The Morning Shift on 92.9 The Game

Is Falcons' wide receiver group team's biggest area of concern?

Tif, Mike and Beau react to Josh Kendell’s recent article in which he ranked the Falcons postion groups by concerns and share their thoughts on the areas in which they believe the Falcons have bigger concerns over other areas in comparison to Kendell’s list, which he has wide receiver at No. 1 and the crew takes no issue with that.

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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 home feed. Follow the action with Game Tip, 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. Blackout and other restrictions apply, Major League Baseball trade cards used with permission. 7 o'clock, this is the morning shift, and this hour brought to you by Zora's. Smart, lasting, clean, are you guys okay? Because the song- Is it okay if I dance to this one too? Can't call me. Can't call me lame or- I don't have a problem with this song. You know, I know- It was just that you- Every time I'm dancing to the song- No, I'm sorry for the song. But I'm dancing to this one, so I need kudos. Is it every time for me? No, it's not every time. It's not every time. Every time, every time. No, no, just once. I need credit when I- When it's actually good to bounce in my head. Well, this is sabotaged by BC Boy. This is one of the coolest videos. I can't remember the video, but the song, yes. Do you remember the video, Day Day? This is what- Come on. Yeah, definitely remember this video. The video is them, like, undercover cops and stuff, and they've got, like, the bad mustaches and the wigs, and they're like- Yeah, okay, they're going back to me, it's going back to me. It's only like, I think it's all, like, that weird Technic, with black and white kind of color. Yeah, I was saying they filmed it in that kind of, yeah. Yeah, and they're, like, jumping over the hoods of, like, the '90s police cars and stuff. This is a great video. It's a great song. I don't have a problem with the song, Michael. It was chest. No, no, I didn't say you did. I'm just saying, I need kudos when a good song plays. Well, Day Day actually selected this, so. Although I'm on Day Day to give me a little bit of, like, you know, some America birthday music, you know, maybe a little- It's a little Toby Keith Springsteen. A little Toby Keith, no, let's throw some credence. Oh, even though that's kind of the same Springsteen in some ways with, you know. But anyways, yeah, yeah. Coldplay, just kidding. Don't hate on Coldplay. I love Coldplay, but it's not, I know they're not from here, but I just, I love Coldplay. They hate Coldplay. Well, I like them. I love them. They're not a player. That's why I said it. Coldplay at all. No, I'm not, I mean- You don't, but Boda. Yeah, I'm not huge on Coldplay. Well, you can- I mean, I want people to wake up in the morning, not go to sleep. It's, their songs are not all sad. Look, Falcons. Yes, ma'am. Physician groups. Yes, ma'am. You want to rank them? Well, I don't have to because Josh Kendall did it for me. You want to rank his rankings? Well, his rankings are basically based on level of concern and what position groups he is most concerned with. I won't start like some people's list. I'll start from the bottom to the top. I won't start from the top and bottom. You made some fun of it. No, no, no, I was just- This is what you get for propping them up all day. That's what you just want to point out. Well, you pipe down over there. But that's fair game though. That was pretty funny. Yeah, that was, that's a, that's a show joke that everyone has. I want to take offense to it. Clearly, he has quarterback and is not a concern at all, Josh. That's because he's there at eight, uh, at eight. You know, that's when I hit my mic instead of my mouse button. That wasn't good. Then he goes to offensive line at seven. And I don't have a problem with them being at seven. I, I do think that looking at it right now with everyone healthy, I think you have a chance for your offensive line to be average. And can I be honest with you? All I need them to be is average. Mike, I don't need them to be outstanding. I just need the guys to all play, uh, 17 games, consist, be consistent, right? I mean, you're not looking for everybody to be an all pro. Yeah, no, and, and look, let me stop you right there. We'll, we'll talk about the oven's line for one second, which you know, I love doing. I would, I would, I would ask the question, you need to do me average at what? Because they are far above average at run blocking, and somewhat are you below average at pass protection. And I will, I, I am very interested, slash concerned moving forward about what that difference in play calling will mean for them this year. I don't do historically running the ball in first and second down last year. I don't see that. I don't really think that's going to, while I think the numbers might average out in the long run of, uh, you know, come down, I should say of how much you throw on first and second down, compared to the last regimes. Sure. The last two years anyways, because the, but I don't think that, I still think they're going to run the ball more time, like more than pass. I think this, they want to be more like, wouldn't you say 51 49 run to pass ratio? Should I run through his list real quick, Gloria? Okay. So he has, uh, ranking the eight position groups, and he starts with the least concerning, and he ends with the most concerning. So at eight, he has quarterback at seven, he has offensive line, six running back, five defensive line, scrolling, scrolling, four linebacker, three tied in, two secondary, and at one, he has wide receiver. So that is his top concern. I think a lot of people are going to say, nope, nope, you got to flip one and two, um, I, I, I'm fine. I'm fine with the both up there. Yeah. I'm fine with where it's at. And, and really the, the, the wide receiver thing, he makes some good points. Strickland's and it never had a thousand yard season. Now, that being said, I think if Drake London would have had a consistent delivery system, he would have had a thousand yard season the last two seasons. Um, but then you've got a little bit of some unknowns and it's fair to point out. Darnell Mooney has had a thousand yard season. He hasn't stayed healthy and he hasn't had a delivery system either. And we haven't seen that since 2021. Then you're, you're, you're, you're looking at Rondell Moore and you're expecting that guy to step up. I'm excited about him then. I am excited about him. I think, I think in the right system, again, with a consistent delivery system, which I think Kirk Cousins is, he's got a chance to explode. Yeah. No, I'm excited about him. I think when you, I think both of these positions, and you can make the argument, I think you're right. I think a lot of people look at this and say you should flip one and two because the wide receivers being at one, there are questions, but there are a ton of questions too back there in the secondary. And I almost wish that Josh Kendall, right in the start of going, he's got eight position groups. I wish he would split a couple of them up almost. All right. I wish you to split up outside linebackers and inside linebackers. 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 home feed. 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 trade parts used with permission. Okay. And he does mention that in the area. Right. And he does. And he's like, dude, if this was just inside linebackers, this would be a completely different conversation. You do have completely unproven players, even though they've been around for a while at that position outside linebacker. I feel the same way about the secondary. If you were going to split safeties and corners, this would be two different conversations, right? You'd be looking at the cornerback position, going, well, kind of top heavy, but Jesse Bates, you know, all pro style and everything else you're getting back. Right. So I do look at it. I think you could flip one and two. I don't think you'll find an argument from me to your point. I think when you look at the wide receiver position for this team, yeah, it seems like the sky's the limit. But usually when you include that, you include Kirk Cousins. You're like, dude, Kirk Cousins is going to get the ball out. He's going to be accurate. He's going to hit all these guys and stride. Terry Fontenot, while paying Kirk Cousins all this money, is gambling on the fact that he is going to make all these wide receivers better. The Ray Ramon clouds of the world and the Rondell Moore's, which we both said we're excited about, he's going to hopefully make these guys better. You don't have that to talk about on the defensive side of the ball at DB. You don't have somebody to look out and go, oh, well, that we added that pass rusher. He's going to make these corners look a lot better. No, you didn't do either one. You didn't address either either one. I think they think they did. I think they think they did a defensive line is going to bear fruit to that. I think they think it's going to help the pass rush. I just don't agree with him saying that automatically Mike Hughes is moving to the outside and he thinks that they're going to move D offered and Clark Phillips to that nickel. I don't, I don't believe that at all. I don't believe that at all. But going back to your point about expecting the quarterback play to elevate the ride of receivers, we have seen that before. Yeah, sure. As you can take Tom Brady as probably one of the more recent examples, even though, yes, they had Mike Evans there. But he did help to elevate the rest of that whole entire receiving court. It's a great point. That was a great wide receiver core. And it looked really, really good when Tom Brady is the one delivering the football. Yeah, they're unstoppable. But I also think that Bajan Robinson and Kyle Pitts playing at that receiving core as well. I think that they can take if we get Kyle Pitts, like we got him in 21, when he had a good quarterback, when he was healthy, and you can get some of that out of him, I think with him and Bajan, I think that adds another element to what, what the, and I know that they're not wide receivers. No, but it's your receiving core, right? It's your, yeah. And if you can create, yeah, if you can create it where it gets to the point where most linebackers in this league can't cover Kyle Pitts and it's obvious. Now you're taking something from the secondary, right? To cover Kyle Pitts. Sure. You've got to change how you play him and doesn't that help a guy like Drake who, you know, can, can make these contested catches that that helps him. Cause maybe he's got less concentrated on him. Rondelle Moore might have less on him. Like I just think that those guys can help. I'm glad you, look, I'm, I'm glad you brought up Kyle Pitts in this entire conversation, because tight ends, like Tip just said, is at three, the rankings at three. So you got in front of the tight ends, you got the secondary and the wide receiver core. Guys, I would argue that if you're going to include tight ends in this, you might as well bump them up to two or one, right? What, what do you really have? Because you don't know you're wondering what you have. Right. If we're going to talk about the fact that, that Darnell Mooney has been injured, Rondelle Moore hasn't had a complete season or, you know, Drake London is your, you're about to, what do you really have when you, John who Smith is, is out of here and he was one of your leading receivers last year, Kyle Pitts, you're still unsure of what he is in the long run or how willing he's going to even be, even though I know he's got a lot on the line this season, but you had a Charlie Warner, which I think we're all expecting him to be a great blocker, but who knows what he is in the pass catching game. So when you really start the lines on these position groups up, if you want to point to the tight end group and even include them, even though I am positive, they're going to go with a ton of three wide receiver sets. If we're going to throw tight ends in there, I have a massive amount of questions about the output you're going to get from the tight end room. It sounds like you're doubting Ross Dwellie to me. And I think he's going to, you know, he didn't deserve a stray. I'm sorry. He's got, he's got, he's got a, you know, he's got a chance that, let me check that. So I just pulled this up because I was wondering, well, what's Kirk Cousins connection? How has that been with tight ends? And so according to CBS sports.com, it says nearly 27% of his passes targeted tight ends last year. That's fifth in the NFL. So he also has had experience success with TJ Hawkins and Tyler Conklin, Kyle Rudolph of course, in Minnesota and Jordan Reed in Washington. Yeah, I think, but I think, honestly, I think a lot of people still asking themselves, the question is Kyle Pitts TJ Hopkinson? Is he, is he as good as he does? That's fair questions. I was just illustrating. No, yeah, I think it's a great question. Because I think, I think if he is, and if he is what you know, Kyle Pitts can be and what they drafted him to be, then the fact that Kirk Cousins has shown the willingness and the ability to get to the ball at the tight ends, it, it leads you to say, man, this could be a great connection, right? This could be when you look at those percentages and look at those numbers, it'd be awesome. He knows how to deliver the ball to those guys. I'm just, I don't know what he is. And I think that if he doesn't show the ability to get that separation like he did coming out of college, then I think you're going to see Zach Robinson quickly pivots at three and four wide receiver sets and not even worry about it. Right? I'll be like, man, hey, we got to get more out of this spot. Look, I think that Kyle Pitts, I go back to 21 and how, you know, Arthur used him and Matt Ryan was able to get in the ball. I remember Kyle Pitts running go-rops where he, where Matt had to fit the ball in between two defenders like the Miami game where he fits the ball into two defenders, Kyle makes a contested catch and gets hammered and they go on to win that game because of that play. They keep the field goal to win the game. I think there's so many ways to use him. Kyle's healthy. He knows it's a proven year in a lot of ways, and he is more confident than he's been in a while with who's getting the ball to him. This hour brought to you by Zerra's smart, lasting, clean. All right, we are going in the huddle next and Aaron Rodgers reveals the real reason he skipped mini camp. Stay tuned. We'll be right back here on Sports Radio 99 the King. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With North Sides and Bullion as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. North Taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Visit nore.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home cooked weeknight dinners. It's not fast food, but it's so good. 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 home feed. Follow the action with Game Tip 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 trade parts used with permission.