PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Fact or Fiction: What's The Deal With The Eagles?

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Fran Duffy and Rich Hoffman play a little game of 'Fact or Fiction' to discuss the state of this Eagles team going into the Bye Week. What's real and what isn't? What can be corrected and what can't? The guys discuss during the team's week off. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

That's right. Oh, actually, your wrong show. Welcome into the P.H.O.I. Eagle show presented by Bet365. Ted the Bet365 app and use code P.H.O.I. 365 when you sign up, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Welcome into the P.H.O.I. Eagle Show presented by Bet365. I am Fran Duffy. Joel. First time by my friend, handsome Rich, Rich Hoffman. Rich. This would be a fun show.

Fran, it's good. It seems like you had a little force of habit with that intro earlier. It was, you know, I knew it like the first time I host a show. I got to squeeze that in there just for, just for everybody that followed along at the last stop. So, no, but it's, I'm excited. Look, buy weeks are usually tough. It does feel weird like the early buy. Do you like the early buy week? So typically I don't.

I mean, I just think like, I think for the players too, especially like, you know, they would want to have it later in the season when they're a little more beat up. I think as a fan too, like you would think, all right, I only got four weeks of football here, right? Like, I'm not. I'm not tired of this yet. We could we could stretch this out in November and then, okay, let's take a little bit of a break. So yeah, I don't usually like it, but considering kind of how banged up this Eagles team is and how much they probably need to take a step back and reevaluate things, self-sout,

do all those things. Seems like for this particular group, this is not a bad one, I would say. What do you think? Yeah, it's been the running joke for the better part of this week is everybody is saying, like this team, this is a great time for this team to go on the biweek. I feel like most teams, most years will say that. I do think that that's true for this team. Obviously, from my health standpoint, it's big,

but just to kind of get a little bit of a reset, figure things out, or on both sides of football, lick your wounds. You hate going into the buy after a loss like that. What you saw last week just because that's the last thing you saw on film. But I do think this is a good opportunity for this team, just the reset button both physically and mentally and get ready for the back end. It feels weird, though, to say like the second half

because you have so many games left on this schedule. I think it does feel good going into the bye week and just kind of, you know, give you that little bit of a refresh there. You know, you and I were talking just kind of leading in. Like, all, what we do for the show? I thought you had a great idea just for the structure of the show today. Yeah. And before we get to that, I just want to ask you because, again, I think this is kind of how we are structuring the show in that, like, every Monday, you are crunching the game. Like, you're crunching the tape on the game.

So is the biweek a nice little reset for you? Do you, you know, after you are done with that last game, do you just, I mean, obviously, you're, you know, with the way you, you love football and you work on terms of the draft and all those things, I'm sure you're watching a million college games and NFL games too at the same time. But as somebody who is, you know, has to deal with that quick turnaround every week and then just get ready for the next week and get your notes out and those things. I'm sure this is probably an easier time. And I would say that that's how we're going to structure this show. As somebody who, me, I just watch the game. I get a little angry during the game. I don't pick up on everything.

I might listen to talk radio. I certainly listen to PHLY. Eagles all the time when I'm not on it. You go back and study it. And I read your articles every week. And I get a kick out of like, you know, when you were talking about the press coverage the other day, Fran,

I was like, you know, I was after that game thinking, man, that was way too easy for the bucks. And, you know, they're playing so much off coverage. But then you pointed out,

well, they played off coverage for three weeks. And really the, the past defense wasn't as big of a problem as the, you know, as the run game. So that is kind of how I want to structure this, where it's a little factor fiction we're going to play where I'm going to give you

maybe a narrative that a lot of fans have, that maybe I have, and you're going to tell me how true it might be. And like some of the times it might be, you know, the eye test for us might actually match up with what you're seeing upon, on a bunch of film study. And sometimes it might not be true.

And I like being told that it's not exactly true. So, and let's get, well, I was going to say, It's funny because I've gotten a lot of follow-ups to that press coverage thing. And really the big thing is that you can be seven yards off the ball, eight yards off the ball, nine yards off the ball,

and still play tight coverage. Now, if the receiver runs two yards and turns around and the balls on top of you, yeah, like it would have been beneficial to be in press in that scenario. But that was not what we saw, you know, in this game against Tampa. It was a lot of lows, like deep in breaking routes and things like that where the guys just were wide open and you can't have that. And so I think that's the big thing. think were there individual reps where it would have been good if a guy was pressed up, sure.

But I do think most often that was not the case. So I did want to just kind of expand on that a little bit before we jumped in. To answer your first question, though, it is a little bit easier going into the buy. I still spent a chunk of yesterday and chunk of today going through the Browns next week, just getting ahead. I usually will start the next week's opponent on the back end of the previous week. And so I watched a lot of Deshaun Martin today. So I'm not feeling too great about how my morning went this morning.

But more on that next week as we start previewing the game against the Browns. Yeah. Yeah, no, and that makes sense. I mean, I can fully admit that, you know, as fans, we don't like the off coverage when the coverage is poor. We probably don't give it enough credit when we're not noticing it. Like, you know, when they are getting off the field on third down and they are playing that off coverage. So that's kind of, you know, the genre of what we're going with today. So the first thing I have for you, Fran.

And, you know, I was listening to you and Bo Talk the other day. And you were saying, you know, I understand being multiple and, you know, having all of these different tools is good. But you did kind of say like, hey, this team could use an identity. And it's something that Anthony has kind of said on his show. I've heard it a lot that this needs to be, at least for now, more of a downhill running team with Saquan Barkley. And it's funny. I've noticed, Fran, during the first half of a lot of these games, we're all counting Saquan touches right now. You know, like it's, it's, all right, that's not enough or he's not getting the ball on the right

plays or the game script isn't correct. And I was kind of thinking back, do you remember the, of course you're going to remember this, the home opener or not the home opener, the season opener in 2022 when DeVante Smith did not catch one ball. And, uh, AJ Brown had that crazy game. And that was like a minor talking point, like a little bit, but we didn't care as much because I believe the Eagles scored like 38 points in that game. and A.J. Brown looked awesome.

This is different, right? The offense has been a little more limited. You know, there have been ups and downs. There have been turnovers. So I guess that's the question for you. Like, are they using Sequan Barkley right way, the right amount, or does something need to change there? Yeah.

I mean, in this game against the Bucks, where you go three and out, three straight drives, and you would have liked to get some kind of momentum rolling early in the game, you would say, it would be easy to point to and say, like, hey, like, you know, could you get the run game going both times and both drives or the first two drives i should say it's second and 10 after an incompletion on first down and that's when they hand the ball off and second and 10 is the long as not a super prolific run down unless you're in four down territory right so uh you know even if they did get you know five yards on the play you're still getting to third and five which this this team has not shown that they can successfully get to third and five all that well so i think that uh when you look

at it they went three yard on the first run and they went zero yards on the second run And then that brought up third and long, and they didn't get off the field in third and long. On the third drive, they didn't run the ball at all. They tried to throw a screen to Berkeley on the second down play. And so they tried getting things going early from that standpoint. But when you can't like convert on a series in terms of like being a new first down, I mean, no one was able, obviously, no one's able to get productive. So that's the way that they sold it after the game.

And I think that is true is that if you can't get anything going, it's tough to get the run game going. It's tough to get the drop back pass game going. game going, the RPO's, everything, nothing worked for them, you know, early on in that game. Now, as far as like an identity goes, I do think if you look at this team and you say, okay, which facet, offense, defense, and you super granular, like, what is the best part? What is the best moments that we've seen from this team so far? I mean, it's the downhill run game with Seekwad.

And with Jaylon hurts. It's both guys getting downhill, you know, into their various blocking schemes, both zone schemes and gap schemes. But getting those guys going vertical downhill, that has been when this team. has looked at best. And so I do think, yeah, you want to lean into that. But when you talk about like identity, it really is about finding what areas in all facets of your game plans, offense, past game, run game, like everything. What is it that we're doing well? How do we get into that more? How do we weed out the things that we're not doing well? And that's the only bad thing

about having that early by is that you just have that small sample. And so I do think there's still going to be a little bit of a feeling out period for this team. I'll have to look at the schedule and see when the next like mini buy is. But I think that that's probably the more realistic case where you're able to really kind of have that that reset. But look, this is what this is the hand that they're dealt here this year. You've got this four game sample. What is it that you're doing well on both sides?

What is that you're not doing well? And again, from the past game standpoint, that might be what are the plays that Jaylon has had most success with where the offense has had most success with? My guess is that you're going to lean it to some of the things we saw in week one against Kri. Like the offense has never looked better than it did against the Packers down in Brazil. and then when you look at it structurally, the last two weeks, it's looked like a different scheme.

And not even, oh, yeah, no AJ Brown, no Devante Smith, no Lane Johnson, but even the types of plays they were calling, the types of formations, the lack of motion, all of that, to me, you're going to look at everything and you're going to hit the pause and kind of reset, you got to look at that week one game and say, like, how can we best replicate the things that we did that week? How do we install that moving forward on a more regular basis? It is confusing to me that, you know, we saw,

all those pretty motions. And we saw some of those, those creative look, some of those easy button throws in the first week. And then when you lose these unbelievable receivers, which is obviously going to hurt you, and we're going to talk about that in the sec, it just seems like we haven't seen quite as much of that when probably you need it even more, right? You know, the scheme giving the quarterback answers. The other thing I would say to that, Fran, and this is something you've studied a lot. I think one of my favorite things from the first couple of weeks, it's not just that Sequan is

breaking these amazing runs because he has been spectacular. Like I have been so impressed watching him run. But it seems like to me that this offensive line, particularly like when you get into like Juergens and Bechtin in particular, like those guys have made some pretty impressive combo blocks, some, you know, some pulling, you know, as you said like gap schemes, those type of things. Do you think that this is a better run blocking line than a pass blocking line right now? Yeah, honestly, I probably do.

I say that look, we know what to, expect with with lane Johnson. We know that when he's healthy, he's as good as a guest in terms of past protecting tackles in football. I think Jordan is a tier or two below that. He still has some inconsistencies in pass pro, but still like a good, like solid starting tackle when he's moving in reverse. I think when you look at McEcton, his issues have been more in the past game. And I think Landon Dickerson, I've said this a couple times in the show over the last couple weeks. He still, he doesn't look quite right. I do think the buy is for him as well. I don't know if he's like nursing and injury or, you know, obviously a lot of these guys are banged up at this

point, but, you know, I don't know if he's nursing something, but just trying to get him fully up to speed. He hasn't looked quite himself in past protection either. So I do think when you get those guys moving forward. And overall, offensive line prefer to be like firing off the ball, trying to move guys against their will. That's what they live for. So those guys prefer to be moving forward anyway. And I think when you have a line built the way that the Eagles is, yeah, you know, the reason why you want Mackay Bechtin inside a guard is for the run game. Like that's what you want. You're envisioning what you had with Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson. He, he, he, he, and Lane Johnson working together, Mackay Beckton, at the point of attack, that's what you're hoping

for, because you have that on the other side with two behemists and Jordan Mila and Land and Dickerson. So trying to replicate that on the other side as well, that's why to me, like, yeah, that vertical run game, that downhill run game, that's where this team is at its best. Yeah, it just seemed to me in all of the clips that you have shown for our diehard articles where, I mean, honestly, it's just those guys, those guys moving the line of scrimmage, right? and those guys working well in tandem getting to the second level and getting blocks. Like it's not like really that special, which is exciting because, you know, it seems like that's replicable. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's fair to say. Like I have pushed back on the, you know, the whole run the ball crowd for many years. I think, you know, you primarily win with the past. But it does seem like this year when they are calling for it, you know, the Eagles, this is what they are best at right now, at least. Now, part of that is that they have not had AJ Brown for a few weeks, right? And that's AJ Brown, Lane Johnson being out last week. Those are maybe the Eagles, just two best players when you just talk about sheer talent.

You know, obviously the quarterback affects the game a little bit more, all those things. Sequan's obviously up there with the start this year as well. So here's my question from him, because, you know, we in Philadelphia, we like when they win short-handed. That's part of the reason I have a lot of pride for the Super Bowl team, right? with I remember that Monday night game against Washington when Jordan Hicks goes down. And I think I think Peters Went goes down. And you get Big V playing the rest of the year and the offensive line really doesn't miss a beat.

Like that that is what happens in football. Guys get hurt and you need the depth. You need guys to be able to step up, whether it's for a short amount of time or a long amount of time, whatever. But it's clear that in these first three weeks, the Eagles have missed their game breakers, right? They have missed kind of the guy that you can just leave on an island on the right side of the offensive line. and AJ Brown hitting those big plays. And it was, it's a little bit of a bummer because it's like you said, that game in Brazil, look, very small sample size, weird field.

They had the whole offseason and prepare for it. That was a lot of fun. They were getting the ball to their playmakers and creating big plays. So here is a statement, I will say, like, do you think if somebody said to you, 90% of the Eagles offensive issues are going to be solved by getting A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, Lane Johnson, Beck. you would say. Probably not quite 90%, maybe like 55, 60%. I do think that a lot of that would get solved. The only thing that stinks about that, though, is that like I would be interested,

to something we were talking about earlier, when you lose A.J. Brown and you lose Devante, you lose Lane Johnson. Like, to me, you lean more into some of those schematic advantages, like the motion and the formation variation and all that stuff, you would lean more into that stuff to try and give yourself an edge. If you don't have talent advantage, then you need the schematic advantage, right? So if we had seen another game, like if they, if they had to play this week, let's say they were playing the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, I don't know, like, how many of the, would Lane Johnson have been cleared? Probably would Devante Smith have been clear? We're not sure. A.J. Brown, not sure. Right. So, you know, we don't really quite know what it would have looked like

if they had to play a game on Sunday. But I would have to anticipate that, yeah, like, all right, those guys are all good to go next week. And if they did have, like, they'd get together and have a meeting in the minds this week in the Noviour Complex. and say, hey, we need to lean back into the motion. We need to incorporate more of that stuff into our offense. Is it going to be only because those stars were back in and now they're leaning back into it or would it have happened anyway? But I do think that, yeah, like getting those guys back.

I mean, the offense is going to be certainly better for it. I don't think it fixes every single problem because we saw almost all of those guys in week two when they struggled with land. We just saw that defense get diced up last night by the Tampa Bay box. I think when you look at, this offense, yeah, like there are things that need to be fixed and it's not just talent focus, but the talent certainly will help. Yeah.

And I think you've made a great point there with. I just would have liked to have seen Kellan Moore try a few more things in the past couple weeks. Not to say it would have worked because, again, you are dealing with a talent deficit here, but it makes sense, right? All of those things we were promised, you know, the under center play action, the, the motion, the bunch formations. It's surprising that when you have less talent, you go with the more basic stuff that worked for you for a couple of years because, hey, look, the quarterback had the clear picture and the talent on the outside was amazing.

And, you know, they won basically 75% of their games for two years. So it worked out. But that, you know, it's funny. I'm going to compare it a little bit. As you pointed out in your piece this week, like Vic Fangio is, he's trying stuff, right? with the three defensive tackles on the line now. We might say that might just be a hopeless situation anyway, but at least like, I don't know,

at least he's trying something and saying, all right, we're going to maybe be a little bit stronger against the run and we'll have the one edge rusher on the edge. Yeah, I found that a little bit disappointing the game plan overall while also admitting like, yeah, it's going to be hard to move the ball without, without AJ and Devante.

But yeah, so that's where I think I'm at there. yeah i do think that you know this is an area where you want to see them try and find again like what is it you do well uh and if you don't if what you do well that was that was the kind of the conversation we have with zach on on tuesday was you know hey this is a star driven team well if you don't have those stars then then you need to find the advantage somewhere else right and so uh being able to have those levers that you can pull in those situations they're clearly in the bag because we saw some things on you know over the course of the summer during training camp and then in week one against green bay where it's like okay like it's there but how do you

pull that out uh you know in those situations where you need them and so uh i think that that's certainly something uh that we can hope to see here coming out of the bio now before we get into the next question i do want to make sure that we give a little bit of a hat tip to our friends and to our sponsors uh so we will uh let jump into that and we'll talk a little more about the eagles on the other side all right so first up i want to talk about our friends at empire today now With Empire today, you get shop at home convenience because look, it stinks going to like a big box store and, you know, trying to go outside of your own home. And you want to, especially for a big project, like floors where it's like, all right,

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You know, and I think especially because that's been the problem with these turnovers. Look, a turnover at any time is not ideal. But I think when you look at backed up in your own end and you reference that first one against Green Bay, it happened on the opening drive, right? So you're backed up in your own end. Now you set them up with good field position. This is how the season starts.

The defense holds a field goal. So it wasn't a killer turnover from that standpoint. but you don't want to turn the ball over that deep in your own end. And then you certainly don't want to do it when you're deep in the other team. And we've seen a handful of red zone turnovers already. And even if not red zone, you've seen like close to the red zone. And I think that, you know, that's an area where just don't want to turn the ball over. And so when you get that sack fumble last week that you referenced, that, I mean, that's, that's points that you're taking off the board.

And so even if the, even if the Eagles don't score touchdown there, even if we don't see a touchdown, if you see three points, how does that change the construct of the game? How does that change the way things play out? And so I do think that when we take away, if you take away a couple of those bad decisions, a couple of those turnovers, we are probably talking about Jalen Hertz on a little bit of a different light. And that is the one thing when, you know, we talk about Jalen Hertz and he's here on turnovers,

but the other guys that are right there with them are Josh Allen, Patrick Bajombs. I think they're two and five like over the same, over that stretch, that is. And I will argue like, look, turnovers, you know, on face value are not like the worst thing in the world. Not every turnover is created. equal. You don't, are the situations where I just laid out. You don't want to turn the ball over in your own end that way, or you don't want to turn a ball over when you're in the red zone.

But if you are, you know, if it's third in a mile from your own 25 yard line and you chuck a ball 40 yards downfield that's picked off and it's essentially an arm punt, that's not the worst, that's not the worst thing in the world. Yeah. I think that's what we have seen that a lot from Josh Allen. We've seen some of those from Patrick Mahomes, right? And so I, that's what I would say is that you want Jalen Hertz to knock out some of these turnovers. I don't think all of them are on him. Some of them, you know, as we've described, as we've broken down, some of them might be on the route running or the protection.

The demontation of the route against New Orleans. Yeah, there's all these other factors, but you just don't want, you know, as many of those to happen in the worst possible timeframes, which we've seen too often. It just feels like there's too many of them that are super high leverage turnovers and a couple of them that are just like,

they're about 50% too sloppy too, right? You know, where where you can actually pinpoint him and say that was the wrong decision. So you studied Jalen Hertz in college. You know, I watched him and, you know, when he would play in the SEC championship game. And, you know, when he playing the college football playoff against for Oklahoma, were turnover is this big of a problem for him back in college? No. You know, and that's why.

And honestly, like even in his career, they weren't, right? I mean, we've seen, obviously, turnovers happen to everybody. But the turnovers that did with Jaylin wasn't like, oh, that was a bad decision. Like, what was he thinking, throwing that ball, right? They always seen like Will Levis turning the ball over this year for Tennessee Titans and they're kind of like laughable, right? That has not been the case for Galen over the course of his career.

I think that, look, we like to say like turnovers happen in bunches, sacks happening in bunches, things happen in bunches. I think that's kind of what we're seeing right now, just with Hertz and with the Eagles offense, but that has not been a historic issue for him. Yeah, no, I think back to some of the picks from past years where it's like, oh, man, I think you do have to give credit to the safety there. That's like a tremendous break on the ball. Like you can see what he was looking at.

And there's just been, there's just been less of them this year. And I, you know, I don't know how this gets coached out of him. I guess that's probably the hope moving forward is that, okay, this has been a rough. It's not a small sample at this point, Fran. It's been, you know, basically over a year at this point. But there is also a big sample before that that suggests, you know, he knows how to take care the football. We know he clearly cares about this. Like somebody, I think somebody pointed out,

like his body language after that fumble, like that's about as frustrated as as he's been with himself after a play like that. And rightfully so. I mean, that was a killer turnover. So it's been, I don't know, it's been hard because I have just, just watching the games and looking at a couple

things. What we've already talked about, he's not getting a ton of answers from, you know, from the scheme. The fact that he's been without a bunch of his weapons. Like, I have seen some good stretches of play from him. And, you know, obviously, like, we look at, you know, his big throw against the Saints. Like, that was just, that was mesh, right? Like, we've been watching that for, for years. So I don't know. I want to be fair to him. I don't think it's the same type of thing we saw with Carson

in 2020. But it is hard to watch those turnovers and not think back to like, ooh, I have seen at least that one play before. I don't think this guy is quite as broken as, as Carson was back then. But yeah, he's, he's going, he's going bad with the turnovers. And it's one of those things. I wonder, like, do you have anything more to expound on that? Because I feel like you just say, like, yeah, you just can't do that at this point. Well, and it's funny you brought up Carson because I was actually thinking that as I was talking, it was like, it's not, it's not to the level that we saw from Carson in his like final days

and his final games with the Eagles. Because some of those turnovers were just like, like, man, like Carson, you like, you can't do that. Those are, it's been, we haven't as many of those type of plays, those type of fumbles, late in the down where it's like, do you're trying to do too much. You know, there have been cases where we've seen with Hertz, but I don't think that that's been the resounding theme.

But I mean, outside of it, like it's kind of like the tackling thing, right? Like, yes, you need to get better as a tackling defense, right? You're too many mistackles. But outside of just doing like tackle drills and tackle circuits, I said it on the post game show last week. Like, these guys are adults. They've been playing football their whole lives.

Like, they know how to tackle. You still have to like go through the motions. You have to make sure that you're, attacking it the right way. But like when Jalen makes a mistake, he knows it, right? And it's just matter. Don't don't do it again, right? It's like, you know, don't throw late across the middle.

You know, don't have bones on the football. If you're going to break the pocket, if you're starting to scramble and that fumble we saw against Atlanta. So I think it's more about that. It's just like correcting the small stuff and make sure you're sweating at. But I mean, at the end of the day, like those guys kind of have to take it on themselves to make sure that those turnovers don't happen. You brought up the tackling. We weren't going to bring this up, but I was just thinking about it because after the first game, you know, Nick Siriani said, well, hey, look, we win the first game.

Even after, you know, these light training camps and trying to keep everybody healthy and just one joint practice is really the only kind of serious work that the offense does against another team at this point. Now, I will say the narrative doesn't fit completely because Vic Fangio won the battle and he got some of his starters to play in those preseason games. Do you think that has anything to do with that? with the tackling or it's just that these players need to tackle better because like I see somebody like C.J. Gardner Johnson missing all these tackles. He's also made the best tackle of the year.

The one against Bejan Robinson and the whole that was spectacular. So I don't really know what to make of all that. Yeah. And that's the thing is that again, these guys have been tackling, you know, as long as they've been playing football. And so, yes, you always want to rep that out. You always want to make sure you're practicing it and things like that. But when you're trying to save, you have to like kind of tow that line and you look around the league and there are teams. teams that go about it differently. I would say Andy Reid, you know, always had very tough training camps and tackle to the ground periods, live periods, more so than most NFL teams.

And then you look in like San Francisco. Same thing. Very tough, hard. Most practices. Well, you come out of training camp and you guys are, it's a mass unit out in San Francisco, not just right now, but even during camp, they had guys constantly injured. And they were, they had to cancel joint practice for a week because they didn't have enough bodies to be able to go up against another team in San Fran.

And so you're kind of towing that line of, right, would you rather be a little bit rusty in certain areas without having those live drills or would you rather do the live drills and, you know, maybe you're risking yourself injury? And so not that one way is going to be surefire to prevent the other, right? Because the Eagles have dealt with injuries as well so far this year. But I do think that that's the line you have to tow if you're an organization trying to make that call. Yeah, it's a bummer. I mean, just watching them miss all those tackles. It's just like a helpless feeling. And I don't really know, you know, Avanti, Maddox. He's been a good tackler for most of his career, but, you know, he's missing a bunch of them right now. Okay. Let's, uh, let's make this next one as short and sweet as possible because I was talking about this with, uh, with Roy yesterday and disagreed with them a little bit on it. So great show yesterday, by the way. I enjoyed the conversation with you and Roy. Okay. So let's see where you stand on this one. Four words. Is Bryce Huff salvageable? Yes. I do think it's the face. Um, um, Look, it hasn't been good. And you almost have to like separate the run defense from the pass rush. The run defense was always going to be a projection, right? Because he hadn't done it before. And so you were anticipating that was going to be a little bit of slow start.

And even before they even hit the field and practice in training camp, Vic Fangio said like, yeah, like he's going to have to, you know, and that kind of like sent off alarm bells with everybody like in the media core and certain parts of the fan base like, all right, like you just gave all this guy all this money. And you're still saying like he's got to see it. and he's got to get better there. And I think that's, Vic Fangio was just calling it how he saw it. The more disappointing thing has been the past rush element of his game.

It's just not been there. And no matter what, you know, hand in the dirt, standing up, lining up out wide, lining up right over tackle, one on one or part of a game, whatever it is. Like he has not been good. He has not been able to win at the top of the rush. In week one, he was on the ground a bunch of times. And I'm like, all right, like, maybe it was the, maybe it was the turf, you know, whatever it was. It's been the same thing, you know, whether it was at Lincoln Financial Field in week two, or whether it was in the Super Bowl,

the Superdome against Tampa in week three or in the heat in four. All of those different areas. He just not has not been able to get those one-on-one wins that he was known for with the Jets. And so I think you're looking at what you're expecting to see from him. Hopefully this was kind of like, all right, I'm going to look in the mirror,

whatever I got to, I have to figure out, whatever I've got to improve on in terms of past rush reps, that he can figure that out. Because at least if he can give you that, If he can be that sub-packaged guy, then at least you're getting something out of it. Right now, like you're not getting anything. And it's almost like when, you know, like when a Nick Castiano goes cold in season,

it's like, all right, like do you have to winch him? Not low. You just got to let him go up there and take his hacks. Like, you let him go out. He's going to swing at the first pitch every time. But at some point, you think he's going to, he's going to come back to you. And that's kind of what you're hoping for right now with Bryce off is that at some point, it's going to be able to click because it's not like the Eagles have another guy or two where,

all right, we're just going to give this guy all the reps and let Bryce Huff kind of sit in the background. They don't have that. There's other guys are still trying to figure that out too, whether it's Nolan Smith or you know, you have a rookie in Jalick's hunt. You have other guys. But I think that right now you just kind of have to let Bryce Huff play this out and just see how if he's able to get himself out of the funk. I would kill for Bryce Huff to have a castie type of season this past castie season because as he up until like May 10th awful. Like literally one of the worst regulars in baseball, quietly, very good the rest of the way, right? He's got, you know, I think it's like a 730 OPS. So it really means he's been, he's been playing well. So if,

if Bryce Huff has the equivalent of the cast he sees, and I feel like we're looking at eight, seven sacks at this point, that would be awesome. And I think that's the, that's the hope for me as well. That is where I disagreed with Roy and saying like, okay, the run defense, like, that looks really bad. That looks like that might not be, you know, that might not. You know, that might be salvageable. He might not be kind of that every down defensive end or if it if it is salvageable, it might not be right away. It might be a couple years down the line, all of those things. But just fundamentally, it's kind of along with what you said, I can't believe a guy like that just forgot how to rush the passer because he moved, you know, 90 miles down down the turn,

down 95. Like I just feel like at some point he's going to start winning one on one. Now, friend i guess i have a question too because i heard baldy talking about this on cuss's show i think baldy basically said maybe if you get bryce huff more in a in a four-point stance those type of things what what type of defense did huff play in with the jets was it were there key differences between what uh what he was asked to do for sala and what he was asked and what he's currently being asked to do for fan fangio yeah i think the the big thing you saw from him was essentially like he was a wide nine pass rusher. That's essentially what he was for the jet where he lined up out wide on passing downs only, put his hand in the dirt and just went. And to me, that's the, that's the big thing

is that early on in the season, I was like week two, I checked this and I can probably look it up right now. I know the chat is loving my, my Wi-Fi right now. So I almost don't want to mess with it, but I could look it up on next gen and just get a sense of like his off time. When I looked it up in week two, he was, he was the best on the team in terms of like coming off the ball. And it was still one of the like the better times in the league in terms of his get off. And it's like like he's still flying off the ball. He's just getting to the top of the rush and just getting completely shut down or thrown to the ground.

And so whether it's out of two point stance, three points dance, five point stance, eight point stance, like he's coming off the ball and he gets to the point where he's got to make contact with the tackle and he's just great. And so that to me like, and there are times where we're seeing him put his hand in the dirt and he's still not winning. And yeah, there are sometimes where he's standing up and not winning, but not working for him right now. And so to me, I think it's more, he's just, it's got to get his mind right in terms of,

you know, just kind of repping things out. And he can't just run by tackles. Like he did it against Tristan Worf's the other day. They switched him and Josh Swet where Sweat ran over against the right tackle and Huff went over against the left tackle and Worf's. And the first rep, he just tried to like run around him. He didn't do any kind of move. He didn't do anything.

And worse just took his right hand and just punched him in the back of the head and put him into the dirt. You can't do it. And so then he can't. came back the next rep and he was like, all right, now I'm going to try and run through you. And without trying to set up the bull rush or try and do anything, and he ran into a brick wall. And so I think that he's just, he's still figuring it out. I'm sure like the confidence is probably not super high right now if you're Bryce Huff.

But he's he's got the week to figure it out and see if he can get rolling. See, this is another smaller factor fiction fan thing. Whenever I hear the wide nine, I'm just thinking of Jim Washburn. I'm thinking of Jason Babin getting all of those meaningless. sacks and just that defense struggling. But yeah, like I think that's got to be the goal for Huff, right? Like, you know, hopefully they can figure out the run defense, how to stop, how to stop the run or the short passing game as we saw last week when a team just

plays normal 11 personnel. And when they get the third down, he can actually get to the passer. I would take that at this point. Like, you know, don't play them on early downs, but can you give me a sack every other game? I think I would take that at this point. yeah i think that if you can get to that point where he's at least like giving you that juice on third and long and he's becomes that guy right now if you're the eagles like that that's a win right because right now you're getting a zero there so if he can get to that point that's a that's a nice starting off point

then we'll see if he can become a full-time player after that do you do you remember because you were with the eagles for a long time do you remember a player that came in and kind of struggled like that and and maybe didn't like recoup all of their value like that that the eagles spend on them, but at least turned into, you know, not a disastrous contract. Was there, was there really any comparison of this? Because I got to say, this has been pretty rough so far. Yeah, well, but you know what it is? It's because the Eagles usually when they, especially the high price free agent,

when they go and spend money on a free agent, they usually work out. The batting average that way has been pretty good. And so I'm trying to think of one, the only one I could think of right now where I'm like, okay, they spent some money on the guy. And he, I like DeMarco, but he was, I mean, he was just physically just gone at that point. Patrick Chung is another one that that kind of comes to mind where it's like, all right, they brought him in to play safety from Lachek, and it was like, yeah, he just didn't have it in this scheme.

And then he goes back to Belichick and he plays good football for like two or three more years up in New England. Who knows? Like something happens here with Huff where it doesn't work out here. And then he goes back up to play for Robert Sala and they figured it out. But, you know, I think that overall, like they've done pretty well in terms of their high price free agents. And this would be the outlier there.

Yeah. I mean, God, they pay Redick a couple years ago, and it's not just a good signing. It's a great signing for a few years. And that's the thing is people have pointed out. Oh, like, well, Redick, he didn't have a sack for his first like three or four games too, but his pressure rate was still high. Like he was there and it was like, oh, like he's so close. It's like the Quinnian Mitchell like near interceptions.

Like, ah, like it's coming. It's right there. He just said like just patient. We just haven't seen that at all from Huff. Yeah. All right. We should talk about Quinnian Mitchell on the other side of this break. All right.

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And it's not all sunshine and rainbows here. But you mentioned, you mentioned Quinyon Mitchell. And I was talking to Roy yesterday about the, the miced up video of him talking smack with Mike Evans and giving it right back. And it's been, honestly, it's been noticeable. We don't need the miced up video to know that that's what Q likes to do, right? Like he has been talking smack. He's been in guys face.

a lot this year. And frankly, he's been in their faces after forcing incompletions. It's been a super encouraging start for him. And I think you are the perfect person who talked to about this. Because like, you know, I wasn't watching sauce gardeners reps closely when he first started with the Jets, you know, all of the great corners, you know, Dorel Rivas, all of these other people. So, you know, when I see Quinyan Mitchell doing a great job against Mike Evans, really doing a great job every other week. Like he's making a few mistakes. There was the one play you pointed out on the,

on the final drive against Atlanta where you don't get enough depth on that. I believe it was covered too. Okay, that's, that's all right. That's, that's rookie stuff. But in terms of just like, is he contesting catches? Is he around the ball? This dude very much looks the part, Fran. And I guess what I want to say is, okay, let's put it as a statement right here.

Quinion Mitchell is a future pro bowler. fact or fiction. I think that's a fact. I think that he's going to be a Pro Bowl corner. And I was really high on him coming in. I watched watching him last summer, so off his junior tape at Toledo, and then watching him as a senior,

and then watching him at the Senior Bowl, and then watch him at the Combine. You go through every step, and it's just like, I just love this kid more and more. The more, the more I watch him. I thought the Eagles got a steal, honestly, with where they got him

in the draft in the first round. And so I do think that this is a Pro Bowl corner. I'm not shocked at all by the way that he's playing, you know, especially like comparing him to Terry and Arnold. And that was those guys are going to get compared because a lot of people viewed Arnold as the better corner. Some people viewed Mitchell as the better corner. And I think the Eagles made the right choice. I think when you look at Arnold, it's been a lot of penalties.

Yeah, he's been a very competitive player. You know, he has that right mentality as well. But I think when you look at Mitchell, he's been so disciplined. Again, he's this close to a pick six. Like, he's been so close a couple times. He's going to get one. and what I love is like no panic whatsoever. He's if he is attacked vertically, if he does get beat,

because you're going to get beat when you play corner, that's what happens. You're going to get beat vertically down the field. No panic. He's able to turn and find the football. And even if he doesn't like force the incompletion, just the fact that he's there and like that tight in the area, it goes back to what I was saying.

Like you don't need to be playing press coverage to play tight coverage. And I think that's what we've seen from Quinnian Mitchell. I'm really excited about his future. And so I think if you're an Eagles fan, like you have to be. I don't know if he's going to be, you know, Derell Revis, Patrick Stratan, like that level. But I do think, this is a pro bowl corner. He's going to be a really good one.

So yeah, I mean, and that's the reason I think, I think Sequin on offense is probably the reason you're most excited. But Quinyan, I feel like, I feel like it's almost been even a little bit underrated that like, okay, it's because this defense overall is not playing that well. They seem to have a major problem with either the run or the passing game every single week, not the Saints game, but, you know, too many drastic lows. but you have a guy that you took in the first round that looks like is going to be a cornerstone part

of your defense for a long time. And that's really exciting. That's super important. Yeah. And I think that too, when you're looking at corners, sometimes, you know, it can be the good things that they do.

It's not always shown, right? There are, maybe you're deterring a throw that would have been downfield. Another guy may have given up and the quarterback would have taken that chance of pushing down the field. But because you were there, well, now the quarterback's going somewhere else

and you don't see it. You almost want your good corners to be able to kind of lull you to sleep with how boring watching their film can be. And that's kind of what I've seen from Quignan Mitchell. And speaking of lulling to sleep, we do have a super chat here from Shea. And so I wanted to give some love to Shea in the chat. It dropped a comment here. Khalif needs a new mattress. Do you all have any recommendations?

Caliph, I got nothing for you. But I think that when you're looking at, because I don't want to give any free advertising here, Rich. But look, we all know, we all know that sleep is extremely important. Just that, you know, look, if you're Zach, I'm sure Zach's got a really good mattress. He probably could use a little bit more. But you got to have a good mattress if you're sitting up on your laptop late at night like Zach typically is. So, you know, I look, I don't want to give free advertising. But getting a good mattress, you want to be able to test it out, make sure you like what you're buying.

It's, it's key. I think I have bought mattresses before just online without ads. actually trying it out. Oh, no. They have not been my favorite. I thought I knew what I was looking for, Fran, and it didn't work out. So that, I would say, just, yeah, go to the store. If you can go to one of the actual brick and mortar stores, just go, just go lay on the

mattresses those days. Like, that seems like a wonderful day, even if you don't end up purchasing those mattresses, right? You know, you get some nice naps. You can nap in public, and it's actually socially acceptable at that point. So that is what I think I would do if I was Khalif. Yeah, I would absolutely go to one of the stores and go and do it.

Look, it's like we were talking about with Empire earlier. Like, you don't want to do that over the phone. You don't want to do that. Go to one of the special stores and go test drive them. I like a firmer mattress, though. That's my, that's what I've learned over. Yeah, I like a, I like a softer. I like going a little bit of give.

Well, okay. See, there we go, right? And Khalif, go figure out, you know, where you fall on the rich Fran spectrum and we'll get it, get it to go. So Quinion Mitchell, You mentioned the Senior Bowl, and I think that was what excited me the most. Obviously, you're somebody who has watched all of his college tape as well,

but you go to the Senior Bowl every year. Reading what everybody said about him at the Senior Bowl, where basically he was an off-coverage guy, a zone corner for a lot of his career at Toledo. But he goes to the Senior Bowl, and they put him in in Pressman coverage, and he held up pretty well, right? and that was a big deal that week. Yeah, because you honestly, like watching him on film, it was like, all right, like,

I learned this from somebody a long time ago when you're watching corners. You almost like have your checklist, right? Of like, all right, can you play zone from press? Can you play zone from off? Can you play man from press? Can you play man from off? And you're so, like, do you have ball skills? Do you have instincts?

Do you have speed? Do you have short area quickness? Like, you have all the physical traits. But like, can you accomplish all of these tasks from a coverage standpoint? And I'm looking at Quinnion-Mitchell. I'm like, look, it's been very, the press coverage reps were few and far between. You didn't see a ton of it. He was asked to play press like, I want to say it was like 7% of the time.

There was something wild. He never played up on the line of scrimmage. When he was asked to do it, it looked really good. You just didn't see a ton of it. And so going down to the senior bowl where you're going up against, you know, in theory, like the other top players at the position or in your class, if you'll see him go down there and do that against other like day one and day two draft picks and play press man and all the one-on-one reps, he was in press man.

He's like, yeah, like, all right, you guys have this question about me. Here it is. And he went and he was awesome. And so I'm sitting there up in the bleachers. And I just, it was like exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, Coyneux Mitchell, everything you wanted to see. It was, it was awesome. And yet this guy still falls to the Eagles where they stick and pick and they pick them up.

So yeah, that seems like a great start for, for him so far. Yeah, no question. Last one. And then we'll get out of here and we'll get everybody ready for the Phillies this weekend. actually by week worked out perfectly for Philadelphia fans as well. Yeah, you're not lying. Just because we got two home games this week against the hated New York Mets. So that worked out well for everybody.

Where do Mets fans stand on your power rankings of like most hated fan bases? Hi. In all sports. I was thinking about this. And I wrote about this in the newsletter. I think for me, I still think the Cowboys are number one. Yep. Just because there's something about football.

that just, I don't know, it brings out the tribalism in me and the Cowboys are number one. I think the Mets might be number two. It's funny, I have a lot of friends who are kind of four for four Philadelphia fans. In recent years, they have thrown the Boston Celtics up pretty high as well. Now, I kind of, I view basketball a little bit more like you view football. I'm more studying it as well. I understand that. They have kind of owned the Sixers over the past few years, historic rival.

I think it's Cowboys won. Mets 2, I would say. Growing up, and that's kind of how I reflect on it is like, all right, like growing up, like for me, because I was 4 for 4 growing up. I just, I always hated the Mets, man. And like Mets fans, especially like, you know, they come down to the vet or to Citizens Bank Park.

And, you know, so there's plenty of that cross over there. It'd be Mets fans and Stens just like Mets fans to me, like easily top three. And honestly, like, might be number one for me. Like growing up. I just, it was like that and like devil. The Jersey Devils like in hockey, like. like always got under my skin as well so I would put them on that list as well

yeah and I think for hockey like if you you know you got older I think the Crosby the Pittsburgh Penguins would probably somebody who was worked their way but yeah those those devils 90s teams were pretty rough no I'm with you the Mets are super high and honestly the memory is kind of going to my first Phillies games

at the vet and just being like you know whenever they would put the Mets I think man there's just way too many of these people here like it's just ridiculous and I think these people they just come down from central Jersey, North Jersey, and it's probably the same commute that it is going through all the New York traffic to Queens. So yeah, it was, you know, honestly, 2007 and 2008 making those comebacks against the Mets where were some of the best memories. Like it really, as much as we don't like the Mets, the Phillies of Mets have not really been good at the same time.

Good at the same time. No question. For a long time. Where were you in 07, 0,08? Like at that point, Where were you, like lifewise? Senior in high school. So, and then a freshman in college. So I actually went to, when they came back in 08, I went to, I went to college in New York. And I went to a full series at Chase Stadium in September. I think the Phil's were still battling with the Mets. It wasn't quite the seven games in 17 days type of comeback.

But I will always remember, I went to the Friday game. And I think they were still trailing them. and Phillies won one nothing and Greg Dobbs hit the foul pole. And that was the, that was, I always say, I was like, man, I went to a couple of those, those Mets games and then a month later, you know, the Phil's are hoisted on the trophy. So it was, it was good. So, yeah, I think good timing for the Eagles as well, too, because everybody's going to be super focused on this and rightfully so.

Okay, last one, friend, because there was something you wrote a couple weeks ago that I thought was perfect because I am pretty hard on Jordan Davis. Like I just, I would like to see more from him. But you pointed out when the Eagles really struggled against the, the Falcons running game in week two, you were like, yeah, the Eagles struggled with a lot of these concepts. And, you know, obviously the first person, a lot of people look at is Jordan Davis because he is here ostensibly to stop the run that that should be his best thing.

But you point out like, really like the film said like this, he wasn't as responsible for a lot of these plays. So I would just say overall, because you have Jalen Carter who has that one unbelievable game, one of the best games from an Eagles defensive tackle I have seen in a long time, which is impressive because our former co-worker, Fletcher Cox, had a super long career here, and he had a bunch of those games as well. You know, you have Nolan Smith, you have Keely Ringo, you have Nekobie Dean. I guess the Georgia dogs, I feel like a lot of people were on board with that, because

Howie had made some picks for, you know, some Pac-12 players, you know, Andre Diller, J.J.R. Sago, White's side, whatever. Obviously, this is a little bit of an oversimplification, just boiling it down to the conference you pick from. But with a lot of these picks, where do you stand on the Georgia dogs right now? So I think with Jordan, I would say he's definitely been a disappointment, right?

I mean, the fact, and you almost, it's like the Bryce Huff conversation where he split it up in terms of like run game, past game. He certainly has not reached the bar that you want from a, from the pass rushing standpoint. Like he is not what. you were hoping that he would become by year three in terms of being like that all right like he's taken that next step or he could be an impact rusher from the interior is he going to give you some

reps absolutely but it's not to the point where you can like steadily rely on him even like first and second down like all right like give us a little bit of juice uh hey if it's third and long where you're probably coming off the field anyway but uh give us a little bit of juice he's not he's not giving you that right now and i think as a run defender i think jordan davis is going to play in the league for a long time I do. I think that he is going to be a high floor player. And the thing is, is that I just don't think that he's like that dominant run defender right now. I think when you look at him,

he's really good at holding the point of attack, eating up blocks, you know, keeping linebackers clean. Like he does that well. I think for him to take that next step, what you want to see for him more consistently is, all right,

you lock out the blocker, right? So you see both hands, like, go right into the block and he's holding him. He's got the ability to control. But like, don't just be happy to like stop the block.

Get off the block. and go get the ball. Right. And to me, like, I think you see so often that Jordan is fine, like being stalemated and holding and letting other guys go make the play, you want him to start being that guy that's going to go make the play, right? And so I think that that's probably the next step you're hoping from Jordan. If he doesn't take that step to be like that elite run defender and he's still not

giving anything as a pass rusher, he clearly is not going to reach the, the expectation in terms of that draft slot, right? And so, you know, if he can at least reach elite run defender status, that at least gives you a little bit something. but right now you just haven't gotten it. I think as far as the other guys, look, it's still early for Nolan Smith. I think that what we've seen so far,

I like the way that he plays. I like his play style. He's got all the tools to be able to win in terms of like his like speed and his flexibility. I think he shows more power than people give him credit for. He's really competitive against the run. He does some good things there. And so I'm willing to say like,

all right, jury's still out there. Let's see him still play things out. I think from Nekobi, I think honestly like from what we've seen, from him this year, this was my expectation of him coming out. I think when all the talk about him being a first round player was a little bit overblown personally, I felt like where the Eagles got him in the third round, that's kind of where I always kind of saw him in terms of like draft value. I thought that he was more of like a late day two, early day three type of pick. I think when you

are his size with his lack of like outstanding physical tools, he's not like super explosive. He's not like the best athlete. And obviously he's that he's undersized too. It's tough. You can be one or the other and still be a really good linebacker. It's tough to be both. And I think that's kind of what you're looking at with Nkobie. And if he doesn't see things clearly, if he doesn't like immediately trigger and go get the ball, he's just going to be behind the eight ball too often. And I think that's kind of what you see from Niko right now. And so I would say so far this year, he's about what I expected.

Jordan Davis is not meeting that expectation. And I think jury's still out on Nolan and he and also Keeley Ringo as well. You throw him into that mix. Yeah. Who would you say just to, finish up with Jordan. Like is, is Vita Vaya the guy that, that he should be studying? Like, who are some of the, the best players in the NFL at what you're saying? Like, not just getting stalemated, but getting off those blocks and, and making those tackles for losses in the backfield.

To me, the guy that you would hope that he would become, like, at this point, like, if you assume he's not going to become that dynamite pass rusher, like, you're hoping that he becomes, like, what Linval Joseph was at, like, the peak of his powers. And that was, like, the cool thing about them bringing in Linval for that Super Bowl run was like, all right, like, this is a good play. for Jordan Davis to be able to pick his brain and kind of like learn, you know, go through the paces of stuff with him. Because if he can become that, like, that's really good. And I, you know, again, we haven't seen that from him up to this point.

The thing with Vita Vaya, like, dude, like, he, like, he is a dominant run defender and he is, I mean, he's like unstoppable when he comes off the ball to stop to the bull rush. He is just so, so. And even like Dexter Lawrence, like, that, if Jordan were to reach that point, like, you'd be thrilled. That's exactly what you're hoping for if you trade up and take that guy. the top 15. And he's just a long ways away from that right now.

Yeah. Vita Vaya, that was a nice pass rush on Bechtin last week. He's, he's good. Tampa Bay, I'm happy the Eagles don't have to play them, even though they are roughly an average to a slightly above average team.

They just, Todd Bowles, Baker Mayfield, that whole crew that just seems like they have the Eagles number. No question. Yeah. And Vea, I mean,

he's just so much fun to watch. Like a truly unique player. Yeah, on the inside. Yeah, no, like when he's not playing the, Eagles, I enjoy watching them because you just don't really see guys who were built like that,

move like that, very impressive. Yep. All right, Fran, I think that's about it. Yeah, all right. So that's all the, we'll do. This was fun, man. It's, look, it's the bye week. Like you said earlier, it's a perfect timing for an Eagles fan.

Like, you know, kind of unplug a little bit. You may have been a little bit, a little bit of sick of watching this team after watching them a week ago. So now you plug in. You got the Phillies on Saturday, Phillies on Sunday. Hopefully the Phillies can go to and O, take care of business here against the Mets that you and I have already shared our distaste for here. So enjoy the weekend.

And we'll be back next week, the P.H.O.I. Eagle Show. It'll be our regular game week next week. So we've got, you know, Bo, Zach, everybody will be back next Monday right here on the PHLY Eagles show. Bo will be mad at me if I don't close the way that he normally would. And I will close this way because I think that's fair. Thanks so much for joining us on the PHLY Eagle Show. And as always, we love you.