PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles Draft: Will Howie Roseman tap Penn State PIPELINE for a new RB? | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley … Howie Roseman probably feels secure at RB, but all three are entering the final year of their contracts, so players like Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen could make sense for the Eagles in Sean Mannion’s new offense as the Eagles look to add weapons to Jalen Hurts’ disposal. EJ Smith and Bo Wulf break down the RB class, with insight from Fran Duffy and Daniel Gallen, who covers Penn State. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to the PHAI Eagles podcast live from the mobile Xfinity Studio presented by Ashley and Bet365 Bo Wolf, E.J. Smith, we're here. We're happy to talk about the running backs, although our happiness may not be all the way there, given the state of this running back class. Yeah. Nice to see it, E.J. We're going to hear from the great Daniel Gallen who covers Penn State to talk about their pair of running backs and the other. Penn State prospects who are available in this draft, including a few who may interest the Eagles and one who EJ has fallen deeply in love with. Oh, yeah. From Fran Duffy, the great Eagles and also the NFL draft expert.

EJ, how are you? I am doing well. I'm a little bit scatterbrained at the moment because it's something about like it's, it has to be at the very start of the show that somebody's in the driveway and everybody's dog in the neighborhood is going wild. and I looked at my dogs and they were so peaceful. And I was like, I'm just going to leave them be. I'm not going to put them in their crates. I just want them to relax. And now there's pandemonium happening in the house.

But I am doing great. I'm excited to talk about running backs. Excited to be joined by Daniel Gowan, who I like to call it my Eagles baby friend. We were Eagles babies at the same time. Rookies on the beat. So yeah, it's going to be a fun show. Dirty Dan. I'm sorry, I missed it.

I would have liked to have been there for it. Dirty Dan. I don't think people call him Dirty Dan. They do now. I hope they don't. So looking forward to that. But let's get into it here. The state of the running back position for the Eagles is such that this is not a pressing need by any state, by any stretch of the imagination.

You got Sequin Berkeley. You got Tank Bigsby, who shot a lot of juice last year, and you would expect probably should garner more carries this season. And then he's got Will Shipley in the final year of his deal, doing whatever it is that he does. But all three of those guys are sort of on contract years. You know, Bixby and Shipley will both be at the end of their rookie contracts. And Sequin, this is the last year of the big guarantees on his deal. And so it is not crazy to think that especially on day three, the Eagles might take a swing on somebody who they think has a potential role,

whether in this year's offense or in the future. Yeah, you know, it's funny because we've talked a lot this week about Howie Roseman and how he often is looking for starters. He has talked about this before. On day three of the draft, you are looking for starters, players who can have the upside to step into bigger roles, I feel like running back can be a little bit of an exception for them because I think they are happy to find someone who can be a contributor like a Will Shipley, you know, like a Kenny Gainwell, you know, those day three guys that fill out the room

but aren't necessarily like number one running backs on your depth chart. So for that reason, we'll talk about some of the guys that might fit that. But I also have some home run swings that might be available on day three and one that I am very excited about. So yeah, but I do agree that it feels like this is a position where Howie is okay getting like a role player. Potentially. Are we wrong about Shipley? Is this, is he only played in two years? He's got two years left on his rookie deal? I can pull it up. No, to be fair, I don't think that he is even guaranteed of making the team at this point. But yeah, I'm why I was thinking the same thing as you here. Let's see. He's got two years left on his deal. But still. He's got two years left

in his deal. Thank you for the correction in the chat. We apologize. We will do better. We promise we'll do better. I mean, we got to get it right. Yeah. Got to get it right. But I don't think that, I don't think the Eagles are, you know, changing any plans based on, we'll show up his availability. Anyway, I, uh, you asked your question. Yeah, I think so. But, but, but I also think, you know, um, when they think about the offense, a guy who can stay on the field on third down is, is a starter to some degree to them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I love watching running backs. Same. Probably my favorite position to watch. Thought I did.

in what's that? I thought I loved running watch. Yeah. I loved watching running backs. And Fran warned us, we asked him at the end of yesterday's show, what are we going to think of this running back class? You know, no news to the people who have been following it the whole time.

But yikes. I cannot remember being this underwhelmed with a class, probably the worst class as a group that I can remember. Now, we sort of put Jeremiah love to the side of that because there's obviously no chance that he's going to go to the Eagles. And, you know, he's awesome. there are two guys who I like. Like I'm pretty excited about.

I think I like a lot. And neither of them is like, I'm ready to draft them and get me handed the keys over. That's like this guy could be a good backup. And there's like three or four guys who I'd be willing to take a shot on in like rounds five and beyond with some upside. Everybody else? Like, yeah, no thanks. I'm good.

Yeah. There's a lot of like, there's a lot of mid as the kids would say. You know, we're not going to hype mid on this show. to me a lot of the guys I watch it's like yeah they got like a couple of things that I really like about them but overall the whole package that you're looking at it's just like yeah I guess you know so you have told us you know the moving goalposts of the things that you like in a prospect where does this stand for running backs um it's it's it's pretty similar to tight ends where like I like a little guy that's feisty and you know it's physical but really realistically there's one of guy in this class that is like, oh, man, like gets me excited because it is all traits. It's not, he's more of an athlete that are running back.

But, you know, those are my, I also like those guys. Because, you know, you can't teach athleticism. You can't teach speed, you know. The thing that I care about the most when I'm watching a running back is the ability to make a guy mess. If you can't, if you, if it's you one-on-one with somebody from the second level, in space and you can't easily make them miss i'm good yeah there is like a certain level of like flare that you need to have a creativity to be able to get around guys and

manipulate space and yeah i agree there has to be it's like kind of similar to other positions like or other sports like basketball or soccer where you are just trying to get by somebody in a one-on-one situation yeah i think that's a good way to look at it i was wondering what like data metrics like you were really honing in on for these guys Well, that's a good question. I'm glad you asked because this is also one of my favorite stats in the pre-draft process is I love to look at running backs and the difference in their yards per carry against their teammates because I do feel like this is the one position where you can sort of compare apples to apples.

And so the running backs playing behind the same offensive line and the same offensive system, like how do they do versus you over the course of your career? And there are a bunch of guys in this class. Now, you know, when you've got two guys coming out from the same program, obviously one of them is going to be below the other. Judarian Price is going to have fewer yards per carry than his teammates because he had to play next to Jeremiah Love. You know, this has happened in the past with other loaded backfields. But guys like on other teams who are not like that like really differentiatingly better than their other counterparts, that's a red flag for me. And it plays out.

I mean, the only guys over the course of the sample here, I've got four. 40 who had worse or like zero difference in their yards per carry than their teammates. James Connor, Arian Foster, Ezekiel Elliott, surprisingly, and Josh Jacobs. Now Josh Jacobs is playing in Alabama. So everybody else, you want them to be significantly relatively different. And, you know, Jeremiah Love, significantly different in this class. There are a couple guys who are definitely different. And we'll get to one who is my favorite in the class.

But now that's that that is my my go to here. Hmm. Okay. I also got you want to hear about the ages for this sample. Yeah, I would like to hear that. I'm sorry, I'm trying to figure out who your favorite is now. 40 running backs in the sample again. Only two of them entered the NFL as 24 year old rookies. Okay.

That was David Johnson. And that's, you can sort of explain away because he was playing in a smaller school pre pre pre-NIL transfer. Another was Philip Lindsay who went undrafted. And so running back is a position usually where if you're good enough, you're going to get to the league. And it's also surprising. I think we think of like he can find running backs wherever,

but 34 of the 40 were drafted in the first three rounds. Don't get a lot of awesome running backs drafted on day three. Yeah, I feel like you can get good role playing. running backs and you can find like middle of the road starter quality on day three but i mean if you're talking like dudes you know like top 10 build your offense you know not around them but with them as a big part of it you probably are drafting those guys early and i you do you wonder if that's a little bit um like a self-fulfilling prophecy like you draft the guy early and you're going to feature him i think that's part of it yeah okay uh and yeah and then it's production based and so they're going to get

carries i think that's i think that's part of it yeah all right let's let's let's get to the players here Um, Jeremy, I love anything you want to say about him. I mean, he's awesome. Like, he's incredible. Um, my favorite thing. I, I, I liked it so much. I screen recorded it and sent it to the friend because I enjoyed it so much. There's this clip.

I want to say it might have been against like Indiana. Uh, I don't know what the school is off the top of my head now, but, uh, there's a clip where he gets through the hole and he's, he's accelerating into space. And there's a corner that takes the worst angle you can possibly take against a running. back like his angle i i honestly wondered if it was like a business decision like i don't want any part of this guy i'm just going to take a bad angle and get boxed out but it's funny because jeremiah like he he gets through the hole and he sees the corner he puts his hand up he's ready to like brace for contact and then he realized like oh this guy yeah he got no chance and he just takes off so yes very fun player to watch i saved him for last because i knew that the rest of the class was tough

so i watched all of these guys and i just like when i finally turned on jeremiah i love I was like, oh, my God, my mom, like this, I earned this. I really earned the enjoyment of watching this guy just be a superhero out there. So, yeah, really fun player to watch. I think, you know, if you're an Eagles fan, do you want the Giants to take him? Because, you know, with a positional value and what it means for the franchise, but I mean, he's, he's awesome. Yeah, it's not going to be fun. You know, the Eagles would be fine against a player like him, but it still is a very good player that you probably feel now you probably just still want the giants to take them I guess I'm not going to talk myself that far down it six foot two 12 as Fran said yesterday one of his favorite favorite prospects to evaluate in a while because he he does everything

checks every box at that size ran a four three six he's got production he's playing on special teams he's a great blocker with all of that stuff uh you know the evaluation seems easy the only question is the value and still I would not be using a top 10 pick on a running back but that's just me yeah yeah I mean, he is like, if you're a team that, yeah, you're right, a top 10 pick, if you're in a position to have a top 10 pick, unless you trade it up, it's hard to justify. If you told me that a contender moved up, like, I mean, his range is what? Chiefs were at nine? I was going to say, I feel like his range ends before Kansas City.

If you told me the chiefs drafted him, I wouldn't, I'd feel like that's a huge win for them offensively. So it depends on where he lands, if he's going to be an impact player. and high leverage games and big moments, but he certainly has a talent to be that. All right, Fran's running back too, the consensus running back to, is Judarian Price, Jeremiah Love's teammate from Notre Dame, 10, 1⁄2, 2003.

You know, not a super high track record of production. Only 15 career catches, which you understand why, if it's because he's playing next to Jeremiah Love, but that's a bit of a red flag. That would be the fewest reception. for any running back in this sample. Derek Henry is the low man with 17. That's not ideal.

Now, he only played three years. He also had a really slow 10-yard split on his 4-49. 40-yard dash, 161, which is only faster than Kyron Williams and Melvin Gordon in the sample. Not ideal. When you watch him, it didn't seem like he had, it seemed like a decent burst when you watch him. so that was surprising to me. I was, I'm just kind of, eh? Yeah.

On Deerian Price? How about you? If he's a round one or round two guy, I would have expected him to have the flashes of a top five, top ten running back in the league, and I didn't see that with him. He seems like a nice player. Like he's probably going to be solid in the league,

but yeah, I didn't see the upside that I would have expected to see for a guy that's going that early. Two guys I wrote down watching him run. were demarko murray and josh adams both guys who were kind of like high-waisted and they're just sort of run in a straight line you know there's not a lot of side-to-side to wiggle with him yeah he had good vision but yeah there wasn't a lot of make you miss yeah and it's it's just sort of everything is like very on an angle yes there's not a lot of fluidity to to the athletic movements

not my kind of player. And certainly if we're talking about a second round pick, no thanks. Yep, I agree with you. I just think the reason that he like, the reason he's a second round pick projection is probably because he's like solid in most areas. And for me, like if you're going to draft a running back in that range,

you're not drafting him for the floor, you know? And I think that is his main selling point. Is that like at the worst, he's going to be a really, really good compliment back in a committee. And it's like, I'm not drafting that guy in the second round. I'm probably not drafting that guy on day two. So yeah, not my, not my kind of player either. All right. Let's take our break here. I want you to think about it. Let's, let's tease this. And we're going to come out of the break with our favorite guys in this class. I have two that I really like.

I want to hear who yours are. Then we'll talk about K. Tron Allen and Nick Singleton and find out what Daniel Gallen thinks about those guys. Talk about the players who, who Fran is a little a little higher on and lower on-than consensus. Keep it running on the running backs here on the PHAI Eagles podcast. Stay with us. If you love the NFL draft, then this is your edge. The die-hard NFL draft guide is built and based off of thousands of hours of film study being boots on the ground, shrine bowl, senior bowl, combine, talking to scouts, talking to coaches, really getting a feel for where these players are best going to fit and project in the NFL.

We're talking hundreds of players in this class. There is no comparison. This is the best draft guide for Eagles fans. You get player comps. You get all the data. And you get Fran's insight. And here's the bottom line. There is nobody in the entire world who is better suited to be an NFL draft expert

and an Eagles expert and my good friend, Fran Duff. All right. So what are you going to find in the guide? Well, you're going to find player comp. You're going to find strengths, weaknesses, physical tools, analytics, highlights, analysis from all across the space, everything you need to try and determine who are the best players for your team. You get access to the guide if you're a diehard and you'll also get access to a couple of individual breakdowns I'm doing specifically for your team. All right, look, if you want surface level

breakdowns, you can get them anywhere. But if you want independent thought, if you want thorough breakdowns on all of these prospects, become a diehard, get the guide. Or you can get access to the 2026 guide for just $26. Let's win draft season. Starting something new can be terrifying. Before I joined the show, I remember thinking, what if nobody listens? What if my co-hosts? What if my co-hosts? has this weird vendetta against old draft prospects. But sometimes you've just got to take the leaf, and it definitely helps when you've got the right tools behind you like Shopify. Shopify is a commerce platform behind millions of businesses worldwide

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Again, that's Shopify.com slash all city so that you can turn those what ifs into real dollars in your pocket. All right, back in the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. We teased it, E.J. Tell me who was your favorite guy to watch in this class. Everybody at this point knows I have a type. And Mike Washington Jr. from Arkansas is just 100% right down the middle. Oh, man. My type of player right here. He is more athlete than running back right now. He's 6-1-223 pounds. He ran 433 in the combine. His RAS score, a perfect 10 out of 10. Elite jumper, elite three coached 6.91 in the three. own. You can tell this guy to put on a couple more pounds and rush the pass or two, because

honestly, maybe running back isn't his best position. I didn't see a lot from him on tape. That's like, man, this guy is really a technician. He understands the position very well. He is all all traits, 100% traits. You give this guy some time to, you know, refine his game with Jamal Singleton. And you might have a pathway, as friend likes to call it, a pathway toward a number one running back. he is a high variance player high ceiling very low floor as a player probably does not really profile as a good complimentary back or a good special teamer but i don't care about any of that sign me up for the ceiling with this guy you can only find so many freak athletes you got to add him when you can man i do not like him at all yeah because you're you're caught up in all the details i saw the guy

now he's franz running back nine in this class fran is lower him then consensus this is a player who because of those metric because of the size and the testing speed is likely to be you know either the somewhere between the third and fifth running back drafted in this class he's also got really long arms 33 and three quarter inch arms which is the longest in the sample i mean you're talking about like betting on continued improvement from a guy who's a fifth year senior three years of buffalo the new mexico state than arkansas he's not an old though he's 22. He's going to be, yeah, he's going to be 23 year old, 23 year old rookie. He's big. He doesn't run like it. He runs like a little guy, even though he's big. He's not, you know, he's not embracing

contact. I don't see any, like, side to side make you miss wiggle. And I don't, I didn't see him playing to that time speed at all. Like, I don't even see him running away from guy. At 433, that size, he's like, he's getting to, he's getting to, he's getting to the corner and then just getting like five yards before he's caught. Like he gets caught from behind a lot for a guy who has that speed. I was, I was really down on the player relative to expectations given given the size and stuff. I think you're being a little bit hard on him in the sense that he is definitely like a

flashes player. I think you see glimpses of it. You know, I thought you could see the explosive miss at times. I don't think it's a consistent thing. I mean, you see the way he tested and it's like this guy should have been the best running back in in in college football uh so i see where you're coming from but i don't know give me the tools especially again like it's easier to find role players it's easier to find guys who are who have a high floor but there's a reason he will be available on day two i mean i'd expect it to

be day three there's a reason he'd be available on day three and if you have the opportunity to add somebody with that level of athleticism on day three i think sometimes you don't want to overthink it you know again by the upside with a player like him i will say one thing one positive i I thought that he looked like a pretty natural receiver when he was throwing the ball. So that's one little bit of upside. What position, if he had a time machine, what does he go back and what position does he play? If he had a time machine? If you could go back to like.

Well, is his goal to make a lot of money or to just be the best player in football? Because he could go back to, you know, 1955. He feels more than a running back to me, right? So to me, it's like, especially got long arms. He's only six foot. So I guess it's like, I don't know. It's not like he can play off the edge, probably a wide receiver. if he's, you know, I, maybe, maybe that. I don't know. Yeah, I was, I was not in on Mike Washington, Jr.

Ah, I can't, I'm actually surprised with that. I mean, he's a fun, he's a fun, like, he's a fun prospect in the, in the variance. And I'm, I'm buying, I'm buying the variance. If I'm right about him, that I'm going to look like a genius. And if I'm wrong about him, no, nobody will remember. They'll, no, we'll just delete the tape. Uh, I'll tell you my guy. My top guy in this class. Sure you can guess. I'm going to guess. I'm I guess you liked K Tron Allen? That's not the answer. Okay. My guy is, he's small-ish. When you watch him on tape, he looks small-ish. 5-10-and-a-half, 205.

But I'm looking for that wiggle. He's got the wiggle. He's also got burst. He's willing to, at that size, embrace contact and drop his shoulder. He runs with urgency, but also like sees the field really well as far as I'm concerned. Big hands for his size reminds me a little bit of Kyron Williams.

And you look at the difference in yards per carry of him versus his teammates. He's the best running back in the top 15 guys in this category. He had a 5.4 yards per carry. His teammates had a 4.4 yards per carry. He also had 92 catches over the course of his career. The only little flag for him is, that he ran every event at the combine, and so his three cone is below the threshold,

but I don't think anybody's worried about that. I'm just trying to be a show off and do everything. Emmett Johnson from Nebraska, I really like Emmett Johnson from Nebraska, and if Eagles used a fourth round pick, fifth round pick on him, I would be pretty happy. Great running back name. The thing I wrote down about him is, like,

the shifty back with really good and frequent lateral cuts. It felt like he had that kind of, kind of almost like a shooting guard in basketball, like a lot of, you know, like you could say, like a lot of wiggle. Yeah. I kind of feel like the whole time he's moving forward, he's kind of going like this, you know? So, yeah, I understand why he liked him. He just didn't have.

It could be because I'm sort of Lechon McCoy-pilled. Yeah. I'm going to say he does have some of that like Lechon McCoy. Like, he's just always doing the head fakes. And, you know, he runs like an elusive back. The reason I was a little bit lower on him than you is because I just didn't. see like a top half of the league starter when I watched him. Neither do I. Yeah. I don't think he's like a, oh man, like I didn't see that clear path

to being a difference maker. But you know, he was a fun back. He's a good back and relative to the other guys we watched, I do see where you, where you ended up being higher on him than the rest of the group. He was the first guy who, like, it made me smile watching him, watching his running style. Yeah, this is a, this is a backup running back. He can hope gets you six or seven carries a game. And I think there's also, I think there's, I think there's big play upside with Emma Johnson. I didn't tell you his, his time speed. He ran a 4-4-9 and pretty good jumps as well.

So Emma Johnson's my guy. And then there's one other guy who I quite like, who I would, I would want to draft if I could. There are some other players who we can talk about on day three who I would be, I would be happy to draft if they were there. The other guy who I like is Franz running back. five and that's Jonah Coleman from Washington by way of Arizona five eight and a half 220 so he's short and a little bit beefy and this is not a this is not a a quality but it's more of a style the way he runs reminds me of Darren Sproul's in the way that his arms are really

really going when he's running. And I see a player who gets to his top speed quickly, but there is not like the top speed itself. There's no second gear to it, but he gets to it quickly. He is willing to lower his head and get extra yards. He's more

powerful than you would expect, given his size. He didn't test timing-wise, which I would imagine means that he doesn't have a great 40. But I think he, I think he had some juice in the open field. I liked him as a receiver as well. I am I am in Coleman and there's a great note from the diehard draft guide that Fran has

that a massive 75% of his yardage came after contact in 2024. Only eight running backs drafted in the last decade accumulated a higher rate in their final seasons on campus. And none of them forced miss tackles at a higher rate than Coleman. So that was before. Yeah, I really liked him. I kind of felt like he was like a Boston Scott with more juice. And I know like we're just going through short equals running backs. I'm not saying that you're that comparable.

but he does have that similar like short but very compact build he's more of a powerful runner than you'd expect just based off of his height alone um good burst again like a lot of these guys like it felt like their short area quickness was good but they're like you know it's not like they're like freakish you know there's not like that explosiveness that you really want to see uh from like a high upside back or even like the top speed especially for him so um yeah fun player the yards after catch or the yards after contact nugget there is a good one um and it's incredible encouraging for like the type of player that he has to be at the next level. Yeah, if you told me he was, if the Eagles drafted him, uh, expecting him to be like a Boston Scott role, like, you know,

somebody who is, uh, a situational rotational rotational player. Yeah, I, I, I'd see the, uh, the appeal for him there. Yeah, I think, I think he probably has a better chance to turn into a number one running back than Emmett Coleman, Emmett, Emmett Johnson does. Yeah, I got that. Uh, but, but I like Emmett Johnson better. Um, I like, I like, I like Jonah Coleman. Do you feel like Emmett Johnson was a little bit of like a like a ladder, like a jump cut merchant, just like a little bit. Like it was, he did so many of it. Yeah.

You know, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Okay. I thought there was enough of him putting his foot in the ground and going, going right downhill. Yeah. Just yeah. I mean, that, you have a type of base off because when you were reading out the stuff about your Emma Johnson,

I was wondering if you were going to say Jonah Coleman or Emma. Johnson. So I get it. Now, before we get to Daniel Gallen on the Penn State players, what did you think of Ketron Allen and Nick Singleton? Ketron Allen is Franz running back four. Nick Singleton is his

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, running back 12. Neither guy tested, which was interesting. And there's a fun, I know you're going to, I think, believe you asked Daniel about this, but there's an interesting thing for the Penn State fans who will know that like it sort of went back and forth each year, which guy was

clearly better and more productive than the other. Who did you like more? I'll be honest with you. I sort of came away liking Nick Singleton a little bit more. And I know that's opposite of what Daniel thought and what Fran thought. So I am actually happy to defer to them because they've watched more of these guys than me. I like Nicholas Singleton as like a north-south, you know, just power, contact balance type runner. the production and the use case is kind of against that.

I think that, you know, and again, Fran is higher on K. Tron Allen, but if you just like were asking me which one, would I rather like draft one a couple rounds later and put them in my rotation, I probably would lean toward Nick Singleton. I think that's how I feel too, is I'm happy to agree with them that Ketron Allen's a better prospect. Yeah. But I would not use the pick it would take to get him versus the pick that it would take to get Singleton, I feel.

Yeah. Yeah. I just, I think, yeah, I think that's a good way to phrase it. The gap between them is not such that I would be like, oh, man, I would prioritize getting Ketron out and over, Nicholas Singleton. Yeah, I didn't think Ketron, again, it isn't have my side-to-side wiggle. Yeah, he's north-south. Yeah, he's not the sharpest cuts.

It's, yeah, he looked, he looked fine to me. He would be a perfectly reasonable member of a committee. But, yeah, nothing, nothing super special as far as I was concerned. Yeah, I mean, you could top end speed for his size. Like, he didn't get caught as much as you'd expect at that size, which I liked. But, yeah, again, this, we have to qualify. This running back class, you are clinging on to anything you can find with these guys. Yeah.

All right. Let's take our next break. On the other side, Daniel Gallen joins us to talk about these guys. Venga, Yawane, Deny, Dennis Sutton, and all the rest of the Penn State prospects. And then after that, Fran will join us to continue to talk. about these running backs, including his running back three, we went to a very prestigious university. Have you guys heard of Goldbelly?

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Does a great job. I always tell people, I think I've said it on the show before. Like, I consider us like Eagles babies at the same time. Like we started covering the team the same year. It was 2019. So, yeah, we go way back. Yeah, so I appreciate you joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me.

We always sat in the second row of the auditorium because we weren't going to lob any questions down at Doug those couple of years. Yeah, yeah. It's an intimidating thing, your first year of question face-offs. And we were like, I always felt very seen that we kind of went through that experience together. But like I said, you do a great job covering Penn State now. And obviously there's a lot of players in this year's draft class that hail from Penn State.

And a lot of guys that we have talked a lot about on the show as potential fits for the Eagles. So I think we should probably start. We're doing running backs today, but I think we should probably start with Venga Yawani because I feel like he is a player that makes a lot of sense for the Eagles in round one, depending on what they're looking for. So what could you tell me that maybe people wouldn't know about him as an interior offensive line prospect? I mean, Venga Yawane passes all of the eye tests that you can imagine. You know, he is massive.

He can move. He can mall you. He can put you into the ground. You know, he finishes the blocks. I know there was a cut up going around social media a couple weeks ago of just the way that he blocked, the way that he finished plays. You know, he is a very, very excellent interior offensive linemen. You know, the one thing about him is that he just moves so well at his size.

James Franklin did this a couple times over the third. summer when you know they'd host prospect camps up at Penn State and you know so there'd be all these parents watching their kids you know go through testing you know doing drills all this stuff and you know you know yawane would be there you know because a lot of players would be there to help out and franklin would always bring yoanna over to the parents and you know he'd say you know meet vanga how much do you think he weighs and at this point yawanna was listed around 348 on the pen state roster and just rock solid, like built like a rectangle. And, you know, Franklin would do the reveal and, you know, all the parents would like, whoa, like, that's crazy.

And, you know, basically Franklin would be like, this is what our strength program does. And this is the type of player that we have. So, you know, you want to also good leader, you know, good backgrounds, you know, with his family. And I think that he is someone that, you know, it's been fun to watch him creep up draft boards. And I think he'll be an impact player wherever he lands. Yeah, yeah. So the Eagles had him in for a top 30 visit reportedly. And I am curious, like you kind of alluded to it there, the personality that he has.

It seems like he would be probably a big hit in that building, you know, as they get to know him as a person. Definitely like a, he's got the gentle giant thing going on a little bit where, you know, you see him, you know, plant someone into the turf and, you know, maybe give him the business a little bit. But then, you know, my colleague Mark Brennan at Lions 24-7, he captured this viral video after the Ohio State game. in November, you know, crushing loss, you know, nothing's going right. There's an equipment manager, you know, struggling to push the equipment cart up a ramp. And Vanga, you know, wearing knee braces in just one fail swoop, like just jumps this three foot wall, you know, with ease, like goes over and helps the, you know, helps the staffer push this card up. And, you know, it's something like, he didn't have to do that. You know, he's, you know,

enduring a losing streak. The program's in disarray. But, you know, he told us the next week that, you That's how he's raised. And, you know, he feels that he had a job beyond, you know, just being a football player in the program that he has to help everyone in the program. So I think that's a really good window into the type of person you'd be bringing into your program. Gotcha. Gotcha. So I have a humongous draft crush on Deni Dennis Sutton. He's one of my favorite players that I've watched so far.

He is, you know, an Eddrush, your prospect, 6-5, 270 pounds, you know, ran a ridiculous three-cone drill at the scouting combine that, you know, basically puts him with some very, very elite company in terms of edge rushers. I don't know if I'm asking you to like talk me out of this or just really push me further into, you know, being all in on him as a day two prospect for the Eagles on the edge there. But what can you tell me about him? Yeah, I think the day two framework fits for him. I think that that's where he belongs because, you know, he doesn't have that bend that you see

in some of the real top flight guys, you know, but he's somewhat. that he was listed, I think, at one point during his career at 270 pounds. So he can wear that well on that six-foot frame. I think that gives you a little bit of versatility of moving him around. You know, maybe you can put him on the inside a little bit. He can use that length, get into some passing lanes, that sort of thing. He has the pedigree. He has a five-star prospect in the 24-7 sports rankings back in the class of 2022. He picked Penn State over schools like Alabama and Georgia, and then decided to stick around for his senior year. And not only did he do that, he finished his senior year.

He was the only guy, you know, who played in the bowl game, you know, of these, you know, upper classmen. I might be missing, you know, Trevor Pena played, you know, a couple other upperclassmen played. But, you know, Denai was the guy. He was the top prospect who played. And the way that he framed it to us when we talked to him at Pro Day was he was just like, basically like why wouldn't I play if I had another chance and also he's like if other guys are going to do their own thing that doesn't affect me he's like I am my own person I'm going to do what

I'm going to do something because it's cooler or whatever like that so he does have a little bit of that independent streak in him but he is an intense player go through the photo wire you can see some crazy eyes you know you'd see him you know basically like before big plays at beaver stadium like towering up, like staring at the sky screaming as the, you know, opposing offensive line is coming up to the line of scrimmage. So he's got great, great play personality. Yeah, absolutely. It shows up on tape, too, you know, it's like his, so much of his profile checks the boxes the Eagles want to check, you know, former five-star recruit, intense play personality, elite athletic testing, local kid, relatively local maybe, stretching the definition there

a little bit. But yeah, I'm very excited about him as a prospect. He's another one. They had on a top 30 visit reportedly, and I see why. He's their type of player. So we're doing running backs on today's show. And one question I have for you, watching K.Tron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, why did they platoon those guys their entire career? Like, Nicholas Singleton, this is a stat from France draft guide. He had just one game with more than 15 carries in 2024, despite averaging 6.4 yards per carry.

So my question to you is like, what was it that James Franklin was like, you know, what was the coaching staff's plan there with those guys? And why did Nicholas Singleton have such limited usage despite his production? Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of the recruiting cell to get two top flight running backs in the class of 2022 in and then also keep them. You know, Nick Singleton, five-star prospect, in-state kid from Redding. Ketron Allen, he was a top 247 prospect. He's from Norfolk originally, finished his career down at IMG Academy. So he came in, kind of ready to go, used to the college atmosphere a little bit. But I think for running backs coach, Jayne Wattner, who's now at Notre Dame, coached up Jeremiah Love, and Judarian Price this year, and for James Franklin,

I think that they viewed it as the way to keep these guys happy, keep them both in the building. And also, the excelling point, hey, you want to play in the NFL, we're not going to run you into the ground. So I think that that's something that they also used to, you know, as a recruiting pitch and a way to keep these guys happy. But you do look at the numbers. And especially during their first two years of their career, like, it's pretty crazy.

Like Ketron 167 carries as a freshman, Singleton, 156. And they were sophomores, Ketron had 172. Singleton had 171. And you would see at different points during the season. Like they would have the exact same number of carries. I think that, you know, there's bigger discussion to have about if that's a good way to, you know, run a team, run a program. But it got both of these guys to the end of their careers, I think relatively fresh and the opportunity to play in the NFL. Yeah.

So I've only, I watched tapes. I watched tape on both these guys. You know, I looked at their profiles in Fran Duffy's draft guide on our website. Who would you say was probably the one that was, you know, maybe getting the short end of the stick with this platelets? tune that they had in place here. Who would you say would have played more if they weren't so worried about kind of making sure that both of them were happy with the situation? I think you saw it this past fall. You know, midway point of the season, James Franklin gets fired. I think they were relatively even in their carries, but Ketron Allen's production

was dramatically outpacing Nick Singleton's. And Terry Smith came in as the interim, and they said that we're going to double down on being a physical. smashmouth football team. They also lost Drew Aller in the same game. You know, that was Franklin's last. So they did do a lot of retooling on the fly. And they really just leaned in to Nick Singleton, or to Catron Allen as the bell cow down the stretch. You know, Singleton still got in there, you know, a couple times. And, you know, they were able to use his skill set. But, you know, they really did lean into Allen down the stretch. And you look at his final, you know, basically after Terry Smith took over. He had 28 carries in that first game. He averaged 23.3 carries down the stretch.

So I think, you know, Alan was the hot hand last year, and they were really able to to ride him down the stretch. And, you know, they still worked in Singleton, you know, still got him the, you know, the touchdowns record and the all-purpose yards record, you know, at Penn State. But Ketron Allen was playing better and that showed up down the stretch. Yeah. Yeah. And it's reflected in Fran's rankings, too. He's got Ketron Allen as a 71st player on his board, Nick Singleton at 148. I like Nick Singleton, though. I thought he was like a fun watch still, but yeah, I was very curious about the usage when I was looking at those guys. Really quick, let's buzz through the other guys. So I think we should probably start with

Drew Aller. Honestly, he feels like another Eagles-e type pick at some point, probably on, I don't know, probably early day three if I had to guess where the Eagles would like to draft a backup quarterback. But I guess what would you say to Eagles fans who are curious about him as a potential Tarram McKee successor in the long term. I mean, he could take up another spot in the quarterback factory. Exactly. Go through that developmental program. Yeah, I mean, I think with Aller, like personally, I don't think he's going to be there early

day three. I think someone's going to fall in love and he's going to go day two. I think I pegged it like between like 45 and 95 in that pick range. Just because like he's got all the tools. He can make all the throws. and I do think he's going to interview well, and I think he's going to do the board well. He's a football junkie, all those sorts of things.

It really depends on does this franchise feel comfortable with his mental makeup, you know, and do they look at some of the struggles as the situation he was in being, you know, not exactly a match for Andy Codwell-Nicky's offense, or do they see it more on, you know, the player? But I do think that, you know, you watch him in practice, you know, practice. Yeah, practice hall. I remember I was at a Penn State's Pro Day a couple of years ago doing a story about Saquan and we were hanging out in the practice bubble and I'm just watching Drew Aller

throw and it's like, yeah, this guy looks like a first round quarterback. So you're right. It's a traits position and for that reason he could end up going higher than we expect. But I think he's probably somebody on the Eagles radar if he does fall into those middle rounds. It's hard to see them using a third round pick on Drew Aller, but a fourth or a fifth rounder, I could see that. How about, you know, I really liked Zane Durant when we watched him yesterday.

And I think that as like a Moro-Jomo replacement, I guess what stands out about him and, you know, his time at, with the, with Penn State. So my, my Zane Durant story is when the first time we saw the early enrolling freshman in February 22, they were at a, you know, a charity event for pediatric cancer. And Durant was in number 28. I heard Boe talking about that. Yeah, I love the number. And I thought, I initially thought he was K-Tron Allen because he was wearing number 28. And we all knew that K-Tron Allen was-H-T-R-E-H-H-H-Torne, yeah. Yeah, and we all knew K-Tron Allen was his nickname was Fat Man.

Like he was a, he was a big guy coming in. And then, you know, immediately realized that. I was like, oh, that's the new defensive tackle. All right, let's see how he develops. But, you know, he went from being a 255-pound guy on signing day to being up near 300 pounds, kept that explosiveness. I think the defense last year was really in disarray. for much of the season. So it's really hard for me to, you know, totally grade out his performance.

But I think that he is someone that if you bring him in to be a situational player, he can do good things for you. For sure. All right. I'm going to let you pick between Drew Shelton and Zaki Wheatley. Who do you think should be more on Eagles fans' radar is the safety or the offensive linemen here? I mean, Shelton's the local kid from down and town. Yeah, by back yard, basically. And we know how the Eagles love to stockpile those offensive linemen and see what you can get. But I think Wheatley has a little bit more of an interesting trajectory from his career. He was a five-year guy. He started his career as a corner, moved to safety.

He's one of those guys that, you know, according to who you talk to, teams were sniffing around him, you know, saying, hey, you know, maybe you should come into the portal. You know, come play for us. You know, we can take care of you. but he stuck it out at Penn State. And I think that he is an example of, you know, the different developmental curves that you get. You know, during the 2023 season, you know, Penn State gave up, you know,

two like long touchdowns against Indiana in a game that they really had to come back and win late. You know, Wheatley got benched. You know, he's playing with KJ. Winston and J.lyn Reed to you guys who were drafted last year. You know, they put him on the bench. We don't see him again. And then his role the rest of the year was, you know,

maybe a little bit smaller. You know, the story we heard from Anthony Poindex through the former safeties coach. And Franklin was that, you know, they had a meeting with him that winner. And he was basically like, I want to be good. I want to be,

you know, a playmaker here. I want, like, I want this to work. And, you know, his maturity finally caught up,

you know, to that skill set. And from then on, you know, his last two years on campus, I think he was definitely among the more consistent defensive players on Penn State. Like it went from that thing where,

when you notice a safety, sometimes that's because something broke down and he's the guy that that's left chasing something. But that really limited or went down, stopped happening. He can play physical despite his reputation as a ball hawk. We saw him lay some big hits. And it didn't quite come through in his stats, but he is a guy who was always around the ball. Anytime there was a turnover, anytime there was an interception,

it seemed like he's forcing the fumble, recovering the fumble, getting his hands on the football. you know and making a game-changing play. So now I think that he's someone that, you know, I know he didn't test the best, but he's someone who I think his play speed shows and that he knows where he's supposed to be and knows how to play that safety position.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And by the way, really last question here, do we have any more nicknames for these guys? You mentioned Fat Man for Ketron Allen. Is there any other like good nickname that if one of these guys does end up with the Eagles that fans are going to need to know about? Oh, man. I mean, Drew Shelton was with Shelley. But, you know, that's more like in the locker

room. But I mean, Drew Aller, like for for Ketron Allen, it got shortened from Fat Man to Fat, where, you know, Drew Aller would be talking to us and be like, oh, yeah, Nick and Fat did this, Nick and Fat did that. Pretty funny. Nick Singleton's nickname for a little bit was Gatorade because he was the national Gatorade player of the year. But that didn't quite stick. I mean, that is a pretty, that's a pretty like flex name right there. You know, it's just like, yeah, nothing else on the fat man level, though. Yeah, that's a good nickname, though. It's a good nugget.

That's why that's why we have you on, Daniel. I knew you were going to have really good insight on all these guys and really get to the nitty-gritty of the nicknames and, yeah, some of these great anecdotes. So I appreciate you joining us. Stay tuned for more on the other side of this break for the P.H.O.I. Eagle Show. All right. Let's talk about a game changer at Rita's because the Jolati Sunday has. has officially arrived. And yeah, of course that thing is delicious. Why settle for just one flavor when you can have everything? With the Rita's Jolati Sunday, you're getting layers of their classic

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of honk and good service. Elkin Chevrolet on Route 73 in Marlton, New Jersey. Together, let's drive. We're back on the Pitchell-Y-H-Ego's podcast, and look who's here. The All-City NFL draft expert. How are you doing, Fran? Doing great. What's going on? Are you doing worse now that we have to talk about the running backs? Yeah, I was going through my linebacker stack right now, so it's definitely changing gears.

Linebacker's pretty good this year and running back so much. Okay. Well, let's work through a couple other guys in your top ten here, including your running back three from the great Wake Forest University. Demand Claiborne, 5-9 and 3,000. quarters, 188, ran a blazing 437. This is a guy who you're, you're betting on the juice, the open field speed. I am. And I think that, you know, to me, I so I did Tomont Clayboard over the summer, saw a guy that I thought could be a really good third down kind of scat-back

option in the NFL. He's got lateral quickness. He's got breakaway speed. He's an accomplished return man. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. He'll give you some effort and pass protection. He really reminded me of Naheem Hines when Hines was coming out of NC State. By the way, a player that Nick Siriani is extremely fond of during his time in Indianapolis. So if he sees a little bit of Heinz, I wonder if there would be some attraction there. But I think to me, with Claibor, the fact that he is an accomplished kick returner, that is something that would give me a little bit of juice for him early day three. He reminded me a little bit of Kenneth Walker in the way that both of them are kind of,

They're always trying to get outside and use that speed. And I wasn't sure if that was going to work in the NFL for Kenneth Walker. It certainly did. So I'm not, I'm not betting against someone as smart as DeMond Claiborne. I liked him. I didn't love him, but I liked him. Yeah. That's kind of, that's the nature of this running back group.

Yes. There's a few guys. It's not even like, oh, there's a lot to like. There's a few guys to like, one guy to love. And that's about it. Now, did you get to see the segment when Fran and I, or when E.J. and I said our favorite guys in this class. No, I just missed it.

So I was listening up until, I think you guys were just starting Judarian Price. Okay. So I want to see how well you know us. Here it was mine. Oh. Yeah. But you would have guessed it anyway. Well, EJ is, again, because we know, like, you know, the volatility of this, EJ was either going to be like the traitsiest guy or it was going to be like the most, you know, rugged workman like running back in the class.

And so I did, I did think it would end up be the Tracey guy. Not surprising at all that it's Arkansas running back Mike Washington. Yeah. Yeah. He's awesome. He's great. He actually was compared by Fran to Kenneth Walker. Now that's not the primary comp.

That's the upside comp. That is like if he hits his ceiling. So I like him. I like him. I saw to me like I saw more like Christine Michael. Like the guys that I'm typically frustrated by are the ones that like that's where Mike Washington falls in for me. I am definitely lower on consensus than on Washington than everybody else.

Can I give you like the most sacrilegious player comp for Mike Washington? I like, you know, it's all a little Darren McFadden in there. It's tall Arkansas running back. Just like, you know, the nostalgia aspect, not as a player, obviously not. Yeah, I love the idea of comparing him to a first round bust. That's true. Yeah, I actually don't think that's the craziest comp. No, it's not.

Yeah, I don't know. I would pump the brakes a little bit on that one. We've got a super chat on this front, Fran, and that is from Jack Royer, who says thoughts on his fellow Wahoo Jamari Taylor. He's older, but not worried about the second contract for a day three running back and mainly looking for early contributions. Jamari Taylor, about 510, 197, very slow 40, 463, very slow 10 yard split, 163. He had 5.1 yards per carry whereas his teammates had 4.9, so he was above that. 1,000 yard season, 4 to 3 catches over the course of his career. you like him if you read my report on jimari taylor um i like jimari taylor he's a guy that i would say like

i like i like this player now the upside is the like i don't i don't think he's got phenomenal upside but this is a player that i think sticks in the league for a long time like i wrote down devon neal um sorry i did write down devon neal but the my primary comp is um good it was on the giants for uh for all that time give me a second i've got in front of me uh july i i've been singletary where am I at? Devin Singletary, thank you. Devin, to me, and to me, like, Devin Singletary has been, like, a solid number two in the NFL for a long time. That's kind of how I view Jamari Taylor, really efficient, good vision, not going to blow you away with, like, make you miss and power and, like, long speed.

A little bit of, like, Aryan Foster-ish, like, in terms of, you know, Foster turned into it like a pro-ball, like, you know, all-pro type of, like, I don't think that's the case, but in terms of, hey, he's going to go late rounds, and he's going to, to get drafted, Taylor. He's going to go late rounds. To me, like, if you told me he became like Alfred Morris, like it wouldn't shock me. Like, oh, he goes somewhere for a zone blocking team and he just hits, like that, that wouldn't shock me at all. Okay. Last one in your top 10 to discuss is your running back seven, which is Levi-on Moss from Texas A&M. It does, fairs pretty well in the yards per carry. Point eight yards better than his competition. 5-11, 2.1, 2.1.2.5.5.5.5.

11 ran a 4-5-8 this to me is a guy who if you just want somebody to get you the four yards that are blocked he'll do that and not much else right yeah you know kind of uh you know short yardage ish type of back like you know he's efficient in that way but not going to create yards for himself not a dynamic athlete was hurt by injury this year um so yeah that's that's kind of the book on moss uh did not get a chance to guess your favorite though oh that's right oh see how you know so that's why so i'm looking is it Emmett Johnson? Fran, I love me so much.

It's so nice to know when somebody knows you well. Why do you think I like to Emma Johnson? I'm going to guess you liked Emma Johnson a lot because he was extremely productive this year, probably more productive than his peers. He's got juice. He's got some big play potential. Not a lot of guys in his class do.

And that's probably it. Did you see my comp for him? What was it? Former Eagle, briefly. Preseasoned darling. Oh, Rahim Moster. That's a good one. I like that.

I think he could be that kind of player. And then I also quite like Jonah Coleman. If I was, I mean, on John Coleman. So here's the thing of Coleman. I like Coleman. I typically like backs like Coleman. He reminded me, I wrote down like Khalil Herbert. Like he's kind of like, you know, the bowling ball.

That's a good call. Like, you know, he did this thing. I think I was in studio when this came out. And I might have shown you, Beau. So someone sent this to me. It was during the fall. And it was a post on social media that Coleman had put out. And it was like a transformation like, oh, like, you know, before and after kind of thing.

Yeah. And it was like, you know, him really out of shape and then like him in shape. Yeah. And you would think like typically when a guy posted it's like, oh, like this is me freshman year versus me like. Yeah. It was literally like the end of last season, like literally January of 2025 to March of 2025. Well, you know what's funny about that? And I'll actually, I will tell you what's funny about that, Fran, in overtime.

Watching him, I started with the Arizona stuff. And at Arizona, he looked like a completely different guy. And then the first year at Washington, it looks like he put on like 15 pounds. And he looked slower and less dynamic. And then that senior year, it looked like it was a little bit back. So I wonder if I guess it would be better if it was just a one-year blip and not that was his whole life until his senior year. But it did feel like that his body had changed. Yeah, I think that from what I kind of gather, like the weight has been a bit of an issue.

But he's not a bad kid. Like I've talked with multiple West Coast scouts about him. It's like, yeah, like good kid, you know, from Compton. Like, you know, not like the cleanest like upbringing. Like everybody's like, good kid like came out of that really, really well. like no concerns about him whatsoever. There's just like the weight, like you can kind of keep an eye on it,

but good player. I like John DeKlema. I just don't think that it's like starter. I think he's more like a running back two, three type. Okay. So those are the guys I really liked. And then there's there's three guys who I am mildly curious about late on day three or even really only one of them.

I think would draft. And then the other two I would be interested in bringing into camp. The one who I like on day three, if you're going to take a shot on day three, this to me is the guy, Robert Henry Jr. from Texas, San Antonio. 5-9 and a quarter, 199, ran a 451,

very productive. He looked like a really fluid athlete to me. And I think there is some juice and upside. And I would rather take a shot on a guy who I don't know if he can compete at this competition level than a bunch of these guys who were just mid against, you know, D1 competition. surprised because he's a six-year senior but i guess i've talked about the age the age aspect of

of the running back position running back it's very important uh it doesn't seem like it because you would think okay this is just their first contract you don't need to worry about it but in terms of like finding elite players right they come out early but i can i think the elite for for the elites i think it's important that's right but i am also i am i am i'm okay with a 24 year old if he was he's from a smaller school there's you know of course he's not going to leave early from Texas, San Antonio. Yeah. Yeah, typically not.

I like Henry. It was a little bit of a slow burn. And part of it is that like he, because he got off to a hot start. He was one of the leading rushers in college football the first like four or five weeks. And so there was a lot of hype early on like, oh, this guy could be like a day two. And I'm watching. I'm like, oh, like I don't quite see that. But I liked him in person at the Shrine Bowl, well put together.

And he does have some juice. He didn't test as well as expected, but tested fine. I like Robert Henry. I'm looking through seeing his clips now, and he was, like, radar tracked at 21.7 miles an hour, but his 40 time was, let's see, here. Well, and that was the thing, EJ, was that, like, I was watching him. I'm like, I don't know that, like, the juice, like, blew me away on film. And I think I kind of wrote that was like, yeah, like, the eye test doesn't quite match the GPS numbers.

Yeah. But then the eye test matched the 40 time. So I'd say it's, yeah, it's tough one. And then there's two guys who, who I'd be, you know, I would, we would, we would, love to have you in camp. We're going to give you a nice guarantee. Okay. Again, just because you're looking for guys who what's the, you know, what's the reason why they might get better? I'm a little bit interested in Adam Randall from Clemson, the wide receiver turned running back. I mean, you can tell he does not look like a running back. He's very much, he's like he's very much

playing out of position. He looks like a wide receiver. He's like six, three and a half to 220 something. Can I cut you off there real quick? Yes. He doesn't look like a receiver either though. Like, that's where I get, that's where I get held up is that like, I'm going to the scene. your ball and he's down there and they do all the one-on-ones and he wants every single rep and i'm like yeah that's right take everyone oh okay i can't see him win one catch against the linebacker i'm like dude like come on man like this is this should be it this should be your drill i'm sure his agent told him like yeah take every single one of these reps that you can um it wasn't he he had to have taken like 20 reps in one-on-ones it wasn't until the very final one he went up and like moster guy in the

end zone like over one like he was a former like four-star receiver like you know big body And yeah, I just didn't say that reminds me. I have a very interesting information. I don't know if you guys have heard this. No, no, this is, I'm serious. This blew me away the other day. Okay. You know, like when you're growing up the game, 500, you know, you throw the ball up and somebody's got to catch it.

You know, you throw her assigns points. Isn't that called jackpot? Oh, yeah, yeah. Are you guys called jack? It's got a different name as far. The kids were playing it before practice the other day. They calling it Moss. Moss.

Oh, that's cool. I like that. Isn't that awesome? I really like that. I love that when we were kids. Moss. I love that. Pretty good.

It's like, oh, that's great. Do they even know who Randy Moss is? I would hope so. So yeah, if you tell me he can't win in that stuff, I think that's fine.

I'm not, and then the guy who I'm not even, not even like a priority, but I'd like to have camp. I was a little bit interested in his running style. He's undersized. This is just, I kind of want to see him in camp.

That's Dean Connors from Houston. Oh, man. Way low. After seeing him up close, you don't want to see him in camp. Okay. That small. I mean, it would be a funny bit for the show, but yeah, it's, uh, I'm okay. Okay.

He might get drafted just because a little like the average, because the average number of running backs that get drafted every year is 20. Yeah. And it's, it's a slog to get there this year. Yeah. So there, you know, if a team like loves them, thinking you can play special teams and stuff like that, like maybe he goes 1920. Yeah.

Last one then. Because this is, you, you haven't graded it as a wide receiver. I think I've played seven, he is a right back. He is an interesting player to me. And he is drafted. No question. This would be one to put in there, yeah. Yes.

And I think a reasonable day three selection, and that's Eli Haydenreich from Navy. Now, we don't know if he can even play right away, right? Dude, I've almost like given up with these, Because it's the same thing with Landon Robinson and like, you know, because it changes year to year. And from what I understand, it has to do. It's like an individual basis, like getting cleared to be able to play in the league right away from the military academy. So I think he'd be fine.

But yeah, I mean, it seems like he's fine. But that's it. That's a whole thing. He is six foot 198, short arms, which is more of a red flag because his real value is going to be as like a slot receiver type. he can carry the ball for you. But I thought it was pretty interesting. Yeah. So I studied him in like October, November for the first time.

And it was listed as a running back. And so I'm watching him. And look, Navy doesn't run like the triple option the way that they used to. But they'll still get into some option he looks. He spent most of his time as like a what you would call like a wing back. Right. So like in the triple option, it's like, you know, you think of the quarterback under center, running back right behind him.

and then you have the two running backs kind of like in the wing, like offset a little bit. And then it's like, all right, you've got the dive or you've got the pitch, you know, that kind of deal. So that's kind of where Haydner spent most of his time and then he would kick out to the slot. So he did take a lot of handoffs, but it's not a lot of like pure running back handoffs. And then I'm watching him as a receiver and, you know, whether it was like stuff from the wing and he's like releasing up the field or like real routes from the slot. And I'm like, all right, like he's got lateral quickness as a route runner. like that shows up he could snap off breaks he's pretty good he catches everything he's tough as as it gets and i'm like yeah like he's a slot receiver and my grade was like when i when i did the grade i was

my grade's high you know and so i'm like okay i i really like him and so i'm like all right well he's listed he goes he goes to shrine and he's listed as a running back i'm like all right watch i well i'm looking through with this prism you know maybe he's running back receiver whatever he looks terrible in past protection drills a caught everything as a runner like kind of just like you know whatever like okay yeah practice like you know so i'm not getting a ton of so i'm leaving there i'm like yeah i'm keeping with the receivers so then he he gets the combine invite and it's as a running back so i'm like all right like same deal they go in running back combine workout it's actually one of my least favorite workouts because they do like

two running back drills then after that it's all pass catching so the bag drills that he did for running back he like hit three bags he stumbles once you know what and then he does all the receiver drills and he looks awesome and i'm like this kid's a receiver like I'm leaving him in receiver but every time I talk with anybody scout like a media type that's like tied in with scouting like yeah I've got them in my receiver yeah like I view him as a receiver yeah I view him as a receiver um you know I talked with two northeast scouts about him you know one that evaluated them last year in 2024 and one off this year and they're like yeah I kept him with my receivers so I don't know I think the way I'm looking at it is because the running back class was so bad the numbers were so bad those events were inviting them as a back literally like from a number standpoint. That's the only reason I've landed there. But I think that teams are going to view him as a receiver. And I think he could be like a starting slot. I do.

I think he could be like if you told me, like if Bill Belichick would take this guy in the third round and he'll be. But I really do think like the McVeigh-style systems, which here in Philly, Elvillian, like you can tell me that this kid's a slot receiver and I can get there. And I think he could be a starter. To me, this is, I mean, it's very much, if this is a role that you want in your offense,

this guy's going to be good at it. And, and, you know, so I don't know if the Eagles, if they even envision having this role in the offense, but if they do, I mean, I'm in. Right. I mean, we're at 4-4, 4-4. Like, I like him. Dude, I'm telling you, if you watch him, like, if you just watch all like his targets, like purely as a receiver, there is plenty to get excited about it. And I think this receiver class is fine. But honestly, like, when I get into like the middle rounds of receiver, I'm not like super juiced about a ton of the guy.

I like him. I like hiding or I care. He's one of my, like, green players in this class. He's a guy, he's one of my guys. We have a super chat from earlier from Matthew Greenwood. And I'll ask you about this one too, Fran, because this is a player who you are relatively low on. And that is Nick Singleton.

He says, I'm here to back my guy, Nick Singleton. He's been killed by this process and injury. A more explosive Miles Sanders shouldn't be going in the fifth round. I would argue that Miles Sanders shouldn't have gone in the second round would have been my argument to that. But here's what I'd say it. I was low on Singleton coming into the year. Back in the summer, like, I had a higher grade on Catron Allen and EJ, great job with Dan Galland.

You know, I enjoyed that interview. To me, like, I had a higher grade on Catron then Singleton. Singleton is just such a, it's very boom or bust. And he always kind of left me one thing from like a vision decisiveness standpoint. I think he needs things to be really clear for him up front and really well defined in terms of like rush lanes and landmarks and things like that. So like zone blocking schemes. To me, like, that's not him. I want him downhill and just letting him roll.

I really liked him on third down. Like I thought he made some phenomenal catches. I've got a few clips in the draft guide kind of showing off what he could do as a receiver. I think he's not like a shifty athlete. He's, you know, bigger and like straight line speed. So as a receiver, like you're going to use them, you know, I could imagine like David Johnson, like, you know, when he was coming out Northern Iowa for the Cardinals, like that kind of athlete. but you know, pass protection.

Also, like he would have a couple games that were really bad, but that mostly good. I thought he was one of the better pure past protectors. He goes to the senior ball and he didn't look great in past protection drills there. But again, like off film, I thought he was solid. I just, I got to me, like, I think one of my comps is like Samajip Rine. Like I think that that's kind of what he is, like a dirty work backup back that that is going to get bigger in the league. And I think he'll probably lose some of that juice.

And when he loses that juice, like, I don't know what we're talking about. Whereas Ketron Allen has never had juice at all, but he's just really efficient, really decisive, just going to pick up whatever he needs for it, and then he can create some yards for himself just because of his contact balance and his feel. I just like Ketron Allen a little bit more as a pure runner.

Just every time you mention a comp like that, like Somaget Piran, I can't stop thinking about lesser Chow Smith-Wade, which remains the main thing I've heard. Chaw-Smith has been a starting nickel for the last three years in the NFL, two years in the NFL. there's someone else in the chat who wants to know about jaden ot and his dynamic 23 it's Zach Berman um yeah jayne oh now he talks

yeah yeah so jadnott it's really tough um i think when you're when you're looking at i'm trying Zach. You know, Jay not, you know, to me, it's tough because, yes, 2023, he looked like one of the more dynamic running backs in college football. He's at Cal. He's playing, you know, Fernando Mendoza's there. It's one of his first years as a starter. Big playback looked like a future, you know, top 50, top 75 type of selection. 2024 season happens out of Cal. He's hurt for most of the year. He's dinged up. He's in and out of the lineup. Doesn't get a lot of run. So then he ends up getting it into the portal. they had the coaching change.

Mendoza leaves. So Jadnaud goes in the portal, becomes a late edition for Oklahoma back early or late in the spring. Goes to Oklahoma and he's still dinged up coming off the injury. And coming out of the summer, coming out of camp, it's like, oh, like, all right, like he's not ready yet, but he's going to be here soon. And I've mentioned a few times that Oklahoma came to the link to play against,

to play against Temple. And that was the game where they were like, oh, like, he's healthy. We're probably going to see Jad Knot today. And so I go out there and I'm like, I'm watching go through warmups and I'm like, oh, he's, he's kind of like, you know, he's not with the first and second unit as they're going through walkthrough. And yeah, he barely, barely played, if at all in the game.

And so, you know, kind of digging around, basically it seems like from the jump, it just wasn't like a great fit. And so that, but that was it. That was all of his eligibility. So he ends up going in a lead. Now he gets the invite to go to the senior ball. And that was big for him because to me, like he went from like completely off the radar and maybe even in this class.

probably undrafted. I thought he had a pretty good week in Mobile and got like gave great effort in pass bro and he did some things in team periods. I'm like, all right. Like, yeah, he showed a little bit of what got people excited a couple of years ago. So I do think he ends up getting drafted. But again, it's probably like the late round. It's a it's a late round kind of situation. And we'll see how teams feel about him from like the toughness, you know, grittiness aspect of things. He is one of the guys who who had a worse yards per carry than his teammates. the record 4.9 versus 5.3 he's small small hands right that just from the last year bow or no that's his whole it's it's every year of your career that you had at least 30 carries

got it okay um so it's fine that yeah this running back class is brutal like because i'm even like like oh like my is it the worst is it the worst you can remember i think so yeah i think this is the worst running back class that i've seen um yeah because i'm looking like even like my r b 13 right like there's noah whittington from from Oregon it's like okay like that would be a typical like six seventh round pick but like by pecking order like RV 13 is typically like a fourth round pick you know fifth round pick yeah I don't think I would use I would there's not a single player in this group I would use a day two pick on right yeah I think like yeah certainly by the time we get to this point I think in terms of day two like geranium price I'm there if you told me it was like

supplemental pick in round three both you're not watching because we're both squinting at jedarian price as a day two pick What's that? We're both squinting at Judarian prices, even at day two pick. Yeah, I don't like him there. A lot of people are talking about him 32. That's crazy to me. I wouldn't, no.

I mean, he's in my, just outside my top 50 personally. You play any instruments, Fran? Do I play an... There's some buzz in the chat about P.H.O.I. Eagle's show band. You play an instrument? I was patient. I waited. No. No. I played a, I played clarinet for like, uh, six weeks in fifth grade.

Hmm. But that was it. That's that bad boy off. Did the, did the piano for, uh, for a few years. Yep. And, uh, did like a year of the drums. That's it. You're, you're the front man, though.

I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a lot. Does anybody remember loft? Uh, if you have questions for a friend, you can ask them on Monday at the virtual Q&A that we're going to have. 8 p.m. only for diehards. Diehards only. Virtual Q&A. Check it out.

I think we had one other super chat from earlier. Chase Daniel Plainview. Do you see any relation between the DOJ's investigation into the NFL with the NFL's negotiations with friend of the president, David Ellison, for CBS's TV deal? Listen. Whatever pressure they can put on each other, I'm sure. I'm sure they will.

Shrewd negotiators deals all the time. I agree with SRG and the check. that said I had bow as an oboist. Yeah, I could have seen that. He's just making a bow joke. Yeah, but I think it fits. Like something random like the old- Oh, if you could play any instrument well,

what would it do? Piano. Piano is the answer. As someone who plays guitar well, piano is the answer. Yeah, I did take a piano class at Temple, like a one-credit course, but that did not stick. Yeah, it translates to every other instrument,

so naturally. Yeah, but let's say, But let's say that that's not the upside here. You're only allowed to play this one instrument. Yeah, I think piano is great. I mean, it's beautiful to be able to play like a grand piano. Yeah. While we're talking about music, they ask me.

Saxophone for me. Love a saxophone for me. Oh, yeah. I mean, saxophone and guitar are very similar. That's a good answer. Okay. I think the way I look at piano, though, it's like you could go to like a random, like a random party, a random like a bar and it's like, oh, there's a piano in the corner.

are like, oh, they don't know how about it. And you can go in and just steal the room. Like that's, that would just be, that's a great experience. As opposed to the guy playing a guitar for like eight people. Yeah. I mean, who wants to do that guy? Well, yeah, you got a whole room that you were playing for. Yeah.

So they asked me in the chat. We were way behind on Survivor. And on the episode we watched last night, Zach Brown shows up for a reward challenge. And the reward is like, you know, he cooks some fish. That's good. It's very nice. But he's like playing songs for them like seven people right in front of his face. Seems like one of the most awkward things I can imagine. Yeah, playing guitar for a small group.

Very bizarre. Yeah, it's weird. A weird thing to do. It's not weird to do. It just, it feels very weird. Go ahead. I got you on the chat what my favorite distortion pedal is. And in the closet, I've got a pedal that you guys will not believe is called what it's called. And we're in Bovertime, so I feel okay doing this. Big muff. Jesus This thing's about 18, 20 years old I'm sad that this episode is not

in the studio because I think Lindsay's probably laughing. Yeah, I texted her a picture and was like, is it okay for me to put this on the on the show? It's a classic distortion pedal. It's one of the most popular distortion pedals ever made. Red Hot Chili Peppers,

if you're a fan, you've heard this pedal a bunch. I've heard a couple of covers of their song Lindsay Lindsay just said EJ texted her a picture of his muff I got censored in the chat saying it I said I'm going to show bow I'm not going to say it again but I said I was going to show bow this pedal and it didn't go through in the chat

all right good stuff everybody yeah good weather what are you doing this weekend we have opening day ceremonies tomorrow for baseball So we got that. Although we had our first game last night. Oh, how to go? You know what?

Really happy with my team. Yeah, I thought they were, it was, we had like four practices beforehand. And so this was the first game. What are the rules here? So it's machine pitch right now. And we'll see kind of how it goes as we go. For the first couple games, we're like, all right, we're going to let teams bat through the order just to kind of get, you know,

get the kids acclimated. and then we'll start getting into like three outs and the full deal. But the bigger thing is just like, you know, learning all the rules, right? And so, and that's kind of what I was trying to really hit for all of our kids. And I told, I told Francis, like, because he was getting down on himself last week because it was like, you know, he's playing shortstop. And he's trying to figure like, oh, like the ball's hit air.

I got to cover second until we're over here. He did a great job with it yesterday. And it was like, even like some of the other kids, like base running and stuff like that, all of them did like something that was like one little thing that was able to point them afterwards are like in game and say like hey like we talked about this last week and you did it like it was awesome this is going to be a really fun year i think that is so rewarding that's great yeah how do because you guys had your first game last night too no no we know we had we had we had practice uh we've got our we've got two games this weekend opening weekend nice to get out there

yeah it was fun yeah forget that uh ej like your dog you say the dogs are going Olive is going nuts this entire time. Literally since like 1.30, she's been going crazy out. I think it's the weather. I think they can feel it. They just want to be outside. They got energy today. Yeah, it was like like clockwork, 201, both dogs going crazy out there.

So it's fine. Go walk him after this. They'll be happy. All right. Good stuff, everybody. We'll be back next week. Continue our progression. through these position previews.

And then we've got, we still got a lot of games to get to. We got duck, duck juice. We got turkeys to the draft kingdom. Which one is rich again? So duck, duck juice is we draft the positions. The positions the Eagles will draft

and there's points based on the round. There's turkeys to the draft kingdom, which is just questions. No, no, that's a bunch of questions and you're allocating turkeys. You know, will they trade up, stay put, or trade down? And what will they do in the second round?

you know how many of these positions the draft and then the uh the is it the two can you name draft no it's the um this is the one where we each draft 10 players and you know will they will who we think they're most likely to draft that is the how will you know how will you know I think that's right the all you know draft here you go I was just taking a stab at that that's a really fun one. And then at some point, we've got to do our final mock drafts, EJ. So we got a lot to get to it.

This is, we're really squeezing it in. And I think we can say, if you're in the Philadelphia area, and I say that loosely, could be picked up. If you're local, by my statement, if you're semi-local,

we're drawing a wide range, a wide circle, then we're going to have something for you on draft night. You're going to be able to join us on draft night in person somewhere. announcement to come on that front. So keep it open. That'll be fun.

Otherwise, that's all we got. Comment below if you called it jackpot or 500. I want to hear what the people think about this. Thank you, Fran. Thank you, E.J. Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you to the great Daniel Gallen. Yes.

A sicko, a friend and a sicko. Absolutely. Much more of a sicko than EJ has ever been. No question. That's all we got. We will talk to you. on Monday. And as always, we love you.