PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | DeVonta Smith joins the show as Philadelphia Eagles look ahead to the offseason

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

DeVonta Smith, the Eagles’ most fashionable player, joins the show to talk about pivoting to being a dad while maintaining his fashion sense and which teammate most needs to pick up his fashion game.Zach Berman and Bo Wulf are back together in studio to discuss Bo’s trip to the Senior Bowl, the state of the NFC East and what Zach learned about Joe Banner in the Hall of Presidents. 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 podcast on a Friday at noon. Bo Wolf. Zach Berman back in studio together. We got a fun show. We're going to hear from Devante Smith in a little bit. But before that, Zach, we got to catch up. How you doing? Good to see you.

Doing great. Thrilled to see you in studio. I've been watching and reading your work from Mobile. As I said the other day, I was envious that you were down there. There's nothing that bothers me more than missing out on a media event. When you could have gone to. I mean, we can save that. Well, I'm just saying.

Don't say you or you're jealous when you had the opportunity to join. I was envious. I mean, there was. We're going on a business trip together next week. Yes, exactly. Looking forward to that. We're going to go try and steal the Lombardi Trophy. Maybe you.

I have too much respect for the Lombardi Trophy to try to steal it. So I would not do it. What level of respect would you say you have for the Lombardi Trophy? Well, I know how hard all those people worked to tour. running, right? Okay. That's a good framing. I like that. Yeah, it's, it's, it's meaningful. It's, it's an accomplishment that it literally drives your life, or not literally, it figuratively drives your life for a lot of these people, as Jim Harbaugh would tell you, you can't win the Lombardi trophy in college, right? And so that, that's, that's, that's part of it. But anyways,

happy to see you. Thought you did a good job in, in Mobile. I'm geeking up for draft season already. so now you and I can catch up on some of these names that I've been watching and reading about and have kind of been circulated in the pre-draft community. And then, yeah, excited for next week in Vegas, excited to have Julia with us. And excited for this show, excited to hear from Devante. Yeah, and thank you to Handsome Rich for holding down the fort here. Did a good job. Good job with those episodes.

Yeah, I agree. Rich is good. and I'm curious who would win in a three-point shooting contest because Rich is confidence in his stroke. Oh, Rich. Rich would, okay. Yeah. Okay.

Pop-a-shot? Rich. Okay. I've seen Rich do Pop-a-shot. He's very good. Papa shot's different than like a three-point shooting contest. Papa shot's more about the volume and, yeah, you have to get it up quickly. Yeah.

I would say I probably have a better chance in Pop-a-shot than an actual three-point shooting contest. Okay, so you have to go non-basket. Now, Rich said he would, for first, form well in kicking sports. Yes, I listened to the conversation. Okay. How do you think you would beat him?

I think you would have a chance, yeah. Okay. Well, we got to get that. I thought Richard did a great job. The only thing, and I think that people know that this is coming, but I mean, the only thing that he didn't do was get a little bit more information about the Hall of Presidents. What in that whole story?

There's a lot of eagles we can get into, but how can I satisfy that quenchant, that hunger for information? Well, were you crestfallen when you walked in and you realized that it wasn't just information about Joe Banner and other NFL team presidents? No, I'm a fan of American history, as you know, or a student of American history. Literally, I was a classmate of Julius. She probably doesn't remember. That doesn't count. That's a grade school. I was making a joke here.

But, I mean... Can we name a history teacher? I can name all my history teachers. We don't have to get into that. Okay. But as I was saying on yesterday's show, I really wanted to go to the Hall of Presidents when I was there. I remember it's been a long time since I had been to Disney World at that point. It probably had been.

Walt Disney World for the. For the Kelsey's. Yeah. It's probably been 20. Well, more than that. It'd probably been like 25 years since I had been to Disney World. You need to know which presidents had been added since then? Well, I want to see how they were added.

what changed and kind of the style i hadn't seen that show since i started watching the west wing so for instance i have a better understanding of the institution of the presidency now so in any event did you complain to the manager that there was no jed bartlett i didn't complain but i mean everything would be better off with a jed bartlett in any event um in any event uh yeah i i i went my my in-laws and emily and my kids kids were doing another activity then and I quickly caught up with them thereafter. So that's the story. Okay.

It just, we love to hear the little nuggets of your life, Sack. I wouldn't say we, you, but yeah. I mean, I wasn't even here yesterday and you divulged that bizarre information. I want to hear more about Mobile. We will get to that later in the in the show, both the experience in Mobile and the players that you saw and how it factors into the Eagles draft plans. but I'm curious here from Devante as well. Put out a senior bowl only Eagles mock draft,

which you can read on all p.hly.com. Now, what did you make of the way that that plotted out? I mean, I understand you had to do it because, like I understand you had to do it that way based on the senior bowl prospects. I don't think that mock draft would be a particularly good outcome because obviously you're with a very narrow pool of prospects. I don't love, for instance, like the receivers, that, you know, that...

We're talking fifth round picks. I mean... Sure. I think there are better options there. So you're... You are poo-pooing the article because you don't like the receivers taken in the fifth round.

I'm not poop-pooing the article. You asked me what... The article was great. It was informative. You had some good nuggets in there. Don't walk it back. Okay. I was...

You asked me my reaction to the mock draft itself. I didn't think it would be a very good mock draft for the Eagles, was my point. That's not based on your, that's based on the pool of players from which you had to choose. Okay. Obviously, if you can choose, if you're deciding between 300 players and 100 players, it's a little bit different. Well, sure, but that's what makes it an interesting exercise is trying to figure out where those players could still slot. I'm not, I'm not going to, you can't just pick the best players and put them all over, like, just because you want people to click on Jeremiah Trotter Jr. or whatever, like, come on.

First of, Jeremiah Trader Jr. is going to go in the range in which I put them in there. But no, I think when you were looking at a pool of players. I think those receivers will go around the fifth round. Yeah, they're not receivers that I particularly think. I think the Eagles can do better than that. Okay, but it's also not about the specific players. It's about the shape of what a draft class could look like. Are you really getting offended by the Machrakeyes?

Deeply, deeply offended. I thought the article itself, the write-ups, the information in there was all really good. Well, actually, I don't think that, Jeval. Baker will be a good pick on the fifth round. Thumbs down. That's literally what you asked me. You asked me, what did you think of the mock draft? So I gave you my opinion on the mock draft.

You probably missed this, didn't you? I did, actually. It makes one of us. Yes. All right. Well, I mean, I guess we can bring it Devante Smith now if you want because we might as well keep this thing off the rails. Let's talk to Devante Smith.

You may be familiar with him. He's an Eagles wide receiver, a productive Eagles wide receiver, former first round pick, one of the captains of the team. We like to call him the reliable narrator. Let's see what we were able to glean from Devante Smith just a little bit earlier. All right. Welcome back to the P. H.L.Y. Eagles podcast, Bo and Zach, and we have a special guest now. Devante Smith is with us in his sweet Alabama gear on the gaming chair. Devante, how are you?

I'm good. How about you? We're doing pretty well. So let's start. Let's talk about Verst, which is your partner here today, sold exclusively at Dick's Sporting Goods. Now, we know that you are like the most fashionable Eagle, but I am wondering now that you are a dad, like how much are you worried about slipping into like dad fashion? You're going to start wearing new balance shoes.

You know what? Is Verst going to help you there? Yeah, definitely. virtually, versatile, you know, whether you had a business meeting, you're lounging around the house, going to work out,

they make it easy for me. So no matter what, I have an option. Now, you are, as Bo said, known for your fashion, but there are guys in that locker room who have seemed like

tried to pick their game up. What would be your fashion power rankings in the Eagles locker room? I go Swift. Okay. Bradbury. Jaylen AJ

I would say those are the guys just right there and what's the difference between like you and the next guy is it a big difference or are they running into you? I will say they're close

I would say the only thing separating us is all you know they do more street wear type stuff and I do more of the suits and then who is the guy who you like you give the most shit to about, you know, needing to pick up his game? I would say it's probably a slate.

That's a good one. And why's that? Because he always talks about wearing a suit and he doesn't even wear a suit. All right, let's talk a little football, Devante. I'm curious, you know, as the coaching staff has this turnover, as you follow what's going on, like, are you like us and you're just sort of waiting to see, oh, it's Kellynne Moore,

here we go or are you like a little bit more plugged in than we are do you do you know what's going on do you have an idea what's coming uh no i don't have an idea i just wait back and see and do you have sort of a like an opinion or a sense of of what kellyn more brings on offense not at all if if you look at the season you just had we talked to you before every year right and you say you have these goals but then you don't want to tell us what those goals are at the start of the year. Right? So now you're at a point where we can look back, 81 catches, 1,066 yards, 7 touchdowns. You did it in 16 games.

Where were you relative to what you wanted going into the year? And how do you think you played this season? I wasn't close. I don't think I played the best. And what, like, is that in a production sense or in just like a process sense? Both had a lot of stuff that I wanted to accomplish that. I didn't get to. And so you're at a point now, you're in the offseason

where I imagine the goal is to try to work on whatever you feel like you need to improve upon. What's the day in the life of Devante Smith in the offseason? Well, right now, just, you know, sit in the bed all day, relax, enjoy my family time. But as we get closer, you know, just start working out more. um rather than getting shape um you know that's that's pretty much it just want to stay on top of being in the weight room and you know keeping my body on healthy what has been like the the transition

to the off season from a uh fatherhood of a of a young child standpoint like are you getting much more time now than you did during the season um yeah definitely um i mean the schedule doesn't really change except you know now i'm on her her time instead of my I know, like, are we, are we talking sleeping through the night? What do we got? Oh, we sleep through the night most of the time. Now, I was just, you know, randomly just getting up when she don't sleep. Majority time she does sleep, but when she don't, it's just like, all right, I just got to get up.

And you're known as an or as as a morning person, you know, I've talked to you in the past about those morning workouts. Are you up now because you're a father or are you up now because you have that morning workout? What's like, what's the wake-up call in the morning like? Whenever she gets up right now, that's not you know. That's good. That's good. The gaming chair we see, what's your like game of choice? Call of Duty. And are you like the best on the team?

Are you playing with other guys on the team or people elsewhere? Yeah, me and AJ play. Avanti, we play a good little bit. And who's the best? I would say me. That's good. At the point in the off season, when the football starts to pick up, what's your, what's your offseason objectives? What do you want to work on this off season to specifically improve? Stay in the weight room. That's the biggest thing. You have to be healthy. Your body has to be ready to, you know, go through the streets that is going through.

So going up, I have to do in the weight room to make sure that my body's in the best shape to stay healthy with the whole season. Well, that's, you know, it's interesting because that was like, you know, the knock on you coming in. Like, how is this guy going to survive in the NFL? And obviously, you have been. so healthy through the first three years. Is that something that you, you know, take pride in? Yeah, because, I mean, majority of your, you know, part of your job is to be healthy and be available. And, I mean, you have to go out there and do the things that, you know,

they bought you mean to do, but you can't do that if you're not healthy. We like to talk about you, Devante, as, like, one of the most reliable narrators on the team, like just the way that you see football, you see the field. Who are the guys, like, in the locker room? who you are excited to see next season, sort of take a jump between last year and this year and next year. I would say probably the young DBs.

You've seen them coming in every day, you know, getting the rest of the get, even going against us at practice. You know, every week you've seen them improve. So I'm excited to see those guys get back out there, you know, going to their second year. It's draft season kind of starting. Boe actually just got back last night from the Senior Bowl. I remember talking you around the Heisman Trophy time about your Heisman Trophy ballot and you had like Malik neighbors high up there.

And, you know, you said that you knew Marvin Harrison Jr. real well. What's your wide receiver like draft power rankings going into this offseason? I would go Marv. Then I go Malik. And I really like the guy from Oregon and Washington. Troy Franklin and Roma Dunzee, I believe. I don't know the Oregon guy as well. Yeah, that's interesting.

So if I can ask you to, circle them back to the start of this when we were talking about your fashion. It becomes a joke on the show sometimes between our fashion, Beau and me. You see us here on the screen. How can we pick up our fashion game? I mean, y'all just relax in the studio, man. You know, you don't have to make crazy. You're fine right now. Okay, see, I'll take that.

He gets on me, but, you know, he's picking one where I'm, I think he needs to pick it up. I'm being a company guy. I'm wearing the team logo. I'm saying I'm seeing Devante in that locker in four days a week. I need to make sure that he's not laughing at me about what I'm wearing. Yeah, that has happened with reporters in the past. Last, Devante, the Alabama thing, this is not necessarily for Eagles fans, but what do you make of the turnover there and like the program change?

I think I think they'll be fine, you know, seeing what the coach did. last year at Washington. I think they're going to be good. You know, I like what he was doing at Washington offensively. And then too much, you know, pay attention to their defense that much. But I think they're going to be fine. And then final thing for me, it's as you said, this is your chance to relax now. You've got stuff going on this offseason.

The two of us go to Vegas next week for the Super Bowl. What's your like next few weeks like? What's the, you know, the offseason program begins in April? So your time between now and April is like entirely your time. How do you spend it? What do you do? By again, it's chair playing college duty. All right. Well, Devante, thank you so much for taking the time, telling us a little bit about Verst.

You are the most fashionable Eagle. And if Eagles fans want to be like you, they need to go to Dick Sporting Good. So thank you very much, Devante. Appreciate it. Thank you to Devante Smith for spending some time with us. And if you want to spend some time with the PHLY crew, go to Philly Sports Trips because we are off to clear water with Philly Sports Trips for our very first Ph.LY spring training takeover.

Hang with Philly's legend Charlie Emanuel and PhillyLY legend, Jamie Lynch. Philly Sports Trips plans the whole experience out from flights and hotels to game tickets and transportation, spend St. Patrick's Day on a private yacht with a catered dinner and drinks. I mean, that's Z-B stuff. If you could sell enough of those water bottles,

you're going to get that yacht yourself. Be on the lookout for more events throughout the year with Philly Sports Trips. Our trip is March 13th to 18th, so don't wait to book. Head to all p.h-l-o-i.com slash events to learn more and book your trip. Walking through the office earlier,

we have this great office, this great studio. We have a whole floor up here. And I'm past these bagels. and these weren't just any bagels. These were huge bagels, okay? And I'm wondering where are these bagels from? Well, you know what's interesting.

This is a company. You can shorten it to Co. And so we've got bagels and Co. Well, I was about to say there's bagels that look like that. There's only one place you can find them. I know, that's right. That is Bagels and Co. Brooklyn Style Bagels made right here in Philly.

Huge bagels, the biggest bagels in Philly. and there's a large variety of bagels as well. 15 to 20 different types. You can find all your different combinations because you can combine it with 30 different flavors of cream cheeses and smears. There's also, you go in, they're affordable, right? This isn't a place that you just have to say,

I'm going to get this bagel on Saturday because that's where I'm going to splurge. No, you can get it every day. And on top of that, you can get really good coffee with it, Not your $7 cup of coffee, but this is a quality product at a quality price. For the best Brooklyn style bagels made right here in Philly, head to www. TheBagels &co.com slash store locator to find the closest bagels and co near you. All right.

What did you learn from Devante? It's always good catching up with Devante. He's a matter of fact. and I enjoyed what he was saying kind of about the availability perspective. I thought that was the most interesting thing he said, like how that's a big part of your job. And for him, that's been applicable. He's only missed one game in his career.

And that was the week 18 game this season. And perhaps if it was like a postseason game, situation might have been different. But you hit it on the head when you asked him that question because the knock on him was his size, right? If you think about all the draft talk leading up to it, he's 165 pound, 170 pound receiver. How is he going to hold up?

Well, he's held up really well. And so I enjoy talking about that. I'm always a sucker for someone's draft rankings, right? Especially at that position. I know he watches college football. So I enjoyed hearing how he ranked those guys. He knows Marvin Harrison Jr. How would you rank those guys?

Who are your top four receivers in the draft? Well, I think the top two is fairly established right now, right, in terms of Marvin Harrison, Jr. and Malik neighbors. Well, so it seems like people have a dunzee as a number two guy, which surprises me. Over neighbors, really? Jeremiah had that in his top. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I really like a dunzee.

A dunzee reminds me of Debo Samuel in terms of like the... The donk? The what? In terms like how physical he is. The cushion for the pushing? He is big, he's physical, he's tough. He's from Vegas, I believe, actually. And good, you know, really impressive player.

Actually, Washington had three receivers this year that I liked. You know, Polk and McMillan, the others there. But I thought Adonze is awesome and should be a top 10 pick. It's a really good receiver class. The number 4-1, that you'll have a lot of people debate that. The player I really like is Keon-Kole. who is not typically viewed as like the number four guy. I think that it's hard to find that type of size and, you know,

verticality. And he can, he, he gets up and makes plays in the red zone. But Troy Franklin really has good speed. You know, you, you,

you hear Brian Thomas from LSU, someone who's getting a lot of hype right now. I can see that. There's some second round guys like Xavier Worthy can flat out fly from, from Texas. like Xavier Worthy. So yeah, I mean, we can get really into the weeds in terms of some of these wide receivers.

This is a loaded, loaded, loaded wide receiver class. Well, let's stick here then for a second because we just talked to Devante Smith. You know, there's the discussion of Devante and AJ Brown. I think you guys talked about it appropriately yesterday, like the level of likelihood that AJ Brown's going to be moved. Probably not. But I would take out probably.

Yeah, sure. Yeah. But. we know that the eagles are you know aware of the dynamics there with only only one ball to go around but this offense probably needs

something else in terms of weaponry do you think in a very deep wide receiver class with two second round picks that maybe one of those picks could be used for a receiver or do you think that's too rich? No I think an offensive skill player certainly with with one of those two second round picks

would make a lot of sense. Specifically wide receiver though. Well so I would saying like it could be tight end right um and then because you can find good receivers in the fourth round even the fifth round as you showed your mock draft apparently not good enough uh but yeah i mean i i could see them going wide receiver round two uh you get a quality player at a cost him at a at a good price and i i just think you're going to find a lot of talent there like a player like Xavier worthy who I know he might not be for everyone because he probably needs to be more refined

but he can be like a big play guy for you or the Georgia wide receiver Ladd McConkey who you saw just like really precise with I mean I don't want to make him like the stereotypical like white slot receiver but when you watch them like he gets he gets open he he he finds ways to get open what the reason I I said Keon Coleman was because it's similar to like George Pickens when he's coming out of Georgia. There's just, there are only so many guys who are like that size who can make the plays that he does. And Heon Coleman's 6-4, like 220.

You think he's 20 years old still. And you would watch Florida State and they would just throw the ball in the vicinity. And he would go up and catch it. And when you can make those types of plays with your body, even good coverage, I can't, really stop it. So I just think there's going to be a lot of options for them, a lot of different types of receivers and I do think they need to get a third receiver here someone who can be uh who can be part of this 11 personnel and you have different options. I still think that my inclination is that

like a second round pick is going to be a little bit too rich for them. Okay. Because a second round pick is going to come in expecting to be a part of the offense and I think they might view that as a as a difficult locker room recipe whereas like if you're adding a guy on day three or or multiple guys on day who know that they have to come in and play a role. I think it's an easier fit. That's why I spent a lot of time thinking about Javon Baker as a guy who made the most of his few targets. But I think that's a more likely path for them.

My pushback to that is I think Devante gets an extension this offseason. And I think once you... I guess we could have asked him about that, huh? You say that's what I have an agent for? Yeah. Yeah. I've asked him that before, right?

but I think Devante gets an extension this offseason. And when that happens, maybe some of the target distribution matters a little bit less. I also think it just helps everyone else out because you have someone else to worry about there. And you can still spread the ball around. But I'm more interested in insist. I'm more interested to see what they do at tight end because I don't think you're Jack Stoll, Grand Calcutera. gives them an answer there, and I think they have good, there's good tight end options in this draft high up.

Like I talked about the other day, Brock Bowers being a trade-up target. I mentioned in my mock draft last week, Jatavian Sanders from Texas. But even you were at the senior bowl, you saw the Kansas State guy. I like the Kansas State guy. He almost had him in as one of the fifth round picks.

Okay. Yeah, he was getting open. So, I mean, there's... Ben Senate. Ben Senate, yep. There's some good tight ends in this class. I think Jeremiah said he liked the Penn State tight ends this week.

who didn't make a huge impression on me, but good for him. Better than the Penn State tight end who went last year. Breton Strange. Remember, second round pick? Yes. That was a strange pick. Look at you. Fan of comedy right there.

Joey is that. And some applause from Julia. And Conan's saying stole disrespect. It's not stole disrespect. I think Jack would, like, he's good in his role. I don't look at Jack stole as a Dallas got a replacement, right? So I think the emails are at that point where you start thinking about Dallas got a replacement. I think that's right. I agree with that. What else are some of the things that you were on your radar from watching the senior ball from afar?

So football-wise, we're not going to get into all the other stuff here. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. So I'm curious to you, when we spoke on Tuesday, I remarked you how it seemed based on watching and then following all you guys on social media that there wasn't really a huge Eagles representation. You had two more practices thereafter or three more practices thereafter or we spoke Tuesday night. So two practices thereafter. Did that change or was it still no sight of Howie, no sight of the coaches? Yeah, I mean, unless they were hiding somewhere, my understanding is that no coaches, no Howie Roseman in attendance at Mobile, all of the scouts.

Dom DeSandro was there, which was interesting to take part of the interview process, which tells you, you know, how important he is to that process and getting to know these guys as people. But yeah, no coaches. I was a little bit surprised that Stout wasn't there only because it's so clear

that the Eagles are going to try to draft a tackle at some point in this draft and he might have wanted to see these guys up close. I think there's probably like a weird message to send to the rest of the coaching staff. You're just sending Stout and he's like the favorite son. which may be true,

but maybe there's just an awkward dynamic there. Also, like anybody they're interested in, you know, stouts either going to go to their pro day or they're going to bring him into the facility. There's going to be plenty of time for that. But that was the only thing that surprised me a little bit, but I think it sort of made sense.

I just think like for the coach, I think we talked about this. For the coaching staff, this is not the top priority right now. Like they have to finalize the staff. Yeah, it surprised me about Howley, honestly. I'm used to, every time I'm down there, I see Howie on the sideline.

how he's well known around the league, well respected around the league. He likes catching up with the different league people. And this very much is like, you have your GM there? Now, I know they tape all these meetings, right? So he sees the tape of these meetings. But I thought Howie would want to get to know some of these guys.

And there have been times, for instance, when we've spoken to Howie, and he specifically referenced the time they met with this guy at the Senior Bowl, right? Now, there's still opportunities to deal with the combine, the top 30 visits, pro days, things of that nature. Also, chance for him to have dinner with the different GM or something like that. You know, those conversations again. Yeah, or catch up with you.

Unlikely, I would guess. I think if you were making a list of things he wanted to do in Mobile, that would be maybe dead last. I don't think it would be dead last. Of all the things in Mobile, catching up with you would be dead last on Howley's list. I mean, aside from like something that's going to inflict personal injury on. him. I think it would be pretty low on the list, yeah. Have you done anything in Mobile in the past that has like nothing to do with the senior bowl? But just because you were in Mobile you wanted to do it?

Well, like restaurants like eating. Well, obviously, yes. Well, yeah, but I mean, you find a good restaurant. Not in potential, I mean, just like walking around the downtown, which is a nice little downtown. That's about it. It's like Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras was just beginning as we left, yes. It's a shame. You would have loved that.

What does that mean? Who doesn't enjoy Marty Grawl? I don't know. You wouldn't want to stay for a Marty Grawl celebration? I mean, maybe from a sociological perspective, it'd be interesting, yeah. Have you had Kingcake before? I don't know that I've had Kingcake before. Not a huge Kingcake fan.

I'm sorry for all our New Orleans. I actually regretted not getting some because they had it in the little market that I was staying near. But I've never had it, I don't think. What makes Kingcake different? It's just a marty gras cake. I don't, it doesn't really do it for me. Is it like just a yellow cake or? No, it's more like, it's not like a pound cake type.

It's more of a like a donuty type cake. Okay. It sounds good to me. Yeah, I didn't love king cake when I've had it. I try, I always try it when I'm in New Orleans. There's a different dessert I always get when I'm in New Orleans. Benitez? No, I'm not huge Benet guy.

Don't mind them. But no, it's a, it's the pecan. pie, a chocolate piquan pie at a diner there that actually the mannings used to go to

all the time. Okay, of course. It's got to come back to football somehow. Yeah. But no, to the Mobile thing, I went on

one time like a self-guided, it was obviously self-guided because it's not official, self-guided Hank Aaron tour. Oh, nice.

Yeah, I wanted to kind of learn about Hank Aaron's connection to Mobile. I have a good Steve Wolf Hank Aaron's story.

I need to hear this. Let's hear this. So I think this is like early on in my in my dad's career and I think I'm trying to get the exact. I think okay so early in his career and he goes up to is the first time he's ever talked to Hank Aaron and he's like, you know, did you know that like you are the first player alphabetically in baseball history? Like you know, what are the odds that one of the best players in baseball history would be very first like you know Hank Aaron, Henry Aaron. Henry and double A and then it's an H. And he just looks at my dad and goes,

Jesus Christ, and walks away. I see, your dad's a brilliant man, terrific writer, and I could see where you get it from. Because that's the type of question I could see you. Yeah, you know, when he told him that story, I was like, yeah, that would occur to me. I probably would do something like that. Yeah, you probably would.

Yeah. If you said that to if the Eagles had an Aaron, Aaron, or not an Aaron, Aaron, Alex Aaron. Yeah, for sure. Alex Aaron. Would that be? Probably.

Okay. Yeah. And what would you expect the reaction to be in that case? I don't know. Similar to Hanks? Well, presumably that person wouldn't have the same gravitas as, yeah,

cash is as Henry. So, yeah, so I was curious about that at the Senior Bowl. Additionally, I was, yeah, there's been a lot of hype about the offensive tackles. My other thing,

my other favorite thing about Mobile, sorry. Yeah, that's fine. is the good wordplay with Mobile. Like the police cars, it says, it says police on the side,

and then underneath it says Mobile. And so it just says, police mobile. Ah, okay. I can see how, yeah, you like that, yeah. Terrific food down there. Very good food.

Yeah, what'd you eat? Which night? Oh, you were there for three nights? Yes. Okay. Four dinners, though? Some good. No, three.

Three dinners. Three dinners, yeah. Some good gumbo and fried seafood. Had a very good dinner with E.J. and Olivia. Nice. Flex? Did you go to Felix's Fish Camp? We did not go to Felix's this time.

Went to Winsles instead. Okay. Yeah, it was good, good food. There's a great lunch spot that I used to always go to. The Soul Food one? Downtown or no. No, no. It's near lead peoples.

It's near lead peoples. I got look it up. Well, they don't go to Laude Peebles anymore. Yeah, I know, but it's kind of on the way still. It's right off the airport road. I did at one point consider there was a little break in between practice. I was going to try to go get a bite to eat at the student union in your honor, but it didn't work out. Chick-fil-A.

Now that's not, that's not the one that I saw. It's not this. I went to Chick-fil-A. It's at South Alabama. Okay. Yeah, because I ordered it on the app and then it came up. There you are. It's very efficient.

Yeah. I'm trying. So in Mobile. There's football wise. Football wise. Yeah, the offensive tackles. Yeah. I like, so your second round target from the senior bowl.

Kingsley, Sue and Matea. That makes a lot of sense to me. Kingsley is, and I thought Fran Duffy, make sure you listen to that podcast. Fran did a good job with you kind of outlining him, like really good athleticism, young guy, former top recruit transferred from Morgan. But I think this is from a developmental perspective from like a soft. I thought it's in perspective, a lot to like here. Well, I think less of the specific players here,

the game theory of it, like the order of operations, we know that they want to add a young player. Like they're going to prioritize getting Elaine Johnson replacement. But because the class is so deep and they have two second round picks, do you think that they will be willing to wait until the second round? Or do you think that they're going to make sure that they get the thing that they care about the most in the first round?

I would be surprised if the first round pick is not an offensive lineman or a corner at this point. And I think that you can probably, unless one of like the top corner slips, I think, I just think that I think it'll be offensive lineman. That's, that's, that's, that's the way how he thinks. I think there's a good opportunity for value to meet organizational priority there. Tyler Guitons, the one who you guys all talked about down there, who you said you probably would have had him in. if it wasn't based on the game theory part of it, right? If there was like a second round corner that you liked, you probably would have Tyler.

Which there wasn't at the Senior Bowl. Exactly. So I looked at it like, well, I did have a question about that in a second. Tyler Guyton, though, makes so much sense in the first round. I know I had Amarius Mims in the mock draft. I did, but, you know, Guyton's a similar type of player. Like you look at the upside and you and I did that story for the athletic back. in April leading up to the draft on the 10 years since they took Lane Johnson.

And one of the things as was framed in our reporting from the story is they said that Jeff Stoutland, I think Jeffrey even said this, don't tell me who the best tackle is now. Who's going to be the best tackle from this group in five years? And it was like, and that's the group that had Luke Jockel. That's the group that had Eric Fisher, number one. And the answer was like, Lane Johnson's going to be the, you know, if he reaches his potential, he's going to be the best from that group. And I think you can say that about a Tyler Guyton tight that...

It's also the advantage that the Eagles have over the rest of the league. They can do that because they have Jeff Stoutland, right? And I know that we can debate about what is the player versus what is the coach. But if you are a team that cannot trust your player development on the offensive line, then you have to take the guy with the higher floor. The Eagles can do that because there is this long history of Jeff Stoutland getting the most. out of his offensive linemen, right? And so, I mean, you could look at every offensive lineman they've drafted.

Like, Andre Dillard is probably the only one that comes to mind that didn't hit like what you would have expected his ceiling to be. Since the Stalin era. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say Waukins, obviously, before that. Right. And so they have that capacity to prioritize the ceiling at that position,

where I think that they would say, honestly, that hasn't been the case at every position. Sure. Sure. They have that at offensive line, and that's why he's the highest paid offensive line coach in the league. I think to answer the question that you framed, good offensive tackles don't typically drop. Even if it's a deep class, you tend to see that run on offensive tackles early on. We also say they've got two second round picks, which is true, but even the first one is not until 50. Sure.

It's not like they've got a high second round pick. So you said that corners, there's not really second round corner. What do you think of Call and King from Penn State? Again, this was like part of the, that practice, that team did not practice quite as much, but I was, I was tepid. I didn't see anything that blew me away or anything. I actually originally had him as the third round pick in that, in that mock, but changed it. You mentioned wide receivers.

What you think of Roman Wilson? He had a great first day, really flashed that first day. I thought about him as putting him in as the second round pick because he feels like the type of player, and maybe this is just typecasting a white guy. but who would be okay with like taking the slot roll and like that becomes his thing? Is he, I mean, he's Hawaiian.

Oh, is he? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Is it Wilson Roman or Roman Wilson? It's Roman Wilson. Okay. Either way, a second round pick feels, feels high to me still there.

So he's, he's going to move upwards. I mean, he's an electric player. Mike Garofold did a great interview with him the other day on NFL network. and because Mike hit my favorite Roman Wilson fact in that story, okay, which is, I don't know if, if you know this or not.

I doubt that I do. But you're going to be fascinated by this. Roman Wilson used to take an airplane to school every day. How incredible is that? Like his commute to school was ours. He would live on a different island. He wanted to go to St. Louis, which was,

which is like the top football program in Hawaii. Do you where the Herbigs went? Yeah, it's where like two of the Herbigs, Mariotta. And I think it's where President Obama went, actually, too. It could be wrong. You'd probably learn that in the Hall of Presidents. No, they didn't cover that in the Hall of Presidents. They focused on the administration.

But, joyous laugh. Yeah, so he lived on a different island. and had to take a small plane to Honolulu and then get transportation to the school when, yeah, when he was like a sophomore. Eventually, they got like a small apartment near the school and he went there. But the level of commitment that it takes,

it was like a three, four hour commute every day to go to school. And it served him well. He got recruited to Michigan. He did great. won a national title and now he's I think Daniel Jeremiah said a top 100 player

and moving up but anyways Garo Folo asked him about that in the interview and I respect that because that means Mike did his homework

right? It's not the type of thing where you just get this guy and you're like tell me about being on the national champions no no Mike did his homework so awesome job by Mike and what was the answer

well he probably made his arms tired No, that's that's not what He just spoke about How like he has an appreciation for being there at at the senior bowl This is what he always like dreamed of right He dreamed of that so uh yeah Roman Wilson's a cool story and good player and curious to see how he goes in the draft

Who were your other favorite guys there at the senior bowl? Yeah So I mean I'm obviously going to go with the big name guys but I said the the other day. I thought I thought Latu was good. I thought a disa Isaac showed more there than he did at Penn State. I thought like him and Chop Robinson, who's another top edge rusher, are like two guys who had a lot of hype going into the year at Penn State. We can get Tyler Zoli on to talk about this. I didn't find them to be exceptional this past year, but I thought Isaac showed something in the practices I saw. You obviously, you know, I'm limited to the TV copy and the

highlights and whatnot. I heard the TV copy was good. Yeah, it brings you close to the action. The problem is when you wear the TV copy, you don't get the flavor of the bleachers. You're not sitting there with you and E.J. and Olivia and Jeff McLean and Brooks Cabina. You know, you're getting, you're just getting kind of the analysis of Daniel Jeremiah, which is great. But I'd like to talk to you guys, talk to the NFL folks in the audience or in the crowd,

the agents. You know, it's segmented now. The scouts are on one side of the stadium and the media is on the other side. But the agents are with you. Yeah, some of them. You get to catch up with the agents. You get to hear their, you know, their pictures. Unbiased opinions?

I mean, everyone has, everyone's opinions, you know, filtered through a certain lens, right? Okay. So their opinions certainly filtered through their lens. And what you try to do is accumulate different information and, you know, put together. Oh, I'm sorry, Jimmy, Kemski, too. It's awesome to hear, Jimmy Kemsky. And was Tommy Loller there? Tommy was?

Yeah, so you get to see Tommy. That's awesome, too. Lots of videos that you can check out from the stance on the PHY YouTube page. Let's get the one now. Well, there's an unfiltered opinion that comes from our dear friend, Tony Pauline. So let's listen to that now. Had a chance to catch up with Tony yesterday with a little talk about the draft and just some general catching up with Tony.

Hello, everybody. It's Bo Wolf at the Senior Bowl once again with the great, the inimitable. Tony Pauline of... What do we call it? What are we... Sports Ski-da this year. What is it called? Sports Ski-da.

WWW.W.Sportskeeta. You know, it's funny you say that because sportskeena, a bunch of good guys out of India, they have a largest wrestling website in the world. Interesting. So, you're kind of right with that WWR. you'll be WWE Tony Bowles. Okay. How do we spell Skeeta?

Sports. KETA. KEE-E-G-A. Got it. Oh, that's excited. Tony, you have the... What number of senior balls is this for you? 25.

25. The first senior ball was 2000. It was a fraction of what it is now. He used to practice on a couple of high school fields, Fair Hope, and USM Wright. And it's amazing how the way this thing has changed. It's gone from a scouting. event really to a media or some adjectives

I can use but I've also downgraded the media access I mean we've got like five but if you look across the way where the scouts and the teams are sitting it's a fraction of what it used to be because this practice day the last day was always the biggest

at the Shrine Bowl and there used to be five six deep on the sidelines and you just just to walk around and listen you forget all kinds of information they didn't want you to get so it was great. So this draft class, Tony,

feels like deep at tackle. That's a place where the Eagles are probably looking for a long-term Lane Johnson replacement. In your mind, do you think that that's the move at like 22, or would they be better suited to wait and take a guy in like the second round? Wow. You can't tell now. You know, they've got some other positions of me, maybe the fence-in,

be a quarterback. I mean, you would know better than I would. I think that Howard Rosen has done an outstanding job in his dreams moving up to get specific players, taking great value when he's called the clock. You know, I don't think you can dictate that right now. I really don't think you can really determine that until they are called the clock and see what players are available.

You know, you don't want to reach for a tackle, but if a good tackle staring them in the base makes a lot of sense. what about a linebacker who are some of the linebackers here that you're like right none of the linebackers you've stood out I mean if you're looking for

first of what they got to decide what they're going to do with you from Georgia who they took at the end of the first round last year he was usually expect except a player I mean what type of linebacker

if you're looking at off the ball linebacker yes I mean no one has really stood out to me here that you're definitely not going to take up the first round

oh yeah no I'm talking I'm talking mid-round yeah I mean day two. There were some good linebackers last week at Shrineball practice, which was at East and Gibbs of Wyoming, but you're talking day three guys. I mean, off the ball linebackers are sort of gone the way of safeties and even the running backs in a sense that did not value as much as they used to be. And we're seeing a lot of oversized college safeties move up to the lineback position. You saw, he saw it here in the afternoon practice with James Williams in Miami

who played safety his entire college career, six, what, six three and a half, 20, 20, 20, There would probably be 20-30 pounds and some of an outside line back. Well, the Eagles do need help up the middle. So what about safety? Is any day two safeties you like here? You know, you started off strong saying that the tackle class was great. That's the place where the Eagles are. Now you're getting a little bit into the lesser classes.

I mean, Cameron Kitchens, I think of Miami, but James Williams' roommate has done well. Some people think of the strong safety, I would disagree. I mean, it looks more like your ability to play your true free-shape your position, but it can also play in a zone. You can play downhill, you go sidelines to sidelines. So, you know, if you're watching the practice, it's creeping on in Cameron, kids in Miami. You know, the classman like his teammate James Williams. What else is going on in your life?

You know, I'm the eternal optimist, still waiting for Led Zeppler to get together for at least one more potential reunion concert. Does anybody remember laughter? That's right. That's right. Obviously, you don't. But, you know, Work on Sports me to try to get that Wip them into anniversary. Still running?

Every day. I was out this morning, three and a half miles. Three and a half miles. And Dallas last week was actually cold in Dallas for like 25 degrees in the morning. Every day, yes.

Got to keep my bikini bottom, keep my grill street. Well, you still have that. That is for sure. Well, thank you for taking some time with us. Tony Paulinew's Sportskita.com for all the Pauline heads. we'll give you a little 6969 shout out thank you so much

three and a half miles runs every single day Zach I could do that I should or I should do that I should say I don't know if I could do that I should do that yeah I mean I could not do that every single day who's got the time well I don't think I think the endurance is more of the issue than the time if something is important to you you can make time okay yeah speaking of making time going to make it I'm

jealous that I missed the senior bowl this or this week. I will fortunately be at the Super Bowl next week with you during the week, not the game. My grandfather, I was talking to him last night about it. He was trying to understand the concept. Yeah. Right? Yeah, it is odd. Like, I'm not staying for the game, but we're doing our show live each day at noon.

And he was excited. He said, maybe you'll be able to get Peyton Manning. And I said, Oh, now we're talking. I was like, oh, man. So, Peyton, if you're watching, you have an open invitation. I will make, I will, we'll have an awesome interview, Peyton. I promise you.

I will bring up. Zach will have like deep nuggets of your life that you will feel a little bit, uh, yeah, creeped out about that he knows, but it'll be great. Yeah, I will bring up information. What's your favorite patent manning fact? My favorite page man. any fact.

Probably just stuff when he was at Isidornubin high school, right? There's some good ones there. Yeah, I mean, I've spoken. You can talk to him about that chocolate, pecan pie. I could. I could from Camilla's Grill. Every time I meet someone who played with Peyton or coached Payton,

I ask Peyton Manning questions. Like I'm fascinated just by how into everything he is. and being on top of everything. And like when I covered Eli, I was so interested in their dynamic. So yeah, I have a lot of Peyton Manning questions. I once did a story. I was covering the Patriots first Broncos

and the ABC Championship in Denver that Peyton actually won. And I had to do with my editor said to me, find an angle that Philly fans would like between Peyton and Brady. And this is like everyone's writing Peyton Brady's story. So how am I going to do this? Well, thank goodness I spoke to Dan Kletko,

who played, who caught touchdowns from both of them and found out what it was like being a teammate with both of them and some kind of stories about Peyton and Brady. Talk about how close Peyton might have been to coming to Philadelphia in that free agency. Oh, that did not come up, but that might come up in a book coming out soon. But I would ask Peyton, Yeah, there's a lot of questions that I would ask Peyton.

But anyways, I bring that up as a way of saying that we're going to have some good guests coming through. Are you writing a Peyton Manning book? No, I'm not writing a Peyton Manning book. I would love to write a Peyton Manning book. I don't have the, I might have information, but I don't have the, like. What do you think Peyton's reaction would be if you told him your story of introducing yourself to Eli? The first time when you were at the Giants Beat. Oh, I think he'd respect that.

He no sold you. He didn't know sell me. He was like creeped out. Not a little bit. I think he was just like, who is this, who's this guy like making a bee line right to me and sticking out his hand and saying, hi, I'm, I'm Zach. I'm the new beat writer. Did a firm handshake, looking in the eyes, 10 teeth smile, right?

I'm here with, I'm here at the Star Ledger. I look forward to getting a phrase 10 teeth smile. I've never heard that. It's a phrase I use, yes. Well, you made it up? I heard it when I was younger. Okay. I know.

This is an honest, I never heard that before. Yeah, 10 teeth smile. In any event. What's the usage of that? That's just when you smile, make sure you smile with your whole mouth. Yeah, like, yeah. It's just make sure you smile. Like put yourself in, yeah, put, yeah, make sure you smile.

You know, when you meet somebody, give them a firm handshake, looking in the eyes and. Give them a 10 teeth smile. I've never heard that. Okay. Okay. I think that's fun. I'm not hating on that. Okay.

But yeah, we're going to have some good guests next week. We don't quite know who yet. Is it at least 10 teeth? It's just an expression. Because if you go too wide, you might get more than 10. It's just an expression. It doesn't have to be 10th. It's just an expression.

It's a guideline, not a rule. It's a guideline, not a rule. It's more of a euphemism than anything else. Okay. But we're going to be scouring Radio Row. This is my fifth Super Bowl I've covered. And my first one, not being there primarily to like cover the teams right right although i am going to get some good

coverage and look forward to catching up with jvon hargrave out there for instance uh with the 49ers but uh and you can read some of our work on diehard on all p hely dot com but uh we'll our primary job there is our show and we'll be talking to different people throughout the day for some web exclusive uh media night on a Monday night. Yeah, pieces of information. If there's a guest out there you want, please, please let us know. You can email me at Zach at all p-H-L-I.com or you can message us on social. And if there's like a reporter who's who's out there, if there's someone with Eagles ties who you know is going to be at the Super Bowl, let me know and I'll do my best to try to find that person. When we go to media night on Monday night, do you think that Matt Pryor will be more excited to see you or me? you. Why? Who do you think could get a longer interview out of Matt Pryor?

Should we make that the competition of Monday night to see you? No. I think Javon will be more excited to see me. Definitely. Yeah. We'll talk about Bojangles, right? But I think... I love Bojangles.

I think Matt Pryor will be more excited to see you. I don't feel strongly about that, but I would hope that. What did you think, by the way, speaking of the Super Bowl? Did you see Jed York's interview yesterday? Yes, and I agree. with the general takeaway that it's pathetic that the owner is still complaining about like whining about calls for five years ago.

Is that the general takeaway? And that the organization is from top to bottom filled with complainers. No, what did you think of the anecdote that Powell Shanahan went up to him in practice during training camp last year and said our third quarterbacks are best quarterback? Yeah, I don't believe him. You don't believe it? No.

Yeah. You think that's like myth-making, if you will? Yes. And that's a great example of, you know, the pet peeve we've talked about before when it's like oh jed you're confirmed confirmed that this thing happened like no he said that it happened that doesn't mean that it happened yeah uh someone says the answer is jason kelsey i think jason kelsey's going to be in demand next week but we will try our best i think if jason sees you he always enjoys catching up with you um same to you

so maybe some so maybe that will we'll we'll get him over to our uh see caliph said julian lori i don't I don't think Julian's going to be roaming rode a radio row. If he is, I would love to catch up with Julian. But yeah, is there anything in Vegas? We're going to be working. I always say, I feel bad for Des Moines, because I always pick on Des Moines when I say this. But my line is, when someone's saying,

you're excited to go to such and such. I say the Super Bowl can be in Des Moines. It wouldn't make a difference to me. Like, I'm there, I'm there working. I'm not experiencing the Vegas nightlife. Like, yeah, we got a show. We got other stuff we're doing. But is there anything in Vegas you particularly want?

to do or see? No. No. Not particularly. No. Okay. You blackjack guy? I like blackjack.

Yeah, okay. We'll get to the tables. I mean, aren't they going to like, aren't the table is going to be like way marked up and? Not on like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if you try playing on Saturday night, we won't be there on Saturday.

And you're going to have a little bit of extra walking around money. Because your, your auction's closing on Sunday night. I didn't expect that to be show fodder. Do you want to explain Because I didn't expect Well famous I think famously or not We have seen your big water bottle before

Actually you take us through the process of deciding That you're going to make a make a market move here So I have a water bottle That's a particularly popular brand Okay And I was reading I've read a number of articles about it But I was reading that there's like people who spend

Hundreds of dollars They get this brand of water bottle And I have it that I got for like, And you have it, yes. And a gift to you from your lovely wife. Yes. And it wasn't like that, you know, it was, I mean, it's expensive for a water bottle. It was like $30.

Okay. But I'm like, okay, let's, if this is what people are paying, let's see. Yeah. Let's see if I can get 2x, 3x, right? Or 2x. I wasn't so ambitious to try to get 3x. Well, that's not true. You put it as to buy it now for.

Yeah, that's true. 3.3x. Yes. Yeah. But 2x have already gotten that. Yeah, big time. Yeah. You got a bid for 60.

Got a bid for 60. And you can buy it now for 100. So. Listen, if there are some real sickos out there and you don't just want this particular brand, but you want the one that Zach Berman has been drinking out of for the past year and a half, I don't know. I feel like $100 is a steal. So go to eBay and search for Zach Berman's Stanley.

It's not listed as that. It's not listed as that. Claire, it's a cool 30 bones. Claire says you're auctioning off the gift from your wife. How does Emily feel about this? Great question, Claire. That was my reaction as well.

Claire, I appreciate the sentiment two things. Number one, Emily knows who she married. Okay. Okay, let's be abundantly about that. She didn't give it to you as a, this was her grand plan. She knew that this was not a gift of a cup. This was a gift of an investment opportunity. Yes.

And then number two. Number two, I think actually, Emily would be proud that I'm being resourceful in that regard. So, yeah, that's essentially it. So there you go. I did not expect that to come up on your pocket and put it on rent. I did not expect that to come up on the show. Actually, a friend of Joy is in mine, Tom, sent a direct message to you and me over Instagram with a clip from Saturday Night Live about the one. I don't think I saw this.

Yeah, he sent it to you and me. And so then I responded, have already put it. it on eBay. Wow. Yeah. So, yeah. Have I not seen this thread on Instagram? Do you look at your messages?

Not all the time. I guess apparently know. Look, you probably have a bunch of fans who are who are messaging. Asking for me to show feet. Yeah. Is that something they ask you? All the time.

Like Rex Ryan? All the time. All right. Well, that was good stuff, Sack. Thank you very much to everybody for listening and watching. Thank you to Devante Smith for taking some time. Tony Pauline, well, we will see you on Monday from Las Vegas scheduled to be live right at noon on the East

Coast, 9 a.m. Vegas time. Looking forward to it. So we'll have it covered on PHLY. Lots to talk about as the offseason gets going in earnest, but some Super Bowl stuff next week. Thanks everybody once again for following along for Senior Bowl Week. Check out the extra content that is on the YouTube page, all that good stuff for Julia. And Zach and Devante and Tony, we thank you for listening. We will talk to you on Monday. And as always, we love you.