Can the Falcons salvage the season? Falcoholic Live, Ep354
Fellow Falcoholics, what is up? Welcome to episode 354 of the Falcoholic Live. I’m your host Kevin of Falcoholic. Kevin, he is of course Adnanic at Say which way with his trademark Twizzlers in hand in mouth. Uh we are here once again presented by FanDuel. And uh you know Adnan I was I was trying to inject a little optimism with this show title. You know I wrote this I came up with this title this afternoon. Everything you know I won’t say everything is going well because you know the Falcons are three and six right? Things aren’t going well but three winnable games coming up. It seems like the most Falcons thing imaginable would be to win these next three games and and get us back in just so they could eventually stab us in the back which we all know is is the eventual you know outcome of this of this season. But then we get a truly like bizarre uh appearance for Michael Penn, which is probably deserving of an entire show on its own. And then we get some truly bizarre comments from Raheem Morris as well. Um that really just make me want to just throw my hands up. And you know, for the record, not angry at Michael Pennix for saying these things. I’m actually kind of relieved that that somebody said something. But um there’s a lot of takes out there uh based on what was said on a w on a Wednesday in Atlanta and uh the only thing I could say is that the cracks are are growing quickly uh in in this Falcons football team. How how are you doing uh so far tonight? Look man, uh you know my opinions on the coach. I came into this season, you know, ready to have cleaned house completely and yeah, this isn’t helping. like this the way this season has gone has been, you know, fair like deep down, let’s be honest, it was predictable. Uh we we didn’t want to admit it to ourselves because you know what? How’s that fun like you know going into the season of expecting the team to be three and six, but I mean come on, it’s the team has been out coached every step of the way. uh this coaching staff has been just a complete joke when it comes to their processes. Uh they’ve been a complete joke when it comes to just like when it comes to to the way they’ve dealt with the media and now it’s like they’re just straight straight up liars like at this I mean we’ll get to that. We’ll we’ll get to the whole Darnell Mooney like collarbone thing here in a little bit. But man, like at this like I’m I’m heated. Like I’m heated over the staff like in general. They should have been gone yesterday. They should have been gone after last season. And honestly to me, the longer they’re here, the more they stay, the more it shows me what an incompetent owner Arthur Blank is because that that’s the person that that’s the common denominator in all of this. And that’s the person where I’m really ready to really start pointing the finger at him. Um because really it’s like you look at his track record as the owner of this team since Matt Ryan uh left and you you just see everything you need to see with this franchise. But you know outside of all of that I’m doing fine. I’m doing well. Outside of outside of the world burning down, you know, around us, everything’s fine. We’re all fine here. How are you? Yeah. Today was a beautiful day outside. It’s like in the Did you see Northern Lights yesterday? The Northern Light? I didn’t see them myself. I saw that there was like a lot of traction like especially if you’re in the more northern states. Yeah, it was totally clouded out. So, I I I’m obsessed with the Northern Lights, guys. I’m There’s going to be a Northern Lights segment at some point. But yeah. Yeah, it’s not it’s not as prevalent down here, but yeah, like up in like Canada and like the northern states like a I saw the pictures and it’s like damn, like Yeah. No, I saw it I saw it for the first time last fall and I’ve been trying to catch it for for years and uh it was totally clouded out last night. I was so mad I couldn’t see anything. Uh my brother who lives in Arkansas was able to see it. So it was pretty far south. Um I even heard of some people in Florida with unobstructed northern views being able to see it. But uh tonight there’s another chance. So if you guys after the show of course uh want to go out and take a look uh it’s possible, right? It’s firing up right now. So, in the next hour or two could be visible again. So, uh that’s my that’s one of my hobbies. I I love space weather, which before a couple years ago, I didn’t even know space weather were weather was a thing. I thought that was like a joke from Family Guy. Uh and you know, actually it is a thing. Um so, cool stuff. Uh but, you know, we’re going to save the the this is a good offse like this is a June show, so we’re going to do the Northern Lights show in June for now. Uh going to stick to the Falcons. Not not that there’s, you know, a lot of uh positive things to say about the Falcons, but tough situation Atlanta’s in right now. Three and six, four game losing streak. They could have won any of these games. I mean, the the game that they were they stood the least chance in apparently was against the Dolphins, which is one of the most crazy things that you could ever say. But, I mean, the Dolphins did just turn around and beat the Bills, but I mean, that’s a division game, right? So, I mean, that that’s a little bit different. But um the Falcons hung with two of the top teams in the AFC. Probably should have beat both if not for some really dumb really dumb mistakes like a missed extra point. And then uh Jeff Olrich has his one like just crazy level defensive play call every game. It’s okay. Like nobody’s perfect, but that like you know fourman rush with man behind it on third and 21, not a fan. Not a fan of that. after after he just had immense success running the blitz on both first down and second down. Like I was thinking to myself, all right, third and 21, hit him again. Like he’s flustered. Like he’s frazzled at that point. It’s like you have a chance to really like, you know, either force a really short pass, which is a a win, or you have a chance to get him again and then it’s fourth and a mile and instead it’s no, no, no. We’re we’re not even going to put on a spy even though Daniel Jones has burned us with his feet. And you know, we’ll just set up a nice fourth and three. We we’ll let him get 18 yards. Yep. Yep. Um so, you know, I I don’t have a lot like I I have a couple of bones to pick with Jeff Olrich, but these are like reasonable things. It’s like, oh, I didn’t like this play call. I don’t like that you seem to be obsessed with JD Bertrand, but at the end of the day, Jeff Olrich is not the the like I I’m we’re never going to agree with a coach 100%. That’s unreasonable. So, like on the whole, Jeff Olrich, two thumbs up with how you’ve handled this. The Falcons defense is ravaged with injuries. It’s they’ve kept the lid on this thing. They’ve kept it going. I don’t agree with everything that’s been done, but Well, yeah. Yeah. But I have so many other problems that are just higher on my list than than his occasional brain fart. So, yeah. One, the defense like the defense bent but didn’t break. And I mean, look, I I was on the postgame show, so I couldn’t share any of my thoughts of the game back during then, but the defense, like, you know, let’s be honest, I feel like the Colts sort of they deserve this win. I think the Colts did outplay the Falcons for the most part. Uh the Falcons did get lucky with the with Michael Badgely, whom I’ve actually been saying has is one of the worst kickers in the league for a while now. So, I was vindic I was vindicated a lot on Sunday w with him missing the field goal and him missing the extra point. So, that’s four points. And then the Falcons defense sort of stifled them twice on fourth down where on one of those plays that was just st Shane Stiken like galaxy braining that like toss play to Taylor. It’s like I feel like had they just like given him the ball up the middle again, the Falcons could not stop him. But, you know, the defense, you know, we got lucky there. Um, but the defense was on the field a lot. Like they were on the field for a a lot during that game. Um, especially given the way how the Colts were really establishing the run. And I mean, yeah, if you had Jonathan Taylor in fantasy or were playing against him, you knew just the impact he made in this game. But yeah, the other thing that you can’t really fault Jeff Olrich for is the defensive players gave up on the play on the biggest play of the game, which was Taylor’s 83 yard touchdown. And that’s a direct quote from Jesse Bates who said that yeah they they all just sort of let up thinking that he was stopped and then he just wasn’t and all of a sudden he stiff arms AJ Terrell and you know the the guy who’s probably the front runner for MVP at the moment is just streaking down the sideline and giving the Colts the lead. So yeah, it’s um but even even with that I feel like the defense was I I guess fine like they were fine. That was an incredible play by Jonathan Taylor too. Like I don’t want to discount that. Like there’s very few running backs that could make that type of play. That was an exceptional like MVP caliber play. Yeah. Like Taylor right now. I mean not only is he carrying multiple fantasy teams that I have but also like I would he he for me he is the MVP right now. Like if if it’s not him just rename it best quarterback and just move on with it because he is right now the most valuable player and you saw that like straight up in that game. like they gave him what 32 carries, 35 touches and and he was incredible. Like he was incredible all afternoon. The Falcons could not really bottle him up very much. Um but yeah, I mean like the offense the offense was given plenty of chances. Um especially with really really good field positioning. They they got a couple drives in. They scored a couple drives, but I mean come on man. like you get the ball first in overtime after some very confused wrecking of uh redoing the coin toss. The refs were struggling in this one uh pretty bad. So yeah, and you you essentially go six and out, not even three and out. You go three and out, they get busted for what looked like a soft hold and you go three and out again and it’s like come on man. Like you as the you have to do more like you cannot your defense is gassed. you’re playing against this Colts team that is right now a historic offense. You cannot leave that drive without scoring some points and then, you know, of course ended up killing the Falcons more than anything with special teams. Like the Colts, I think they got three kickoff punt returns beyond midfield in that game, including on the last drive in regulation when they were down three and then including in overtime where all right, like you’re just letting them set up shop on your side of the field because you can’t tackle them and you can’t cover them on like on these kickoffs. Do you know how bad your special teams is when the smart play when the best play you could have done was kicking it out of the back of the end zone in 2025? Like at some point it’s like all right, just boot it out of the back of the end zone. Let him get it at 35 and be done with it. But yeah, it’s it like the team struggled in all three facets. A little less on defense. Uh but it felt like when the defense was on, the offense wasn’t. When the offense got it going a little bit, the defense couldn’t. And then special teams was just sort of bad like throughout the game. Uh excluding Zayn Gonzalez. Zayn Gonzalez did his job. He looked pretty solid. Yeah, those kicks were down the middle. I I was actually like after the first two, I was like, “Oh, okay. I feel all right about this.” Like this this seems like a this seems like a reasonable kicker at this point. I mean, I don’t know if he can hit him from 50 plus or whatever, but those kicks were all right down the middle. So, you know, his career, but yeah, I I’m I’m more confident in Gonzalez than I was in Parker Romo or Coup. But, um, yeah, it’s look, man, it’s it’s it’s not it’s at the end of the day, sure, you played fine, but you you were three and five. You had to win this one. You know, you had to beat the Patriots. You could not afford to leave these two games at 0 and two. Losing that Dolphins game made made that impossible. planned. Now we sit here at three and six and now we’re here ready to sort of dissolve and dissect a few uh what we the news that we’ve gotten about this coaching staff when it comes to you know maybe off the field and on the field stuff and it’s it’s rough. It’s not a good time right now to be a Falcons fan. And this this is a lost season. Like I there is nothing really to sort of look for anymore because they have to go what seven and0 or no one seven and one to be 10 and seven. Yeah. And even 10 wins doesn’t guarantee you anything in this year’s NFC. So are you saying that this team is going to go eight and0? Like this season’s down the drain as far as I’m concerned. They have to beat the Bucks. That’s the only path like that’s reasonable. And the Bucks are are the Bucks are good. Like I mean it it is what it is. Like the Bucks are a good team. They have been absolutely ravaged and they continue to be ravaged by injury. I you know they’re six and three. Your only hope is that the Bucks scuffle. I mean they play the Bills this week. They could lose again. Your only hope is that the Bucks scuffle and you can somehow like pass them up with like nine wins. That’s that’s the only like you beat you beat them and and you you’re able to sort of somehow get this thing done with nine wins or something like that. That’s but that’s like I mean we’re talking about like this is getting ridiculous. Like we we need the Bucks to basically fall apart to to now like this has happened a lot in this NFC South. So maybe that’s like I mean I feel like that’s far more likely than getting to 10 wins at this point. So, um, you know, before we can even have any conversation about this team competing for anything other than giving away a top five pick, they got to win the next three games, right? So, like if this team could come out and win these next three games, then we can have a conversation about, okay, what kind of crazy scenario could we could we have to to to potentially turn this thing around? But like that’s where we are. It’s like, yeah, you got to win three straight and then we can talk about maybe there’s a chance of like a low percentage play here. They’re so far off now. It’s like a three like normally for most teams a three-game win streak would be like oh yeah well you know now we’re cooking you know now it’s like we got to win three games to get back to 500 and have a chance in hell at anything. So uh it’s not looking good. It’s not looking okay. Every week we just add a new caveat onto these scenarios of like well now we need to do this to get to this and it’s like all right like at some point it’s like look don’t blame us for doing it because we have to produce the content. Um, but yeah, at some point it’s like, you know, let’s let’s call a spade a spade. Like like if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and moves like a duck, it’s a duck. And right now that duck is the Atlanta Falcons missing the playoffs for the eighth straight season, which depending on what the Panthers do, will be the second longest playoff drought in the NFL. It’s already the joint second longest playoff drought right now with Carolina. The only team with a longer drought is Surprise, the New York Jets. So that’s Don’t have to worry about that one this year. Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that one for a few years. Yeah, we we have a little bit more uh wiggle room there. But yeah, it’s it’s bad, man. That they you just this this conference is strong this year and you just couldn’t afford to you can’t lose the layup games. Like very few teams can get away with losing the layups. can usually afford some division losses because that that’s what it is like even even like in division you’re going to lose some games it happens but you can’t lose to the Miami Dolphins you you can’t lose you can’t lose to any of these next three teams you’re playing that’s for sure um so you know that’s just where we are and like somehow you know and you look at it’s like the Panthers are five and five their point differential is worse than Atlanta so you know this Falcons team should be better you know beating the Falcons 30 nothing yeah exactly Exactly. Um, you know, and then you have a team like the uh the Jaguars have a negative point differential and they they have five wins. The Texans have a plus 50 point differential and they only have four wins, you know. So, it’s it’s just funny looking at how some of these things stack up. But, um, the Falcons have not been fortunate. They’ve also just not finished games. And that’s been a it’s been a standby of Raheem Morris so far. And it was a standby of the Arthur Smith teams, too. So, it’s kind of where we are. It’s unfortunate. Um, and this team is just it’s falling apart and and we see we sort of um we’re sort of like just once again in this this dark place where you know the all of a sudden this like this team this year couldn’t even keep us in keep us invested through November. I mean it’s it’s like it’s just sad. But um we got a we got a couple donations. We’ll continue down this path. We got we got a lot to cover tonight guys. We got Cair with the $5. What’s up? He says, “The locker room is gone. Civil War, baby. Only an American hero like Mike McCarthy can save the day.” Just kidding. I’m team Kubiaak. Especially if his dad comes along. Yeah, Klay Kubak. Blank check. Whatever. Whatever it takes. Like or or Kevin Stfansky. I’ll accept Kevin Stfansky, too. Um, you know, apparently Stfansky and New York New York Giants is a thing. So, that just means Kubak’s available. Uh, so yeah, let’s go. Um, but yeah, we’ll see how that goes. Yeah. Yeah. Will the the problem is Atlanta’s job is not going to be the most desirable one. So, you know, will and also like I I don’t know like Arthur Blank has this habit of overreacting to any like anything negative and I I don’t know if he’s going to be very willing to hire a first time like head coach on the offensive like side of the ball after Arthur Smith didn’t like after it didn’t work out with Arthur Smith because I mean we say it with blank he to this day will never consider anyone from college because of Bobby Petrine. you know, even though that burned him 18 years ago. So, it’s just, you know, I don’t know. I would love Clint Kubak. I would love Clint Kubak. I would love Kevin Stfansky. Um, honestly, like, you know, even someone like a Mike McDaniel, uh, I feel like Mike McDaniel, he’s not going to really get a head coaching job for a while, but I feel like he was really sort of hard done by the two concussions. Like, he had that Dolphins team humming before then. Um, but yeah, at this point I feel like they probably won’t have a choice but to get a retread like a Mike McCarthy. And I don’t know if that’s the worst thing ever because if Mike McCarthy can come in here and do what he’s done in Dallas and in Green Bay and like, you know, make this just a consistent playoff team where they fall short in the playoffs. That would be like four steps ahead of where this team is right now. Like I I would love to have the issue of, oh, we make it to the divisional round and we just can’t get over the hump. That would be fantastic. Like, let me sign up for that right now for the Falcons over the next few years because, you know, otherwise we’re just sort of, you know, Yeah. I don’t even want to say we’re in purgatory. We’re in hell right now. Yeah. I feel like that we’re back, we’ve come full circle to like the Mike Smith era where like I think Mike Smith is just like a better version of Mike McCart Mike McCarthy or at least he was. But I feel like he’s kind of that type of coach, just like a nononsense guy that’s just going to come in here and install like a just an adult like culture and just kind of like get people back on track. Like Mike McCarthy is the least sexy hire you could ever imagine. I mean, it is what it is, but you’re absolutely right. It’s like everyone would just trash the hire and I would like not like it. But maybe what this team needs is like a Mike Smith to come in and just like get these guys back to just like basic winning habits. And yeah, Mike McCarthy is not going to get you over the hump. He’s not going to win you playoff games, but I don’t even care about winning playoffs. I just want to get to the playoffs. Like, how about we just get back to the dance and then we can talk about improving. But like, you know, I mean, it’s just, yeah, I feel like the an important thing right now at this point for the franchise, given where they are, is you need someone to instill a culture. And, you know, we saw that Mike Smith did did a hell of a job with that in 2008 because this team was in complete disarray after 07. Uh, it’s not it’s not as bad now as it was back then given, you know, all the stuff around Michael Vic. Um, but it’s pretty damn bad right now. And you know, you could really use someone like, like you said, it would not be the worst thing in the world to just get an adult in the room and someone that’s going to, you know, revamp the culture and just sort of, you know, just get you back to default, get you back to like middle of the pack of this because right now this this team is just a straight laughing stock. like this team’s level, this franchise right now is on the same level as the Jets. It’s on the same level as the Browns, you know, it’s on the same level as as the Panthers. The Panthers are actually doing a little better than you this year as well. I it’s just it’s really really bad. And you know, honestly, if you bring in a Mike McCarthy, I I’ll be I’ll be fine with it. I’ll shrug my shoulders, be like, “Yeah, it’s not sexy, but you know what? I get it. Like I let bring someone in with a proven track record who can sort of, you know, just get you to the playoffs. That would be immense compared to where we are right now. Yeah. Even though he wouldn’t be my first choice, of course. Yeah. Same. Same. It’s like I would still go for the bold hire with Clint Kubak. I think that’s good process even if it doesn’t always work. I mean Arthur Smith again we’ve said it like Arthur Smith was good process. He had all the hallmarks that you look for like multiple years of production, great in the red zone, great on third down, you know, all that stuff. Like this is all the hallmarks you look for. It didn’t work out, but it was it was good process. And then of course, you know, like Arthur Blank is is want to do. He was like, “Nope, the problem was that I hired an offensive coach.” He’s like, “No, nope. Problem was that Arthur Smith just didn’t evolve.” You know, um that was the issue, you know. So, keep going back to the offensive. Well, you know, but yeah, I mean, maybe we get Matt Laflur if the Packers enough to go their head like that that that’s a guy I would give a blank check to right now. But yeah, him Stfansky. I mean, I would even consider Mike McDaniel obviously if he gets fired. We’ll see. But, um, yeah, that there’s just like like the ceiling is the floor. So, like we can go wherever. I mean, and you keep coming back to people like, “Oh, no one would ever come here.” It’s like Kell Moore took the Saints job. Like that was the worst job I’ve ever seen. And it took forever for the Saints to convince someone to take it. But like that job is that job is way worse than the Falcons job this year. Like there’s no doubt about that. Here’s the thing. Like there’s only 32 of these in the world. Like NFL head coaching jobs. You’re going to get someone like of like if Laflur is available. I don’t think it it’s going to be him because he he’s going to have better options. A Ben Johnson can pick and choose sort of and he can wait it out and that’s that’s sort of what he did and waiting and you know going back to Detroit and then then that uh Chicago job with Caleb Williams opened up. So there’s these very very hot commodities where you know they can pick and choose but that’s very rare and outside of them it’s like if you’re a coordinator and you have a chance at one of these jobs it’s a very big risk for you to not take it like we saw what happened we saw it with Bobby Slowick in Houston y where he was a hot commodity that off season uh in 2023 and a year later he was fired like I feel like Ben Johnson took the same risk But, you know, it’s just the the Detroit Lions offense kept humming with him. So, he he ended up being fine. But, if the Lions offense completely regressed or fell off a cliff, like Ben Johnson would not be anywhere either. Like, even with the Falcons, go back to 2017. Marquan Emanuel was looked at as, you know, maybe the next guy like, you know, to get a head coaching job. That Falcons defense was top 10. Uh, you know, it was that Falcons team that made the playoffs, made the divisional round. was held back by the offense. It was held by back by Stark that year, not the defense. What happened a year later? Mark Juan Emanuel got fired like in in just one year later. So the these coordinators understand that you got to strike while the iron is hot. There’s only going to be a handful of these head coaching jobs that are available. One of them is going to be in Atlanta. And hey, like come to Atlanta. Well, Arthur Blank is going to be loyal to you, overly loyal to you the way that he was overly loyal to the last two head coaches, last two or three head coaches. So, you know, it’s not you’ll be able to get someone. Yeah, you definitely can at some point like that’s not going to be an issue. But yeah, if we’re talking about like the top tier candidates, you know, like like Ben Johnson wouldn’t take this job more than likely unless he loved Michael Penn. I think there are lots of coaches that did really like Penn. So that that could be something that works in the favor. But I I think like you look at Kubak with with Sam Darnold like Penn is a lot of people compare Penn to Tua. He doesn’t he’s not anything like Tua guys. I I don’t really get that other than the fact that they’re left-handed. That’s really the only thing. Um Penn is much more similar to Sam Darnold. The good Sam Darnold for the record. Like Penn as good as bad as people think PennX has been. Go watch Sam Darnold tape from like his first three years in the NFL. if you want to see bad quarterback play. So like we’re we’re nowhere near that. Um but like in terms of like guy with a cannon arm that’s that’s not the best under pressure at this point, can move around a little bit but just loves to take deep shots and stuff like that Kubiaak offense is perfect for what Atlanta wants to do. That you could plug and play that with minimal changes here and uh I would I think that would be a great fit. Um, let’s continue on here. We got Alex Foster with the $5. Thank you. Alex says, “When it comes to this team, in the words of Thaad Castle from Blue Mountain State, I don’t even care. Just get out of my life.” Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good show. Shout out to Blue Mountain State, by the way. If you guys haven’t seen it, that’s that’s a a hell of a show. It’s a It’s a very very funny. I remember watching it in college. Yeah. Bit runchy, so be be prepared, you know. But yeah, it it is runchy, but yeah. Great. I don’t know if it’s still on Netflix or not. I think it is. Yeah. But yeah, very much uh very easy show to watch. Very I think it’s like a 20 minute like an episode comedy. I think there’s like two or three seasons. Yeah. Very good show. Yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah. Uh it’s a good it’s a good quote. Can’t couldn’t say it better myself. We got Love Dogs Avery with the five. Thanks. Avery says Blank seems like a nice man, but I think he’s forgotten how to run a football team. I think I think Blank has just become too he’s become too emotional about it. I think like just too personally invested in the coaches themselves. Like he needs to like vibe with somebody and like and that’s all fine. Like I mean you’re you own the team, you can do whatever you want, but it’s like we can’t like that can’t be the main thing. The main thing can’t be like how do I vibe with this guy? How much how nice is this guy? How does he like like we need like more like that’s a good like cherry on top. Like if I have to choose between an [Â __Â ] and a nice guy and their qualifications are the same otherwise. I’m going to pick the nice guy obviously. Like I think that’s probably better for everyone. But like I feel like we’re that’s like be a little too highly rated on the scale. Like at a certain point we just need to make sure we’re hiring the right coach, not just the nicest coach. So what I’m going to say is gonna sound mean. Okay, buckle up folks. Yeah. My take isn’t that Arthur Blank has forgotten how to run a football team. My take is actually that Arthur Blank probably never knew how to run one in the first place. Um I know it sounds mean. Um but he you did warn us. Yeah. I mean you look at it. I feel like the main reason and Arthur Blank is going to get a lot of credit for the Falcons looking a lot better than they have throughout their history before his ownership which the owners before Blank were somehow even worse. Uh, you know, shout out to Rank and Smith and, you know, the own the previous ownership. Um, the main reason that the Falcons had the success that they had from 2008 through 2017 was Matt Ryan. I think we can all sort of agree to that. Um, and I feel like Arthur Blank was sort of in the right place at the right time to be the owner as Matt Ryan sort of fell into Atlanta’s lap and he did yman’s work and just carrying this franchise. Uh, and then, you know, of course, we know how Arthur Blank sort of thanked him by going after a guy with many allegations and Deshun Watson and Matt and, you know, Matt Ryan leaving to Indianapolis. Um, but like even during those successful days, like Arthur Blank was still highly emotional. I do you remember the the biggest thing that stands out to me is is the Julio Jones saga where, you know, the Falcons are in the middle of negotiation with Julio Jones, who, you know, was demanding a new contract even though he had like three years left on his own contract because the guaranteed money ran out. Well, you know, too damn bad. Like, you signed the deal. And Arthur Blank sort of undercuts Thomas Dimitroof at the knees by going to the to the media and publicly saying, “Oh, no, no, Julio is gonna be a Falcon for life. We’re we’re keeping Julio no matter what.” And it’s like, “Okay, well, you just sort of destroyed some of your own leverage there.” But honestly, like if it wasn’t for Matt Ryan, and I think we see it now after Matt Ryan has left and you know, Arthur Blank has owned this football team for about five years uh since then or four years since then, but you know, Matt Ryan was old toward the end there. I feel like if Matt Ryan was never in the picture, we would be looking at Arthur Blank the same way we look at, you know, some of the worst owners in the league like a Woody Johnson and and Jimmy Hasslam. you. It’s just the the main difference between those guys and Ryan and Blank is that Blank was lucky enough to luck into a franchise quarterback who ended up being the greatest Falcon of all time in his tenure. Honestly, like I don’t think Blank is a good football owner. Like I think he’s a good guy. Very, very charitable man. Um, you know, thanks to him for bringing Atlanta United uh here and for, you know, the soccer culture he’s established. But yeah, you know, to be honest with you, if you take away Ryan, like he he hasn’t been great as a football owner in general. So, yeah, that’s my hot take on this. And I honestly am just not very confident in this franchise, unless you’re telling me that a franchise quarterback is going to once again fall into their laps. And I mean, yeah, we don’t know about Pennics if he’s going to be a franchise quarterback or not. But yeah, like I think this I don’t think Arthur Blank is a very good good owner to be honest with you. He certainly seems to have learned the wrong lessons from every step. Like like with the Patrino thing, he sort of course corrected to Mike Smith and and that was a good hire. And then I think ultimately like the Dan Quinn hire was also good, but it seemed like and and again like the Arthur Smith hire even I don’t think was bad, but it’s like it seems like every time it’s like he’s kind of just like going in the wrong direction. Like I I mean I agree with the Smith hire, but after Smith it was like now we have to course correct again. And it’s like you’re you’re finally getting it that like we can’t rely on a defensive coach because every time we get an offensive coordinator worth a damn, he’s just going to leave and and take a head coaching job. And then it’s like you go with Arthur Smith, he ends up not being the guy. And then you just go right back to the defensive coach again. But maybe it’s not even about that. Maybe it’s just like he just wants coaches he knows personally or is comfortable with. Like because we saw it like that they went back to Dirt Cutter. They went back to you know all these guys and like Yeah. Morris. Morris was in the building as interim coach. They went away from him and three years later they’re like, “No, no, no, never mind. He’s going to be our coach again.” It’s the emotion. Like even Rich McKay, Rich McKay was your general manager in ‘ 07. He he did such a bad job that he was fired and instead of, you know, giving him his walking papers, wishing him well, Arthur Blank promoted him to president of Football Ops. And I I mean, Richard McKay has been around the franchise forever, and who knows how much of an impact he’s had over the past few years, but again, I’m telling you, Matt Ryan covered so many warts with this franchise that now that he’s gone, you you see the negative impact of Blank, you see the negative impact of McKay, you you know, you just see what a what a circus it is at at at Flowery Branch right now. Like, it’s it’s an absolute clown show these days. Yeah. Yeah, and I do know we we had Martavian ask in in the comments about basically he’s saying like the Falcons chose Morris over Mike Vrabel. That is true. Bill Bellichic, Jim Harbaugh, and Ben Johnson. The last three are not true. Well, they did choose him over Bill Bich, but that was correct. You don’t you don’t want to go down that road. Just trust me on that. Be be glad they didn’t go down that road. But Jim Harbaugh was going to Los Angeles the whole time. He he was not a serious candidate here. Ben Johnson also when the Falcons were hiring wasn’t taking any jobs like he he was already decided to stay with with the Lions. Now maybe you could have made him like a godfather offer or something like that. I mean I would I could have got behind that but he didn’t take a coaching job that year. So you know I think that’s a little bit guys like Brabel and I’m not Brael definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not buying this whole [Â __Â ] of, oh, no, no, Brabel is actually going to New England no matter what. Then why didn’t the Patriots hire him that off seasonason? The Patriots also had an a vacant head coaching job. Like Mike Brabel was actively interviewing, I think. Did he have like I don’t know if he had two interviews with the Falcons or not, but he was like actively like interviewing in spots. And I remember like obviously like my number one was Ben Johnson, but I remember thinking like how is this dude not a head coach? like what he did in Tennessee was immense and I I was all for bringing Brabel over here. He was one of my top candidates. He was one of my top guys and you see it in New England. He immediately established that culture over there. And I feel like if they went the route of hiring Mike Greybel, this franchise would have been in a much much better situation the past two years. But even beyond Rabel, the other big name that’s having a lot of success right now uh is uh McDonald over at uh over with the Seahawks. Like he has the Seahawks just but the Seahawks are kicking ass and taking names in the NFC right now. Like that looks like at the moment arguably the scariest team in the conference and I mean he’s someone from Georgia. He he did interview for the job and at the end of the day like the team the team went with and I think he he was there for the taking too. Like I I feel like if you make him an offer he would have come to Atlanta. Um but at the end of the day the team still chose Morris over both he and and uh Mike Greybel and that that was that was a huge misstep. Giving Morris a five-year contract was also a huge misstep because who else who are you competing with for Raheem Morris? Who else was gonna make him an offer? Like I I I don’t I don’t get it. And I mean, well, I I get that. It’s the emotion. It’s the emotion of he was in the building, but do you really want to bring someone back that was in the building while this team was bad? that was in the building while this team, you know, blew blew that Super Bowl. That that was like a part of that culture of losing in in the in the aftermath uh in in the aftermath uh of 20 post 2017 because Morris was still here in 2018 2019. He was the interim in 2020. there the reason why you decided not to make him the head coach because that would have just been an extension of that Dan Quinn era that you know flamed out and that all of us were sort of over at that point and you decided after you know a failure with Arthur Smith of no we’re actually just going to go back to that. I I still don’t understand the logic. I don’t understand the reasoning behind going back to that. And I mean, yeah, it just sort of it’s nothing more than emotion. And when you have an owner that sort of leads with emotion and just like with what he’s feeling and he leads with whatever the vibes are, you’ll get the results have gotten over the last two years. It starts at the top. Yeah, I agree. I agree with all that. I I think it’s just a it’s not been run well from top to bottom and we’re we’re dealing with a lot of consequences of the way that it’s been I guess the way that it it’s been run um the the process and all that. It’s been poor. Um and we’re seeing the consequences of that with you know trickle down through through basically the whole staff and um you know probably should have been a bigger red flag also with Re Morris bringing in two completely untested uh coordinators. I know everyone was really excited about Robinson and that’s how that’s how it goes with offensive coordinators sometimes is we’re like you you have to be the first like if you want the premium upandcomers you have to be the one to give them the chance and obviously that’s Seattle. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Like I don’t have a problem with that process, but Washington, like you know, Sean Bay was like what, 28 when Washington hired him as OC as like main play caller. Look, I I’ll throw my hands up about Robinson. Like I’ll I’ll like completely wrong about Zack Robinson. It is what it is. Can’t get them all right, you know. I’m sorry. I’ll I’ll admit it. You know, we were very pro Zack Robinson. We were very excited. It’s uh you know it happens but now like you’ve seen that it doesn’t work and you’re still not like changing anything. That’s the issue and I think that can take us to the Michael Penn conference. Yeah. Yeah. I couple we had just I think we had a couple more coaching questions here. So before we change change gears, let me get to these real quick. We got George with the two. Thank you George saying, “Hear me out. Would it be so bad to fire this coaching staff and hire Mike McCarthy?” We did talk about that. um and bring in Brian Dable as OC. He turned Josh Allen from a turnover machine into an MVP and was bringing Dart along. Why not? We need Stab. Look, Dable as an offensive coordinator, I think is fantastic. I I think he’s It’s been shown that he’s just not a great overall team leader, but his offenses have typically performed and um I think as an offensive coordinator, he has a great track record. So, yeah, that would that would be nice. I would I could get behind that. Um we got Ro Staxon with the $10. Thank you. Ro saying problem with Raheem is that he can’t coach. So even if we get a new OC that’s not going to fix the issues. It’s dysfunctional. We still have the same issues every week for four weeks. And he’s very stubborn with making changes. That that is a big concern for sure. Um that’s why I am also in favor of just moving on. I don’t think we can just fix this with I mean you could fix some issues with the OC, but I think the overall malaise of the team would not improve. Um we got Jason Gains with $2. Thank you. Jason says, “I’d like to give a shout out to 680 the fan and an ATL for coming up with a new nickname for Rahu Morris. Look up in the sky.” Uh Kevin and Oddnan. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. Wait, we got to find uh The quote was, “We got to find a way to snap out of it and really go.” Uh oh, find a way, man. Sorry, I I got tripped up in the middle of the quote. We got to find a way to snap. Okay, I sorry. I I butchered that quote, but yes. Um, I got to go watch that now because I’m sure their delivery was like infinitely better than mine. But yes, find a way, man. Yeah, we won’t be the only ones looking up. So, Raheem Morris because that’s apparently all he does on that sideline. I I don’t know how he doesn’t have neck problems at this point. He’s always looking up at the jumbotron. So, every single time they cut Yeah, I was surprised he he could make it through that entire game in Berlin because that the Olympia was built in the 30s and it does not have a jumbotron. So, it’s like how how would he know what was he doing? Maybe that’s why he actually was uh involved like on the sideline and calling that two-point conversion, you know, toward the end of the game. Otherwise, he’d just be doing this. Yeah, that’s my goodness. Yep. Uh yeah, that Sorry, Jason. I I butchered your quote, but I I think I get it now. So, hope hopefully we recovered a little bit there. Uh we got Alex Foster with the five. Thanks, Alex says. Sorry, that was a dramatic question. That said, if Brook were to take over and looked really good, who would you want to be our coordinators? Um, yeah, like I think Dable’s an intriguing option. Um, obviously if Mike McDaniel gets fired, I think that’s a good one to consider. In terms of the defense, I guess it’s I mean I don’t know. Um, probably whoever likes. Um, just because probably going to call the plays, but I mean maybe Jerry Gray takes over. Maybe you keep the defensive staff mostly intact and you promote Jerry Gray or maybe one of these other may I mean maybe to keep um Nate Ali in the in the building. You just promote him, give him a promotion because he’s been working some some miracles, too. So I I would I would do a lot to keep him around. Um so yeah, maybe those two guys. Um so we’ll see. I mean, there’s going to be a lot more firing, so there will be more options on the table, too, by the time we get there. But yeah, let’s I’m with you, Dable. And McDaniel is my top guy for for OC right now. Like I think he’s a very very talented play caller. Um and yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, Nate Nate Ali deserves his chance. Who who knows? May maybe you you reunite with Ryan Nielsen possibly uh as as a potential even though he did completely flame out in Jacksonville. He’s still a cold hero in Atlanta though for you know it doesn’t take much doesn’t take much to become a cold hero uh in Atlanta as a defensive coordinator given given how low that bar is. Um but yeah, I think I think we’re at the point of like let’s first see who we get as a head coach and then like and then let’s let’s start focusing on coordinators. That’s going to be that’s going to give us some some good material here in in h February and March. That’s the one upside because we don’t have a first to talk about. So maybe we can talk about a coaching search at the very least. We can’t talk about coordinators now. We cannot flame out our like all our material at the moment. Got to hold on to something. But then we have EBD with the $2 saying mock drops. Yeah. Yeah. I I got some I got some spicy ones. Don’t worry guys, but uh not yet. We got to let that slide a little bit longer. But we EBD with the two says in this house we call him Mr. Jumbotron. I like that too. That’s a good one. Um, all right. So, you mentioned it, the press conferences, the comments, what’s going on with all this stuff. Um, man, what a day. Uh, this was I was not expecting fireworks from Wednesday press conferences, but um, at this point, I mean, I guess everything’s on the table because this is like a this house of cards is tumbling down. But, um, I haven’t listened to the full panics quote. I I saw it while I was at dinner, so I couldn’t listen to it. I mean, I I heard the transcription and I’ve heard the takes on it obviously. I don’t know if you had a chance to listen to it yet, Adnan, but um it’s very concerning at the very least. Uh certainly doesn’t sound good. Yeah, it’s uh So, well, which part which part do you want to talk about first? Well, I don’t I guess I don’t know if we should start with Penn and what he was saying or or if we want to start with Mooney. I mean, the Mooney thing is very cut and dry. like I don’t really need to listen to anything about that, but I know like uh Penn had some words uh to share. I mean, I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing, so I’ve just kind of read the transcript. Oh, ju just so that you guys see I’m trying to find the exact transcript just so that I’m not like misquing anything because we we I know there were some accusations that there were misqu. So, I I do want to be sensitive. Like I would love to like and look it’s not we’re not super um we’re not being super prepared because we didn’t have this like pulled up already but I would like say exactly what he said verbatim. Yeah. So I’m trying to like find because the this is going to take too much time. The gist is basically that he’s saying that he doesn’t really have anyone to like rely on like on the sidelines. Uh which is very sort of damning um given that like uh what’s what’s the what’s the what’s the quarterback coach doing? What’s the offensive coordinator? TJ Williams got promoted because TJ Yates is now like the Yeah. wide receivers’s coach, too. So what’s the coach doing here? like why why does your young quarterback who is def in de facto his rookie season why is he having to say that like he doesn’t have anyone to he can sort of like turn to like on the sidelines like during these games? Yeah. It’s just sort of it’s it’s completely damning on this offensive staff. It’s damning on Raheem Morris as the head coach and especially when you sort of look at some of these other head coaches. Like you look at Brabel and Drake May, we talked about Brabel like earlier and I mean he’s coaching him up. He’s talking him. It doesn’t matter that Brael’s not an offensive guy and that he’s a defensive-minded guy. You saw Jim Harbaugh always had that like reputation as that quarterback whisperer type thing. And it’s like meanwhile you have like Michael Pennix who’s a young quarterback who looks honestly damn near broken like after the press conference after that like cold skin was just sort of sad like he looked like he was like on the verge of tears and you know it looks like his confidence is fully shaken. It looks like and I mean now is like the time when you really have to build him up because there can be some like genuine damage that happens to him like in his psyche as a quarterback because this is psychologically maybe the toughest position to play in sports and he’s basically like telling you through the media that he sort of feels alone like on that sideline. And look, man, if this isn’t a reason enough to completely clean house of this coaching staff, I don’t know what is because it’s like it’s completely damning at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, it there’s definitely some questions about the coaching that he’s been getting and we’ve been talking about that that but it’s like we don’t necess like it’s kind of like crazy that it’s gotten to this point where like we can tell you guys that it looks like Penn isn’t getting good coaching. They’re not really crafting things to help him out. They’re not really setting things setting him up for success and all these things. It’s another thing when like you start hearing the quarterback say stuff about this um and you know it’s it’s incredibly concerning and like I it it’s just we can’t have this like and and I think part of this obviously has to do with there not really being any experienced coaches on on this part of the staff like Zack Robinson’s a basically a rookie OC or a secondyear OC. he doesn’t have this experience. You know, like TJ Yates is is also a relatively new quarterback’s coach. He’s only ever really worked with veterans and Desmond Ritter, which you know, we’re not really going to, you know, count that among um good work. And then DJ Williams is like an assistant QB coach and this was his first really opportunity to do this. He is a former QB, so he certainly has some experience there, but um I just don’t it’s it’s just it it’s sort of just putting putting words to what we already kind of understand. And I know there’s been a lot of backtracking and and the PR machine has been out in full force saying like, “Oh, Panics didn’t mean that. He meant something else.” Like until I like listened to the whole thing myself, I’m not really going to get into the nitty-gritty of what he said or didn’t say. But, you know, it the fact that we’re even having this conversation that his words could be misconstrued easily to sound like this is very concerning because this Pennix is a professional. Like I would say like his press conference attitude and what he says is all very professional. He’s not someone that mouths off or or does anything. I think he’s just frustrated and um you know it’s just it’s it’s we can’t we really shouldn’t be like having this conversation or or even approaching this with our young quarterback. Like it should what like we should be able to see on the sideline when he goes to the bench someone there going over plays with him. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen that this season. It bears it out like like you see it. It’s become such a common thing. It’s just like sort of instinctive especially after a quarterback like makes a mistake a young quarterback too where it’s like you and veterans it’s like they’re like on the iPad and like the quarterback coach or the OC is like sitting beside them and they’re like going over like what just happened like you have that technology you have that ability and it’s like yeah it’s like it’s not happening and you’re sort of now doing a disservice to your young quarterback. You’re no like this coaching staff can harm him like career-wise. Yeah. Like fully fully harm him, harm his develop. They can kill his development, not just harm it at this point because like pretty much developing a young quarterback is such a fragile thing like in the NFL and we see it. There are there is very very few quarterbacks that end up being you know competent NFL starters and it it’s it’s very difficult to develop one even if he was a high draft pick. I think the the stat like among top 10 picks like more than half of them turn into like busts and outside the top 10 it’s even it’s much worse. It’s even worse outside the first round. You know, you can name off the top of your head maybe on like one hand like the guys that really became like sort of stars. Um but yeah, it’s like it goes to the question begs like is this coaching staff the right one to develop Michael Pennix? The answer is no. Like I don’t even think that we have to like debate it or you know philosophically discuss like the possibilities. I think it’s just straight up no. And yeah, it’s it’s it’s not a good thing. And you mentioned Kevin like uh the this the inexperience of the coaching staff. It goes back to what’s the main reason why they went with Raheem Morris because you know the they told us like from the start, oh well he’s not a rookie head coach. He’s uh he’s an experienced head coach. He’s been a head coach before so we don’t have to go through any rookie pains. Not only were did the Falcons still have to go through rookie pains, but the rookie pains that that they had to go through with Raheem Morris in year one and now in year two is worse than what I’ve seen from other rookie head coaches and it’s just continued into year two. Like at some point just have to admit like he’s he’s going through these pains not because he’s a a young head coach, it’s just because he’s not a good head coach. It’s because he’s an incompetent head coach. And you know, we have an incompetent co coaching staff. We have an incompetent owner. And it’s just like it’s sheer incompetent. Again, like it goes back to my coh my comment. This Flowery Branch is not like uh Flowery Branch these days is less a football organization and more of a circus like that. That’s what the Atlanta Falcons are. And it’s just a clown show at the top in throughout the entire building right now. Yeah, it it’s rough. and and you know, we’ll we’ll definitely be digging more into this stuff and I assume this is going to be a national story after today, too. So, we’ll get a lot of analysis on this from a lot of folks and and you know, we’ll break it down. You know, I don’t want to go too far without the full context, but it it’s very concerning that we’re even getting close to this mark at this point. There’s no doubt about that. Um, so we’re going to close out with some uh Darnell Mooney talk because that that’s the one that’s really going to get our blood boiling. But real quick, got a couple more donations. Thank you guys so much, by the way, for that. We got Jason Games with the $2. Um, quote from Raheem. We got to find a way to convert these third downs. Morris has said this exact type of quote verbatim in the last four postgame press conferences. He sounds like a monotone robot that’s been infected by a computer virus. He just keeps repeating. Yeah. No. Um, that in some ways that would be more convenient, Jason, if if it was a virus because then we could just get some like antivirus software in here and just clean it out. But uh unfortunately not that simple of a fix for us. Got love dogs Avery with the five. Thanks Avery. Uh says I listened to the press conference from PennX in real time and I think it’s taken out of context. Very fair. Very fair Avery. You know I mean again that’s that’s why we’re kind of trying to be a little bit couch with this because again you know I want to give the benefit of the doubt and I really don’t think PennX is trying to like throw the team under the bus. I think he’s too professional to do that. But the fact that we’re like getting even close to this is very concerning. Very very concerning. Um and then we got Jason Gates the two saying uh so if people are interested in listening to the 680 the fan joke uh about the find a way man the uh it’s titled Falcons of Turmoil the accountability hour. Uh and it’s about 137 in the video so you guys can check that out. Yeah, good plug there Jason. Love 680 the fan. Those guys are those guys are good. Uh enjoy listening to their stuff. Also, they’ve plugged me in the past, so you know, hat tip. Thank you guys. 680 the fan. The other thing that I like about 680 the fan is they’re not they’re not letting the Falcons get away with it. Like they are they are torching the Falcons like on those shows and from what I’ve seen like uh clipped online. uh like they are not like it’s to the point where Rich McCay went on 680 the fan and they had like an 18minute interview with them and they did not like let up at all like with him. So yeah, they’re they’re doing some good work over there at that radio station for sure. Yeah, definitely enjoy those guys. It’s good to get multiple perspectives on stuff and I think they’re a little bit less tied to the Falcons organization. Not saying anything other than that, but you know, this is the fact of the matter. Um but yeah, this Darno Mooney stuff. So Raheem Morris goes, speaking of radio, goes on 929 the game and just blurts out that Tarn has a broken collar bone um after saying he had a shoulder injury, which guys like technically the collarbone is vaguely attached to the shoulder, but it’s not a shoulder injury. I think you would label it a collar bone or neck even I guess at that point. Um and um that is uh very different than the story we have been told for months and um you know I got a lot of uh I got a lot of thoughts on this but I I know I know you have thoughts too. So, um, just, yeah, we we have complained in the past about this team’s vagueness, uh, when it comes to injuries. And I guess that’s just Morris’s style of he wants the competitive advantage. Not that, you know, this team has done anything with any sort of a competitive advantage since Morris has been here. They want they went eight and nine and now they’re three and six. So yeah, great job with that with that advantage you have right now. Um, but yeah, like this this feels like he he just lied. Like this feels like this isn’t even like vakeness of the injury. Like the collar bone is not the shoulder. Like that that’s just not true. like when they talked about so they said the day after the injury Zack Klein reported it he was given you know the director from the team uh that it was a shoulder injury and you know we were told uh and they just kept us kept everyone in the in the dark about this being you know it’s a shoulder injury he’ll be back toward the end of camp and he wasn’t like they lied about that he was not back toward the end of camp he was not ready for week one. Um I I don’t remember. He didn’t play in week two, I don’t think. Yeah, I think you’re right. It It’s the thing is like had you known that it was and you knew that it was a broken collar bone? You know that it takes at least two months for a broken collar bone to heal, why did you not address the roster at all? Like it would be one thing. It would be one thing if it was a Storm Norton situation where you know he got hurt and you know what the injury was and then he uh what I’m assuming happened with Storm Norton is that he aggravated the injury. Uh if this was a shoulder injury and you were expecting him to be back toward the end of training camp and he had a setback that’s that’s you know it is what it is. But you knew for a fact that Darnell Mooney was going to miss weeks and weeks of the regular season that he was not going to come back at 100% right away and instead like you didn’t even address the roster like at all like you know that this wide receiver room is very very shallow beyond Darnell Mooney and then you know of course the issues with with Ray Ray Rumloud which nobody even knows what the hell happened there like that just compounded everything to the point where one, you just straight up lie to everyone about what the injury was. It there is no like vagueness. It’s the shoulders, not the collar bone. And two, you were so negligent with the roster even knowing what the injury was from the very beginning. It’s it’s malpractice. It’s coaching malpractice. Honestly, like if if the franchise gets fined for this, I I’d be completely fine with that. like like you know if he Morris got fined for this I’d be fine I’d be fine with that because it was straight up like lying and yeah it’s it’s just it’s a clown show. It’s a circus. It’s a clown show. I’ll say it again. Like it like this is not someone who is fit to be the head coach of a franchise and I God I cannot wait for my franchise to move on from him. The sooner the better. It should have happened yesterday. Yeah. And you know, I know I think someone mentioned like that I had said like I think he has a broken collar bone like in the Colts postgame show. I did say that and you know um that there was you know full disclosure like there was a little bit of buzz about him having a broken collar bone and you know we obviously didn’t report it because it it’s not you know we can’t verify this stuff. So we we’re not going to tell you guys stuff that you know we it’s we can’t verify. I I did have a source that told me at the very beginning of camp, hey, it’s a like it it’s probably a collar bone. But again, like like Kevin said, we couldn’t verify it with anyone. So, it would have been it would have been unethical for us to sort of report that. And you know, after the we can only go by what the team tells us uh at that stage. And the team came out, they said it’s a shoulder. And I was like, “Okay, yeah, it’s probably, you know, but cut and dry, open and shut.” But yeah, it turns out, no, it was a collar. It actually was a color book. Yep. Um, so, you know, it it is what it is. It’s like Raheem has a problem with this where he just lies about things that don’t need to be lied about. And like there, like you said, there is coach speak and there is obfiscation and like coaches lie every press conference. It’s part of the job. Like it’s like an art form in some ways, but there’s there’s like coach speak and obfiscation and all these things that are normal and and nobody really gets upset about that because it’s just part of the job and like part of the job for the reporters is trying to like navigate it and figure out, you know, what’s really happening there. But um why is what I want to know like what what do we have to gain from hiding the nature of this injury to such an extent to where it’s like we’re not just like being like there it is the case that in the pre like in the training camp and pre like there you don’t have to report injuries with the same level of in-depth you know coverage that you do when you get to weekly injury reports. during the season. So like they could keep it vague then, but once the regular season started, they had a requirement to disclose if they knew this was a serious injury that they did not fulfill. So I think there’s a legitimate chance that they are going to get in trouble for this because this is beyond just like a simple nomenclature change. This is like we went from saying this was an injury we were expecting him to be back from in a couple weeks to saying that this was a broken collar but this man wasn’t going to be recovered from for months. And like even if he could play, you still have to report it. Like so it’s just these are big rules. Like this isn’t us like complaining about oh he’s lying to the media. Like this is the NFL takes this stuff seriously, especially nowadays given, you know, how but how cozied up they are with with all the gambling like sports books. Like this stuff like we saw it with Bejian Robinson a couple years ago where Bejan only played like what one snap like the team got fined for that for for Yeah, it was Arthur Smith. He was just like, “Oh yeah, Bejian was sick.” But I didn’t want to say anything. You can’t do that. Yeah, can’t just not do can’t just report it. The reason why teams disclose like report put up put up injury reports every week. I guarantee you every single coach if he could choose would hide every single injury, but you know the league doesn’t allow that. Yes, it it there’s reasons that you have to report it. It’s to keep everyone on the same level playing field for fairness for I mean betting is involved now at this point like that. That’s probably the reason people these these are going to be gone after more and more. Um it’s just you can’t lie about this stuff and the fact that he keeps doing it. It’s like it’s little things like I mean this is not a small injury but like again it’s like what is the point to hiding this like he’s clearly not been playing well so like you hiding the fact that he was injured hurts you more than anything. like fans probably would be a lot more understanding of Darnell Mooney and his issues and they probably will be now considering he’s trying to play he’s trying to play through a broken collarbone. He deserves to be lauded for that and like not like reviled and like blamed and like you know yes I know someone’s asking about like oh I’m guessing Mooney’s frustrated with these passes being high or low but like you know yeah like Pennix hasn’t been hitting him but a part of that is because he missed so much time and that they clearly don’t have a strong connection at this point and probably also it’s because Mooney is not comfortable like the collarbone affects your movement in so many ways like it’s I would say it’s very likely that Mooney is in pain every time he’s running. Like um so I mean I I think like we’d be treating this situation so much differently if we knew and like other teams can see that he’s not healthy. Like you’re not hiding anything other than the exact nature of the injury. So like why now? Like why now are you coming clean about this? Did you just forget to keep the facade up? It’s like we I don’t see the point like of of to of saying it now. And like it’s just I don’t get it, man. Like can he just not help himself? Is he just a liar? Like does he just lie like compulsively? Like I I don’t know. Like he doesn’t strike me as that type of guy. But like this is stacking up. And like it makes it makes you question everything this man says. He can’t be trusted Odnan. And like we’ve known that like you I mean you can’t trust mo most coaches to straight shoot on on like a lot of things like that’s that’s normal. But this is beyond that. This is like you’re just lying like for what? Like I I don’t know. Am I missing something here? Like it just it it seems like you’re you’re just destroying your reputation and your trust for for no gain. Like I don’t see an upside to this. Yeah. I’m trying to like figure out like why exactly? Like why? Like for what reason? because yeah, like it looked like uh and for those that don’t remember, Mooney got hurt on I think it was day two of camp. I think it was day one. Yeah, it was that like bomb on the uh like at the end of practice. Yeah, Lamar Jackson in coverage. I remember. Maybe it was day two. I can’t remember, but it was one of those first days. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was technically day two because day one was just them like, you know, Yeah. Um I think it was day one of us being there. So, it was like I think we we got there on like day two. Um, but yeah, it was like one of those where he like dove uh down the right sideline. I still remember the play well and yeah, it just like Yeah. No pads and just Yeah. Yeah. No pads. He was diving. It was a freak injury. It happens. Lamar Jackson, not that Lamar Jackson, the Falcons. Lamar Jackson, he, you know, did what any corner would. He also dove. He ended up like, you know, falling on top of Darnell Mooney and it looked like the impact I mean now we know the impact did break his collar bone but yeah it’s like why like for what reason like what competitive advantage did you gain like but I mean I guess they sort of uh I guess the idea was we’re going to make the Buccaneers game plan for us as if we have Darnell Mooney, but again that’s not Like that’s not allowed. Like you can’t you can’t just lie. You can’t just straight up lie about the injury and just so that the other team like you know can’t like game plan for you. But also like the other main thing is like you knew he was going to be out. You have IR available to you. You did not, you know, utilize IR at all. And how do you not address the How do you not sign someone? How do you not sign a legitimate receiver? this is why you have that emergency fund that Terry Fontnau keeps every year. Like that that’s just roster malpractice at that point. Like you really went into the season knowing that your wide receiver too was going to be Casey Washington. And no disrespect to Casey Washington, but is that really the wide receiver two you expect to have on a playoff team? It’s it’s bad. Like it’s it’s it’s really egregious. And I know someone’s going to say that we’re making too big of a deal about this, but it it’s just what it adds up like like this is it add this isn’t just a one-time thing. Iraim Morris, you know, not doing anything else wrong and then, you know, he he he just like sort of said this. He’s been such a bad coach within the margins in every single facet of the game. And this is another like case of that. And the other like big issue for the Falcons, this is their second offense in doing something like this in a few years. The first time the the franchise got fined a certain amount of money. I forget what it was. I think Arthur Smith got fined. I don’t know, but like the NFL could possibly come after a draft pick at this point. And that’s that’s just what this franchise needs down two picks already. One of them due to tampering is Yeah. like, you know, was forfeiting another draft pick because your your coach decided to just be a liar in the press conference. Um, it’s it’s it’s malpractice. It’s completely completely egregious. And yeah, I don’t like I don’t know. Like I don’t understand. It’s just it’s just so bad. Like this this regime has done so much to try and like establish the sort of like competitive advantage. Like it it’s like the Gestapo at training camp where it’s like you you know nobody’s allowed to like record anything and you know nobody can like they try to like limit people’s tweets and it’s like what are you hiding? Like are you hiding the secret to how to go seven and 10 every year? I mean it’s just like yeah it’s like what you guys suck. Like what are we keeping under wraps? Like all these better teams don’t care and and like they I guess maybe they feel like they’re on the knife. Like maybe this is an acknowledgement of where they are, which is like we’re literally on the knife’s edge. We know our crap is so predictable. Like that if we if we let any of this get out before the season, we’re just totally cooked. So we have to keep this all under wraps. Like I I I would hope that that would actually make them consider making changes. But instead, they’re like, “No, we just need to hide everything we’re doing.” Like it’s just you’re just lighting your reputation and and your trust with the media, which is like a two-way street, right? It’s like we the media understand that you can’t tell us 100% the truth about what you’re doing. That that’s again that’s normal. We’re not asking you to tell us what plays you’re going to run on Sunday. We’re not asking you to tell us oh where are you going to deploy Darnell Mooney on the field like how many snaps is he going to play? We’re asking you to tell us that the man has a broken collarbone like you’re contractually obligated to do. And like this is more than Raheem Moore signing off on this. Like you have to know that the blank and and the team was okay with this subtrafuge. And like you said, it’s like it’s also roster management malpractice. Like because even if you’re going to hide it, you still know he has a broken collar bone and you still know you got to do something at receiver. And they they they cut DJ Shark. Like DJ Shark was sort of like their fillin for Moody and they ended up cutting him. and like DJ Shark’s not on a roster. So maybe it was more of a Shark thing than you know a Falcons thing. But like you got to keep looking then and then you know the whole Iillyard thing again it’s like if I don’t know what to say guys if you want more proof like that you can’t trust what Raheem Moore said about what happened with Iillyard. This is this is I I rest my case. I rest my case. So yeah the thing with Killier too there’s no way he could have been okay with that. Like there’s no way he could have been okay with I’m just guessing like I do not think he would have signed off on just sort of like lying to the media and saying oh yeah no no like we’re going to completely hide this injury because it makes Iard look really really bad as a wide receivers’s coach as well. So it’s like I don’t know maybe we’ll we’ll we’ll probably never know what happened like in that scenario but it’s like it’s clear that I Killyard was just straight up the ball guy. Maybe he said something that ruffled the wrong feathers. Um, and I mean, who knows? Maybe Ray Ray Mloud also said something that ruffled the wrong feathers. Maybe he was upset about I Kelliard being gone. And you know, all we can do at this point is speculate, but man, all we know for a fact is that it’s it’s really really bad in that building right now. Like, it is just there is just a level of toxicity around this franchise that we have not seen in a very, very long time. Like I don’t it I don’t think it was ever this bad even with Arthur Smith. Like Arthur Smith like for all of his faults like it didn’t feel this bad. Like it didn’t feel like this downtrodden. Part of that is because two out of the three years, let’s be honest, Arthur Smith was sort of sort of working with with what he had and I think even accomplishing more than what we expected in 21 and 22. Obviously 23 was a disaster, but I I don’t think it’s been this bad around this franchise since since Patrino left, since like those days. And it’s like we’re sort of at that level. And it’s it’s crazy that this is just year two uh since since Raheem Morris was hired that we’ve somehow achieved not only a lower that’s lower than what what a lower that’s lower than what we had with Arthur Smith, but it’s like it feels like a lower that’s rivaling what was there in ‘ 07. And that that felt that feels impossible. Yeah. And like like you said, like I think the public perception that they wanted to put out was that they were making Iillyard their fall guy for you know what was an aberration in week three, right? I mean the Falcons have had some bad games, but that one was just the worst. But like this team has shown that they don’t they’re not willing to make any changes to anything. They they’re not even like giving Zack Robinson a slap on the wrist. They’re treating him like he’s done nothing wrong so far. Like they’ve been reluctant to even call anybody out. And so you’re telling me that you’re you’re looking but like you were willing to fire your receivers’s coach three games in your receivers’s coach who delivered the best season ever of Drake London’s career the year previously. And Darnell one of I mean Darnell Mooney’s probably second best. I mean you could even claim that it was maybe better than his thousand yard season best season as well. Ray Mloud’s he turned Ray Mloud into a legit third receiver. He got he got Daryl Hodge was making plays and you’re telling me that you got to fire him after three games like you got to get rid of this guy. This guy’s clearly the problem. Like honestly Killard was the best part of that coaching staff last year. Like if we’re being honest and it’s like Dwayne Leadford I think is in contention but yeah I mean this is obviously pro Dwayne Leadford show. Everyone knows that. But yeah, it’s um yeah, and then this year it’s like you you you fired him with Darnell Mooney out and injured. It’s and you gave him nothing. Like you gave him no like replacement wide receiver even though you knew he had a broken collar bone. Like that’s that’s crazy to me. Like it’s what it’s I don’t know. I don’t know what else like can be said about this coaching staff at this point that like I know they’re not telling the truth. I know I know he didn’t get fired for performance. I mean I I know that. But um you know exactly why we’ll probably never know. Maybe we can get another tip uh about what Iillyard said. You know I Killard hit me up off the record. But um like I’m going on the radio. That’s the thing though. I kill. It’s way too much of a professional to do this. Like he didn’t say anything and like he probably really wanted to. Um if I was him, I’m pouring gasoline on this fire at this point. I’m I’m just like lighting up. He’s probably just sit him and Ray are probably sitting there smiling because this is probably exactly what they were talking about. Like and and to me it’s just this whole thing is sick and it you can smell the rot from here. Like it’s so obvious like this this staff is there’s there’s good coaches on this staff. There are good coaches on defense, on offense, but I think the leadership at the top, like Zack and and Raheem, they have some kind of bad like there’s bad juju all over this. Like it is and and the the Ike Hillyard thing was just the first domino. But I I think that is the worst thing so far. Like fired your star receiver coach who just delivered the best season you’ve had from your wide receiver core in like a decade. You fire him after three games and say it’s performance-based, which come on like don’t insult our intelligence with that statement. I mean, let’s be honest. But like, hey, Ike, if you if you want a show, Ike, you want to come on? Let’s talk about it. Yeah. Grievances like we will we’ll give you as much time as you want. Like, you know, I’ll I’ll make a cup of coffee and we can talk for hours. We can we can break it down. But, um, like Ray Ray also, Ray Mloud, hit us up, brother. Uh, we want to hear from you. Um, we want to hear the truth about what’s going on in Atlanta. Um, we have a lot of suspicions, very strong suspicions. And this latest lie by Raheem Morris is is just making me even more like we’re past suspicion. We’re like, I’m just waiting for like the receipts to come out so we have like exactly what happened. But, uh, yeah, we’ll get Evan right on that, Cory. Evan, Evan, get in touch with Ray Ray. Let’s let’s do this. Um, but it’s just Raheem has lost all trust. He has proven that we can’t trust a word he’s saying and that he’s willing to lie for like no reason. Like it’s just like I mean with the Ike thing, it’s like maybe they like regretted the firing and they kind of wanted to quietly do it and then just like, oh yeah, probably shouldn’t have done that. But um yeah, it’s um performance. Yep. Yep. That’s it. That’s the tweet. um you know and uh yeah uh ugly this is everything that’s happened with regards to this team um you know the the Hillyard firing I think was just the canary in the coal mine for how how rotten I think things are at the top um and it just it’s so strange to me Adnan because Raheem is a guy that’s known for his relationships and and you know his friendliness and like this doesn’t this doesn’t feel friendly to me like this doesn’t like is so I’m like I’m really questioning a lot now. It’s like like who’s the real Raheem? Like is like this just I don’t know man. I have a lot of questions. Look well when the pressure gets on and when you are the person that needs to be held the most accountable. That’s when that’s when the mask kind of falls off like some people where it’s like it it’s easier like it’s a lot easier when you know when let’s say you’re in a coordinator position and when you have someone where like the buck doesn’t stop with you the buck like you can pass the buck along to someone else but then when you are under that pressure where you have to deliver and you know it’s on you like heavy is the head that that wears the crown like It’s uh the true character like comes out like of of people in those scenarios and I think we sort of may have seen that a little bit with Raheem Morris this season with the the whole injury stuff with especially with the Illiard stuff. Yeah. Like genuinely it’s I I think you’re seeing the real Raheem now in times of adversity like you know not to get all philosophical but our true character is showcased in those times of adversity. Right now the Falcons are going through adversity and you know the mask has fallen off like yeah you you see what’s underneath at this point. Yeah it’s it’s not good. It’s an ugly it looks ugly under there. Um so guys thank you so much. A real quick note on the odds for this week from FanDuel. We got the Falcons three and a half point home favorites against the Panthers. I’m surprised by that considering the Panthers are five and five and the Falcons are three and six, but okay, whatever. Look, the Falcons and Panthers have split every year since 2020. So, the Panthers have not swept the Falcons since 2013. Um, and they just lost to the Saints. And the Pelicans do get the three-point advantage playing at home. So, I mean, yeah, seems fair. Seems fair. Yeah, fair enough. You know, it’s division game. Um, but yeah, guys, uh, thanks again for joining us here. Oh, go ahead. We didn’t even talked about We were live for an hour and 20 minutes. We haven’t even like mentioned the game at all. Yeah, I know. We’ll cover that. Who cares about the game? That doesn’t matter. The game don’t matter. No, we’ll have a game preview for you guys. We we’ll we’ll go over the uh the Falcons Panthers matchup a little bit more when we get a little bit more information about the injury report. Uh spoiler alert, it looks really bad for the Falcons. So, we’ll see if anything changes on Thursday, but right now it looks pretty pretty scary. Um so, we’ll see. But, uh we do appreciate everyone for hanging out with us here tonight. I want to thank Odd Nanic especially for his time at say which way odd. Anything else you want to plug before we sign off? Uh yeah, just series history and uh what if the Falcons win or lose uh articles are going to be going this weekend. So yeah, check those out and yeah, stick with the Falcoholic even through we’ll be here. Yeah, please keep clicking. Yeah, please please keep clicking. Please like the show. Please Yeah, like subscribe all that. We’re really close to 9K, so you could be the one that gets us there. We’re like 10 subscribers away from 9K, I think. So, uh, if you guys want to help us get over the hump tonight, do that. That’d be great. Um, I love that. It’s like whoever the whoever the QB coach is needs to needs to help out. Nobody and Corey says nobody knows even Penn. Nobody knows who the QB coach is. Yep. Um, that that does track, I think. Um, the they’re actually giving uh Michael Penn a very important scavenger hunt where if he finds all the artifacts, he can find out who his quarterback coach is. the the quarterback coaches just like chat GPT on the on the like uh on the like handheld and it’s like oh you know we noticed like in this play you were doing this and it’s just like complete garbage you know it’s just like oh yeah you should have you know run to the left it’s like the Falcons are the Falcons are going to tell us that they’re utilizing cutting edge uh AI to to help their teams we’re we’re pushing the boundaries of coaching beyond where we even thought they could go so it’s innovation like you’ve never seen seen before. Yeah. Uh it that actually would track at this point. Um I would not be surprised if we we find out that at the end of the season. But uh thank you guys so much for joining us here on the Falcon Club live presented by FanDuel. We’ll be back with our game preview for you guys on Friday. And then of course postgame coverage of another normal one:00 game for this team. I feel like we haven’t had too many of those this year so far, but we’ll be back with it. Yeah, the NFL sure as hell won’t make the same mistake of giving us five prime time games next year. I’ll tell you that. I don’t know. The Falcons have delivered. They’ve delivered good games. I mean, they haven’t won them really, but they have they have like delivered, you know? So, maybe we’ll get some more. Yeah. I’m actually all for them flexing us out of that prime time slot against the Rams because I I don’t want to see what the Rams are going to do do to this team on prime time. I don’t need the nation seeing that. Nobody needs to see that. Hide that away in the 1 PM slot, please. NFL, please. Yeah. Yeah. Be be reasonable, NFL. Um, but guys, thanks for joining us here. Foul clock live. Uh, and we will be back later this weekend for the postgame coverage. Until then, thank you guys so much. I’m Kevin of Falcol Kevin. He’s out on naked chat. Say which way. Like, subscribe, leave that fivestar video podcast platform of choice. If you want to support the show, check us out on Patreon. patreon.com/falcohawklive. Also, YouTube channel memberships. We’ll see you guys real soon. Thanks for hanging out. Thanks for surviving the season with us. We’ll continue to survive. They can’t they can’t bring us down. We’re we’re going to be here one way or the other. So, we hope you’ll continue to join us. Even if you get tired of watching the games, don’t worry. We’ll we’ll tell you everything you need to know here. So, uh we got you guys covered. So, in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night. Enjoy the rest of your week. We’ll see you guys uh on Friday and then on Sunday. Until then, go Hawks. Yeah, go Hawks. The positive there. Let’s do it. Kicking off in 30 minutes. Let’s do it. Yes. Hopefully a team that actually can win games for a change. So, all
The Falcons dropped their fourth-straight game to fall to 3-6, but with three winnable games coming up, is there still a chance for the 2025 season to be salvaged? Kevin Knight and Adnan Ikic break down the frustrating loss to the Colts, the latest updates on Michael Penix and Darnell Mooney, and give thoughts on the future (or lack thereof) of the team under Raheem Morris. #falcons #colts #panthers #nfl #nflnews #podcast
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16 comments
The better question is, do we even want this team to "salvage" their season just to end up with a third year of Raheem
I hope the falcons get embarrassed again. I need Raheem gone
This coaching staff is neither here nor there.😮
A hour and a half straight gossiping like emotional women not a single minute of football analysis
No.
Kevin acting like he didn’t love the Morris hire is something else man.
Hey guys long time Watcher never really commented but I watched the press conference of him I got to meet I hadn't watched very many of his press conferences but you say they're usually pretty professional well the person in that press conference rattlesnake wasn't sure what to say at times it was a tough press conference to watch you can tell in the answers in the way he answered that everything's not good
Its going to be harder to get offensive coach than you think. A lot of offensive coaches dont like left handed QBs due to having to change the playbook. Whether its good or not it is a thing
Nothing is salvageable – sell the team and watch college ball
If you lie about something that doesn't need to be lied about then you definitely lie all the time.
This may be a really bad take, but I used the national championship game for Michael Penix as a litmus test of how he would do in the NFL. He was abysmal against good pressure in that game. The score and stats show it. I immediately moved off of the idea of having him Drafted by the Falcons because of it. He’s shown some flashes since getting here, but under pressure, he shows the same problems he did in the natty.
Yeah legit the mooney thing is horrible because hes been off all year clearly and we all just assumed he fell off a cliff. Instead, this staff has him covering injuries and playing double hurt collarbone and hamstring. They left him out to dry too.
After seeing Blank's ineptitude, are you sure Petrino didn't just see how things were going to go and jumped out of a dumpster fire?
good show guys!
We probably win the next 5 and everyone gets excited and hopeful that we're on the right path and we look solid on offense running all over our opponents and PA passing for big time deep shots for TDS our kicker isn't missing anything and our defense is getting 5+ sacks and 2 turnovers per game winning on 3rd downs and we look fixed the national media believes in us being a WC playoff team and then at 8-6 we lose the last 3 in embarrassing fashion two of those are home games one a MNF game against a Rams team resting starters as they are locked in at whatever seed they are at this point.. and we go back to looking lost and confused and running plays that get blowed up and and are completely opposite of the dominant between the tackles running over people and then getting penix those simple PA passes deep down the seem for big time yards and scores.. our kicker misses everything again and our defense is getting pressure and sacks but gets gashed by every HB we see and we choke away another season as we always do
Hilarious that all we heard when this clown got hired was how much players love him and how much they love playing for him.