PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Eagles Mailbag: Which player on the Philadelphia Eagles can take a Tyrese Maxey-like leap in 2024?
Episode Date: May 2, 2024You asked, well answer. Zach Berman and Rich Hofmann offer thoughts on topics ranging from breakout Eagles to the rookie class to James Bradberry’s future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...castchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
To a Thursday edition of the PHLY Eagles show, we are presented by Butcher Box.
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I am Zach Berman here with Rich Hoffman filling in today for Bow Wolf.
rich of course
wears many hats here. This is a fun
time a year for me
and a lot of people in Philadelphia because you got
the Eagles going on, Phillies going on and Sixers
going on. I'm able to just kind of and
I'm able to consume the Sixers
very excitedly.
I got that pit in my stomach today. You're
kind of pulling double duty here. How are you holding up right
now between you're instrumental in
our draft coverage, you're instrumental in our
playoff coverage? Yeah, I mean there's a lot of
stuff going on right now. So you obviously
is somebody who pays attention to pretty much
every sport imaginable. I was writing about this in the newsletter. What do you think is your favorite
sports month of the year? Or kind of, maybe not even the month. It's just like the time of the year
when multiple things are going on. Because I think there are a couple answers, but this is up there,
I would say. Yeah, my answer is October. Yes. Because you got everything going on. Hopefully,
like if the Phillies are in the playoffs, right? Sixers and Flyers are starting then. Eagles are in the
middle of their season. October's a great month weather-wise, right? You got the brink.
You got the chill, but you're not yet wearing the jacket.
Totally, right?
Kids are back in school.
You got Halloween.
My wife's birthday.
I had to say that in case she watches.
So, yeah, so definitely October for me.
I think that's right.
But I think this time with the NFL draft is kind of my other favorite time of the year.
You got the playoffs, you got baseball.
You got the draft, which is this three-day event now.
And obviously there's a bunch of lead-up.
You know, there's the Masters before.
there's March Madness.
So there's a lot of good stuff going on.
Another question for you.
I asked Bo this the other day.
How did you hold up?
I looked.
I didn't watch the whole show.
I did the show Thursday and Friday with you for the draft.
How did you hold up after a five-hour Saturday show?
You know, I had a lot of notes about things I could have done better on the show.
But it was fun.
Whenever I'm sitting with Bo and then Les joined in for a bit, well, for more than a bit.
I don't undersell less.
I don't want to undersell Lessa's contribution.
Fran Duffy called in.
We had a lot to talk about.
The thing is, is that you're kind of rolling.
There's not really breaks going on.
And you, so sometimes you say stuff without thinking, right?
You're on a stream of consciousness, not on a lot of sleep.
You're kind of, you're, I like to be focused on the show, but during the draft, I'm getting a lot of text and whatnot.
So you're kind of navigating a few different things there.
But, no, I think I held up fine.
I was proud of our draft coverage.
I was, too.
It's just a marathon.
You did great, but, like, you just got to keep talking at some point.
Exactly.
And I appreciate all the sickos in there hanging with us, because, man, that Friday night show, we were just, they were trading back and back and back.
We just kept rolling.
And, Bo, obviously, was not feeling so well in the other room and getting the, you know, the second wind over there.
But, yeah, it was great.
I did go back to watch the Jeremiah Trotter pick section.
I kind of watched the 30 minutes around that when you had less and it was you two.
And I got to say, I am so in on the Jeremiah Trotter break.
I don't even know if he's going to be good.
I hope because of what you said, you know, the T.J. Edwards comp where, you know, you can get a good linebacker in the fifth round sometimes, right?
Like maybe he didn't test quite as well, but he's smart.
And, you know, he went to St. Joe's Prap?
Of course he's smart.
He's been learning how to play the position for a long time.
So for a lot of reasons, because he went to my high school, number one.
And number two, just the whole legacy thing.
Like the Jeffrey Lurrie, that killed me.
That's touching.
I know a lot of those are, you know, run of the mill.
Like the Jalix Hunt, big pimping one was very funny.
I think Jailix Hunt was the star of that one.
But the shot of or the video of Lurie just like overcome with emotion.
and was so awesome.
So I am so in on this guy.
I agree with you.
And we will get to Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
today because this is a mailbag episode.
And for those who watched yesterday,
Bo and I had a little back and forth about this.
Bo considered it uncreative to keep going to the mailbag
when he's not on the show.
And I'm saying he hasn't missed the show since the end of March.
I certainly think a month plus is more than enough time to get a mailbag in.
And I appreciated all the listeners, viewers,
who chimed in and said they're on board with the mailbag.
And the great thing is I like the mailbag because you give the people what they want.
It's what's on their mind.
You're answering it directly to them.
It's like answering the customer feedback.
Additionally, what's the pizza shop analogy?
If you have a pizza shop and no one goes there, the pizza shop's not going to stay in business.
No matter how good you think your pizza is, I always, you know, I've had this debate, not necessarily with Bo, but with other writers over the years, they say, I don't care what readers think.
I say, you don't care what readers think.
The readers are your customers, right?
And I say, and then I say, if you don't care what, you know, if you don't care what they think,
don't put your name on top of the story.
You put your name on the top of the story because you want people to see what you're right, right?
So I very much, I mean, I think the audience is essential to what we do.
Like, without them, we don't have a job.
So that's the first part here.
The second thing is that you actually, it stimulates conversation that you wouldn't typically have.
and some of the questions today are kind of relevant pieces of information, and some of them
are real thought-provoking.
So we'll get to those.
I did want to mention, Rich mentioned the newsletter.
Make sure you're subscribing to the newsletter.
It's appointment reading for myself and many of my friends every morning.
And I like that the end of today's newsletter, you were speaking to me.
Rich has a terrific subtle sense of humor, and the lines about the playoff game on the West Coast featuring Denver.
and then you kind of crossed it out
and Sixers and East Coast this
this 9 o'clock game
is not really sitting well
I mean I have a six year old son
who has Sixers fever
and he is
when I had to break the news to him
it was 9 o'clock he said
yeah I'll be able to stay up
I said stay I mean come on
you haven't made it past 1030 before right
now you're making it to midnight right
but it feels like a Monday night football game
when we're kids exactly
I wrote that today
like in the early 2000s
Monday night football
was at 9 o'clock, you know, kind of the Dennis Miller era of Monday Night Football.
That was crazy.
I can't believe we did that.
And, yeah, it's bad.
I don't know.
I guess they won, you know, Philly, New York is obviously their best ratings.
Sure.
More so than Milwaukee, Indiana.
They should just put that series.
I said this other night.
They should put that series on NBA TV.
Who cares?
Just run it simultaneously.
Nobody cares about that series.
Wake us up when the two Milwaukee guys actually are.
I think of playing in that series.
So, yeah, it's a late one.
But it did remind me, like, yeah, when I was a kid watching Monday night football,
watching those early Andy Reid teams at 9 o'clock, which was just crazy.
What were we doing?
What times in now?
815?
815, 820 thereabouts.
Yeah, I agree with you there.
And the great thing is that we had so many questions.
We're not even going to be able to get to all of them.
But I appreciate the interest.
We'll get to quite a few.
And I mentioned the Sixers part of the newsletter because,
a rich knows whenever
Bow's not here
I'm always kind of looking for
crossover to what's relevant
in the zeitgeist
to Philly sports fans
and of course
the Sixers right now are the most relevant
thing and so
we had a terrific
Sixers crossover question
from Khalif who's actually in the chat
right now. He's always in the chat
right? He's always watching us
he's a loyal listener, loyal viewer, we appreciate
that and that will be the first question
here. It is number one
who is a young Eagles player that you think is most likely to take a Tyrese-Mexie-esque leap into the national conversation this season.
So I just want to kind of clarify the parameters of this because I love this question.
Every year we kind of talk about who's the breakout player, and we'll certainly talk about that.
To me, this isn't the breakout player.
This is the player who is, you know, Tyrese Maxy yesterday morning was the sports story.
We're not talking about the guy who the Rabbit Eagles fans is saying,
all right, this guy's going to have a big year.
We're talking about the guy who the general everyday sports fan who's living in Des Moines,
who's living in Spokane, who's living in Kalamazoo is going to be, like,
this is going to be on the forefront of their mind.
You know, there's that Twitter account where those guys make a list of things
to talk about at the bar every Friday, right?
I love that.
Yeah.
Like that girl that posts that about her dad and her friends.
Exactly, yes.
So I think, like, who can be at the top of that list?
So that's because that's how I interpreted this question.
I don't know if you've kind of view it differently.
I'm like last year, Tyrese Maxie was already a great player.
All-Star caliber.
What he is now is you're talking about like a franchise-esque player.
So that's the way I interpreted this question.
So, and I kind of answered it two different ways.
But I think some of what Tyrese does is that he's very charming, right?
he's fun to watch.
I think fans could easily get behind him
because of his crazy work ethic
and because of the fact that as he's killing people on the court,
he's smiling and grinning at them like a little kid as well.
So in that sense, the guy that I would pick is Devante Smith.
Okay, yes, I like that.
Would be the one where I think he,
even though A.J. Brown is the highest paid receiver in football,
I think there is something,
we've talked about this before.
It's just so aesthetically pleasing
about Devante watching him run routes,
just kind of make corners look like Looney Tunes sometimes
with him getting in and out of cuts.
And it's, you know, I just kind of dig his whole aesthetic, right?
Like where, you know, the way he responds to losses, right?
Where he doesn't really sugarcoat it, but he doesn't, or, sorry,
he does not try to like downplay, you know, what's going on.
Like if something's bad, he's like, you know, this, yeah,
we're playing like crap, right?
right now, but in a way that feels like under control as well. So that would be one of my answers.
The other answer, though, just in terms of like a fun play style, somebody who kind of becomes
a national star, I would say it's Jalen Carter. Okay. Yep. And football is different than basketball
Zach, but I'm just thinking of like the plays where Jalen Carter, the reps where he's just jumping
off the screen, right? Like the swim move against the Rams. What was the play? I guess it was the Ravens,
his first game he played like in the preseason. Yeah, he got in for one play.
and then he literally hit the quarterback on that play.
Hopefully we see a little bit more of that this year.
Hopefully we see it more in November and December.
But I do think he has the chance to be, you know,
if not like Aaron Donald level,
like one of the best defensive players in the league
and one of the few defensive players in the league
that I think becomes somewhat of a household name.
I like those answers.
Those were actually the top two on my list.
Devante Smith is the perfect answer.
And he was the thumbnail for today.
That was actually convenient.
I went to our image database and I was searching for Sixers, Eagles crossovers.
I was hoping for Tyrese Maxi at like an Eagles game.
And then I see Devante ringing the bill.
There was Jason Kelsey ringing the bell.
Devante ringing the bell.
And I'm like, oh, Devante, it's a perfect shot for this.
And because Devante Smith's already had a 90 plus catch season, right?
He's already been a Pro Bowl caliber player.
But I think that certainly he has the skill set to be one of the faces of, the faces of
the league. When you talk about elite players at household positions, that's what Devante Smith is.
And I think he's just scratching the surface. Now, I understand there's one ball and it has to be
distributed. AJ Brown's there. Saquan Barkley's there. Dallas Goddard. I get all that. But DeVante,
from a, from a volume perspective, I still think he can make plays from like an excitement level.
his senior year at Alabama, he was that type of player.
Like he was special.
And we've seen that.
I don't even want to say in glimpses.
It's been consistent.
But he's kind of viewed as 1A.
And I think he can be one of the household names of the league.
So I'm with you there.
I have Jaylon Carter second on my list in terms of like performance,
maybe not necessarily in terms of people in Kalamazoo, we're talking about him.
But in terms of performance, I can see Jayon Carter taking that.
leap into all pro caliber. I think he has the talent there. I mentioned Jordan Milata here. I have
Jordan Milata written down from a personality perspective. He is impossible not to like. Now,
you kind of saw that post-Super Bowl and he's singing, but if he continues kind of on the trajectory
that he's on, you're not just talking about a household name national. You're talking about a
household name internationally. And then the last one is Saquan Barkley. And I say Saquan
because Sequin has an opportunity here to have his Christian McCaffrey season.
Totally.
And that's like he's already popular.
But if he turns it, you know, Christian McCaffrey went to a different level when he went
from Carolina to San Francisco.
And I think that's possible this year going from the Giants to the Eagles.
Yeah.
And I'm just wondering, like, because Devante and AJ are signed up here for a long time,
that's great.
I feel like one of these years, Devante is just going to have the crazy season.
for whatever reason.
Like, he's going to be the one who's getting open.
And Jalen, you know, maybe a corner slips a couple times.
And Jailen gets in a rhythm with him.
And, you know, I wonder how that will go because last year in the middle of the season,
it was just, you know, AJ has gotten the ball and he should get the ball
because he's just absolutely killing it every week, you know, 125, 150 yards every single week.
One of these years, I think, DeVante is, like, what is his highest yards in a season?
It's like 1,100?
I think, like, 1,200.
$1,200?
Like, I think one of these years, he's going to just.
go for 1,500, 1600, where he has the crazy year, and I think it's great that the Eagles have
two options for that.
Yeah, in 2002, he had 95, I'm sorry, 2022, 95 catches for 1,196 yards and seven touchdowns.
And then from a personality perspective, you mentioned the joy that Tyrese Maxi has, and
Devante Smith, look, it's not an apples-for-apples thing from a personality perspective.
He might not be as gregarious, but he certainly is likable in the sense of just how, like, matter of fact, he is, how business like is.
And then on the field, I think he's very, he's a joy to watch.
Like, he makes these acrobatic catches.
He's not, he's not like a bully out there.
He's almost like a ballerina out there.
And I think that's something that people can get behind.
The catches that he makes in traffic and jumping over guys for a player his size that you would expect a big physical receiver to.
make. It's just a very unique combination. So you're around these guys more during practice.
One of the things that has always been the rap for Maxi is that he works his ass off.
And, you know, Doc Rivers, I remember saying they called, I don't know why they called it
this, but they called it blackout days where they would tell him you're not allowed to go
to the gym, where, you know, you've just played 40 minutes on a back-to-back and he wants to show up
at 6 a.m. the next day in Philly. And the Sixers medical staff is like, and their
performance staff is like, uh-uh, you need to just sit on the couch today and just rest or
whatever. Who on the Eagles does that remind you of? Well, certainly Devante and AJ are similar
in that regard, in jail. And I mean, Devante is an early morning person. He became a father
this year. And sometimes when people become fathers, they're like, oh, man, you know, you have to
get up so early. That doesn't change Devante's schedule. Devante's a 5 a.m. guy as it is, right?
He's kind of speaking my language there.
A.J. Brown, he was saying the other day at his press conference,
when the other receivers are out partying on Friday and Saturday night, he's putting in the work.
I mean, J.1. Hertz, there was a whole commercial made about him getting there early.
But I can tell you, the guy who might be there earliest is Brandon Graham.
I mean, Brandon Graham loves being at that facility, loves being in that locker room.
He'll put up the Instagram video of him driving in the work at like 445.
5 a.m. So Brandon Graham has that Detroit work ethic as well. I think that's, maybe that's a story
idea in the future. Just like, I don't associate football as much with kind of the skill
development aspects as much as basketball. You know, you work on your handle. You work on your jump shot.
Now, for Devonte, I think, you know, what a technician he is as a route runner. That's not true.
But, you know, the guy like Brandon Graham, what he's doing to just stay better. I mean, a lot of
it is probably just maintenance of his body or whatever.
But yeah, no, it seems like the Eagles, with the three big skill players, we'll see about
Sequin.
I'm sure he works very hard as well.
But with the quarterback and his two favorite receivers, like it seems like they're okay
with the work ethic there.
Well said.
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This next question came via email, so it's a little long here, and it's about Red Star Players,
okay? And basically, what's kind of the history behind the terminology, which I can get to,
and how we said they took a handful of those guys this year, and how is it different than
than some of the other normal years.
So I'll just kind of run this by you,
and then I'll ask you kind of a Red Star-type question.
Red Star player, according to Howie Roseman,
is it's a guy who exemplifies what it means to be an eagle.
Great character, captain, testing number,
intelligence plays the game the way it should be played,
practices the way it should be played.
And it's a tradition that actually Joe Douglas,
from my understanding, helped bring to Philadelphia,
It's something that the Ravens often did when Joe was there,
and teams have used a various form of this,
but basically, like, your scouts identify a player,
and they're pounding the table for him, right?
And they have this meeting where they kind of put their red star up on them,
and when they look at the draft board,
Jeffrey Lurie always says,
don't forget if we're deciding between two guys,
there's a red star player.
So last year, Sidney Brown was a red star player.
This year they drafted five Red Star players.
Howie Roseman did not want to name who they are.
What a draft.
I believe Will Shipley is one of them.
Some other players that I think might have been red stars in the past would be like Devante Smith.
I think Avanti Maddox might have been a red star for them.
So, A, do you think this is something that matters like these intangible characteristics?
Do you're looking for just the best players?
Or the way Hallie Roseman used it this year is they really emphasized this.
this football character guys who kind of have to chip on their shoulder.
Do you think that's a relevant metric to use?
Totally.
And I think so much of drafting really in any sport, as much as we talk about their skills
and what can they do on the field, it's like what type of person are then?
And do they have the ability to get better?
Do they have the desire to get better?
And I think especially in football compared to some of the other sports, it's hard to play football,
Zach.
You've got to love playing it.
You've got to have a desire.
and I think the Eagles, in some cases over the years, might have missed on that.
Like, I think that was maybe a little bit of the rap on Andre Dillard, right?
And it's like, look, it's an inexact science.
You don't exactly know.
The other thing I like about it, though, is that, you know, I've been reading about Bill Belichick recently.
Ah, that sounds fun.
That sounds like something you would do a little hot.
Get a little hot.
I knew you liked it.
But Bill Belichick performing poorly as a GM is what I'm talking.
talking about.
Sure.
I think a lot of times,
I'm so let down.
I'm sorry.
It was not in the original
Wickersham book.
But they were talking about how
like the scouts would, you know,
they might have their Red Star player or whatever.
And then Belichick at the end would just say,
we're going to take this other guy or whatever.
I do think it's an inexact science,
but, you know,
picking players that your scouts come to a consensus with
and kind of, you know,
somebody that, you know, they are banging their fist on the table.
You don't want to do it?
They are.
Pipp out on the table.
No, it's your thing.
Okay.
Does that sound bad with the audio, Julia?
Okay.
I do think that probably, you know, that probably fosters like a pretty good culture within that building as well.
So I think it's important.
I would love to know kind of the exact, you know, the exact way they come up with who is the Red Star player and who qualifies as that.
But, like, it's, yeah, it's interesting for sure.
I once asked a high-ranking football official.
A little flex there.
I can't always say the name because it wasn't on the record.
But do you miss on the player or the person more?
And that was the way I framed it.
And he said the person.
So that goes to your point because the player, right, I guess there are different scheme things
and players can improve.
But ultimately, you're gambling as much on the person as you are the player.
And when Eagles gave Gell and Hertz that contract extension last year, that was a big emphasis,
is that they were gambling as much on the person as they were.
where the play, or I shouldn't say gambling on, investing in the person as much as the player.
This next question leads to something we talked about that started the show.
Be careful, pound on the table, by the way.
Nick Maris heard his, heard his finger doing that the other night.
Oh, I saw that.
Yes, yeah.
That's better than Chris Finch.
Chris Finch, what he, George Patel is attending?
Yeah, he's probably going to have to coach in the second row.
Yeah, it's like Hugh Freeze looking down at the theater.
Yeah, exactly.
So you talked about Trout Jr. at the beginning of the show,
and a lot of people are interested in Trot Jr. right now,
including pre-move observer,
who asked the question with the obvious love from fans in the organization
for Trot Jr. plus NCOB's injuries and lackluster training camp so far,
how many turkeys would you put on Trot 2.0?
That's an interesting way of putting it, Trot 2.0,
actually making splash plays and pushing Dean for that green dot.
So is he just going against Nekobie Dean?
No, that's a good question.
The body type similar to Dean, so you're thinking the Dean role.
But no, I mean, the way linebackers are these days, it's not as if you necessarily have like a, you know, the mic and the will are often interchangeable, right?
So I could certainly see Dean and Trot Jr. being on the field together.
So how do you think they view the linebacker position going into training camp?
Is it like Dean is probably the number one guy?
and maybe Trott and Devin White are competing?
No, so this is the thing.
And look, the Trott Jr., I would be excited to, I mean, he's an awesome player to watch, right?
I'm not, and I went back and I watched some more film post-draft,
and every time you watch film and get excited about it, like just a really good player,
has the instincts, makes plays on the ball, makes plays on the quarterback, right?
but you got to remember he's a fifth round pick
and devon white for maybe as disappointing as last season went
devon white's been a like all pro caliber player in this league
devon white has has speed that's hard to find at that position
uh trot jing i mean devon white was the fifth pick in the draft
trot jr jr jr was a fifth round pick so i i do think
the eels will take it slow with trot jr i don't think it's the type of thing
where he's competing for a day one start
and job. But Nukobi
Dean has missed time because of injuries.
Josh Tolentino from the Inquirer
excuse me,
you know, I told us already this
year that actually
there were issues with the cleats that
Niccobee Dean was wearing. So maybe the injuries
are behind him here.
But
I, like, these are two players who might be vulnerable
to lose playing time if Trott Jr. looks
good. I just don't think there's a training
camp competition yet for
Trot Jr. I think it's more the type of
where he kind of starts out on special teams, maybe mixes in a few times,
and then you kind of see how it looks in October, November.
I don't like that.
I want him to play right away.
As do many Eagles fans?
Yeah.
So a couple more for you on the linebackers now that I'm thinking about it.
By the way, my answer, that would be 40 turkeys on that.
40 turkeys?
Yeah.
Did he make splash plays at some point this year?
Yeah, and he pushes for Dean's role.
Yeah.
He would know better than me.
So with the linebackers, though, because I, I think,
think we can all agree that's the weakest position right now on the team do you think they go to the
the free agent veteran players whether that's in the summer or even all the way in training camp like
they did this year do you do you see that happening again or is that kind of contingent on how they
perform yeah i i certainly don't think that's something that's in the cards right away here
i think they'll be happy to go into training camp right now with nicobo dean devon white
Orrin Berks, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Ben Van Zumaer at linebacker.
And you can kind of figure it out from there.
Last year they brought in Zach Cunningham and Miles Jack early August.
And Zach Cunningham ended up winning a job.
I don't think this is one where they're looking for imminent relief.
I think this is one where they are simply trying to, or they have their guys.
They'll see how they look.
and it's a position that you can usually find on the street in August.
It does seem like, despite the fact that their linebackers were a huge weakness last year,
they're not really changing the philosophy up, right,
where they didn't make a huge free agent signing, you know, Devin White.
Yeah, I think they would are.
I mean, Devin White's their biggest investment in a free agent linebacker since Nigel Brattam.
Okay, okay.
And then they, you know, they wait until the fifth round to get Trott Jr.
They could have probably made a pick in the third round, right, and got somebody else.
But it seems like they are going about it the same way.
One other thing, too, because I'm just, I just had that San Francisco game.
That's just like nightmares running through my head and just watching the linebackers be put through the blender in that game.
Do you think there is a reason to believe that with the coaching, Big Fangio over Matt Patricia,
and also strengthening the other areas?
I'm specifically talking about safety and your cornerbacks, that there is reason to believe that even regardless of what you are getting,
getting from your linebackers, the other areas, if they are better, can kind of make that less
of a problem area?
It's certainly plausible, right?
The reason I hesitated there is anything to do with this new coaching staff, or the coaching
staff changes.
I still kind of wait-in-see mode, right?
Like, I don't quite know what this scheme's going to be.
But when you have Vic Fangio, the expectation is that you're more competent, that you're better,
as, as Bo put it, you're raising the floor.
You're raising the floor of this defense.
And you should get this baseline that is acceptable.
So that will be my guess.
Now, it's a players league.
It's ultimately how well the players play.
But I'm not as dismissive on Devin White based on last year.
I think there were factors.
Now, you can always rationalize anything, right?
But I think there are factors that could rationalize that performance last year.
Okay.
Before we get to the next question, Joy, was there a super chat that we had to hit on?
Or not, I shouldn't say it had to that we want to hit on.
any veteran guards that are trade candidates.
Good question here.
I wouldn't necessarily say trade candidates.
There's still veteran guards on the market.
If they wanted to sign a Dalton Rizner, then they could do that.
You like Rizner?
I mean, he's experienced.
He's played meaningful football in this league.
I think they're going to look at what they have with Steen.
There was the report that came out yesterday, I believe from Jeff Mosher,
that the Eagles are going to consider Beckton at guard.
Jeff Mosher from Inside the Birds.
I will talk to Nick Seriani tomorrow,
and I'll find out more about their plans with Bechton.
I'm intrigued by that.
But I think as of right now, I consider right guard
to be their biggest need, for sure.
But they're going to see what they haven't seen.
They like Matt Hennessy.
In that building, I mean, they think Hennessy's a player.
Hennessy's more of a center at this point.
Then you have Travis Keegan.
I'm sorry, Trevor Keegan.
I keep calling him Travis.
my God. How dare you?
I got a buddy from college, Travis. Travis Webb.
What's a shout out to Travis?
The 75th guy on the roster, not getting his name right.
No, Trevor, who
You'll hear more from Trevor on this show.
Or hear more about Trevor on this show soon.
I was about to say, I was like, man, I insulted me guys.
Is he coming on?
Is he about to walk into the room right now?
Trevor, come on in, right?
No.
Yeah, so they have some options there, but I do think
is the frontrunner at the moment.
The next question here, this is a natural follow-up to the Trout Jr. one,
which is, do you think the Eagles will actually play their rookies this year?
The past two years, rookies have been held back for the most part.
This is from NFL Irish.
We appreciate you following from Ireland.
So that's my big question with the two corners right now.
Because on draft night, on day two, my first thought was, wow, they,
They went from not having enough guys in the secondary to, oh, man, after they signed Choncy,
after, you know, they're bringing Slay back.
Sidney Brown will come back at some point this season.
They got a lot of guys.
So do you think, let me put it this way, do you think Dean, or sorry, DeGine and Mitchell
are both among the five defensive backs week one?
Great question.
Mitchell, yes.
Dejean.
I think he's among the six defensive backs week one.
That's not five.
I think he'll push to be the slot.
I think he can play third safety for them.
Be your top outside backup corner on the ringo.
We'll push there.
Does he have inside experience?
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
He's a chess piece.
I mean, people say movable chess piece, right?
Bo kind of took up bridge to that the other day.
like all chess pieces move.
He's a chess piece.
He's someone, he's your queen.
You're using him.
You're using him as your deep safe.
Is that a bad thing to say?
A queen on the chessboard, okay?
How about that?
How about that?
He's able to go, you know,
all the different directions on the chess board, right?
So, yeah, I am, I, I watch Cooper,
the Gene film this week and there were wow plays in there where you're like how was this guy available
at 40 or whatever right so yeah i mean he he has experience in the slot he has experience of safety
he's experience on the outside really the only thing he hasn't done much is play press man
coverage and there's a big deal made about press man coverage but there is film of him like in
people's faces right so uh i can what's so funny it's a
Chat having fun with the...
Yeah, Cooper de Queen. I like that.
It's like the Queen on the chessboard, which was a compliment.
It seems like the main thing he was doing, though, was...
The Fran Duffy film he showed was...
It was similar to Quinny and Mitchell, right?
Where he's playing off and he's kind of using his eyes to react.
So, yeah, he's the guy I'm curious about, right?
Because, look, they traded up for him.
They viewed him as a first-round pick.
You have to find a way to get him on the...
the field in the first year.
Like if you think he is that caliber of player,
do you think they could use him?
Like is he sometimes a sub-package guy too?
Yeah, absolutely.
Where you can use him as a linebacker almost on an obvious passing down.
Yeah, I think the great thing about Cooper DeGene is that it's a cliche to say he's a football
player, but he's a football player.
Like you can put him in a role.
And I think given his athleticism, given his instincts for the ball, he can find ways
to contribute in that role.
So absolutely.
I look at Cooper DeGine as someone who can be a contributor in multiple spots for the Eagles.
He's my most intriguing guy because I just think Mitchell is going to plug and play.
He's going to be opposite sleigh.
Obviously, I can't wait to watch that guy play.
But I think there's less mystery there, right?
Where you have Vic Fangio who's supposed to be able to get more out of these guys,
supposed to as Beau's not going to like it, play some positionless football.
Have you heard about the Miami Heat post-Lebron Jane?
I'm sorry.
No, I've heard of it.
Desirene LeBron James' second year.
Yeah, I know.
It's kidding.
Yeah, one to five, switching.
Yeah.
Yeah, so my answer to this question is you will see the rookies play this year.
I think Quentin Mitchell's going to be a day one starter for the Eagles.
I think the Gene's going to have a role in defense.
I don't expect Jalek's hunt to play this year or play much meaningful defensive snaps.
I should say many meaningful defensive snaps.
Will Shipley, my expectation is he becomes the second running back.
I think he pushes gain well there.
I think Trott Jr. can push for playing time. We discussed that. And then the receivers, yeah, I think Ania Smith can push to be the number three wide receiver. And then the offensive line, when I consider more depth guys at this point. But I think there's more of a pathway to playing time this year than there's been in past years.
Yeah. I mean, I think when you have those mid-round picks at positions where you're either not deep or there's like an obvious backup role in Will Shipley's case.
Yeah, I would expect those guys to at least push to get on the field.
Before we get to the next question here, I do want to talk about game time because, look, there's a huge game here tonight.
I wish the game was at 7.30. Unfortunately, it's at 9 o'clock.
But I know, you know, Anthony talked about it on a show today. He had David Aedoman on.
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And then you're watching at home, right?
And you want to hang out, and there's different things you can drink.
Among the things you can drink, it's Ali-Pop.
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I was in our studio office here before Julia is holding up the olive pop right there.
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That's Julia opening up the Alipop.
Alipop is available online and in almost 30,000 retailers nationwide,
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The two flavors debuting in Wawa,
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Which flavors that, Julia?
It's the cherry cola.
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So we're going to jump around here because actually you brought up a few points
in your previous answer that I thought were really good
and I think they're relevant to what we're talking about.
So, Joy, I will give you the number and that will help us.
The first one is this.
is how, and this is number six,
how many turkeys would you put on James Bradbury being on the 53 man roster week one?
That's from Wayne Yetsky.
So just to kind of lay this out,
James Bradbury has not been released by the Eagles.
There's no financial incentive for them to release him now.
They can release him post-June 1st and spread that cap it over.
There'd be $4.3 million in dead money if they did it post-June 1st.
But I said all along, they would kind of bring him back for the,
or for the spring, let Vic Fangio see him.
But my personal view on this, and I'm curious what you think, after adding two corners
in the draft, I'd be surprised if Bradbury's here in 2020, 2024.
10, 15?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's low, right?
When you take two corners, I think that, you know, how he said at the combine, basically,
you know, he's on the team right now.
We're thinking about bringing them back.
But their actions say that they viewed that position as a need.
and to load up with two corners, too, like, I would want to keep Keelryringo
for his kind of future chances of being a better corner than James Bradbury.
James Bradbury would, if he's still on this roster,
is a kind of a win now player, and if he's not starting,
then what does he here for?
Yeah, Bradbury does have a history of like on again, off again years,
but I don't know if the Eagles take that chance now,
and I do think the Eagles want to get faster on defense this year,
and certainly Mitchell and the Gene help you with that now.
I've told his story.
Young legs.
I've told the story on the show before that there was a player who once I was told Eagles were cutting him.
I think the player kind of thought he was going to get cut.
I'm actually very confident that the player thought he was going to get cut because I was about to report the news.
And I go and do what a reporter is supposed to do, is that you just want to run it by some people in the building.
And I was because I was kind of told like, hey, I'm not sure he's going to get cut.
Like, you might get traded.
And I was like, you're not trading this guy.
Everyone in the league knows you're going to get cut.
Everyone knows he's going to get cut.
They're like, what?
I'm just saying, don't report it.
He's going to get cut because that's not true.
And then I'm like, well, I'm not trying to carry the team's water here.
So I'm kind of held on it.
And then sure enough, the team traded him, right?
And this is a way of saying how he kind of confined ways to get value.
I'd be surprised if they can trade them.
The Giants tried doing that two years ago.
It didn't work.
They cut them.
So we will see what happens there.
The other question that speaks to what you were just talking about before.
This is number 12, Julia.
It's can we revisit some sliding door?
decisions from earlier in the offseason with the benefit of hindsight.
For example, would you still choose to sign C.J. G.J.
over Patrick Queen knowing they drafted two DBs early.
This is from Eagle Outsider.
Yeah, that question kind of stood out to me, too.
I guess it's kind of a matter of you don't know how the draft is going to go.
Like the Eagles, how he talks about, we plan for every scenario, the worst scenarios.
But like, even if the draft board fell the way they wanted, they didn't know.
know in March that they were going to be able to get Quinean Mitchell at 22, right?
So, I mean, personally, I would like a little more stability at the linebacker position.
I would like one guy that I am confident in.
I like the upside of the two premium corners, right?
The chance that they can be the new Lido and Sheldon.
But for this year's team, yes, I would rather have a linebacker that I trust a little bit more.
But I understand why the Eagles, like, it's hard.
as good as how he is at planning, it's hard to know exactly how the draft is going to go
when you're making those big free agent decisions.
Sure.
So where I would push back on this a bit is the Eagles did not sign an outside corner during,
I mean, they had Isaiah Rogers on the roster waiting for them to be reinstated.
But I think they did keep that open for the draft.
Patrick Queen is an interesting sliding doors here.
So basically what you're saying is that if you know you have the gene, you can play the gene at safety,
if you're not giving CJ, GGA the money.
I still think safety would have been a target in free agency,
and I don't think they would have paid Patrick Queen
or the Steelers paid them.
Now, there are other things you can do in that sliding doors scenario.
Are there other ways you can spend it?
But I don't think they would have operated free agency differently.
Although when I've talked to you about this before,
one of the things I would change about the NFL is I would put free agency after the draft.
Yeah.
That's the way the NBA does it.
Now, the kind of pushback, I think, from the players,
and I get this is that that actually hurts veteran players
because now veteran players might not get contracts they would have gotten
because you drafted the player.
But from a roster construction perspective,
I think that if you, like free agency should be used to fill spots on your roster.
Exactly.
And yeah, so I like the way the NBA does it.
Now, the NBA is different.
You're not necessarily drafting for a need, right?
But if a great center falls, you know, if Donovan Klingen, if a team dress, Donovan Klingin this year,
am I pronouncing it correctly?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Then you're not going to sign a center, right?
So, or you're not going to sign a starting center, right?
Who blocks him?
So, yeah.
So I actually prefer it that way, but just the way the NFL calendar is, that does not occur.
But ultimately, like, it just, to me, it boils down to the,
the Eagles are not going to invest a ton of money on linebackers,
where when Devin White is their biggest financial commitment since Nigel Bradham,
like they have a queer philosophy about this.
It works some years.
It bites them other years,
but they have not really changed too much there.
As is often the case,
we got over 30 questions here.
I sent Julia 15,
and we're not going to be able to get to all 15.
So I think that just shows we can do a mailbag.
We can do a mailbag a lot more.
We can do a mailbag week, yes.
and I love Bo.
Bo's pushback is that it's like not original thinking.
I'm so strongly leaving mailbacks.
He's an artist, man.
Yes, exactly.
He doesn't like it if it's not his idea.
He would tell you that too.
It's like whenever at our previous employer,
I would give like story suggestions.
He's like, well, I can't write that now.
You suggested it.
Joy is laughing as she can see him saying that.
Yeah, it's like, unless he thinks of it, it's, it's not happening.
So we're going to jump.
I feel like I'm the therapist sometimes when,
no, there's no need for me.
It's good.
So let's, I say that with love.
TN says, guess, Bo needs to do a mailbag as well.
And thank you.
And Caliph says, you're right, CB, let's do a mailbag mega episode eight hours.
Khalif, we're on every single day.
We have shows, Khalif, from, you know, so we, the, I think training camp begins 12 weeks from now,
like 11 and a half at this point.
We'll have a show Monday to Friday every day during that span, except, well, we're not on tomorrow
because we did six shows last week.
But otherwise, outside of like Memorial Day and July 4th, like, we're here giving you Eagles
content.
I promise you there's going to be no shortage of Eagles mailbag shows.
don't need to do eight hours of mailbags.
We can do it maybe cumulatively.
We should have a mailbag week in July.
But one of the questions I want to get to, this isn't a doom or gloom question,
but this is something that I've actually heard from different corners.
And that is, does this team have the highest chance of a letdown in the Eagles history?
I'm sorry, Julie, this is number nine.
Compared to the dream team as an example, the defense was atrocious and they didn't do much
to change it aside from letting their best player go and drafting
rookies. The biggest free agent signing
was a running back. They lost Kelsey and
line depth. This is from Cheeziest
814 who is considering
doomsday scenarios when he's
preparing for this mailbag. What do you think?
Do you think there's a letdown possibility for the
Eagles? Sure. Always is.
I was going back and thinking
of the two most disappointing
teams in recent years. And when I
say disappointing, it's funny
because in hindsight, we actually
know why those teams were disappointing. And I'm
thinking of the 2011 Eagles and the 2015 Eagles.
But there was a lot of hype for those teams before the season started.
People thought they were going to be good.
One of them also involved a high-price running back signing as well, which was, I think,
a big reason for the optimism.
So, like, look, yeah, I think, I was trying to think for this team, if they fail,
why do they fail?
And, you know, there are a lot of things.
Like there's, you know, even smaller things.
Like let's say Dallas Goddard falls off a cliff, right?
And that makes your offense a little less dynamic.
That's not the number one reason.
I think the number one reason would be Jalen does not get them to top five, whatever status they are.
I know they were top 10 last year, but not to the level.
They need to be.
Van Gio is not the savior that it seemed like he was going to be.
But like I just think this team does not have too many holes, right?
Like when I look at the downside for this group, it's like, oh, yeah, the linebacker position is pretty weak.
Okay, the linebacker position is weak a lot of times, right?
And they can win double-digit games.
So I don't think it quite has the downside of other years, but I'd be curious if they failed, why you think that would happen.
So, yeah, to the point you said before about the year when there's great expectations, I'm going to quote the Philadelphia icon Jason Kelsey here.
and Jason Kelsey said this on July 29th, 2022.
And I've referenced this a number of times since.
He says, in this city, it feels like every year the media thinks we're really good, we end up being shitty.
And every year the media thinks we're going to be shitty, we end up being really good.
So, as someone who probably, who I've, this is not an exaggeration.
This is not hyperbole.
This is not like a Johnny Trihardt thing.
This is just, I'm telling you the truth.
I've literally thought about the Eagles every day for the past 13 years
because I've covered the team for 13 years
and there's not a day that goes by when I'm not like thinking about them.
Now there's some days I'm thinking about them more than others,
but I preface that as a way of saying
I have somewhat of a recall of this period.
And the years that have gone bad and the eagle people inside this building will tell you this,
it's not when the starters underperform.
It's when they don't.
have depth at sufficient areas. So how does this season go bad? Well, if Lane Johnson goes down
or Jordan Milada goes down and you don't have sufficient tackle depth. That is a concern right now.
That's why they signed Mackay Beckton. That's why we talked about them drafting a tackle.
That will be the first thing. The second thing is that this team won a Super Bowl with a backup
quarterback, right? If Gell and Hertz goes down and you turn to Kenny Pickett, can Kenny picket win
new games. And that's going to be the other question here. And we're not talked so obviously if a
quarterback goes down for any team, you know, it lowers, if you start, if your franchise quarterback
goes down, it lowers your ceiling. That's just a reality of it. You can't count on a Nick Foles
type thing. But let's say, even if it's not a seasoned ending injury, let's say it's a four to six
week injury, right? Does, does Kenny Pickett come in and go three and three in that span? Or does Kenny Pickett
could go one in five and then you're in struggling.
Yeah.
I think that's where it could go wrong.
Well, and it's like you said, too, when one position group is a complete disaster, probably
because of injury, sometimes because of investment, I see a lot of people in the chat are
talking about last year as one of the most disappointing seasons.
And yeah, it was disappointing in a kind of different way, you know, like where it really,
all the disappointment came in the last couple months, and ultimately they were playing
literally like one of the worst teams in the league
at the end of the year.
But when I think back to last year,
it's the linebackers were terrible, right?
They just could,
they could not get any stops on defense.
Throwing over the middle of the field
was very easy against them.
I think it's like you said too.
If Lane Johnson goes down,
the offensive line, right?
Like is the depth what it has been in past years, right?
Vaitai is the left tackle for the Super Bowl team.
I don't know.
I don't know.
They did not draft their offensive tackle of the future.
That's the one thing they did not do, so hopefully Beckton is good.
But, yeah, like when I think of those disappointing years, I think of, like, Demetri's Bell.
I remember that well, 2012.
Yep.
Well, and, you know, this team has had.
Jamon Brown.
Remember Jamon Brown in 2020?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and when this team is bad, it's usually the rare year that the offensive line is not dominant.
You know, it's average or, you know, it has a couple real problem spots.
So I would think that's probably a good way to.
to put it, right? They need to stay healthy there.
And they lost three offensive linemen from last year,
including the best center in the Eagles history.
Number seven here, why is Howie seemingly better at managing the cap than anyone else in the NFL?
What do the Eagles do that other teams won't or can't?
This is from Hunsonator.
Excuse me, so I'll jump in here.
And we talked about this on a previous show.
And it's, I talked about Jeffrey Lurie and the way the Eagle structure contracts.
is the way the Eagles manage the cap is they're not a pay-as-you-go team. And what I mean by that is a
pay-as-you-go team. Typically, your cap hit is around what you're getting paid that year, right?
It's mostly your base salary plus a little bonus money, or I shouldn't say more, plus bonus money,
but it's structured so that there's not these enormous, enormous cap hits one year relative to
another year. The Eagles don't view cap management that way. The Eagles keep the cap
numbers low early on. They pay bonus money. Bonus money is spread out over the life of the
contract from cap purposes. So if a play, if A.J. Brown gets 50 million dollar signing bonus today.
I forget what the exact signing bonus was, right? He would get that money today in theory,
or it's guaranteed, but that's spread over the life of the deal. And then the Eagles had voidable
year, so it's spread even farther there. So the logic the Eagles see here is that the cap's
going up, right? So it's basically if you're, if you're buying a car, right, or, you know,
then are you going to pay all the cash up front, right? Or are you going to get like, you know,
payments over the life of the deal? And in this case, you're not even paying interest, right?
So it's kind of like an interest-free way of paying it. Now, the downside of the strategy
is when you move on from the player, then that cap hit comes at one time, like Carson Wentz.
So sometimes you just suck it up and you take it there.
But if you make enough good bets, you're spreading it.
You know when you're moving on from the player and you've kind of prepared for that.
So as Howie would probably look at it, I keep using these kind of real-life examples.
It's like having a credit card bill.
Like you know at some point, you know, you need to pay your credit card.
So you spend with the understanding that you have to pay that bill at some point.
But you're still able to spend maybe money that other people aren't because you've kind of
planned your finances around when that bill is due.
So that's that's the way they do it.
And the key part of that is Jeffrey Lurie being willing to pay cash up front.
That's been maybe my biggest takeaway of this offseason as, you know, somebody who doesn't
understand everything about the NFL salary cap and really not a lot.
Like I only have so much bandwidth.
Like the NBA salary cap is confusing enough.
But one of the big takeaways, which has been explained by you, but also a bunch of people on Twitter, is that it's just that Jeffrey Lurie is willing to pay the money up front is such an advantage if you do make those right bets on Demonte Smith and Jalen Hertz and players like that.
Let me ask you a question.
Do you know of any other owners who also do that sort of strategy with their GM?
I mean, there are other owners that are, you know, aggressive in spending.
Yeah, I think, like, the Falcons are a team that's aggressive in spending.
But in terms of cat management, I don't have that answer for you right now.
That's actually a good one.
I will go back and see what teams are most comparable.
I think Cleveland is comparable there, which, you know, Andrew Barry came from,
or he spent a year with the Eagles, so he kind of has an understanding there.
But I will look that up in terms of that cash spending.
The last two questions
Dallas is not doing that. Dallas is not doing that.
Which is crazy. No, yeah. And they kind of
wait too long to pay for players sometimes too, as you're
seeing now. We
were kind of tight against time here.
So two fun questions here. Let's do one for me and one for you.
Number 14, this one will be for me.
Pecknext migrate, writing columns, postgame pods
doing midweek radio spots.
This is from Jordan Gillis.
Look, postgame pods aren't the same for me now as they once were
because I'm not doing these marathon sessions after writing.
We have this amazing post-game show now.
It's going to get even better next season
and the year after that and the year after that
as we continue to figure out what's best for the audience.
And I kind of chime in for 15 minutes from the game
as opposed to doing the 3 a.m. show with Bo.
But I understand the spirit of the question.
So the spirit of the question here is,
I'll peck the post-game pod,
the best game to post-game show.
I don't want to do that every night, but it's part of the job.
The NFL only has, you know, 17 games, right, soon to be 18, I imagine.
Then you have the playoffs and the preseason.
So you're looking at like 20 to 25 times a year when this is happening.
I mean, look, no one should cry for the reporter who has to, you know, jump on a post game pot at 3 a.m.
25 times a year, right?
I will always nest the writing.
I think that writing is a foundation.
and I'm kind of getting on a soapbox here, but, like, the, you know, I get up here and talk every day with this job, right?
But what's the distinguishing? Like, like, why should someone listen?
Well, it should be because, like, you're reporting, you're informed, you're not just kind of giving just whatever's kind of on the seat of your pants type opinion.
Like, there's some meat and heft behind it, and that comes from writing.
And I think, you know, I write every single day, even if it's not appearing, like I'm working on writing, because I think it's a muscle that atrophies if you don't use it.
And then migrating the midweek radio spots.
This has to hurt you a little bit, though, what's that?
To migrate the midweek radio spots.
Yeah, but you know what?
That's not like the foundational part that, like, I'm not getting, you know, that's, that's kind of what I do for maybe fun or visibility or to promote the PHLI brand or the other places where I've worked in the past.
but it's not the core part of the job, right?
So, you know, the work is the work.
You have to know what you're getting paid for.
And, yeah, so I would migrate that, but I certainly don't want to.
I enjoy doing that.
So then number 15, and this is for you.
And look, kill maximum or clean maximum.
Come on, man.
We don't need negative vibes here.
But do you think the Sixers inevitable heartbreak comes in game six or game seven?
So you can answer that, or you can tell me why the inevitable heart rate won't come in game six or game seven.
But I'm deferring.
I know there's ample time to talk about this on the P. H.L.L.Y. Sixer show.
But for the P.H.L.Y. Eagles audience, let's give this to us.
I think it's game seven.
It's been an amazing series.
Yeah.
It really is.
Like, every game is, like, tonight's game is going to be 92, 92 with three minutes left.
And we'll see what happens after it's over.
Like, it's something I've been saying on The Sixers show where it's just like the neutral NBA fans, the national writers are like, this is amazing.
Like the people who don't care about the results are like, this is great.
Like this is like old school Eastern Conference basketball.
This is fun.
I think it's probably pretty similar to the Eagle Super Bowls, the last two that they've played to high scoring excellent games.
Like if you're just at a Super Bowl party watching the game, you're like, this is fantastic.
but if you actually care about it, it's torture, right?
Yes, I hear you there.
And I acknowledge all of us.
And the Knicks are a team that I appreciate.
They play so hard, right?
They're so tough.
That said, I, this isn't like my shady rays optimistic view of the week here or something like that.
Like this is me speaking as someone who loves basketball, who's watch me.
basketball my entire life.
Like, if you just look at this, the sixers are leading and point differential in this
series, okay?
They have two of the best three guys on the court in, you know, in this series.
The Knicks might have the five next best guys.
Yeah, but, you know, I think, I think you win with stars, right?
Sure.
The Knicks are down to seven guys right now, right?
So.
Some of the sixers.
Yeah.
No, I get that.
I get that.
These games have been close.
I can see a pathway.
Look, I say this all the time with seven-game series,
and it's like the most obvious thing.
Win the night, and it's one game.
Win the night, it's one game.
Now, it's one game on the road.
Last year was one game on the road in Boston,
and they got the crap kicked out of them, right?
But it's one game on the road.
Now, you can say the Eagles are going to be,
or the Sixers will run out of Gaz,
but I don't know, man.
I mean, I think, like...
I just think it's two 50-50 games,
and unfortunately, they have to win
both of them. True. True. I've just seen so many times in sports when the team that's about to lose it,
you know, I brought up on the other show, Dave Roberts is stolen base in the 2004 Red Sox series,
or I think about Ray Allen hitting the corner three against the spurs.
Decisionless basketball. There you go. Sometimes when you're on the brink, you know,
you're on the brink and you get that life, it rejuvenates you. And it, like, destroy you.
the other team, right? The Knicks were, what, 14 seconds away from moving on to having the
Pacers or the beat-up bucks in the next series, and now they have to go down to Philly. So, I don't
know. I mean, I'm not, look, I'm not trying to be like Johnny Optimist here. I'm just saying,
like you said, two 50-50 games. Don't be optimist. And if you flip a coin twice,
it's not always going to be heads and tails, right? It might be heads twice. I'm with you. It might be
tails twice. I'm with you. I just think it's. I just think it's.
It's hard to win three toss-up games.
And look, the other thing, too, is, like, they have to find a way to play Joel
38 minutes instead of 45 minutes.
Sure.
It's like, I'm with you there.
It's absolutely crazy that they keep having to play him for these entire second halves.
And I will say, I love Tyrese Maxie, and he was the reason they won that game the other night
down the stretch.
He bailed out Joel.
But, like, can you just play good at the beginning of the second quarter and the beginning
of the fourth quarter?
Can you have the two three-pointers?
during that stretch because guess what the big guy will be better because they'll be able to sit them so so while
you're here let's let the p hio i eagles audience know what's coming up on the p h oi sixers show yeah we have a
postgame pod the night we actually had the uh the watch along the other night which was a good night for
it because you got to see me freaking out about uh maxi's shot while devon is complaining about
him missing free throws beforehand devon come on man like that was an amazing shot he just made a 34 footer
to save the season.
But that's, that's Devon's nature.
Yeah, we have a pod.
It'll be at like 2 a.m. the night whenever the game ends.
So, you know, either tune in live or get it tomorrow.
It'll be in your podcast feed.
I will be tuning in live tonight.
Looking forward to that.
For our loyal audience here at the P.H.I. Eagle Show, we will not be on at noon tomorrow.
We gave you 15 hours of draft content last weekend.
We did six shows.
And so Friday is a day when we are.
They're not on the air, but I will be at the NovaCare Complex tomorrow, the Eagles facility, for their rookie minicamp.
Looking forward to speaking to Nick Siriani, looking forward to speaking to the rookies.
And you can check out all-P-H-L-Y.com for something from there.
And you can check out our YouTube page and our social for a video report from the rookie minicamp.
And we'll be back on Monday at noon.
It won't be a mailbag, but we'll be back.
looking forward to that rich i appreciate you joining us today as always julia every day gets a given
does an amazing job and until then enjoy your weekend enjoy the sixers content maybe there'll be
two shows this this uh or two post game shows coming up we'll see um until then bo will say we love you
i will say we'll do better next time thank you for watching
