Today was a short, but intense, practice for the Falcons as they look toward this weekend’s last preseason matchup against the Dolphins.
It was Michael Penix Jr.’s third full practice since being medically cleared last week, and he told the media he feels great, and that he’s getting more comfortable and confident each day.
But Kevin Stefanski confirmed that Penix will not play in the preseason finale in Miami, and Penix said after practice that his three full practices this week weren’t enough to
prepare him for full-speed play (or as close as we get to that in the preseason) this week.
Stefanski also said that while this may technically be the last day of training camp, he treats everything up to Week 1 prep as training camp. So hopefully we’ll still get to watch some full practices.
I did forget to hit record when both Stefanski and secondary coach Justin Hood were at the podium, but I did get a lot of what they talked about posted in real time. All of my notes from today’s practice are here:
Here’s everything you need to know from Wednesday’s practice:
- Jake Matthews and Jawaan Taylor did not practice on Wednesday, and Stefanski confirmed after practice that it was just a veteran rest day for the two tackles.
- Da’Shawn Hand was working one-on-one with the athletic performance staff to start practice. Has a huge brace on his knee, but was moving well.
- The Falcons were running scouted looks against both first-team units, and today was the first time they used specific play cards with the team so everyone can be acclimated to that by the regular season.
- The first pass I saw Penix throw today was a beauty to Kyle Pitts in the flat.
- My very favorite play of the day was a little trickeration: Tua was running red zone drills with the 1s, and Bijan was in shotgun. Tua faked the handoff to Bijan, who sold it well even though it was just practice (this was something I noticed on every faked handoff today), and Tua tossed a short lob to Drake London. But wait, there’s more! London pitched it backward to Bijan, who would have likely had a TD in a real-game scenario. Give me this level of fun in-season please.
- Regardless who was quarterbacking each drill, we saw a decent amount of snaps from the pistol and shotgun and honestly, they didn’t feel terribly predictable.
- Tomorrow the Falcons will have a walk through, and then they’ll travel to Miami for Friday’s game.
Nate Ollie highlights:
- This was my first time hearing from DL coach Nate Ollie, and I just love his energy. That energy is obvious out on the field, too. He’s super involved with his players and is very vocal about coaching them up.
- On Za’Darius Smith: “What he’s bringing to the group is infectious. Everybody’s buzzing when he’s around. Even when we were out there at the game (in Indianapolis), he got his iPad. He’s coaching guys up. He’s out there like, man, if you hit this move, you would have got that.” Ollie said that veteran presence is huge for the younger players.
- On whether or not his unit is where he wants it to be entering Week 1 of the regular season: “There’s always room to improve, we work to improve every single day, but I love the energy these guys are bringing every single day, man. That’s what we’ve gotta have — energy, gotta have juice, especially on the defensive line.
Michael Penix Jr. highlights:
- Penix says he’s feeling good after three days of full practice and he’s excited to be back out there. “I wanted to get back in the rhythm of things. Obviously, whenever you put a d-lineman out there, things start moving a little bit faster. So I’m just getting the speed of the game back down and that aspect.”
- Penix said it hasn’t been hard to ramp up to full participation in practice. “It’s just more reps,” he said. “It ain’t hard, though, but that’s just what it comes with … it’s exciting for me because now I get more than 8 reps a day.”
- Penix also said he did take a minor hit when Chris Lindstrom got pushed back into him on Monday. “Obviously, they preach not to let the quarterbacks get hit, but it’s football. You know that those things happen. Accidents happen, but it’s good. I feel good.”
- On whether or not he feels like he could start Week 1: “Yeah, I feel great. Right now, I’m cleared to do 11 on 11 for practice, but each and every day I’m getting better, getting more confident. I’m not playing this week (against Miami) because obviously I only have three practices under my belt doing the 11 on 11 stuff, but I’ve been feeling really good.
Za’Darius Smith highlights:
We’d heard through the grapevine that Smith didn’t like talking to the media. We expected a short, gruff presser with minimal answers. It’s a great reminder to not believe everything you hear about others, and don’t assume that if a person behaved a certain way a few years ago, it doesn’t mean they haven’t matured and grown into a person who would react differently today.
Za’Darius Smith gave the most open, vulnerable press conference I’ve ever sat through. He retired because he got word that his mother was terminally ill, and he retired because it was the only way to be there for her. Then his grandmother and father also passed away not too long after. His story, and his thoughts on this defense and what it means to him to be an Atlanta Falcon deserve their own post, so I’m going to hold a lot of his quotes and probably will focus on him in Friday’s Opening Drive.
