PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles Camp Countdown: What to watch from the WRs beyond A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

The training camp countdown continues with wide receivers. Zach Berman and Fran Duffy are in studio to discuss a group that’s headlined by A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Can Jahan Dotson be a reliable No. 3 wide receiver? What should we make out of Johnny Wilson and Ainias Smith entering Year 2. Who else is worth watching? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Good afternoon and welcome to a Thursday edition of the P. H.L.Y. Eagle Show, brought to you by True Mark Financial Credit Union. I'm Zach Berman. That's Fran Duffy. And it's wide receiver day. We've gone through the quarterbacks, the running backs, the tight ends, the offensive line. Now we turn to A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, and the rest of the group. And the rest of the group will be a fun premise for the show. Before then, good to see you in person. I've seen you on the screen. We had a little friction with the, uh, connect with the connections the first day. Figured it out the next two days. Came out better on the other side of it. But now I get to see you in the flesh. It feels good. First time this week. Obviously,

it's been a busy week on our end. But yeah, this will be a fun show. It's going to be tough. I was thinking about it. We did quarterbacks on Monday. We did our overunders last week. I feel like you and I have kind of voiced our thoughts on like the state of the passing game.

So trying to differentiate those discussions from this one. It's going to be an interesting exercise. If Bo were here and we miss Bo, although we see him whenever we discuss Pico. He would comment on the fact that we get to see your thighs. I really have no commentary for that, but I just want to make sure that Bo knows that, well, Bo knows all, but that we are,

that we're recognizing, I'm just running space in this seat for Bo. I can't wait for him to be back. But wide receivers is a fun topic here, because A.J. Brown and Devante Smith fall into the camp of the Jordan Milata and Lane Johnson discussion, which is, we'll see you guys on September 4th. Yeah. Nonetheless, those are players who we know we will watch during training camp because, you know,

training camps are passing camp often. They're going to get the ball. They're going to make big plays. There's going to be AJ catches that the Eagles social media account puts out. And it's like, well, look at that. there's going to be Devante plays where it's like, man, this guy is so good. Are you at the point with both those players that they can still wow you or like, you know, been there, done that?

Yeah, I think so. I think those guys can still wow. We talked about it with Lane Johnson when we had the offensive line conversation that you can kind of get lulled to sleep. You're going to take him for granted a little bit. But I think when you're looking at AJ Brown, it's year three of him here in Philadelphia, year four, rather, of him in Philadelphia. I'm doing my math, right?

Yeah, year four of him in Philadelphia. So, and only year five for Devante Smith. So it's not like the, you know, 13 year career for Lane Johnson up to this point. So I still think when we see A.J. Brown, you know, look one in over the shoulder and pull it in with his right hand while, you know, name your Eagles backup quarterback is on him in training camp practice and one-on-ones.

I think I'll still be wowed by that. If Devante Smith goes up and makes one of those insane body control type of catches, Yeah, I'll still be wild about what those guys can do up close and personal. And, you know, the connection with Jaywin Hertz, like, DeVontes played his entire career with J.O.N. Hurts, A.J. Brown's best seasons came with J.O. and Hertz. So it's not as if you're trying to form that connection, but it's worth noting there was a period last season when A.J. said passing is the issue, right? So you do want to see them early on in camp. Have, have. that connection. It stood out during the spring. The ball was quick out of Jayland's hands.

Now, excuse me, he didn't play that much with Devante and AJ during the periods of camp. But I actually think, you know, you said it well. Part of the joy of having AJ and Devante out there is it allows you to evaluate the corners, right? That's a big part of their camp. And, you know, in talking to Quinnian Mitchell last summer, you saw that he belonged by the way. he was defending Smitty, right? Like, and he was, he was talking trash out, out there. You know when, when there are ones versus ones, and they do have some of those periods, like Keely Ringo against A.J. Brown is going to be a real good indicator of where Key Lee is in his development curve. Do you think it will be Keely and AJ and then Cunion and Devante this summer,

or do you think that Quignan having, since we saw him at left corner, it says you saw him at left corner during the spring, do you think that it will be Quinyon going up in? against AJ or do you think he'll see more DeVante? Because we know those matchups typically are consistent day to day. Good question. I think we'll probably see more Keeley versus AJ. Interesting. Just because of the size.

Yeah, the size. But could be wrong there. But that is my guess. And then the same thing, though, for like down the depth chart guys too, right? You want, you know, because there are, there are one-on-ones or in the seven-on-seven reps where the first team O will go against, you know, second team D or just because of the rotation and like the mismatch numbers that there are times when you might have Mack McWilliams defending Devonty Smith. And if MacMac Williams holds his own there, you're like, if he can do

that against Devante, he can do that against anybody. Yeah, no, that's a fair point. That's one of the things that is beneficial for the Eagles when you have players at some of these positions that our elite in the NFL is that that is a really good benchmark for the guys that are going up against them every single day. I know that and even for the, I think about this for like a scouting staff standpoint as well because, you know, a lot of the college area scouts, this is one of the pinnacle times of year where they are watching pro players. And so it's always beneficial for them to be able to come back and kind of recalibrate. Oh yeah, this is what a premier ex-receiver looks like in today's NFL. You look at the Vante Smith or AJ Brown. You look at.

look at a, you know, Devante Smith and say, okay, yeah, maybe the body type's a little unique from from the build standpoint, but this is what a top end Z receiver, move receiver looks like in today's league. When you have that, that's beneficial to your entire organization. And then it's also worth noting with both these players. And speaking to Aaron Moorhead, in the past, even like last summer, I remember him saying, these guys still have things they can add to their games, right? Like, they're not finished products. And as you said, these aren't 12, 15-year pros. Like, you know, Devante Smith, there's always things he could be adding to his,

to his game, whether it's the late hands and, you know, we've seen him really be strong in contested catches. But I think Aaron Moore had made the, I don't want to speak out a turn here. Maybe I'm conflating things. But I believe he said there were a few plays Devonte left on the field two years ago that they wanted to see last year. And last year, just with different circumstances, be it. injury, be it obviously the way the offense functioned.

I would imagine Devante didn't have the season that he, that he probably wanted to have. We've both discussed the chance under Kevin Petuo that they could pass more. But are there elements of both their games that, like, is there a next step for these guys or is to just do what they do well and refine it? Yeah, I think that it's probably more the latter. You know, look, they're all, you can get really granular and say, you know, I'm sure that Devante Smith, he's got goals coming in where, hey, you know what, maybe it's my, I want to work on this release versus a press man corner, or I want to work on this route being more efficient

coming out of my break than what I was a year ago. And it's going to be the same thing with AJ Brown. But at the end of day, like we said, since these guys are so high level, some of those changes are going to for people like you and me, it's going to be tough for us to really kind of say, oh yeah, like he made this huge stride, this offseason in this one area. Well said, well said. So AJ Devante, those are the, the, the, the, the main players here. And we'll get to the depth. But there's one player here that we should focus on that that's not included in the depth.

And that's not included in A.J. and Devante. And that's Jahan Dodson. Yeah. Jahan Dodson is worth the A block of this show. And for the uninitiated, the A block is the first 20 minutes of the show, right? He didn't quite get into the thumbnail. Unfortunately, we'll give you a little behind the scenes here. in the image database,

there's no picture I could find of Dodson with Devante and AJ. Right? There's so many AJ and Devante pictures. Of course. And they photograph so like, you know, there's such like epic photos of them, if you will, right?

There's them with their backs to each other. There's a high-fiving, celebrating. We couldn't quite find that with, with Dodson. But Dodson's a big part of this show. And he's in the show description here. and we didn't get to see Jahan Dotson in training camp last year, right? So Jahan Dotson was acquired two days before, the day before the preseason finale. I believe two days before the preseason finale.

He went up to, he went up from D.C. or Northern Virginia to Philly the day of the preseason finale. And then because the Eagles had that game in Brazil, it was really just a crash course to get him ready for week one. It was fair to say, an uneven season for him, didn't perform the way I expected. Probably it was the worst statistical production that he's had. Showed some flashes late in the year. That week 18 game when AJ and Devonante didn't play, you saw Jahan Dodson was the top receiver for the Eagles against the Giants. You saw the catch in the Super Bowl down the right sideline. There were a few other, you know, there was a big play against Jacksonville.

So there have been, there were moments, but not enough of them. Is it fair to say that Jahan Dodson is like the most interesting wide receiver for the Eagles this summer? Yeah, I think that, yeah, if we want to say like this summer, I definitely agree that it'll be interesting to just kind of track. You know, and we talked about this very early in the offseason when Bo presented the stats on terms of like how poor he was from a yards per route run standpoint around the NFL, similar to what Kwez Watkins was a year ago or two years ago now. But I think when you're looking at, again, at this wide receiver three position in this offense,

you're going to be out there a lot because the Eagles are going to run a lot of 11 personnel, but because of the pass volume in this offense or the lack thereof and the tight pass funnel at the top, you know AJ and Devante are going to get a lot of targets. You know Dallas Goddard's going to get a lot of targets when he's out there. And so it's going to be up to Dotson in those limited opportunities to make good on that. And when you combine that fact with the idea that, yeah, he didn't get here until the eve of the season. season last year. It was tough for him to be able to hit that and get going. Not to mention, I would imagine a big motivating factor for him coming into this season is going to be the

fact that he missed out on the Super Bowl era New Jersey's down in Washington. You like those? No, ridiculous. And the title, I mean, what are we doing here? But I wouldn't expect anything less. So yeah, let's just deviate there real quick. Look, I have a bit of a take here. Okay. I'm seeing on social media like, what, oh, great job bringing these these jerseys back i i didn't like the jerseys that i don't like their primary jerseys but i don't think these are like such incredible vintage jerseys and like man the game's better with having them in it let's call it what it is yeah this is a breadcrumb for all the people that want them to go back to the original name yes this is a way to

say like yeah we can't go back to the original name but here you can wear these you can buy these jerseys now from the official team store that are reminiscent from that era that's what this is. And look, maybe there are, if there are commanders fans watching this and saying Eagles fans, uh, inflate the Kelly Green, like the Kelly Green was a big deal. I think the Kelly Green's like a, um, it's just a fundamentally different jersey. It's a different shade here. The, the commander's jerseys they're going back to, like, if you were to rank the top 32 jerseys, well, they, I don't know if they weren't, yeah, when, when they were 32 teams, but I'm toward the end there when they're 32 teams. But I'm toward the end there when they're 32

teams. I never was like, these are top 10 jerseys in the league, top 15 jerseys in the league. So, yeah, I think they're an upgrade over the ones with the gradient in the numbers. Yeah. But I'm not enamored with these jerseys. No, it's, it's obviously, it was completely facetious on my part to even bring them up. I felt the, I'm sorry. Of just with the, I mean, it's just ludicrous. Then we're making a big deal about it.

So I thought you were going to say Jehan Dodson will be motivated by being in a contract year. Yeah. because the Eagles did not exercise the fifth year option as we anticipated. And he's someone who, if he flashes when the ball comes to him, could have a sneaky market next year. I am curious, and we've probably discussed this indirectly, but directly, this was a first-round pick. Were you high on him coming out?

I thought he was a solid player. I honestly, I graded him as probably like a wide receiver two, three, you know, which is that was a little rich for me where he went in the draft. I thought taking him in the first round was probably a little bit higher than I would have. But I thought that there was, he wasn't obviously to this level of player, but I thought there were similarities to Devante. You know, when you looked at the frame, he wasn't quite as skinny. But when you looked at the ways that they won, I thought that there were similarities in that way.

He can line up inside. He can line up outside. He was really good at the catch point. I liked Dotson at Penn State. But I thought more like solid starter as opposed to like impact future number one or even like elite number two type of wide out. But again, in this offense, we talked about this when the trade was made last summer,

I liked the trade because to me, you were buying the dip on a player that had high pedigree that could come in and help your offense. And I would expect that we're going to see a better version of Dotson this year. But again, it is just going to come down to volume. You know, it's the same thing when we had the conversation about Dallas Goddard, you know, Goddard's receiving numbers won't blow you away when you look at him compared to Trey McBride,

when you look at, you know, the comparison that was always made was him and Mark Andrews because it was the same draft class. I'm sorry, like if I'm going, if I'm going to stack, like if I already do a draft of who these, you know,

I'm pulling a tight end to my team. I'm taking Dallas Goddard, you know, now, injury is notwithstanding. I'm taking Dallas Goddard as a player, like at his peak over Trey McBride at his peak, over Mark Andrews at his peak, but the volume hasn't been there

for him to be that impactful receiver. I would say this, it's a similar kind of thing with Dotson. Just because the numbers aren't always there, doesn't that doesn't necessarily speak to him being a terrible player. I just think he's going to have to capitalize on what limited opportunities he does get in this past game. Yeah, you know, credit, this is the second show in a row where I'm crediting Jimmy Kemski. It shows that he does good work.

But Jimmy helped help me out by doing a cut-up of every Jahan Dotson Target last year. Yep. And looking through it, so there were targets to him that were uncatchable balls, if you will, right? like, you know, throwaways almost. And I thought there were times when the ball went to him and he was making plays on the ball. And that's something that the Eagles liked when they acquired him. They thought, and it's probably smart that you compared him to Devante because he's not a big guy, but he does make plays on the ball.

And we saw that in the playoffs. We saw that, like I said, against Jacksonville in the Super Bowl. So I'm intrigued by him. What would you like to see in practice? because this is your first time getting a chance to watch him for a summer in practice. Yeah. What you're hoping in practice is that Jalen Hertz is able to cut it loose to him and that he's able to come through.

Because we know that with Jalen, it has at least, you know, the way it seems from the outside looking in, he wants to, he almost wants to like see the ball go through the hoop when it comes to the receivers that he target. So if he has that trust and that faith in Jahan Dotson, and now he came through for him in the Super Bowl, and was able to make plays down the stretch like he alluded to. So maybe that faith and trust is already there.

But I think being able to see that repeatedly here this summer, I think that would go a long way towards that faith being there once we get into week one and beyond that. And as far as him being a vertical threat, is that a part of his game? He can do it, but I don't think that's going to be, he's not going to be like a plus plus factor, like as a field stretcher or anything like that. Like he's not, you know, Kwez Watkins from that standpoint. But he could definitely work down the field. He's just not going to be a guy that you're lined up against him in man-to-man coverage. Like, oh, man, I got to worry about turning and running with this guy. And then this will tease us into the second segment, the B block, as they call it,

which is, do you think he can be threatened for the number three job? Or do you think he's entrenched as the number three? I tend to think that he's probably entrenched at number three. You know, I don't think that we saw enough from Johnny Wilson, certainly not from Ania Smith. I wouldn't expect that level of push from Terrace Marshall here this summer to try and push him off that spot. Now, that would be good. I think that would be a good scenario for the Eagles,

but my guess is that he's wide receiver three in the pecking order. And is that because of the investment or is that because of the talent? I think that probably both, honestly, but I think that when you look at the talent, I think that there's enough there to say like, yeah, he is clearly wide receiver three on this step chart. Yeah, I would agree with you. I know in the chat they say I love draft pedigree.

This isn't even about draft pedigree. I do think Jahan Dotson has skills. Now, the skills must translate, and there needs to be consistency. But I've seen, I saw flashes, right? And I really liked what I saw in Week 18 in particular. And I am curious to see the way defenses play trying to funnel things toward Jahan. Because if you're defending the Eagles, you know, you're obviously cognizant of four of these five skill position players.

And so it's kind of like when you played against Miami Heat during the Big Three era, let Mary a Chalmers shoot, right? And so my guess is most times out there, Jehan Dodson will have the most favorable matchup. He's not the best player to throw the ball to, and as we've discussed, you know, Jalen likes getting the ball to A.J. and Devante in Dallas. but if Jahan Dodson can can be the worst corner on the other team, then he will be open. And it's just incumbent upon Jalen finding him at that point.

Just again, realistically, knowing that this team, they're going to run the ball with Sequin Barkling, Jalen Hertz is going to get his as a runner. You're going to have plays dialed up for A.J. Brown. You're going to have plays dialed up for Jahan Dots. And you're going to have plays dialed up for Dauz Scott. Or it's for Devonze Smith, rather. So you're fourth in the peccalding.

order in the past game, you're seventh in the pecking order overall in terms of offensive weapons. They're not going to be going in like the opening script and the opening 15 plays, 20 plays in a given game. There's not going to be a play dialed up or like, all right, this is going to go to Johan Dotson. It's unrealistic. They're not going to be a lot of those. So if you are Dotson, you have got to capitalize on those plays where you are the second, third, fourth, fifth, read and the progression, you come up through, come up with those. And I don't know how many hundred yard games he's going to have if everybody stays healthy, but you just want to be able to come through on the other side and make sure that you capitalize on what you can.

We weren't fortunate enough to have Fran here during the 2024, the 2024 draft. We saw you on Zoom for a bit, but we didn't have you as the All-City NFL draft analyst then. So we didn't get the full Anaya Smith, Johnny Wilson experience with you then. We're going to make up for that in the B block today. We are going to find out with Fran thinks Ania Smith or Johnny Wilson can emerge for the Eagles. that will be next here on the PHOI Eagle Show. Stick around. I want to tell everyone about Cherry Hill Jeep. Cherry Hill Jeep is, if you're looking for a Jeep or a ram truck,

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I know people buy Jeep and ram trucks elsewhere. I just don't know why. Drive home in your new Jeep or ram trucks today, just minutes from all bridges or available online 24-7 at Cherryhill jeep.com. All right, friend, here's an impression of me from yesterday. Okay. That's me walking into my house, sweating like a pig,

because it is feeling like a sauna in there. Yeah, I mean, you know how it is. This time of year, this Philly heat, it's no joke. So what do I do? Do I go jump in a lake? It's not going to happen. So I just got a bunch of ice, like held it, rubbed it on my face,

stuffed it down my shirt, shirt, stuff to down my pants, only way I could think to cool down. I mean, stop being the stereotypical dad, though. Like, turn on the AC. It's time to fire that thing up. I don't want to be, uh, I want to waste money, the energy efficient. Well, look, instead of icing yourself out or jumping into a lake, you could just check out Pico's energy saving rebates. They've got deals on Energy Star cooling equipment that actually work and cut down on your bills.

So, no more ice down my pants? No, you could skip the ice, save the ice, and you throw in my drinks when I come over. The same ice? No, we'll change the ice up. Okay, fine. That's what's up. All right, well, just head over to pico.com slash ways to save.

They've got tips for everything. Heating, cooling, lighting, you name it. I need to ask you. I've been, I was watching the show's back. I was watching the show back and shows back. I always watched them back. Do you watch and listen, or do you just watch? When we're in studio, I listen on the way home.

Okay. Depending on when I leave. When I get home, I've said this, I always open the show to see the comments. Before I go to sleep, I check the show to see the comments and then I will You don't have to respond in the comments though

No I don't respond Should I? If it's something where I feel like it's worth responding to I typically will try and jump in to respond Okay yeah I mean I try to Because when I was You know at a place before I would respond to every like negative comment

Right like you know Like oh that's that's good feedback how you know What can I do to address it? And I always thought thought like, you know, it was a little self-pomper, or like if someone was like good story and I, you know, responded to. Yeah. And I thought that was a way of so, I try, I read every comment. I'm transparent about that. But I didn't know if I should, you know, if I should respond. I can start responding to them. I respond to emails and Instagram messages. And I got to say, it's harder for me to respond to Twitter DMs now because I just get spam.

left and right so it's it's hard to filter through those the lesser of evils on that platform um so let me ask you this though uh because i'm watching it back when you guys filmed the ad all right what like did you think all right let's let's play it straight because this is going to appear every day was involved so there was never yeah there's never playing it straight okay yeah i i always one like, you know, where you like, let's, let's do two takes. Let's do one of like, you know, the funny. Let's let's let's do the straight one and the eccentric one. Or was it just like, hey, we're, we're rolling here. So we did three, three takes, Julia, right? Yeah, it was three takes. Was that the least? So we did. So the first take we did was like, all right, like,

let's just do one and try to see how it fits. And we did the first one. Yeah. And it was fine. And we're like, all right, we got it because it was like, we each had scripts and like things we had to hit on. So we're like, let's just do a dry run. And then we did the second where we broke. I put my foot in my mind. It had something to do with the ice and Bow's pants and going to my drink. Yeah. So you can kind of see the residuals from that in the final take.

Okay. We had to take like a five minute break in between just to kind of recalibrate. And then we did the third and final take and then we left. It's what makes Bo the best. Because I'm like, you know what? you can add a little like personalization if it's like today but if this is going to appear

throughout the entire summer like I would probably stick to like the traditional path because you know it's just funny when you go to him and you see yeah he's doing that he's on that thing

but yeah that's what makes it great. Yeah the outtake was I would say like I've Julia that was one of the loudest the longest I've seen you laugh it was a bad one it was a bad one

I thought I agree Yeah, so something tells me that's not the last I've ever seen of that, of that clip. Let me ask you this. Rich Bobby checked it on the chat, my friend Rich, and said that they had a raccoon in the ceiling at their office, just referring back to our mice situation here. So as someone who lives in the suburbs, peck nest migrate. Okay. These wildlife news, I don't want to say nuisance because it's our world. It's the world as much as our world.

But raccoon, possum, skunk, peck nest migrate. Oh, well, definitely migrating skunk because the, I feel as if the, if you're doing like, yeah, if you're doing like, what's the upside, what's the downside? The downside for the skunk is the worst. True, yeah. Right? So definitely migrate the skunk. Raccoon and possum.

Do you deal with all three, any of the three at your house? No, not really. more deer than anything else don't you know and deer i get worried about like look they were there first does i mean yeah yeah yeah but um deer is crossing the road and you're driving that that's like a big fear of mine uh so if if you put deer in there i might have migrated the deer because like the downside for that is is pretty bad um but uh raccoon and possum i'm just trying to think here i guess i would my wrong then to nest the raccoon and pack the possum? I am, I don't like raccoons.

I've come across them in our back, especially since we've got the dog and I go out at night. Like, we'll come across raccoon in our neighbor and they like to go through my trash cans. So they're, you know, they're very, but honestly, we've got all of them in our backyard. We've got Fox back there. The deer are in our backyard all the time. The possums are nasty, man. Like those things, I don't know what it is about them, but they just, they just really gross me out. So I think I would agree with you that I would, I would nest the,

nest the raccoon but raccoons they're no joke either I'll be on the lookout great great divergence here mid show I got to say I was thinking when I saw that from from which Bobby of the office episode where just a phenomenal falls right down through yeah I do have you know like like like drop sewing I always think about that something something just falling right down save bandit yeah yes exactly um I'm I'm trying to think of a good transition. This is where we missed Bo. From drop ceilings to potential wide receiver drops,

a wide receiver in the Super Bowl dropped the pass. Johnny Wilson, yeah. See, like, what I like is you were like, oh, I'm not going to be able to find it. And then midway, you were like, oh, wait, I can go this way. I actually thought that was pretty good. Johnny Wilson last summer was like a training camp sensation. You were like, man, John, the sixth round pick

is outperforming the fifth round pick here. Johnny Wilson flashed during camp. During the season, Johnny didn't have quite the year that you might have thought he was going to have. So let me ask you this. How do you feel about Johnny Wilson?

Let's start with Johnny Wilson because even though an ice miss to higher traffic, Johnny Wilson had to make a role last year. Is Johnny Wilson, like, is he the number four wide receiver? Do you think what you saw in camp last year was a bit of a mirage?

Maybe he's a better one-on-one player. Do you think it's just normal rookie jitters? Like I made the reference to Bo that at his sporting card this year, it's from the Super Bowl. And I think it's actually the play when he dropped the pass in the Super Bowl. So what's your Johnny Wilson Reed going into the season? You know, I think that for me, he is the wide receiver four. And I think when you look at his archetype, like the type of role that I projected him

and most projected him coming out of Florida State was that, okay, this is a guy that's going to struggle to create his consistent separation. He's not, while he has like that unique size. And we're talking, you know, one of the biggest receivers in the NFL right now, the moment he stepped on the field for the first time last fall, uh, this is a guy that is, again, it's going to struggle to create space for himself one on one. And then on top of that, he had, he had a lot of drops in college.

And we saw some of those drops pop up, uh, last year as well. But this is a guy that can play special teams. He was going to give it as all as a blocker. And so you can come in and you feel good that he's going to be able to compete to potentially be a wide receiver four, wide receiver five, and then grow into like a solid wide receiver three, four. That was my projection for him coming out of Florida State. And I think that's kind of on par with what we're expecting with him going now into year two. He was the wide receiver four on this team a year ago. I think that he should be that

for this team once again here this fall. I think they, look, the targets weren't there for John Dodson. They're not going to be there for Johnny Wilson. If everyone's healthy, you're talking like, I don't know, 12 targets, 15 targets for Johnny Wilson this year. I just don't think he's going to get a lot of burn in that way. So I think at the end of the day, my expectations aren't super high. But you'd love to be able to see him come. All right, hey, it's here too. Rookie jitters are out of the way.

Don't put a lot of balls on the ground in practice. And, you know, feel good about him. That way. If there is an injury and he's got to be the third receiver, you feel better about it. Yeah, that was really the big question was the balls on the ground, hands, right? And you talk about opportunities. This is the thing. AJ and Devante both missed time last year.

Johnny Wilson had an opportunity. Now, again, it's so, it's ambitious to expect a sixth-round pick to come in and, like, be a contributor week three against Tampa Bay. Yeah. Or, I'm sorry, week four against Tampa Bay. Like, that to me, that's a little much, right? And so it was just kind of the nature of the Eagles' depth last year. But I thought in camp you really saw the size.

advantage. You saw the ability to make plays in the red zone. You saw it in the preseason as well. And then the balls were just on the ground too much. And, you know, you know with Johnny Wilson, you're not getting a great separator. What you're getting is someone who can separate with his size. And that's what, so in camp this year, he had a good camp last year. So I guess he's just picking up where he left off, understanding of the scheme. He's someone who, I'll say Janwin had confidence in him last year. Like Jan was throwing him the ball. I keep thinking back to the draft video that Eagles Entertainment put out of the war room, the morning of day three, the passion meeting, as Howie Roseman calls it, day three in the

2024 draft, and Alan Walking, who does a real good job with the Eagles, is just saying this guy's unique, right? Because you don't see, I mean, trust me, I can tell you, you don't see six, seven too often, right? I mean, you know, so that was a height joke. So he's rare in that regard. and with him it's more what do I see during the regular season. I expect him to be on the team unless he declines this year.

Yeah, I think it's safe to say he'll be on the 53. I think so. It would be a shock if he wasn't at this point. And look, at the end of the day, like the reason why the Eagles got him where they did in the draft was because of some of the shortcomings. If he was more automatic at the catch point, he would have been a third round pick. You know, because, again, since he had those limitations from an athletic standpoint, point, he's not going to be that guy that's going to, he's actually a decent route runner.

It's not that he was a bad route runner. It's just that he just doesn't have like that secondary gear, that ability when he's getting out of a break to create that separation that way. So if he's not going to be that guy, then you've got to be really good at the catch point to make up for that. And he just wasn't. And so that's why a guy who was six, seven, who tested okay for a guy that big, ends up falling just because he wasn't as good in that area.

And so if he can just show to be more consistent, I think that would be a really good sign. for his development. Now, somebody who is not guaranteed to make the team. Yeah. Was drafted in front of him, and that's Anaya Smith. Yep. Anaya Smith had a bad summer last year. He did.

Like, trainee camp last year, you're watching it, and you're saying, this is the guy that drafted. And I think Anias, I mean, I don't know Nias well, but I imagine he might, you know, he would probably agree that it was not the summer that he needed to have. The Eagles still felt strongly enough to keep him around. he's someone that they liked coming out of Texas A&M. They started him on IR, but they did not keep him on IR throughout the entire year.

They expected, and then they brought him back to return, and he was on the team last year. And will he be on the team this year? That depends how he looks this summer. What are your Anaya Smith expectations? I mean, to me, the biggest expectation is, like, look like you belong, right? I think that would be the benchmark to clear here in year number two, just because, honestly, to be frank, like last year he didn't look like he belonged.

This is a player who is very much undersized. I mean, he came in at the combine, just over 5-9 and a quarter, 29-inch arms, 70-and-a-quarter-inch wingspan. That's extremely, extremely small. Now, 190 pounds is below average, so he's a dense.

It's not quite Darren Sproul's, like, short but not small, but he's an undersized, wide receiver. Now, the things that you liked about him, he was pretty quick. He had returned very, value, which is less important in today's game than it was, you know, 10 years ago. But he was also really tough. He was really competitive. He made some really impressive plays

over the middle of the field in college. And this is a guy that was a four-year contributor that did it at Texas A&M in the SEC for the entirety of his career. Even though he didn't have like that one like huge old man, he had a hundred catches for, you know, X amount of yards. He was always a really steady contributor. The downside, you know, one of the things that I struggled with with him was that at that size, he didn't have like super dynamic athleticism. And again, it's honestly, it's like the opposite of Johnny Wilson where, all right, well, if you're going to be that big, you're not going to separate. That means you need to be good at the catch point.

Well, all right. Well, for Ania Smith, if you're going to be that small, then you need to be dynamic to get in and out of breaks and create that separation because you could be really, really tough. The SEC and the SEC is a great conference. The SEC is not the NFL. Everybody's going to be faster. Everybody's going to be bigger. Everyone's going to be stronger at the catch point.

So to me, for Anaya Smith, like he's going to have to make sure that he's got to be that much faster, that much crisper, that much more consistent, and everything that he does to make up for the fact that he's not an elite athlete. And so I think that's going to be the big thing that I'm looking for with Anaya Smith here this summer. Is he going to be a little bit more confident with everything he's doing? And then also is the technical refinement going to be there to create space for himself to make sure that he's able to come back on the other side of this and be someone that Jalen Hertz can trust? Yeah, I think it stood out, too, that the Eagles brought Paris Campbell in the playoffs, right? Because when they did that, it was like they're not ready to turn this over to a Nia Smith. And you mentioned the return element to it.

They bring Avery Williams in this, this off season. Now, they let Britain Covey go, right? So he could very well take that Britton Covey spot. The Eagles didn't, they weren't active in that type, with that type of receiver during free agency, like the small, Shifty gadget player. So that, you know, perhaps you say Avery Williams is, is that player. But I mean, you know better than me.

He has fans in that building. I know that. But he's not on scholarship here. And I think this is a year when it, I think he enters the summer on the roster bubble, clearly. Yeah. You couldn't come into this year, whether you're Howard Roseman, Nick Siriani, Aaron Morehead, you know, Alan walking, like anybody, and say with confidence, oh, yeah.

Anaya Smith will be our wide receiver five. I don't think you could say that with confidence this offseason. Yeah, and I go back to draft night or draft day for him, where my knock on him in, and I defer to you in terms of with the draft Danos, but like, what does he do special? Because when you're that size, you need to be special in some ways. You know, if you're that size, you need to be really fast

or you need to be really explosive. And I didn't know if he was really fast or really explosive, right? He was more like really tough. Yep. And like you said, toughness in the SEC is different than toughness in the NFL. But I certainly don't want to put him on the outside looking in. There's a reason why he was a fifth round pick. There's a reason why people liked him.

And he's going to have a legit shot to make this team. It's, I alluded to it, but it's literally the opposite of Johnny Wilson where, I mean, at 190 pounds. He around 4-5-5. You know, that's really slow for a guy that small. He had a catch rate of 95% in his final year of college. barely put the ball on the ground. So this guy was really reliable, really tough.

But again, is that enough to hang your hat on in the NFL if you're not going to always create consistent separation? If you're not going to be that vertical deep threat, at times it was there for Britton Covey. Britain Covey was a sharp route runner and gave you value as a punt returner. That's where a Nye Smith's going to have to prove it here this summer. So let's look then at if these guys don't make the team,

who is going to push them for spots? and that will be the big topic that we discuss after this break. I want to tell everybody now about our good friends at, as I pull this up here, I have it here, True Mark Financial. And I mentioned them at the beginning of the show. And I mentioned them every show. And it's because True Mark Financial is the place to go. It's headquartered where Julia went to high school.

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I've got to have everything to take care of because we're going. So I'm going down. It's going to be a couple of our friends turning 40 here this summer. So we said, oh, I have to celebrate like, we'll do like a couple's weekend. So we have three couples all going down. We're getting a house. And look, these are college friends of mine that, you know, I see them once a year maybe. And so I don't want to be, I don't want sweat to be pouring out of not just my armpits. You know, we're talking out of my butt crack, out of my belly button, out of my, from my ball sack, my grundle. When it's that hot, you got sweat coming out everywhere. And Mando has you covered with all of that.

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Boost your confidence from head to toe with Mando. Yeah. So I made a bit of an error in that last Thursday was July 3rd. And today's July 10. And so I feel passionate about financial literacy. But if you save a few dollars, you know what you should turn is the golden nugget, okay? Or maybe you make a mistake like that, you know, with your significant other golden nugget and you need to make up for it, go to Golden Nugget. For the past 30 years, Golden Nuggette Jolers operate out this very same location in Philadelphia customers from across PA to New Jersey.

and even Baltimore, New York City, have come to Golden Nugget Jolers to find the perfect engagement ring or wedding band. Golden Nugget Jolars has been family-owned and operated business since 1987 right there on Chestnut and 8th in downtown Philly. You know, I've talked about Golden Nugget because my wife is very interesting getting something at Golden Nuggetts

because you deserve an expert and the best price. Golden Nugget Jolars where Philly gets engaged. Visit golden nuggetjury.com today and learn more. So I could have really sandbagged you there. Yeah. Because the moment you started doing the wrong read, I knew like, oh, he's doing the wrong read here. So I was going back and forth with Julia. And I was like, all right, well, because she said, all right, well, do you want to do Golden Nugget or do you want to do Mando?

You have yet to do a Mando read. I haven't talked about that yet. Yeah, you have that. So I never used that word. I want to apologize to the chat. Yeah. I chose you over the chat. Thank you.

Because I know that. I know the chat. That's a friend right there. The chat would have love for you to do, have to do an author. the cuff. Mando Reed. You wouldn't have to mentally prep to get yourself ready to write out the script. So I said, I'll just, I'll, I'll, I'll bite the bullet.

I'll do Mando so that you can do golden nugget on the back end. Well, thank you. Thank you. I literally told someone last night how great it is to work with France. So, uh, that's one of the many, many, many reasons why. And another of the many, many reasons why is because we can be doing a wide receiver preview show. And I can do all this prep on, on these.

players. But I know, look, I'm sitting next to someone who watched Terrace Marshall coming out of LSU, who watched Danny Gray coming out of SMU, right? And so when we talk about the next two players on the depth chart here, guys who can push for spots on the 53, I would say Terrace Marshall and Danny Gray would be the next one's up. Danny Gray, real quick, had a good spring. And I'm excited to watch him this summer. He was a third round pick by the Niners in 2022. So we've spoken about Cameron Latu and we've spoken about some of these 49ers to Eagles players. Danny Gray was with the practice squad last year and I heard positive reviews on him. And then Terrace Marshall, if you watched LSU and Joe Burrell was there,

you remember Terris Marshall as part of that trio with Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson. So we'll kind of bundle these guys together. Are you intrigued by the Terrace Marshall Danny Gray combo? I mean, I'm intrigued, but I'm not overly optimistic on either. I was not high on either player coming out. Terrace Marshall back in 2021, he was my wide receiver 26 that year, despite him being a second round pick. Danny Gray was my wide receiver 33 that year, despite being a third rounder. Real quick, my final summary on Terrace Marshall, two-year starter, who is 6-2 and runs a 4-4,

so there's certainly a base to work with. And he was productive whenever he was on the field. That being said, there's not a lot to get excited about with this player. He has a long way to go. He's not a technician. He would need to be protected early on off the line of scrimmage. He's not a plus athlete and he fights the ball. Would need to start his career in the slot before proving that he can get off press well

enough to play X receiver where I think his ceiling is as a flash player and an average starter. There's boom-bust potential with this player. And if taken high, I think he would have a tough road to live up to that draft slot. To me, like he's the archetype of receiver with Terris Marshall. them almost yearly where there's height, there's weight, there's speed, but there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of substance to them as a player and it's all potential. That was kind of how I viewed Marshall and obviously it has not worked out from up to this point. Now, if he can get to an ecosystem

with coaches that have, you know, they've done a nice job with these receivers over the course of the last couple of years. You get with Nick Siriani and get him Petulow with Aaron Warhead and they see if they can try and get something out of it. But to me, I didn't see a ton there with Marshall. I think that with the size with Danny Gray. at least like, and I, again, I was, honestly, I was a little bit lower on Gray than I was with Marshall, but with Gray, he had that trump card of his speed. You know, he was a guy who ran 4-3-1 at the Combine.

So, you know, this guy, all right, well, at least he has that. My final summary on Danny Gray, two-year starter for Sonny Dykes and his version of the air raid offense, gifted receiver, good size and the speed to run away from defenders with ease in space. A feaster famine player, though, who needs to improve in all technical areas of the game and has the skill set to make an impact on individual plays. A backup outside receiver to start as a fifth or sixth option, likely on the practice

squad with the ability to grow into a role player down the road with time and patience. Developmental backup with boom-bust potential just has too many hills to climb in order to be viewed as a higher developmental project right now. That's great insight there. And you were ahead of consensus on Marshall. And that turned out to be right. And the concerning thing about Marshall is he was drafted by his college. offensive coordinator, right? Joe Brady. Now, Joe Brady wasn't long for that job, but you would think that would have given him a leg up and he can never turn into the player in Carolina that they were hoping. And so maybe that was mismatched at the beginning because maybe that was kind of a

coaching staff pick instead of a scouting staff pick. And so then that's kind of the challenge with the coaching staff pick. Is that when the coach changes? Right. It's like, you know, then what? And that coach changed pretty quickly. But Marshall is someone who, you know, like he had size and he had college production. Of these two, I think Danny Gray would have a better chance of making the 53. First off, he was with the team last year. I think, I think that's important. I like what I saw from him during the summer.

I'm sorry, during the spring. And like you said, speed matters, right? You know, what's your calling card? And when I look at the Eagles wide receivers, you know, they have that prototypical X, like you said, in AJ Brown. They have the silky smooth Devante. They have that big bodied Johnny Wilson in the mix too. Who's giving you like that game breaking vertical element?

And that's where Danny Gray can potentially help you. Now the caveat here is like, you know, San Francisco isn't just moving on from a third round pick. If they didn't, perhaps they are. Yeah. It might be. Yeah. But I did a piece last year on, I do it every year like who's a scout team player who impresses you.

And the amount of corners who pointed out Danny Gray stood out to me because those guys know they're the ones facing him every day. So just remember that name, Danny Gray, when you read the training camp reports this summer and potentially when we do the 53 man roster projections as well because he could factor into that. So if not Gray, if not Marshall, you know who we're talking about then? We're talking about the down the depth chart guys. The guys who Fran Duffy knows better than anyone else.

And I'm going to read you four names here and we can kind of lump them together. Three of them are undrafted players. One of them is a futures contract player. The undrafted guy or the undrafted players are Darius Cooper, Tower Morin, Wake Forest. I need to tell that. And then is it Giles Jackson or Gillis Jackson? I believe it's Giles.

Or is it Giles? I believe it's Giles. Giles. Okay. So Giles Jackson, who, so those are the three undrafted players. And then Elijah Cooks is the, is someone who is with Jacksonville. And he is a big bodied, wide receiver, futures contract guy who, who is in that mix, too. So just, you know, while I'm going to turn this over to Frant of, of course, but just to give you kind of the quick understanding of this, wide receivers and corners, you, you, you, you know, you're typically deeper on in camp than any other position. Right. Like you need to have volume at wide receiver because you need, you know, four, three to four players in every team drill. It's a position that's running all the time, right?

There's other spots where, you know, running back, you can carry five guys in camp and be okay with it. In training camp, wide receiver, you need, number. So I hate to use the term camp body because it's like degrading to these, these players. If you're in that building, you have a shot. You know, Reed Blanketship was was once maybe the 90th guy. And now he's, he's doing exciting mics here on PHLY, right? And so if you're in the building, you have a shot. But these are players who are probably longer shots than some other undrafted guys. Yeah. And the two of those four that I think probably intrigued me the

most would be Giles Jackson. I looked it up. It was a mission one Michigan side had Giles. Giles Jackson and Taylor Moran. Morin is your Britain Covey avatar, right? He is the like short, shifty white punt return slot receiver. That's that's Taylor Moran. Giles Jackson is similar to a nice myth.

I think when you're looking at, yeah, I mean, is that damning with fame praise? Yeah, but I mean, that's, he went on drafted for that reason. It's realistic. You don't want to like, you know, You know, say this guy reminds me of Steve Smith. Right. Yeah.

I mean, I think when you're looking at Charles Jackson, he is similar in archetype to Anaya Smith where he's undersized. He's not super fast. I can look up what his, what his 40 was at his pro day, wasn't at the combine. But this is a guy that's been making plays in college football for a while. I mean, his true freshman year of Michigan, he was making plays. And it was like, oh, he's going to be a guy down the road. And it just never really materialized where he took that next step.

You know, when you're, I was looking back to the Anaya Smith notes earlier. and he was like, all right, well, he never had more than 50 catches in a year. I think his career, I was 53. Never had more than 53 catches. But he did get first team all SEC as a senior, right? So he was always like, you know, present with Giles Jackson, it was kind of similar to that. He just never had that huge year to kind of cap it off. But he can return punts.

He can return kicks. He can line up in the slot. He was tough. He was pretty dependable. So to me, like, those would be the two that I would most keep an eye on here as we get into the summer. And then, and then Darius Cooper. Tarleton State. So I got to say,

I do draft prep, not like Fran does. I do not grind Tarleton State film. I do know Tarleton State's the Texans. And I know they're purple and white. So Cooper, someone who he had, what, he had 76 catches, 1,450 yards last season.

I shouldn't be looking at someone else's screen, but Fran has his undrafted players. He did a great job with that. And you can read that on all-P-H-L-Y.com. But, yeah, Darius Cooper strikes me as, I bring it up because in the chat, Christopher W says, appalled by the lack of Darius Cooper love.

I simply don't know enough about Darius Cooper yet, right? You know, I'll tell him I, I did see Wake. He's an older player, like you said, but like you said, maybe that Britain Covey prototype. Yep. And then Elijah Cooks has been in the league, 11 NFL games, but Darius Cooper is probably the one on this list where I can give you like the least insight on other than the fact that if the Eagles are signing an undrafted

rookie from Charlton State, it means like there was a scout there who, you know, pounded the table and said, this is someone who was a lower level competition, but I think he has a trait or certain traits or certain skill that we need to see in camp. And Cooper remind me, he was a player that made it. after a rookie tryout. Yes, I believe so. Okay. Yeah.

That's why he actually didn't make my, that UDFA piece because he was signed after that. So I have not been through the Cooper films. You know, so I think when you're looking, he'll be a guy certainly I'll keep an eye out for once we get into a training camp. And then last question here before we get into overtime, which is, is this a spot the Eagles could add? They added last year. You know, it was clear going, you know, when we did this show last summer, we knew, man, wide receiver three is a question. Yep.

Right. And the Eagles knew it too. And it's one of these things where, like, Howie Rosemary-Bilding doesn't end at the draft and that they're constantly looking. And they go through the entire training camp. They go through the joint practices. They go through two preseason games.

And then they trade for Jahan Dotson. You know, if there's an injury, you certainly see them adding. Yeah. But do you think that the number four and five wide receiver is on the team already? I do. I think that between the names we've talked about, especially given what we talked about in terms of the dynamic of this offense, I would be surprised if they were to give up an asset. Now, waiver wires, I think that that's a different story. I think if you look at if somebody were to shake loose and that person was worth putting in a claim on, I think that would be a little bit different. But I would be surprised if they were to trade a pick, even though they've got a lot of picks in the coming two drafts, I don't think that they're going to go out of their way to add that position. barring injury. Well said. So we have a minute and a half here before overtime. And I'm going to tease what you should stick around for because I saw in the chat, they said we've had a lot of football talk today. I think we actually mixed in some possum talk and some raccoon talk,

but maybe more football talk than we typically have on July 10th. They also weren't happy with our shorter overtime the last couple days. I've known. That's that. I mean, come on. You know, come on. when we ended the show yesterday there was a lot of people in the chat saying oh it's a short overtime what's going to give you an hour plus a day every day come on

you know the customer's always right but I mean I just think you know you don't eat extra pizza in July right anyways there are I saw in the in the chat

there was a little frant talk that we have to get into and so making you know I'm always sense about you don't want to give up too much of your life but you also got to give the people what they want sometimes so stick around for overtime nice job so this this this this this this came up earlier and kept in the back of my mind okay there's a lot of a we have a loyal audience as as as we know they're very into your facial hair right now uh and they pointed out the fact that you

shaved. Yeah. And they pointed out that, I think someone said you looked 10 years younger. I'll take that. Thank you. And so, uh,

did you consider rowing with it, right? Because it was getting, look, there were people who liked it as we saw in the chat. Um, I think there was a comment about it, if I'm not mistaken.

Oh, really? Yeah. Do you think, um, do you think, uh, or did you consider like,

like, you know, when you wake up, you brush your teeth. you shower, you look at the mirror. Did you consider, or I think Bo says he shaved in the shower. Yeah, I don't do that. Yeah, no, I shave in front of the mirror.

Did you consider at any point, you know what? It's July 10th, not July 3rd. Let's let's roll with this year. Yeah, I thought about it. But as I said towards the end of yesterday's show, when it became a topic yesterday, it looked okay straight up. Like when I'm sitting at my desk,

looking into the camera, building the computer. That's a little bit different. When I'm here and I'm having a conversation with you, now I could have tightened it up. I could have shaved my neck. But if I'm just going to shave, I'm just going to shave. And so that's how I look.

I'm like, no, I'm going to go clean shave. Plus, like I said, we're going down to Florida tomorrow. Like I don't want to be supporting the extra facial hair in the heat. I just didn't want it. Then it's going to be itchy or sweating or doing all that. I didn't feel like dealing with that. So the comment was from dude man, dude man, and 19 needs a mountain man fran so i presume that was referring to the facial hair found my burner

oh okay yeah you can you you can let megan know um the second question here yeah you could because you you brought it up i i wouldn't have brought it up otherwise um you're out tomorrow yeah uh you're going to florida um what's what's kind of the the thinking there florida this time of year you can you can you can in theory get a house uh you said you're running a house you can you can go to the mountains yeah and and grow out the beard you know uh lean into it yep uh you can go to you know there's there's plenty of different shores whether it's jersey maryland doorway uh i typically think of florida as a winter destination that that very well might be the reason maybe you know rates are affordable but but you're you're obviously flying good thing is you don't have to take off your shoes um so

That's that that has started now. Oh, has me? Meg asked me at lunch today. Because I guess that would determine what kind of shoes she wears to the airport tomorrow. Okay. I said, I think, but I don't, I couldn't say with certainty. So, uh, so what, what made you decide on Florida? Uh, I didn't decide.

Okay. Basically it was since it was their birthdays, they were, I was, uh, one of my friends and and his wife kind of came up with the idea, oh, we're going to go down a flood because they, they go down every, uh, every year. Um, so, so we're going to go down there. So, uh, if you want to join us, join us. And so yeah, so yeah. So, so yeah.

So, yeah. So, so it was. So it wasn't my call. We live in, I don't want to say different parts of the country. One lives in Long Island, the other lives in New Hampshire. So we always find a way like, all right, like, maybe one year we met in Lake Placid. We did like a bachelor party like in that area as well a couple years ago when he got married. So, you know, we've, we usually stay up in this region of the country.

But this is the first time where it's a, all right, we're going to do a friend's trip. And it's going to, we're all going down to one place. Okay. Usually we meet at somebody's house and do it that way. I got to say, we have a mini pod the tape. We have shorts the tape. I think four minutes of overtime is pretty strong here. But look, if the chat was disappointed about it, if you have a question in the next two, three minutes, how about this?

If you have a question, throw it in the chat. We'll answer it. I have a conscience. I got to tell you, my conscience sticks with me. So if people are saying we need a longer overtime, I'm happy to do that. But again, we're going to have, we have some other. content we need to film as well. So global entry all day. Yeah, I don't

have global entry. I don't travel internationally that often. More of a TSA pre-guy. Because most of my trips are domestic, but everyone who goes on global entry loves it. Although when I have gone international, I just do mobile passport. Makes it very easy on your app.

Anything else? E. Claire. I don't know when that changed the E. Claire, but Claire, I appreciate you every day. Seriously. Our loyal audience means so much. Z.B. I just got a big question for you. Oh, here. Let's scroll down if we can, Julia.

ZB, have you watched Barbie yet? I have not watched Barbie yet. The least surprising thing. And this is nothing to do with, this is nothing to do with Barbie. Yeah, this is nothing to do with Barbie. I just, I honestly haven't watched much TV, or as much TV as I wanted this summer.

I've been dealing with a number of things. And I, yeah, I want to watch quarterback on Netflix. That's next to my list. but have not watched it. Christopher W. How's your sleep in ZB? It needs to be better. Like I said, there's some stuff going on, but I need to sleep better. And I am determined to do so.

Smy guy, I put a question early on PHY. Could you maybe put that out? E. Clair, thanks, ZB. You guys are my favorite. Thank you so much. Jesse says, no question. It's just one thing. ZB. Fran, Julia, thank you.

Jesse, thank you so much. And so did either of you play high school or college sports? Oh, we know this. We know the answer to this one. So play is a stretch. I was a part of one of the best baseball teams in the country. We were the Philadelphia Daly. I'm sorry, we were the Philadelphia Inquirer team of the decade in the 2000s.

We were number 10 in USA today. We were higher in collegiate baseball. So I was a part of a high school team, a good high school team. play would be a disservice to guys like Sean and Pete and Kevin and Joe and Danny and Andrew and Matt and I can go on down the list here. Guys Alex, guys who played meaningful winnings for us. How about you?

I played, so I played in high school. I played baseball and soccer. Did not play baseball my last couple of years. I was doing, there was a, they did an SAT prep course at our high school. and the prep course was mandatory by from my parents like you know you're you are taking this course uh it was after school for like two weeks or three weeks and it happened that uh baseball did you guys have a hell week like uh leading into the season yeah like it was like yeah so um or it's like a form of it yeah a form of it right uh and if you missed that you could not play okay okay

that week happened during the SAT prep course my junior year uh and so missed the had to take the course so missed that couldn't play as a junior and since i didn't play as a junior I'm like, oh, I'm not, like, I'm not, they're not going to play me as a senior. And so I ended up not playing baseball my last two years. But I played every sport organized, uh, growing up. Me too. I didn't play football growing up. I was the only sport I didn't.

I honestly, by the time I like fell in love with football, uh, I was like so, uh, like, entrenched in the others that I just, I was like, I'm not going to go out for it. But, um, but, um, but yeah, I played everything else growing up. Yeah, flight football wasn't the thing for us growing up. Now it's, it's, it's so popular. Uh, last one here from player one in the mudcats. ZB, any chance of releasing a ZB book box set of three? Whoa.

That's a great idea. Yeah, great question. Something that has been brought up to me. And I want to do it. The challenge is that the books are from different publishers. So it would have to be something that I did on my own and sold it because the publishers aren't. Right. It's different publishers.

But yeah, I'm going to have this fall chance for you to reach out. And I'll send you as many books. And we can take care of that. So this was fun. We have, we missed the midweek mailbag this week. Oh, that's true. Because we're doing Camp Countdown. Yep.

But we have more things to tape. So you always have content. You will see Fran next, next week. Tuesday. Tuesday. Excited for that. Before that, we're excited for Fran to have a good vacation this weekend. Jamie and I will be on tomorrow.

looking forward to that, we could either continue camp previews or we can do a little grid. So I'll check with Jamie to see what he wants. Fridays you kind of like to spice it up a little summer Friday action. True. But until then,

Julia, awesome singer in person. Of course. Great job producing top director or head of content in the business. Fran, the top draft analyst in the business, also Eagles analyst. We love it. If Boer here,

about Bo's best host in the city. If he were here, we would say, as always, we love you. I would say, we'll do better tomorrow. Thanks for watching.