Atlanta Falcons Keys to Victory over Buffalo Bills | Falcons Podcast w/ Garrett Chapman

Atlanta Falcons Keys to Victory over Buffalo Bills | Falcons Podcast w/ Garrett Chapman

All right, what’s up everybody? We’re about to jump in here. Give me two seconds. I’m going to add in our friends over on Facebook and on Twitter and then our live is going to be just that. All right. All right. All right. All right. And we are live. What’s up everybody? My name is Garrett Chapman and this is Falcons on SI. This is the Falcons podcast with me Garrett Chapman, your host. And uh we got some folks already starting to jump in. Um very excited to do this uh podcast here on a Thursday. Man, we’re coming up on on one of the biggest games of the early parts of the season. It’s the Buffalo Bills. Monday Night Football. The the error is starting to kind of get excited. You kind of feel some of that electricity coming up. And we have a lot to jump into here on the podcast tonight. I got three keys to a Falcons win. Three keys. Three things that I think are going to potentially decide the outcome of this football game, good or bad. But we’ll get to all of that. Uh, I also have some injury updates to kind of things uh see where things stand. I literally, no joke, just got out of my car. We went, we’re going live here a little bit late, so I apologize to anybody who uh who who normally is uh you know, champing at the bit trying to get on here on this on this live uh at six o’clock right off the jump, but I no joke just got out of my car. So, I I got inside and I just run all the way in and I’m like, “All right, let’s do this podcast. Let’s do it.” And uh very excited to be jumping in with everybody. See some folks already starting to jump in. Make sure to like the podcast. Make sure to share it. Um, make sure to uh pass along to some of your friends and and make sure that everybody can kind of jump in here and get some of this Falcons conversation going. Uh, but big thank you to everybody who jumps in. I see John Harold. Uh, he says good even good evening, my friend. Always good to uh to talk to you. But uh how about this? Let’s jump into our three keys. Um, but we’ll do that. We’ll get some injuries and then of course we’re going to jump into your questions. So, if you have comments, you have questions, you have things that you want to see or or questions you want the answers to, I will be more than happy to answer as best I can. But again, make sure to share it with your friends, make sure to share it along, and uh make sure to get a lot of more folks in here. Just talk some Falcons. Um build a little community here. So, uh looking forward to that. Michael Baxter, my man. Always good to see you over there on Facebook. Uh good evening, Garrett and everyone at the Falcons Atlanta Falcons on SI. Good evening. Welcome in. Very excited to uh to welcome you in, Michael. So, uh let’s jump right into this. Why don’t we? Um, obviously the the Atlanta Falcons, they sit as a four-point dog. Four and a half point actually. You got to include the hook there on Monday Night Football. Game kicks off at 7:15. Um, it’s going to be an interesting one because this is a very good Bills team. This is a team who who leads the NFL in terms of of Super Bowl aspirations. If you if you want to put into betting odds, they are the number one team in the NFL. This is a team who knows exactly who they are. They’ve got an MVP quarterback. They’ve got an allp prolevel running back, a guy who very much can get into that upper echelon uh of of the NFL. I mean, this is a guy who’s playing really, really good ball. They have a great offensive line, two bookend tackles who some could say are among the best in the NFL. Uh so they run the ball well, they throw the ball well. Uh they do everything really, really well. There’s a reason this is a team who who leads expectations for Super Bowl. That’s why they’re really good. Falcons were still trying to figure that out. You know, I I think anybody who who wants to come out and say that they know exactly who the Atlanta Falcons are, I think they’re they’re either lying to you or they’re lying to themselves a little bit, I think we have an idea of who we want them to be. We have an idea of who the Falcons are based off of things that we’ve seen during training camp or or things like that. But no, as far as who the Atlanta Falcons are, it’s been kind of up and down. You know, I mean, you go back from to what you saw of this team in in week one. All right, it’s a gritty team. They’re they just need to fix some special teams issues. Look, they showed some potential. They they’re getting good pressure on the quarterback. Um they’re just not quite there to finish. And and Michael Penn, I mean, he you just got to fight the lols, right? He started really strong in that game and then you went through that very long period of not really getting a lot going and and then you finish it with, you know, some really good play for Michael Penn in this offense, but they couldn’t run the ball, which is weird, right? And then you go to to Minnesota in week two and it’s almost the inverse, right? Michael Pennix isn’t really doing a whole lot, but you’re running the ball all over the yard, right? You go for 200 yards and and you look great. The defense is is poundounding and and harassing JJ McCarthy. They get six sacks in the game. They get what, seven, 16 pressures in that one. I mean, the team looks unbelievable. They look like a a legitimate contender in the NFC. Then they flip around and and they lay an egg in in Carolina probably to uh that’s probably generous, right? So you answer that with I mean what you did two weeks ago, I guess it was now a week and a half ago um with the Washington Commanders and really the offense start really gets everything going. The offense pushes and I got my puppy who just rolled in. No, but everybody kind of gets going and everybody got everything rolling in a big big way, right? And then the defense isn’t all the way there. They they let Marcus Mariota and some and some folks trying to uh they kind of get get some things rolling. They get some explosive running plays and things like that. But again, the whole point is is it’s a lot of this. It’s a lot of this and it’s a lot of up and down and and ask any football coach, it’s it’s the most consistent thing is you don’t want that. You want some consistency. You want to level things out. Um, but to this point, we just haven’t really seen that from this Atlanta Falcons team. Um, I see some other folks starting to jump into the podcast. I’m about to jump into our three keys for this Falcons game. Falcons team is going to come out and get a win. Uh, get on the right side of 500 for the first time this season. Um, let’s see. All coming through to Rusty Moore over there on YouTube. He says, “In all seriousness, we’ve beaten two bad quarterbacks and lost the only good one we played. I just don’t see us taking out Buffalo yet. I feel like we are a year away. 2026 should be the year. Well, Rusty, I actually said many times, I think I’ve said it on this podcast. I’m I’m fairly certain I have. If I haven’t, then I’m going to do it right now. 2026, I feel like, is the year that kind of makes the most sense for this Atlanta Falcons team just based off of timelines and where they are and and the way things are kind of setting up. Um because you have Kurt Cousins coming off the books. You’ll have Michael Penn getting that technically the year two bump, but really it’s going to be the year three bump. He’ll be coming back in and he’ll be kind of a solidified starter at that point. Uh Bjan Robinson will be entering year four at that point. Kyle Pittz, I mean I I would assume he’s going to be on a franchise tag at that point, but he this will be if he’s still here, year two and a half of of playing with Michael Penn. Um same with Drake London. He’ll be in his fifth year who I’m assuming you’re going to get a contract extension by that point. The defense with Jaylen Walker and and James Pierce and all these other guys, a lot of younger guys who who will be starting to really find their legs in the NFL at that point. It just based off of the way things have lined up and you see the aggression that Terry Fonto had in the offseason. It makes 2026 sound like it’s going to make a lot of sense for this team. That’s just my rationale with it as well. But this is also a team who can absolutely beat anybody in the NFL right now. Uh we saw this team beat the Super Bowl winner last year, right? I mean, this is not a bad football team. This is a really talented football team actually. Um and I’ I’ve gone through and I’ve listened to a bunch of Bills podcasters and um try to listen to as much as I can just as I prepare for the week. And I think they see that this is a Falcons team with a lot of weapons. This is a Falcons team. I mean, hell, they’re they’re number one in total defense. And and look, I don’t put too too much stock into total defense and total yardage and stuff like that. It’s it’s a grain of salt, I guess you could say, but it’s not nothing. It’s not nothing that says that this team is is pretty good, right? They have some strength, so they’re actually a pretty solid bunch. And I don’t want to discount that at all. The Falcons can absolutely win this game. They can absolutely win this game. Am I going to pick them to win? Probably not. Probably not. But I think that this is a team who can absolutely come out and get a win. I think the matchups actually favor the Falcons in this game a little bit more than one might believe, right? But saying that and getting over the hump and beating a team like the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen, especially with them coming off of a loss, a team who’s only lost five games since coming off of a loss, right? Just going back to 2020, Josh Allen’s only lost five games after a loss. It’s it’s just consistent with this guy. He doesn’t lose football games. Just doesn’t happen, right? And that’s what good teams do. good teams find ways to win, right? Uh and we’re just trying to see where the Falcons are. We’re going to see it’ll be a great pecking uh a great decision maker on where they stand in that pecking order, right? And we’ll see. We’ll see. But I also as far as beating the bad quarterbacks is concerned. I mean, you play the you play the teams that are in front of you and you do what you’re supposed to do. I mean, like there are good teams who lose to bad quarterbacks all the time. These are professional football players, so I don’t want to discount that too much, but I mean, your point is wellreceived, Rusty. I do understand where you’re what you’re putting down with this. Um, I mean, it’s not like Bryce Young did a whole lot to beat you in that game, but you still lost. You still weren’t able to get things done. And and even still with Baker Mayfield, I said multiple times that the Falcons were the better team in that game. I thought the Falcons really were, but ultimately, you lost. Nothing else matters. That’s what it all comes back to. Appreciate the comment. Appreciate the question. Uh Rusty, I’ll keep on rolling through. Michael Ronilo, always great to uh get you in here. He he always sends the the red and black hearts kind of get setting the vibes and uh trying to get us all going on the right step, right track. August 809 says, “Bills of Josh Allen. Other than that, they have nothing special talent-wise.” Well, that’s not totally true at all. They have the AFC offensive player of the month uh in uh uh Cook. James Cook. I just blanked on James Cook’s name. Um I’ve only talked about himund 100 ways, seven ways till Sunday, but no, James Cook, I mean, you’ve got him coming out of the backfield. This is a guy who who can do a lot of different things and he’s dynamic. He’s scoring a lot. And I mean, last I saw he probably like 500 yards or something in the first five games. It’s pretty good. It’s pretty good. But again, to your point, and I think this is your your point within the point is that Josh Allen is the guy that starts and stops with what Josh Allen is able to do. And if you are able to corral him in some capacity, then you’re going to give yourself an opportunity to win games. But that is easier said than done. I mean, you go through with what Josh Allen is able to do. I mean, there’s a reason he’s the reigning MVP. There’s a reason people refer to him as the best player in the NFL today. It’s because the guy can do everything. And Raheem Morris talked about it uh earlier this week and he talked about it again today, just how this guy is unique. He’s somebody who can who almost gets better when he goes off schedule. He’s got elite arm strength. He’s got elite physicality. He’s his improvisational skills are spectacular. Uh the Falcons, they’re a good pressure team, but one thing that they have to do they’ve had to do a little bit is send extra bodies. If you send the extra bodies, sometimes if you lose containment, it makes things uh very difficult for the next level. Um and that’s really what it comes back to. And and I I’ll I’ll use that here for my first big point here. Point number one is stop the run. Stop the run. And you largely stop the Buffalo Bills. Again, easier said than done, but that’s where it all starts. And and this is actually one of those spots where I think that it kind of lines up pretty well for the Atlanta Falcons because when they actually run out of their base defense, they’re what 16th in the NFL or so. Um, again, I don’t put too too much stock into where they stand just in total yards and stuff like that, but it still matters to some degree. Gives you kind of a snapshot of who the team is. But when they run out of their base defense, this team is actually pretty solid against the run. They’ve been pretty consistently good. It’s just that they’re not so good when they go into nickel. And that’s where teams start ripping off the explosive plays and the big gains and everything else. Uh, fortunately for the Falcons, and this is where it kind of lines up for them, the Buffalo Bills, I mean, they got a lot of tight ends, right? You know what they have? They’re very similar to the Falcons in that way. They run a lot of 12 personnel. Sometimes they’ll even run a 13 personnel where they’re going to get two or three tight ends out on the field. This could really favor the Falcons because then they could stay in their base defense and they could actually, you know, play the run pretty effectively. But it’s important because if Buffalo is running the ball really well, that is when Josh Allen becomes just that next level of just an elite freak because then you have to commit bodies to to stop u you have to stop the rushing attack. And that’s when he’s able to unleash the ball down the field. That’s when he’s able to to kind of get get everybody else involved because it’s with James Cook and Josh Allen. Those two those two are the that’s the double-headed monster in the back field. But it’s kind of a committee approach everywhere else for the Bills, right? But there’s a reason the Bills have 53 explosive plays this season. You know, Atlanta’s been not great in this regard. They’ve given up some explosive plays. They’ve given up 19 of them. Uh but you have to be willing to stop the run. You have to stop the run if you’re going to give yourself the opportunity to stop everything else. Uh because if they start getting that run going, if they start getting that explosive pass game going, it’s going to be kind of brutal. Um, I see hopefully hopeful seven. Let’s go Falcons. Yep, that’s it. And Ray, what a BGC. Welcome in. Welcome in. Thank you so much. Very excited for all you Falcons folks in here. Uh, talking a little Falcons football. We got our three keys that I’m rolling through. How do the Falcons beat the Buffalo Bills? What’s the important thing for them? Um, young Lion Kenroy says Falcons can’t beat Bills two and four incoming. So, I I see you’ve you’ve already logged in the the loss of the San Francisco 49ers. Um, maybe, maybe not. These are also two teams that are the best in the NFL. Uh, but again, I think the Falcons have a buying chance of of going out and actually getting a win in one of these games. And if they could split, I think that’s probably your best case scenario. There’s no way they sweep that. Um, just in general. Um, but hopefully hopeful seven comes through says, I think we can win, especially with the buy. I actually think that the by-week helps a little bit. And I talked about this on Tuesday. um teams who are coming off of a by-week in week five since they instituted the week five buys a winning percentage of about 57%. 57%. That’s pretty damn good. And I like those numbers. I like those odds. They kind of play into the favor of the Atlanta Falcons, right? That’s equates to about seven and a half wins. We actually did the whole breakdown. We went through game by game and said, “All right, is this a game that they can win? Is this a game like that does this make sense?” And of course, every game’s going to be different. every week is different and all everything changes on a dime in this league and that’s kind of one of the reasons why it makes it so exciting. But coming off of a buy, it is an advantage. It is an advantage. You get that extra week of of rest. You get that extra week of week of preparation. Um and look, I I think as much anything else, it gives the Falcons an opportunity to self scout and really look at themselves over the first four weeks of the season and say, “Hey, these are things that worked. More importantly, these are things that didn’t work, right? And we’ll see. Again, with Zack Robinson, now he’s down on the sideline. We’ll see if that actually makes that big of a difference. I would say it was a pretty tangible difference in against the Washington Commanders. Uh we’ll see if that continues. Now, if it does, and that’s the key to unlocking this offense, then so be it. Um but so far, the sample size is one game, and that one game was pretty damn good. Um let’s get into point number two. Again, if you have questions, if you have comments, you have anything else that you want to say or or kind of maybe get featured in the podcast, uh, drop a comment, drop a like, we’ll get you in here. And and super comments, of course, if you’re over there on YouTube, that always will take priority number one. If you drop one of those, I’m more than happy to, uh, push you right to the top. Let’s get into point number two. And this one, I mean, again, any team that plays the Atlanta Falcons is going to have a massive responsibility, and that is figuring out Bjon Robinson. on on the other hand, the Falcons just need to let this guy cook. We talked to him today and and it’s and it’s a guy he he tells me that he says he doesn’t care about stats. Um but the stats are really really good for good to him, right? This is a guy who who could become the fourth player in NFL history to get a thousand yards receiving and a thousand yards rushing in the same season. And this is one of those types of games where the good ones can jump in and really make it impacted. This is a Bills team who’s susceptible to effective rushing rushing attacks and the Falcons have one of those. They give up 145 yards rushing per game. Fifth most in the NFL so far this season. They have the worst defense in the NFL in terms of explosive runs, 27. So they’re tied with the Miami Dolphins. That’s not company that you want to keep just in general. 5.6 yards per carry. Atlanta’s averaging 4.3 yards per rush. This is a game where the Falcons need to establish that running game identity. But on top of that, Ed Oliver, his status is up in the air. It does not look like he is going to be playing, but Matt Milano as well is unlikely to play. And Matt Milano specifically is probably going to be the he was probably going to be the guy who was going to line up on on Bjan Robinson, similar to what we saw with Bobby Wagner. And one of the big reasons why Bjan goes over a 100 yards uh through the air is because you get him out into a swing pass and he’s in space. And what are you going to do against Bjan Robinson in space? Not a whole lot. How do you get him there? You dominate your linebackers as you do that one-on-one matchup. And the thing is once you have to account an extra body in there, uh if you can get him out into a swing pass and maybe you can start ripping off a couple of those plays, Bills are going to have to adjust to that. and then all of a sudden that’s going to open up everything else down the field for the Atlanta Falcons. Um, and this is a one of those big things here for the Falcons. They have to figure out who this offense is. And this that’s point number three. This kind of an all-encompassing third point. So number one was stop the run. You got to stop the run against the Bills. Number two, you just got to let Bjon Cook. I mean this guy’s the best player in the NFL says Raheem Morris. This is the opportunity where you really show the rest of the league. Yeah, this guy is legit. But then point three, figure out who this offense is. We started the podcast talking about just some of the overarching inconsistencies of this Falcons team. Specifically, the offense. I’d say the defense, we have some kind of an idea of who they are. U they’ve been a lot more steady, a lot more consistent. The offense has been anything but. We caught a glimpse of some of the explosiveness last week against the Commanders in week four, but the week before that, absolutely nothing. The week before that, you saw some really consistent offense until you got into the 20s. It’s just a lot of this. It’s a lot of this. And against a Bills team that’s going to be able to score points, you’re not going to hold the Bills down for a long time. This is a very important game for Michael Penn. They’ll dare you to throw the ball deep because the Bills don’t allow a lot of explosive passing. That’s I mean they might give it up through the ground but it’s because they play that kind of coverage where they they play just not to get beat deep in that explosive passing attack. And this kind of lends itself to why they’re so susceptible against the run. It’s because they play back. It’s because they’re going to dare you to throw the ball deep. And Atlanta could end up settling to drive the length of the field. Maybe that also works out in their favor because they’ve shown that they’re pretty effective at doing that. But the explosive passing attack, I mean, you you want to see some of that because that’s really where I think this offense gets unlocked. Um, but to that to that end, you talk about third down efficiency. Atlanta’s converting about 41% of their third downs. Buffalo’s defense is allowing about 40%. So, that’s pretty good for the Falcons. Um, winning on third down is going to be important here for this team. I mean, it’s it’s important every week, but especially in a in a week where you’re going to be facing an opponent who doesn’t want to get beat, and you’re gonna have to drive the length of the field. You need to convert on third down, and that’s where it comes down to Michael Penn. Look, Bjan’s going to get his. Bjon is who he is. Uh, but maybe that’s where we start seeing some Tyler Oier. Maybe that’s when we start seeing Drake London go up and making some big plays. Kyle Pittz. That’s something where you’ve seen a lot more of of his ability to find open space and use his athleticism and speed to get down the field and make some explosive after the catch, right? Um but the last big thing for this all-encompassing third point about figuring out who this offense is, got to protect the football. You got to protect the football. The Falcons have seven turnovers this season. You have three interceptions. You have the four fumbles. Um, a lot of that’s on Michael Penn, but you got to protect the football better. Ball security is essential against this Bills defense, and this is a group who wants to take it over, and they do. They do. They find a lot of success in doing that and taking the ball away. I I asked Michael Penn about that today, and he that was his answer. I mean, I I asked him about what does he take from what Drake May was able to do last week against this Bills defense. And Drake May, he extends plays. He got out of the pocket and he made some great throws. Yes. And of course, those are going to take over on social, but he protected the ball. He kept the ball, and that’s an important thing, especially for a group who wants to to sit on the football and and kind of keep Josh Allen off the field. It’s going to be a very important thing. So, those are our three things. Those are three big points here coming into this week that the Falcons need to do. Number one, stop the run. Number two, let Bjan Cook. And number three, figure out who this offense is. Aside from Bjon Robinson, you got to do it. And if you do those three things, I think the Falcons will actually have a pretty good shot of winning this football game. All right, let’s run through some of these comments and then I’ll get into some injury reports and some other news uh here up at Flowery Branch. Like I mentioned, I started this podcast, I got right out of the car, sat down in the seat, hit play, and I said, “Let’s do it.” And so uh it’s been kind of a whirlwind of a day. So I’m I’m I’m calibrating here with all of you here on the Falcons podcast this evening. We do this every Tuesday and Thursday at six o’clock. Make sure that you set your calendars. Make sure you remind yourself. We got some Falcons conversation we got to jump into before we jump on and turn on some Thursday night football. Uh players stat says, “What’s up? What’s good, GC?” What’s up, players stats? Always good to have you in here. Uh Darnell, I love to cruise. Partridge says, “We need to control the clock. Keep Josh off the field.” Yep, that’s it. And they’re going to dare you to throw it deep. And that’s one of those things where if if you turn the ball over, it’s because you’re trying to push the ball down the field. You’ve seen this a little bit. you saw I I think the best example is probably Minnesota. Um I don’t think that this defense necessarily is as good as that Minnesota defense is, but it’s similar in the sense that they want you to push it down the field because that’s when their safeties and corners and everybody the secondary can kind of feast uh and that’s when they can take advantage of you, right? And then you have those mistakes and you start pressing and then everything else and you have the fancy blitzes and everything else. But it could be a big opportunity here specifically for the rushing attack. And Tyler Agir, you know, if you can turn around and you can hand that ball off a bunch of times, I think that would be very good for the Falcons. Just keep that guy off the field. He’s really good. That guy’s just a joy to watch play football. Uh hopefully seven will take it tie. No, I don’t want to tie. Um screw ties on. No. Um he he furthers it in. He says John will be a factor in the win. Yeah, I hope I hope it is. I honestly because Bjon Robinson is is as critical as anything for this offense and this team in general. He is that type of player and he has quickly become that type of player and I’m not telling you anything you don’t know by saying that. But I do think that there’s another gear that he can unlock and you’re starting to see some of those facets of his game. And once he gets into that consistent explosiveness that we’ve seen from him a little bit more this season, then he’s going to start jumping into MVP discussions, offensive player of the year discussions, like things like that. You’re starting to see a little bit of it now, but I want to say that NFC player of the month was the first time he’s ever he’s ever gotten that honor. You’re going to start seeing a lot more of it. And a lot of that comes back to explosiveness. Really, that’s the biggest thing here. Um, yeah. So, Rusty, yeah, 53 that came from, um, I can’t remember who I cited that source from. It’s it it varies based off of what an explosive play is. So, sometimes it can be 10 yard rushes, 15 yard um, receiving plays. Um, they have a lot, let’s put it that way. They’re a very explosive team. And, and look, I know every single person who’s watching this right now has watched the Buffalo Bills play football with Josh Allen. Everybody has. They’re fun. They’re a great offense. They’re a great team. They like to push the ball down the field and it all starts with that guy running around like a chicken with his head got cut off. Man, that guy’s a lot of fun. And it all starts with Josh Allen. He is the head of the snake. Um Terry Ward over there on YouTube. And again, if you guys have questions, I’m always happy to jump in and answer as many of these as I can. Do you think that Jeff U with Jeff coming from the Bills division uh would help slow down the Bills offense? Jeff Olrich, um the defensive coordinator. He was the defensive coordinator with the the New York Jets for many years, um with Robert Salah and then he was the head coach. And yeah, I I we we talked to him today. I he said very clearly that he is he’s he’s used to covering a guy like this and preparing for a guy like this, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Uh, so unfortunately the answer’s yes and no because a guy that is as good as Josh Allen at the quarterback position is never something that’s consistent, right? He can beat you in a plethora of ways, any number of different ways. Um, so maybe in a in a micro level because he’s going to be able to tell guys what they can expect. Um, he’s not going to be surprised by anything because there’s probably not a whole lot that he hasn’t seen. But he did he did joke that this is the reason that you have the bags under your eyes. This is one of those types of weeks where you you have long sleepless nights trying to prepare for a guy like this because he can beat you in any type of way, right? Any kind of way. Michael Ronilo Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pittz was mentioned to be traded the Denver Broncos. As a Broncos fan, I say no to tight end Kyle Pitts. He deserves to be with the Atlanta Falcons. Well, deserves. I don’t know about deserves. I know he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons and I know the Falcons are are I’m starting to buy in a little bit to to some of this Kyle Pitt stuff because I think they found a role for him and that’s and that’s very important for young players, especially somebody who’s as old, which is not old, as old as Kyle Pittz. The guy’s what, 23 years old or so. I I was talking to some members of the media today about it. It’s a lot of it has to do with the fact that this is just a guy who he’s grown up a little bit, you know, and he’s finding some of that maturity and I think he’s he’s hitting the level he just seems more comfortable whether it’s talking to the media, whether it’s him playing on out on Sundays, he seems like he’s a lot more comfortable and I think a lot of that has to come down to the fact that this is a guy who’s found a strong role for himself. He has something that he does really well. He plays, he finds space, he’s not going too deep. He’s averaging the by far the shortest yards per air target of his career. By far the lowest. And I think that’s good because that kind of helps him sit in space and find a good spot for himself. He catches the ball, he makes a play, and he turns up field and he can go do something with his legs. That’s one thing that’s been very good for him, and I’m I’m very confident with that. What does that mean going forward? Still way too soon. Uh we’ll see down the road. All right, I’m going to turn back into some other content. If you have questions, if you have comments, you have stuff that you want to add, uh make sure to drop a comment. But as always, we appreciate all likes, all subscriptions, anything else that you uh you can do while we’re just rolling here on the podcast. Uh thank you to all these folks. We got we’re over 100 folks across all platforms. So uh welcome. Thank you so much for being here. If it’s your first time, hope to see you again on Tuesday. Every Tuesday and Thursday we do this podcast. Um let’s kind of roll keep on rolling through here. Falcons injury updates. We talked a little bit about this on Tuesday, but we have a little bit more clarity coming in uh just based off of the injury reports uh that are now official uh at least for the first day. So, it’s Thursday today, but technically by gameweek standards, it’s Wednesday. So, this is our first one of the week. We’ll get another one tomorrow and then a final one on Saturday. And that’s going to kind of give us a better idea of what we’re going to see on Monday. Um but our full participation players, Nathan Carter, the third string running back, he had the hamstring issue. has held him out of the last two games. Um, he’s full participant, so he should be back ready to roll. Uh, Tcoan Grant, I was also very surprised they had just opened up his 21-day window. Full participant. Um, tells me he’s going to be playing on Sunday or on Monday, excuse me. Love that. And you look at a body profile of somebody, and I asked Coach Olrich about this as well. He’s just a guy who unlocks different levels. He’s got the physical traits. He’s got the but he’s got it up here. Um and he’s really excited to get him in there and and kind of unleashing especially you you look at what kind of run scheme that this this Bills team runs. Taquan Graham is going to find a role very quickly. He’s one of the only guys on this defensive line that’s over 300 pounds which is not generally a great thing. This something that this Falcons team I would say needed a little bit more of you know and and that’s something they haven’t really addressed as much. But I think TQ being a full participant, uh, it’s going to be interesting what kind of roster decisions that they make because they don’t have to make those roster decisions until we get closer to game time and he’s officially declared active. Then he’s um it’ll probably be the weekend before we get something like that. But somebody’s going to be demoted, somebody’s going to get cut, and they’re probably be added back onto practice squads and stuff like that. Uh, but elsewhere, those are our full participants. It’s Nathan Carter and TQ Graham. Limited participants. Cadrell Hajj. It’s good to see him out there. Natron Brooks, the quarterback. He had the concussion and a shoulder injury that he had on that scary kick return. Um, but he should be good to go. I’m expecting that he’ll be a a full go on Sunday or on Monday. But the big one is AJ Terrell. He was a limited participant and based off of some conversations that we had in the locker room, he’s going to be playing on Monday. That’s my expectation. Uh, again, don’t know that for a beyond a shadow of a doubt fact, but I’m very confident that AJ Terrell is going to be playing on Monday. And that’s something that’s critical for this Falcons defense. Not even just because he’s just a really talented player, but because of the amount of man coverage that teams run against the Buffalo Bills. AJ is that kind of guy where you want him to be lining up on the best player. He’s that level of a quarterback. And having him back here, it’s really hard to to put into perspective just how meaningful he is. Uh, and the Alfred’s been good. I mean, look, I I I know a lot of people asked about EJ Terrell and a lot of people in this podcast and others um just in comments and Twitter and etc. have been very critical of D Alford, but D played relatively well. He didn’t have a great game against the Commanders, but I mean considering the situation he was being thrust into, he did pretty well. Um but he played it much better against the Carolina Panthers and um and against the Minnesota Vikings. So, um, but AJ Terrell, I mean, him coming back is huge for this team. What’s his 100% status? I don’t know if he’s 100% or what, but he was a limited participant. I did see him out there today. Uh, he did look pretty solid. Um, but then the other news here, Clark Phillips, triceps injury. Clark Phillips is just cannot stay healthy at this point. Uh, he’s coming back and forth. He’s he dealt with a lot of injuries during the summer, let’s put it that way. Um, and then he hasn’t been getting a lot of playing time. It just seems like his his future with this Falcons team just doesn’t seem to be very clear at this point. I don’t know what it’s going to look like for him moving forward. But the last one of a DNP is Darnell Mooney. Um, and that’s one that I talked about before the by-week, right? What does this Falcons team look like if he’s not able to go? It’s not great. I’m not super excited about that reality necessarily because this is a team who needs him to be able to stretch the field, who needs this guy for the explosive element that’s otherwise relatively lacking. Um, we saw a little bit of from Drake London with with uh the game against the Commanders. You saw he got down for a 40 plus yard gain at one point down the sideline. It was beautiful throwing catch between Drake and about nine to five with Drake and Michael Bennox. But Darnell Mooney is that guy and Casey Washington is expected to be the guy who kind of steps in and plays that role. Um, but he’s not going to bring you that same explosive element that Darnell Mooney would. Um, that doesn’t it’s not to say that he doesn’t have it in him somewhere, but based off of things that we’ve seen, it just hasn’t been the case. But maybe the Falcons end up being a buyer uh when we get into the next couple of months. We’ve got the what November 4th, I believe, is the trade deadline. I would not be all that surprised if you go get a Jacobe Myers. if you go look into the not just look into uh potential trades down the road. So maybe that’s something they look into. Just depends on the status of Darnell. Uh and again, he may even play on Monday. We don’t know for a fact. We just know that he was not a participant today. Um jumping back into some of these comments, let’s see. Happy Hudson says, “Definitely have to win the turnover battle if we were going to pull out a win.” Uh I don’t think the Falcons have actually won the turnover battle at any point this season. Um well, maybe against Minnesota. Um, but outside of that, I don’t think that the Falcons have because they lost it against Yeah, they lost it against the Bucks. They lost it against the definitely lost it against the Panthers and they won it against the the Minnesota Vikings and then um I think they also lost it against the Commanders as well, I believe. Or maybe they split it that way because Xavier had the interception. Whatever. Uh point is this is a Bills team that you need to win the turnover battle. It’s a very very important thing. So great note, they’re happy. Hudson, you got to more importantly than having takeaways, you have to protect the football. That comes down to Michael Penn. So Xavier’s going to get into some some situations. Jesse Bates’s going to cheat up on some routes. He’s he’s going to get potentially a couple of opportunities because Josh Allen’s a gunslinger. That’s one thing that’s very consistent. It’s not uncommon that this guy throws interceptions. Falcons just have to catch the ball and put themselves in good position to do that. Happy Hudson says Buffalo has shut down tight ends this year, but I feel like Pitts lines up as a wider wide out, especially with Mooney looking like he might miss again. Yeah, if Darno Mooney misses again, this that’s where you’re going to have to see an elevation from everybody. And Kyle Pittz is one of those guys he can play a lot of different positions. We talked about it all summer that this is a guy who who will line up and play as a wide receiver if called upon. It’s not the craziest thing to think that he can do that in this game, but um I I think Casey Washington’s probably going to be the guy that you end up looking back on this game and saying that’s one of the reasons we did or did not win. Um can he come in and and make and it’s not and it’s not that he has to come out and you know have a 100 yards or anything like that. I’m saying that this is a guy who has to step in and play a big role and kind of mitigate any losses that Darn Mooney might have. Um now that’s assuming that Darnam Mooney doesn’t even play, which we’re not there yet. All right, Terry Clark over on YouTube says, “I really think this game will be lowcoring. Vegas has the overunder at 50, but the Falcons are the number one D in NFL in yardage. Buffalo is number two. Turnovers will be critical, and whoever rushes for more wins.” I think ultimately the team who’s able to corral the rushing attack as much as they can uh more than the other their opponent will win this game. I think that’s probably a good way of looking at it. Um, again, it’s not a zero- sum type of thing, so it’s not like if the Bills win, that means they’re automatically going to win. They’re obviously a lot more factors involved in this, Terry. And I’m that’s just the nature of football, right? Uh, but no, I think that’s a pretty solid indicator because it’s going to give you a good look at what the rest of this game is going to look like. If the Falcons, if the Falcons can come out and hit 150 yards on the ground, it’s going to give them a really good shot to win this game. But the thing is, the Bills have given up 145 yards per game and they’re pretty damn good. They’ve only lost once this season, you know. So, it’s not quite as cut and dry as that might be, you know. So, it’s more important that the Falcons stop the run, I would say. So, it’s like if if you can hold the Buffalo Bills maybe down to 120 yards rushing or something, 115 yards rushing, that really sets you up in really good situ a really good situation and you win the turnover battle. That’s a spot where I think the Falcons have a good shot of winning this game, but I would expect that they’re going to have some kind of wrinkle or something up their sleeve for this one. Coming out of the by-week, um, you’re playing a team who’s going into a by-week, but also off of a loss. So, there are a lot of different factors that are going to play their way into this game. Uh, JC730 says, “How did we go from Mooney isn’t supposed to miss game time to now looking like he won’t play?” Uh, it’s not that he wasn’t going to miss game time. It’s just that based I’m assuming you’re talking about Raheem Morris’s comments here, JC. Um, we never really had a firm answer from him. It it seemed like timelinewise, I mean, we could still look at age 12. Of course, all these injuries are different. I don’t want to put one to one in that same way, but just for the sake of a comparison, he misses three weeks, right? Three weeks would put Darnam Mooney to missing this week and coming back next week, right? So, we’ll see what that actually ends up looking like, but maybe missing next week as well. I mean, like, it’s not off the table. Hamstring injuries, soft tissue injuries in general, especially for explosive athletes like wide receivers, they’re going to want to take it slow and they’re not going to want to create problems for themselves down the road because it can very, very easily exacerbate the issue uh and turn into a bigger problem down the road. So, I’d expect them to to take their time on this. It’s he’s a DMP today. It’ll be something to track throughout the course of the week. All the more reason to give us a follow uh Falcons on SI because we’re going to be up there at Flowy Branch and uh keeping everybody updated on everything that’s going on. Um we’ll get more info on that as it comes. But my opinion, I just don’t think he’s going to play. That’s just my opinion. He could end up suiting up. We never know. It’ll be a game time decision, I think, is what you’ll probably hear d uh from Raheem Morris. It’ll he’ll call it a game time decision. JC says this too over on YouTube. So excited for a prime time game against a contender. Hoping we provide the national media with a good showing to become one of the premier teams. I hope so. From your mouth to God’s ear, JC, from your mouth to God’s ear. I I think that this is a team who’s who’s plenty good, right? This is a Falcons team who’s who’s solid, right? They’re just not consistent. And I think if they can come out and put on one of those good performances, I think they can garner a little bit more of that respect and potentially that turns into something else down the road. Maybe free agents, a little bit more conversation, a little bit more buzz. Um, all that’s good for this Falcons team just based off of where they are right now. They need as many marquee wins as they can, but more important than that, they need to start stacking wins because this is a team who I mean, they have playoff aspirations. Now you’re playing a team with Super Bowl aspirations. See what that actually ends up looking like. But this is a Falcons team that’s plenty talented. Michael Pennix is a good football player. Um, you’re just going to have the the ups and downs of a young quarterback. Robinson is the best running back in the NFL right now. Uh, Drake London is an elite wide receiver. One, he’s a top guy, but can he get to that Jamar Chase level? Can he get to that AJ Brown, that Justin Jefferson, can he get to that? He’s not there yet. Can he get there? And playing Monday night games, especially Monday night games at home, is a really big opportunity. I want to say this is the first Monday night game that I can remember since the Benz opened and they played the what was it the Philadelphia Eagles was that Julio Jones game at home not on the road I say physically at home at Mercedes-Benz Stadium I want to say since 20 what was that 2018 that they played that game I want to say that’s right it’s been a long time it’s been a really long time they played the Sunday night game they played the what was the the Kansas City Chiefs but there’s something different about Monday Night Football And now again, you’re going to have two teams playing on Monday night, but we’ll see. We’ll see. All right, that’s going to be it for us here on the podcast tonight. Big thank you to all the wonderful folks who uh asked some great questions. We we heard from all kinds of people. Terry Clark, JC, uh Happy Hudson, Michael R, Kilo, Hopefully, Hopeful 7, Place Stats, Young, uh all kinds of great folks. Very much appreciate you guys jumping in here, making your presence felt here on the podcast. We do this every single Tuesday and every single Thursday at 6 o’clock. So, get to try to get 30 minutes to an hour here with you and just trying to talk some Falcons and, you know, maybe get some of these vibes kind of rolling, you know. But, I really appreciate all of you guys uh who jumped in here. Uh Scott and Nick, they’re going to be going live at 8:30 on Monday. So, make sure that you jump in there and follow them and kind of get things going with them as well. Give me a follow at GJAPL on Twitter. Best way to stay up to date on everything that we’ve got coming out. kind of got a couple features that are going to be coming your way uh as we prepare for the game on Monday night. Very excited about this one. Very excited for the opportunity. But best way to follow is at GJFPL, but you can also head over to Falcons onsi. Uh si.com NFL to get your fix there, too. My name is Garrett Chapman for Falcons on SI. This is the Falcons podcast with your host Garrett Chapman. Until next time, go Falcons.

Garrett Chapman dives into the injury crisis that has suddenly struck the Atlanta Falcons. Offensive tackles Kaleb McGary and Storm Norton look to be out against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Week 1 and likely longer. What options do the Falcons have?

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Garrett Chapman: https://x.com/gchapatl
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