 What's up everybody and welcome to another edition of the falcons final whistle podcast I'm Scott bear with the story Mackalani and Chris rim and not only is this the next Edition of falcons final whistle. It's a special Edition of falcons final whistle. We are coming to you live from Indianapolis, Indiana where it's a balmy 35 degrees outside No, no, no, that's that's false. That's false. It's actually not that bad Media off the top Wow, call me on the carpet already. I was wearing a big jacket that I thought was necessary Maybe I was factoring in the wind chill, right? It's like a solid like 50 degrees. I'm from San Diego. Okay. Leave me alone Literally says 62 right now The real field can't be 62, but it doesn't 62 y'all aren't gonna let me start this over high like we're just gonna let my Man and then in the next life hang out there for everyone. I appreciate that Nonetheless off the rails in less than five minutes. We've set a new record for non sequiturs Anyway, we are in Indianapolis, Indiana. The weather is up for debate in terms of its impact The bottom line is that we've spent most of our time indoors that was gonna be my segue till it was destroyed It's been most of our time indoors talking to Arthur Smith and Terry Fountainau about the state of the Falcons as we head towards free agency and what they need to do and Obviously asked about some major players that are still on this roster and what needs to get set up because it's crazy We're at the combine and people are focused on draft prospects But they're gonna start signing veterans in like very soon March 16th is the new league year There's a lot of tasks that have yet to be completed for Arthur Smith and Terry Fountainau We're gonna break down everything that those guys had to say moving forward throughout the Throughout the course of this podcast before we get to some of the bigger topics that were discussed There was also the issue of Matt Ryan and Calvin Ridley. That's been routinely asked at every press availability since December Terry and Arthur one right about the status of Calvin Ridley and Matt Ryan's long-term future it will surprise no one in this listening audience That Terry and Arthur had no official update on Calvin Ridley But also said that they understand the frustrations of why people want to know but they can't discuss it at this time And they promised to at a more appropriate time and then with Matt Ryan we got Pretty typical stuff. I think with some stronger and more colorful language Arthur Smith said that basically that they anticipate having Matt Ryan on the team So you could take that part of the quote or if you want to have fun on social media You can take the other part of the quote which is to say we anticipate having him on the team Unless we get an offer we can't refuse. So you picked your headline, right? So nonetheless Chris let's start with you your impressions on the non news with Calvin Ridley Like what did you take from what you heard about Ridley and Matt Ryan? Yeah, I think they seemed like I don't I don't want to exaggerate it But I feel like they seemed a little bit more talkative than I expected in terms of Arthur Smith and Terry not to say that they were Abnormal like super abnormal that they were saying a lot of things but I just I didn't expect Arthur to say multiple times that if there's an offer because he's never said that To he's been asked the question, but he's never said that and you and I I think oftentimes I wonder you know these guys are I don't I don't want to think I'm smarter than these guys But they both said things here Where there was more media National media and they both said things that they've never said before While being asked questions that they've been asked before so whether it was Arthur saying that comment is saying it twice We're knowing that it was within a full quote and it was essentially what he's already said without saying it But he said it explicitly and then Terry saying We have four these these things in the room elephants in the room that we'll get into and and how we have four guys who are Uh, who take up a lot of money particularly our quarterback like That he hasn't said that explicitly before so I that just stood out to me that that the things that they said and and why they chose to say him today It was interesting. Yeah, I have my handrails, um, which is now something that I'm going to start doing Every single time I have something to say so that we're not like talking over each other because I tend to do that I'll lie I tend to interrupt I've been listening back on our pods and I'm like, oh my gosh Like I should just just let Scott and Chris talk my gosh any who Um, so something that I thought was really interesting about everything that terry and Arthur said today Was how little it actually had to do with the combine I think it's hilarious. We were talking after they like after terry and Arthur Did their podium speak and then they also came over and talked to local media And it was just so funny to me how we were talking to them about free agency salary cap Uh, resigning potential free agents all like what dominoes need to fall like all this kind of stuff Very we talked very little about the combine And I think that is so important to talk about Because I think it's such a good example of where the falcons organization is as a whole that we are at the combine And we are talking about salary cap constraints free agency And I think it's really important. I think it goes to something that sky I know it's going to be working on is like how All of these things work collectively together and one thing doesn't happen without something else Like you you have to have the money to sign your draft class So you got to go and you got to restructure some contracts if you want to resign this free agent You got to do this I mean that to me I thought was very evident in everything that Arthur Smith and terry fought now we're talking about at the combine Yeah, and um just to address that calvin really thinks specifically because it's such a A flashpoint topic around the league. There's been a couple national reports in the last seven days Um about it. Is the fact of the matter is is it continues to be no update? Um I think terry again back to chris's point that they knew they were in front of a national media audience with all Eyes pointed towards them with every reporter covering the NFL and basically on planet earth They're in front of them and uh, you know, it's really say, hey, we understand the frustration We understand that that that people want answers that we can't give right now And I think that that's a fair thing to say and while we have to keep asking and I think they appreciate the fact That we have to keep asking it's their right to say hey, man um, we can't really go too far into this the one thing that I would anticipate is that There needs to be some resolution at some point and that's not just because there's 11 and plus million dollars with this receiver or the fact that I think calvin ridley is an amazing talent go read chris rim's story about him as a route runner him as a football player He's incredible. Um, and I think all those things factor into it and everybody wants to know where he's going to land And they're trying to interject and speculate and I think that's one thing we've done a good job of not doing Right not trying to say why you know might he want a fresh start? Why are they saying this or that and just kind of presenting here's the situation? Here's why it's a huge deal. I think we understand that we know you as fans want to know more And this is just me talking here I think that the falcons and maybe calvin needs some resolution at some point This is just me talking here right that at some point that It's that it has to get kind of figured out So the falcons understand where their needs are where their priorities are how much money they had to spend moving forward And that will continue to be a major storyline Until something is decided and more and and there are finally news updates So with all that being said we're going to address a lot of kind of big picture stuff as to where you pointed out Yeah, we're at the combine not a lot of draft talk yet So we're going to talk about what terry font know talked about what chris alluded to the Elephants in the room, which is a lot of big heavy elephants with big heavy cap numbers So we're going to talk about that we're going to talk about kind of free agency and the fact that Falcons were making some sales pitches here at the combine and also about what maybe they have to do some hard choices And decisions to try to open up catch face and what kind of timeline that they have to Follow to get all those things done But before we do that the big thank you to our sponsor microsoft windows 11 The official operating system of the nfl and the inlanta falcons the all new windows 11 is here to bring you closer to what you love Like this falcons final whistle podcast learn all about the awesome new features of windows 11 At windows.com. So let's get to the elephants in the room. I thought it was very descriptive christ I thought you wrote a great story About what terry font know was referring to so i'll just put it out there on a t for you here Give give fans some background about what he was saying and kind of what he meant addressing those elephants Yeah, well, he was Pretty obvious in talking about the the four elephants. I mean you could you go and say they have maybe One more than four, but they're definitely four elephants with you got four guys who are at least a 20 million dollar cap hits this year and Deon jones jake matthew's gradey jared and matt ryan and he pointed out the biggest the humongous elephant the biggest elephant in the nfl In matt ryan. He made him stand alone in terms of saying, you know particularly our quarterback so It was it was terry font know the general manager who mentioned that and I think essentially what he was just saying was that You know, we we know what the conversation is around our team. We know what fans are talking about we understand what's going on and What he also said was we want to have our cake and eat it too. So the falcons could easily trade all four of those players and come out with You know looking good for the future maybe with a lot of picks with a lot of space under the under the salary cap The team could look completely different But the falcons wouldn't be competitive or at least as competitive as they could be with those players So what terry was essentially saying to me and I think to everyone who heard it and maybe read the story is that We're going to find ways to navigate this cap situation to navigate our four elephants However, we do that he mentioned either converting money whether it's cutting people whether it's making trades specifically getting value on inexpensive one-year deals free agents and we'll get to that with a story that tory wrote but Maximizing that we're going to make sure that we're competitive And we are rebuilding for the future. So This summer that looks like the falcons not being big spenders on day one Not being big spenders in the early part of free agencies similarly to last year Being patient having that patience to say We can't do that right now because we have to look towards the future and kind of work with what we have now But we still want to compete said specifically You know, we're not working to win another game next year We're working to build a championship roster a championship You need to use the word culture but championship roster So a team that could compete long-term versus we went all in this summer and we got a big player But it only translated into one win and it didn't move the needle much so what though he said was was Seemed like pragmatic and it made sense in terms of how to look at the falcons And I thought it was kind of the the most honest assessment we've got from him and in a while I completely agree with that and something that I have been looking up recently, you know, he's talking about the big um the the four big elephants in the room and um, I have been looking a lot at the salary cap and um, I don't have these numbers right in front of me So don't like quote me on this but just going off at the top of my head if i'm remembering these numbers correctly If you take Matt Ryan, Grady Jarrett, Jake Matthews, Deon Jones and Calvin Ridley's cap hit in 2022 It's it makes up 127 million of the falcons allotted 208 million That per the salary cap. So that's gigantic. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, please back to you Yes, back to you Doreen the studio. Um, I'm not in the studio. I'm at the hotel. Um, so that is a whopping number and I think People have to be realistic about where the falcons organization is at this point in time and chris I'm glad that you brought up the free agency topic because that was something that I spent some time Uh, just kind of diving into after we talked to terry and arthur and I thought it was really interesting that essentially the falcons are going to have to do What they did in 2021 which was sign these mid-level free agent veterans And they're going to have to do it on cap friendly deals And so when you're talking about this and talking about having to do this again for the second year in a row In order to build upon it in order to be in a better spot in 2023 I thought it was really interesting that terry font. No goes on the podium and says It look at the cordial patterson example This is the example of what we're trying to do in this offseason We're trying to find some value picks that kind of fall through the wayside of the the first round The first wave of free agency And we want to go out and get them and we want to have a vision for them And we want to be able to execute that vision maybe in a way that other people think that they can't be executed I mean you you look at cp and what he did I don't think anyone was going into the 2021 season thinking that He was going to produce at the clip that he did from an offensive standpoint So when you're thinking about this the the falcons are like look here And this goes back to what scott was saying about how terry kind of went up there and had a sales pitch He really was selling this organization to these mid-level free agent veterans that that we're talking about He he goes up there and he says like essentially Look what we did with cordial patterson. Look look what our coaching staff did Look look at what the production was for a guy like cp Who's in his twilight years of his career and also he's he throws a little sprinkle in you know Who wouldn't want to live in atlanta, you know, it's good for the singles. It's good for the married folk Like he addressed everybody Okay So he has this this whole pitch and this is the pitch that and Chris this goes back to exactly what you're saying like when you're at the combine you have all of these people and all of these ears and Every media person and every tv camera and all that kind of stuff There's nothing that said that's that doesn't have a point So the fact that terry fauna wants to go up at the nfl combine and talk about free agency And how they want to find these value picks and how atlanta is quote an attractive place to be I think that is super important to the conversations that we're going to have in the coming month as the falcons kind of tackle Building this roster because they're not going to be able to do it with a big splash free agent signing terry fauna said that he was like We're not going to we're not going to be big players Day one of free agency because they can't they don't have the money to do that So this is going to be a a longer play as we saw last year So it's going to be Important and I want everyone to remember this sales pitch because I would love to know when We get to the point where we're talking to these free agents that they're going to sign If they heard that and if that resonated with them Yeah, yeah I hate to be like Like a devil's advocate or kind of a debbie downer in the room here, right? But so like cordial patterson kim like him can be that guy and he was exceptional and the mvp And deserves a raise from what he got last year and we'll get it from the falcons or somewhere else How many free agents did the falcon sign right and how many are examples of that and the reason why I say that is not to Just be like pessimistic, but it's hard. It's hard to find Players at that level of their career to be able to Step in and give that type of production. That's not a gold standard. That's like That's like stratospheric when it comes to the type of Return that you can get from a free agent from this class from that class of free agents from second third especially third wave and Beyond free agent so I think for as much as the terry font knows setting expectations for what the falcons are going to do in free agency He's trying to pitch the people that they can currently afford. I think that's important I also think it's an important front for fans to understand that it's difficult, right? It's also I'm gonna go off on another tangent now. That's part a part b is this Um going back to what terry was saying about rebuild To rebuild or not to rebuild, right? Like that's the Hamlet type question and nonetheless When you get into it, right rebuild has been a four letter word around here since I arrived in july He's terry fawn. I'll say that it's disrespectful to the people in the room to rebuild Okay, I've also covered a team in the Raiders that took a scorched earth Mushroom cloud approach to their salary cap problems. They cut everybody Even if they were attached to the ship, they were just they were getting rid of everybody They were trading everybody. They didn't care about dead money hits. They didn't care about anything They went four and 12 or three straight years, which they essentially did. That's fine for them Right. That was their approach this the full strip down Um terry fawn knowing the falcons are not going to do that And I think that that's admirable But to chris's point, which was a really good one that I think fans don't think about enough, right? You want to be competitive, but you don't want to sacrifice Your long-term vision To go from seven to eight wins, right? What does that do for you? You want to compete to to have a chance to get to the playoffs and maybe things go differently this In the coming year than they went for the team last year But you don't want to try to move heaven and earth For one victory, right? You don't want to try to do that. So at some point you look at At the level of discipline that they're going to need to have right And they're going to have to be steadfast and they're resolved to not go chase one win But to chase their but to stay with stay with their long-term vision while not completely Decimating the whole thing. Um, that's me talking for a very long time I think about that. Yeah, I think I was also saying in terms of the free agents maximizing free agents The I think the bangles are also an example of that in terms of yeah They signed uh, ricardo allen and elia apple and I mean tray hundrickson was a was a bigger deal and uh Shidoe was a bigger deal. But um, they got they got value out of elia apple He made a big play and I know he was kind of getting The business on social media a little bit, but he made a play in the in the afc championship and Um, those guys that they got on one year one million dollar deals and things like that they Were crucial in getting them to the super bowl. So I think there's other teams also who you can see like Also, tray hundrickson was a big role. So I don't want to you know discredit him and they paid a more a significant amount for him but just saying how You can not necessarily break the bank Ridiculously and still, you know, maybe maximize those players without hurting yourself in the long run um, so the question is Or the next part of it is they've got to free up some cap space period to do anything Uh, correct me if I'm wrong from the chris rim story Over the cap.com. There's 7 million over 7.3 7.3 million over so they've got to maneuver and do some things just to get To a point where they can be under the cap now what a lot of people don't realize you don't have to be under the cap until You have your final 53 But financially you've got to get under the cap. So you know what you're spending and you don't enter a Black hole you can't get out of in the fall. But anyway, um, in order to open up some cap space They've got some options and Opportunities in front of them to try to do those things our good friend and fellow Falcons contribute your steve White on nfo network was talking the other day about some possibilities that We've all discussed right that you could extend jake matthews. You could extend grady jaret Um, you could trade calvin ridley. You could redo matt ryan's deal, which steve called a code red option I think was the term that he used Um, but there are some ways to do those things I let arthur smith and his conversation with local media not the one on the podium that you'll see in videos everywhere Was pretty candid about the fact that like it takes two to tango, right? Like they can want to extend jake matthews will have to come up with a deal Right or they what they can want to trade somebody they got to go find a trade partner for for good compensation They could only get rid of a person if they sign somebody else. There's so many variables here That you know that there just have to be a lot of contingency plans, right tory that you were kind of talking about this earlier That there's a lot of moving parts. There's not just one plan. They're going to execute execute execute and then sign people Right. I mean, this is a very complicated thing Yeah, no, you're you're absolutely right. And I think it's It's one of those things that it's uh, it's kind of like uh Um, where you you can I don't know if y'all used to play those video games There was this like so I used to play these video games It's like a barbie like video game and it was like if you made one move Then this was where you went if you made another move This was the car that you bought like and it was kind of like build build your barbie life or something like that and I I'll all of the men viewers or listeners just went Dear god have her shut up, please But no I have a point to make um And barbie's gonna help me do it. So that is essentially That is a card immediately Please please do That is essentially what the falcons are having to do right like if they like let's just use this as an example And this is not me saying the falcons are going to do this But let's just use the linebacker's room as an example Let's say the falcons restruct or let's say the falcons resign foyer. Let's say they part ways with deon Let's say they go into the draft knowing that they're not going to have deon and they need to draft a linebacker All of that changes if they decide to keep deon all of that changes if they can't come to an agreement with foyer like There are so many things that dictate Where the falcons go in the draft who the falcons go after in free agency? Who's a trade candidate? I mean it it really is like a piecing it together as you go to see what you have available It's not as easy as saying like oh, we're gonna restructure matt for the 500th time So that we can have the money to go out and get an edge rusher It's not that simple, especially when you know that you don't want to like like scott What you were saying like there is Another piece of this it's not like this organization can just go restructure every guy Or extend every guy or resign every guy the clip that they want. There is an agent. There's a union There's players that have a say in how much money they're going to make in 2022 It's not as easy I think people that have this huge misconception that it's just like just restructure this guy to get under the cap It is not that easy. You have to have a person who's willing to work with you in order to do that So that's that's nice feel brought to you and sponsored by barbie Oh god I agree Yeah, I mean it's it's a complicated situation and it's complicated because They don't want to use a rebuild word Right that okay, you could just hack and slash and pile up dead money forever and cut cut cut cut cut cut Right, that's the way that you have complete control over and you can gain some space at it At a huge cost, but then you're taking away your ability to be competitive. So it's a It's a layer cake, man And and I hope and I think That the falcons fans that I engage with in the mail bag Maybe what you you know, there's always extremists, but I feel like There's a core of falcons fans out there that get it, right? That it is a complicated thing and there's no way it's it's non-linear In a way that makes the conversation around these topics kind of difficult, but I do think though, especially if Chris I think really Set the tone for this podcast, but but but just by saying like Okay, like we need to analyze what they said at the podium Right and what they said in that local media scrum and then we gotta like Understand like what their meaning by it is and what their intention with it is like all the free agent stuff around cp Just as Tory pointed out. That's okay. Like that's for the fans. That's also for everybody with like with it within an expiring contract Right, you know, um, so I just think that there are a lot of subtle nuances to it um, but you know again Who wouldn't want gritty Jared around long term, right? You can create some cap space there I think the extensions you think that's saying we want you we're willing to give you more money over a longer term With Matthews and with Jared. That seems to me to be the easiest road forward because it's a positive Um, it's a net positive, but again, can they just get those things done? Right? I mean, I I'm not sure that anything Is a given anything else about you know with free agency coming up guys any other Things you want to raise your hand about Tory? It's about to be an exhausting like I know we're here for The the combine and everything and it's going to be an exhausting week And then we're going to come back and we're going to have a week until the league year starts And then it's just going to start right back over again So I guess everybody just stick with us because we're going to have a ton of content I know today was just the first day of the combine and we wrote what like five or six different stories That are all on the site. I mean that's that's a lot That's a lot a lot of work, but hopefully you guys read it. Enjoy it Um, and let us know if there's any again if there's anything you want us to talk about because we have A ton of off season time to do these podcasts and we really like hearing from you guys. So yeah 100 I will also say that I always hate it when people on the radio do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway And that is that we have a really awesome content series coming up. Am I I gotta tell you what it's about? No Am I No, I'm not I'm gonna leave that all hanging out there, but I've read it. Send your guesses into bear mail. Send your Can be about what it is about baby cakes. It could be about Could be about you know Could be about dating apps. Who knows Just got there Whether baby cakes is gonna hit frequency The answer to that question is no No say no, I'm gonna do it. Mr. Bear Mail. Uh, no No, not not gonna happen. Uh, so that one, uh, that's a question that we can answer for sir Um, but anyway guys, thank you so much, uh for joining us on a podcast again Recorded right here in Indianapolis. Stay tuned to Atlanta falcons.com for massive amounts of coverage as we move forward throughout the course of this week We will we're gonna look at some draft prospects while we're here talk to some draft prospects How it relates to the falcons and again, uh, we got a lot of cool stuff coming up about the draft about free agency It's gonna be a crazy couple weeks and we're gonna be right here at a lot of at alana falcons.com So take y'all through it. I'm scott. That's tori and chris talk to y'all soon