PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Emergency pod: Philadelphia Eagles add ex-Patriots WR DeVante Parker

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Surprise! The Eagles added another offensive player Tuesday, agreeing to terms with 31-year-old WR DeVante Parker, who will be penciled in as the Quez Watkins replacement. 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.

Vante Parker, the newest eagle. We are here for another emergency pod. Bowulf, Zach Berman, and those of you who were with us at the end of today's show, you have been waiting with bated breath. There was a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the episode, wondering what was it that Zach had to Google that he instantly regretted? And now we have joined you to be able to deliver that answer. Zach, what was it?

We should talk about the news first. But no, it was Kua Cal mentioned what's it called hen Thai. I don't know. Something henty. I didn't know what it was. I'm sorry that I Googled it.

And that's the end of that story. What did you learn? Let's talk about them. Nothing. I quickly, yeah, quickly turn off, X'd out the screen.

Yes. But let's get to, let's get to the Eagles news. All right. Now, before we get to Devante Parker, the other news that has dropped recently, I'm sorry. Jeremy Chin,

your boy is going to the Washington commanders. Dan Quinn, a man who knows a little something about defense. He wants to use the versatile chess piece of Jeremy Chin, the Quinn and Chin. That's interesting. Zach, how you're feeling? Well, I said going into the free agency that I didn't think he was a scheme fit for the Eagles. And certainly Dan Quinn.

You can't have both ways. No, that's literally what I said. And Dan Quinn, credit the team. Dan Quinn, because you look at players like Keanu Neal, players like Jayron Kirst, he's done a really good job of these hybrid safety linebacker types and turning them into productive players. And I imagine that's what his plan is with Jeremy Chin. If you just go based on Carolina's defense last year, which is based off of the Vic Fangio

tree, Jeremy Chin was not a fit there. So with what the Eagles are looking for at safety or what we speculate or expect the Eagles to look for at safety, Jeremy Chin didn't necessarily fit there. Maybe as a lie, I know the front office liked him, right? But for agency, like we said, you sign players for the scheme you have and Chin wouldn't really fit in this scheme. Okay.

Well, as for a wide receiver, Zach, we speculated that maybe the Eagles would try to get a little sneaky. You know, maybe they could play a trick on opposing defenses by signing Noah Brown. And then you've got two wide receivers named Brown and the defense. So it was all a flutter. They don't know what to do. Which one should recover? The Eagles took it in a different direction and a direction that I feel like is not going to be as successful as a gambit. And that is they've added a Devante to join Devante Smith.

Devante Parker is here. What can you tell us about the newest eagle? Well, in like 2020, this would have been a great signing, right? Or 2019. That's not a debatable, but. Yeah, I mean, Devante Parker is entering year 10 in the NFL. He hasn't been particularly productive with New England. The Eagles are getting him on the cheap because New England's picking up a part of the salary here.

So the Eagles are only really really have to pay him the veteran minimum. So it's not costing you anything. I don't necessarily know what he's adding. I mean, I do know what he's adding. He's adding size, like an experienced outside receiver, can win, can't. tested catches. Yeah. Okay.

I was a little more, I was a little more bullish. I feel like this is the lowest I've ever heard you on anybody. I was a little more bullish last year on the Holyo Jones signing. Look, if you're going into this season and you're like, Devante Parker's a depth piece for you, that's fine.

But the reality is your fourth or fifth receiver is going to have to play special teams, right? And that's not really what Parker does. So, yeah, I mean, kind of unmoved by the signing. I really, you know, you're not surprised when I say this. I liked him coming out Louisville. That was 10 years ago. I liked him when he was with Miami.

He had that thousand yard season. But, yeah, this is one of those where I'm like, really? Now, as I said, it doesn't cost you anything. It's just a veteran minimum. So it's like a no risk signing, but I have very little expectations about Devante Parker. You have done something unbelievable here, Zach. You have painted me into the corner of having to defend Devante Parker. For you to say you're not to agree with me, Bo.

For you to say that you were more excited about the Julio Jones signing. Yeah. Julio Jones over the past three years, Zach, has 807 combined receiving yards. 434, 299, 74. Devante Parker has been better than that in every single one of those years. 515, 539, 394. Like, we're going to get to the profile of player he is. But don't bring me Julio Jones and the whiff, the whiff of Canton as mattering in relation

to Devante Parker, who is also old and 31 years old, but at least like can still run 100 yards without having to call over the trainers. I mean, I think we are missing the point here if we're spending this debating Devante Parker versus Julio Jones, right? By the way, is that a gold microphone you have?

No, it's a silver microphone. For whatever reason, the lighting makes it look very fancy. It's the lighting. Back when in our former show, I made sure that my home office was all like the lighting and everything was good for regular pods and now we only use this room for emergency pods and all my writing right but uh so you were on the record as

as skeptical that devante parker is going to come can you repeat that question i mean he's you don't think he's coming he's signing with the eagles yes he's signing with the eagles you're not going to you're not going to beat me into saying there's probably already is a drop in this show that I didn't realize, you're not going to bait me into saying something. Okay, I have two, I have two separate lines of thought on Devante Parker here.

Yes. And it will not surprise you that both of them are pushing back on the narratives that are being espoused. One, is this idea that this is like a fully guaranteed contract that the Eagles are signing, that like as it's being reported,

like on behalf of the agent, doesn't make any sense to me. I would imagine that there is, there are no guarantee. or maybe like very small guarantees. I don't even think that they're guaranteeing the, the veteran minimum here. Like that would be some,

that would be a surprise to me. I do not think that Devante Parker is guaranteed of being on the team week one. Well, no, my interpretation of this is that he's guaranteed that money from knowing one. Right. Right. But it says the Eagles are,

but there have been reports. I think Shepter said like the Eagles are on the hook for, you know, 1.5 or whatever it is. Yeah, that's the salary they would pay him. If he makes the roster. If he makes the roster.

I am saying it's being presented as like, Eagles are guaranteeing him that money. I think he is guaranteed that money because he's going to get it. But I don't think the Eagles aren't guaranteeing it. I think there is every expectation that Devante Parker may not be on the team. Like if he shows up to camp and doesn't have his legs anymore, there's like absolutely there are no guarantees for him to be on this roster. I actually think it's probably the fact that Devante Parker is the guy that they have signed

in what is admittedly a very, very, very weak group of white. wide receiver free agents is probably a good supporting case for your expectation that they're going to draft a wide receiver in the first three picks. I still think they might wait a little bit longer, but Devonte Parker is on the roster to be beaten out by somebody. The Eagles are stacking the deck against him, you might say. Oh, good. On the flip side.

The thing that you will see get thrown around right now. I know it was a Warren Sharp tweet that like Devonte Parker was dead last in the league among all qualifying wide receivers in separation over each of the past four seasons. That is true, but that is actually, like, that tells you the kind of player that he is, and the skill set that he brings to the table, which is he is good at contested catches, right? Like, they throw him the ball when he's covered because he can still catch the ball. That is what he is good at. So you look at even just over the last two years when he was playing on a terrible Patriots offense,

of 95 qualifying wide receivers, 10th in air yards per target. So this is a guy, and he's also, I think, third or fourth lowest among all of those wide receivers in slot percentage. So this is a guy who lines up on the outside and runs down the field. And if you think of it as he's always covered and he's never open, but he's still, you know, 57th of 95 of those guys in reception rate, that means that he is doing a pretty good job catching the balls that are difficult to catch. He's 56th in yards per rut run, which is grouping him with guys like Brandon Cooks and Gabe Davis and Curtis Samuel and Marquis Brown in terms of yards per target. So when he's actually thrown the ball, he was 17th of those 95 wide receivers with at least 50 catches over the past two years. So I think he is okay.

He is rosterable. Now, he's 31 years old. I would be pretty surprised if he's bringing much to the table. But I think if he's on the roster, if he makes the roster, I would expect him to be more productive than Julio Jones was. I think he can bring a little bit something to the table. What is interesting to me about the Eagles going after him.

And, you know, again, going after him is like a pretty low level here. They're not on the hook for anything, I think, is that they're going after someone who is not a slot capable guy. That they are, you know, if Devante Parker, if things go wrong and he is the number three receiver, that means that maybe Devante Smith is going to be spending a little bit more time in the slot because that is not a thing that Devante Parker does.

Good points. I'm like I'm not going to try to talk Eagles fans into this one. I'm not like going to try to rationalize. I like the guy like somebody was waiting in the chat before I said this has ruined free agency to me. We would get more out of playing, paying Zach, $45 an hour. I had a friend, one of my good friends from, who is a Patriots fan texted me,

just let Eagles fans know that Devante Parker is terrible. Oh, no, sorry, that he blows. So, yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, like, the only thing I can think of is that, you know, Matt Patricia was talking about the great offenses that he ran in 2022. It was like, and we had Devonthe Parker out there. Actually, that's a good, that's a good theory because I actually think it went the other way. I think Matt Patricia got.

Matt to Philadelphia. It was like, yeah, you know, my offense would have been a lot better, but I had this guy, Devante Parker, who stunk. And I learned like, I had to keep playing him. And that was really the reason that my offense was bad. And so everything goes wrong for the Eagles with Matt Patricia in Philadelphia. And they think to themselves, wait a second. If he was lying to us about everything, maybe we should give this Devante Parker guy a shot. Yeah. Look, I don't want to be, I don't want to be like tongue and cheek here because it's something that actually Jim Schwartz always says. emphasized to me.

Well, I say to me like him and I had these long conversations. But Jim Schwartz had, I'm sorry, Jim Schwartz had a great respect for 10-year pros. That was kind of something that he always said. The last 10 years in the NFL, it doesn't just take talent. It takes like a degree of professionalism. And like there's, there's something to be said about lasting 10 years in the NFL. I just don't, this signing doesn't do anything. If we degrading the moves on this one tonight, I'll just say, yeah, I mean, it's a roster body.

If he gives you some contested catchability as your fourth receiver, okay, you're not making any offensive plans around Devante Parker. And if you are, that's problematic. Like the Patriots offense was, it was really bad these past two years. And DeMonte Parker didn't make it better. It wasn't Devonter Parker's fault. No, but my point is, is that I don't. think I don't think the Eagles it would surprise me if the Eagles are putting their 2024 plans together and they're in the room right now and they're like all right we have Devante Parker

right like this to me is but that's the whole point is that he's he's here to fill in a spot until somebody else comes along exactly I mean he's a better player than quez Watkins even if he's 31 years old and he's a different player but yeah he's probably a better player than alamede is Akees. And if Jalen Hertz will throw him the ball three times a game when he's on the field, that makes him a better player. Yeah. Well, one thing I can't believe that when this, when this, this news broke, and I was like,

oh, Devante Parker, now I have to be the Defante Parker guy. Hey, you're the Devonte Parker guy. I mean, you are allowed to agree with me. You don't have to disagree with me on everything. Well, I'm not disagreeing with you just to disagree with you. I just, I think, like, he's fine. And they're not on the hook for anything here. Yeah, and the one thing that I will add, and you made this point about how he's not a slot guy,

one thing that I did hear last year was the Eagles really didn't have a backup for A.J. Brown. Like if A.J. Brown's been very durable for the Eagles these past two years. I know he missed the playoff game, but overall, he's been durable. But if, if A.J. Brown missed time. The Eagles don't have that traditional ex-receiver, right, on the outside. And I think, you know, Devante Parker, at least gives you, use Bo's word,

a facsimile, uh, of, facsimile, sorry, not a face smile, though, um,

of someone who, who has filled that role and can be like, he can, he can win contested catches. Big body, that's fine. I'm not, uh,

again, I'm nonplussed. Is that the word nonplussed? Yeah. I think that's totally reasonable. And also, you know, just looking at his stats,

like his yards per catch went from, 17.4 in 2022 to 11.9 in 2020 and his catch rate dropped and like there's a chance that like the wheels have just totally come off he's got nothing left in his legs again i don't think that the eagles are committing anything here i just think that this is fine box checking business yeah fair enough i'm with you there i mean it's you know you're not going to you're not going to be paying darnal mooney 13 million dollars right so if you want a guy in the building this is this is totally fine and you see what else comes along.

Yeah, and the tracks is when they'll see when that comes along. Yeah, I think that's totally reasonable. Now, okay, two other things that I want to get to in this emergency pod, Zach. The first is a report from Jeff McLean that Josh Wet, as he says, is more expendable than Hassan Reddick. The Eagles are trying to trade both, and if they can't move the former, I wouldn't be surprised if he was just released. What do you make of this?

Well, that would be poor roster management from my perspective. And look, I- Who's serial did Josh Swet Pian? I mean, the only, if there's like internally thought that Josh Swet was problematic at the end of the year or something like that, but even still, like, this is- What could he have done? That's what I'm saying.

In what world do they just cut, cut, like, productive 20s, year old, you know, you know, 27-year-old pass rushers. It just doesn't, it doesn't add up to me. So, yeah,

that, that would really surprise me. I mean, you know, it's not like apples for apples, but I mean, Hallie Roseman, I remember when,

when the Eagles just cut Deshawn Jackson for nothing, he was like, he couldn't believe it, right? You know, I mean, he was technically the GM at the time,

but that was kind of a chip gallery motivated decision. I can't see the, now, look, Jeff is an outstanding reporter. And Jeff, Jeff would not report something that is not like coming from a legit place. So I'm not going to say I disagree with Jeff's reporting.

I'm going to disagree with. Obviously, he's hearing that. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I'm going to disagree with Eagle's logic here. Like, if that happens, it's just port roster management from my perspective here. I mean, it looks like just on over the cap, like if you were going to do that, you would have, you would have to designate him as a post June 1 cut. And it would be, I mean, it would save $4.3 million against the cap and you would be eating about $5 million of dead money and you'd be pushing a lot to the future.

But he's not a bad player. Yeah, what are we doing here? Exactly. So, yeah, it just strikes me, it strikes me. It strikes me as really odd. I mean, if that were to be the case, there would have to be more to the story. Yeah. seriously. I mean, we need to see what...

What did he do? Build Howie a bad computer? I mean, he really could have building computers, but no, I, this, let's see what happens with the Josh Sweat thing. If the Eagles have traded far worse players for something. So good point. Yeah. All right. Last thing I want to talk about is, you know, we talked about Jeremy Chin, but the linebackers continue to come off the board. Patrick Queen signs, my guy, Josie Jewel.

He's not even my guy. You've made him my guy. Yeah, he's your type, that's for sure. What does that mean? Got a fun name? Yeah, like a 29-year-old linebacker. Yeah, so anyways, go on. Okay, so, I mean, the guys who were left, Jerome Baker,

who we have talked about, the winner of Gwacketology, Willie Gay, Devin White, Tyrell Dodson, that's about it. Cody Barton, if you're nasty. Why do you keep saying Cody Barton? I don't know.

I said it the second time because I said it the first time, because I don't think he's very good. And if he was the one guy they signed, then that would be pretty disappointing. Maybe there are trade targets. I kind of, let's just let's get this Josh Swet, Ernest Jones deal done and really make me look like a sage. That would be impressive if that occurs.

Like there has to be a player for player deal you can do for sweat. I can't imagine the league is so sour on Josh Sweat that you have to release him. It just, this strikes me as very odd right now. Yeah, so I let's let's see what happens there. But the linebacker market, a lot of these linebackers have gotten paid. There are still decent linebackers out there. Perhaps Eagles are letting the market come to them. Perhaps there's a trade.

I still think, and I still think. And I saw this reported maybe by Daniel Jeremiah, and it's what I said yesterday in my predictions that I think the Eagles trade for a D-back. Like I think the Eagles trade for a corner. But at safety and linebacker still think they signed somebody. Jerome Baker makes sense from the fit in Fangio scheme and the experience with Fangio. We said Devin White kind of has a bit of Howie-ish to him. But not a Fangio-ish. Not a Fangio-ish.

Yeah, howie-ish. Yeah, still some There's still some good safeties on the market. That's how I feel about Willie Gay too. Like, I can see how we like in Willie Gay. I do not think that Vic Fangio is going to like Willie Gay. Yeah. I would agree with you there.

I would agree with you there. Okay. What are you distracted by? No, I was going to say if the Eagles really want to get kind of interesting here. Oh. I mean, they could sign Isaiah Simmons. saying.

I wanted to see what your reaction would be if I said that. They want to be bad? No, they want to be versatile. Again, also not a phangio player in my mind. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. No, I was joking there. No, I think of those guys, I think Jerome Baker makes the most sense for the reasons that we picked them in quacketology, young, or like still in his prime, experiencing in this game, you know, good athlete.

productive player. That's something that I would be curious about. Let's say, let's call it over the next 24 hours. The Eagles signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Jerome Baker, and they trade Josh Sweat for a fourth round pick. How would you grade the first three days of the league year? I would say they didn't get enough for Josh Swet, although they're probably getting what the market's dictating, right?

How would I rate it? I'll probably be unmoved by that. Although I would like Garner Johnson. I like Bryce Huff. And I said that they're going to go after, you know, 26, 20, you know, core players on the like guys that are going to have for three, four years on defense or two, three years in defense that. Yeah. But I would still say that it's probably not the way I would have approached this. I would have wanted more direct capital.

if you're moving sweat and you're bringing in Huff, I would have wanted more draft capital to do that. I would still need to see what they do at Corner. I would like the CJ Gardner-Johnson thing. You get competent play at safety. You upgrade, I'm sorry, a linebacker there. You upgrade a running back. But I still wouldn't think that's enough.

And Devante Parker signing wouldn't do anything for me either. So you are crushing this poor guy. The stictiveness of this guy, last in the league 10 years as a first round pick who was pretty underwhelming, but still fighting his way. I respect that. I know, but you can't say you respect it, but then talk him down to his face.

Actions matter. I thought I said I'm unmoved by the signing. I'm unmoved by the signing. I'm not like, I'm not ripping on him. I thought, I mean, it seems to me like you're saying, like the Eagles should fold the franchise at this point for daring to spend the veteran minimum on Devante Parker. That's not at all what I am suggesting.

But the Eagles did make two other moves today. We mentioned I broke into your monologue earlier with the Braden Man news, and that is official. And then the Eagles brought back Rick Levato. Rick Levato won the four players remaining from the Super Bowl team in 2017. He was number one on Boat Wolf's list on Flew World Order. Now you look this up. I just remember because I had AJ and I was like,

who is the better chance to be on the team than AJ? And you're like, Levato. And I was like, uh, okay, I suppose so. So yeah, the Eagles bring back Levato. So I have it here, actually. I can run us down real quick. Okay. So I had Lovato is back.

That's one for me and a two for you. So at one point difference in my favor, if we presume that AJ Brown is going to be on the week one roster, then we can call it a wash. Braden Mann, you had as three, I had as five, but Brandon Graham, I had as three and you had as five. So again, we remain deadlocked. Jack Stole, I had as four, you had as six.

Jason Kelsey, I had as more likely to be back than you did. So six, eight, but still no blood. Of the guys who have been re-signed, I believe it's only Albert O, which gives me a three-point edge, 21 to 24. No, Fletcher Cox. I was more confident Fletcher wouldn't return than you were.

You were, but those points don't count because he's not here. But you have more points on the table in terms of the guys who have actually resigned, I am three points ahead of you. Yeah. You were more confident in his retirement than I was. Same with Kelsey.

I was more confident in Avanti Maddox's return than you were. So you have potentially some points coming to you, but it has not happened yet. We were really, we were weirdly high on Devin Allen, huh? We just thought maybe they would bring him back. Yeah, well, because he's one who only, if he's on the roster at any point over the course of the season. So, yeah, I still, I guess I stay by that, but it is, it stands out as funny.

Yeah, that's funny. Let's, let's wrap this bad boy up, Zach, because. And we could be back in two hours with the Josh Swett movie. We could be back in eight minutes. Oh, yeah, we have a super chat. Super chat. Bo and Zach are the goats. By the way, Bo, who is the goat eagle, Christian Ellis, Reggie Brown, or Matt Ware?

interesting troika that you come up with there I would I mean of the of the choices I'd have to go Christian Ellis Chris but as a Chris yourself you need to know that Christian Ellis has a second S so show some love I think we'll be all about Christian's younger brother I believe Jonah who is in the draft class this year yes not yeah he has a brother Noah he has who is on the Eagles yes he's a brother Caden

who is on the fed still on the Falcons. Yes. And then Jonah coming out of Utah this year. Good job by you, Zach, playing that straight and not stepping at it. I appreciate that. You have learned over the years. Good job by you.

Thank you. And thank you for the kind words, Chris. So we'll wrap this bad boy up. Apologies to everybody for being sort of brought down by Zach's negativity on Devante Parker. I think you can understand that the Jeremy Chin signing elsewhere has sort of affected his mood. But that's okay. We still love it.

It's not that at all. It's not that at all. Hey, DeVante, if you're watching, I'm just, I just can't, I can't tell the fan base, like, all right, book your tickets to New Orleans. Devante Parker is here, right? I don't even know if DeVante Parker's going to go into Brazil with the team. I respect the career that he's had. I liked him coming out of Louisville. I liked him for some time with the Dolphins.

I'm unmoved by signing Devante Parker. at this stage of his career in March, but also it's a no-risk signing. If he turns a, if he gets in that time machine and he's the Devante Parker from five years ago, terrific for the Eagles. But I am skeptical that's going to occur. Okay.

Thanks to everybody for watching this Bad Boy Live and everybody who's listening and watching after the fact. We will be back whenever there is Eagles news. If there isn't, we'll be back at noon on Wednesday. We look forward to that. And that'll do it. Thank you to Julia.

Thanks to everybody for watching and listening. Thanks to Zach. And as always, we love you. You're all silly like the mayor.