With Julio Jones out rehabilitating his foot, Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, in his second-year with the team, is taking on more of a leadership role this offseason.
Here’s what Sanu had to say Tuesday about his role, new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and Jones not inviting him to be in the Migos video:
On the offseason program
“I think it’s going great. I feel like we are doing a lot of great things out there. We’ve got a lot of guys showing up and competing. We put in a lot of great work. We are doing well so far.”
On being more comfortable with the Falcons
“I feel very comfortable. I’m just out there embracing my role trying to be a leader for the guys coming. (Trying to show them) how we do things around here.”
On his goals after catching a career-high 59 passes last season
“Just keep building. Keep getting better. Keep progressing and not taking any steps back. Just keep building on my role as a leader and player on and off the field. Just keep embracing everything.”
On his leadership role
“A lot of guys look up to be to the energy, to be that guy that gets everything going. I embrace and take full advantage of it. Take the bull by the horns and just go.”
On new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian
“Sark is awesome. He’s come in and he’s adding a lot of his offense in with a mixture of the offense that we had in the past. Everything is just coming out smooth. It seems like him and Matt gel well and everybody in the offense gels well with him. I’m excited to get out on the field and see how we operate as an offense.”
On the offensive mixture of Sarkisian’s plans
“It’s not many different wrinkles. It’s just a piece of his system and he’s just adding it in. We are just keeping the ball rolling.”
On attending Rutgers’ spring game
“It was awesome. It was cool. I got to interact with the kids and be around the program. I just got to kick it like old times. We had a good time out there. There was a pretty good turnout and the kids looked like they had fun.”
On last season
“It was how tight we were. We were all so close to each other we didn’t want to let the other person down…we wanted to make sure that we were on our assignments because if I miss my block Free (running back Devonta Freeman) is not going to be able to break through and get that long touchdown run or if I don’t get my depth Matt is not going to throw the ball in the right place at the right time. It’s those little things that little extra that you do to make sure that you don’t let your brother down. We were like a really tight team.”
On the offense being better in 2017
“I think so. There is definitely room for improvement. I don’t feel like we reached our full potential last year. That’s what we intend to do this year, keep growing and growing. We have to start back and square one and keep building.”
On who’s been impressive
“Justin Hardy has been looking phenomenal right now. He’s running great routes and catching the ball. He’s in the weight room working his tail off. We push each other in the receiver group, but seeing the work that he’s putting in is great.”
On Andre Roberts
“Dre is a baller. He came in hitting the ground running. I wasn’t really surprised at all because I’ve seen Dre throughout the league make plays. To see it in person you get to understand what type of player that he is. He’s going to help us out tremendously.”
On advice to the rookies on being professional
“I would just say this is what you do. You don’t have to go to class anymore. You don’t have to stay up studying or write papers. So all of that extra time you were putting into your school, put into your craft. Perfect it so that you can be great at it.”
On Julio Jones and not getting invite to be in the Migos video
“Julio is great. I talked to him the other day. He’s attacking his rehab. He’s getting better daily. It was only room for Julio (in the video). He didn’t invite us. Probably, next time.”
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