What is the Atlanta Falcons timeline to become Super Bowl contenders?

What is the Atlanta Falcons timeline to become Super Bowl contenders?

how soon can the Falcons become Super Bowl contenders you are locked on Falcons your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast part of the locked on podcast 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 lock on Sports Atlanta your team every day in today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply so if you do not know me I’m your very humble host Aaron fre been covering the Falcons for a lifetime formerly at FAL fans.com R you may know me as Mr Drew AKA serus black aka the Jolly Green Giant aka Mr AKA and of course I appreciate each and every one of you that is in every dayer of this pie which means make it your first listen or first watch each and every day and all you got to do to become and every day is subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast so today’s episode is a meal bag episode where we got a bunch of listener questions from our favorite every dayers the locked on Falcons insiders who get priority if you want to get priority on future mailbags and whatnot hit that link in the description below at join sub tex.com lockon Falcons you’ll get access also to the film breakdowns that I’ve done of every single Falcons draft pick just dropped Zion log this past Thursday and we’ll be diving into NFL film very shortly so go check that out you get that 14-day free trial so you can check that out for free and then pay $4.99 a month after that point but we got a lot of great questions from them including on whether or not Kaden Ellis could be playing more outside linebacker than inside linebacker this year you know why don’t necessarily base my opinions on players based off of where they were picked but first we’re going to talk about the Falcons potenti Super Bowl window well right we’ll hear this from Jeremy he says I know we are in a Super Bowl team now but what do we need to get there as in we just need one piece or multiple and also what’s the time frame to becoming contenders one year two then Kirk might be gone then so Jeremy my quick and dirty formula for who is a Super Bowl Contender is basically based off of two things right do you have an explosive offense and are you able to pressure the quarterback and if you check those two boxes again it’s not just those are the only two boxes but those are the two biggest boxes that I think you need to be check uh in order to be a Super Bowl team pressing the quarterback matters because you know there’s a high probability that when we get to January uh you’re G to face some high level quarterbacks and the only way you can really slow those guys down is by pressuring them especially since you’re not expecting to get Elite quarterback play from your quarterback here in Atlanta and Kurt Cousins or Michael pennick in the future and again maybe I’m wrong in that assessment but you’re not really expecting that sort of top three top five caliber Elite quarterback play You’re Expecting maybe upper tier quarterback play maybe that top eight top 12 sort of quarterback you know that’s where Matt Ryan lived throughout his career Matt Stafford has lived throughout his career Eli Manning uh was in that range Joe flacko was in that range and that’s basically the guys that you know will black out in the month of January and black out and wake up and find a Lombardi trophy in their hand and they’re like what happened I blacked out for a month and it’s like yeah you threw 12 touchdowns and and zero interceptions in that month and like oh I didn’t realize flacko being a great example of that Eli doing that and those are the types of quarterbacks that you can’t really expect like the elite quarterback the Mahomes the Josh Allen the Aaron Rogers you’re kind of expecting those guys to do that every single year that they get into postseason now they don’t do that every year but you’re expecting it to the other guys that we’re talking about the Ryan the Eli Etc they might do that like two or three times at most in their NFL career and that’s really what you’re you’re hoping for Kirk Cousins and probably what you’re hoping for Michael pennick and you know because you may be facing an Aaron Rogers a Patrick Mahomes in January you know pressure is what’s going to be bble to bring those Elite quarterbacks down to the level of your Kurt Cousins your Michael pinnick your Joe flacko your Matt Stafford Etc so coupling that with you know not having a leag quarterback play it also means you know you’re going to need your Supporting Cast to step up a little bit more than say a Patrick Mahomes needs to have his Supporting Cast step up and so you need bejon and Drake and Kyle Pitts to be those explosive Playmakers uh and among the more explosive Playmakers at their respective positions you need your offensive line to be better here in Atlanta and despite all the websites and analysts that you know in indicate that the Falcons have a top five offensive line like they need to show that they’re worthy of those rankings by basically not needing play action passing to mask their inefficiencies and pass protection because there’s a good chance that you’re going to be facing a team in January that has an Elite pass rush and has an elite quarterback and you’re gonna have to get into a shootout and you’re gonna have to throw the ball 40 45 times in that game and if your offensive line can’t hold up against those pass rushes and you you basically we well we need to you know use the play action as Arthur Smith has so you know regularly used these last couple of years to mass the Falcons uh deficiencies in in pass protection like that’s not a formula for Success so we need to see if this offensive line under Zack Robinson and Company can do that so you know there’s a lot of boxes that the Falcons are going to have to check for I can answer you whether they’re one piece or multiple Pieces away and in theory you know on offense at least if Kurt Cousins is that top 8ish quarterback if they big three at the skill position players are you know those impactful uh you know explosive playmakers that we all think they’re capable of being if the offensive line steps up is Zack Robinson is the type of play caller that is good at designing explosive plays rather than you know the type of play caller that Sark and cutter and and and Arthur Smith were which that wasn’t a strength of their game they were okay at that but it wasn’t something that they were gonna add it’s going to be really hard for the Falcons to be a Super Bowl Contender without checking all those boxes but in theory in theory if they check all those boxes I think you know you have a potential Super Bowl caliber offense as early as 2025 and I I say 2025 rather than 2024 is mostly because I the in theory year two of your offense is going to be better than year one of your offense now you have all these pieces Kirk Cousins will be a year removed from the Achilles we know that takes the better part of two years for players to recover from that before they get back to their previous form all that and more so you know and then in theory Michael pennick could theoretically build off of that in 2026 and 2027 So in theory and I keep stressing the word in theory because you know success for the Atlanta Falcons is always theoretical not realistic but you know that’s what I’ve learned of being a falcon fair for 30 uh years but you know in theory you could have a Super Bowl window for your offense in the next three to four years whether the defense is on that timeline I think that remains to be seen I’m a little more doubtful especially when we’re talking about the pass rush like it feels like your pass rush is probably at least three years away so again that’s part of that window maybe the back end 20 when pennix takes over maybe you’ll have a pass rush at that point in time we’ll see you know but there’s also a reality where the Falcons are you know you know pulling in a less Sneed and and going F them picks and trading for Michael Parsons next year so you know that might fast forward that timeline so we’ll see how that breaks down uh but basically to answer your question Jeremy I think they’re multiple Pieces away but again a lot of that depends on how many of those boxes that we’re talking about um on offense and defense that they’re able to check this year and that we can go like oh they’re they’re only actually three pieces away as opposed to the seven pieces away or whatever it is so we’ll see how that goes uh and our next question is uh a concept I’ve briefly discussed on the Pod before because I’ve said mentioned before that I don’t judge players based off of where they were drafted which is not a particularly common perspective and one of our listeners wants me to explain why I don’t think it’s about the picks but it’s all about the players and we’ll do that as we continue today’s lockdown Falcons so guys it is summertime which means baseball is King and it means the Braves are getting back in their grooves and you know if it’s time to get back in the ballpark and game time is here to help you do so and game time is helping you in so many ways you can shop their Flash Deals which mean you can save on exclusive inapp deals on select seats ahead of the game they’re all in prices means what you see is what you get so you won’t get hit by hidden feed at checkout and what you see is what you get is what we love about game time because everybody loves the views from your seat so you can pick that perfect spot to catch a file ball before you head down to the ballpark whether you’re in the baseball other sports comedy Music Theater whatever event is near you game time is taking the guest workk out of buying tickets download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NFL and you’ll get $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and a red code locked on NFL l o c k d o n NFL for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price [Music] guaranteed guys I want to tell you about locked on sports today a free 247 sports streaming Channel program for you each and every day to bring you the big stories can’t miss analysis opinions and news streaming 247 on YouTube where the free Amazon Fire TV channels have and part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day so our next question comes from Eddie R another lockdown Falcons Insider he says I’ve heard you say before that you really don’t judge players based on their draft position once they are on the team that is something I’ve always done as a fan I’d be interested to hear more about why you don’t do that I think it’s probably the right approach but Terry fontos choices in the first round so far make it difficult everything in me says based on where they drafted if we’re not seriously having conversations about who’s better between Kyle Pitts and Travis Kelce by the end of his rookie contract then picking him at four was a whiff same thing if London and Robinson aren’t top five at their positions respectively I know that those expectations may not be un it may be unrealistic but that’s my knee-jerk reaction based on where they were drafted so I guess what I’m asking is your philosophy that their production relative to draft position is irrelevant if they contribute to a winning product the the simple answer is yes that’s generally my pH philosophy I I I look at you from a perspective as you know do you help me win football games then I don’t really care where you were draft um I don’t think the big reason is for that because I don’t think draft position is a good predictor of NFL success nothing really is a good predict ictor of NFL success when it comes to the NFL draft it’s why you know say it with me the draft is a crapshoot um but I also think judging players based off of draft position is a pretty arbitrary exercise now the longer answer is you know I think the goal is to win football games right you know and you know a draft pick has never won or lost a football game now plenty of players have won and lost football games but a draft pick doesn’t do it um and you know your ability to win football games is based off of your ability to match up and when I say matchup you know simply you know your ability to neutralize your opponent’s strengths while exploiting their weaknesses and your ability to stop them from trying to do the same thing to you so for example in week one we Face the Steelers like one of the Steelers strength to their pass rush right that’s headline by TJ Watt and the Falcons in need to neutralize that and going back to the earlier point about the Falcons offensive lines weakness relatively speaking being pass prot again they’re not the worst pass protecting offensive line in the league but that is going to be a challenge for this offensive line right now the strength of this offensive line is run blocking right and that is perfectly embodied in one particular player which is cayb McGary who’s a very good run blocker but very questionable in pass protection especially when he’s matched up against speed now TJ watt brings more than just speed to the table he’s a complete pass rusher which is why he’s a future Hall of Famer but um you know he certainly has more than enough speed to give Cayla McGary problems in that game now you’re probably sitting here going okay what does that have to do with this question well basically I don’t necessarily judge Cayla McGary or really anybody based off of whether or not they’re worth the pick right you know a draft as I said a draft pick isn’t blocking TJ watt now a player might now and I say might because very few players are actually blocking TJ watt so a player might block him but you know the picks are essentially inconsequential once they used they’re meaningless it’s all really about the player from that point of time and so when we ask the question is Caleb McGary worth the pick right PFF did a recent breakdown you know calling him the best player you know looking at each player each first round pick looking at the best player picked at those spots since 2015 and McGary was by far the best pick at pick 31 um so that would arguably say he’s worth the pick you can also look at whether or not he was worth trading up for which a lot of people were critical of when the Falcons did that right but if you look at the six offensive tackles that I think went in round two after uh Cayla McGary he’s better than all of those like the one that you might put on a similar level with Caleb McGary as Jawan Taylor right but he’s just as flawed if not more flawed than calea McGary he’s pass protector than run blocker but he also is a penalty machine because he’s had as many penalties in his last eight games as Caleb mcgary’s had in his last three years combined um so like when I look at that and I say like if the Falcons hadn’t traded up for Caleb McGary they would have had much worse right tackle play over the last you know five years than they probably did so again probably means Caleb mcgary’s worth it so I think objectively speaking Cale mcgary’s worth the pick now I’m sure plenty of people disagree with that but that to me is where the arbit arbitrariness of it comes because what is being worth the pick right you know that differs from Individual and when we talk about Pits versus Travis Kelce as you put it uh Eddie you know Kelce to me is a top five tight end of all time right when I think of the greatest tight end of all time and I may be forgetting one or two names but you know in no particular order Kell wiso Senor Tony Gonzalez Shannon sharp Travis Kelsey and and Rob gronowski all of those guys are if if not have been should be and will be ballot Hall of Famers and so when you say like he we need to be having a conversation about pits and Kelsey being on the same level is that saying that we need to be having a conversation in the next year or two that Kyle Pitts is a definite lock to be a first ballot Hall of Famer you know that to me is a ridiculous statement no offense Eddie uh now you probably say like that’s not what I mean I just mean him being one of the best Titans in the NFL and it’s like okay well what is one of the best Titans in the NFL is that being the number one tight end in the NFL number two tight in the NFL could that be number six tight end in the NFL number seven tight in in the NFL and again whether you’re you’re you’re six or seven or one or two a lot of that’s not really in your control like a lot of that’s depending on health of you as a player and the health of the rest of your team like for example Evan Ingram LED all tight ends in the NFL last year in catches right and a big reason for that was you know he played well last year but also because he was basically the deao number two wide receiver there behind Calvin Ridley uh because Christian Kirk and and z Jones the Jaguars number two and number three receivers missed a significant chunk of the season and so like I’ve seen various projections on KY Pitts and what production he’ll have this year in 2024 and it’s on par with a te6 or te7 as opposed to a te1 or te2 and so you know but if Drake London misses five games and Darnell Mooney misses seven games this year you know Kyle Pitts might move up in the rankings for that and so that’s going to help Kyle pittz in terms of his numbers and be in the conversation for being the number one or number two tight end in the NFL because he’s putting up the production that merits that but it’s also going to hurt the Falcons ability to win football games which is part of the reason why I have a beef with fantasy football uh because they only care about getting numbers rather than winning games but that’s just me but you know to me ultimately it doesn’t really matter to me if pits and and Kelsey are neck and neck in you know your rankings what matters to me is whether or not you know when we get that opportunity in week one against the Steelers can cow Pitts come down with the go-ahead score in that game if the answer is yes then you know doesn’t matter if he’s worth the pick he’s he’s helping us win football it’s the same thing you know the following week against the Eagles right I need him to make that critical grab on third nine you know in the fourth quarter against the Eagles and and so on and so forth for the rest of the season and that’s part of the reason why I tend to not be as down on Kyle pittz as other people because I’ve seen him make those second plays he did it as a rookie in his third NFL game against the Giants right we’ve seen other uh flashes of that ability and and unfortunately for him injuries and circumstances have led to him not making as many of those plays as we would like him to make but I see a player that’s more than capable of quote unquote living up to the hype of the fourth round pick at least based off of I see it but you know to me it’s ultimately arbitrary it’s like okay well he has to beat Travis Kelce to be worth the fourth round pick or he can just be you know better than I don’t know Evan Ingram right and is that worth the pick I don’t you know that that’s where the arbitrariness coming from so uh I don’t I hope that explains Eddie where I’m coming from where it’s just like to me it’s very arbit cont to base off of what a pick is worth because you know to a lot of folks like in Cayla mcgary’s case he’s a first round pick even though a 31st overall pick is is more has more in common with a midc round pick than he does of a mid first round pick in terms of most Talent level of your typical late first round pick right those are typically guys that are quote unquote second round talents um more often than not even the ones that wind up being Hall of Famers like TJ Watt right um and you know which is you know you can be a second round talent and be a Hall of Famer right um so that’s that’s how that goes because being a prospect is not being the player right we evaluate players you know we evaluate prospects and we evaluate players but just because you’re a certain caliber of prospect that’s what determines where you get drafted but that doesn’t indicate what caliber of player you’re going to wind up being so I hope that makes it clear Eddie where I’m coming from on that and you know to each their own uh but I I just just look at the player and you you know at the end of the day the to me the point of this is to watch your sports team win football games and so like that’s what I I focus on not whether or not I can look back at a draft pick three years ago or seven years ago or 10 years ago and say oh we hit that draft like who cares like that’s not GNA win me at any football games my ability to block TJ watt my ability to come down with that you know third down catch in the fourth quarter is what is going to win me football games not whether or not I can sit here and and Crow to my my friends and say hey we we’ve done a great job drafting over the years again that’s part of building a successful team not to sit here and say it’s meaningless but again like ultimately whether you live up to that pick to me is is inconsequential to what I see the core issue being which is winning football games that’s the whole point of this that’s the reason why you’re watching this podcast or listening to this podcast is you want to have a better understanding of why the Falcons win and or lose football games like that’s the whole point of lock on Falcons right you know there are other podcasts that you can listen to that are much more entertaining but there are very few podcasts that you’re going to listen to that are going to give you the lowdown on what’s going on with the football team and why they lost on a particular Sunday or why they won on a particular Sunday than lockdown Falcons so um you know to each their own but I hope that answers your question Eddie so we are not done here on the podcast you know we got another question from Jeremy uh talking about whether or not Kate Nellis would be better utilized as an outside linebacker uh in this defense and we’ll break that down to wrap up today’s lock off fals so Jeremy asks my other question is about Kaden Ellis I know you’ve touched on him some if Morris relies on simulated pressures and drops his Edge guys a lot why not move Ellis outside linebacker to rush and drop into coverage he could be in the mix with AK and Carter Etc I’m guessing that only works if Troy takes a step forward and Layman or JD um I think we could see Ellis dabble as an edge this year I don’t think it’s really something that we’ll see fulltime uh unless things go horribly wrong and the Falcons have a lot of injuries at Edge um you know good coaching to me is putting players in a position to succeed and I don’t think asking K Nellis to move full-time to Edge is putting him in a position to succeed uh nor is it really putting other players in a position to see more on that later um because when kayen Ellis is a good pass rusher but he’s most effective when he’s going through a gaps and being going up against running backs rather than asking him to go up against offensive tackles right um he’s much more essentially he’s much more effective as a blitzing off ball linebacker than he is as a full-time pass rusher and so that’s why I don’t sit here and think you’re putting him in a position to succeed if you try to make him into a full-time Edge and ask him to basically beat Lane Johnson and you know Prock Jones and whoever else uh that he has to beat in order to be effective in that Ro now I absolutely think the Falcons could dabble with Ellis as an edge or an outside linebacker in certain packages especially if they use the penny front as part of their nickel defense and for those of you that don’t know the penny front is when you use a five1 front on nickel which is three down D lineman two outside linebackers and one inside linebacker which is you know different from the traditional front that a three four team like the Falcons are going to use in the nickel which is a two Forefront which is two down linemen um two outside linebackers and two inside linebackers right um two outside linebackers and two inside linebackers I hope I said that correctly so the Brandon Staley derivative defenses like rahee Morris in LA and airo Evo uh in Denver and Carolina have been uh very use a lot of Penny fronts right um and so I can imagine a scenario where Troy Anderson is your inside linebacker in that situation Ellis Andor Arnold deti or your outside linebackers Grady Jared David anata are two out of your three defensive lineman and the other one is to be determined probably Zack Harrison or ruk auro uh but we’ll see on that front and so the idea of when you want to utilize the penny front as I understand it again I’m not an expert on this stuff but I try my best um is it’s a way to when you’re in nickel with five defensive backs it’s going to be more effective especially against teams that like to run outside the tackles particularly outside Zone rushing teams and so I think that’s a useful tool in your toolbox in certain matchups when You Face teams that are going to play you’re going to run outside zone out of 11 personnel which is when you’re going to play nickel um but I don’t think that’s a way that you’re gonna live every single week and and certainly not every single down now we also may see instances this upcoming season where Ellis moves the outside linebacker and the Falcons have Nate lamin and Troy Anderson an inside linebacker but again I think that’s only going to use in your base defense against heavy Personnel groupings against offense so teams that are going to deploy a lot of two tight ends you know put a fullback on the field those types of offenses in certain situations um and in that situation he probably Ellis that is would be replacing Arnold bti as the outside linebacker rather than Lorenzo Carter just because Lorenzo Carter is gonna be a little bit more of a forced player um as a run Defender setting the edge and doing all those things and that’s something that at this point in time Arnold kbby has not proven he can be consistent at doing he is not proven up to this day and that’s another area that we’re looking to see if he can improve upon but you know ultimately I don’t think this is going to be a huge part of your defense like I would guess that K ell is playing Edge in in these Penny fronts and and whatever we’re going to call this heavy three linebacker set probably going to only amount to maybe like 10% of your defensive plays probably no more than that again barring you know if you’re brillan Tri and Lorenzo Carter and arnoldy all get hurt and you’re like well you know kateen Ellis is now our best option at outside linebacker than maybe that situation but like you know assuming that you’re not devastated by injuries um you know uh I I would imagine K Nellis is going to spend the vast majority of his snaps playing off ball linebacker and a big part of that is because I’m assuming that K Nellis is gonna continue to wear the Green Dot for this defense now maybe he doesn’t but if he’s not gonna wear the Green Dot who is um you know maybe that’s Jesse Bates you know some teams do put a safety there I know Derwin James has worn the Green Dot for the Chargers in the past I know the Ravens have dabbled with maybe Kyle Hamilton his rookie year and and Chuck Clark wearing the green dot in the past uh so some teams do have a safety wear the Green Dot and for those of you that don’t know what the Green Dot is it is the player that has the communication device in their helmet and only one player on defense is allowed to have it and it’s almost universally a midle one of your inside linebackers um you know so that’s why like I sit here and I go like I’ve never heard of a team asking an edge rusher to wear the Green Dot I’ve never heard of that I’ve seen teams do that for an inside linebacker a Mike linebacker a will linebacker or a a safety but I’ve never seen it for an edge rusher so um if if you’re going to remove the Green Dot from K Ellis by making him an edge um you know who’s gonna wear is it Troy Anderson that would be presumably the person I would expect to do it but do you really want Troy Anderson calling the defense in basically his first year as a starter he’s played like eight games in NFL basically basically you know so it’s like I I don’t know if we’re going that and then Nate lamman okay like right Nate lamman has more experience but do you want Nate lemman to be a full-time player because like you kind of need the guy the where to Gant to be on the people every single snap um you know and I don’t think you want Nate lemman as a full-time player and we’ve talked about this before uh where Nate lemman is limited in coverage right the the Falcons defense you know last year they loved in on their third Downs they loved to play dime defense with six defensive backs and we talked quite a bit throughout the season about you know their usage of rubby dime defense or their traditional dime front right and the traditional dime front is you have four down D line in one uh inside linebacker 4-1 a ruby dime defense is a 3-2 where you have three down Z linemen and and two uh inside linebackers and basically in week three against the Lions the Falcons started playing a lot of Ruby dime defense and then Troy Anderson got hurt in that game and then outside of like maybe four maybe five games they basically scra their Ruby dime defense for the rest of the season because the coaching staff as we say put players in a position to succeed and that’s what good coaching is or you know put another way not putting players in a position to fail the Falcons deemed that Nate lemon was not a good enough coverage linebacker so they basically were pulling him off the field for most of the season on every third down um and so ask you know asking a player to call your defense that is not good enough to play on every single snap um is probably not a good strategy now I’m sure plenty of you were like well that was the old coaching staff and the new coaching staff is gonna be different it’s like okay if you think just changing coaches means that a player is going to run faster than a 48640 okay like if if that’s what you think but like I don’t think there’s any reason for anybody to think that late lemman is going to be a more effective coverage player uh than he was under the previous regime right Nate lemman is very good at one thing he’s very good as a downhill run defender in between the tackles and that affects like 10 to 12 plays a game on average in NFL play where teams run between the tackles uh uh out of 63 some plays in in NFL game but for the other 50 or so plays like Nate lemman is not a plus Defender he’s more of a minus uh in that regard and again I don’t I don’t mean that to be like Nate Layman’s terrible I just sit here and I go like that’s not a player that I think should be a full-time player and so when I see people being like he should start over Troy Anderson or he he should you know be on the field as much as possible and we should move Kaden Ellis to Edge so that we can get Nate Layman on the field I’m just like I don’t think you guys were paying any attention to the defense last year which you know again this is why I’m here I’m watching the film so you don’t have to but you know um Nate lemman is a good player but he’s limited is basically the point I’m trying to make and so to me all that to say I think asking K Nellis to move to a different position is not putting him in a position to succeed and I don’t think it’s putting other players like a Nate lamman like a Troy Anderson in positions to succeed because you’re gonna have to reshuffle things so I expect to see a lot of Kad Nellis as still at that linebacker position but the Falcons could of course dabble in certain packages and certain situations as a way to match up with certain teams in certain formations with Kelis as an edge but I don’t think that’s something that anybody should be expecting as a full-time or something that they can do again outside of maybe five to 10% of their plays because it’s just a subpackage of their defense so uh we’ll see on that front I hope that answers your question Jeremy appreciate Eddie and Jeremy for the great questions I know there are other insiders that ask questions we might get to those in the coming days I know uh I want to get to my Jace McCullen breakdown by the end of this week so hopefully that will be the Friday episode uh and then so that leaves tomorrow open for potentially another Q&A and other topics I know we’re inching towards training camp and so I do want to get into some of the positional breakdowns but we’re going to do it a little differently this year uh so that is something that is in store for you possibly tomorrow uh so make sure you continue to make lockdown Falcons your first listen all you got to do is subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast for your second listen of course check out lockon Sports Today lockedown sports Atlanta locked on Hawks locked on Bulldogs locked on Braves it’s all part of lockedown podcast Network your team every day

The Atlanta Falcons strive to be one of the top contenders in the NFC this year, but is that timeline correct? Host Aaron Freeman breaks down when he thinks its realistic that the Falcons could be a true contender. He discusses their need to build an explosive offense and a pass rush and how close they are to doing so.

Later, he answers a listener’s question on why he doesn’t judge players based on where they were drafted. He explains why his evaluations are based on a player’s ability to help the Falcons win games, and uses Kaleb McGary and Kyle Pitts as prime examples of why their draft statuses cause people to be lower on them than they should. Finally, he discusses the possibility of middle linebacker Kaden Elliss being moved to outside linebacker this year and why it might be valuable in certain packages but won’t be a full-time option.

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