PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | A.J. Brown signs extension, plus the Philadelphia Eagles Shadow Draft

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Maybe it was a little glossed over in the madness of the NFL Draft, but the Eagles locked up arguably their best player in A.J. Brown for the foreseeable future. Brown signed his contract Tuesday and spoke about why he hopes to retire as an Eagle. Plus, it’s easy to harangue draft picks without offering solutions. Bo Wulf and Zach Berman present their alternate-universe Eagles draft hauls, at least one of which begins with a different cornerback than Quinyon Mitchell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

to the P-H-L-Y Eagles show presented by Butcher Box. Butcher Box is offering our listeners an amazing offer where new users can get free meat, plus $20 off your first box joined today by using our link, butcherbox.com slash p-H-L-I and use code P-H-L-Y to receive this exclusive offer today before time runs out. Welcome to the show, a little prime time edition, Bo Wolf, Zach Berman, from our friendly confines. and our home, Zach, how you doing? Doing great. This seems like old times, Bo.

The 8 p.m. Tuesday was a regular time slot for us. Yeah. So look, I love the daily shows and doing it in a person with you, but this is a little throwback. And the old-time listeners will know if I turn to my right, it's because that's where the television is. And so I have the Sixers game on here. I think we're timing it well,

but we'll probably get a half-time bump here. And of course, people can watch the archive version as well. There you go. And, you know, make sure you're checking out the PHLY Sixers post-game pod today as the Sixers look like, maybe they're going to just do one, two, three, Cancun in the second half, potentially. But we'll see what happens. We've got plenty to talk about on this show, Zach. We heard from A.J. Brown today.

We have news before the show that an Eagles favorite is headed elsewhere. and we're going to go through our shadow drafts, what we would have done with the selections that the Eagles picked. But, you know, what's going on in your neck of the woods? How you doing? How you feeling? I'm doing well, but I thought actually you would have more of a top of the show planned here because there were four news items since our last show

or four transactions since our last show that are worth mentioning here for a few reasons. First off, the Eagles waived four players. yesterday players they had signed the futures contracts no ellis griffin haybert taiwan moan and laceda smith uh so this might have implications in that game that we played where the you know i i forget what that game you might have had lecita smith somewhere yeah okay uh now this is also relevant because the eagles are opening up spots for their smallest undrafted free agent class and during the how i gross manara uh about those guys specifically on tomorrow's show.

Yep. With the Mackay Beckton signing and these four moves, the Eagles have seven open roster spots. And, you know, you can do the math. They have 74 players under contract. They have nine unsigned draft picks. That leaves them with seven spots for undrafted, the free action seven was the number how the Roseman gave the other night.

But the reason why I teased it with you is because the Eagles went from to L.I. to is it Ellis is or L.I. Whatever you want. Okay. And then we mourned the

dismissal of one Ellis. Yes. They had the chance to draft another Ellis. It did not occur. And now Noah is

sent packing as well. Well, I'll tell you why this is not being made a bigger deal of for a couple reasons. For one, bit wise, you know, you can't kill what's already dead. Ah, yeah, okay.

That horse is. The, like, and from the Ellis perspective, like, the decision to waive Christian Ellis was the end of the road. It was done. You can't break what's already broken. The trust has been, has been already cast aside. And maybe the Jonah Ellis thing would have. saved it, maybe. We don't know. I think the team is still perennially and perpetually and

forever moving on, broken. But the other thing here is, away from the bit, Christian Ellis, cutting him was a bad decision. They made a bad roster move. Jonah Ellis, drafting him, I think, would have been a good decision. Noah Ellis, love Noah Ellis. I hope he continues a long career and hangs on rosters, but I would not, in good conscience, be enlightening our listeners if I was making a real case that they needed to keep no Ellis around. They have defensive tackle depth. The reason that the Christian Ellis bit works and the Joan Ellis bit works is because there is truth behind it.

I'm not going to tell you that they have ruined anybody's lives by waving no else. I respect the integrity that is required for that. The bit only works if it comes from a place of integrity. Thank you. Understood. Understood. So, yeah, so I think the notable part of those moves yesterday was opening the spots for the undrafted free agents, which we will discuss tomorrow and which will practice with the team on Friday when the rookie minicamp begins.

You teased news before the show. Boston Scott, who has had a long run with Eagles, right? He is going to Los Angeles. He's signing with the Los Angeles Rams. I have not read it yet, but I saw he had a long message that he posted on his Twitter account. You're giving him a TLDR? No, no, no. I was prepping for the show.

I mean, it was, it came out like right before the show. I didn't have one. Yeah, but you saw it and you chose. You said, uh, it's too many words, my man. I got to move on. I did not say that. Trust me, no one is, uh, intimidated by word count, but, uh, less than me. I mean, I, I will read length whenever it comes.

So I will, uh, but yeah, Boston sky elsewhere, a move we expected. Pay attention to Will Shipley. I know Will Shipley has his, the tractors among the fans among the podcast hosts but i think that will shippley and kenny gainwell are going to be in competition for the number two running back this season i do think we could take a second just because you know you said it but like for a guy who was signed off the saints practice squad uh you know late in the season what a what a career boston scott has carved out now you know some people saw it right away and we're all over that when it happened

but six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles over 12,000 rushing yards with an extra 566 receiving yards. Like an important player. We know about the Giants Killer, and I like the jokes that the Rams don't even play the Giants this year. What are they thinking?

But a really fun player, like a really fun aesthetic player to watch, a key contributor to some important teams. and like a really fun guy in the locker room. Poor one out for Boston Scott, one of the good ones. Well said. Likeable player, productive player. Overachiever.

Overachiever. And the perspective that I will give on Boston Scott is this. He came to the Eagles before Miles Sanders was in Philly. He outlasted Miles Sanders. If you're a practice squad signing running back, who's a backup. And they draft the second round pick to be the starter. And you outlast that guy. right and that has nothing to do with miles sanders his career malice sanders was a productive starter

you got paid big money that goes that goes to show you the longevity the multiple contracts that boston scott signed uh and yeah i i don't think anyone in philadelphia any eagles fan will look back unfavorably at the boston scott era it'll be oh that was a that was a fun player yeah i mean kind of funny to call it the boston scott era but yeah or i just mean boston scott's got tenure i'm right yeah i agree i agree i agree Like, you know, if you think about your deep backup running backs, like he's, he's got a bigger spot in the hearts of Eagles fans than Reno Maha, then, you know, I, you know, Karel Buck Halter, you know, I mean, Corey Clement caught, he had 100% of the other typical. I think I think you probably give it to Corey Clement, given the actual game, but yeah. But Boston Scott could could come back to a wicked wolf in 15 years.

And good plug there, nicely done. Yeah, and people will raise their glasses of Miller light for Boston Scott. And then they'll get that's so toasted. They're going to say, I need a mortgage. Let me call it mortgage. Yes. And then they will pull up their phone and place a bed on parks. And they will chase it with some Mli pop.

And then they're going to walk around the next day. I'm like, I think I got some sniffles. I need to check out Rite Aid for my allergies. Yes, yes. And of course, you know, after a long night out the night before, they'll want to stay home that night and put something on the grill. And that's where P butcher box comes in. Nicely done. All right.

Let's talk a little bit about A.J. Brown because I do think it's fair to say that because of the timing, we probably, you know, didn't spend enough time on and fully unpacking the decision from the Eagles and from A.J. Brown to extend him beyond what was already on his contract. We talked about it a little bit over the course of draft weekend, especially on Thursday night. But today he signs that contract and talks to us, reporters for the first time. I guess first before we get to the actual contract, what were your takeaways from talking to AJ today? Yeah, the big message that he had when the team released the video of him signing, like he officially put in the paper. Because he said he's going to hang up his cleats in these uniforms, right? And when he signed this contract, I wasn't thinking this is the last. contract he'll ever sign. So I found that to be an interesting comment. But his message today was

how much he enjoys playing in Philadelphia, which I think is relevant given that there's like a, I don't want to say it's a very vocal minority that's been talking about like A.J. Brown playing elsewhere, right? But A.J. Brown said that his career took off here. He loves being here. He said, His daughter is going to school here again. He had his kids here. He made an interesting comment too where he said that there's other guys on the team who have young kids and he wants his kids to grow up together with them. Yeah, I think he was talking about Devante, we know. Devante, sure.

I mean, Britain Covey. I don't know, Britain Covey is going to be here for a long time. That receiver room had a bunch of kids last, you know, not a bunch, but a few of them had young kids. There's significant others at least. Sure, yes. So, yeah, so I, that jumped out to me. I like, you know, Chris Franklin from NJ.com asked him about his goals for this year. And he says he has a note, you know, he keeps notes in his phone of different things he wants. You know, when I wrote that down too, I thought that was one of them more. I thought that was like, oh, file that away. That could be a thing to follow up on down the line. Exactly. And then he said, when other people are out on Friday night and partying and Saturday night drinking, he said he's getting another workout in. right so he emphasized that he's still hungry you know i i i don't like to you know make a big deal about someone's salary but in football everything's public right and in football things are you know salaries sometimes leads to status and he's the highest paid receiver in the NFL

there's like no can't imagine for long Justin Jefferson's going to sign a deal and you know to march jace but he said that once you get between the lines someone cares what you're paid what your bank account is, right? So, and then a few other things, you know, he said that. As far as like him calling up WIP this offseason and some of the chatter around him, he says he's human. He has to do a better job of tuning things out, right? He spoke about his relationship with Jalen Hertz and.

Who is there? Yeah, Jailen Hertz was there. That's true. So what were your impression? and see we're in there. Well, let me ask you this. What do you make of like there was a descending? We've had a few press conferences this off season, right?

There was the full pomp and circumstance of the Jason Kelsey retirement. There was the delayed but still celebratory retirement of Fletcher Cox, brought us all family up from Yazoo City. There was the Devante Smith extension, which there was still some There was some family in attendance. You know, AJ Brown was just there. Just him alone. He wasn't dressed up or anything like that.

You know, Dom and Jalen Hertz were in the background. He was just there. No family, no anything. And contrasted to when he first got traded to the Eagles, you know, the whole family was there. He's in a suit. It's the whole thing. So what do you make of the like the descending level of pageantry to this one? That's interesting point.

I mean, and they give the viewers and the listeners some color. here. At one point, he just showed up, right? They typically arrive with a PR representative and the PR representative preps them for the questions from the big bad affiliate media, right? And so, but at one point, AJ Brown just walked into the auditorium. It was like, I'm ready. And we're like, all right, we're ready too. And then he's like, where's, you know, and so then he went and found PR. But yeah, I actually found that endearing in a certain respect that it's, this is not, a big, you know, typically you, you pay a guy 30 plus million dollars a year and it's the headlining. And as you asked him about you make him the number one highest paid wide receiver

in football. Yeah. I mean, it's it's like a banner day for the organization. And this was like fit in between lift and lunch, right? Right. So yeah, I think that's cool. I think that's endearing. I didn't make much of it. What did you make of that? I think it's part of the, I don't know, I don't know how conscious it is and how much of it is actually exactly how it is. But the thing that he was talking about, about, you know, working out on Friday and Saturday nights, you know, doing these two days when everybody else is doing other stuff. And like just being about business and like just back to work, I think it's sort of presenting that same thing. Like this happened. I'll talk about it.

But to just totally ape the Jalen Hertzism, he's trying to keep the main thing, the main thing. Right. Like he's let's just let me do my job of trying to get better every day. Yeah. And look, that's been consistent during these past two years. There's, I'm not going to deny that A.J. Brown could be emotional at times, right? He's, there's times when there's a lot of attention on him. and rightfully so he's one of the star players.

But since he's been here, he's been like a really hard worker. He's been a really good teammate, right? He's, he cares about his team. Like I've heard stories of different teammates of guys talking about, like, how involved he is and gets to know them. So he's not someone who's like off, off to the side. And I do think he appreciates being here, right? Like, AJ, I mean, if, in a certain respect, A.J. Brown could be elsewhere if he wanted to be elsewhere, right? Like, he, he chose to sign this contract here.

He, she chose to sign two contracts here. Now, the Eagles certainly made it enticing both times. But, uh, AJ Brown is, is one of, he's, he's one of the few NFL players who's like an NBA player where you talk about, like the player movement era. Like, AJ Brown can dictate where he's going to play. And A.J. Brown wants to be here in Philadelphia. And I think that's particularly noteworthy. And it's not just the city and the fan base. I think he's very comfortable with the team, with his teammates, things of that nature.

And so to follow up on that, why do you think that this came together when it did? I don't have a good answer to that. I mean, he said the Eagles came to them with it. My guess is this. Like, I mean, besides anything else, the Eagles know that the price isn't. going down. The price isn't staying steady. I think the Eagles probably wanted to, they knew something had to be done with,

with AJ's contract at some point. We talked about, you know, the contract that he was on before, the 2026 season was untenable from just like a cap number perspective. So the Eagles were going to have to do something. Either give him a new deal or trade him. But he was not going to play that year

on that deal, given the way the Eagles handle their cat. So I think once they decided that they want to resign him, it behooves them to do it yesterday as opposed to tomorrow. Because like I said, Jamar Chase's contracts coming up, Justin Jefferson's contracts coming up.

And I don't think AJ Brown's the type you're going to slot below those guys, right? So I would imagine that was the impetus of it, but unless there was something more to it, I would imagine this was them wanting to keep one of their foundational pieces and not wanting to have to chase the wide receiver market.

Well, that's it. All right, Zach, let's talk for a second, a bit of a whirlwind day at the Novcare Complex. And it's about 430. I'm leaving the complex. I'm on solo parenting duty tonight. And I got to get, I got to make sure I get Jane before 530. And I got to get Casey after that before 6. And I'm leaving at 430 and I got to make dinner.

And we haven't, you know, the draft was last week and I haven't had time to stock the fridge. So I've got to swing by the grocery store, get some essentials, then get home, you know, quick fire dinner, then get Jane, then get Casey, get them back, get dinner, eaten. Tough sometimes. Get them, get them bathed, get them in bed, do an 8 o'clock podcast. Tough. And you know what would have made that a lot easier? What's that? Well, my butcher box is coming next week.

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All right, Zach, we're going to talk, a little shadow draft. Yeah, looking forward to. And also welcome to all the fans who might have been coming in during halftime here. Yeah, all of them hopefully did not take your advice

of betting on the Sixers in this game. Still believe. Yeah, shadow draft. All right, let's do it. You know, this is an exercise I've been doing for the past several years and a little bit different this here because we were hosting the show.

So first few rounds, I was able to make my decisions live a few of the other ones. I mean, I had my board set up. I had to sort of go back on round five and round six and decide who I would have taken, but that's okay. The idea here is, you know, put a board together.

And when the Eagles are on the clock, so am I. I got to go on the record with who I would have picked when they pick. I'm not allowed to say like I would have traded down or I would have trade it up. I have to pick when they pick. And I think it's just a good exercise in by no means is this like, oh, I could do as good a job as an NFL team. It's, in my opinion, a nice elucidation of just how luck-driven the draft is. If you follow it over the years, because sometimes I might do better than the Eagles.

That's not because I know more than they do. It's because, you know, maybe I'm following the consensus board, and that's just how it works out sometimes. But it is so unpredictable that even when they have all the information and the experts, there is no magic bullet here. There is a wide, wide variance to how this stuff goes. And so it's an interesting thing to follow.

And I think if you're going to, if you're going to, you know, grade a draft, then you should sort of go through this process. And I actually disagree. I don't know how you feel, Zach, about like the hand ringing over, well, you can't grade a draft until the players have played for four years. Like, you're grading the process. You're not grading the outcomes.

That's a different thing. Yeah, I am with you there, right? I mean, obviously, like anything else, it's easy to say things after the fact, but you are grading the process. You're grading the moves they could have made. You're grading how they navigated it. So I have no issue with grades right now. And by the way, like, things are supposed to be fun in sports sometimes too, right?

Like, let's not, yeah, it's great. It's fun. Exactly. That's a fun thing. It's not hurting anyone. No one's like offended if you give, if our team gets a C. Right. It's so, yeah, come on.

Like that's, that's one where we in the football sphere might take ourselves a little too seriously. Now, Zach, are you going to go through this as well? Have you, did you retroactively do this? I didn't do it on the clock. So it's kind of, but I can tell you who I would have liked at that spot. But I would defer, this is more of a bow exercise than a Zach exercise. Okay. Now, I think we talked about this over the course of the weekend.

the first pick is pretty simple at 22. In my board, the way that I had set things up, Terry and Arnold was a tier above Quinion Mitchell. I had Terry and Arnold as the top corner in the draft. And so when you get to 22, everybody else from that top tier is gone. Terry and Arnold is sticking out like a sore thumb. To me, that was an easy pick. And the reason that I like him over Quinnian Mitchell is he's a little bit younger.

you have the Alabama pedigree having watched him like I really liked watching him and I don't want to overvalue my own eyes. You're also, you know, looking at the consensus board and reading with Dan Bruegler writes and other experts. This is this is not a, you know, a shot against Quinion and Mitchell. If Terry and Arnold had been off the board, my pick probably would have been Quinnian Mitchell. It's a, it's a like he would have been the next guy up. But for me, Terry and Arnold over Quinnian Mitchell, I do worry a little bit about the timed four or five one speed. That's why he's not, like, I would, I would have graded him like a notch even below Christian Gonzalez from last year. But for me in this class, he was the top corner and I would

have gone Terry and Arnold. Yes, I am, I'm consistent with you there. Now, I didn't have Mitt or I didn't have Arnold a tier higher. I had them stacked together. If I had to choose between the two, it would have been Arnold based on the age profile and the level of competition profile, right? But like I said on draft night, the time speed was a question of of mine. But overall, I would probably feel a little safer with the bet with Terry and Arnold. And I also just just want to point out because, you know, and you might roll your eyes. I read everything. Actually, our, our like highest viewed short, YouTube short has become our little Quinion Mitchell thing before the draft.

that where I was saying that it would be out of the Eagles type to trade for him. And the comments on it are like, you know, this idiot, like this guy doesn't know anything, so on and so forth. I was specifically, I didn't know that that existed. Oh, yeah. I was specifically speaking about the Eagles trading up for him. I wasn't speaking. I didn't say when I said he's not the type. I wasn't saying he's not the type of Eagles would draft.

And I was saying because at the time we were thinking trading up to 14. And I thought if they traded up, it would be. an offensive lineman. That was the point I was making. I said when they were looking to trade up in the past for a sauce gardener or for J.C. Horn or for Derek Stingley. By the love. Yeah. You're also not saying they're not going to do it. You're saying it wouldn't be their type. It's not their type. This is an atypical pick for them. And they didn't trade up, by the way, too. Like that was the other thing too. If you told me Mitchell would have been there at 22, I would have said, yeah, that's a fine pick. But I just wanted to make that clear.

Okay. So then you move on to 40. And this is another interesting one because we talked about how good of a job we thought, Howard Roseman did it working the board and how staying at 22 allowed him to move up to 40 to take a player who they had with a first round grade in Cooper DeGine. And yeah, sure. Like anytime you draft a guy, you're the highest person on him, the league let him get to 40. but I think that there are real circumstantial things that play here, and he probably would have gone over the next few picks. At that spot, I had two guys left with first-round grades. It was Kool-Aid McKinstree and Cooper DeGine. On the clock, I took Kool-Aid McKinstree,

and it's not as neat of a double secondary fit because I think Terry and Arnold can play inside, but there's not quite as much versatility. And I would actually say that having sat on the, this one and like, you know, done a little bit more work on Cooper DeGine. I probably would rather have Cooper DeGine than Koolaid McKinstree at this point. But on the clock at the time, I took Koolaid McKinstree. So I just, I redid the Alabama corners with Terry and Arnold and Koolaid McKinstree.

And that certainly wouldn't have been a bad outcome. I was on the record going into the day that I would have done Cooper de Gene. I'm consistent with Eagles there. And then if you also just sort of think about. like position wise if you if you had wanted to force an edge or wanted to force a tackle you know i it wouldn't have been a good spot to do so um and it's part of the reason why the eagles did what they did like you know as we talked about the next tackles who went on the board did not go for another 15 20 picks Patrick paul roger rosengarten kingsu sua mattaea the edges my guy john lice was still there but

that would have been a bit of a bit of a bit of a reach at that spot they did a good job maneuvering themselves into position to take what was clearly the best player on the board of someone who was attractive to them. Yes, agree with you there. And it was a good process and good player, good outcome. Okay. You moved to 94, the trade back in the third round. And this was a little bit more interesting where the players who I still had available with second round grades. I only had two. One was Jaden Hicks, the safety who didn't end up going to the fourth round. And as much as I want to trust the board, I didn't feel like I could go three secondary in a row. And then the other was Jatavian Sanders. And I didn't want to go Jotavian Sanders. No, I did. And that's what I did. And that's what I

it because I had my commitment to myself is to not drop around below. I mean, again, this is like a very bobo version of what's actually going on, but I'm not going to drop around below to reach for a different position. And so it was between Jatavian Sanders and Jaden Hicks. And because I didn't want to take a third secondary player, I went with Jatian Sanders. And as I say that, I'm actually lying because there were three. it was also Troy Franklin. I missed him here.

And so it was actually for me, between Jetavian Sanders and Troy Franklin, I end up going to Tavian Sanders and thinking about it after the fact. I kind of wish I did Troy Franklin. My decision was that I thought that there was a little bit more depth of wide receiver and that there were not really any other tight ends that I liked. So that's why I took Sanders. So my draft would have started out. Terry and Arnold, Goulda and McKinstree, Jatavian Sanders.

And comparing that to the Eagles three, I'm not sure which one I would actually rather have. I just, where I make it up is the next pick because we can get to it. In the fourth round, I take Austin Booker, the edge rusher from Kansas. And I do, I would, I would rather have Chetavian Sanders and Austin Booker than Jailix Hunt and Will Shipley. Okay. Fair enough. And we'll look at those as a package deal.

I will give you mine. And then we'll look at the next one and we'll kind of look at which two was better. the three that I had going into that day or into that spot rather. It was Troy Franklin, Josh Sanders, and Tanner Bordolini. And the player who I would have taken there is Troy Franklin. I was consistent with him throughout the process about him being the wide receiver that I really liked. I never thought he would have been there in the third round. And if you, I would have, I thought he was a candidate for them to go in the 50, 53 spot.

right so if you told me they were going to come out with cooper the gene and chroy franklin and extra you know uh and those extra picks from day two i thought i i would have thought that would have been an outstanding outcome for the eagles um so anyway as i said austin booker uh in the fourth round and that one was was pretty easy for me it's the you know who are the guys with third round grades that i still have um and then i you know i've also got the work that i did on which positions are good bets and which round and the fourth round edge makes sense. So that's part of the reason you go, Austin Booker there. Round five, the three fifth round picks when the Eagles go, Ania Smith, Jeremiah Trotter, Trevor Keegan.

My first pick is another wide receiver, and that's Malik Washington from Virginia, a player that we talked about throughout the process. A much different player than Aenea Smith, you know, less explosive. but I think probably a better like plug and play slot receiver and a guy who I could see really making a role for himself in this offense. When the Eagles take Jeremiah Trotter, I also take Jeremiah Trotter. And then when the Eagles take Trevor Keegan, I take the highest offensive lineman on my board. And that's Christian Mahogany. And that's sort of an example of where I find this process like a little bit underwhelming is like I don't love Christian Mahogany. I'd rather take a guy who I actually feel strongly about,

but because he was the highest graded player, I just sort of bit the bullet and went for mahogany. Okay. I like mahogany there. Yeah, I don't think that's a horrible outcome. I, by the way, I did not give you my fourth round pick. My fourth round pick would have been Breitlin Allen, okay, at that spot. And I would probably rather have Brilene Allen than Will Shipley.

I know that I think Will Shipley offers you more as a complimentary piece. Sure. But Braylon Allen has more upside as turning into a starting running back, I would say. So that's that's the move. I would have gone with then my fifth round picks would have been Trout Jr. for the first one. And then Muhammad Kamara for the second one. All right. Well, if you want to continue following along, but add a little spice to it, maybe it's time to suck one back.

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Yeah. So Mahogany was the guy I said there. The other play I would have considered is Walter Rouse, who is the tackle that I liked. Because of his medical background. No, and because of his long arms and starting experience at Stanford and Oklahoma. I imagine those long arms come in handy in the, in the surgeon's room.

Like, you know, you can reach. over all the way down. I imagine what most importantly is that big brain. That's going to help you out. Actually, I don't you feel like the big hands would be a nuisance as a, as a surgeon? Wouldn't you want small hands? Well, then I would be more precise.

Yeah, yeah, I suppose so. I mean, you have a knife, right? So, or a scapple. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. So, yeah, I imagine if you are big, beefy hands, you know.

I don't think it's doing it for the first time. I mean, I imagine you're very good with the knife at that point. Reminds me of this. When when we were in the hospital for Rachel to deliver Jane, the guy walks in who's going to like do part of the, do part of the procedure. And he's like this big Hulk and guy is just like wobbling. He's like, oh. Oh my gosh, fee five, fo' fun. We can go over here.

Calm down. Were you worried? Was I worried? Yes. Were you like, can you give me a smaller or less less? I mean, I was thinking that. It's like, you're the one who's going to deliver the baby? He was not the final deliverer, but he was part of the process.

Okay. All right. Yeah, so I would have gone mahogany or rouse. I think when we were doing this show, I kept saying mahogany, mahogany, mahogany, mahogany, mahogany. But, yeah. It's a funny thing to just be yelling. Mahogany, mahogany, yep. Yeah.

Maybe we'll get that on the banner next year. Maybe so. Sixth round when the Eagles go Johnny Wilson, Dylan McMahon. I mean, you know I wanted Dylan McMahon. I ended up taking in with the second one. Before that, the players who were standing out were Eric Watts, the defensive lineman from Connecticut, Mackay Wingo, the defensive tackle from LSU,

Miles Hardin and DJ James, the corners, decided not to go with the corners because they've already got two of those guys. And I like Mackay Wingo, the best of those, you know, 21 years old, feels like a guy who you could throw into the defensive line rotation hopper see if he develops into a player with some upside. And so I go Mackay Wingo, Dylan McMahon. So, Julia, I think if you have the graphic, you can flash up my full shadow draft against the Eagles here. And you've got that's what it looks like. Quinion Mitchell, Terry and Arnold, Cooper DeGine, Goulda McKinstree.

You look at the whole thing. And I kind of do like mine better. But I also, the Cooper de Gene is where I feel like maybe I'm a little bit jealous of the Eagles. I went Kool-Aid and I'm a little bit envious of Cooper DeGine. Yeah, I mean, I got to say I like yours too. Malik Washington, I saw quotes from Miami this week that Mike McDaniel really wanted Malik Washington. He was like really pushing Greer to take Malik Washington.

So certainly something to watch in Miami there. I was with you on Mahogany. I actually like Wingo. That's the direction I would have gone at D-Tackle. I still would have gone with Johnny Wilson, although I probably would have tried to force an offensive tackle. Like, I don't know much about Travis Glover. I know they brought him in.

Other than that, Thailand Grable has great athletic testing. He's also an old offensive. tackle. I don't know if I would have drafted a 25-year-old offense attack. I would have felt disappointed about not getting an offensive tackle on the draft. And again, the Eagles did not get an offensive tackle in the draft. I would have considered Joachim Bell. But ultimately, the guys I would have gone with were Wingo and Johnny Wilson. And I think it probably does hinge on how you feel about Jal X Hunt. because that's the one where the Eagles diverted from the consensus board the biggest.

And as we talked about yesterday, there are reasons for that. There are reasons to believe in it. But there are also other ways to get projectable pass rushers. So for the audio listeners, just to run it down one more time, my shadow draft, Terry and Arnold, Koolaid McKin Street, Jatavian Sanders, Austin Booker, Malik Washington, Jeremiah Trader Jr., Christian Mahogany, Mackay Wingo, Dylan McMahon. If I can ask you, because you mentioned Cooper DeGine after the fact here, you've presumably had a little more time to kind of dig in to some of these Eagles draft picks. Who have you thought more of? Who have you thought the same as?

Good question. Yeah, we thought less than after kind of digging into them a little bit more. Well, you know, our friend, Fran Duffy put out a nice piece highlighting some of their stuff. I would say I feel better about Cooper Dijian now than I did pre-draft. and I felt pretty good about him then and even on the night of the draft. But just the more you do, the more you talk to people, the more you see that like the things that he sees and like the awareness of coverages and stuff like that,

it's pretty high level. And I don't even think that like his success hinges on whether he can be successful on the outside or not. I think that would be a nice to have. And I think the Eagles certainly hope that he can eventually replace Darius Lai. this will be Darius Slay's last year with the Eagles most likely. But I think there's, I think there's reason to, to be pretty bullish on Cooper DeGine. You know, Jason's Seahorn track record aside.

Yeah. That's fair. I mean, not the Seahorn thing. I don't know why that has to keep coming up. But, all right. I, like, I've tried to watch more of Geoxon. Just hard. There's only so much to watch.

Exactly. just don't know what the make of him, right? Like, you know, he's not going up against great offensive tackles. You certainly see the athleticism. You see the tools. Our friend, Dane Bruegler, had his, his 2025 mock draft out today. I think there were eight edge rushers in the first round in that mock draft. And then there were some, like, D. Lyman, who you might consider playing on the, like,

or, you know, for instance, Harold Perkins. He's a guy who I think can play on the edge. Howard Perkins is, I don't want to. comparing to Michael Parsons, but I'm comparing on the Michael Parsons, right? He's listed as a linebacker, but I think he can play, he can rush to quarterback. That's what it is well. It's all a roundabout way of saying, like, I think the Eagles are going to have opportunities to get edge rushers. Of course, they didn't draft Jayalx Hunt to be the top edge rusher on the roster. But that's, that's a pick that I'm still curious about. I've heard a lot. I've listened

to Will Shipley stuff. And, you know, for instance, I'd listen to our friends, Shiappati and Ben Solac and they were really tough on Will Shipley. And I admit, like, I like Brianne Allen more than Will Shipley. I like what I see from Will Shipley. I think he can be like a solid number two running back. And I get, you probably have aspirations for more, but I'm, and then the other thing I'll say is I saw Jeremiah Trotter a lot. I listed him as my guy in our, in the my guys list.

but just digging him into him even more. I think that I was kind of playing against the narrative a little too. Like I had heard that, you know, the one thing the Eagles were thinking about was the pressure that would come on them. And by the way, that has not died down, right? That is, that's kind of been taken up a notch. Everyone's so excited about Jeremiah Trotter Jr. And rightfully so.

And then I was like, all right, well, the time speed. and you don't have the time speed. But when I watch him, I feel the same way I felt when I watched him at Clemson on Saturdays. He just makes plays. I watched every Clemson, well, there was only two of them, but the two Clemson-Sercuse games that he played, and he was awesome in every one of those games.

He actually did his first Axeman chop against Syracuse. And so... I can bust it out of a bigger opponent than that. Yeah, yeah, seriously. I feel even better about the Jeremiah Trotter Jr. pick. You know, you said on draft day that you thought he had the best chance of playing time this year.

And I got to say, I think, you know, among the day three guys that is. And I absolutely think you're right. Like he's, it could be a situation where he just keeps making plays and you're like, they need to play this guy.

Yeah, I'm like, I'm like ready to get, way over the top on Jeremiah Triter Jr. Like, I think he'd be good. And I know that I'm like, I know that I'm getting sucked in. And I believe me, I know that the likeliest outcome is that he's a special teams player for three or four years and gets a couple of spots starts.

And when he when he has to start, he's exposed. But like, I don't know. I think there's, I think there's a chance he's the best linebacker on the team this year. I mean, it's not a high threshold. But yeah, I, I, now the two wide receivers what's your read on them right now uh like i want to believe in johnny wilson and i think that he is probably like more comfortable in his body than he's giving credit for and he's just typecast as this this tall guy i think he probably does have a little bit more

chops as a rot runner than that but i'm still a little bit skeptical of like you know he did get to the sixth round for a reason like you know that that that And that skill set in theory is a thing that would be valuable. And he was just sitting there. Quickly on Shipley, like, I feel a little bit better about him after having watched him some more than I did on draft night. But I still, that it still is my least favorite pick. Okay. More so than Hunt.

He, I think Hunt is a bigger reach. But I think Shipley is my least favorite pick because I can understand the selling point of Hunt. Like, I just, I think they're a better running back. who are available than Shipley. Ania Smith, like, I want to believe in him too. And, like, you know, 4 or 5-1, but he certainly has juice on the field in the SEC against high-quality competition, and that's great. I feel like he's the guy who, like, I really need to just see it myself with my eyes

to have an opinion on, just the way he moves. I don't know. And the good thing about wide receivers is that's a position when you're at training camp, you can tell, right? Like you can see if they're getting open. You can so we'll tell pretty quickly about wide receivers. And then the two old line that you're you were in a McMahon before. Love it. All in a strongly.

Okay. It's going to be it's going to be such a, it's going to be such a repeat of the Jason Kelsey, Julian Vanderbiltie thing. It's going to be wild. Okay. And you're down on, on Jigan. I'm not down on him. I'm just, I'm just overwhelmed. He just,

uh, he seems like a guy who can be a backup at both guard positions. Sure. Good. Yeah, that's kind of what, what struck me when, when Howie was like everyone we draft,

we think we can be a starter. Yeah, I thought that was an interesting line. I kind of look at Keegan as, as your Sue Opeta replacement. Now, Sue Opeta did start from them, but he's,

he's like a solid backup guard. from the way I see it. And there's nothing wrong with that. If your fifth round pick can be a solid backup guard for, you know, three years of his rookie contract, that's a fine outcome. And last thing, what did you make of, did you see this report that the Eagles may be playing beckoned in a guard? I did not see that.

Who reported that? I think it was a Jeff Mosher. Wow, interesting. I mean, look, I would at least try it. I mean, I would, I trust Stoughtland. And as we talked about the other day, the reporting that's come out that like Bechton picked the Eagles because of Staling. That actually would encourage me even more. It shows you, I mean, one thing I heard coming out in New York is that is that Beckton took umbrage to being moved from the left side to that right side.

And for Beckton to see this and say, I want to play for that old line coach. That would be encouraging. If the Eagles are looking at guard, why not? Like, you have 30 games of evidence of him at both tackle spots. You know he can play there. If you want to see him this spring, play guard, by all means, do it, right? I mean, see what you have there. Yeah.

Sean Andrews, who, not, Sean Andrews wasn't 6, 6, 7, right? But Sean Andrews was a dominant guard for the Eagles and was a, bigger type of player. So if you think it could work. And one thing, you know, for the record that, that Brandon Thorne said to us was that the Eagles have tried, you know, when they had a smaller center,

which they've had for the past decade in Jason Kelsey, they've wanted those big guards, those tall big guards next to them, like Brandon Brooks. Brandon Brooks was 6-6-340, right? That's a good point. It's not that much different than Bechted. So now, now, Tyler Steen's a bigger guy. but yeah, there's nothing to say

that Bechtin can't play guard or at least see what he can do there. Good point. He was a good athlete coming out of, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, coming out of Louisville. All right, Zach. I think we can wrap this bad boy up. Yeah, we'll be back in, you know, in a few hours, basically, right?

Back in tomorrow. Talking about some of the undrafted guys, maybe give me a little peek at those. See if we can talk, Zach, into some nudity and be arrested the shenanigans. That won't happen. That won't happen. You won't know unless you tune in.

So for Zach Berman and Julia, thanks to everybody for being a little flexible today, working around our changing schedules. We will talk to you tomorrow at noon. And as always, we love you.