PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Emergency Pod: Howie Roseman does it again, signs ex-Giants Edge rusher Azeez Ojulari

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Patience pays off, as the Eagles have filled the Josh Sweat-sized hole in their edge rotation with the addition of Azeez Ojulari on a one-year deal reportedly worth just $4 million. The 2021 second-round pick will be just 25 this offseason and brings real juice to a rotation that could use the help. Fran Duffy, Zach Berman and Bo Wulf react to the signing. 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 an emergency podcast. A week into free agency, the Eagles, they can still surprise us. Howie Roseman, you dirty dog, the Eagles have signed Aziz O'Jolari, the ex-giant Edge Rusher, 2021 second round pick. They have signed him to a one-year deal reportedly worth just $4 million, so a lot to unpack here, and we will talk about it, with Fran Duffy and Zach Berman. Zach, I will start with you. you've been hinting at this that the Eagles were interested here.

I think all three of us can take a little bit of credit on this one. I want to talk about that. But give us the scoop. What did the Eagles see here? Why is this an ideal fit? Yeah, he's a 24-year-old who turns 25 in June, who has been, I'll defer to Fran for the scouting report. But he's been effective as a situational pass rusher in the NFL. His most effective season was as a rookie.

He had eight sacks. They drafted over him. They traded over him. They drafted Kay von Tibado. They traded for Brom. Ryan Burns. So he was more in the situational role in these past, you know, two years. Injuries have been an issue. But you see the upside, you know, a big time pedigree, second round pick coming out, someone who was thought he could sneak into the first round.

But when you see what the price is, you come up with either, there's there's kind of two things. There's two things you can look at. One, we overrate him. Like the league has spoken and that he was lingering on free agency. No one gave him big, you know, this is an in-demand position. No one paid him big money. Or two, he was selective, similar to Mackay Beckton. And he sees a situation where he can come in, play, rebuild his value on a team that could, in theory, allow him to rush the quarterback. So if it's the latter, this is a great move for the Eagles. If it's the former, it's something you might worry about, but you also say, like, it's very low risk at $4 million. I think there's no doubt that the injuries are a factor here. Otherwise, you know, a 25-year-old with some pass-rush production would not be settling for a one year, $4 million deal. He has not played more than 11 games in any of the last three seasons, played 17 as a rookie, and then 7, 11, 11. We can get to some of the production stuff. But as a player, Fran, you liked O'Jolari a lot coming out. What did you like about him and what have you seen from him in the pros?

Yeah, what I liked most about it was that even though he was an undersized pass rusher at Georgia, he wasn't just a, all right, I'm going to get the corner and win with speed. Everything started honestly with his power, his long arm, his ability to kind of go right through you. And he kept tackles off balance. To me, like I had a quality level for a guy at that size. And so that was one of the things I really liked. A player that I thought that he was very similar to was Carl Lawson, who ended up being a day three pick, but turned into a nice player for the Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Bengals eventually went to the Jets. Like Ojolari, injuries kind of did, lost in a little bit midway through his career. They said it in a little bit later, whereas Ojolari, I mean, it started a little bit in college, but really kind of became an issue with the Giants. And honestly, look, that's the reason why he's available for one year, $4 million.

And honestly, watching him over the last couple of years, the injuries have taken their toll. He doesn't have the same level of juice that he had when I studied him at Georgia. You could really see the lower body stiffness. to show up, you know, going back and just kind of watching all of his pressures, you know, over the last couple of weeks and just kind of seeing, all right, like, where does he win? What are some of the issues here? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses?

It's a lot of like almost plays, right? Where it's like, oh, man, like he just could, he got back there and couldn't finish. And to me, a lot of that was just like an athleticism issue that wasn't there for him two years ago, three years ago, right? And you mentioned how the injuries have kind of taken their toll. I do think that this is a guy that can be a competent part of a rotation. and that can give you, you know, certainly give you some nice snaps, but not a guy you're going to put, you know, too much on in terms of leaning on to be a big part of your pass rush.

By the numbers, efficiency-wise, as a pass rush, he was actually pretty effective this year. You know, he had that really good rookie season, played 17 games, as you said, Zach, had eight sacks that year. And then, like, on a per-rush basis, even when he was injured, was not as effective in 22 and 23. but that shot back up this year hit the quarterback on 4.7% of his pass rush opportunities. Now it was only like 190 snaps, but that's in the top court title of the league. You're talking about like the Joey Bosa, Nick Herbig, Andrew Van Ginkle area, but was not able to stay healthy. And also not really asked to do a lot in coverage, was just in coverage 3% of the time. How do you think he would fit into that part of the Vic Fangio ask, Fran?

Yeah. I think the big thing with him is that you're just trying to find the right spot for him in the rotation. I think in an ideal world, you probably still don't want to put too much on it. I don't know that they want to go in with him being. And Zach, I, you know, I'm interested to get your thoughts on what the, what the team has been saying in terms of, you know, how they envision his role. I don't think that in an ideal world, like he's penciled in as a every down starter opposite Nolan Smith, right? Like, I think in an ideal world, you'd like him. him to come off the bench. You'd like him to be more of a sub-packaged piece, right?

Yeah, that's what I would imagine. But the thing is, is they don't have, and we'll see what the draft bears, right? Their depth chart is like these kind of guys, right? Now, Jell's Hunt is a little bigger, but when you look at Bryce Huff and we'll see what happens with Bryce Huff, even Nolan Smith from like a size perspective, you're looking more like the 240 to 250 pound guys as opposed to what Brandon Graham or Josh Sweat had been for the Eagles. So yeah, I am curious about that. He's not known as like an early down guy. He profiled more as a situational pass rusher.

So I would view him as the third guy, but I think he's going to get ample opportunity to rush to quarterback. I think the only reason why you sign this contract in Philly is if you think you're rebuilding your value. Which you could say makes sense from his standpoint. He is only 25 years old. And so if he's able to have a good season, he's still hitting the market next year at 26. And then obviously the familiarity with all of the guys that he's going to be playing on defense with. We could joke about it.

But the Georgia connection here, like he knows Nolan Smith and Nicopi Dean and Jalen Carter and Keeley Ringo. Those guys may be vouching behind the scenes for him to join this team. So it's interesting, Zach. I mean, it's like we've got to temper our expectations because it's a $4 million deal. They're probably not getting the player we have in our minds. But if it is like 80% of what we think he is, it's like it is the ideal piece to fit into the puzzle of what the Eagles need on defense right now ahead of the draft. And so they don't have to force something.

Yes. Yeah. Like if you told me going into free, if you told me on Monday morning last week or let's go two weeks ago that they would resign Zach Bonn and they would sign Aziz Ojalari, I would say that's a really good outcome for this off season. right like that's and you know then i i would say go with bargain pieces elsewhere you get compics if you draft well that's a good offseason um aziz ojolari i i thought would be more of like an eight to ten million dollar player and that's what surprises me when you see some of the edge rusher contracts like look look baron browning got you know nearly twice as much per year as aziz ojolari did and so um the the league has spoken unless like we said it is a beckton

situation where he wasn't happy where he thought he was going to get big money. He wasn't getting that money. And he's like, let me go to a place where I can rebuild the value. That would be the best outcome. But I think Bo hit it on the head in terms of like the three of us might need to mollify our expectations a bit because of the player we had in our head when 31 teams, kind of even 32. If you look at what the Eagles paid, 32 teams didn't view him as like an $8 to $10 million

edge rusher. Can I give you an insane stat that I just added up? Okay? And Zach, you tell me if you think this is intentional on the Eagles perspective. And it's something that might mean they just are trying to run this team as if they were Zach Berman. Since the start of last year's free agency, the Eagles have now signed 14 different players who originally entered the league as a first or second round pick. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't surprise you at all.

It's, you're, you're, it's, I know you make fun of me for, you know, I like that guy. But like, the thing is this, if you're a first round pick, there are certain tools that allow you to be a first round pick. Typically, a first round pick isn't often, it's not just college production. It's, it's like tools. And that the Eagles probably look at it, like situations. there are things that prevent that player from maximizing the potential and that they have an environment here whether it's development whether it's coaching whether it's the players around him whether it's the locker room that they can try to extract more value from that player than other

teams did and you're playing the lottery here and you're you're just thinking that that there are there are our tools to to to develop and so that's kind of it doesn't surprise me it's look I mean, Howie Roseman is much better at this than I am, but like I would operate the way Howie has and try to find that and get those second chance players. I know we've disagreed because you are right. Those players typically have more an opportunity in the places where they were than an undrafted guy or a day three guy. But the undrafted guy and the day three guy typically doesn't have the tools to develop as a late bloomer the way that the first round pick might. Do you want to play a quick two, Ken, you on the 14? In the past two years?

Yeah. Staqaunt Barkley, Mackayette Bechting, Kenny Pickett. Okay, there's three right there. Let's keep going here to... I should have made this a back and forth between you and Fran. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was just impressed that he rolled off those three, right?

Yeah, Jehanne Dodson. there's one for you so then so we got four Lewis seen at safety is five at corner you're looking at I don't think they added a corner there or I see in your eyes they did add a you get a little glimmer in your eyes glimmer in your eyes

I would need to kind of go through Fran, you want to jump in and it comes to that. It's very selfish of Bo to not tell you. It was greedy Williams. No, this was. No, that was two years ago. Yeah, it was two years ago. This is the last year ago.

This is much more recent. Oh, Adori Jackson. Adora Jack. I'm sorry. I was thinking of last year's team. Okay. So now that, if you're including this offseason, then obviously there are, well, not as many guys, but more guys that. You're loading up on second round.

Yeah. Kenyon Green fits that profile. Yes. This year. How many are we at now? I think that's seven. That's seven. I want to make this seven.

Who else here? Well, Aziz O'Jolari. Yeah, eight. Two more from this year's offseason. Okay. Sorry, then my mind is going blank here. Well, Zach, thanks. The other aspect of it, too, is,

we think about the Eagles propensity as a select former like big time recruits especially when you get to day three of the draft. You know, you think of like Josh Swett. He was one of those guys that, you know, four star player, five star player, where maybe for whatever reason you get to day three of the draft, it's the same general idea on the pro market

of you're trying to buy the dip on a player that has the quote unquote tools in the body to be able to hit their upside. And I seen the chat. And I should say. Yeah. AJ Dylan, yes. Do you want me to just give the rest

them to you? Please, please, yeah. Josh Ushay. Yeah, yeah. John Ross. Okay. My man. Paris Campbell. Yep. Devin White. And then your least favorite player in NFL history.

Monta, yeah. Marks. That's met. I should say that I think Aziz O'Gillari is now the prime attraction for, if you want to watch Fran break down some film of the Eagles free agents. You can do it next Tuesday night if you are a diehard, but you better get in like now because I think we're talking about like four or five spots left. So you get you get dinner, you get to check out the PHOY facilities, you get to meet me and Fran, probably the least

important thing, but you get to watch Fran do some guys who's going to do them with you. And you're going to get to learn all about Aziz O'Jolari and what tools he has in his body. Big opportunity. Yeah, one thing I want to pull out here, that is a great opportunity. And, you know, the France scouting report on Aziz will be especially beneficial here. When the Eagles won the Super Bowl the last time, okay, you think about the players that they added. And you're looking at Helodinaata, Mike Wallace, Richard Rogers. These are older type players, right?

I don't think it's coincidence that the Eagles haven't added a player over 30, this office. season. The only players who will be over 30 on the, well, I should, I'm besides the long snapper, right? The only players who will be over 30 on the team, as of now off the top of my head are Lane Johnson, Jake Elliott, and the long snapper, right? And that is a lot different than what it's kind of been in the past. I think the Eagles are trying to gamble on these younger players. And I kind of like that way of, I think that's one way how we learned from the previous. He was going for kind of ring chasing players before, and now I think he's going for rebuild their value type players, as Fran said, by the dip. I think there is a chance that this could potentially cancel out

the Isaiah Rogers sixth round comp pick. I think it might depend on like how many snaps he plays this season. It could also be just under the barrier. I think it's projected to be like, four and a half million dollars or something like that. So it is possible that this signing will cancel out that sixth round pick. But I don't think that that is a reason not to make the move, obviously. Also, that McIcon seal last year was reported at like five and a half, but it effectively counted against the cap at like two, you know, or as like a signing as like two and a half million, right?

Because a lot of it was incentive. So I'm curious how the actual numbers will look. Yeah, it's interesting. Does this big picture change the way? you feel about what the egos have done this this first week plus a free agency friend um no i don't i don't think so i mean look i think that adding ojolari there's certainly some upside here uh when you know with what he can be but um look again it's a one year four million dollar contract for a reason so i think it's look it's bigger than some of the swings that we that we had emergency pods for

last week um but i i don't think that is this is like an earth shattering uh game change changing element to the defense now either, right? So I do think that it certainly raises the floor of that specific room, that offensive, that outside linebacker room. But, you know, I don't think they're going nuts and throwing confetti in Novakar either. Yeah, I mean, I look at it, edge, excuse me, edge rusher was the biggest question that I had on this team for next season.

I would probably put safety in that mix right now, too. But now, I don't think this affects the draft. whatsoever. You know, I saw some sentiment in the chat that they don't need the force edge rusher. I don't think this affects the draft plans at all. If they didn't address edge rusher going into the draft, they would have just added one after the draft, right? Like, it's not, I don't think those events are related. We can say they're draft proofing the roster. But I think this is, look, this is the biggest investment they've made so far this offseason, financially speaking, number one. And it's a move that I personally like. I like the profile. I like the player.

I really like the price. And I stand by what I said. If you had told me going into the offseason that they would keep on and sign O'Jolari, I'll say good work. Like that's a solid offseason. But I am taking a step back a bit because of the price and like what does the league know that I don't? Because the league clearly does value him differently than I do if I thought he was going to make $10 million. But I like what they've done. And what you are doing is at an important position,

are spreading out the bets, right? And so you're hoping that one of Azizzo Jolari, Josh Usher, or Bryce Huff, if they don't move on from him, turns into a viable third edge rusher or maybe even, you know, is able to spell as the second guy. Like, and that's totally reasonable. That's a, that's a good approach, I think. We will see what they do at linebacker and corner and safety if they bring in anybody else there. But I think on the edge now, you feel much better as a whole about just the diversity of bets that you have to turn into something of a competent rotation. I'm curious for you, Bo, because I love your free agent rankings every year. They're Eagles specific.

How do you view Oja Lurie's profile this year relative to Price-Hop's profile last year? Good question. Now, I mean, I targeted him as an Eagles fit because he fits everything that the Eagles would look for, right? from the position to the age, to the Georgia background, you know, to the draft pedigree, all that stuff makes a lot of sense. I think, I mean, Bryce Huff was, that was a guy that you were buying at the apex of his value, had showed more as a pass rusher production-wise and able to stay healthy. So, I mean, there's a reason that he got the money that he got and OJLari didn't.

I think the health question is obviously a huge factor here. And I mean, I don't think there's any way to read his market as anything. other than skepticism about his health. So, I mean, Huff was a higher profile player. It makes sense that he went for more money. I also think that Ojo Lari is also probably limited to being a pass rush specialist as well. Yeah, I think when the story comes out here, like when the narrative comes out, it's going to be the sales job that the Eagles did, selling him on the opportunity,

on the chance to rebuild his value. because that's my guess for the way this is going to be framed. Fred, any truth to your understanding that John Merritt told Joe Shane, it's okay if you don't resign Ojelari. I just want to make sure he doesn't go to the Eagles and pulls his sake one. I don't think he'll ever be able to sleep again. I don't, I can't confirm that that was said. Unfortunately, none of us will be able to consider there is no offseason hard knocks this year.

But yeah, I mean, look, this is. I'm sure that that sentiment is probably, there's probably some inside jokes being told like in the corners of, you know, of that building. Just, you know, saying like, oh, hope they don't do it again, you know, here with Aziz Jojolari because we know that that could be a bad look. But I'm just going to say to Joe Shane again, once again,

the same sense, like, it's okay to lose guys, but trade him at the deadline. Your team wasn't competitive, right? Unless you thought he was going to get huge money. But you were planning on signing guys, this offseason too. So the compic thing wasn't going to affect you. Like, why did you keep him? He was rumored to be on the trade block. They apparently had like a high price for him. Just sell him. Like trade him. Get something for him. This happens. Happened with Barclay.

Happened with Xavier McKinney. And it's like just see what you see the value you can get for the guy. You talk about like the Eagles buying the dip. Like as Bo mentioned earlier, like he was having a productive seat. He was doing some good things from a pressure number standpoint. There was something you could legitimately sell to a contender during the fall, and then he hurts his toe, and then he's out for the year, and he missed the rest of the season on the backstretch of the year. Like, that was definitely missed value from the giant standpoint.

No doubt about it. This is a good bit for you, Zach. I like this. I don't think they're going to welcome me back in the Giants facility anytime soon, right? We haven't revisited it since you said it, but I have been thinking that your commander's take was probably your, your best take of the offseason. Which one was that?

The Josh Harris take. Josh Harris. Oh, about the Andrew Bindam here? They're following the Sixers template. They're overvaluing the good first year that was kind of a fluke. Yeah, I mean, that now, if I'm in football, it's different than basketball. But yeah, that Bynum trade set the franchise back in such a major way. And it was like, I, like, he literally didn't play for the Sixers.

that front office just got hoodwinked. There you go. All right. I'm sure we will talk about this a little bit more on tomorrow's PHLY Eagles podcast at 2 o'clock, which you can check out live. You can also check out the PHLY draft show with Fran Duffy Live at noon. We're going to be talking about some of the testing production outliers on offense in the first couple rounds and whether those things concern, Fran at all.

I imagine now we can talk a little bit about if the Eagles draft strategy changes. with the addition of Aziz OJolari. Any final thoughts, Sack, before we get going? I just need to say one thing, because my son's watching down in Florida, What's up, Reed? Emily texted me to make sure I say, what's up to read? I want to, what's up, Reed? He wanted to know who they signed,

and he wanted to know how many sacks O'Jolari had last year. And do you have an answer? That's six sacks, right? Yeah. Yeah. Six sacks. Fran, any final thoughts from you before we get to the Super Chats? Hello to Reed.

The chat is excited for the chat is excited for Reed to be here. No, I mean, look, I think that there's certainly a lot to. I'm more excited by this than I was by Josh Ushae last week. I think there's a better chance that this bet hits as opposed to the Ushay bet from last week. So a reason to be excited, but don't go overboard. Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, right. All right, some super chats that we have. Claude says the Eagles got to sign John Reall.

now to play safety since they've got its use i like that i think that would be fun dj aka mr sandman do you guys have an early guess for the eagles starting front seven week one sac i'll let you go first so are are we calling this a five two front or are we saying uh what kind of front are we going with here like uh let's go with the five go with the five two go with the base front okay that's what i was wanting you know but you're playing nickel so i mean i'm going to say Jordan Davis, okay, Jaylon Carter,

Moro Ojima. I'm going to go with Nolan Smith, J.O.X. Hunt. And then I am going to go with Zach Bonn and we're talking about week one, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Hmm.

Interesting. What do you think, Fred? Let's go. Any changes to that? Yeah, I'll swap out Ojama for, let's go Walter Nolan. For Walter Nolan. Oh, wow.

I will swap out, I will take Zax, but I will swap out Jeremiah Trader Jr. for a fourth round rookie. Wow. That's bold, too. Okay. Interesting. There you go. And then Joe asks, do the Eagles lose a compick? I think we touched on this a little bit earlier. It's possible, and I think it may depend on how many snaps Aziz O'Jolari ends up playing that this would cancel out the Isaiah Rogers. Sixth round compick. But I also think it's, it might not. It might come just short of that. And it may depend on, you know, the structure. So it's possible. And here's the thing. If it meets the threshold where it cancels up a six-round pick, that means it's a good thing. Like, if it reaches that level, it means that he played enough and it was worth it. So that makes sense. Another super chat in just under the wire is Kyle Pitz a real possibility. How many turkeys, Zach? He is a former first-round pick. That would make 15. look I would never say never the thing is with Kyle Pitts too is I imagine if you trade for him you're signing into a contract extension he's on a fifth year option and so you can bring down the cap number for this year okay by by signing into an extension

um Atlanta has shown no inclination that they are interested in trading him right now I think though that if you were the Eagles, maybe you'd prefer to have a tight end on a rookie contract as opposed to paying Kyle Pitts, probably, you know, a four-year, let's say he gets $12 million a year, right, which might be conservative, but a four-year, $48 million a year contract, you might say you'd rather have a Royal or Mason Taylor on a rookie deal for four years than pay, you know, $12 million. to a tight end. If Howley called me up, by the way, breaking news from the Eagles, Lane Johnson has signed a one-year contract extension through 2027.

And so this is, this will probably bring his cap number down, but it could also show that from everything I've talked from Lane about, and I've spoken about this a few times, and he wants to keep playing. He says he feels good, and he's kind of legacy hunting right now, too. So I wonder if Lane will play three more years. years. Yes, but they also cannot rely on that. He is also, you know, 30 whatever years old. And so I think they would love to, they'll, they would welcome him with open arms as long as he can play, but they have

to bake in the fact that it's not necessarily reliable. My only thing on the, on the pits front, to your point, Zach, is aside from A.J. Brown, and that is a different level of, you know, surety, whatever, uh, it is, it is rare for the Eagles to trade for a player and extend him given what that means locker room-wise, right? To pay somebody from somewhere else first before they have proven themselves, I don't know that they would go that route with Kyle Pitts, especially given the framing we've talked about this off-season of, do you want to pay B-plus players, A-plus money?

And we could even debate if Kyle Pitts is a B-plus player at this point. Yeah, then I would say because to me, you're not cutting God or trading Goddard rather. And then trading for Pitts and paying him $10.8 million or $10.9 million, which is what his fifth year option is this year. Right. Like to me, you're only trading for Pitts if you're giving him an extension. And so that's, but if I were Howie, and I've been on record saying this, I would try to trade for Kyle Pitts. I think Kyle Pitts is going to be awesome in the NFL. I still do.

And by the way, he's 24 years old also, right? So he's younger. You know, Dallas Goddard was 23. Eagles drafted him. Pits is 24 right now. You like a Pitz, friend? Yeah, I would be interested in what the compensation would be from a draft capital standpoint. But look, he's a certain kind of player. He's not, he's certainly not the blocker that Dallas is, but it has the ability to be a dynamic past game weapon. Now, the way that he would be used in the past game, we're talking like complete hypotheticals here.

But yeah, I don't know. I would say the usage and fit. for him and the offense would be interesting with how the Eagles played last year. I think that's probably the easiest way to summarize that hypothetical. Fair enough. All right, good conversation. I look forward to continuing tomorrow at 2 o'clock. Check us out then. Make sure that you like and subscribe, comment below.

Tell us what you think of the addition of Aziz O'Jolari. We've been doing these emergency pods. This is how you can scratch our back. Okay, this is how you can thank us. Comment, like the video, subscribe, all that good stuff. And then check out the show tomorrow at noon. with Fran for the PHLY Draft Show, and then at 2 o'clock with all three of us

for the PHAWY Eagle Show for all of us here. We thank you for watching and listening. We will talk to you tomorrow, and as always, we love you. Like the mayor.