Atlanta Falcons Rumors On Kirk Cousins & Michael Penix That Are INSANE!

[Music] there is a wild Theory floating out there as to why the Falcons did not play Michael pennx in week 2 and are not playing him in week three of the pre-season so I want to address it to start Today's show off and talk about how silly and ridiculous that is but really quickly I want to show some quick love to two members of the dirty birds Club this is a club that we have going every single watch party during game day Jose Santana and Ken Ballard being the first members of the dirty birds Club if you want to get added to it and get shout outs for the entire 2024 season come hang out with us during our watch parties $100 Super Chat and we'll throw you on for the entire year but Chris Sims cooked up one of the dumbest ideas he's ever had and he's had a lot of bad ones too by the way remember where he had Kell m in his pre-draft rankings but he said shocker of the weekend Michael penick's not playing are they worried about Kirk Cousins being ready for week one that would be the only reason you wouldn't play pennx why not get him the Reps there is no truth to this idea whatsoever that the Falcons are worried about Kirk cousins' health and that's why Michael penx is not playing in the final two preseason games and even if they are worried or were worried about cousin's health I think the reaction would be the opposite oh we don't have cousins for week one we better get get penck up to speed let's get him in some more preseason games so he can get Battle tested but there is no truth to this idea that Kirk Cousins is quietly injured and that's why Michael pennx is not playing in the preseason Kirk Cousins did not begin training camp on the pess you have to pass a medical exam to avoid the pess so clearly he was in decent enough shape to get out of the trainer's office and then on top of that the Falcons while they have unfortunately not been able to host any fans at training camp this year due to some of the uh modifications and the construction and the improvements they're making to their facility there have been reporters at most training camp practices and every single one of them has Come Away with this impression that Kirk Cousins looks awesome he looks healthy he doesn't look fatigued he doesn't look slow he's been scrambling he's been sprinting he's been running he does not look like a guy coming off a Toren Achilles so no there is no truth to the idea that penx is sitting for two preseason games because quietly behind the scenes there is panic in Atlanta over Kirk cousins' health and availability for week one against the Steelers now rahee Morris did an interview with K Adams who's making her way around the NFL doing some sitd Downs with coaches and players and in this interview she asked why is Michael penx not playing in the preseason after his debut and two themes were really popular in raheem's response one was mitigating injury and the second was practice simulations once they saw what they wanted to see from from Michael penck in preseason week one against the Dolphins they did not want to put him In Harm's Way and risk injury and they feel like they can take what they learned in that first preseason game and simulate in practice in a much more safe environment for a player not a 0% chance of an injury but you could definitely mitigate and reduce the risk in practice compared to on the field because well you know you can't tell the other team not to hit your quarterback but you could tell your own players not to hit the quarterback so they want to reduce the risk of injury for penck and they feel like hey whatever we want to see from him on the field on game day we can simulate on the practice field now that last part is definitely open for debate you are definitely going to mitigate the risk of injury by not playing on Sundays but I'm not quite convinced that you can simulate everything you want to do on the field on Sundays in practice I personally don't agree with sitting Michael Pennock I know that's not that's made me an unpopular man in the comment section but I think it's a crazy you know wild idea here rookie should play in the preseason especially a rookie that's going to be a backup for the entire 2024 season I just do not buy stock into making practice reps the same as game reps and I understand that a lot of you are just going to go well you're not the coach and Raheem Morris is smarter than you and you're not wrong but is Raheem Morris smarter than every other coach that has their rookies and starters in backups play in the preseason there's just different ways of going about it I don't know if one way is guaranteed to be more effective or proven to be better than the other but this particular way no I don't agree with because I feel like Michael pennx is someone who's going to be on the bench for the first one two three years of their career should play in the preseason and the Falcons were very direct in public about following the Green Bay Packers model which included drafting Rogers sitting him drafting Jordan love sitting him news flash those guys plays those guys played in the preseason now Rahe Morris also added this to sitting Michael penic I could play him a little bit more if I needed something else but I don't feel that way I don't think any of the people that I would talk to in that Circle of trust would feel that way or we be playing him a little bit more there is definitely one big bright takeaway from this that even I can see which is if they are so impressed from Michael P from Michael penck in practice that they don't need to see him play in potential risk injury games then what is he doing in practice that's giving them this much confidence like there is definitely a lot to be optimistic and excited for when it comes to Michael pennock's future in Atlanta if the coaching staff feels this strongly that wow what we're seeing in practice we don't need to see him play on Sunday we know what we have in him we don't want to risk injury now hopefully they do have a great Hidden Gem like this otherwise it's going to be a slow start whenever Michael penck does take the field if he doesn't have a bunch of preseason reps and he isn't the you know Messiah that the coaching staff might believe he is based on you know small but those comments right there from Morris I mean I remember when Patrick Mahomes sat behind Alex Smith for his rookie year there were a lot of players and media members throughout training camp and then throughout the year even though we didn't see more uh we didn't see Mahomes play until the final week of the season when the Chiefs had all their starters but the buzz was this rookie first round pick Mahomes right that had name guys I don't know uh he is lighting it up on the practice field so what do you guys think about starter playing in the preseason should The Starters play in the preseason finale against the Jags at home give me a p for play or give me an S for sit I think most starters should play at some point in the preseason even if it's just a driver two I feel like there are going to be some cobwebs you're going to want to shake some level of rust off and I'd much rather see that happen in August that have a bit of a sleepwalking start in the regular season and before you know it you're 0 and one to start the year next up on the show we're going to talk about ESPN's interesting Power Rankings following the NFL draft free agency and final ones going into the season and they also had a hot seat for the Atlanta Falcons but first Today's Show is brought to you by priz pick prize pick is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members all you do is pick more or less on two to six player staff projections and watch the winnings roll in you can now win up to 100 times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks you could turn $10 into $1,000 if you're looking for an example of some selections these are the ones I'm rolling with for the 2024 season taking the less on Patrick mahomes's passing yards just given all the uncertainty at the receiving position yet again I also like the more for Tyreek Hill and saquon Barkley's yardage and Garrett Wilson's receptions so if you're looking for promotions prize pick has got you covered every week they lower select player stats projections on Tuesdays to help your lineup hit download the prize picks app today and use code clns for a first deposit match up to $100 that's code clns on prize picks for a deposit match up to $100 pick more pick less it's that easy so let's talk about some of the hot seat candidates or the hot seat candidate I should say for the Falcons along with their power rank rings from ESPN starting off at number one no surprise it is Kansas City Chiefs at the top of the mountain followed by the Baltimore Ravens 49ers Lions Eagles the Eagles are a little high but okay Texans at six I mean maybe they're a little bit drinking a lot of the Kool-Aid from a rookie sensation but I'd rather see it before I can believe they're the sixth best team in the NFL already uh bills at seven Dolphins at eight Bengals at nine Bengals feels a little high um Packers at 10 okay still feels a little high Cowboys at 11 Browns at 12 Rams at 13 Jags at 14 Jets at 15 and then we go Steelers bears colts before at number 19 your Atlanta FAL I know anytime we see Power Rankings our brains are conditioned to automatically disagree and refute them and call them horrendous or disrespectful I don't agree with the ESPN folks saying that the Falcons are the 19th best team in the NFL but I don't think they're terribly off base it's a seven and 10 team a year ago that made a lot of improvements in the off season added veteran guys like Kirk Cousins Matthew judon and Justin Simmons that's going to add some wins on but we also have some level of needing to see it to believe it so I would put the Falcons at 14 to 17 somewhere in that range I'd be willing to jump them up two to five spots but all in all I've seen worse rankings and I don't think this is one to get triggered over now they also included one person on the hot seat for each team and for the Falcons they had AJ Terell which maybe Terrell's a little bit on the hot seat but I don't think he's on the hot seat as in like he could be out of a job which is what I think of when I see Hot Seat like I would have thought maybe Caleb McGary after this year he has one year left on his contract he was signed to be a run blocking tackle are the Falcons going to ask him to do that or pass protect more with Kirk Cousins I think the latter but here's what mark ramondi from ESPN wrote on AJ Terrell Terrell who is currently playing without a contract for 2025 is not in danger of losing his job as the Falcons top quarterback right now as there's no one on the current roster who threatens his CB1 status but one has to imagine the front office could consider a future without Terrell who will make more than $12 million this season he has not had an interception since his second Team all pro season in 2021 it is a prove it year for AJ Terell and the Falcons of course but I think this is a big season for Terrell to prove he is a playmaking corner because ultimately well GMS are not simple-minded like some fans are that only evaluate corners on interceptions and pass breakups there is some truth to hey AJ Terrell's playmaking abilities first two years compared to his last two years are are not quite there right we've seen this graphic before four interceptions four Force fumbles compared to zero the last two years I also think it's worth noting that AJ Terrell has become a little bit of a corner like an island cornerback targets are way down over the last two years compared to the first two years doesn't mean he can't come up with a single interception but it's harder to make a play on the football if the other team throws the football to the other side of the field so I'm not as big of a critic on Terell I still think he is a like 8 through 12 quarterback in this league he's borderline top 10 and if he's not top 10 he's probably the first guy outside of it but I'm feeling a big season for Terrell coming up this year I hope he fits well in this defense it's going to be different if Rim Morris picks up where he left off in La we'll see more of a switch from a man defense to a zone defense which some quarterbacks are not as good in zone because it requires more open field tackling and well Terrell's not bad of that or anything we've always seen them more in a or Thrive more in a man system so it does come down to Dollars and cents though for him and his future in Atlanta you look at the top 10 highest paid quarterbacks in the National Football League and the Falcons want to get ahead of it I mean I don't think it'd be a bad idea to try and lock him up because we can see already how much corners and a lot of Cornerstone positions are going up in price and if the Falcons wait till the end of the year and Terrell puts together a really solid season he's going to have an argument to make at least $20 million right be top three if no one else gets paid already so if I were the Falcons and you see Terell get off to a nice start to the year I would be aggressive in locking him up long term with a midseason extension if you let Terrell hit the open market his price could go up5 1015 million I'd be looking right now for the Falcons to get something sewn up and kind of keep them in that 17 to 19 million ion doll range otherwise you could be looking at 20 plus million if he has a great year and March rolls around and other teams get to bid on him so will AJ Terrell record an interception this season give me a yes or no in the comment section below give me a yes why not be a half glass full kind of guy all right before we get on out of here yesterday I put a video out saying we got to take down our Saints channel in subscribers and I thought you guys might enjoy a little peek behind the curtain at the YouTube analytics side so shout out to the 50 plus of you that subscribed off of yesterday's video we are chip chip chip chipping away at Saints now in subscribers picked up 15 Subs on yesterday's video I believe in you guys if you want to be the best team in the NFC South hit that sub button down below I also want to show some love to Keith Franco for a super thanks appreciate you for going above and beyond to support the channel Keith really really do means a ton when you guys send in support like that so so if you want to get a shout out and you want to be awesome like Keith hit the super thanks icon down below we'll get you on screen for a future episode that's going to do it for us on today's show thank you all so much for tuning in enjoy the rest of your Tuesday and I'll catch up with you all tomorrow [Music]