Do the Atlanta Falcons have the essential elements to go deep in the playoffs?

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Kyle Crabs here, host of Locked on NFL scouting. Join Joe Marino and me every day as we provide position-by-position analysis of the upcoming NFL ORG draft. Check out the Locked on NFL scouting podcast with the draft dudes on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

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There are three things that every Super Bowl EVENT contender needs to have to win it all. We're breaking down if the Falcons ORG have what it takes.

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You are Locked-on Falcons, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked Falcons ORG podcast,

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your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of Lockedon Sports Atlanta, your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul ORG. Make every moment more right now. New customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200 if your bet wins. Visit fandul.com slash locked on today to get started.And guys, if you don't know me, I'm your very humble host, Aaron Freeman PERSON, aka Mr. Drew, aka Serious Black, aka the jolly green giant, and a.k.a. And, of course, I've been covering the Falcons ORG for far too long, formerly at phoucfans.com ORG, RIP, still going strong on this illustrious podcast. And I think each and every one of you that is an everydayer that makes this illustriouspodcast your first listen, your first watch of the day. And all you got to do to be coming every day, a subscriber, follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. So today we're going to talk about sort of how you build a winning team in today's NFL and how you potentially can make a deep postseason run like we hope the Falcons ORG can do at some point in the near future. And the reason why we're having this conversation is mostly because, you know, we've been talking a little bit off and on about the little bit of the blue weeks since the Falcons added Kirk Cousins and whether or not that sort of singularly elevates this team to being a true contender in the NFC as well as the NFL ORG.And also we're talking about it because there's not a whole lot else going on with the Atlanta Falcons because it does appear that they're done in free agency. You know, maybe we get one or two veteran minimum signings between now and the draft. But, you know, as the next four weeks of the draft unfold or the pre-draft process unfold, we'll have a lot more guests on to talk about the draft. But, you know, there aren't too many opportunities where I get to really dive into this.And I want to because if I wait until June and July like I normally do, like no one's going to be listening to the podcast during that time. So at least now I'll get some eyeballs. But, you know, it all starts with the quarterback, right? That's one of the three boxes that you need to check, right? And those three boxes are you need to have a quarterback.You need to have an explosive offense. And you need to have a quarterback, you need to have an explosive offense, and you need to have a defense that can stop a good quarterback in an explosive offense as the sort of three boxes that you need to check in order to build a true contender. And to me, this is the lens that I evaluate all football teams, whether we're talking about the Atlanta Falcons ORG or any team in the league. If you check these three boxes, you're a really good football team that really has a chanceto make a run and do some damage. And if you don't check all three of these boxes, it's going to be harder for you. It doesn't mean it's impossible, but it's going to be a lot harder for you to do that.So when we talk about the quarterback, everybody knows having a good quarterback is necessary to be successful. You know, everybody's looking for Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady PERSON, that sort of singular great goat, whatever you want to call it. And, you know, everybody's looking for Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady PERSON, that sort of singular great goat,whatever you want to call it. And, you know, good luck if you, you know, good luck finding that guy,you know, there's usually only like one of those guys playing at a single time. You know, we'll remember that2018 AFC championship game is when those two guys cross past the one time, they sort of did, as well as the 2020, uh, Super Bowl EVENT.But, you know, there's a reason why if you go back to the last 25 AFC championship games, either Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes have played in 18 of those. So, you know, you need to have a quarterback that is capable of putting the team on his back. Now, I don't think you need those caliber of quarterbacks like a Mahomes or Brady that can do that most weeks. You just kind of need to get that sort of sweet spot where the quarterback can essentially black out, right, and wakes up. And they're like, oh, man, I just blacked out. What happened?Oh, man, you blacked out for a month. And you went on this three or four game run in January where you threw 12 touchdowns and one interception. And, you know, Joe Flacco in the Ravens 2012 playoff run, you know, Eli PERSON did it twice. Matt Ryan essentially did this in both 2012 and 2016. Matt Stafford did this a couple of years ago with the Rams ORG.And the question is now with Kirk Cousins PERSON, is he capable of doing this? I think he is, right? And we had a conversation with Luke Braun of Lockdown Vikings ORG about 10 days ago on the podcast. And he talked about Kirk PERSON's lack of consistency, right? And the need to sort of string together three or four games of high-level play.And you've seen glimpses of this with Kirk PERSON, right? And you couldn't get it sustained for an entire season, but you saw glimpses of these sort of three or four game stretches where Kirk PERSON really played at a high level. And that shows us he's capable of doing it. It just hasn't necessarily meshed to a point where the Vikingswere able to do it at a time where, you know, it coincided with them making a real strong push in January. And so, you know, I think we could see it here in Atlanta. Maybe we'll see. It's possible, right? We have sort of nine seasons of Kirk Cousins PERSON.And so we can make pretty semi-educated guesses on whether or not he can do it. And, you know, we've seen good play from Kirk Cousins PERSON. And arguably his best play came this past year before his Achilles injury in year nine. And we saw similar things happen for Matt Ryan PERSON. Matt Ryan's ninth year in the NFL ORG. He won an MVP season.Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, are two other players that won their first Super Bowls in their ninth seasons in the NFL ORG. But the big difference between those guys was, you know, those guys were about five years younger than what then Kirk Cousins is today, right? And so even after their career seemingly quote unquote peaked, if you want to say it did in year nine for those guys, you know, they were able to maintain a high level of play thereafter for like five plus years. And you're probably not going to get that with Kirk being at his age. You might get two. Hopefully you get three.We'll see. But, you know, I've seen a lot of people say, you know, Kirk was playing on an MVP caliber level before his injury. I don't quite 100% agree with that, but he was on a four-game stretch where, at least according to his PFF grades, he was the highest graded quarterback in the NFL ORG. So I get why people say that prior to his injury. And so if we can get that sort of play from Kirk Cousins in the month of January, assuming the Falcons, you know, or get good enough play from Kirk and the rest of the team from September through December,you know, I do think he's capable of doing that. But we just need to see it, right? And we just haven't seen it yet. But I think he's capable of doing it. Now, when it comes to how confident I am that Kirk Cousins PERSON is capable of. That's where I think a lot of the questions around Kirk Cousins PERSON is,because I'm not super confident that he will do it since we haven't seen into it. Like, for example, to illustrate this point, like, if you're asking me to bet, how much money would I put on Patrick Mahomes PERSON doing here? I'd be like, I'll put $5,000 on that because that's easy money. It's a guarantee winner because I've seen Patrick Holmes do it like five times, right? You know, if you're asking me how much I'd be willing to bet on Kirk Cousins PERSON,relatively speaking, like maybe I'll put a $5 bet, right? Just because like I haven't seen it enough, I'm not that confident in it. And I'm sure like we can go through the list of the other, you know, 10, 12 top quarterbacks in the league and put different price points on, you know, where we think their chances of being that sort of guy that can kind of black out and wake up and have it, and through 12 touchdowns in their last four games in January and February.So that's where we're kind of at with Kirk Cousins PERSON, where it's just like, yeah, he's probably at the very bottom of that list of probably the 10 to 12 quarterbacks that you would feel, you know, have a decent feeling about having those sort of blackout, that blackout month. And, you know, we'll see, you know, we'll just sort of have to see about that. But, you know, the quarterbacks get all the attention, right?Because you're just looking at an individual player and you can basically look at that guy and say he either has it or he doesn't, right? But the other aspects of building a sort of championship team, it's a little harder to tell. And the next one we're going to talk about is the explosive offense because it's not just an individual that leads to an explosive offense. It's often the other 10 guys on the field in addition to the quarterback that you have to sortof surround that quarterback with in order to build that explosive offense, not to mention the play calling matters a ton and we'll break that down, guys. As we continue today's how to build a Super Bowl winning team here on the Lockdown Falcons ORG podcast. Now, guys, I want to tell you about Game Time PRODUCT, the fast and easy way to buy tickets to all the sports, comedy, music, and theater near you. And the great thing about Game Time PRODUCT, guys, is, you know, you can just open up the app,and I should do that right now. Like, you can just open up the app and you can immediately see sort of what is available in your area. Like I can just go on the app and hit one button and see, you know, the tickets available tonight for the Blazers Hawks game, right? And at State Farm Arena ORG and they already have sort of the, you know, the flash deals that are, you know, limited time pricings, the cheap seats and all that stuff. You get the all in prices.You're not going to get hit with hidden fees, all that and more. So game allows you to take the guesswork out of buying tickets. And, you know, the tip off is at 730s. So I'm, you know, I can wait an hour or two. And, you know, from when I'm recording this, you know, probably the time you're listening to the game is about the tip off. But, you know, you can just go on the app and buy your tickets.And all you've got to do is download game time, create an account, use code locked on, especially if it's your first purchase and you'll get $20 off. Again, terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on L-O-C-E-D-O-N, and you'll get $20 off your first purchase.Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed.

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If you're looking for the most comprehensive NFL draft coverage this off season, look no further than the locked on NFL scouting podcast. Join the draft dudes, Kyle Crabs, and Joe Marino PERSON, as they go position by position through the NFL ORG free agent class and into the star-studded crop of college stars who will be selected in the 2024 NFL ORG draft.If you want to know who your favorite NFL ORG team should be adding to its roster, you need to check out Locked-on NFL scouting, available on YouTube ORG and wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

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So are you guys tired of watching, you know, your four-letter networks and seeing all the screaming all day? We'll just switch over to Lockdown Sports Today, free 24-7 streaming channel here on YouTube ORG. The first of its kind giving you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Check out Lockdown Sports ORG today as well as Lockdown Sports Atlanta if you want more local flavorfor those biggest stories. Can't Miss Analysis, opinions, and news. It's streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV PRODUCT channels at part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So long-time listeners know that I often preach about the need for explosiveness on offense, and that's due to the fact that when you get into January and you need to beatteams, right, you're often facing some of the best defenses, and the best defenses are not going to let you sort of methodically dink and dunk your way down the field, right? The further you go in an NFL season, the competition levels up. That's the nature of it, right? Now, we know that, like,because of the playoff expansion to 14 teams now, like there is a higher probability that you could face a less than juggernaut sort of team in the first round of the playoffs. And that's why you often hear say like, oh, like, yeah, they can get to the second round. Like you hear me talk about the Falcons and say like, yeah, they're a second round playoff team because it's like there's a decent chance that you might play a relative weakteam in round one of the playoffs. But then when the competition starts to get real in the second round of playoffs, often when you're playing, you know, if you're a lesser seed, you know, you got to go on the road and play a one or two seed. It's going to be a lot harder to, you know, win those games and start to string together, you know, the two or three more wins that you need in order to build that Super Bowl EVENT winner.But as I said, you know, the hallmarks of good defense is like they're not going to allow you to string together 10 and 12 plays, scoring drives and convert multiple third downs and whatnot, you know, in order to score points, right? You got to think of it like the battle between offense and defense is like, you know, a dam, right? The defense is the dam and you're trying to break the dam in order to score touchdowns, right? You know, scoring touchdown, right? The defense is the dam and you're trying to break the dam in order to score touchdowns, right?You know, scoring touchdowns matters, right? And the dam has a crack in it, right? And you as the offense, you're trying to exploit that crack. And so you can sneak out there one night and get a hammer and a chisel and start chipping away to try to, you know, bust that crack. But how long is it going to take for you to do that?Eventually, morning's going to come, right? And you're not going to have busted the dam hammering out that chisel with that crack or whatever and some security guards going to be like hey what are you doing down there I'm like oh I'm not doing anything then then you'll get arrested and all that stuff so uh you know instead being an explosive offense is in the dead of night rather than you know sneaking out there with a hammer and chisel you're sneaking out there with some c4 and you stuff that c4 in the crack and then light it and boom goes the dynamite asthey say. And all of a sudden, you know, you blow up that dam. You know, we're not suggesting anybody goes out there and commit terrorist acts. But like in this analogy, you know, blowing up that dam is scoring the touchdowns, right? And so this was a major issue for the Falcons under Arthur Smith PERSON. We talked about this like two weeks after we hired him. We, we questioned whether or not his play calling was quote, intentional when it came to designing explosive plays, right?A lot of the explosiveness in the Tennessee offense felt like watching the film, it was a lot more of Derek Henry and A.J. Brown PERSON being dudes, right? Taking sort of normal plays and turning them into big games because they're different, right? And that's part of the reason why I think we saw the Falcons invest the premium draft picks in the top 10 in the three drafts under Arthur Smith in trying to find dudes like Kyle Pitt, like Drake Lemon, like Bijon Robinson PERSON. Now, you contrast that with Kyle Shanahan PERSON, and his play calling was, quote, unquote, intentional when it came to designing explosive plays. Yes, he's had dudes on his rosters like Julio Jones, like Christian McCaffrey, like George Kiddle PERSON, et cetera. But when you go back to, say, 2016 with the Atlanta Falcons ORG, even in the games where he didn't have those guys,when we saw a couple of those games with Julio Jones out of the lineup, when Mohammed Sudeau PERSON had a lineup. The Falcons ORG offense remained explosive. They were still the most explosive offense in like in the month of December in that 2016 season, even though Julio, you know, only played in half of those games, right? And so it was really the design of the offense that led to the explosiveness. And when you add dudes to that design of an offense,you get that sort of perfect marriage that led to the Falcons ORG, you know, being a Super Bowl team in that 2016. And you've seen it the last couple of years with the 49ers with all the dudes that they have and his play design and whatnot. And it's why San Francisco has been in the conference championship game in the NFC ORG for four out of the last five years.Now, they didn't necessarily get it from the quarterback. Jimmy Garapola was definitely not blacking out in January and be like, oh, I woke up and, you know, I threw eight touchdowns in the last three games or something like that. No. Now, Brock Purdy PERSON is closer to that sort of blackout quarterback. And, you know, the scary thing about Brock Purdy PERSON is, you know, he hasn't even reachedhis peak yet, theoretically. Like, the player that he's going to be over the next three to five years should be better than the player that he is right now. And maybe that is the guy that does consistently blackout with the weapons that they have and all that stuff. But, you know, we'll leave that conversation for lockdown 49ers ORG.But, you know, the Falcons ORG have obviously spent a lot of resources over the last three drafts collecting guys that they think are dudes in Bijan, Drake London and Kyle Pence PERSON, and right? And now the question is, is their play caller, Zach Robinson, a first time play caller and untested play caller, all that stuff? Where does he sort of fit?Like on one end of the spectrum, you have a Kyle Shanhan PERSON on the other end of the spectrum, well, not the other end of the spectrum, but somewhere closer to that other end of the spectrum is Arthur Smith PERSON, right? You know, and so the question is, where does Zach Robinson PERSON fit on that sort of spectrum? And we, at this point, we just don't know, right? Now, I think based off of the moves that the Falcons have made this off season or lack thereof, if you ask me, I think they're betting on him being a Shanahan PERSON type, right? Again, whether he's as good as Shanahan, but somewhere on that side of the spectrum, because when you look at the weapons that they've added at wide receiver, Darnell Mooney, Ron Dale Moore, Bray Ray Ray McLeod PERSON, we're not talking about dudes, right?We're talking about guys that are much more along the lines of an Alrick Robinson, along the lines of a Taylor Gabriel that we saw in that 2016 season when the Falcons didn't have dudes, right? You know, you look at Taylor Gabriel PERSON, for example, the two years that Kyle Shanahan was his playcaller, he had 1920 plus yard plays in those two years. And you look at the four years where Kyle Shanahan PERSON wasn't his play caller, he had 1820 plus yard play. So basically he was twice as explosive under Kyle Shanahan PERSON as he was under any other offensive playcolor. And we also saw that Taylor Gabriel be kind of the number two playmaker opposite Julio Jones during that Falcons 2016 playoff run.And maybe we're hoping for that type of performance from Darnell Moody or Ray Ray Ray McLeod or Ronnell Moore in the future in Atlanta should the Falcons ORG get that far. But we haven't necessarily seen that. So we'll see if that. But to me, the question, you know, in addition to, you know, we kind of know that those guys aren't necessarily dudes. But I think a big question is also are the three guys that the Falcons have added dudes? Are they truly dudes, right? You know, we've seen flashes of them being dudes, you know, guys being dudes. And the question is, are we going to see more sustained, you know, rather than flashes of it, are we going to see it consistently like you see with, you know, those high in the Christian McCaffrey, the George kills, the Julio Jones that we've talked before about Derek Henry PERSON, etc. And, you know, those high in the Christian McCaffries, the George kills, the Julio Jones that we've talked before about Derek Henry, et cetera. And, you know, we'll see, right? You know, and I think part of the reason why this doesn't get nearly as much attention as the quarterback does when peopletalk about, you know, are you, you know, a contender or not? Because it's harder to glean, because there's not one individual that turns you into that, right? Like, now, granted, if you have a great play call like a Kyle Shanning or Sean McVeigh or somebody like that, yeah, it's easier to look at that individual and say they'll be able to put, you know, whoever they have, you know, Cooper Cup, Pook and the Coop of Robert Woods PERSON, et cetera, in a position to be successful. But most teams are not going to have play callers on that level. Those are arguably two of the top three play callers in the NFL ORG.And more than likely, again, you know, maybe we're having a different conversation about Zach Robinson a couple of months from now or whatever, but more than likely, he's probably not going to be on that level. So you're going to have to make do with something else. And so, you know, it's really about, it's less about the individual and it's more about the sort of collection, you know, of the play call, of the quarterback and the talent around them. And so I don't think,I think the other difficult part of that and why it doesn't get nearly as much attention is because there's not a single blueprint. There's not a single, you know, as they say, there's more ways to skin a cat when it comes to building the offense. You know,do you have it at the wide receiver position? Do you have the tight end? Do you have it running back? You know, you know, all those things,you know, can change from team to team. And so there's no singular blueprint to how do you build an explosive wall. You need to have this, right? In common, most teams usually have weapons at wide receivers. They have playmakers at wide receiver when it comes to that because it's probably easiest to dial up those explosive plays to a wide receiver that runs, you know, a 4-3 or 4-4. But at the same time, we've seen plenty of explosive playmakers that aren't, you know,

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running four twos and four threes, right? You know, it's easy. It's easy when you see Tyreek Hill PERSON,

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but like, you know, Devante Adams PERSON is out there cooking dudes and whatnot. So, you know, that's

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where that comes in. And so time will tell if the Falcons ORG have that. Like, again, theoretically,

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they do with Zach Robinson and Drake London PERSON and Bejanon Robinson and Kyle Pitts. But time will tell if the Falcons have that. Like, again, theoretically they do with Zach Robinson and Drake London and Bejan Robinson and Kyle Pitts PERSON. But time will tell if we see that consistently enough to the point that, you know, if and when the Falcons do play a game in January, you'll feel like, okay, they have a significant competitive advantage over their opponent because they have all these dudes, right?But that leaves us with the third box that needs to be checked. And what happens, of course, is when you're facing a team in all likelihood at the deeper you get in the postseason, it does have these quarterback and explosive playmakers box checks. Box boxes checked. Sorry, I can't speak, right?You need to have a defense that can slow these, you know, offenses down. And that's where we'll wrap up today's episode and talk about whether or not the Falcons ORG, you know, have what it takes to build that type of offense. So guys, say goodbye to busted brackets because Fandul is going to let you bet on every game of this year's tournament. Whether you're betting on the one seed or the big upset, it's time to go dancing on America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, that's $200 to use on points, money lines, and you can even pick who's going to win it all, right? And of course, you know, it's not just Marchmadness as we're closing down the month of March. You know, if you're going to join Fando, you need to find things to bet on in April. And of course, you got the NFL draft. You got NBA. You got NHL. It's all there at Fandle ORG. All you got to do is go to Fanduil.com slash locked on today to get started again. And you can bet on the NHL, the NBA, the NFL ORG draft, or you can bet on college hoops until they cut down the nets.

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If you're looking for the most comprehensive NFL draft coverage this off season, look no further than the locked on NFL ORG scouting podcast. Join the draft dudes, Kyle Crabs, and Joe Marino PERSON, as they go position by position through the NFL ORG free agent class and into the star studded crop of college stars who will be selected in the2024 NFL ORG draft. If you want to know who your favorite NFL ORG team should be adding to its roster, you need to check out Locked-on NFL scouting. Available on YouTube ORG and wherever you get yourpodcasts. Part of the Locked-on podcast network. Your team every day.

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So tomorrow as your first listen, we will be joined by Jarvis Davis to wrap up the week. And we'll sort of get Jarvis PERSON's thoughts on all the things that have happened in the last week since we talked to Jarvis, I guess. We'll see. So that will be your first listen tomorrow. But today we'll wrap up by talking about you need a defense that can essentially be a speed bump, right? With all this explosive offense and dynamic quarterback play, you know, you're not going to be able to shut down these offenses in today's NFL ORG.And we understand the rules keep changing and it gives the advantage of the offenses. And, you know, that's part of the reason why people are, you know, really up in arms about the hip drop tackle, I should say the swivel hip drop tackle, which, you know, to me is just like, whatever, man. You know, like, this is the world we live in. Who cares?You know, less injuries. Like, oh, my God, this is a terrible crime against humanity that, you know, now there's going to be more healthy offensive players that can create all these explosive plays that we need in the NFL ORG in order to win games. Like, oh, what a war crime. The NFL, Roger Goodell PERSON must be stopped. bring them up on charges but anyway sorry you know basically you need a defense that can be a speed bump right you need to be able to limit the explosive plays you need to beable to pressure the quarterback right um and it's simple but it's complicated you know similar to how to build an explosive offense there's not some sort of singular way of you build it. But, you know, you can just look at this past year. And there was one team in the NFL that led the league in sack rate and also allowed the fewest number of explosive 20 plus yard plays this past year. And I'll give you two guesses on who it is. And, you know, if you know who won the Super Bowl EVENT, you'd have the correct answer.Of course, is Kansas City Chief ORG. So they were also top five in both of those metrics in 2022. And the Eagles, the team that they beat in the Super Bowl, was number one in SAC rate in 2022. And number two, in few as explosive plays allowed that year. And by the way, Kansas City and Philadelphia had the two most explosive offensesin the NFL in 2022. So again, you just kind of look at the last couple of years, and it just completely illustrates all the points, talking points I'm discussing on today's episode. But, you know, when it comes to eliminating explosive plays, we've lived in an era where defenses are trying to scheme ways to limit those.And you're seeing of that evidence by a lot more sort of too high safety shells, right? Cover two, cover four, cover six sort of things to try to limit the, prevent those explosive plays. And we saw this to great effect, which, you know, Kansas City had the most explosive offense in the league in 2022. And then they were middle of the pack in 2023, primarily because they lost some talent at wide receiver or the talentthat they retained at wide receiver was not very good this year, as well as the way the defenses were playing them. But then, of course, when they got to the postseason, you know, their offense seemingly blacked out. And they became the most explosive offense in the entire postseason run. And it's like, hmm, I wonder if there's a lesson there, right? It's like, hmm, you don't necessarily need to do it in a regular season, but you kind of need to do it in the postseason in order to make that run as the chiefs did. So we know that they were capable of doing them as we've seen them do it.So, you know, scheme does help, but you still need to have guys on the back end that can slow down all these dudes, right? Right. You know, you got to be, you're not going to stop those guys, but you've got to be able to contain them. We saw the chiefs do that very effectively in Super Bowl, where it's guys like Trent McDuffie and Lageria Sneed PERSON, blanketing, Debo, and Brandon Iyuk PERSON in that game. And those guys were really not factors in that game to any degree.And it's easy to, so, oh, I'll just get two locked down corners. But, you know, there's also running backs. There's also tight ends, right? And there's also teams that basically, okay, you got two outside, great outside receivers. Well, guess what we're going to do? And you see so many teams doing this nowadays.We're just going to put our number one wide receiver in a slot. And he's just going to terrorize your nickel corner for the plays that we need him to. And you've seen that with guys like IUC and DJ Moore, Justin Jefferson PERSON and Jamar Chase and Tyreek Hill, you know, five of the most productive slot receivers in the NFL ORG, even though most of those guys, if not all of those guys, only spend maybe 20 to 25 percent of their snaps in the slot. And this is why you hear me talk about,hey, let's put Drake London PERSON in the slot, especially if he's that type of dude. Then, you know, let's dial up these slot snaps and exploit that.But, you know, you're going to need basically all this to say that, you know, just having good outside corners is not going to solve your problem. You need to have good players at nickel.You need to have linebackers that can cover. You need to have safeties that can cover. And of course, you know, you also need to be able to stop the quarterback, which is basically the only way that you can do that, especially when you're going up against these top in quarterbacks that are sort of blacking out and, you know, just going, you know,completely subconscious, unconscious on you. You know, you got to be able to get that guy on the ground, right? You know, you look at Patrick Mahomes' passer rating this past season. And I think even the previous year, it drops like 40 points when he's under pressure. And the same was true of Tom Brady PERSON. When you go back and you look at like the three times, those guys have lost conferencechampionship games over the last decade, right? It was, you know, the 2015 Broncos ORG absolutely annihilating. I think they pressured Brady 30 times in that game, right? You know, the Bengals were able to get Patrick Mahomes on the ground four times in that game. The Patriots were able to sack Mahomes a bunch of that 2018 game. And that's like the only way you can do it.And this to me, when we look at the Falcons ORG, you know, we talk about the quarterback. We talk about the play caller. We talk about the weapons. Like this is, this is the area where you look at the Falcons ORG and you're like, okay, of these three boxes, this is the biggest question mark, right? Because we think they have the quarterback. We think they have the play color. We think they have the dudes. But I don't know if anybody thinks they have the defense that's going to be able to stop one of these premier offenses, right? You've got AJ Terrell PERSON on the back end.That's a start, right? You have Jesse Bates PERSON, but Jesse Bates is not really locking down guys. Like Jesse Bates PERSON is a cheater, right? He's not locking down guys. He's taking advantage of all the other people that are locking down, right? When he finds a monogamous relationship, and again, this is a stretch of an analogy, guys.But when he's seeing, you know, AJ Terrell PERSON locking down a guy or D. Alford locking down a guy or Jeff Akuta locking down. He's going to cheat and he's going to swoop in and pick off that pass, right? If you're following what I'm saying. But he's not the guy that's locking those guys down. So you need to add more of those guys at cornerback and at the safety position,especially to deal with some of these tightens. We saw Richie Grant do an okay job at that last year. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but when you look at the entire season, right, he was okay at covering Titans ORG, but like, okay is not going to cut it, right? And then you ask, like, who's going to get the quarterback on the ground? And it's like, okay, Grady, Jared, and David PERSON on your mother are good pass rushers,but they're not in a prime. They're best years in terms of being that guy. Like, if you're looking for a Chris Jones PERSON type of player, like they're not those guys anymore. Maybe they were those guys three, four years ago, but, you know, they're not that guy anymore.And so they're really more complimentary pieces at this point in their career. It's one of the reasons why so many people wanted the team to get Jalen Carter PERSON, because Jalen Carter PERSON has the potential to be that sort of engine that can drive your pass rush in the ways that Chris Jones does for the Kansas City Chiefs ORG. Is Arnold Epiquetti, AK, that guy, who knows?But this is the year where AK is going to have to kind of show that he is that guy or not because, like, you know, we're not going to sit here and wait around forever. So if he's going to be, you know, that guy that can be that 10-sat guy and, you know, get you 50, 60, 70 pressures that we're talking about that can be kind of that engine for your your defensive line and your pass rush, then this is the year where he's going to do it. And, you know, that would basically require him to basically double his production this year. So we'll see if he's going to do that. I'm not going to necessarily hold my breath. I think he'llhave a good season, but I'm not expecting him to be that guy that you can trust to go out there in windows matchups consistently. So I think that's one of the reasons why I think a lot of people, myself included, as we've gotten closer and further away from pre-agency, it's like, okay, are they just going to go defense, defense, defense at the top of the draft to kind of fill these edge corner and safety needs and holes that they have because they need to add those players.That's where we talk about when need versus ones, right? You know, you want another dude on offense. That's where the wide receiver and you look at guys like Malik neighbors and Roma, Dunezay PERSON, and you say, yeah, I think those guys have the chance to be dudes, but you do wonder a little bit, is a, there is they're one of those defensive players that can stop other guys from being dudes? Is Dallas Turner, Jared Verst, and Laiatu Lata, the top three edges? Are those the types of guys that when we get into January and they're playing,facing off against Penae, Sewell and Trent Williams PERSON, those guys can be relied to win those matchups? Do you think Quinyon Mitchell or Terry PERSON on or whoever you think the top cornerback in this draft class is, is going to be the guy that can lock down, you know, the Brandon Ayukes in the ways that Ligeria Steed and Trent McDuffey did this past year. Who knows, right, at this point in time.And then, you know, Lord knows if there's a safety in this draft class that can, you know, lock down Sam LaPorter and George Kittle PERSON or anything along those lines. So those questions remain, you know, unanswered for the Atlanta Falcons ORG. We'll see what happens with the draft. But that is going to do it for us here. I hope you guys understand,you know, sort of this is the lens in which I judge all teams, right? Do you have a quarterback? Do you have an explosive offense? And do you have a defense that can stop the quarterback and stop the explosive offense? And right now, you know, two of those boxes,you probably say maybe with the falcons, if you squint and you go like, maybe we'll find out in September, right? And then hopefully we'll find out even more in January, but time will tell on that issue. But wanted to break that down, guys, because we won't get, you know, we'll probably have an opportunity to do it later this year, but ain't nobody going to listen. When we get into that, y'all will be over it by that point in time.So I wanted to have that conversation here on the podcast before so that when you hear me skeptical of things of the Falcons ORG, you understand where that skepticism is coming from, right? When we talk about this team, you know, and so we'll see what happens with this team over the next, you know, six to nine months. But that's going to do it for us here, guys. Continue to check out Locked on Sports today.Locked on Sports Atlanta, Locked on NFL draft, Locked on NFL. It's all part of the Lockdown Podcast Network ORG, your team every day.

Speaker 01967.68s - 1998.78s

Is your team eliminated from the playoffs and in need of reinforcements? Maybe it's time for a rebuild, or maybe they're just a player or two away from taking home the Lombardi Trophy WORK_OF_ART. Either way, join Keith Sanchez PERSON and Damien Parson for mock draft Monday on the Locked-on NFL Draft podcast.They'll tell you which college football stars your team will be taking in the 2024 NFL draft. Check out Mock Draft Monday on the Locked-on NFL Draft podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network ORG,

Speaker 11999.04s - 2000.7s

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Speaker 02001.24s - 2039.2s

If you're looking for the most comprehensive NFL draft coverage this off season, look no further than the locked on NFL scouting podcast. Join the draft dudes, Kyle Crabs PERSON, and Joe Marino as they go position by position through the NFL ORG free agent class and into the star-studded crop of college stars who will be selected in the 2024 NFL ORG draft. If you want to know who your favorite NFL team should be adding to its roster, you need to check out Locked-on NFL scouting, available on YouTube ORG and wherever you get your podcasts.Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.