The Falcoholic
James Pearce Jr. continued to stand out, Drake London had his best day yet and we got more kicking on Day 4 of Falcons camp.
I’m not saying this to discount or discredit what we’ve seen in the first three days of practice; football has been getting played with just about everyone present, but the real evaluation doesn’t happen until pads come on.
The first day of pads (aka Tuesday) was the first day when real hits could start getting laid down and when real football physically comes into play, as opposed to the glorified two-hand touch that takes place when everyone is in shorts and a t-shirt.
You could feel the physicality and the different nature of practice right from the get-go, with real takedowns and tackles happening.
The first play in scrimmage was an aggressive scamper from RB Carlos Washington Jr. which got the offensive players hooting and hollering, before LB DiVine Diablo met him right at the line of scrimmage for a stuff on the very next snap.
QB Michael Penix Jr. noted in the opening comments of his post-practice press conference that the wide receivers came up to him telling him they were especially excited about run plays because it meant they could go “hit a safety.”
Here are my observations from Day 4 of Falcons Training Camp!
Rookie OLB James Pearce Jr. was the primary focus on Sunday, being in the middle of back to back scuffles amid a strong day, and he might have been even better Tuesday. Pearce was constantly in the backfield, speeding up the clock on Penix and QB Kirk Cousins. He was getting lined up on both sides of the edge early on.
Pearce’s best play of the day came during the red zone portion of drills, when he sped passed a seemingly helpless T Jake Matthews one-on-one and drew a clear holding penalty on a play that wound up being a touchdown pass which was called back.
A few plays later, against the second team in 11-on-11s, Pearce’s pressure on Kirk Cousins forced a sailing incompletion on what should have been an easy short pass intended for TE Feleipe Franks.
What was maybe most impressive about Pearce’s day is that he was mostly giving the business to the starting offensive line, as he ran exclusively with the second-team defense today — for reference, the scrimmage period mostly consists of the first-team offense facing the second-team defense and vice versa.
Michael Penix went an overall 6-10 in all scrimmage portions today (I did not count the touchdown pass that was called back on the holding which Pearce drew), and he continued showing his prowess on difficult throws. WR Drake London was the recipient of exactly half of those completions, and went for major yardage on each of his touches.
The day started with an incredibly impressive throw from Penix, right around the left...
