PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles summer grid: Where does Jalen Carter rank about defensive tackles? Biggest threat in the NFC?

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

It’s a summer Friday, so Zach Berman and Jamie Lynch will go through multiple categories to discuss a variety of topics. It includes Jalen Carter’s ranking about defensive tackles, which Eagles rookie must have the best season, favorite NFL reality, biggest NFC threat, and so much more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Happy Friday. Welcome to a summer Friday edition of the P.HLY Eagles show brought to you by True Mark Financial Credit Union. I'm Zach Berman. That's Jamie Lynch, who might be the busiest man at P.HLY. Jamie has been on the Anthony Gargano show this week. It's been on the John Mark show this week. He's been coordinating a fun activity we have next week. Like there is not a piece of that building that Jamie hasn't touched. this week. So Jamie, I appreciate you taking an hour plus overtime to join the PHI Eagle Show. Of course, anything for you, Zach Berman. Look, this wouldn't be a job of passion if it wasn't fun. And, you know, we got some fun stuff ahead next week. Really looking forward to what we have coming. It's kind of like the what if week where we're going to rank the ultimate what if moments in Philadelphia sports. So it's been a lot of hard work from our production staff and Chris on our socials. Everybody's thriving. And it's going to be a lot of fun.

And I'm really looking forward to it. So it's a job of passion. It's a good time. Well, said last Thursday, we did the what if draft-centric episode with Fran, where Fran went through some of his old scouting reports. I'm curious because I'm impressed by the spreadsheet you've put together across all sports. So it doesn't just have to be. Eagles, but it could be Eagles if you want.

What is your favorite what if that's going to be discussed next week and rank week? I mean, I think the most painful one, and I think the one that would have kind of changed the trajectory of the five years after it, because A.J. Brown and

Devante Smith might not be here. The one I think about it all the time, and I think a lot of Eagles' Twitter is with me on that one, is the simply the Justin Jefferson Jalen Rager situation. When you add in Chris Spiel kind of mocking the Eagles, how it changed the trajectory of their draft process a little bit. I think it's a fascinating kind of what-if.

So to me, that's the one on the forefront of my mind. There's some other great ones we'll have next week that we'll be unveiling. But that's the one, like, surface level. It might be a little too easy, low-hanging fruit. But that one I think is interesting because I think it changed so much. Yeah, I always enjoy a good what-if question. Next week's going to be fun. Make sure everyone checks.

that out on all of the pHLY shows and on all phtly.com as well. But this is a summer Friday, like I said at the top. And so long-time viewers and listeners know what summer Friday means here, which is, it's a chance to fill out the grid. If Boe were here,

we would call it Tick Zach Bo. But I think Eagle's Grid, Eagle's Summer Grid, is probably a good name for it. And for the uninitiated or for those who might not remember, what we have is three categories, with three categories in each category.

That was not explained well. But basically there is, would you rather convince me and predict the future? And then for each of those, there's Eagles, NFL, and Wildcard. So it gives us a chance to touch on a variety of topics. It gives a chance that obviously Eagles news, but NFL news, but also some fun non-Eagles discussion

and some non-NFL discussion as well. So I believe, is this the first time you and I are, are playing this. I've done this with rich number of times and Fran. I believe so. Yeah. So yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know if we can call it. How about Lynch Zach Bo? How about that? Or Lynch Zach Toe? I don't know. I'm trying to, we'll, we'll, we'll work out that. Yeah. So, so you get to go first here on the grid. Do you want, would you rather convince me and predict the future?

Let's go, since it's kind of a cousin of the what if, uh, would you rather? Let's start there. And would you rather Eagles NFL or Wildcard? Let's go let's start with the birds. Okay, so would you rather, for the Eagles, Jahad Canvill have a great year

or Drew McCuba have a great year. And so these are obviously the Eagles top two picks, but what you have to consider here is the depth at those positions, the value of those positions, what a great year looks like, and what it could mean for the trajectory of that player's career. Yeah, I'm, I'm fascinated to hear your answer on this. Mine is Jihad Campbell,

because last year we saw the power of two great linebackers on this team. We didn't know what, you know, Zach Bonn was even at this time last year. It was a hopefully he can be a decent player. Little did we know he was a defensive player of the year finalists that changed everything. on his side was Nikobi Dean. And the depth behind Jihad Campbell I worry about, I think more than I do the depth at the safety position. Not to say the depth that the safety position is long and amazing or anything, but I have confidence more in the surrounding pieces, the Quignans, the Reed Blank and chips, even throw a Sidney Brown or my boy McCollum or I just think there's some competency back. there, whereas the linebacker position, I fear without Nkobi, the depth there, like Trott Jr., I think is a good spot player. I don't know if he's ever going to be a full-time starter

in this league. So I think Jihad Campbell, not only living up to a first round hype, but bringing that level of what we saw last year out of two linebackers really excites me. And I think that's more important than Drew McCuba, you know, sliding in and stealing the job and making you feel really strong about the safety position. That's a fair answer. Now, I think that Drew McCuba having a great year raises the level of the secondary in a way that's like hard to, because read Blankenship, who can we call me our colleague here,

PHOI, a co-worker. Yeah, co-worker. We didn't get a wedding invite, but that's okay. True. Maybe congratulations to the blanket chips. I was about to say maybe the next one, but that's not a good way. That wouldn't be good.

Maybe the next party. How about that? Yeah. The next blanket chip partner. Well, they have another ring party coming up soon. So maybe we'll, there you go. Yes, it's true.

Next week. So I think that the safety play on this team, it's probably the weakest area of the defense. You can maybe say edge rusher, but safety re-blank chips is solid, the good player. You know, and then you don't know what's,

next to him losing C.J. Garner Johnson who's a big absence in that secondary. If Drew McCuba comes in and he can be a high level player at safety, then it doesn't just help you this year in that secondary, but it kind of gives you confidence going forward

that you can have that second safety who, I don't want to call him replacement level, but like you don't need to try to find a stud at safety if McCup was a stud. In Jahad Campbell's case, like I'm confidence in the talent It's the type of thing where maybe it doesn't show itself year one.

You would like the versatility that he can bounce on the outside if needed. But the big thing for me at linebacker is that Zach Bonn is already like an all pro player, right? And so look, there's nothing wrong with having two high caliber players at a linebacker because you have to play two of them. And like you mentioned, we don't know Nicopi Dean's status yet. I'm not counting on them at all. Yeah. I mean, for right or wrong, like, he's going to be early, like early December best case. And at that point, like, you know, like, I don't know.

I don't think it's worth the long term risk. So then you have, you have Trott Jr., Smile Mondin Jr. But I think you can get by with a second linebacker next to Zach Bond in this defense and be okay. If you have deficiencies at second safety and re-blanketships your top safety, that concerns me a little bit more, and especially in this defense. So, like, I think you can cover up that linebacker next to bond, more than you can cover up the safety next to blanket ship. I could be wrong, but I just thought that was an interesting framing device for which one is more important. Now, I think if Jahad Campbell is a blue chip player, you know, it's a. changes the complexion of defense for the next decade.

But I think for this year, I would want to see some competency at safety. Yeah, I think part of my answer, I feared the recency bias, because, you know, if you asked me this any other year, I would say you could probably get away with one great linebacker and one okay linebacker. Last year, we saw all around really good linebacker play, sideline to sideline, good in coverage, good against the run. And I think I got a little bit spoiled by it. And, you know, I got that juicy taste in my mouth and I want more of it.

I want competency at both linebacker position. So I think there is a degree of recency bias on my end. Fair enough. Moving on. Convinced me. Would you rather convince me or predict the future? Convince me. Convince me?

Convince me. Convinced me. I mean. Let's go wild card. Wild card here. Okay, Superman movie. Are you in? And, of course, this has a bit of an Eagles peg because Superman character is an Eagles fan.

Yeah, what's his name again? I'm forgetting it off the top of my head. But I thought of you with Superman last, I believe it was last Sunday morning. I am a, me and my wife are big fans of CBS Sunday morning. Yes. And all of a sudden I see CBS Sunday morning going to the Arden Theater right there in Old City. Oh, yeah. Okay.

I was like, oh, Corn Sweat. Yeah, David Cornswet. Is that his name? He's a real beef. David Cornswet, and he's from Philly. He went to Shipley. He grew up in Lower Marion, went to, yeah, went to Shipley, and then went to University of Pennsylvania, Julia, and the Joy Art School. Clearly a real dummy, yeah.

Yeah, corn sweat. Cornswell, corn sweat? Let's see, corn. The chats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, corn sweat, corn sweat. I think I said corn sweat. So I'm watching CBS Sunday morning last Sunday and I see him go to the art in the theater. And I was like, I was like, what is this about?

And sure enough, it's where David Cornswell or Cornswe, whatever his friends call him that, got his first acting gig. And I was like, wow. So they sat down with him in the art in theater and they kind of recited some lines from its first paid professional gig. He still lives in Philly, according to CBS Sunday morning. Apparently Superman is too woke now and people are getting triggered about it. So the ground swell around it. It's not going to be a movie I rush to the theaters to see because I'm not like the biggest superhero guy. I do watch it.

Typically when my wife leaves because she has no interest in it. So I will watch it, just probably not in the theaters. So, yeah, I haven't seen the last movie I saw in theaters was probably Oppenheimer. Wow. I just recently watched that. Yeah. Great movie. Great movie.

Bo rolls aside when I say that because I say I like historical movies. And, uh, yeah. I mean, it's a pretty major. I agree. I agree. Both says, you know, it's not true. It's based on your story. Yeah.

Uh, I enjoy that. I know it's not a documentary, but it's fine. You want to go down a, uh, a conspiracy theory, a little rabbit hole here? So there's a, if you believe in in life on other planets, there's a theory out there, not saying I believe this. But the theory is we're watched by other species out there. And your planet isn't really put on galactic watch until you first discover the nuclear kind of breakthrough.

So there's there's a thought in the extraterrestrial world that Earth then was put on the galactic kind of radar when we. So there you go. There's your historical tie in. I'm impressed. I mean, I would like to think that I would like to think that. I would like to think that I'm more intelligent than I come off on the show sometimes, but that one is beyond, uh, I think about space way too much. Yeah. So anyway, sorry. Sorry to go. Yeah. So I, but I got to say, of all superheroes, Superman's my favorite because he's as a journalist, right? So like, you know, you got, you know, Clark Kent. Like, it's, it's the kind of thing where it's like, I too could be Superman, right? I mean, I, I've worked at a newspaper. before. I mean, you know, like, you know, so it's, it's, it's probably false equivalency there,

but I, I've always, don't sell yourself, I've always associated, I've always associated with Superman. Because I should, I guess more Clark Kent than Superman, but I have a lot of the same features, the dark features, you know, dark hair. I appreciate. Well, yeah, I, I would love to be able to fly and have x-ray vision and have strength, but, but yeah, so that's, um, so that. So that's, um, so that. that anyways is why Superman is my favorite character because I appreciate Clark Kent. But Bruce,

but we can all agree Bruce Wayne is the superior superhero, right? No, there's something, we only get this debate, but is there anything super about, like, well, that's why he's better.

He's just a man, and he's great. Superman is, like, infallible, except for one little piece of rock. Like, you can't beat him. It's what I like about Superman.

Is that, like, I mean, he's from a different planet. He's a different species, but he can do a great lead and inverted pyramid story. And I'm sure, you know, he can knock on doors. He can do the man on the street interviews. So, yeah, like, you know, I'll be honest, the first time that I, you know, that I walk into the Washington Post Office in 2008 and 15th and now in Washington, D.C., that I think maybe someone, you know, maybe I'm super mad. I'm glad Bo's not on this show here.

I would never hear the end of this one. And the other element of it, too, is, you know, James Gunn, the director of this did Guardians of the Galaxy, which I believe, which is a pretty fun series. So I think there's hope there that Superman is going to be revived. And it's apparently not as cartoony as the previous iterations of it, where he's not, you know, like taking off the, like he's just kind of Superman on planet Earth. So we'll see. I'll see it in time. All right. So let's round this round out with Predict the Future,

the Future Eagles, NFL, or Wildcard? NFL. Predict the future NFL. Who makes the Super Bowl from the AFC this season? Hmm. Hmm. So you're thinking, Chiefs, Bill, Ravens are probably the favorites in that group. Yeah, those are the three.

It's so chalky to say Chiefs. it's probably the safest bet i'm going to go josh allen just got married his wife is uh coming off of a big movie sinners it's going to be the year of the allen's and the bills finally get past the finish line oh i like that okay uh so i mean the chiefs is the most likely um yeah yeah i what do you what do you say the bill's fan base uh yeah i mean i it's kind of cliche to say the chief I typically go to the Chiefs, but I actually think I'm going to pick Ravens this year. I like that Ravens roster. I like some of the moves that they've made.

I think that secondary is really strong. I still think they can get to the quarterback. I mean, Lamar is a stud. You know, Derek Henry. I think Isaiah likely is a player is likely to have a bigger year than people think. You know, I think their receivers are more competent than they've typically been. So I'm going with the Ravens this year. I've long been an admirer of John Harbaugh as a coach.

John Harbaugh got hired in 2008. And think about that. Is that the same years of Washington Post? Yes. Yeah, good job because I remember pitching a story. You guys started your careers at the same time. Yeah, I pitched a story on this special team's coordinator, who became head coach.

And I remember sending in the pitch. And they're like, why are we having our intern write a story about the Baltimore Ravens coach? There's some qualified NFL writers on this step. So I probably learned then, like, you know, don't. I was a little ambitious. My first day, my first day, I handed the editor 20 story ideas that I had for the summer.

And I thought like, I thought he was going to be like, wow, I'm so impressed by your ambition. He was probably like, do we need to get security here to get a restraining order against this guy? Am I going to have to tell this kid no 20 different times every week? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I had no shortage of ideas. That's great.

The great thing about the summer grid is that it allows you to stay on pace for the show, is that it's 333. So the A block you get 3, the B block you get 3, the C block you get 3. If you want to know whether Jamal Carter is the best defensive tackle in the NFL, make sure you stick around after these messages. I want to tell everyone about Empire Today, okay? Because just like your favorite team, which is presumably the Eagles, if you're watching this show at 2 o'clock on July 11th, needs a home field advantage. Your home needs a home floor advantage. And Empire Today can help you get it.

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A $350 discount with code PHLY. Restrictions apply. Visit Empire Today slash P-H-H-E. H-O-I for full details. All right, friend, here's an impression of me from yesterday. Okay. That's me walking into my house, sweating like a pig, because it is feeling like a sauna in there.

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

That's the only way I could think to cool down. I mean, stop being the stereotypical dad, though. Like, turn on the AC. It's time to fire that thing up. I don't want to be, I want to waste money, be energy efficient. Well, look, instead of icing yourself out or jumping into a lake, you could just check out Pico's energy-saving rebates. They've got deals on Energy Star cooling equipment that actually work and cut down on your bills. So, no more ice down my pants?

No, you could skip the ice, save the ice, and you throw in my drinks when I come over. The same ice? No, we'll change the ice up. Okay. fine that's what's up all right well just head over to pico.com slash ways to save they've got tips for everything heating cooling lighting you name it when monuments get destroyed we can give up or we can take it back on august 6th we rebuild look at that I did not know that was going to be in there um how about that August 6th major announcement

Should we reveal for the audio listeners? Or should we just say you've got to go to YouTube to see what that is? Yeah, let's throw the people a bone here and hook them in. Yeah. Yeah. So August 6th is the Ospreys. And that's a Boe Wolf production along with many other Julia, who does an amazing job. But you can imagine the preparation and the interest that Bo has in the Ospreys.

But there's a little hint in that video for anyone who wants to really try to dissect it, look up, hidden messages or clues in the video. So if you're an audio listener, check this out on YouTube. If you're a YouTube viewer, don't rewind now, but you can rewind at the end of the show. Maybe leave, come back, juice those numbers a little bit more. We'll take that. But, yeah, that was a cool addition. I didn't realize that was going in. I knew it was going to be played, but I didn't, I hadn't seen it yet.

So Julia was also teasing me saying, I have this from Bo, but we're going to surprise Zach with it. So that was my first time doing it as well. Yeah, I was surprised by that. I try to keep a detailed rundown for the show. Yeah, that was not on it. Let's get to a super chat here real quick before we move on from Chase Daniel Plainview. And Chase, as always, we appreciate your contributions to the show. So in Oppenheimer, do you agree with the personnel security board when they revoked

Oppenheimer's queue clearance? Chase, this is a loaded question for a Friday afternoon in July. I would say that I defer to the Department of Energy on these matters. You know, I try to be an expert on the Eagles and maybe their security clearances, but certainly not the, but the Department of Energy, I believe, ruled a few years ago that Oppenheimer, it was wrongly provoked the security clearance. So I'm going to defer to the Department of Energy here because I imagine in 2022, I think it was, they were dealing with more facts and information than I had at the time. But Chase, nonetheless, I appreciate the $4.99 cent contribution.

And please feel free to continue providing these super chats whenever you're interested. I defer to the Department of Energy drop. You know what? I tell my kids, and I say this, is that you can either be an energy giver and energy taker, right? Like, I tell them when you walk into a room, you want to, you know, you want to bring the energy. You don't want to, like, deflate the, no one wants a guy, like someone's like, want, womp, right? You know, that's the, you want to be like, yeah, you want to be the Tigger if you think about the last lecture from Randy Bash, right? So, so.

You don't want to be an energy vampire if you're a what we do in the shadows fan. Yeah. Okay, yeah. That's somebody that sucks other people's energy out of the room. You don't want to be that person. You don't want to be that. You want to bring the energy. You want to be the thermostat, not the thermometer.

So speaking of the thermostat of the Eagles defense, I'm going to assign this one here because this wasn't the thumbnail, and I don't want to get too deep into the show without hitting on the thumbnail in the headline. So convince me. And you sent me something in Slack the other day from Jeremy Fowler on the top defensive tackle. in the NFL. So I want to get this in here for the show. Convince me, Jalen Carter can be the best defensive tackle in the NFL.

And for those who remember the first year of the P.H.O.I. Eagle Show, Jamie in, I believe, our first post game, coined the, did you coin the rhino nickname or did you popularize the rhino nickname that year? I brought it to our March Department. Yes. I think it existed at Georgia. Like I didn't create it. It existed prior to him being here.

But I got it out to the merch department, and there's a great shirt if you want one. Yeah, the Jeremy Fowler piece is interesting because it talks to a lot of executives around the NFL. So you get a good sense of the internal NFL feelings on these guys. And I can't argue with their top three, which was Dexter Lawrence 1, Chris Jones 2, and Jalen Carter, 3. the main reason most people had Jalen Carter 3 was just a lack of body of work that the other two have more of. And basically a little bit behind the sack production. Dexter Lawrence had nine sacks last year. Chris Jones had five.

Jalen Carter had four and a half. You know, if you extrapolate his play from the playoffs and look forward to this year, he seemed to be getting to the quarterback more. He had he's a big like almost sack guy. He's always disrupting pockets. He's always getting his hands up. I'm not taking away from those other two, but I think they've already peaked. I don't expect Exeter Lawrence and Chris Jones to get better at this point. They kind of are what they are. I think Jalen Carter still has the opportunity to get better. If he can add a couple more tackles for losses and let's say two, two and a half more sacks to his body of work next year, I think he's, think we're having a discussion at the end of the year where it's like, damn, is Jalen are the two best defensive tackles in the NFC East? Has Jalen Carter eclips Chris Jones? I think those are not nonsensical conversations after this year.

So I think he's right there behind, let's say, Chris Jones. He warrants the same amount of double teams as those guys. If we get Nolan Smith or Jalick's hunt, somebody really emerging on the edge that has to give that offensive line a little bit more of a one-on-one thought, I think Jalen Carter could absolutely explode. Yeah, I'm with you there in terms of the upside. I think that's a good way of framing it. If you look at body of work, certainly Dexter Lawrence and Chris Jones have a greater body of work.

It doesn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me, rather, if Jalen Carter becomes like the best defensive tackle in the NFL. The name I've used is Nandamican Sioux. He reminds me of Endomicon Sue. He's that type of player. He's that type of force for the Eagles. And he's only going to continue to get better. You know, when you talk to teammates about him and they talk just about like the untapped potential and you heard, you know, what Jeremy Trotter said this year on, I believe it was on WIP when he said that, that like, Jim and Carter's still learning the game, right?

And that's true. You know, he has great football intelligence, but there is a part of him that's still learning the game. And so entering year three, it's hard to say best, but this is my prediction. When you and I speak on July 11th next year, Gialon Carter is the highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL. I think the Eagles give Gailen Carter a contract extension, probably March, April next year. What do you think, an annual average value,

48 to 50, something in that range? What are we talking here? I was thinking 40. I was thinking 40, which is like pretty incredible for a defensive tackle. I would say so. Or for anything. You know, it's good work if you can get it. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, I'm expecting John Carter to push into those limits. So then here you go. So you get to choose, would you rather or predict the future? Let's go with the would you rather? Would you rather? And do you want NFL or wildcard? Let's go NFL. NFL.

NFL. Would you rather play Madden or the college football video game? And the peg here, of course, is that college football 26 came out this week. Yeah. And my son has young Reed Berman already played? Does he already have a dynasty going? Where is he? Yeah, so it actually has a father of, and as someone who grew up playing NCAA football, now it's college football.

I got to say I'm a little disappointed in Reed. I love him more than, I mean, I love him. I mean, he's my best friend in the world, Reed. Okay, he's my best friend. Did you start with a blue blood program? No, he goes with the road the glory and not the dynasty. So he starts as the high school player who then gets recruited and works his way up the depth chart as opposed to the college coach. And to me, the fun is recruiting, right?

Like the fun is building the program. Reed, he's like, he's on Penn State. You know, he wanted to go to Penn State. He became Penn State's RB4 as a freshman. He considered transferring. And he's just enjoying, you know, he wrote the glory. To me, that's a little too self-centered, right? Yeah, team, team, right?

So I want you to be a program builder, not the face of the program, right? And so, but he likes Road to Glory. he came you know he he goes to summer camp where they're on the bus and they get he came running

back from the bus came right open you know he downloaded the game and playing the game yeah as shark as shark calorie I don't know if I should say that

he said is he getting an IL what up Shard Gallery yeah look if if you're a five star recruit if my son's a five star recruit and it's going to Penn State

he better be getting that than N NIL money. Yeah, he better be getting Gavin McKenna money. Yeah. As cousin Grace says, I mean, how could a seven-year-old not understand the value of recruiting and building a system? I mean, how dare you. Yeah. Cousin Gracie's eight now, okay? He turned eight on June 15th, so if I gave too much information.

Yeah, I mean, seven years old, wrote the glory is fine. Eight years old. You start that. Should know better. You should put other people before yourself there, right? So, yeah, love read. He's my best friend. I tell him that every day.

But let's focus more on building a team than being like the marquee player. So then let's do you have this. I imagine you actually had this conversation with them, which is very funny. I have not had it yet. Oh, so you're letting me enjoy his video game for a couple days. My comments now are more like you got to get off the video games. You got to do your summer reading. You got to read every night, that kind of thing.

and he's at that age now where he's like, you're like, Dad, reading's boring. I was like, reading's boring. Think about writers, man. Reading put a roof over your head, read. Have some respect. Yeah, seriously. Seriously.

So I was just going to ask a question about that. Oh, speaking of summer reading for kids, I assume a young Zach Berman was a Matt Christopher fan? Oh, yeah, big time. Big time. Is there a Matt Christopher of today? day's generation going. Nothing that's adequate.

You always say it's easy to write children's book. Why doesn't Zach Berman become the new Matt Christopher? Trust me. Emily's brought this up to me. Emily's like, why aren't you writing young adult children's books? I love the Matt Christopher. I was like, with what free time, right? But yeah, you know, who knows?

Maybe something is down the line. Yeah. Chase Daniel Pladen says, Rick could save time on reading by asking chat GPT to summarize books. I certainly hope not. Chase. No, AI's killing the polar bears. You read his environmentalist. He doesn't want to put that strain on our on our world. He's a bit of an environment. He likes to recycle. So yeah. There you go. I knew it. So here you go here. Predict the future. You went with NFL. Do you want

Eagles or do you want wild card? Let's go NFL. NFL. NFL. Who is the Eagles biggest threat in the NFC. This is a good question. I think the obvious answer, I think there's three on my mind. It's the Washington commanders. I think it's the Detroit Lions. And the Los Angeles Rams, I just can't write them off yet. I know they kind of have their ups and downs, but at the end of the day, Matt Stafford is still one of the better quarterbacks in the NFC. They have a young, a young. A young, young, talented defensive line. I think the easy answer would be the Lions run it back,

but what I saw from Jared Goff in the playoffs, like, no. Jaden Daniels terrifies as a, you know, 10-year problem for the Eagles. Man, I got to put my foot down and make a decision here. I'm going to go, I'm going to go with the commanders. I think they run it better. Yeah, I want to be outside the box here.

I didn't want to go Lions. I was really close to saying Rams. But I'm going to go totally outside the box and say the commanders. You and I are not on the same wavelength on the same wavelength with the commanders. I think commanders will have a slight regression this year. We will see. But yeah, I think the Detroit Lions, I thought they were for most of the year the best team in the NFC last year. obviously did not work down the stretch.

Tough loss to the commanders. I still think that's a really talented team. That's well coached. The Frank Ragnell retirement cannot be dismissed. High, you know, high level player. But yeah, I am eager to see how the lines look this year. And, of course, they're replacing both the offensive and defense coordinator. So that will have an effect on them.

But I... Who's your outside the box team? Who's like somebody that could be hanging? hanging in the shadows that could surprise you. Yeah, good question here. So the outside the box team for me would be the Minnesota Vikings. And I know that they were really good last year, but there's a quarterback change. J.J. McCarthy hasn't started before.

I like J.J. McCarthy when he was at Michigan. I think, you know, even though he's a first year starter, he's a second year player, he's been in that offense. Kevin O'Connell has maximized different quarterbacks there. That's a team that has a lot of talent. And you mentioned Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson's there. They, you know, they keep adding to their defense. Hasea Rogers, former Eagle, it's going to have a role there as well.

So I'm, and, you know, there's some continuity there as well with the coaching staff, too, which I think is beneficial. So give me the Minnesota Vikings. Wow, you're buying J.J. McCarthy stock, huh? Buying J.J. McCarthy stock. Yep. Yep. I went back and forth with him at Michigan.

Sometimes he looked like just a dog, a winner. And then other times I'd be like, yeah. So I don't know. And it's probably why I didn't have him in my consideration. He could go any which way. But it's an interesting one. So when we return, you are going to find out whether Jamie thinks training camp, spring training, or summer league basketball is the is the most fun to talk about, I want to say watch, discuss.

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I am going to fish. Fish. I've heard of them. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of your GA brethren were fishheads back in the day. I think the producer of our show enjoys this. Yeah. I enjoy them. I'm not like a fish nut, but a lot of my close friends, cousins are. So I like going. I think it's my fifth fish show. So yeah, I'm going. It's going. It's going. It's going. I couldn't tell you a fish song. What is a fish song?

Yeah, what's your favorite fish song? So they were never like a radio mainstream, so I didn't expect you to know one. Bouncing around the room was probably their biggest, like, I guess hit, maybe. But, you know, they're a jam band, so a lot of their stuff can be 25 minutes long. I'm more of a goose guy in the jam band scene. You a goose guy, Zach? I don't know what that means either. Goose guy. It's another band.

They're coming around in October at the man. Goose. I saw him twice last summer. They're awesome. Did you know, Bryce Matthews was promoted by the Houston Astros today? Tom Shortstop, prospect. He's coming up. He's going to take Jeremy Pena's spot. Yeah. If you and Emily, you know,

find yourself making a nice tequila cocktail out on the deck a little later. Throw on butter rum by goose. It's good weekend kind of summery vibes. Is that what your hat is? That is a transfusion, actually. That is vodka, ginger ale, grape juice, and lime.

That's a country club. It's a big golf during. So that's the 1912 club in Plymouth meeting. And they had a transfusion hat. I love transfusions. It was an actual fit. Very cool. So I was out the dinner last week.

And I was like, I was like Emily look at the drink list I was like I was like Emily look at this they have Howie Rosemez-Mascale on here you know phosphoro and she looked at me she's like A she didn't care and B she's like I've never seen you get so excited about

I'm like no I'm not I'm not like drinking you I just think it's it's it's cool it's like Howie's Maskell is on here right we went to an event you know we got we got some delicious steaks and mescal from Howie himself Yeah, in addition to doing everything at PHI, Jimmy knows everybody in the city, right? So, yeah, Jamie, you get on an event with with Jamie.

It's like, remember I met you here and here and here. Yeah. So Jamie is well connected. The second thing is. We might have had this conversation before, but when you're reading the ad, it pans to the entire backdrop. So world's most photographed. What is that? So that is an old Addy poster.

It's a BBC poster from, I think it's a National Portrait Gallery exhibit they did. My wife is a huge Elvis guy, and that is him getting ready for a concert, basically taking a selfie in the mirror. So that was one of the exhibits. So that's Addie's poster. That right there is the poster from Pearl Jam. Bad Religion final show at the Spectrum, which I was in attendance at, Dornah, Philly's World Series. And then that right there, Mr. Berman, is the Preservation Jazz Hall Band from New Orleans. As you know, I am a big fan of New Orleans and Preservation Jazz Hall band.

So this is kind of like our movie or our music kind of postery section. On the other side of the basement, I have my sports. Basically, Zach, as you probably know, our lovely wives are our interior decorator of the house. And all my stuff, she said, like, yeah, the kids playroom slash video game, all that stuff goes down the basement and you can hang up all your stupid sports stuff down there. So I got the basement. Yeah, she got the rest of the house. Yeah. Okay.

What I know about Pearl Jam is there originally was Mookie Playlock, right? That's the extent of my. I can't tell you a Pearl Jam's song But I can tell you all the teams Mookie Blaylock has played for in the NBA So You couldn't make one girl jam song No

I mean if I heard one and you said I probably I'm not Like There's probably a song I'm familiar with But I couldn't tell you right now A Pearl Jam's song No That's no

When do you In the car You're just podcast Yeah Just podcast I listen to all the PHY sports shows. Is there ever a time where you throw on music or no? When my kids are in there.

I know you're not a big, okay. And what do they listen to? So Reed right now likes Kendrick Lamar. Reid likes Kendrick Lamar. Nice, Reed. And Sloan likes Tower Swift. So. Who doesn't?

Yeah, so I listen to them when they're in the car. But otherwise, yeah, no, all sports podcast. Got you. Is Emily a music person? Yeah, she's a music person. But not music I'm interested in. But I can't tell you any Pearl Jam songs. Better Man would probably be the one that you most know, I guess.

I can tell you the Minnesota Twins' top prospects, though, if you want. Let's talk about the album 10. It's one of the greatest rock albums ever, back. Go. Yeah. Don't. Oh, Jeremy. Yeah.

Jeremy. That's my future brother-in-law. That's the only thing I know. All right. You got, here you go. Would you rather convince me or predict the future? Let's go predict the future. Predict the future.

The last one left here. Wildcard. What do the Phillies do at the trade deadline? Ooh. Your buddy, Matt Gell, put out a piece the other day just yesterday, saying they're really looking at the age. L. Central and it kind of sparked up my pipe dream scenario. Do you want my pipe dream or do you want what I think is realistic? Both. My pipe dream is Stephen Kwan and Emmanuel Claise from the

goal. Yeah, I'm with you there. Now, the problem with most outfielders that appear to be available are the majority of them are left handed, which is not what the Phillies need. They need a right-handed outfield power bat, which just doesn't appear to exist. Emmanuel Class A is one of the best contracts in sports. So I am willing to offer up Aidan Miller and Mick Abel and either an Escobar or a tight with another lower level pitcher. And if you can two for one from the Guardians, that is my dream scenario. I don't think that's the most realistic scenario.

I do think they're going to get a big bullpen piece. Duran from Minnesota, who you just mentioned, Jim Salisbury, actually brought up to me last week when filling in for Anthony's show. And then I've started to see Duran's name mentioned more and more by Passin and Gelb and others. So I'm starting to think maybe there's a little bit of smoke to that. But I think their big move is going to be a bullpen piece. I think Kepler's going to get DFA'd or traded away. Wow, really? I think, yeah, that's just my gut.

I think he's about to get Whitmerfielded. I think we're going to see Justin Crawford in the near future. Outfield is a little tougher. I'm a gambler. I'm very dumb, so I would go get Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox because they're going to have to eat some of his money. You're buying them at an all-time low, and I hope it's a change of scenery type of situation.

So we'll see. I mean, Geron Duran from the Red Sox. But some of these teams, Zach, as you know, with the trade deadline now and the wild card standings, like, are these teams sellers or buyers? Some still don't know. So this might go down to the wire. Yeah. If, look, I'm with you on Kwan and Klaus, or Klaas, if there's any way you can get Buxton and Duran, that would be ideal. And I know Buckson's injury, history worries people.

Yeah. But Buxton is when he's on. he is so talented. So that's where, but I do like the outfielder closer package. And I'm willing to give up, I'm willing to give up anyone in the system other than Painter.

Yeah. You know, if for that type of move, the needle, because I think that, I think this is the Phillies window right now. And I think if you're getting, if you're getting that combo, you're getting someone who is starting for you,

you know, in the outfield, not just like, it's not a rental, but someone who's here beyond this year. So you can actually map out like a two to three year window there with that player. So I would be aggressive in that case. I would package, I would package Aiden Miller and I would package Mick Abel if it meant getting, you know, Buxton and Duran. And then I would package Abel and, you know, maybe not Miller, but somebody else there to get Kwan and Klaz.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's, as you said, I think the window is now. Baseball's weird. You just got to get hot at the right time. And I still think they have a core that can win a World Series. With the starting pitching, it's ridiculous. And if Painter comes up and joins the club, you know, you can put essentially two starters in the bullpen once Nola gets back. So you can really bolster your bullpen in a massive way.

if you get one of those back-end high-leverage guys. It's just the outfield. But I want to see Crawford up here. You know, you can't keep them in AAA forever. Sure. Would you rather or convince me? Would you rather? Would you rather?

This is your wild card here. Training camp, spring training, or summer league. And so I know summer league maybe isn't the same as training camp or spring training, but preseason basketball doesn't count, right? And so it's for all intents and purposes you're covering. summer league right um so i guess i guess rank them and uh or like like like like which would you rather pay most attention to yeah it's tough i think uh summer league is so i was on my honeymoon with my wife uh down in st lucia and barbado i hope with your wife yeah yeah not it wasn't a it wasn't a

solo trip and uh it was the summer of jalea lokha for and late at night i was staying up and watching Jaliel Okafor Summer League games because I thought I thought that was the pick I was really excited should have realized I don't blame you it was poor he was pulling him off the court for defensive purposes late in the final four run I should I should have taken note of that um so summer league is tough to evaluate because it so depends on the pick like once vj edgecombe left the games I have no interest in watching these if vj edgecombe is playing in these games I'd probably put NBA Summer League one. Like remember the summer of Ben Simmons and Summer League?

Like that was like must watch TV. Training camp is tough because it gets there. You get so excited that football's back. And then there's a lot of nothing for a couple weeks. A couple position battles to pay attention to. Spring training I love just because baseball is back on your TV. So this is a long way of me saying I probably put spring training one. I put training camp to summer league three

but that is malleable depending on how high of a draft pick the Sixers get it's kind of a comment but I think I like spring training the most So I would actually put spring training the least here Now I love when when baseball's back I just find I find spring training to be like the least important Of this like there's the least you know

I in the sense that like spring training is fun watch, I suppose, but you read nothing into spring training. If a guy is a hot bat in spring training, it doesn't foretell anything for the season. That's probably infected me, though, a little bit. It's going to spring training games. It's so enjoyable that I might have waited it heavier. Yeah. Yeah.

So my spring training experience is in covering the games, and they're like boring to cover. In the outfield at French. Yeah. So a little bit different. I remember my, my 25th birthday. my 25th birthday covering a Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees spring training game in Sarasota. And I remember the pitching coach for the Yankees, I believe his name was Larry Rothschild. He cut me off on the way we're on.

Cut me off the way down there. And I looked at this. It was on there. It was the pitching coach. It was my birthday. And I told the story on the show. And so I said, and I read a story. And I wrote a story actually, I believe on Greg Goulson, who was a Phillies first-round pick back in the day.

But then I was working for, I was at the Star Ledger at the time. And then I went there. There's a place called BJ's Brewhouse down in Florida. And they have a dessert called the Pizuki. And so the longtime viewers of the show know this story. Pizu Kizu Kizu Kizzi. Yeah, Pizu Kizzi. It's like a soft baked chocolate chip cookie or any kind of cookie you want with like ice cream.

It's my favorite dessert. and I ordered the Pizuki to go. And I bring it, and I'm staying at the Spring Hill Suites in Tampa. And I get to my hotel. And I say hello to the woman at the front desk. And she says, what do you have there? And I say, it's a Pizuki. And she says, oh, I love a Pizuki.

And for the life of me, I don't know why I said this. I said, would you like this? And she said, sure, I would love that. Thank you. That's so nice to you. And so I gave her my Pizuki. And you hadn't touched it, right? No, no, no.

I had, this was like my tree for my birthday. This was my tree for my birthday. So my 25th birthday, I am in a hotel room in Spring Hill in Tampa, Florida. And the, my, the thing else. going to like save her that night right like my reward for covering this spring training game writing this great galson story was going to be this this fresh warm pizuki and uh i was just like i it can't you know you know something's just like you know you're yeah and so i was like would you like it right and because she said she said i love pizookies and she's and i said she said she's

I said, would you like? She said, sure. And so I gave her my Pizuki. Zach, I would never have taken your Pizuki. Oh, man. I mean, but yeah, that is the, that's, is there, is there ice cream involved with the bazooki? Yes, yes, there's ice cream.

Oh, man, Zach, you can't give that away, man. And so, and if you get it in the store, you know, it's in like, like a cast iron, you know, skillet. Yeah. Yeah. It is so good. And yeah, so my, my 25th year was, was a, was a great year. I moved back to Philly and all that, but my 25th birthday was, was memorable because I did not even get to enjoy dessert that night. Yeah. The Pizuki that got away. Well, you're a good man, Zach. Thank you. She should not, she should not have accepted that Pizuki from you, though. you can't take that and plus you're like no offense to you

I don't think you're this type but you're trusting a stranger with their food and like how do you know it's not eaten or licked or well it was like stapled it was stapled right like the bag was stapled I gotta say like it would be a really

I know there's some like creeps out there some like some real jerks out there but the level of detail you would have to go to get a Pizuki, mess with the Pizuki somehow. Staple with bag back together. Maybe you're driving back to the hotel and you just want like a little finger spoon of vanilla ice cream off the top.

You know what I mean? Like then go to the, then then go to the hotel. Offer your Pizu Kuzuki up. Think that she's going to take the Pizuki. There's so many steps here. Like I can't put my head in the mind of someone who like does these. crazy awful things. But, like, I don't know what, like, what the bigger presumption is.

It's like that she's going to accept the Pizuki, that she, A, she's going to like Pizuki. B, she's going to accept the Pizuki. We see that, like, why would you get the Pizuki to mess with? But, yeah. But, but. Such a funny word, too, Pizuki on top of it all. Google Pazuki. It's like a famous dessert.

If you're just giving away a slice of cake, this story isn't nearly as good, but it's no, no, no. I mean, I was, yeah, so that is, that is, that is my Pizuki story. Make sure everybody sticks around for overtime. And once again, I put you, I was supposed to tell you what you're sticking around for. Yeah, Julie, it was a little quick on the mood for you. No, I, I, I, I just screwed that up. I was going to say, for Jamie's last answer, we find that out in overtime.

We are in overtime here. And you're, so process of elimination, you're at convincing. me. And this one, you know, I was, I was up middle of the night last night, couldn't fall asleep and was fiddling around on TV. And I put on the quarterback documentary, right? And so I want to ask you, what's your favorite NFL reality show? Quarterback, hard knocks, all or nothing. I was a hard knocks devotee in the beginning. Like a lot of other people, I started to fade off. I actually am going to go with the hard knocks in season. I grew a little, I don't want to say tired of the training camp stories because it's still an excellent show.

But like so much of the attention is paid to these guys that don't end up contributing or making the team. So I like the in season hard knocks more. I haven't watched quarterbacks yet, so I can't really speak on that one. Okay. But the hard knocks in season, I think it's a really good look into. the stars, the locker room, the coaches, and you get more applicable kind of intel on your team or favorite players from the in season than anything else. So I'll go with hard knocks in season. Okay. Yeah. So the Eagles will be on the All or Not. So the Amazon All or Nothing run, right? Yeah.

That's what the Eagles are on. Or is it hard knocks in season? No, it's hard knocks in season. It's the division. It's the NFC East and the end-season. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so, yeah, so that's a good one. And I'm looking forward to seeing the Eagles on that. Obviously, the Hard Knocks off-season was great, too great, because it'll never come back because of the Giants telling us all that Sequan stuff. Joe Shane, you ruined it.

Yeah, the quarterback, the quarterback one was fun, or is fun as well. You really get a good behind-the-scenes of the players' lives. Joe Burroughs fund the monitor. I probably didn't need another year of Kirk Cousins. if I'm being honest with you. Like, you know, I got you, Kirk. But, yeah, it's, it's fun being around, Joe Burrow. We don't need to hold everyone on this summer Friday for too long.

We do have a contribution here from Pollard Jam in the chat. Poir Jam with an Osprey's date set, will Zeeby start to practice shotguning beers? You know, in the Super Bowl locker room, I saw them shotgun beers. So. Have you ever from shotgun? You've never shot. I've never shotgun to beer. No.

Have you ever beer bonged a beer? Those crazy Syracuse days. Beer pong. What was beer bong? Beer bong. Beer bong. I'm like I was, I was 18 going on to 38.

Oh yeah. No, never been that either. Yeah, I was 18 going on a 38. Like, I admit it. You know,

I mean, if you ever went to a Dave Matthews band concert in high school, you would have seen a million beer bongs. Yeah. Look, I wasn't cool enough to go to go to go to the Dave Matthews guy concert, right?

She was having She was having too much fun with other people I was I was No keg stands at Syracuse No No I was I was more like

The conversationalist if you will Right Yeah I wasn't I was the life of the party Well I've done enough For both of us, Zach There you go

But my Dave Matthews story Oh cool The little Friday anecdote thing Yeah I lived in Shardsville Virginia Oh And That's where they started?

So they first performed at this place called Millers, which is in, if you're familiar with what Seaville, it's or Charlottesville, the downtown mall is what it's called, and there was this bar miller. And I used to go, and I would, because, now, I think people went because of Dave Matthews, right?

I went because they had the best jambalaya, you can imagine, okay? I mean, I was hooked on this jambalaya. So about once a week, I would go and I would sit there at the bar eating jambi. And this is not the type of bar where you're like watching, you know, college football. And they're playing music and that kind of thing. And so I remember, like, they're chatting me up one night. Like, you know, what kind of music?

I was like, I'm not really a music guy. I just really like your jambalaya here. So, yeah. I actually wonder if it still exists, but it was called Millers, and they had terrific. I'm going to look this up real quick. Miller's to Charlottesville. And I wonder, yeah, Miller's Charlottesville. Yeah, Miller's downtown, 4.3 star on Google.

Yeah, and let's see if they still, so live music and food. Let's see if they still have the jambalaya on here. Did you ever talk to Chris Long about this to, to, to. Yeah, this is a fun reveal here. Because Chris Long has a showy. I see Blancheville. Lobster Bisk, see how Caesar, come on, where are you going? Let's get a jambalaya here.

It's got to be on there if it was that good. Handcrafted burgers, fried fish, sandwiches, hot dogs, dessert. I do not see. Oh, no, Zach. It must be when I moved. Maybe I was the only one getting to jambalaya. They were like the one guy that came in every Thursday is gone. We don't need to have this on the menu anymore.

They're like, who was that? The real creepy guy who came in every Thursday. With a newspaper, a legal pad, and asked for the jumblelaya. No menu, please. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it was, I remember that. I used to have the jumblei.

If you ever talked to Chris Slong, asked about the jambalaya and Mills. Jamie, this was a fun show. I always enjoy when you hang. out with us here on the PHYEGEL show. This concludes a fun week on the show. It also means we're one week closer to training camp. So I have good news for everyone here. Next week is the last week of shows before training camp.

So that means starting the following week, you are going to get months and months and months and months of live football talk. Right. No more, you know, the end is in sight. This is the hardest part of the PHI Eagle Show calendar and the end is in sight. And so next week, it's going to be a fun week. We have rank week. We have what ifs. We will also finish out the position previews.

I have some stories coming out next week, including one on Nick Siriani, that I hope everyone checks out from some work that I had done this summer. So you can find that on all phtoI.com. Make sure you're die hard. Also, like I said, make sure you rate, review, subscribe, leave comments. I will read all those comments. And I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. As always, Julia does an amazing job. We thank Julia.

We thank Jamie for filling in. I'll be back on Monday. Until then, if Beau were here, he would say, as always, we love you. I will say, we'll do better on Monday. Thanks for watching.