PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Oluwafemi Oladejo SHINES at Senior Bowl: Recap and Eagles' draft needs

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Fresh off the Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl circuit but back on the grind at the Super Bowl, Fran Duffy identified the prospects who outperformed expectations and those who underwhelmed. Plus, what positions the Eagles will prioritize in the draft and why Travis Hunter’s teammates remember his very first practice. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the P HLY draft show with Fran Duffy from Radio Row in Nalins, Bo Wolf and the man himself, Fran Duffy, who was fresh off the road at the Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl, and back on the road here at the Super Bowl. Fran, how are your travels? Doing great. It was a fun week. You know, I went to Shrine Bowl two Thursdays ago now. Impossible to tell.

Not even worth trying to think about it. Who could know. But, you know, going back, it was, went down to Shrine Bowl for a few days, went right from there to Mobile. Both were great trips. Both staff did an outstanding job of putting on a great event. You get so much value from both in different things and different ways. So, no, two great trips and getting ready for the next one because the combine is just a couple

weeks away. We'll have that covered as well. Yes. Now, you have covered the Senior Bowl so well on all-PHLY.com. Good chance to, good time to become a diehard. Actually, a great time to become a diehard because this week you've got a deal for $36. for the entire year to get access to not only Fran's written coverage of events like the Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl and the Combine to come, but also his living, breathing database with scouting reports on over 160 players so far.

We know that that's going to grow. Yes. You are a true sicko. If you want access to that sicko dumb, now is the time to do it to become a diehard. But because you have written about your All-Star game from the Senior Bowl roster and you've had daily reports, we're not going to go too deep into the Senior Bowl and every player that you watch. We do want to pick out a few things here. Let's start with.

Give me two players who you had not yet watched. You got sort of fresh eyes on at the Senior Bowl who made you want to be like, ooh, now I can't wait to go watch these guys because they showed me a little something. Yeah, we'll start on the defensive. Actually, both guys who come from the defensive side. Mack McWilliams, the corner from UCF would be the first player that comes to mind. He was a guy that made my all-practice team after the week of practice in Mobile was really good in one-on-ones.

big, long corner, looks the part for a guy that's going to line up on the outside and win. And, you know, when you see those one-on-ones, to me, like, watching corners in those situations because this is a matchup that is heavily tilted towards the receiver being able to win. If those guys can stand out in those situations at corner, that really carries a lot of weight with me. And I thought McWilliams looked really strong throughout the course of the week. And what really stood out most to me was for a bigger and longer corner bow.

He had that ability to get in and out of cuts and read routes, read, read, route stems, you know, make sure that he was in that hip pocket of the receiver on those intermediate routes, those deep curl routes, those comeback routes, a number of times over the week, I thought McWilliams really showed up well in those types of drills. So I'm not putting this comparison on him. Okay. But as you're talking about that, that does remind me of a decade ago, Richard Sherman at the Senior Bowl, a guy who was unheralded coming in, bigger player, and you're actually seeing him sort of run with big guys and you're thinking to yourself, well, this could be interesting. I don't know if he's that type of player, that physical, but that's

sort of a similar story. Sure, and that's the thing is you see, especially, look, and UCF is not a group of five school anymore. They are officially in the Big 12, but still it's a program that's on the rise, right, and that doesn't have like all the star-studded talent that some others do, but being able to see McWilliams come to that stage and show out the way that he did, I thought was very, very impressive and a big week for him, certainly. And that is a position where the practices really do matter. You're seeing them react in a way that translates to the game. What will you be most interested to see from him when you do watch him?

I just want to see if that's left carries through. One thing I talked about that ability to stay in a receiver's hip pocket on those intermediate routes. And the reason why I love seeing that in the one-on-ones is that you don't always get to see it on film. And if you do, it's a small sample, right? It's just seeing how they match up when they're one-on-one against a dig, against a comeback, against a deep curl, Do you have that ability to basically match that receiver's route? And you say, like, as soon as that receiver drops his pads to go into the route break, does that corner also show that ability to be able to do that?

I think that when you look at McWilliams, he did that in practice. Can that carry over when I do that further film study from him at UCF? And so, like, valuation-wise, are we thinking like a ceiling of the third round? He looked like a day two-type corner watching him live. That's what he looked like. And there are players that you see that. them live in that small sampling, you're like, oh, he looks like he's that. Does that carry over to the film?

Sometimes, look, there are guys that do go to these events and inflate their stock. And, like, you know, they help themselves in such a way that they get drafted higher based solely off what they did in Mobile. We'll see if McWilliams is one of those guys. All right, who's number two? The other one is a guy that I didn't put on my all-practice team. Okay. But he was just a pain in the ass for everyone to block all week.

And that's a Utah defensive tackle junior defense. And I think when you look at him, his bull rush was one of the harder moves to stop. And I was going to put that as like a side note at the end. I did my after the Shrine Bowl in that that recap. I did like the awards, like the superlives, like tough. You know, the toughest rush move to block. If I did that for the senior ball, Tafuna would have gotten it. Okay.

His bull rush all week just gave people fits. He's not the biggest. He's not the most explosive. He's not the twitchiest. But just like it was just again, just not pain to block all week. and he did it against a number of guys because they were shuffling offensive linemen up and down the line of scrimmage. So he got to see him against centers and guards and tackles that were sliding inside. And everybody, for the most part, just had problems blocking that guy.

I'm excited to dive more into Tofoon his film. What kind of body type we're talking about? I would say, like, not as squatty as a, like, Timmy Jernigan, like not as salt off, right? But of that body type, of that ilk, you know, he's going to look a little braiden fiscish. Okay. Or he's like, you know, he's not the longest. He's like 6-2. I've got the official measurements here.

I probably could look that up to answer that question. Like a lighter Elijah Qualls. Well, Qualls was like super short. Like in the arms. The arms were very short. We're extremely short. He wasn't quite to that level. Here, I got it right here.

So, yeah, Junior Tufuna, he came in at 6027-303, 308 arms. So, yeah, so under 33-inch arms, it's a below average number, 6027. so just under 6-3, below average number, 3103 pounds, average number. So, yeah, like a pretty average body frame across the board. Early day three? Probably. I think looking at it, I think that's kind of what you're looking at with a guy with that skill set. Probably not a guy that you're going to say is going to work his way up.

He was a player that I actually heard from a Utah offensive lineman in the last year. Hey, this is a guy to watch here moving forward. Nice flex. He had a strong year. You know, ended up earning an invite to the senior. That's the fun thing about this, and we will get to that later in the show. Some of the work that you do at these events, not just on the players themselves, but mining them for information about players in next year's draft class and the year after that draft class and players in the league now.

So very interesting. Because talking to these guys about themselves is so pointless. By the time it used to be like that coaching didn't start until pre-combines. So right now those players would be going through that work with agents and with their trainers. And they have specifically, you know, they meet with former scouts and GMs during this time in the process. and then get coached up on how to answer these questions correctly. But that has now even started earlier for all these guys. So I don't even bother asking.

Oh, like, oh, like, you know, the questions about them. Sure. I want to ask them, all right, like, who are the toughest players you faced in practice every day? And, like, the toughest guys you saw in games and tell me about some of your teammates. So we'll get to that later. But, yeah, I do hear a lot of these guys. They've been on my radar for a couple of years now for that reason. Okay.

Let's switch it now to guys who you had watched. Yep. You had certain expectations for in this game, and they overperformed your expectations. They were pleasant surprise. Yeah, no question number one for me on that list is Olu Ola Dejo, the pass rusher from UCLA. Now, this is a guy that started the last two and a half years

at Mike Linebacker, started this season at Mike Linebacker for UCLA. He was the middle linebacker, and then they shifted some things around in the front. They kicked Olo Dejo down to defensive end. They bought a linebacker off the bench, who ended up going, becoming a All-American this past year.

So there was like a former walk-on who was a backup for two years. And everyone saw like he's tearing up the scout team. He's unbelievable. But the coaches didn't start it because he was a walk-on. It wasn't a scholarship kid. They put him in the starting lineup. And he had like 12 tackles a game and was an All-American and declared for the draft. He might be the first linebacker off the board.

Crazy. That's crazy. I talked to the bunch of... I mean, honestly, it sounds like a movie where it's like, you know, Joe O'sman went back to school as a 35-year-old. and nobody knows that he's actually old and then he's able to work his way up into the top of the draft.

This is Carson Swessinger, by the way, is his name. We're calling by his name. And again, junior in this class, right now, my favorite linebacker that I've studied so far. Like, a good player. He's a good athlete.

He's fluid in space. He's not like something like Tommy Tryhard guy. Like, he played every special teams unit the last two years as a backup. But I have so many quotes from players over these two trips where they were like, yeah, like we saw him just tearing apart our starting offense every single week.

The players know, man. And they were like, players know. I asked them. I was like, so why do you think like he wasn't out there? Was it just because he was there? And they were like, well, probably had something to do with it, but you'd have to ask the coaches. Like they were pretty diplomatic about it. But they were all like, yeah, like we knew that he was going to be crazy.

And he ended up being outstanding. So either way. So Olodejo. Yeah. So to get swishing her on the field, they kicked Oladejo down to defensive end. And watching it early, I was like, okay, like I kind of see it, but he's a little bit out of place. He's probably more of a Sam linebacker. And then as I watched like a game late in the season,

and you saw like a couple flashes here and there where I would say, okay, like he's got really fast hands at the top of the rush. He's still kind of figuring it out. But, you know, I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm like buying what the upside is here. And there was, I forgot, I heard Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl talk about how like scouts

really pushed for it. Scouts wanted to see Oladejo at the Senior Bowl. And Jim will always say that they serve NFL teams. They serve scouts. And so if scouts are saying we really want to see this player, in Mobile, then he, then they will push for it. Old Asia got invited. Dude, he was awesome.

Like from day one, this is the guy that, like, you could tell, like, had been working on his pass rush stuff, like, from the, you know, since the season ended. Okay. He was, I don't want to say he was unblockable. He wasn't perfect throughout the week. But number one, he bought a ton of juice. He came off the ball in one high side.

He went and did bull rush stuff. He was able to win inside. One in a variety of ways. And, like, that, like, middle linebacker, like, intensity. like that energy, he brought that to, like, the defensive line, like, one-on-ones. He ended up winning, like, the Good Guy Award during the week of practice. From what I understand, like, got votes as, like, the defensive lineman of the week from opposing offensively. He didn't win it from that group.

It was a really good defensive line group on both sides. But Ola Dejo, like, to me, I thought, coming in, six or seventh round pick. Well, I'm not really, like, I came out, like, he looks like a day two guy, like, all day. Like, I absolutely am very high. If he goes to the combine and tears it up, like, it could be like top 50, top 60. It's a scary one, right? Because it's either going to make you look great, or it's going to make you look like a fool. Yes.

It could make you look like a fool for passing on them, right? But it's also got to be hard to buy it if you haven't seen it enough. But the importance of that position, probably a swing worth taking. It must be a very difficult and interesting conversation in your draft prep rooms. Yeah, I think that, you know, the character, portion of it is something where it's like, all right, I feel really good about this kid off the field. And if he tests really well, you get into that high floor, high upside thing where it's like, all right, like, even if he doesn't hit his upside, I feel like, okay, we've got a third or fourth

defensive end that can play special teams, they can do everything we want. He's going to be everything off the field. And if he hits, he's going to hit big. And that's a bet that a lot of teams will feel comfortable taking once you get into the third round. Honestly, it not necessarily the same type of player, but it does remind me of the Eagles' third round pick last year who did a similar thing at the Senior Bowl, Jailix Hunt, and you're like, you know, in the second round, you know, this swing is probably not worth it, just the opportunity cost. There are other players who will be better bets at that position, but the further you go, late third round, if this guy can become a number two defensive end, boy, is that worth it versus what your other options are in that range. And Jelix was like a more, like it was a longer shot because of like how much of a project he was.

But I don't think that all day, Joe Hoyt has Jailix's ceiling because Jailix was. Alex's like rare unique gifts, whereas old ageo, like even as a defensive and a converted linebacker, like we're not talking like, you know, the Micah Parsons transition. He's not that level of freak athlete, but a guy that, you know, he's got some juice off the edge. And I was impressed. I thought he was awesome to me, like a shoe in for the all practice team. I was shocked that he didn't get defensive linemen of the week. All right. The other, the number two guy who exceeded your expectations.

Yeah, exceeded expectations. I think overall, I went back and forth on this, man. I was going back and forth on who I ended up going with, and even still I'm going to go. Let's go with Dante Trader. We'll go with the safety from Maryland. And to me, I think when you're looking at safety, you want to see cover skills.

What value can this guy bring on passing downs? What role can he bring? And I thought that he showed up really well in those one-on-one periods. I think when you look at Trader, the big thing with him is that he was like the number one or top three lacrosse recruit coming out of high school as well. Oh, man, we got Chris over here who loves Maryland, loves lacrosse, he's going to be frothing at the mouth. I mean, I'm surprised he hasn't made his way over here yet.

But, you know, Dante Trader played both sports at Maryland when he first got there. And then a couple years ago said, like, all right, I'm going to put lacrosse to the side. Let's focus solely on football and has gotten better each year studying him this fall. I thought, okay, like he looks solid, probably more like an early day three type, I think, based off traits. You know, there's something there. but seeing him go through one-on-ones and look, safety is a tough one when you go to these games, especially in team periods, playing downhill.

You don't get to see all the run defense stuff. But based off what I saw from a past game standpoint, he looked like he could be a day two pick. He moved at that size, the way he moved, the way he matched up in coverage, I like what I saw from Dante Trader. What type of player, any stylistic comparison that comes to mind? Let me see if I've got one written down on him.

When I, you know, seeing him live, I didn't have one. Yeah, I didn't write one down. He did come in a little bit smaller than I thought based on film. He was listed, yeah, he was listed six foot at Maryland. He came in and just under 511, just under 200 pounds. Like your boy, Juan Thornhill, potentially. Potentially. Not quite the explosive athlete.

Yeah, and it's funny because I thought of Juan Thornhill when I was studying the other safety, the safety from Virginia, Jonas Sanker. He was my guy coming in. I was like, yeah, I remember you talking about it? Yeah, Sanker is a guy. I thought he was okay. He didn't pop quite as much as I was hoping coming into the week. And to me, like, Trader was a guy I was like, man, like, the way he looked in one-on-ones was impressive.

All right. Now let's go to the other side of that. Yeah. And guys who you were a little bit underwhelmed by, who you had higher expectations for, didn't see what you were hoping to see. I would say, and this is not even necessarily just for me. This is, I would say, for, like, pretty much everybody. Yeah. There was a lot of love out there for West Virginia offensive line and Wyatt Milam.

And, you know, he could be a sleeper first-round guy. Certainly a top 50 guy. Zach Frazier type. Yeah. He's like a... Because he played left tackle, and everyone thinks he's going to be guard. And he had a rough week. It started really, really bad.

And it got progressively better. Day three, it was a little bit better. But it was a rough go. And so he would be one where I'm like, like any thought that people had about him going first round is probably out the door. I just watching, you know, because it was almost like every rap one-on-one.

He was getting beat back. And then even in the run game stuff in team drills, I thought that he was really struggling, and again, he was playing mostly guard. He had been a tackle at West Virginia, but Milam was a guy, I thought, really struggled. Yeah, I mean, it's tough, right? You need to do your work as a scout to contextualize this stuff because, you know, guys will tell you, you never know what somebody's going through. Maybe there's something else that's good.

Of course. You know, that's the reason that their mind is occupied elsewhere, right? They're not fully prepped. But it's also hard to not have that in your mind when you're thinking about when I was there and I saw this guy play, like, he wasn't bringing it. No. So, like, you know, those are difficult conversations. It's especially interesting when you get players that play the same position.

And you get into it and you're like, all right, I just watched apples for apples. These two guys go up against each other, not up against each other, but go through one-on-one reps against some of the best in the country. One guy looked great and the other looked terrible. How could we possibly have the guy that looked terrible in the same environment ahead of this guy? And you're thinking, like, if we're going to play in a big game, these guys need to be like this is what they're big. deal is. And so one guy was ready and one guy

wasn't. It's hard to not wait that in the draft process. No question. And so I think that that's and to me that's one of the interesting parts about going to these games is just being able to put those guys in an apples to apple scale. And obviously it's what I also get out of the combine. And Bo like

when we go to the combine every year, I love to go. I sit in the same spot in the lower bowl, in the stadium. I've done it for years now. I sit over by the broad jump and it's right where they do the field work for the drills. And I just watch those guys go through and do the same drills over and over. And I don't even necessarily care about the athletic testing.

I'll get the testing numbers later. I love watching them go through the same drills in their tights and in their underwear. I see you see everything that these guys have at their disposal, right? And it's like, it's freaky friend. I know. But you see like one after the next, after the next, after the next, after the next, go through the same drill. And it's like, okay, like, athletically comparing these guys. It's very easy when you get to see it.

Yeah, you could see guys that. that start to differentiate. There's a wide middle, right? And then there are guys who pop like, oh, they move different. And then there are guys who pop like, ooh, they don't quite move that level. To your point, that is like when I,

so I don't even think you've seen this. I have a binder that I print out. I'm going to be printing it out for, I can't believe there are depths to your sickness that I'm not yet. So I have a binder that I print out and it's for taking notes at the, at the combine.

I perfected it over the years. Perfected is a strong word. But I've honed it in over the years. It's also next to your bedside table in case you wake up in the middle of the night with memories of these workouts. Yes, so, but it's a working template that I have. And basically it's like, okay, like it's every single drill

for every position, and I just, it's rapid because these guys go fast. Sure, sure. So it's like, all right, like, you know, Bob Smith, you know, tackle one, all right, they're doing the weave drill, bang, and it's one of three grades. It's either like a plus, a minus, or a dash, to your point. So it's like, guys are either gonna look great,

they don't look as good or like, okay, that was like an average rep, and I just fly through it. And then at the end, in between position groups, I go through it. I'm like, all right, who got the most pluses? Who got the most minuses? I kind of love that.

It's an easy way for me to say, like, I've got 15 minutes. Who did well? Who didn't do well? And being able to just kind of compare apples to apples is very helpful. No, that's very good. All right, who was the second player who underwhelmed you. All right, my next one will be Landon Jackson, the defensive end from Arkansas,

who got another one where he got better as the week went on. It was also, this was very interesting this year. I felt that this. This was more prevalent this year than any other, where as you go through one-on-ones, some guys took a ton of reps. Like, Oladayjo took a ton of reps. The tackle from North Dakota State, Gray, Zabel, took a ton of race. Yeah, he was awesome.

Probably the best player there. Puff your chest out. Overall performance. I know. I know. I know. I should have a hot draft. You're going to regret that all draft season long.

I know. I know. But there were some guys where it was like they took three. reps a day. Yeah. And it's, you know, sometimes that's by design. Maybe a guy, maybe a guy got dinged up. Maybe he's, you know, taking coaching. I'm not watching like everything along the sidelines. I'm trying to watch what's going on on the field. But, you know, like, so like Donovan Azaraku, the pass rusher from BC from Boston College, he was one of those guys too. And as I'm going through my notes, I'm like, man, he only took six reps the last two days. But he won five

of them. Like any, and he won five of them like clean. And then, but I look back at Landon Jackson, the defensive end from Arkansas, who was a fourth-year player. I kind of thought it was like a sneaky fit for the Eagles as a defensive end who could kick inside on pass-downs. He's a little bit of a longer body type, kind of similar to Josh Sweat body type, but I think he looks more natural playing inside, whereas Sweat, whenever they've kicked him snug inside,

he doesn't do as well. Landon Jackson just looked okay in the first couple days, and I was hoping to see a little bit more from a guy that I thought had a chance at round one. Now, day three, he came out, and he had like three, really good wins. So it's like, all right, but he was able to turn things around, but I was hoping to see a little bit more from him over the course of the week. You mentioned the Eagles. We should take a little segment here to discuss what the Eagles interests will be in the draft as we are here in the Super Bowl. Feels a little bit silly to already be looking ahead. But hey, that's what we're here for. That's what we're here. To me, the Eagles enter this offseason with their number one priority roster-wise, and tell me if you disagree, being the edge.

Yeah. Because Josh Sweat is scheduled to be a free agent. Yep. We don't know what Brandon Graham's future is, and even if he returns, you certainly can't count on a high level of production. And so you've got Nolan Smith, who has been an absolute home run in year two. Yep. And that lets you feel better about it.

But after that, you've got Bryce Huff, who, you know, unless the Eagles trade him, will be on the roster and will be penciled into a part of the rotation, but certainly can't count on him to be, you know, a starting caliber player. You got Jellix Hunt, who maybe you hope that he makes a, a leap in your two, but just knowing the way that Howie Roseman wants to build this roster, I would imagine that that short term, that's their top priority. And then we can get to what I would say long term is a bigger priority. Yeah, to me, like, I don't think you can go into 2025 thinking that Jaylux Hunt can be a starter

and an answer for you. I think he's done some nice things, certainly off the bench, but I think you'd much, you'd feel much better going in because, look, this was going to be a red shirt year for him. Right. That was going to do a plan until Bryce Huff became a zero. BG gets hurt. And now all of a sudden you're kind of pressing him into action. And again, he has flashed, but not to the point where I'm like,

oh, yeah, put this kid in the starting lineup, and you'll feel good about it opposite Nolan. So I do think that this is a position where they're going to probably have to address this pretty early in the draft and someone who should be able to play right away. And so when I look at it, I think when you look at these edge rushers, I think you have to do one of two things. Either you're of that Landon Jackson archetype that I mentioned where it's like, okay, like you're going to line up as, you know, outside linebacker, you know, on base downs and you can kick inside at times. Or the Nolan Smith where it's like, hey, you're going to be an outside linebacker and you have that flexibility where you can drop and you can do all those different things. To me, like you can't, I don't think in an ideal world, it's a Josh Sweat type of player where you're only a 4-3 defensive end.

And like that's what you do best. And look, sweat has done some nice things dropping in coverage. That's just, that's not like his strong suit. So I think ideally you'd want someone that has that skill set. To me, the other top priority, and this goes back to last year's draft, we know what they were, you know, bringing in for pre-draft visits in 9-1. I think, you know, if Harry Roseman had his druthers, I think the first-round pick would be Lane Johnson's replacement.

Long-term replacing. Yep. I just, I think that's knowing the way that they want to build that, that makes sense to me. You know, I don't think that Mackay Beckton is going to be resigned to be that guy. I don't think that Talasstein is going to be penciled in there. I think they, knowing that the way that Howie builds things, I think that's what he would want to get in the building. And I think when you look at this class, there are going to be some options there at the end of round one where it's worth taking a swing on.

And there are some players that have been talking about as first round picks. There's this tackle from Texas, Cameron Williams, that this was his first year starting for Texas. Dude, he had like 27 penalties. Since we started the podcast, I think he got flagged again. There was a ton of penalties, very unrefined player, had been a right tackle only, was late to football if memory serves. like they got to it late in high school. So all these things were like, yeah, like this sounds like a Jeff Stoutland type of project. I think that he was being talked like mid-seasoned as he might be like a top 20, top 25 pick.

But as the season went on, you kind of saw like, this guy's not ready for that. And a lot of people thought he was going to go back to Texas for another year. And he ended up declaring that surprised a lot of people. So he would be a guy that I think that if you don't take a tackle day one, maybe that's an option for them on early day two to go with a Cameron Williams. But either way, I do think that there are options for them as they get into the first and second round.

Howie Roseman said something interesting when we talked to Eagles reporters last weekend, which I actually thought was a good way to think about it. And it was in reference to the Mackay Beckton signing. He said, if you exit a draft having filled all your needs, you probably had a bad draft. And I think that's right. It goes to, you know, best player available.

And, like, you know, it could be kismet that everything matches. And maybe you're moving around the draft board enough to make that the case. but I think it is more likely, as he has been through so many of these drafts, that there are going to be times when you're on the board, and a player not a position of need is standing out like a sore thumb, and you've got to make that pick. And so I think that's a good way to think about it. But from A, if they could fill all their holes,

some of the other positions that I think middle rounds they'd like to hit. I mean, tight end is an obvious one, right? Which is a good year for that. And I don't know what Dallas Goddard, his future is going to be in Philadelphia, given the injuries after Nicobie Dino. injury and who knows if Zach Bonn returns, I think linebacker is certainly on that list.

And then other than that, like, the roster's in pretty good shape. Like, I think they can afford to sort of take the best available. And I also think that this is also a draft where I don't know that look, I think you want as many picks as possible every single year. But I think that this is a year like lean into that, you know, where I think that we're going to have

some of these pay days coming down the road. You know, when you look at Cam Juergens is going to be getting paid. Obviously, you just paid both receivers. but it's going to be getting to the point where some of these guys are going to have to start, you know, paying some of these young talent that you're leaning on right now playing on rookie deals that before we know it, like that payday's coming. So I think that you want to continue to try and lean into volume there in the draft. And this is a good year to do exactly that. I think defensive tackle of Milton Williams leaves is interesting in middle rounds, safety potentially. But yeah, I think I think the Eagles can afford to be to be position agnostic after filling a couple spots.

Yes, and look, they were obviously they were so good on the pro side of things last year. When you get a, you get a Mackay Beckton, you get a Zach Bond, being able to kind of fill those holes that way, you know, bargain basement shopping, that if you feel like you have confidence in being able to do that again, you know, Zach talked with, you know, Jeffrey Lurie said on Monday at opening night that, you know, like, hey, we expect to get comp picks next year. So I don't think it seems like they're going to be too active in free agency this year. The draft will be a big tool for them.

All right. Let's close this out. Hit me with. some of the big quotes that you gathered over the past two weeks that you think are worth passing on to our loyal, beloved audience. So, again, one thing I love doing is just talking with these players about teammates, about opponents, and I've got like a, I would say, like, a group of like six to eight questions that I typically ask every year, and I fine-tune it over the course of time.

But, you know, one thing when I'm talking about, for teammates, for guys that are blue chip prospects and to me like one of the few blue chip players in this class is Travis Hunter from Colorado, especially a guy that's as gifted as him is what's like the craziest thing you've seen this guy do? Yeah, good one. What's the what's the freakyest thing you've seen them do? And you know, so guys will talk about plays they've made in games and you know, at that point we've all seen those plays, right? We've always seen those highlights. But I was talking with Colorado safety, you know, Cam, Silman Craig, who is like one of their leaders on defense and one of their better players on that side of the ball.

And he played with Shador Sanders and was coached by Dion in high school, followed them to Jacksonville State and then to Colorado. So he's seen it all. He's seen it all. So he was there at Jacksonville State when Travis Hunter got there. He was the five-star recruit number one guy. So I said, what's the craziest thing? You've played in the secondary with this guy for three years.

What's the craziest thing you've seen him do? He said, I'd never seen this. He said he came in as a freshman. It was his first spring. He said he probably had five-one. one-on-ones, his first day, he picked off four of them. Oh, my God. And he's dying, laughing, as he's telling me,

I'm cracking up. He was like, I've never seen anything like it. And he came back the next day, and he did it again. And he was like, this is before, like, oh, he's going to play receiver, and he's going to do that. Like, but he came in as a corner, day one in one-on-ones and picked off four passes in one-on-one. And we were like, yeah, like, this guy's going to be,

he's going to be a top pick. That's very funny. That one I very much enjoyed. That's a good one. The other one, one of my guys, you know, I really like the South Carolina safety, Nick I Manwari. And, you know, one of the things I don't like to lead guys down a path. I'll just ask like an open-ended question. Like, hey, like, who are some of the leaders on the – who would you say the leader of the defense is outside of yourself?

Like, who's the leader on defense? So I talked with the South Carolina defensive tackle, Tonka Hemingway. Like, hey, who's the leader on defense? And he said it was Nick and Monwari. And I was like, all right, can you give me an example of like that leadership of that work ethic that stands out? And he said, look, he puts a lot into it. Sometimes I'd be in there late, and he would be out there late on the field at night, just working on catching on the jugs machine.

Again, he's a safety. And he would just be on the jugs machine, just full on just catching. He puts so much into it. So he had, I mean, Amon Worry had a bunch of picks this year, and I think it was like three pick sixes. So, like, he was literally, that was like a point of emphasis for him in the offseason was to improve those hands. He said that production did not happen by accident.

He'd be out there at night, late afternoon on a weekend, just working. And so, like, stuff like that. Sounds like a Seriani type. Yes. Dude, like, Eminem War is really, really good. To me, like a top 20 player in this draft. So that was a good nugget. And the thing that I'm going through now is I did trans.

I talked with like 40 players at the shrine. I didn't talk with anybody at the senior ball because the senior ball, like, player access has been bad. So I'll talk with probably like 80 guys, 100 guys at the combine. It's going to be tough. But go through all the transcriptions, get them all separated into quotes. and then I got to get them all in my sheet, and then I got transfer from my sheet onto the database on all-P-H-L-Y.com. So all that's to say, you will see all of these nuggets,

all of these nuggets from all of these players. If you're a diehard, you go into the draft database, and all of these will be in there. Now is the time to do it. $36 for the year. That's $3 a month. And you should know. Are you a sicko or not?

That's exactly right. All of these weren't in press conferences. Like these were, these are exclusive, like, one-on-one conversations. And so you're literally not going to get. get these anywhere else. So the other ones that I wanted to share. Let's talk you, Tyler Warren, the Penn State tight end, a fan favorite.

I think Eagles fans probably just put the bed the idea that Tyler Warren's going to end up in Philadelphia. Daniel Jeremiah had him in the top 10 of his mock draft this year, or the last week, he's not making it to 31, 32. Like, Tyler Warren's not going to be there. So I talked with his former teammate, Auburn wide receiver, Keandre Lambert Smith, who was at Auburn last year, he was at Penn State before that.

I said like did you expect you obviously you watched Penn State this year did you expect Tyler Warren to have the huge year that he had and he said absolutely you know we called him Mr. Consistent you know when I was there offensively he came in every day with the same attitude and all he did was work he came in to a loaded tight end room when he got there was Brenton Strange who ended up being a second round pick Theo Johnson ended up being a fourth round pick and then it was Tyler but Tyler was always the same guy even with his fresh from his freshman year he always showcased that ability he would get him we'd get him out there in wildcat snaps in the white in the white game the white out game the white out game That's their spring game, scoring touchdowns, jumping over people, making contested catches. So again, getting like those anecdotes from players, like, oh, this is what this guy did early on in his career before he became a star. That stuff's gold for me. So I love hearing that. And then also, one thing I love to ask players, too, who's the toughest player that you faced in a game this year? Okay. Not the most talented or who's because a lot of times like, oh, yeah, like I played against Travis Hunter.

Yeah, sure. But I want to like, who was the guy where, like, matched your intensity, was really tough, really, really, physical, you know, so UCLA linebacker, Kane Madrano, told me that it was Tyler Warren. He's like, you know, obviously he had a big day against us from a past game standpoint, but what he did is a blocker. He's a really good blocker, and he got after us from the jump, like I spoke about the run blocking aspect of it. And again, like those kind of things really stand out for me. So that was a good nugget there from Medrano. Okay. I like it. Yeah, there was a, I mean, again, I've got, you see me like

scrolling through here. I highlighted that. It's a 15-page document that you have. Yeah, there's a lot of notes that are we going. It's untitled, though. You're not going to title that? Well, no, because these are all going to go, this is just a, it's like a, it's a holding area to go into. I'm all about holding areas on the Google Docs, no doubt about it. But I'm surprised that just in case, you must have other untitled documents. You don't want to just say, quote dump, or, you know, draft player quote dump, and then you move it.

I don't know. Don't let me tell you how to do your job. Draft player. Prospect quote. Yeah. Prospect quote dump. Yeah. All right. Done. Okay. I think we feel more comfortable now. Yeah, but like that's why I honestly.

Delete. Now we'll put it to the test. But yeah, to me like that is one of my favorite parts of this process is being able to talk to these guys. And anyone that's been around me at the Combines, like the media standpoint, they know. Like these are the questions I ask every single spring. Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl, and then out in Indianapolis. Let's get real sick here. Who's someone from next year's class that you heard like rave reviews about. Okay, one of my favorite anecdotes

that I got, so I talked with Pitts Kicker. Oh, sure. Yeah, I'm sure he was mobbed. Yeah, it was a one-on-one. What an exclusive. But you know what I find, though? Here's what interesting. I love talking with specialists at these things because no one else is talking to them.

And sometimes those guys are shy, you know, whatever. Other times, if you get one that likes to talk, they will give you everything, because they have No one else is talking to them. So they will talk for like 20 minutes and just give it. Yeah, yeah. Like I remember talking with Will Reichard, who was, I think he was Alabama's there. He was Alabama's kicker, but I think he's with the Browns.

Dude, I got so much stuff on Alabama's roster for the next like three years from Will Reichard. So anyway, so I'm talking to the pit kicker. And I was like, who is a guy? Because they have some players on defense that like, and they had a receiver at the Shrine Bowl that I like. But I was like, who was a guy that you kind of felt their energy on the other side of the field? And he said, Kate Klubnick. So Clemson at the end of it was Pitt against Clemson and Pitt takes the lead late.

They go out and they score. Clemson comes on the field with 30 seconds left in the game. And the kicker from Pitt was like, look, like, I had faith in our defense, but I looked across the field. It's 30 seconds left. They had like no timeouts. And I just see Klubnik there just like stone face, like locked in. And I was like, oh, crap.

Like he looks like he's ready to go. He leads him down. They score a field or they score to win the game late. And he was like, I remember getting on the bus and thinking, like, man, like, I looked at Klovenik before that drive and he was like ready to roll. That was probably my favorite one that I've gotten from like an opponent. But I talked with like Clemson's running back about Klobnik. He gave me some good stuff there. I also, so the one question I've been asked in the last couple of years is if you could bet your first NFL paycheck on a freshman from this past draft class making it to the league in three years.

Okay. Who would it be? Okay. And so, like, what's always good is when there's a bunch of UCLA players or a bunch of pit players, and you get the similar answers? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love that. Okay. So there were a bunch of UCLA players at the Shrine Bowl, and everybody loved this receiver.

Quasi Gilmore, freak athlete, the way he reads coverages and understands the game of football was outstanding. The way he would route up our D.Bs in practice. Insane work ethic and drive. practice full speed every play. So now, like if you're a diehard drive, but that's going into the database, and in 2028, I'm going to be ready. We've got all these notes ready for,

you're not getting the quasi-gilmore. The value now. You're getting it down the road. It's an investment. Exactly right. It's one of my favorite parts of the process. Fantastic stuff. Fran Duffy, that's why he's the best. We are, we're done here at the Senior Bowl.

Obviously, the P.HLY Draft podcast with Fran Duffy. you throughout the draft season. We've got the combine coming up in a couple of weeks. Fran's going to be there. He's going to be mining all those guys for information. You know where to find it right here. And on all-P-H-L-Y.com to become a diehard for Fran. I'm Bo.

We thank you for watching. We'll talk to you next week. Goodbye.