 You know, the balance between, you know, having a spirited practice and then maybe keeping things from getting the way they were today. That was by far one of the most competitive practices since I've been here. And these guys are competing and you go to the edge and there's learning experiences. Nobody did anything really that dumb, but if somebody takes a swing on the air, you throw them out and they went inside with a stall and that's what happens. I got to throw you out of the game to find you and if you don't have that emotional control, you won't be here. But I was very encouraged by today. That was probably the most competitive practice we've had since I've been the coach here. You got a problem, I'd much rather have people you've got to pull back, people you've got to push. And this team's the competitive as hell and it's a fun group to coach. The way you designed the first week of practice, did you design it so that you would hope that that would be the outcome? Today now obviously fights, but the confidence? Yeah, well, there's a lot of factors in there. Sure, absolutely, you want that. And it's also about the makeup of the guys we've brought in here. This team's got a chip on its shoulder. We're ready to go out there and improve ourselves. Like I said, we're having so much fun working with these guys and these guys and the way they work, it's unbelievable. We're playing a lot of practice today. Mike, we'll see, it wasn't bad, I guess. But until you get all the imaging, you don't know for sure. But right there just looking at, initially, I don't know. I don't think it was that bad, but we'll see. Arthur White with quarterbacks from the ball placement standpoint. Impactable today where they're putting the football. Is that something that's stuck out to you a little bit or where they're placing the ball? Absolutely, Marcus, he's in a good flow right now. And Desmond, he's right there competing with him. And it's fun to watch. And I really do believe that competition, a really good competition, brings out the best in everybody. And that's what we've got going on at a lot of spots. Tell them. The competitive nature that you have is also just because you have so many guys competing for certain spots as well. That's why it's cool, because actually we've had a chance. It helps, but it's also the makeup of the guys out there. It's early, but can you see things in, Marcus, that you didn't see in 19? Do you see different assets? It's like all of us, right? I hope every day or every year I get to do this, I'm a better coach. And certainly his experiences brought him to this place. And like I said, he's in a good rhythm. He's in a good flow out there. What have you seen from AJ 12 so far in camp? He's defeated Saturday night. Like I said, he's been challenged more in four days. And I thought he was all last year in training camp. And so it's good for him. Arthur, a lot of camaraderie among the guys. When a defensive guy makes a play, all the DVs are there. When a wide receiver makes a play, they're all there. Something you talked about? Or is that all, a player manifest? You just see the building. It's the way these guys have it, these guys have. And these guys like each other. And like I said, they got a chip on their shoulder. And they want to come out here and prove something. And I've been really pleased with the effort out there. Today, since it was extra competitive, was there one or two guys that really stood out to you? Competitiveness manifests itself beyond what we see when it boils over. Where do you see it in other places? Just a physicality or is there something else? Look at the guys compete on the highway outside the numbers. You're going one-on-one, or if you're doing certain coverages, you're going to be one-on-one. What are you doing, Liam? What's up, buddy? You got a cracker? He's always got a snack. So you see it all over the place, Josh. You do it even when you go to the special teams period. We try to compete in everything we're doing. Is there a marker besides the physicality? Is there a marker besides... Well, you've got like a cool pad yet, but you know, certainly when you're running the football and you're going full speed, yeah, there's a physical game inside. You want to play inside at really any level. I mean, the lines of scrimmage is not for the well-adjusted. That's kind of why I have a soft spot for it. Coach, you know, Mark, you should talk about the evolution. Have you noticed anything different, maybe, in the confidence or personality? I mean, just a flying example, these boots over here, these guys, they're all into the crowd right there. Is that... It's probably a little more emotion than I've seen for a while, and it's probably a little bit of a little cathartic. Like, a lot of make-up of these guys. He wants to go out there and prove. I mean, he's had some big moments in this league. It's been an interesting journey at this point, but he's a Highland talent, and he's won some big games in this league. You mentioned that Mark is there, and some of the other guys that you've brought in, it seems like it's different. Was there some thought process of wanting to bring in guys that felt like they needed to prove something? That's all of us. I mean, all the coaches, we got a lot to prove, too. Certainly, taking account the way some of these people, the guys are wired, that's a fair statement. Oh, Coach, put... Yeah, Coach, yeah, ball placement. Like Mark said, he pointed out that was on point. But what's your rule on the quarterbacks pulling the ball down in practice? I know what the old rule is. You know, that was certainly a... We didn't do a good job in some of the running quarterbacks, and when they broke the container, we lost container in the rush, and they got out, and it hurt us. And it hurt us in key moments and some very bad moments. We didn't do a good job and some of the running quarterbacks, and when they broke the container, we lost container in the rush, and they got out and it hurt us. And it hurt us in key moments and some very winnable games for us. And so, I let it allow it because it's work we need. And I get it when you're in a 7-0-7, there's no rush. But once you cover them well enough, you're going to have to transition when you're playing certain quarterbacks that can scramble. And you're certainly facing more of those, it seems, like, every year. What's the number of free agent playing offensive line, playing tight end in college? What have you seen from them so far in camp? Anything that's interesting? I've got that rookie group competing. I've been very pleased with the rookie line group. Those guys work. Leroy, Shave, Tyler. Very pleased. With Elijah Robinson, the last three days they've been running in first two reps. See, I mean, I know there's not pass, but what has he shown, I guess, to get that three days in a row? All those specifics. But a lot of times, there are certain things that he's doing that we're pleased with and doing it the way that, you know, we feel it needs to be done. And so, I think it's a good thing for Jalen to see if he can step up. Like I said, competition brings out the best in everybody. And we'll see where it goes. I'm not down on Jalen, but it's more that we're more pleased with what Elijah's doing right now. How do you have a younger player like Jalen? How do you have that conversation handle it? There's nothing I would say, ever say up here and say, you know, things we haven't closed doors, I'll meet with those guys one-on-one. And I try to make, call me a lot of things, but I'll be honest and upfront and I make sure I meet with those guys. If there's anything that we do that they want to know why. What kind of leadership role has he stepped into? Is it any greater than it's been for you, senior? I mean, that's right. Very, you know, when you lose guys that have been here for a long time and you're looking, there's always, they emerge and it merges in their own way. And certainly, Jake leads by example. He's so damn dependable. Love, you know, the work habits he's been doing, he's been doing for a long time. Love, you know, the work habits he brings in every day and guys look up to him. Now, he's the old guy in the building in some ways. But him and Grady are doing a great job there. We're getting some leadership from other guys. You feel Damien Williams out here. I would say that too. Yeah. And then sometimes you're going to get in a few scuffles when stuff starts getting competitive. But that's what you want. You don't want guys sitting back and being passive. It's football. It's a tough-ass sport. And so you want guys that are going to compete and get... And what you want is guys that kind of get their burr up a little bit when you get beat. You know, you don't want somebody like, oh, okay, I got beat and then come back. You want the guy to come back and fight. And that's... I don't want to fist-fight but I just... You want the guys to come back and that's what you're looking for and competing. Don't take it. Don't... You know, we talked about it before and talked about it a little bit last spring and defense especially. We're changing a culture around this day going poise. Okay? And it's not going to be mediocre. It's not going to be average. It's not going to be in the bottom half of the league like it's been 15 out of the last 20 years. Sick of that crap. We got to take charge and it ain't going to be anybody else to do it but us. Okay? I'm tired of everybody telling us how bad we are. It's after a while you start believing it. Just like you tell... You never tell your children and stuff like, hey, you guys, you don't... You get mad at a teacher who says, you know, telling some kid he's stupid, right? You don't ever tell somebody that because pretty soon they start believing it. Guys around here on defense sometimes believe that 15th is okay or whatever. I've been in the top 10 one time out of the last 20 years. That's bullshit. It's over. Okay? Sorry, I'm getting fired up today but I'm tired of this crap. We're going to change the culture of the defense around this fricking place. People are going to start talking about Atlanta defense like they did at Baltimore, like they did at New England. It's going to be the same around here. How do you do that? How do you do that? How do you do that? How do you do that? Think about it. Think about it. That's called competing. That's what you do. You get after them. You want other guys to get after other guys too. It's a hell of a lot more if it comes from another player than it does from a coach. Coaches are always correct in this. We're just basically negative guys at heart. Okay? But when another player gets on you and says you ain't doing your job, our standard here is you're worth it. You're worth it. You're worth it. You're worth it. You're worth it. The standard here is you're one of 11 people. You just do your job and the other 10 do their job. Usually things are going to work out pretty good. We need players that are taking charge and they are. That's what I like about this young group is these guys are starting to take charge out there and get after each other a little bit and not accept it. And the only way you're going to do it is compete hard, compete hard. And the other thing you're going to do is when somebody doesn't do it, you take them out and you put somebody else in. It's called competition. It's based on salaries. I'm talking about it here. I'm talking about the NFL. Based on the guy makes a lot of money. I don't have anything to do with salary cap. It's a defensive coordinator. All I know is the best of 11 guys are going to go out there on the field. And the best 11 guys that are hungry and want to play. And one of those guys making a lot of money, tough. Get the hell out. I've done it before. I took a starter out at Baltimore and put a backup in and he played the rest of the year. And the starter never got back in. I don't really care. Last year we didn't know a lot about this team. I know a lot more about it right now. And that's how we're going to play defense around here. Arthur, Arthur said something yesterday about, you know, talking to the team about the iPhone and all the predictions, the wrong predictions about the iPhone. You guys have made a point to address your team with this stuff as well to tell them to not listen to that stuff. So did you feel like they were hearing it? Did you feel like those? Yeah, that's been Arthur's message in the team meeting most of the time. It's been that kind of stuff. And it pertains to both sides of the ball, whatever. You can't, you know, all I can say is what I'd like to do is see writers that make predictions if you're wrong, you get fired. Like the coach does. What? You have? No. No, I don't think laps. Coaches get fired when all of a sudden you don't win. So why should you guys be off the hook if your percentage is less than 50%? So, huh? So I think I think that would be what I would really like to see going forward. I would like to see that putting... No, I'm just... No, look, the bottom line is is that, look, we can't control what everybody else says about us. What you got to do is you got to believe in yourself. I've been there before. Okay? Not many times with New England and Baltimore and stuff, but I've been there before and I've seen it and what you got to do and you know what it does? It takes the right people. You want to really talk about it? You really want the truth? You got to take guys that won't take it. I will not tolerate this. I won't take it. If you can't, you got to find those players. Those are the kind of guys. There's so many times and I hate to always kind of give you some past history and stuff, but there's so many times I've never... If a coach has to raise his voice to get guys jacked up on defense, we ain't good enough. It ain't about us giving a pep talk. Bill Belichick never gives a pep talk for the game. Nothing. Nothing. And he used to always say if it takes that before a game to get you ready, I'm going to get you ready during the week. You ought to be ready come Sunday. He doesn't give pep talks. Sabin doesn't give really pep talks. Guys I've worked for. It's players that got to get ready. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to change the culture. Trying to bring players in here that got that kind of attitude. Whether they're the fastest guys or not, I think we're a lot faster than we were a year ago. But based on that, it isn't based on that. It's based on being a football player. Hey, we get too caught. Some guys get too caught up in height, weight, speed, vertical, all this kind of stuff. Long arms, all that stuff. I had James Harrison in college. Nobody wanted his ass. Why? 511. Short arms. Pretty good career. What do you think? You know, you know why? Because he was a nasty, tough football player that loved to play. That's what you have. That's what we got to have here. And that's how you can change it with players and attitude. What did you practice like today when, like in coverage, you see a corner rider, you know, receiver to the pylon so you can't make the catch of things like that? Are you noticing more of a competition or the technique, the physicality, to make sure they're not getting sloppy because it is getting a little bit better. Yeah, the one thing I would say though, here's what, a guy told, I heard this a long time ago from an offensive coach. And it was down in the red area. And I remember the quarterback coach who I had the utmost respect for talking to the quarterback about being brave enough to throw it in there, even when it looks like it's covered. Well, to me, I'm kind of, want the same thing on defense. I'd rather see our guys be over-aggressive right now to the point of, actually, maybe even get an interference call, not as long as it's not grabbing. I'd rather see them that than sitting there all day. I'd rather, the only way you're going to make them aggressive is make them aggressive. Okay. I remember going into a game one year at Cincinnati, back in New England. And I actually told Rodney Harrison on secondary at New England. I said, I want you guys all over these guys. They had Huth, Mazzata, Chad, they had a hell of a team. Palmer. I said, we are going to go attack these guys. If they double move you, grab them, take the holding penalty, it's five yards. First down, big deal. We were so damn aggressive. That's what we're trying to do here, especially in camp. We were not aggressive enough last year. We need to be aggressive in coverage. We got a great corner out of here that can be aggressive, but we need everybody to be that. It experiences accountability to that number two points. It does. It's a little similar to Fabian Morrill last year in some way, but you're bringing it in. The good thing about it is, I think we got a great mixture of vets and secondary, in fact, we got a lot of players who are in the team, and we got a lot of players who are in safety right behind them, pushing them and telling them and helping them a lot. And then you got corners out there, and then you got Darren and Paul and those guys were over there fighting with Casey. The competitive was good. Mike Ford's really shown up. Great to have Isaiah back. I'm feeling good about those guys. When you see a lot of discouples out there for as long as you can, I'm like, what goes through your head because you've been around longer. It's not surprising but when you get a spirit of practice, it's usually inevitable. It's kind of happened. If I've seen so many of them, Michael, here's what I do. I'm 72 years old. I walk the other way. My ass has been hit before. I went in there as a young buck trying to break it up and getting knocked out. You know what? You guys have at it. I'm done. Where did you get hit? Oh, way back when I got knocked out. I lost my teeth. Knew I ain't one. Believe it or not, the guy who was in the fight was Brady. It wasn't him that hit me, but it was him. Coach, I gotta go to Canton next week. I'm doing a story on Richard Seymour. What were your recollections ahead of, you know, playing up front for you guys? He was a monster up there for us. I mean, he's kind of the last of the two gap ends, you know, where him and Ty Warren could actually two gap guys and really play both gaps. He's kind of the last of that dying breed. You don't, you don't see those guys out there anymore. But surprisingly, also how athletic he was for as big as he was. I mean, any other things, he got his hands up. I mean, when he wanted to, he was a handful. And the good thing was it made guys like Bruce B. Seyal, pretty good inside backers, too, life a lot easier, too, because it was hard for them to scoop and get up onto the second level. Guys like that, they're hard to find anymore. He was a great person, a great person. Do you feel like you've been tested maybe more than Arthur was saying? You feel like you're getting tested more than maybe you were a year ago, two years ago? You know, as a corner, you just, you know, for me, I'm just going out there with the same mindset, challenge myself holding myself accountable. So every play, I feel like I'm getting tested, even if the ball is not coming. Was there something over the course of this offseason that you really honed in on or tried to get better at? Was there anything technically that you focused on? Yeah, always something, just at the line always, you know, just staying patient, putting hands on. Hey, Dean Pease was saying that he wants to change the culture. Y'all got to be aggressive. You know, what are you seeing ways for you all to change the culture, to be a defense that, you know, people are, you know, don't want to see on Sundays? You know, just doing the little things, it all started practicing camp right now, just, you know, building chemistry, building trust, and just going out there dominating, you know, any period in practice, just holding each other accountable and making the plays that come our way. And how's that been coming here just four days in camp, no pads, things are coming as the defense is trying to build and come together and so forth? It's good, you know, second year in the same defense, just building, you know, a lot of new faces, like I said, just building chemistry. So, we're on the right path. Hey, Jay, I was starting to KCA with yesterday, and instead it took him two full seasons to kind of start to understand opposing personnel, whether he played against a guy, broke him down on film. It's pretty comfortable. Yeah, that's the whole thing toward playing fast, just knowing, you know, what you got going on, what you're going against, you know, personnel-wise, receivers, matchups, just knowing who you're going against and being able to have an edge to play faster. Did you feel like a, you know, coach in D.C. the way that they felt like it was one of the most competitive practices they've had since Arthur Smith had been here? Did you feel like this was one of the most competitive practices out there today? Yeah, aside the fighting that you probably saw, other than that, you know, practices being competitive just these past four days, including today, you know, it's just energy. Everybody just ready to go. So you like to see that type of stuff outside the fighting? You know, we can get that together, but just energy is what we need. So that's what we're bringing right now. How did this at practice make you the belief that you guys weren't going to be great? You know, I was only here this is my third year, so I don't know what was going on back then, but it's been competitive practices. Just something that we just got to keep going. Carry on over just playing smart though. So you personally don't like when a scuffle breaks up, like breaks out, like, you'd rather not see the fighting or do you kind of like it like that, keep everybody healthy, just move forward. But like I said, to get a little chippy out there, bring an energy. So those things happen in football, but we try to get away from those things. When you see a scuffle fight, every way you run, melee, whatever you want to call it happen, like, what do you do? Do you go in? Do you say, listen, these guys are like twice my size. I need to get out of here. This is practice. This Falcons vs. Falcons, you know, if you break out, you know what I mean, opposing teams, whatever, I may go over there and break it up, but it's Falcons vs. Falcons, like, yeah, conserving energy, man. Can you speak about Drake Wendell's a little bit? What have you seen competing against him these past few days? Yeah, he's getting real comfortable, you know, every day I feel like he's getting comfortable, he's starting to get the playbook down and being able to, he moved a little bit different, you know, he's getting comfortable in his route running and knowing what he got to do and, you know, every time we go against each other or what not, you know, he just bring that edge that I need, you know, to go against each other, getting ready for game day. So, keep that going, first start of camp, just keep building with it. He's doing this to go against kids all the time. What is it, I've seen him improve on or what is it that he does that he thinks makes him one of the better titles, you know, the route running, you know, he's getting physical, he's feeling out his frame for sure, but, you know, he's getting his route running down, knowing how to use his body to box out people and knowing his strengths, you know, that's the main thing. Going in practice just crafting, getting better. Coach Smith said he felt like you'd been tested more in practice already this year than you were all of last year. Just feel that way to you, the corner, the ball not coming every play, so I'm taking every player's competitive. If I'm shutting down and they don't throw it, that's a win. If they throw it, not deflected, that's a win. Like every player's competitive. I'm kind of your wife? I ain't really paying attention to that. You know, I'm just out there going, you know, playing, just playing. I ain't focused on that. What do you feel is for you the most competitive part of practice? Like for you, what do you feel is the most competitive? Lining up, any time I line up, it's competitive. You know, the only thing that's not competitive is job through. If it's live, it's competitive. How are the 52 younger safeties doing in terms of talking to you guys and always being in the right spot? How are those guys doing good? You know, confident, when they do it all, it's loud, they confident, they not making mistakes. So that's the right path we on. You know, just building trust and chemistry is the big picture. That's what we're trying to get done. Everybody look off, get in your mind, clear your space. So we would take advantage of it the right way. What do you see in the Outlook in the game itself? Accountable too, like I said, just stacking days out here, getting ready for pre-season, all these steps, how we get ready for all our games this year, but just gotta take it the day at a time. A lot of guys do talk to you like he's made some great plays, whatever you do today. He has been making great plays, made a good play today and one-on-ones and he'd be making the game. So he looked real good out there though.