Takk McKinley’s back on Twitter: Here’s what the Falcons had to say about it - The Athletic

[Goober Pyle 6,727]

by Tori McElhaney for The Athletic 

 

Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris was walking off the field after a team walkthrough Wednesday morning when he was approached about a certain tweet sent out by a certain player. And with Takk McKinley back on Twitter, Morris didn’t have far to look to figure out who that certain player was.

McKinley made his return to Twitter after a hiatus that started in May after a few social media decisions that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth regarding McKinley’s feelings for the Falcons’ organization. On Nov. 2, he simply tweeted that the Falcons weren’t going to trade him as the trade deadline approached.
 

Two days later, he was back. This time, he was clear that with the trade deadline passing, so did it seem his patience with the organization as he claimed the Falcons have turned down a few draft picks for him … and he also clapped back … at himself? A source confirmed that there never was a trade interested with second-round discussion last year as McKinley claimed.
 

 

With McKinley out with a groin injury, he was not participating in the morning’s walkthrough with the team. And when Morris addressed the media about the issue at 11:10 a.m., he said he had not had a chance to talk with McKinley about his tweet yet, but that “Takk will definitely be held accountable for his actions and everything that ends up going along with it.”

Here’s the thing about this situation with McKinley: It’s nothing new.He has followed this pattern before. It’s something that Morris spoke to on Wednesday morning.

“He got the memo from Thomas (Dimitroff) and Dan (Quinn) I think at the combine that they weren’t going to pick up his (fifth year) option, and then after that he kind of went silent,” Morris said. “But I do know that he went away and did a great job of training and getting his body in the best possible shape to come back this year and absolutely tear it up. I know his mind was right. I know he had his training regimen down. I know he had his family members around him, and he was out in the West Coast, and then when he came back you could see it.”

And you did. McKinley spoke at length to media at the beginning of training camp about what the previous months of work looked like since getting the news about getting his fifth-year option denied. He said he dropped weight, going from between 265 to 270 to 248 entering camp. Quinn said then it was the best he had seen McKinley look. Fast forward to Wednesday, Morris agreed.

“He looked different,” Morris said. “He looked like a different person. He looked like he was in better shape. He looked like he was ready to go.”

McKinley said in August the decision to decline his fifth-year was a “wake-up call.”

“That lit a fire in me, and that’s cool,” he said. “It got me in the best shape of my life. It got me to make my game better. Hopefully, it will all work out for me.”

It did seem to be working out, too. Things didn’t seem so bad for McKinley early. He made some plays against Seattle in Week 1, and things were quiet on his Twitter account. But then he got hurt against Dallas in Week 2, and he just hasn’t been back to 100 percent with that groin injury since. This injury is significant because Morris said McKinley gets into trouble when he’s not playing football.

“When he’s playing football and he’s playing at a high level, man he’s a great person to be around,” Morris said. “When he’s in this mold right now where he doesn’t want to talk and he shies away from personal interactions and contact? That’s a problem.”

As far as where the Falcons and McKinley go from here, Morris said there is “always an option to suspend him” and “there’s always an option just not to play (him).” But that may be jumping the gun. Morris said obviously the next step is to just talk to McKinley.

Morris didn’t agree with the way McKinley handled the situation, however, by not talking to Morris initially.

“I don’t know if it’s disgruntled to be on the team. I think it’s just immaturity,” Morris said. “Right now, it’s just an immature way to act about the situation.”

Grady Jarrett said later in the afternoon that there are “clearly some things that (McKinley) has to work out with whatever he’s got going on.” Matt Ryan said the team won’t be giving McKinley much attention, saying it’s really simple: You worry only about the guys who are on the field and the week of prep ahead.

“We have a job to do as players this week,” Ryan said. “It’s on the guys who are on the practice field to go out there and find a way to get ourselves ready to play Sunday, and that’s the message that I give to our guys.”

Morris, however, has to give this attention. And he’s planning to. He said he, Rich McKay, McKinley and the organization will move forward quickly. Morris said while he doesn’t know how this will shake out, he does know McKinley “won’t be able to help” the Falcons against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, seemingly implying that McKinley was going to be out anyway with the groin injury flaring back up.

All in all, the Falcons have yet another issue with McKinley on their hands.

“Obviously, we’ll talk to Takk and get that done because we’re not going to sit here and talk about it through the papers or through media or however you want to do it,” Morris said. “That’s a grown man conversation with another grown man.”

 

 

[ya_boi_j 64,160]

Nothing but respect to Morris for the way he approached it.

[Goober Pyle 6,727]

Just now, ya_boi_j said:

Nothing but respect to Morris for the way he approached it.

Yup. No vague coach speak. Accountability. 

[Beast-N-Da-Sheetz 3,809]

1 minute ago, ya_boi_j said:

Nothing but respect to Morris for the way he approached it.

Hats off to Coach Rah. He's dealing with a lot already and now this. He's definitely being tested in an uphill battle to earn this job. He still should be 3-0 if it wasn't for a Gurley td and a last min bumbling defense. 

[papachaz 18,172]

46 minutes ago, Goober Pyle said:

Yup. No vague coach speak. Accountability. 

yeah, I read it through twice just cause we're so used to vague coach speak, I was sure I missed it in there somewhere....

 

[Wardog357 2,143]

I like coach R’s mindset and frankness. It really got old hearing politically correct statements all the time.

[PokerSteve 26,807]

3 hours ago, ya_boi_j said:

Nothing but respect to Morris for the way he approached it.

This was immature and over the edge. Takk would've been much better off had he gone to Morris instead of back to Twitter. Now he's on thin ice here and this will only make him less attractive to all the other teams.

[FalconsIn2012 35,231]

This scout pretty much nailed the Takk projection prior to the 2017 draft...lol

[FalconsIn2012 35,231]

Dude named his dog ‘Codeine.’  
 

Every time Takk goes rogue, I think about  ‘Codeine’ and it all makes sense.  TALK should have just  called his dog ‘Purple Drank’ or ‘Meth’

[THEHEADCOACH 3,310]

I wasn't a big Morris as a  head coach fan, although I would have put him there in this situation, but he's growing on me a little. Dude straight up handled this situation, no BS.

Edited November 5, 2020 by THEHEADCOACH

[ya_boi_j 64,160]

4 hours ago, PokerSteve said:

This was immature and over the edge. Takk would've been much better off had he gone to Morris instead of back to Twitter. Now he's on thin ice here and this will only make him less attractive to all the other teams.

As the old saying goes. You make the bed you lay in. Those silk sheets are slipping away from his

[BlazerSlayer 409]

4 hours ago, FalconsIn2012 said:

This scout pretty much nailed the Takk projection prior to the 2017 draft...lol

Interestingly, I felt Beasley was a similar athlete- Great speed off the snap but little other moves. I wonder if DQ felt he could coach anyone up, certainly gave VB and Taak plenty of opportunities.

[etherdome 6,238]

6 hours ago, FalconsIn2012 said:

This scout pretty much nailed the Takk projection prior to the 2017 draft...lol

Wow.  I makes me wonder why TD drafted him.  

He is small, tight and moody.......sounds like the perfect guy.  

[FalconsIn2012 35,231]

3 hours ago, etherdome said:

Wow.  I makes me wonder why TD drafted him.  

He is small, tight and moody.......sounds like the perfect guy.  

Not only did they draft him, but TD did his TD thing a traded a 3rd & 7th round pick to move up 5 spots to draft Takk

Those picks turned into Shaquille Griffith & Chris Carson

[stizz 5,504]

Did we interview Takk before the draft? It just seems like his attitude should have been caught before draft night.

[Snafu 6,666]

1 minute ago, stizz said:

Did we interview Takk before the draft? It just seems like his attitude should have been caught before draft night.

Most people are smart enough to hide their character flaws when they have the opportunity to collect millions of dollars from doing so.

[E. T. 5,736]

I applaud Morris. This is the reason why I want a coach not only having a sound football mind, but having the guts to check the egos in the locker room. I respect Morris and believe he will be a great HC one day somewhere.

[New Jersey Falcon 119]

6 hours ago, BlazerSlayer said:

Interestingly, I felt Beasley was a similar athlete- Great speed off the snap but little other moves. I wonder if DQ felt he could coach anyone up, certainly gave VB and Taak plenty of opportunities.

Agree, with both they had the intangibles but they didn't have the technique.  Some athletes get by their whole lives succeeding on pure athleticism and no need to work at it.  Others like Grady, are constantly looked down based on height, weight etc on but work their tails off to get better at every aspect.  True opposite sides of the spectrum.

[*TMo* 991]

This says it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpCl8Mhdqc

[PokerSteve 26,807]

1 hour ago, *TMo* said:

This says it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpCl8Mhdqc

A head case from the get-go.

[opensource001 1,056]

Matt Ryan found a very polite way to say Takk is irrelevant.

[⚡Slumerican⚡ 5,700]

18 hours ago, Beast-N-Da-Sheetz said:

Hats off to Coach Rah. He's dealing with a lot already and now this. He's definitely being tested in an uphill battle to earn this job. He still should be 3-0 if it wasn't for a Gurley td and a last min bumbling defense. 

I wish you would stop blaming that on Gurley.. The man scored a td, something we seem to struggle with.. Our defense couldn't stop the lines on one end of game drive.. Gurley did nothing wrong 

[Godzilla1985 6,453]

15 hours ago, FalconsIn2012 said:

This scout pretty much nailed the Takk projection prior to the 2017 draft...lol

But...hehasthatdawginhimyo.

[Beast-N-Da-Sheetz 3,809]

1 hour ago, ⚡Slumerican⚡ said:

I wish you would stop blaming that on Gurley.. The man scored a td, something we seem to struggle with.. Our defense couldn't stop the lines on one end of game drive.. Gurley did nothing wrong 

I'm not even mad at Gurley for scoring that TD, but it did play a role in the loss. Clearly the defense couldn't stop a teardrop with windshield wipers. The blame is on them but Gurleys TD on a play that was "specifically" designed not to score as it was reiterated by Ryan himself seconds before the snap, is just added to the long list of blunders we've committed over the years of blowing leads.

[Aluminafalcon 25]

Has his agent explained what the value of a  “temperamental defensive end who often gets hurt and has never had more than 7 sacks in a season” is?