PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Behind Saquon Barkley, are the Philadelphia Eagles a run-first team now? | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

It’s a day of asking questions after the Eagles’ 28-3 dismantling of the New York Giants. Is Jalen Hurts secondary to the offense now? How much can they ride Saquon Barkley? Is the Georgia Bulldog contingent turning the corner? Is Ben VanSumeren a real part of the offense now? Will this finally be the nudity episode?Zach Berman and Bo Wulf recap and dissect the Eagles’ fourth win of the season. Don’t you dare miss it. 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 Monday show on the PHLY equals podcast, presented by our good friends at Bet365, whatever the moment. It's never ordinary at Bet365. Download the app today and use code P.H.L.Y. 365 when you sign up. Zach Berman, you must be feeling good. We've got a normal game. This feels like a week in which we can set aside the melodrama and talk ball. Plenty to get to. We're going to talk about the offense.

might be sustainable. The defense, are they for real? But I think we should start today with the big question. You're a Philly guy, a Pennsylvania guy. I wonder if you have any thoughts on the majesty of Arnold Palmer's hog. I'm not familiar with what you're talking about here. I know Arnold Palmer. Yeah, go deeks. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Is there something I'm missing here? You're not familiar. Is there a joke that I'm out on, Julia? Yeah.

You didn't discuss this on yesterday's show. I listened to. No, I wanted to wait for you. I wanted to get your thoughts. Oh, I have no thought. The size, you know, the girth. Is this a thing? Apparently.

Apparently it's the most important thing. Yeah, no, in my show prep today, that did not come up. Okay. Well, we can talk about that. Revisited later, I'm just going to Google. Yeah, Google Arnold Palmer's hog and see what comes up. We'll Google Arnold Palmer to see what I'm missing here. Okay.

Well, in that case, we can start. Oh, okay. All right. Now I see. All right. Yeah. I wouldn't have known that. Oh.

Yeah. That did not show up in the New York Times. It should have. It absolutely should have. I bet it did, actually. Not what I read. Anyway. It should be in there.

Anyways. Yeah. So what's a normal win? Tell me that. What's a normal win? What is, as opposed to an abnormal win? A normal win. normal win is a win in which the head coach is not manically screaming at his own fans, I would

say, is at least one of the barometers. Okay, yeah. So that is fair. I know you wrote about the game on all-pacobite.com. Everybody should read that. And then you're making the apology or the like, oh, well, you know, by the way, last week was a win. You cannot pretend that last week was a normal win that we should celebrate.

But this was a game in which the Eagles took care of business, a team. that they are more talented then. They squeezed the life out of them. The defense was fantastic. And the offense, after another slow start, was able to lean on where they are strongest. And boy, did Sequin look good. Yeah, I think the best thing about yesterday's win, and you guys addressed on the post-game show,

which I thought was great, was that the sign of a good team is often how you play against bad teams. And it struck me that the Eagles hadn't had a win of 20 plus points since the 49ers game in the NFC championship. So all of last year, they did not have a single win of 20 plus points. They had two wins of 14. But so you might say 20s and an arbitrary number. 20 is a blowout, right?

This was their first win by more than by more than one score since last October. I think October 23rd last year, right? So that shows you, yeah, the Eagles normal has been squeaking by, not playing great. And by the way, just like when. when they won an unconvincing fashion, I said, this is better than it meets the eye. I don't think yesterday was as great as maybe the thoughts are. They were, they converted one third down all game.

They were one of 13 on third down. The quarterback was inconsistent. But when you look at it 28 to 3, their most complete game of the season, and it seems every time they win, I say the stars showed up. But this is why Saquan Barkley is here. This is why A.J. Brown is here.

I mean, it's a little different on defense, but I think you mentioned Sequin in the pitch to me here. And the reality is this. I think yesterday was an example of why they went out, why they went out and got Sequin. Saquan is simply a better running back than DeAndre Swift and Miles Sanders. Both of them were productive in this offense. Neither one of them had a rush of 50 plus yards. Sequin has three games of 100 plus yards already. matches every that matches miles

Sanders back in 2022. That's more than DeAndre Swift last year. So I bring that up as a way of saying. The Eagles thought there was more meat on the bone in the running game. And I think Sequin is showing you that. They were watching those episodes from 2022 when we were wondering what this offense would look like with a real running back. Boom.

Yeah. He who laughs, last, he who laughs last, laughs, laughs. Longest are you in the room. We have some breaking news, Zach. We're breaking news? We do. The Eagles Sunday night football game. against of Jacksonville, Jaguars on 11.3, no longer Sunday night football. Flex to 4 o'clock.

Okay. So I was actually wondering if yesterday's results would change that, but that I'm okay with that. Are you? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No sweat off my back. The postgame show now is a 7 o'clock one as opposed to, yeah, okay. Yeah. That's a good one. No big deal for me. I think that's good news. All of a sudden, Roger is making all the right decisions. Okay, let's talk about the offense because my question for you, Zach, is, you know, the Sequin of it all. is this team a run first team now? And you look at the numbers yesterday, and because this game got away from the Giants,

let's filter out the fourth quarter. Yep. First three quarters of the game, first and second down, the Eagles had designed runs, so that does not include scrambles, according to true media, on 71% of their first and second down snaps. That is, in the first three quarters,

on first and second down, the highest rate of the Nick Siriani era, even higher than that stretch in 2021 when they leaned on the running game. They were even more run heavy yesterday than in that stretch. Do you think that that is the identity of this team now? No, I don't. And I understand the question. And I listened to sports radio this morning.

This topic came up. Nick Siriani said yesterday, quote, it's what we needed to do to win this week. And I think that is, or he said, it's what we need to do this week to win, to be more if I'm quoting him. I think that makes sense. When you're facing a defense that led the NFL in sacks, you look at the strength of that defense, the Eagles are playing without their starting left tackle.

You know, Sequan's return game, the Giants aren't particularly good to run defense. I thought this was the, I thought it made sense for them to lean on the run yesterday. I don't think this is going to be the identity of the Eagles. The Eagles just spent roughly $200 million on A.J. Brown and Devante Smith. They did not do that for them to pass 14 times a game. I understand J-1 Hertz has been inconsistent, but the reality is this is a team that is going to try to pass the ball all over the yard and there are going to be games when they lean on the run,

but it would surprise me if the game script going forward looks like the game script yesterday. You disagree? No, I don't disagree entirely, but I do disagree a little bit that they're going to want to pass the ball all over the yard. I think there's a little bit of a best of both worlds. that they're trying to have here. Now, one of the reasons is, at some point, we're going to have the Sequin and Berkeley usage conversation.

Like, are they going to be able to lean on him quite as much as they are right now because the further they get into December, you don't want him to be totally worn down. But I do think this goes to, like, the way that we view this Eagles team right now and, like, what the expectations are. If we are viewing them through the prism of the 2022 team

or a team that entered the season with Super Bowl aspirations, right now they're not playing like that on offense. But if we're thinking of them as a quarterback who is imperfect and you are working around rather than like he is the star of the show then yeah I think they are going to have to lean on the running game and the throws outside of the numbers to AJ Brown

because right now Jaylor Jailen Hurts is not willing to throw the ball over the middle of the field. I think there's a case to be made that yesterday was his worst game of the season even though he didn't turn the ball over. All of that said like yesterday they're winning by so much even in the third quarter that the script got away from them a little bit think they were able to lean on the run a little bit more.

Plus, I think Nick likes the Sequin of it. Yeah, exactly. He wants to play into that. Yeah. But I think their best way to win games right now is by playing mostly like this. Then, like, I don't think that that's going to be how they can win a Super Bowl, but how could they beat the next opponent on their schedule? I think that is the way that they are best suited to play right now.

I mean, I look at it one week ago. They played against a team that bottled up the brawn. They like the Browns and with with Jim Schwartz, what their approach was, was to not let the Eagles get off to a not let Sequin go off, not let the running game do what it can do. And so there are going to be weeks like where you need jail to throw it around. There are going to be weeks when you're not playing with a two touchdown lead and you're going to need to pass the ball. No doubt. So yeah, I mean, and I said this when this whole identity conversation came up before the buy. If you want to know what a team values, look at how they spend their money.

And the Eagles, I get they spent their money on running back an offensive line. It's just spent $200 million on A.J. Brown, Devante Smith. It is not for Devonte Smith to have one catch. Well, that's the thing, though. If you think about the quarterback, if you don't trust the quarterback, then you've got to spend money on the – I mean, this is who they have. We're making these bold proclamations, but these are the players on their roster. They're keeping the roster together.

Sure. philosophically, if you think you have a flawed quarterback, then you're willing to overspend on the wide receivers who can make up for the fact that, you know, if Patrick, if you have Patrick Mahomes, you don't need to spend all that money on the wide receivers because he can make guys good. He can throw guys open. If you don't have that and you need an offense to rely on, well, it's fourth down. Let me throw it up to our, you know, the best wide receiver in football. Then, yeah, like that is who deserves the money.

Yeah, you see, I hear your point. And I think you can think if they entered the offseason thinking that our quarterback is a little bit flawed, then that's part of the reason you do overspend for a running back. Well, I'm less focused on if this is what their recipe is going to be because I don't think it's going to be and more focused on can they get their quarterback to start hitting his layups. Because to me, that's what this comes down to. And there's going to be a piece on all PHLI from Fran who's doing an outstanding job.

But he gave a little tease on Twitter X today showing. He's very good at those teases. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. It's awesome. It's like the upper thigh of the all 22 breakdowns, you know? Just a little something to keep you interested.

There you go. There you go. The upper thigh. Your big upper thigh guy. Hashtag Fran's thighs. This is a long-running thing. Yeah, no, I'm aware. I remember it was at a senior boy I was not present in.

No, Shrine Bowl. Shrine Bowl, yeah. Shrine bowl, yes. Yeah, and there's nothing you like more than making someone feel uncomfortable. So you're sitting down for an audio podcast. You've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You're sitting there for an audio podcast talking about his thighs. I remember that.

That was the same offseason when you and Jimmy had the little car ride podcast. I believe that's right. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I was actually in Orlando then at the Pro Bowl when you were at the Shrine Bowl. Yes, I think Jimmy and I driving back from Mobile to Pensacola, I think something to the effect of the sign on the highway was God, guns, guts. or something like that. I forget exactly what it was, but yeah.

In that order? I think the last one might have been guns. Okay. Okay. I have no comment on that. No comment on that. What could we get you to comment on politically? Politically, yeah.

I mean, if, you know, John Runyon used to, he was in office one time, if you want. By the way, Little Birdie has sent me from the New York Times, New York Times.com. Michael Gold reporting from La Trobe, Pennsylvania. Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer's penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris. Gotcha. I did not read that story. If I did, I would have been more careful. Talking about Arnold Palmer's Dong is like, you know, the first time that I've been interested in what he's had to say. You're interested in that?

Go Deeks. Yeah. Go Deeks. All right. any event, where were we? We were talking about the offense. So, yeah, so we're talking about Fran and the clip that Fran put up there. Speaking of him, you know.

And so there was a layup to Devante Smith, and you clearly see it. Fran has the overhead view, the All-22 view, and you see Devonte crossing in. It's a matter of timing. Jamon needs to throw it at a certain time, and he has Devonte there. He also has Gainwell, I believe, on the plate, too. But I'm focusing on Devante crossing the field. Right. Well, yeah, as Fran explained on the first one, it's Gainwell, is the alert that Jalen thinks it is.

And then he sees it and it doesn't look like he's wide open. And he's slow to come off of it and notice that Devante in his same field of vision is open. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, you know, I heard you got. And this is the third and three that precedes the A.J. Brown touchdown. I heard you guys talking on the show yesterday. It was a good point where down by the red zone was he trying to force feed Devante,

because Devante hadn't had touches there. I think Devante is the type of player who you can get easy touches for. It shouldn't have to be hard. He's so good at getting open. But what I think this offense needs right now are more layups. And this is kind of a thing that I'm going to be harping on this week. I'm so impressed by the big play element to this offense, the dynamic ability that they're showing.

Nick Siriani talks about explosives. But Nick's definition of explosives is 10 plus yard rushes, 16 plus yard passes. He doesn't have a category for super explosives, if you will. But like the Eagles have 10 plays this year, or I'm sorry, yeah, 10 plays this year of 40 plus yards, which is like crazy to think about. No other team is more than seven, you know, and Eagles have already had their buy week. Half of the Eagles touchdown drives this year have included a play of 40 plus yards in it. And so. Do you think they are overly reliant on the big play? Well, yeah. I mean, now when you have like, I think four or five of these are runs by

Sequin, right? And who, who, you're not scheming that up to be a big play, but he's, he can do it. But I, yeah, I do think this is something that the Eagles are overly reliant on because you are going to have to manufacture drives. So when you look yesterday, for instance, one of 13 on third down, now I know they were three of three on fourth down and sometimes you play on third down knowing that you're going forward on fourth, but you need to move the sticks and you want to manufacture drives. And I think part of that is, is layups to Devante Smith, layups even to A.J. Brown. And if there's anything that I think can improve this offense, it is get these guys volume.

Like, you know, and when we were watching it during training camp, one thing you saw was the quick short pass, the short passes, quick timing passes. And I understand training camp's different. You're going up against a defense. You're going up against a scheme. I also think that J. Allen's hyper aware right now of not turning the ball over, given the way that the first. first five games went, or first four games went, rather. But I do think that as we talk about the identity of this offense, it can't just be running the ball. And it needs to be incorporating Devante and AJ in ways that aren't just go downfield and win your matchup.

Because we've seen that in the past. And I don't know how sustainable that is for like a week-to-week offense. Yeah, like the touchdown pass to AJ Brown and friend and I are watching that play. And we see him drop back to throw it like a deep old age. They were like, oh my God. Here we're like, this is the plan for it. I'm like, okay, great, it works. Like, that is the superpower of having AJ Brown.

And in that situation, he's got a one-on-one against like their fourth corner. It's probably a good read. It's a good decision. But it is like, oh, that's the only button that we can press. It's a little bit uncreative, I guess. Now, at the same time, it's like, you know, you coach who you have, you play the players that you have. If that's who you have, maybe that is the best thing that you can do. You're right.

The numbers bear it. out for instance. The Eagles are offensively 10th in EPA per drive, but 16th in success rate. So that's a bit of a disparity, not a huge disparity, but of the good offenses in football, that puts them, Buffalo is a little bit more tilted. Their fourth in APA per drive, 13th in success rate, and Green Bay is about the same as the Eagles. So of the good offenses, they are a little bit more big play heavy than most teams. And the comparison I would give, and I put this on social media earlier it's it's like when you watch the Phillies and when they're hitting home runs it's awesome right you know they're they're blowing out teams but then when you're striking out you're like why can't

you just manufacture runs and uh it's not apples for apples but there are are times when you want to move the sticks you want to see sustained drives you want easy completions and it's the football version of moving the guy over yeah i think i think that's right now in this game it was totally fine. Yeah, absolutely. I just, I think we need to see a little bit more, whether that is the scheme or what,

but, you know, you look at the past charts from yesterday, there's not a lot going on in the middle of, I mean, he only threw 14 passes, right? So it's a little bit different, but. Now, more than 14 dropbacks,

but 14 passes. Yeah, and I, and I do think, you know, if you look at those sacks, some of them are probably on Jalen. Sure. Whether he should get rid of the ball or he should step up in the pocket.

Some of them are, you know, Fred Johnson gives up a bad pressure that's probably on him. But, Yeah, this is an imperfect offense right now, and that's why I think in the short term, leaning on the running game probably is the way to go. I think, like anything else, you wanted to be complimentary as opposed to dominant.

Okay. And now at the same time, I do got to say, like, Sequin is awesome to watch. He's so fun to watch. Yeah, it's what we said when they signed him, that, like, you can talk about the value of the position. you can even quibble about the delta between a because the Eagles have been productive in the past in the running game and you can say should they spend that money on a safety should they spend that money elsewhere right but what I don't think is really up for debate is the type of player that he is when he's healthy he's been healthy here he's been dynamic he's you see the advantage of running behind this offensive line you even even though Jay Allen it hasn't been outstanding you see the advantage of playing within this offense

And he's just a special player. And I'm harping on those big runs because that's not what you saw in the past. And I thought you made a great point. I didn't know this stat until you said it. We kept talking about when they signed him the yards after contact. But the yards before contact, that's the benefit of playing here. And he's getting more free yards, if you will, than he has in the past. Right.

The thing that we all talked about when they signed him, the theory being that this special player, you take him away from what is one of the. worst offensive situations in football. You put them in one of the most running back friendly situations of football. Imagine what could it be. Like that is completely playing out as like the philosophy behind it would have hoped that it would play out. Yeah.

And just and it's also that diversity of the Eagles run scheme like Dexter Lawrence is obviously really good player. You heard Nick Siriani say that. You heard Seekon Barkley say that. You heard Jan one heard say that after the game. Well, the Eagles are so. good at, you know, running to the outside that you aren't always neutralized by this great player in the middle of the line.

All right. More to get to, and we'll get to some of the leftovers on offense before we talk about the defense just after this word from our sponsors. Can you name every single subscription that you have? Not in Roger Goodell's world, that's for sure. I know I can't. And I'm not alone. The script here tells me that over 74.

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Or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer. All right, Zach, let's talk about a dominant performance for the defense. taking into account that this was not a good Giants offense, but also not one of the worst offenses in the league coming into the game, holding them to 119 net yards from scrimmage, 2.2 yards per play, three points, the defensive line getting after it.

And I'm curious to hear when we talked to Fran tomorrow about those sacks, those pressures, how much of that had to do from just the pass rush versus the back end holding up and not having guys open for Daniel Jones to throw to. but this defense now on the season up to 11th in success rate, 18th in defensive EPA per drive. So they're sort of the inverse of the offense where they are giving up some big plays over the course of the season.

But a big test next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, do you think that this defense is rounding into shape and is if the barometer is like 15th in the league? Are they for real to that level? Good question. Yeah. I think 15th in the league is a, fair. I would say that, especially with the way their back end is playing. And I think as the sample

size gets larger, we can say Quignan Mitchell belongs. Like he is, no doubt. He's sticky in coverage. He's getting his hands on footballs. Like the PbUs that you talk about. Which his hands were sticky. Yeah. The PbUs that you talked about when he was at Toledo, that's continuing here. And that's a really good sign. And then I really do think Cooper DeGine has given the Eagles an element. And I don't mean to take away from Avanti Maddox. But there is a difference between Cooper DeGine and Avanti Maddox in terms of the quality of the player. I think that is an apparent. Just in terms of the quality of athlete that's on the field.

Exactly. I mean, he just moves differently. Yeah. I thought that now the Giants were not running the ball yesterday. And you can say partly of that was game script. but look, if the Giants had Seekle and Barclay, they would probably run the ball more. They did not, their running backs were not utilized well. Jordan Davis, I was speaking to him after the game.

I said this on the show last night. He thought they were going to run the ball more. I think that's partly why the Eagles got away from Jordan Davis. 11 snaps in this game, eight of those snaps in the first quarter, so barely played after that. Let me just very quickly on Jordan Davis since we're there. Third down snaps for Jordan Davis this season. two in week one, zero week two, four week three, three in week four, zero the last two weeks. Yeah.

So he is, as a run stuffer on early downs, he's playing well. I think he's doing a good job. But he is so far, it's hard to, the conversation of Jordan Davis is hard to divorce from the value and the use of the pick, you know, when Kyle Hamilton goes to pick later. Yeah. He's a good player right now, but he is a, he is a bit player. He is not an every down player. No, you're right. And I'll give credit to Jimmy Kemsky on Philly Voys. He has the cutups of all of or of Jordan Davis's snaps. And you see it. Like you can see how he's rerouting players in the run. And he's taking on double teams. And that part of it. So that's always kind of been the floor for him. Like you expected that. Now, as you said on draft day, when you take someone 14th overall, the expectation is that, or was it 13th or 14th? I think that was right. Yeah. The expectation is that he can develop into more of a pest rush, and that's exactly what Hallie Rosman said. I think what we're seeing from Vic Fangio, frankly, is he's not interested in the organizational investment. He's interested in the best player he has on a given down. And you can see based on the way he's using Moro Ojima, for instance, that he thinks that there are better options as interior rushers on those downs. You can see by the fact that he's not taking General Carter off the field, that he thinks.

that like the way to win is by having Joan Carter on the field just about every down. Now, one thing that you always hear in a football when he talked to defensive players is make the other team one-dimensional. And so when I talked about the fact that the Giants didn't have a running game, I thought that allowed the Eagles to use the expression pin their ears back. Now, part of that was the fact they were playing with the lead. But part of that is the Giants kind of indicated they weren't going to run the ball. They couldn't run the ball.

And I think that that's where I give credit to the Eagles pass rushers. They won their one-on-ones. on all our social channels now, you see Vinnie Curry breaking down with Bo on the postgame show, the high-low situation there with Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter. But that's an example of the rush working together. What I also saw when I watched the game back was the rushing coverage working together. And I think Fran will get to that when we have them on tomorrow, is that I don't want to say these were coverage sacks,

but there were times when Daniel Jones didn't have a place to go with the ball. I saw Malik Neighbors as a comment to watch his target film when he was open. I got to be honest, I didn't think there were times when it's like, ooh, he needs to find neighbors there. I frankly thought that Jones was under duress quite a bit, and part of that was playing without a left tackle. But across the line, you know, I saw, for instance, Bryce Huff, Bryce Huff was winning his matchup on his side now. So he's playing against the right tackle, and he was getting around there. And I thought this was a real positive game for Bryce Huff in terms of the pressures that he was generating. Josh Sweat, you saw the speed around the edge.

I've mentioned Nolan Smith a few times because I was really impressed with Nolan Smith. He looks much better. Yeah. Now, I understand it's two weeks here, but it's why you can't say after year one or even training camp two, I don't know what's here because I think the effort was always going to be there with him, but you're really seeing the athleticism translate the pass rush ability. So all across the board, I was really impressed with that group. Now, if they face an offense like the bucks that get rid of the ball quickly,

you have to wonder, like, how are they going to neutralize that? What are they going to do in those situations? Because that is something teams have done. But when you face teams that are dropping back, and they have an inferior offensive line, I think these Eagles pass rushers can definitely get home. I'm trying to look up the Eagles' time to sack in this game on the Giants for this conversation.

It looks like it was 3.3 seconds, essentially, which is about normal, just a little bit slower than the median. So that would indicate a little bit of coverage. And Fran made a great point in real-time last, or I assume it was real time last night, it was right after the show. And then Professor Selman put it up today, too, that even those sacks that Nicopa Dean had,

those were four-man rushes, right? And all eight sacks came on four-man rush. Exactly. So there's a misconception sometimes when you see the linebacker going in, that they're blitzing. It's not that. It's still a four-man rush.

It's just disguised in a certain way. And that's a credit to Vic Fangio. And that opens up so much in the future as well in terms of the simulated pressures. And speaking to Nicobi-Dine, after the game. One thing he said is that he's put a lot of power moves on film in his rushes. Oh, interesting.

So this was a little, so he was able to kind of team, he was able to set the opposing offensive linemen up different because they were expecting him to come a one way. You saw that really play out on, I think the first of the sacks because, yeah, he's coming, he's triggering downfield really fast and you can

see that the offensive lineman is sort of trying to set and he just sort of runs around his hands. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, so that's something where you're at a point in the season now where that's a good locker room nuggets, I like that. So, actually, I'll give credit to Olivia

because I think she was one who asked the question. Olivia Reiner from the Philadelphia Inquirer. I think she asked the question to Nacobicobe. We love it Olivia. Yeah. And by the way, if you haven't checked out the conversation with Melissa Lugke and Olivia Reiner from in studio last week, it's hard to find on the YouTube page because it wasn't a live episode, but it should be on your podcast feed.

Look for it. That was a very interesting, good conversation. We'll tweet that out as well again. Go ahead. So, yeah, because look, and to give the viewers some insight here as well. So Olivia is the one who asked the question? I believe so, yeah. They give some of the viewers.

She does. So every game, I look at the seating chart, okay? And so what is the seat? It's just a very funny comeback from like, Olivia's asking about the specifics of the pass rush and you're like, every game I look at the seating chart. Okay. Can I explain why? Do you know what I'm going on this?

I'm just saying it's a funny comeback. Do you know what I'm going on? This all goes back into the Kobe Dean, okay? Look at the seating chart. Not to see where I'm sitting, but to see what teams have scouts there at the games. Teams have personnel scouts, pro-personnel scouts at these games. So the Eagles are playing. So last week, for instance, when the Eagles played the Browns, they had the,

there was the Giants pro-personnel director or someone high up in the Giants was there watching Eagles. And one thing they're looking for is tendencies on players because then they go and they give it to the coaches. So you talk about Nicole Dean. This is a sparkly guy. Yeah, you go tell Joe Shane. This running back's pretty good.

So when you look at this here, you have a six or a five-game sample going into this game of how Nicoby Dean is setting up his rushes. So the offensive lineman's thinking he's coming in with power and he can go around them there. So that's an example of how over the course of the season, you have counter moves you have different things that you work off of yeah love it love a tendency breaker yes absolutely so do you think this pass rush is for real um i mean i think it's better than it was earlier

this season okay i think it's better than i gave him credit for earlier this season the one thing i don't have i i don't think they have is that Hassan redick type player miles garrett type player sure you know the the guy you know was going to win his uh matchup on the edge every week that's said, I think Janelle Carter is that version of the player on the interior. And he is wrecking games. And I think he's really coming into his own. And I think, you boy, Joshua, is playing pretty well. You know, he's not at that A1 level, but he's playing pretty well. I thought this was Bryce Hop's best game of the season. And so it seems like the group as a whole is rounding in a form. They have to lean on Brandon Graham a little bit less with those other guys coming up. You know, Nolan Smith got the start

yesterday, which I do think is a little bit of a nod to him for playing better. And so I think, yeah, I don't think that it is a top five group in the league, but I think they can hold their own right now, especially against, you know, not good offensive lines. Also, I need to say, J. Alex Hunt

is, he's showing something. I'd like to see a little bit more of Jalick's Hunt. Yeah, he is showing something. I thought this was going to be a red shirt type of year for Jalick's Hunt. And I understand it's late in the game, kind of washup duty, but man, you can see the talent that he has. You can see the frame and the skills.

Well, and as you see, like, you know, Troy Franklin producing for the Broncos lately, Jatavian Sanders producing for the Panthers. Those were if they had gone offensive weapon, they're the guys who were on the board. So Jaylexand, if he can contribute a little bit early, that would be nice. Yeah.

I need to see Troy Franklin do this because I think it was week three. He dropped the touchdown in the end zone. And someone sent me a message, like, you still like Troy Franklin? And I'm like, let's give this a little time here. Yeah. What is this water you have here? I've never seen this before.

It's very fancy. It's Hawaiian volcanic water. So on my ride to East Rutherford yesterday, I didn't have, I didn't pack my water bottle. So I stopped a Wawa on the way. Wow to get some Wawa? I got energy drink. And then I was getting water. And what I do is I look at the promotions.

So this was the two for three. So I got the two for three. Interesting. Yes. Two for three dollars. Yes, two for three dollars. Okay. Yeah.

It looks very fancy. It's good. You want some? You can taste the volcano? You taste the naturally alkaline electrolytes. That's that you get in the deep well water. I've never been Hawaii. I've always wanted to go.

Have I ever told you my Hawaii story? I think so, but go ahead and tell us. So this was, so I was getting married. It's not Fiji water for the chat. It's a different kind. It's my Hawaiian is not very good. Well, don't say the name. Don't see what we're going to get free advertisement.

That's true. That's true. Feel free to be a sponsor. So we were talking about where we would go. And I always wanted to go to Hawaii on my honeymoon. But my wife, then my girlfriend, her fiancee, was like, you can always, we can always go to Hawaii. I was like, we can't always go to Hawaii. Have you ever been to Hawaii?

No, she's like, have you ever been in Hawaii? I'm like, no. And then literally at that time, the Eagles were rumored to be in the mix for Marcus Mariotta. And had they taken Marcus Mariotta, I would have had to go to, not had to. I would have gone to Hawaii for a story. So literally she's like. Find out what restaurants he went to. I actually did research on that because to find out what restaurants.

Because he was at the Maxwell Awards. And that was one of the things that came up. I was doing some kind of, I was doing some advance work. Of course. Yeah. I enjoyed getting the know more, not getting the no, speaking to Marcus Mariotta a bit last year, saw him yesterday in that commander's game, played decently. Yeah.

Commanders look legit. They do. You didn't finish the Hawaii story. Well, no. So I got overruled on the honeymoon thing because she's like, well, if you're going to get sent there for work, then clearly you're able to go to Hawaii. If work's able to pay for you to go to Hawaii, they're not paying for you to go to Asia. And so famously instead, yes, you went to the entire continent of Asia.

Not the entire continent in Asia. I went to Hong Kong and an island. Wow. Again, on island is very funny. But that's great. You're opening up finally. That's nice. All right.

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Yes I love leftovers Sidney Brown Making his season debut Mostly on special teams Played a little bit on defense And Zach This is the payoff

Of a long Rine bit You win serious injuries and it did not look that way with AJ. Sidney Brown. Okay. Bummer, obviously. Yeah, especially this time, you know, because now this is your entire offseason training camp.

Yeah. Right. He's, you know, realistically not going to be back until the middle of next season, if at all, right? I mean. ACLs typically are like nine months now, but. Okay. So that would put him in the middle of next season. That'd be early in next season.

It's in the middle of the season. Really? If you come back week two, is that the middle of the season? I mean, when did Kyler Murray come back? He suffered one of the exact, like the exact same time, right? He came back in like mid-October, November. I mean, Carson was back week three. He suffered his December 14th.

So this one was... Okay, so three weeks later. So that's week six. Okay. All right. Sorry to argue with us. Middletics, middle of the season. You had to get in there, so let's argue it.

Okay. New bet. Well, we're going to, I think we should keep a new, let's keep a tally at the start of the year. You say Sydney Brown will be back in September, basically. Yes. And I will take, I will take after September. Okay. We'll make that bet.

Okay. Let's put that on. We're going to, we have to keep track of these as the season goes on, as the off season goes on. Now, it's interesting, Zach, is that clip cuts off. We didn't get to the stakes of the bet. And if you watched the rest of the episode, the loser of that bet has to disrobe on the show. So go ahead.

So who wins? What do you mean who wins? We said, so this was the run of the time frame I gave, week six, week seven. You heard the end of the thing. You said in September. Oh, in September. And I have everything after September. You came back on October 20th.

So you win, you win. You win. I know, so sure. It was some nudity. I'm not doing that. That was not the anything. You know, honestly, I'll tell you what I was thinking when I was watching. When I was thinking when I was watching.

When I was thinking when I was watching that is my wife is right. Okay. And what I mean by that is like she always tells me that the the football season like wears on me. Okay. I look so much worse there. Oh, I didn't think that at all. No, because like you look, uh, you look exhausted. You got bags on your eyes or heavier, like all this stuff.

Back when you used to do five shows a week or four shows, I guess. Whoa. I still do the shows. I'm just, I'm on six shows a week. Actually, seven shows a week. Because I'm pregame, post game. Okay. Well, we can't count pregame.

You're going to count the five-minute halftime show? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It's just I'm not in studio as frequently. But I'm on every show we have. Triumph. Yeah. Now they want the show to show every part of you. No, but I got to say, though, it's like, yeah, that's, that is that every, the end of

season, it does take a toll. And so I guess that was visual evidence. of it because you went because you saw me in the bottom, saw us in the bottom, and then you saw us on the screen, and I just saw the toll that it took. I don't think he looked bad at all. Well, regardless, Sydney Brown, Sydney Brown, you were right.

I'm sorry, what was that? You were right. I have no problem ever saying you're right. That's actually, you are right. Bow is correct about a lot of things. Not everything, but a lot of things. Most things. Yeah.

Over under, Zach, one and a half offensive touches for Ben Van Zumrin this season. Under. Okay. But he is showing something there. Yeah. It's a fun little thing. Yeah.

Sequin had two chunk plays, or relatively speaking, when he was in the game. He takes on blockers. He seems to be into it. We saw him at the end of training camp, route somebody up. Yeah. I can run a nice route. At some point, they're going to throw him the ball. He played running back.

He played running back in Michigan before transferring the Michigan State. So this is in his background here. Good athlete. You think this is going to be a growing package? I think. What was that? I didn't say anything. I think that, yeah, I think there are certain games when you'll see him play fullback more than in other games.

Yes. I don't think it's going to be every week. I don't think this could be like. You think there are going to be some games when they use it more than another week? I don't think he's. Thank you. I don't think he's going to be Kyle. use check. I don't think it's been college use check

out there. I don't think it's going to be Alec Ingold out there. Trying to think what other teams use fullbacks. But I think... CJ Ham. CJ Ham, yes. That's a big ham for you. Yeah, right. Yeah. But I do think that

that you will see this more and more... When you hear the last name Ham, do you think of the Darvin Ham performance in the college dunk contest from when we were growing up? I think he was on the Sports Illustrated cover, wasn't he when he broke the backboard? That might be right.

Yeah, that's what I think of. I associate a lot of things with sports illustrated covers. That was like growing up Wednesdays, the Wednesday mail was like a highlight for me. Yeah. Yeah. So I can read some great writers. Okay. Let's talk Tyler Steen and Mackay Beckton and Fred Johnson and the offensive line machinations here.

Mackay Beckton suffers the concussion leaves, but was still, as you reported after the game, was still, you know, dapping everybody up on the way to the postgame locker room. So fingers crossed, seems, you know, solid, but may still miss this next game. Fred Johnson, I thought was up and down so far. We'll hear what Fran said after watching the tape. But, you know, there were some highlight blocks in the running game. There were some times when he struggled in pass protection. I do believe that, you know, given that my lot of.

going to be out for at least three more games. There is a possibility that we end up seeing Tyler Steyn there at some point. At left tackle. I think that's a possibility. Interesting. Okay. But how do you see this all playing out over the next couple weeks? Yeah.

So typically in these situations, you hear that offensive linemen are more comfortable to run blocking than pass blocking. And I think that was applicable. Now, we didn't see Tyler Steen as much in pass blocking. When he went in the game, they were running the ball much more by that point. But Tyler Steen looked like a force. That might be hyperbole, but he was, he played the best I've seen him play. I was impressed with Tyler Steen.

I thought Fred Johnson was superior as a run blocker than as a pass blocker. You are correct. He did get beat. I think two of those sacks you can put on him. Would you agree? Well, I wouldn't do that to him, but. Okay. One?

Yeah, I think that's one. Okay, one sec. Okay. Go ahead. I'm being juvenile. Paul, all right, I see what you just did there. Paul. You have such softmoric humor.

I'm seriously. Man of the people. What people. The people. I don't think that's what people thought when they say, when people hear sacks, I don't think that's what they think of. Julia's laughing.

I think when you say I wouldn't put those sacks on him. I think there's a portion of the. audience that, you know, that makes their ears turn up. Once again, is that afraid to turn, ears turn up? Yours turn up, I believe. Perk up, yeah. I got to say, I do a double take at least. You know, I don't know.

It was really hard to get to this point in my career. I invested a lot in taking this job, like really big. And I'm here trying to determine the, if the audience is thinking about sophomoric humor when I talk about defensive sacks, okay? Well, yeah, I mean, if you would say that those sacks were his fault. I don't think anybody would have thought it, but when you say, I wouldn't put those sacks on him. It's a little bit different. It's a little bit more evocative.

No, it's not. It is not. And I was die on that grave that it is not, okay? I mean, it is. Of the two, one is more evocative than the other. Someone pointed out to me, and this is why if you've noticed this, I've been really careful, when I talk about Quignan Mitchell, I say he's really good at getting his hands on footballs because there was like a week when I,

the week when I was talking about all the PPUs and I said like four times on the show, he gets his hands on a lot of balls and someone messaged me being like, you should say footballs. And I was like, what makes you think of that? So, yeah, I need to say defensive takedowns. Okay. Or the defensive takedowns, I would not put or I would put two of them on him. But let's say one.

In any event, I thought... It's good that this episode's coming full circle. Yeah, I thought the offensive line was much better from a run-blocking perspective. And I was really impressed with the way Tyler Steen played. I'll turn this to you. You don't think... You think that's McKay Beckton's job no matter what, correct? That's a good question.

I think the way that they are acting and organizationally, I think that, like Jeff Stoughtland has a presence for the size. of Mackay Bechton. So I think it probably is his job. I mean, we talked about it. Like they even made them change lockers. Like Tyler Steen had the locker between Cam Jergens and Lane Johnson and they made him move and put Mackay Becht in there, which is kind of mean. So I think that that is probably the case. But I also think I think there's a real case to be made that Tyler Steen might be better at Red Guard than Mackay Beckton.

I think he might be a more complete player. I think for whatever reason, there is something about Tyler Steen that in the building, the Eagles don't love or don't trust. But I do think that there is a chance that if he goes out next week and plays really well, they consider whether, you know, having Steen and Bexton on the field in some combination is better than Fred Johnson. Yeah. I still think that's Bexton's job. I think they see more upside from Bechton.

I do wonder if they're to the point you just made. And we don't know how long MyLaud is going to be out. But if they look at it from like a two-week period, let's say after Bechton comes back from the injury, what if they say, all right, we're going to try Bechton at left tackle and Steen at left guard? Oh, I'm sorry, Steen at right guard. I think that is less likely moving Bechton back to tackle. I think it is more likely that they would move Steen and keep Beckton at guard. Okay.

Just my guess my guess. Are you worried at all about DeVante Smith not being involved in the offense? Not at all. Not at all. There's a lot of things that might worry me about the Eagles. Devante Smith is the last on that list. Now, you talk about the offensive involvement. I think there are going to be weeks when he has 10-12 targets.

Yesterday, only 14 past attempts, like we said. I think that they need to manufacture more layups for him, but I think that's easier to do for Devante Smith than most players. And I would imagine next week, you know, I keep thinking back to week one against Detroit. He had one catch in 2022. Then the next week he has, what, 10? catches or thereabouts against Washington. I'm

fascinated. I'm going to write this week about the wide receiver combination thing because one thing that I thought the Eagles did so much this offseason and probably didn't get enough attention was that they were able to keep both AJ and Devante. I think you're seeing in Cincinnati right now

the issue that this can create T. Higgins is playing on the franchise tag. I don't anticipate them resigning him. Jamar Chase wants big money. Hasn't received that deal. I think wants more money than Justin Jefferson is the report. Going into the year, I would have said that the three best wide receiver combinations in the NFL are Philly, Cincinnati, and Miami. And the fact that the Eagles were able to keep AJ and Devante together because there was a prevailing thought that trade one and extend one and trade one.

But I bring that up because one of the things we talked about is when a benefit in signing them is you don't have to worry about these games when there's a dearth of targets. Yes, exactly. You don't, they're not worried. They're not counting because they've already been paid. Do you think this is a thing we haven't talked about yet? Do you think we're going to get like a Milton Williams in-season extension? No, I don't.

Do you? Well, because I'm asking me because of the Allie McNeil contract that the Lions named him to. That's the market. They're swimming in. Definitely no. Well, yeah, yeah. Hopefully Tom Donahoe gets a percent.

It's a percentage. Don Don't know it's right there, right? Although Milton's been a good player. Well, there's been a good player. But also if you take O'Lean McNeil, you play forward, you don't take Jordan Davis next year. Exactly. Yeah, there's all these. Now, let's just play that out.

Who do you think they would have taken? Do you think they would have taken Kyle Hamilton? They probably don't trade up in that case, right? Yeah, I think they sit. They sit. And then you try to take Trent McDuffie. Yeah, that might be right. Yeah, they probably take Trent McDuffie.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, like, you know, if they don't take Nolan Smith, they probably take Brian Branch and then they don't take two. Yeah, it's true. That's a good point. You know, one other one I've been thinking about lately is we know that they liked Zach Allen. Yes.

In free agency and he's been playing very well. Very well. And that, you know, he would be probably their best or second best defensive lineman right now. And then you wouldn't have had, you know, you probably still take Jalen Carter, but you don't have to, maybe you don't have to resign, you don't have to sign Bryce Huff or whatever reason. Sure. The defense would look better. And you wouldn't have James Bradbury.

I don't know. There's sliding doors, man. Those are fun. Super chat from our man, our benefactor, CDP, who says, when Siriani put Kenny Pickett in the game, had he realized Brian Dable had already put Drew Locke to still try to win instead of arresting the starters? Good question.

I don't know if it came up specifically. Now, yeah, Drew Locke had already been in the game. And I think that was the series. If you watched the game back when you saw Nick sitting down with Sequin talking about whether they keep him in or not. So my guess is both teams probably had the same inclination, but certainly seemed to relack in the game, probably signal to the Eagles to put their reserves in.

Now, it wasn't framed. Now, at the time that it happened, I wasn't certain if this was Brian Dable throwing in the white flag. Right. Or if this was a benching, a soft benching, similar to Quignior's on Saturday night. But for those who don't understand the reference, he's Texas' quarterback.

They took them out. They put Arch Manning in when they were trailing. But it certainly sounds like that was them throwing in the flag. Dable said they needed to spark, but Daniel Jones is still their quarterback. Interesting. We'll talk to Nick Siriani about 15 minutes. What's your big question for him? The big play element of the offense.

Are they too reliant? Yes. You got to think of how to phrase it. Yeah, because you don't want him to be defensive. Like, oh, all of a sudden, we're not going to throw the ball. All 40 yards. Exactly. Yeah.

But yeah, the sustainability of that, you know. And if that's, I mean, part of that's by having exceptional players. Like, the reality is you look at those big plays, it's not like Jahan Dotson doing them. I mean, not to take anything away from Jahan Dotson, but it's A.J. Brown, Dallas, Goddard, Sequin, Barclay are the big play guys there. And I think Devante is in there as well. I got to look through those numbers. He's got at least one. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Good conversation. I love this. Where to hang. I miss being in the studio. I miss having you here. Yeah.

Nice to see you. Darn Eagle's schedule. But you know what? I will say this. And this is what I, this is a rationalization, but it's true. Eight months of the year, we do the show. True. Five days a week in studio.

Same time. No interruptions other than, you know, Super Bowl draft, that kind of thing, right? So I just need to remember the season is different than the non-playing season. And P. Yes. And so whenever. It starts up again, mid-January, mid-February, whatever it may be. I will be in studio every day, and you enjoy it.

It will be sick of me by then. Never. Never. All right. Well, thank you. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the PHLY Eagles podcast. Back tomorrow, we love those Tuesday shows.

Zach Berman, oh, Wolf, Fran Duffy, breaking down the tape. What we need to know about the Eagles as we get a full week of football against them with the big game against the Cincinnati Bengals coming up next week. They'll do it. Thanks everybody for watching and listening. Make sure you become a diehard, all that good stuff, so you can read Zach's story on all p.hly.com and what Fran has to come.

Les Bowen as well, all that good stuff for Julia. And all of us here, we thank you for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow, too, and then I'll wait. At always? God. As always, go Deeks, and we love you. like the mayor