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Speaker 1: What's up, everybody, and welcome to a special edition of

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Speaker 1: the Falcons Final Whistle podcast recorded here at Ticketmaster Studios.

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Speaker 1: I'm Scott Bahar, That's Tory mclaney, and we have a

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Speaker 1: new member of the group. Tarren Wak is here everyone,

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Speaker 1: very exciting stuff, making her Final Whistle debut.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, mess my name up, Miracle, you're turning a little red.

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Speaker 1: You've got close over unbeknown I was so worried about it.

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Speaker 1: I've been mispronouncing Terreen's name, calling her Tarren Whack for

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Speaker 1: a long time. But it's not Whack. It's definitely not whack.

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Speaker 1: It's Wak, which is which is exactly We are here

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Speaker 1: to both introduce Arran to our Falcons Final Whistle family

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Speaker 1: and also to talk about the initial fifty three man

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Speaker 1: roster that was just announced on Tuesday afternoon. We have

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Speaker 1: a roster that started at ninety is now at fifty three. Now, look,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be some roster moves in the coming days.

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Speaker 1: They're gonna have a sixteen man practice squad. There will

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Speaker 1: be some flux. We know from Terry font Nos transactions

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Speaker 1: list which is just so long, so long, that there

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Speaker 1: will be moves made after this, and as Tarren pointed

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Speaker 1: out in her story, it's about what's the roster going

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Speaker 1: to look like on September tenth when they play the

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Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers. So as we first kind of take a

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Speaker 1: look at what we have here, right, any kind of

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Speaker 1: initial thoughts about what you think about when you look

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Speaker 1: at this piece of paper, which, by the way, Tarren

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Speaker 1: wrote and color coded, which we appreciate. Which we appreciate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think just initially what jumps out to

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Speaker 3: me is something that Arthur Smith said way back in May,

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Speaker 3: before we ever even got to the draft. I sat

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Speaker 3: down with him and he made the comment even then

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Speaker 3: that this was going to be a hard fifty three

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Speaker 3: man roster to make. And I think the roster that

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Speaker 3: we initially see in front of us right now kind

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Speaker 3: of backs that up, because as we were kind of

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Speaker 3: talking before we even hopped on, there aren't really that

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Speaker 3: many surprises here. There's no one who I'm kind of

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Speaker 3: looking at like mind blown that they're either not on

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Speaker 3: the roster they are on the roster. And so I

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Speaker 3: think that speaks to what Arthur Smith said months and

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Speaker 3: months ago, and I think that kind of backs it

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Speaker 3: up to what he saw in May is kind of

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Speaker 3: coming to fruition now that we're in August and we're

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Speaker 3: actually seeing a fifty three men roster cut down.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Taren was actually saying before we started recording

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Speaker 1: that I don't have any hot takes and that's probably

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Speaker 1: because there aren't any to have with the way that

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Speaker 1: it's constructed, right.

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Speaker 4: Or it's because I didn't follow this team nearly as

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Speaker 4: close lest so I don't know I have a fifty

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Speaker 4: three to compare it to from last year. I think

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Speaker 4: the biggest surprise would be Jalen Mailfield, which Tory wrote

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Speaker 4: about already on Saturday.

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Speaker 2: So that one was over and done with a shock

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Speaker 2: has worn off.

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Speaker 3: The band aid was pulled off, and you kind of

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Speaker 3: knew what that meant for a fifty three man roster

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Speaker 3: cut coming on Tuesday.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And as you look at so there are some

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Speaker 1: names that fans are familiar with who are on the cutlists.

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Speaker 1: Tight End Parker Hesse is one of those guys Iowa guy,

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Speaker 1: converted defensive linemen to tight end, one of those blue

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Speaker 1: collar dudes who does the things right that don't show

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Speaker 1: up in the stat sheet. He's been very valuable for

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Speaker 1: this team, but the omission is at some point there

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Speaker 1: are too many tight ends, then they have roster spots

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Speaker 1: to allocate two tight ends. They end up going with

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Speaker 1: Kyle Pitts and Johnny Smith, obviously, Michael Prue, Michael Pruett,

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Speaker 1: and John Fitzpatrick.

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Speaker 4: Which I'm not surprised John Fitzpatrick made the jump over

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Speaker 4: Parker Hesse. He was one of my bubble guys. Maybe

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Speaker 4: I shouldn't say surprised because again don't have all the.

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Speaker 2: Background as all do.

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Speaker 4: But from this preseason alone, I thought John Fitzpatrick kind

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Speaker 4: of showed he can be a threat in the passing game,

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Speaker 4: especially since he's larger, where that.

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Speaker 2: Would be a good thing to keep around.

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Speaker 3: I think too, And this was a point that I

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Speaker 3: made when I did my initial fifty three man roster

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Speaker 3: predict When did we run that?

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Speaker 1: Like a few I got here know that the second one,

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Speaker 1: which was earlier.

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Speaker 3: In the yeah Alday Friday, Yeah, it was after the

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Speaker 3: final preseason game I did. I took a lot of

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Speaker 3: heat for that, and I would just like to go

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Speaker 3: on the record that my my roster was not that

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Speaker 3: far off, thank you. But I will add about this

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Speaker 3: whole conversation about John Fitzpatrick versus Parker Hessey, if you

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Speaker 3: only have four spots that you're you're playing around. To me,

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Speaker 3: and this is not a knock to Parker Hessey, and

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Speaker 3: I don't want it to be taken as such, But

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Speaker 3: if I'm a team elsewhere that's hungry for titands to

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Speaker 3: me John Fitzpatrick and the way he plays the game,

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Speaker 3: and also the look that he has and being even

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Speaker 3: though he's a former seventh round draft pick, he's still

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Speaker 3: a draft pick if he hits waivers in comparison to

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Speaker 3: Parker Hesse hitting waivers, I feel like you maybe lose

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Speaker 3: a chance at bringing John Fitzpatrick back on the practice

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Speaker 3: squad in a way that I don't necessarily necessarily feel

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Speaker 3: the exact same way about Parker Hesse. I think there's

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Speaker 3: a really good chance that we could see Parker Hesse

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Speaker 3: on a practice squad again at some point.

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Speaker 1: Now, is that going to happen. No, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of game table on him doing some good stuff.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, So there's a lot that there's a lot to

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Speaker 3: kind of weigh here. But when I'm just going through

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Speaker 3: and weighing things, that's kind of how I made the

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Speaker 3: decision to put John Fitzpatrick on this fifty three man roster.

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Speaker 2: Did you put John Fitzpatrick on your version two? It's

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Speaker 2: all red receipt you version one you did not.

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Speaker 3: Have a mom No, I know, but I did on

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Speaker 3: version two.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And to look at another guy that I think I

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Speaker 1: would assume if I was the GM, that I would

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Speaker 1: want on the practice squad is a guy like Timmy Horn.

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Speaker 1: He was an undrafted guy last year. He was an

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Speaker 1: important part of a defensive line rotation when he got

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Speaker 1: the opportunity. And that's a name that people know. But

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Speaker 1: when you look at it, there's still a seven defensive

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Speaker 1: linemen on this roster, including some guys that over the

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Speaker 1: course of the preseason, a guy like Albert Huggins who

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Speaker 1: has connections to Ryan Nielsen that you can see how

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Speaker 1: and why that was the selection at that spot. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: they're going to bring defensive linemen to you in waves.

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Speaker 1: We've even heard hockey style line changes. For that, you

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Speaker 1: need lots of dudes. And I think that ultimately I

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Speaker 1: thought maybe seven, or what Tory had said is eight.

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Speaker 1: I was like, ah, that seems pretty high. But with

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Speaker 1: this group and some of the guys that play end

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Speaker 1: versus interior guys versus the outside edge linebackers. That there's

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Speaker 1: a bunch of different roles that all I think ultimately

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Speaker 1: kind of fit in here. And while we can sit

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Speaker 1: here and we can talk about, Okay, well they kept

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Speaker 1: five wide receivers, six cornerbacks, right, there's going to be

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Speaker 1: some flux in there a little bit, but I think

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Speaker 1: four safeties is pretty safe. So when you look at

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Speaker 1: the DeMarco Helms versus Micah Abernathy situation, they go with

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Speaker 1: the seventh round draft pick out of Alabama. I thought

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Speaker 1: Micah had a good camp. Yeah, I really did.

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Speaker 3: That was probably one of the toughest cuts that I

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Speaker 3: think when I'm looking at this fifty three men, that

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Speaker 3: the whole DeMarco Hellms versus Micah Abernathy, And I know

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Speaker 3: that was such a big point of conversation for us,

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Speaker 3: the three of us, when we're going into kind of

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Speaker 3: the last week of the preseason, It's like, what do

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Speaker 3: you do here? Do you actually carry five safeties? I

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Speaker 3: always always kind of under the impression that, know, you

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Speaker 3: don't carry five safeties, And it was gonna boil down

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Speaker 3: to do you take DeMarco Hellams who showed up time

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Speaker 3: and time and time again in the preseason, or do

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Speaker 3: you go with Micah Abernathy who has been in the

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Speaker 3: league for a little bit longer, playing a few different systems.

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Speaker 3: And also, let's be honest, we were all out at

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Speaker 3: training camp. He took a vast majority of those second

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Speaker 3: team reps alongside Jalen Hawkins up until the very last

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Speaker 3: week of the preseason when I think DeMarco Hellms kind

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Speaker 3: of not established himself, but kind of because he actually

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Speaker 3: did get a lot of reps with Jalen Hawkins in

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Speaker 3: that third preseason game, and I think that was the

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Speaker 3: moment where it really clicked for me that it was like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: like DeMarco's really making a solid case for himself and

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Speaker 3: if the Falcons are truly not going to carry five.

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Speaker 3: By the time it got to who are you putting

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Speaker 3: on your fifty three man, I thought Jamarco Helms really

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Speaker 3: played his way onto this fifty three man roster.

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Speaker 4: I've been surprised if he got the boot, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: and that has nothing to do with my Alabama legiance

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Speaker 4: and get back to back games of picks, right, that

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Speaker 4: is showing up when it matters.

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Speaker 3: And leading tackler and I think two of the a

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Speaker 3: top tackler in all three of the preseason games.

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Speaker 1: And he's going to play a ton on special teams,

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Speaker 1: and he's a ferocious kind of physical player, and that's

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Speaker 1: a good thing to have on guys who are going

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Speaker 1: to play on every single special team. You've written a

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Speaker 1: ton about Logan Woodside. Logan Woodside is on the top quarterback.

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Speaker 1: Logan Woodside is on this roster as a third quarterback,

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Speaker 1: which in recent seasons was sort of unconventional. But with

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Speaker 1: the new rule that a quarterback on the fifty three

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Speaker 1: man roster can be ruled in active but come into

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Speaker 1: a game if the first two quarterbacks are.

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Speaker 3: Hurt, but only if he's on the fifty three man

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Speaker 3: roster not a practice not a practice practice squad elevation

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Speaker 3: does not count towards that designation.

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Speaker 2: Love that italics right, Yeah, in a rule.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but he not only are they taking advantage of

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Speaker 1: that rule, I think that Logan kind of proved himself

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Speaker 1: and said Mike can't take him sursias.

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Speaker 2: But Logan did what he needed to do when he

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Speaker 2: was asked to do it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Granted they didn't win that last game and the

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Speaker 4: one before I ended in a tie. But you saw

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Speaker 4: him in that first one move the ball, pull off

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Speaker 4: the win, and he didn't.

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Speaker 2: Throw a single interception throughout the whole thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going back through and I was looking

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Speaker 3: at Logan Woodside stats and even though you know you're

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Speaker 3: right there were no interceptions, there were also no touchdowns. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: the Falcons weren't really getting into the end zone hardly

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Speaker 3: at all in the preseason, which is, you know, I

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Speaker 3: feel like a typical preseason problem for a lot of teams,

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Speaker 3: or not even a problem, but it's just how things go.

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Speaker 3: But he completed forty two of his sixty passes, hit

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Speaker 3: four hundred passing yards, and he averaged a nine and

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Speaker 3: a half yards he attempt and I think all of

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Speaker 3: those numbers speak to his ability to go. Going back

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Speaker 3: to what you were saying of like being able to

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Speaker 3: move the ball effectively. Now, was it effective inside the twenty?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 3: No, because the Falcons didn't score that much. But again

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Speaker 3: it's the preseason. And I think because of Logan Woodside's

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Speaker 3: history with someone like Arthur Smith, he knows this offense.

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Speaker 3: Him and Arthur Smith were together for a couple of

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Speaker 3: years at Tennessee. I think that means a lot as

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Speaker 3: well when you're trying to think of, Okay, who are

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Speaker 3: you keeping. If someone knows the scheme really really well,

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Speaker 3: you trust them. Trust goes a long way on this

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Speaker 3: fifty three men roster. And then of course you have

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Speaker 3: to talk about the emergency quarterback rule because I think

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Speaker 3: that kind of changes your thought process as to how

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Speaker 3: many quarterbacks you carry. Going into this season.

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Speaker 2: I'll be curious to see how many teams keep a

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Speaker 2: third with that now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, to try to take advantage of that, but normally,

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Speaker 1: if you're on your thord, if you're on your third

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Speaker 1: quarterback in a game as a team, you're in massive trouble.

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Speaker 1: I think, and this isn't a hot take, but I

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Speaker 1: think if Logan Woodside goes into a game for you,

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Speaker 1: he can manage his way through it. I think in

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Speaker 1: terms of teams that should feel comfortable with the group

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Speaker 1: and depth at quarterback that they have. Let's not forget

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Speaker 1: all these guys are quote unquote unheralded Desmond rid Or

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Speaker 1: third round pick Taylor Heineke. Bounced around undrafted guy Toledo's own.

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Speaker 1: Logan Woodside finds a way to make this fifty three

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Speaker 1: man roster interesting group, blue collar group, but I think

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Speaker 1: an effective and impactful group where you do have some

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Speaker 1: confidence in it. What about you know, like keeping five

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Speaker 1: wide receivers you only kept three running backs anything in

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Speaker 1: terms of the roster construction, especially with like with the

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Speaker 1: skill players that maybe didn't surprise you, but hey, like

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Speaker 1: they're going to roll with these like with like these guys,

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Speaker 1: I mean, five receivers probably seems fair.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I carried six in my prediction, and

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Speaker 3: I think I carried I had Drake London, Kdarrel Hodge,

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Speaker 3: Matt Collins, Scottie Miller, Josh Ali who all made this

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Speaker 3: fifty three men, and I also had jj Arthega Whiteside,

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Speaker 3: which I kind of thought was a surprising cut. I

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Speaker 3: don't think that means that we won't see him again.

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Speaker 3: And you have to think of like how practice squad

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Speaker 3: elevations are sometimes used. I think a lot of times

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Speaker 3: you can use them on skill guys, you know, leading

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Speaker 3: into the games on Saturdays, and guys who can help

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Speaker 3: you on special teams. And I think that when you

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Speaker 3: are constructing it, it's like again, it goes back to

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Speaker 3: the argument that I made about John Fitzpatrick versus Parker Hesse,

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Speaker 3: who do you think can get through waivers and you

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Speaker 3: can keep them on this practice squad? Well with jj

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Speaker 3: Arthega Whiteside, he was just released, so he can sign

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Speaker 3: at any point with anybody. So does that make it

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Speaker 3: easier for you than having to waive someone like josh Ali.

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Speaker 1: Right, And that's something that Terry Fontinau does. He uses

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Speaker 1: rosters and transactions in a smart and deliberate way. And

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Speaker 1: I think that all these thoughts weigh into especially with

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Speaker 1: really close position battle Tepe thinks, just as another piece

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Speaker 1: of news, Penny Heart ends up on injured reserve, which

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Speaker 1: they can sign an injury settlement at some point, but

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Speaker 1: it's season ending. He's not eligible to return if he's

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Speaker 1: on IR, along with Cornell Armstrong, if you're not on

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Speaker 1: that initial fifty three man roster generally speaking. And look,

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Speaker 1: the answer is yes when I say is this Falcons

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Speaker 1: roster better than it was a year ago? Obviously they

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Speaker 1: don't have salary cap stuff. They were able to spend

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Speaker 1: a bunch of money on high price free agents. Kalaias

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Speaker 1: Campbell is on this team now. But in terms of

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Speaker 1: it being competitive, we saw it play out. Now, what

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Speaker 1: about quality especially in relation to the NFC South.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it kind of goes back to the

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Speaker 3: point of you had money to spend this offseason, they spent,

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Speaker 3: and they spendertainly, and they spent it as as well

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Speaker 3: they should because you have to. But that's something that

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Speaker 3: they haven't had over the last two years. And so

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Speaker 3: when you're talking about the fifty three man rosters over

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Speaker 3: the course of the last two years, it was really

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Speaker 3: interesting to go back and look and see some of

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Speaker 3: the names that were on those rosters. In comparison to

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Speaker 3: the names that are on this one. This one feels

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Speaker 3: a bit more concrete. Obviously, there's gonna be fluctuation on

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Speaker 3: the bottom end of rosters. There always is. People are

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Speaker 3: going to go on and off. I r that's always

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Speaker 3: going to be something that happens. But I think when

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Speaker 3: you're looking at this this roster where it is at

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Speaker 3: this point in time, with this initial fifty three man,

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Speaker 3: it's like, you know, a lot of you knew going

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Speaker 3: in that a lot of these guys were already locks

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Speaker 3: because of how much the Falcons were paying them. And

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Speaker 3: I think that goes back to another point that I

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Speaker 3: made in my initial analysis of the fifty three man

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Speaker 3: roster is that you're not relying on a lot of

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Speaker 3: guys that you drafted in the same way that you

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Speaker 3: were in twenty one and twenty two. You think about

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Speaker 3: guys like Jalen Mayfield, do you think about guys like

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Speaker 3: Darren Hall. These are guys who played a lot in

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Speaker 3: their first two years with the Falcons. They started games.

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Speaker 3: They're not on this fifty three man roster at this

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Speaker 3: point in time. That to me speaks to the work

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Speaker 3: that you put in. If you're putting more money into

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Speaker 3: free agents and you're going out and getting some guys

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Speaker 3: that you're and you're re signing some guys that you

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Speaker 3: want back, and you're giving a lot of money there,

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Speaker 3: that means that you're shifting your depth in a way

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Speaker 3: where you're not relying so heavily on young guys. Now

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Speaker 3: I'm saying that, but you're still gonna have Jon Robinson

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Speaker 3: out there, Tyler Aljiir, Drake London, Kyle Pitts. But these

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Speaker 3: are your premium type guys. You know, three of the

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Speaker 3: four that I just named our first round draft picks.

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Speaker 3: So it kind of changes the way that you look

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Speaker 3: at how you're relying on certain players.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't hold this against tarn But before she me,

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Speaker 1: before she came over here, she covered the Saints for

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Speaker 1: the New Orleans Papers, And you've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: NFC South football the Saints up close but obviously glorious,

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Speaker 1: right Yeah. So I mean, in relation to kind of

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Speaker 1: what you know about New Orleans, what you've seen out

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Speaker 1: of Carolina and Tampa, I think the Falcons can be

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Speaker 1: super competitive within the structure of this division.

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Speaker 4: Well, I looked mainly at the defense for this case,

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Speaker 4: because you have Ryan Nielsen here, who was with the

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Speaker 4: Saints last year, and everyone always talked about the New

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Speaker 4: Orleans Saints defensive line being one of the stronger ones,

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Speaker 4: not only in the NFC South, but in the league

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Speaker 4: in general, because they've always been big bodies and able

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Speaker 4: to dominate the line. Well, now you have their defensive

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Speaker 4: line coach here in charge of the defense as a whole.

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Speaker 4: I've always thought and said that Ryan Nielsen has a

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Speaker 4: brilliant defensive mind, and so now that he's able to

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Speaker 4: paint a bigger picture and have a broader brush with

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Speaker 4: the whole defense rather than just the line, I'm curious

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Speaker 4: as to how far he can go with it and

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Speaker 4: you even mentioned with the hockey lines. Essentially, that is

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Speaker 4: something that New Orleans even did where they were rotating

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Speaker 4: guys out so they were fresh, big, you just kept

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Speaker 4: having a force to be reckoned with. And that is

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Speaker 4: something you can do here now because the line right now,

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Speaker 4: the starters are huge, if you have the backups who

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Speaker 4: are also huge, there's no fall off when somebody does

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Speaker 4: go down or does need to take a break in general.

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Speaker 3: And that speaks to kind of what I think the

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Speaker 3: front office put a lot of time and thought and

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Speaker 3: resources in. I think it was Kyle Smith, it may

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Speaker 3: have been Terry Fontno said at one point They're like

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Speaker 3: a goal of this offseason was for us to get

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Speaker 3: bigger at the line of scrimmage, particularly pumping money and

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Speaker 3: resources into this defensive line. And we see that we've

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Speaker 3: talked about it before, going on getting Kalayis Campbell, David

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Speaker 3: an Yamada, bringing back Grady Jarrett to Kwan Graham, signing

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Speaker 3: Zach Harrison or drafting Zach Harrison, all of that mean

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Speaker 3: but Debrie, I mean, I could go on and on,

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Speaker 3: but it really does speak to I think setting a

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Speaker 3: goal and an expectation of what you wanted to be

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Speaker 3: and then doing it, and we're kind of seeing the

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Speaker 3: effects of that within a fifty three man roster.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in previous years because of a number of factors,

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Speaker 1: lots of injuries last year, but the Falcons to that point,

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Speaker 1: the Falcons could not survive an injury plague, right, and

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Speaker 1: they lost Casey Hayward and aj Terrell. It got not

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Speaker 1: good for that second ary.

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Speaker 3: Wait, well, I think about it this way, to Kwan Graham,

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Speaker 3: if we're talking about the defensive line, to Kwan Graham

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Speaker 3: and Grady Jarrett. In that interior, when Takwan Graham goes out,

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Speaker 3: you have to rely on guys who were either on

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Speaker 3: one year deals or guys that they had picked up

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Speaker 3: off the street.

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Speaker 1: Guys that are still on the street right now, right now,

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Speaker 1: which is absolutely mind blowing. So I think that they've

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Speaker 1: created the depth required to deal with look. Setbacks are

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Speaker 1: going to happen, injuries are going to happen. I think

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Speaker 1: they're better equipped to survive those. We're seeing it right

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Speaker 1: now with Jeff Okuda suffering at ankle injury. Well, you've

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Speaker 1: got Trey Flowers who started a bunch of games in

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Speaker 1: this league, and ultimately I think that's why when I

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Speaker 1: look at it, and when eventually, I'm sure Tarren will

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Speaker 1: color coat a depth chart and like when you get

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Speaker 1: that depth joy that that it'll look much stronger, not

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Speaker 1: only in relation too years past, but in relation to

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Speaker 1: the competition.

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Speaker 2: And that's what happens when you have money to spend.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, money talks, huh. And we are going to happiness.

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Speaker 2: I sure can.

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Speaker 1: And I think that is unless we have any other thoughts.

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Speaker 3: No, I think we're good.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well then, guysh Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: downloading or and or watching the Falcons finalists or listening.

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Speaker 1: There's so many different ways that you can find us viewable.

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Speaker 1: Please rate, review, subscribe to the Atlanta Falcons podcast network,

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Speaker 1: and to our super duper awesome Sauce YouTube page. I'm Scott.

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Speaker 1: That's Tarn that stry. We will talk to you again,

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Speaker 1: real real soon. See y