PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | How does the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster compare to the Dallas Cowboys and the rest of the NFC East?

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

There’s a long time between now and Week 1, but after a whirlwind of movement for every team in the division but the Cowboys, we might as well take stock of how the division looks different than it did a week ago. Brian Burns in, Saquon Barkley out for the Giants. Nick Allegretti in, Marcus Mariota also in for the loaded Washington Commanders. Eric Kendricks in, and that’s entirely it for the Dallas Cowboys. Zach Berman and Bo Wulf take a spin around the division and prepare for the afternoon press conferences with Saquon Barkley, Bryce Huff and Zack Baun. 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.

And what's going on? Bo Wolf, Zach Berman. We're home. We're doing a little remote show today. Noon. High noon. The P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. Lots to talk about, although not much has changed on the Eagles front since we last spoke.

We're going to do a little spin around the NFC East. Zach, how you doing? Doing great. Excited for the show. I'm looking forward to this. I always like talking free agency. It feels like an old-school remote setup, which I enjoy. And this is fun.

This is fun. Let's have a good hour here. Now, we are going to have a chance this afternoon, Zach, after the show, to hear from Sequin Barclay. Yeah, that's why I'm giddy. Bryce Huff and Zach Bonn and see them in the confines of the Novacare complex. We're going to see Zach Bonn. You're going to get to talk about the spelling of your last name.

I wonder if we're going to be allowed to ask questions specifically to Sequin Berkeley's thighs and not to him himself if they'll talk, Bryce Huff, you know, why is it that, or how grateful are you that Bo Wolf invented you, all of these good things? You and I have such different objectives for today's press conference. I have not single, I've not thought about Sequin Berkeley's thighs at all. I was not going to do your job if that's the case. I was not going to bring up Zach Bond's name and you most certainly did not invent Bryce Huff. So there's, but I'm looking forward to meeting these guys, having a chance to hear their perspective on coming to Philadelphia and reporting to the fine listeners of PHLY.

All right. Now, before we get going, I do need to, I do need to open the show, Zach, with an apology. We have fun on the show. We strive for entertainment. We've been doing a lot of hours over the past couple days. But most of all, we strive to be accurate. and I was alerted this morning to a deeply inaccurate thing that I said the other day that I do need to rectify. My brother texted me to call me out on this and he's absolutely right.

I said, I believe at, I don't know if it was hour three or so of our show on Monday, that I got a base hit off of Sydney Ponson. And it is with great regret and, a horror that I tell you that that was inaccurate. In fact, the Arruban pitcher who I got a hit off was Calvin Maduro. And I would like to apologize to the Ponsone family and to the Maduro family. And I feel bad about the mix-up. But as clearly as I remember that fastball on the paint on the outside and lining it to right field,

I got the name wrong. And I promise that I will try to make. make sure that it doesn't happen again. A few notes here. Number one, grateful for your brother, to your brother and for your brother, that he listens to hour three of the show. It means a lot. Number two, I've done a show with you for five years.

And you've made a number of jokes and mischaracterizations at my expense. And the first time you fess up to something is about a pitching matchup that you were. It's not the first time. I think I've done this before, actually. And the third thing is that there's, I mean, there's someone who's far more knowledgeable and like the psychology of this. But it's interesting to me that I, I'm like thinking of the pitchers that struck me out. And you're thinking of the pitchers that you got base hits off of, right?

I've only faced one major league pitcher. That's not true. Actually, I faced Josh Zide. There you go. Yeah, great article. I meant as a, he was coming off of being a major league pitcher. He was still in the majors. Josh side. I actually did not get a hit off of Josh side, despite our matchups too good.

And then, of course, my high school career ended by Pedro Alvarez. Yeah, good ball player. Good ball player. Vanderbilt. Well, you like him coming out because he was drafted so high. Well, fourth overall, is that right? Something like that. Yeah, maybe second, fourth or second? Yeah. So I apologize to the listeners. I hope that I hope that I can regain your faith over the course of the next many days.

So if this gets back to Sidney Ponson, if we have a big Aruba audience, a Rubin fan base, then make sure you know that the record is set straight. Yes, that's good to know. All right, Zach. Before we get to sort of spinning around the NFC East, tell me, is there anything that just sort of going through your mind about the Eagles here as we were sort of. of expecting there to be some kind of resolution on maybe the edge rusher front of the Eagles. I think the linebacker situation has already sort of gotten to a point where, like, if they're not going to sign one of these guys, they're either going to wait or maybe trade for somebody. But I am surprised that we still don't have resolution with Hassan Redick and Joshua. Sure. The edge rusher part of it's the part that surprised me just because I thought these things were going to be done in conjunction of one another, right? Now,

as we said the other day, you can't not sign Bryce Huff because you're waiting for one of these trades to happen. I think it was on our first show when someone said, well, they sign Huff without trading the other guy. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, Huff needs to get a deal right away, right? But I did think that part of the planning leading up to the start of the league year was trying to facilitate a trade for one of those guys. or as we discussed maybe both of those guys, but certainly one of those guys. So it did surprise me that that has not yet been consummated. I also recognize that we're still pretty early on in this process.

But that's the one that jumps out to me. The linebacker thing, yeah, I thought the Eagles would have a move on a linebacker pretty early on. I mean, frankly, what I was most wrong on in free agency is I thought the Eagles would wait on running back and not wait on linebacker, right? I thought they were going to act quickly at safety linebacker, edge rusher, and I thought they were going to let that running back market linger.

Now, probably good thing for the Eagles that they didn't in that there have been like eight, eight, nine running back signed. I was surprised by the march, by the rush for those guys. But the sequence of events there has surprised me a bit in these first few days. Do you think it's reasonable? to think there's a possibility that all three of those guys, the edge rushers, rather, could be on the market or could be on the team, you know, come week one. No, that would really surprise me. Now, it certainly sounds like there's a lot of smoke to Josh sweat right now.

I can see them carrying Hassan Reddick while they work on a deal, maybe trading around the draft. I would think there's a resolution for sweat here coming up. but it would really surprise me if all three guys are here post-draft. The one thing I would say to that is that we know that Howie Roseman has a history of even if a guy is very clearly on the market, he will wait, you know, and he will be stubborn about that probably as a good thing, you know, like Zach Ertz. He wasn't getting what he thought was fair value for Zach Ertz, and he's just carrying Zach Ertz on the team until, you know, the Cardinals' tight end goes down in week six,

and all of a sudden you get fair value. I don't think they're going to carry this one into the season, but I think there is probably a stubbornness about, like, okay, oh, you think we're going to just cut this guy because we signed Bryce Huff. Like, no, we're not going to give him away, like make me a real offer, and then we can have a conversation. Now, the reporting that they're willing to release him makes me feel like that may not be exactly what is going on right here in this situation. But I wouldn't be surprised if this is the kind of thing where it's like, okay, the flurry of moves has happened. Maybe this is a draft weekend type thing. You know, whoever it is doesn't get the edge rusher they were hoping to get.

Then you can trade one of those guys. But it's at least worth noting that Howie has that history. Yeah, and I think that's that's the right way to do it. I think sometimes from the outside, there's these artificial timelines created, right? And it's the timelines based on what, the news cycle, the proclivity of the media, the proclivity of the fan base. Like what's the timeline is there's, well, there's there's three things you look at. One, when you get the right deal. Two, when you have to pay money, right?

And three, when people are coming to camp or coming to work, and there's the possibility for some type of issue, interpersonal issue, right? Those are really the three things that you pay attention to. There's nothing happening with the team in March. Like, the players aren't together. There's no game to prepare for it. They don't even know who their week one opponent is yet, right? So I would say that the timeline is financially motivated or resource motivated or you get the deal that you want.

But until then, it makes sense for Howie to be patient. I just thought these would be done in conjunction with one another. Abbott asks if Howie is scheduled to speak. We will not hear from Howie today. My guess is we will hear from Howie in two weeks at the owner's meetings. and not before that. Yeah, looking forward to that. Always look forward to catching up with Howie and Jeffrey down or out at the

owner's meeting. Sometimes it's out in Arizona. Sometimes it's down in Florida. There you go. You mentioned not knowing the week one opponent. The thought has occurred to me about how funny it would be. You know, Brazil, this land of spice, as you put it the other day, the flavor, the dancing, like this exotic.

place, how funny it would be if their first NFL game is Mr. Vanilla Kurt Cousins himself. Like who could possibly say Brazil less than Kirk Cousins? Well, I don't know. Kirk Cousins has shown that he has, as as as Boat likes to call it some drip in, you know, recent years, right? No. I actually find his, like, flirtation with that kind of offensive. Offensive? Yes.

To whom? I think it's probably not worth going into. Okay, okay. All right, how about you do your, your Ben Danucci song while you're at it? That's a different thing. Okay. Okay.

All right, go on. I need to read an ad to calm down or something like that. Let me pull up the ads. I find that comparison deeply offensive. Okay, let's talk about Philly Sports Trips because Philly Sports Trips are our friends, and they can be your friends too. Jamie and Renee and Tyler are down in Clearwater right now. Thanks in large part to Philly Sports Trips.

They are there for the very first P.H.L.Y spring training takeover. And if you want to go down there with them, it's a little bit too late, but if you are down there with them and you're watching the show, you get to hang with Charlie Manuel. And the great thing about Philly Sports Trips is that you keep. an eye out for future trips to come is that Philly Sports Trips plans the whole experience out from flights and hotels to game tickets and transportation, spend St. Patrick's Day on a private yacht with a catered dinner and drinks. Be on the lookout for more events throughout the year

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Again, create an account and redeem code PHLY for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Zach, what's to deal with this tampering allegation? Yeah. So what happened was Penn State has their spring football going on right now. James Franklin had a press conference the other day. and he kind of, he was pumping up his program with some of their free agent signings,

talking about the Sequin Barclay signing among other moves and said he's been in touch with Sequin. And, you know, Hallie Roseman, part of Howie Roseman's pitch to Saquan was the, was playing close to Philly, right? Or I'm saying, I should say playing close to Penn State, playing in Philly in the state. and as it turns out, well, Howie Roseman's not allowed to directly speak to Sequin Barclay during the negotiation period. So the Eagles are denying that occurred, that all the contacts been done through the representation.

It's worth monitoring if the league gets involved. I mean, the Eagles were once miffed that the chief spoke to Jeremy Macklin during this period and the chiefs were actually penalized for it. So it seems could essentially be. penalized for it, but, you know, I'm kind of unmoved by the story in that, like, you know, Kirk Cousin signs with the Falcons. He had just torn his, Achilles tendon, right? They're going to need to kind of know how his recovery is going, right? I mean, I saw Albert Breer have a story the other

day when he was at the combine and Albert Hainsworth was literally sitting at the restaurant with the, you know, then Washington, the Washington, the football team in Washington there, you know, their whole administration, their whole front office, right? So, yeah, this happens. You know, if the Eagles did do this and they get caught doing it, there could be a slight penalty, but I don't think, like, Sequan Barkley is a member of the Eagles because of anything nefarious.

Yeah, I mean, to start with. I find the whole, like, legal tampering window. Like, I mean, it's totally farcical. Like, why does it have to be done like that? Just open the gates or don't open the gates? Like, it's very silly. And the second thing is, like, I feel pretty confident that, you know, Howie Roseman is not sloppy about these things.

I think it's probably much more likely that something got lost in translation with James Franklin. I don't think James Franklin was in the room with Sequin and Barclay. And it's like, Halle Roseman told the agent that the agent got to tell Seguan this. Like, and the fact that they have to do it by telephone that way is pretty dumb. But yeah, I would be, I would be kind of unworthy that the egos are going to face consequences here. I also think it's very funny. Shout out the Treblah. I think, like, the hall monitor nature of like the reporting on this from Mike Florio is like, grow up.

Like, it's so silly. Like, oh, oh, he said he talked to. He can't do that. Like, I don't know. I also imagine that Howie must be thinking, like, next time he talks to James Franklin, he's going to be like, what the hell, man? Yeah. You ruined two days of my life. I mean, I, look, I hear you on the, like, pro football talk component of it.

I believe in journalism being like watchdogs, right? I get it. But it seems to be you're like looking for, you're looking for something if that's your big takeaway from this week. Right. But I suppose that's part of the gig. I don't want to be hypocritical. I once reported on there's a coach of Virginia who commented on a commented on a player's Facebook post. and I got alerted to it and it was impermissible contact and I remember I remember getting I got an earful for that type of reporting and I'm like well I got alerted to this what am I supposed to do like just pretend it didn't occur but yeah I see what you mean there it's like it's a very low leverage thing to be caring about right now.

The other thing just sort of like league esoterica stuff that you might want to touch on, Zach, the Eagles always involved in some of these rule proposals. They have another couple ones this cycle. Yeah. So John Ferrari, the Eagles assistant GM, he used to work in the league office. He's someone who, a bright guy, and I think you pointed this out. after the Super Bowl, that the Super Bowl overtime, if you enjoyed that, that was part of John Ferrari spearheading that. I think it was John Ferrari and Frank Reich were the two people behind that then. Anyways, the Eagles are always putting together different rules and bylaw proposals.

I mean, one of them, of which we discussed many times, was that a third helmet, which the Eagles finally got passed, right, for the alternative uniforms. but they have a few that are on the docket leading up to the league meanings in two weeks. Like Bill mentioned, the first one is eliminate the first touch spot after the receiving team possesses the ball. So that's on like kickoffs when the receiving team touches the ball. And they do this in the name of player safety. The one that's getting the most attention. Hold on.

I was going to read through these and then we can go through all of them. Do you want to? Well, let's take them one at the time. Okay. That's on punts? Yeah. So the terminology. in there is kickoffs,

or I'm sorry, kicking team. So I imagine punts. And I can read this. First touching is when a player of the kicking team touches a scrimmage kick in the field of play that is beyond the line of scrimmage before it has been touched by a player of the receiving team beyond the lines of punts. Okay.

Oh, so field goal. Yeah. It's like a blocked field goal. Yep. If the ball was first touched by a player of the kicking team, it remains in play. First touching is a violation in the receivers. shall have the option of taking possession of the ball at the spot of first touching,

provided the ball is not possessed by the receiving team and or no live ball penalties is accepted on the play. I can keep reading. But anyways, the part of this that the Eagles want to take out is this, this part of the rule. If the receiving team gains possession subsequently loses possession and fouls after the kicking team gains possession, the spot of first touching is disregarded and the kicking team retains possession. Enforcement of the receiving teams foul is as customary. So I'm a little bit confused here. Are they proposing that there be no downside at all to getting, to picking up the ball

and getting possession, or are they proposing that you should not even bother picking it up? They are proposing that. Basically, it's a punt and it hits the, it hits the gunner's shoulder or whatever, right? And the punt returner can decide whether to pick it up and try to advance it himself. or he can, like that's what would normally happen. There's no downside. You know, Darren Sproles famously did this all the time. Or are they saying that once it hits them, that's the end of the play.

We want to, for player safety reasons, we want to just make it the end of the play. I think it's that once it, so when it's touched, yeah, so then you can pick it up and the, and the play goes on. My interpretation is that's what they're trying to take out for the next. name for the sake of player safety. Okay. I will get further clarification here. I'm confused by whether it's whether they're saying like it's like it sounds like what

you're saying is if Sprouls picks it up and then fumbles the ball away. Yeah, because that's what they're trying to take out. Yeah. That's what they're trying to take out. And so that there is no downside at all. Like you should pick it up. So that part's so they're taking that part out of the rule. That's been crossed out.

Okay. And so now there are only full. There are four things. as part of the rule. There may be multiple first touch spots if the kicking team touches the ball multiple times before it is touched by a player of the receiving teams. That's a lot. The second one, we've got to get more clarification on this. Yes. Okay. We'll get more clarification. Very confused. All right. All right. So the second one, second one. Permitted team to maintain possession of the ball after a score by substituting one offensive

play, a fourth and 20 from the team's 20 yard line, from the kicking team's 20 yard line, for non-sides kickoff attempt. So essentially, Instead of kicking an onsides kick, you have a chance of going for a fourth and 20. So one play, fourth and 20 from the 20-yard line. And this is one that they have been proposing the past couple of years to replace the on-side kick with a one play from scrimmage. I think it's kind of fun. I mean, I like an on-sides kick, but they have basically neutered the effectiveness of it to the extent that it's not even that fun anymore. And I think part of the kickoff proposal means you have to announce an onsides kick.

Mm. Right. Okay. The third one, and this is proposed with other teams, is move the trade deadline to the Tuesday after week 10 games. This seems like an obvious, like absolutely do this. Yes. And it's like, it's too late that that they're doing this. I mean, just from a, like from a Roger Goodell, let's make everything more of a, of a league-wide, like, experience. This is a no-brainer because the later you do it, the more. more teams are willing to sell and the more exciting the trade deadline will be.

Agree with you there. And from a personal perspective, I would like to not to run on Halloween all the time, right? It's like the damn trick-or-treating for three times in the past five years or whatever. So yeah, that'd be good. And then the last- But you don't want it to be too late because you don't want it to encroach on like President's Day season. Well, it wouldn't be present. I mean, you don't want to getting near Thanksgiving. So there's a sweet spot in mid-November like that would be perfect. Although, I mean, there are some November holidays that you can consider that you don't want it around.

Okay. But not that I just, I mean, Veterans Day. No, Veterans Day. You don't want to run on Veterans Day either. I mean, I suppose. What are your, what are your big veterans? Veterans Day plans. I don't have, I mean, I honor our military, I suppose.

So there you go. And then the last one is requires the game clocks to display tenths of seconds for the final 60 seconds of each half. Yeah, I mean on that, but it's also like false precision. Like, when the play stops is so imprecise to begin with. That, like, I guess that's good, but it would be better if it was actually much more automatic. I agree. I agree.

By the way, the first one that I confused you on, Professor Selman, he interpreted it this way. So if I understand this correctly, the proposal is to eliminate the quote, they touched it already. so now we can try to return it, nothing bad can happen scenario. Strange rule to propose as it's not something that came up much. Yeah, it might be that if you pick it up, you don't then get to put it back to the spot where it was touched. And so it's disincentivizing players to pick it up to extend the play. For the player safety, exactly.

Now, to be fair, on the tampering front, Dan Graziano just tweeted that the league is looking into the tampering allegations against the Eagles and the Falcons with their their Kirk cousins. Interesting. Okay. I don't know. I mean, listen, we made a lot of fun of the Cardinals for the tampering with Jonathan Gannon thing. Yeah. And they got penalized for it. So maybe there's a degree of hypocrisy here, but I just believe that Howie Roseman has done this so many times that he's not

that sloppy. Yeah, yeah. But to the point about the Eagles with the Cardinals, there's, you know, It's something you hear in politics and whatever it may be. Like if you're going to if you're going to talk about someone else's house, like make sure your house is in order, right? So it's you, it's, it's that same concept here. But yeah, Howie doesn't strike me as someone who's who's sloppy with this. But he didn't account for James Franklin trying to tout the state of Pennsylvania. And, you know, he said, James Franklin said in that quote,

It was so random that. He's like, they've had a lot of success with their Penn State players, like, playing in Pennsylvania. Like coming back to play in Pennsylvania for the Eagles and the Steelers. And it's like such a weird, like, recruiting flex. It seems like to me, you know. Ultimately, if you pay well, you're on TV, you give these guys a chance to play competitive games. you put them in a chance to make the NFL, that's what matters more than anything else. Did you read Hanson Rich's newsletter today?

I did. Oh, yeah, I did. And actually, I got a text from a third party who was not reading it before, has subscribed to diehard and started getting this. And he was like blown away by how good the newsletter is. I'm so glad Jeffrey's reading. That's great. Talking about the flyer's lip syncing or the flyer's lip reading. No, I was talking about the Penn State trivia question.

The trivia question was the three Eagles since 2000, who have played at least three games for the Eagles, Penn State guys. Did you get that? I did not get that, but I can tell you. I did not look at that one, but I can tell you that now. I skip through the newsletter, but I'm going to say. Shots, no respect for the craft. Okay.

I'm going to say Tony Hunt is one. Yes. Okay. Now, Shreif Miller did not play three games. Miles Sanders, of course. Correct. Is one. And then the third is Stefan Wisniewski.

Correct. Boom. I had forgotten about Tony Hunt, and I thought that maybe Jordan Norwood had been on the list and played three games. But I think that was a good, that would be a fun game for us to play in the doldrums, a game in which I would say the stack is decked in your favor. But maybe we do like, we have Julia P. pick a college and then we go back and forth naming eagles who have played at that college. I would love that game. That's like an old college bar game when I was in college. We would. Yeah, we used to do that. We used to do that as well. Shout out to Pat Mayo who

who would beat me. Shout to Seamus Walsh, who was awesome at that game. Okay. All right, let's talk if the Giants are going to get a pick from the Eagles, maybe to help their roster, that could help them. But let's talk, let's spin around the moves that the rest of the division has made and whether you think that they have made a material difference in the way that you think about them. The Giants obviously have lost Xavier McKinney and Seguan Barkley, among a few others, but the additions they have made include John Runyon to help their offensive line. Gunner Olshuski, the gunner. Devon Singletary is replacing Saquan Berkeley. They have obviously made the big trade for Brian Burns.

That is their big move. They've also added Germain El Euminaur to also bolster their offensive line. They have added old friend Jalen Mills, who will be a finger wagon. Drew Locke is a perfect fit as their new backup quarterback. And then Nick McLeod and Isaiah McKenzie. How do you feel about the Giants offseason thus far? Yeah, I love the Brian Burns move. And that's the one I keep going back to.

As I was looking at their draft inventory, by the way, I'm surprised Carolina and asked for both seconds. They have two seconds because they got one in the Lenin Williams deal. They might have asked. Yeah, true. That's true. Good point. Good point.

I mean, because that first is going to be hard to get. But both seconds would seem to be the type of, I mean, that would seem to be a fair deal. But anyways, love the Brian Burns move. Think that that makes them really dangerous as far as a pass rush. Like that, that they addressed the offensive line there. I thought Singletary. it's what I said going, I like Singletary as a player,

but it's like what I said about Saquan Barkley. I'd rather pay at the top of the running back market or the bottom of the running back market. I don't really want to be in the middle of the running back market. I think it turns out that that is sort of the bottom of the market. You think so? I mean, I think you can get a guy for like $3 million,

four million for one year and draft somebody and you're just fine. That guy stinks. I mean, I am with you. I would not want to pay that that singletary. Okay. But I think that that turned out to sort of be the bottom of the market for like a guy who could be penciled in as a starter. The Isaiah McKay – I like Isaiah McKenzie in theory, but he seems to me to be like duplicative of, you know, Wendale Robinson and some of the other guys that they have on their roster. You don't need an e-slaught receiver?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think they need more of an outside guy. Now, this is a loaded, loaded draft class at wide receiver. So if you're getting Malik neighbors or, you know, Roma Dunzee, because you're not in like the Dallas Turner market anymore. You're not looking for an edge anymore. And you're not looking for, you know, an offensive tackle, presumably.

So you're in that. But what I would still do if I were the Giants and they're drafting where they are is I would try to trade up and, you know, get one of these quarterbacks. If you evaluate Jaden Daniels well, you know, you know, if you evaluate them highly, and let's say Washington goes Drake May or maybe Washington goes Jaden Daniels. They drive just so people are caught up there at number six. Yep, exactly. Thank you.

I should have said that. So if you can get up the three, like if the Patriots aren't sold on one of these guys, and you can get up the three, and you can draft one of those top three, That's what I would do if I were the Giants because how often are you drafting that high? Right? I mean, you're hoping not again. I feel like they actually might have another chance. True, true.

And so I would really try to push to get that. What about J.J. McCarthy? Are you in on him as being worthy of being picked that high? I like J.J. McCarthy. I don't know if I would make him the sixth pick in the draft, but I also think if I'm, if you have conviction on a quarterback, you know, I drafted 10 picks to early, then, you know, 10 picks too late, right? Like if, if or then, then one pick too late, I remember hearing there is, you know,

draft grade saying that the chiefs took Patrick Mahomes too high, right? But if you believe in the player, it's, it's only too high if you miss on the quarterback, right? You can take other positions too high. If you like a quarterback, it's never too high to take a quarterback. So, yeah, if you, if you start. thick and pick at six and you get J.J. McCarthy, although I keep reading reports that maybe Arizona trades out of four to a team trading up for J.J. McCarthy. I would address quarterback, though, if I were the Giants. I just think you need more than Daniel Jones and Jurelock. And I know

they paid Daniel Jones, but you can get out Daniel Jones' deal after this year. And that's what I would do if I were the Giants. I just don't see how they're going to. I don't see how they're going to be much, even with the Brian Burns edition, with the quarterback situation being what it is. Yeah, I mean, if I'm thinking of is this a team that I need to be worried about, even with

Brian Burns, and if he is as, if he is like great for them, the offense is just such a problem that I would not be concerned about them. And I'm not even sure, like, I guess long term, you might be worried

that if it's like JJ McCarthy or Jaden Daniels, they go up and get them, then maybe that guy turns into something to make you concerned. But I could sort of see, like, if it is, you know, let's say it's a Dunzee or somebody like that, they add a wide receiver who, like, Daniel Jones is not good and is like not scaring me, but if the offensive line is actually better enough and they have a guy who's competent, who's explosive on the outside, like, I think that they could do enough on offense to be passable, like, top 20, if the defense turns out to be really good. But I just don't, like, I don't have any belief that Brian Dable and the volatility of that

coaching staff, like the vibes there are pretty bad. I would say that I am pretty unconcerned about them certainly in the short term. If they get a quarterback and they replace the coach, then maybe long term, you get a little bit more worried. But right now I would say the threat level is pretty low. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, for the sake of this exercise, and I know I'm the one who steered it toward the trap,

but for the sake of the exercise, I like their first week because I think they got the best player who changed teams this week. Okay. And when you get the best player who changes teams and it came at the cost of a second round pick, now I know a lot of money, but that's money they could have spent, but they got the best player who changed teams, and that matters to me. Okay, fair enough. Let's move on to the Washington commanders. So Adam Peters takes over.

comes from San Francisco, gets his third or fourth or fifth choice as head coach. Dan Quinn is in? And boy, is he filling up this roster with Dan Quinn guys, the moves that the commanders have made over the past week. Charles Leno is back. Logan Thomas is whacked. Oh, no, sorry, Leno and Thomas are whacked. They signed Zackertz. They signed Dorrance Armstrong, the defensive end we talked about, solid player, played for Dan Quinn.

They signed Tyler Beattish to be their center. Also familiar with Dan Quinn. They signed Frankie Louvue for a fairly expensive deal. We talked a lot about him. Austin Echler. They're not paying him too much. Two years, like eight and a half million. That's actually less than Devin Singletary got.

Brandon McManus. They go get Nick Allegretti, the offensive lineman from the Chiefs, who was back up there but started in the Super Bowl, and then we'll start for the commanders. They pay for Cleland Farrell, who Peters is familiar with from the year in San Francisco. Francisco, Marcus Marriota, Dante Fowler Jr., a long snapper and Tyler Ott, Jeremy Chin, your boy.

They also bring back Jeremy Reeves, the former Eagle. They brought back your boy, James and Crowder. And then yesterday they go out and sign Bobby Wagner, another Dan Quinn connection to be in the middle of their defense. To me, Zach, this is like, you know how you heard in the job search that like, oh, well, that commander's team like, like, you know, they got. the number two pick and they got so much cap space. Well, like, that's what that cap space led to.

And I'm not even saying that that was a bad job by Adam Peters because what he was doing was like bringing this roster in theory to respectability. But it doesn't material. And I think most of those are short-term deals. So it's smart in a way. But just in general, the concept that you have so much cap space is more often than not just a reflection that you have a bad roster and nobody worth paying on the roster. and it's not like you're going to be, you know,

would you feel better if they went out and signed like the, and let's say they paid Calvin Ridley and Patrick Queen or something like that, two really expensive players. I don't know if that makes them better than what they did, but I would also say that I am certainly not worried about the commanders at this point. Yeah, I think that's good analysis. I am underwhelmed by what they've done during the past week. The flush with Cap Space, like you said,

And all right, if you don't want to spend for the sake of it, I'm, I'm okay with that. But they didn't really bring in many upside guys, right? They brought in guys, older guys. They brought in, like, role players. They brought in, they seem, they brought in a lot of, like, Dan Quinn, or not a lot of few Dan Quinn guys, which, you know, we'll get to the Cowboys and, like, a move that they just made. But I think you can kind of overrate sometimes. Like, I need, I need this player for this spot. in my skin because I played with him before.

And maybe Quinn's trying to instill a culture there. But if I'm, if I'm Washington, I'm thinking like, all right, how can I, how can I maximize the next like three to five years, not maximize the next six to eight months? How can I maximize the next, the maximumize the next three to five years? And they traded two young guys for draft picks, okay, when they trade Montez Sweat and Chase Young. And both those guys would are, you know, we'll see what Chase Young gets on the open market. We saw what Montez Sweat got. They traded two in their prime guys. And they got a second round pick and the third round pick. Okay. So I'm thinking, all right, maybe they're going to be,

they're going to be major players here for like difference making edge rushers, right? It's like one for the other. And they add Doran's Armstrong and Cleveland Farrow. That does not move to the needle for me on the edge. Now, they're investing in linebackers. Frankie Louvre's a, you know, he's an in the prime player. I get that. Bobby Wagner, you can say from like a culture perspective. But how many players... That sort of makes sense to me. In the Quinn

in the Quinn defense, you have Wagner in the middle to hold the fort and Louvo it can be his chess piece a little bit. He can be the guy who offers some you know, variability. But yeah. In a year when interior of offensive linemen

there were some good ones on the market and you know, they were getting paid. I get that. You don't want overpay. but they had a guard in a center that are just kind of like middle of the pack type players. I mean, you're not going to find someone who thinks higher Zach Ertz than, or, I mean, I imagine his wife and his mother and his family. But I think very highly of Zach Ertz as a player and as a person. I wouldn't identify him as like the guy I need to have at tight end right now. Austin Echler is coming off of a down year.

it just strikes me as just like a lot of uh, meh moves. What's, I'm not an emoji guy. You know the emoji that's kind of like that? The shrug. The shrug, yeah.

That's kind of what it's like for me. Yeah, you know, it's funny. I've actually like, I feel like I may have come around a little bit on it because yesterday I saw, I think it was the 33rd team had the,

like it was the graphic of all the moves that the commanders made. And I'm thinking to, I'm just laughing to myself like, I look at all these moves they made and none of these guys moves the needle. Um, and, And, you know, maybe it's the thing we've talked about with Harry Roseman before, where, like, do you get the guys who your coach wants? Yeah.

Because then you're insulated from criticism because if they don't work out, well, they were the coaches guys anyway. But the flip side is if you get guys they don't want, then maybe the coach is not incentivized to, you know, try to get the best out of them, that whole deal. Like maybe this is a Machiavellian thing from Adam Peters. But I also think there is maybe a, a self-recognition about the roster

that makes sense to me here because they should, I mean, they should not be giving up picks to trade for anybody. They got to figure out what it is they have in the quarterback who they're going to draft

and then maybe they can revisit next off season what they actually need. And this is a, these are signings that are going to help them have a baseline of, of competence around the quarterback. You know, you would think for,

when you know your draft from the young quarterback, you want to make sure you've got guys to throw to? Well, they've already got, it's not like they're going to go out and sign Calvin Ridley when they've got Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, right? I think you could do better than Jahan Dotson, and you need a third guy. But the offensive line, like,

was there anybody really available for them to go out and commit to long term? I don't know. It kind of makes sense to me that they have not hamstrung themselves, but also they had so much cap space that even if you are overpaying for a guy for three years, it's not going to, it's not going to materially affect you. So I don't know. I think I'm still jury out on what I think of what Adam Peters has done so far. Good points. Yeah, that's that. Look, I get, you don't want to

hamstring yourself. I would just, I would have tried to find more upside. And I know I can be seduced by upside. First one to admit that. But I would have, now we're talking, like the move I would have done and and maybe this is a a madden move and i'm way off course and we walks out of the house dressed like mo bomba that that would be very weird um i would uh not tonight it's free agency yeah well i did i i i have said like you know it's free agency right it's free and she doesn't tear like i'm like i can't i can't i can't i can't put the kids to bed right now so there's a move that might happen she's like no you put the kids to bed right now Like how he's not calling you right now.

So I've gotten some of that. But now I would have tried to bring Chase Young back. And I would try to bring Chase Young back. I would have said, right? Like I would have said that he, you got a third for him, given a chance to reset his value, bring him back. Like there was probably stuff behind the scenes that they didn't like. But they didn't think they were going to resign him last year.

You know, he was a pending free agent. They were a team not going anywhere. But now you have a chance to bring him back. That's the kind of stuff I would have, I just would have, I would have chased upside. I would have taken swings as opposed to like base hits. Like I feel like they're, they're trying to build an eight, you know, an eight and nine team right now. And that doesn't do me anything. But who are the guys?

Like who, I don't know, aside from chasing, I guess. But I don't know. All right. Last one, Zach, is not much to talk about because the Dallas Cowboys have done nothing except for Eric Kendricks, Mike Zimmer's boy. And that's it. That's all they've done. How do you feel about that? Yeah, it's a little early right here, right? I get that. I mean, I know all these jokes are saying they're all in and they literally haven't gone in on anybody, right? Now, Eric Kendricks, Eric Kendricks just just makes me laugh because it's Mike Zimman. Zimmer saying, I want Eric Kendrance. Like, Mike Kendrick, or I'm sorry, Mike Zimmer's been out of coaching for the past, what, two years now? And he comes back and he's like, get me my guys from four years ago, right? What was that guy?

What was that guy? Who was that guy who looked like Jason Siegel? Who was that again? The linebacker. Oh, yeah. Yeah, big Jason Segal fan. You know who Jason Segal's high school basketball teammates were? No.

The Collins brothers. Really? Yeah. Nice. I believe that Harvard Westlake. I like that. Yeah. A good piece of info.

I heard that on the Bill Simmons podcast one time. Bill Simmons, yeah. So. Yeah, I know who Bill Simmons is. He had Sheel on yesterday. I wish we can get shield. So, yeah, so it's still, they haven't done anything. Now, they haven't really, like, lost.

Well, Tyron Smith hasn't signed anywhere yet, right? They're not expected to resign Tyron Smith. Correct. but they haven't really lost anyone like major at this moment. Well, that's not true. They lost Tony Pollard, right? They need to figure out. Tony Pollard, Doran's Armstrong, Tyrant Smith.

Yeah. Yeah, they haven't lost. But yeah. Yeah. And then Beiotish. Okay. Yeah. So I think what they need to do is they need to figure out what's happening with Prescott.

Prescott's taking up such a big part of their cap space here. They got to, they got to give a new deal, bring that down. I mean, maybe they bring Connor Williams back or something of that nature to play center. But yeah, they've sat on their hands. The Kendricks moved made me laugh because of the Zimmer thing. But, yeah, there's really not much to talk about here. I still think they have a really good roster.

I still think they've a really good team. And we'll kind of see what they do in the draft. This is a team that drafts well, of course. All right, I'm not going to address this Aaron Rogers tweet that just went out. Instead, I'm going to tell you about FOCO, because Foco is a leading manufacturer of sports and entertainment merchandise with a product line that includes apparel accessories, toys, collectibles, novelty items, and more than that.

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Let me look at this here. Yeah, PHLY events and diehards. We spoke about some of the events before tonight. As we said, it is the PHLY Hockey Die Hards. You can join Charlie and Bill for a takeover at the Flyers Leafs game. You can get a ticket in the assembly room to enjoy the game with the other diehards. And we have many events at all p.hly.com. It's under the events calendar.

You can follow our PHLWathilis team who's down in spring training right now for details on opening day. They'll be hosted at Bet Park's casino and sports book. And then die hard. I keep telling die hard. And I see all the diehards that have signed up. this week. Bo and I and Joyo, we appreciate it. And the great thing is people are always asking us what you can do to support the show.

And the answer is to become a PHLY diehard. It's the, it's when you become a diehard, you immediately get to choose a free shirt or hat of your choice from the PHLY locker. And you get another every single year at Renewable. You also instantly get access to the PHLY Discord lounge to chat with other Philly sports fans from all, all, away from all the BS that's on Twitter. after that you unlock 20% off all merchant events for the entirety of your time as a member. And those are just some of the perks of being a PHY diehard. I think the biggest perk is you get to read great stuff on there like Bo's top 100 rankings that should be bookmarked and returned to often during free agency.

Steelers adding to Sean Elliott, who we talked about as a safety option. Looks like two years six million, which is not very much, unless it's six million per. No, just two six. So not very much at all. You know, Zach, the people who watched the emergency show last night. Which one? Oh, last night. Last night, we'll have seen that I was wearing the Michael Dunn jersey.

And, you know, I'm a little bit out of the purchasing fan stuff game. But I'm always seeing these complaints about fanatics and the terrible product that they're delivering. to people, how long it takes, how sometimes you're just waiting months and months and it gets canceled. Sometimes it'll show up. It's the wrong thing. They've got this ridiculous monopoly. And I've sympathized with those people, but never really had the experience myself because I don't patronize the site very often, but I did order the Michael Dunn's shirt from Fanatics. And, you know, I wear the shirt, but I haven't worn it like a hundred times. And I'm taking the shirt off yesterday, trying to, you know, just pulling it up over my head.

And I'm not pulling hard. And the thing just rips apart. The back, look at this, just rips as if it's like the easiest thing in the world, like it was meant to do. And so now I get to sympathize with everybody who has had this happen to them. And I can say I'm joining the official fan club of Michael Rubin is a terrible person and his company is one of the big things wrong with sports. Okay, do you want me to respond to that? I just need to get it out there. I want to say, you know, I'm with you.

You're with the audience there on that, okay. Yeah, I'm sorry that happened to your shirt. Me too. I like the literal flex line. Maybe you're trying to tell you how smart you are. You got a big head, right? You're trying to show people smart you are. It's a big smart.

It's being a small. smart joke big head get it don't you think the flex thing was about the the way that I was would have been pulling the shirt like the the muscles that was the joke you know and I got a big head oh you big brain you're smart person you're smart person that doesn't really that doesn't really have anything to do with the story the shirt it's not that I couldn't get the shirt off my head I thought you're pulling it over your head and then it ripped yeah pulling it like like this It has nothing to do with whether it could get over my head or not. How else do you take off a shirt?

How do you take off a shirt? You and I take off shirts differently. You take off shirts like this? Sometimes. What do you do? You do the cross and lift it up like your James Bond or something like that? Yeah. You look from the bottom.

Yeah, I always take my shirts off from the bottom. You do the cross, the cross arm thing? I'm not cross armed, no. You just go, you pull up straight. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Is that not how you take your shirt off?

You take it off in the back? Yeah, I think a T-shirt, I'm often, I, you go up and over, you grab the back and you pull it over. Yeah, that's not how I take off my shirt. It's interesting. Okay. Yeah, hold on. The fans want to see, take a step back and take your shirt off, Zach. Let's not take my shirt off.

Let's analyze the critique. No, I'm not taking my shirt off. But no, I go like up, not. But from the side, not like the cross thing. where it's like not the cross arm you just go interesting yeah i'm i don't think i've ever done it that way i don't think i've ever done it this way chat way in chat where do you yeah yeah these are the things you know you never know about yourself or somebody you never know if it's different Like you're strong.

That's what I, yeah, that's what I thought his joke was. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Well, that too. No, I,

I'm sorry to hear that, that happened to you. I don't like when, if stuff takes too long to come. And you see that sometimes with, with fanatics. I think, or stay.

What's that? I think distribution is important. So quick distributions. And, and that's an issue. I use fanatics to get my son. jerseys and I deal with that. I do like their jersey, their guarantee if the player gets traded or released within a time frame,

you can get your a replacement jersey. So that's that's a cool feature. Yeah, you've been making making out like a bandit on that one. Well, I mean, so I got my son at Toronto Raptors, Pascals, Seacom. Jersey and he got traded. And so then they replaced it with a Scotty Barnes one. Yeah, but you, I mean, you didn't just happen to get him a Pascal Seyakum, Jersey. You knew that Pascal Seaccombe was on the block.

Listen, you saw an opportunity and you took it. I suppose like how he was Sequin, right? I guess. But, yeah, all right. I'm sorry that happened to your Michael Dunn, Jersey. All right. Anything else? What are you looking forward to asking the players?

Yeah, I was going to ask you, what memories do you have of introductory press conferences for these guys? I remember Isaac Sopawagas, introductory press conference. Shocked the world. Where he was sort of dancing around the possibility of Dream Team, but didn't all the way go there. That was a good one.

I remember Justin Fargus' press conference when he was visiting as a free agent, but did not sign. that was funny and a little bit sort of felt bad for him I remember watching the live stream of Nigel Braddams I think oh no maybe that was when he resigned

not when he actually signed for the first time let's see I was in Maine okay I don't know that's about it what do you remember I think the real lesson going back to the Calvin Maduro thing is that my memory is just not what it once was maybe concerning.

What is, Shill says to eat almonds for your memory, right? Does that help? Something like that, yeah. Okay. I have, I have so many of these memories from these introductory press conferences. Some are more memorable than others, right? Some of like Justin Evans last year was not particularly memorable. I'll say that.

He didn't have. I remember that, yeah. Him and Greedy Williams, I remember. There was one other one. Yeah, last year was, there was something that were not. Maybe we shot Penny. It was all the same day. I remember Deshaun Jackson.

He had the shirt that, and look, I can't, I can't throw stones because I've been guilty of this too. Where this shirt was like right out of the package. So it still had the creases. Yeah, so the creases from the store. It was like a green. silk shirt. I remember Malik Jackson's varsity letterman's jacket. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. From his high school.

The, probably the one that kind of sticks with me that I missed on the most was hold on here. Pulling this up. From the cornerback from the Carolina Panthers,

Darrell Worley. Yes. You remember? Who they traded Torrey Smith for him. And man, I mean, it's right on my alley. A Philly guy. Penn Charter. Make me back home. The Eagles had just won the Super Bowl. This is exciting. Right?

And I do this story. And then a few days later, he is, he's cut because he got arrested. Jordan Howard, I remember him. He had the, it was the first time I had seen this. Now it's kind of commonplace. But he had the necklace with the medallion of his father. Okay. I had not seen that there too far.

So, yeah, a few. a few stick out but always i'm looking forward to seeing sequin and looking forward to seeing price and looking forward to seeing zach today i'm trying to think of the other ones through the years name some free agents they've signed connor barwin no don't remember it malcolm jenkins don't remember god in the cloud don't remember it so malcolm and uh malcolm's was in that that small room um it's now you're used for massages, like the team massages, but during the Chip Kellierra, the auditorium was off limits for reporters. They didn't do anything in the auditorium. And they have this room in the facility.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's where those press conferences were that year. So they signed Sanchez that year. They signed Nolan Carroll that year. They signed Chris Marigos that year. He signed Malcolm Jenkins that year's 2014 all season. It was in that little room. I recall that. I grew, it. It If you think back, I remember the Sopalaga one that you mentioned, they had like four guys on the stage together. You know, James Casey was up there, a few other guys. So that one jumps out. I'm trying to think of some others.

Brandon Brooks. Brandon Brooks was, you know. Before my time or in my interim time. Oh, okay. Yeah, he was dapper. He shook hands with everybody. Yeah, recognized Dave Zengarro right away from their time in Houston, gave him a little hug. Yep.

Yeah, that was cool to see. Alshans. I remember Alshan. I remember following Alshan out because I wanted my time as well. Clarification on that. Because you couldn't hear. Yeah, he actually was very soft. That was tough. He was very soft. Tori Smith, so I remember him that year.

Let's go into 2018. Halodinata was one that they had. Yeah, loose recollection of that. By the way, I would say the tweet that I put up earlier today, you know, you get as for the sickos, as small a group as a tweet is intended for as possible, probably maybe my favorite tweet I've ever put out. And what did it mean? I'm not going to tell you.

It's only for the people who know. That's a real effective way to use social media. All right. Yeah. Chris Longs. I don't want more followers. Why not? Isn't that what you're doing?

You're disseminating information. to a large group of people. I'm not disseminating important information. Okay. Well, that's why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors. The Chris Long, Mike Wallace, that was in the media house. That was not in the auditorium. That was up on the top floor.

Okay. Remember that? Of course, during 2020, we didn't get a chance to go. That was like right when COVID started. when COVID started. It is kind of, I mean, we're kind of at our time now. We don't have to keep going, but it is interesting to think back to 2020 when like COVID just began. I mean, the world shuts down. And the NFL was like, all right, we're going to do free agency right now. I remember talking to Javon Hargrave on the conference call from home and a few other ones.

So, yeah, so those were some memories of introductory press conferences of past. Okay. Well, let's hope that there's some fireworks today that will make this one memorable. Hopefully, Zach Bonn takes his shirt off, and we can all remember that. I hope Zach Bonn keeps his shirt on. I hope you take your shirt off then. I'm sure you, my shirt. I hope Zach Bond says, hey, guys, I was listening to the podcast today.

I was trying to just sort of get familiar with Philadelphia Media. I was wondering, Zach, do you mind coming on the stage? you and I will take our shirts off at the same time. We can compare how we do it. Yeah. It's certainly not necessary. Certainly not necessary. But it would be memorable.

It would be memorable. Not for me. It would be forgettable for me. You don't think that would be memorable? No, I'm saying I would want to forget. I don't want to go on stage and take my shirt off. Okay. One day.

Someone says, aren't you going to change? Of course we're going to change before heading to the press conference. Yes. How are you going to do that? My shirt will come off and I'll put on a button down. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast. Back tomorrow at noon, we can talk about what we heard from Sequin Barclay,

Zach Bonn and Bryce Huff. And of course, if there is news, Eagles Wise, in the interim, we will be back with another emergency podcast. So stay tuned for that. For Zach and Julia, I'm Bo. We thank you for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure you like and subscribe all that good stuff. And as always, we love you.