PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Could Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell be the best Eagles LB duo EVER?

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

It has been a busy few days in Philadelphia Eagles land. Jalen Carter got fined, but not suspended for Week 2 against Kansas City for spitting on Dak Prescott. Howie Roseman has been wheeling and dealing, including for a running back in players like running back Tank Bigsby. Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell’s have Eagles fans dreaming of the best linebacker play they have seen in a long time. And Nick Sirianni and the Eagles are prepping for a Super Bowl rematch against Andy Reid, Steve Spagnuolo, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Join Bo Wulf, EJ Smith, Rich Hofmann, Jamie Lynch and Adam Hoge on the PHLY Eagles Podcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's like he's getting, you know, a little antsy in between games. And we're going to talk about Jihad Campbell and Zach Bonn and where they could rank among the Eagles all-time linebacker crews. It's the P.HLY Eagle Show. Come join us. Jamie Lynch and I will be talking about it. And welcome to the PHLY Eagles show presented by Bet365 and True Mark Financial live in the Xfinity Studios. I am Rich Hoffman. This is Jamie Lynch.

Guys, we got a jam-packed show for you today. Yeah, we do. We got E.J. Smith from the NovaCare Complex. We will see if he is a window guy. I think that's very important. And a lot of people will be curious about that. We got Bo Wolf interviewing All-City NFL analyst. Yeah, analyst is the title.

Adam Hogue. Who does a great job with the Bears coverage out there. I watched their post game on, what was it? They were the Monday Night game, right? I hate to admit this, but I do like another fan base is suffering. It was unbelievable. Did you see, I mean, I think the CHGO guys do a great job. They do.

The angst in that Chicago fan base. Yeah. Type in anything on YouTube. And by the way, primarily type in CHGO on YouTube. Man, they are going through it. Yeah, they're on edge. They're on edge. The coach and specifically the quarterback.

Yeah, it's, look, we've been there at, you know, a different point, but we're not there right now because we're pretty good with the quarterback. And the team. Okay, James, as we said, though, an action-packed show today. And I think first, even though it's, you know, almost 24 hours later, it happened, of course, a little bit after the end of the show yesterday. The Jalen Carter News, like Roger McDowell, there was a second spinner on the Gravely Road. One of the great all-time Seinfeld episodes. I'm kidding. That wasn't the reason that Jalen Carter avoided suspension for week two.

against Kansas City, but the NFL determined that Carter will, yeah, he'll be able to play. And Andrew, I think, will have some of the key points to put up on the screen for us. He's a little less rich today, you know? He's a little less rich. So thank you, Andrew, for that. Junkard is going to play this week. So that's great. That's, you know, round of applause for that.

Way to go. Roger Goodell doing the right thing. He is going to forfeit $57,222. If that seems very specific, I believe that is what a game check is for Jalen Carter. So basically, last week he got paid to not play. This week he's going to not get paid to play. And I thought the most interesting reason of this, Jamie, and the NFL put this out in their press release. They basically said, because he did not play a single snap in the Dallas game, we're not going to suspend him for another game.

It seems like they are leaving the door open for one game. game suspensions. So I would just say to everybody in the NFL, if that saliva wants to get loose, make sure you're doing it in the pregame, make sure you're doing it in the first quarter. Don't be doing that in the fourth quarter. No, Roger Goodell might throw the book at you then. But they determine that because, hey, like he did miss the entire game. Like he straight up did not play. They said that the suspension was served. And that is good news for the Eagles. Yeah, Peter in the chat says, why not appeal? And shout out to everybody in the chat. Let's get a little thumbs up on the page here for Jalen Carter wreaking havoc against KC this weekend.

You know, like I think there was an immediate impact obviously on the game. Javante Williams just attacked the Eagles right up the middle right away. But I think part of the reason there was a lack of pass rush was Jalen Carter's absence. You know, he's not he's not demanding a double team right away. So Nolan Smith's life got a little more difficult. Jalick's Hunt's life got a little bit more difficult. I think they were fairly weak at the position. I think Patrick Johnson got in there once or twice.

at edge. But the Jalen Carter trickle-down effect is absolutely real. So this Sunday is the first time we're going to get, weird to say, a look at our full offensive line. And then we'll see how much Zadaria Smith contributes. I asked Bo this morning filling in for the Cuzz, you know, like, what do you expect? Is this like a 15 snap kind of thing? And Siriani did talk about that today about like, how do you gauge a new guy and when they're ready? And he was like, it's honestly kind of a feel thing. Every guy's different. So we'll see. But I expect Jalen Carter to have a massive impact,

not only himself, but on his teammates on the line. I thought it was pretty funny that Uncle Vic was sort of mumbling through his Zadaria Smith. I believe it was a certain person who I'm not sure I'm allowed to say his name on this show. He asked Uncle Vic about what he had seen from Zadaria Smith, which is a question that Uncle Vic has gotten a lot recently because there have been a lot of new. additions to that defense. And, you know, sometimes like in the case of the Eagle starting quarterback two, he basically,

you know, does like a disc track on him like he stinks. It's you know, it was how he's move. Of course, we're going to play him the entire game. That doesn't really add up. But yeah, he basically was like, yeah, I've kind of seen Zedarius once in a while. Don't really know if he's in shape. We'll see what we get from him. I think

in Uncle Vicksby, I think he's going to be playing every step. Yeah, by his current logic, yeah. But when you, yeah, when, On that sort of scale, I think you have to say that. So, yeah, that will be interesting. But the thing you love about the Eagles, Rich, on that Zadarius front, the Smith front is like, they're never satisfied. You know, I don't think anybody saw a tank Bigsby type move coming.

How he's bringing in cornerbacks this week to work out. They ended up not signing him. But he's never satisfied. He's always going to be looking. He's always going to be picking up that call. He's always going to be looking at the waiver wire. And Zadaria Smith is an example of that. He recognized, yeah, we're a little.

week depth wise at D-end. He seemed like a pretty accomplished player. It was weird that he was out there. He had a pretty good year last year. I think it had to do with the vesting options and him wanting to wait past week one to choose his team because I think he gets fully vested. We'll have to leave that to Bow and the true sickest of sick.

But I think that was by choice on his part, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, a little weird. Because when I saw the name, I was like, oh, I didn't realize he was unhoused right now as an NFL player. So it's good. to go out and see what you got.

Well, he also does have the Vic Fangio traits too, where Vic does not like the speed edge rushers. He likes, like, more physical players can hold up against the run. And Zadaria Smith obviously does have the sack production over his career. But when listening to Fran, you know, the first thing he talks about is the violence, the physicality, somebody who can hold up against the run, you know, that seems like Nolan Smith. Yeah, I was watching Brandon Graham. You heard of them?

Defense end for the Eagles, two-time Super Bowl champion, kind of a big deal. He was the show on. good against the run and the past. Yeah. And I watched this show with Bo this morning and subscribe to Unblocked with Brandon Graham on YouTube and social so you can follow along. But I think we're going to get more

and more from BG as the season goes on. But he mentions Zedaria Smith being that strong type of guy that can set an edge. I can play the run and the pass. And he basically said, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. He's kind of like my style of player just a little taller.

And Bo was like, well, don't put yourself down. You're plenty tall. It was fun. It was a good conversation. So it'll be fun to see what happens from the D-line this weekend. So yeah, and good. Like Jalen Carter now being in the game. After Jordan Davis having one of the best games of his NFL career and just being able to make it through all of those snaps because of the exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise, exercise that he did in the in the off season. So that was good. And I was a little worried about Jaylor, sorry, I was a little worried that Roger Goodell was, you know, that anti-tush push crusade of his

that failed spectacularly. I thought he was going to take his pound of flesh with this Jalen Carter move. But at least he said, you know what? He basically sat, he did. He sat out an entire game. I can call that a suspension. I think he was smart to do that.

Real quick, before we move on, do we want to call out my, this pains me a little bit. But my alma mater, LaSalle College High School, Sean McDermott. He was on the campaign this offseason to shut the tush push down. If you can't beat him, join him. And what do we see week one, Rich?

We see a tush push up in Buffalo. What a great game that was. Yeah, I'm glad it lives one more year. It's done after this year. I think it'll probably be done. Good on the Eagles, too, grabbing that sponsorship. People are complaining about the line of scrimmage. Yeah, it's absolutely done.

Yeah. Anyway, good to see that. And my first thought on it, Jamie, is that we can finally judge this Eagles defense on a fair scale. Like I expect I heading into the season, I thought this group was going to have some kinks to iron out, right? Because they're bringing in three new starters on on the defensive side of the ball. Even if we are very excited about Jihad Campbell, we'll get to him in a little bit. You know, I talked to all training camp about the weak link theory.

And despite what Fran said, Adori Jackson very much did look like a weak link in that first game. And look, the Eagles back seven, it's a group effort, right? They are playing zone coverage. part of it is being able to pass off routes to other people. I do not want to just single out of Dory, but it wasn't great. And the fact that Nick yesterday was talking about he needs to be a master technician, that's not a great sell for me for the 29-year-old guy, right? That would be Keeley Ringo learning the technique as a younger, greener player.

And that, so that didn't make me feel great, seized, get degrees and all that stuff. But look, Jamie, the pass rush did not sack DAC one time in that game. And they were playing without Jalen Carter. and he is their best player. So to judge them completely based on that one game, I think is unfair, when you get that best player removed right away from the game. And you weren't expecting it either too.

It wasn't like, hey, Jalen Carter on the Monday before the game, you know he's hurt. You know he's not going to be available for the game. No, no, no. It's literally right after the opening kickoff. Hey, by the way, best guy, he's out of here for this game. So having him in the lineup,

I think we will better be able to judge this entire defense in this game. game. Entirely fair. They get of Zadaria Smith as well. Yeah. And I am curious how much we'll see of Zadaria Smith this weekend. But I think it's entirely fair to, look, I could single out Adori Jackson and move on week two without them, without a problem. But I'm not an executive with Philadelphia Eagles and I'm irrational. So I can do that, but I think it's entirely fair to give them the

defense's best player. And I know part of our other conversation here, I mean, Jalen Carter is there best player. But Zach Bond. Zach Bond is making a damn good case to get into that conversation. I mean he's unbelievable. That chase down to Miles Sanders. What a play. What a play. I mean, GameSaver

I'm sure Siriani probably he had like a 20 minute team meeting talk where he just kept rewinding that play back and forth. That's the effort we need. But it's true. It really is. It's and Jahad Campbell too. I mean, I guess I'm kind of, you know,

taking accidentally the reins here and forcing the linebacker conversation. But like, my God, Rich, Jihad Campbell is to be that good in your first game with the entire league watching to be that good in coverage, to be that good in the physicality game against the run. That kid was all over the field. He was, I mean, that's one of the better like rookie debuts I can recall in a long time. Devante Smith had like a really strong first two game or two. And we've seen some other ones.

Quinyan last year like their draft, you know, history recently has been phenomenal. But Jahad Campbell, my, like they got another one. They got another one. Because all you look for right away,

at least me, uh, when I watch, you know, rookies, whether it be basketball, baseball, football,

like at first does it look like you belong? Does it do you flash? It doesn't have to be every play. Yeah. Like do you look comfortable? Are you moving at a high, level. Yeah, exactly. Like, are you keeping up, uh, with speed elements compared to some of the, uh, you know, the vets you're going against? Are you in the right position enough where you feel as

though through a fan of his eyes like, all right, this guy gets it between the ears. Like the defense is already starting to make sense to him. Uh, and you look at these two, Rich and, wow. Like these two are something special. Yeah. And, and we have the, uh, the one past defense for both of them. Those were both splash plays, man. Those were awesome plays, uh, going back into the seam on, uh, yeah, on, on, on routes down the middle of the field and just showing their range. Was it one or jihad in the end zone there that broke up the one to the tight at, or might have been, I forget exactly what they were on the, I think Bonn was the end zone. Yeah. Like, that was a game saving play right there. Yeah. Well, because if the Cowboys scored again, like,

I mean, obviously the score, if they score a touchdown, they win because it's only a four point game. Good math by you. Math is math. Like, yeah, there's a real chance. If it's not for Zach Bonn and Jahad Campbell in that game, you lose that game. You can tell, too, I was in the locker room after the game that there's a little big brother, a little brother. Yeah. Thing there too, where Zach Bonn is showing him the ropes, which is funny because he's played linebacker much less time than Jihad Campbell

has his career, which is crazy. Again, we talked about where Chicago is compared to us. Chicago doesn't have a linebacker that became the best one of the best players in the league in like three months last year. Unbelievable. Defensive player of the year finalist. Yeah.

So I thought it was interesting yesterday. Vic talked about how in those overhang looks. Zach Bonn was that guy last year when the Kobe Dean was there. Now it's flipped because and Vic's rationale on that. I think part of it is Jihad is, you know, he's good at rushing the passer. Still needs to show a little bit more. But the main point Vic was making there because he loves. to put that linebacker up on the line,

maybe blitz him, maybe drop them, maybe drop one of the, the defensive lineman in a simulated pressure. He loved having Zach Bonn in that spot last year, but his opinion is that Zach Bonn can actually play the middle of the field better this year than Jihad Campbell. I will say Jod Campbell looks like he will be pretty good at that.

And so much, Jamie, of this Eagles defensive success last year, was the back seven passing off routes in zone coverage. Sure. I mean, look at Zach Bonn and, Cooper DeGine in the Super Bowl. Absolutely. Like that was another rookie who, look, the Vic Fangio system, all the players have said,

like the hardest part of understanding it is understanding, like, your lanes and assignments. And if you're going to pass somebody off to a teammate, you have to know and trust that they're going to be there to make up for it. And, and Zach Bonn, you know, the famous mic'd up thing from the Super Bowl, he was like, that was some veteran bleep right there to Dijin. And if jihad's already grasping that and understanding that, like, Like, I don't expect him to get worse. He's only going to get better as he goes here.

So he started out so strong. His baseline is so impressive. It's hard not to get a little giddy about him. I think Jihad has some room for improvement too. I think Fran has really hammered this point home that a little bit of the recognition on the run plays needs to get better. He wasn't great on the long Miles Sanders run where Zach Bonn actually ran the guy down. No, Adore Jackson.

No, Adore Jackson was much more at fault for that one because he didn't want the smoke. No, because nobody was blocking him and he allowed himself to get blocked and kind of spin like a top on that point. Yeah, that will be a rough watch in the film room for him for him this week. Not master technique, I would say, on that one. But he's going to get better at that stuff, right? And I think some of that is just playing the game in the NFL. But like you said, what I want to see from a rookie right away is not 100% being able to diagnose every single play. It's just what are the splice?

Flash plays, what are you moving like? And he passed that test with flying colors. So having those two guys and being interchangeable and allowing Vic to have a level of versatility with those two guys, it's a bizarre feeling as an Eagles fan because, look, this has been an extremely well-run organization for since Howie Roseman was running it. Let's say the last decade from when he got. Post Chip Kelly. Post-Broom Clodge.

Yeah, yeah. Once he got out of there. but it has not always been a very strong linebacker room, and that's something where they haven't just put a lot of resources into it. They, yeah, I mean, Jerry Robinson in 1979 prior to Jahad Campbell was the only first round pick they ever,

like, invested in. Like, that's kind of crazy. And they sort of fell backwards into this because, yeah, I remember last year, Devin White,

that was a pretty big resource allocation. Some idiot on this show said he was going to get more snaps than Zach Vaughn. Yes, and the, we're not going to mention names, but, know, somebody did say that here.

We should have done the defensive snaps draft again this year. We should have, I know people have been emailing me and asking for it. And you're like, where did it go? I know, that's a bad job by us. I'm sorry. Maybe we do it. We have some supporters club unique content stuff. Maybe we do that post week one or two and then just, you know, pro-rated over the 15 weeks.

And the Devin White situation wouldn't happen again. But maybe we can still get it out there in some way. But yeah, they double down. And I think the possibilities that this linebacker duo can, can give us. First off, I feel bad for Nkoby Dean because whenever he comes back from injury, don't really know what the role is going to be. Yeah, he might have gotten Wally Pipped a little bit. Maybe there's Kobe Dean who was good last year. Really good. Yeah. And everybody in that locker room loves, you know, like maybe there's some sub packages where you can have jihad is more of a

dedicated edge rusher type, a blitzing type and Nacobo gets worked in. There can be ways to get him on the field. Hopefully there is because I really like Nikobe, the guy. And as a player, he was terrific last year. He took a major step forward last year. And I heard Merrill Reese recently talking about Jeremiah Trotter Jr. And talk about a kid that comes in and your alma mater, St. Joe's prep, that comes in and just looks competent. He might not look great, but he certainly looks competent.

When you look at those four on paper, assuming Nikobe's back at a decent level of physicality. I had smile in there too. Yeah. And the promise of him, like this probably top to bottom, you can make the case is, you know, a strong chance of growing into the best Eagles linebacking room ever. I think they might already be there. I can't say I know the depth linebackers of like the 49ers. And, you know, if Fred Warner plus whoever their fourth or fifth linebacker would eclipse the Eagles.

But this is, again, they have guys like if they had to play trot next week, I don't think it would be a disaster. No, not at all. And, you know, for a lot of these years, even when the team is pretty good, when they have put a backup linebacker in there, it's been a disaster. I saw somebody in the chat earlier say like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Willie T. and Seth Joyner were pretty damn good. Yeah, they were. And we've had some decent linebacker rooms, you know, some really good years. You know, you have your Connor Barwins, like Domeco Ryan's came in, but I don't think. Farwin's more of an edge rusher. Yeah, true. But like, I don't think there was ever the depth there

was with this room because you talk about competency at the backup positions. Like, that's kind of unheard of here. I'm thinking Trot Senior and Carlos Emmons. I know there was a another linebacker because it was a different sport back then and they played three linebackers a whole lot more than they do now. But Carlos Emmons was just an unbelievable. He's a very underrated all-time bird was so good covering tight. Him and Willie T both like severely underrated in Eagles like memory. And everybody knows about X-Man senior for sure. He was quite good. He was quite good. I think that was apparent everybody at the celebration. So yeah, I'm very excited for what these guys can do. Yeah, there were some weak links on the, on the Eagles defense, but there were a lot of positives, too.

And I'm excited to see where this group goes because we have the proof of concept. Like Vic Fangio doesn't always have everything figured out in September. Let's see where these guys are in November. Very excited to see specifically Jihad Campbell's improvement as the year goes. Yeah, and some of that might cover up some of the woes of CB2. Like you may have a rotating chair at CB2 all year, but if your linebacker room elevates its game from where it was last year, which was really good. You know, maybe you don't feel it quite as bad as maybe you should.

Yep. Okay, James, that was a nice first segment. Okay, so here is what we are going to do now. We are going to take a break and talk to our friends. And then we are going to come back, Bo Wolf talking to Adam Hogue for a few minutes. And then Jamie and I will be back a few minutes after that with E.J. Smith live from the NovaCare Complex. Very excited to see where E.J.'s lab time.

is positioned. Jamie and I have been talking about it all week. So come back and join us, but first a word from our friends. Xfinity guys. The other day I am over at a friend's place and he's pumped to watch football, but his setup, it was a total mess, lagging, buffering, and switching between apps to find the game. He claimed he was a big fan, but I feel like I have been fanfished. See, if you call yourself a football fan, you got to have Xfinity. It's the ultimate sports destination. I can find the best games in my favorite teams all in one place. And the way I watch is next level.

It's the perfect fan flex. I've got all the action right there in my living room. Plus, Xfinity's best picture and sound with enhanced 4K. So clear, it feels like I'm at the link, Jamie. On top of that, I get real-time notifications and live stats right there on my TV. And sometimes I can have four games going at once. It is the best seat in the house every single time. Next game day, make sure that that big fan isn't a big fail.

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I'm supposed to analyze. Yeah. Yeah. The NFL analyst. The NFL answer to Fran Duffy for college football is how. is how our people should be thinking about it. So I can go across our network. I'm watching all the games,

watching all the tape. Obviously, I watched the entire Eagles game last week, which was almost now a week ago, which is crazy. And most importantly, I have an excuse to wear the sweatshirt that's been sitting in my closet.

Beautiful. For probably eight months or so. So yeah, I'm not representing. No, you know what I think happened. If you zoom in, which I don't know that you can do,

but there's a misprint. It says DNVR, actually on the little logo here. So they're like, hey, anybody want these? And I'm like, I'll take one. So yeah. Love that. Reping it.

Repping the brand in Chicago. We love that. We're going to talk to you like every other week here as the season goes on. So we're looking forward to that. You are very experienced with Vic Fangio. And where I want to start with you is the defense and what we saw week one. Eagles fans saw it last year where the defense was not great in the beginning of the season. And then became the best in the league as the season went on.

I am curious from your perspective. Was that was that generally the case with Vicks defenses in Chicago where they got better as the year went on? Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it was necessarily like a trend you could see every single year as like, you know, proof to prove that idea. But the one thing with Vick Fangio is you always know he's going to have some answers. Right. And so coaches like that typically are going to be stronger in the same. second half once they make adjustments. I think you saw that in the game last week, right? Like,

I mean, we all knew what the Eagles lost in the off season, especially defensively. And so if you're a little bit nervous about that coming out, now all of a sudden, before there's even a play from scrimmage, uh, Jalen Carter is kicked out of the game. That's a, you know, as much as we were reacting live and you guys were reacting live. If, if you, if you're Vic Fangio sit up in the booth, your entire game plan just went out the window. And if you're on the other side with Brian Schottenheimer and Dak Prescott, and they said this after the game, everything that you were worried about that entire week that you were game

planning for with your fronts and everything just changed. And so I think that you saw that right away. I mean, all of a sudden you're like, oh, wow, this is going to be a shootout. Everybody's scoring touchdowns on every drive. Oh, no. Half time comes around. things call him down. Vic Fangio's able to make those adjustments because he's so good.

I mean, I think he's the best defensive coordinator in the league. So that also applies to zoom out big picture over the course of a season. And I think you guys have the proof in the pudding from last season in what Vic was able to do. And I feel the same way now. And then all a sudden, you know, you go out and you sign his Zedary Smith. You make make these personnel adjustments the Eagles are already doing with their extra time this week. And it's, I have no concerns. I think, think they will they I'm going to be writing a weekly power rankings for all of the all city networks every single week it's you know it'll be up on Thursdays on all pHLY and I had the Eagles number one not just because they won the Super Bowl last year but because and I put it right

in there in the first week because I'm not worried about what they lost on defense they have Vic Fangio yeah well I will ask you about which NFC team is the next highest ranking in a minute but but let's let's stick on Vic because I do think that that that is part of what what gets lost in the, you know, the Vic copycats around the league, like trying to run Vic's scheme. When you talk to people who have been in the building with him, and, you know, what they say is like the thing that that makes him a superhero defensive coordinator is that there are a lot of coaches who say,

you know, players not plays and we've got to build the defense around our player's strengths, but he really truly lives that and he is not, you know, didactic and like the defense has to do this. And it takes him probably, little bit of time to learn the personnel that's new. And so right now, cornerback two is an issue. Like Adori Jackson's not great.

We'll see if he keeps a job and for how long. And, you know, the rookie safety, Drew McCuba had some ups and downs in week one. And you got to figure out how best to use those guys together. But there's no doubt that like, you know,

Eagles fans should have faith that Fick Fancho is going to be able to figure that out as the season goes on. Yeah. And look, when he was here in Chicago, I mean, I watched him basically fight through a rebuild. where the personnel out there on the field was not very good.

And then it gradually got better over a few years until they had Cleo Mac in 2018. They changed the coaching staff, but they keep Vic around. And all of a sudden, they're, you know, the best defense in the league. So he, at some point you are, I don't care, you know, you're the best coordinator in a league, whatever. You are going to be limited by the personnel you have on the field. And the Eagles, like every other team, are going to have a hole somewhere. But it's how do you cover up that hole? And when you have players like Jalen Carter up front

that can mask maybe some of the weaknesses in your secondary, but you also have a coordinator who's willing to adjust and come up with solutions. And I tend to think it's easier to do on defense, with one exception. When you can't stop the run, you're pretty much screwed usually. But if you can stop the run

on the back end with your coverages, You can adjust. You don't have to be married to all this is how we do things. You know, if you all of a sudden have a safety who's not as fast coming downhill and you can't do some of the blitzes you want to do. Okay, like you can adjust.

I feel like a little bit better than on offense where you might have this unbelievable scheme that all the sudden, oh, no, we don't have the players to run it. Right. What am I? Now we're talking about way more drastic adjustments. And so I think with what Vic still has with this team,

it's obviously very good. team here. He's going to be just fine. Now, Hogue, our, our listeners will not know this, but you've got some coaching bonafines of your own, right? Yes. I mean, I was a special teams coordinator for the last five years, Carmel Catholic High School here in the Chicago suburbs, but I did have to take a step back this so I could do things like this and come on, you know, PHLI and our other networks. So I'm still helping out on game days, still watching tape and, and helping out. But yeah, it's, the special teams aspect of it has, I mean, it's helped do things like this without a doubt.

Special teams is great though. Special teams more than just effort. There's there's, there's, there's scheme to that as well. Yes. And I learned a lot of that on the fly. I mean, the things like six years ago, uh, you know, I wouldn't have been able to tell you about fronts on a punt, you know, on punt blocking and things like that and, and how, you know, how to draw up a proper kick return. but all that stuff is very real. And what I always like to tell people, you know, there's six phases just within special teams.

So have respect for these coordinators. You think about a three phase game. No, no, there's six phases just within special teams. And you don't get a lot of time to practice that during the week. I mean, you're cramming in two or three phases a day

and you might have 15 minutes to work on it. That's a very, that's a real thing. The high school level, the college level and the NFL level, when you start talking about corrections, you might, I mean, the Bears had a pump block the other night. Everybody saw it on Monday night football.

You can kind of see that coming throughout the game. You don't have a lot of time this week to get that fixed once you're in the season. Like you got to accomplish a lot of that stuff in the off season and in training camp when you have more time to work on it. You are the perfect person for me to ask you about one of my pet things now. Hogue is Dave Tobb Hall of Famer. What do you think? Oh, yeah.

is unbelievable. It's insane. Yeah, yeah. Dave Tobe should have been a head coach a long time ago. Don't get me started on this. The other thing people might not realize is a special teams coordinator. Because the whole team. Not only do you coach the team coach the whole roster, but on game day in the game, you are more tied to the head coach than I think any other coach on the sideline.

because think about those six phases I just mentioned. If it's a three and out or there's a, you know, you might sometimes go from kick return to punt very, very fast if your offense goes three and out. So, and then as soon as that ball's punting off, now you're thinking about the next thing. And all of that, you have to be dialed in the game the entire time.

You can't be the DC that just walked over and talked to the bench the entire time the offense was on the field. And situationally, clock management timeouts, all this stuff. You have to be dialed in with the head coach the whole time. So look, I get it why all these teams are going to offensive coaches. Everybody talks about that endlessly. It makes a lot of sense.

But I do not understand why more special teams coordinators don't at least get a chance sometimes. When it comes to game management, they are super experienced at it. And so you have the John Harbaugh's of the world who got their chance. and obviously have done a great job. But somebody like Dave Tobe should have gotten a chance a long, long time ago. They answer your question, though. If you're going to be that good and be the best special teams coordinator there is in the league for this long, yes, you're a hallfamer.

All right. I think you and me, let's win the power ball. We'll hire Dave. Let's give him the chance. We can do it. We make the mistake. The bear should have hired him in 2012 along with, you know, Bruce Ariens and Andy Reed and all these, you know, all these coaches. that were available.

What was that? Trustment? Trust. Tough. All right. Tell me on the power rankings. Who do you view right now as the Eagles' biggest contender in the NFC? Yeah, great question.

So last week I did somewhat on merit and just how I think their overall rosters. I did have Detroit up that high. But they were also behind the Chiefs, Bills and Ravens overall. Sure. The next NFC. And obviously they, as I predicted too, and wanted to see. I mean, they do look like

they miss Ben Johnson right now and they make some adjustments. But they're also good. They got a lot of talent. They got the season that kind of work that stuff out. Maybe this is surprise. But because I think everybody,

week one overreaction is going to be like, hey, the Green Bay Packers. Yeah. I'll meet you there. However, before that, the team I would be worried about the most if I'm the Eagles and this game went into my

playoff predictions that I went through last week. I ultimately do have the Eagles going back to the Super Bowl, but I was very, very, very, very, very tempted to put the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in there. Oh, you're a Bucksman. I'm a Bucksman. I think that, look, I've always been a banker. If we had TMPA, you might have predicted them to go to the Super Bowl.

Yeah. Well, really what it came down to is I think the Eagles are going to have home field advantage in the NFC championship game. And as much as I think the Bucks will. make a run. I think that's a little bit too tall of a task. Now, if things switch and, you know, the Eagles don't end up with home field, then

we'll see. But when I have to make these predictions, that's what you're always thinking about. I do like the Bucks roster. They've been quietly the most successful NFC, most winning is NFC team in this decade. Yeah. More than the Eagles. So, like just in terms of wins overall,

but they also have their Super Bowl trophy too. I mean, Brady was the quarterback, but I'm a Baker Mayfield guy. I always have been. Okay. I think he's clutch. I think he's a gamer. I just think he's one of these guys that he might not be perfect. But teammates rally around him. You need that at the quarterback position.

And in the fourth quarter, there's a reason why I think he's got somewhat of a clutch factor. And he was now he's got a chip on his shoulder too because they gave up on him too soon in a couple different spots. So I like the bucks this year. I think they're going to be a tough out. I'm still a little bit of a wait and see on the Packers. But damn, they looked good last week.

Yeah. I mean, they looked really, really good. Now they got Michael Parsons, too. It's funny in that, in that lead up to your reveal,

I thought you were going to go with the Rams. But, but there's a little bit of, okay, they've proven the offensive coordinator. They can turn it over once. Can they definitely do it again? I didn't think they looked great in that game,

but I also, I don't want to, I don't want to overrate, you know, week one reaction. So I'm willing to get there with you. Yeah, well,

remember, you know, Tristan Worst is out right now. Yes. They're dealing with injuries. I thought that was actually a huge win in week one for the bucks because they're one of these teams that you could look at their schedule and be like, oh, man, they might be off to a really slow start here and have to pick it up late. So if they can get some of these wins, you know, like going on the road against a divisional rival, the team that was, you know, probably going to be their biggest toughest test this year in the Atlanta Falcons, you take care of business. That's a, that's a huge win.

I don't care what it looked like what the final score was. all right before we let you go we got to talk about the game for the Eagles that's coming up on Sunday the Super Bowl rematch against the Chiefs

how do you how do you see that one going early on? Well I think it's fascinating because you know it's very easy to always believe in the Chiefs

I always say the Chiefs are inevitable it's probably why I incorrectly pick them to beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl you know last winter

It's good if you to own up to it. We appreciate that. But they've deserved that, right? They've deserved that. And then all of a sudden you look at week one and you're like, oh, man, I don't know how to look at them right now. Because that was a very surprising loss, but it's also week one. Weird things happen in week one. Like, you know, your best player is spitting at somebody before the game even starts.

Like, you never know what's going to happen. Six seconds in. Come on, six seconds in. Yeah, I, you know what? See, that's me. not giving enough credit to special teams. There was the special teams play in there before the spit. Yeah.

So I don't know, but you go back to that Super Bowl and you just see how overmatch they were. It's, but that's last year. The roster's changed. The Eagles are now making adjustments. They're not quite as strong defensively. The chiefs are at home. They did lose last week. So you know they're going to be highly motivated.

I'll be honest with you. It's Wednesday. I don't know who I'm picking in this game yet. I tend to still lean Eagles. I do have them ahead of the Chiefs in the power rankings right now. I think overall they're in a little bit better position to have success throughout the year. But this whole league is a week by week thing. It's sometimes not even who you're playing,

but when you're playing them. And there's no doubt this is a really tough test in week. Honestly, the Eagles scheduled to start this whole thing. It's not easy. It's not easy. You got the Rams next week. You got the bucks on the road after that. Don't be surprised if the Bucks win.

You heard it for me now because I'm, the Eagles can't win in Tampa Bay. That's their, that's their nightmare. That's right. That's right. So you got that going on. Big game for the Eagles this week.

I think obviously it's winnable. They're very good. And it would go a long way. If you go in, if you start two and oh, not having Jalen Carter in week one, then you go to Kansas City, get that win.

I mean, you got to be feeling really good about yourselves. Did you ever have a, was there ever in your coaching with the high schoolers? Any spitting incidents? I cannot. I mean, there's some wild stuff

that happens in high school football, but I don't remember spit. And if there was, I mean, that's just, to me,

that just crosses so many lines. And I'm sure you guys analyze this endlessly, because it was the big thing last week after this game, but like, you know, and I don't know why it took three hours

just to find out that Dak Prescott spit his direction. Yeah. And also like the broadcast maybe wouldn't have shown to us if there wasn't the lightning delay. Like they had the footage. But also there was an hour of lightning delay.

We didn't see it until the delay was over. Like what where did this call? It was so confusing to me watching this. You know, yeah. Yeah. And Jason Garrett. I,

you know, but at the city, there's obviously a difference between spitting in the direction of somebody, spinning. Sure. Like they're both bad. One's worse.

You can't be spitting in someone's face. You can't do it. You deserve to get thrown out of the game. we deserve to get fined. That's like I yeah. And I will say I think the NFL handled it pretty well. Um, he didn't he didn't need to be suspended an extra game. He, he served a suspension by missing that entire game. Not playing a snap forfeits his game check. Everybody can buy. I did enjoy locally the, see, this is why the bears didn't draft. Yeah. And I was like, um, okay, let's make a deal right now. You tell me I'm going to lose Jalen Carter for game one because he spits at someone, which is horrible.

I'm not justifying it at all. Don't do that kids. Nobody do that. Not just kids. Nobody do that ever. Okay. But if you told me, you're going to lose him for the first game,

but he's going to be an all pro the rest of the season. Yeah, I'll still take Jalen Carter. Thank you very, very much. I'd love to have Jalen Carter. Is that one that is still like a source of anger for, for Bears fans?

Like how has Darnall Wright been? Yeah, I don't know that it's, it's not like a major controversy. It's just, it's one of those things that gets brought. up maybe every couple weeks where it's like, yeah, they could have had Jaylen Carter. Seems like he's, you know, better.

I mean, he's for sure better. Darn all right. Uh, jury's still out. He's not bad. Obviously, he's a, he's a very serviceable, more than serviceable right tackle. Um, but you saw him jump early false start the other night. That seems to be one of those every game. Um, and when you draft, when you draft a tackle on top 10, regardless of who you pass on,

that guy should be a cornerstone tackle, whether it's left or right. And to this point, we can't say that. So it was a huge topic of discussion on our shows leading up to that draft. The more you realized, remember, when that draft process started, there was no shot Jalen Carter was making it to nine. And then all this. Oh, without a doubt. And then all of a sudden he's sitting there, you start to realize leading up to it.

You know, this might actually be a thing. And then the draft starts and you're like, oh, this is actually a thing. the Bears are on the clock. Oh, wait, the Eagles traded up. And you knew, everybody in the world knew who they were trading up for in that moment. As soon as you see the Eagles are on the clock. And then you're sitting there on our end doing our show and you're like, oh boy, this seems like something we're going to be talking about five years from now for sure. And we and we are, but it's not like darn out right. It's a bust or anything. Okay. All right. Well, Adam Hogue, thank you so much for taking the time. We will talk to you again in two weeks. And if, if, if,

if you Eagles fans have been so enamored with the analysis from Hogue, you can check him out on the CHGO Bear Show all the time. Thank you for joining us, my friend. Yeah, Paul Rank is, it will be up tomorrow, but, you know, maybe you don't even need to read them. The Eagles will be number one again. There we go. Give it a click, though.

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Xfinity Studios. And now we're going to go to the man himself. E.J. Smith from the NovaCare complex comes to us on the Xfinity mobile call-in line. EJ, how was getting set up for your first live hit for us? Oh, this was really exciting. You know, I didn't get the room that I was intending to get, but I think, I mean, I think the setup is still good. I should have probably rearranged some furniture, give you some more.

Who muscles get you out of there, EJ? We got to get you in the room you won, all right? Is somebody nationally? Is it somebody locally that we don't talk about here? No, it was not a, it was not persona non grata, but yeah, no, I mean, it's all good. We got a couple good spots up here for, so. We're in good shape. Good.

All right. We would usually ask you like five questions about, you know, muscling people out and weird interactions you've had, EJ. But you have told us that you do have a practice to get to in 10 minutes. So busy few days here for the Eagles, EJ. You had the Jalen Carter News yesterday. You've had Howie Roseman wheeling and dealing a little bit on the mini buy.

I guess you heard from Nick Siriani today. What was the thing that stood out most to you from Nick's availability today? Yeah, I mean, probably what he didn't say about Jalen Carter. He was very, I mean, the message from him was that they're going to keep all that in-house. But it did stand out to me, you know, as we sort of assess the aftermath of the suspension, or the one-game suspension from the NFL and the hefty fine that Jalen Carter faced. Yeah, Nick Sierra and he didn't really want to get too much into potential discipline from the team side of things or even a reaction from the league, which, yeah, I mean, again, the fact that he didn't say much does stand out to me.

I want to see, I'll be curious to see how they handle it in the game. I'd be surprised if there was very much from the team side of things, whether it's like, you know, I remember last season he was out for one series because of being late to a meeting. I don't really know if I, it would surprise me if it was more than one series. And honestly, even that, I'm not really expecting to see much aftermath from this from there. But other than that, you know, Nick Siriani has kind of mastered the art of saying very little in his press conferences, if I'm being honest, but I found a noteworthy that he was talking about Zadarius Smith and the potential role that he could fill on the edge for the Eagles against

the Chiefs. And he sort of mentioned that, you know, each player kind of has their own, you know, pathway to learning the system and being able to play. I think it's important to remember, though, that Edge isn't one of those positions. It's very involved. There's not many strings attached. So I wouldn't, it wouldn't surprise me to see him play. But again, I'll get my first look at him on the Eagles practice field today. So, I think we'll see how it goes throughout the week. All right, knowing you haven't seen them, E.J., if I had to set a line right now that the folks at Bet365 wanted to pick up, and I said 16 and a half snaps versus Adairia Smith on Sunday.

Are you taking an over or are you taking an under? I'd probably take the under on that one. I think Patrick Johnson was around like a dozen. That would be where I'd start to struggle. I feel like, you know, if you told me he had 10 or 12 snaps, I'd feel okay about that. More than 12, it would surprise me. But, again, this isn't a position that you need to know a whole lot about the system. I mean, especially if you only want to use him in past rushing situations.

You know, I think the Eagles can get into a lot of those third down situations against the Chiefs. And if they are, I think that he could have a pretty big role. So maybe you could talk me into the over, but I'd probably take the under at 16 and a half. EJ, one other guy that I am curious about is Tank Bigsby. Did Nick say anything about him? I believe there was a report from Derek Gunn that Will Shipley does have a fractured rib. D-Guns very good. I think he can probably take that to the bank.

Yeah. So what did Nick say about Tank Bigsby, why they acquired him and maybe what his usage might be like in these few weeks if Will Shipley is out? Yeah, he was optimistic about the player both as an offensive addition, but also as a special teams contributor. I think the messaging from the team was definitely more so about his special teams contributions. But I do think he adds something, especially with Shipley out, to that running back rotation. He's a guy who can kind of do a little bit of everything. I don't think he's just a third downback. I don't think he's just a short yardage guy.

So I think he can be, he can fill that role that Shipley failed. And honestly, Kenny Gainwell filled before that. I think he kind of does factor into that as well. So I think he's an interesting addition. And that's pretty much what Nick Seriani said as well, that, you know, that they like that they like the player and that they're always, you know, trying to work around the margins of the roster. I think the Shipley injury definitely factors into it, though. It would have been hard to envision them having four running backs on the roster, given how tight they are at other positions. So, yeah, I think Shipley on IR is definitely in play.

in the next couple of days. Probably, honestly, they probably make that move on Friday if they were going to make it. Last one for me, Jay. The other thing that jumped out to me about the press conference was the question about, you know, can you kind of force feed in AJ Brown? And Nick Siriani's answer I think was right in that like I don't want to get two in the head of Jalen Hertz. I have to trust his gut and instincts out there.

But also at the same time, I need to see A.J. Brown catch the ball. Do you, did you like that answer? Do you believe that answer? Like, do you just have to let Jailen? find AJ and let nature take its course, which it inevitably will be? Yeah, there are definitely passing concepts that you don't want to tell Jaylen where to go with the ball. It is, it has to be organic. But at the same time, we've seen this offense at times funnel targets to players. There are, you know, mechanisms you can you can take to get the ball in AJ's hands. And I honestly,

I think we'll see that against the Chiefs. It is the Eagles history that if one of their star guys, whether it's AJ Brown or Devante Smith or even Dallas got it at times, if they have a quiet game, the next game, they sort of overcorrect and they make sure to get those guys especially early on. And you know, you can do that. You can manufacture touches for guys, whether it's bubble screens or, you know, just having a simplified concept that just goes to that player. So I wouldn't, I'm not one that's like sounding the alarm on the AJ Brown lack of involvement. I think that they probably will give him a heavy, heavy usage against the Chiefs. E.J, last one for me, the most important one. How was your anniversary dinner last? Oh, you went to a great restaurant. I've been there. Yeah. Yeah. So we went to my loo. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. And the food was awesome. Yeah. I mean, we got a lot of food and we ate all of it because it was that good. So yeah, no, it was a really nice time. Shout out to Julia, as always. My Julia, not Alba.

But yeah, no, definitely a good time. Yeah. Happy anniversary to you and your Julia. Yes, thank you. Thank you. All right. Get out there. I'll let you go and get out there. Are you back on tomorrow? I'm back on tomorrow. Yeah, and we'll have updates on everything I get for today from the locker room.

And there's a report from Elliott Shore Parks out there that Dallas Goddard's got a knee sprain. So we're going to go out there and see if he's out there and see what we can find out. And that guy can't avoid injury. All right. All right, man. We will see you tomorrow. Appreciate the time. Get out there on the practice field.

That is E.J. Smith, everybody. I'm a little curious to see that the Tank Biggsby edition. kickoffs are going to be more important this year. I know that seemed like kind of a weird explanation. It didn't 100% pass the quote-unquote smell test. I think years of control, they probably had high grades on the guy coming out, and then you put the kick thing on top of it all,

and it's like, okay, why not? We have all these picks. Let's party. There was a... I think he only returned six last year, and he averaged like 32 and a half yards on those six. Well, and there's going to be more kickoffs to return this year because of the 35-yard line being the penalty.

And there was a, I think it was a stat. I read it in Bill Barnwell's piece, 18.6% of kickoffs produced the touchback in week one, down from 64.5. Wow. That is a massive change. That's a big difference. So I would understand the rationale a little bit of,

okay, kickoffs are going to matter more. Field position's going to matter more. I thought, who is it? Braden Mann is the kickoff guy for the Eagles. Did a phenomenal. He was like a top five player last week. Phenomenal job. The whole special teams was great.

Jake making that long kick as well. I believe the puniletics were out. Well, Braden, man, I mean, yeah, we might just, you need to put, give that guy another extension. He was, he was terrific in that game. So, Eagle special teams getting off to a good start. A lot of special teams talk after Bose discussion with, with Adam Hogue today. Okay, I do want to get to some of the A.J. Brown conversation. Absolutely.

To me, yeah, it didn't look like he was moving all that great in week one. I'm not worried about A.J. Brown, the player. I'm worried about just, you know, is he healthy enough after sitting out a lot of training camp with that hammy injury. Yeah, there was a video that I think that EJ captured of AJ running out on the practice field at training camp where I was like, oh, they just shut him down because like he's, he's feeling good and they don't want to tweak it. But then, you know, on that one kind of, he did have the one catch at the end of the game.

He looked a little, a little ginger out there, you know, moving a little bit gingerly out there. So I do think they're going to try and get him the ball this weekend. I mean, he's one of the best receivers in the league. So it'll be interesting to see how he loves. looks. Hopefully he's feeling all right. We'll see. Yeah. And I just wonder a little bit when you, when you looked at the offense, I thought Jalen Hertz played an awesome game, but it was a lot of individual brilliance. It wasn't schemed up outside of the long pass to Jahan Dotson. That felt like a really

nice cover four beater that Fran broke down very well. It didn't feel like, you know, Jalen and Nick after the game were like, yeah, their pattern matching was really good in the secondary. It's got to be better, right? I think I think we can all agree. I think that Jalen played. Yeah, a great game, but it was out of structure, a lot of it, and he kind of had to play a great game. Let's give him a little more help with the overall offense. And some of that boils down to A.J. Brown. And we will talk about that and the rest of the Eagles offense in overtime. Yeah.

To that point, like, Siriani's answer about A.J. Brown, and here's his stats from last year where he had his lowest, well, actually the last three years. of his lowest target and then the following week, Rich. And you see, this is good, uh, this is good stat digging by you here. Uh, you went back and found his lowest target game of each year. So I will say that the one difference is 2023.

His lowest target game was against the giants in the last week. That didn't count. He got hurt. That didn't count. Fake game. Yeah. Fake game. Uh,

so MetLife, MetLife turf was out for that game. But yeah, as you see, I hate that stadium. The following week, you know, you think like, oh man, they force feed AJ. He doesn't,

It doesn't really have like a ton of huge games. No. After that, you know, it's pretty surprising to me, actually. Good to see that he's, he's getting in the,

the end zone. You have the inner excellence game, uh, in there as well. But, you know, it really felt like in most of those times, it was two weeks afterwards when he,

he completely went off. So I'm not sure. I'm sure they're going to get him the ball more than one time if he's out there this week. But history says that maybe don't expect like a, a massive, massive performance from AJ Brown, especially because one of those low target games was against the chief.

Yeah, I was just going to say that 2023 was against the Chiefs, and then he gets nine targets the following week. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Devante also was, like, it's always Jalen and AJ. And, like, Devante wasn't a huge part of the game plan either. Maybe you just had to give credit to the Cowboys for taking those two early reads out of Jalen's progressions. But I thought Nick's answers today was the right thing to say.

Like, I think he's getting pretty good at this press conference thing of not saying too much. I hate it. Where's my flower analogy, man? But like, I don't, it's like a golf swing with, I'm sure, the coach and quarterback relationship. You don't want to get in his head too much. Like, you need him. Like, you can show him things after the game, but you can't in game be like, you know, AJ or Jalen, AJ was breaking open.

You know what I mean? Like, because then he's not making his progressions. He's not instinctually playing quarterback. He's, he's mentally been taken out of his norm. So I thought Nick's answer was good and sound and like the right coaching way to approach it. That being said, I want to see AJ Brown have an impact on the game on Sunday. Yeah. And I think the big caveat here is we're not sure if AJ Brown was healthy for that last time.

Sure. And if he's healthy, there's really no excuse because you can't just be like, oh, they're, they're completely taking away AJ Brown. He's unguardsable. There are ways run that slant. The highest contested catch rate in the NFL last year. Get him a screen. But he wasn't moving great. No, he wasn't.

And multiple people, including. Fran and EJ and Bo all pointed that out. So I think you give Jalen and maybe Petulow in particular a break in that, especially because Jaylen, I think, played a phenomenal game considering that the Cowboys did such a nice job. What did? What was your overall, you were there, you were in the stadium down in the locker room. What was your overall impression of Petulow in the job he did? I thought overall, like, I wasn't that crazy.

I wasn't like, wowed by it, but I was like, it appeared competent. I thought early on it was, it was good. Yeah. And he got into the heavy personnel, some of those outside runs. You know, it probably got screwed up a little bit too. Like, I don't want to bring it back to Swooper, which we'll get to in the next few days. That, uh, sitting next to EJ when BBS went down was, was pretty rough, man. How was he doing?

He had a lot of turkeys on, uh, on BVS. But I think he also had Jihad with the, he did. It was a redeeming moment for him as well. I didn't follow up on this. Did Jihad actually get credited with the force fumble? I don't think he should have. But he did. thought Byron Young actually probably made the play.

And Vic, I think that if, you know, if it was a sack, it might be one that they, they split. Half. But, but Jahad got the, hey, look, they give it to him. It's not like. So how was EJ's, uh, official scorer is on the take or maybe. Yeah. What, what a skin.

Yeah, maybe. Hey, Pablo Tori, find that out. Um, did, did his spirits lift when he, when he thinks that Jihad gets the force fumble? Yeah. Because the BVS blow. That's a tough way to start a game. then you get the forced fumble swooper later. I think he was happy because of all the fullback usage they put Kyle and Granson in there.

He could at least say, okay, the stuff I got wrong, I would have been right about if the guy didn't get hurt on the first kickoff. So as far as Petulah was concerned, I mean, I thought it was pretty sloppy after, you know, it felt like they ran into some pretty. I think offensively both teams struggled after that delay. Sure. And it was a weird game. So, and it's just one game. But, you know, they got hurt a little bit by blitzes in the second half.

I didn't think offensive line had their best game ever. No. No, and Landon was hurt as well. So that's another mitigating factor. They weren't, you know, usually when you run to the left side, you got Mila and Dickerson. They're blowing people off the ball. And early on, I think they did. But as that game wore on, not as much.

And also, I don't think it was a coincidence that Landon Dickerson had to take himself out of the game, one of the toughest guys that we've seen. So need to see more from Petullo. I do wonder the issue is, Jamie, if they don't play a good game against Kansas City. and I'm pretty confident. Give us the mini buy. Give Kevin Petulow a second chance. I feel like they do have more talent than the chiefs this week.

Absolutely. I'm feeling okay about that. But if they do struggle, I do wonder if it's one of those things where people look back to the end of that first week and say, oh, you know, maybe there was a sign. Maybe we overlooked it because the Eagles won. We do have to talk to a couple more of our friends,

but we will do that. And then we will spend a little bit of time breaking down spags, Andy Reed, and the Super Bowl rematch. And Jamie, at first, I am excited to talk about a company that both you and I love. And that is Mac Weldon. I'm wearing the pants right now, Rich. They are phenomenal.

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That's 50% off to Omaha Stakes.com and an extra $35 off with promo code Eagles at checkout. See site for details. Welcome back to Brover Time. Shout out to Provo, John, for that. And the P.H.O.I. Eagle Show presented by Bet365. true mark financial in the Xfinity studios so how you feel about sunday man i feel pretty good i i talked about this morning with vg i i don't want to say the eagles broke the chiefs because they still have patrick mahomes and he's still one of the best quarterbacks in the world and he's been in an

a fc championship every single like basically year of his existence in the league so i don't want to like be a hot take guy but i feel like they're normalized Travis kelsey to me me still a very good player obviously, but he looks old all of a sudden. And they have repaired their offensive lines some, you know, with some first round picks and what have you. But they're kind of a revamped team and Xavier Worthy is out. You know, I just feel like they're kind of humanized finally. And I just think the Eagles are the more talented team.

Arrowhead can be a tough place to play. I've been there. It's an awesome stadium, awesome tailgated experience. So it's like, you know, they have a real home field advantage. So I do worry about that a little bit. And it is Patrick Mahomes. And he could pick on a Dori Jackson all day. But I think overall, I usually defer on the side of talent.

And I think the Eagles are the more talented team. And I feel pretty good about their chances of going in there and making the Chiefs Owen, too. I hope so. I think you're going to get the Chief's best shot. Absolutely. Coming off a loss is not the spot you want the Chiefs in ideally. Coming off Brazil, though? Eagles lost to the fact.

Falcons last year coming off Brazil, which is one of the funniest. Just catch that ball. Yeah, but I mean, their defense got shredded the entire game. It was in retrospect two months later. Sure. One of the most ridiculous and funniest outcomes of last season that Kirk Cousins was moving the ball up and down the field on them. Yeah, you know what?

I got to say, James, watching that game last week on YouTube, Patrick Mahomes running over the corner on the sidelines. that made my blood boil. You know, he's going to the sidelines. It's a play where if he takes, he gets one toe out of bound. Yeah. He's flopping like an NBA player,

you know, trying to sell an offensive now. And instead, the cornerback lets up, and he trucks that dude, that made my blood boil. I just, come on. He's really. Can that guy, can 30, 70, 40, 60 calls that he gets every single time,

can that not go his way after he's doing that? So I thought about it. Gaming the system. I thought about this the other day. It's funny you bring it up. Jalen Carter, like, you bet. Obviously, I think he'll learn from his mistake and get better. He's not going to be like hawk and lugies on Patrick Mahomes.

But don't, like, if it's a 50-50 close play, and he is around Patrick Mahomes by any sort of sideline or late hit or any type of penalty situation, Patrick Mahomes is going to flop it up around Jalen Carter. And he's going to try and sell. something. So Jalen Carter, please just take it easy around Patrick Mahomes. Like I want him to play his game, but I also know that Patrick Mahomes is going to play cheap and flop if he gets the opportunity around Jalen Carter, knowing that Troy Vincent and the league have him in the crosshairs right now. That's going to be hard though, because those are, unlike Spittgate, those are

going to be the penalties where I look at. And I'm like, well, he's, he's just trying to get the quarterback. I know, but you know Mahomes is going to flop around him. A hundred percent, but you got to You gotta try your best. I mean, it's one of those things. Roger's script here, you know? We ask these guys to play the most violent game possible, emotional game possible, but also be smart. And I think on those plays in particular,

I think we need to take a step back and say, okay, that's a little bit of a hard needle to thread there, I would say, spitting on somebody, let's maybe not do that again. Definitely don't do that. I think you can thread that needle okay for the next week. But I am on Mahomes fraud watch on Sunday. Their defense got absolutely obliterated.

by Justin Herbert. I'm Justin Herbert's biggest critic. That was his best game. I think I've seen him play in multiple years. He was excellent. Now, by the way, Justin Herbert, here's what the critic's going to say.

Let's see you do it in the wild card round instead of week one of the NFL season. But, you know, they did lose some guys on that side of the ball. The one thing I'm sure Fran will talk about over the next few days, you're going to get Spags. You're going to get a bunch of blitzes.

You're going to get a bunch of unscouted looks. He's going to muck it up. Spags has had success. against the Eagles offense in the past? Not last year in the Super Bowl. You know, he had the idea that, okay, we're going to take Sequin out of the game. Well, Jalen Hart, or sorry,

Jalen Hertz was extremely efficient moving the ball through the air, finding pretty much anybody starting with, with John Dodson. Anyway, it'll be a fun game. I am excited. I think they pull it off. I think the, the Chiefs go O and two. I feel good.

I hope so. Jalen Hurts is like, he's playing incredible football right now. Thought he was excellent in week. I hope he doesn't have to be excellent in that same way in week two. But, you know, the chief state they did not get to Herbert all that much. There was that last play of the game. Chris Jones kind of was a little bit selfish.

He ducked inside and Herbert scrambled for, I think it was like 15, 17 yards on a third and long to win the game. Hey, Jalen Hertz can do that. We know he's capable of it. That would be pretty sweet as well. And look, you know, Tom Brady, Kevin Burkart on the call for Eagles, Chiefs. What? Yeah.

And by the way, Rich, before we, get out of here. I just wanted to mention one more thing. It is Big Brothers, Big Sisters Month of Giving. And if you're able to donate and help out BBBSA, it's just one of the best organizations out there. Rodney McLeod can tell you all about it. So if you're able to donate, donate. Every cent counts 100% of proceeds go to Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America, but also the importance of becoming a big. And it's not a huge commitment. If you can spend, you know, a little bit of time once a month with a little. The impact that Biggs can have on their little's lives is monumental. You know, we've had staff members here become Biggs, and it's, it's a

life-changing thing that people can do. So if you're able and you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of your time every month to commit to a little and help their life in a major, major way, please consider doing that. And you can sign up right there, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America, and look into it. It's a charity that we're working with here at All City Network, and it's near and dear to our hearts, and it's their month of giving, so I just wanted to get one shout out to them before we got out of here.

And as Andrew has pointed out to us, we have a couple of super chats. Super chats. From I be me every day. How's Bo not a birds fan? How's Bo not a birds fan? I feel like he needs to answer that one. Yeah, I'd be me.

Maybe we'll pass this one off to Bo tomorrow and have him answer it, hold his ass to the griddle. I think it's... Well, he's a Big J. Journalist. He's a Big J. Journalist. He also worked for the team. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know.

Maybe the fandom bug just never hit him. He's also the Westchester County pitcher of the year, too. Not from here, so it didn't bite him as a kid. But I think even if he's not a fan, he is a very involved and important... Yes. Within the Eagles orbit.

Next up, CDP. Thank you, as always, CDP. CDP. Should Siriani be worried about Gardner Minshu telling Spags all the nuances of the Eagles passing game? Because it's changed since he's been here. It's Kevin Petulow's world now. I mean, I'm sure Nick Sirianni's influence is still all over it.

But I do love those storylines. Yeah. The backup quarterback or some random guy. I always love when they sign like the practice squad guy that was just cut and they bring him in for that one week to basically buy his secrets. What is Nate Sudfeld going to say? Where is Nate Sudfeld these days? I don't know. I hope he's doing great.

Very pleasant guy in the locker. Was he? enjoyed Suddy. Yeah. Is that what the teammates called him? Sudfeld or Suddy? Are you just hockey naming them? I, no, I think I'm making that up.

Okay. Yeah. Oh, he's with the San Francisco 49ers. Nate Sudfeld had an amazing line. Bo did a story probably five or six years ago with Carson Wentz where he sat in the locker room with Carson Wentz. And while all the chaos of an Eagles locker room session was going on, he made Carson, or no, sorry, it wasn't. Carson Wentz. I'm screwing this up.

It was, what's his name? Josh McCount. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Carson Wentz was involved in it. But Josh McCown had played for a million teams at that point. And Bo tried to get him to name every player. He threw a touchdown pass too. And Nate Sudfeld interjected at one point. And he said, I could do my whole career. Nelson Aguilar, that's it. That's great. It was a very funny line. Josh McCown. Also, he's the QB coach for the, I think the Vikings now. I think we saw him. Jeez. Yeah. Eagles gave me. to start. Look at them now. How about that?

Yeah. They didn't really give them. Well, he was coaching his son's high school team, right? They brought him away from that. And they brought him in as a quarterback and he wasn't meant to play with the torn hamstring, but like he was kind of brought in to be like a coach more or less, wasn't he? Like, that was kind of his role. Yeah, until he played.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, like Josh McCown. Yeah. All right. We're going to end the show with those statements that I like Nate Sutfeld and I like Josh McHell. Great way to end it. So thank you to everybody. for joining in today. Thank you to Jamie.

Thank you to Andrew for a great job behind the scenes. I think it might be Bo Fran and EJ tomorrow. Yes, I believe Thursday is Fran Day in studio here. So it should be the full crew back tomorrow. Previewing the game and then Friday, Swooper Day, right?

With the prof. With the proff. So loaded few days. Guys, we are in the routine of the NFL season. Got a big one coming on Sunday. So thank you for. for joining us, and as always, we love you.