SECRET SHANAHAN: Can Tommy Rees TRANSFORM the Atlanta Falcons’ Offense and SAVE Their Future?

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To save this franchise, Tommy Reese has to be a secret Shanahan who breaks the Falcons out of their offensive carousel. You are locked on Falcons, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Locked On Falcons podcast.

I am your humble host, Aaron Freeman, a.k.a. Mr. A.K.A. And today's Locked On Falcons podcast is brought to you by Fandle. The biggest stage in world soccer is here. Let there be goals on Fandle.

Visit FanDuel.com to get started now. So on today's episode, since we just recently broke down the Falcons offensive line heading into training camp, I think it's a great time to talk with Jay Stevens of Locked On Buckeyes about the offensive line. The Falcons just drafted in round seven, former Ohio State Buckeye Ethan Oneyanwa.

Jay will explain why he was surprised that Oneyanwa got drafted based off his time in Columbus. but we'll also dig into why there's some hope for Oneon was best football being ahead of him versus behind him. But that's later in today's episode. And we want to start today's episode talking about our boy, Tommy Reese with the positional previews that we've been breaking

down on offense all week long. We've been discussing quite a bit, Tommy Reese's potential impact and why he's so critical to the success of several players and position groups in terms of living up to their expectations this season. And I think it's worth digging into more why on why we put such an emphasis on Tommy Reese's success, dictating this team success. And we begin with the question

of, are you Tommy Reese, a secret Shanahan? Are you the hidden love child of Mike Shanahan from his time with a mistress when he was the head coach of the Raiders and Tommy Reese was born in LA many, many years ago. And Tommy Reese, have you been plotting for the last three decades to win back your father's love by doing the thing that his eldest son, Kyle, could never do, which

is win a Super Bowl here for the Atlanta Falcons? Now, of course, this is a silly question to ask. I've probably been watching way too much anime and soap operas as of lately, which is why this question pops into my head. But it begs the question of why we put so much on Tommy Reese. Because basically, you know, the Falcons refuse to change their offensive personnel outside of the quarterback and the play caller.

You know, they'll swap out their wide receiver to every other year and they'll change with like one starter on their offensive line. But it's basically the same offensive group for the last several years. And while we believe that Michael Penix and Tua Tunga-Vailoa are very capable quarterbacks, if the goal is to get, you know, high level quarterback play.

And this goes back to the conversation we had the other day when we were breaking down Kyle Pitts's potential and whether, you know, a tight end could be the top one or two options in this offense and the successful offense. And we compared the impending 2026 Falcons with Pitts as that number two to Drake London to teams like the 2015 Carolina Panthers that had Greg Olson and the 2020 Raiders that had Darren Waller. And of course, the Patriots with Gronk and the Chiefs with Travis Kelsey as high performing offenses, primarily led by a tight end either as a number one or number two guy. and obviously those teams in those specific seasons you know cam newton won mvp in 2015 with

the panthers derrick carr was a top 10 quarterback in 2020 with the raiders and obviously i don't have to explain to you how good tom brady and patrick mahomes were uh during the gronk and kelsey eras and basically the the question is if we're going to get that level of quarterback play that high level quarterback play it's going to be primarily driven by the play caller i shouldn't have to sit

here and sell you although the two intruthers will deny this but i shouldn't have to sell you on the impact and, you know, impact of Mike McDaniel on Tua Tungvalu's success in Miami these last couple of years. And all you got to do when it comes to Michael Penix's potential to make a leap, just look

at the rest of his 2024 draft class that did not get off to a great start with, you know, Caleb Williams and what Ben Johnson was able to do for him in year two, what Josh McDaniel was able to do for Drake May in year two as an MVP runner up. And we're hoping, you know, Michael Penix is the guy that Tommy Reese can do the same for him as well.

And that gets us to why we sit here and think so much of this season hinges on Tommy Reese and how good a play caller he is. Last year in Cleveland, things didn't look particularly promising. That fuels a lot of the skepticism, certainly my skepticism for whether or not Tommy Reese is that good of a play caller. but we have eight games and he inherited a bad offense, the NFL's worst offense, and

couldn't elevate that offense. But that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be able to elevate this Falcons offense. Again, I think it's fair to be skeptical whether he can do that, but the Falcons need him to be that guy that can elevate. The Falcons need him to be the guy that can elevate the play of the quarterback. The Falcons need him to be the guy that can diversify

this run game. The Falcons need him to be the guy that can maximize this unproving group of wide receivers and the Falcons need him to be the guy that can get Kyle Pitts to be that, you know,