As they say, everybody's a critic, and even if that wasn't the case, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green is certainly a very vocal critic. But the outspoken NBA player mostly keeps his critiques contained to the hardwood — until now. And that is not good news for the Atlanta Falcons.
Green, who has never been shy of voicing his opinions, recently launched a podcast called “Why is Draymond Green Talking about Football?” in which Green — you guessed it — talks about football with NFL insider Jordan Schultz. Green, while having played 12 seasons in the NBA, did actually play football, albeit briefly, while attending Michigan State University. He practiced with the football team as a tight end but did not end up playing in any games for the Spartans.
During his time in East Lansing, Green was one of the school's top athletes. Kirk Cousins, the football team's star quarterback, also had that title considering the two current professional athletes' stint at Michigan State greatly overlapped with one another.
However, that didn't stop Green from saying Cousins' new team, the Falcons, are “garbage.”
“Shoutout to my Spartan dawg, Captain Kirk,” Green said. “We was here at the same time. Got a bunch of love for Kirk. Bijan [Robinson] is a young star, shoutout to him. But Atlanta's garbage.”
“No… They're not garbage,” Schultz tried to interject.
“They garbage,” Green restated. “They garbage, and I'm going to take Philly at -6.5 at home, no problem. Atlanta's garbage.”
"Shoutout to my Spartan dawg, Captain Kirk. We was here at the same time. Got a bunch of love for Kirk [Cousins]. Bijan [Robinson] is a young star, shoutout to him. But Atlanta is garbage." Draymond Green is not high on the Falcons this year 😅
Are the Falcons really garbage?
While harsh, the opinion is not entirely uncommon at the moment. Cousins and the Falcons played poorly in Week 1, losing 18-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers despite Pittsburgh failing to score a touchdown the entire game. Cousins, in particular, looked out of sorts in his first game with Atlanta — the veteran quarterback went 16-for-26, 155 yards, one touchdown, and 2 interceptions.
Cousins' Week 1 performance has led some, like former NFL player Keyshawn Johnson, to already start talking about when it's time to promote rookie backup Michael Penix Jr. to a starting role.
Fortunately for Cousins and the Falcons' offense, the Philadelphia Eagles' defense is not expected to be as strong as the notoriously stringent defense of the Steelers. In their Week 1 victory against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil, the Eagles allowed 251 passing yards and 2 passing touchdowns, in addition to 163 rushing yards on 21 carries for an astounding 7.8 yard-per-rush average. If the Falcons have a chance to beat Philadelphia, they'll need to have a similarly effective rushing attack, if only to slow down the pass rush and set up the play action for Cousins.
Robinson, the Falcons' No. 8 overall a year ago, and Tyler Allgeier combined for 89 rushing yards on 21 carries last week vs. Pittsburgh.
The Falcons and Eagles will kick off the Sept. 16 edition of “Monday Night Football” at approximately 8:15 p.m. ET.
