Bussin' With The Boys - Raheem Morris On Why Atlanta Drafted Michael Penix Jr. & What It Means For Kirk Cousins

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Recorded: May 9th 2024 | In our final interview from our trip to Atlanta, the boys sit down with Head Coach Raheem Morris. Coach gets into what it's like building a staff when becoming a head coach and the different coaches he called to come with him. The boys ask him how he got his start in coaching and what he has taken from each stop he has had along the way, including being a part of the 2013 Redskins staff. Coach Morris was the interim head coach for Atlanta 4 years ago but didn't get the head job because they decided to hire Arthur Smith instead. Coach talks about how he feels about being back in the building after they decided not to go with him in the first place. The guys end the pod by talking about the decision to draft Michael Penix Jr. and the conversation that was had between Coach Morris and Kirk Cousins. All in all you can tell that Coach Morris is just another one of the boys and will feel good about the Falcons going into the season. Enjoy. TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS 0:00 What It's Like Building A Roster 1:48 First Coach He Called To Join His Staff 5:58 The Falcons Fit 6:50 2013 Washington Coaching Staff 12:32 How He Got Into Coaching 14:56 Coming Back To Atlanta To Be The Head Coach 19:58 His History With Arthur Blank 24:33 Being A Players Head Coach 27:36 Most Influential Coach On Him 29:33 Drafting Michael Penix Jr. 36:43 Year 10? 41:27 NFL v NBA Debate 43:43 What Would You Do For A Super Bowl?For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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podcasts. Are we starting yet? Sure, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, my bad. But we got a bunch of young guys that are fired up running around. You know, today obviously had to get modified a little bit going indoors, but I am excited. I'm really excited, man, a young team, a young fun team, young coaches, a bunch of guys just... You got a good staff, man. Oh, you know, putting that staff together was a lot of fun. You know, I, um, we delayed the press conference a little bit, and I was out in L.A. and I was able to do that and get that done before my opening press conference. But that was really beneficial for all of us,

getting the time together, working with Terry. So by the time I talked to the masses coming back here in Atlanta, I had already established this really cool relationship with Terry. I'd already established who was going to be coaching where, who was going to be doing what, getting back Jimmy Lake,

having a chance to get Zach Robinson and get that secured and do some interviews with some guys on Zoom, some of the guys that were here, some of the guys that was able to keep. You know, it was a good, it was healthy. Do you keep these guys like,

in your phone or something on a staff you want to hire. A Rolodex. Yeah, when you're about to get a job. You got business cards of theirs. So you never, you never like keep them as a gesture of roller decks. You know, like what happens is when you get the opportunities to interview for some of these jobs, you keep that list. And as you work with people over the years, you start to add people to that list and also take people off. You know, like, and most of the time you add those guys is this great wish list and the opportunity to get them.

And then you've got to try to fit those guys into the best scenario where you're going or wherever you're going, you know. And I was lucky enough to be able to bring a few people from L.A., being able to communicate that with Lesson, I thought was great, being able to communicate that with all the guys, Steve. You met my chief of staff today, Steve Skarnacki, and me to communicate that with him. Put those, let's together also my agent, Brian Levy. And really coming back here, talking to all my Atlanta people and it was fun to bring people back. Yeah, man, you're back. When you get the call and you're going to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, who was your first call to assemble this coaching staff of yours? Who are you most excited to call?

Like, oh, I got a, like, hey, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah. You give them, like, you give him to like, hey, remember that thing we talked about in that bar that one time when we were hammered? So now is the time. You know, it was funny is, it probably was Zach Robinson because they were all out playing golf, I believe. And he was so sought after. Like, people were all calling him. And he had a couple coordinator interviews. And I'm like, bro, hold on.

I think this is going to happen. And once I got the job, I kind of called him to let him. know his wife was pregnant and I wanted to catch him before anything happened. He'll have a baby and Mia has a baby and I'm like, so I probably called him first and I don't know if it was more of excitement or to put some ease in his mind. And then I was able to call a few other people and let them know, you know, Jimmy Lake was one of those people and to get those guys ready to go. So like that was a great time, you know.

Who's someone that might have felt surprised or most excited thinking like, okay, they might be they might be in the wing waiting? Probably Lance shelters, probably Barrett Rood. Barrett was in, Barrett was out. I didn't know what I was going to be at a higher Barrett as, right? Because they had some really good coaches here

and I had put some thoughts in it about potentially be able to keep a guy like Frank Bush. You got how great Frank Bush is. He got a chance to go to Tennessee be one of his better friends. And then I was able to make Barrett Rude the linebacker coach. So being able to get him to come in

was another call that was outstanding and to be able to let him know, hey, I want any of you to be my linebacker coach. And then a coach, a coach, I said. And then he interviewed. And when Frank got the job or took the job, because I was waiting for him a couple of days, the excitement of calling Barrett Roo was outstanding.

Barrett Rood's the best, man. Is he your favorite linebacker you've ever coached or? It's hard to say, man. I've got a plethora of them now. I've got four guys here right now. Yeah, you do know. Well, maybe three and a half. I don't know, you know.

But coaching you. Three and a half, when you said a half, would the half be on the all white team or the all black team? You know, we're going to be on a half. We're going on LSC. He'll let him make that decision. He had the freedom to choose. He has freedom to choose. So you're making all these exciting phone calls.

You obviously make so many relationships as you're like coming up the ranks. Hey, hold on. I want discredit Troy Reader, man. I don't want to miss all my white lines. Chris Roseboom. There'll be a bunch of people calling me after this. Be a little upset. I don't say that.

Sorry. Go ahead with your question. No, no worries. I'm glad we got that out of the way. We just dodged a huge bullet there. Yeah. If you're like making all these phone calls, you're excited about these phone calls. It's a huge opportunity.

What about when those phone calls? men that you know like hey man this hey brother hey are you going to let me get a job am i going to be able to be this or that you kind of have to navigate those situations tell those are always tough but i think you just kind of attack it with brutal honesty when you can because you don't always know right away if you can make it work and a lot of the people that um you hope you can't always give jobs so you can't always give it to them at those times so like those are always tough you just try to navigate it with brutal honesty and it's never going to go the right way it's never going to be a good time tell somebody you can't have one of your staff right now but you know i've been doing this

long enough where it comes full circle and some of the people that you weren't able to hire right now, you'd better get at another time or there'll be another placement or another situation for you to get them because ultimately they fit your ethos. And all those guys that will call you with enough moxie to say that, no, they fit your ethos and you'll have a chance to work with some of those guys. There is a bunch of good coaches that I could have brought in or if I had the opportunity or more people or more spots and things of that nature or it was a better fit at that perfect world you can bring in. But those are always always, you know, always hard ones as well because there's always a million people that you want to get to coach which you I tried to get this guy to coach before he came to a superstar but now he's a big team he can't coach you know he wanted him too you know when he was uh when he was playing man I think I looked at him you always look at those guys when they play he's playing and say that guy's going to be a coach one day you know who knew he's going to never know I still you never know I still talk about it I'm like you never know when I just might get the old it but everybody who does coach you're like hey comp don't fucking do it keep your keep keep the gig you got going on you got a great gig you got a great gig you got a great gig you got a great gig you got a great gig you got a great gig you got a

You do. And you got a face now. You're beautiful. You see, brand new tea. You know, brand new chicklets. I mean, you look good, man. I'm proud of you. I appreciate that. You were mentioning ethos. What is yours or what do you look for when hiring? Our ethos, man, is really about our falcon fit, our culture. And when we get those guys, the characteristics of the guys are being teachers, being confidants. We talk about bringing those people into our building. That's the kind of coaches I want to have. I want guys that are there for the total experience. You know, we've got good coaches. We've had bad coaches. just don't say any names tell it.

I don't want to hear your opinion. You know my opinion. You know where I stand. But I do think, like, it is a part of having a relationship, establishing a relationship with your guys in order to get those guys to give you max effort. Like, you played harder for me because of our relationship on and off the fields, in the lunch room, walking through the vibe, the energy, all the things that we created, I think was really special when we spent our time at Washington, you know, commanders.

And we were not commanders, but it was definitely in Washington. And we had a good experience, a great experience in D.C. You come from a, I mean, that staff. We were talking about before the show how insane that tree is. Yeah. It feels like it's, you know, you talk about like the Kiffins, the, you know, John Gruden and the guys before your wave. And I do feel like watching those couple years where, you know, when Shannon was the head coach and there were the younger coaches and then even coach Jay Grude when he came in and had the younger

coaches still. Like it feels like those are, that's been the foundation of all the branching out with all the new head coaches and everything. Yeah? You know, it really hasn't. And John Gruden doesn't get enough credit for some stuff they were able to do. Him and Mike Shanahan had the systems, you know, well, I shouldn't say started it, but John Grum was running the West Coast Offens and having a lot of success in Oakland, and he had Mike Shanahan running his own scheme, West Coast offense type of stuff.

And everybody, we were intertwined in this whole world of trying to learn everybody's stuff. And I remember Cal Shanahan came to Tampa. And when he got there as a young quality control coach coming from UCLA, I think, at the time. and he taught us the Denver system, the zone scheme. He taught us the keeper game. And he taught us all the thing. We taught him Tampa too. And he learned that from us and Mike Tomlin and myself sitting down and meeting rooms talking about it.

And we would sit with legendary coaches like Richard Mann. And we would go in the room and listen to him, Coach Kishon Johnson and some of those guys in the back of room, Keeney McArdo. We were able to sit in the back and listen to those type of things with those people. And being around that type of coaching family and tree and the comfort of sharing information was different. and it went from Tampa to D.C. with the same type of role, same type of thing. Then you picked up Sean McBey. And you picked up the energy of Mike McDaniels

and the energy of all those guys, Chris Forrester. And there was so many people willing to share and there was so many people willing to steal it, you know, both offense and defense. Because I learned the Pittsburgh scheme from Jim Haslett. You know, let's not kid ourselves. And going there and learn that system and being to put my spin in the back in

and try to make us the best version of ourselves, I thought it was awesome. And I thought it gave us a routine and the rhythm. I brought that discipline of the Tampa 2 system to the Pittsburgh system where Jim Hazzlet had installed and been a part of along with Slowick, right? We were with Slowick's daddy. Everybody knows his son right now. He was the, I tell the boys all the time, like he was the assistant linebacker coach in our room.

That was my rookie year when his dad was our position. Exactly right. And he's coaching Carrigan and a rack pole on setting the edge two yards deep. And, you know, it's not like a disrespecting to him, but it wasn't like he's seen the way he is now. I don't think we all look at that as disrespect. I think everybody, the younger coaches, no, nobody wants to. be called the quality control coach. I was a proud quality control coach.

And Sloick was too. And Sloick was the outside linebacker coach, quality control coach, and he was breaking it down and showed his ability to be smart and versatile back then. He started as a video guy. Right, right? And then he rose up and he did that stuff with us,

got fired a couple of years, and ended up going back to offense. So like, he's had a lot of the similar experience that I had, being on offense, being on defense, being on different parts of the organization. And you can't miss those ops and you can't miss those opportunities to be great.

And that's what he's done. I think he's taken full of of it. When you look at that coaching tree and how everybody's had so much success, when back then looking at it, did you guys know, hey, we're the next generation? You know, it's truly insane. To look at that Redskins coaching staff. It's here everybody's at now. I would say Mike Tomlin phrased it the best around us all when we get a chance to get together, whether there's owners meetings, whether it's been the combine, whatever's been, we're all sitting in the same room. He goes, he recognized the unapologetic swagger and unapologetic arrogance that

we all had, you know, when it came to football. And he loved it. And he felt off it because he said he recognizes from what we had in Tampa. And that was with a great staff with Joe Barry, Mike Tomlin, Rob Marnelly, Money Kiffin, right, myself, Joe Woods. And you can go on and on, even before us with Herman Edwards and Lovie Smith and things of that nature. But when we got to D.C., it was a bunch of young guys at the time. There were some older veterans in place that just kind of looked at us and shook their heads. But I was like in the middle ground. I was like the middle child. I'm like Jay Cole. Yeah. And I was like right in between the older guys becoming his vet. Yeah. And right, right, right, just got right finishing up with being a young guy, you know, so London Fletcher, you know,

like his, how about his presence in our room and going to see him? Especially at the come from like Derek Brooks, right? Just being a B.A. Brown, those, those type of linebackers at the time. Remember that meeting when it was the 2013 year? I think we went what, like 3 and 13 or something like that? And they were kind of upset with Fletch. Like, hey, we need, not upset with Fletch, but like, hey, we need you to say something. And he had the team meeting. He's like, I don't care if you got to draw that motherfucker's face if you're not taking notes.

Like, do something. He just went, you know, he went off on the squad. So he was the ultimate pro. And I don't know if you're ever upset at Flesh, but I'm sure he took it that way. Right. And it was like trying to get everything out of that team that, that, you know, year because you know you weren't there but the year before we didn't start off so great and i remember shanahan got up in the room and he called that a couple of people and kirk cousin was just talking about

this recently and he had he didn't have any these words it was different colors and it was the haves the have-nots the roles of different people and what you want to do and what he knew about people you knew you were going to be great and he expected you to be great sorry the microphone thing and then he had um people that he that he thought you know you're right in the cuss people he didn't know and right if he came and did that team meeting i really believe that turned that team around round and that was the playoff run we had with Robert Griffin. We went to play to Seattle and lost that game. But that three and 13 season, I think they were trying to get that same type of energy,

that same type of feel out of London. And when London got up in that team meeting, I never forget how special that was with him talking and how quiet that room was and how much attention he brought and the presence that he brought when he told you, you don't care what's going on, what you got to do, how much detail he put into his work. He tried to pour it out into us in the crowd. Yeah, man. And it was special.

How when did you get into coaching? I was doing a little research of a PE degree from Hofstra How do you get a strong degree? Yeah, strong man I did take A in Hofstra Listen man you don't know how hard pottery was So don't don't get me

Ceramics is a tough It is tough meat you gotta sit there You gotta hold the wheel You gotta hold the wheel You gotta spin it with the right foot Certain speeds You have no idea bro I've taken a class

You don't know I have an idea You don't know I was a general studies major I know a little bit of everything So getting that that degree from Hofster I was I was fortunate enough to be

around Joe Gardy. And his son, he's, rest in peace. But his son was Dave Gardy at law school. And now just got finished with the league office and now with the Washington commanders. But he was the guy that really drove me to coaching, along with Greg Gigantino, Sarah's dad, who used to work here into coaching because they recognize something

of me. They recognize a potential to, first of all, that I wasn't good enough to play in the league like you guys. And next, that I was a really good communicator with the guys in our room and had ability to do those things. So they sent me away to Cornell for a year. And I went with Gigantino up there and really got to what it was called restricted earners because I was definitely not smart enough to go to school at Cornell University. And it was like a glorified GA. And being up there for a year,

I was around Pete Mangarian, who doesn't get enough credit for my career either, probably because I had to fire him as an O-line coach at one point. But he was really great to me because he had come from the league. He had done so many good things. And as far as bringing the league-like mentality to the Ivy League as much you can as far as breakdown. I'm working with this guy named Randy, who was this computer genius that taught me how to break down games and do different things that way. So that gave me a real piqued my interest in a whole other light

of being a quality control coach and being a guy that can break it down because we all got a little bit of natural on the field coaching to us. But when you get the behind-the-scenes stuff, that's what separates you. And that helped me go back to Hofstra and really coach the DBs there. And then after that, that opened up some airways to internships with the jets because we're on the same campus. That opened up internships,

moving forward and then going down to Tampa, ultimately get me in the National Football League and staying there. Winning the Super Bowl the first year. Won a Super Bowl the first year, which is a blur. Yeah, two of them, boys. One another one in L.A. And that was a great feel. And that's also what intrigues you about coming back to Atlanta.

You know, going on and get Kirk Cousins, set you up to go try to win one. Yeah. Another one. But talk about you being in Atlanta and then being the interim head coach. And then they're like, all right, we're going to go with Arthur Smith and you end up going to LA and then getting the call and coming back here.

You know, I think it's like it's really funny because you can take it two ways. You can get to get bitter and you can go away and be angry at people that you just work with for the last six years and not use it as a tool of advancement. I think when I went away, I had it as a learning experience. I had as another like a checkmark on the block of, okay, you've grown a lot since the last time you were head coach. You've had to deal. you had to go to some adversity that we took from that point.

That was right during COVID. And you had to come up with these rules right on the spot. I remember calling Mike Vrable at Tennessee because you guys had the first breakout. And Mike was one of the few guys nice enough to give me a call and drop me a note and ask if I need any help. And I definitely called him. And he didn't call me back, but he did reach out. That's all that matters, right? And he had to come up with some thoughts and some ideas on different ways to practice and different ways to do things during that time.

And I was really proud of those moments how we navigated through that stuff with Rich McKay. and Rustin Webster, along with our coaching staff at the time that we all had, Jeff Albrecht was here. And I had some real strong people that was able to hold that thing together and get us a couple wins down the stretch, right? Obviously not enough to win it. So I didn't leave bitter. I left with another experience and I left with it a dip that helped me really when I went

out to L.A. with Sean. Because then that enabled me to be able to be more helpful for him, hopefully just as helpful he was to me. I don't know if Vrable would have told you in the conversation since you guys didn't talk, but we ended up. playing the bills without practicing for like 11 days and beat the shit out of them. You know that ass. So you don't have to practice.

You don't have to practice. I knew about that and that's why I called back. So like we actually had some of the similar experiences of off on the Wednesday, put it combined that Thursday, Friday and then go play a game and win. And then it got to the point we had won two games and everybody's like every time we take a day off, we win. Yeah. You know, but and it was started generating those.

It was the healthiest team wins. It was so nuts for us. on Zoom. We're talking about the Steelers. And then like a day later, they're like, all right, we're going bills. We're going to go to the bills now. And then showed up for a walkthrough on a Saturday and then played a night Tuesday game. And Brad just gives them any time, any place. Yeah. And you're looking at it to the game and the mind frame is we're either going to get the shit kicked out of us or somehow we're to keep it close.

We got nothing to lose. We got nothing to lose. The boys were flying around. I don't know. We might be, I don't know what day you played on. But we might, I think we played at a Wednesday in L.A. and we played Arizona. Did you really? They delayed it. And we had people clearing protocol the morning of the game. Well, that was the craziest year, bro. That's when we're in L.A.

That was, it was some crazy stuff going on. L.A. had a little extra. Oh, yeah. They were keeping, they were making sure everything was done right. You know, by the time I got to L.A., you know, towards the end of it was starting to be, it was right to pop. It was the best time you can go to L.A. Because they had just opened up outdoor eating. And if you ever go to L.A. and you get little outdoor eating, whether you're at Mastros and you're eating in that parking lot.

and you look into those waves crash on the wall. I actually like Mastro's better with COVID. You know? It was unreal. I like that. It's a good dish. And we had a bunch of different restaurants with the outdoor eating. So it was pretty cool.

Go with a little jacket, get the outdoor food. Yeah. I kind of enjoyed that part of L.A. being there when it was COVID. When you were at the Rams and you get the call. And I don't know who calls you. Maybe it was Arthur, whoever it was. And you're like, you're going to have the job for the Atlanta Falcons. Was it kind of wild?

Were you surprised at that phone call coming in? After literally four years prior being there? I wasn't surprised. I was more surprised when they asked me to do the interview. I'm like, man, you know, this is really interesting. You know, like, I'm fired up. So I was really intrigued about doing the Zoom. I was really intrigued about meeting Terry, you know.

And then when I got on, I seen Kyle Smith and some of those guys. And we had a, you know, Atlanta tried to intimidate me. You know, they didn't put Arthur Blank on the screen. You know, probably one of the only ones he won the screen. He was in the background. The first time I came. I met with Arthur the second time I came in. But it was Rich McKay.

It was Kyle Smith. It was Terry Fontno. Who else was on the screen at the time? I can't think of. Maybe Dean Stimilos, but a couple of people that I had knew. And I thought it was cool because it was really formal. It was information gathering. And I did a good enough job in that to get me to the second interview until I came back.

Coming here to finally go to Arthur's house and sit down and be able to talk to him about some of our common beliefs, some of our theories, what I've learned. how far I've grown, what I want to see next to the boys were there and Max and Josh. No, Josh wasn't there, but it was Max. And then I met with another group that had some people here, Tamika Rish and Fernando, who I didn't know at the time. And Dean Stimulus was a part of this so well and Brett Jukes and some of the guys that I had knew from when I was here before across the building. Because what Arthur does best is he gets opinions from different people. And he has a way of hiring people in the process. And he went through that whole process with me.

and I was really appreciative of style and the way he did it. You were talking a little bit when we were on the hallway about your relationship with Arthur and how long, like how much history you guys do have. Taylor was asking about it a little bit

before we started. But can you talk about, can you talk about how that's developed and when it started? It's so funny. I start right from the beginning. It was a Ronde Barber who asked me to go out to a ranch

in Montana with him. And I'm thinking, what I want to go to a ranch in Montana for? But it was Ronday, right? And took the family out. Beautiful place. Beautiful place. beautiful place and we had a ball and where I learned to ride a horse and where I was able to let

my kids run around this ranch in Montana and have a bunch of fun and they provided this five-star meal at the end of the night with your family and then at the end of the night your kids all came and it was this family fun environment and it was different in any place that I had been or taking my kids and I thought this is really well done and it just so happened that Arthur Blank was the owner the ranch and he would pick his spots and he eat different with different groups every single night. And I didn't work for him, so I had no care in the world. I just was myself.

You're having a good time. Having a great time. I'm thinking, you're the land of owner. I work with Tampa. Who cares, right? And we got a chance to know each other in those first couple of years. And then I got lucky enough fortunate to come down here with Dan Quinn and work for him, and I was still going to the ranch.

So it didn't change our dynamic that way. It just helped us grow a little bit more, get a chance to know each on the personal level. Then he got a chance to know me as a worker. then I got a chance to do a trial run as the interim head coach, and then I got a chance to go away and then come back. And really, he's almost a father figure at this point because he's seen full development and full growth. You know, and having a chance to come back,

and knowing the core values, how to be innovative, how to be people first, how to do some of those things that we talk about all the time when it comes to our culture, that it was a really cool environment to come back to and really cool to see how he had even grown even further and how he had done some different things. When I left, it was AMB.

And come back as A&BSE, right? The whole sports entertainment, and there's everything about it at. And it's like, it's become even more family-oriented. It's become even more that way. And that's what he wants. And that's what we all want. And I think that's become bigger part of this building. So, like, our relationship is different.

That doesn't mean he's not going to fire me the same way, we don't hit the results. Right. But it definitely makes you want to work harder for him. Yeah. He does have that, like, kind of mob boss kind of vibe. Well, you say, I was able to sit down with him during a, like, one of those top 30 visits. I did not say that, Arthur. That was Taylor.

I called you a mob boss. He's got a vibe about it. I sat, I went to, I was in, what's that nice area? Buckhead. Buckhead. I was in Buckhead. There's like this really nice house and I went in there and end up being his office. And there's like really nice woods and a nice painting and he sits down.

His hair sleek back mustache out. And we're just kind of talking the whole time I'm fearing for my life a little bit. He always looks great. He looks. Yeah, he's going to be his best looking out air. And if he's not, he's going to get somebody to make sure he is the next time. You wouldn't say otherwise, though. I mean, yeah, you could be lying right now.

He treats you when he's treated the way he looks. He looks like a mob boss and he's treated that way. When he walks in the room, you know, things are tidied up. He gets the ring once you walk in. They're tidied up. And when he's not around, I can tell him that they're tidied up. It's just as more people moving when he's in the presence when he's ready to get there. Yeah.

How do you feel like you've developed? And obviously it's been, you know, quite a bit since your head coaching run in Tampa. Sure. But what do you feel like you've learned the most or the learning curve or when you look back? Think of the things that you might have done wrong. It was a bunch you can talk about wrong. We don't have enough time in a segment to talk about what you've done wrong. But the things that you learned the most was the collaboration of the general manager and the head coach.

Because that just goes throughout the building like nowhere. And the best example that I saw was less in Shaw McVeigh. And then you start thinking about some of your outside sources and what it was with Mike Tomlin and his general manager at the time. You know, he has a general manager, not a new one, but watching those guys work together because I was able to be close enough to that Pittsburgh system and watched them win and worked together for a long time.

But it was really good to see that and be around it every single day, how they went about their business, to be to bring that back. So, like, that collaboration was great. And me and Mark Dominic, we had a great relationship, but I don't know if the all-out trust and collaboration was there, like it needs to be in order to win at the highest level.

Like, we still had things that we hit from each other. I'm not going to sit here and blame him for anything. But it was some parts that we can learn, like we talked about, and do better that we want to do better together. And I still keep it with Mark, and we're great friends. But we could have done a better job of form of our relationship first before trying to coach our football team. You're known as such like a player's coach, which is like I feel like loosely said these days. And you are known as like an A-plus relationships guy, being a young coach coming up, understanding that you can, like, you're like, you're one of my favorite coaches that I never, that never coached me. Because you see how good you are with everybody in the room and everything else.

How do you balance that shift sitting in the head coaching chair versus being like a position coach? You know, I pride myself, even as a position coach, as you know, as having a relationship with trying to have a relationship with everybody in the room. Yeah. You know, whatever that relationship was, right? Whatever it is, whatever you can make it. Like for us, it was technique. It was some of the things that could help with your drop. It was individual things I saw in your movement, things of that nature.

So I was able to communicate that to you at hopefully a high level. and I try to form a different set of relationship with everybody within the defense. And then if you really dive deep, it was really starting to settle in with people on the offense. And it was other coaches and being to invite people into your home and do different things with different people. And I think I pride myself on creating these relationships that help you just grow and develop to a person that sucks that out and the people you hire. Yeah. And like foster that culture. And then you make that culture just kind of develop into everyone where you want.

want to be groomed that way. And like right now with Terry, I pride myself on giving them more information. I pride myself on our communication. I pride myself on being an authentic listener. Listen is a skill and it's hard to do, particularly when you're young and you got all the answers. Yeah. And you're like, I'm about 32 year. Head coach, what are you going to tell me, right?

Yeah. But now, you know, fast forward to these years and it's like, you know, I love being able to listen to Terry talk about his experience. is in New Orleans and how he grew throughout the system and the people that he were with and what he's seen with Drew Breeze and how he's going about this movement and the people that he listened to and I love sitting around listening before I actually talk and that's a battle I still fight clearly right but I'd love to keep developing that skill and that's how I kind of do it right now pride yourself and listen to more people in your staff hire the people

that can build those relationships and form those relationships but then when you get them find a way to listen to them. Yeah. When you, having that open line of communication, how do you not get to a point where, like, there's too many chefs in the kitchen where, like, you have so many opinions coming your way. You might lose what your first opinion was.

And kind of, there's so many roads you can take in any given decision, finding that way of making the best one. I think to the last one, ultimately, the decision makes to kick in. You know, there's a reason there's a coordinated title on people's name. There's a reason you have assistant general managers. There's a reason you have a director of personnel and the director of college. You know, ultimately, the decision makers

got to collaborate at the end of the day and come up with that result, what you want, and then come out that room what we're doing. You know, you appreciate, you listen, you're able to gather information from all the personnel and all of the, so-to-speak ideas, but at the end of day,

is our job to put them together and go get what we need to get done. You obviously, you've rattled off so many coaches that you've been around with the Grudens and Shanahan's and McVease and Coach Quinn. And I know that they've all had a hand in your career, but is there a coach that you feel like has influenced you more than the others?

Ah, man. You know, Mike Tomlin would obviously get the most credit in the professional level. Watching them right now, 2002 Super Bowl team room, watching him do those things and control that defensive backroom and then watching him navigate himself to being this great defensive coach. And he also played offensive ball when he was at William and Mary. So he was one of the first people to spike my inches of offense. and really intrigued me about how he taught

through an offensive lens. So I wanted to be more like that. And he would take definitely the professional and developing the career movements of that. And then the other one with the relationships was definitely Joe Gardy. You know, it was nobody at, like my college coach that taught me what nepotism was

and building a relationship with people. I remember he would come down the hall and say, Hey, Rahim, I'm going to Connecticut to get a slice of pizza. You want to come? You know? I'm like, sure, pal. Sure, pal.

Off the Connecticut we went. Of the Connecticut we went. And then like, you know, and you even think back, you go back to even your high school coaches with Donnie Soma. And I would never forget. And I thought about it last week when we dragged Pennix and everybody went crazy in the world. And I remember the first thing he said to me.

We don't talk about that. I mean the first thing he said to me, shock him. Got T-shirts that my dad still had. Yeah. And he said, shock him. And that was Donny Soma. And I was 17 years old, right? When he told me that, I had Chet Parolevecchio before that as a junior.

And the toughness that he was. displayed within practice when you had this Italian coach with his nose bleeding through his face mask telling you what to do. It was like, okay, this dude is different. He looks at you different. So I got to throughout the walks of life, you've stolen different things from people and it's like you formulate your own identity. Yeah, I love that we're getting a shout-outs back all the way to the high school days. Yeah, that's wild. You brought up Pennix. Yes. You guys are sitting there at eight. Everyone's saying Atlanta since Jonathan Abraham, they've needed a rush guy for the longest time since him. They're going to take this guy. They're taking Dallas Turner out of Alabama. No question about it.

Another weapon for Kirk. Yeah. Another weapon for Kirk. He's an edge rusher. But Kirk Cousins. Another weapon like on offense. He was giving you an oar right there. Or, okay. Follow along. This is your. My fault. My bad. I was like, that guy, isn't he a eddruck? Yeah. Or a weapon for Kirk Cousins. No question. And then obviously that's turned in and the whole place. All of the National Football League goes crazy in the situation. What was the thought process there? So, you know, we talked about the decision-maker. right and you're exactly right nobody's wrong in their thinking you know

like nobody's wrong in what they're saying like you know whether you needed a pass rush or you needed a cover guy potentially getting another weapon for Kirk like we talked about you know but you address these things as you go without the process and free agency we address to Kurt right out a number one need for the right now quarterback position to play what we wanted to do when I got Mooney

went and got Ray Ray MacLeod you know we traded and went and got a guy from Purdue and what he's able to do and Rondell right and do some of those different things you already had you know pits on the team. You got Bejan Robertson with Tyler Aizier. You have these different weapons around

people all across the, but Drake London at the other side of the wide out. And on defense, when we got here and watched the tape, Jimmy Lakinah, you seen some really impressive players. We just talked about Ellis. We talked about Nate Lammon, right? Some of the people up front in the Grady Jarrett's and talking about having DO here from New Orleans, some of those type of things and all these weapons across the board. AJ Terrell's

an uprising star, in my opinion. And then you went last year and you got Jesse Bates and you put that to the roster. And our jobs, you could say whatever you want to say is to have short-term and long-term thoughts. And we went through a hard time without Matt Ryan, this organization I'm talking about. And personally, you know, I love Matt Ryan and what he brought to this city. And if we were sitting there and we had drafted Kurt in 2012 and he came here and he just finished his career and he was 36 years old,

we'd be in position to look for a quarterback. Luckily enough, we have our owner of the season the same way as us. You know, you just play a guy, $100 million guaranteed, $180 million contract. And he says, let's find this, we got an answer for a short term. Whether no matter what that short term is, right? It could be the extent of his contract. It's still short term. But if you believe in the guy and he's high enough for that point

when you get to him and you can get a long-term asset quarterback and Michael Pinnis, which we do, why not take that shot? Mm-hmm. Right? Why not take the shot? And you know it's going to be criticized

and it's fine because I do love people's opinion. I do. And I don't think anybody's wrong for having theirs. The communication that night when it does go down and you guys, the relationship with Kirk, like how is that unfolding and going down? because I'm sure if you're Kirk, it goes down as a surprise as well.

Heck yeah. The hardest part is keeping an information and being as transparent as you possibly can without having the uproar that you get from those things, right? So you can't potentially tell Kurt that the night before or while the draft's going on. You have to tell them when you're on a clock when the decision is made. Because what if it doesn't happen? Right. If it doesn't happen, you're still thinking of the conversation.

They just say, like, man, are they going to be thinking? Or if you do it beforehand, and now that those are monkey wrenching the plan, and someone jumps you and they take potentially a guy that you want. So because something gets out from whatever source. Right. There's a lot of moving parts. It's a lot of moving parts, and it's no right way of doing it. Zero control until your name is on the clock.

So whichever lends you look through, you can find some fault. So the first thing I'd say with Kurt was I apologize for not being able to communicate how you want to. You know, I don't apologize for the pick. I apologize for not being to communicate how you would like to. But this changes nothing within your situation. Because Kurt comes out and we win the next two Super Bowls. Guy, Kurt is the quarterback. Yeah, he's the guy.

Yeah. And even in Kirk's situation, when he came to Washington, he was drafting the same classes. Is RJ what are we laughing at? Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know. And then Will knows in his head.

He's like, I got to say something right now. I know. He's staring through me right now. They're the soul. I mean, you know. No, Pennix is a stud. Stut. He is one of those guys that I think Will was sitting there saying you wanted the Raiders to get him.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm sitting there like everybody else. Oh, shit, that's a, that's a, that's a, you know, you always try to compare things to different years, you know, like, you know, why not at, why not later? Like, I don't predict that, you know, like these, we had six quarterbacks going to top 12 picks. Mm-hmm. You know. Like hotcakes. They were going over and over.

You had no idea when Pennix was in the league. Every year's different. You know, you compared to Jordan Love because they took a quarterback, not because they went in the number they took him at. You know, where Aaron Rogers was in this career. That's not what you do. You're talking about the young guy with the older guy. Right, but it's worked out for the Packers for the last, it seems like 30 years.

I tell you Matt LaFour's pretty. And then Jordan Love. What did you say about? Matt LaFloor is pretty happy. He got to be happy. Yeah. Yeah, he's pretty happy. And it's cool.

Yeah, he says it's cool. So you pick Pennix and then after you pick Pennix, you call Kirk, You're like, hey, listen, we couldn't control when we called you. I had to call Kurt. Yeah, that's just, this is how this game goes. What Kirk knows, he's been in the game for a long time. And as you guys know, your competitors, right? Right.

And the quarterback is always different. It's always different. And I'm not expecting him to be happy, go lucky. But I did expect him to be a man. He was more than, you know, he called Pennix. He texted me, asked for the number. He called him. And he reached out.

And, you know, the beauty of it is it was two men. Pennix called him. He talked to the media the next day. He didn't talk about what they spoke about. I still don't know what they talked about. But you know what? The grown men goes all the way back to what we talked about at the beginning of the show,

what to eat those means when you're talking about being a falcon and both of those guys' character-fitted. How excited? How excited were you and Terry to go out for the press conference? You know, it was funny because... No, and they are. You ready for this? We didn't think about it.

That sounds like a David Bassety problem. And, you know, like I'm not really shy when it comes to media. Yeah. But it was more of this. It was more of, we were so busy the rest of that time, I could tell you now, trying to trade back in that it didn't really come up until it was time to go downstairs and talk

when we couldn't get back in. Who are you trying to snap up? I can't tell you that. It's all right. I'm not going to tell you. You go snipe in? Not telling you who is going to get. How about this?

At what number were you guys trying to trade into? Everywhere. I mean, it was all the way. People that we liked all across the board. Yeah. A lot of good ballplay. It wasn't like a particular person at one spot. There was different spots of people that you wanted in different layers.

So, you know, that staff does a great job. So it was like, you know, wasn't able to get done. You go downstairs. You talk about the press conference. And you understand that there are people involved in this business. And you've got to have an excitement, general excitement, to get Michael Pennix. And then there's also a empathy for Kirk Cousins. And that's our job.

Deliver Hard News. Deliver Hard News. Keep up. We have two minutes left, right? Okay. Oh, two minutes. We only have two minutes. We got to rattle a couple off. I'm going to give you two questions in a row.

First one is, this team needs a locker room guy. They need a guy that's going to come in and band boys together and make sure to give you the next step to make the playoffs and win the NFC South. What are the chances that William Earl Compton, the third, can get a workout with the Atlanta Falcons? None right now. That's crazy. That is, you got to appreciate it. him being direct. He is. He is transparent. He's direct. So

deliver hard information right now. Will has not been training for what we do. What are you talking? He looks great. It's not about the look. Will can go on the beach right now. If we're going to a beach and I got to take a guy as Will. He's going to look good. I don't know. The way this guy's dropped. You know, we're top three. You know, you guys have a better relationship.

I see the chemistry here. Both of us with our shirts off together. Take Will, you'll make me look better. I'm taking him for that. But I, the football team. Oh, damn. Love him. Just give me eight weeks. Eight weeks. You didn't say trained.

You said now. Right. Eight weeks from now. Yeah, no, you're... Eight weeks from now, I would take Will at any level if he thought he can still do it. Y'all love Rob, man. We're back. We are back.

We're back. Hey, we're back. No, Rob, we were talking about before, and I was telling you this, before he came in. He's an ethos guy. You were telling the story, but a core memory of mine, like, one of my, like, I guess, like, welcome to the NFL type. Because coming from Polini staff, if you, like, me, you, like, miss to tackle or missed a play, you basically want to, you know, you want to kill yourself. And so I had missed a tackle in the preseason game.

I think our first preseason game in Tennessee. And I remember just being on the bench, just like, that's it. I'm going to get cut. Kimbrough, a couple guys went out. Keena Robinson goes down day one. I go from like the last spot. Now I'm working with the three. So you get a few riffs.

Jeremy Kimbrough tears his hamstring. He's out. So now I get to play with the twos and preseason. So I'm thinking, this is my shot. And I miss his tackle. I just remember thinking like it's over. It's over. And Raq comes over and he was not my position coach at the time.

He's like, comp, why are you hanging your, why are you hanging your head? Like, who gives a shit? You miss a tackle. You're in cover three. If you're going to miss, miss on the inside. Make them go outside your curl flatplay. You're good. Who cares?

And I'm thinking to my head like, not that, oh, you can miss tackles in the league, but I'm thinking that that is exactly what I needed to hear to like, get out of my own head. Because I'm thinking like, man, this is going to go bad. Yeah, because if a player – Do you remember that? If a player tells you that, you're like, whatever. Coach. You're like, oh my God.

Yeah, but player said you're like, okay, yeah, good for you, bro. You're a starter. It was the tendency. I don't know which game. I don't know the game. I don't know who we're playing because, you know, preseason, I'm out there really watching us and evaluating and just looking at players. You're trying to get Philip Thomas and Baccaro Rambo ready to go. Yeah, I'm trying to get us all ready.

Yeah. I was always being greedy. I've always wanted us to play well, right? And you missed the tackle. And I believe my safety made the tackle. I'm not sure which one it was. And I thought, what a great miss. You shot your gun.

You play fast, physical and free. Jimmy Lake, and you turned it over to us. We got them on the ground. We got off the grass. And I'm looking at a kid who just came from Nebraska, who just fought his way up, this free agent that is going up to our twos that I know that we're going to counter it at one point.

And I say, love, bro, that was a good job. You know, I like you to make it too. But, like, that was part of me building relationships with you because I knew you had a chance. Hey, that was so beautiful. Hey, that was, bro. That fired me up, bro. And the cool thing about that story is,

is when we first got here, Will told me that story. which I've heard before. And then while you were grabbing coffee, you started telling that you guys both had the same recall of that story, which is really cool, which means it meant a lot to both of you. There's a moment. I got so many memories of him because he was the linebacker, right?

So he probably didn't even know, but he had this crazy recall. And we would talk about things and looks to own and things that you would say, and I would always say it to comp. And comp was the backup. But when you tell the backup, he reinforces it to the starters.

Right? And he was that type of guy. That's why I thought he would be a coach. but he's a reinforcer, man. He's a sounding board. And when he got his chance to play, there was not a bigger fan from wherever I was at,

watching them play back in D.C. and watching him play throughout his career after that point. I appreciate that, man. That was fucking awesome. I know we've got to let you go. I'm going to ask you one more question. And this is a very important question.

Because I have one too, so. Okay, we're going to ask you two more questions. Hey, you are my guys. David Bassley right now is cringing back days long. I'm like, bro. Bejohn is back there waiting to come on. When you come in? if you wants yeah yeah he can come on in when you when you gave him my number and we got on the phone

and chopped it up he's like oh play off willie i was like oh yeah hell yeah that fires me up and he was like uh we got on the phone he goes we'll get raw right off the top right out of practice and he starts naming a couple players he's like you know we'll get a couple players for you guys and he names a couple and none of them were kirk so i'm thinking in my head like okay i know how this is going to go i'm just going to need to text kirk on my own and lock it in before they can be like no no kirk no kirk no kirk so anyway that was my story is that the question too no my question is this, have you been seeing, have you been seeing Austin Rivers, the Austin Rivers clip about the NFL players and NBA players?

I have not. Okay, so my first question is, who has the better athletes, NFL or the NBA? Soccer. That's not the question. Sorry. Could be. We can move on from that. That was a tough try.

No, I want to hear. Athletes, I mean, the NBA games change so much. We were talking about the 90s basketball with Kobe and Iverson and Michael Jordan. They'd have a fight right now is changed to a skill game. The top four MVP don't have any athletic. The MVP

is the worst athlete in the world. Can't jump up a curve but as a baller because of a skill set. Like his skill set is unbelievable of his touch around the basket. He's able to play. Luca Dongshish. I can't see him tackling Bijan right now. So when you're talking about just those two sports to athleticism, I'm giving us.

The skill set, we got no chance against those dudes. I agree with you. Wholeheartedly. They had a better argument back in the 90s with AI. They had to feel good, get a nice little compliment from that coach right there. But there were a lot more white guys running around on the court. I wasn't saying white guys.

That was his words again. Yeah, yeah, those are my words. I definitely speak for myself. I was saying the international game. The international game has changed basketball a little bit when it comes to that. It's more of a skill. Steph Curry, you know, like he's changed basketball. Like, you better be able to shoot or you can't play.

Yeah. That's what we needed. Yeah. Last question. Okay. I mean, are you running this segment? LeBron is just a dog. He's one of the best athletes in the world.

And I'm not like this crazy LeBron fan because I'm in an argument and I'm on the other side. But I got so much respect for him because he's the most dominant player. We've probably ever seen him in Shaq. You know, when you talk about the most dominant players, that that's the category of LeBron's in, in my opinion. And then also the category of LeBron's in is like created the most hype in the world and like surpassed it. You know, like we know about LeBron like way before we should have known. And he surpassed that. So, like, I don't ever want to disrespect his greatness on camera.

When we get to our arguments of the goat, you know, I may go the other way a little bit. A little animated. You got to give a couple. You got to get a couple of negative points today. Yeah, you got to. There's always got to be a devil's advocate. So my question is my last question. And I will land this point.

You got to stick with me. In the spring of 2019, a head coach for the Tennessee Titans sat on the bus. And we asked him if he would cut his dick off for a Super Bowl. To which he answered the question saying, yes, I would be married for 30 years. Why not? I don't use it anyway. Now, that team started out two and four. It ended up going to the AFC championship to play the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

Before that game, the press asked him, you said you'd cut your dig off for a Super Bowl. Would you still do that? To which Mike Brable replied, no, I wouldn't do that. I was just joking with them. I was just joking around with them. We're up 10-0 in the first quarter against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. End up losing and the Chiefs go to the Super Bowl. So Mike Vrable lost to Tennessee Titans the Super Bowl is what I'm saying.

My question to you is, what are you willing to do for the Atlanta Falcons to win a Super Bowl? I mean, you got to do some drastic it would cut it off. You got to do some drastic shit, right? I mean, but like, to get a Super Bowl ring. Here's what I'll say. Go ahead, King. Do your thing. 2002, 2021, the people, the relationships that you build, there's nothing in the world like it.

and you would do almost anything to win those in a fair and equitable state. So there might be a few limbs lost in order to get that feeling with these group of guys. You take a limb off for the Super Bowl. I mean, to win that thing, and think about this, to bring a Super Bowl championship to this city with this owner, Arthur Blank,

with these guys that have established these relationships and this bonding and this building and being around Pitts and Bejohn for just such a short time. After 23. It is like, you know, know, like, that's, that, that's tough, bro. Like, the 283 thing, you know, like, that, that is hard.

That's Brady. But that's football. He said, but that's Brady. That's football. Yeah. Like, think about doing that with these cats. That is, like, worth it. That's worth it.

Look at that guy. Of course I'm a running. Look at his traps. It's really popping out of the show. Is that true classic t-shirt? I'm out of here. You guys are going graphic over here. So you take a limb off.

I'm taking it off. I'm not going to get specific with the limb, but I take a limb off. Okay, I love it. Hey, Coach Rod. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. This is awesome. I appreciate the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We get to ask other people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel

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