PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles Rookie Makai Lemon Filling A.J. Brown Void: What The Data Says | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

Can Makai Lemon step into the void left by A.J. Brown in Year 1 with the Eagles? Can Sean Mannion and Jalen Hurts find the best ways to feature the first-round rookie in a new offensive system? Bo Wulf and EJ Smith are joined Deniz Selman to go through the analytical case for Lemon having a strong rookie season and much more. 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 P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast on a beautiful. Thursday afternoon, we're live from the Xfinity Lounge. We're presented by Ashley, and we are E.J. Smith. Lindsay's calling him Edge. How do we feel about Edge? I don't like the name Edge. I understand that some people who don't necessarily understand that the periods in the name are implied, even though they're not there,

might think it's pronounced that way, but it's not the worst thing I've been called. That's what I would say. Let's get into that more. I don't think we need to. Ernie is the worst I've been called. Also join with a great professor, Danis, Selman. Hours away, days away,

from your full summer jaunt. Yeah, we leave Saturday. You'll leave, you just leave us high and dry. I continue to... I'm a college professor. I can take the summers and do whatever I want. I continue to follow the show. I have offered my services remotely with the Ospreys and been told I was not needed.

So, you know, I'm just saying like it's not like I'm not available in any way. I have actually contributed to the Ospreys. You have in the past, yeah. So, yeah, no, we're excited. Where are you going this year? We're going to stop in Frankfurt on the way there for three days. Great hot dogs there. I've heard that.

I've been getting. trying to get everyone excited about that. My cousin Defna, famous from the... Everybody remembers, of course. The sickos will remember. She had to read the Turkish translation of the novelization of Dead Poet Society for school. She is now much older and an adult and has...

And that was what? That was the Sean Desai defense? Yeah, that is exactly right. And Matt Patricia was the Turkish translation. Sean Desai was the novelization. And Vic Fangio is the actual Dead Poet Society movie. Yeah. Deep lore for the people just watching for the first time.

Late 2023, when some of the sickos were blaming me for the collapse. The team was 10 and 1 when I started being on the show. And I just, you know, I have noted since that my first full season on the show, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. And what happened in the second full season? I don't remember. Okay. So after that we're going to be in Turkey for the bulk of the summer.

And then we're doing Ireland and Iceland for a week and a half each on the, on the way back, which I'm very excited about both of those. And I asked you this, but is it true that your challenge to yourself was to find two countries with only one letter difference, and that was where you had to go? Yes, and, you know, Iran, Iraq was the only other option. Right. And while, you know, I do like to go places where the tourism levels are down.

Sure. Even this one was a little extreme. You find that to be a buyer's advantage. Yeah, exactly. In this case, even for me, is a little bit too. the reasons for the low tourism a little bit to something. I also don't like heat.

Maybe in a little bit, in the end, we'll get to a little bit, you can talk some trash ahead of the World Cup as Turkey and the United States in the same group. That is right. All right, let's talk birds. Let's talk some football. We give you sort of an open forum here. This is your last chance.

Speaking out of forever, hold your peace. Yeah. What would you like to talk about? Let's start with the offensive side of the ball. I know you have some questions about the things that maybe E.J. and I have seen on the field and the two chances that we have had to see Sean Mannion's offense. Yeah, I'm curious about how some of the stuff that we talked about back in February about schematic differences between what the Packers did.

They don't remember, but I certainly don't remember. Yeah. Well, one of the things you guys talked about was, you know, there's a lot more under center in practice now than there was, right? And one of the things that we discussed when Manning, got hired is that when we look at Green Bay and the way they played under Lafleur during the time that Mannion was there, it's not that they were under center more often than any other team. Like they were 12th in the league at under center percentage.

They didn't run more under center play action than other teams in the league, really. They were 13th in that. But they were on the extremes when it looked like, when it came to unpredictability based on formation. So they were very high in past percentage when under center, 40 percent, ranked third. in the NFL. Okay. And very low in past percentage in shotgun.

They were less than 70%, which ranked dead last. So basically it was like the lack of predictability, like those two percentages being close to each other. Right. It reminds you. More than any other team. And it was multiple years in a row that they've been that way. Okay.

It reminds you of the, the 2022 Eagles where they would go into 12 to pass and go into 11 to run. Yes. It's like the under center version of that. And so the marrying the run to the pass, like being part of their fabric, and the unpredictability based on formation, like, helping with that. And that's for all downs, by the way.

Like, if you look at early downs, it's even more of a, you get even more of a pattern. So it's very early, obviously. But based on what the players are saying and based on what you guys have said, it seems to me, like, that's a real thing, right? Like, you know, Mila's talking about marrying the run to the past in a way that maybe is being done more intentionally. Jalen talked about a little bit.

You guys have talked to players, you know, like off camera as well. Like I'm wondering what you guys think so far about this is real, right? Like we're really going to see a change. Like this offense is going to look different in a way that maybe we haven't seen before. Yes, no. Yes, for sure. I appreciate like your healthy skepticism. But the thing that not only being out at practice, but yeah, like having.

conversations with people about how the Eagles offenses look so far. Like, I think most people's consensus is it really couldn't look much different, you know, in terms of the amount of under center, the amount of play action. I think there are some wholesale changes that everyone has taken notice of. So that's not to say they can't revert back to it, especially if it doesn't go well early, but at least the foundation that they're building right now, it is a significant departure from what we've seen in the past.

Yeah, I think that the big question is if things, don't go well in the beginning. Yeah. How committed to this are they? And is there an off-ramp when they sort of go back to the kinds of things they've done in the past? I think that the under-center stuff is going to be for real in that it is going to be a much higher percentage.

And even sort of the running out of shotgun and passing out of under-center, I think, makes sense to me. Right. The thing that I don't think that we can definitively say yet is the actual distribution. of passes, like the throwing over the middle, is that going to be real? I think it is too early to say if that's going to be real. Yeah, because that's more like when it's live.

You know, when the bullets are flying, is Jalen going to pull the trigger on those types of throws enough for Sean Manny to keep them on the menu? And one reminder about that, that same February show, we were talking about that as well. The Packers were actually, when you do the true media definition of middle of field, which is the literal middle third of the field.

The Packers were actually, Eagles were dead last at throwing to that part of the field at 39%. The league average is 48%. This is like middle third of the field. So it's a wider part of the field than is sometimes referenced. The Packers were 26th at 45%. So that was not actually like, it wasn't like the 49ers where they actually throw to that part of the field a lot.

In fact, we talked about how the most common route run by the Packers were out routes, like throwing the Tucker craft on out routes, like threaten the middle of the field. and then throw it outside. You know, like, so if Jalen's not super high in middle of the field percentage, it won't necessarily be a departure from what the Packers did, but stylistically it might look different

the way that that area is threatened, the way that motions, like, you know, affect the route combinations. It'll be interesting, but it's not one where it's like, we shouldn't panic if Jalen's not, like, in the top, you know, half of the league and middle of the field. EJ., do you think that we are looking too much at just the Packers' offense as Sean Mannion's?

like where he's pulling from because he was only there for two years. Yeah. You know, is it more, you know, the time he spent with McVeigh or O'Connell? I mean, you know, what do you think about that? Yeah, I would say both Kubiaks. I mean, you know, Zach Taylor, he has experience with a lot of different coaches. And the thing when you ask me the question that I go right back to that I mentioned on yesterday's show, is Josh Grizard talking about a lot of their call sheets.

Like the names are Shanahan McVeigh or Mike McDaniel a lot of the time. So I do think that, like, the Packers as a template makes sense because they have personnel, at least you look at the quarterback and feel like, okay, there are some parallels there and what you can expect. But, yeah, I think you probably can draw it more closely to the source, you know, because he has an extensive experience in these different schemes. An early super chat from Dinkleberg who says if things don't go well in the beginning, we know the O.L will just barge into Seriani's offense

and bully him into running the ball more. I mean, it's a valid thing. Like, I think that, like, we talk about a lot of these things. But I'll start with Jason Peters. The best version of this Eagles offense probably does revolve around Seeklon Barkley. I mean, if the offensive line is good, sure. I mean, Siri Any could answer, like, are you guys going to be good this year? Because, you know, the offensive line was not good last year.

How do you think Siriana would respond to Jason Peters? barging in his office today and demanding and demanding to play left guard. I mean, I don't think well. I think that would be an issue. I think he would have a new left guard. I think Landon might have to slide over to the right. You know what? There's like one person crazy enough to stand up to Jason Peters.

It might be Nick Siriani. Oh, I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that either. I don't agree with that either. I mean, Doug Peterson just like, just let him have whatever he wanted and then ended up getting fired because he wouldn't get pushed around with the staff. Siriani has done everything to protect himself in this process. It's more of a reflection of like Jason Peters just goes to Jeffrey Lorry's office.

He's not going to the Knicks office for something like that. Yeah, it might be above his pay grade. You're right. I think that's probably more the case. Okay. What's next? Okay. So on this same topic, the one thing that I felt like I don't think it's fair to compare

what we know now to having seen the entire season in 2024, right? So I tried to go back. and remember what was being said after Kellan Moore got hired. So a few months ago, Siriani said that one change they've made in their offseason approach this year is that they're not evaluating every offensive play from last season the way they normally do. And he said it's because the scheme is changing.

I think it might have been at the combine or owner's meetings or something where he said that. And for what it's worth, like he never made a similar comment publicly. I'm pretty confident in that with any of the other OC changes, including with Kellynne Moore. So while there's been some talk by both Mannion and Siriani of late about keeping some aspects of the old offense, blending it together, some of that might be like face saving for Siriani.

Some of it's just like, okay, they're going to keep the touch push. You know what I mean? Like certain things. This feels like it will be a real change more than the other thing. And I'm actually curious, Jalen hasn't been asked, I don't believe, to give a number the way that he was. But that was June, June 6th. two years ago.

So it was very close to this date now when he famously said that 95% of the offense is new. I don't think he'd answer it because I think he knows that that got a lot of attention. But it might be interesting to see how he reacts

to the question of like, you know, you said 95% two years, maybe don't bring up the 95% just try to get him to ask, you know, like, is this more of a change than you've dealt with in the past,

you know, something like that. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to, like, you know, put questions in my mouth. No, of course. I'm just like whatever way you think you'll give an answer.

But like I'm curious what he's thinking relative to what he thought two years ago. I would suspect that he would say it is probably even a bigger departure than it was two years ago. But his reception to it has at least been publicly facing very different. I think he probably would say it's 99% new, but that's like been invigorating for him. Whereas two years ago when he talked about the Kellyn Moore scheme change, he was almost like burdened by it. You know, he was almost like exhausted about all these new concepts that he had to learn. and, you know, we've talked about it before. Like, Jalen could have been resistant to how much change this scheme was going to ask him to do.

You know, as much as he's achieved in his career, like, to bring Sean Mannion in and say, like, you're going to have to change, you know, you have to go do under center, you're going to have to do more play action, you're going to throw over the middle of the field, all of these things that he hasn't majored in. It would have been understandable if he chafed at that a little bit. If he said, like, I've been very successful doing it a completely different way. So I have found it very noteworthy that he has been so receptive and so invigorated by it. And yeah, I think it's a very encouraging sign. Yeah, I mean, I've been very positive as you guys have with what they've said.

You know, like, and of course it's June. There's nothing else to talk about. Like, like, you know, as soon as soon as the game start, we might be saying something very different. Like, well, I thought it was going to look like this and it just looks like the same old. Or like, yeah, my dad, Jalen's really not good at this or something like that. You know, like, it would be the worst case probably. But yeah, so far, I think I'm. I'm happy with that.

And also, I mean, it's a silly thing, but the fact that they all seem to respect Sean Manion, the fact that like Sean Manion seems to be like this, I mean, I wouldn't want to be in his family or whatever, like based on how much he's working. You know what I mean? Like it sounds like he's just at the office all the time. Like Sirianni says he's never beaten him there.

And he's never left after him. And Sirian, he's not exactly known. I am surprised by that only in as much as... Had he admitted it? No, just knowing how competitively. if the competitive Nick Siriani is, that he hasn't just committed to one day. He's going to do one day where he's just going to get there first. That's a good point.

Yeah, no, I was surprised. The other thing that really struck me in the Sean Mannion Press conference in particular, also a little bit the way the other guys talk about him, but the way he talked about being a teacher reminded me so much of the way that Siriani talks about the same thing. Like whether you believe the official story that Siriani made the higher, or you suspect what's probably more true is that Howie and Jeffrey made the decision. It still makes sense.

Like they're the ones who were impressed by Siriani talking about teaching. So it makes sense that they would also be impressed by Mannion talking almost the same way. So part of me was like, it's cool that he's like that. I think it's good in the NFL to have a coach who thinks that way about the players. It's probably part of the reason that Siriani is liked by the players. But part of me was like, in a worst case scenario, like it could be like he got hired because he's he's like very good at talking about teaching and all that kind of stuff. But then like he's not going to be good at play calling or something.

You know, like, we just don't know that part because it's a different, it's a different thing. But hearing Maelada calling him and even evil genius saying how smarty is, all those things, better than if they weren't saying those things, right? Who do you think would be the other two smartest people in the building? Like, you know, my lot of said if you like the three smartest people in the building in the room together, he said only Sean Mania would be in the room. Who are you thinking? You guys know the people in there.

I mean, I would not suspect that they would be coaches. I think Vic Fangio's got to be. Adam Berry. Adam Barry and McFandio. And Troy. Okay. You mean, listen, you spent more time in that building than I did. You know, I never worked there.

I feel like Vic is also an evil genius. But half the business sides are in a different building anyway now. So, like, you can't pull from there. If we're talking about the actual building. The people that Maelada sees are. are probably, I guess he sees coaches and players. What if you only could do coaches?

Then Vic's in there for sure. Well, Vic is football smart. Yeah, but that's, that was kind of like the rubric that Maillada was grading on was like Sean Manion's football smarts. Well, then, yeah, Vic. And then Jack Bond.

I like that one. It's interesting. Yeah, okay. I give Zach Bonn as an answer to a lot of things. All right. Speaking of Evil. genius is the professor will stay with us. Time for a break. Find out what you think is about

Mikhail Lemon on the other side. Five years ago today, transactions, the Eagles, signed the following draft picks. Devante Smith, Milton Williams, Zach McPherson, and Kenneth Gainwell.

Devante went from being the number one to then playing four years with AJ Brown, who wasn't even on the team then. Now he's going to be the number one again. Milton Williams played his entire rookie contract, then got paid. Zach McPherson got injured. Kenneth Gainwell, through the Eagles career, became the Steelers player of the year, and now he's somewhere else. So much can change in five years, including the price of your internet,

unless you lock in the Xfinity five-year price guarantee and get all your devices working in perfect harmony for five whole years. Best part, no annual contracts, no hidden fees, and Xfinity's best equipment included. So lock in your price and unlock the possibilities with Xfinity. Learn more at Xfinity.com. Select plans-only restrictions apply. Introducing your newest eagle, Elijah Mitchell.

And also, Wawa now has tacos. Your new craving, baby. Wawa is expanding its freshly prepared food lineup with new seasoned beef tacos available for just a limited time. And they're built to deliver bold, craveable flavor in every single bite. We are talking warm. So flower tortillas with wah-wa's savory, juicy, boldly seasoned beef plus fresh toppings that you can customize your way. You got options too. Seasoned beef, but also chicken steak or black beans. You can go shredded

cheddar, you could go salsa roha, barbecue ranch, whatever you want. Go with some pickled jalapenoes on there. It's all packed in a six-inch soft flour tortilla, making it the perfect hand held on the go option, but don't wait. The lineup is only here for a limited time. So next time you're at Wawa, grab a taco. Back on the P.H.L.I.E.

It's podcast, Boe Wolf, the Professor Dane is and E.J. Smith. It's time for The Right People! presented by our friends at True Mark Credit Union. The question to you, Professor, is in a post-J. Brown world, do you think the Eagles have the right people at wide receiver?

So AJ Brown's been traded? Yes, where have you been? Too busy packing. You probably won't be packing until tomorrow night, right? People ask me if, yeah, but I make a list. Most of the packing for me is making the list. If it's on the list, the actual physical packing takes very little time. I mean, it's all about the list.

Make sure you don't forget, like, the random gift you got for somebody eight months go that you have to take, you know, things like that. Is that a working list or you have to sit down and make the list? It's a work. I mean, I copy paste from last year and then I, you know, add things, take things off, things like that. Well, yeah, that's why I got to put the gifts on when you, you know. Okay.

That's a working list. Still waiting for my gift, but go ahead. I don't know if you heard that Bo has a birthday coming up, they're going to. You got to get a baby gift. No. I don't, I'm not out of here begging for baby gifts, although. Shout out to Kill a Cow. Man.

The thing with baby gifts is... You found my registry. Oh, okay. That's good. Very generous. Kill a cow. The thing with baby gifts is like everybody gets the baby things for the first year. And then you need stuff.

And then you need stuff. Yeah. And they don't even get like the baby doesn't even get to like use or wear everything. So what you're telling me is I should put like a little... Stuff for like three year olds. Yeah. That's when people stop getting gifts. Rider.

Just take it to a snapshot of conclusion. You ask for a bowling ball? Bowling ball like like Homer. for college. Not that you want to force a baby's first car. My biggest tip was to put the next car seat that you need

on the registry. It's still like baby enough that's close but like it's an annoying thing to buy later. Yeah, that's the age where we were like what we need to buy him clothes? Like it's like we were giving away unused clothes and then we had to buy him clothes. Anyway, the right people.

Oh, right people. Yeah. AJ Brown. Someone asked me if I watch watched AJ Brown's press stuff. Yeah. Interview with, with, with what's her name? Maria Taylor.

Maria Taylor, yeah, sorry. I just forgot her name. I wasn't trying to disrespect. I did not watch. I was going to be watching this show. I did not. Sorry, Marie. Sorry, Marie.

Sorry, Marie. I know you're a fan of the show. I don't want you to stop being one. She's a fan of the show. With Mike McDonald's. I did not watch any of that stuff. And I think for me, it's just like, like painful breakup trauma stuff i don't want to watch i don't want to watch that like

you know i get it whatever what's the most painful breakup you ever went through what kind of question is that one on topic question a question a natural follow-up i would say i have a story about this in bovertime we're saving it for overtime so you gotta wait till the end of the video to hear the story no i'm not you can take it in any direction it doesn't have to be No, no, I understand. Could be Brian Dawkins leaving. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm trying to think of a, I think it was, I was 15, or no, I was 14 when Charles Barkley got traded. And I actually, I reacted in a way that I'm very surprised that I did, but I went out and I went with my mom and I had like an allowance and I used the money to buy a Phoenix Sun's hat, which is like very weird behavior for me.

Yeah, that is anti-year-old. And, like, whatever, like, shoes Charles Barkley wore at the time. Okay. I bought those, like, a pair of those. And that was my way of dealing with it. Yeah. I wore the Phoenix Sun's hat, like, one time. And then I literally threw it away because I was like, what kind of fan am I?

Like, I have to, I can't wear a Phoenix Suns hat. I respect that. So that's the way that I, now I've kind of, like, you know, other than the Iverson years, I've kind of, like, hate watched the Sixers since. But, and I think that that trade was, like, the beginning of, like, the, the curse, but... Sure, this is the one team you were willing to even flirt with

getting that sounds out. I think that's the problem of the toughest. All right, that's a good one. Yeah. All right, so, Mikhail Lennon. He's the first round draft pick.

Yeah, what's up with his hamstring? It's not ideal. I mean, do they won Quinyan Mitchell telling people the medical report on that one? No, but I appreciate what I do that, especially Lane is the king

of like, Oh, yeah. Other people. He's going to be out about 14 days. Even before Vic, like, Lane was the one. He would be like, oh, he's listed at 275. But that guy's, like, I saw him weighing this morning. He's 312. Like, he loves putting guys.

Devante had an injury his rookie summer as well. Do you remember this? I remember he had the ankle his rookie season. It was this rookie summer. Yeah. Where he missed, I want to say, like, two weeks of camp. I remember that. It was combined with, like, the fears of him being too small and frail.

And I will tell you, this thought did occur to me as I was watching them warm up the day with devante mckeye lemon hollywood brown and dontavian wicks they have got to have the combined smallest circumference of legs in the NFL for the top four wide receivers yeah those are that is that is skinny legs from one to four and and and but you don't believe in building not good nor bad you don't believe in building the the the wider seeer leg room like a basketball team or anything correct of course it shouldn't matter totally fine but shouldn't matter shouldn't Because they have been talking a lot about the basketball team. Basketball team, yeah.

Yeah, I think that is dumb. It was a spring. Well, they haven't done it that way, though. It was an MCL sprain for Devante in August of 2021. Yeah. Yeah, so. So you love Mikhail Lemon. You're happy.

I mean, I just, I've learned not to say too much about, I mean, you guys have seen him in practice. Like, I haven't seen him play in the NFL. Like, I need to see him play before I say anything, you know, like, Jalen Rigger could have been good, you know? And he sucks. Like, Devanti Smith could have been too skinny and all those things. And he showed very early on that that was not going to be an issue. So, yeah, I mean, I hope he stays healthy. I hope he can play.

It sounds like he's got the skills to be good. But at the same time, like, where would he have been drafted in a regular draft? You know, like, we have to be careful with Mikey Lemon. Like, he's a first rounder. In a different year, it sounds like it could have been a second rounder, right? Yes. So we have to kind of understand that. AJ Brown was awesome

he was one of the best wide receivers in the NFL like you can't really replace him having said that the offense was really stupid at times last year forcing the ball to him and you know throwing multiple uncatchable balls to him in a row

and going through it out and then they looked really good and the games he didn't play like you know like so you could you could yeah you're not going to replace him but you can still be better yeah not add by you're not adding by subtracting him but you're adding by getting rid of some of stuff that, you know, maybe you were crowding out with him. You know what I mean? Like, crowd out is something we talk about a lot in my public policy class. It's like, you know,

the government has a program, but like people are like, well, but if the government didn't provide that, it would have been privately provided anyway. So it's a waste of money, you know, like that's like a thing. It's like, okay, well, A.J. Brown might have been crowding out like actual offense, you know, like actual scheme, actual like something that like you can accomplish with multiple guys the way the Packers were doing it, like distributing the ball and things like that. McIleman's going to be part of that. I think it's important that fans realize that. And when you look at like the typical rookie stats for wide receivers and all those things, like we should not expect him to just come in and have like a thousand yards and be this big,

you know, dominant force that would be incredible if he was like that. But I'm not expecting that. And I think we're going to have to learn to watch a different kind of offense than we've been watching, you know, really every part of the offense, right? Like the distribution stuff. The usage of tight ends is going to be different. The offensive line, completely different now with the new old line coach and everything. So yeah, I mean, McIllum is just going to be part of that. I'm trying to avoid the question because I don't know what McIllum is going to look like, but I'm just trying to manage expectations. Well, there you have it. Sounds like the Eagles might or might not have the right people in the wide receiver room.

Thank you to True Market Credit Union. An interesting suggestion. from Daniel, who says, I believe it's possible, Dallas Goddard will lead the Eagles in receptions and yards due to Jalen's trust in him. What do you think? Too much Goddard. Too much Goddard. Number one hater over here. He don't know that he trusts Goddard as much as he trusts Jack Stoll, but I'd be shocked barring injury if it's not DeLonte Smith. I think we all agree with that, but barring injury is a real thing. But a lot of Dallas Goddard in the practice or at least the last practice we were at. There was a lot of Dallas Goddard involvement.

Yeah. So, but that, I feel like every summer, it's a heavy Dallas Goddard summer for Jalen Hertz. And then it may or may not translate to the season. You know what I mean? Like most years in training camp, it's like, oh, man, he's been hitting Dallas Goddard a lot. Yeah, you guys were talking about just, just punching him.

That's not where he was going. That is where I was going. I was actually going with your golf club. He's just whacking him with a golf club. go ahead I would love to see like throwing to the running box more you guys were talking about

on the show what was it yesterday and I mean I don't please I mean it's not something the Packers necessarily did like Fran was saying I mean yeah

it'd be nice to I think Fran had Sequin is a four on a five scale with unreceiving I'd put him at a three I just don't think he has the hands I agree with that and this isn't really like

like me hitting on Seekone like I actually think Sequan has the talent to be very effective when catching the ball. But there have been key drops and key spots. In the Falcons games, the most consequential one in terms of a result of a game. But there have been a few others where you're like, maybe that's why they don't start doing it. You know what I mean?

It's not like a natural catcher of the football. No. He kind of fights it. It feels like, you know, it's kind of feels like it's, yeah. He doubles. He double catches it, yeah, things like that. Yeah, yeah, I mean. Time to take a break.

Come back and decide, find out what is interesting to the professor on the defensive side of the ball on the PHOI Eagles podcast. We'll find out Lindsay's most difficult breakup later on the show. Birds are headed to Nashville. Music City. And you want to be there to watch it all happen and have a good time with birds fans down on. Broadway, get a little honky tonking, and watch a fun football game. Do it all. Thanks to

Philly sports trips, they're going to take care of everything for you. They brought hundreds of Philly fans to Music City in 2018, and they're ready to do it even bigger this season, from flights and hotels to game tickets and exclusive fan events, everything is taken care of for you. Plus, you'll experience the weekend alongside former Eagles great David Akers, Hollis Tom. Thomas and Eagles insider Dave Spadero. With special appearances and exclusive events, you won't get anywhere else. So lock in your spot today at philly sportstrips.com. That's phillysportstrips.com.

Tell them P.H.L. Why sent you? Starting something new can be terrifying. That's where Shopify comes in. Because if you are starting a new business, you probably need some help. Some tools, the right tools. to help you get ahead of the game. That's what Shopify is bringing to the table. Shopify is the commerce platform behind not hundreds, not thousands,

not hundreds of thousands, no. Millions of businesses worldwide and about 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. from major brands to people just launching their first idea, Shopify gives you everything you need to start and grow. Plus, you can run email and social campaigns, Inage, inventory, handle shipping and returns, and track analytics all in one place. And when you need help, their 24-7 customer support has your back. So go to Shopify.com slash all-city to sign up for your $1 per month trial today,

Shopify.com slash all-city. What up? How you living? We're back on the PHLAGOS podcast, Bo, EJ, and the professor. You have one other offensive question. What is it? Yeah, it was quick. What is it?

Go ahead. Back in February, we talked about the differences. is detailing the, like, differences between Stoutland's philosophy in the run game, how it was based on Mouse McNally, the influential low-line coach, on how to block outside zone, more mid-zone, where they're climbing to the second level, finding somebody to block, whereas the Shanahan system is based on Alex Gibbs and, you know, the stuff they were doing in Denver, where you climb at an angle on your own terms, block defenders if they happen to be in front of you.

I was trying to read between the lines when Jordan Milato was speaking earlier, this week, he said we have answers to a lot of things in the run game. We've cleared up the confusion of who's blocking who. The simplification of things has helped a lot. And I think that's somewhat consistent

with that, right? This idea that like, instead of constantly trying to figure out, like, who I'm blocking, it's like, we're just running, you know, we're just running one way. Right. You know, like, we've cleaned it up. I thought it was interesting to hear him say that. Because one of the things we're going to be monitoring

during the season is you take these five guys who none of them have played a single snap of NFL football under anyone other than Jeff Stoutland, which, by the way, how many teams have five of their own draft picks starting an unoffensive line to begin with, let alone also pairing that with a guy who's been here forever as the O'Line coach. So it's going to be an interesting thing to monitor, like how they do with that. And hearing Milata say, we've cleared up confusion, and this is going to be better. And I know he's a bit of a PR guy, like, and he says the thing that, you know, you kind of want to be saying, but yeah, somebody points out less pointing, uh, in the, in the chat. Um, very good point. Like, you know, that,

that's probably more of a past protection thing, but like still, I mean, like, it's like, like, less pointing, just, just line up and, and run the play, you know, and, um, and, and I'm curious of that that's something that we're going to see and like, you know, it sounds like people have nice things to say about Chris Cooper, but what are they going to, what are they going to say? Other than you, you don't like the medicine balls. Very like vague anecdotal evidence here. It does sort of feel like when you run outside zone, there's not as much of an onus on like double teaming your way up to a linebacker.

It kind of feels like you're supposed to like create the surface horizontally. And there's not as much of like you have to get up to the second level to get somebody. So that could be part of it. You know, like the Eagles used to spend so much time working on that combo block up to the linebacker. If there's less of that, maybe there is less confusion. you know, when like teams are moving the linebackers around and shifting, which is something that they did see a lot of last year.

And you could you could see how theoretically that would lead to more five-yard runs, but fewer 40-yard runs. Right. Where it's like blocked perfectly. Right. And then Sequin just beats the safety and it's over. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. It seems like with the Alex Gibbs system, which is which which is what the Eagles are now going to be running, it sounds like. It's up to the. were running back to follow the O line into space and then make his move based on that. And Sequin was talking last week about how, like, this system involves more of like a one cut, right? Like, you know, he's been talking to Todd Gurley and all this kind of stuff.

Yeah, it's encouraging that they're talking, that he's talking to Todd Gurley. It's encouraging that they seem to have an idea of what they want to be. It's a little weird because this has been a successful team. This has been a mostly successful offense. I know last year was an underperforming offense, but it's interesting to see like a team that has an exact, it's not like this is like a three and 14 team that's building from, you know,

it's strange to see this big a personality shift without ever actually taking the dip in terms of having a truly bad season or a true rebuild. So it's a little bit of both. I also think we want continued success, but in a very different way. Well, I think that's from just Sequin's perspective, probably good that Jamal Singleton is still here

because he is making that same transition with him. So he is seeing and understanding the differences for Sequin and can help coach him through that, right? Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jamal Singleton has experience in a similar system with Zach Taylor in Cincinnati. I think they overlap. How similar is Zach Taylor, though, to this?

I mean, he's from the McVeigh tree at the very least. Yeah, super heavy shotgun usage over there, though. Now, if I told you... That's like a final thing, though, yeah. If I told you that there was a legendary coach named Mouse, what position would you guess that he was a specialist in? Mouse? Mouse.

Offensive line. Really? Yeah, it would not be my guess. No, me neither. It feels like a... Mouse? Like a tiny little... Mous?

His first name or last name was mouse. First name? Yeah, it sounds like a southern nickname. Like, oh, that's mouse. What does that have to do with an offensive line? I mean, it just feels like, I don't know. It feels like... Well, it sounds southern.

Must be offensive line. Can you do the Josh Grizard about mouse? Yeah, that's what I want. That's what we want. What the people want. I don't... I'm not... Do it.

Do it. I'm not a trained here. Oh, get out of here. Get out of here. You literally singed for hours for the... When it's my choice. Oh, come on, man. I don't take directions from you people.

What do you mean, you people? You people. My goodness. I think mouse... I mean, I guess you can see it because if you are just a normal-sized guy around big offensive linemen, you are made to look like a mouse? No, it's just like... There's also the nickname where it's like the opposite of what you are. I was going to say, my dad's got like friends and their nicknames are the exact opposite of whatever their descriptor would do.

So yes, it'd be like this big guy and he'd be like, oh, what's up, mouse? Yeah, I could totally see that. Little Jordan Humphrey. A little Jordan. Classic, yeah, yeah. All right, how about defense? Defense, that's when the other team has the ball. Question for you guys on defense.

Is Chandler Martin this year's version of Eli Ricks? Now, he's been cut and re-signed in the last week. I mean, that's already three transactions involved in him already. I mean, I think Eli Ricks finished the season at 11 last year. But, I mean, it's only early June. And I feel like he's got a chance. Well, we don't know who in Washington, D.C., he thirsts after yet. That's true.

There's also, I don't believe, a trip to Washington. What if there was like a retribution aspect of like the 92nd, 90 second this year, man on the roster? Like, you know, it's like they do something that Howie doesn't like and that, therefore, they're the one that keeps getting cut and resign, you know? He takes Howie's parking spot. Yeah, I like that. I think that's the reason why. Now, for those of you, for those of you, curious, Eagles have never had a Chandler play a game. for them in the regular season.

They have never had a Ross or, I'm sorry, they have never had a Rachel or a Phoebe or what's the other one? Monica. They have never had a Joey. Surprisingly, but they have had one Ross. They've never had a Joey.

Someone who goes by Joey play for the Eagles, but they have had a Ross. Didn't go by Joey at any point? John Ross. Does that count? Never played a game, I don't think. John Ross played it? Yeah, well, it's not his first name. Oh, come on. He played in that game in Tampa Bay.

Yeah, okay, you're right. We're wearing some horrendous number. What was his number? But not his first name. Of course, we all remember the answer is actually... I think he was kicked out of the league after that. Ross. We're wearing 38.

Yeah, yeah. The great Ross Piercebacher. Oh, yeah. Played three games in 2020. Oh, yeah. There you go. Were they on a break? Lindsay says, were they on a break?

I have my microphone on. What? I have my microphone on. Oh. I'm not a, I'm not a friends. The show, man. Yeah, me neither. I have friends. But not the show.

Not anymore. Two less. I got friends. I have plenty of friends, man. Okay. Got great friends. The more you say it, the less I believe you. You don't have to believe me.

I have friends. No, man, I got, I'm very thankful to be in some good friend groups, some good group chat. I don't need you. All right, what else you got? You guys were talking a little bit about Cooper DeGine playing safety. Yeah, the bass nickel stuff. I talked about this a little bit at the end of last year,

but like there's this perception based, I think, more on 2024, that Vic never plays bass. You know, like, it's like, oh, it's going to be nickel all the time. And I think what happened, especially after Cooper de Gene came into the starting lineup in 2024 is he really didn't want to take Cooper DeGine off the field. Yeah. And so the Eagles played even against heavy personnel. They were in base only 50% of the time in 2024, which ranked near the bottom of the league. And that was like for the whole season. It was even less than that with Cooper DeGine. Last year, they were 71% base against heavy personnel, which ranked 14th in the

league. So they were like a normal base team last year. I'm curious if with Cooper DeGine being on the field still in base and he's going to play safety more on what kind of safety he's going to play in a second I actually have a question for you guys that you haven't been a moron

I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm curious nice to meet you curious I need a I need a vacation all right uh

Well, one of the, a couple of things here. One is, do you guys anticipate a lot more base like we did, we saw last year, compared to the year before? Because Cooper de Gene is going to be on the field anyway. In both situations, you're taking the weak link off the field, the second safety, whoever that is. Or are we going to go back to like what Vic might, you know, look like you wanted to do the year before, which is keeping DeGine at nickel.

So that's the first question. So I'll let you. I think they will lead into letting him play safety and base. I think he will not try to force them playing a nickel. Unless they're trading for, you know, Grant Delpit or whoever, something like that. Yeah. Okay, sure. Okay.

Unless the second safety isn't a weakness. Yes. You're saying. It feels like they've played more base, but it's a reflection of this being this, the time of year where you are working on the fundamentals and playing out of base. Oh, in practice so far? Yeah, they've had some, like, fun sub-packages in addition. to that, like to balance it out, but I feel like

this time of the year you expect to see more base anyway. And is this in sessions where they're going against the scout team or against the... No, they don't do that. They don't do that. In the off season, they don't do that. Yeah. Okay, because I was going to say, like, if they're playing against the offense, and the offense is just

a heavy personnel more, that could be the reason, too. So, I don't know. I was just wondering. I think all of that stuff is planned out by Nick to make sure that they get as many reps on both sides of the ball that they want. Okay. Yeah. I did think it was fun to hear Jordan Davis say that the offense was working on a lot of things that gave them trouble last year as a defense, probably talking mostly about the Bears game, maybe the 49ers to some degree. But Vic last year famously said, like, we don't really see a lot of this kind of play action.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, so it's not going to be like having an offense that maybe mirrors some of the modern offenses in the NFL. Could have a little bit of a positive effect. Yeah, I mean, to some degree. Now, question for you guys. You know, I'm the field boundary guy yesterday. Yeah. I think you said that... They were switching sides.

You said the corners were switching sides, but did you notice if they were staying boundary field? Because, you know, that's the way Vic played... It looked to me like it was not boundary field. It was like period by period. Oh, interesting. So like staying on the left for one period, right on the other? Exactly. They were not switching mid period.

It was... Interesting. On this possession, you've got right corner, I've got left corner. We're going to switch on the next possession. Okay. And then I have the same question for safety. Did you... I did not clock safety.

Okay. And it might not mean anything what they're doing right now. Like Vic has changed even during the season in the past. But just a reminder, last year, Drew McCuba was the field safety the whole year. And Reed Blankenship, I mean, until he got hurt. And Reed Blankenship was the boundary safety. With Reed gone, and effectively what that means is, in terms of their roles, that it meant that in zone, for the most part, Reed Blankenship was the one who rotated down to the box,

and Mukuba ended up in the post. And then in man, they'd often do it the other way around because you have more control in man, like how you start lining up. Like, Mukuba would typically be the man coverage guy on the tight end or even a slot-wide receiver while Reed rotated to the post. With the gene playing in base, in particular, like they very rarely play man in base anyway.

And so you're going to get those zone snaps, and I would imagine, leave it the way it was. Like just have the gene take over for Reid, be the guy who you want him playing near the line of scrimmage anyway, have McCuba being on the other side. I would expect that Drew McCuba will just be the field safety again like he was last year. Yeah. And then Marcus Epps, who filled in for him and therefore played to the field, he's a veteran. He can play wherever will probably be to the boundary. But I'm curious what Vic does with that.

If he uses, you know, if he has more trust in Drew McCuba in certain ways than he did last year. This is all speculation. Just something to keep an eye on and practice, the field boundary thing. Did you have something? Nope. Let's take a break then. Stay with us on the PHAY Eagles podcast.

One more segment before. It is time. My name is Lindsay, and Parks Casino is my casino of choice. Parks is a great place for a night of headline entertainment and award-winning dining. I think the night complete and stay at the new beautiful Parksview Hotel which is just steps away from Parks Casino and offers shuttle service.

And boy, do they have an awesome lineup of entertainment coming up this summer on Saturday, June 20th. If you get All McCartney live, a tribute to Sir Paul McCartney. In just a couple days, a Long Island medium, Teresa Caputo is going to be there. We got George Thurgood and the Destroyers on August 28th. And how about this? Sebastian Bach with special guests, Stephen Adler, from Guns and Roses. they're coming in October. Parkscasino.com is where you go to buy tickets.

Must be 21. Gambling problem call 1-800 gambler and check out that lineup. There's no wonder that I, Lindsay, love Parks Casino. It's my casino of choice. Let me tell you what I like. Let me be personal here. I'm going to pull the cover off.

Here's something I like. Something that actually rewards the way you already spend your money. And that is exactly what you get. with the Everyday Elite Visa Credit Card from TrueMark Credit Union. We are talking up to 4% cashback on eligible everyday purchases, including gas. And I know you're spending a lot of money on gas. So you get that 4% watch it roll in.

For limited time, new cardholders also get a 0% introductory APR on purchases for the first 12 months, and then 17.99% APR after that. more cashback less catch. Apply today at Trumark.com or stop by any of the Trumark credit union's 24 branch locations rates based on credit worthiness,

4% cash back on eligible purchases, bonus categories, capped annually. Restrictions apply. Visit trumark.com for details and share by NCUA. Back on the P.H.Y. Eagles podcast, Bo, Jay Niz and E.J.

Hello. Hello. You got something to share with the class on your phone over there? You're on a heater today. just a dad eater. I did actually have one thing I wanted to tell you about. So on my drive-in today, have you guys ever had it? We're like, well, first off, do you use your navigation if you know exactly where you're going anyway? Yes. I do, I use it because I like to know traffic data.

And it's like, I don't know, it's like so your ETA. Today, for some reason, every like turn that I normally would take, my GPS is like, eh, make the turn before. And I was like, man, my GPS is acting just like Bo was. Monday show where it's just like every single like turn I normally take it's like I don't think that's right I don't think that's true it sounds like a you problem in the city it basically doesn't matter like it's just kind of making stuff up I was outside I was on my way into the city but I took the most I've never taken it more precise with your turns it's just like you should be more precise your words on Monday did you listen to it uh once because I was like maybe

it's trying to get me to avoid like really really bad traffic but it wanted me to take a I mean, it wanted me to go like I was going to the Eagles practice facility to get here. And at that one, I was like, no, I'm not doing that. Like, I'm going the way I normally go. And it, like, the ETA went down a minute. Like, I saved a minute by ignoring the GPS. That happens a lot. And sometimes the GPS is not actually optimized for you, is the reason.

Like, there are some residential neighborhoods where they've actually complained that, like, this used to be a quiet street. and now you're sending everybody through here or whatever. And apparently, like, some of the navigation apps have actually listened in those situations. And, like, not given that shortcut because it, like, messes up a whole neighborhood. You know what I mean? Like, it's like... And so it's not always optimized for you is the point. And then it's optimized for, like, people other than you sometimes.

And so ignoring it can be better. Advantageous. Yeah. Just the thing to keep in mind. Learn the secrets. Interesting news on the Maddenfront. Oh, yeah, this is fine. You've seen this?

You heard about this? Yeah. Yeah. New play added to Madden. The Tush Push will be involved. And we got there, let's see, we got Goddard pushing. Devonthe, who is on the left there? Who is hugging up Jalen?

Who is that? That looks like, he's got his arm run, who's like, uh... Yeah, I guess that could be Sequan. Gotta be Sequan. Doesn't look like Devante's giving it as all necessarily? No. But he doesn't have to. No.

The emergency. That is A.J. Brown at the top there. The lane is good. Oh, yeah, that might be A.J. You're right. Yep, they got to work on that. Yeah. That Sequin one looks, that looks, I mean, borderline romantic.

Last year, they famously varied the number of pushers in that Bears game resulted in a turnover. It'll be fun to see what changes they have for that play this year. How many Eagles fans will play maddened this year and just do the touch push on every play? Oh, good amount. It's pretty fun. Online trolling. That's a real thing. I'm not a big Madden guy.

I play college football. Okay. I enjoy college football. I wonder if they'll have the touch. You do like a pick a random team and make a dynasty? I like to do that. I like to rebuild my alma mater, temple. And then I have an online dynasty that I play with my friends.

And it's like a vicious cycle. We start right before training camp. And I have so much fun. but my friends are good so I got to like get hours into the game like I really got to play to keep up with them and it's these friends are real

he's like he promised yeah no no I'm very yeah he has really good friends he's in a lot of group chats definitely something there's just great evidence of real friends 2026

and then and then camp starts and I can't play as much fall off and they're getting really good as I'm falling off and then I'm like you know what guys I kind of lost interest in this

It's not fun getting your butt kicked by your friends every single day in the game. Especially your real ones. Yeah, especially when you have friends. All right. I've never played Madden, like ever. Never in your life? Never. Yeah.

I'm trying to find, I'm trying to decide if I think the is. I mean, people probably know that I'm weird. I don't do normal things. Or not. It doesn't surprise me. I feel like Dana is, it has an enriched life.

It's surprising a little bit. No, no, no. It's not, it's not the enriched life. It's the same part of me that doesn't like fantasy. football. It's like, I like actual football. I don't need to recreate fake football. It surprises me that like in college you didn't play. Yeah. I know that it was a, I mean, listen, an older version of the game, but yes. I'm surprised you didn't just play it. Yeah. I had some friends who would like, there was like this, um, some very old version of some sort of NHL game that we played on our,

on our like computers. Um, but I never, I never had, like, I never owned a real entertainment system. after the the oldest one that I own is the Atari 2,600 that I got in 1986, which still works. We play it at my dad's house. But yeah, I've just never...

And then I had a Game Boy and I played Tetris. Is Evren Madden? I'm curious. No. We have one friend who's into retro games. They have a very old Nintendo. We'll go over to their house and everyone will play there. But he's never played a new...

He's never played a new game. as far as I know. Okay. No. Maybe he'll get curious. I'm not against it or anything. I'd just... I'd just be disappointed at him.

No, I would be totally fine with him doing it. Yeah, no, I'm not... I don't... I actually, I'm more disturbed when he does... You're not giving him your neuroses. You're hoping that he... It's the things where he does things where it's clearly because of me

that I'm a little more concerned. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like his walk-up song in Little League was smells like teen spirit. Like, that's obviously because of me. Okay. And it's like, wow, you really influenced him.

You must be proud. And I'm like, actually, I'm a little worried. I'm, like, influencing him too much. Like, I almost like it better when he does something that I've never done. Like, he's reading, like, fantasy, like, novels now, which I never did that. Like, and I'm kind of happy that he's doing something. Fantasy novels are talking? Like, Percy Jackson, is that?

Yeah. Yeah. So he's reading all of those now, like, very, very quickly. He's, like, on the third one or something. And he just can't put it down. He, like, won't come to dinner, you know? And it's awesome that he's reading. and it's awesome that he's doing something that it's not exactly the thing I did.

Sure. That was me with Harry Potter when I was young. Hi, Papa. My parents used to get really, like, annoyed because I'd want to bring the books into church. Of course, yeah. You can't bring Harry Potter into church. Like, you know, they didn't mind me reading the books, but, like, you know, like, you can't be bringing this sorcery into the church. So that brings back good memories hearing about the fantasy novels.

All right. What's your other defense question? Um, I was curious about. This is somewhat related to the base thing, but not only that. Brandon Graham was just released because his contract was such that it was always going to be the case. He was telling you on the show last year that he wanted to be back for training camp, not just middle of the season. And so I'm curious, the uptick in base snaps last year meant that there were about 10 to 15 more interior defensive line,

defensive tackle snaps per game than the year before. And when we look at the depth chart on defense, other than the obvious discussion of the second safety, it's like, man, after the top three detackles, the fourth guy right now is Byron Young, who wasn't great last year, a friend of the show, want to be GM,

the only guy in the world who cares as much as he does about Byron Young. It was always pointing out, like Byron Young was a bit of a weak link. Ty Robinson couldn't get on the field, even though he was supposed to be NFL ready, Gabe Hall is the next guy I mean like this is this is a thin part of the line

Brandon Graham could come in and then play some snaps there for you Happy Pride Month by the way What made you Think of a lot of baseball? Oh Gabe Paul With the defensive tactics I was thinking of Less and how much less hates Byron Young for some reason Yeah that's right

Less one of BGM and Dana is the Byron, yeah yeah Byron Young The Byron Young haters Yeah poor guy So I mean basically you're one injury away from having one of these guys be like on the field. To me, it would make sense to bring Brandon Graham back. Having him be like, you know, potential fill in on the edge,

but also it seems like the edge room is somewhat crowded, right? Like right now you've got Joe Tryon Shoyunka as your fifth guy. Guy can't show, which has Joe, Joe trying to get to practice, but he can't show up. He hasn't gotten to practice each of the last two weeks. You think he's holding out? He wants to be higher on the Dobschart? Joe trying to catch a flight and he can't get to Philadelphia.

But what is the reason he hasn't been? been at, have they said why he's not there? No, they don't. Trying to make a stink about the Jonathan Gernard trade. You think that's what it is? You think he's like, yeah. I hope he makes the teams so he can keep on, let me do a train.

He was like, what are we doing here, Howie? Joe trying to get traded. I mean, that could be true. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's it. And then I was going to ask, like, big picture.

I'm leaving. Anyway, I agree with you about BG. It would make sense to me to bring BG back. Yeah, I don't think the door is close on that. And if not, then I do think that they are maybe a replacement level

rosterable defensive tackle body short at the position. Right, right. Especially if they're going to play base most of the time against heavy personnel. Fans might think, surely, Howie would not just not invite BG back if he wants to be back. Reminder, that's exactly what happened last year.

like bg apparently wanted to be back and now he did not invite him back right like that's kind of why he retired so the same thing could happen again if you if you make your whole thing sweating every single negotiation you got to sweat every single negotiation right right you can't you can't make exceptions you're saying stay with us for more in x time i don't know x time i don't know break up time i don't know oh okay i was like what Okay, go ahead. Your big picture question. When I come back in August, come back August 20th.

Oh, that's right before my birthday. Oh, I need to bring a birthday gift and a baby gift back. I'll put it on my packing list for the way back. Neither will suffice. Your presence is enough. Well, thank you, Jay. What will have happened until then?

In the best case and in the worst case for the Eagles. Like, when I come back, what's the barring injury? because that's kind of boring. You know, it's like, obviously the worst thing would be, like three huge injuries to starters. Well, not the worst thing, but. Sure, okay.

But like, were you at all triggered by Howard Roseman saying there will be, there will be playing football in 2020. Well, it did make me think, like, people were like, oh, how he's going to, how he's going to cause another pandemic or whatever. They did play football in 2020. So I think, like, like, I think he's right that if they played football in 2020, they played all the games, like, not necessarily on time, but they played all the games.

I think, I think, I don't want to curse anything, but he's probably right that though you're going to play football in 2028. And I do agree that as long as you think you're going to be employed, there's no reason to heavily discount future years. The main reason to discount the future is that you could be dead, you know, you could be out of a job, you know, that kind of thing. As long as you think that those things aren't going to be the case. No reason to discount. So, best case scenario, worst case scenario. in terms of I come back and you guys are like, oh, you were gone, you must have followed the news.

Like, you must be glad that this happened. Or, man, can you believe that this is happening? I don't even know, like, I'm curious what you guys think, because you're going to be here monitoring every step of the way at training camp. Like what are the things that you'll be looking for and thinking would be best and worst from a fan perspective? I think the best case scenario in August is, you know, you check the box, they've made it through mostly healthy. Sure.

I think McCoy Lemon looks like, you know, has had a great summer. And Jalen and McCoy Lemon are really on the same page, and he's made not just some contested catches, but some explosive plays. And you can dream on him being, you know, a number two-ish player. Honestly, on the offensive line, other than that, it's just that Jalen looks comfortable. And there are days when they are putting it on the defense. And it's not every day, but there are days when all the pieces are moving in the same direction.

And Jailen has thrown the ball over the middle of the field, and it seems productive. On defense, Jihad Campbell has come back healthy and looks like a menace. And Rieck Willen has had the summer of, he's been the defensive player this summer. Mm-hmm. I don't know.

Is that about it? Yeah. And do you want to add that they've traded for a safety? Yeah, I was going to say, I was going to go the trade route, and this might be a little bit of a tease for tomorrow. I think Fran and I'll go through some potential trade ideas. So my might has already been there. I think on defense, yeah, like Grant Delpit.

You know, the Eagles traded, I won't go into compensation yet. But the Eagles traded, the Eagles got Grant. help it for a price that surprise everybody. I think that's best case. I have one more that is actually probably the actual best case on defense, but go ahead. Okay. I don't know if that's true.

I don't know if that's right. We'll see. And then offensively, the two things, the offensive line looks healthy again. Like, you know, Cam Juergens comes in and looks mobile, looks athletic. Maybe Lann & Dickerson comes in. He slimmed down and he looks, you know, looks like he did a few years ago in terms of athleticism. And then, yeah, splash.

one, I'll say, the Eagles traded for a receiver that we didn't expect to become available. And then it's Mackay Lemon and Don Tavian Wicks as the complimentary pieces around those two. I think that that's probably like, absolute high ceiling best case scenario right there. I think my, I think the best case on defense is actually that all summer long, we are talking about how there are periods of practice where they cannot get through a session because Jalen Carter is ruining the offense. It is like the summer of Jailen Kar. He comes to camp looking like a close to what two years ago.

Last year he had a pretty bad summer, like a pretty ineffective summer. It felt like to be a little lesson, little less in shape. Yeah, and he was adding on, like he was doing some of the like captainy stuff like early on, maybe a little bit performatively, but he was not like dominating practice to the extent that he was two years ago. If this is like the best summer of Jalen Carter's life and it looks like, you know, he has taken this opportunity to make $250 million. seriously, then I think that that would be like,

okay, the Eagles have the monster that they're hoping to have. Yeah, I like that. The only thing I remember about Jalen Carter in camp last year, other than the fact that he was hurt was the, like, him and Cam Durgan's getting kind of feisty over like a three or a four-place stretch, and he hit Cam Turgents in the earhole of his helmet

so hard that I was standing 50 yards away and I could feel that. It was like, oh, man, so. Yes, I do remember that. It's in there. What did you have in your mind? Well, I was going to follow up. actually on the offensive line one like could you tell last year because I don't get to I don't get to see training camp I don't know how much you guys can tell could you tell last year that

cam Jurgens and Lannon Dickerson were not going to be even so no because what's going on in training camp like Lennon got hurt in camp and from there I guess it was hard to gauge cam I wouldn't say you could tell right away that he didn't look right yeah so I guess the question is like in August will we really know that they're healthy Right? Or is it going to take for the games to start? Now, Rieckh Willen, you can probably tell, right? Mackayette Lehmann you can probably tell in camp, like how good they're going to be, though. I guess there are examples from the past, like Patrick Robinson looked terrible, and then he was very good.

So, worst case, the offense is terrible. You know, Jalen can't get it together. I mean, it's like false starts and things like that. Yeah, yeah. I think worst case is that, like, Jalen is publicly, like, dissatisfactor. satisfied with the way things look. Yeah. That's a good point.

Yeah. Especially after that first press conference, that would be really bad, right? Yeah, that's true. The press conference were voted a media tour afterward. And then also Vic is doing the honest assessment of the defense that has not, you know, lived up to his expectations. Yeah. Macuba starts rotating.

Oh, that is short-based. Oh, that would be really bad. That would be really bad. Like Marcus Epson, J.T. Gray. Yeah. Yeah. second week of camp all of a sudden. Yeah.

Cole Wisnski is getting some snaps over Drew McCuba. Can't believe you didn't say Gush. Well, Gushy Gush is going to win that nickel job. I mean, Vic said Gush ahead of of, uh, uh, uh, Goosh is fine. It's gushy.

No, yeah, it's that. It's that right there that I can't, I cannot stand for. Okay. Audio listeners are missing out. All right. Cool. And Rocco Underwood?

Any thoughts on? You think he's going to, He's going to make it. Sure got a shot. Got a snap. Yeah. Lindsay, did you want to share any breakup stories? I got mine.

Oh, E.J. has one. No, you already had me the one time. That's right. So that's the one breakup I have, so. That's right. Okay. Go ahead, E.J. You know, I remember, like, really not knowing how Lindsay was going to react when you did that.

You know, whatever. Like, I feel like we know Lindsay really well now. I feel like at that moment, we didn't know. I feel like it wasn't that long ago, right? Yeah, I feel like it wasn't that long ago. It was like a couple months ago. I mean, I've been here since October. I feel like I felt like I knew Lindsay very well, the first day I met her.

That's, see, that's, what was your guys' first impression of me? That you seemed very talented and capable of doing this job. Boring answer. It's just the truth. Thank you. You were impressed. Yeah, I mean, I was already, I had already heard very good things. I will say.

I want to ask, actually, this is a question that I've been. I mean to ask you. Oh. A little behind the scenes here. So in the interim period from when you had interviewed to when we hired you, I think right before you were offered the job was the Sixers Media Day. And Julia said a thing about how she like saw you from a distance, but you guys didn't say hi because she wasn't sure that you saw,

you recognized her or something like that. Julia Hoff? Yeah. Was that Sixers Media Day? Yeah. Oh, I know. clue. I didn't see her then. Because they, because they were doing content.

The Sixers. Oh, I had no clue. She never said that to me. I have to ask her about it. I think you walked right by or gave her, just gave her a no look. Oh. Cold stare. I'll have to apologize. Good for you. I had no clue. I will say Lindsay's come out of her shell a lot since being hired. So that's why I agree with that. You say you don't agree? No, I said I agree with that.

I'm just so used to you. Yeah, disagreeing. So what do you mean? No, she's still in that shell. No, you're not because I'm now like, like Lindsay, I have to think of the right way to word this so that you don't make it weird. I will send Lindsay like the quirky photos that we take around the house now because I know that she's like up for that. Like Dana's looked at me like what? Dana's looked at me like. I'm not sure what this is referring to.

Lindsay knows what I mean. Apparently. She got the picture of the picture that's on my lawn, of my lawn. on my Instagram right now, she's the one who made me realize, like I haven't been posting my lawn content enough because she was like, oh, EJ, you're grassics.

We have weekly meetings about his content, and I was like, we need more long content. More long content. Okay, good advice. Longs looking good. I guess. Have you considered the fact that Lindsay

has a very dry sense of humor and is maybe setting up to fail with this advice? No, Lindsay's nice. Not like you. Thank you. Super chat. from

Dinkleberg is back shout out to Dinkleberg he's having a day new we got a new we got a new play this year the Gush push should they should they

if Gush makes the team can they get him on the field for the tush push so it's the Gush push he can be the pusher who would be the one to spearhead that effort me

so no it's not going to happen he's saying it is the Gush push the roster yeah he's saying the Gush push is the push for the roster basically you guys need a segment called the gush push during training camp

we'll check in every day gosh push yeah yeah that's good I'm a fan of that all right the gush push all right go ahead what's your breakup stinkleberg you should be very proud

Bo does not normally take other people's ideas that's true that's a very that's a very good one so eighth grade I had a couple girlfriends before this but I would say

this is like my first real girlfriend and we went on one date and she broke up with me that night oh I was crushed little like 14 years year old E.J. Like, like, like, because the date had not gone well?

Or? That's the thing is, I thought the date went great. I thought it was a, I thought it was a great date. Yeah. She called me that night and broke up with me. She called you afterwards. She called me afterward. What was the date? Where'd you go? We were at her house. Like, we just, like, we went to, like, the park. You know, we're kids. We went to the park. Like, we hung out with her parents. Like, I thought it was, like, a fine date. And she broke up with me.

And that's not even the best part of the story. Senior year. Why don't you invite my part? parents to our date. And, you know, 14-year-old me is... The house is kind of unusual for a first date, isn't it? I mean, not to flex for her. Well, listen, we've heard a lot about 14-year-old you, so we know it was on your mind.

No, 14-0 me is what you would have expected. Like, not paying attention to Donovan Mcnav, that's true. That's not true. I ain't got no time for T-O, my friends. 14-year-old me is what you would expect. I was really respectful. You know, I was a, I was a mature kid. I was like, I think I was.

reflective of the fact that like I had a football coach for a father. So it's not like I did anything that would have been like inappropriate. What? You're doing past sets and dinner? Maybe that's why she broke up with me. But like it's not like I did anything that was like outlandish. Even as an adult looking back, I'm like everything I did was fine. But like the best part of the story is senior year of high school.

So fast forward. This is four or five years in the future. At our graduation, like pre-graduation, like we're practicing. You finally get an explanation. She doesn't explain it to me. She comes up to me. And I haven't thought about this girl in like years. So you weren't like friends in between.

No, we were not friends. It was probably like weird if we interacted because like I was always like a little bit like that was weird. But again, totally moved on. She came up to me the last day because again like graduation practice. This is the last day of school ever. She comes up to me and she just says I just wanted to apologize for like, you know, everything that happened. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like what?

Like, what are you apologizing for? She just, like, kept that for four years? Well, my thing, my theory even still is, like, she must have been, like, bad mouthing me to somebody. Like, you don't apologize four years later unless you did something else. Or unless you've been thinking about it the whole time. Yeah, but, like, why? I still am, like, perplexed. To say everything that happened, too, really makes it feel like there was a lot going on.

This is ominous. Like, why are you apologizing to me? Wow. Weird story. That is weird. I think there's some more digging to be done here. I hope not. I don't need to know any more details on what she was doing in that four-year window that she felt like she needed to apologize.

But if you do have more information about it. Yeah, maybe she's a listener. Please let us know. Anyone in the chat. Has been keeping tabs on you and now she's a listener. I mean, this happened not far from Philadelphia. There probably is somebody in the chat who knows the person I'm talking about. Did anybody who went to high school with E.J.

listened to the show? Probably. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I actually know some methact and sickos. but I want to make I want to make it clear since this is going to maybe trace back to her

like I've got nothing but like respect for her I don't mind any of this but it just was weird that she apologized it's like what are you apologizing for? I'm also I like the idea of it's you're coming off the field and she just beelines towards you like she's been holding on of this for five years

and it's not even like part of a regular conversation she just goes right to you like locked in you guys didn't like talk at all in the time in between? No. She actually dated one of my friends. Just like different circles. Yeah.

dated one of your friends, but you didn't end up in the same kind of group. No, no, no, but like sometimes you will just end up hanging out when that happens. Nope. But that didn't happen.

This is one of your real friends? Somebody I hung out with a nice school. Okay. Weird. Yeah. But it all worked out. I met Julia.

What was supposed to happen. Amen. I know that's right. All right. Well, professor we're going to miss you I'm going to miss you guys I will I mean I'll be following along and I'm happy to contribute

to the and we're going to get some of your thoughts on the the Eagles top 26 that'll be a lot of fun to do yeah so looking forward to it stay tuned to find out you know Dana's loves a ranking so ranking hate to see Dana is coming I love talking about you know I wasn't as

as horny as EJ in the early 2000 so I was actually watching the Eagles who was and uh so I actually remember some of these players. Yeah. My favorite, one of my favorite EJ moments

from this season, by the way, was, um, what is going on? I'm terrified right now. What's your about to say? Oh,

yeah, it's really good. Um, you know, E.J. E.J. is, uh,

you know, famous for, for, for two things like, like, like more than any others for, as far as I'm concerned. Being,

being surprisingly young. And being surprisingly, uh, like, not, great at math. And, you know, the abacus, the abacus, everything else. And one of my favorite moments of the show was when you claimed that you were literally

not an adult when Carson Wentz was drafted, which is not even close to true. So it was very bad math. But also, the fact that you thought it was true, like, kind of like, you know, makes it such that Carson once was drafted. In 10 years ago. Yes, that is 10 years ago. You were definitely an adult. literally an adult. He was 21.

Or I was 21. Okay. Him and I were probably at the same age, right? Well, that was just a lot of fun. A lot of fun to hear you and say. Your frontal cortex still not fully. My front of the lobes. You guys were fighting about something and Bo was like, be an adult.

And you were like, I was literally not an adult when that happened. I mean, 21 for a young man. Oh, uh-oh. Have we asked you about Carson Wentz versus Michael Vic? Did I ask about that? I don't think you asked me. Who would you rank higher? That's very difficult.

I think I have to go Carson once Because at the end of the day He was playing at an MVP level Got the team to the one seat in a year That ended up with the first Super Bowl I know that might be a little bit too much Based on results But

That was just like a higher performing team Than the team that Michael Vick Like was awesome on But like the greatest of It's one season for both Michael Vick is like More it was more entertaining to watch maybe but like, I don't know, Carson Wentz was pretty entertaining that year.

Do you think that Carson belongs in the top 26, whichever of those two? Yeah, that's a tough one. I mean, I think, like, you can't put Carson in there without putting three quarterbacks in. And I guess then it becomes a question of, like, should there be three quarterbacks on the list? There will at least be three. He would be the fourth. Oh, there will be three for sure. You don't think Nick Foles belongs on the list?

Oh, I see. You have to put Nick Foles on, yeah. He's almost like a like a wild card entry. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, I feel like, can you put four? That's tough. I think I go very tough. I think I'm over indexing on like.

You were a child. I actually was a child. Yeah. I think I'm over indexing on like just like the air of the player, maybe a little bit. Yeah, it's hard. Julio Jones is also on my top 20. six for that reason. Wait, what?

I'm joking. Okay. All right, everybody. He's on Zach's, like top five, Julio Jones. I agree. That'll do it for this episode of the PHA Legos podcast. Stay with us tomorrow. Should be fireworks.

E.J. and Fran get in the ring together. They got a lot to settle. Just the two of them? No referee? No referee. Oh, man. A lot of scores to settle. Wow.

Could get ugly. Might need the strong. chair in between to just stay empty. Yeah. Yeah. Might be for the best. Studio is going to be gushing with blood. See what you did there.

Didn't like it. That'll do it. Hit the like button. Give us some more name suggestions for the Smiths. Oh yeah. We're like 20 likes off. So if we get there before tomorrow's show, we'll do it. Tell Lindsay why I think she should be producer of the year.

Amen. And, you know, have a good night. As always, we love you.