Divine Deablo: Falcons 'guys up front can get home' defensively

0:00It's three o'clock on Duke's at Bell. Brought to you by Finley Roofing, we've got you cover. Atlanta's most trusted and recommended Roofer. Y'all smoking the competition. Come on. Jeremy, how'd that feel, baby? Stop it, stop it. Ricky Rose, I'm on to my Ricky Rose. Thanks for making us your sports station. Sports Radio 92 9th again. We're trying to gather more details on the tour. A tongue-of-a-lowa situation, too. Apparently went down today. No contact or anything like that, guys. He's just throwing an individual drills. Apparently, it looked like something may have gone wrong with his back. Maybe a muscle or a... Oh, my neck! My back! A pull, something, and then he goes down, and he's down for a little bit. But again, the media at that point is like, all right, guys. Good to see you. All right, let's get you inside now. Wait, and we do hear, we have some folks telling us, there's going to be some videos going to drop here. I was doing the time you sent it. It wouldn't be in violation of the media protocols that they have in place once you get

1:03in a game week. But we'll see. What it looks like, then you as a fan can say, okay, that looks like nothing, and that looks like a big something. It's just if you tweaked his back, and that's what kept him out of practice to start with the season, that's what got the preseason, that's what got Jack Strand, all those extra reps with Cooper Rush. Yes. And if it's the same injury, same part of the back, specifically, that's a bit concerning, because that prevented him from working and doing what we expected him to do. Well, it camp, or at least heading into camp, you have time to rest. You can do those things because there's no urgency. Now there is season starting. Season started last night. Sunday, the season starts for the Falcons. There's urgency that there wasn't there at the beginning of camp that you can go out, you need a few days, go ahead and take a few days. Need a week? Go ahead and take a week. That is the difference of where we're at right now, which again gets us back to Michael Pinnix, the urgency. You've had all off season and all of that. And again, we could rehash all of this, but that is part of this discussion, Mike, is,

2:05okay, we don't have time now for guys to be taking three, four days, and then, all right, we'll get you ready for the game. Like now's the time. Speaking of now being the time, let's talk to a guy that we thoroughly enjoyed talking to and getting to know last year. He's a stud, man. I think we saw that when we went on that five game, losing streak, not blaming divine, but I will tell you, the team definitely was different without him on the field. Did you say divine Diablo? Join us right now on sports radio, 92 9, the game. What's up, D? I always love you. I know. Man, we're good, brother. How was, how was practice today? It was good. I know how to do it. You know, but we had to grind through it. So let's focus in on that real quick. What do you think about this Steelers offense? What are you seeing on film and from a standpoint of like, how are we going to get after in Rodgers, man? Because that's going to be a big part of Sunday. I think first of all, they want to start with some run game. You know, they got that big tight end watching, saying the 80s. So I think they're going to use the tight end and try to start the surrounding game. They got a full bet they like as well. But outside of that, they got some weapons on the outside, DK.

3:07A ride for the way we got to give them off his, you know, his tempo. He gets the ball off that. So we'll try to pressure him when we can. But if not, we've got to be on our, on our man and then match it up. Don't want to spill some, you know, secret sauce here, but I mean, we're going to see you maybe making a run of the quarterback from time to time. I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see. Because we talked, and I know you got candle Daniels. We like him. Perkins is a stud. You think we're going to see both of those guys on the field on Sunday? Um, doesn't change. I want to say you all. Okay. You know, there'll be hot day. All right. Fair enough. Hey, man, how are you feeling? You, uh, you had to take some time as well, Dore and camp physically. Where are you at right now? And then what you dealt with last year, your way past that, right? Well, how many past, uh, foreign injury, uh, that, that, that, that, uh, during the season last year while I had the guys on, uh, and then the foot thing, that was just, uh, we practice on high school. So I just got a little tweak, sprain. That's all it was. So we're good now. Fully helping. You feeling good, man? Um, as far as, uh, Jeff O'Brick and this defense, how much more of a handle to do?

4:11Do you have on it now than when you got here and how, how different is your responsibilities? Are they going to be this year? I got a great handle on it now. I feel like, uh, any, you know, second year in the same system, I feel like that helps a lot. Oh, defense, honestly, we can't prepare. There are no CAs. We're just trying to make it better. Hansi and what weaknesses we have and trying to eliminate those as far as my role, you know, I just got them, the boys of the defense. So I just got to make sure I'm on my piece and Q's. Make sure everybody on the same page and go from there. Divine Diablo's with us guys here from the Falcons Falcon linebacker. As we know, don't have a James Pierce junior for the first half of the season. Unfortunately, the walkers out, a lot of sacks are out right now from last year's stats. Do you have to blitz to create there? Do you think the guys in front of you can get home? I know the guys in front of you can get home. I can't wait to see you. Hmm. Well, I know this. You got some big boys in front of you all of a sudden, right? I mean, this feels like, should make it easier, a little easier. It feels like it's a bigger defensive line, Divine. Is it? They definitely big up there.

5:12They definitely clear up a lot of running goals for me, you know, to just run through and then get some CFLs, hopefully. You are going to wear the green dot, obviously calling the defense. You mentioned that. Is that your forte? Are you a big talker? Like, how much have you had to work on that? I'm doing originally. I wasn't a big talker. I had to get out my comfort zone, but you know, these guys, they're easy. They like a family around here. So they all do a good job listening to what I got to say and keep moving. Defensive captain, the leader, divine Diablo of the defense. All right, talk about some of the young faces out there, man. Talking about AJ's brother. How's A.V. on looking to you? He's looking good, man. He does the same. He knows how to cover really well. He's still growing, obviously, but was just brought up the season goes. I'm trusting completely out there. I can't wait to see him play. And we mentioned Kendall Daniels earlier. He's kind of a freak how we went from being a safety to a linebacker, but he's athletic. Is hell looks like he can do almost anything. Oh, yeah, for sure. Any of his students in the game. So yeah, I almost, you know, I was two of us out there. You know, there's this tall, Mickey and we can run.

6:12So I'm excited to play with him. Yeah, he said that when we talked to him in camp, he said you actually kind of helped him because you understood that journey, man, of making that transition. How did that happen and what did that entail? Like was it film work or you're just talking about playing the position footwork? What was it? What was it all entail? A little bit of both. I tried to speak from a safety perspective sometimes. Just to so give him idea what to expect as far as route concepts, at least. And then a run game, you know, he's got to know your gap. So it wasn't that hard. And like I said earlier, he's a very smart guy student of the game. So it wasn't easy to tease him more properly. Him to myself for sure. Devine Diablo joining us here on sports radio, 92 9 the game. Falcons getting ready for the Steelers in week one on Sunday. The offense itself, I know you've gone up against them quite a bit. Obviously in camp. What's your perceptions, man? Because I think, you know, right now a lot of Falcons fans are like, all right, we think this and this and this. But how confident are you and what you've seen with the offense that things are going to smooth out? And we're going to have a productive offense this season.

7:14I think our offense is outstanding. They do a great job of moving the ball against us. So I can't say too much, but I'm looking forward to see what they got. You know, we got the weapons on that side. So hey, I'm just excited. All right. Because Zachariah Branch, we saw him pits. Man, that's a thing we, you know, hang out is divine. We talk about this. We think we got all these matchups. They should provide some mismatches, right? Yes. Thank you. That's that's all we're looking for, man. All right, man, before we let you roll, what's what's divine Diablo's goal? I've already put it out there. Listen, you speaking. This is me. I said, you're going to leave the team in tackles, man. I mean, you missed what five games last year. I think you had 75 78 tackles, something like that. Yes, sir. I feel like that's something you're going to be able to do. You have specific goals you've set that you feel like you can accomplish with this defense. Oh, yes, sir. I got a lot of goals, actually, but leading the team is how it goes. It's definitely one of them. I want to create some turnovers this year, most of them actually. And just go from there.

8:15I just want to be the best linebacker I can be for this team. All right, man. So do we ever do the t-shirt? Is it the devil with the angel's wings or an angel with devil's horns? I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I don't know quite, you know, which way I want to do it. But yeah, definitely got it in the process. All right, man. Well, hey, man, divine. Good luck. And we appreciate you stopping by divine Diablo. Thank you, bro. Appreciate you. Yeah, man. Good dude. And now as we said, you know, he just was so missed. And again, I know JD Bertrands, a kid up 400 way and a lot of fans, but just couldn't do the job. And there was just nobody, apparently, and the in the linebacker room on this roster that could do the job that divine Diablo did. And when he was missed, man, everything to the middle car. The guards after the catch just went up to the roof. Yeah. I totally agree. And look, the defense changed, man, every, it just did. You talk about taking one take the, and this is what we didn't know about divine. We didn't realize how critical he was going to be to the defensive, the makeup of the defense last year. And being a guy, especially in coverage situations, but I was going to say, just take off the best guy on any defense.

9:18And, you know, a playmaker like that. And it changes the complexity of what they can do. So hopefully he stays healthy, man. I'm. I don't want to say semi confident, Mike, but I'm, I am, I'm not as confident in the, in the front seven as I'd like to be only because of those guys that are missing. We know we're going to get pierced back. Jayla's not coming back this season, unfortunately, but we got to wait. I mean, and that's the only thing that I'm, I'm really in like, I'm leery about the front seven. And specifically, are we going to be able to stop the run? Yeah, we got bigger boys up there. But man, you still got to, we got to be able to stop guys. Right. Dervon Dexter, you know, we talked about, you know, Brandon Dorolas is arguing that, you know, most impactful guy from that draft until, you know, Michael establishes himself from 2024. Lake Hill London, they picked up Mason Smith. They wanted more size, got rid of Rook. And we got Zidaria Smith to come back. And again, we know the circumstances and he lost his mom. He got away from the game and he's, he's absolutely excited to be back. And now we just hope he's got something left in the tank. But I mean, the odds of a older player giving that kind of production, like we thought about, you know, what was going to happen at times last year with Leonard Floyd.

10:20It's just, you know, I mean, it's just, it's just, I don't know, man. It's just, it's frustrating. I know, uh, tabstent Ebbukam, we've talked about some of these dudes, you know, it's, it's Harold Perkins, Kendall Danes. Are you going to be blitzing his Ulbrich? I know I asked him the question. He was going to, you know, spill the tea, but are we going to really be dialing up stuff to have to scheme pressure? You know, with the, you know, with blitzes. Yeah. I mean, look, do you, I think you can do more with these two guys. Mike, I'm talking about the linebackers in divine and candle because they can run, um, they're, you know, the quick Twitch guys, they can get off the, the, the blocks. But if you're doing that, you're really trusting your DBs to cover everything up and, you know, especially in the middle of the field. And maybe that's, that's going to be this, maybe the first few weeks of this season to figure that out for, for Jeff Ulbrich. I just think we went from the summer. Think about this where you went. All right. We know James is going to have a punishment. We don't know what that's going to be, but I got a guy on this side and a guy on that side that can create pressure on their own. True book ends that we've never really had on this team safer. You know, you got to go back to the bomb squad days, Carl. You always had like eight or John, like John Abraham, but nobody on the other side.

11:23I mean, Kernie kind of had guys in the middle, but didn't really truly have that other edge guy. You know, we never really had that those book ends you're talking about. And you went from that to both of those pieces being gone and that stability being gone. And now you're looking for other guys to do those jobs. When you could have allowed those guys to just do their job. It changes this defense. And so that's, it's, it's a bit concerned. And look, I don't know if the Steelers might can exploit this like other teams. I don't think we will find out as we move along through the season, but there are going to be some teams that, that try to exploit that a lot more than because the Steelers quarterback is not mobile. When we play a mobile quarterback, that's going to change things guys for guys coming off the edge. And you're saying, all right, there's no pressure. I'm on the outside and now I got more time to fill football. That's where you hope that, you know, Jesse Bates and the athleticism of our young linebacker core comes to, you know, to the forefront. All right, man, appreciate divine stopping by. We got a lot more to get to. We're going to talk to our buddy Mike Griffey. Look at the video to it. Yeah, I saw it. I don't see like what happened.

12:26You know what I mean? This is, this is rare reminiscent of the pinnix injury. When pinnix got hurt, I said this when he got hurt, everybody went, he's hurt. I don't know what to make of it. I tweeted it out. It's an ATL bell 929. If you guys, you know, don't, don't look all you're driving. But thanks for our buddy Reggie Chapman from channel 11. He put it up there. He, he basically, he's, he's going to the ground sort of in slow motion. Like it's like, you were me when we get a back spasm, basically, you know, you, oh, oh, he sits down. So I don't know. But again, because it was a, same situation or again, that's that specific part of his back. That's how we missed the first couple of days of camp. All right, man, dog nation's microphone is going to join us next. What's he thinking about this upcoming weekend? Is there anything Kirby didn't see from his team that he may want to see this week? We'll ask that and much more. We come back here on sports radio 92 9 again.