PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Emergency pod: Philadelphia Eagles add LB Devin White

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Have you heard about this to be called a “linebacker?” You seen this? You heard about this?The Eagles made their first move at a position of significant need Thursday night, adding one-time No. 5 overall pick Devin White, formerly of the Tampa Bay Bucs. Zach Berman and Bo Wulf react and break it down. 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 an emergency podcast, a true emergency podcast, not just happy new year, but a real nuts and bolts addition to the Eagles roster. The Eagles have finally addressed linebacker in free agency by way of a name, a name you are familiar with, a name that comes with some bad opinions from the made-up grading community, a name that, is on the outs in his former place, but a former top five pick, you can rest assured that Zach Berman loved him coming out. Devin White is a Philadelphia Eagle, Zach, on a one-year deal reportedly worth up to doing a lot of work, seven and a half million dollars,

which would represent the Eagles' biggest investment in a linebacker in quite some time. Probably more likely, it's a little bit lower, and it comes between the Kaiser White Nigel Bradham range. How you feeling about it, Zach? How you doing what's going on? Yeah, this is a sign that we've been discussing. We talked a few times about Demand White and is a name. There is draft pedigree, of course. Coming out of college, there was elite athleticism.

Now, he's been in the league for five years, and he lost his job, basically, with the bucks. He got benched. You can say they're complicating, factors at play there. He was unhappy. He didn't get a new contract. He wanted to be traded. There was some injury. But the reality is he was not the player last year that he was the first two years of his career. And he was, you know, an all pro early in his career. He was a key player on a Super Bowl team. But the Tempe Buccaneers did not keep him. And when you have the number five

pick in the draft and you just let the guy go, right? That that says something because you spend the number five pick on a player who you're expecting to be a core player in your system. It's not like he left because of money. They just decided this was not the player for them anymore. So you need to understand that going into it. Now, from the Eagles perspective, you don't just evaluate the player, you evaluate the alternatives. And like based on who was left on the market, it was pretty bare. We had been discussing this. There wasn't a surplus of options. I could tell you now, because I'm imagine we'll get to it. I would probably have preferred Willie Gay, the contract he had, than Devin White, the contract that Devin White had. If you're going to pay upwards of like $8, $9 million,

I would have gone after Jordan Brooks on a multi-year deal. But given, we'll see what the contract is when it comes out. There's some upside here. There's certainly some risk here. It's the way the Eagles approached linebacker this offseason. And I think with what the alternatives were on the market right now outside of Jerome Baker, there's no one that screams to me. It would have been a better play than Devin White. Yeah, I have a couple of thoughts here. First of all, thank you for indulging me and pushing the show to 930. I know we were maybe going to go earlier.

I do have to tell you that the reason that I wanted to push it back is because the big Yukon-Minnesota Duluth game was at 7 o'clock first round of the NCAA tournament. first time, the women, the hockey team. And for the third straight game, dating back to semifinals of the Hockey East tournament, to the finals of the Hockey East tournament, they are in overtime. And so I am dual screening you right now. I just need you to know that I am a bit of a split attention. That's okay.

I'll carry us. But a couple of thoughts on Devin White as Yukon forges ahead. I think the Eagles know all of these things, right? The book is that he was benched because he was freelancing too much. There are some reports that part of that had to do with the fact that he was unhappy about not getting his fifth year option picked up. There is obviously some disagreement. And I feel like we've used the word acrimony a lot over the last four days, a little bit of acrimony with the coaching staff. I understand that this is a 26-year-old with pedigree,

and you can talk yourself into this is a different system. This is a different scheme. Maybe we will have a different plan for him than he was, and then the way that he was used with Todd Bowles. Now, Todd Bowles is a very good defensive coach, but they were asking different things of him. He has playmaking upside. We will get to some of those statistics.

My biggest takeaway is that I do not think that you can still go into week one, and I don't imagine they will, imagining that Devin White and Nicoby Dean are your linebackers and you're good there. I feel like this is maybe a prelude to like a Zach Cunningham resigning because you need one other dependable-ish guy there. But I actually, like, given the options, I don't mind this. And I know that there, like, there is downside that he's going to be lost, but the way that I think about defense these days, where you're trying to just like force turnovers and you're looking for guys who can make big plays. Devin White can do that.

He's going to frustrate you. You're going to be shaking your head and screaming at the TV sometimes, but he has playmaking upside that I think in the middle of this defense, they can use. Yeah, good points. And I think that's awesome about your sister, right? It's cool you're watching it. That relationship's really cool to see. I want to just give a quick, like, fact correction.

I don't mean to like, I'll get us off. Of course, it was they did pick up his fifth year option. He wanted a new contract. I'm sorry. Yeah, I appreciate you correcting that. Yeah. And so it's the fact, so I bring that up because the fact that they picked up his fifth year option shows you that like they didn't like they didn't like they didn't view him as what he ended up when they did it. Yeah, he was a second team all pro in 2020 and all a pro bowler in 2021.

Yeah. He has had stretches of high level play. This is not a guy who, this is not Devin Bush, for instance. Exactly. This is a guy who has been an impact player. Yeah. And you put it more succinctly than I could have it at there. Like there's this idea that he's this bust.

And like the reality, he was he was overdrafted. And you're the fifth pick in the draft. You don't get a second contract with your team. But he's been really productive for them in the sense that like we all saw that Super Bowl when he had to pick six. Right. And he's been a key player on key team. he wore the sea on his chest. We all saw that on the photos.

So this was not a case. Like you mentioned, Devin Bush was the same draft. Pittsburgh traded up for him. They didn't keep him after four years. I think the frustration from Devin White's perspective, from what I understand, is he wanted the big contract after or going into year five.

Tampa Bay didn't give it to him. Then last year was a disaster. He got benched for KJ. Britt later on in the year. They were splitting time in the postseason. and in the late season. So, yeah, look, you're, I don't think this is a prelude to a Zach Cunningham type. I think it's probably, it could be a prelude to a draft, you know, to a draft pick, a third round pick or something like that, where Devin White's holding the seat until someone comes in.

I think this is probably your, your veteran ad. I could be wrong. Now, if they, if they bring in a veteran, like my point is this, and we do have to see the contract. but I think they would have done what they did last year where they signed two cheap guys and let them go out for it. If there's any type of real money here, Devin White's going to be on the team and you'll expect him to be the front runner to be the starter.

Yeah, I mean, my guess is it's really like a $5 million deal. Yeah, which is still an investment for them at line back. But keep in mind, as we keep talking about it, like as Josh Jolentino told us, like Nicopi Dean's coming off two Liz Frank injuries. So you are not, you are not, just, you know, penning him in to be on the weekwind roster. And even regardless of that, he hasn't proven he can stay healthy. So the Eagles need to be aware of that. And I'm sure that

they are. I think it's interesting what it tells us of them going after Devin White here because you know, they're talking to Vic Fangio. Like our guess was like a like he's probably not going to be a Vic Fangio guy because his reputation is that of a freelancer. Well, Vic Fangio knows that. And he's obviously signing off on this. He sees the tools in the body and he, I'm sure, thinks that he can get the most out of that. You talk about just the big plays that I was alluding to. This is like a, this is a made-up stat, okay, but it's just sacks plus interceptions, plus force fumbles, plus fumble recoveries over the past two seasons among linebackers. It's Frankie Louvo and DeMario Davis tied at the top, then Patrick Queen and Josie Jewel. Then it's Devin White after that. He had eight sacks.

Now that is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, and it's hard to divorce that from the way that he was used by Todd Bowles because Todd Bowles is so good at designing blitzes, but keeping that in mind of all the pass rushers over the past two seasons, who have had at least 200 pass rush naps, Devin White has the second best rate of quarterback hits behind Patrick Queen. Now, those blitzing linebackers are going to do a lot of work there, but he is good at that.

It's not a thing he's going to be asked to do a ton under Vic Fangio, but it sort of just speaks to, you know, I don't want to go shark in the water too much, but this is a guy who has, like, call it like heat-seeking missile capabilities if you want to get really aggressive. No, that's a good point.

And I'm not totally on board with you as far as like the only thing that matters on defense is forcing turnovers. Yeah, that's overstating it for sure. But it is a big part of it. And you do want like playmaking. shops. And there's two ways you can go a linebacker. You can go with the guy who might be out of position, you know, might give up that touchdown to Najee Harris. But then he could also

have the pick six on Trevor Lawrence like he had this year, right? Or you could go with the guy who's like always in the right place at the right time, but doesn't necessarily have the athleticism that you need or the like the skill that you need to make the exceptional play, right? And So, and the way I... And in a perfect world, you probably want one of both on the field, right? Sure. That's a good point. And in theory, Nicobieen is supposed to be the former, right? He's supposed to be the guy who was always where he's supposed to be, and maybe

Devin White can be the one who's bringing a little variability and volatility to the defense. That's a good point. And your point about Vic Fangio's correct. Now, I do think there's a component here where, like, you're in a fantasy baseball auction and you, it's like it's a middle round. You have more money than you anticipated. The board is, you know, players are coming off the board. And you're like, well, here's Eloy Jimenez, who was once good.

And it was a former top prospect. I can talk myself into him having that rebound year, right? And if you don't spend the money on him, who are you going to spend it on? And that's kind of where the Eagles are at linebacker here. I'm not saying that they, you know, that they missed out. on guys that they were going after. But you could just tell by what their debt chart was. They needed linebacker help, right?

Linebackers were getting multi-year deals at decent money. And the Eagles are in a situation here where you're four days in. They need a linebacker. Who are you going to go with? And of the players who are available on the board right now, we mentioned Jerome Baker. Outside of Jerome Baker, I don't know if there's anyone who I'm like, I definitively want that guy overdue.

Kevin White. Yeah. Now, we've talked a lot about Jerome Baker and as much as we thought the profile made a lot of sense and he won quacketology. He is coming off an injury that really basically led to the dolphins releasing him. So that is a significant concern. Whereas say what you will about Devin White, he has been very dependable health-wise over the course of his career. He has missed three games this year. That was the first time he's ever missed. That's not sure. He missed three games as a rookie too. But he has only missed. three games over the past three years and then four games total the first two seasons so mostly dependable now he is he is a little bit undersized right for for the position and so to have him and nicobe dean on the field together in the middle of the field is a is maybe a little bit light in the box but um i think it probably means that they're not going to make any trade of significance for a linebacker right uh i would i would imagine they're going to add somebody else uh who can add to the depth at some point that might not even be until after the draft they wait and see how the draft goes.

But it's interesting, like you said, in like, do we think that they had a different target and missed out? Do we think that they thought that the market was not going to move as quickly as it did and were left with us, you know, with a seat and only one guy left? We'll have to do a little bit more reporting and digging on that. You know, it's not like they went out and signed and targeted Devin White on day one. and maybe it's the case where they were waiting for, you know, Devin White to realize that his market was not as strong as it was. That's probably why it's only a one-year deal. You would imagine he's viewing this as an opportunity to rebuild his value and get a multi-year deal,

like we heard from Zach Bond today. But I think it's noteworthy that it is the level of investment. It is just no, just considering Howard Roseman's, you know, passed. That's true. And, you know, they could have gone complete bargain basement. They did not do that. They didn't go with the three-year, $27 million dealers or something of that nature. So they're kind of in between there.

But this does represent an investment in linebacker, probably comparable to, well, not totally, but similar a little more to the Kaiser White one a few years ago, right? Kaiser White, I think, was $2.5 million. So this is obviously more than that. But Kaiser White was a player who had experience, have had. going out of favor now. Now, Devin White's more accomplished. I do want to read to you. I always like to go back and look at the Dane Bruegler draft analysis, like the one sentence skinny that he has at the summary and kind of see how it materializes. And what's interesting

is this could be an evaluation that you give right now five years later, which shows that Dane's good at his job and also kind of shows the type of player Devin White is. I'm going to read this. Well, overall, White's tape doesn't show the same level of instincts. or discipline as current Bears linebacker Roquant Smith, but his play speed and relentless nature are off the charts, projecting as an NFL starter similar to Gerard Davis. Now, Gerard Davis wasn't particularly good, but the point being that, you know, the instincts and the discipline

weren't what you're looking for, but like the athleticism and the playmaking ability, that's present. And that was the case at LSU. He was a Buccas Award winner. He was a consensus all-American. you know, he was able to get to the quarterback. He got his hands on, you know, passes. So, again, there is upside here.

Now, I also see in the chat should have paid DJ Edwards. Look, that's fair. When you look at this contract, look at TJ Edwards' this contract. The Eagles were in a little different cap situation last year. But still, you could make the argument they should have kept T.J. Edwards at this money compared to signing one. Many times before. My contention is the mistake they made with T.J. Edwards was not extending him the year before. Agreed.

After the 2022 season, that's when they could have gotten him for a real deal. Agreed. That's what part of the reason I think they should, and I kind of expect that they should sign Milton Williams to an extension this offseason. But that's a discussion for another day. All right. Anything else on Devin White or the linebacker situation as it stands? Yeah, I want to reiterate. this changes anything with the draft.

You know, I wasn't expecting the Eagles to take a linebacker in the first two rounds before. I've heard hope of like an Edger and Cooper type. That would still surprise me if the Eagles went linebacker early. But I wouldn't roll it out in round three. I could see that being something that they do pursue. And like, as I said, it could be a situation where Devin White's keeping the seat warm for somebody like, you know, whatever you're third round draft pick is. Let's say, let's say, Jr. Colson. I know there's a lot of,

you know, Peyton, I know there's a lot of Peyton Wilson fans out there. And we'll have a lot of time to talk about linebackers in the draft. But I still think linebacker would be on their radar and a guy who can push either either, either, neither. Niccoe Dean is not entrenched in that spot either. Yeah, I think my general overview and take on Devin White is I'm certainly skeptical. like most people that this is going to be an impact signing,

but it is a capable player. And I don't mind at a position where you're probably not going to make a significant investment, rolling the dice on someone who at least has a history of high-level play. And you are banking on this situation being a little bit different for him. I think that is an okay bet to make. Yeah, and the age profile is what you like. and the injury history is not significant. So if, you know, I heard someone say once they hit that huge shot, I don't know if that's the case.

Like, you know, it could have just been a bad situation last year all around. He was unhappy, got hurt early on, and just didn't work out. Now we have some other Eagles news, Zach, as Jalen Hertz may not have anyone in the building he trusts anymore because Jack stole is, with the New York Giants, according to reports. You know, I thought today when Sequin Barclay at his press conference said, we got to keep the main thing, the main thing, that maybe this was like a New York Jets, Aaron Rogers situation, where they were just letting Jaila Hertz be the general manager.

But to see Jack Stoll leave lays that to bed, because clearly if Jalen had anything to say about it, Jack Stoll would be here. Yeah, now the Giants listened to our show earlier today, And we're like, we really need to upgrade the explosiveness on this offense. So let's go at Jack Stoll. No, Jack Stoll, I give credit to Jack Stoll. Undrafted guy, made the roster, had an important role,

you know, or a decent role on the team for three consecutive years, was part of the Super Bowl team, was the number two tight end. I expected the Eagles to look around at that position. I didn't expect Eagles to tender him. I didn't know what the market would be for Jack Stoll, but good for him. And this probably has ramifications in Flew World Order. I haven't checked it out. I was higher on Stoll's return than you.

So you certainly have, you are in the lead in people who haven't come back yet. Gotcha. I'm still in the lead for the people who are already back. That's a good balance between us. So yeah, so we'll see what, I still don't get what like the Giants are doing offensively. I don't think Jack still change as much, but they have the tight end that they took in the draft, Bellinger, right?

Who is like, Clay. That was like the number two. No, not Clay. But he was like the number two to Waller. So I'm not quite sure, you know, adding another number two tight end is what the Giants need. But hey, good for Jack.

And as you would like to say, has that strong voice, right? He can, he can go. He can go across the river and go to Broadway. Daniel, I'm open. Yeah, and go to Broadway. He can do that. Throw me the ball. Nothing.

Did you see John, by the way, speaking about the Giants real quick, not to make this a giant show, but did you see John Schneider's quotes tonight? No. John Schneider gave the New York media a little something to chew on, where he said that the Giants wanted to, I'm sorry, the Seahawks wanted to keep your lock, but the Giants basically convinced him by telling him he's going to have a chance to win that starting job.

Wow. Oh, I love that from John Snyder. He knows that he's great. Yeah. So this is now like. You know what's funny is Pete Carroll was a little bit petty about the Sean Desai thing last year too. Maybe that's a playbook in the Seattle building is just like, let's ruffle the feathers of the teams around the league who would just inconvenience since a little bit. Yeah, but you can see the giant.

Now, I like what the Giants have done on defense, but if Drew Locke and Jack Stole is going to be what fixes that offense, I'm not feeling it. That's funny. All right, we're going to have a full show tomorrow at noon, Zach, so we don't need to go into it too much, but just any big takeaways from this afternoon hearing from Sequin Barclay, Bryce Huff, and Zach Baugh.

not necessarily Zach Bond still waiting to see what the role is right I mean he he wanted to be an edge rusher

with the Saints that's that he thought he played well there and when he finally got that chance at the end of last year I didn't expect Eagles to sign him as an edge rusher

but as you said on the show the other day is that inside outside versatility now from from Zaquin it was it was kind of what I expected

he did shoot down the James Franklin things said things were kind of lost in translation there. His agent had communication with Eagles and he's going to be at Penn State tomorrow for Pro Day. And so he might have a few words with James Franklin there, but, you know, likes the opportunity here, like the guaranteed money that was coming. Bryce Huff is probably what we expected. He expects, you know, he wants to, he thinks there's upside rushing the quarterback. He can show more in the run game. It's proven a lot

as an undrafted rookie getting to this point. And that's about it for those. What do you make of the idea that he looks like Boston Scott? Yeah, Ed Cratt said that to me. In between. I can see it. I didn't think it at the time. And then I saw the side-by-side photos.

Boston Scott has had that haircut in the past. And that really, really brings it together. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. I thought Dave Zingarrel gave a good one for Zach Bond. He said, looked like Ryan Harris. And I like that. He looks like Ryan.

He looks like a combination. of Ryan Harrison, Kurt Coleman. Okay, okay, I can see that. And as someone mentioned on Twitter, Sheel will be envious of that, that well-shaped dome that he had. I actually thought he could have done a better job with that. Oh, really? Okay. Either here or there.

All right, last thing, a couple starred comments here. How do you feel about, are you concerned about Devin White's coverage skills? PFF says he is at the bottom of this category. I'll defer to you on the PFF evaluation. I mean, I'm concerned about his coverage skills in general, but not because of PFF. We can talk about like, you know, PFF is reflecting a general truth a lot of the time, but they have no idea what those players are being asked to do. I would not trust those grades really in any way.

Yeah, I think that the one thing you could say about Devin White is that there's enough film on him, right? Like you started 70 plus games in this league. So it's not as if you're going to scratch something that wasn't there. What you hope is that you can put him in a position that he wasn't in. It's a different scheme, different players around him. And you kind of put him in a different position. But if he didn't think that he could cover before or cover well,

it's not as if he's going to start to learn how to cover now per se. It's the way you use him is. the critical component. Okay. The other starred one is any chance still on Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is, Zach? Oh, sure. Yeah, I said earlier, third round,

I can still see them going linebacker third round. That could be the area where Trot Jr. goes. I'm not sure the Eagles go in that Trot Jr. direction. You know, one thing the Eagles are probably thinking about with Jeremiah Trotter Jr., independent of the player evaluation, is like as cool of a storyline that is for like Philly fans, that's also an enormous burden on him too, right? Like, you know, the expectation is that he looks like Jeremiah Trotter.

And so the Eagles need to be really convinced. Like if he's just like a solid, you know, third round pick. Yeah, like it's it's never living up to what those expectations are. So I don't know. You can't make a decision based on that, but I think the Jeremiah tried to think is nuanced in part because of that. Bad situation, Minnesota Duluth did something. A couple, couple big shots, but big saves by Tia Chan. We're still in it.

Ah, good for Tia. 312, 314 left in overtime. Still not it up at zero zero. Okay. Yeah. I think all about is right. I guess the upside is, you know, if you view. if you view Vic Fangio as being able to really disguise who is coming,

and if you've got Hassan Redick and Zach Bonn on the field, and both of those guys can drop, and Devin White comes, and some of that stuff is involved. Like, they're going to utilize that as a real part of the defense. That's a nice little thing to have. And I don't know. I mean, the guy, I'm willing to buy that he can be better here than he was last year.

I think that is a fine bet to make. We'll see. We'll see. Coming out of the draft, like I said, he owns seven horses, including D.C. May, who he housed in your house. A piece on that. Yeah. Before to reading that, but I don't know where the...

I mean, that's a bit of a shot. What, did I have to read that yet already? I think you read everything. I'm looking forward to reading. I have it starred. I'm going to go back and I'm going to go and read it. It was in the advocate, I believe, which I wasn't reading much of that coverage then. But I'm looking forward to going back and reading it for sure.

For sure. Okay. All right. Well, that'll do it for the emergency pod. Thank you to Julia, who was doing a little Michael Jordan flu game going on, really fighting through it. We appreciate that. We thank you, Zach. Thanks to everybody for tuning in live and watching.

And all of you who are listening later, we are back tomorrow at noon to talk a little more, and white a little bit of what else is going on with the eagles what moves are potentially left to make we look forward to it all and as always we love you