1st & Goal: Carl Dukes, 92.9 The Game Host

The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Goal on the Zach Gelb Show. So this is how we preview all 32 teams. We have four teams remaining. When we have to preview the Atlanta Falcons, it's kind of a tough task to do.

This team's going to be miserable this year. So that's why we go to the most entertaining voice in Atlanta Sports Talk currently. He's the afternoon drive host at 92-9 the game. He does a great job in the weekends at CBS Sports Radio.

It's time to put him up with Karl Davis. What's going on, Zach? Two things, two questions.

One, why we gotta be the last four? Come on, brah, come on. Second, what is up with Hickey's girl, man? What's her number? Let me holler at her.

Hickey has some problems here. So he's been in a relationship for four, four and a half years. She's been out of town this entire week, Karl. She's coming home Saturday. He has his fantasy football draft with his boys. So he's doing the fantasy football draft. At night, he's not even going back to his apartment to hang with his girlfriend.

They live together. He's staying on Long Island with his parents because he needs to watch Colts preseason football. You know what? Hickey, I hope you're listening to me.

This is what's going to happen. You're going to go watch the preseason game that nobody cares about. And your girl's going to go out with her girls for a drink because my boyfriend's not home tonight.

He's out doing fantasy football and watching a game nobody cares about. And she's going to run into some guy at the bar and he's going to say, what does a beautiful woman like you do in downtown by yourself? Hickey, don't do it.

This is a dangerous proposition you're getting yourself into. Karl, Matt Ryan, I got to see how many ice fits in! Stop. Oh my God. Are you serious? Karl, you know what his girlfriend's going to say to him? What?

Put him outside! Let me tell you, Matt Ryan's going to be fine. The Colts will be fine. You'll be fine. Your girl won't be fine.

And then you won't be fine. That's how this is going to play out. Let's get into the Falcons.

They're always entertaining Karl Dukes here with us. Marcus Mariota. Is he going to make it through the entire season, Karl? It's a great question, Zach.

I mean, hell, we're all wondering that ourselves. I mean, listen, he's looked good in the preseason. He has the propensity to be hurt. And I'm not wishing that upon him.

It's just kind of what it is. He's looked good. If he can stay healthy, he might just be a catalyst to maybe ignite this team to more than four wins, which is what Vegas has us winning right now. Listen, they don't call it rebuild. We, they call it transition. We call it rebuild, right? This is what we are.

We're in cap hell. We're going through a quarterback transition right now. We're still not sure who the long-term guy is going to be.

And then in the process, you're trying to build around some young talent, the Drake London's of the world, the cowpits. So right now, Marcus Mariota is going to be the starter. We've been debating this for the last few days. And my whole thing, Zach, is Desmond Ritter has not been simply outplayed. This isn't a case where Mariota has done so much at camp where you go, man, there's no way Desmond Ritter could start.

To me, they're on equal footing. And he could either go either way, but I think Arthur Smith wants to go with experience. And at some point, if things take a turn, we'll get a chance to see Desmond Ritter. I know it'll be a quick evaluation. They're going to eventually have to play Desmond Ritter because this team's going to be bad. They're going to be picking inside the top five.

And there's a lot of good quarterbacks in this draft class. Well, listen, I've been saying our slogan is hashtag sacrifice for Bryce. All right. That's Bryce, Bryce Young at Alabama.

Here's, here's the deal. What about stuff for Stroud? You don't like CJ Stroud? I love CJ Stroud. And I think CJ Stroud may end up winning the highest of an issue with that receiving core.

They have at Ohio state, the Ohio state. But, but Zach, the problem is if you don't play Ritter, you don't know what you have. And then if we are in that situation where you're talking about top five, you're just going to pick a quarterback on a whim when you didn't know exactly what Ritter was, when you could have saved a lot more money and maybe been Seattle, you know, between 2010 and 2015, where you were able to build a team around a quarterback who wasn't making a lot of money.

I don't think you can get yourself in that situation. They're going to have to find out what Ritter is sooner than later. Let's get to the next down. Carl Duke's here with us. What's the latest on the health of Drake London? I know they got hurt in that first preseason game.

He's fine. You know, listen, you don't take a chance with the guy that you picked in the first round, especially when he's been crushing it at practice. He's going up against an all pro cornerback and AJ Terrell day in and day out. You see what he's got.

I've seen what he's got. When we were at camp every day for the first two weeks, it's no secret that Drake London can get open. He makes the tough catches. He gets 50, 50 balls. I'm not worried about Drake London.

This is just precautionary. And you'll see him against the saints on September 11th. How great is Kyle Pitts going to be in your number two? Cause I'm so excited to see him play. Well, I'm glad to ask that kid is going to be incredible.

I have super high expectations only because I've seen the skill level. I don't even know if most people around the country realize how big, how fast, how talented this young man is. And I said this, listen, for me, I've got him obviously over a thousand yards, which he accomplished last year. I got him back as a pro bowler. That's something he did last year, but I think he takes the next step. And I think we're talking potentially double digit touchdowns and he is going to be a difference maker, not only for the Falcons, but in this league, he's coming guys, he's coming.

Let's get to the next down. I know it didn't work out in terms of getting to Sean Watson, which you may say that's actually a blessing with all that's gone on with Deshaun Watson. If they could go back, do you think they regret exploring Deshaun Watson? Cause that ultimately meant the end of Matt Ryan. No, listen, I think the owner, this was an Arthur blank.

This was an Arthur blank move. And when I say that, I want to clarify, you know, you're sitting around, you're looking at your situation and you're saying, how do we galvanize the fan base? How do we get people interested? Our team is getting old. You know, you got a wide receiver and Julio Jones who wanted out all these things are playing out. And I just think that as they explored this and thank God, they, you know, it didn't play out this way for the Falcons because Atlanta has been through this before. Now I wasn't here at the time, but there was a guy named Mike Vick that went through something, you know, completely different, but similar in the eyes of public opinion, which means the everybody's watching everybody's galvanized by what you're doing.

And it's for all the wrong reasons. So it's good that it didn't play out that way. But I also think that Matt Ryan was going to get let go. They were going to try and trade Matt line last year, and it didn't happen. Okay. So you get to this, this off season and you go, we got to move in.

I think that was just a part of it. I also think though, Zach, that they played their hand and they probably could have gotten more for Matt Ryan than they did. I love Matt.

I defended him on your show. You know, this he's a future hall of Famer. Hickey stop worrying about these preseason games.

Matt, Ryan's going to be fine. Calvin Ridley. How many phone calls did you get when the Watson punishment was final? And it was 11 games. I get why the league and I thought it should have been more than a lot of games. I get where the league needs to suspend Calvin Ridley for a year, but probably a lot of Falcons fans. Cause it just doesn't make sense when you look at it, not football related, what Calvin Ridley did compared to what the Sean Watson was accused of. And then Calvin Ridley got more games.

I get it. I mean, listen, we've talked a lot about this Zach, um, because fans don't see how one punishment fits the other, how, how these two things are, are in their minds, very similar. The only difference I can tell you is gambling. When you talk about gambling on the game and specifically gambling on your team, which Calvin did, you are jeopardizing the integrity of the game. And that is a completely different deal than Deshaun Watson making stupid and idiotic decisions on how he wanted to get a massage with a wash towel.

Okay. That's different. And if you can't see the two differences, the two things on the table, one guy gambled on his team and it completely affects the integrity of the game. When I watch these games on Sunday, or I go to these games on Sunday, I don't ever want to know that there's a player who could have jeopardized the outcome of that game because he's got money on it.

It's against the rules. Everybody in the NFL knows it. I can go to a game and cheer and follow an idiot who's made stupid decisions in his life because we've seen that happen time and time again.

And that's what's going to happen in Cleveland with Deshaun Watson, two totally different things, both, uh, needed to be punished, but they were punished differently. Let's get to the final down talking to Carl Dukes. What is Arthur Smith is a head football coach. He's a damn good coach. He's honest. He's, I think he's a very upfront and loyal to guys who understand that he's not going to pull any punches. If you're playing bad, he's supposed to just going to tell you. And as a matter of fact, you know, I said this today, we were talking about coach art.

I don't know if it's to a fault where he is honest in a lot of things that he says and the way that things come across. But I also think that this is what this team needed. This franchise needed that they needed someone who's not pulling punches, who's brutally honest, and who's not afraid to say exactly what's on their mind. Um, we went from a coach and I love DQ who was positive all the time, even though things were falling down around him and collapsing, it's not always good.

And it's okay sometimes to say it's not good. And I think that's the difference between art and DQ Dan Quinn. But I also think Arthur Smith knows what he wants to do offensively. And he has some tricks up his sleeve. He's one of these young, bright minds in the NFL. You've seen Sean McVay. We can talk about all these guys now, you know, the, the, the, the Shanahan tree. I also think that, that Arthur Smith, when he gets the personnel, he's going to be another guy that people are talking about around the NFL, Dean peas. We had a lot of fun at his expense last year when he was yelling at reporters for not congratulating Arthur Smith after his first victory. Are you a fan of, of coach Dean peas? It's funny. I went from being someone who was critical of coach bees because, you know, he tried to defend the defense last year.

That was horrible. And he was taking it for his guys. And my whole thing is Dean, I know your resume, but you've done nothing here.

You haven't won anything here. So get, get better on defense before we start trying to defend guys. What that said, I absolutely love the way he approaches things. And I love the way that he galvanizes guys that want to play for him. He knows what he's doing.

He's been around the league a long time. I have actually become, uh, he's one of the guys that, that, that I've actually become, you know, to cheer for now, as we turn the corner from last year, because he wanted us to believe that they were more than what they were when we knew they weren't. But that's his job, right?

I mean, my job is to say, you're not that it's his job to say, we are this. I hope they take a step forward this year on the DPs. And I think they will. He said that they only had 60% of the playbook in last year. He's put a hundred percent in even without the talent that a lot of people don't think this team has defensively. I'm curious to see what that looks like. Blitzes coming after quarterbacks, a lot of man coverage to see what this three four can look like. We all know the bucks are going to win this division who finishes in second place. I hate to say it, you know, I hate to say it. I can't even bring myself to say it.

The same. Oh, it's so hard. The saints will come in second Baker Mayfield and the Carolina Panthers, depending on if McCaffrey stays healthy, there'll be potentially third and then we'll be there at four.

Now if Marcus Mariota plays above his head, I wouldn't be surprised if the Falcons are in that third spot and maybe even pressing to see what happens with the Saints because that's a rivalry game. And that's why I can't bring myself to even say it. I can't believe I didn't say, Hey, you're going to have to go into the witness protection program like Hickey. Well, you know what? Oh, wait, hold on. My phone's ringing because Hickey's girl.