This one's a slightly bigger deal because of the security breach involved. The kid got Sanders' number from his dad's tablet, which was left on a table on/unlocked. I certainly get it that in Ulbrich's case, he figures he's at home, in private, so it should be fine to leave the tablet on the table when you go to the kitchen to get coffee, use the restroom, whatever. But his punk kid happened to be home visiting and grabbed the number for future reference just to pull the prank. Bearing in mind that Atlanta just lost a draft pick in this year's draft for tampering, the fact that they're the focus of an NFL investigation into *anything* makes it slightly news-worthy. Otherwise, yeah, I'm guessing those kinds of prank calls happen a lot more than we know, and this one only made the news because it happened during Sanders' already news-making slide.
I do hope they don't try and screw with Atlanta's draft picks as a result of a coach's kid being a little shit. Fine the organization, come up with some reasonable punishment to the kid, but a shit head taking info off his dad's tablet probably shouldn't result in draft compensation punishment as a result...
I already know I'm going to be rooting hard for North Dakota State linebacker Nick Kubitz in training camp. Dane Brugler rated him as the 185th linebacker prospect, and that's with most top OLBs moved to the "Edge" category. I'm not sure if anyone else ranked him at all.
Yeah, this one got the headlines, but apparently there were 3 or 4 this year. They say it happens every year, but this one was caught on camera and it was a prospect getting a lot of air time for dropping. I remember Baker Mayfield, who was the very first pick remember, got a call as soon as the draft opened... It was his buddy in the room standing behind him. He turned around, scolded him, then they had a good laugh about it. Seeing tape on the Shedeur prank, it didn't really seem to bother him much either. He was like, who the fuck has this number, then said something like, that ain't right, but then proceeded on. He didn't really seem to be very upset. Though, he doesn't seem like the type of person to ever get upset about anything. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more laid back 21 year old.
Yeah I get his frustration. If I had his job I would eventually learn never to listen to local radio. Not much to be gained
This little tid-bit is from, ESPN. Id like to say Sanders, Warren and Lundt handled it very well. I post this because it answers some questions that popped up in this thread about who the others were. _____ _____________ In a conference call with Cleveland-area reporters after he was drafted by the Browns in the fifth round Saturday, Sanders said he wasn't bothered by the prank. "It didn't really have an impact on me," Sanders said, "because it was just like, I mean, OK, like I don't feed into negativity, or I don't feed into that stuff. You've seen on Deion [Sanders] Jr.'s YouTube video my reaction to it, I don't -- it is what it is. I think, of course, it is childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there." New Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren also received a prank call before he was selected in the first round by Indianapolis, a league source told ESPN's Stephen Holder. Buffalo Bills sixth-round pick Chase Lundt, an offensive tackle, said in his introductory news conference that he received "four or five" prank calls during the draft. "There were a lot of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' throughout the course of the morning, but I was able to kind of push them aside after a while and just kind of stay levelheaded through it all," Lundt said.
In the end, it had a much greater impact on Ulbrich... the league fined the Falcons $250k and Ulbrich $100k for him leaving his tablet unsecured at home, making it possible for his punk kid to secretly get the phone number. Yeah... the next family gathering at the Ulbrich house is going to be awkward...
Falcons GM Terry Fontenot had an interesting take on the Pearce trade in a media Q&A during the draft... he basically said the team was making next year's first round pick this year by taking Pearce, and the trade price to move up a year was moving from the second to the third this year and giving up the seventh. I had similar thoughts at the time... until they turned around and also gave up the future fifth rounder in the move up to get Xavier Watts. Put it together and it's 2nd, 7th, 2026 1st, 2026 5th for two players - Pearce and Watts. Whether it's a good move or not still comes down to how you view those two players. If Pearce turns into the next John Abraham, fantastic move. If he turns into the next Takk McKinley, the GM will end up getting fired. But the OTHER interesting take is that two reporters have now said that owner Arthur Blank essentially gave Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris a "win now" mandate, and that was presumably a driving factor behind making the trade.
Note the Falcons statement to the fine underlined some "community service initiatives". They are making the punk work.
I’m not sure if I made it clear, but my real beef with the Falcons approach was not the players taken, and not even completely the idea of trading away a premium future asset. But more so the combination of losing future assets and the fact it was the anti-Patriots approach. In that you spent two 1’s and two 3’s, and made not one selection that benefits the brand new, young “face of the franchise” in Michael Penix. Current O-Line, London, and underachieving Pitts will have to be enough. Unless of course someone wants to make the stretch argument it helps by shaving 3-7 points off the total he’ll need to win games. But I don’t think most of us trust that argument
I don’t stop at the shaving of 3-7 points. They were 23rd in that category of points allowed. But they will also help turn the field in Penix favor. In 2024, their average starting field position was the 25.7 yard line, which was worst in the league. That also doesn’t help your young QB, asking him to drive the field on nearly every possession. They have spent 6 first round picks over the last 7 drafts on offense, (2) of which are on the online, a second round pick on the line last year, and a 4th offensive linemen in the first round of the 2014 draft. So four of your oline starters are 1st and 2nd round draft picks. They need to start playing to their potential. They have arguably the best RB in the NFL. Not to mention, they have the highest paid backup/mentor at QB in NFL history. I would argue they didn’t do more for the defense before this past weekend. It’s about freaking time they addressed it.
Defense is definitely where the main focus for improvement needed to be. Last year they allowed opposing QBs a combined passer rating of 100.2 (fourth worst in league), only had a total pressure rate of 20.0% (eighth worst in league), allowed 4.48 yards per rush (middle of pack) and had 114 missed tackles (ninth worst in league). Will this year be any better - with yet another new defensive coordinator, yet another new defensive line coach and yet another new batch of edge rushers? Who knows... but there's no doubt that the division is right there for the taking and has been for each of the last two seasons. Atlanta had the division lead in hand in midseason both years and choked it away.
You *know* how I feel about future draft assets, so I definitely agree on that one being an issue. I don't know if they really could afford to make any draft picks this year to give an instant benefit to Penix though, especially since they didn't have a third or fifth rounder. But they definitely have put significant investment into the offense overall. How many other teams will have SEVEN first round picks on the field together on offense?
So then aside from continuity on defense, it’s possible one of their issues is simply drafting in general.
I don't know, despite Cousins breakdown and switching to a rookie QB, they were a top 10 offense. A full off season and Penix might have this team steam rolling. This could end up being one of those teams that sneaks up on the league and all of a sudden they are just really really good.
