I wasn’t sure what to expect when I showed up at Flowery Branch Friday. I’ve seen a lot of ugly losses from this team, but considering just how lifeless and befuddled they looked against the Panthers,
Sunday’s was one of the worst. I was curious to see what morale is like and what the energy surrounding the team was after the week of preparing to face the Washington Commanders on Sunday.
I’m happy, and pleasantly surprised, to report that morale seems perfectly fine — for the most part. There was a notable exception.
That was Drake London. While we were finishing up with Raheem Morris right after practice, London went home before we had a chance to even get into the open locker room, and he made it clear he left because he didn’t want to speak to the media. I suspect he is upset about the Hilliard firing, which is understandable, but I can’t confirm that since he wouldn’t speak with us. It is a violation of league rules for players to avoid being available to the media during open locker room.
The other WRs are ready to get back out there vs. the Commanders
We did get to speak with both Casey Washington, who cleared concussion protocol yesterday, and Darnell Mooney, about how the team has responded to last week’s loss.
Mooney said it’s been a good week of preparation, with a slightly different vibe this week.
“It’s been very competitive, and the energy’s been a little different as far as just focusing on the details and being more precise with things,” Mooney said.
Washington isn’t concerned about Michael Penix’s ability to bounce back this week against the Commanders. As a matter of fact, he had some bold comparisons for his signal caller.
“I think about the greats in all sports that have done it at the highest level possible. I think about Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson — the greatest, LeBron James — Steph Curry. You know, as much as we can sit here and talk about the greatness that we’ve seen them achieve throughout their career, it’s also been some pretty low moments,” Washington said. “So, you know, it’s just part of the game. And all of us, as players and coaches, have had games like that throughout our careers, where we wish we could have them back. And unfortunately, you can’t. But I think it also builds character, and it builds a chip on your shoulder. So with the competitors that we have on the team, I’m fired up.”
Mooney also addressed the lack of the deep ball from Penix so far this season, and where the explosive plays are.
“He loves to throw the deep ball and shit, I love to run the deep ball,” Mooney said. “So if that works for us, you know, if we can make that work for us, then that’s our identity of our offense, then we’ll do that. But if it’s not [working], then we’ll have to find another way to you know, make explosive plays.”
The best possible outcome from last week’s game would be renewed focus and a greater sense of urgency. Let’s hope that’s what we see on Sunday.
On Ike Hilliard’s firing, and how the WRs found out
The wide receivers found out that Ike Hilliard had been fired in a text message from Hilliard himself.
“Got a text from from Ike, and that’s how we received the message,” Mooney said.
Nobody has a single negative thing to say about Hilliard, including Washington. But Washington’s got a realistic perspective on it.
“Yeah, Ike is one of the first coaches that I have truly felt believed in in my ability as a player,” Washington said. “So I always have love for Ike, but the staff made a decision and I’m here to do my job and roll with it. And this week we got to beat the Washington Commanders.
“There’s a lot of urgency here in the NFL, obviously,” he continued. “If you get caught up in it could mess you up, but we don’t blink when things like that happen. As players, you just turn the page and you’re on to the next and the task at hand is the task at hand. So with all due respect to Ike, we don’t really have time to sit around and think about that. We got a game this week that we got to win, and that’s the priority. So all the focus is on Washington.”
It’s not like TJ Yates is an outside hire who’s just meeting the WRs room. He’s been the team’s passing game coordinator.
“Oh, things have been cool,” Mooney said about the transition. “Everybody’s been cool with T.J. No, we’ve all had a nice, nice relationship with him. beforehand, so it’s been a smooth shift.”
Morris echoed the sentiments about Hilliard and about Yates, and said that the receivers had a good week of practice under new leadership.
“Obviously, they love their coach. They love their coach. I love their coach,” Morris said. “We got got to get some things fixed. We got to talk about those things. We’ve discussed them. TJ [Yates] has been in the [passing game coordinator] job, done a great job. I think communication has been at a high level from both sides, the wideouts and T.J. And I think we got to go out and get those things done.”
We’ll see how that goes tomorrow.
