with the Atlanta Falcons to have to get number eight.
I wonder what Carolina would be selling. The quarterback thing
is 61. Lana toothpicks behind them. Huh? Marcus Mariota is
their quarterback for now.
Terry Fontenot GM of the team
on whether he'll be disappointed, if the Falcons
don't emerge from the draft with the quarterback here is
from yesterday.
No, we could we could draft a quarterback in any of
the rounds
are, there's multiple ways to acquire quarterback. We want to
add to our room and we will but so it could be in the draft. It
could be after the draft. It could be via trade.
We're not going to limit our self to any possibility. We're
going to turn over every stone. So whether it's in the draft or
not,
we'll add to that room.
I will agree with him. On one thing. There are multiple ways
to find a quarterback including just sitting around waiting for
some other team to alienate a 14 year starter who had no
reason to leave
who just because you flirted with some other guy now wants
out and he falls into your lap for a third-round pick. That's
a way to find a quarterback. The only problem is the Falcons
were on the wrong end of the Matt Ryan transaction,
and the culture of the ones
that have this guy drop out of the sky
when they're sitting around saying, what the hell are we
going to do for a quarterback? That's kind of where
the Falcons are right now, Marcus Mariota is not the answer short
term or long term. It is amazing to me that Arthur Smith
whose career took off. When he benched Marcus. Mariota
now has Marcus, Mariota is his number one, quarterback on
the depth chart. That won't last. The question is, where do they
get a quarterback in? This is another one where the owner
is going to make sure
that the people who work for him,
know what he wants. And it's easier for him to do that
because he's got Richmond. A
to be the buffer.
All Arthur Blank has to do is let Rich McKay know.
And then Rich McKay. Let's Terry Fontenot know,
and message, communicated, very cleanly
with with enough
of a gap between blank and the GM. The black can say,
I didn't, I hey, my football. People are making their
decisions. I'm not involved in any of that.
Yeah. I mean, you know question. I mean that is
the great thing about having McKay there Atlanta's they're in
a pretty spot and for the Order back conversation for sure.
Now again, I like you heard me. Say, I don't buy quarterback at
eight. I don't buy it. I really don't, you know, for a team
like them. That's got so many needs.
I just wouldn't think they're looking at it today. Maybe
they're a team that wants to trade down. I wouldn't be
shocked. Maybe they want to do it then. Okay, you know, they
also are sitting pretty with the fact of where they are in
the second round that they,
they are a team that have someone's left over from round one.
I would expect them to make a move early in Day 2 and
You to get up at the top of the second round to get
a quarterback. I wouldn't be shocked to see that or even get
up at the end of first round. If there's really a guy there,
they
like, but I just I come to the say, the same thing with
Atlanta. I hear the rumors of Malik Willis and I understand
that
but for a team that's got so many holes to fill on their
football team right now.
I just don't see the quarterback thing happening for
them at eight. I think they got to get something like very
tangible. That's going to help their team to build on. Right
now, right. This second
and the guy like Malik Willis is
to me. It's, you know, it's a year or two years down the road
before he's going to be really ready to go that way. And
so I think there another team that's going to
kind of talk about this. Hoping somebody comes up but I think
when all said and done they will not go quarterback at
number eight.
Here's the thing to remember. Yeah, more than anything else.
It's a business aimed at getting people. Yeah, I know
up.
And shell out. Yeah, and when you see pictures of the
Mercedes-Benz
stadium in Atlanta, not to be confused with what once was
the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, but the the name is
now on the place in Atlanta and there are plenty of empty
seats. People aren't driving their Mercedes-Benz vehicles
to that Stadium.
What puts people in
the seats. A winning team. Yes. Yes, but absent, a winning
team. Mmmmm, you need star players. You need players that
the fans want to come out and see I think that's why they got
into the
John Watson conversation.
And I know blank tried to kind of
clumsily suggest that they really weren't all that it.
I didn't get that already. Sure. Jan know. They did. They did
they just they just didn't want to have any of the blowback
that the Browns were getting for doing the deal. But you
want someone who is going to get your fans excited enough to
show up to spend the money to be there to watch the games.
That's what it's about. It doesn't matter if you contend,
or when championships or whatever mean, it's nice. If
you do that, but fundamentally you want people to be there. So
you need players that will draw people there.
And I love Marcus Mariota.
He's not going to draw people
to that venue. That's why. I think Arthur Blank is going to
be nudging.
Asking pushing
questioning
quarterback quarterback, quarterback quarterback. We
need a new face of the franchise read. Matt Ryan from
2008, through 2021. And now he's gone. I still don't know
how the hell that happened. I say that is myself and as
play-acting, Arthur Blank. I don't know how the hell that
happened.
He was here. And now he's gone. What happened?
And we need somebody else to be the face of the franchise. And
I remember hearing back in 2008. The blank was pushing
quarterback with number three that there were some people in
the organization that wanted Glendora see. Now, I've had
pushed back on that as
well. But I've been here for so long as one of those things
where you're here for so long. You start to believe it that
they were looking Glenn, Dorsey the defensive tackle very
seriously. 43 and it was blank that push them toward Ryan
right? Because I
haven't people didn't know what Ryan was going to be F. Prime
is going to be great. Bill Parcells would have taken
a bit. Number one that year instead of Jake Long period
what a solve the Dan Marino problem
in Miami. In one Fell Swoop if they had done that. So it's not
like we knew, Matt Ryan was going to be a great
quarterback, but I think that
that Arthur Blank can Retreat to that experience. We didn't
know he could say, he can say to Terry Fontenot and Arthur
Smith. If it comes down to it order Rich McKay, you know,
they were telling me back then we don't really know that Matt
Ryan's
going to Be great. Well, you're telling me you don't know.
Malik Willis is going to go. There's only one way to find
out if it doesn't work out. We'll be drafting a quarterback
again in a couple of years, but I need somebody to put asses in
the seats
and a quarterback is going to be more likely to do it than
anybody else. I hear you there. I hear you. There's a big
difference between Malik Willis and Matt Ryan coming out in
the draft. Matt. Ryan was like,
the Kenny Pickett Guy, where you're like, he's ready right
now, except he's got even way more Talent than Kenny pick it.
So, you knew there was something a little, this one's
a little bit more of a risk. And I don't disagree with your
points
there. I don't But all I'm saying is
you got to be smart. You don't want to over each,
you got to be tactical about this here
and there a team to me that
I'm still sit here and look at Al in and go.
How the hell did they win? As many games as they did last
year with that football team. It really is kind of amazing as
I've got through the draft process and you look at their
team and what they need. I mean you go through every position
and you go, they need, they need, they need, it's amazing
what they did. So that's where I just I
I hear everything you're saying.
I'm scared. To death due to a degree of what I'm saying
because I know like I said yesterday there's been
quarterbacks less talented than Malik Willis to get drafted in
front of him
for sure,
but it's just like Carolina. I don't know. I just I don't buy
it. I think it's a smokescreen. I think they'd love to trade
down and create that
and you know, I do think that, you know, some of these guys
might be one of the least, one of these guys could be very
much available at the end
of the first round or at least available early in the second
round on day two.
Yeah, the Falcons in 2021 when they won they won barely when
they lost they got the sh Dash. T kicked out of them. It wasn't
even close. Yeah. I'm raising when you look at their point,
differential for the year.
It's huge huge difference because of all the games. They
lost, they lost, convincing.