Football is back! Atlanta Falcons prepare for first preseason game of 2026 | Rise Up Tonight

It's Thursday night in the A. You know what that means? Kelly Price and Tori Mhaney is coming at you on Rise Up tonight presented by AT&T. >> We're back. Did you miss us? There's no clearer indicator that football season is indeed back than myself and Miss Tory Mhaney back on your big and small screens. Right. I am so excited. Literally since the World Cup ended, I have been counting down the seconds, the minutes, the hours to be back in the studio with you, Kelly. >> I know. Speaking of World Cup, I was at the Benz the other day and I was kind of sad like, oh, it's over. Well, good news is preseason is upon us and yes, there will be starters. Kevin Stfansky told us so. Touangavalo will be the quarterback at least for a series or so. Coach says the plan for each guy is just a little bit different. [snorts] >> We'll do is uh we'll play our starters um a series maybe 10 plays uh see how that, you know, which comes first type of thing. Uh and then we'll roll our guys through. So, we'll we'll also vary play time by player. So, there are some guys that may get more, some guys that may get less. Uh, but really trying to just get our guys ready for the season based on what we think they need in these games. >> Do love to hear that, especially over the last couple years, not seeing starters in the preseason. Well, Tori and I were thinking of playing a game right here at this point. Our top three things to watch on Friday night, but we were comparing notes at camp and they actually looked really similar. So, we'll start there. Let's huddle up about it, y'all. Let's ht up with Kelly and Tori on the world of Falcons football. [music] >> First up, this one just got a little more interesting, right? With Divine Diablo rolling up his ankle, there's even more opportunity [music] for young linebackers to get some valuable reps here. And this is a group that I had circled as far as monitoring going into this camp because yes, they lost Kaden Ellis, but also because of who came in. I think there's some serious darkhorse potential breakout energy here [music] with guys like Kendall Daniels the fourthrounder out of Oklahoma, Harold Perkins the sixthrounder out of LSU. Then of course some guys they brought in Christian Harris, Channing Tindle. [music] Tori, what intrigues you about this group and maybe how they rotate them in in a live [music] game versus what we've seen in practice. Yeah. So let's stick with the rookies here for a second. They've seen that they're advertised. Kendall Daniels long, agile, every bit of that safety [music] turn linebacker prototype Jeff Olrich loves. He really looks honestly like a clone of Divine Diablo out there. Even has the green dot. Harold Perkins Jr. strong, speedy with some pass rush chops the Falcons needed. One, because like you said, no Kaden Ellis this year, but also to unfortunately no Jaylen Walker either. Keep an eye on both of these guys Friday and through the preseason. Their early maturation [music] both individually and as a tandem could be a good indicator of how quickly they're ready to contribute in the regular season. Next up, another spot that's been talked about a lot this training camp. right tackle. The blind side for both of your lefty quarterbacks here. Jawan Taylor was brought in to be that guy, but he's missed all of training camp almost to this point. He was activated on Monday, but he's still being acclimated and worked in. So, I don't think we're going to see much of him in the preseason, at least for a while. So, we've seen a [music] lot of Ethan Onian with a seventh round pick out of Ohio State. I know that's another rookie that I've had an eye on is, you know, he could be a factor down the road here. Tori, what do you make of what's shaping up on that side of the offensive line? Yeah. So, I feel still think it's Jawan Taylor's spot and [music] more likely if and when he's getting he gets back healthy. He's a veteran in this league having started all 111 games. He has played across seven [music] seasons. He's your guy when he's ready. But right now, he hasn't been given that green light just yet. He's still, like you said, in that ramp up period. So, for that reason, get ready to [music] see a lot of Michael Jerel, Brandon Walton, and like you mentioned, Ethan Onianwa. Of the three, it's Oniana who has been taking the bulk of the first team right tackle reps recently. that and across the last four or so days of padded practice, he's had some really good moments. Looking pretty strong against a bull rush. [music] Keep an eye on these three as Taylor works back over the next couple weeks. Finally, let's talk Nickel. This time last year, Billy Bowman Jr. was kind of the guy here, right? But [music] he's been sidelined with a torn Achilles. Then shout out to D. Alber. He played his way into a new new deal up in Buffalo after a [music] career year last year. Avon Terrell has been splitting time inside and out. But since Mike Hughes has kind of locked down that CB2 spot [music] opposite Terrell's big brother, the younger Terrell looks to be a good fit at Nickel right now. As we know, this defense is heavy on the multiplicity. So Terrell great option for Jeff Albrich there. So as long as he's healthy, and I say that because Terrell has obviously now been out a couple days at camp, doesn't seem to be anything serious, but with that in mind, what do you kind of expect with that rotation at Nickel to look like on Friday? Yeah. So, it's really a good question because I would argue that to this point in Cam, Nickel has actually been one of the most everchanging position groups in terms of that rotation. You mentioned Avon who up until the last couple days was slowly getting more and more reps with the first team [music] defense, but prior to that, Darnie Holmes, who the Falcons acquired in free agency has been [music] getting significant run with the ones. Same thing for safety Sydney Brown. It was common place through the first weeks of camp to see Brown drop down to nickel with the only with the ones only to move back to deep safety [music] with the twos. He'll be I'll be curious to see how much of that cross trainining Brown actually does in the game this Friday. Oh, and another name to keep in mind, Kelly AJ Woods with Avon working through an injury. We could see a lot more of him Friday night as well. We'll see a lot of those rookies this preseason and this off season. And those rookies spent a day over at Cherokee Bluff High School with over 200 young athletes guiding them through through some football skills and drills as we rise up for Atlanta. Brought to you by Truist. >> One, two, three. Yes, sir. That's what I like. Let's go. >> Up and inspiring the next generation. And playing for the Falcons is all about being a role model on and off the field. And that's a role that Zachariah Branch has embraced knowing he was once one of those kids. and he wanted to show the kids, hey, you can achieve your dreams no matter what. >> I was at one point these kids just at a camp trying to just, you know, get recognized and just have fun with it. So, just to know I'm impacting the community and uh, you know, the younger generation is something that's pretty cool. And I just try to make sure I set the best example um, you know, for them um, you know, to to let them know they can do it. I'm not the biggest, tallest, fastest, strongest guy, but um, you know, if you put your mind to something, then you can do it. So, definitely want to stress that enough to the group. >> All right. Still to come on Rise Up tonight, my dirty birds know sometimes all you can do is just laugh. Our first guest of the season is someone who's pretty good at poking fun of the Falcons and everybody else to [music] be fair. Benchwarmer Brand stops by later in the show. Plus, what were these guys up to this off season? We'll hear directly [music] from them next in Question of the Week. >> Rise Up Tonight is presented by AT&T and brought to you by Georgia [music] Lottery. Today could be the day. by MercedesBenz, the best of nothing. And by Home Depot, how do get more done? >> Do you ever wonder what's really on your favorite players mind? It's time for the question of the week. [music] >> Favorite thing you did this off season? Uh, I'll say I mean chill with the family for sure. I got to to [snorts] get close to the facility. Uh, I really just relax with my family. >> Travel to [music] Tokyo. >> THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. >> YEAH. Travel to Japan. It's really nice. Great experience. [screaming] >> I usually go to to Florida, but I stayed around here. >> What? >> Boring. >> I picked up MMA training. We did a little going away party for my baby [music] girl. So she's in jiu-jitsu. So she all her jiu-jitsu friends there. >> Ooh, World Cup. >> Finally. >> World Cup was [music] an amazing experience. >> World's over. I'm so sad. Let me tell you about the month we had won so bad. Argentina made [music] us mad. Hydration breaks bartame red car. [music] >> I think it was awesome. [laughter and gasps] >> You know, it is so sad that the World Cup is over. Like it is sad, but it was so fun to be a part of here in Atlanta. Like, what was your favorite part? I loved walking around and just seeing all of the World Cup emblems and my boyfriend and I we went to the COSM and did a watch party there. That was so much fun. We had such a great time. So, I just loved it. I'm kind of sad. >> I know. I am too. I'm definitely lowkey a little little depressed, but it's it's exciting that we're back to the presence like we were talking about. Um we are actually going to talk about Falcons fits here because they can, you know, let their play speak on the field for itself, but they arrive in style no doubt tomorrow. Let's look at two offseason fashion moments. It is time for walking in. Starting with who else but the $75 million man. He's got to dress like it. This was the Jean Robinson at the NFL honor showcasing the Stellar burgundy suit designed by Rick Stow. He even DJed at this event. Like the Side Quest King that we know that he is. It's classic. It's clean. But also I love the like subtle red and black Falcons not on this stage as well. >> Yes. So is there anyone more booked and busy than Bjon? I mean really NFL honors the Pro Bowl. Heck. Do you think that he maybe went to Taylor and Travis's wedding, too? I haven't asked him that, but who knows? I I guess that's what happens when you're the best running back in the NFL. >> That's a good question. We don't know everyone that was on that 10,00 people guest list. There [laughter] >> I I would think that you would know. All right. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention it happened. New uniforms, gang. The Falcons launched these new primary uniforms that officially launched on a field near you on Friday night. I've got to say, it's been an upgrade watching these during training camp, moving around so far. What are your thoughts on these bad boys for >> I mean the red home uniforms are back. I know I spoke to so many Falcons players current and former about the return of red and everyone had the same line of thinking. Red feels like the Atlanta Falcons. When they think of the Atlanta Falcons, they think of the red. The fact that we're now back in the closet for a new generation of Falcons is special. And I have to agree with Kelly. The red has been super striking on the training camp field. So I can't wait to see it in the bins. [music] >> Yeah, it's going to look really good. All right, coming up next, catch my conversation with sports creator, content creator, benchwarmer brand. That is on the other side of the break here [music] on Rise Up tonight. Welcome back to Rise Up Tonight. Let's head in the [music] nest with Kelly, Tori, and this week's special guest brought to you by MercedesBenz. >> Really excited for this week's guest, Bench Warmer Brand. You know him from social media. I mean, he has like 500,000 followers on Instagram, I think a million on Tik Tok. Obviously, a lot of our viewers have probably watched uh your content. I know I have and I enjoy it. Everyone knows how funny you are, your skits and things like that, but I actually want to talk first about kind of like your background and how you kind of got into this and at what point did you maybe post a video or do something that took off that you were like, "Wow, okay, we could actually maybe do something here with this." >> Yeah. No, it's I mean, it's been a crazy ride. like this is not the job I ever thought I would have. Even though I I messed around with YouTube when I was a kid, but still not where I thought I would end up. Um, so I mean I knew I always wanted to work in sports media. I went into school with like a sports journalism kind of mindset, whether that was going to be writing or reporting, whatever it was. I pictured myself like on that sports center desk [music] one day. It was kind of the idea. Uh, so sports journalism. Yeah, sports journalism. Um, and then after I graduated, you know, I I got uh I actually my first job was actually a Fox affiliate. It was Fox61 here in Hartford. Um, they they have not interviewed me yet, so I like you guys better now. But no, they were my they were my first job. Um, so I worked there for about 9 months. Then I transitioned. I actually got a PA job at ESPN. Uh, so all behind camera stuff. And then when CO hit and they kind of just kept us employed, but like you know, back at home with not a lot to do, I started the socials. It was just a perfect storm of like time on my hands, missing doing the on camera stuff that I was doing in college and like getting reps of and just like seeing people do it on what was then, you know, kind of this exploding platform in Tik Tok. People were starting to do the sports skits and I was like, I could do that and add my own twist to it. Um, and as I started doing them, yeah, there were there were a couple of milestone videos that like just told me, wow, I could do this. Tell me about the origin of the nickname benchwarmer brand. Like where did that come from? >> That that was purely um so I'm a big fan of alliterations when it comes to username. So I was like all right my name is Brandon. What can I do with that? And sitting there I was like it was actually a calculated choice of why to make this my username cuz I was like a lot of people are going to watch my videos and be like you never played NFL football. You never played football a day in your life. And I'm like yeah I know. I got benchwarmer in the name. Like I'm not The whole point is that I was not a highle athlete and I'm just here sarcastically commenting on whatever's going on in the sports world. So it was like kind of my like Eminem Marshall Mathers way of like trying to get out ahead of people and be like, "Yeah, I know you can't really say that about me cuz I've kind of already acknowledged it." >> I actually checked to make sure this was still pinned on your TikTok cuz I remember for it was it was for a while, but the one about the Falcons quitting last year is still pinned. >> We give up. What? You can't give up. There's six weeks left in the season. Well, I'm not talking about this season. I'm talking about all of it. definitely got some circulation here in the Atlanta metro um and among Falcons fans. I mean, talk about your process of making videos like that and you know, at what point do you kind of sit down and say, "All right, am I am I being too harsh or am I being just enough?" Kind of leaning into whatever the suffering trauma of that fan base is. >> Yeah. I mean, to me, it's like it's all very controlled by whatever the narrative is that's already kind of going around. Like I don't I don't decide like here's this team, I'm going to pick on them because they just drew my eyeire that day. It's more like this is this is just what's been going on for years. Like the Falcons are a team that throughout like the Arthur Smith era and you know people had all these expectations for like Kyle Pittz and all these things that just didn't pan out. At a certain point all those things are in my head of like they've stacked up and I'm like it's enough is enough as far as Falcons fans are concerned. [music] like they have they have tried their team has tried to like fix things over these last few years. Nothing seems to have worked. I was like that just kind of feels like the sentiment right now like [music] we're done. We're giving up. It's over. So like yeah, as far as being too harsh like [music] I always make sure like to not actually be offensive to like if there's a sensitive topic or something going on. But if it's just purely about a team's sorry Atlanta fans, but like a team's like own incompetence, like I'm not there's no line I won't like reference or cross with that. >> What's the NFC South check-in skit look like right now? [laughter] >> The NFC South. So like I literally lose track [music] of which divisions I've done. I'm part of me is like, did I do that? I don't think I did that one yet. Um, how is that one going to be? Yeah, I mean they're always the mess, but >> no, it's it's going to be largely based on the sentiment of this meme that I see all the time and it's like all four of the NFC South logos up to the same thought bubble that says, "God, this division stinks. Thank god we're the only good team in it." And I'm like, that is how it feels. That's how every team seems to approach the NFC South. It's like anybody could win it and they're probably not even going to need a winning record to do it like we saw last year. >> Do you have any other thoughts about where the Falcons are are at right now? I mean, obviously huge quarterback questions, but everything else, the name that everyone knows on this team is obviously Van Robinson, Drake London, and obviously Kyle Pittz, but are there any other, you know, players on this team that are interesting to you or something that you're maybe watching with the Falcons? >> I think that's what's so frustrating about the Falcons sometimes is like there's so much talent. It's like you see it, you can see it how it would go well, but then they just have these pitfalls at whether it's like linebacker or it's quarterback or it's just receiver depth. God forbid Drake London gets hurt or something like that. Like it's just always it's always something with Atlanta that just, you know, makes him fall a little bit short even in a division that's this bad. >> You make a video for every team potentially winning the Super Bowl. Is there one for the Falcons? What's the >> Yeah, so there was Oh gosh, I don't remember. Um, yeah. So, it was a video of how every team is going to win the Super Bowl. That was how that was kind of how it was worded, right? So, it was like coming at it from an overconfident voice. [music] And I'm trying to remember what I said about the Falcons. [music] I think it was So, I know I know it leaned heavily on it's actually leaned partially on a line that I already said in this uh in this interview about Kevin Stfansky where it was [music] like they've got a new coach, two time two-time coach of the year. You know, it's one of the only things they've been missing because of all the talent that they have. and you know, he's done something that's already harder than winning a Super Bowl, [music] winning a playoff game with the Browns. So, obviously, they're going to win the Super Bowl now that they've gotten their one >> uh deficiency fixed, and that was coaching. >> Now, yes, the point of the video is to ignore the other deficiencies that are obviously there, but we don't have to talk about those because, you know, every even Super Bowl winning teams have some weaknesses. So, you just kind of you just be hopeful. >> All right. Well, that's all I got. I took enough of your time, Brandon. Thank you so much for joining us. I really enjoyed this conversation. And anyone who wants to watch the full thing, head to fox5atlanta.com. We'll post the whole entire thing on there and Fox Local. And we'll be right back on Rise Up tonight. [music] >> Thanks so much for having me. >> Hey Atlanta, this is Ed Crack talking and you're watching Rise Up tonight presented by AT&T. Ready for [screaming] ready. >> Something about seeing that and hearing that song, it's like my my juices are flowing. I'm getting excited. Football is here. >> I know. I've missed it. And like, you know, no live tackling or anything like that. It's kind of guys going at like 75% recently. So, it's so good to have this back. >> Yes. And so, okay, let's we obviously talked about position battles that we're going to be kind of keeping an eye on, especially with all these starters, but who are some bubble players that, you know, are guys going to be fighting for roster spots you're watching? >> Yes, I'm actually so glad that you are asking about this. Give me Cash Jones as a as a guy. Give me Jack Strand, quarterback. Give me James Brocker Meyer. I also really want to see how much we see of Brilland Trice. This is a guy who we have seen in the preeason, seen in the the practices, but we haven't had the chance to see him at all in season because he's unfortunately been hurt. So, how much will he how much run will he get come this Friday and next week in the next over the course of the next three weeks? I'm very excited to see his comeback. >> True ball knowowers know about James Brocker Meyer. >> True. [laughter] >> For those who don't enlighten I >> I honestly it's hilarious that you're asking me this. Yes. uh [laughter] UDFA center. He played at Miami. I am very curious to see if he is someone who can make this roster come the 53man cut down. He's someone I've enjoyed watching. I think he's a a darkh horse candidate as to bring it all back. >> I like that. Cash Jones is also an interesting one. I actually be a little surprised if he doesn't make this roster. Just that versatility we've seen him showcasing. >> Special teams the way on the roster. >> We'll see. We'll see how that looks. But also, let's talk about quarterbacks as well because obviously there's going to be a rotation after Tua. Uh what does that look like? >> Yeah, so Cooper Rush right coming right off after Tua and then Jack Strand expected to finish the game. So that's what we're looking at from the quarterback position. >> All right, we'll be back this time next week to wrap it all up. Preseason game number one against the Broncos Friday night. Looking forward to it for [music] now. Good night. goat go.