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Atlanta Falcons Make Waves During NFL Off-Season | Analysis
SportsGrid
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8/20/2024
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Sports
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00:00
Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid.
00:05
You know, the offseason NFL newsmakers are really the fun teams to talk about.
00:10
The Atlanta Falcons definitely categorize as one of those, whether it's the draft or
00:15
a trade or a signing, it seems like they've just always been in the news.
00:19
So Mark Raimondi comes over, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, he thinks, all right, I'm
00:23
going to come in, you know, transition over covering the NFL for ESPN, and this is just
00:27
going to be easy going here.
00:28
And Mark, it's been the opposite, man, like the Falcons are just continuing to do things
00:32
that are a little bit unexpected.
00:34
I guess that's fair to say.
00:35
Thanks for coming on.
00:36
My first week on the beat, Craig, was draft week.
00:39
And everyone told me, it's going to be relatively straightforward, you know, pretty boring.
00:44
They're going to get defense in the first round, everyone knows that, right?
00:47
And they go out and they're the story of the entire draft.
00:49
They take Michael Pennington Jr. at number eight, and it was a very busy weekend.
00:53
It was a lot of fun, but certainly a polarizing pick that I think has aged well now.
00:59
But yeah, I mean, we talk about Kirk Cousins coming in, they draft Michael Pennington Jr.
01:02
And now they just acquired two Pro Bowl defensive players in the last week.
01:06
It's been an eventful time in Georgia.
01:09
So it's been fun to keep up with.
01:12
Yeah, and a new head coach too, for you to deal with in Raheem Morris, who has a lot
01:16
of experience, of course, in the NFL, he used to coach the Buccaneers.
01:20
You know, what I would like to, I guess, start with here is Arthur Smith, who departed, and
01:26
I know that you weren't covering the team as part of that.
01:29
It feels to me like the Falcons in firing him and bringing in Morris and doing all these
01:34
things kind of felt like their team should have been a lot better than what it was, because
01:38
normally when something like this happens, it's kind of a transition period, Mark.
01:42
But instead of this transition period, it feels like Arthur Blank looked at the team
01:46
and said, wow, this is a major underachieving team.
01:49
If we just add a couple of pieces, maybe we'll be a lot better than last year.
01:52
At least that's my perception of it.
01:54
Yeah, I think if you look back, Craig, at last year's Falcons, they started off pretty
01:59
strong and they lost a lot of close games.
02:01
They lost a lot of games where they were leading in the fourth quarter.
02:04
And I mean, we're talking about four or five games that maybe they win, even two of them.
02:08
It's a totally different story.
02:09
They went seven and 10.
02:10
So maybe, maybe they're nine and eight.
02:12
You know, maybe they're even 10 and seven, who knows?
02:14
So I think that it was, it was a team that there's certainly no rebuild happening down
02:18
here in Atlanta.
02:19
That there's, that's for sure.
02:20
Raheem Mars is taking over a team that already had a pretty decent core of good players,
02:25
especially good young players of the skill positions.
02:28
Bijan Robinson, Drake Lundin, you know, Kyle Pitts.
02:30
These are guys that could be star players in the NFL with the right scheme, with the
02:35
right quarterback, which they now have in Kirk Cousins.
02:37
And that was the big priority of the off season is to get that guy.
02:40
So a hundred percent, there's no rebuild.
02:43
And it looks like they're the favorites right now to win the division.
02:47
Of course, it's a results-based business, the NFL.
02:49
So we'll see what happens during the season, but that's kind of where things are right
02:52
now.
02:53
There's a lot of hope down here in Atlanta.
02:54
Yeah.
02:55
And Mark, I think that's fair.
02:56
Again, if you just look at data, teams that usually lose a lot of close games, that sort
03:00
of evens out the next year.
03:02
Not that you win all those close games, but maybe you win more of them.
03:05
Not a ton of notable departures, I don't think, for the Falcons really to talk about.
03:09
But the key addition, as you mentioned, and it is a quarterback league, so we just go
03:13
right there, is to Kirk Cousins.
03:15
And so with you being around and covering him, it seems to me that he's saying all the
03:21
right things ever since the Pennix move was made, and he's the starting quarterback going
03:26
into the season.
03:27
I guess I would ask you, Mark, is their narrative with any over-the-shoulder looking or anything
03:33
like that?
03:34
Because it just does feel like Cousins has always had some sort of adversity over the
03:38
course of his career.
03:39
Is this any different?
03:40
It's true, and I think that adversity has helped him deal with situations like these
03:44
with Michael Pennix Jr.
03:45
I think initially there was some consternation.
03:48
I think it bugged him.
03:49
I think it bugged him just naturally, because this is a guy that was coming into Atlanta.
03:52
He talked about wanting to retire with the Falcons.
03:56
He has history in the city.
03:58
His wife is from the Atlanta area.
04:00
They got married here.
04:01
So his in-laws are all here.
04:03
They're all big Falcons fans.
04:04
So I think he saw this as a place where he could retire, and maybe that will not be the
04:07
case depending on how things go in the next few years, Michael Pennix Jr. kind of like
04:11
looming as a team's quarterback of the future.
04:14
But look, Kirk Cousins is his team right now, and it's his team for the foreseeable future,
04:18
and he has acted that way.
04:20
He has been a leader.
04:21
He has brought his skill division players on trips to go see John Gruden down in Tampa.
04:26
He has really taken the offensive line guys.
04:28
They've gone out to dinner, and they've hung out, and they've done barbecues at the offensive
04:33
line coach's house, Dwayne Ledford.
04:34
So he's definitely taking it upon himself to be the leader of this team, to be the captain,
04:39
Captain Kirk.
04:40
And that's something the team has not really had over the last several years, especially
04:42
in the quarterback position.
04:43
Yeah.
04:44
No, that's absolutely fair.
04:46
And so you've seen Pennix play probably more than anybody else in these practice sessions,
04:52
where some of it there's video and some of it there's not.
04:55
I mean, you would have to tell me.
04:57
It sounds like he's not playing in the third preseason game.
05:00
So it's clipboard time, I guess, for him, is it not, Mark?
05:04
He's not playing, and he did not play last week either against the Ravens, but he's looked
05:07
pretty good.
05:08
He played pretty well in the first preseason game against the Dolphins.
05:13
And that game was kind of indicative of exactly how he's played in practice, and you've seen
05:17
a progression from him from OTAs to now.
05:20
He's gotten more consistent.
05:21
His decision-making is better.
05:22
And we know about the arm talent.
05:23
I mean, he can fit it into a very tight window, and he can throw a gorgeous deep ball.
05:28
And as he develops, I think it's exciting for Falcons to see where he is this year,
05:32
next year, and then when he can maybe start in 2026, potentially.
05:36
All right.
05:37
So if the Falcons are the favorite, who is the biggest challenger, you think, in the
05:40
division?
05:42
I mean, they beat the Carolina.
05:43
They only won two games last year.
05:44
If they win three, that's an improvement.
05:46
You know, this was a boring division last year until Baker got hot at the end, Mark.
05:49
Is that the case again?
05:50
Is it Tampa Bay being the biggest challenger?
05:52
Saints are another one of these teams.
05:54
It's just like, no offense to Carr and that team, but it's kind of a boring squad.
05:59
I think Tampa.
06:00
I think Tampa Bay is definitely the other favorite in the division, you could say.
06:03
If Baker Mayfield comes back and has another good season like he did last year, I would
06:07
put them kind of right there with the Falcons as far as the favorites.
06:10
You know, Rollins has a lot of holes.
06:11
They have some good players.
06:12
You know, their offensive line is kind of a mess right now.
06:14
They don't really know what's going to happen with those guys.
06:17
But I would say, you know, if I was handicapping, I would say, you know, Falcons and Bucs are
06:22
kind of one and two right now, but it's pretty close.
06:25
All right.
06:26
Well, Mark, great stuff as always.
06:28
Enjoy the season covering the Falcons for ESPN, and we'll catch up with you again soon.
06:32
Thanks for coming on.
06:33
Thanks, Craig.
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