The Atlanta Falcons welcomed the Tennessee Titans to Flowery Branch for a joint practice for the first time in many years on Tuesday. When we walked out onto the field blanketed by the mid-August cloud cover, we were greeted with the sights of an opposing team on the field, having made the trek down from Nashville.<\/p>\n
This was the first day of the highly anticipated joint practice with the Titans, as Tennessee reporters and even a few fans made the trip to observe the days events.<\/p>\n
For the Falcons players who did not play in the first preseason game (which was the majority of starters), this was their first chance to compete against someone not on their own team since the beginning of camp.<\/p>\n
Here are my notes and observations from the first day of the joint practice.<\/p>\n
Michael Penix looks dominant<\/p>\n
If Michael Penix really does take the league by storm this year, then the Tennessee Titans will have been the first team to experience it first hand.<\/p>\n
Penix went 13-16 overall in the 11-on-11 portions of scrimmage against Tennessee\u2019s first team defense. He went 4-5 in the early 7-on-7 portion to begin the day (this setting always favors the offense with no pass rush at all, however). I counted six of those 13 completions as being intermediate to deep (at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage in the air).<\/p>\n
The best pass of the day was a looping home run shot to Casey Washington on the second throw of 11s after Washington got a step on a post route. It was a majestic deep ball which hit him right on the money.<\/p>\n
In the 7-on-7 portion, Penix also connected with Bijan Robinson on a wheel route for a touchdown, where Bijan easily got multiple steps ahead of a helpless Cedric Gray.<\/p>\n
The second year man wasn\u2019t afraid of pushing the ball downfield, to consistent success. Tennessee\u2019s secondary without L\u2019Jarius Sneed had no answer.<\/p>\n
Drake London can\u2019t be contained<\/p>\n
Speaking of no answers in the secondary, Drake London was simply too much for whatever the Titans threw at him. Out of Penix\u2019s 21 total throws in both 7s and 11s, eight were directed at London for a 38% target share. London is clearly the favorite at this junction, and that seems unlikely to change.<\/p>\n
Out of those eight, six were completions and five of them would have gone for 10+ yard gains. Penix kept dialing up his top guy down the field on those intermediate chunk plays which lie somewhere between short passes and complete home runs.<\/p>\n
At one point, after hitting a very nice gain to London on two out of three plays, it looked like Tennessee sent a double team against the USC product. That didn\u2019t seem to help, as Penix hit London for another chunk play on a perfectly executed timing route on the right sideline.<\/p>\n
Kyle Pitts continues to miss big portions of 11-on-11 drills and Darnell Mooney is still hurt, but no matter the circumstances it seems guaranteed that Penix will be looking London\u2019s way early and often in 2025.<\/p>\n
Falcons defense gets the better of Cam Ward<\/p>\n
While Penix and London were connecting with frequency on one field, Cam Ward and the Titans offense were having a tough time on the opposite field.<\/p>\n
The top overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft couldn\u2019t get anything going downfield as the Falcons secondary kept sticky coverage on all of his weapons. The only thing the Titans offense had any sort of success in was short crossers over the middle.<\/p>\n
Natrone Brooks and AJ Terrell each had multiple pass breakups, while Dontae Manning and Jessie Bates also had nice plays where they got their hands on the ball.<\/p>\n
Things went from bad to worse toward the end of practice for Ward as he threw the ball right into Mike Ford\u2019s chest for an interception without any Titans receiver in sight. Then, on his final pass of the day, in the final 11-on-11 sequence, Ward had a short pass batted into the air by Terrell and into the waiting arms of Bates who would have had a pick-six in a real game.<\/p>\n
It was as dominant of a performance from the Falcons secondary as I could have imagined as a best case scenario coming into today.<\/p>\n
Kicking competition remains in Younghoo Koo\u2019s favor<\/p>\n
We did get to see a little bit of action in the kicking game again today. In the middle of scrimmages, we had special teams do their work while the offenses and defenses took small breaks.<\/p>\n
Younghoe Koo and Lenny Krieg each got four kicks during one of these periods, and they both wound up being automatic on them, with all eight total boots going through the uprights. Each had a long of over 50 yards during this portion.<\/p>\n
Krieg got one extra chance as Kirk Cousins worked the second team offense into field goal range during what looked like a 2-minute drill to end the day. That kick was also from beyond 50 yards and it was completely shanked to the left. Standing right behind the goal posts it was clear to see that the attempt was not close.<\/p>\n
Raheem Morris announced before the practice began that Koo would be the team\u2019s kicker in the upcoming preseason game. Krieg got to suit up last week, and he went 1\/2 with a long of 57 yards, a miss from 53 yards and a successful extra point try.<\/p>\n
Kirk Cousins looked sharp, going 11-16 in the 11-on-11 portion against the Titans\u2019 second team defense but with the vast majority of his completions being slants, screens, flat routs and curls. Just like Penix, he went 4-5 in the 7-on-7 portion.The Falcons first team run defense had a strong day, as I didn\u2019t really see any Titans RBs getting loose against that unit outside of a couple good Tony Pollard runs that went for decent gains.Kyle Pitts was out there for 7-on-7s and for the very last run of 11-on-11s but not anywhere in between. He continues getting his practice reps capped, presumably due to the foot injury from earlier in the summer. He did catch Penix\u2019s final pass on the day, making a nice adjustment as MPJ gunned it to him on the move.Morris says there\u2019s still no timetable on Darnell Mooney\u2019s return. He called him \u201cweek-to-week\u201d and would only say that they expect to have him back healthy \u201cthis year.\u201d I would personally brace for the Falcons to start the season without Mooney.Head coach Jeff Ulbrich praised both rookies Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman in the post practice press conference, saying each one has \u201cuncommon maturity\u201d for a rookie. Both are competing for starting spots in the secondary.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it from me for today. I will be back out there one last time for tomorrow\u2019s joint practice. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n