 ahead on early birds. The bolts are in town, but it's the Falcons hoping lightning strikes for their fourth straight home win. Plus, we sit down one-on-one with Atlanta's standout rookie receiver, Jake Matthews shows off his fancy footwork. If you've ever been crossed, we're probably in bad shape. And college football in the south is in great shape with a huge showdown in Athens. We'll break it all down, plus lots more on early birds. Welcome to early birds. I'm Justin, the first place Falcons. We're in first place. First place Falcons. How about we're saying that? Let's get things started with the opening drive and shock. Falcons and chargers tomorrow here on Falcons. Before we get to that game, let's talk about the trade deadline earlier this week. Falcons will be back in the second season, but the big news trading former first round pick Calvin Ridley to Jacksonville shock. Something just inside of me, I'm sure a lot of Falcons fans just felt like his was over. A new regime, we've seen so many guys come and go. You just felt like Calvin Ridley in return, and you probably would not see him in a Falcons uniform again. This is exactly what happened. He's a great player, did a lot for his team and his organization. We wanted to move on and start playing. Got a pair of draft picks from the J. Which picks depends on how Ridley does in Jacksonville. Arthur Smith didn't say much about the decision. Sounded like it was a spur of the moment decision. There's a million different ways these negotiations happen. Explaining that wasn't some short term that happened at the trade deadline, but those were long. Long process. Leave it at that. As we continue on the opening drive, let's talk about the game this week. The L.A. Chargers, they've got a great passing attack. Fourth in the league in passing yards per game. Falcons just let PJ Walker throw for over 300. They got some injuries in the secondary still. So DJ, what kind of concerns do you have? Well, he's a lot better passer. He's more of an accurate passer as well. PJ Walker missed a bunch of throws, especially early in the ball game. I expect him to come out and throw it accurately. He's completing 65% of his passes, only throwing four interceptions. He's pretty good throwing the rocks. I expect those type of days where we got to be on our P's and Q's, and hopefully you get to them. Doesn't play corner or safety, but he's ready to face the challenge that the Chargers offer. This team, you know, they passed the ball a ton, so they're going to try to spread us out. We're going to try to make sure that we stay in the box game, but when they start spreading this out, you know, we got to just make sure that we stay at our physicality. As we wrap up the opening drive, we're already set at once. Falcons fans hopefully are going to stay in it one more time. Atlanta, yes, the Falcons atop the NFC South first time by themselves in that position since early 2017 and a stretch of some winnable games ahead Chargers. But shot, can Atlanta stay there and just look at where all year long. They've been in every game. They've had a chance to win all these games and it's been a chance to win every game. This is a team that's highly competitive. You think about coming up fairs, the commanders, you've got a really good chance to run out and get a good stretch of games, especially against the Panthers to the games and get really over 500 and make a run toward the playoffs at home this year. I'm Justin Felder and the Falcons defense. They've got some reasons to be concerned. But Austin Eckler, real good running back and we go back to the passing game. They throw him the ball. This guy has 53 catches on season, which leads the team to lead Russia to make sure we account for him and everything they do. I'm already smiling, thinking about our next one. Shock. I know the film room is burning up the quarter mile. I'll see the correlation. Go warm up the illustrator. We'll see you in a few. But first, Drake London gets to face a team from his hometown this weekend. Kind of the Los Angeles Chargers moved from San Diego to high school and he told me among his buddies back home, the chargers are kind of like the Clippers to the Lakers playing second fiddle. So when he and I sat down one on one this week, I asked Drake who he cheered for his childhood team was inspired by a former Georgia Tech and high five sports phenom. I was a fan of the Lions growing up because of Megatron. It's simply just because of him. Somebody that idolized and just loved watching him attack the ball every play. Have you had a chance to meet him in Atlanta? No, coach Kerry Colbert back at SC. We would go on zooms with him a couple of times during COVID year. He would just give us a game and tips. He would do a little bit, nearly halfway through your rookie season. What kind of midterm grade do you give yourself right now? A midterm grade. Me personally I'm hard on myself, so I know I still have a lot that's left out there on the table. So I'll probably give myself a B minus, a B maybe. What would take you from a B minus or a B to an A for the second half? Just making my plays and contributing on all levels of the field, whether it's blocking, catching the ball down the field or getting some yak. I'm glad you mentioned blocking. How fast was your quarterback going on that run there? You were right alongside him. Man, I was yelling at Marcus. Get behind me. You know, you can get a little extra, but that man's been fast since I could ever remember him in college, so I got to feel it on the field for real speed. He got the yardage and that's all I'm at. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with the blocking. One thing that I've noticed with you is if you have a chance to hit somebody after a catch, you're going to. I mean, how do you describe your physicality? Just bringing every play, you know, Coach Arthur Smith. He jokes about it all the time, whether I'm a soft Cali guy or I'm this guy from LA to this that, but I just try to prove it every day on the practice field that I'm an able blocker and I can't help this team. It's not in your drive description, but the team made a big trade, traded away a former first-round pick at wide receiver and that's not your business, but when you see that, does it give you a boost of confidence to know that, hey, they're comfortable moving forward with you as the guy at wide receiver for the foreseeable future? Um, I wouldn't say comfortable. I would never say comfortable because you can't be comfortable in this job at all, you know. Again, that wasn't any of my business so I didn't really pay it no mind. I'm here, so I'm going to be in the present and just try to give them my best. I have to ask you a little basketball. The pox are back. Have you made it to a game? Have you heard from Onyeka? Have you heard from Trey at all? That's funny that you just said that. I was talking to O probably two days ago and just told him like, hey, I know you guys started. Like, I want to come out to the game. He came out to the Saints game, so we may do a jersey swap or something like that, which would be pretty, pretty cool. They might need a wing off the bench. You give them a few minutes if they need you. Uh, hey, if they give me a 10 day contract, I wouldn't be mad. Let's talk about the defense now. We talked a lot about the offense, but let's talk about how this defense can be very multiple and the things that they show. And this week we got to have to do that because Justin Herbert is a guy who can really cook if you're allowed to see exactly what's going on. Let's start in front with the defense. This is TQ Graham. He is usually a guy that's inside in like a two or three or one technique at times. He's outside. You got Michael Walker on the edge who looks like he's going to blitz, but he's actually going to be covering the tight end right off the edge. So what happens here is this is a great job by Richie Grant. This is, I'm going to show you the rock combination here. You got a seam running up the middle and then you're going to have an end cut on the outside. They got to pay attention to Richie Grant right off the edge because I think he confuses the quarterback because he disguises it so well. The quarterback thinks he has a throw in here, but he really doesn't. As watch this play get started, this is a nice job here. You see you got the coverage on the outside but let's go back just for a half a second here. Here's Richie Grant. He looks like he's inside and he's going to be covering this guy. To the quarterback, his eyes says, okay, he has him. Now I could throw this end cut with no problem. But at the end of this play, why did Richie Grant come off this guy and end up on the inside and causes an incompletion here? The quarterback is already throwing the football. He's peeled off and now this is a very sketchy throw for Richie Grant on the inside and this quarterback and he does a good job of coming off of it and being clear and causing the incompletion. These are the type of plays you need from this Falcons defense, delusions. Doing a lot of great things to disguise. You can do that. You got a great chance of getting over it, confusing him for more than anything. Maybe getting an interception there, Justin. Secondary will be in the spotlight tomorrow's shock. We've got more to come on early birds and speaking of the spotlight, it is shining bright on Athens today in the college football world. Basically a play in game for the SEC championship. Michael Jenkins is here to break it all down. Plus what makes it so hard is you're practically backpedaling as they're sprinting into you full speed. I'm falling over just thinking about it. Jake Matthews says it takes fancy footwork to fit in on the Falcons. O-line, they'll explain next and go in deep. Falcons fans, score a touchdown with low tire prices at Mavis Tires and Breaks, the official tire retailer of the Atlanta Falcons. Visit MavisTire.com to find a store near you. The birds is presented by Mercedes Benz. The best or none. And brought to you by Georgia Latter. Today could be the day. By truas we're committed to a better future. By Home Depot, how do is get more done. Since talk a little college ball, brought to you by truas. B-B-N-T and SunTrust are now truas. Here again is Fox 5's Justin Felder. Hi, welcome back into Early Birds and we welcome in former Falcons wide receiver Michael Jenkins talking college football. No question what the game of the day is. Georgia and Tennessee in Athens. How you feeling? You ready for this one? I don't think we need to talk about anything else. That's the game of the day. I tell you what, we're going to dive deep into this one and that's because it is our Zaxby's indescribably good game of the week. Georgia and Tennessee. 330 in Athens. Top two teams in the AP poll. You see the numbers there though. Tennessee actually number one in the playoff ranking. So Jake, let's start with the Georgia side of things. What is the dog's biggest strength in this game? What should be given DJ and the rest of the dog's fans a lot of confidence? Obviously their defense only given up 10 points a game and that's something that they're going to really need to hold true for their offense. So starting off with the defense, another missing Nolan Smith, a big piece of that defense, but being able to slow down hitting Hooker in that offense putting up 50 points a game. You made a great point with Nolan Smith there. A leader on that defense. A lot of other guys would need to step up. Here's what Kirby Smart had to say. We got an outside linebacker ring we feel comfortable with. Those guys play outside linebacker, those MJ Sherman and Marvin. All those guys do a good job. They'll get chas, they'll get reps again. That's the next man up. I mean those guys have to play. They practice every day just like Nolan does. They have to have an opportunity to go play. I mean it's the next man up with the two's practice every day. Our threes practice every day. Our scouts practice every day and those are the guys that will have to go play. Alright, so those are the Georgia side of things. Let's talk about the Tennessee side of things. Last year they lost in the Music City Bowl two years ago. They had three wins. So when you've watched this as a college football fan, how have they turned things around so fast? Josh Hype was done a great job with this team. I mean obviously you have a guy like Hinden Hooker who's 29 touchdown passes one pick so far in the season. Like we said earlier, averaging 50 points a game. So for them to go to Athens they're going to have to start fast and try to get a lead early to try and win this game. You saw the bracket there a moment ago. Number one in the playoff rankings. What is that makes this offense tick though? Is it as simple as the quarterback? I mean it's the quarterback as the dynamic players they have around them and it's the speed of play that you're talking about me being at the Alabama game and the front line of Bama just couldn't do anything because they're so tired with the speed that Tennessee plays at. Interesting. Here's what the ball has been saying this week. You can win a game with confidence because you paid the price, you've worked, you prepared to go out and play the right way. So yeah, both teams I'm sure are confident and should be. You know, for us this week preparation is going to be key. You know, we talked about, you know, a team of hope, a team of belief. And that spectrum a year ago because of our work habits, you know, not just during training camp or during the season, but you know the work habits since we got back last January. There's an expectation within our locker room. Alright, so George in Tennessee today. Last match up to talk about starting to do an all SEC day. Sorry, your big 10. Alabama and LSU, it's a big one. LSU kind of quietly going about their business 10th in the playoff rankings. Could they make their own push and challenge the Crimson Tide in the SEC West? They definitely could. Alabama this year. Struggle on the road at Texas at Arkansas. Obviously losing at Tennessee. Now they go down to LSU where LSU beat a very good Ole Miss team. That was ranked top 10. So they're playing at a high clip. We could be seeing playing games for both sides of the SEC championship today. Jag, we appreciate it. You better get on the road soon. Traffic and Athens not going to be pretty today. I know I'm looking forward to that. So I got to get out of here, man. I appreciate you guys to be an NFL team. It could be big, but success often comes down to your feet. Jake Matthews is one of the best at it. He says being a good old lineman starts from the ground up. Here's Jake to explain and this week's going deep. As an offensive lineman, I guess I'm going to make it as simple as possible. You're either run blocking or pass blocking. And when you're pass blocking, I guess what makes it so hard is you're practically backpedaling as they're sprinting into you full speed. And the goal is you know, don't let them get around you or throw you to the quarterback. And you got to basically backpedal, keep your balance and react to whatever they're doing. So the easiest way I could explain it, I guess, is keep a good base. If you ever feeder together or cross, you're probably in bad shape. These guys are really good. They'll make you look like a fool really quick. So that's just the footwork part of it. Then you got to use your hands. If you don't use your hands, the guy is just going to run around you. So there's a lot that goes into it. It might look weird and a lot of people don't get it, but it's extremely hard. All very cool from Jake speaking of O. Lyman, former Georgia Bulldog, making his presence felt in LA. You'll hear about him next on Early Birds. You're watching Early Birds, presented by Mercedes-Benz on your official home for Falcons football, Fox 5 and Linn. It's always important to stretch those hammies before playing in an NFL game or if you're like DJ and I just before doing housework, anything like that. Can't be too careful. Unfortunately, hamstring injuries all too common in the NFL, but what exactly happens when that muscle is strained? Dr. Kyle Hammond explains in this week's Emory Road to Recovery. The hamstring muscles are the four muscles on the back of the thigh to start up near your butt and go down to your knee. Very important muscles with sprinting, very important muscles with, you know, strength, things that you'll do propelling your body forward. And so as muscle strains occur, again, similar to MCL injuries, they are injured on a grade 1, 2 and 3 scale based off of how much muscle disruption there is. The other unique thing about hamstring injuries is if they occur closer to the butt or the middle part of the thigh or towards the knee, they can also have a differing timeline as far as how the body will heal and how long it takes to get better. I also mentioned that there's four hamstring muscles, so sometimes it's more than one hamstring muscle that's involved and if that's the case, that also can change the timeline returning to play from a hamstring injury. And they can take anywhere from a week to up to six weeks to get better, heal themselves and have the athlete safely return to play. Other things that we do with hamstring injuries is we also utilize biologic injections for hamstring injuries. So we use plate leverage plasma or PRP and we use stem cell injections and these types of biologic injections have been shown in some instances to try to help speed up a little bit of the healing process and allow that athlete to get back out of the field safely and sooner. Alright, thanks, Doc. He'll always be a doll, but now he's proving to be a pretty good charger. Hajimari Sawyer is earning the respect of his teammates. That's next on Early Burns. MavisTaya.com to find a store near you. Alright, time for our play of the day presented by Lucra, the new friendly competition app. Here's the question shock. Who's going to have more points this weekend? Georgia. That's a good one. That's a good one. I'm going to go with Georgia because it's going to be a high shootout, I think, with Devin Tennessee. I don't know. Those college games you think will be a shootout, they always tend to be low score and sneak up on you, but Falcons can score. Justin Herbert can throw it on. Could go either way. If you want to compete head to head with your friends, just scan the QR code on your screen. Well, we get to see one of our former high five favorites on the opposing sideline tomorrow. I remember me and you were at the NFL Combine. We were watching the Olimon bench press and they were all saying I don't want to do it right now. Who was the one of the few exceptions to bench? Jamari. Jamari Sawyer. Yeah, the big man out of UGA and PACE Academy. He's been a real hit, picked into the sixth round. I don't I don't know that either made his first start last month. Didn't give up a single pressure and check this video out from from back his first start teammates, his head coach, they they recognize his effort. My first start. This is his game ball. We know that it took a team for him to earn it. All right, Jamari Sawyer. Rookie sixth round picked Jamari Sawyer. All right, Falcons in charges tomorrow. One more match up to watch the Olimon bench press. Who he probably have seen, Khalil Mack. We have to make sure we know he's at it all the time because guess what? He can ruin everything for us if we don't get him blocked up. Always at. Lot of Olimon talking this show and for very good reason. That'll be something to watch on both sides of the ball. Well, that's it for us on Early Birds for our quarterback DJ Shockley. I'm Justin Felder. Thanks for joining us. Have a good morning and a great weekend.