end of the episode, but it’s really about, you know, who are the guys that are going to earn second contracts? Who are some of these guys on rookie contracts that we can look towards as long-term assets like a Jaylen Walker, like an Xavier Watts, all that and more. So, you know, but when we talk about Michael Penn, there are really three things that we’re going to be paying a lot of attention to when it comes to evaluating Michael Penn independent of all the stuff surrounding Michael Penn. Oh, is this a bad offense? The Falcons putting him in success, is the offensive line, the weapons, all that stuff. But there are elements that we can break down on film that are not, it’s not to say Michael Penn it’s independent of his supporting cast, but we can really hyperfixate on Michael Pinnick’s impact on these three things. The first one is the creation ability, right? That off structure play extension, second reaction, whatever you want to call it. When that first read is not there, your ability to buy yourself more time for your wide receivers to get open, right, and make your wide receivers right or make your offensive coordinator right, right, where he schemes up a play with a first read, first read’s not there. Can you, you know, extend outside the pocket, buy yourself more time to make it a right play? And if you can do that, then you know that bodess well for whoever is calling plays in the future for Michael Penn as well as the wide receivers that you can put around him that you don’t necessarily have to put as much a premium on that. But if Pennix can’t make those uh creation plays, then you really need an offensive coordinator capable of consistently being able to scheme the first read open. And you also uh need wide receivers that will consistently get open when they are the first read or the second read or whatever. The second thing that we can evaluate Michael Pennix on is his ability and to attack every area of the field, right? That’s where the middle of the field stuff, that’s where the deep stuff comes in, the underneath stuff when defenses try to take away the deep ball. Can you attack them quick game? All that stuff. This is where the accuracy concerns surrounding Michael Penn factor in, right? Can you make the throws when the throws are there, right? That’s a big part of it. The third thing is the play action passing game, right? We’ve talked about how crucial this is to the success of young quarterbacks that you can go back over the last 5 to 10 years. You’re not really going to find too many examples of young quarterbacks, first, second year quarterbacks that are having success in the NFL without play action being a significant element of their offense. a much more significant element than the current version of the Falcons offense. Uh, and you’re also not going to find too many successful teams outside of the Kansas City Chiefs because they have Patrick Mahomes or the Bengals because they have Joe Burrow or, you know, a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers with their elite defense that have team success like make the playoffs without having, you know, a upper half of the league uh, type of play action passing attack. And so when it comes to Michael Pennik, the real issue with the play action is, is he comfortable turning his back to the defense? If he is, then you can incorporate under center play action passing and that has trickle down effect to how do you build or rebuild your offensive line, right? You can run the outside zone scheme that the Falcons have been running for basically a decade. And you can continue that if you can operate under center play action. But if PennX is not comfortable turning his back to the defense, that probably means you got to do more shotgun, more pistol type of stuff. And you probably have to change your run scheme and be much more of a gap in between the tackles. And that’s going to cause you to probably have to completely rebuild your offensive line over the next couple of years in addition to all the other things that the Falcons are going to have to rebuild. So, those are the three elements. The creation ability, the ability to attack every area of the offense of the field, I’m sorry, and the play action ability uh are the three things that were really fixating on Michael Penn on a week- to-eek basis and really breaking down the film. Now, when it comes to those three elements, right, I thought Pennix did a good job in most of those areas, right? And two out of those check two of those three boxes against the Patriots, right? You saw him extending plays in this game, right? That first red zone run uh in in the first half, right? Then you had the 15 yard scramble in the third quarter. Late in the fourth quarter, you saw him extend a play, try to throw it back over the middle to Kyle Pittz. Kyle Pittz dropped that pass, should have caught it, right? But then you also had um you know him hitting Drake London on the I believe the final drive where he was able to get outside the pocket. All right. And get the team’s third explosive play of the game with a 20 plus yard strike to Drake London along the sideline. Those are all things and all signs of Michael Penn making things right. Right. It’s, you know, are we ever going to see Michael Pennix be that highlevel creator like a Lamar Jackson or a Kayla McGary or even a Drake May or whatever? Probably not, right? There are other guys that are going to be a much better at that. But it goes back to a conversation we had with Derek Classen of the athletic uh back in May after the draft where he talked about Pennix has to hit a certain threshold in that area. He used Andy Dalton as the sort of defining element. People freaked out because they were like, he’s saying he’s only going to be as good as Andy D. Like that’s not what he was saying. He was talking specifically about the mobility and creation ability. And I do think Pennix in this Patriots game played above the Andy Dalton threshold, right? And so are we going to get this consistently moving forward or is this going to we’re going to look back at this in two months and be like, “Yeah, there’s like a handful of games where Pennix was able to do this, but most weeks he’s not able to do that.” Now, when it comes to the middle of the field stuff, right, very similar conversation. This is the one area where I don’t think Penn really shined in this Patriots game. It’s similar to the conversation we had against the 49ers, right, where there were too many turndowns for Michael Penn over the middle and most of them like that 49ers game came when he was pressured. Basically, the same thing I said then I’m going to say now that basically when Pennix is under pressure and he has an opportunity to throw a tight window throw over the middle or throw it outside the numbers, whether it’s a tight window or open window, he’s going to cons he’s shown consistently in the San Francisco game and in this New England game that he’s going to throw the ball outside every single time. By my count, there were eight opportunities where I thought in this game, Michael Pennix had an opportunity to attack the middle. Seven of them, he was under pressure. In all seven of those instances, he did not pull the trigger on those throws. And it’s not to sit here and say like, “Oh, he made mistakes on those throws.” Because again, they weren’t going to be easy throws. You’re under pressure. I understand it. You can defend a lot of it. But if you can’t trust your quarterback to make attack the middle of the field unless the pocket is clean, which has basically been the case for Penn these last couple of weeks, you know, that’s going to have ramifications. That’s going to mean your offensive line is going to have to be better, right? The offensive line against the Patriots, I don’t think played particularly well. And it wasn’t just, oh well, they have backups as Kyle Hinton, Javon Gwen, like Lindstöm struggled. Wilkinson struggled, Jake Matthews had his fair share of struggles as well. So those guys need to step up in order to elevate Michael Penn if this is going to continue to be an issue. Now when it comes to the play action, I think this was one of Penn’s more positive games, arguably his most positive game when it came to turning his back to the defense. Right? There were a handful of plays where I noted where Penn turned his back to the defense and was able to get to the right answer. That 22 yard pass to Kyle Pitts on an Ohio or concept. Uh he had a very similar one to Kyle Pittz, pretty much the exact same play in the 49ers game, but that play was nullified by a penalty. Um and then you had the 15- yard comeback to Mooney, which he made a great throw. I you know, there was a defender in the in the throwing lane, Christian Ellis, uh but he kind of zipped it by his ear hole. And it’s like I don’t you know again we’ll we’ll talk about it more on the extended all 22 review which I’ll plug at the end but it’s like that’s probably the one questionable one because it’s like you’re throwing it in a congested area but again we’re not going to um criticize Michael Penn for making big boy throws in tight windows right but it is one the one that was like I don’t know did you see that guy or were you just you trusted that you could throw again that’s the question we don’t necessarily have the answer to. And then you had the 40-yard double move to Drake London. Uh that knocked Christian Gonzalez out of the game. Uh and on that particular play, he had an open Kyle Pittz, which would have been an easier throw on kind of an overwin type of route over the middle. Uh but he took the deep shot along the sideline to Drake London, which again goes back to the earlier point where it’s like there are opportunities for him to throw over the middle and he typically takes uh he turns down those opportunities. But as I said, I think this was the best game uh when it came to seeing more good versus bad when it comes to Michael Penn uh turning his back to the defense. And hopefully this is a sign of progress that will continue as the rest of the season wears on. Again, we’re just we’re we’re the feds, baby. We’re building a case for potentially against Michael Penn and his ability to do all these things. And we’re just stacking evidence week after week after week to see if Pennix can do these things because it matters. Because again, I know everybody’s focused on, you know, Raheem, fire Raheem, fire Zack, and we’re going to get a new offensive coordinator, new head coach, and all that stuff. And I understand that, not sitting here begrudging anybody that, but let’s imagine that scenario happening, right? No more terrorists in the Falcons organization, right? We’re we’re we’re a wholesome organization. No more terrorists here. And you know, for example, we talked about this yesterday with Trayon Diaz on the podcast. Clint Kubiaak, very easy to assume, you know, particularly for someone like me, you’re like, “Oh, play action is the key. Play action is the key.” You get a play action under center offense like Clint Kubak, you know, sky’s the limit. But if Michael Penn is not comfortable turning his back to the defense, is not comfortable operating under center, that isn’t the magic bullet that a lot of people are going to assume it’s going to be. And so these are the conver these are the questions we want to have answered when it comes time to making the changes in this organization that are going to lead to this team finally breaking through. It’s not about just hey let’s just make changes just to make changes. It’s like let’s actually solve these problems and can you solve these problems. So those are going to be the big questions for us here on the podcast is not to sit here and say that we’re we don’t care one we’re going to break down you know the games and whatnot and preview the matchups and all that stuff. So, we still do our work. And for those of you that are are still invested in in the Falcons turning their season around in the wins and losses, you know, continue to make uh this podcast your first listen each and every day. But at the same time, like ultimately, if Pennix plays well, like I’m not going to be sitting here broken up about a Falcons loss is is I can only speak for myself, but that’s just how I’m operating. Um, but you know, to me, if this team is going to climb out of this hole anytime soon, it’s going to be because they have a quarterback. And I want to be able to give a certain terrorist named Terry Fontino, uh, his flowers in three years where it’s like, you know, uh, when Michael Pinnix is, you know, earning a $65 million contract or whatever to become one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL, and it’s like, you know, Terry might have been a terrorist, but you you got to hand it to him. He got one thing right. Right. He made one good decision and that was the bet on Michael Penn. Now hopefully Terrace Terry the Terrace won’t see it through, right? We’ll be talking about the new GM building a successful team around Michael Penn in the future, but you know, we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it. But we’ll continue to wrap up today’s episode talking about the Falcons defense where with the divine Diablo size void in the middle of that defense, the JD Bertrren strategy didn’t work. the Falcons decided, hey, let’s throw Ronnie Harrison in that big nickel look out there. And we’ll break down how effective that was, as well as Jaylen Walker’s big day to wrap up today’s locked on Falcons. So, nobody likes paying rent, but if you got to do it, you might as well get something for it. That’s where Built comes in. Built is changing the game by turning your rent payment into real rewards that you can actually use. When you pay rent through Built, you earn flexible points that can be redeemed towards hundreds of hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next lift ride, and so much more. But Built isn’t just about rent. It’s about rewarding you around your entire neighborhood. Whether you’re grabbing food at your favorite local restaurant or heading to the gym, you can still be earning rewards. So turn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to join.com/lockton NFL. That’s j o i n b i l t.comlocked on NFL. And make sure you use that link so that they know we sent you. So last week we talked a little bit or really last two weeks we’ve talked a lot about how it seems like offenses are starting to sort of poke holes in some of the weaknesses of this Falcons defense, right? We talked specifically last week about, you know, teams getting them in the base defense on early downs. Uh, and because the Falcons aren’t getting effective pressure there, teams are were effective throwing the ball against them on early downs as well. In addition to all the run stuff that they’re capable of doing, allowing them to stay ahead of the chains. We talked about this at the 49ers game and the Dolphins game. The quick passing game is being utilized to negate the Falcons blitz by getting the ball out quickly and giving the quarterback answers on the blitz. Um, and they’re also exploiting weaknesses in the Falcons coverage. Right. The last couple of weeks it’s been Mike Hughes, the Falcons outside corner opposite AJ Terrell and JD Bertrren, the linebacker who has been replacing Devine Diablo and they have been really going after those guys. So, one of the questions we had is like, you know, something’s got to give. The Falcons got to make adjustments, right? And so, one of the adjustments I, if I’m not mistaken, we didn’t see a single snap of base defense in this game. Instead, when the Patriots were utilizing their heavy personnel, right? 21 with a fullback, 12 with two tight ends, 22 with a fullback and two tight ends. You know, the Falcons instead of going base as they have traditionally done, right? They went with their big nickel front while also using or big nickel defense while also using their penny front, which is their 5-1 front where they have three down linemen, two edge rushers, and one offball linebacker. In the past when they’ve been using the penny front, Kate Ellis moves to the edge and Devon Diablo has been that offball linebacker. And last week it was, you know, uh, that penny front, uh, has been JD Bertrren. This week, Kell stayed at the offball linebacker spot and they had two quote unquote true edge rushers on the field. Uh, and then in those situations this week against the Patriots, whenever the Falcons went or not all the time, I think there was one snap where they went penny where one or two snaps where they went penny and Kellis moved to the edge and JD Burchin was the offball linebacker. But pretty consistently in this game, they went their penny front in their big nickel where they had Ronnie Harrison lining up next to K Nellis functioning essentially like a linebacker, but we’re technically counting him as a safety because technically he’s more like a box safety than a true blue linebacker. But there’s a lot of overlap there. But the problem with that big nickel front was it wasn’t that effective stopping the run. New England’s overall success rate on design runs in this game was 60%. They had 25 design runs, right? When the Falcons had their big nickel or penny front end, uh their the Patriots success rate was 69%. Against their regular 4-2 nickel front, it was 44%. Right? Uh and so that’s a healthy, you know, success rate for your defense, right? You you know, uh a good success rate rushing the football is anything above 44%. So the Falcons were able to hold him about at 44 in their normal nickel front. 69% is elite. uh essentially. And so the Falcons run defense continues to be a major problem for this team. And again, that’s going to be an area that the Falcons are going to have to invest more resources in this offseason and probably future offseasons to sort of beef up. But, you know, the big nickel front was a little bit more effective in coverage, right? The New England’s overall success rate on design passes, which also includes scrambles based off my charting, was 48% uh versus the big nickel that was 44% and against the regular nickel that was 50%. Uh, and we did see the Falcons unveil their or not unveil, but utilize more dime defense on obvious passing situations. It was four times they did it a third and seven, a third and 10, a third and 12, and a third and 14, and it was effective on two of those four plays. Uh, and so I think we’re going to continue to see a mix of this approach, more big nickel, you know, less snaps for JD Bertrren, more dime in obvious passing situations as part of their strategy to kind of tread water until Dine Diablo comes back in however many weeks that takes at this point in time, right? You know, in theory, it’s like what, two and a half more weeks until he’s eligible to come back, but knowing the Falcons and their history with injuries, you know, it could be eight weeks or whatever. Who knows at this point? But, you know, another issue that the Falcons kind of struggled with in this game was getting pressure with four versus needing to send five to get pressure. Based off my charting, when the Falcons were rushing four, they got pressure on about 41% of uh the Patriots drop backs. When they were rushing five, that number spiked at 72%. Four out of the team’s six sacks in this game came with them rushing five in this game. Now, 35% is a healthy uh uh amount of pressure. So, 41% is an above average number, but it’s not that, you know, and for me, for those of you guys that have been every day, you know that we’ve talked before about how I tend to be a little bit more generous if what I count as a pressure than other websites like NextG Stats and PFF. So, you know, that number probably is lower for some of those other websites. Uh, but I did not double check uh before recording this episode. So, the pass rush to me has improved. Obviously, it’s, you know, it’s not is by no means one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL, which it has been for, you know, the better part of what since what, 2017 was the last time the Falcons or 2023, I guess, they also had a league average pass rush. But, you know, like their above average pass rush, but it still to me is a work in progress, right? It’s not finished, right? Um because until you can get effective pressure with four guys, you know, that impacts how you handle coverage, right? You know, zone versus man, all those various things, do you need the blitz? Uh and especially when we’re talking about the possible life after Raheem Morris with this Falcons defense, that also means that life after Jeffrey. Um and so that’s going to potentially change. And so I I know a lot of people look at some of the numbers uh and think this defense is already good and this is something that they’re going to be able to maintain long term. Again, I think you’re probably getting a little too far ahead of yourself. This defense still needs a lot of work. Uh and kudos to Jeffrey. I think he’s done an excellent job uh turning the the whole greater than the sum of the parts. And you know, when people talk about, oh, the people that were criticizing Jeffrey, I raised my hand. I was one of those people that was like, “Yeah, I don’t I don’t I’m not sold on this hire.” And I think he’s done a heck of a job uh getting more out of the talent level of this defense um than what you could reasonably expect, but you’re starting to see that defense kind of fall back down to earth. I don’t I didn’t double check what their rankings are today when the the update came this week on Tuesday, but I know going into Sunday, they were ninth in DVOA according to FTN Fantasy after, you know, I believe they were number one going into the by-week in in week five. So, it does feel like they’re going back to the middle of the pack and we’ll see if that trend uh continues uh as things move on. But, you know, when we talk about the young pieces, we talk about Michael Pennix and building that core. We got to talk about Jaylen Walker. He was the standout in this game. I I credit him in my charting with two sacks, a pressure, a hurry, a pass break up, two run stops, a disruption, which is basically where he basically blows up a play that another player winds up making. And you know, outside of Xavier Watts, I haven’t been as sold on this draft class, uh, as other people have, which is part of the reason why, like I’m not sitting here, you know, crowing about Terry Fontin, letting that man cook. Um but you know based off of Walker’s performance this week against New England and his previous performance prior to his injury against New uh uh his injury against the Bills um you know I’m starting we’re adding a second name to being sold on if we can maintain this for Jaylen Walker moving forward. So hopefully he’ll be able to keep this up for the rest of the year similar to Michael Penn and that will at least give us two very solid assets from this draft class. is not to sit here say that Billy Bowman and James Pierce are bad or bust or anything like that, but it’s just one of those things where they still have a ways to go before I’m sitting here going like, “Yep, those guys are going to definitely be huge long-term assets uh for years to come.” And again, even Jaylen Walker, you know, two games is is not nothing. Uh but, you know, I want to see more than these two games. But we’ll see on that front and we’ll see what else we get into on the extended all 22 review for the lockdown Falcons Insiders. If you’re tired of hearing me yap about all these plays from the Patriots game and you want to see it, you want to see a look at Jaylen Walker’s big day. You want to see Michael Pennix’s performance, you want to see what this defense looks like when Ronnie Harrison’s on the field versus when JD Burton’s on the field, you want to see Drake London doing his thing, you can do that become by becoming a Locked on Falcons insider at the link in the description below at joinsubttex.com/lockedonfalcons. You can do that for free and get an extended all 22 breakdown. It’ll probably be an hour plus of film analysis. If you’re a visual learner as opposed to an audio learner, this is the thing for you. And it’s for free, a 14-day free trial. And then if you like it, $4.99 a month. Uh after that point, we have plenty of people that enjoy these extended all 22 reviews. And not in addition to getting um you know access to that, you also you know get my thoughts on you know roster moves hours in advance before the podcast as well as my live thoughts during the course of the games on Sunday. So if you’re looking forward to seeing what I think and what I’m eating Sunday morning when the Falcons take on the Indianapolis Colts in Germany, right? Then become a locked down Falcons in. And guess what? Hey, there’s no accent with the becoming an insider. So, if you’re tired of the accent, you know, don’t steal my joy, guys. Uh don’t yuck my yum. But, you know, it’s just text, right? So, no audio. So, uh go check it out in the link in description below, guys. That’s going to do it for us here. We’ll be back tomorrow with a uh crossover Thursday with locked on Colts to preview that big matchup in Germany. Uh so, continue to make locked on Falcons your first listen on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. And of course, for your second lesson, check out Locked On NFL to get all the scoop at all the other trades that happened at the trade deadline. Not none of them involving the Falcons, right? No Kurt Cousins. No, they’re not going to be talking about Kurt Cousins on that show. But hey, if you want to hear about Sauce, you want to hear about Quinnon, you want to hear about all the other people that got Jacobe Meyers, right? Lockdown NFL’s got you covered, it’s all part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Atlanta Falcons make no moves at the NFL’s trade deadline while Michael Penix’s development takes center stage. Can the first-year quarterback prove he’s the franchise’s future? Host Aaron Freeman breaks down Penix’s performance against the New England Patriots through three critical evaluation lenses: creation ability when plays break down, attacking the middle of the field under pressure, and comfort with play-action passing. The analysis reveals promising growth in off-structure playmaking and turning his back to the defense, but exposes concerning patterns with middle-field throws when pressured. Explore the Falcons’ defensive adjustments using big nickel packages and Jalon Walker’s breakout performance as a potential core piece. Key discussions include why Kirk Cousins wasn’t traded at the deadline, Terry Fontenot’s roster management decisions, and how Penix’s skill set will shape future offensive coordinator hiring and offensive line construction. Tune in for detailed All-22 film breakdowns that reveal what the Atlanta Falcons must build around their rookie quarterback.

#atlantafalcons #nfl #michaelpenixjr #kirkcousins #terryfontenot #jalonwalker #newenglandpatriots #nflweek9 #week9 #all22 #nfltraderumors #nfltradedeadline

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