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Making Monsters: Kentavius Street and what he can add to the Bears · 2nd City Gridiron

• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, welcome back to another making monsters where continuing on this kind of recap of the free agency signing for the bears about nine and counting with the first wave and a little bit of that second wave starting at this point in time.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now we're joined by do Orlando led better.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's covered the Falcons for over 20 years.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of experience there talking some Falcons football.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I appreciate you hopping on and chatting a little football.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, thanks for having me this morning, happy to be here.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, it is an early morning to start.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got March Madness going on.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I was up late, watching some basketball last night.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we, like I said, we're continuing on some of this.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going through getting to know a little bit of the free agent.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some we know, some, they signed a Kobe Bryant, your more familiar with a Kobe Bryant than maybe a lot of people are with the Contabius Street.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that is one of the guys at the fair side.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: The defensive lineman for the Falcons
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But from 2023 to the last season, originally drafted by the 49ers back in 2019, he actually started his career as a defense event was drafted as an edge by the 49ers.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think since then has spent the majority of the time on the inside of that line.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I want to start with the Falcon's defense last year.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think honestly it was kind of fun to watch and some of those draft pieces that you guys got last year when it comes to obviously a James Pierce and Xavier Watts,
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Chicago all kind of came together and there was a lot of fun pieces that I feel like is the start of a really good balcony and Steve fence.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: So chat about that a little bit to start.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no question about it.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Things came together for them last season under the direction of Jeff all brick.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: He used, you know, about 14, 15 different guys in a rotational rose to, you know, get a defense that got 57 sack second highest in the league and Xavier Watts picking off five balls back there as they rookie safety.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he did it, you know, with a lot of twist, a lot of stunts, you know, Guy's playing 30 snaps, 35, 20 and,
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Contabius Street was one of those role players in the interior for then.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they had David, all you modna and he was the leader But everybody else were guys like the Lucille London Contabius Street that, you know, mixed in there and to ate up blocks to free up James Pierce and the free up Jalen Walker
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the free up linebacker K. Nillis as the main pressure guys.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you never knew where the pressure was coming from.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And street was part of that group that, um, dialed up blocks and kept people off of the linebackers are off of the pressure players.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So where did they use him more?
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Was he more nose tackle, three tech?
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: What were you seeing him as?
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: More three tech when they went nose, they went with, oh, your motto over the center.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he did to do some over the center when they went to their four, their four to five nickel.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when they were in three, man, front, it was usually all your motto.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then he played a more under tackle more three, you know, take on the blocks and penetrate.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So G.C.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Contabius says more of that kind of role-player rotational type of guy that can be, can you see him in other places of the line also because like I said, he started at Edge or do you think he's better on that interior?
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I least hear that I didn't see any edge rush from him.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was mostly in tier because he's behind Grady Jarrett at 1.2 here.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's been steady.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's a guy that they traded for, late draft round pick, and they need to help inside.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he would always flash whenever he got his opportunity to play.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: So there may be more there than we've seen.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: here in Atlanta, but you know, as far as the edge, I haven't seen that.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know it's in the history though, but yeah, they haven't.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have to press that button and open that door, but you know, he can do it.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can go out there and set up and give you some quality snaps for sure.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you talk about you mentioned the the past Russian the SACS, which is a
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: few sacks as a team for the bears and some of that is injuries.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of guys were battling a lot of things, including grated your last year for the majority of the season, but you talk about that part and that being a big part of that defense.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: What about the run defense?
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: How did that fair last year?
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that didn't go so well when defined the outblown went out that kind of took a plug out of the middle of that defense and that was when the middle part of season when it started to get gashed really bad.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course Johnson Taylor went for a record 244.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: on them in Berlin, so the run defense was bad when Diablo went out and then when he came back, you know, it got a little better, but it was, that's still the one thing they got to do they got to get bigger of front because, you know, they wanted to be, they thought they were going to be a team that scored a lot of points and they'd be in their smallest front and they could just get after people, but it turned out they weren't a lot of slick
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: to, you know, run away games and so forth.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, the key and the key for improvement moving forward is to stop the run and, you know, we're seeing that this offseason as they're loading up on a lot of defenders up front.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we can relate to that.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was moments of time where it felt like every team was coming into Chicago and they would have their Ash and Jensie had his breakout game.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody had their breakout game.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: That last season against the Bears when it came to rushing.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: It did get a little bit better.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned Grady Jarrett and maybe that's a, you know, a little bit of a piece, Contabius Street bringing in.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's already been behind Grady.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: at a former stop what it does seem like because these coaches brought people that at times had played with them or played with guys around which a lot of times you bring that familiarity when you're just trying to build some depth.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Talk a little bit about Grady because he did battle an injury almost all season late in the year last year.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we saw him get healthy, you saw what type of player he can be.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But how would you describe a Grady Jarrett?
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Grady was a 30 fire plug, a defender here, found him in the fifth round, you know, flashed his rookie year on the Super Bowl, you know, if they win that thing, he's probably MVP.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He had so many sex on Brady that day.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so from that, he grew into a solid provo player here, that they, you know, used up front to create pressure and collapse the pocket.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: uh... story guy came to work every day you know did flash up to probo level uh... and good to see him you know just a good guy in the communities from here everybody uh... like heaven's family story but you know at the end they uh... you know he went to jacago for
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, free agency sometimes tackles don't get those third contracts, but he was never to do that and When healthy which he was all the time here He's a force.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's a force to be reconwent and it's he's getting on the other side of 30 So yeah, you probably don't want to play him the whole 67 place But if you can get 50 strong players out of a gritty
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're going to see some pro-level, a high level, a pro-ball type of play from him.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he's still got it in him.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, how did you we saw flashes, especially in the postseason this year where you were like, okay, there's greater you just been waiting for that healthy side to come.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's funny when we have to talk about a guy being 30 being old.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we, you know, we all do it.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm 35 now.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm like, hold on.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's like pump the brakes on this.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to ask you a couple of more questions.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: One about you obviously covered the Falcons for a long time.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you're also very familiar with Dennis Allen.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dennis Allen.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: with New Orleans for a while.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The head coaching side didn't work so well, but Dennis Island as a defensive coordinator has done a lot of really good things in the league.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: This year probably that he had to get through at one point all of our Lyme to all three Lyme backers were out.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Grady was her.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're missing your top two corners and Jalen Johnson and Tyler Gordon.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't really have the personnel that you probably wanted, and you are still able to leave the league and take away.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'll do some funky stuff to try to manufacture some blitzes and things like that, but I feel like when you have the type of player that Dennis Allen likes.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we see the cam Jordan's and stuff like that that he had in New Orleans.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He could be a really good DC and really skim up some good stuff.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no question about it.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Coach Allen did a great job, uh, been around a long time.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he started his career here with Dan Rees back in the day, uh, known as dad played for the Falcons back in the day.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: He might have been even born here, but we followed him for a long time.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, uh,
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good to see him reach get, you know, after his job in New Orleans to resurface with the bears and put together a quality unit, he wants to, you know, be big up front.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to mash you.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: He wants to, you know, just stay in that fourth three if he can and, you know, beat you that way.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, big blindbackers, big front, you know, he'll play zone mostly FES too, but you know you're seeing now where people are not just sitting back, you know, they're going to try to get after quarterbacks and make a make decisions as quickly as possible.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he's added all of that to his, his play calling.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we see some interesting stuff.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, that's one of the things that once guys started getting healthy, you saw it in the posties and color garden back and great healthy and all of those things you kind of saw that deep fence start to click a little
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of people are excited to see this year too with Dennis Allen and bringing his guys in it because he does his guys fit well and his defenses and he has a very specific playing style that he likes.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: But final one before I let you go, I wanted to talk a little bit about the the whole Ian Cunningham situation, a lot of bears media bears fans, a little upset that they didn't get comp picks over that because of the Rooney rule, you know, the little caveat being Matt Ryan technically, I guess, an over Ian Cunningham, even though Matt Ryan has come out
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does it thought as from it has a been a discussion from the Falcon side of things it wouldn't have been their picks.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just from that situation.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, Ian said, hey, you know, if you go to the team, he's supposed to get the picks.
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there is the I saw the rules earlier when they
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: very clearly at the Met Ryan Press Conference, he's the final decision maker, so that's a designation you got to share with the league office, and once they did that, that makes Ian and the league eyes as a assistant general manager.
• 10:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: even though he's got a German title in the view of the league with a fight of football operations got being the president of football, he's over the GMEs, the guy according to the rules.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think you know rules could be made to be altered.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I was the bears, I would appeal and cite the fact that Matt Ryan said he's going to be using Ian as the final decision maker.
• 11:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know what it is, and Sean Payton was telling me this was a good thing.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The owner likes to meet with the coaches on Mondays.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's not a good deal.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now he can meet with Matt Ryan, and it hasn't been a good deal over time.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now he can meet with Matt Ryan, Matt Ryan, can meet with Kevin, us the fanski, he can tell the owner what's going on.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, Ian's running the talent acquisition part of it.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: That the bears can somehow articulate that to the league and ask for a waiver other rules and reconsider, you know, I mean, they got lawyers and Ryan's pretty sharp guy out there pose, so yeah, I would appeal that decision.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was very interesting because I feel like we're seeing a little bit more of that in the league so I do feel like even if the bears don't get anything which it seems like the league came out said you can't appeal They kind of unofficially appeal just to see what they would say in the league was like no you're not getting the picks but now it does seem like the bears are taking further.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't there are more conversations whether that's trying.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what that looks like in the league.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of steps But I do feel like even if the bears don't get the comp picks for the future I think things have to be re-adjusted because I do think that you're seeing more of this type of role when it comes to you as having that with Matt Ryan The the Jaguars obviously they got Tony Basselli and a similar type of role And so we're seeing something new in the league and when new things come you obviously have to start to adjust to how that works
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no doubt about it, and you know, you, you, uh, want to, um, talk about, uh, have a came from more minority hiring in the, uh, upper levels of your franchises.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then when you do it, you pick and choose on how you're going to reward that.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't look very consistent, uh, and the spirit of the rules they should.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: give the picks up.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I agree with that.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I agree with that.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the spirit out of Ru is, you know, you said you would have came for a hundred people.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't compensate teams for a pick.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I really appreciate your time to Orlando.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know this year will be interesting.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of moves, some moves that you guys made with quarterback this year.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see what that looks like.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll all be watching from afar and I appreciate your time.
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much Taylor and hopefully you all have a good season like you did last year that was exciting seeing the bears back on the playoff block.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's been a while this since I had one to play off game so it was fun to watch and you have to get rest of your day.
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right you do the same.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take care.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bye bye.