PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Emergency pod: Philadelphia Eagles trade for Commanders WR Jahan Dotson

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Surprise! You knew the Eagles needed a third wide receiver and Howie Roseman delivered. Former Penn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson, the 16th overall pick in 2022, is an Eagle in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick and two sevenths. All of a sudden, the Eagles have weapons.Anthony Gargano and Bo Wulf react to the big news, with help from Zach Berman. Join them! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Surprise. And welcome to an emergency pod. The Eagles making a surprise trade. Bo Wolf Anthony Gargano in studio, Jahan Dotson. The 16th overall pick in 2022 is an eagle. Howie Roseman watched the same practices we did because we were talking about this all summer. The Eagles desperately needed somebody else on offense. Here comes Jahan Dotson and a fifth round pick in exchange for a third round pick and two sevenths. What do you make of the deal? I love it, Bo. I, I, I, look at it and I go, it's exactly what they needed, right? We talked about it, like you said, all day. Every day we talked about this.

They needed somebody to step up. I love Dodson, right? Young player, look what he's done the last two years. And look at the quarterbacks that he's had. We remember last year he smoked the Eagles for 110 yards, I think. That's right. 10 catches. He had a touchdown.

Best game of his career, I believe. I mean, he was incredible, right? Look at the quarterbacks that Dotson has played with, right? Jahan has played with Sam Howell, right? Taylor Heineken, Davis Mills. Those are the types of quarterbacks that he's playing with. I've always thought he popped to me, right? I looked at him and was like, you know, and they had some decent receivers.

They had no quarterback play. Kind of got lost a little bit. I love having Jahan Dotson come here. I just think that's a great move by Howie. I love the trade. There were a couple ways they could have gone here, right? You could have looked for more of a very, veteran plug and play type like a like a Robert woods a guy on the back end of his career who you

you would know what he was coming in he would fit a role and probably be gone after a year this way they're bringing in donson who has got two years left on his rookie deal there's some upside here i think that's interesting type of player wise you know he's he's a smaller player you know 511 11 178 right so that is interesting and it's probably going to take a little bit of time for him to grow into the offense but it's nice that we have this answer now we like oh is it going to be johnny and Britt and Covey, you know, rotating. Now you have a guy who at least has some talent and some upside. Right. And you

push Johnny Wilson, why I still like for his size down the rest of the truck, right? And there's not as much pressure. The thing I love about Dotson too is, look, we talk about the Eagles' depth on offense, right? And what was behind A.J. And Devante, if something

happens to either of those two, the one thing about Dotson is that he's a down-to-field threat. Like, he actually is a guy that can get down the field for I love having, with space, with those two on the field, like, when you're going trips, when you're like that, I love that. I mean, the space that he'll have on the field is big. The thing that you're saying about the quarterbacks, it's a little bit, to a much smaller degree, a little bit like the Sequin conversation. Yes.

Right? Like, oh, you know, it's a lot to pay for a running back, but you get Sequan in an offense where he's not the focal point of opposing defenses anymore behind a good offensive line. Just think of what he can do. Jahan Dotson. it has been a relatively underwhelming start to his career, but you get him in an offense where everybody's focused on AGA Brown

and Devante Smith and Sequin Barclay and Jailen Hertz's legs, he gets one-on-one matchups, all of a sudden, this is a guy who can grow. Yeah, and I look at it like, I go, all right, let's look at why he's been overwhelming, right? Bad franchise, right, going through awful offense coordinators,

talking about the quarterbacks. Now, he still put up, you know, decent numbers. I mean, you know he popped on the field. Like, when you're watching them, he popped. To me, I kept wondering, how come he's not a more, a bigger part of that offense?

But, like, they were a mess, Washington. And I love your comp with Barclay, because, again, you got two guys that were coming that are, obviously, Barclay with offensive line issues, quarterback issues, the whole thing. And now you're on this team

with Hertz and all those other weapons to kind of fill in. Yeah, I mean, he's 24 years old. His rookie year was a little bit better in 12 games, 35 catches for 523 yards. Last year, 17 games, 49 catches for 519 yards.

So less of a big play threat last year in an offense that was struggling. Right. Remember, you had Scary Terry. You had Samuel. And you also didn't have a quarterback that can go down the fields. I mean, like, that was a...

I thought that stunted him and stunted his growth as a weapon. So I think, you know, like, Sam, how it wasn't going to push the ball down the field? And how many third... no running game. How many third and longs did you see them have? I mean, and checkdowns. And I just, I love this move. And I like it so much better than, say, Robert Woods. How many times have we seen them, any team, go after the Leo Jones kind of guy, yeah.

The aging veteran that's got one foot in the grave. Like, you know, I know feeling, people want to feel in. And same thing, man, he's on a downward slide. You got a guy, and this is, I would think, Howie, why I love how his roster management is. Because he's not looking just for now. He's looking out for the next couple of years. And I love now, I don't have to worry about that third receiver next year. Yeah. And we will talk to Zach Berman in a second just to get a sense of, you know,

you always want to figure out why it is that the other team is trading him. What is it that Washington didn't see from Johan Dotson that they were willing to get rid of him? But just on Howie quickly, I do think from like a, from an Eagles fan perspective, from a content machine perspective. It is nice knowing you have Howie Roseman, who is always interested in doing something, right? And we talked about it all offseason. It was the biggest surprise to me of the offseason

that the Eagles didn't add somebody else a wide receiver, but Howie's playing the long game. He's patient. He makes that trade on draft day that gets them an extra third round pick, talking to people in the building. That was kind of like potentially earmarked as we can use that for a wide receiver. And now, you know, this is their version

of the CJ Gardner Johnson. from two summers ago they have addressed the biggest hole in the roster exactly and you look at it now when i look at offensive the only thing i think the next thing that they'll add and i'll throw this back at you is a backup tight end yeah that wouldn't surprise me i think uh i think grand kekater has looked solid and then you know it could be j j jenkins as a three but i agree with you i think but that's one where probably you can find post cuts right right like a cast off without a doubt this piece i thought was paramount. Totally agree.

They were so top heavy at that position that you add a kid that can get sticky hands. It changes the ceiling of the offense. It does. It really does. And again, in space, like think about it when you're in the field and you have A.J. Brown,

Devante Smith, Goddard, Barclay, and now you have Dotson, right? Like, that's a lot of space now that you'll be able to work, a lot of one-on-one. All right. Let's bring in the man himself. Our insider, Zach Berman,

Zach, what do you make of the deal? What were you doing when you found out? I was packing for a trip and then jumped to do work on this. Look, I like Dotson. I liked him coming out of Penn State. I thought as a rookie, he was promising. You know, you saw the big playability then. I think this is an expensive price.

That third round pick is expensive. And I do know, you know, I heard what you said, Bo, about how that extra pick gave them the flexibility to make this type of move. I also know they really like next year's draft. And so they weren't just going to trade it for the sake of trading it. So Dodson's age profile, 24, a player who, you know, if you remember in 2022, the Eagles extensively scouted that wide receiver class. They traded for A.J. Brown. But they were, they had two first round pick, or three first round picks, rather, right? They were looking hard at wide receivers that offseason.

They know Dotson. They know the Penn State program. He's from the Lehigh Valley. You're probably not thinking about this as a player you're picking up the fifth year option on. But you're thinking you got two years under contract for an ascending player. I heard what Anthony said. It's absolutely right in terms of he's going from a situation where he didn't have good quarterback play, where they were trying to figure out their offense.

He had two different coordinators the past two years. Scott Turner, then Eric Bion. enemy. Now he goes to a place where he's the third receiver, maybe even the fifth option in the passing game. He'll presumably, I don't want to say be an afterthought for opposing defensive coordinators, but certainly not at the front of a game plan. And given the fact that he has that ability, both in the NFL and at Penn State, they get behind the defense, I think this is a good pickup from a football perspective for the Eagles. So value-wise, Zach, because they're getting the fifth round pick back, it's something like a late third.

early fourth round value. I mean, I'm with you that you're paying for a guy who hasn't been super productive, just like the yards per round run stuff over the past two years. He's 90th of 109 guys. But I think the upside is you're selling yourself on this is a guy who's getting into a new offense. But the word from like Washington camp to summer was that the coaches there were obviously overwhelmed with him, right? Yeah.

So yeah, I've been following this story closely out of Washington. And there was a school of thought that, you know, they were trying to light a fire under former first-round pick, right? There was a quote from Dan Quinn last week where he said the number two wide receiver job is up for grabs. And he mentioned like Diami Brown. He mentioned alomni Zakeas. And in Washington, they were looking at this and saying, Jahan Dotson was what, the 16th pick in the draft two years ago. He was their starter the past two years. Why isn't he the number two guys?

So it was kind of viewed almost like they're trying to motivate. him, but it was also perceived that that staff was down on him. I tend to like the idea of trading for a guy who, it's not the GM who drafted him. It's not the coaching staff who drafted him because they don't have that type of devotion or equity to him. Now you can say that staff has clear eyes, but also that staff tends to like to start over and have their own people in there. Dotson might not be for everyone from like a site.

You know, he was what, 511, 178 coming out. but from a play perspective and the upside perspective, it certainly makes sense. I mean, and you also have to look at it compared to who's on the Eagles roster. He's an upgrade over Paris Campbell, an upgrade over Britain Covey, an upgrade over Johnny Wilson, an upgrade over John Ross. So if you're saying, all right, how can you feel the best roster in 2025? I'm sorry, 2024, and perhaps even 2025, I think Dodson makes a lot of sense. And we remember last year you covered that game where,

he blitzed the Eagles in that in that 3831 game where he had 110 yards or whatever it was 10 catches he's a guy that I think gives you some speed that you didn't have I also like it better like we were talking about it Zach

and Beau brought up Robert Woods and you get guys at the end of their careers and you know how that works they lack explosiveness and both he and feeling were the guys that were out there I think with Dodson you've got a guy that's legitimately explosive.

And God forbid, like, you know, you know, AJ or Devante especially might miss a game or two. And you got a guy that is explosive. And I think that's a need for them. You hit it on the head. I think some of the trades from both the value and production perspective that haven't worked out for Howie is when he's trading for the guy at the end of the career or later on, trading for Golden Tate,

trading for Robert Quinn. I think if this is more, now it's not the same value, but this is more in line with a C.J. Garner Johnson type move, although that was contract-related. But you get a guy in their third year, in their fourth year. It's a better age profile. Now, the Eagles missed on Doriel Green Beckham, a similar type of change of scenery type trade. But I think overall, this, I would rather trade for a 24-year-old wide receiver than a 31-year-old wide receiver. I think it's interesting timing-wise. I appreciate that they're getting it done now so you can get these guys a chance to coalesce and do it in the season. I know you're smiling because you think I'm

going to say it's about the Ospreys. We'll get to the Ospreys. We'll get that. And I think that that's nice. In terms of the fit, I'm sure that they, it's obvious that Howie watched what we watched over the course of the summer. I'm sure he canvassed the market. Who is the best guy that I can bring in for a reasonable price? I think the fit football-wise is not perfect just because like the superpower of Devante Smith in the slot is something that can really supercharge the offense. I'm not show sure that you want to put Devante in the slot and Dotson outside. But I think to your point of like if they miss guys, if AJ Brown or Devante Smith misses time, Dotson certainly gives you a little bit more upside. And then, Zach, the timing of having signed A.J. Brown and

Devante Smith to these long-term contracts, maybe quelling the idea of, well, now you've got a new young guy in here who's taken away targets. That's not a concern for those guys. You're right. It's not a replacement, right? If Devante was going into a contract year or a year where he hadn't signed his deal and he's on the fifth year option, then you start to look around about target share, things of that nature. I think it's pretty clear what the pecking order is here. Now, Dodson is someone who, at least coming out of Penn State, was thought to be able to play around the formation. You are smaller with him and Devante.

But I think he makes a lot of sense from a playing style. perspective because he can go deep because he has some run after the catchability. I mean, he was, he, I keep going back. He was a big, big, big play player at Penn State. And that's, you know, when Eagles talk about explosive plays, I don't know if you were getting that from Harris Campbell from Clinton Covey and Johnny Wilson. And you're getting that from Jeffon Johnson. No, you weren't. And that's why I love it because Zach, and look again, the quarterback back play, I can't stress enough that was in Washington.

Forget about that they were a dead franchise and they were arcing toward what happened, which was the blow up. But, you know, Sam Howe's not pushing the ball down the field. Right? Davis Mills and Taylor Heineke aren't getting the ball out and up. And

that's what Dotson. That's why he's here. That's why, how much one-on-one is he going to see? He's going to see some man. And I think that's a matchup that you'll be able to exploit. And the ball that that Jalen throws best is the deep ball, at least from my perspective. So, yeah. So, you know, Nick, now I know this isn't Nick's offense per se anymore, but Nick really like the idea of Quez Watkins in the slot because of the way he could stretch the field for AJ and Devante.

And then, you know, if he's getting three, four targets a game, if he catches one or two of them, it's a 50 play. it's 40 play, I'm sorry, 40 yards, 50 yards. So that's the factor here too. He's a major upgrade as far as I'm concerned. I mean, it's a great point that you bring up with Quest. Because how many times, guys, did you see Kwez behind the defense? I mean, it was like he just was not a gifted receiver, right? Like, Dodson will be able to bring that ball in.

I think that's right. That's certainly the theory behind it, right? He's certainly got the speed that you need to take the top off the defense, change the shape, right? Okay. All right. Well, very quickly, let me say that this emergency podcast, Zach, is brought to us by Indeed. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash all city. That's Indeed.com slash all city. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. You need, indeed. Thanks to Indeed for making this emergency pot happen. Zach, last question for you for me. Because it's roster time. How do you think this changes the roster math at wide receiver? for the Eagles. Yeah, Paris Campbell, I think he's not going to be on the 53 right now. He's the guy who I would bump. I don't think it certainly doesn't affect Johnny Wilson, right? It does. I still think Britt and Covey is going to be on the team, given his special team's ability, given that he can help you as a smaller guy in the slot there, route running and whatnot.

But I think this, this takes Paris Campbell's spot on the 53 if I'm putting my list together now. And don't you like how they're with Johnny Wilson as the push down to the four with his size, I like to kind of how it all kind of fits, how they all complement each other. You're right. And, you know, I think you have more of a pecking order. And it's the point that you made before I came on, Anthony, which is, and Bo and I have talked about this for six months now. AJ and Devante have been remarkably healthy. A.J.'s missed only the playoff game since he came to Philly.

Devante's missed only that Giants game since he came to Philly. But what happens if Devante's down three weeks? What happens if AJ's down six weeks, right? Now, Jahan Dotson is not Devonte Smith, and he's not A.J. Brown. But he's better than what you had there. And I think he's a competent. He's been a starting receiver in the league. He has, I mean, not, you know, 60 catch Nelson Aguilar production,

but he has his decent production. He caught seven touchdowns last year. He was a big play threat as a rookie. I think that you feel. more comfortable that your offense can at least sustain itself, should AJ or Devante go down for a bit. Yet we can sort of chuckle at the idea that the big moves of the Eagles offseason, similar value for Jahan Dotson and Hassan Reddick.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting when you put it like that. Now, the Hassan Redick deal is 2026, but yeah. And look, I think the only hang up here, like I said at the beginning, is that third round pick is valuable. It's a really deep draft next year. You don't like moving off of that. But this is a team with Super Bowl aspirations, and this isn't just a rental.

This is at least a two-year player. And just because we haven't said that they had two third-round picks. So they still have a third-round pick in next year's draft. They traded the second. And you got the fifth back. Yes. All right. Well, that'll do it for the emergency pod.

The Eagles making a splash on the day of the Osprey. Love it. You are watching live 2 o'clock, the 7th annual Osprey Awards. Very excited about that. A big announcement coming up. the big announcement of the day. Jahan Dotson is an eagle. Thanks to everybody for tuning in. We will talk to you later. And as always, we love you.