Falcons vs Steelers Preview: where Atlanta has the advantage | Falcons Audible Podcast

Model it for him. Sea, get it for him. Can we get the music? If you haven't joined us, where have you been? He's shortening guys necks that are coming on blitzes. Next, we going to have Arch do the dance to my Tell us about the touchdown. One touchdown. We talked about edge rushers this off season, didn't we? >> Game week, everybody. We told you we were coming back. Regular season week one is here. Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons on the road. It's time to dive into it, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Falcons Audible presented by AT&T. That's DJ Shockley, Dave Archer. I'm Derek Rackley. Quick rundown of what we're going to be covering today. Yes, we're going to dive into this week one matchup. Yes, we're going to talk about Tuangaba Aloa being named the starting quarterback. Yes, we're going to talk about some matchups you got to watch for in this game against the Steelers. And yes, we'll dive in a little bit to the unofficial depth chart for the Atlanta Falcons. But before we get into it, take a quick listen to this. At The Home Depot, we make it easy to turn your to-do list into a done list with our speedy delivery options. Need something in a hurry? We offer next day and even same day delivery on a wide variety of products. The best part is you can order straight from your couch. Our team is ready to help and get your order to you same day if it's placed by 400 p.m. on select products. When shopping online, filter by delivery to see availability options. Delivery at the speed you need only at the Home Depot. >> All right, guys. We saw the action uh over the last couple of days. Let's talk about we got two quarterbacks on the show and Kevin Stfansky came out and he named Tua Tonga Aoa is going to be the starting quarterback for week one against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think a lot of people out there want to talk about is this going to be what's going to be for the rest of the season? What's the deal with Michael Penn? Our job is to talk about what's going to happen in week one because as we know coaching staffs, players, what happens in week two and beyond? We'll find out when we get there, right? But let's talk about week one with our two quarterbacks here on the Falcons Audible. DJ, when you heard the news of Tua Tong of Aloa being the starting quarterback for week one, your initial thoughts were uh I think like a lot of people it raised an eyebrow or two, you know, you're thinking about, okay, just because we've been around it so much and we've seen both these guys go out in practice, seen both these guys work. And I think for majority of people, you look outside and you say, okay, let's look at what happened in the preseason game. I think a lot of people were focused so much on what happened in preseason game one and preseason game three. And for me, I had to go back and say, you know what, let's go back and look at what happened in practice. Let's also think about things that we as fans or even sometimes we're here a lot, but we don't see everything that happens in practice. And from everything we heard from Kevin Stfansky that they take it day by day, but they also enjoy what they saw. They were very pleased with Tua with what they saw in practice, the things that he did. Yeah, he had a short sample size in those preseason games, but that's not the entirety of who he was and what he's about. And when he was named a starter, I think coming into this off season, everybody just kind of assumed it would be to his job cuz you knew Michael P was coming off his ACL. You didn't know what his uh availability would be going into training camp. And then you get in training camp and then he's, you know, still progressing and you're like, "Okay, well, this is probably going to be Tu's job." Uh, but you know what? Tua brings tons of experience, man. Tua brings a lot to what you like in his scheme. Uh he's a rhythm timing thrower. This is an offense where the ball likes to come out. He likes to get the ball into the playmaker's hands. Two has been known to distribute the football over uh his time in the NFL. And I think this is a move that and we heard Kevin Sansky say in his press earlier this week, this is a guy we're extremely pleased with. This is a guy who we have watched continue to grow over this time and we feel really good about him going into week one and he left it there. And I think that's all we need to do right now is we got to worry about week one. You can't worry about two, three, four, what's going to happen down the road, who's going to be that guy. You got to worry about what's in front of you. And I think right now the way the staff feels to gives you the best opportunity to go win ball games. And we talked about this when you kept four quarterbacks. Well, you feel really good about all four of those quarterbacks because you feel like they can all go win games for you. And I think right now Tua gives you the best opportunity to go do that with his style of play with what you want to do within this offense and how you go about your business. So yeah, um I'm excited to see Tua go work, man. Uh it's a offense that I think fits him well. I think he's got a lot of playmakers around him and I think uh his job is to get that football to those guys and let them go do their thing. And Tua has been known to go do that throughout his career. So, we'll see what happens. But, man, I'm excited to go see him. Go do it. >> Arch is the color analyst for the Falcons Radio Network. You have probably access that other people don't. You've had a chance to see him through the offseason, a chance to see him through training camp. Combining that with what you've seen throughout the course of his career as we know that he's done some good things throughout the course of his career with the Dolphins. What gives you excitement for what he brings to the table with the guys surrounding him on this Falcons offense for week one against Pittsburgh? >> Well, he's a winner. Okay. Uh 44 wins in his career. Uh and by the way, I've got a trivia question right after we get done with this. Um uh about those guys that were drafted in that 2020 class, but he's gone out and won games. Okay. He's 44 and 32 as a starter. Okay. He's led the league in passing. He's led the league in completion percentage. He's had three consecutive seasons, 23 to 24, of over a 100 passer rating. His touchdown to interception ratio is outstanding. 120 touchdowns, 59 interceptions. All that adds up to a guy that understands how to play in this league. And oh, by the way, how about giving the guys that put this roster together a little bit of credit and the foresight to go sign to a tongue of Aloa, knowing that this potentially could be the situation. They read the defense. They read the the the tea leaves that maybe Michael's not ready to go. And you're not just handing it to somebody. You're handing in a guy that's won. Here's your here's your trivia question for today. >> Four quarterbacks were drafted in the first round in 2020. >> Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Jordan Love, Tua Tongaloa. Who has the highest winning percentage among those four quarterbacks? I my initial gut is Jordan Love. >> Mine is too. >> I I was leaning in a different direction as well. But your number four guy on that list is Justin Herbert. He's won 52 games of his 95 starts, 54.7%. >> Number two on that, number three on that list is Jordan Love. He's 27 20 and1 56.25%. >> Third on or second on the list is Joe Burrow. >> Wow. >> At 56.5% 43 and 33. The number one guy in winning percentage is to a tongue of Aloa at 44 and 32 a 57.8% winning percentage. Now if you want to dive into the postseason only one of the three have been overly successful in the postseason. Joe Burrow helped get his team to a Super Bowl in one season and he won three games there in the postseason. So, he's four and one postseason. The other three quarterbacks are combined one and five in the postseason, but you need to get there first and you got to win games in the regular season. >> All that being said, um I would concur with what Shock just laid out for you, the the the people around him, how the offense fits what he's doing, and and now and now. Let's not get so caught up in what happened in preseason. Now, you're going to tailor the game plan to Tua and the guys that are around Tua and how it fits Pittsburgh. And I know we'll dive into that and some of the matchups and stuff, but that's what I'm excited about. I'm excited about seeing this thing tailored by Tommy Reese and that staff to Tua and being able to give him an opportunity to distribute the football to these weapons. >> Shock, we should have known if he was dropping a trivia question. I don't know >> that it should I should have just defaulted to Tua >> otherwise Arch wouldn't have been asking us that trivia question but I like that I like that Arch. Uh but to your point Arch I mean this is a guy that just two years ago albe it in 11 games but he was a 73% passer in 2024. So he has shown that efficiency that accuracy to move the chains to find his receivers. And I think fellas, the biggest part is yes, he's going to be the starter, but Tua doesn't have to go out there and be Lamar Jackson or to be Josh Allen. Like, he's got some healthy and some explosive weapons around him. Couple of guys that were few guys that were ressigned in the offseason. Bjon Robinson, arguably the most electric player in the NFL. Drake London mismatch. Kyle Pittz, mismatch. other guys that are brought into this offense to bring different dynamics than we've seen even in the last couple of years. Shock, I think the biggest thing is this is not an offense where Tua has to go out and win every game. He's got to make sure that he purposely gets these guys that I mentioned involved in the game plan and get them their appropriate touches. >> And trust me, there's a difference between going into a ball game knowing you got to put the cape on. There's the difference going into the ball game and understanding I have guys around me where I don't have to do too much. There's times where in a ball game you feel like, you know what, maybe I need to force the issue a little bit and give my guys a chance. And yeah, you're going to do that sometimes when you got a one-on-one outside with Drake or something like that, but when it looks a little dicey and you're like, man, should I really force that or do I got number seven over here in the flat? I just give him a chance. I think that's part of the mindset too as well is if you have a guy who understands what this unit is about, what this team is about and the guys around him and not having to say, you know what, let me go be and do things a little bit bigger and do it better than I, you know, probably should be. So, uh, I love the fact that they've already surrounded him with a core group of guys that's going to give him the opportunity to go out and be successful where he doesn't have to say, you know what, I got to push the football down the field every time I get or I got a tough throw it in those tough windows, you know, every single time. You got guys out there that all you got to do is put it in there for put it in there for plays for you. So yeah, I love the fact that you mentioned about the guys around him and not having to really go and do and go be above and beyond who you are to go make plays and win for this team because at the end of the day, the ultimate, you know, measure of a quarterback is how you take care of the football, but also, you know, how you distribute the football. So, I think he's done a really good job of that and that's what he's going to need to do is, yeah, for one, take care of the rock, but also just let your other guys cook, man. Let those dudes go out and be who they are. It's a reason why they went out and got paid. It's a reason why these guys are, you know, you know, stalwarts of your organization because they've shown the ability to go do that. Well, there's going to be some probably in another areas where we weave Tua into this conversation, but I wanted to kind of pivot just briefly, guys, because we did get uh a release of an unofficial depth chart from the Falcons because I think when you go through preseason games, you see you see us the starters or the people you think are going to be starters, but you see them for like what 8 10 maybe 12 plays in the preseason. So, you just never really know what's going to shake out when you get into week one. And now that we're in week one, we did see an unofficial depth chart. And I just wanted to ask you guys the questions on the offensive side to start. I think it was pretty pretty easy to know who the receivers were going to be with Drake London. We brought Zakius in here, Jan Dodson listed as that third receiver, obviously tight end with Pitts and Warner, but we weren't quite sure how it was going to develop at the right tackle position. And initially we're seeing Jawan Taylor. We saw a lot of Michael Jerrell in the preseason as well. Arch, what was kind of your initial thoughts? Was that what you expected or do you continue to see maybe that moving around a little bit as the season goes along? >> No, I think that you you expected Jawan Taylor to be the guy there. I think that there was uh some concern when he when he got here and there was some some physical issues that they were trying to work through. I think that the staff here, the the training staff, the doctors did a really good job of kind of bringing him along. Not saying, "How we got to get him on the field, we got to see what we got." They went ahead and waited. Now, he's going to have to hit the ground running because he didn't get a lot of play time when it comes to the preeason and kind of ramping up to speed. Now, he's a veteran player. It's not his first rodeo, so he has an opportunity to kind of absorb what they're doing offensively. I think he's got a good feel for what his responsibilities are going to be. And as it turns out in week one, you get one of the more challenging responsibilities. You got TJ Watt and potentially Alex Heismith, whichever one, but usually TJ Watts on that side of the field. And if I remember correctly, two years ago, we opened up at Pittsburgh here in Atlanta, and TJ Watt was a oneman wrecking crew, so we got to make sure we get him blocked. Um, and we can talk about matchups and all that kind of stuff, but as far as U Jawan Taylor, I don't have any worries at all. Michael Jerrell will be the swing tackle, but I don't think that there's an idea that we're going to potentially rotate there. I think Jawan Taylor was the guy earmarked for that spot. They love the way he absorbed the offense once he got a chance to get some snaps the final couple weeks of training camp and he's ready to roll. >> Yeah. And this is this is the challenge that if you're a guy like Jawan Taylor and you're a competitor, you look forward to something like this because right out the gate he's going to get challenged. Shock, I'm going to flip you over to the defensive side of the ball. >> Nobody James Pierce Jr., no Jaylen Walker. they're not going to be available. So, we knew that there was going to be some changes at the defensive end position. Ian Cunningham, Matt Ryan, Kevin Stfansky, and this entire staff did a great job this off seasonason and bringing in additional reinforcements. We got a chance to see some of them during the preseason. I wanted to get your initial thoughts on a couple of things. Arch talked about this. Brandon Doris likely going to be taking more reps out on the outside at a defensive end as we're playing inside the last couple of years. Cameron Thomas and of course, um, Zidarius Smith was brought in recently. that's going to factor into that pass rushing rotation as as well as Samson Ebukam. What was your initial thoughts when you kind of saw the defensive line and the pass rushing situation for Atlanta? >> Well, I think number one, Arch told us exactly what was going to happen and uh we talked about this last week and he went down the line and talked about the size of the defensive line and we talked about all offseason, yeah, you were 24th against a run last year. You got to be more physical and you got to be bigger up front to be able to hold those gaps to be able to be more physical up front and change the line of scrimmage. And the guys you just talked about are bigger. They're more physical. You got guys up front who can you think can hold up when it comes to the run game, but also be really good, you know, in the pass game. Of course, that's a big part of it. Uh, one thing that was really I I don't say eye popping, but one thing that I thought was really cool was we saw the emergence of Kendall Daniels throughout preseason. We saw his ability be to play multiple spots, but also his ability to play uh, you know, off the ball, be able to rush the the quarterback, but also stand beside a guy who looks similar to him in size and stature and athleticism in Devon Diablo. He's going to get to start next to Divine. Then there's also Avon playing a little bit of playing starting at nickel. Uh, we were waiting to see Avon throughout camp. Obviously, he was hurt a little bit here and there, but good to see him out there. How cool is it going to be to to have two Terrell brothers out there starting in the National Football League in game number one together? I mean, it's a great story for their family, but put no doubt about it. You know, both those guys got the >> got the to go play. And I'm excited to go see him go ball. There's going to be different packages for a guy like Harold Perkins as well. We're going to be to see how Brick uses all these pieces together and yeah, he's going to he's going to force the old man and Aaron Rogers to think a little bit more about where these guys are coming from and having to get that football out because these guys are going to be fire breathing dudes coming down the line ready to get after the quarterback. So yeah, I love what Arch mentioned last week and now we see the depth chart and you can see the size come and you going to say, "All right, we got the the guys up front to go attack and then you got some youth and younger guys uh especially in infused in that to be a part of what you like on that defense." >> How about um I'll just quickly talk about special teams. Going to have a new special teams unit, Lee said, kicker and punter this year. Y >> um of course Jake Bailey and Nick Folk going to be filling the punter and the kicker positions respectively. And then we did get a chance to see this in the preseason, but it looks like Zachariah Branch going to be back there returning punts a little bit. So we'll hopefully we get a chance to see a little bit of his electricity on special teams. And then Brian Robinson Jr. likely going to be back there returning some kicks and probably see a combination some other guys. Lamad Zakius might be back there returning as well. So that's going to shape out the special teams unit. All right, now that we dove into fellas a little bit of the Falcons personnel, let's talk a little bit about who that personnel is going to be facing this weekend. first arch new look Steelers. Okay, you got a new headman at the top, former Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is now leading the organization. You also have two new coordinators there. Uh Brian Angelico, I believe that's how you say his last name, comes over his first opportunity as a play caller. Long time long tight ends coach in the National Football League, getting his first opportunity to call plays on the offensive side. And then Patrick Graham been a defensive coordinator before. He's going to be coordinating the defense highlevel Arch. What are your thoughts on head coach and coordinators from kind of your early prep and what you know about McCarthy? >> Yeah, it it'll be interesting to see and I'll get a chance to talk to Kevin Stfansky here this week for a radio interview that we'll do for pregame, but um it's interesting for both staffs, Rack and and Shock as to their preparation. Week one's always a little bit dicey when it comes to preparing for the RA because you don't really get anything in the preseason to give you an idea of what you want to do. But then you multiply that by the fact there's a new staff in Pittsburgh. There's a new offensive staff here. So both sides >> are trying to get ready. Okay, what are they going to do on offense? And so I'm looking, if you're in Pittsburgh, you're looking at you're looking at tape from Cleveland. You might be looking at tape from Washington or from uh from Minnesota when he was when Kevin was there. Um, and then vice versa. We're looking at McCarthy in Dallas and we're looking at him in in in Green Bay. So, the preparation will be a little bit on the fly there. This will be a big game for adjustments as to what you are going to see and who they're going to try to try to feature. Ultimately, Pittsburgh from a defensive standpoint, their calling card is get after the passer and take the ball away. They were number four in the league in takeaways a year ago. They were number I think four or five in the league in rush in the passer. They had 48 sacks a year ago. We know TJ Watt. We know Alex Highmith coming off the edge. They've rebuilt their secondary. Their secondary three of the five guys if you count the nickel are players that came in this year from other teams. So they didn't feel like they did very well uh in defending the pass. And they were probably and they were right when you look at their numbers. They were 29th in the league against defending the pass. They weren't overly good against the run either. middle of the league against the run. I think that's where it begins for us is when you begin to think about what you might do is you want to reduce them physically in the run game and get after them that way. I would imagine they're going to probably try to do the same thing to us and and so that's that's what but from a coaching standpoint, Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh. I don't think you're going to change anything. Pass, rush, take the ball away. That's what Pittsburgh's always kind of been. They're big up front. >> So, what do you do with them? Do you get the wide zone going? Do you get a little pin and pull going? Making those big guys run sideline to sideline. Um, that's what I'm thinking there is going we're going to see. >> Arch, you throw out some great points. And you know, to me, I talked about this before we came on the air. You know, you talked about the two guys, TJ Watt, Alex Highmith, those guys are problems. And yes, as a football organization and a coaching staff, one of the best ways that you attack really good pass rushers is you got to be able to run the football right at them. You got to take away their ability to pin their ears back and get after the passer. So, what does that involve? That involves staying on schedule with the chain so you're not sitting back at second and 15, third and 17, where you're in predictable passing situations and the quarterback has to hold on to the football to press it downfield. >> Well, you kind of combat that shock with a guy named Bjon Robinson. And that's not just him. That's the offensive line as well. Covering up color, staying on the same page, making sure they create some seams, and then let that fella go do what he does. That's how you neutralize those two really talented pass rushers. >> Yeah. And and the the interesting part about it is Arch kind of alluded to it was you're coming to this game number one, and both sides are really trying to figure out how to attack the opposing side, but also how to use your guys in creative ways. And when you have guys like a like a wider or high who you know can really cause havoc, you got to find ways to get the play the ball in your playmaker's hands and give them that. But I I think more than anything, you mentioned it, you got to stay on time. And when you're not on time, guess what? That gives them opportunity to know exactly what's happening. And to do that, you put the ball in your best players hand sometimes. You say, you know what? Hey, if it's a two- yard flat route, it's a stick route, it's option route, let him go go. Let him go do his thing. And I think that's part of this ball game is until you figure out what they're trying to do late second quarter going into the second half, you're going to have to lean on the guys that you feel like can go win matchups versus anybody. And we talked about it. Kyle Pittz, can he be the guy? Yes, we know he can be the guy. Bian Robinson, we know out in space is that kind of player. I think early in the ball game is featuring your guys more than opposed to what they're doing to you because ultimately you may not know exactly what they're doing to you until later in the ball game. You got to make those adjustments. So, I think that's part of the the early part of this ball game is using your guys to kind of create plays that you need and then you start, okay, let's okay, third down, we know we're going to get this kind of coverage, this kind of zone fire. We know this kind of stuff is going to going to going to happen to us. So yeah, it's it's a cat and mouse game as everyone is, but especially in week one when like you mentioned, you got two new staffs. Yeah, they got they got backgrounds of knowing exactly what they've done in their past, but you got different personnel to go along with it, too. So now you got to figure out how to use your personnel early in the ball game to kind of affect what they're doing. >> Part of their our personnel issues that Shock's talking about that we can create and a supplement, as you guys know, to the running game is the ability to screen against a team wants to rush the passer. >> Yeah. a team that wants to get up field and rush the passer, you can take some of their stinger away from them if you can screen them. They'll slow them down because they don't want to get you don't want to have too many people obviously involved in getting after the passer and you've got a number of guys to screen to. You could have Bjon and Brian Robinson on the field at the same time. Brian in the backfield, Bjon doing all that eye candy stuff. Next thing you know, they got four guys going to Bjan and you're screening to Brian Robinson out the other side. Pitts can be screened to Zachariah Branch. You can even throw a quick screen to Drake London and let him run through some people. Um, we saw we saw we saw him screen pits. >> Yeah, you got you got That's exactly right. You got the You got the the check by two at the line of scrimmage where they got pits in the FL. So, there's a number of different ways you can stretch them horizontally as I know a lot of people want the vertical passing game and we'll have some vertical shots, but if you can stretch them sideline to sideline and make those big guys run up front, then you're guessing on the defensive side of the football and I think there's a lot that Tommy Reese can do there. >> Yeah, Arch, it's a great point. I mean, I'm I'm intrigued to see how Tommy Reese is going to use a couple of these players because I start, you guys know this, like I've talked a lot about Zachariah Branch all the way going back to the draft, but how they can use him >> number one with his quickness, whether it's getting the ball in his hands, but also using him as a decoy sometimes, but just motioning him across the formation. Maybe you stack him behind Drake London to make it look like you're going to throw him a quick screen out behind the line of scrimmage and then the screen comes back to Robinson or Robinson on the other side, right? It's going to be like a law firm or something like that, right? But how they end up using those guys to get the defense to maybe get out of their lane or just take one or two steps the wrong direction, that's kind of the chess match that's going to be involved in the game offensively. Arch, I want to flip this. >> Well, and Rack, real quickly, exactly what you just said happened in the Indianapolis game. You motioned Zachariah Branch across and it looked like jet sweep >> and all of a sudden the ball was snapped. They hand it off to Goodson. What it did was exactly what you're talking about. The just the motion of Branch coming across froze the second level just enough for them to get up on their blocks a second level and all a sudden Goodson goes 49 yards or whatever it was for a touchdown because you got a hat on a hat. Exactly what you're talking about happened in that game. >> Yeah. And that's that's what Patrick Graham is going to be talking to his defense about because look, every team in the NFL, they evaluated Zachariah Branch. They know what he brings to the table. So they're going to be talking in their meetings like this guy's quick, he's electric. They're going to find ways to get him. So then now the defense starts thinking about, okay, is he going to motion? What are they doing? Are they getting him the football? That's all you need to do. Just get him to think about something, right? Well, speaking about thinking about something, Arch, I want to flip it over to the other side because some of the weapons that Ori's defense is going to have to face is the >> reliable Aaron Rogers. There's one thing you know about him. Maybe his level of play isn't what it was back when he was winning MVPs, but Arch, there's not a look that you're going to show Aaron Rogers that he's not going to know everything. Okay. And then you think about some of his weapons, DK Metaf, maybe one of the other more physically imposing wide receivers in the National Football League. And then Arch, I'm going to throw you this. Remember, you have an offensive coordinator that was a tight end's coach for the majority of his NFL career. >> And you have Frimouth. And you have who? DJ Darnell Washington, a mountain of a man. Okay. Looks like an offensive tackle but runs like a tight end. >> So Arch, that's kind of some of the weapons that Pittsburgh is going to be trying to use to isolate Atlanta's defense. Where do you think they're going to try to attack with the personnel that they've got? >> Well, if you've watched Aaron Rogers career kind of unfold, and I look down here at my chart and it says 22nd season for Aaron Rogers. Mindboggling. and he's still playing at a pretty high level if you consider what he did a year ago. 24 touchdowns, just seven interceptions, threw for over 3,300 yards as the Steeler quarterback a year ago. So, the guy is still operating a high level. But what you do see from Aaron Rogers, maybe it's a little bit different than what we saw in his Green Bay days is the ball's coming out a lot quicker now. There's a lot more of that horizontal passing attack. Now, he'll still touch and he still has the arm to touch it downfield with the physical piece of it. uh or or or the the arm piece. The part that maybe doesn't mesh for me, and I'm I'm wondering what you guys think about this. They've got two backs. You mentioned uh Jaylen Warren and Rico Dattle both rushed for about a thousand yards a year ago. D comes in from Carolina. Jaylen's been there for a while. Uh he had just under a thousand. Rico had just over a thousand combined. I think they had 2,000 yards rushing. They're going to try to run it at you to help the aging quarterback do his thing. But they are physically imposing outside. DK Madcaf is you just mentioned Rack 6'4 235 DK Madcaf. They also picked up Michael Pitman from Indianapolis in a trade. He's 6'4 223. And oh yeah by the way uh Ben Skironic from Notre Dame is 63 224. Those are three of the receivers are going to be on the field. So, as far as they're they're physically imposing 50/50 balls, maybe even those those balls that when you got a guy running an incut or a comeback, his ability to to wall you off, play basketball a little bit, that's going to be a challenge for the corner. Mike Hughes is 5'10", 190. >> AJ Terrell's our big guy at corner. He's 6'1, 200 pounds. So, the size differential is going to be dramatic on the perimeter. I would think they would try to lean into that. You mentioned Pat Friouth. He's as good as there is passcatching tight end. Maybe as unsung a player at the position. We talk about all these different tight ends and for whatever reason he doesn't get mentioned. >> What do they got Darnell at? >> They got Darnell at tight end. He's a big >> 67 270. >> Oh no, that's all that's a typo. >> Maybe maybe when he came out of Georgia Frier moves 65 65 260. So you've got size. Um, but the number one concern for me guys is they're going to have to you're going to you have to get after the run much like they'll need to do against us. >> You need to make sure that you try to take away the two-dimensional piece of the run game. >> Um, and they like to screen. Jaylen Warren's a really good screen back. We mentioned the two running backs. Their offensive line is a group that that's solid. I don't think they're a great offensive line, but they're solid. Um, and so with all that being said, the size is the is the big thing for me. And you're going to start you're going to start at nickel. Avon Terrell. Avon's not a very big guy. He's going to be challenged in his first game. Much like we talked Jawan Jawan Taylor on one side. Avon Terrell is going to draw a guy that probably is is twice as big as he is and he's going to have to fight. That's the thing you drafted him for. He's a fighter. He likes to get the ball out. Those kind of things. So, I'll be interested to see how we handle the size on the perimeter of their guys. >> Arch, I remember when we were doing some draft coverage. That was one of the things that you talked about with Avon Terrell is he's scrappy, he's physical, and he likes to get after you. So, you'd like to think the competitor in him is going to rise up in this type of game and say, "I'm not going to let my size and stature be the reason why you guys target me, and he is going to have to go out there and compete." Speaking of size, um, shock, I went back earlier this week to look at I wanted to get to know Brian Angelico a little bit more. I wanted to figure out what he was as a play caller. So, I ended up looking at like a miked up session from training camp. Okay. >> And I'm watching this miked up session and he ends up having a comment for Darnell Washington. >> And in the video, Darnell Washington comes walking in the picture and I'm going to say like this is Angelico and Darnell Washington comes walking in like this. Okay. And so like he is a mountain of a man. And a lot of the stuff that I'm reading coming out of Pittsburgh's local coverage is they're going to try to find a way to get him more involved in the game plan again because of Angelico's background and because you got him and Fri some options for Rogers with these two big tight ends that they're going to have on the field. >> Yeah, it's a concern. It's I mean it's it's an issue. is something that we talk about a lot is the matchups and how do you find ways to get your guys the football and use what Arch just mentioned the size to your advantage and we talk about it all the time with Drake and his physical nature and being able to give him opportunities to go get the football they're going to try to do the same thing when you think about a guy like Darnell Washington with his size think about the red zone that's a big part of what he did a lot of last year was using his body in the red zone to go up and get the football and make plays down the field and you look at the guys that we went out and drafted You think about a guy Kendall Daniels who has the size, has the physicality, and is a dog about it. You love the matchup there. I I'll be honest. Uh both guys are are really athletic, but uh watching, you know, Kendall over, you know, the last couple months, you like what you have in there. So, if that matchup comes about, I think you feel pretty good about where he stands within that that matchup. So, you're going to have opportunities in this game, and they're going to try to create them just like we are, too. But you're right, there's going to be a size advantage on both sides and you're gonna say, "All right, who's gonna be the guy that's gonna actually going to make those plays?" 50/50 is 5050 for a reason. >> You got an opportunity to go do it. And even if you're Avon Terrell and you got a bigger sized guy on you, >> there's a lot of ways to combat that. And we'll see how he goes about it. And I guarantee you, it's not the first time he's gone against really bigger receivers or guys that are bigger than him. And he probably has a couple tools in his tools belt to be able to use against guys of that size. So yeah, uh this will be out the gate a fun one when you talk about matchups and key things to watch because they have it on their side and guess what? We got it on our side as well. >> You mentioned twice in that breakdown the word matchups. >> So fellas to close us down arch, >> I need you to give me one matchup. And this, you know, you can take this wherever you go here. This could be player player. This could be unit unit. This could be down distance. Whatever you feel matchup you feel like Arch is going to be the difference in who either gets the momentum or comes out on top in this game. >> Well, we can talk all we want to about takeaways and all that kind of stuff and not hurting yourself with penalties and those kind of things because it seems like when you have a close football game, those things accentuate themselves. They make them bigger. They're bigger problems. So, you hope that you got to play clean. Um, from a matchup standpoint, I'm going to look at the Falcon defensive front seven against the the Pittsburgh offensive line and their running backs. I think that the number one concern for Jeff coming into the season was how do we defend the run better? You love the way you rushed the passer last year and yes, a couple of guys are gone. You still got guys that can rush the passer. Okay. You've got guys in the backing can take the football away. I mean, talk to uh Xavier Watts uh for a for an event we did for the season ticket members. He had five interceptions last year as a rookie. Um he's a guy that knows how to go get the ball. Oh, by the way, Jesse Bates is a guy that can go get the football. You got guys that can take the football away. But to me, the game's going to boil down, especially on the defensive side of the football. Can you limit, you talked about down and distance situation, can you limit them on first and second down in the run game? you know, mitigate what the screen game potentially could be with those two backs. I think the backs and the offensive line for Pittsburgh against the Falcons front seven will be a big matchup. >> All right. I love it. Um, shock, you had a little you had about two minutes there while Archer was gone. What's your matchup that you're highlighting that's going to be the difference on Sunday? >> You know what I think obviously we we ArJ mentioned, you could talk trenches all day and say that'll be a key match up, which it absolutely will in this ball game. Uh, I'm gonna go a little step further and I'm gonna say, you know what, how about the Falcons skill players versus the skill on the backside for the Pittsburgh Steelers because they're gonna be opportunities to be for plays to be made in this ball game and can the Falcons make those plays against the skilled players of the of the Steelers who are just just brought it up. They got a a different crew back there. They got a different uh set of uh guys coming in trying to find their communication here in game one. But can all the skilled guys we talked about for the Falcons be difference makers in this ball game for your quarterback? We talked for the first 15 minutes of the show about Tua Tong of Aloa and yeah, he's going to be a big part of it. But the best thing about it is he's got guys around that can help him. And I think that's what's going to be the biggest key is can those guys around him give him that confidence to go win? When you have those one-on-one matchups, when you get third and five, you need a guy to go win. Can you go win verse the Steelers secondary? So, I'm going to pay a lot of attention to how first Tommy Reese creates ways for those guys to go win and then when you get the matchups in and can you go win them versus that Steelers defense. >> Rack, when when you think about the third phase of the game of special teams, because a lot of times we know in these close football games, a lot of it's a it's a play here or there. Special teams can play huge. >> You're going to potentially have three rookies handling kick returns. When you look at Pittsburgh, um Kaden Wedgen is is one of the young guys from Iowa. He was a fourth round draft pick out of Iowa for Pittsburgh. And then Eli Hidenrike, the young kid, seventh round pick out of Navy, could be their two return guys, especially in the punt game scenario. Now, Rico Dattle and Jaylen Warren certainly can be subbed in back there. But you talk about us and you talk about Zachariah Branch back there. >> In those meetings, take us into a special teams meeting when you got young guys like that. What's the emphasis now on, hey, catch the football, man, let's not turn the ball over. >> Yeah. I mean, I hate to go really elementary, but you don't want to take >> the electricity and the playmaking ability away from somebody even when they're young. But you also got to make sure that they understand the fundamentals of the position. >> And in my opinion, it's decision making, right? Especially in the punt return game. We talked about this last year with the punt return game. If the ball's hanging up and you're getting back by your 10 yard line, what's the rule with this staff? I don't know for sure. Is it 10 yard line? Is it eight yard line? Right? Don't catch the football if you're backpedaling inside the 10 yard line. You're going to give yourself your offense horrible field position. Play the percentages. Force the punt team to make a play. Right? That's one thing. Number two, if you feel like you've got people bearing down and but you're in the open field, fair catch is okay. Just make sure you catch the Brock. Okay? You put the ball down on the ground, we got problems, right? Kickoff return is the same thing. I know we got the dynamic return and it's different and everything, but the decision making understanding know every option that you have available to you. Know when to take the ball out. Know when to make sure that we can just start with the ball at the the appropriate yard line offensively. Don't end up putting your offense or defense in a bad position from a field position standpoint. Offense way backed up, defense on a short field. That's how you lose the kicking game really quickly. We're talking specifically about young players. Now, if you got veteran punters, now this is where you put a little pressure on them, right? Can you get the ball up in the air with some hang time so your gunners have a chance to get down? Can you pin them down on the sidelines? Can you put the ball on the 11, 12 yardd line? Force them to make a decision and maybe they get a little bit of nervous. These are things that a veteran punter can do because they're not thinking about, oh my gosh, I got to make sure I make a right punt so I don't get cut off of this team. They're thinking strategically about how can I put our team in the best position? How can I put that returner in a compromising situation? Maybe we see that a little bit from Jake Bailey. >> Right. I've never uh been a part of a uh punt team or kickoff team where I got to go down and I have to go tackle a guy like Zachariah Branch. Does that change the mindset as well? I mean, does it change how you think about, oh, that dude back there can hurt me. So, do you go down a little more cautious when you have a guy like that either on both sides, you know, when you have to face a guy like that? Is it tougher or you still got the same mindset of, "Oh, I'm shot out of hell. I'm going to go get it." >> I I don't think you can't you can't cover kicks like that and and be scared and hesitant because that's when you're going to look really silly. You're better off going full speed and if they make you look silly, they make you look silly. But I start to think, guys, like, are you going to try to tell somebody like Mike Ford like, "Hey, I need you to kind of throttle down a little." >> Right. Right. Right. No, like that's not part DeMarco Helms. Do you think DeMarco is going to just kind of go down there like 60%. No. Like you got to just go and then if Zachariah Branch does what he does and he makes you look silly, then he makes you look silly. >> Hope he has some backup. >> Ask how how many defenders has Bashan Robinson made look silly throughout the course of his career? It just happens. >> Well, that's the beauty of it though. We're talking about conflict, mental and physical conflict. That's what we're going to get on Sunday, man. This is this is the beauty of the National Football League because I always try to tell people that don't understand is not only do you have extremely smart, but you have the most physically gifted and talented players in the world >> that you're trying to defend or cover or make plays against. The most physically gifted players in the world, >> right? Like I know I know guys like I had Oregon last week like Bryce Bcher was drafted in the NFL this year. He was a big-time baseball player. What did he decide to play? Football. You guys know how much money is in baseball? But Bryce Bcher wanted to play football because it's where the most athletically gifted players in the world >> are competing. Plus, he could hit. >> Hey, hold on. Before we go, uh, speaking of conflict, Arch is there conflict on Saturday trying to figure out who's the best team at Iowa on Saturday? >> No, there's no there's no conflict. There's no conflict at all. >> No, it just it's Iowa State. >> Got I know big game. I mean, >> we got to go to Kick Stadium. >> Yeah. Yeah. Iowa State that Iowa State's won the last two. No, I don't feel good about it. But >> no, >> speaking of uh alma mater, Minnesota is hosting Mississippi State this weekend. Little odd match up. >> Is that the first time? >> First time you ever mentioned the Gophers. >> I didn't even We didn't know where he went to school. >> He finally mentioned the Gophers. So, you must feel good about the matchup, huh? You feel good about the matchup? >> I I don't know if I feel great about it. No. Um >> you feel good at playing that those Bulldogs. Speaking of, what do the Bulldogs the Georgia Bulldogs have? >> Yeah, they got >> Which high school you guys playing? >> They play Western Kentucky this week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> They won. What was the score last week? >> 63 to three. >> Okay. So, we're going two for two on that, huh? >> Good payday for Tennessee. >> Yeah, man. They make 600 to come. So, it's all right. >> Before I watch the Falcons game on Sunday, I will be in Austin, Texas on Saturday. I've got Ohio State. >> That might be fun, right? That could be should be a decent atmosphere. >> Couple quarterbacks going to play in that game. >> Couple decent ones. Pretty good wide receiver. Pretty good receiver state. That's uh >> they got a good receiver in Texas, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. Some some NFL players by the way on those two rosters. Tune in to Rack. Rack's going to bring the news. >> All right. Uh before we go, make sure you let us know what your matchups to watch are. Comment here wherever. Send us in. Who do you think are the biggest matchups that the Falcons have to win this weekend in order to create that advantage and win the football game? Week one in the NFL is upon us. As we record this podcast on a Wednesday, guess what? There's football tonight. There's football tomorrow. There's football weekend. It's finally here. To all you NFL fans that have been waiting for the professional. >> It ain't no tool. It's no arch to bring us. >> It ain't no arch. >> Thanks so much for joining us everybody. We'll be back next week to wrap everything up from week one and hopefully we're talking about a Falcons win over the Steelers on the road. Until next time, this is the Falcons Auto presented by AT&T. That's DJ Shockley, Dave Archer. I'm Derek Rocky. Thanks so much for joining us everybody. See you next time. >> You see what he did right there? He just said week win. >> Week. >> Not week one, but week win. I love that rack. Way to go, baby.