 Ahead on Early Birds, the Falcons head to DC but some key injuries are adding speed bumps on the way to the cap. I'll tell you a doctor's point of view of the type of injury Kyle Pitts is reportedly dealing with. Plus the Falcons get ready to face another former high five quarterback and we get you ready for clean old fashioned hate plus a big one in the Big Ten. Ahead on Early Birds. Grab a cup of your favorite Joe and let's talk Falcons football on Early Birds presented by Mercedes Bent. Good morning and welcome into Early Birds. He's DJ. I'm Justin. Any leftovers left in the Shockley household? Are you cleared them out? Can you see this button? It's about to explode. That button's doing a lot of work right now. Same over here. We're both still full but we still got room for some football talk. We'll start things off with the opening drive. Falcons and commanders tomorrow. And the first topic is not a fun one. Some injuries for the Falcons. They're dealing with tight end Kyle Pitts and D. Lyman to Quan Graham. Both going on injured reserve this week with knee injuries and shock. No way around that these ones hurt. The offense really going to miss a guy like Kyle Pitts. Yeah, you miss Kyle in so many ways. Some people think about the production and just catches or touchdowns. But usually in this season it's been about what he can do to affect other players on the field. His presence on the field opens up so much for everybody else. So missing him is going to be a big deal. But other guys will have to step up and obviously I thought TQ is playing some of his best ball next to Grady this season. Yeah, we're really solid along the D line young up and coming player. Pitts and TQ both have knee injuries. Arthur Smith though not giving us a lot more details right now, but also not yet saying they're definitely done for the season. There's just still some unknown, right? They continue to get medical advice and both those guys will have procedures and you really won't know until after those procedures what the timeline truly is. So, you know, that won't be out there for the next four games. Yeah, we wish them both a speedy recovery. As we continue on the opening drive, Marcus Mario is going to have to figure things out now without his big tight end and shock. The quarterback's coming up a solid game against the Bears. Efficient passing, used his legs, did not turn the ball over. So DJ, how does he keep it going without Kyle Pitts? I think he just has to be consistent. He has to make precise decisions in what he does and that's what he did last week. He made plays when he needed to. He didn't force the football and now you're going to have players who, you know, you expect to be open and make plays. He's going to have to feed those guys and not try to look for one guy like he did sometimes for Kyle Pitts and force the issue. It's going to be really critical that he does that. Here's quarterback's coach Charles London. The biggest thing about Marcus is he's the same guy every day. So whether he throws for 300 or throws for 150, he's the same guy coming to build and I think for the quarterback position, that's important because everybody looks at him to kind of steer the ship and they see he comes in here. He's the same guy every day, puts in the same work and I think that's important. Alright, as we wrap up the opening drive, let's talk a little bit about the opposition this week. Washington's offense going to start Collins Hill alum Taylor Heinecke at quarterback. He took over for Carson Wentz. It's his job now. So DJ, what do they like to do when they have the ball? This is a team that's kind of be bound. They like to throw it. They like to run it. Heinecke is the guy who has some athleticism to him. So he can't create on the outside, but it's been a run game. Brian Robinson as we saw, he came back this year. He's played really well. Yeah. Antonio Gibson is another guy who runs pretty hard. They average around four yards a carry, but they will like to sling it around the yard, but this is going to be an interesting offense. I think the Falcons will have a tough task on their hand with this, you know, our former Collins Hill guy. Yeah, we'll talk about him a little bit more later on in the show. Welcome into Early Birds alongside DJ Shockley. I'm Justin Felder. First off, happy belated Thanksgiving, man. I hope you enjoyed that and everybody at home as well. We're here, of course, to talk Falcons and commanders in that Washington defense shock. They are tough as well. Jonathan Allen at the very top of the list of guys that I would never want to be mad at me. I don't want any four of those guys up front. But they got four first rounders up there. They're all pretty good. They're physical. We talked about it earlier. They can get after you, especially in the run game. Real tough defense, tough run defense. We'll see how the Falcons handle that in shock. The film room seems so out of context in this gaudy apartment complex. The district sleeps all night. Is that Garden State soundtrack? What is that? It's a good album. I don't know. I kind of e-mail a couple of years back. Oh, yeah. You got to see me come out. It's kind of a reach this week. All right. Go War on the Telestrator. We will see you in a few. But first, the Falcons pass rush took the wind out of Chicago's sales last week. Four sacks tied for the most they've had in the game this season. The other time that happened was all the way back in week one. One of those sacks belonged to Lorenzo Carter. And Carter's also got a pair of touchdowns this year. He sat down one-on-one this week with our Kelly Price, who took some exception to Lorenzo's post-touchdown dance moves. So first I have to pull up something. Because in the pre-season, I asked you what your touchdown dance would be. And you've now had two touchdown dances or two touchdowns. And you did not do this. A little nerdy dance. Give him a little wiggle. I was supposed to give him the wiggle. But you didn't do it. You had two opportunities to do it. And you did not do touchdown dance. I was too tired. Both of those opportunities, I emptied the tank getting in the end zone. So I was just so afraid of my teammates. When is the last time that you've had two touchdowns in a season? That's wild. So, man, middle school maybe here. But yeah, it's wild. But it just shows anything. You got to do anything we can do to help team win. That being said, I mean, you're on pace for a career year. As it stands right now, just statistically, what about this team, this scheme, and even maybe just this organization and being home for you has helped you find that success? I think it's just this team. Everybody's just working hard. And we got one common goal, and that's to go out there and get a win every Sunday. So, I mean, I'm just trusting the process and enjoying it while I'm here. That's one thing, too. We enjoy working hard with each other. We enjoy each other in the locker room. There's that camaraderie that we just feel. That helps a lot. Win, lose, or draw. You know you come back to go back to work with your brothers. That's motivating. Norcross alum, Georgia alum, all these things. Obviously, the homecoming aspect of you, coming back to Atlanta, there's a lot made of that. But how much of that is, you know, putting on that Falcons uniform is like a sense of pride for you, even more than maybe your years past in the NFL? Yeah, very prideful. I take that, take a moment pretty much every game and just thank God for the lessons, just being able to play for my home team. Like, this team I grew up watching. It just means so much more to me and I let the guys know. Like, we're playing for Atlanta. Like, y'all might not be from here, but I'm from here. We got a few guys on the team that's from here. So, we're very prideful. Every week, we like to talk about all the details that matter and what happened inside of play. This is a particular play here where you're going to get a Blitz pick up by Tyler Alger here. He's going to come around, end up picking up this particular linebacker. But this is poetry in motion because they're actually going to drop this defensive end and they're going to Blitz this guy off the nickel here, off the edge right here. The line is going to be sliding this way. So, Jake is going to end up picking this guy up, but this one guy who you need to pick up to complete this pass has to happen by Tyler Alger. And you can see him, he's coming from the backside here to create. Now, if the play gets started, here's your Blitz here. Nice job of picking it up by here, Jake. This guy is jumping off, but now this guy comes free. Who is going to pick him up? Watch Alger come around, pick him up. Now, he's going to give Marcus Murriota time to deliver this curl right on the outside and it's perfect timing by each guy on the field. Now, look at that. Boom. Step in there. Look at that. Nice clean pocket here. Everybody's picked up. Now, you've got this huge hole to throw the football to for Marcus Murriota. You love the timing of this particular play here. Watch it come out of his hands. This ball's out of his hands and halfway there and he hasn't even turned around yet. Perfect timing by him. You complete it. Now, you've got a good play here. And this was just a nice job all the way around of each 11 guys doing their particular job, getting it done. And ultimately, it compiles in a first down for the Falcons. Shock, you're talking about a clean pocket for Marcus Murriota. We're getting ready to talk about clean, old-fashioned hate. More to come on early birds. Getting you ready for Georgia and Georgia Tech maybe got a little more interesting after last week. Plus, yeah, get your hands up under it and just make sure that your hands are the one touching the ground not the ball. That's a big reason Drake London was the first receiver taken in the draft, catching the ball as you go to the ground. We go deep with the rookie. Next. Hey Falcons fans, score a touchdown with low-tire prices at Mavis Tires and Breaks, the official tire retailer of the Atlanta Falcons. Visit Mavis Tire dot com to find a store near you. Birds is presented by Mercedes-Benz, the best or none. And brought to you by Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. By Truist, committed to a better future. And by Home Depot, how doers get more done. I'm going to switch gears and talk a little college ball. Brought to you by Truist. BB&T and SunTrust are now Truist. Here again is Fox 5's Justin Felder. Welcome back into Early Birds. Back with TJ talking about college ball. So a couple days ago, Thanksgiving, everybody gathered around the table. Doesn't matter where you went to school, everybody got along. Right. You still feel that way? Yeah. Absolutely do. Feel good about it. Feel great about it. So you're going to feel good talking about Georgia Tech then? Absolutely. Very nice things to say about your rivals. No, but we can talk about it. Looking forward to it. All right, so Georgia, Georgia Tech. Let's break down the game. Dogs capping their second straight perfect SEC season. Just the third team to do that since 1992. They got Georgia Tech today. They're going to be scoring a four in a row in this series. What do they need to be careful of later today? We know their favorite. You know, one thing is taking care of the football. They have struggled in last few games, and it has not hurt them. But when you look at Georgia Tech, and their wins this season, they are plus 10 in the turnover differential. So that means if you turn the football over, most times Georgia Tech's going to find a way to win. So Georgia has to take care of the football and not give them extra opportunities. If you do, they're going to say this week. He played at Tech while I played at Georgia. We played against each other and we've spent some summers together and have a lot of respect for him as a coach. He played there. And when you've got someone that played at that university and that's their alma mater, there's a certain level of want to desire to represent the university the right way. And, you know, when he, they won the first game. They beat two top 25 teams within his head coach. That's Kirby talking about interim head coach, Brent Key for Georgia Tech. And they've got to be feeling pretty good coming up a road win against number 13 North Carolina. How much tech can that confidence help them? It is because you went on the road, you beat a ranked opponent, you beat them in a place that nobody expected you to go win the ball game. Everybody expected North Carolina to roll grade you, but you came out and you played hard, you played physical, talking to some people at North Carolina. They said they dominated them on the line of scrimmage. So that's something you don't really hear out of tech teams or team teams. Line of scrimmage going on the road. The toughness, the turnover battle, like you mentioned, here's what Brent Key had to say about the rivalry, why it's so important to the jackets. It's easy to say this is the next game on the schedule, but it's Georgia and we're Georgia Tech and that's why you come to school here to play in this football game and to be able to sit here and be able to coach in this football game. It's an honor and I'm really, really excited to get out there and get these guys excited. All right, so Georgia and Georgia Tech today at noon and really, I hope you got two TVs at home or at least you get the remote a good workout. Another great one starting at 12 o'clock today, Michigan and Ohio State winner with an inside track to the college football playoff. It's our Zaxby's indescribably good game of the week and Shock, what are you seeing this one break down for us? Yeah, that's an interesting one. I'm no Michael Jenkins J.J. McCartney from the other side from Michigan. They both run the football really well. Blake Corm, they all star Heisman Hoefel, running back. You can see right here got hurt in the previous week. Does he play? There's so many facets of this game but it's in Columbus. Everybody speaks Ohio State to go win. Michigan beat a blaster. Is this a revenge game for them? This game should be everything that is, you know, kind of choked up to be I cannot wait to see the highlights of the game at noon here on Fox 5. And Shock, you got to head to Athens pretty soon, man. I hope they either got the helicopter or you got an ultra peach pass or something. I've got it. I got it. Maybe I got a little police escort. Yeah, they got to take care of me. All right. All right. Drake London caught his fourth touchdown of the season last week. Might be counting on even more with Cowpins. One tough part of being a wide receiver is to make catches and this week's going deep. I think the biggest thing is getting your hands up under it is the biggest thing finding the placement with that and knowing whether it's going to be a hands catch or a body catch. So you kind of have to feel that out when you're out there for yourself. It's kind of hard to explain for me even. But yeah, get your hands up under it and just make sure that your hands are the one touching the ground off the ball. So you have to feel it out if it's a hands catch in terms of what you do. I would say a really really low ball. You're probably going to end up using your hands unless you're falling to the ground. But it's just all judgment. If you catch your body then do that in a more safe secure way but if you could catch it with your hands you got strong hands then I would do that too. Drake London looking for some more catches today. Meanwhile back to back weeks the Falcons have gone into specifics on it. In this segment we tell you about injuries and it's important to note this one is timely but it's not specifically about pits in his injury just a general overview on what he is reportedly dealing with. Want to get to know what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and what's going on and what's happening dealing with Want to get that clear here is Dr Kyle Hammond on MCL injuries this week's Emery Road Recovery. MCL Injuries the medial collateral ligament this big thick ligament on the inside part of the knee medial outside part of the knee is lateral the medial collateral ligament is like a hinge so it helps save your outside of their knee then their knee could collapse in and as their knee collapses in the MCL or the medial collateral ligament can stretch or it can tear and so this is a very very common injury in football as you can imagine you think about all the people who are getting hit into their knee getting tackled and in those types of things there's grades with MCL injuries so we grade them grade one two and three we keep it simple grade one is when it's just a mild sprain where there's just a little bit of disruption or a little bit of stretching of the ligament and although it's something that's noticeable and a little bit painful the degree of injury is fairly mild it heals fast it gets back to normal pretty quickly and a lot of times there's minimal downtime from a grade one MCL injury guys can sometimes even play through it or maybe not miss the next game grade two is more of a medium-sized sprain or a medium-sized tearing and then grade three is when the fibers of the ligament actually tear completely both of those two injuries will still heal naturally on their own but they just take a little bit longer because there's a little more disruption of the tissue and so sometimes a grade two MCL which is very common injury can take two weeks even up to four weeks a grade three can take five six weeks even up to eight weeks depending on the location of the tear thanks doc it will be a high five homecoming tomorrow for taylor hynek a miles would tell you about his road to the nfl next owner of the birds has been presented to you by missa these bands the best or nothing falcons fans score a touchdown with low tire prices at mavis tires and brakes the official tire retailer of the elana falcons visit mavis tire dot com to find a store near you all right shock time for our play of the day presented by lucra the new friendly competition app here's the question falcons play in so many close games will sunday's game be decided by one possession uh i would say the thousand played so many games that came out of one possession i say this one continues the trend oh man i it's hard to disagree with you on that time after time it comes down to that last play that they finished it up defense shut the door last week if you want to compete head to head with your friends just scan the q r code on your screen we've got plenty of former high five stars playing quarterback in the nfl but unlike justin fields or trevor laurance taylor heineke took a less likely path to nfl starter our miles garret takes a look guys i simply cannot keep up with the amount of high five stars the falcons are playing each and every week today we're discussing the house of heineke taylor heineke over a decade ago he was playing just up the road at collins hill with the eagles setting records left and right winning games that leads to a career at old dominion where guess what he does pretty much exactly the same thing wins the walter patent award as the best player in fcs that leads to the nfl an undrafted free agent for the minnesota vikings often on the practice squad there things don't work out so he goes to the new england patriot's very short stint there only there for a month after that the houston texans he gets in for one game and one throw he gets injured doesn't last in houston so where next the carolina panthers he has one start there's first start against the atlanta falcons one touchdown three interceptions it's not a great game but not too bad he does get hurt in that game however once again so he decides to go to the xfl gets drafted there but coronavirus pandemic happens he doesn't get to play so later in 2020 he gets signed by the washington football team then the washington commanders now pretty good so far he has a great game last year two and oh the last few weeks let's hope the house of heineke doesn't strike again tomorrow guys miles thanks so much dj real quick one player to watch tomorrow chaser young comes back make sure we block him oh yeah need to block up front that's the key all right for dj i'm justin hope you had a great holiday weekend enjoy the game tomorrow see you next week