PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Are Howie Roseman, Eagles already PROVEN RIGHT for exercising Jordan Davis' option?

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

When Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles exercised Jordan Davis' fifth-year option for 2026 at $12.9 million, many questioned the move. Through three seasons, the former first-round pick had not proven to be an every-down player. But through three games in the 2025 NFL season, Davis is playing a career high in snaps and saved the Eagles' Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams with a game-winning field goal block and return for a touchdown. Plus, A.J. Brown wants the offense to be less conservative and Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense prepare for a constant thorn in their side: Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Eagles' Week 4 opponent. Rich Hofmann and Jamie Lynch discuss it all next on the PHLY Eagles Show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. And welcome to the PHLY Eagle Show live from the Xfinity Mobile Studio and presented by Bet365 and Ashley Furniture. My name is Rich Hoffman. Right next to me is Jamie Lynch. And guys, we have a loaded show for you today. We have an interview with Bo Wolf and Reed Blankenship, who is the starting safety for your 3-0, Philadelphia Eagles.

We will talk to E.J. Smith and his red micrador phone from the Novacare. No, actually, Rich, he does not have the red microphone today. He did give me the heads up. He's only got his AirPods with him. Is it really an EJ interview without the red microphone? He left the devil's mic at home today. We will find out on that front.

And then at the end, Bo will talk to All-C NFL insider Adam Hogue. I think they'll have a little talk about why the AFC. Overrated conference, Jamie. But we have a jam-packed show for you today. And, James, I have a couple things I want to get to in the first segment. the big takeaways from what were what was just an amazing game. I still can't believe that game.

What a what a roller coaster ride that was. And the first one is Jamie, I was in the post game locker room. And A.J. Brown, I thought his post game interview was, was very interesting. And I feel like this has been a theme over the past year or so where A.J. Brown, he gets back on track in the second half of that game,

amazing effort by A.J. and he has a couple of very interesting quotes where he basically says, they got me the ball. That's what they did. And he has been very cognizant, I feel like, about what he says and trying not to be

the Devo wide receiver. He feels like the microscope is on him. And thank you, Julia, for putting this up. This was, I thought this was an amazing quote, though, after the game. He says, I truly believe, man, we got so many good players on this team. And at times you can feel like we're being conservative.

And I don't think it should be like that. I think it should be let your killers do their thing. That's the big quote there. Let your killers do their thing. I think he says a little bit afterwards, you know, just let us go out there and hoop. But I thought it was a very telling quote when you stack that up with that, along with Jalen Hertz, saying very similar things to Pam Oliver on the Fox broadcast, basically volunteering. Like, yeah, we just got to play a more aggressive style of ball.

What did you make of all that? I love it. He's absolutely right. I mean, you saw him physically change the vibes of the entire stadium. Like, he took over that game. He was throwing guys off of them. He got the crowd, which was, Vinny showed up like a little earlier than he normally does because he's down at the games a lot. And he, I wrote the elevator up with him. Yeah, old Vinny Curry. And he was like, man, the vibes are bad. He was like, that was like Andy's last year bad. He was like, he was like, it was like, it reminded me of. Kelly last year vibes. Like he said it was a, it was so bad down there that he left. That's how bad it was. And I thought there was no way in hell.

You were going to bounce back from that. I was like, oh man, Vinnie's like painting this picture of like despair here. And AJ Brown and Jordan Davis single handily took over the game. AJ Brown, like Jordan Davis won the game. AJ Brown got that stadium back into it, got his team back into it. Once that first catch happened where he said he just kind of threw his

handout and, you know, like, I think you said God took over from there or whatever. The stadium, like, got life. And I think Jalen Hertz got fired up. And, like, you saw the offense just feed off of A.J. Brown tossing guys off of them, making one-handed spectacular catches. He changed the entire vibe of that game. AJ Brown was incredible and how you could go two games without, whatever you want to call it, force-feeding him getting on the ball is beyond me, but it can't happen anymore.

sometimes I do feel like we oversimplify it just get AJ the ball but I look back at his six catches James and actually the first one which elicited a very loud Bronx cheer from the local's where yeah they were like finally they got in the ball it's so Philadelphia has perfected the Bronx cheer

we're very good at it do you think it should be called the Philadelphia Delaware Valley cheer something like that let us know in the chat, or should I say chat? Did you see that one yesterday? Yeah, that was, there was quite an argument over chat or the chat. But anyway, four of AJ's six catches yesterday, James, or not yesterday this week. I'm so bad with saying that it was yesterday when it was four days ago, were a three by one set,

where basically they put, they love the two by two. And it feels like a lot of AJ's more predictable routes early on in this season. where he's just kind of running that little in and it's very easy to cover. He's on the same side with Grant Calcutera or some tight end. They isolated him on the backside of the three by one set and they just let him beast people too.

It was crazy kind of watching it in the stadium because you have a better sort of all 22 view on the press box. And you're like on that Emmanuel Forbes play at the end, there is nothing like intricate about that. It's just go beat that guy one on one. And it was the same thing that happened on the touchdown pass by the,

the way, you can see as Julia puts up the route chart for AJ. We got some intermediate and even some deep balls too. That sluggo down the right side was a beautiful route. But there really wasn't too much fancy going on there. It was just AJ beat the man across from you and he did it pretty consistently. James, I got to say, Bo, he mentioned this on the post game show on Sunday. I was at peace with that game, whether or not Jordan Davis makes that play because I thought, okay, you learned a valuable lesson here that you can't.

You can't play this way. There needs to be a more aggressive style. And like you said, too, there's an intangible value. Sure. Where they did not quit. Which is one of Siriani's strengths to give them, you know, like they never really quit on them. Now, is it great for the Eagles that they are so freaking talented that the rules of football don't apply to them? And they can learn a lesson.

Man, we can't be doing that. But actually, we kind of can be doing that because we're so talented to get back in the game and win. But yeah, it was great to see AJ get back on track. Jalen find him. excellent performance in the second half. Yeah, you just got to get him the ball. Like you talk about it simplifying it. Yeah, simplified.

The guy has the best catch rate of contested balls in the entire NFL. He can make something short into something big. He can go get the deep ball. He can literally do whatever is asked of him and have a huge impact on the game. So yes, please Nick and Kevin Petulow simplify this down to just get the ball in his general direction and something good will happen. Like you just can't, you can't. have two games, whatever it was.

Whether it's Petulow or Jalen or AJ not being healthy, maybe a combination of all three, you can't let what happened in the first two weeks happen for more than like a quarter or two in the rest of the year. He's too good. And I got to say, AJ Brown, to bring it back to his postgame comments, man, he's spot on. on. If he wants to be a part of the PHLY Eagle show when he's done playing, like he's spitting.

Like his assessment of the offense is so accurate. to grab them in here one day. Absolutely. And I do think he notices that if he says things plainly in a way that he might not even view as controversial, just like, yeah, we're not playing that well. We got to start playing better. I'm not freaking out or anything. He senses that it becomes a storyline. Sure.

Because, hey, I'm the guy. I notice in those markets in those post-game locker rooms that those scrums are huge for AJ. He's the guy that people want to talk to after every single game. He's cognizant of that. He says, you know, I'm not trying to give you guys headlines. Nick Siriani actually complimented him about that this week where he was like, I thought he handled all of the questions very well. It's funny that Nick Seriani started with, I thought he handled the questions really well

instead of like, wow, man, he really just bailed us out in this game. But anyway, that's also a part of it. I think A.J. Brown has sort of navigated that that sort of idea pretty well and that, you know, he's going to be somebody that people. might take out of context quotes. Absolutely. He's careful with his words. But after this game,

what's the book he, uh, that changed his whole life? Inner excellence by Jim Murray. Yeah, that's, that's right. It's good work by you.

Yeah. So maybe we have Jim Murray to think. Exactly. You know, like he's focused on the right things. He kind of has clarity and thank you, Jim Murray. No,

not Jim. Very. Jim Murphy. Oh, is it Jim Murphy? I don't remember. I interviewed him at the Super Bowl. It's bad work by me.

Okay. Um, anyway, we just gave him a plug for his book again. So that was one part of it, right? And you have AJ Brown. Is there other books out there that people should get about the Eagles? Is there any new releases?

Oh, yeah, there might be. I'll have to look into that. Maybe go to your local bookstore. I think check the Eagles section at the front. I think there might be a new hardcover book for you guys to read. Yeah. So that was one part of it. And then you have Jordan Davis saving the day.

Unbelievable. So let's talk about Jordan Davis. Jamie, the first thing I would say, should we get a radar gun out and see how fast all of us can run? Did you see Kyle from Crossing Broad did this with the car speedometer thing yesterday? Did he do it? Yes, he did. And he said, like, send me your scores.

I thought it was pretty good, good little bit by him. He got up to 16 miles an hour. I think all of us should do that. I am a sucker for blabber mouse like us who pontificate on the Eagles at all times, looking on athletic. Like, I want to give that content to the people because it's something that I can. get a real kick out of from other meetings. What do you think you could top out at?

You said he got the 16 miles an hour? And that was rough, like the car drive-by flashing the mile per hour. Like, he got 16. And he looked fairly, you know, washed doing it. I don't feel like I could do much better than that. No, I think I'm topping out at maybe 14. 14, yeah. Maybe.

Keeping it in the school zone range. Yeah. I'm safe to run through a school zone. Look at that big guy. wrong. Yeah, I don't think I'm getting more than 14 miles an hour. So like, I was blown away. And I don't know if you caught on the post game show. I started asking Fran right away. I was like, Fran, you're, you're Franny films, man. You've been clocking guys in your mind for years here. I was like, if I set the line and I got to, I got to pat myself on the back for being the line setter here.

At first, I was like 19.2. And Bo goes, that's a little high. And I was like, okay, the other one I I was thinking about was 187. So I was like, if I set the line at 187, would you take over or under Fran? And Fran was like over 187 under 192. And he came in at what, 185, I think it was? That's really good work by Jordan Davis. He was scooting, man. He was hauling.

And I think we should talk a little bit about his offseason peloton usage and all that stuff. But Jamie, we do have some breaking news and it's not great news. Uh-oh. Injury? The Eagles have announced. that they have signed, this is the first part of it, they have signed Marcus Epps, Cameron Latsu,

and those are guys who have gotten practice squad elevations and Perry Nickerson to the active roster and they have placed three players on the injured reserve. Let's go in order here from probably least consequential to most and

apologies to Bo with his guy here. I think Darius Cooper he has been getting some... He went to the 10 on the opening second half kick off, was it? Yeah. Yeah. He's been getting some push push usage. I don't know, but he's on IR. Then you have Jacorian Bennett, who played at the end

of the game. Oh, no. Last week, he That's not good. He is also on IR. Well, it's about to get worse. Oh, no. Nolan Smith to the injured reserve. I believe Adam Schaefter broke that news. Oh, no. Yeah, that's

not good for the Eagles. Oh, no. I didn't even know that was on the radar. Did you hear that he was even hurt? I did not pick that up. I mean, he's been fairly quiet in the first few games. I mean,

the big play that I thought he made were some of those fourth downstops against Kansas City. I know people remember the taunting penalty, kind of the BS one against Dallas in game one. But that's a big issue. Oh, man. Zadaria Smith, you better be ready

for a whole bunch of snaps. That was one of, of your thinner positions and Nolan Smith was supposed to be your best at that position. That is a major blow to the birds. That stinks. Well, and he was a guy who was dealing with. I forget exactly what the injury was, but he was banged up a little bit in training camp as well, guy on the smaller side who, you know, we all know the Nolan Smith story where

he is a smaller player who plays with a level of physicality that is frankly awesome, but you do worry about the wear and tear that playing at that crazy level of physicality will lead to. Hopefully, Nolan Smith, okay? I mean, I are is, right, that's four weeks. So, you know, the Eagles, I'm blanking on what their schedule is right now. I know the next two weeks are, it's Tampa Bay. Yes, in the heat. It's Denver back in Philadelphia.

You do have a Giants game on Thursday night, I think, in there in the next four. So it goes Bucks, Broncos, Giants, Vikings. Okay. So those are the four games. And Vikings, J.J. McCarthy, I think his expected return is around that game as well. So you could be facing Carson Wentz. You could be facing J.J. McCarthy. Broncos, they're kind of, I mean, that's a winnable game, I think, without those guys.

Bucks is, I think, going to be the toughest one of this four right now. Although Brian Flores and that Vikings defense is the boogeyman. But we, you know. I think Todd Bowles is a little more of a boogeman. Yeah, that's fair. If you're able to run the ball. You're going to see Jackson DART and Sam Cadaboo. So we'll say the Giants could change in the next,

over the course of the next two weeks and be more formidable. But like, you can manage this. You're looking at Jailix Hunt. You're looking at Zadaria Smith, Josh Uchay. Does Ojolari get called up now? Well, you have Ojolari and Ogbo Acheronquo, who have been inactive for all three games. And that's been something that among Eagles,

beat writers before games, they're kind of saying, why are they keeping all these guys on the roster if they're not going to use these edge rushers? Maybe they get some use out of them. But yeah, certainly a big blow to the Eagles. I mean, Noel Smith is... Todd Green saying torn tricep for Nolan Smith? In the chat?

Well, that was his injury in the... Yeah, I hope he didn't redo it. That's... Ugh. Torn peck, Joe Rockhead is saying, And everybody in the chats, thanks. We're live in show, so we're trying to decipher this specific nifs of this IR. As you can see, we're trying to digest this news.

Oh, man, that sucks. So he, so Ian Rappaport says. Rapapapapopopopopopopopopopo. Yes. He tweaked the same triceps that he had surgery on. But it's not torn. Rap sheet says he should be back soon. Okay.

I mean, that sucks when it's the same injury that resurfaces like that. That always sends a shiver down my spine a little bit, like BG, you know, tore it again as soon as he turn to play. That stinks. There's no way to sugarcoat this one. Yeah, I mean, I think Uncle Vic is going to have to do, you know, he's going to have to get even more creative. He's going to have to work with some of his SIM pressures.

Yeah. And a lot's going to be on, you know, the Jordan Davis is, the, the Jalen Carter's to get pressure. I thought that just came to my head was, oh, Jammel. Are there some packages where Jihad Campbell can be put on the edge and use there? But you don't, and maybe, maybe Trott Jr. is better as a replacement linebacker. some sub packages. I think has blitzed a lot for him. So maybe we see Jihad unleashed a little bit in the edge rusher scenario just to...

He's been blitzing a lot. I mean, even on that Zach Bonpick, uh, jihad game. Oh, he blew. It was a great blitz by Jihad. He was blitz? Now I do think, uh, was it a blitz? I need to go back and look because there might have been a, I believe it was, uh, was a Jalick, he, the Jalick's dropped into coverage a bunch.

So it could have been one of those, but Jihad blasted some dude. You're, you're probably going to have. to get creative. So that is a bummer. You know, no sugar-coding that, but we have to get moving with our show. So we will talk to you in a few seconds after hearing from some of our friends.

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365 and Ashley, we are going to go to an interview that our own Bo Wolf did with your own starting safety for the Philadelphia Eagles read Blankenship for a few minutes. And then Jamie and I will read all of the tweets about Nolan Smith and try to have a few more coherent thoughts on it. Other than this sucks. It does suck. Yeah. Okay. Bowen Reed coming up now. All right. We're back on the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. We've got one of the exciting mics with us right now. Read Blankenship and read, I got to ask you about, you know, the block at the end of the game, give us what was your vantage point for that play,

what was going through your mind? I'm sure you've talked about it. Yeah. So at first I started, I think, right in line with the kicker. Okay. And then that's when Seriani called the timeout. So I'm like, you know what? Let me just move on down a little bit

and just get like a better view. So I was a little bit kind of away from the mess. Behind the play? Behind the play. Okay. So like maybe I was on the 50-yard line. Okay. And I think Cooper is actually in front of me.

I take a knee. You know, I'm saying quiet prayers, doing, you know, doing whatever. But you have that feeling, you know, that's like there is something could happen. And obviously, snap happened. You see the front line just cave in. And lo and behold, Big J.D. come through. Now, did you start by, I mean, obviously they had blocked the last kick. Uh-huh.

So it's on your mind. Right. Was that where your eyes were trained? Were you watching that specific spot? Yeah, I'm watching right above the snappers head. Like, that's obviously where it happened last time. So I'm like, all right, if we're going to get it again, it's going to be right there.

Sure enough, here it was JD. And I thought he was just going to get on it and, you know, just knee it, whatever. But no, he said, I'm going to show off my speed. He said, I'm going to shut all the doubters up and this take off. Did you have to stop yourself from running on the field? Like before it was turned up? Too early? Yes.

I think I was actually on like the coaches like area. I'm running down, how to dodge. Like there's headphones flying everywhere. Helmets everywhere. I was dodging. And obviously when he crossed the goal line, that's when I really took off.

So my question about JD is he makes this play. In the middle, at the end of what was already like a dominating game for him, he is like the king of the city in Philadelphia on Sunday. Like what do you think his Sunday night? night was like. I have no idea. No telling. I'm sure he celebrated, but hopefully took it easy and hydrated enough for. I'm sure he was very responsible, but you only get that once. You never know, though. It could happen again. Yeah. Never say never. You know, maybe, hopefully

we're not ever in that situation ever again. But, you know, I'm happy for him. I'm glad he, I'm glad he made a big play like that. He deserves it. All right, let's, let's spin this forward to the Bucks game this weekend. And it is funny. Week 4 was the same week that the game in Tampa was last year. That was the last game of the pre-Cupertijian era. A year later, we get the podcast, we get the Super Bowl. So this is like a bygone era.

But what are like the memories of that game? Because it has been a place where you guys have had some tough times in the past. Yeah, I don't really have really good memories there. Yeah. But, you know, it is what it is. It's a tough place to play, but like the heat was a little bit of a factor last year. But I feel like this year we kind of know how to deal with it. And obviously it starts right now.

You've got to prepare as early as possible. And just play our game. You know, don't overthink stuff. And like I said, just do what we do. to me, I think of that game as a testament to not getting ahead of ourselves early in the season. Right, absolutely. Because, you know, it's week four, it seems like, oh, man, like, oh, they're letting up so many easy passes. Right.

And then two weeks later, you guys turn into the best defense in football, right? And it's a testament to sometimes patience is rewarded. It takes some time for you. You got to work out your kinks, man. I mean, we're still learning to play with each other a lot and communicating a lot. And, I mean, we still have guys that haven't experienced. you know, a lot of football at this level. Like, you know, Andrew, you know, Andrew's one of them.

He's doing really, really good right now. Jahat's doing really good right now. And just continue to be consistent with that, you know. And I'm excited for them. I love playing with them, but it's going to be a challenge, like I said, but I'm excited. So now you said, I got to get to the bottom of this. Andrew or Drew? I say Drew.

He does I say Andrew? Yeah. Did I say Andrew? You said Andrew. But we're being formal here. It's okay. I don't know why I said Andrew, but I do say Drew. He goes by Drew in the locker.

And how does the, how is that process going from your vantage point working out to Kings with Drew? Really smooth. Like really smooth. I say kinks, but it's not like it's a bad thing. Obviously, you got to learn how to play with somebody. And, you know, in training camp, unfortunately, he had, you know, some injuries here and there. But some of the times that we were playing together, you know, we're communicating. He listens to me.

He's smart. He kind of just knows what's about to happen. You know, it's like the anticipation factor, which you don't really see a lot in rookies. I mean, Cooper had it. Quinnian had it. But, like, he has it too, and jihad. So they're not really playing like rookies.

And, you know, that's what you love to see, especially this early in the season. All right. Last one for you is, you know, you are a vet now. Yeah. It's crazy. You are, this is your first season as a podcaster. Yeah. How are you adjusting to my line of business?

How are you adjusting to my line of business? How are you adjusting to podcast left? It's tough. I mean, it's tough. I mean, we're three and all right now. So I'm sure it'll be different if, you know, things happen. But it's good. I feel like people really get to see who we are outside of football and just be ourselves. You know, we're not these big celebrities. You know, I'm just a normal dude that likes to talk.

figuring out what to do in a three-by-one set or reading an ad which is more difficult. Probably reading an ad, honestly. My brain cuts off when I'm trying to read an ad and people can attest to that. All right, well, Reed, we look forward to this week's episode of the exciting mics. We'll talk to you down the line. We appreciate you. Of course, appreciate y'all. All right, back with more on the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast.

And thank you, Mr. Wolf. We are back. live on the PHLY Eagle Show, Rich Hoffman with Jamie Lynch. And, James, yeah, I mean, the Nolan Smith news, it is a bummer.

It seems like just from reading some of the tweets from the beat writers, including R. E.J. Smith, who's going to be on the show, maybe without his red microphone, but hopefully to give us a little more intel on this, but to read a quote from E.J.,

he says, my understanding is that all three of these injuries should allow for mid-season returns, perhaps around the week nine. So if that's all it is, you can survive. It's not a death blow. It's going to be, I think Uncle Vic becomes the most important guy in that building right now. Because he's going to have to, you know, Nolan, I don't know if you have the snap counts handy and can pull him up. But like, I would imagine Nolan's probably a, what, 65, 70 percenter on the defensive end group.

So he's going to have to get creative. You know, Zadaria Smith's is probably going to pick up the main. majority, but, you know, what do they do now? Does Ojo Lari get run? Does Jihad get a little run at defensive end and Trotter Jr. come in? He's going to have to get creative to create pressure because we saw week one, Rich, versus the Cowboys. You didn't really have much cooking in terms of the edge pressure.

And you saw the effect it had on that game. So he has to replace basically their highest snap percentage defensive end, and that's no easy to ask. He is their highest snap percentage defensive end by a mile. 85% in week one, 73% in week two and 70% in week three. You got to imagine, I mean, Jalick's Hunt

is going to start playing a lot of snaps. Josh Uche may be on past. Uncle Vic, he's on your side. Zadariah Smith playing. Give him a little head tap. Let's go, Vic, I believe. Give him a little head tap. Yeah, I believe in you, Vic.

There we go. I'm so bad at this. It's so much harder than people realize, too. They should be. Julia just cracking up in the background. This should be a weekly segment. Rich cannot calibrate. where his limbs are in the YouTube.

Oh my gosh. Let's get a little thumbs up for Uncle Vic. Come on. Don't make me do that anymore. I'm like reaching off the screen on that. Like put my arm around. Put my arm around. Here you go, buddy.

Yeah. That was great. That's so embarrassing. Okay. No, to everybody in the chat, it's way harder than you think it would be. I got your back a little bit. I hope so. Man, that's so embarrassing.

Again, it's like we were talking about earlier. Like the idea of us trying to run. 10 miles an hour or whatever it is. Anything that makes us look less athletic, or poor I think the people would like. So somebody who is athletic, Zadarius Smith, 33% and 36% in his first two games. You figure there's a little bit of a learning curve.

A little bit of a ramp up. I've enjoyed what I've seen from Zadarius Smith. I would think automatically, yeah, his first game was like wildly impressive. Not as all over the place in game two. That's fine, but I would imagine he becomes a 55% guy this weekend, you know, at a minimum. Yeah. And look, it's some of it is, is next man up. And some of it

is that the pressure is going to have to come more from the interior guys. Now, they're going to play a... He dates somebody famous that popped up on my... I didn't know who she was, but she's apparently quite famous. I think a musical artist of some sort? I think so, yeah. Like, popped up on my Instagram algorithm and I was like, and I asked my wife,

I was like, do you know who this is? She was like, no. And I was like, well, we're washed, so that makes sense. But apparently quite a famous girlfriend. I don't know what anything is anymore. that, you know, being washed is, I mean, that's just every day you're on the internet in these. Oh, is the rapper Cash doll. Cash doll. Yeah.

Good furzed areas and cash doll. But hopefully. Speaking of girlfriends real quick, I'm sorry, I know I'm sidetracking you. Man, you really are. Yeah. Devante Smith, did you see his Instagram post about the security guard? It was so funny. Big Dom's got to get that guy in line.

Come on, buddy. Clean it up. So funny. If you know, you know, just search Devante Smith security guard. Maybe. By the way, Devonty Smith, not in the ad. It's like the meme in real life. Yes.

He actually was looking over the shoulder in that same way. So we talked a little bit about Jordan Davis, and that's somebody who is going to have to step up from the inside. I got to say, Jim, the fact that Jordan Davis, I think it was like the second day of training camp, he shows up and he's at the podium and he's looking slim. and it's, you know, obviously that is best shape of my life season. That's not always the case, right, when the games actually start, but he did look slim down.

Yeah. It's cool to see that the preseason hype has actually translated to the games where Jordan Davis has played two of his three games, or two of the three highest snap counts in his NFL career. The only other one was that crazy bills game a few years ago, by the way. Where he chased down Josh down. down Josh Allen, sort of like the Matthew Stafford play, but then he got a lot more

difficult. He kind of broke after that. He hit a major wall. In fairness, everybody on that Eagles front hit a major wall. The pencil was calling plays. It was all a disaster. But two of the three highest snap counts already for Jordan Davis, and I look, the Chiefs game, which was a lower total,

it was more snaps than he played in any game post buy last year. And remember, it was an early buy. So we're talking about, you know, 14, 15 games where he has played a lot and then at the end of that stretch I think it's so fitting that a guy who got on that peloton and really worked on his fitness he makes a play on the last play of the game when you're supposed to be the most tired and he just bull rushes that la rams field goal block unit

pushes them back and then runs 18 miles an hour or whatever it is I just thought that was awesome that's like an awesome story EJ had a great story for our dot on all p hl y.com talking to the man with the greatest name in the world jeremiah alphabet uh his trainer jordan davis that is a wild name that is a great name sorry i i got sidetracked by saying it but anyway the point is jordan davis like great story early on i hope he can sustain it because this is a a heavy workload for him earlier in the season but he's been very good to start yeah it's uh it makes the 18 and a half miles an hour you know the fastest ever run by a three 300 plus pound man or whatever in NFL history,

more impressive to your point because he played so many snaps and was just, he had to be exhausted at that point. You know, he's blocked two kicks and he took off like a bad out of hell. It's great to see the work, you know, kind of pay off the clip from training camp that we had put out,

and I'm sure others did too, about him talking about, you know, actually losing like the 26 pounds. And it kind of like was very relevant this week because, yeah, most times when you hear Joellen Beads in the best shape of his life, as you know, maybe not the case. Yeah.

And Jordan Davis very much looks to be the case. And it's an awesome story because he's such a likable guy. He's got a great smile. He seems to get it. His teammates seem to love him. He's a guy you really want to root for. And, you know, we all heard the Kyle Hamilton comparisons. And Kyle Hamilton's an all pro at a position you needed for a while there.

So it's good to see Jordan Davis kind of have his glow up. here and tell all the Kyle Hamilton people like, hey, back off. I'm still getting there. Yeah, hopefully it's a, it's a B.G. Earl Thomas sort of arc. Yeah, I mean, I just plays for a long time. Not that they give out all pros after three games, but I saw some chatter online that it's picking up. Like Jordan Davis is playing at an all pro level through three games. Yeah. And as Todd in chat mentions. What up, Todd.

Am I saying that right? In chat. Again, I'm so confused. I would say the chat. I'm so confused with these. Wait, who was pro? I was busy yesterday. EJ was pro chat, Bo. Was the chat?

Yeah. I'm on both side on that one. Again, I just don't know what the thing now. Do you think EJ knows who cash doll is? Maybe. We can ask them in a few minutes. As Todd mentioned, though,

there have been some funny Jordan Davis, Forrest Gump memes. I saw a Rocky running through the Italian market one. We have a new shirt. I mean, the guy's immortalized forever on a T-shirt now. It was the Jordan Davis game. as E.J. famously coined it, you know, like he made his mark on Philadelphia this past weekend.

It was an incredible, incredible storyline, incredible game. Just I'm pretty happy for Jordan Davis, like just selfishly. And last thing before we get to a break here is that before the season, Howie Roseman picked up his 2026 option, last day, too. Which was the iconic graphic, exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, graphic. But it was controversial because at that point, you know, Jordan Davis is coming off a season where he only played 37% of the snaps. And it's, I mean, it was a hefty option because, you know, like he was a first round pick.

Was he 14th overall? What was he? Yeah, it was in that range. Yeah. $12.9 million. And it was like, is he worth that at this point? And so we're at a point where I think some people brought up the option might have been, maybe you could have extended him at a lower number.

But, you know, when you pick up that option, it gets to the point where, okay, you have Jordan Davis at a pretty reasonable number for one more year, or it's a disaster if he plays 37% of the snaps and you're the Eagles and you're trying to get out of giving all of these mid-tier salaries, you're going to a stars and young guy salary structure, well, it's early. He's going to have to keep it going. Hopefully the Eagles can get him a little more rest

and don't have to rely on him quite as much. But if he keeps up this level of play, I think he's clearly worth that $12.9 million next year. Maybe there will be an extension down the line. That is a good story. for Jordan Davis. All right, James, we need to get to a few more of our friends. I think you have the first one for us. So we will be back after we do that. And let me tell you why it's never ordinary at Bet365. There's over 90 million users worldwide. They stream over 780,000 events

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rich hoffman jamie linch presented by bet 365 and ashley furniture jame i wanted to shout out the the unsung hero of sunday's game and that is our guy fred johnson remember the uh right said fred remember the video last year where I think he stepped in. I forget what exact game it was. It might have been the Bengals game where he did a nice job against Trey Hendrickson and that one. No easy task.

Yeah, well, and after the game was over, everybody was like, hell yeah, Fred, hell yeah, Fred. They love him in that locker room. The social media team clearly loves them. They go to him for like every piece of like social content they do. He must be like just a great personality because the team seems to love the guy.

Just hearing him interviewed, I'm not there like EJ is. I'm not there like ZB is at all times. But he just seems like a delightful person. And the Eagles actually, their tackles have been great, not only great players, but great interviews over the years. I mean, Maelada, before you knew he was going to be Jordan Milata and this crazy story where picks up a new sport in his 20s

and becomes one of the best left tackles in the game, he was an amazing interview. Like when he was learning in Stoutland, you, he's like, yeah, Stoutch just, he's on me all the time. I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, Lane Johnson, he just, he shoots you straight all the time, one of the best interviews, really for the past decade. But then you have Fred Johnson, who's this this warm and kind of cuddly guy who comes in. And so you get to the point where a bunch of people were surprised when Matt Pryor got subbed into the game.

I asked, Bo, we were watching together, like midway through the first quarter, you could just see Pryor was letting a lot of pressures up. And I was like, Bo, why is Fred Johnson not in over Pryor? And he was like, great question. Jamie, you were right because as it turned out, thank you, Julia, for putting up the graphic on the screen. Look, this was not all Matt Pryor's fault. He's talked about this the other day. He's probably a guard. Yeah.

But they put him in because he had lined up at right tackle and practice. Fred had only got in. Fred had not. But look, we learned a couple of things from the game. One of them is that the Eagles need to be more aggressive on offense and push the ball to A.J. Brown down the field. The other thing we learn is that the Eagles have a swing, He doesn't need to practice there. Fred Johnson is better than Matt Pryor.

And man, I mean, the stats bear it out. Four three and outs on five drives for Matt Pryor. And then also a sack fumble, which unfortunately he was kind of responsible for with Jared Verst getting in there. Yeah. And then they insert Fred into the game. Was that the only reason that the Eagles improved? No.

It was a major reason. I mean, if we were doing the hockey three stars of the game, Rich, it's got to be Fred Johnson, Jordan Davis, and A.J. Brown, right? Yeah. Do you think Fred's the third star? I don't want to take anything away from Jalen because he had such a phenomenal second half. But like I give of those two, I think I give AJ a little bit more credit. That I sec that how you will.

But I don't think Jalen has those opportunities of Matt Pryor's playing there in the second half. So therefore I have to, I have to bump Fred above Jalen. So I think those are my three stars of the game. Any disagreements? No, I'm just thinking about it. Like he changed the game. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was.

Thank you, Fred. Up in the press box. and you were watching him against Verse, and you're like, oh, this looks different. Like Fred is actually competitive against this guy, and frankly,

he was handling him on a lot of... Which is impressive because verse is a beast. Awesome player. By the way, has anybody gotten to the bottom of the verse, Jalen Carter chain? Like, was that the bet from last year's NFC championship game?

Did he debo it? Like, what happened? I was in the locker room. Jalen Carter had that... Number eight was huge. That was a nice piece of ice. It seems like they sort of... They give each other

a little you know what before the games. They seem like they're good sports about it. Good sports, but they're competitive and joking. So it had to have been a bet? Did they bet each other a chain? I feel like that thing was a lot of money. So Jalen Carter, maybe he was one of the three stars of the game for winning that bet because, man, yeah, that was an expensive piece of jewelry.

Yeah. It looked like. I'm actually now just thinking if football had the three stars of the game because you know how in hockey they skate out on the ice. Yeah, yeah. They do a little circle and wave. raising the stick for the crowd. That would be really funny if Fred Johnson like ran out of the tunnel.

It's not quite a smooth because he's not on the ice. Yeah, they like flash a spotlight on him to as he does it. I think the NFL should do that. Everybody should. I think it's great. I think it's one of the best things hockey does. And ladies and gentlemen, your three stars of the birds game, Fred Johnson, Jordan Davis, AJ Brown.

I know Merrill's not the public address announcer, but that would be unbelievable. unbelievably funny. Yeah. If they did. That would be funny. So that was... Get some pyrotechnics involved, you know, like have them walk out and, you know, enjoy it.

Yeah. So Fred Johnson, I mean, what a steal from... And good job. Again, by Howie. Making a mistake to let him go, but getting them back and trading a seventh round pick. I don't know what James Gladstone is cooking up in Jacksonville, that Travis Hunter...

Duvote. Who does not look quite as good, even though... Travis Hunter guy. Well, I mean, that might be the only thing he has. It was a freebie. Yeah. Anyway, good trade to get him back for a seventh round pick. I feel much better about the swing tackle situation with Fred Johnson.

And by the way, like, as much as the Eagles offense struggled in the first half of that game, to win a game and have three touchdowns in four drives without Lane Johnson, that's big time stuff. Because we know the record without Lane Johnson through his career. I think they're like 50 games over 500 with Lane in his career. They're eight games under 500 without. lane in his career. I'm actually surprised it's not worse because it just feels

so difficult without lane because you don't even think about him. The Eagles just put him on an island at all times and he handles his business and that's why he's going to be a Hall of Famer. So for Fred Johnson to step in and for Jalen Hertz to kill it in an obvious passing situation in the second

half. Yeah. That was pretty awesome. And kudos to Howie Roseman like obviously you couldn't predict a Nolan Smith injury but like getting Zadaria Smith, it's one of your thinnest positions. He's never satisfied. He's always adding. And this Fred Johnson, you know, trade again is another one of just like, okay, he's never

satisfied. Like, we need a swing tackle. We got to get Fred back. So like, kudos to the front office for always being active and always addressing things. And then the last thing we're going to get to before we bring in our guy, E.J., who hopefully will drop us some knowledge on the whole. He just left the practice field. He texted us.

So he'll be here momentarily. Okay, good. I think we're timing this right. The Nolan Smith situation, E.J. will offer any sort of intel that he got on that. But, James, the other thing that I wanted to talk about, and we're not usually a special team spot here. Usually it's Kevin Petullo, it's Uncle Vic. And I feel like Kevin Petullo, we've talked a little bit too much about it. Michael Clay doesn't get much shine on this show? No, he does not.

And I thought Michael Clay is actually an interesting person because, man, during the game, watching John Metz's, and Tank Biggsby fumble all of those kickoffs. It was frustrating. It was like, what are we doing here? I thought back to the video that E.J.

initially tweeted out of Tank Biggsby where he was muffing kickoffs at practice. I was like, did the Eagles just not have the right guys for this? And also the Eagles bring in

with Gibson a new, a new kick returner as well. We'll see if they use him. But. The knuckle puck. Those kicks. And our friend, Sean Syed,

had a good video. on YouTube of the Rams kicker Cardi. Look, the Rams kicker not sure he had the right trajectory on field goals and the Eagles took advantage of that. But man, that guy you're right, the knuckle puck from Mighty Duck 2, Russ Tyler, Keenan

Thompson. Wait, did you know that off the top of your head Russ Tyler? Oh yeah. I'm unbelievably good at remembering character names and movies. Really? And also look, the mighty ducks. You could have given me two million chances. I don't think Russ I would have ever gotten to Russ Tyler.

That's really good work by you. Damn. Russ Tyler, South Central Los Angeles. Yeah, the knucklepuck. Yeah. That's awesome. Drives goalie's crazy.

Anyway, I do like D2 Mighty Ducks, but I take pride in that. My girlfriend gets mad at me. I will, I'll get out my phone during a show and I'll be like, what is this actor? Like, have I seen him and stuff?

I'm always that person. I'm always reading the character names. That's great. Yeah, so I don't have a great attention span, I would say. With that. But Josh Cardi,

some of those kicks, as Sean showed us the end zone view are very difficult. And these two kick returners have to deal with the entire length of the field. And Michael Clay in his press conference was talking about, yeah, we got to get those guys, you know, being like a shortstop. And I was thinking like, man, short stops don't have to catch oblong shape football that could bounce in any single direction. Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, people were getting on tank and I brought it up in the post game. I was like, what is up with those kick? I've never seen anything like that. I do. Somebody said, and I forget, So I forget who to credit. It was probably Bo or EJ. I wonder if it did affect the trajectory of his kicks.

I wonder if he's put so much muscle memory and work into these kickoffs that it kind of screws them up on those field goals. I don't know. You know, but that was wild. And I wonder if there's going to be copycats that try to follow. To use a golf analogy. It felt like he was hitting a stinger with his hybrid on the kickoffs.

But he just needed to hit a very straight six iron. Yeah. He took the wrong club out of his bag. You know, he probably looked down on his leg. I'm like, I took the wrong plug. Dang. That was bad. Yeah, but anyway, what he's doing on those kickoffs,

and it wasn't just the Eagles, too, in the first few weeks. He had kind of embarrassed the Texans and the Titans as well. It's wild. So he's pretty good at those. Hopefully the Eagles get better, but it looks like with these new rules and the kickers, and by the way, like Roger Goodell, maybe you want to ban this. Yeah, this seems unfair. This is a capable play.

But it does seem like there is an element of like this is important. the kickoff now because if a player can hit a knuckleball into that 20-yard landing zone and it bounces, I think these kick returners are going to have a tough time. So maybe you move the guys up, maybe you move them more towards the middle. I am going to be interested to see what Michael Clay and Joe Peasy, as Jalen Carter called. And that was the other great part of the postgame locker room. Joe Penunzio, a guy who was coached for 45 years, the Eagles assistant special teams coach, Joe Peasy. Joe Peasy. Love that.

Joe's got to love that, right? Yeah, they should change the name of his official, on the official bio to Joe Peasy. Anyway, I'm interested to see what they cook up because I actually, the more I watched it, that seemed like a harder problem to deal with than initially being frustrated. Like, why can't these guys just catch the ball?

So. Yeah, poor tank. He was dealing with the knuckle puck. Drives goal is crazy. Yeah. Drives kick for Turner's crazy. I mean, it was just straight. And the guy just, you know, he couldn't,

in the Mighty Ducks movie, I didn't think it was actually that. It wasn't that wild. Yeah, it just went up. It didn't go like sideways. It just went up and down. Pretty straight. Yeah.

Stay in front of it. That Iceland goalie had no shot to stop those too. Okay. That is enough on Mighty Ducks D2. We are going to talk to E.J. Smith on the other side of this break after we hear from a couple more of our friends. Whether your favorite team wins or not, there is always another way to win. And that is on the Bet Park's online casino app. Check out new brand new casino games.

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that up. When we're here, we're just going to compliment you on that stuff. We're positive. We'll never bully you, E.J. You got to build me back up. Yeah. Absolutely. And E.J., I think I need to be built back up because there's Nolan Smith injury, man. It kind of came out of nowhere. What have you sort of heard about it? I know you were just at practice. Did this come as a major surprise to you as well? Yeah, I think it came out of nowhere is a good way to characterize it. He obviously made it through the game against the Rams without any apparent injury. But it has been pretty evident that he's been dealing with the triceps, the recovery of that triceps injury, that he suffered in the Super Bowl. Obviously, he played through it in the Super Bowl. And now

there's reporting from ESPN and NFL Network that it is a re-injury or a tweaking of that triceps injury that's going to hold him out. The, you know, the sense I get is that Nolan Smith, Jacorian Bennett and Darius Cooper, who all went on injured reserve, they should all, none of these injuries require surgery. They should all, you know, have a chance to return midseason. that I'm hearing as soon as, you know, after the bye week and week nine. So, yeah, these aren't necessarily season-enders. They're not something that might, they're not something that we should necessarily hold them out for a significant amount of time.

But landing on IR, they're going to miss at least four or five games here. So EJ, again, not a season-ender. You know, the Eagles are going to have to find a way to get through this. But for these next four weeks, you know, this edge group was not the deepest group that the Eagles had. Nolan Smith was their highest snap guy by a mile. I know they've had a couple guys. who have been inactive for all of the games as well.

What do you expect the Eagles to do here over these next few weeks? Yeah, it's an interesting question. Patrick Johnson was inactive against the Rams, and he might be somebody that makes sense to put back onto the active roster for game day. He was active for the first two games. But he's more of a special teams edge guy than he is necessarily somebody that you view as someone with pass rush juice. So then you look at Aziz Ojalari or Obo Ocaronquo,

both of whom have been inactive this season, but do offer a little bit more as past rushers. So, you know, the reality is I think that this probably affects Zadaria Smith more than just about anybody else because I think, you know, as he gets more comfortable with the defense, obviously signed, you know, after week one. So as he gets more comfortable with the defense, I think you could see him take on a more expansive role and probably eat up most of those Nolan Smith snaps. But, yeah, where the depth snaps come, where the depth steps go from there, I think is going to be interesting. I think it might be, you know, I'm kind of torn between Aziz Ojalari and Patrick Johnson here. I think, again, I could see it being Patrick Johnson just because he's been ahead of

Aziz Ojalari, but maybe the Eagles think that they can get something out of Aziz Ojalari, even though he's been inactive now that they have some past stress snaps theoretically up for grabs. So, E.J, this is kind of a two-parter here. One, can you update us on jihad out on the practice field today? And then two, is there any scenario where Viby, is there any scenario where Viby gets super creative and maybe gives Jihad some packages on the edge with maybe Trott Jr. taking over some line backing? Or is that like one of those don't want to weaken two positions to strengthen one type of things? How do you view that possibility and also update us on the practice today? Yeah. So Jihad Campbell was not participating in practice while we were out there. He didn't have

his helmet during the individual period. So yeah, definitely going to be looking for his name on that injury report to see what's going on. He didn't look like you had any like braces or sleeves or anything on. So, but it's a good question, Jamie, especially with Nacobi Dean coming back from the physically unable to perform list. Like, he's a guy who could take some of those off ball linebacker snaps if you wanted to make Jahad Campbell a part of that edge rushing group. I think that, you know, especially with the injuries, you know, we can talk about Jacori

Bennett out, you know, Adori Jackson was at practice. So I'm starting to wonder, though, if like the Eagles best pack. package or best 11 comes in their base defense with Jahad Campbell and Zach Bonn, sort of serving as guys who can drop down to the edge and offer something at that position to sort of compensate for the lack of snaps you're going to be getting at that spot now that Nolan Smith is out. So it'll be interesting. I think that Jahad Campbell, you know, obviously he's got the versatility to do some of those jobs on the edge edge. He's not a conventional edge rusher by any stretch of the imagination.

But yeah, I think they're going to have to be creative. And honestly, they were going to have to be creative even before the Nolan Smith injury, because as Nikobo Bedeen works back to health, I mean, it's hard to know exactly what kind of role he's going to have because of how good Deagle's linebackers have been. But, you know, this injury does kind of open up an interesting scenario where maybe Jihad Campbell does move around the formation to facilitate Nukobi Dean getting some snaps. And any other updates on, I don't know, maybe defensive player of the year candidate stud linebackers that had an interception early last week? Yes, very pointed. And there's really only one person that could fit that description. Zach Bond, he was going through individual drills.

So, you know, that doesn't seem like we'll see if he participated in team again with the injury report later today. But I noticed that he had a pretty heavy brace on his left leg that I don't remember seeing him wear before. So again, he didn't look, you know, hobbled or anything like that during the portion we were out there for. But definitely something to monitor the fact that he's out of the brace. And then the only other thing I had from practice that I wanted to let you guys know is Lane Johnson was at practice. He had his helmet on. he was moving his head. I made sure to keep an eye on his head movement.

But yeah, he did not go through individual periods also. He watched off to the side, but still, I'd say pretty encouraging, that he was out there wearing a helmet and kind of being able to at least move around a little bit. I definitely think he's on track to play. Nothing worse than when you sleep funny on your neck. I know Lane got that in a much more kind of violent manner. But man, you know, he kind of. Oh, yeah, you turn in like this.

It's worse. Driving's hard. Driving's impossible. Yeah, that's hard. Yeah. We'll talk about more nonsense and some football stuff with EJ on the other side of overtime. Is it still bover time if there's no bow? Or are we just time?

No, no, no. It's just overtime, okay. Just regular overtime. Yeah, we got to take them down a peg or two, you know. EJ, I saw somebody, I don't know if it was you tweet out. Nick Siriani got asked about CJGJ, who I think the Eagles can sign. I thought that was a pretty confusing rule the way the NFL read that. that up. But Nick Siriani was asked about CJGJ and what did he say? Yeah, he basically expressed

contentment with the safety group that they have. He said he's happy with the players that they have. Talked about Andrew McCuba and how they're excited about him and really how playing next to Reed Blankenship is helping, you know, speed up his development. So it wasn't an outright no, which I do think is always noteworthy and important to point out that it wasn't a flat no. but it was a pretty strong vote of confidence in the position group as it stands currently. So, yeah, no, I agree with you that, like, the way that that one rule is worded. I understand why some people would attribute that to the situation. But, you know, I was texting Sean Syed to, like, just decipher some of, like, the legalese with some of these rules.

And, yeah, I think he is, I'm pretty confident that he is eligible to sign for the Eagles, but I just, I don't think, I don't think that they're there yet. maybe injuries could lead to something there. But right now I think that they're pretty happy with the group that they have. Makes sense. There's one other thing I thought, did Nick get asked about Tom Brady? Because this is my favorite pet peeve to get mad about. Tom Brady is in the production meetings. But he also, and the Eagles are the number one game of the week.

He got two three and no games. There are two three and no teams playing this week. But he's also got a headset for a team that the Eagles are going to play a few months down the line. as well. I thought Nick got asked about that. Yeah, it was back on Friday that he was asked about Tom Brady and he basically said that he doesn't divulge much in those meetings. So he's not overly worried about it. I think he said something nice about Tom Brady too. And that is fair. You know, Nick does not give a lot of stuff. He's very, he's very concerned about the competitive advantage lost and divulging much up there. You know, it's funny listening to Todd Bowles'

his press conference today because he like he's just very to the point very honest and similar to Vic uh in that so it's definitely uh not the way that nick chooses to to handle press conferences he keeps it close to the chest that's very funny that during a press conference with the entire eagles media cori's like yeah guys like this is useless anyway like i'm not i'm giving tom braided the same thing i'm giving you you guys yeah uh e j a dory jackson uh or zedaria smit the more important eagle over the next four weeks. Well, that's a good question. I would probably say Zadarius Smith.

That's what my God was. Just because if Adori Jackson struggles, you still have Keely Ringo. You still have the, like, you know, run base pull Cooper to Gene outside in a case of emergency. You have some levers you can pull if Adori Jackson struggles. If Sedarius struggles or gets hurt, I don't really know what this edge group really looks like at that point.

So, yeah, it's crazy to think that they just signed the guy and now he's become this important. E.J. last one from me. The Tampa Bay Bucks scare me because the Eagles always loose when they play down there. It's always 100 degrees when they play down there. It looks like a high of 87 with a 40% chance of rain. I was just looking.

Well, look, you play Tampa in September. It's going to be warm and humid and all of that stuff. Well, it's humid here today, to be fair. Yeah, I mean, it's not too much different from... Yeah, it's not Tampa. I put the air on last night again. The humidity was gross. Yeah. Yeah, I'm weak.

Yeah, that's fair. I just have it on it all times. It's fine. The last thing I wanted to ask you, EJ, they are going down a day earlier, right? And they might work out on Saturday, something like that. What are their plans? And I, you know, I guess this has happened so many times and they've struggled in the heat and struggled adjusting in the early season that they're going to change it up a little bit here. Yeah, this is a new new idea they have because of the fact that, like you said, they've been there so many times. And the visual of like CJ Gardner's, Johnson in a cold tub with an IV last year really stands out as like how much they struggled with the conditions last year. And I think it's important to point out like the bucks not I didn't use that to their advantage. You know, at home and the heat, they, they have a tendency to try to draw out drives. Todd Bowles talked today about like whoever has the ball more in these types of games usually ends up winning because of the fact that you're just wearing down a defense over the course of the game. So yeah, I think that I mean, how much validity? How much is it really

going to help going down next year day? I guess we'll find out. But yeah, I think they're just trying something different because they have struggled with those elements so much. You know, among other things. I mean, the Todd Bowles, blitz packages, how exotic his pressure looks are. I mean, it's proven to be difficult for the offense in Jalen Hertz in particular. So there's, it's not just the heat, but I do think they're trying to figure out ways to get around it. So E.J. last one for me. Tampa, kind of a sneaky good road trip in terms of the NFL landscape, in my opinion.

You got to, you get in a public sub? you got any spots in Tampa? What's the plan for E.J. on Saturday? So I usually go to the steakhouse called Burns. I've been there. The dessert room. Yeah.

Oh, the dessert room. So it's funny. I was talking to some of my colleagues about if I can just go for dessert this time because, I mean, we've been there so much that I'm a little bit like, okay, let's try a different place. I went to an Italian place. I can't remember the name of it, but they do this like tableside mozzarella there. I'm going to try to get there.

Yeah. I had me a table side. I enjoy the drive, too. Isn't it like 30 minutes outside downtown? It's not that bad. It's not that bad. I was going to drink when I was there. I went with my wife last year and they do.

They have a dessert there that's like my favorite dessert ever. It's a pretty cool. So yeah, I might try to get there just for the dessert room. Nice. Well, what's the dessert? They have a whole upstairs room that they take you to after the meal. No, but what is E.J.'s favorite dessert? It's like a gourmet Reese cup is the best way I can describe.

It's like a peanut butter moose with like a chocolate case. on it's very, very good. Somebody that Frank Barber in the chat says you've got to get some Cuban food. Okay. Yeah. I'm all on board with that. I mean, yeah, public public subs, something. The pubs, everybody talks about them. I still never had one because I just never stop. But apparently the pub subs are pretty good. Yeah, I'll have to try it. I'm not above a public sub.

All right. The crab legs. Hey, James didn't deserve that. Make sure you pay for those. Okay. E.J., thank you for joining. us. EJ will be back tomorrow, I believe, with Bo and Fran. Got a little swooper going on. Swooping could get weird this week with all the injuries. Yeah, it could.

I'm sure everybody will get creative tomorrow in trying to win Swooper. All right, EJ, thanks for joining us and we'll see you tomorrow, man. Thanks for having me, guys. Take care. See, AJ. Tampa. Great Food City. Underrated, like, Florida City.

I don't know if underrated is the right word. I think my favorite Florida city? I just love the idea that you're calibrating so many Florida cities that they're... Well, Orlando sucks, right? Okay. It's landlocked. What's the point? Miami's just not my scene.

I'm not a big Miami guy. Clearwater Beach is awesome, but it's not a city. Tampa's good. I like Tampa. St. Pete's awesome. Isn't Jacksonville not that great? Jacksonville sucks. My dad was born in Jacksonville.

It's terrible. Well, I've never been to Jacksonville, so I'm not... St. Augustine. I'm not trying to bag on a city. Okay, St. Augustine. No, Jacksonville sucks. Bag, bang on it. Well, I just remember when the Eagles played the Super Bowl there.

Anthony said it was the worst experience of his life. Everybody was like, why is the Super Bowl? I think the NFL was like, we can never do this again. I think that speaks volumes as to what Jacksonville is. Yeah. So, okay, underrated Florida City. Yeah, I like Tampa. Tampa's cool.

Yeah, I mean, I think a bunch of people probably listening to the show have been down for Philly Spring training, that whole area, clear water. Yeah, Clearwater is great. It's great. Yeah, obviously the Gulf right there, a little bit different than the Jersey Shore. A little bit, a little bit, no. In terms of the visuals and everything. That's pretty much all we got, Jane.

What are we, we lean with? I will say Todd Bowles, he feels like the final boss for the Eagles and Jalen Hertz, even if Jalen Hertz already won a Super Bowl. It's like, for some reason, Todd Bowles just has always gotten the better of him. Yeah. He only got him in the, uh, there was, there was one, early season Monday night football game where the Eagles won, but you have the two playoff games. You have the game last year as well where those blitz packages have been tough.

Now, I will say last year's game was almost a confluence of bad events for the Eagles. They were without Lane. They were without AJ and Devante, I believe. So they really didn't have a great chance as well. Uncle Vic did not have the defense settled. I remember Avanti Maddox getting picked on quite a bit. Yeah. Bucks in that game.

And right after the buy, he went to Cooper DeGine in the nickel. But this has been a team that has. has given the Eagles fits after the Eagles play the Rams, who they always seem to beat. Even when they get outplayed on a play-to-play basis for a lot of that game, they find a way to beat the Rams. Tampa, it's sort of been the opposite story. Yeah, Todd Bowles, I think famously got mislabeled as the guy that said Hertz can't read the Blitz in that playoff game because I think it was like the secondary coach or somebody that was actually saying it. But Todd Bowles clearly has been a thwart in the side of the Eagles. I mean, the Bucks just annoy the hell out of me.

Getting back to Monty Kiffin and Joe Jervvich is that long catch. Oh my God. And Ronde Barber. I hate the Bucks. I hate them. That ruined my childhood, that catch. Absolutely. I could still see Barry Gardner, the backup linebacker chasing him.

Couldn't keep up with them. I hate the bucks. Sure. Like Tampa, hate the bucks. Okay. Fair enough. All right. I think on that note, I would agree with you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. we're going to send it to close out the show here. Another Bo... I was trying to work in... A Overview? Boerview.

Okay. I also wanted to shout out Charles in the chat. The chat. So you've sent around. Well, when you're talking about the chat, you say the chat. When you're addressing the chat, you say, chat, what do you got for me? I like that distinction. Okay.

I can live with that. Yeah. I like that. distinction. So we're going to do a Boe review where Bo is talking with Adam Hogue, our All-City NFL insider about a bunch of Eagles topics, about the AFC being overrated. After it's over, the show will be over, and we will be back tomorrow with Bo, E.J. and Fran for Swooper. And until then, I'll say, we love you. All right, we are back on the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast for our bi-weekly check-in with the All-City NFL analyst, Adam Hogue, from Chicago.

How you doing, Mr. Hogue? What's up, Bo? Fire, I mean, I'm fired up for, I'm sure we got to talk about last week a little bit. The Eagles have in this middle of, like the Rams game felt like a playoff, like it could be a playoff game to me. I think this coming game against the box, either of these could be NFC championship matchups to me. Yes.

Well, last time you were here, you told us that you thought the bucks were maybe the second best team in the NFC. So we've got a big matchup coming up on Sunday. That's right. Do you stand by that through three weeks? You know, I do because they're surviving. The bucks are they, you know, every single week, somebody else is out. Now it's Mike Evans, but now Godwin's coming back.

They got three offensive linemen out of a Tristan, Tristan works should be coming back. So if I actually thought that they would be struggling a little bit more than they are early on in the season. And then once they get fully healthy, it was when they really turn it on the second half the season. So the fact that they're still going here and they have three wins in the last minute, three game winning drives. I just keep saying this about, I'm sorry, Baker, I'm a banker guy. I love, you know, I hope the Eagles have a great week against him this week. But I just, I've loved this guy. He's a gamer.

He's entertaining. There's a great miced up video the Buccaneers put out. It's like seven minutes long, which is great. Because sometimes you get these miced up videos. Yeah, just their reaction. Like here's 30 seconds from one play. It's like, no, I want to see the whole game. I want to see what, and I'm sure they cut out plenty, but it's still very, very entertaining.

So Baker Mayfield's a gamer. This will be tough. This will be a tough game. And ultimately, I did say, I think the Eagles will still go to the Super Bowl because the game will be played in Philly. But this one's in Tampa. This has been a house of horrors for the Eagles. So Eagles fans are accustomed to losing this game.

you will appreciate Hogue that Vic is with you. He spoke yesterday about Baker Mayfield and in a very, you know, beautiful Vic way, found a way to throw the rest of the league under the bus. You know, he says like, and I've always liked Baker Mayfield. I don't really understand why all the teams that have had him have moved on from him,

but, you know, general managers make mistakes just like coaches make mistakes. Well, you know, he's probably scared because in the most like diabolical, that's how you say that word. you know, Baker just, the way he's dialed up. Did you see that in this post game press conference earlier day? He's like, well, you know, that defense coordinator on the other side.

He's the one that cut me in Carolina. So, you know, I was thinking about that. So Vicks is trying to get on his good side. I think I think he's just playing. He's like, no, no, no, I love you, Baker. Yeah, that's smart. I'm a huge fan. He's, he's been around the block.

There's no, there's no fool in Vic. So what was your, what was your reaction to the way that this Eagles game played out last Sunday? and the full second half turnaround. And, you know, this has been a team that for a while, people have said, well, yeah, you know, like they're, you know, they're so good, but they're so used to playing from ahead, you know, would they be able to pass if they get down? And for them to answer that, you know, down 26 to 7

and really throw the ball for the first time all year long consistently. I found very encouraging. It was kind of like the best case scenario where you get the like, come to Jesus moment. Oh, yeah, we can't just play this way on offense all. season long and you still get the win out of it. Well, yeah. And it helps me because I've been trying to sit here, be like, hey, the Eagles are still the best team in the league. I don't, I think they can turn it on when they need to. They just haven't had to. Um, so thank you, Eagles for putting

yourself in that awful position to be behind 19 points that you don't want to be in because, uh, especially against a good team like this wasn't. I think the Rams are good. And I, and they, they have enough pieces on offense, which I think we'll get into a little bit with how the Eagles defended them that I would have been, and I was worried when it was 26 to 7, I'm like, well, even if the Eagles turn this on, are they going to be able to shut down the Rams from this point on in the game, which was the other side of that, right? You got to, you got to prevent them from scoring at the same time if you're going to come back. And they did. So, you know, I'm sure Vic made, and we've seen this already, I think early on in the Eagles season, they did it

against the Cowboys in week one. You make those adjustments. And all sudden, you know, even though the game started with the other team. And it was a little bit different. I mean, it's not like the Rams were on fire in the first quarter. This took a little while to get going before they, they ended up with those points in the second quarter. But yeah, I think to your point, Bo, really good test, really good opportunity for the Eagles. And especially Jalen Hertz to say, hey, look, we can do this. We, you know, I dropped DeVant to Smith for my fantasy team last week.

Really? Okay. They're just, well, and here's the thing I'll say about that. What are you in like an 18 league? 10 team. 10 team league. Hogue, you're a grown man. We got to get out of a 10 team league.

Yeah, it's all my college buddies. And they get two more friends. They're all Packer fans. Yeah, that's true. That's true. What I was going to say, though, is I still feel like, and not that we're going to also turn this into a fantasy show, but the Eagles are going to be a tough team to rely on for passing touchdowns

throughout the season. For sure. Because I do think. I do think they prove they can do it. And there's going to be games like this where they will do it because they have to. But I still think what their identity is. And it's a good thing. This is a good thing to have if you're in Philly and you're as good as they are.

You can just be the team that grinds it on the ground and not, it doesn't have to worry about, you know, throwing for 300 yards every single game and get away with. Aren't they 19 and 1 in their last 20 games now? Yeah, 17 and 0 in the last 17 games. that Jalen has started and finished. Yeah. Why force things you don't need to do until you have to do it? And so, yes, it's a great. It's great they got put in that position where they had to show that

they still can do it. They obviously can have AJ Brown. Devontes, don't get me wrong. Just because I dropped him for my fans. Dean does not think I don't think Devontas Smith's good. He is. So it's just more of a this is who the Eagles are. And I know you guys talk about this every single week and everybody wants flashy games through the air. that's fun and all that, but you know,

what's more important is winning. And so when you're winning as many times as the Eagles are, you live with it. I think there's a happy medium. I think they can do that. But the other truth is that passing the ball a little bit more is going to be better for the run game.

I mean, there's obviously this symbiosis, right? And so through the first three games of the season, their running game on a like an efficiency basis, success rate-wise, is actually like a little bit better than it was last season, but they're not popping anything big. And I think part of the reason for that is because teams are not scared of the passing game right now.

And so you hope that those two things sort of bounce back and forth as the season continues. Yeah, that's fair. And you, I mean, we all fall on this trap a week to week where we're like, oh, this is who this team is because it's this week. And when in reality, teams evolve throughout the season, I think the best coaches treat every week like it's its own season. And I know that sounds cliche and we're just trying to go one and oh, but there's not enough coaches that actually follow that where they get stuck.

And this is who we're going to be. This is this is, I don't care what the other team's doing. We're worried about us. Well, I think actually the better coaches go, actually we are worried about what the other teams does well. And we have the ability to mold our offense into what it needs to be to win this week. And so I,

and there's a point of all this is I think the Eagles have that ability. And I think they are well coach. So I do think there will be certain weeks where they can open it up a little bit more, you know, through the air in whatever it takes to win, right? And right now the Eagles over the last two seasons have shown that they can do that. Yeah, this this Bucks matchup is interesting from that point because it was the same week that these two teams played last season, week four. And the Bucks just lit up the Eagles defense. And we would have said then that like this Eagles defense is not very good. They got a lot to work on.

And like three weeks later, they were the best defense in the NFL. Vic Fangio does deserve a little bit of credit for, or a little bit of patience for working things in. You were a little bit interested in the way that Quinyan was shadowing Devante Adams and not Puka Nakua, which makes sense because Puka moves around and you have Cooper Degene inside. What was Vicks, like did he have guys shadow opposing wide receivers in Chicago? Wow, you put me on the spot.

They didn't do that a whole. I don't think so. There wasn't like a guy. Well, so the guy ended up being Kyle Fuller, but it took a few years. And actually, Vic was very instrumental in Kyle's career sort of being resurrected because it wasn't going well. And they had sort of a disagreement over. I want to say it was a hamstring injury and how severe it was.

And Kyle ended up sitting out most of a season over it. But then when it was all said and done, those two got super close. And Kyle Fuller became a really, really good player. But I still, I feel like the shadowing aspect was, was not something it did a whole lot off the top of my head. I just, to me, it was more about, and this is a great sign for the Rams, I think, and why, I don't know that Devonte Adams would have been great signing in too many spots. But I think it is a great spot for the Rams because they have this talent in Puka that's so good. And I think this was a great example of if you can put a Devante. Adams out there and make that defensive coordinator.

And as good as Vic Fangio is, have to choose. And they choose wrong a little bit. Or just because of how you line up, Pook, it's not necessarily wrong. It's just how it works out, which is what I'm sure Vic Fangio was thinking. DeMonte Adams is certainly more of your, at this point in his career, probably more of your traditional ex-receiver, I guess you'd say where maybe when he was back with the Packers, they would use him more a little bit more in the slot. But regardless, Pook is talented.

Having another guy out there opens up those opportunities for him. And I think that's what you saw, especially in the first half against the Eagles. But you make adjustments and eventually the Eagles were able to, to slow them down to the point where they were able to make that comeback. I want to circle back to, you know, the idea of us getting a little bit static in our analysis of like what a team is, but also what a player is because players are also allowed to get better, not only over the course of their career,

but over the course of a season. Last year we saw it, like Nolan Smith, I have never seen anybody, you know, get that much better over the course of a season as he did. And the big story for the Eagles right now

is Jordan Davis and him really seeming to take this leap in year four, you know, playing more snaps, being more impactful, all of those things. Who are guys, you know, just from your career who come to mind in like taking that surprising

leap sort of mid career? Well, the one for me since you put it on the spot again. Yeah. Yeah, no, but I have a great answer for this one, and especially it's another defensive alignment, but Akeem Hicks. Okay. Keem Hicks was, yeah, he was drafted by the Saints and just never really fit in there, ends up spending a year in New England, um, where it's, it started to click a little bit more to the point that when he became a free agent after that season, Belichick really didn't want to lose him. Um, but he hadn't, quite shown enough for them to be able to, you know, throw big money at him. And it's not like

the bears threw big money at him either, but it was more. And this comes back around to Fangio, because he comes over to the bears under Vic Fangio. And this turns out to be the, not only the perfect scheme for him, but I also think the perfect moment in his career where it was just kind of like the right place, right time for him to take off. So the bears, I don't have the numbers in front of I mean, they signed them to a pretty modest two-year contract, I want to say. And within and going along the same lines in terms of approving as long as the season goes along, you know, at first it's like, who is this guy? How's he fit?

Hasn't really worked out in the past. And then like as that season went along, oh man, this guy is a really good player. And he ended up being to me the most important player on that defense. When he wasn't in there, the defense looked completely different. it certainly changed a lot of things for how Fangio would have to call things when Akeem Hicks wasn't out there. He ends up getting a massive deal

with the Bears after that. And it was one of those kind of one of those rare situations in football where a guy like correctly gets rewarded for ascending the way he did. And then lived up to the contract too once he had it. And then sort of just reached that wall,

especially defensive linemen, because they have a limited shelf life for where they play in the trench. So that would be the best example for me. But yeah, I think if you're the Eagles right now with Jordan Davis, you got to be pretty excited, and especially I get excited as a special teams guy, the way, you know, you're going to get that effort on that block in such a huge moment.

And then, you know, you could say it's stupid that he returned it. It probably was. But I don't care. No, no, he gets that. He loved it. Yeah. If there was any time on the clock, you can say it was stupid, but, you know, the game's over.

Let him do it. Yeah. I mean, sure, there could be some weird scenario. No, you, you pick up that ball, big man, and you get that big man touchdown. I, now, I loved it. Now, if you were on the Rams plus three and a half or plus four and a half, wherever you got it, that was, that was brutal for you. So I'm going to put you on the spot again.

This is a very difficult trivia question. But that touchdown from Jordan Davis, only the second touchdown this century by someone at least 300, pounds and they went over 50 yards on the touchdown. Do you have any guesses on who might have been the big fellow who scored a 50 plus yard touchdown? Is it one I should know? No, not really. It's very difficult for me to ask you.

Okay. No, because the bears had one. I'm just forgetting if that was still in a century. It was an NFC North player at the time. Guy who bounced around, but he was an NFC North player at the time. I don't know. Was it like BJ Raji or something? Because he scored playing touchdowns against the Bears.

It was Sean Rogers on a. pick six for the lion. Okay. Yeah. Just a little something to, to finish the hit for you. Hoag. Uh, thank you. I always love like before we let you go, uh, tomorrow the power rankings will be up on, uh, on all p.gloy.com will the birds be at the top again. Yeah. I mean, how could they not be? I mean, they're, they're not really giving me a reason. Now maybe if they had lost this game, but Jordan Davis saved them. Um, no, yeah, I'm, I'm still high in this Eagle squad. I think they're well coached.

especially Vic Fangio. You guys know I feel about that. So there'll still be number one, spoiler alert. But it is starting to get interesting below them. And another trend, I'll just leave you with this. If we're not paying attention, the NFC starting to look stronger than the AFC overall. So if this looked like a one horse race at the start of the season with the Eagles,

I don't know. There's some tough competition. I think one of those teams is the bucks this week. And then I know the Packers slipped up in in Cleveland, but I still think they're going to be tough. So we'll see how they bounce back. This is a pet peeve of our friend, handsome rich over here that everybody's always talking about

like the AFC is better. Like let's calm down with that. We don't know that. Yeah. I think the NFC is coming on this year pretty strong. All right. Well, thank you very much. Mr. Hogue.

We will talk to you in two weeks and enjoy the Bears game this Sunday. Thanks, Bob.