Fantasy Football Daily - Philadelphia Eagles with Jimmy Kempski | 2023 Franchise Focus Podcast

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

The defending NFC champion Eagles remain loaded, but there are some key changes to discuss. Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) of @ThePhillyVoice joins Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) to break down the change in coordinators on both sides of the ball, what Jalen Hurts can improve on, and the Eagles' rebuild backfield. Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: ⁠https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints⁠ ⁠FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE⁠ FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. ⁠Use our code FANTASYPTS⁠ to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! ⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points Podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. I'm your host, Joe Dolan, the Fantasy Points Podcast Network, and this is the franchise focus podcast series. The entire AFC should be in your feed if you haven't listened already. If you have listened, I hope you've taken away some actionable bites of information. I hope the beat writers you were introduced to now end up on your Twitter feed or threads feed or whatever the dominant social media app is going to be eventually.

And I hope that you've filed away some of the sleepers that everybody has been given to you. So 16 teams down. And if you're listening to this, I'm kicking off the NFC East. We should be done with the franchise focus podcast series in just a couple of weeks. I have a bunch of them still scheduled that I haven't recorded. I have a bunch recorded that I haven't published yet. It's been an undertaking, but the AFC is done and dusted. The NFC is next.

So here is the NFC East on the Franchise Focus podcast series. Welcome back to the franchise focus podcast at FantasyPoints.com. My name is Joe Dolan. And today we have a really special guest. He is the Eagles writer for the Philly Voice, an acclaimed children's author. And certainly you have seen his stick figure drawings on Twitter. I guarantee you that. And he's just coming back from a run.

So Jimmy Kemsky's with us at Jimmy Kemsky on Twitter. I would say the people's favorite Eagles beatwriter. Maybe not the 49ers favorite Eagles beat writer right now. The man has a passion for gaining angry emails. Jimmy, I don't know how you do it. You must be some sort of masochist to get all the angry emails. But his dumpster fire series, he's been poking at the 14. But as we all know, Jimmy, it's all in good fun.

Actually, I got to give the 49ers fans credit. They actually found a very good sense of humor about the children's book that I wrote about their, basically their loss in the NFC championship game. They found it funny. So good for them. A little golf clap for those guys and gals. And Jimmy, I got to be on you. I think you're the first person ever to be on this podcast while being outdoors. So thank you for taking your time out of your day.

You know, this podcast is really kind of strange because I've had so many, you know, I just recorded one with Jordan Renan from ESPN talking about the Giants. And there was so much for me to ask about what's changing. You know, the Eagles, I mean, they have some big changes, but the main pieces are still in place. So my question to you would be, how big a drop-off do you think there could be losing Shane Steichen and going to Brian? Johnson at offensive coordinator because that's the that's the big change for the eagles on offense yeah i think the offense more or less is basically going to i mean not basically it is going to be the same offense uh it's you know nick syriani's offense um and certainly you know

shade steikin was part of the game planning process as was brian johnson and you know other members of the coaching staff but ultimately it was you know Shane steikin was calling plays for Nick Siriani's offense. And they made that change right around midway through the 2021 season right around when the Eagles were like two and five. They're really struggling. Expectations were really that high anyway. Stuyckin comes in. They kind of transitioned from a pass-heavy offense, which really never made any sense that season in particular because they didn't have, I mean, Devonte Smith and that was basically it and Dallas got her two, I guess. But they did a strong running game. So they really featured that heavily back, you know, in the back

came for that season. We go in a little bit of a run, make the playoffs, you know, get wiped out very quickly by the bucks in the first round. And then in year two, Jill and Hertz improves. They have AJ Brown and the offense becomes more complete. And Shane Snyck and cooked as a play caller last year in particular. So, you know, I think that we saw in 2018 the Eagles lost Frank Reich. as their offensive coordinator to become the head coach of the Colts.

They lost John D. Philippo, who was the quarterback's coach, who, you know, got hired as the Vikings offensive coordinator. And, you know, they had a couple guys, you know, fill those roles. Mike Grohl as the offensive coordinator and then Press Taylor as the quarterback's coach. And in my mind, there was a little bit of a Peter principle going on there, where those guys maybe stepped into jobs. They were great at their jobs that they did prior to their promotions, but maybe their skill sets weren't equipped to handle those much bigger roles. And the offense suffered.

I don't know if that's going to happen with Brian Johnson, who really could become like a really hot head coaching candidate next offseason if the Eagles continue to dominate offensively because of the work that he's done with Jalen Hertz and the approving that Hurts showed for. from 2020 to 2021 and then the massive jump from 2021 to 2022. But it remains to be seen what Hope he is a play caller and sort of as an architect, you know, to go along with Nick Ziriani of an offense. And then they have, you know, a vacancy to fill, obviously, at the quarterbacks coach who that's going to be, oh man, I'm blanking on with our quarterbacks coaches now. The guy who is a quarterback in the league for a while,

like kind of a number three first career. I can't believe I'm choking here on his name. But, you know, they have basically guys stepping into new roles. Alex Taney. Thank you, Alex Taney, who can kind of fill in for, you know, they had a great thing going with Stuyken as the offense coordinator, Brian Johnson as the quarterback's coach. So we'll see if they're able to sustain that success with these guys in promoter roles.

And Gailin Hertz gets better. Absolutely. I mean, there are ways that he can get worse. But I don't think that's, I don't think that's 2023. I look at Dak Prescott in what he was first three or so years in the league where he was really a threat to run with his legs. And really for him more so in the red zone, it's more of like a power runner. You know, he scored a lot of touchdowns. He could get first downs.

Wasn't going to break off large, you know, big runs like Justin Fields or Lamar Jackson or anything like that. But he has that leg injury. And then, you know, in the two years there, after he basically just doesn't run anymore. It's not they can't, he just doesn't. So, you know, at some point, running quarterbacks, that ability kind of fades, and they have to, you know, in the meantime,

really grow as pocket passers. And I think that Jill and Hertz really made a big jump from 2021 to 2022 in terms of his pre-snap recognition, in terms of his ability to go from, you know, number one, number two, number three in the progression, and, you know, be smarter about his decision-making and all that kind of stuff. And I think with really any quarterback that has any kind of longevity in the NFL, the more reps, the more playing time you get in the league, the better you get.

I mean, we're seeing, like, Tom Brady kept getting better every year in his 30s. And he didn't really have the physical abilities that some of these guys, the physical, like, athleticism that a lot of these guys have. So, you know, he's a guy that works really hard. Nobody questions his desire to be the best quarterback that he could possibly be. So as long as he keeps that, there's no reason to thinking, Walt, he's just going to continue to get better at the mental side of the game. So, yeah, 100% that there's still some ceiling to be achieved for Jalenhurst.

The biggest change personnel-wise for the Eagles on offense this year is in the backfield. It's completely, not completely rebuilt. because Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell are back, but I think the Eagles plan here is for Rashad Penny and D'Andre Swift to lead the backfield. Let's start with DeAndre Swift. Kind of fell out of favor with the Lions coaching staff. But what do you anticipate from him?

What have the coaches been saying about him following acquiring him during the NFL draft? So when I look at the running back position just as a whole, I'll start with Miles Sanders first. Like I think that he was a decent back, but he was really the beneficiary of the best offensive line in the NFL, first of all. And then, you know, particularly last year, you know, the Eagles had the element of a really strong passing game with the addition of A.J. Brown. So you didn't have teams sort of loading up to stop the run because if you did, then, you know, kind of pick your poison. You're going to get torched down the field.

in D'Andre Swift and I'll lump in Rashad Penny here too. They add two guys that I think that they feel can replace and actually be better than Miles. I think each of those running backs individually are both more talented than Miles Sanders. I think DeAndre Swift gives you certainly more as a pass catching threat. Miles Sanders had a good rookie year as a pass catcher. at like 50 receptions, average almost 10 yards per catch, you know, barely had any drops, few touchdowns.

They're after nothing. He was basically an actor. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. Like he was, he was a negative as a receiver after that. So he's coming off the field both last year anyway. He's coming up the field both on, you know, third down situations and, you know, obvious passing situations and in two-minute situations, that was Kenny Gainwell's role last year. So I think that the theme will be true of Rashad Penny. You're not going to see him in those

situations. But I think that third down slash two-minute roll could kind of be divvied up between DeAndre Swift and Kenny Gainwell. I also kind of think that DeAndre Swift will get some early down carries. Certainly that's where Rashad Penny is going to get his playing time is on the early downs. And then I think Kenny Gainwell can kind of even eat into some of the thing. Kenny Gainwell played really well down the back stretch of the season. Maybe like semi-disappointing as a rookie. And then the first, you know, half or so of the 2020 season, about halfway through the season,

he really started to take off. And they were given him actually like early down carries in favor of Miles Sanders through the playoffs. So he may be earned, you know, some touches on the early downs. A lot of rambling here by me, but I think kind of like all those guys are going to get touches. It's one of those, the Eagles are going to be one of those teams when you, you know, from a fantasy football perspective,

where, you know, you take one of those guys and the ceiling is really high. Like if one of them goes down and it's not the guy that you pick, the ceiling for what that guy can be on your team is really high. But if they all stay healthy, you might be frustrated because they're only getting six, seven, eight touches a game. Is Rashop Penning going to be ready for training camp? in the season? Oh, yeah, he's good to go. Yeah, they basically said when they signed that he was good

to go in his initial interview with the media, which was good morning. It was right around March. He said he was, you know, good to go. He had a broken leg. So it's not like it's an ACL terror and like that, just the phone heels. But he, yeah, he seemed to think that he was good to go as early as March. And obviously the season is a few months away. So, yeah, he'll be up and ready to go. He's a full participant in OTAs. So he'll be a full participant in training camps as well.

I just saw like a clickbait kind of tweet, you know, engagement farming. That's what gets us all. That's what pays the bills these days. And it was asking, is Dallas Goddard a top three tight end? And, you know, I don't know if I'd put him there. I've obviously he's behind Travis Kelsey, many would argue he's behind Mark Andrews. But, you know, we kind of know what they have in A.J. Brown and Devante Smith and J.L. Hurts, they all kind of overshadow. Somebody's going to go overlooked.

When you watch Dallas Goddard, what is your take on him when he has the ball in his hands? Okay, so fantasy football-wise, he's clearly not a top three tight-up. Correct. As a football player, maybe, his role in the Eagles offense is he's the third guy, because he's not going to get more targets than AJ Brown. He's not going to get more targets than Devonthe Smith. He missed five games last year. If he hadn't, he'd have been on pace for, you know, right around 1,000 yards. He actually, over the last two years, as the highest yards per target in the NFL.

I'm not talking tight end. I'm talking in the league. He's top in the league. That's a tight end. Yards per target, like 10.7 or 10.8 or something like that. Number two is Kendrick Bourne, and then, which is kind of like a weird number two on that list. And then like there after, like guys like three through 10 are all like, you know, the best receivers in the NFL. So like it's not like a flaky stat in my mind.

It's aside from like the top few guys on that list. So basically what I'm getting at is the targets that he gets, he makes the most of. Like the complete percentage to pass this way is extraordinarily high. Yards per target, as I mentioned, or extraordinarily high. he gets yards after the catch. Like he's not a guy that, like he's not like a catch and fall, kind of a guy like Zach Earth was for, I mean,

Zach Earth ran the hell of a route and never dropped passes, but he wasn't going to get guards up to the catch. I think Dallas Goddard is certainly better than him at that. And then, you know, not that fans, he's a little fans care about any of this, but he's a great blocker. So he kind of has all those, it's kind of,

it's a complete tight end in that way, too. So, you know, I don't know. I'd have to kind of look around the league and see, you know, the other, you know, content, like Mark Andrews can't touch him as a blocker. But very clearly is a better, it's a better receiver than Dallas got her. So I don't know. There's a lot of gray area in terms of, you know, who's better than who in terms of like

the tight end discussion. But yeah, I'd have them pretty squarely in the top five or six. So the Eagles are replacing, I think they're replacing Miles Sanders, who was a starter on offense. I think you can make an argument they upgraded on that spot. I think you can make an argument they downgraded too. just based on availability. But there's some gray area there.

One area that on offense that they do have to replace his right guard, Isaac Sayamalo left. Do you anticipate there being a competition between Cam Juergens and the rookie Tyler Steen there? And is there a clear leader in that for that spot? Yeah, so the clear leader, I guess just from the public perception is Camp Jurgens because he's been on the team longer. He was a second round pick.

in 2021 and then, excuse me, 2022 last year. And they drafted Tyler Steen in the really early in the third round this year. When you look at the actual overall draft slots, not a big difference. So like Tyler Steen was, I think, 65 overall. He was. 64, 65, somewhere in there. 65, you're right, right on. Tim Jurgens was 50, either 51 or 53.

rate. 51 overall. You nailed it. So yeah, you nailed it. slots are like 14 picks apart. Really not that big a difference. And Juergens is a natural center. Steen's a guard. Juergens is a center only. He got to Nebraska and he was originally enrolled as a tight end. And then they moved him to center and he was there for the entirety of his career. He's never played guard. Steen played tackle his entire career, Vanderbilt and Alabama. I think Steen has a far, it's far more equipped body typewise to play right guard than Cam. Cam Juergens, I think he said he weighs 305.

We got to ask that at OTAs. He said he wants to get up somewhere between, somewhere like a 315 area by the start of the season. So he's got to get weight on just to play that position. Tyler Steen does not. Ultimately, Camp Juergens is going to take over for Jason Kelsey long term. He's going to be the starting center whenever case Jason Kelsey hangs him up. I think that also kind of means that Tyler Steen is the long-term right guard.

So whenever Juergens becomes the center, Steen is going to be the long-term right guard. So I kind of feel the public perception is all things being equal, Cam Jurgens is the starting right guard. I disagree. So I think it's like even close. Just put Steve in there because he's your long-term answer at right guard anyway. May as well get that underway sooner than later. You know, I haven't been asking a ton about defense on these podcasts because, I mean, for obvious reasons, we don't want to spend too much time.

Sure. But the Eagles were a great fancy defense last year. All the sacks in the world, turnovers. There is a lot of actual. There is a lot of personnel turnover for the Eagles, though. Harry Roseman, very aggressive in trying to fill those holes. And most notably, there's a new defensive coordinator and Sean Desai. How different do you expect this defense to look under Sean this eye?

Well, they lost two. That was both of their starting linebackers. They lost both of their starting safeties. The biggest loss on the team was Javon Hardraight. For sure. Absolute beast. Like, one of the most underrated players in the NFL had 11 sacks. They were, these are not cheapies.

Like, it's not like, like, Eddres got around the corner, and the quarterback stepped up and just kind of walked into the defensive. No, Javon Hargrave was smoking people and getting to the quarterback, boom, quick. So that guy's a stud. He's going to be hard to replace. His production is going to be hard to replace. Of course, they draft Jalen Carter. They have Milton Williams, who's going to be in his third year now, he's talented player.

So we'll see, like, Jordan Davis, of course, maybe not necessarily the same kind of role as a nose tackle. Hardgrave is kind of more, like, moved around a lot more. But they had a lot of young guys that have to kind of fill in there and pick up. his production. At linebacker, T.J. Awards Kaiser White are gone. First time the Eagles had, you know, either at least competent to good linebacker play in a very long time. Like, they're rolling out guys like Nate Gary, which is awful. Since Jeremiah Trotter, you know. Yes. So, you know, those guys are gone now. And they had a nice thing for a year there.

And the Kobe Dean is going to be the quote unquote green dot helmet player. So he's going to be relaying the signals from, you know, Sean. to side, the rest of the defense. He's going to be the three-down linebacker. And then at the other spot, I think that's going to be a training king competition between Nicholas Morrow, who they signed from the Bears, spent some time. You know, is an undrafted rookie three agent. The Raiders played four years there.

And then at safety, I think, I'm sorry, between him and Christian Ellis, who's another undrafted guy. At safety, I think they're actually a little better off than they're being given credit for. Of course, they lose Johnson-Garner Johnson in a very public sort of negotiation. gone wrong during three agency with him. He winds up with the Lions, and they had Marcus Epps, you know, Sarasable starting safety lands with the Raiders.

But they have three guys that will kind of be competing for two starting jobs. In Terrell Edmonds, who I think Steelers fans kind of felt like he was a solid player for them for the first five years of his career. And, you know, he'll be there with Reed, with Reeb Blankenship, who played well for the Eagles when CJGJ got hurt. and the rookie Sidney Brown, just an Uber athletic, you know, rookie who, not a lot of size, but a big hitter and very athletic. So those three guys, I think, are better than they're being credit for.

I think they've a higher ceiling anyway than I think they're being given credit for. I don't think there's any way to think that this defense personnel-wise is better than it was a year ago. I think they're probably a little bit worse, personnel, just because Jayvon Hargrave is such a great player. To be determined if they're better because of the defensive coordinator, like Jonathan Gannon famously, infamously in Philadelphia, anyway, I don't know if like, I don't know how much the rest of the country. He's the whipping boy in Philly.

We understand that. Infamously, anytime they faced any kind of good quarterback just got torched. There were like five different quarterbacks. This is in 2021 that completed, you know, higher than. 80% of their passes in games against the Eagles just never been done in the NFL. So, like, it was just kind of death by 1,000 paper cuts where they wouldn't give up big plays, but they just left the, you know, the short-day, you know, intermediate areas of field wide open and the good quarterbacks just torched them.

So it'll be interesting to see if the size approaches. And it was just an odd kind of thing, too, because as you mentioned, like, they had so, they had 70 sacks last year. So, like, you know, for them to be that good at getting after the quarterback. but it wasn't due to blitzing or anything creative or anything about it. It was just they had awesome players that could win one-on-one matchups and get to the quarterback. But yeah, that'll be an interesting thing for us to watch anyway, Philly beat reporters, to see differences in the defensive schemes from Gannon to the side training camp.

The hardest question I'm going to ask you is the final one. I like to call teams like the Eagles narrow fantasy teams. You know who's getting the ball on the Eagles. And it's like sometimes it blows my mind how many. coaches aren't like just, hey, let's throw the ball to our good players. But the Eagles don't have great depth at wide receiver. Is there a player on this team who in the right circumstances, maybe you're in a 16 team league and you just need somebody who's occasionally going to make a big play? Is there somebody on this team who could be that guy and contribute on a low end for fancy?

So I think that the number three receiver is widely thought to be Quas Watkins. And I I'm not so sure about that because so he got a, he got a, the player, I forget what it's called, but the salary escalator in the fourth year for guys that, like, you know, laid around pigs that have a certain amount of playing time through the first three years. He got a bump. So he's, you know, making almost $3 billion this year,

which doesn't sound like a lot of money and isn't. But, you know, I wonder if they'd be open to trading a guy like him if a decent and off offer came around. He's got speed, like world-class, because he's fantastic. guy on the team, but just has not been reliable for the Eagles. He's run bad routes. You know, hasn't been where, you know, the quarterbacks in multiple occasions last year, both with Joe and Hertz and Gardner, Minchu, expected him to be at a particular spot. He wasn't there on time, just too slow to get there, not because he can't run. I said he's got like run-class

speed, but just lazy in his routes and, you know, passes got picked off as a result of that. So you lose confidence in your quarterback. You lose confidence in your coaching staff. Now the coaching staff is stood behind him in a big way. You know, what they say and what they actually mean can be two different things sometimes. But the Eagles brought in a lot of days in chaos in training in a in a in, in three agency this year, who was basically the number two receiver for the Falcon Center, number three receiver within their offense, between, you know, behind Kyle Pitts and Drake London.

But, you know, got their third, got the third most targets on that team. if for some reason, you know, A.J. Brown or Devante Smith, so there's not going to be many targets to go around after Devonte Smith and AJ Brown and down Scotter. And if you want to throw DeAndre Swift and Kenny Gainwell on there, too, go right ahead. There's not going to be that many targets to throw around after that, but if one of the top receivers went down, Zakeas is a guy to me that is just a reliable player who, you know,

has some speed in his own right, doesn't have Quez Watkins type speed, but you know where he's going to be. you know he's going to run the right routes. And I think it could be a guy that maybe hurts could lean on maybe if they had some injuries and they needed some, they needed a guy to pick up some of the targets lack. His name is Jimmy Kensky. He's the Eagles writer for the Philly Voice. I think he's currently searching for a publication deal for his children's book.

Oh, there's no one to throw. You better get that before the holiday season. That's going to be a popular stocking stiffer for all the for all the indoctrinated tots in the Philadelphia area. you, Jimmy. Check them out on Twitter at Jimmy Kemski. You've seen his stick figures and there will be plenty more. Jimmy, go take a shower man or something. You just got off of one. It's probably miserably hot out there. Thank you for taking time out of the day. Love you, buddy. And thank you, everybody for listening. We're going to wrap up the NFC East with Ben Standing from the athletic talking commanders. It's been great. Hope everybody enjoyed it. Have a good one.

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.