PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Four Vertz: Will Zach Ertz be Jalen Hurts’ new favorite target on his favorite play?

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Zach Ertz is back and ready to make an impact while Jalen Hurts was in a reflective mood about the Eagles’ win in Tennessee as they turn the page to Monday night’s showdown with the Chicago Bears as Ertz tried to help replace Dallas Goedert and Sean Mannion tries to get the running game unstuck. Deniz Selman and Brandon Lee Gowton join Bo Wulf to discuss the matchup before EJ Smith checks in with news and notes from the Eagles’ facility. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the PHA Y Eagles podcast live from the Xfinity Studio and presented by Ashley. It's a Friday, but it's actually a Thursday. We got all kinds of stuff to talk about as Zach Hertz is back. Jalen Hertz, it's waxing poetic about Steve McNair. We like to hear that. Florian Wirtz has no relation to what's going on in this show. But we do have the professor. We have BLG.

We're going to hear from E.J. Smith in a little bit. How you guys do it? I thought about bringing a couple of hot dogs to the show today. As a continued bit, you know, I did the hat for a week one. So I did, I'm sorry. That would have been really good. Just a paper plate with two naked dogs. Bring it out like middle of the show too.

Oh, man, I wish you had done that. I was telling my family about that yesterday, and they were both just appalled. Appalled. I mean, just holding just a raw dog and eating it. It was just outrageous. Two of them. Two of them. I mean, you need two if you're going to be full.

Yeah. You know, it's one, maybe it's just a desperation. I think I was just contrasting Drew Breeze as a color commentator and his meal with the alleged meal that Al Michaels has every game, where he has a steak prepared for him. Right. Like a high quality steak. If they make for him and he sits down with like a knife and fork and he eats like this whole, very high quality steak in those 13 minutes. I mean, Drew Breeze has a lot to learn. Well, through breezes, no out Michaels.

Early super chat from not Brendan Ekstrom. It all starts with stopping Bijon Robinson. In quotes. Who said it? Jonathan Gannon. A few moments later, Bejan Robinson. 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns. We need our boy from the, who covers the Packers, who was on the show.

Maddie Schneider. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd love to talk to him again sometimes. Yeah, I forgot about that. He seemed surprised when I just kind of started going crazy about Gannon. Well, I understand. Yeah, well, doesn't take long. Let's get into the news.

We finally got to hear from some players in the locker room and press conferences yesterday, headlined by the return of Zacherts. And I want to hear from both of you guys about this, both from a football standpoint and a fan standpoint. BLG, let's start with you. What was your initial reaction and how do you feel now that we're a few days into his return? I'm with you in terms of I don't think people are bullish enough

on this signing. This isn't just like, oh, a nice story, nostalgia. No, like this is a player who again, the caveat here, as you acknowledge, is that we don't know where he's at health-wise. Right. So maybe he's just done. And okay.

And even if he recovers well, he's still 35 years old and could just suffer another injury. Like that's, that is all very possible. But you would think his game is not predicated on pure athleticism. It's about being a technician. It's about being smarter and knowing how to get open. I think he can help this offense in a really big way.

And specifically as it relates to something we've talked about on the show, one of the more frustrating parts of the offense, which I'm sure we're going to get into today, with the early down struggles. And maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part. But if they're going to insist on trying to be on schedule, well, maybe they can do that in ways where you're throwing the ball on short passes to Zach Hertz instead of just,

running into a brick wall over. Six-yard pass. Yeah. Yeah. No. Absolutely. I fully agree. I mean, first of all, in the absence of Dallas Goddard, it doesn't take much to help this passing game from the tight end position. I mean, the other guys are Johnny Montt, who does not catch passes, E.J. Jenkins, who has how many catches does he have in his career? One. Yeah. So, I mean, and there was a play last week where E.J. Jenkins was open on the backside of the play, and Jalen just didn't throw it to him. Like, we know when he doesn't trust a player, that he's not going to throw it to him.

even when he is open. So this is obviously like an upgrade in terms of the passing game. And yeah, you know, it obviously doesn't solve the problems with the run game and the blocking. We'll get into, we'll get into those. But of course, it's exciting. I mean, like you needed to bring in a guy. Like what better than the guy who like we all know, we all love Eagles legend.

And we know that he's incredible at this. Like as Fran said, he was the best route runner in the entire NFL. Just 20 months ago, he was the best player on the. commanders in the NFC championship game. Yeah. Let's not let's not forget that. Like that was 20 months ago and he was productive last year before the injury. Yes. So there's no reason to just dismiss this as like, oh, you know, how cute they brought in Zach Kurtz 12 catches. It's not, it's absolutely not like Julio Jones. Like it's not even close to that. So yeah.

Also it is a position that that more than almost every other position ages pretty well. I mean, you see Travis Kelchre. Oh, absolutely doing it. Right. The margins of losing a step are a little bit less important in the middle of the field there. And I think, you know, I was saying, okay, he could maybe get to like 450 yards. And obviously that is a little bit lofty,

but it's not really about the accumulation of the season. It's about he's going to really, really help you, I think, for a few games. And like, while Dallas Goddard is gone, you have, if he is healthy, all of the qualifiers, like an actual starting caliber receiving tight end on the roster when you otherwise would not have one.

And he's going to have gravity. I mean, like, you don't have to cover Johnny Mon. You know, there were plays last week where, like, a play worked because the, the corner bit on the Johnny Mont flat or whatever. That's like, that's a mistake. You know what I mean? I'm sure that corner in their meeting this week was like, what are you doing?

That's Johnny Mon. Like, you don't have to cover him. Whereas with Zach Ear, it's like you have to cover him. It's going to open things up for other people as well. So I know it's 2024, but when you look at his numbers from that season, like he had 66 receptions? When's the last time Dallas Goddard did that? Yeah.

Never. Even this year, yeah. This isn't about like anything anti-Gotter. It's just like I don't think we're giving enough credit to the player that Ertz could be for this team. I think he could be pretty good. I don't know what it looks like too when he comes back. That's kind of a question mark. But we're not there yet.

How many, would you like to take a guess? How many passes as Zach Hertz caught in his career from Jalen Hertz? I actually do know the answer to that. So let's see. So end of 2020, beginning of 2021. It was like what? Six games in 20s. Yeah, I think.

I'm going to guess 24. You guess. Shockingly close. Okay. 28. Yep. Okay. 28 for 3.30.

Okay. An 11.8 yards per catch, two touchdown. Where I go? There you go. Can't have too much earths. Too much, earths. Not enough as far as we're concerned. Okay.

Now, the other side of this, Jalen. I really, I did enjoy his reflection on Steve McNair yesterday. That was a fun little peek into Jalen. but just in terms of how high of a level he is playing at, Professor, what stands out to you? I mean, he's carried the team to two wins when the supporting cast has not either not been good or not been available.

I mean, like, you know, like people don't give him credit for the Super Bowl. They're like, that was Seguan, that was the O line, that was the defense. Well, I mean, the O line hasn't been good. The defense has been up and down at best, and, I mean, Sequan missed basically the whole game last week, right? And so Jalen has been, been the guy to win the game and he's done it in two different ways against two very different defenses. You know, we talked after week one about how all the scrambling and all the off script

stuff was because of the kind of more chaotic Flores tree defense that Durante Jones threw at him. Well, it doesn't get any more vanilla than Robert Sala, honestly. Like, I mean, there's not much disguise. You kind of know what it's going to be. It was basically too high zone the whole game. And Sean Mannion drew up a bunch of plays to beat too high. own, you know, like a lot of flat seven concepts where there's a corner route going into the turkey hole. You have a flat concept underneath. You have stuff going over the middle, digs and daggers, things like that. And Jalen did a great job reading those. He made great throws throughout the game. Of course, there are a few times that you can look on the film and anyone who didn't

watch the JTO Sullivan QB school. Like, you should definitely check it out. It was really good this week. On Jalen, yes. There were a couple of earmuffs moments. It was good. But the, um, the, he like, the way that he played that game against Tennessee, like just how aware he was of everything, aware of the protection issues, aware of the fact, like, there's a hot coming, there's an unblocked guy coming from this side, I have to roll out at the snap on the game winning touchdown,

things like that. I mean, he was just awesome. And I think if he has a few more games like this, right? Like the narrative has to completely shift. Sure. Towards like, is the supporting cast going to help him? Yeah. And not the other way around.

How about you, BLG? what stood out to you on the jailin front? Yeah, it's been frustrating to me. The way I described it after the game on Sunday was like, I'm happy Jalen won that game. He deserved to win that. It would be a shame if they lost that game because he played well enough for them to win it.

And that's even before the drive at the end, which obviously then did lead to the team winning the game. But it's just frustrating because we all know it's not going to be able to hold up in the specific way if they're going to continue to ask him to bail them out on third along every game. So it would be nice if they actually gave him a little bit. bit more support. Especially because if it had been a loss, the uneducated response to the game would have been. He lost the game with two interceptions. Right. Like that's what the narrative would have been.

When you watch the interceptions, you realize like, okay, like maybe he's a little bit at fault at the first one, but there's other people at fault as well. On the second one, he's getting killed, like as he throws the ball. I mean, yeah, I mean, the idea of him, like, not being afraid of interceptions, continuing to be aggressive after the interceptions is so much more important than him not throwing interceptions. Like, I mean, there's so much more to be gained from being aggressive than there is to lose from an occasional interception. I thought it was a great example of that. Amen. All right.

Let's take our first break on the Pantial White Eagles podcast. On the other side, we are going to get deep into what's going on on offense. Professor is going to break down the splits between why they've been so bad on early downs and so good on late downs, undersenter versus shotgun, play action versus non-play action, and why the pass protection has a lot to work on. You know what's better than one, Ashley? Two Ashley's. And Ashley's savings event, their fall savings event is going on right now. Shop fall favorites and find everything you need to refresh your home,

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That's 60 months interest-free when you shop in store. Don't miss Ashley's fall savings event shop in store or at ashley.com today. back on the PHAY Eagles podcast Bo the Professor and Brandon Lee Gouten who will be with us for the post game show on Monday night let's talk offense professor let's

want to start with early down versus late down I'm actually going to throw a curveball here I want to start with I can add a curveball I want to start with something positive because I'm mostly feeling positive okay this is a detail thing and then we'll win them we can go to the early down late down stuff we talk we talked

We talked about, well, that's not true. But if we can talk about something positive, I'd love to. The details are what we said was going to separate Mannion from Petulow, right? Separate the Mannions from the Boenian. There you go. The sequencing, the adjustments in game, the little wrinkles, right? So you guys talked about some of these things during the week. But there are examples of each of these on the film from this last game.

I mean, the, the Cheetah cadence where like the, where, you know, Drew, will pretend like he's talking to Jalen Hertz the last second and then they just snap it. They used that three times. Two of those were successful plays. And even on the one that wasn't successful, it was actually a sack. The defense was clearly not ready for the snap.

And then they just messed up the stunt and it ended up being a sack. But like the formations and the different plays off of it, the sequencing. There was a moment where they went back to back exact same play out of the same formation in no huddle. But then later in the game, the first two plays of the game-winning drive, They had DeMonte Smith run an in, and it was against cover four,

and he ended up running right into the zone defender in the middle of the field. Very next play, the second play of the game winning drive, that was incomplete. So it was second and ten. The exact same formation, expecting the exact same coverage, getting the exact same coverage, this time he runs an out into the void against that same coverage. There might not have been a single time. It's like the simplest thing ever. It was a six-yard catch, okay?

There might not have been a single time all of last year, where I noted, like, good sequencing here to take advantage. of like the coverage that like they just played like using the same formation running a different play that happened two or three times during the game so as long as we continue to see these details I'm going to be very optimistic about where this offense can go where you're out with manion right now BLG

I don't know what to make I don't know how I I don't know that I feel strongly about him yet I think they're encouraging signs like the professors talking about there but when we talk about the offense like struggling so much on these early down still And the messaging, too, and how much of that is just you're talking at a press conference about staying on schedule. Right.

Versus what you're actually trying to do. I mean, the biggest thing to me, as I always harp on, is the lack of ambition. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, Professor, they didn't even attempt a pass beyond the sticks this season until the midway of the third quarter of the second game. The first pass that was beyond the sticks on first down was the one that DeMonte Smith caught out of bounds in the end zone. That was in the third quarter. of the second game. There had been, I think there had been

31 first down snaps before that and none of them involved a pass beyond the stage. You're not, it's not as simple as this, but you're not like trying at some level

to get a first out on first down, or at least not aggressively enough. Yeah, now to Madians, to Madigan's credit, they did dial up some under center play action shot plays and, and you know,

he talked about the one where Jalen checks it down and it was second and two and they all celebrated, right? And he was like, biggest takeaway from me was our ability to stay on schedule.

He said that again. that's obviously like a messaging point and I obviously hate it. Which didn't even happen. But no, they weren't and we'll get into that. But as long as they keep calling those under center play action shots, there are going to be ones that hit. And then we're going to stop talking about this.

You know what I mean? Like I really hope that those are going to hit at some point. And then it'll be like, look, they had three explosives on first down this week. You know, as long as they don't stop calling those. To some degree, you know, he has not earned our faith yet, but he has also not earned, not having our faith. I agree.

And so intellectually, you can understand, okay, maybe he feels like they need to walk before they can run on some certain things and get a few things down. And also you're building the tendency bank that you're going to then want to break as the middle of the season continues. I think we can be a little bit patient. but yeah if they're calling a game in week 14 like they're calling this game on early downs that would be a little bit of a disappointment

but I think they have earned our patience a little bit yes I mean whether they've earned it or not we should be patient and look I mean we know they're still dealing with issues on the offensive line trying to figure out like who's playing where who's injured who's not I mean these are all things that hopefully will we'll get a little bit more in groove as we go all right let's talk results about first early down late towns. So I mean anyone who's watching the games knows the Eagles have been awful on first

downs. I haven't been very good on second down either. They're needing third down at the highest rate of any team in the NFL. They're somehow recovering the 14th at moving the sticks overall because of how good they've been on third down. But more on that in a second, which might be part of the reason. Don't call me a moron. Never gets old. Can't have too much hurts and can't have too much of that. So, okay, they only have two first downs on first down the whole year. One of them was on first and 17. The other one was the game winning touchdown on first and goal from the three. They don't have one on first and 10 yet.

It's been two games, which is crazy. Every other team has like at least three, you know. The success rate on first down is awful, whether they're running or passing. It's not just a matter of like they're running too much. They're actually not running like at an incredibly high rate on first down. But they're 28th in success rate when they do run it. They're 29th. when they pass it.

So they're just not good at anything. Now, that leads to a lot of second and longs. They have more second and long plays than almost every team. They've been in second and eight plus now 24 times in the first two games. They're 27th in success rate on those plays. They were calling too many runs on those. Second half of the Tennessee game, they started calling passes on those and they just weren't working.

They're now two for 17 success rate wise, 12% when they passed the ball on second and long. So like second and long is just not not working out. They're also bad when they run it. So that means that they've been in third and long 22 times, right? And they've been above average at those. The thing that's unsustainable, and this is why they talk about staying on schedule, but this is unsustainable.

They're 80% success rate on third and five or less, including a bunch on like third and four, third and five. Like that's not sustainable. That is, that's number one in the league by a mile. Like they're like an outlier. And so if they think that's going to continue, then, you know, like they're wrong. I mean, it's just not, that's not going to continue.

And part of this, I teach a behavioral economics class, which I referenced on the show before. And, um, and, uh, one of the things that I think happens with coaches, I coach little league. And I totally. Yeah. I did. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I know. I know. We're just saying things that we do. No, no. That's fine. That's fine. Um,

the behavioral element here. year is the coaches spend so much time working on every part of the playbook. And one of the parts of the playbook that they work on and they spend like a whole day of walkthrough on this is the third down part. Yeah. And I really think, and this is going to sound ridiculous to some degree, I really think it's like we worked on this stuff. Let's get to it.

Right. They want to get the third and manageable so they can do this thing that they worked on. But just because you practiced the fire drill and bought and invested a fire extinguisher doesn't mean you should start a fire, right? Like we kind of have to understand sometimes like the best thing would be if you don't need it at all, right? So just because you work on it doesn't mean you have to get to it. So I think a lot of these second and long plays, they're designed to get to third and short. And we've talked about this for years. It's not necessarily like the difference between third

and short and third and long on average is not nearly the same, nearly close to the difference between not being in third down at all. I have never really understood why the week has to be bifurcated that way for a football team. Like I, it doesn't make any sense to me. why you can't just call you I mean and I know that they do this but like why wouldn't a second and eight just be a third down play like why you can't have the same like why you have like a different coach working on the place yeah that doesn't make any sense yeah yeah especially because it lets the other team scout you a little bit more easily yeah because they do their splits that way too don't do it and then you have a defensive coach on the other side and they're like well this is

what they're going to do in the mic'd up there was um clint hurt talking to Zach bond and he's like there's either going to be a screen or a draw on one of the first two plays and obviously that's from a pattern that they've seen into Minutril from the Titans, you know? There wasn't, by the way, I checked that. But the, but the, like, the predictability element of it also probably suffers because you have it broken down in the chapters.

I'm interested to see if we do see a shift this week because Sakeland Barkley limited in practice on Thursday. We'll see. Sounds like the expectation is still play. Then you have Tank, Biggsby, and Will Shipley didn't even practice, or at least listed under DMP on Thursday. So do I really believe they're going to go away from the run?

No, until I see it happen. Well, they got an open roster. It's not about BLG. Oh, man. LaShawn McCoy, come on down. I don't know. Colin McKay with a SuperChance says, how about how bad the third quarter offense has been since 2025?

A bit of a theme. Yeah, I mean, they say there aren't really half-time adjustments in the NFL, but I don't know. Okay, let's get to the other splits here. Undercenter versus shotgun action, non-play action. So this is, I mean, the undercenter versus shotgun, I don't think enough is being made of this because I think we have a chart and a graph for this, Trulia, where there was so much talk of how the Eagles are going to be more heavily

under center this year than in past years, and that's going to be a big part of the offense. And they have been more under center than before. But look at these splits of success rates between under center and shotgun, and this applies to both the passing game and the run game. They are 28th in undercenter runs and 31st in undercenter dropbacks for the season. This isn't success rate. That puts them a dead last overall, the worst under center team in the league. And then when they switch to shotgun or pistol, they become average, right?

So here, this is a chart basically showing the same thing. All the way to the left means they're the worst under center team. And then they're average when they're in shotgun or pistol. And this is, again, for the run game and the past game. And for shotgun, they're 16th in runs, 13th in dropout. overall their league average at 15th. So the undercenter stuff just hasn't been working. Some of it is because it's new maybe.

Some of it might be noise. I mean, it's obviously only two games. But there's clearly like advantages to running some of the more familiar stuff, especially in the run game, honestly, when Jalen's a threat to run the ball. You've seen that be an advantage on the film so far, whereas the under center stuff, they just haven't been able to block those runs very well. Now, I imagine this is also tied into play action, non-play action? Yeah, and when you look at play action, I mean, first of all, they haven't used much, especially on first down.

They haven't used a lot of play action. They're at 35% on dropbacks on first down, which is, which is low. The league average is around 50%. When they have, they have the lowest success rate in the NFL on play action on first down. They're 20% success rate. And they just haven't been good at it. And then looking at all downs, the passing game, so this is a chart showing the with play action versus without play action on all It's very similar to the under center, no under center chart, where they are dead last tied with Arizona when they used play action in success rate.

This is on all downs. That 26% success, they're at 44% when they are not using play action. So again, and this might be related to why they're 31st in yards after catch, which is where they were last year. They're still leading the league in hitch routes, by the way, which is a great bit. I hope that continues. But getting the play action game going should help with the, with the yak as well. All right, BLG, tell me if you had to split up

to turkeys for blame for how bad they've been on early downs. How much would you split up between Sean Mannion and the offensive line? I think I do have to give it to the offensive line more so than the offensive coordinator just from a standpoint of players, not plays. And they've, I mean, they've struggled. They've been a big weakness.

When we did a show back in the off season, I don't know if you remember, I did some of the underrated concerns, such overblown concerns, and not to say safety hasn't been a problem for them and still continue to be a problem for them. But my biggest concern was that you're kind of just banking on Dickerson, and Juergens to be somewhat, if not, their full versions of themselves, something approaching that,

because what were they supposed to do? Were they supposed to go out and sign a center and free agency? Like, they were in a tough spot. But I do think, I'm glad to see, I think Cam Jergin seems to be getting a little bit more grace as the week has gone on coming out of that game because it was just such a tough spot to put him in but like how much realistically better quickly is he going to get?

It's tough. It is tough. Vinny mentioned it I think on the post game show this week where he said like maybe for the first time how he's you know picking up the phone and looking for offensive linemen to add. But what a hard position to add. Yeah. I mean it's one thing to add a wide receiver

or a defensive end. like who doesn't have to, wide receiver might be hard too, but like offensive line is the position where you really have to work with those around you and there's been discontinuity already. Even if you bring in a guy who is on paper better than the guy's playing right now, it's not necessarily going to improve the product.

Yeah, that's why I don't, I think they have to get better. Because even if Cam Juergens doesn't look better physically, he's going to get a little bit more comfortable playing next. to Jordan Mila. They're going to move a little bit more in concert than they did the first time out. And because they've been so bad, any marginal improvement that's likely to come from a little bit of continuity will help. Yeah. I mean, they struggled with stunts each of the first two weeks. That's all about like, you know, that's Stout one's whole thing, right? Like the coyote drill,

like the working on the, you know, passing things off. I mean, they've had trouble against the blitz. They've had trouble out of empty. They've had trouble with protection. calls. They were one of the best empty teams last year playing out of empty in last year when they weren't good at much of anything else. On six of seven snaps of empty against the Titans, there were obvious protection issues, like, you know, including the fourth quarter interception when Simmons beats Cam one-on-one and Jalen ends up under throwing the ball. The reason he's one-on-one is because the Titans show a dime in front. That means that the, you know, like there's an inside linebacker in the A gap, he drops out, that induces Kendall to slide away, and he doesn't end up

blocking anybody. On that one, you could argue, okay, like, that just happens sometimes with those things. You just have to block one-on-one. But against blitzes, a lot of times the Eagles have been leaving guys in, and they have the numbers. So there were multiple plays when a guy was unblocked, even though the Eagles had the numbers. Will Shipley was left with two guys to block. This actually happened twice on the game-winning drive. The guard slides in a direction where it doesn't look like he should be, and then the running back is left with two guys. Now, I don't know how that's coached. I don't know if they're playing with the rules or whatever.

I can say that having, like, you know, charted all these protections for years now, this didn't happen in the Jason Kelsey era. Like, and maybe it was more of a Kelsey thing than a stout thing. But the protection calls have been an issue. They were an issue against the bears last year, as we transitioned to talking about the bears a little bit. And I'm sure Dennis Allen is watching this and saying,

like, look, I can pick on this with certain types of blitzes and disguises. And the other thing I worry about watching that J-T. O'Sullivan video, Jalen seems to be making a lot of strides with his footwork and his pocket presence. The few times that J.T. criticized Jalen for bailing early or not sticking with it, there was an obvious protection breakdown going on around him. And J.T. was like, look, you're going to get hit, but you still have to throw that. But the thing is, he's clearly not trusting the protection. And that happened in week one. It happened in week two, where maybe it ends up holding up, but he doesn't trust it initially. And so he ends up, leaving, it would suck to watch Jalen's progress, like, slowed down by the fact that the one

thing that he could trust all these years before this is suddenly not there. How do you feel about Chris Cooper versus Stout at this point? Well, you know, he played the game, BLG. That's important. Yeah. That's it? Well, that's all anyone else says about it. How would I know more than the guys who are around him all the time?

And that's the only thing they say about him. Yeah. How about the running game blocking wise? Yeah. Jordan Milada always speaks in detail about these things and I appreciate that. So on one of his hits, or it might have been in the locker room, he said, he said when we run stretch, we have to hit our landmarks on the front side to create a hole. When the running backs, he's color in the B or C gap, he has to cut it back and that's not the way those are designed.

That's definitely true. I mean, they're having trouble and Fran broke this down really nicely on Monday, as he always does. Shout out to Fran. The I'm just trying to you know I'm trying to diffuse whatever feud you're trying to no okay all right well clearly a cold war I heard you like those color coded charts that that Sumer sports makes yeah yeah I hope you yeah you can you can have access to those every every week yeah um so they they're not used to running this outside zone stuff yet you can tell like there's there's just you know the backside sometimes an issue the front side issue like guys just aren't blocking it right the tight ends are so at blocking.

Like Johnny Munt was terrible in the last game. Not just like sort of bad. He was awful. There were like six, six different times that I underlined his name talking about how he was hesitant to block an outside cornerback. Like it's like corner.

Like he's right in front of you. He's afraid of his speed. He's not moving well. And so he doesn't, he just doesn't block him, right? And so there was the one that Fran mentioned where it's Jalen on a keeper would have been a touchdown

if Johnny Munt just blocks the corner. He just doesn't. He just stood there. And that happened a couple of times. They ran that double sled concept where there's like two tight ends blocking for Tank Bigsby on a screen and they both missed their blocks against little guys. I mean, Johnny Monk clearly can't move. He doesn't trust his movement and he sucks blocking.

Like it's like and he doesn't get, he can't catch the ball either. Like so what is he doing? So we were so excited. We were so excited. Johnny Montes. Look, I mean, he might just be, he might just be finished, right? Like he's getting older. Fran showed us all these great clips of him blocking on the perimeter,

and I was so excited about those plays, and that's precisely what he's been bad at, is those blocks on the perimeter. He's been awful. So I don't know how they're going to get help there. Well, it's unfair. Like we're talking about being unfair to Cam Juergens in terms of not getting him reps at left car.

It's unfair, like, how the Eagles built the tight end room. To like, that being the difference feeling. Like, you're the guy. Yeah, like the way they, with their actions, kind of made him, like, more of an exciting thing than he really was. That's true. But I mean, if he were, if it was like, what would have been unfair to him is if you had made him like be a receiving guy. And then we were like, oh, what kind of route was that?

Like, that would have been unfair. They're asking him to do the thing that he was supposed to be good at. But even that, for him to be their main addition that's actually playing for the team, not even factoring in the second round pick who, who I'm not sure about how much he's going to be able to get. It's not even talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. They just set that pick on fire. But, you know, there you go. Yeah.

I mean, the idea of we need our tight ends to block and it's like, I don't know what you guys are complaining about. I signed Johnny Monk. It's fine. No, it's not exactly worked out. I will say as the game went on, there were interesting variety. There was some variety to the run game. We saw a pistol for the first time. We didn't see any pistol at all in week one.

And from Pistol, they ran like a kind of a duo read play, which I really liked, where it's man blocking. So it kind of fits like the identity of what they're trying to do. with the duo stuff, but there's a read element to it. And Jalen actually kept one of them. So it's a gap scheme run with a read element. They didn't do stuff like that very much under stout. So that's something that's different and maybe can take advantage of Jalen while still running some of this like more downhill run stuff.

I'd love to see more of that because Jalen as a plus one in the run game has always been an advantage, continues to be an advantage. And especially right now, he seems to be like willing to run and he's moving really well. Take advantage of this. What do you call a flea flicker out of a duo? run. Oh no. BLG, I'll let you. I'll let you have the first shot at this one. Duo

Flingo. Duo flingo. We'll be back with more on the other side on the pH O'I. He goes, fuck out. You know that feeling you get when you walk out of the house? Take a couple steps. Maybe get in the car and you're like, oh. Did I leave something on? Did I lock the door?

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That's homeserv.com slash equals for 50% off your first year savings compared to renewal price avoid in Florida. Back on the P.H.O.Y Eagles podcast. A little Friday triple. I was going to give us a. Keep going. Uh-oh. Like a nickname. Our first initials.

Our first initials, but I think that's probably better to stay away from. Hey guys doing. We're going to hear from EJ a little bit about what's going on to practice. The reporters are out there right now, but BLG you said, Devante, not out there again. Fonte Smith with his jersey on, seemingly like maybe like warming up with the team like you did on Thursday, but not practicing. No helmet. That's a little concerning. Usually when guys don't practice the first two days of the week to the, of the week, to the

game, they're not active. That's why they've been saving that seat for Elijah. And we were just talking about how Devante has mistime with a hamstring in the past. Yes. In 2024. Missed time in the summer. In the summer, yeah. Most of the training camp. All right. Well, it's time now for the

matchup breakdown presented by Draft Kings ahead of the Monday night game. And, Professor, you want us to remember that even last year, if the Bears had had, say, Case Keenham, at quarterback, it still would have worked out pretty well for him. Yeah, I mean, that Black Friday game was not fun.

It wasn't fun to be there. It wasn't fun to watch the film afterwards. And after I watched the film, I took some notes, and my memory is not good enough that I would have remembered any of the stuff, but luckily I have it written down. And I thought it was worth revisiting because it speaks to the fact that with no Caleb Williams, the bears are going to have to rely on the run game, but that's what they relied on last year.

So what I wrote about the matchup between Ben Johnson and Vic Fangio, and I'll just read this real quick. It was a chess match between Ben Johnson and Vic Fangio, and unfortunately, Ben Johnson won it somewhat clearly. Fangio tried to make adjustments. He saw Ben Johnson play twin wide receivers to the field against base and inducing one of his edge rushers away from the line of scrimmage and then running into that void. So for a handful of snaps, he took that edge off the field and switched to nickel personnel but with three defensive tackles. Still out there to play the run with Cooper to Gene essentially as the edge. He tried man. He tried various zone looks. He reacted to all of the motion in a variety of ways,

having the safeties rock and roll, having the nickel follow the motion, bumping everyone over a guy in man coverage. But in the end, Ben Johnson seemed one step ahead the whole time. And if Caleb Williams doesn't miss some wide open throws, this could have been a runaway even earlier than it ended up being. And then looking at the film notes, in his first 37 dropbacks in that game last year,

Caleb Williams never completed two passes in a row. I mean, the past game was not good. The second half, he started 0 for five with a sack and an interception. The only successful passplay they had on their first three drives of the second half was a defensive holding penalty on Nikovi-Deen. Ben Johnson himself, after the game, said that they were winning despite their passing, not because of it. So it was all about the run game.

And as Fran detailed yesterday, it was brilliantly schemed up, all kinds of variety, motions, pullers, bootleg play fakes, multiple Eagles defenders chasing the quarterback and a receiver after the ball was handed off behind them. I mean, it looked embarrassing on the film. And the defense hasn't been very good the first two weeks at a lot of things like reading the situation, like understanding what's going on in the play. And this is shaping up to be a potential problem

for the Eagles defense if they don't fix it, regardless of who the quarterback is. Well, do Draft King's customers sign up with code PHLY, spend five bucks to get $150 in total bonuses within 14 days. That's code P.HLY in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Close the book on the matchup breakdown.

Sent by Draft Kings. BLG, where are you at with the defense right now is specifically the run defense? I'm really interested to see how they look in this game from a standpoint of, I think we're all willing to give them some level of grace because of Big Fangio and the talent here. And I think there have been some extenuating circumstances

through the first two weeks. I think when you look at Jaden Daniels and how the pass rush is playing him, they're not going to be going all out as they would at some other quarterbacks, and I think they did an effective job at containing him. I think it's still fair to say

the pass rush underwhelming, but I think you have to include that. I think you have to include week two is incredibly hot and like an aberration of a weather condition kind of game. So that shouldn't be happening this week. You know, things should be a little bit more normal

based on who they're playing. And I'm guessing. it's not going to be crazy weather conditions in Chicago. I haven't looked at the forecast. It's supposed to be nice, I think. So I'm really interested to see what they do here. I think this is like the first kind of real test, no excuses situation for them where if they come out

and they don't look better than they have through the first two weeks, I'm going to be significantly more disappointed. This is a little bit professor like the 2024 going up against the great Clint Kubiak Saints offense week three. Let's see if it can come up with a special game. That's right. It's funny. We made fun of that.

They were like, oh, Clint Kubiak. He looked good for two weeks. And everyone thinks he's going to go win the Super Bowl next year. And there, yeah, there he is. Nobody's better at week one and two than Clint Kubi. That's true. That's true. Defensive line, how about pass rush-wise?

I know that's a little bit on your radar as well. Yeah, I mean, the schematic gimmicks that Vic was trying to use, maybe in combination with Clint Hurd and Jeremiah Washburn last week were surprising. Like, they don't normally feel like they have to do those things. And Vic doesn't like doing those things because it gives up a little bit. elsewhere, but he was using Jalen Carter lined up as an edge rusher as a wide nine. I think he did that three times, overloaded fronts. A lot of stunting.

Like they just kind of threw, there was a whole series where they stunted like six plays in a row. And they're normally a low stunt team. They've been 32% stunt rate this year on dropbacks. They're usually in the low 20s. And so that's something that he's doing more of. And I think this is all because, as he said himself after the first game, He said the guys whose job is pass rush, like they need to play better. Like he said that and we can all kind of see that.

So the issue is the pass rush unfortunately right now is in a situation, which is rare for the Eagles under Vic Fangio, where they have to mask some issues with the coverage, right? And the coverage has been so good for most of these last two years. It's disturbing to see wide open guys catching, you know, catching balls for explosives. And we need to talk about that as well. well let's talk about it well let's piggy back off of something that uh Sean Syed uh

who knows Vic Fangio better than anybody uh talked about what we can't we can't compliment Sean Steyer now you can compliment him I love Sean but knows Vic Fangio better than anybody he's got a wife yeah do you know how much times Sean Syed spends uh watching Vic Fangio stuff you think he knows the meatball recipe I was just gonna ask no no that's like he probably doesn't know that That's true. That's true. Okay. What about...

He spent time with Vic? Do you think he knows him better than Clint Hurd? You know, when you say knows someone better than anybody, it's not always technically true, and most people don't pick on that. Well, most people are not. He's definitely top percentile of people in the world. He knows Vic Angel more than you do. Well, for sure. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, now, Julia knows him pretty well. So maybe not more than Julia. Who do you think you know the best? Who in the world do you know better than anybody? See, I can't say I've run because then it'll be like, doesn't Emily know him better than you? So, yeah, I don't know.

There might not be anybody than I have. What about Emily? You don't think you have Emily on lock? Yeah, I probably know Emily better than anybody. Okay, yeah. That's a good one. BLG, how about you? My parents, for sure.

Okay. What about you? Now you think you know your parents better than the other parent. Um, yeah. Yeah, actually. They're watching and I didn't. I didn't think about that, but yeah, my parents would also be for me. I mean, they haven't been together for decades, so they don't know each other that well.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think I know. I think I know my wife better than anybody else. I would think. Better than your kids? Well, yeah, because the kids, kids don't have access to certain things the parents too. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. All right. Okay. Who do you think you know? Back at practice. We're really not going to be able to talk about these strong side rotations, are we? I want to know who you know median.

Who do you know in the world? The average of everybody. I guess the average of median, I got to decide. I mean, anybody you know, you know, of the people who know them, you mean, right? Yeah. Because anyone you know, you're already above media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about public figure?

Public figure that I know median? Brandon Brooks? Brandon Brooks. You know Brandon Brooks better than those people who know Brandon Brooks. You taught him in a class. Yeah, but how many people know him? Like, I'm talking about people who met him. Yeah.

like yeah I'm probably above median yeah all right I'm gonna say there were like 70 people in the glass I'm gonna say like Tyrese maxi hmm okay I don't know

just somebody I don't know that much about Tyrese maxi but I know enough I don't know I guess this is silly tell me about these strong side rotations I mean if what I had to say about the strong side rotations well you know okay let's let Sean Sallia knows Vic Fangio

very well. Sean Syed, who knows a little bit about Vic Fangio, noted that Vic Fangio has been doing something unusual this season, in particular this last game. And that is that when he does his famous safety rotation, where you start with two high safeties, usually the safety that rotates down to play underneath coverage rotates opposite of the nickel. So Cooper de Gene stays on one side, covers the flight on that side. The two linebackers stay on the inside. The two linebackers stay on the inside and then the rotating safety typically rotates down to the opposite flat. So that would be a weak rotation because he's rotating to the weak side of the of the offense where the nickel is on the strong side. This year it happened once against Washington and it happened six times against

Tennessee. He's done that rotation. So this is a form of cover three. But the rotation involved the safety, whether it be Marcus Epps or Drew McCuba, rotating to the side with Cooper DeGine. And what that does, regardless if he rotates to the flat or he buzzes down to the middle and Cooper de jing goes out to the flat either way you end up with two linebackers on one side of the field and then you end up with two debacks on the other side now if all the wide receivers are on one side and the tight ends on the other something that might make sense but that hasn't been the case when you look at these plays the six times it happened against tennessee cam ward was five for five for 101 yards there was a sack including three memorable explosives in the game.

There was a 28-yarder on a glance route in the two-minute drill in the second quarter to Ayo Manor. I Amonore, is that how you pronounce? A-O-Manor. A-Manner, okay. There was an under center play action, 25-yard deep curl to Calvin Ridley

where he was wide open in the third quarter. He just ran a curl, turned around, he was wide open. Jihad Campbell and Zach Bonn are the two guys on that side. They both just let him go, and nobody matches that route. And this is what Sean was talking about. Normally, you would have cover three match where someone is matching that route from the wide receiver, where there's two wide receivers running verticals on that side.

So the corner on that side, Rieke Wollin, has to take one of them. And then Marcus Epps is the post safety. He has to wait in case that ends up being a vertical route. And instead he just stops and he turns around and he's wide open because both linebackers just let him go. It's play action, so the linebackers are biting a little bit on that. But here's the thing. Linebackers are more likely to bite on play action than defensive back.

Right? Like when you have both guys on that side bite on the play action The guy is wide open after them and then the 41 yarder to a o manor in the fourth quarter Which you'll remember on that on that go-ahead field goal drive wide open and if you watch that play Jahad Campbell is leaping and the ball goes over his head and that looked a lot like the 33 yarder to Antonio Williams in the fourth quarter against Washington Which was the only snap in that game with this strong side rotation. So overall they've done the strong side rotation seven times quarterbacks are six for six for 134 yards and four explosives on those seven snaps. So, and the last three that I mentioned were all thrown to the two linebacker side of the field and behind the two linebackers.

Two of them were play action, so you're getting the linebackers to bite. Now look, obviously, Vic has a reason for doing this. Why do you think he's doing this? So Sean thought maybe it was to protect Cooper DeGene. Yeah. Because he got hurt. And all seven of these are after the Cooper DeGine injury where he's like kind of holding his side against Washington. only one of them was in that game.

But this is something that obviously Ben Johnson has noticed this, right? And he's going to have ways to get the wide receivers in that area where the linebackers are. You don't want linebackers covering wide receivers in any part of the field. And so if you can confuse those linebackers already with eye candy the way Chicago does, this can be a big problem. So hopefully Cooper de Gene's okay. Hopefully this isn't going to happen anymore. Sean mentioned the only other time Vic had really done this was in his very first game with the Eagles in Brazil. And I don't know, like I mentioned this a lot that season,

that was the one game where Reed Blankenship played to the field and C.J. G.J. played to the boundary. And that's because he was having Reed rotate from the field to help the nickel. The nickel in that game, though, was Avanti Maddox. So after that, starting in week two, he swapped the roles of the two safeties and he started doing weak rotations, even before DeGine came in the lineup that year. And the rest of history, obviously, the defense was awesome. So it's something to watch. I mean, it's only a handful of snaps a game, but they're all going for like 30, 40 yards.

It's like this isn't sustainable, obviously. Yeah, if DeGine's not right, that's, that puts a damper on the defense to me. Like, I can give them a lot of grace and feel like they can play better than what we've seen. But if that's not there, that's going to be an issue all season long, that that makes me worried. Yeah, I mean, honestly, even if he's hurt, it's a weird solution for that. Like, to do this type of rotation that you're not used to doing. Now, like DeGine himself said before the season that they had a lot of new stuff in and he's excited to bring it out. I don't think this is what he was talking about.

Like, this seems like more of a band. and it's a problem. And it's especially like annoying because we had just gotten over this having to run certain types of coverages to protect a player. We saw it all last year protecting Adori Jackson, right?

We saw they were playing boundary field with the corners. This week, Zach Berman asked Vic a question, a scheme question, which he always asks really good scheme questions to Vick. He gets those from.

He asked about the corners playing left versus right. Yeah. And that's what they've been doing. and he said, we like them both. I thought that was really telling. He said, we like them both. That was the reason they were playing left and right.

I think once guys get grooved on one side, they play better. So obviously he didn't like a dory jacket enough to let him do that. And now he can. So that's an advantage. And now all of a sudden you're protecting the nickel. That's not so good. Now we're going to take our last break on the other side. We'll bring in the Eagles insider E.J. Smith to give us the latest from the Eagles complex.

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A quick reminder from our friends at DRAP. New Draft Kings customers sign up with code P HLY. Spend five bucks to get $150 in total bonuses within 14 days. That's code PHLY in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. And we go to the Xfinity Mobile call in line now and bring in the Eagles Insider. Elliot, Jose Smith. One for three.

I'll get it one of these days. I'll get it one of these days. DJ, how are you? Looking good. I'm doing well. I just got off the practice field. I got some updates on some injury stuff and we could talk some things from the locker room as well from yesterday. All right. Give us the scoop. What he got? All right. So let's start with the newsiest stuff that I just saw in the practice field. Devante Smith will practice today in some capacity.

He was out yesterday with a hamstring injury. He was at practice but didn't do anything. Today he went through warmups without his jersey in his helmet, which made me wonder if he was just kind of like ramping up. But by the time that they went to individual, he does this sometimes. He put his uniform on, put his helmet on. So if you see videos of him kind of going through warmups without that stuff on, He will probably at least be a limited participant today.

He went through individual drills at the very least there. Also saw Drew McCuba at practice today. You know, he's obviously dealing with the knee injury, so that's a noteworthy thing. Outside of that, I saw Will Shipley. I did not see Tank Bigsby. I can't say definitively that he wasn't there, but I did not see him out there. So those are kind of the guys who were out that I noticed. Also saw offensive line combinations before I left to join the before I joined the show, before I joined the show.

Drew Kendall at center today. No, no obfuscation from the Eagles offense in the coaching staff today. So I think this is going to be their five. I thought that before I saw the five, but especially now. So yeah, those are the newsy things from practice. My guess is Devante plays. My guess is they were being precautionary with him. Now at running back, you know, Sequin looked like a full participant to you, DJ?

Yeah, he was out there. He was limited yesterday. He might be limited again today. wouldn't shock me but yeah he was out there going through individual as well so i think he plays you know they may they might be precautionary with it but i also wonder if there's like a 2% boost to him playing because will shipley and tank bigsby are both banged up that's not really how you want to operate but no it is a thing uh it is a thing that the that the whole running back room seems like they're dealing with something right now well it's also funny that given some of the roster you know holes they have

they still have three running backs on the practice squad in Damien Pierce, Carson, Steele, and Jaden Blue. So there's a chance that Jaden will get to blow the ball carrier on Monday night. That's not how, you can't do that. Well, literally, I'm figuratively. Especially when there is no chance at all of that. I really don't think you can see that.

Yeah, I think we'd see Damien Pierce. It would be Damien Pierce. It would be my guess, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now, last night, locker room. and I do mean last night, deep into the evening you were there, I imagine. What did you learn? What did you see?

What did you feel? What did you smell? What did you touch? I didn't smell anything. Longtime listeners will know I don't have a sense of smell, which probably works out in my favor. Yeah. That's a plus. Yeah.

The first thing I noticed was, A, the huge media scrum around Zach, her. It's not surprising, but it's always fun to see a player, like get that much pub around his locker. But what stood out to me is actually the locker that was next to his, which is Eli Stour. Locker. This is something we talked about in the lead up to them signing Zachert, which is that I think he is an ideal mentor for Eli Stowers. And, you know, Zachert said he doesn't think it's an accident that the Eagles placed him next to Eli Stowers. And I thought the way that he talked about Eli Stowers was interesting. But honestly, the most interesting thing, I think you guys,

your ears will perk up at this too, was Zachert saying like he has really embraced, you know, pouring into young players later in his career. He actually joked, he caught himself. He said, in the latter stages of my life. And then he said my football life, maybe, you know, hopefully not my actual life. But yeah, he said in the latter stages of his career, he's really enjoyed pouring into young players. And he admitted that something that he didn't necessarily do a good job of early in his career,

which is funny because, you know, he probably said that in earshot of Dallas Goddard, you know, which is probably an admission that maybe he wasn't the best mentor figure to Dallas Goddard because of the situation that unfolded there in the late 2010s there. So I found that interesting. But I also thought it was interesting that he really like, he made a point of talking about how Eli Stowers has superpowers. You know, no rhyme and tent. Oh, do you need to go to overtime?

We're going to hear more about this in EJ time. All right. Superstowers. What do you got? Yeah, so Super Stowers here. You know, Zachard said everybody in this league has their superpowers. And there's not many guys at tight end who can run four or five and jump 40 inches the way that Eli Stowers can. And I thought it was interesting that he said.

they have to get him, you know, up to speed mentally and physically so that he can use that physical advantage that he has because I do think that we saw that he didn't really have, he wasn't really able to leverage his athleticism during training camp. So, yeah, I think that that's, that relationship's going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on throughout the season. You know, I try, I didn't see them really like together, but I'm sure that as the season progresses, you will see those guys around each other a lot. And I think that that is a beneficial thing.

You know, the Eagles talk about this all the time. you know, Jason Kelsey into Cam Jurg and Jason Peters leading to Jordan Milata, you know, like all these different, you know, Fletcher Cox and Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, these different like success stories or succession stories that they have. I think they're hoping that this is one that they will point to, you know, in a couple of years time. Good point in the chat. A lot of people watching. Not enough likes on the video.

Make sure you're hitting that like button. Was he asked E.J. about his relationship with Dallas? Not specifically about Dallas. You know, it's probably a good follow-up. Maybe, Zach's pretty accessible. Maybe we'll talk about it. But, yeah, I think that might be an interesting story to see how that relationship unfolds now that they're back. Because, you know, I don't think it's a secret.

Like, they weren't the warmest and fuzziest of relationships. And I think that it seems like Zach has reflected on that and would, you know, sort of, I don't want to say he would probably wish he would have handled it differently. But I do think it's fair to say he's handled that type of situation differently since then. Who else do you talk to yesterday? I talked to Jake Elliott. I don't know how many people will find this as interesting as I did, but I don't know if you guys,

did you guys see the Harry Kane news from earlier in the week? No. Okay. Harry Kane, great soccer player, plays for him. He's a striker. Ari Kane, yeah, that's how they would say it. He apparently wants to pursue a part-time NFL MLS career where he's playing both,

and he's a kicker on an NFL team. And there's a lot of people who are like, oh, he could do that. He's a great, he is a great soccer player. But I talked to Jake Elliott about it to see, like, how likely do you think it is that Harry Kane could actually be one of the 32 kickers in the NFL? And I found it interesting that Jake did not completely dismiss the possibility.

He said, like, you know, he's clearly incredibly talented. So therefore, he has a chance. But he did say, like, usually when soccer players transition to being an NFL kicker, And by the way, this is a PHOI exclusive. You know, I should have said that at the very beginning. Only one person in that locker room is sick enough to ask Jake Elliott about this. And you're looking at him. So he told me that goalkeepers usually have an easier time transitioning

because they kick the ball higher in the air than soccer players are used to kicking it. And he said it usually takes guys like four or five years to transition even then. You know, obviously Brandon Aubrey is the example a lot of people will point to. I believe he was a goalkeeper. At least Jake Elliott believed he was a goalkeeper. for the union, actually. And it took him years to transition into the sport. So, you know, he was skeptical about it, but not totally dismissive, which I found interesting.

Claire on the chat asking if I hate Harry Kane. I do not hate Harry Kane. I just think he's not good looking. I mean, who's really arguing against you there? No disrespect. And then finally, what about dealing her at CJ? Yeah. So did you guys talk about the Steve McNair thing yet?

want to tread on. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, he, I mean, you know how Jalen is at the podium. He doesn't always give you a whole lot, but he had a lot of time to talk about Steve McNair yesterday. And I found that very cool, especially as a young man who also really admired Steve McNair when I was growing up. You know, he was a great quarterback, especially for like a young fan, especially for a young black fan. And Jalen alluded to that, you know, him being a black quarterback, being somebody that he idolized. he saw a picture of Steve McNair on his way into Nissan Stadium last Sunday. And he said that, you know, he was reflecting on the fact that Steve McNair is one of the few people that he idolized growing up, that he hasn't had an opportunity to me, obviously,

because Steve McNair passed away a few years ago. So, yeah, it was cool to hear him talk about it. It was cool to hear him talk about, you know, honoring Steve McNair coming from the swag, coming from an HBCU, you know, the history there too. So it was a good, you know, window into sort of like the inspirations behind Jalen hurts becoming who he is and I think he was really he really wanted to pinpoint that Steve McNair is one of those people so it was a cool moment it was cool window and yeah like what what makes Jalen you know what motivates him and you know the things that move him some of those

idols so it was cool yeah I thought Jalen sharing that allowing that right was a was another example of him opening up more this year and and showing us a little bit more of who he is and as a fan it's great it makes him much more I mean I already thought he was very likable but I think it makes them even more likable. Yeah, I had a quick question. Quick question for you. That's injury related. Since you were concerned on the show about the Eagles' pass rush win rate,

not being up to what you think it should be, I was wondering, given what Vic Fangio said on Tuesday or Wednesday about how he doesn't think Jonathan Grenard is anywhere close to playing a full-time role, what's he looking like in practice? And does it look like he's going to play on my? day and do you expect him to play more than a handful of snaps? Yeah, I think today's the day that's going to be instructive on whether or not Jonathan Granard plays.

He was limited again yesterday. And my reading on what Vic is saying is that as long as he's limited, as long as he's not in team drills, he's not going to want to play him. You know, he's going to want him to be in team getting reps with the rest of the defense before he's ready, probably even to put him out there for a handful of snaps, you know, like let's call it a dozen snaps. So I think if he's full today, I would guess that he plays.

You know, the extended week gives him some more time. But yeah, it's just hard to envision him being, like, limited on Friday and then up on game day and playing a meaningful role. So, but with that said, Dan, is like, hey, pass-rest runway, ruin rate is not something that, like, I, you know, I'm married to. I don't know. You got to just own it now. Yeah, you brought it up. I don't have to own it. I do not have to own it.

For viewers, don't have to know, by the way, Beau is to pressure rate as I am to pass-fresh win-wain. I mean, I think it shouldn't exist. It shouldn't be legal to public. those numbers. Well, I think generally speaking about the Eagles pass rush, I think that they do need a boost. And I think Jonathan Grenard was brought in to be that guy for them, be the Jalen Phillips type injection into that group. And, you know, I think that it's probably not going to be anytime soon that he's really playing the role that they envision. So, you know, it's the onus falls on Jalick's hunt and Nolan Smith to kind of pick up some of that slack. And the the tackles that they're facing

this week are going to be easily the best of the three weeks so far. So, and they haven't looked great against the others. All right. Thank you very much. Effortlessly juicy Smith. Still the one for three. We've got to work on those other two. We'll keep working.

We'll keep trying to figure that out. Thank you so much. We'll check out all p.gloy.com for the latest. And we'll see you on Monday. Thanks, E.J. All right, guys. See you. All right.

You have any stuff on the cutting room floor here? Gaelic football players. You know, they're used to kicking the ball. higher. That can explain why there's some more Irish players in the NFL. We were in Ireland and we watched a lot of Gaelic football this summer. And you get a point for kicking it over the bar.

There aren't that many Irish football players in the NFL. What are you talking about? Yeah, we're getting there though. You know, there's an influx. There's some Irish guys on the international thing. Some team had an Irish kicker, right? You're going to get this off BLG. I don't know what you're talking.

All right, I'm going to look this up. That helps explain why the league is overrun by the Irish. It's practically an Irish league these days. Oh, Patima Holmes. Irish. Players. All right. BLG, what do you got?

Game prediction? Yeah. They don't make it look easy. No. Right? Like, I can't... Four and a half is a line right now? Four and a half, I believe I saw...

I can't expect that they're just going to win in a cakewalk until I see that happen. I think they're going to win the game. But I don't think... It's fair for me to say, oh, it's going to be... a walk on the park. It's going to be so easy until I actually see them go out and be able to do that. Charlie Smith, practice squad, international

player pathway on the kicker for the Saints. Okay. It's all right. He's not quite there yet. There's a punter named Daniel Weillan. All right. It was born in Ennis Carey Ireland. Yeah, come on. Sorry, I belg. No. Didn't mean to interrupt. Yeah.

He's the first one since 1985 to be born in Ireland. Yeah, but you know, we're headed, you know, we're headed towards a Irish stakeover. I mean we need to we need to get some some laws passed we went to immigration

we went to unbelievable we're getting overrun oh man this is despite the loss you know that's how good they are the um the uh he was talking yeah yeah yeah oh yeah yeah it's the first time anyone's been interrupted on this show all right go ahead be L Jimson

no it's I think they win I think it's not uh I think it's I think the bears cover Eagles win Okay. And do you think it is relatively like disappointingly productive offensively for the Bears given Case Keenham or this is a low scoring game? Yeah, I have it like 2319.

Okay. Yeah, I think Bears will be able to get something going but not to the extent. I forget what the over under is. I'm expecting the Bears to score fewer than 59 and more than three points. Good bet. Those are their total so far this year.

I think they're a score. I think the Bears are going to score two touchdowns. And then... And miss a field goal off the... Yeah, why not? That sounds fun. All right, do you have any of those stats you want to sprinkle on us? No, I don't think so.

I think we... Okay, how many... I think we had everything. Yeah. They're more Scottish than Irish. So far. Ireland was beautiful, by the way. It was so good.

We went to see hurling. Yeah, we went to the county. Very finals. Players in the NFL currently born in Scotland. Graham Ganoe and Jamie Gillon. Jamie Gillon is the guy. He dropped the, yeah. He did the like that illegal kick.

Yeah, illegal kick against the Eagles. That was great. That was good. That was the highlight of that. Good stuff. Of that season, I would say. Definitely the most memorable thing from that game. I mean, yeah.

All right. Good stuff, everybody. Thank you to Julia for making it happen behind the scenes today. Thank you, BLG and the professor. We will have you covered on all phtly.com and all your social channels. with the latest from the Eagles facility over the next 24 hours. And then, of course, Monday night. Kickoff show, the two of us on the bookends here.

And then post-game show with MJ and Vinnie Curry joining us. For all of us here, make sure you hit that like button. Comment below. Who's your favorite Irish football player? And we will talk to you on Monday. As always, we love.