PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Can Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis & Bryce Huff maintain the Philadelphia Eagles’ D-line standard?

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

We begin our position previews ahead of training camp with a focus on a defensive line charged with handling the departures of Fletcher Cox and Haason Reddick. Is the trio of Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Milton Williams good enough in the middle? What about the depth? And on the edge, where Bryce Huff was signed to become a full-time star and one of Josh Sweat or Nolan Smith needs a rebound season, does Vic Fangio have enough?Bo Wulf and Zach Berman reunite after the longest time they’ve spent apart in like five years. Feel the love. 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.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast on a Tuesday, high noon, Bo Wolf, Zach Berman, back together. Zach, I think this might have been the longest time you and I have gone without doing a podcast together live in like five years or something like that. How you doing? It was too long. I'm doing well now that you're back. It's great to see you, although I'm happy that you were on vacation, that you got to spend some quality time with your wife. I imagine. And, well, I mean, you can reveal as much as you want about the vacation. I'm not going to push and prod, but thrilled that you're back. Where are you going? Where are you starting the show? No, I just met I'm happy at a nice time. And I'm also doing well because today is Tuesday, July 16th, a week from today, the Eagles report the training camp elsewhere in the country right now.

Players teams are reporting. the training camp, right? This is the report date for some teams. Football is in the air. I was out this morning and I, you know, I could almost hear that clickety clack of the cleats walking out onto the field. You keep referring to the clickety clock, which no longer exists in our Eagles world, but that's okay.

It does for the short walk that they have from the locker room to the practice field. nonetheless, thrilled that you're back, thrilled the training camp is a week away. So the Eagles report next Tuesday, but the first practice will be next Wednesday, right? Yes, they'll be on grass a week from tomorrow. Yep. The smell of the grass, the morning sweat.

I love it. I love it. Can't wait. Well, we're going to begin our preview series of the position by position, look at the roster heading into training camp. Today we're going to focus on the defensive line. have a couple follow-up questions for you, Zach, on the Nick Siriani story that you wrote and posted yesterday and talked about with Les Bowen on a wonderful conversation on the show yesterday,

but it's good to be back. It's good to see you. Yeah. I mean, I would rather be on vacation, I'll be honest, but I guess we can save it to the end, but I want to hear. Sure. Do you want to do a little press conference at the end? Sure. And you're allowed to say where you went. So I have a lot of like scouting questions about what can be expected. a month and a half from now. But yeah, we'll save that for the end. Before we get to the show, any critiques, any feedback, it was, you know, I have a lot of respect for the host seat and you do it so well.

It was an adjustment sometimes. You're playing traffic off. You're not as like sometimes, you know, you're not necessarily listening to what the person's saying because you have to get into the ad break and out, you know, you have to pay attention to the time. There was one show I had with Rich when the conversation was so riveting that, well, the conversation was riveting for all the shows. But we were at like, let's see, like 1243 or 1244. I got to get that head break in.

Yeah, Joy, I had to text me. You know, let's let's get to the ads here. So point being thrilled at your back. I don't have any critiques. I thought you did a nice job. It was fun to listen to. Now, you know, I will say this is not have to be a comparison between the two of us, but I was not on vacation listening to the show every day.

And I did use the time to unplug, but long flights back, I was able to work my way through, through the episodes last week. And then this morning, the episode from yesterday. There were big shoes to fill out. I thought you did a very good job. I think you did a great job in the host chair. This is like a new bow. You know, you get back and you got, you got nice things to say.

I love it. Yeah, I figured, you know, It's funny because you and I were deciding which position to talk about today. And originally we had set it up as maybe defensive line and running back today. And we thought, you know what, let's not restart our relationship with another relitigation of the Will Shipley discussion. So let's save that for later. Let's play nice. Yeah, Will Shipley does not need to break up relationships.

That's for sure. Yeah, Homewrecker. Will Shipley. That's what you should call him the homewrecker. All right. I want to quickly ask you about Siriani, the discussion you had yesterday. And what I wanted to do is there were a couple of questions you asked to less that I want to get your perspective on.

And it's the main question I had reading your story, which I thought did a very good job covering the full arc of that conversation with Nick Siriani, which obviously touched on a lot of topics. But the headline of your story is how Nick Siriani found joy in this process. I want to know, do you buy it? Do you believe him? It's a really good question. It's one that I, you know, you think a lot about what you write. Like you're not just transcribing and writing. You're thinking like am I being representative of the truth here? And I think part of it might be him convincing himself that, right? But I think there is validity.

You know, we've known Nick now going on to four years. I think there is validity to the point. that he loves, you know, how Jason Kelsey says, like Jason Kelsey loves the cafeteria, right? Nick Siriani loves being part of a football team. Loves, like, he talks about the relationships and that component of coaching. And I, look, I was in the building last year, but I was not upstairs where the coaches are.

I don't know if how strained the, or, how much the the struggles of the offense strained him. And from the way he described it, he was kind of like really pulled in that direction. And to be honest, there were times, and I made this observation

to you off the camera in February at the Combine when we spoke to him, in March at the owner's meetings when we spoke to him. I didn't think Nick had the same I don't want to say energy, but like Juandeviv.

Yeah. I thought like part of Nick's charm wasn't there. I thought that he, I don't want to say he seemed beaten down, but he just seemed like. He certainly seemed beaten down at the press conference, you know, at the end of the season. But that was also like is that part of is that another part of acting how he feels like he should be acting at that point, right? But you've made the observation to me in the past that like how much Nick wears the season on his face. Like you, you see him on a Monday after a night game and it looks like, you know, and then there's Thursday press conferences where it looks like he hasn't, or I should say

Wednesday, Friday, it looks like he hasn't slept all week, right? And this job, I'm not comparing it to the presidency, but it's like you talk about you keep going there. I am not doing this. No, I'm saying, I'm saying you hear about like, or not hear about you see. like the images of the day a president took office than four years later, right? Like Nick, when he took office, when he became the head coach and like four years later, this this job can wear on you. And the origin of or the question that brought that joy answer was, is this job wearing on you? Because it did seem as if there were times in this spring when like he did not have that same verve. And so I do think, that whatever he was doing this spring in terms of building the relationships with the players, I did get a sense that that joy was back. Now, that might be the time of year as well, right? Like our shows have might have like a different like energy to it this time of year compared to a February show, compared to an October show, right? And Nick lives that schedule even more.

life even more. So it might just be that, you know, you get time to sleep, you get time with your family, you get time to like really build those relationships. The true test is going to become does he have that joy on October 15th? Does he have that joy on November 15th? Does he have that joy on January 15th? Does he have that joy on February 15th? Right. So that's that's what that's what I'm curious about. But I do buy it for now. I just don't know if it's the product of the time that that he was speaking. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I think you're right that some of it must be,

this is how he has to approach it, right? Like he has what is essentially a job with new responsibilities than he's had in the past. And so this is the way that he has to approach things. I do still, like, not just the season wearing on him, but let's see how this iteration of the job wears on him. How if they're two and two and

they've had a bad offensive performance, is he going to be happy, still taking a back seat on offense and being hands off there and focusing on the bigger picture? You talked about it yesterday with Les. You know, the Doug Peterson line about his favorite

thing to do as the head coach was to call games. Like that was his favorite thing. I do feel like a little bit of Nick has been stripped of the things that he loves to do the most. at the same time, you know, you talked about, like, we talked about it in the spring when, when Nick Siriani is coaching up Johnny Wilson on a little like wide receiver coaching tip over the middle of the field.

Well, if the ball is thrown behind you, then, you know, run back that way instead of trying to reverse field again. Like that stuff, I think he does find joy in that stuff. And so maybe it's, it's reminding himself to get back to the basics of those things. But I do think that it is, maybe it's, it's, it's. fake until you make it, right? Like the more the more you tell yourself if you believe this, the more maybe you do actually believe it. Well said. And the other thing is in football and in life, you know, when you your survival instincts kicked in, in certain situations. So if the teams,

if the team's middling during the season, if they're if they're mediocre, if they're underachieving, right, the survivor instincts might be I can fix this, right? Or this is my job. Or, if I'm going to be judged on this, like, like let, I'd let me, I'd let it be my way. Now, it could also work swimmingly, right? It could also be like, this is great and, you know, everything's clicking. So that's part of the drama for the season. So I do buy it, but I also think there's a component of it where you convince yourself. You say like, like fake it until you make it.

Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. You convince yourself and then you convince us. others, right? Because you say, all right, this is what the job is. If you want the job, this is what the job is. So embrace this part of the job. And I do think one thing that Les said yesterday is probably the most important aspect to all of this. And it probably, it's related to how well they're playing and all that stuff. But it's not just, does he believe it? It's does the team believe it? And if the locker room senses that he has been neutered to some degree, and that this is, you know, Vick's show on defense and Kellynne Moore's show on offense,

does that whittle away at the trust in the relationship there? And obviously, a lot of this has to do with the relationship between Nick Seaghani and Chalen Hertz. And I think it's maybe it's repetitive. We've talked about this a lot, but it's the most important relationship on the team. It does not seem like they're on exactly the same page. You know, Nick was making the case in that interview about it. how, you know, the offense is not really that different.

It's just that a lot of things are called different things. Like, if you are doom casting the way that things go wrong this season, that relationship is probably a big part of it. But it's also, you know, we don't need to be focused on that in the middle of July before they even hit train camp. Let's sort of see how things go. Yeah, I feel bad continually comparing this to 2020, right? because I you know this this could be unfair to the Eagles that was yeah yeah but this like this

could be 14 and 3 this this could be a Super Bowl right but an interesting comparison to 2020 is is is this this is I think leadership can be overstated like when the media talks about it but there there was a change in locker room dynamics that year when Malcolm Jenkins was no longer there right And so just the, when you have an absence of a strong personality or of a strong voice, other voices step in and step up, right? And there were a lot of obviously mitigating factors there too that year. But it is fair to say that Jason Kelsey and Fletcher Cox had strong voices, strong presences in the locker room. And now that they're not there, yeah, this is like J. Owen Hertz is the guy in that locker. The things are the pulse of the locker room is going to be, is going to be set by jail and Hertz. So when you talk about like the locker room has to buy it, I think you're absolutely right. It has to start with G.O.N. Hertz. Hertz. I think the rest of it, if it were, I should put it this way. If Gailen Hertz is not bought in, then it's hard to think the rest of the team wouldn't be bought in.

I think that's true, although I might slightly disagree that Jalen Hertz is the pulse of the locker room, right? because I think part of the complaint about him last year was that he felt a little bit separate from the rest of the locker room, right? He's not like the locker rooms every man in the sense where like, you know, Malcolm Jenkins or Jason Kelsey might have been the pulse of the locker room. I think it might be more likely to be, you know, A.J. Brown or Devante Smith. Or Derry Slay or, yeah. Right, exactly.

You know, somebody like that. And Jalen Hertz's challenge to some degree is to make himself more a part of that. and to be less off to the side. It might even be Will Shepley. He has great leadership attributes. He sure does. Nicely done. All right, Zach, before we talk about the defensive line,

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Let's talk about the defensive line, Zach. And I think the big question here, we're going to get into the depth chart and some of the big questions facing this group. Let's start with the defensive tackles. And the thing that we have talked about in not knowing. is, you know, how much more is Vic Fangio going to lean on Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and presumably Milton Williams to play more snaps than they ever have before? These are young guys. Christian Wilkins played more snaps than any defensive tackle in the league last year. Under Vic Fangio, he has rotated less. We think that there is something of a bit of a tension

between the way that the Eagles do things philosophically. It's part of the reason that the defense wore down at the end of last season is that some of those guys physically wore down because they were playing more snaps, which we were tracking over the course of the season. But you look at the defensive tackle group, and if our expectation is that we're going to see a little bit more from the odd man fronts under Vic Fanjo than we have in the past, just a little bit more, right? I do think that they are a little bit light here. If you want to look at the defensive tackle group, you know, you've got the obvious presumed

starters if we're saying three defensive tackles. and Carter, Jordan Davis, and Milton Williams. You've got Morrow Ojimo, last year's sixth round pick, who flashed a little bit in a bit of a cameo role, but probably is the fourth guy, at least on the outside. You've got Marlon Tuy Poloto, who can play nose in a pinch, PJ Mustafa, yeah boy, as a backup nose with experience. And then Gabe Hall, the undrafted defensive tackle,

slasher out of Baylor, and then Thomas Booker, who spent some time on the practice squad last year. But you look at that, and just number of, Numbers-wise, like they don't even have enough defensive tackles to make it through the first day of training camp on a three-deep roster, right? So they need some kind of body there. I would be surprised that they don't add anybody ahead of training camp. But do you think that the way that things are structured now, and we will take a peek at how deep they are on the edge, at least just numbers-wise, indicates to you that maybe we are overselling, how many more odd man fronts we're going to see? No, I don't think we are overselling it.

Now, I think there is a distinction between what they do on running downs, what they do on obvious passing downs, and on obvious passing downs, and we'll get to it with the edge. Maybe they'll put, you know, Brandon Graham inside in certain situations. But, yeah, the depth charts interest me for the reason that you mentioned, I think you feel very comfortable with the top three there. You don't feel comfortable with your depth. Now, you can say, and I've had this conversation with people in the Eagles building in the past when we have these conversations, when this kind of topic comes up and they say, if your biggest problem going into the season is you're back up, whatever, that's a good problem to have, right?

Now, one, like, slight critique I would have on how he rose because I think he does a really good job assembling rosters. But sometimes when he has, like, young players, he spent high draft picks on, he really doesn't want to. get anything in their path, and sometimes that comes at the expense of, like, the quality, reliable debt, okay? Like, it is very clear that Jordan, that Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter are going to have huge roles for the Eagles this year. What happens if Jalen Carter goes down? Like, Jailen Carter is one of the most indispensable players on the team right now.

Obviously, any team can say if you lose your top interior player, it's going to be a concern. but last year, that was less of a concern, right? You had Fletcher Cox here. So there's this expectation that other guys kind of step up, but then I don't necessarily think they backfilled there. Now, I know for a fact, Callias Campbell's not available. I made that mistake. But I do think that the Eagles could use some more depth at defense tackle.

Now, perhaps the time that is that more eligible. Yeah, I think we're talking about like a contabia. street T. T.E. McGill type, right? Like, I think they could just use that. And that's not even a criticism. That's just, I expect them to make that move at some point over the next week

and a half. Sure. Yeah. And when that happens, the points move. But, I mean, Jalen Carter, and we heard this across the board throughout the offseason. They're expecting him to play a lot of snaps. Jalen Carter said he, you know, the shape he's in is important. And, you know, that came from Clinton Hurt.

With Jordan Davis, obviously, we know that the shape's important. And I'm less concerned, frankly, about Jordan Davis, the shape that he's in right now. And I'm more focused on the shape that he's in in November. Because if you think about it, when we started this show, our first month of shows, how many times have we talked about Jordan Davis? He played really well, and the run defense was awesome, right? the first, you know, eight games, nine games last season, they were, I think they allowed an opponent to rush for 100 yards only once in the first nine games last season. And then late in the year, Jordan Davis wasn't nearly as effective.

And as he explained, he wasn't in the shape that he needed to be. And unlike, you know, Josh Sweat, it's not like Jordan Davis was playing a ton of snaps. Sure. So that's going to be the big emphasis. with Jordan Davis is the shape that he's in. With Jalen Carter, I just think it's a matter of can he stay healthy? I think if he's healthy, he's going to be awesome. I know that there's a developmental curve sometimes for defensive tackles. You've written and discussed that quite a bit.

Like when he came in, you said keep your expectations relatively moderate in terms of statistical production because you don't see D-Tackles have these prolific sack seasons. I think year two with Jalen Carter, year three with Jalen Carter, I think we're going to start to see that considerably more. I also think I was looking at the lineup combinations leading into this show, just to see how many times Milton Williams, Jordan Davis, and Jalen Carter were on the field together at the same time last year because presumably that's the core group. It's actually a little bit more than I thought, 33 snaps over the course of the full season,

which is not a ton of snaps. but it also was a good reminder in how silly it is sometimes that we spend so much time just looking at like the projected 11, like who are going to be the starting 11. Guess how many snaps, Zach, the most popular combination of 11 eagles on defense played together last season. So if you every single combination of 11 players on defense, you rank them in order of how many snaps together they played. What number do you think that is? Percent or or total volume? Pure snaps. How many snaps they played together?

I'm going to guess 116. 25. Oh, wow. Okay. That's interesting. Which in some degree is a testament to, you know, how many injuries they had last year and like the mixing and matching the Sean Desai was doing. But even the year before in 2022, it was 69. Nice. And like, that's a little bit more regular. But 25 is not even like a crazy, crazy on the low end. I will give you, Zach, whatever you want. Let's say a week of mailbag shows or $100 or I'll accept defeat on whatever argument we have. If you can name the 11 eagles in the most popular Eagles come the combination that played the most snaps together. Ooh, this is a good one.

Okay. I'm going to go with Hassan Redick, Josh Sweat. Correct. Fletcher Cox. Correct. Jalen Carter. Am I wrong here? Correct.

Zach Cunningham. Correct. Okay, so I'm at five here. The question is, do I have another line? Well, here. So let's just go, let's go Darius Lay, James Bradbury. Correct, correct. Okay.

Let's obviously, let's go with read Blankenship. Correct. Let's go with Kevin Byard. Kevin Byrd is not correct. Oh, definitely. Interesting. Okay. Wait, okay.

So, Josh Joe. Josh Jobb, okay. I want to see if I can get 10 now. It really must have been all from one game, honestly. So now, so I'm going to say Nicholas Morrow. Correct. Ah, okay. It's that group except it's Terrell Edmonds instead of Kevin Martin.

I should have done it. Damn. Okay. That was your chance to finally. Yeah, I was just going to say like. I was just going to say, no, no, no, I was going to be like, you can't make me feel uncomfortable for a week, right? I was just going to do that.

Yeah, that was going to be my wish to you. I can't mean that's important, but sometimes I do it without doing it, without trying. I said that expression, by the way, because, you know, this is ESPN. This is like every summer they have the My Wish Week. That song. That's your wish? No, no, no, no, no. That songs in my head because, like, I work with ESPN.

in the background. So like I hear just like Chris Connoe's voice in my head sometimes with my wish. Yeah. That's funny. Anyway, I think that it is probably the case that as long as one of

those three players, those top three players takes a significant leap. This group will be in good shape. And I actually, like I'm pretty bullish on on Moro Gimo as being a part of that rotation and adding to that rotation. And I think has a chance to make this group look better than it does on paper. But I just, it's a little bit on my radar that I expect them to add somebody here just just from a depth perspective.

But I mean, it really does come down to is, is Jalen Carter going to become a super duper star? Is Jordan Davis going to become a reliable pass rusher? Or is Milton Williams going to become a, you know, borderline star caliber player? I want to ask you about Milton Williams because, you know, you use the expression Star Calibber player, right? And then in the stories this time last year, you know, and we did these types of stories too and had these types of discussions like the breakout Eagles, right? Milton Williams was the guy atopped that list. No, you know, you'll have a third year, right, for the defensive tackle. That was his third year.

And he did not, he did not pop. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was going to say. He had a down year, right? I mean, a half a sack, seven quarterback hits, right? And I mean, you and I agree the talent's there. Certainly the opportunity is present this year. But also, you know, the Eagles who are often quick to the market on extensions. And you saw that with Devante Smith.

You saw that with Landon Dickerson. They haven't signed yet, Milton Williams. Now that might be from Milton Williams' camp. You know, I've said it be who was Milton Williams to play this year out. but are we overselling the Milton Williams emergence? Well, can I quickly respond to the thing about they're quick to the market on their extensions? I think this is actually a bit of a change from them. I don't think that they, I think they have been quick to the market on the obvious guys like the superstars,

you know, the pro bowl caliber players on the roster. But I think that they have sort of stopped. doing the, and maybe this is just circumstantial and there hasn't been the opportunity, but the like, let's lock this guy up to get him at a really under market value before it jumps. Like they, you know, they did it with Milata before he became the starter, right? They did that whole draft class. They did that whole draft class, right? But really, the guys that they were getting ahead of were Milata and sweat, right?

Maddox and Goddard were sort of paid at the normal levels. Sure. I wonder if that is a philosophical thing where, like maybe they don't like the tension they create. If like if you've nailed that and you've signed this guy and now all of a sudden he's very underpaid, like does that create more problems than it's worth? Or is it is it, you know, is it just boilerplate?

That's good value for us. We got to do it and let's win this deal. I don't know. I don't know if that's just because they haven't done it a while. Remember they didn't do anybody in the Super Bowl year. Yeah. We talked about it. Sanders wanted it, right?

Right. We talked about T.J. Edwards like that, heading into that year would have been a good time to do that. I don't know. I don't know if that's a highway change or not. Maybe a question to ask him sometime down the road. That's a good point. But, you know, Milton Williams is the guy that kind of sticks out here. 25-year-old position of importance, former third-round pick, has had high-level play.

I just wonder, like, are we thinking that, like, are we taking, too much of a jump, the thing of Milton Williams is going to take a jump. Yeah, I think, you know, like Fran, when he was on, when you were gone, you made the case that like, you know, the... How I listened, yeah. I know

that you listened. The advanced numbers tell you that he, you know, he played better than the raw numbers would say. I don't think that it's, I think it's one opportunity, like he's going to be playing more this year. And yeah, I think I think you're hoping that he does take a little bit of a leap that he maybe didn't take last year.

And maybe there were some behind the scenes injury concerns that were hampering him a little bit over the course of last season. But yeah, I think it's probably more likely that you're going to get a jump from the other two guys than you are in year four of Milton Williams. Although, I don't know, Milton Williams is still very young. Yeah, 25. I agree. I just because when you talk about Moro Ojamo, yeah, now he left the second preseason game last year, right? but I thought up until that preseason game, he kind of, he impressed me during camp. He played well. Like the core four, obviously.

Yeah, that first preseason game against Baltimore, if memory serves, he played well. So I am, he's the guy I'm real curious about because, like, if Milton Williams doesn't kind of take that jump and Moro O'Dimae looks good, then I wonder if Moro pushes some of those Milton snaps. And then just from a roster battle standpoint, Zach, I think we would agree that probably OJMO is like safe. There's like a four, a top four that are going to make, that are going to make this roster. And then there's probably one or two spots. I think Tui Polo too has a good chance, but it's not guaranteed. We've talked about Mustafa, you know, as a guy who can play nose tackle in the league. And then Gabe Hall seems like the guy who has a chance to maybe earn his way onto the roster with a good summer.

And I'm looking forward to watching a Thomas Booker this summer. We don't want the Booker stands to, you know, to feel left out here. Hey, Stanford. You know he's smart. You don't know that. I just want to see a reaction to that one. Okay. All right. Let's not talk about the edge.

And contra the defensive tackle group, if there are only, you know, two spots for this position on the field at a time, they've got 10 guys as opposed to the eight that they have at defensive tackle. Now, some of these guys are, you know, can play multiple positions. I'm including Zach Bonn here because he can do a pinch, even if he's going to be a starting linebacker. But you've obviously got, if we take a look at the depth chart, you've got Josh Schwett and Bryce Huff at the top. Brandon Graham and Nolan Smith. That's a, that's a reasonable top four with Jalick's Hunt. If he can earn his way onto the field as a rookie mixing in, we mentioned Zach Bond. This is a role that he has played in the past. And then beyond those guys, a couple long shots with some draft pedigree in Terrell Lewis.

You know, he can run Julian O'Quara and then some holdovers from years past to Ron Jackson and Patrick Johnson. How do you feel about that group overall? What are the big questions for you heading into camp? Yeah, well, I mean, there's so many questions here, right? We won't go player-by-player questions here because we'll kind of get to that,

but I suppose it's all included. It's if Bryce Huff can be a top guy, right? I mean, Bryce Hops been a situational pass rusher before. The Eagles are paying him to be the top pass rusher on the team. It's if Josh Sweat can be the player he was for the 17 game sample from the middle of 2022 to the middle of 2023 and not what he was when we last saw him. And then the other big question here is if Nolan Smith is a player, right? And I think that's a huge variable. If Nolan Smith does not take a jump this year, then there's reasons to be underwhelmed by this.

group of edge rushers. But if Nolan Smith takes a jump this year, then really it changes the complexion of the group. So I think, look, Josh Sweat, the Eagles need him to be better than he was at the end of last year. I do think when you look at Sweat's last four seasons,

right, there is a floor there. 2026 sacks, 2021, 7 and a half sacks, 22, 11 sacks, 2023, 6 and a half sacks. Like, I don't think, now you could have said that at one point about Derek Barnett, too, and then the bottom fell out from underneath him. But I don't like I got those up by half seasons then all of a sudden would paint a different picture.

But yeah. Yeah. But I think like like you can like sweat's going to be a he's a he's a starting level edge pressure. He'll be more. He's a starting level edge pressure. The big question here is can Bryce Huff be a star? And can Nolan Smith be the can he turn those athletic traits into like legitimate production? Yeah.

I think that I think you said it well. think the biggest question here, the thing that changes their ceiling the most is not Bryce Huff. It is Nolan Smith. Like Bryce Huff, they're paying and hoping that he can do what he has done in a larger sample, but he's going to be able to, you know, he's going to be an NFL caliber player. He's going to be a good player on the field, at least in rushing the passer, right? Yeah. We don't know that yet about Nolan Smith. And if Nolan Smith can look like a guy who was a borderline first second round pick in his second year. And then, yeah, like all of a sudden, this group has a little bit of juice.

And there is a sum of the parts about the pass rush that is he doesn't have to be Hassan Reddick, but if everybody is, you know, holding their their own a little bit, he changes that ceiling. It's one of the more interesting Vic Fangio questions is how does he plan to use Nolan Smith? and I'm excited to learn how that looks, what that's what that's going to look like, how we find it out. Yeah, and I don't necessarily think that answer comes during training camp with Nolan Smith, because I thought he looked great last year. Exactly.

I think that's more of like when the pads are on, right? Because there is a physical element to this. We all know Nolan Smith, we all know his athleticism. And we all know he can get around an edge. But can he do it consistently? Can he finish at the quarterback? This was a big question coming out of college too. He did not have prolific production in college.

And one of the things, you know, I talked about, well, the defense he was in. And you talked about the advanced numbers. But ultimately, like if you weren't a prolific sack guy in college, and then you come in your rookie year and you don't really make much of an impact in terms of affecting the quarterback then at this, you know, yeah, you need to see him affect the quarterback.

It's not just the tantalizing tools. So we are in agreement that he's really the wild card here because he hasn't done it. Eagles are expecting him to do it. Like he is the third guy. And I mean, I mean, Brandon Graham is here and, you know, an important guy in the, in the locker room is going to play some snaps, but Nolan Smith needs to be the third guy for the Eagles.

And frankly, he should, like, if the Eagles had their way, I think they would want him to kind of push for some of Josh Sweat snaps as the season progresses as well. Yeah, I think in a perfect world, you have Josh Sweat and Bryce Huff sort of rotating as the, you know, designated pass rusher, if you will. and then you have Nolan Smith playing more of a full-time role as a guy who can cover or rush to passer and then you're playing those odd man fronts and then all of a sudden you're a little bit more unpredictable. But that's a lot on Nolan Smith and a role that he has not earned yet.

So we will see how that goes. Well said. I think for Jalick's Hunt, you know, obviously this is a player who they are investing in the development of and not expecting a ton from as a rookie. But I think the best case scenario for him is he can become that fourth guy and allow, as you say, said before Brandon Graham to maybe spend a little bit more time reducing inside as an interior

third down pass rush. Yeah, I think that's really best case scenario. I'm not expecting much from J. Alex Hunt this year from a defensive perspective. I'm expecting him to be active. Like I think he's going to play special teams for them with that athleticism. But I don't think from like a defensive perspective, I would be surprised if his snap push double digits at all this year. Yeah, I think that's probably that right.

Anybody else there who was interesting to you that you want to see? I mean, I know you want to see everybody in camp. Yeah, yeah. Well, look, I mean, I thought going into the spring, Zach Bond was going to be in that group, right? And so the question is, like we talked about in our mini camp shows, was Zach Bond playing inside because it's essentially a passing camp? or are they going to give them a chance to rush the quarterback? But of the kind of the back four guys, if you will,

I think Joyne O'Quarr is the player. I'm most interested in saying because he's, he, I think he's do a game in the offseason about who is the most likely futures guy to make the roster and he won? He won. Yeah, that is correct. Like, you know, I mean, Patrick Johnson, Taryn Jackson, or I should say Taron Jackson,

you know, they've been here. Nice guys, but like I don't think they're going to be a totally different players year three, year four, year three, year four than what they were before. So I think Julian O'Quarr is someone who's gotten to the quarterback in the NFL, has some draft pedigree, has some athleticism. I'm curious to see O'Quara this summer. Yeah, I think, well, you know, Julian O'Quara had a five-sex season. So that's, you know, that is something and he's still a little bit young. I think Patrick Johnson is maybe an interesting test case in does the new kickoff rule change the roster dynamics at all? Do you overweight at the bottom of the roster?

Some key special teams guys because he has been a core specialist for Michael Clay over the past couple years. Good point. And also he has a role on defense. Yeah, but I do think the defensive staff in the past in the front office has liked him. And right, and now you have fresh eyes, different eyes, and it might be looking for different things. So I am curious to see that. All right, Zach. Before we get to the vacation press conference,

let's tell me to tell you about Shady Race. And I will tell you one thing that happened over the course of my vacation, Zach, had a lovely, lovely day in Rio, walking all around, stopped out at lunch, kept walking. We went all the way up to Santa Teresa, walked down. We did a lot of walking over this vacation. It's important. Near 10 miles most days. But at that lunch, I left my sunglasses behind.

So now I'm in the market for a new pair of shades. And I'll tell you where I'm going to go, Zach. Now that I'm back in the States, I'm going to go to Shady Rays and I'm going to use code P-H-L-Y. Because Shady Rays is here to help you get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank.

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Their team always has your back with personal and fast support. They even have the most insane protection. Every pair is backed by lost or broken replacements. So if I had had my Shady Raise and lost those, I would have just gotten a new one. What's better than that? Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Raise is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRays.com and use code P-H-L-Y.

for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself, the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. This time of year, there's renewal because training camp's beginning, right? It's like the first day of school. But also, I get a bit reflective. This is going to be year 13 for me, year 15 covering the NFL. And I think a lot's changed over the years. One thing that hasn't, though, that great taste.

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slash p.hly birds or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer calories and carbs than premium regular beer. I missed our softball game last night, too bad. The team missed you. More important. What was their record without you? One in one, I believe.

All right. So they split the difference. Okay. Look forward to getting back out there next week. Monday nights? Second back similar lights, yeah. Second back similar lights. There you go.

Okay. This is a good time of year to play baseball or it plays softball because there's no Phillies game on right now. Are you an all-star guy when you watch the all-star game? I mean, as a kid, I love the all-star game. Fantastic. I remember being at camp and listening to the All-Star game on the radio when Chanho Park grooved one for Cala Ripkin Jr. in his goodbye game.

That was fun. But not, I mean, today I'm not as much of an All-Star Game guy. I'm seeing this polarizing topic on social media, like about the All-Star Game uniforms. Don't make that face. I'm sorry, as I said it, your eyes lit up about the All-Star Game uniforms. And there's a lot of people who wish they went back to everyone wearing their teams uniforms and not the American League or the National League uniforms. I agree with that. Okay.

All right. Did you watch the home run derby last night? I did not. I needed some sleep. Gotcha. The long flight back from Buenos Aires to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Portland. Well, so there you go. You told us where you were.

I About four days in Rio About five days in Buenos Aires Okay Convince me Okay Convince me You know

Why should someone Visit Rio? Why should someone visit Buenos Aires? I mean that's so Open-ended You're going to be more specific Well I mean Why should you travel

the first place you know i feel like i see you're any deep on me travel is like that's what life is all about you know don't you think like uh seeing new places experiencing new places and not to say that uh four days or five days in a place is enough to to truly understand it um but you know you you get a better sense of uh your place in the world uh like the timeline of history you know, you get away, a deep sense of gratitude, all those things. Buenos Aires, loved it, fantastic time. Now, it was very cold in Buenos Aires. The coldest spell, they said that they've ever had.

It's the middle of the winter in South America. It's about what's cold there? 35 degrees. Fahrenheit. When we got there, Fahrenheit. So a tough, tough initial entry there. but you know we were you packed for it overcame yeah we were packed for it but okay uh it was a little bit it was a little bit cold coming off of rio which was like the perfect weather um Buenos Aires was a was a

fantastic city we had a had a wonderful time great food a lot of great neighborhoods very easy to walk around um uh i mean i if you have the chance to go i would i would highly recommend it uh we had some good suggestions from Julia on some types of food to get. Had some good milanese. My favorite actually was the chorty pan, a little like chorizo sandwich, which was very good. Obviously, steak is a big deal there. Had a great time. Loved the city.

Had a great time. I will say not to be the thief of joy for comparison sake. but like Buenos Aires was awesome. It was the DNA was familiar to me to most big cities. Like, you know, they call it the Paris of South America. You can see a little bit of that. You can find that in Las Vegas, yeah.

You can find that in Las Vegas, yeah. You know, there's a New York to it where the different neighborhoods have different characteristics, all that stuff. But Rio is in my soul. Rio was unbelievable. And again, I don't want to say that, like, you know, Brazil is an enormous country. So I can't speak about Brazil and give you what to do in Sao Paulo from my time in Rio.

But Rio was a place unlike anywhere I've ever been. The topography, the just the general vibe was amazing. I if I could go if we could if we could if we could plan a trip to go to Rio again instantly I wouldn't I would absolutely do it and we had an unbelievable time in Rio it's interesting you say that I was talking to someone last week a very well-traveled person who was talking about you know the Eagles travel and was like I got to tell you he says South Powell might be the ugliest city I've ever been to he said in the shame it and he said he said Rio is the most beautiful city I've ever been to. And I was just thinking like, yeah, everyone who goes to Rio has that sentiment. Like this is, I hear it's just like, just an amazing place. Amazing. We had, we had, we had an unbelievable time in both places.

But Rio was like, like, you know, it was like, you imagine what your life would be like. If you lived here, it would be, you know, how great that would be. And now I do have a, I do have a sports story for you from Rio. Oh, I want to hear this. Did you see like Barbosa there or something? No, we did not see Leandro Barbosa on, or nor Tiago Splitter just hanging out on the beach. Is the Coco Cabana? Is that what it's called? It was a Copacabana beach, which snakes around to Ipanema. Yeah, it was great.

It's interesting. There was the Copa America, right? And unfortunately, we flew away from Buenos Aires on the night of the Coppa final, so we didn't get to watch it. in Argentina with the Argentinians, although we did get to watch the semifinal with them. They won. Thank you. The Argentinian domestic league takes a break for the Copa America so that the domestic players don't have to miss time. The Brazilian League does not. And so there was a weekend of Brazilian League games going on.

There's four teams in Rio and had to go see. a game at the Americana, the huge stadium which fits like 80,000 people. Flamenco is the team. Now my understanding is Flamingo is like, and I'm not trying to Brazil explain you here, I guess they're the most popular team in the country, like whether that's the Lakers or the Man United. So that's not necessarily my, you know, my bent. I would usually be more of a Botafogo guy.

But to get a chance to go see a game with the Americanaugh was amazing. And I would say probably the highlight of the trip. We got there. We took the subway. We walked. And all of a sudden, as you get a little bit closer to the stadium, you see more jerseys, more jerseys. Everybody's on their way. And then we get inside.

And again, it's like 80,000 people just. absolutely electric probably like the most electric and this is a regular season game against a bottom feeder like this was not a big game relatively speaking

and like just everybody cheering the entire time and it was interesting to compare it to Philadelphia because in about five or ten minutes into the game the visiting team this like low level team

scores a goal against the run of play, which would be like, if this was an Eagles game and it was the, you know, the, the Texans coming in or something like that, and they go up like 14 nothing right away, the crowd, of course, would be, would be booing.

Rightfully so, right? Like this, and there would be this exasperation, like, oh my God, like, I can't believe that this is how this is going. And they score that goal, and it wasn't even like, there wasn't even a drop-off in enthusiasm, as it raised a level. It was like, oh, this is now on us as an 80,000 group to like,

to bring them back and, uh, and, and to like to take this up a notch. And they ended up scoring in the second half to tie, make it, make it a one one game. Ended as a draw. Uh, but like, uh, I have been very fortunate to go to a lot of big sporting events, Zach. Every now and then, like the magnitude of something, uh, you know, I'm an easy cry. will move me to tears. I think that happened at the Super Bowl just to be around all these people who this is the most important

thing in the world. And that happened to me at the American Ah, it was unbelievable. It brought you to tears. Wow. That's beautiful. Tears, yeah. Okay. Now, I need to ask you about the food.

You mentioned... Both good food cities. Yeah, you mentioned steak. Okay. what's distinctive about the steak down there? I think it's the quality of the meat is the main thing they would tell you. Now, I will say you do notice

there is a, everything's a little bit less saltier than it is in the U.S. Occasionally to the point of you might want a little bit more seasoning on the sear, but. The chimichura? Chimitura, yes. Yeah, I think it's about, and it's also just like it's an art form, the way that they prepare it, how they source it, all that stuff, which has been handed down for generations.

Then is it mokeka? Is that like the... Mohheca, yeah, it had some moheca. Okay, yeah. Yeah, is that good? I'm a big shellfish person. Very good. I think you would enjoy the big thing in Rio.

There's the, like the cod fritters, the cod balls. Okay. Very good. Some, we had some, like, Fezada dumplings or, like, fritters, too. Those were, those were unbelievable. Big fan of the cheese bread, which you like. Oh, I like cheese bread. Yeah.

Yeah. Every country has their own version of cheese and bread together. Yeah. You know, what's better than that? But the, who's got it better than us? The Harbaugh family, well, cheese and bread everywhere you go. But yes, the like the cheese bread. And then if you get it with a little little guava paste, that was my favorite iteration.

So that's actually, no, I've never been to Brazil. But when I'm in like Tampa or Miami, I go to Cuban restaurants for breakfast. And because I'm not like a big breakfast food guy, but like the Cuban bread with the melted cheese, that's like a Cuban breakfast dish. That is awesome for me. Like that that hits a spot for my breakfast. So I got to, I got to try that when I'm in Brazil. Yeah, I hope that you do. Now, I know that South Islander has a great food.

Oh, well, I think you'll be in good shape. What was the dessert situation? Dessert situation. Argentin Buenos Aires had like, there are like lots of chocolate shops. So like high quality chocolate. You like a chocolate shop. I went to one in Madison with you. That's right.

They're also known for their ice cream. Oh, that's a lot of. My heart. I get to Argentina for that. Brazil less so. Okay. Although maybe I was missing out on stuff. But we had a, yeah, lots of great food.

And then how were the flights? Flights were long, but good. I texted you for the very first time in my life. Yes. Took a shower in the airport. So that was good. Whereabouts? Just out in the open for everybody to see.

No, like I mean that honestly. Like I had access to the Delta lounge in Atlanta, one of the many Delta lounges, uh, which were like it was so crowded on Monday in the Atlanta airport. I could not believe it. It was more crowded than the Americana. Ah, okay. So, but so, uh, but yeah. I, I've never seen like a, uh, we had taken the overnight flight and then

have like four. before our then our flight home so so i can't imagine taking an airport shower that's interesting well it's like it's like a hotel shower it's like uh or like a we didn't think you have your own stall or whatever but it's also like sanitized and we were also the first ones in because we were we landed at like five in the morning okay and what was your media consumption on the flights um i mostly slept or tried to sleep I saw on the way down, I watched the Bob Marley movie, One Love, which is okay. And on, oh, I also watched, what's it called with Olivia Coleman, like dirty little letters or something like that.

Nasty little letters or something like that. I don't even want to Google that. It's very safe Googling. Okay. It's good. and we'll listen to listen to some pH L.Eagles podcasts. Thank you. Some other podcast.

I watched another movie yesterday on the flight yesterday. What was it? Must not have been so memorable. Oh, this is going to bother me. Wow, I don't remember. Wicked little letters is what you're looking at. Wicked little letters. Yeah.

Thank you to the chat. Enjoy the chimes in as well. And then just on. I did one quick baseball draft question for you. Oh, okay. Three-week forest guys in the top ten. Seaver King to the Nats. Yeah, like is that,

how does it make you feel like you went to a baseball factory? Well, it doesn't really change. I mean, those guys were all expected to go. I mean, Severe King maybe went like a tick higher than he was expected, but like it wasn't a surprise that Nick Kurtz and Chase Burns were. Chase Burns over Charlie Condon. I mean, Chase Burns was the best pitcher in, college baseball by a mile last year.

Yeah, but Charlie Compton. It's more disappointing that they didn't do better in the college World Series than it is cried, I would say. It's good to have you back, Bo. This is awesome. Glad to be back. We've got a lot more to do. I think you and I will be on vacation next in about 11 months. Yes.

Yeah, I can confirm that. Emily has done that math. Yeah, she's, she, she, I'm sorry, she recalls the days when, like I said, mini camps over and it's like, all right, take four weeks away. We'll see you at training camp, right? A little different these days, but still, it's fun doing a show every day. It sure is. And we will do another one tomorrow.

And the day after that, in the day after that, we are noon all week here on the PHLY Eagles podcast. Thanks to everybody for watching. listening today back tomorrow as we move on in our positional previews what are we talking about tomorrow zack i i should have had it up we have um cycled it back and forth and we we changed a few days here so let me pull up what it is i i do have my notes for each show here oh there you go i believe we are next up wide receiver and cornerback oh this is going to be a fun one wow guys on the outside we're talking speed on the p and

H.O.I. Eagles podcast tomorrow. Thanks everybody for watching and listening. We will talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.