PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Exciting Mics Episode 5 Takeaways

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

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Episode five of the exciting mics, Cooper DeGine, and Reed Blankenship, welcome Zach Bonn into these very same studios. Fran Duffy, Zach Berman. Fran, what was your biggest takeaway from that fun discussion? Yeah, I really enjoyed hearing them talk about the relationship with Vic Fangio and Zach. Love that. You know, reliving and retelling his first exposure to Vic, like coming through the building on the, when he first signed the contract and going up to meet with Fangio for the first time,

I enjoyed that anecdote. Yeah, the thing that Bond says, which we will play in a second, about, you know, this defense being so young, it makes you wonder maybe that was part of, like, what didn't work in Miami. Like they had some veterans who expected to be treated a certain way. Vic is not going to be doing that. He's an old school coach, as they say. That brought that to mind, but let's check out what Zach Bond said right now about his first meeting with Vic Fangio and why Vic has been so good with the Eagles.

What was your first, like, interaction with Coach Fangio? do, like, sit you down when you came in and talk to you about, like, the defense in your fit at all? Or no? When I came in a sign last year, I'm, like, walking through the upstairs of the complex and shaking everybody's hand, getting to know everyone. And I walk into Vick's room. I didn't know anything about Vick. And I walk in there, like, what's up, coach?

I'm Zach. Nice to meet you. It's high. High energy. I just met everyone in the building, try to be as nice as possible. and he's in there watching like some old 2016 Baltimore Ravens defense clips and the whole time I'm talking to him I'm pretty sure he's still watching the clips it was a short short interaction and then from there the next interaction was probably through OTAs I asked him hey when am I

gonna get some snaps on the edge you know I used to do that in my past like that's kind of where I'm comfortable he said we'll see we'll see about it yeah he had a vision for you did yeah He knew what he was doing. He did. He did. He's right. What do you think it is about him that allows our defense to play so well together? Hmm.

I feel like it's the way he coaches us. It's an old school coach. Like his old school coach, like he's not afraid to stand on business, you know, to put it like that and be real. And like we're balled in though. Like we can be coached hard. Yeah, that's definitely what it is. And we accept it. And then box real.

I think our defense is so young. that a lot of guys just came from college, and that's what they're used to. And they don't know any other way. Like the Georgia guys, they're used to being coached hard, and they can take coaching and stuff like that. But I think what makes Vic really special is the way he calls the game, like the plays he calls in certain situations.

Yeah. I don't think we were in a split safety in a run versus a run that second half of that whole season. he was just calling the game right he's a good do you know like yeah and like he believes in us too like the Super Bowl

we played like two coverages the whole game you want to play fast pretty much all right Mr. Berman what about you what jumped out from the Zach Bonn experience

yeah I think Eagles fans would enjoy to have him here exactly love to have him in the studio most impressive Zeeb who came through here so I thought what Eagles fans

can really kind of take from from there and there's so many there, but when he was discussing the difference between New Orleans and Philly, and what I mean by that is he was talking about the drive to the game in New Orleans where you don't have these

parking lots full of tailgators and he was kind of reflecting on the experience there. It's not to take away from New Orleans, which has its own unique environment, but the parking lot tailgating passion of Philly fans is

unique. There are stadiums that are more in urban centers where you get that going into it you know the parking for saints games it's a parking garage and obviously if you're in downtown new orleans there's bars you go to but it's it's not quite the same game day atmosphere as driving so i can only imagine a player like that who played a wisconsin and probably saw that a lot right in your first four years in the in the NFL it's you're in new Orleans you play every year against Atlanta and Carolina. It's not quite the same, right? And then here you are and your first home game in Philly. And he talked about the passion. I like this perspective

on the booing that those Eagles fans give where he's like, when they boo you, you deserve it. It makes you raise your game. When you give that type of answer, I think you're wired the right way to play in the city. I think that has been a through line of the shows so far is just everybody, all the players they've had on their take on what it's like to play in Philadelphia and it really is different the fan culture here and listen we talk about it a lot

part of the reason we have our jobs sure right but to see how much that is passed on to the players themselves is interesting let's find out what Zach Bond said what was your first impressions when he first got here and like did you know anything about the fan base how passionate they were like is going from New Orleans

to here or is it kind of like the same atmosphere Yeah, it's different for sure. Outside the stadium, New Orleans didn't have like a parking lot, so it wasn't really like a tailgating culture. It was more of like just walking. It is nice. Walking and the fans are partying. They're wearing, they're wearing Saints gear, but most of them were like just dressed up wearing black and gold, just like partying at the games. And it gets loud. But here, the fans are different. If you don't say go birds. If you don't say go birds or somebody, they're like you're not. I see it every time I'm walking around. So birds, go birds.

Go birds. Go birds. Yeah. That is crazy. The best way I've heard it described is passionate. They're just passionate. Win or lose, they're passionate. That's how I describe it.

And when we're getting booed, I'm like, we deserve to get booed. Like, we got to step our shit up. No, you're right. All right. And then from my perspective, listen, it was really fun to find out about Zach Bond, the high school quarterback. You know, on a show earlier this week where we're talking about what guys could play other positions.

You know, it might be fun to see him throw a pass. But from an actual Eagles perspective, like the mechanics of the off season, I thought it was interesting to hear what we sort of expected, which is that, you know,

Zach Bonn, having been around the league a little bit and found his perfect spot, he wanted to get paid, but really, I mean, he wanted to be back on this team. And it really was a marriage that both sides wanted to make this happen. And obviously, they did,

but he wanted to be here. Yeah, That really stood out and it was just a matter of the Eagles hitting his number. And so when we speak about the timing of it, right? Like he didn't even test for agency. And we spoke about how at the combine, obviously you have those discussions. Got lucky there. But how you have those discussions.

But there's two ways of doing this. You can be like, I want to see what the highest number is. Or you can say, this is my number. If you get to this number, I'm going to resign. I'm not going to shop it. And it was clearly the latter in his case. And that's what's always fascinating when we have those conversations in the offseason is every player is its own specific case, right?

And every contract is going to look at a little different while it is up to the agent to make sure he gets the best deal for his client. Like every client's going to have different priorities. And it was very clear that Zach's priority was staying here in Philadelphia. I know what he said. So obviously after the season, you sign the big three-year deal to bring you back to Philly. what was that process like and what did that mean to you to be able to come back here, you know, to a place that kind of, you know, you got your swagger back, I guess.

Yeah, it was tough because you want to get paid what you deserve. And I also didn't want to leave. Yeah, yeah. And it was just it all aligned perfectly where they were able to meet me where I wanted to be and I get to stay here. So it was an easy, easy choice for me to be like, yeah, I'm coming back to Philly. How can you win a Super Bowl? I know.

I do not know. You know, it's tough. And like, yeah, I know. It's tough, but crazy, crazy. All right, good stuff once again from Zach Bonn on the exciting mics. To come next week, another starter from the defense, an even younger player. That'll be a fun episode to watch. Let us know in the comments what your favorite part of the episode was.

And join us. us every day, every weekday, two o'clock on the P.HOY Eagles podcast, hit that like button, subscribe, all that good stuff. We'll talk to you later.