The Morning Shift on 92.9 The Game
National writers continue to give inconsistent takes on Falcons offseason
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His reasoning, and I'll just read you some of it here, you might have missed this news with Falcons signed quarterback Kirk Cousins then drafted quarterback Michael Penix. The rest of the Falcons off-season was fairly mundane. Again, those are Schwab's words, and he said many experts like the signing of Darnell Mooney, and he went on to say they lost Cordaro Patterson in free agency, trading Desmond Ritter. He goes on and on, but this is mainly his reasoning as to why he gave them a D, and then I'll hit pause there. He also said he questions this, that he questions the Falcons offensive stars overrated, and he said one of these things has to be true either Arthur Smith. Again, his words was so incompetent as a coach. He couldn't figure out how to get anything out of three stars right in front of him, or those so-called stars aren't going to break out with any coach or quarterback because they aren't that great. Okay, the last line, I don't come in. Well, this is a hit piece. It's a total hit piece. Look, I have no issue with the scrutiny of the draft pick. The off-season or the draft pick with Penix, because I wasn't a fan of it, I understand. I don't either. That has nothing to do personal on Michael Penix. We've moved, we've talked about it at Nozium. We know where we all stand. I have no issues with not liking that, so I'm not going to kill him for that. However, the rest of this is a hit piece. I did not, you know, Braylon tries, he criticizes Braylon tries to pick, which at some point in here, which I was just looking over, and that's great. But that dude was one of the best past rushes in college football in the last three years. But he's listening about Orororo. Yeah. Well, go ahead. No, no, no, I was just saying he said the same thing about what he said about Braylon too, which is. Well, and you know, you can say that Ororororo was drafted a little bit higher than the air, quote, experts, you know, it predicted, but Braylon Trice is still in the third round to me with what he did in college. But then to take a shot at these three stars, as he puts it, are offensive weapons or whatever. Well, Kyle Pitts had a freaking thousand-yard season when he had a guy that could deliver the freaking football. And Drake London went out there and and did all he did was get better the last two seasons. And the other one, I was assuming, is Bijon that's come at, but we talked about free agents, too, didn't he? Because everybody criticized as a gave too much money to Darnell Mooney. A lot of people think that's the worst transaction and free agency so far. And it looks like, I don't know. Yeah, and we were, I mean, I know you guys were really excited about the addition of a guy like Mooney. And then someone else that Kirk Cousins has previous experience with. Well, yeah, he watched him. He watched him for those few years and he loved what he brought. Darnell Mooney also fits what you want to do with this offense. He's a yack guy. He's a guy that you get the ball in open space and he makes people miss. He's, he'll make you miss in a phone booth at times. I watch it and go back and watch y'all 22. That's what he did. It was a smaller guy. It was a $5, $1,175, something like that. So clearly fast twitchy. Yeah. And let me say, I think the, basically, I think with this de-grade boils down to, uh, is really heavy, heavily weighing on drafting, uh, penics. And so he said the opportunity costs of drafting him has to factor into the grade. So that's weighing heavily on it. But it, so let me. The defensive players you drafted, if they end up playing well, then it's a what he doesn't make it look better on it down the road. But here's the deal for me. You got your hand on your hand. Because, because this is the hypocrisy. And like, I know we all, we talked for lip and living and we, and these guys write for living. So you're going to back yourself in a corner at some point because you're not always going to be right and you're going to sound and your, your goal is to have these big takes. But what was the Falcons biggest off season need? The number one thing they had to do in the off season? Well, quarter back, clearly. Yeah. Well, they didn't go get one. They got two. They got a guy who has been a top 10 quarterback for most of his starting career, even with bad teams like when he was in Washington. Well, look at him over the past four years, only two quarterbacks have more touchdown passes than him. Yeah. That would be Josh Allen, and Patrick Holmes, right? So how do you give him a D for, for filling the biggest void that you have? Yeah, that's a. And look, whether you liked who they drafted or not, they tried to fill the other void, which was the, you know, pressure defensive line. Not all past rushers come off the edge, Rob. It's so, I mean, remind me where Aaron Donald and J.J. White and Chris Jones and who am I, what's, are you talking about the interior? Yeah. What's my guy up up 85 play Auburn dominates our. Oh, yeah. The best guard in the league. You know, I can't think of his name, but that's where that these guys play up up front and on the line and they're not edge players. They're interior players. That that is a part of it. And it's just one of those deals where we get so hung up, you gotta have a fire breather kind of off the edge. That's not all out. It's done. You also were getting back guys. I just don't understand the criticism. I understand the criticism of the Pinnock's pick, but then they use the line that you're my Derek Brown, aren't you? Yeah, exactly. I'm talking about it. And thank you. But the user line. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep. And when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury with over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights stories and breaking news right on your whole field. Follow the action with game 10, where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus notifications can keep you connected to every pinch every hit every game. The MLB app, baseball your way. Download it now for free from the app store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball trademarks used with permission. And it either Smith was so incompetent he couldn't figure out how to get anything out of three stars right in front of him or those so called stars aren't going to break out with any coach or quarterback. Well, I don't know how you know and you didn't have a quarterback. That was the biggest thing. And then you throw in the Cordaro Patterson, well, they lost Cordaro Patterson. They lost like 230 yards of offense from scrimmage, not even he was he was not that guy last year. No. And guess what? He's in the sunset of his career. That's why it's not because I'm going to get rid of guys before you get rid of guys one year before you actually should. That's what Bill Walsh always says. And you might have gotten rid of him a year late because Cordaro could not have upheld a whole season. He didn't even start the season healthy. And to blame Arthur for for that, if anything, I blame Arthur for being a little bit too loyal and wanting to bring in Cordaro back for an extra year. And I love Cordaro. He's such a pleasure to be around. But this is this this hit piece is all over the place. You're criticizing. And it's lazy too. What do you think? Well, it's lazy. You don't take into account. Maybe they did find somebody in the draft. Yeah. Maybe you did find them. You don't know how those guys are going to pan out. I also lazy. Why do you put them at 18 if you give them a D and they're all season? That's what, yeah, means everybody else must be just absolute disasters in. Yeah, 32. Well, hell, what were the other grades? If you're an eight, if you're an 18, I just think that there's some it's some it's low hanging fruit. And I get that if you're right in a 32 team power ranking, right? And you're going to you're going to just kind of skip on teams. And it's easy to say you're going to lack nuance because you got to get onto the next team. Yeah, but I mean, do a little bit of research. You know, you can sit here. All right, let's go to Darnell Mooney. Yeah, he he's been banged up a little bit and he's only had a nine hundred and seven yards and three touchdown catches over his last two seasons. Did you bother turning on any of the all 22? Did you bother doing any research on the fact that he he has he's the most been the most open player past 20 yards with like one of the with the least accurate passes strong his way. And that's what this team needed in his wide receiving course, might take the top off the defense to go with the physicality of a Drake London and what are these or pits? What are these two quarterbacks that you brought in have that that honestly, the other quarterbacks didn't have and and I'll be up to be frank that clearly Justin Fields, the other guy that was starting Darnell Mooney have missed. That's accuracy and that's accuracy downfield and and and that dude, I was there to a few a while back when Kirk Cousins is still kind of hobbling up the field and deep ball was accurate. Michael Pinnox deep ball was accurate. They're they're they're better processors than Desmond or Marcus were, but let's not account of that. Let's just let's just be lazy. Yep. Well, dang, I'm looking I'm scrolling through and I see that in some of his power rankings, like he has the bucks, for example, at at 20. What do you give them? They didn't do much, really. They resigned Mike Evans. They got rid of Shaq Barrett. You locked up Baker. Yeah, you did lock up Baker, which is a honestly, I think that's a good move. It's a great move. You you got the guy that you think's your franchise quarterback. Well, he won a playoff game, didn't he? Yeah, he did. A lot to be said for that. And he played well down the stretch. He had his best season as a pro, I think. I know that he had the Cleveland the year in Cleveland, where they didn't make the playoffs, but I thought this was his best year. And you kept his best biggest weapon. Mike Evans. Yeah, of course. But I think a lot of it and Baker said it too. I mean, yes, the two he is, but him and Dave Kanellis were on the same page and they had built this trust. We'll see how it pans out now that Kanellis is with the Panthers, but that was something that Baker did factor into his, his success there. And of course, yeah, having a guy like Mike Evans doesn't hurt either. Or Chris Godwin. So and their off season grade, it appears they gave them a C plus. That is what Frank Schwab of Young Sports gave the Buccaneers. So they got a C plus for doing pretty much nothing and losing their best edge rusher. Huh, that's interesting. That's the thing for me. And look, we can get mad. And obviously, I'm, I'm, I'm always going to, you know, get irritated with this kind of stuff. But I, I just think that when you, when you're so harsh, I guess what, what irked me was the, the three star comment. And, and it's funny how every national rider going in the last season destroyed this team for keeping staying, staying with Desmond Ritter and not making a, making a move that was impossible to make, which was a large accent and how the Falcons are going to regret this and blah, blah, blah. And then they do the, then they go get, he's never going to come here. Well, but then they go get two guys that can play the position. And now we're going to, we're going to, well, yeah, but now I mean, these guys suck. I'll sneak this in on you. So he's working his way down from the 32 team. So it appears right now it has stopped at 17 until the other ones come out and he has a head of the Falcons as the Colts. And their off season grade is a B. How is their off season grade a B? How? I guess I'm sorry. Overall, the grade is a B. So yeah, off season grade B. Yeah. Well, that, that's, uh, you know, that's interesting. Um, I guess the backup quarterback deal for Joe Flacco, since you don't really know what Anthony Richardson's going to be. They lost, they lost Zack Moss. Now he's helped out because Jonathan Taylor, you know, was a little bit banged up last year. I know because he was on my fantasy team and didn't do much for me. So I had to pick up Zack Moss, but I mean, I, there's just no, that's my biggest promise. There's no consistency. Um, you don't know who the hell Anthony Richardson is going to be. He had a decent start to his career, but the style of play that he plays is going to nine. He's conducive to injury. And guess what? He got injured. His entire career, he's been injured. Florida, he was constantly banged up. Uh, you get, he had injured last year, Rob, your point. I just won't consistency in these. And, um, there, this doesn't really seem to be much. When we come back, we're sticking with the NFL. We're going in the huddle. And, uh, which one of Kirk Cousins teammates, former teammates, ain't mad at him for making the decision to come. To Atlanta, we'll get to that answer next when we come back in the morning shift on sports radio night. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again with nor sides and bullion is your not so secret ingredient. You can skip the drive through and do dinner at home, nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable and well balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. 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