PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles Minicamp wrap-up: Jalen Hurts & co. head to summer break

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

At the close of the Eagles’ mandatory minicamp, Kellen Moore’s offense and Vic Fangio’s defense squared off with some red-zone work in a light practice before the team broke for the summer. We also heard from Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni, Mekhi Becton and the two rookie cornerbacks, who provided insight on how far they’ve come thus far.Zach Berman and Bo Wulf recap it all, plus react to the news that Jeff(rey) Lurie is seeking a buyer for a minority stake in the team. 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.

So the P. H.LY Eagles podcast Thursday, 5 p.m. And boy, do we have a loaded show for you. Zach, I know there's a part of you that laments the fact that, you know, we've got all these shows coming up when there's no Eagles football to talk about. And they've loaded. They've piled on all this stuff. We could use some more drips and drabs here to get us through. But no, the onslaught drinking from a fire hose. We have the final practice of mandatory minicamp to talk about. We spoke to Jalen Hertz and Nick Siriani. We spoke to both rookie corners. We spoke to Mackay Beckton. We've got big news in the Jeffrey Lurie world.

We've got big news in the front office. Changes abound in the scouting staff and with Dom DeSandro, lots of stuff to get to, Zach. How you doing? That's doing great. You hit it on the head. That was my exact sentiment was, I mean, I wish this was like over the next two weeks. There was a morsel of news here, piece of information there.

We have so much here on a 5 o'clock Thursday show. I'm actually happy, though, that it's a 5 o'clock show because some of the information here, had we done a show earlier today, we would not have the chance to get to. There you go. Now, you and Rich, handsome Rich, will be live tomorrow at noon

to maybe talk about some of the other stuff here. But I do, I think we should start, Zach, with the Jeffrey Lurie News. Okay. Now, I know yesterday we had some fun about, you know, me being a dumb ogre. Today, I needed to explain this one to me like a dumb guy because I am a dumb guy when it comes to the big money here. You're Mr. Stock Market. Okay.

Tell me what it means when Bloomberg reports that Jeffrey Lurie is looking for a buyer for a minority stake in the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure. So basically what is so if, I mean, I'll speak on a. very elementary level here. Please. The equity is a pie. And you're selling... Money, what? I don't understand.

You're selling a piece of that pie, right? And the key thing here, and this is according to Bloomberg, but for my understanding, this is accurate, that there's no path to controlling interest, right? So they're showing a minority stake, which would give somebody or an institution, because if you remember in Nashville at the league meetings last month, they spoke about private equity being permitted to buy in the team. So we'll kind of see that development. But what this would allow is a team to, I'm sorry, is someone or a group to buy into the Eagles,

take a stake of the team. And what's also notable here is the $7.5 billion dollar valuation. That would be the highest valuation in the NFL, I think. For the team as a whole, not for the team. or the percentage that they would be willing to sell. Yes, yes. So that's the overall valuation. So if someone were, in theory, if someone were to buy 1% at a 7.5 billion valuation,

it would be $75 million. If someone were to buy 10%, it would be $750 million. And so you can kind of do the math based on that. But there are, I can't speak to Jeffrey Lurie's intentions with this. what would matter for Eagles fans is that the team would stay with Jeffrey and his family, but there would be other minority investors. And there are minority owners as it is right now. But I imagine for someone to be, for the Eagles to put this up or to have a group looking for buyers,

there will be enough of a piece of that pie, if you will, to entice somebody else. Right. It's not, it wouldn't be like a fraction of a percentage. for them to solicit buyers, if you will, right? So that's a key part here. And it could be, you know, a cash infusion. You know, there's a number of different things you can say. I have a lot of, I have a lot of mini follow-ups here.

Yes. Okay. Things that I want to check the box on. First of all, you mentioned that there are currently other minority owners. But your understanding is they have not taken on any minority owners in any recent past, right? this is this is a new thing relatively recent past yeah um yeah there now i i i do believe that christina lorry uh geoffrey's ex-wife has has you know a stake in the team right in that they they uh had a divorce in 2012 in 2012 i believe 2011 2012 thereabouts right so

relatively recent past but no i i think the ownership's been been what it's been Okay. What is the incentive for a buyer to come in and get, you know, whatever percentage of the team? It's a good question. So there's a handful. If there is no patent. Yeah. Yeah. So number one, you can look at it like any other type of investment. If you believe that this investment will continue appreciating, then your piece of I will appreciate. And if you invested in the Eagles 20 years ago or 10 years ago, that investment would appreciate considerably. So there could be that component of it. Sometimes it's a, there's a vanity component of it too, right? There are only 31 NFL teams that are not publicly traded, right?

The Green Bay Packers are publicly traded. This is a very exclusive fraternity to own a stake of a team, even if you don't have controlling interest. it provides proximity and there's there's certainly value in that you know I know some of you know that I I know minority owners with Eagles who you can see in the locker room or or at practice or in the draft room whatever it may be right and so there's there's there's certainly proximity to something that is exclusive right And there could be other reasons, too, but I think either from an investment perspective or from, I don't like to say vanity perspective, but yeah, proximity to something exclusive. It is a very desirable property.

Owning a team is a very desirable property. There's much more demand than there is supply. Okay. And then I think the most important question here is what would be the reason for Jeffrey Lurie to do this now? what would be his incentive? Yeah, so I obviously can't speak for it for Jeffrey. That's that's pretty clear. But a seven and a half billion dollar valuation is pretty significant, right?

So let's use the numbers that we said. Like in theory, if someone buys 1%, 75 million like we said, someone buys 10%, 750 million. That's a significant cash infusion to, to, Jeffrey or to projects, whatever it may be, right? So it could be that. There's a number of different things that. There's a number of different reasons someone would want liquidity, but that would jump out.

If there are certain projects that the team might take on, certainly having that type of valuation is advantageous. but yeah i mean you imagine that this is it's it's a way of raising money essentially sure and you know you and i have written about this along with shield in the past about how relative to other owners in the NFL you know geoffrey is not a you know this is this is his main thing he doesn't have other revenue streams right he's not a like a captain of industry you know ripping people off with flying jay or whatever it is like this is his main thing so it's possible that he just needs, or wants an infusion of cash himself.

Is this, would you worry, are you from like a succession angle? You know, Julian Lurie is set up. We all believe that eventually down the line he's going to be the new owner. Are you worried about like a fox in the henhouse type thing? You're bringing somebody in, giving them a small percentage, and then all of a sudden they're going to start pulling away more percentages and try, and try, even if there is no path to controlling, they're going to try to get controlling. I can't predict the future, but I don't anticipate that being the case.

I think I've had these conversations. We've had these conversations that, you know, Jeffrey Lurie's very interested in Julian taking over the team. And I would imagine any type of transaction would ensure there's nothing inhibiting that so long as, you know, that's still Joyan's aspiration. I can tell you to the point that you said before, Jeffrey Lurie purchased the team in 1994 for $185 million. At the time, it was the highest that had been paid for a team.

The Wall Street Journal panned the purchase. Jeffrey specifically has told me this. He remembers that. I can't imagine the Wall Street Journal getting something wrong. And they panned this purchase. And now I'll have to get from $185 million to $7.5 billion. Like, that's a great leap. but I bring that up as a way of saying,

I understand these are large numbers no matter what, right? Like, I'm not saying that. But to your point, for Joshua Harris to purchase the commanders at $6.5 billion, or what was it, $6 billion, $6.5 billion for, you know, the Broncos, I think they sold for $4.65 billion, right, to the penners, right? So the point being, like, for one to purchase teams at that price, Jeffrey, or I'm sorry, Teper in Carolina. What was that?

Two billion or so, two and a half billion. That requires a lot of, you know, a lot of money. And probably, you know. Right. So is there incentive just to just, just to get it on the books that the 7.5 billion valuation is, is there and probably still only rising? No, but I'm saying in this is kind of to buttress your point about outside cash flow. like it takes a certain amount of cash flow to purchase a team at six billion compared to purchasing a team at 185 million right and so that the stakes of NFL ownership has has increased significantly right and so yeah certainly it it there's definitely value in having that and and by the way too like I'm I don't want to be skeptical here but for for for for them to you know have have you know a an institution helping them find buyers for this stake and for this to appear in Bloomberg,

right? It's it's very much like the Eagles are seeking this as it's it's you know, you're, you're able to, I don't know what you're laughing at there. I'm laughing at Dan McQuade saying Larry's going to use the money to get the windmills back on top of the stadium. But I'm saying like they're you know, there's sometimes where there's transactions behind the scenes like right. So for this to come out, this this this can also be interpreted as as a means of soliciting interest for this. Right. You know, you talked yesterday's act about how the best,

best feeling in the world is like making your kids laugh. I'm happy to report that I was able to repurpose my Josh Harris face to really crack up Jane yesterday. It was really a total home run. Oh, good. I'm glad that. I'm glad that with you. But Josh Harris, by the way, that's a,

that's a good example. Like, you know, when he bought the Sixers, and there were a number of different minority owners, right? You know, Michael Rubin was a minority owner. Will Smith had a small stake in the team. But you say, why would someone buy in? It's for that.

It's like for access to something special. And like the reason why Joshua Harris and, you know, David Blitzer have gone on and purchased other teams, This is, this is like it's, A, it's been good business. Sports franchises have rise at an exceedingly high pace. If you look at simply television ratings, right?

Sports are the, and the television deals that are, you see the NBA deal that's, that's, that's, that's coming around now. This is, if it's much easier said than, then, than done. But teams tend to appreciate quite a bit. And there can always be a tipping point. But, you know, Mark Cuban, just sold a. a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks. Sometimes you can strike when there's a high valuation, and that I think is what the,

I imagine that's what Jeffrey Lurie's doing. Two questions. First, how high does the Navidia stock price have to get for you to be involved in the bidding? Yeah, I'm not involved. Or at least to be curious, to be interested about maybe dipping your toe. At least maybe an exploratory phone call to Jeffrey.

Yeah, no, no. The stock would, there would, there would be a lot more people in front of the line than me, put it that way. Well, maybe they're not interested. I think there'd be a lot of people interested who own a video stock. Okay. Next, the more important question. Yes. From an Eagles fan perspective.

Yeah. Why should I care about this? Does this matter? Is there anything, you know, down the pike that would make you a little bit skittish as an Eagles fan? Yeah, good question. The first thing I would say, why should you care about this? I hate to say it, but palace intrigue, right? People are always intrigued by the palace, so to speak.

I don't think there's anything here that materially affects the Eagles. Or I'm sorry, materially affects Eagles fans. If this story didn't come out and there was a silent transaction behind the scenes, there would be nothing, I think, that would have a material effect on Eagles fans. Now, that said, I think there are significant things coming up with the Eagles that are worth watching that go beyond what's on the field. We talked about it at the owner's meetings. Jeffrey Lurie made a reference to the stadium lease coming up at the end of this decade, right? Now they could renew the lease, but there could also be capital improvements.

A Lincoln financial field is not new anymore. NovaCare Complex is not new anymore, as we're seeing with the 76ers right now, as we've seen with other teams. teams, you know, public funding or public financing for stadiums is not, you know, it's, it's not what it was 25 years ago when Joe Banner and Jeffrey Lorry were building Lincoln Financial Field, right? So I imagine from like, if you look at what's coming up from an ownership level for the Eagles, facilities is a big thing. There's, if you're following the story about Comcast Spectacore and the complex they want to have in South Philly. And there's a good piece up now of Charlie O'Connor. The Flyers ownership spoke yesterday. This is a big deal with Flyers ownership.

And the Eagles, you know, there's talk of whether or not the Eagles would be involved in this. So from, I think from a fan perspective, from an ownership level, what you want. And we've talked about Jeffrey Lurie, his willingness to pay. well for players for coaches, pay cash for players and coaches, right? So you want that organizational stability there. But I think beyond like the football product, the big thing to watch in the next six to eight years for the Eagles is what happens

with facilities. Okay. Yeah, I think the thing that thing that you touched on there is the only thing that would, you know, worry me if you're an Eagles fan is a lot of the things that, that Jeffrey Lurie does, relative to other owners in the league, are go a long way in what makes the Eagles a good organization, right? His willingness to pay and overpay for football operations staff, be that, you know, Jeff Stoutland being like the highest paid position coach in the league

or general manager salaries or head coach salaries, stuff like that. That stuff matters in terms of just attracting talent. And then also, like from a roster building standpoint, like eating, eating dead money and being, you know, willing to, pay cash as opposed to the Dallas Cowboys, right, who do not do that. If there were like a private equity group that came in and, you know, had less of an appetite for that. And if they had a say in things and they changed the Eagles operating philosophy in that way,

then that would eat away at some of their structural advantages. True, although the inverse could be true as well in the sense that the NFL, before last last month when, you know, there's, there's talks of allowing private equity to buy stakes in teams. Everything's been institutional, you know, it's been family or, you know, yeah, it hasn't been corporate owned. That's not been allowed in the NFL. And that's a major difference to other sports. And there is a considerable difference between someone like these longstanding owners. You know, you look at teams like the gym.

giants or the Bengals or the Raiders compared to the cash flow of them that might be possible for someone coming in with a lot of money. Like if you're looking in the NBA, new ownership and has changed things quite a bit. And you're much more familiar with European football, you know, soccer than I am. But my understanding from reading about this quite a bit is like, especially you know, foreign ownership and institutional ownership from abroad has dramatically changed.

You're worried about the Saudis. You're worried about the PILD. But that's dramatically changed the state of the Premier League, correct? So, yeah, so you can get to a point where there's an ownership group that just has so much more to spend than other ownership groups,

which has not necessarily been as pronounced when it's simply, you know, family ownership. Now, when you say buying a steak and a team, we're talking like a T-bone, Ribbon, explain this to me. Yeah, we're talking a piece of a pie, right? So this is how I would explain it to you, both. Take a pizza. Okay, cut a pizza at eight slices.

You got a pizza shop and all the customers come in and they say, well, this shouldn't be a pizza shop. This should be a porn shop. And you say, okay, I got to listen to the customers. That's what we got to do. Let's cut the pizza. Let's cut the pizza in the 10 slices. And you take one slice, then you have 10% equity in that pizza.

I have 90% equity in that pizza. But if you took eight slices, then you have 80% equity in that pizza and I have 20% equity. That's only if you assume that they were cut equally. True. I was talking about equal slices. So that is essentially what is happening with Eagles. And it's going to be an interesting story to follow. It reminds me of one of the great differences, I think,

and probably the biggest positive in the French Open versus the other major Grand Slams. Deuce, take it or leave it. It's confusing for people getting into the game. It's like, what do we mean here? Duce in French, egalite. Ooh, beautiful. Equality.

That's exactly. That's perfect. That's so much better. Big bump for egalite over Duce. The French is over my head. Oh, ha, ha. All right, Zach, let's talk about our friends at Ollipop, because Ollipop is the world's first functional soda with a classic soda taste and the benefits of plant-based fiber, prebiotics, and other botanical ingredients to support gut health. Oliopop is a new kind of soda with only two to five grams of sugar and nine grams of fiber per can Olipop is available online and available in almost 30,000 retailers nationwide, including the most recent launch at all Wawa stores,

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The Eagles have added to his title. It was before, as I pull this up, it was senior. advisor to the general manager slash chief security officer. Now it is that with also additioned to another slash game day coaching operations. And I think that this is interesting on two fronts. On the one hand, you have the Derek Gunn report from the postseason talking about how part of the loss of Dom DeSandro in the second half of the season was the inability for him to corral Nick Siriani on the sideline and like that was a real factor

of things that were happening during game days. The second thing here is obviously I take this as a bit of a not so subtle middle finger to the league office. Like you took away our guy because of whatever his role was. Well, now he's actually a coach and he's allowed to be on the sideline

doing whatever he wants. Precisely. I think you framed it well there. I don't mean to like knock all the Eagles titles here, but Dom is Dom, right? Dom. Dom runs what he, he runs his domain. So he's the senior advisor to the general manager. He's the chief security offer. He's the game day coaching operations. And the point that you made is exactly what this is. This gives him formal game day responsibilities. So on the sideline, he's considered more than a security official. He's considered a part of the coaching staff.

Okay. Do you think that this materially changes anything? I think that it doesn't unless there's a sideline scuffle again and Dom breaks it up, then the view on Dom, like the actual responsibilities for Dom are like formally different than they were maybe a year ago. But no, I think Dom's job is still Dom's job. Okay. Let's stay in the football operations and talk about a few of the highlights here. And maybe we can get into some a little bit more of the nitty gritty on this next week at some point, Sack. but a few people that I think are important for Eagles fans to know. We'll just go down the list here.

Bryce Johnston, who with Jake Rosenberg, having left the organization, seems like he has inherited sort of like the in charge of the cap guy, right? And it's obviously more than that. He was promoted from vice president of football transactions and strategic planning to senior vice president slash tertiary football executive. I don't think that I've heard tertiary football executive before. I have not either. Eagles are creative at creating titles. And that is a new one for me. But certainly the bump from Vice President, the Senior Vice President, the Senior VP, and this supports what we've been saying ever since March that Bryce Johnston is, I don't want to say he's the new Jake, right? But he is in charge of Cap management, team strategy in that regard, right? That's his responsibility. And also just, I mean, a great story.

A guy who was... Amazing story. Talk about like, do the job that you want, not the job that you have, was just running in the Eagle's salary cap website, then gets plucked by the front office and has worked his way up. Yeah, we've been doing during that time. Yeah, we were covering the team while he was doing that. Now, he's a senior vice president and we're doing, you know, bird puns. So... Speak for yourself.

Adam Berry. twin brother of Andrew Barry, the recently extended general manager of the Cleveland Browns. Adam Barry promoted from director of football operations and strategy to vice president of football operations and strategy. And I think, you know, you talk about the Eagles GM pipeline. I think, I think Harry Roseman would tell you that he probably expects Adam Barry to be a general manager at some point down the line. Yeah, good point there. And growing in the organization, the Eagles hired him from, from, from, from Wall Street and he's he's grown now.

This is he's going in the year three in the Eagles front office, I believe. And you put it well there. This is exactly, this is a rapid ascension, but I know he's very well regarded in that building. Jeff Scott goes from director of football operations to vice president of football operations, Connor Barwin, from director of player development to head of football development and strategy. Katie David, who has been with the team a long time, goes from football operations director to chief of staff to the general manager. Zach Drapkin in the analytics silo goes from quantitative analyst to senior quantitative analyst. And Matt Leo, who was sort of with the organization in a nebulous superfluous, not superfluous, nebulous role, aside from making waves with the thong, is now officially player development assistant.

it. Yeah, all of all of those are a notable Jeff Scott, someone well regarded in the organization. I mean, I, I, is a Jeff Scott or Scott, Jeff? It is, it is Jeff Scott. He came over from Washington. It has, has continued to grow there as a big part in front office there. And then Connor Barwin, I've written extensively about Connor. Probably have a soft spot there for, for Connor, but he is, he's a sharp guy. He's involved in a lot of different parts of the building football development and strategy. And then also, part of owner of Shrestay. Now, is there finals? Has it happened yet?

I've been so loaded up in minicamp. I'm embarrassed to say I'm behind. Connor, if you're watching, I'm going to look that up tonight. During the NBA playoffs, I will check out how Shrest Day is doing. I would say for Connor Barwin, you know, he was never the level of celebrity of Jason Kelsey, right? But this is a guy who has lots of options, lots of interests. and as we talk about like what Jason Kelsey does next,

I think it's notable that Connor Barwin has all of these things, lots of opportunities to his disposal. It probably says a lot about his value to the organization, A, that he is, that he is there and working as hard as he is and is there as much as he is, and also that he continues to move upwards. Like obviously this is someone that they value and not just from a, you know, come around and shake hands and tell guys about your playing days.

Oh, no, he's, he's, he's very much invested and, like, cares and is a part of this and has, has good ideas to contribute, similar to Jason Kelsey, though he has his hands in a lot of different areas outside of this. I mentioned Trieste. He has his foundation to make the world a better place. He's also, he's a partner with Kelsey and their production company, right? You know, when they, with the documentary, with the Christmas album, like, that's, that's Kelsey and Barwin together. All right, let's talk about the scouting department. And by the way, shout out to Zach Drappkin as well. He's someone who I've heard good things about and a local guy. Love that. Yep. Do you think that it's drapkin like napkin?

Or do the carpets match to the carpets match to the drapkins? I think I'm not sure. I don't know. Drapkin, drapkin. but yeah I think you know Lower Marion Penn yeah he's he's from the area

no wonder you like the guy no wonder I like the guy yeah okay let's talk about the scouting staff Charles Walls goes by Chuck Walls to some and Alan Walking both were directors of player personnel now both vice presidents of

player personnel I would say more people in the future general manager pipeline for the it's fair to say yeah I'm going to turn this over to because this is a great story, Bo wrote a few years ago when Walking was a Road Scout. You saw firsthand what it was like. So you've seen Alan ascend in the organization.

Yeah, that was probably one of my favorite days on the job, I would say, shadowing Allen at the school visit to Tennessee. I mean, I would say dropping the objectivity. Yeah, I think he's a, I think he's a very good guy. Like, you know, I like an on walking. And he strikes me as a smart guy. I think just relative to the structure of the front office, it's worth noting, like, he is the one who has who has been near the longest.

Yeah, that, yeah. And he has truly like risen up from the very bottom rungs of the scouting department in the organization and slowly climbed the ladder without having gone anywhere. whereas a lot of the other people who have risen to that level have sort of jumped around from other places. Not that that is good nor bad, but just in terms of the dynamics in the organization, it's interesting that he has been there the longest and continues to rise.

VP of player personnel. I would imagine that if things go well, then maybe a general manager one day. Precisely. That's exactly why I pitched it to you because that story showed, and at the time he had more responsibilities than just like an area scout, right? but how he's gone from an area scout to one of the most important people in the scouting department, a vice president of player personnel, is as high as you're going to go outside of assistant GM in this league.

Brandon Hunt goes from director of scouting to senior director of scouting, and Phil Bayer, who is someone who is a younger person in the front office and has risen up through the organization, has only been with the Eagles. He goes from Director of College Guadding to Director of Player Personnel. Yeah, local guy as well. Great story there.

And actually, he's like the opposite of Zach Drapkin or Drakekin, whichever one you want to call it, because he's South Jersey suburbs, okay, and Princeton. Okay, so you go from Pennsylvania suburbs and Penn to South Jersey suburbs and Princeton. Another person you hear really good things about from people behind the scenes is Amina Solomon, who goes from a director.

of personnel operations slash pro scout to a director of football operations slash pro scout. And I think it's worth noting that some of the, so you have Amina who is a woman and also two of the announced new hires in the organization, also female. So good to see some, you know, not just white guys being hired. Good for them. Yeah. And, you know, I'm really qualified people, smart, you know, smart young people. And you're absolutely right. I mean, this is something that Howie Roseman's been, you know, very, he's been aggressive about finding people different, you know, I would say a range of diversity, whether it is skin color or gender, but also backgrounds.

You know, there's people from all different types of walks of life here when it comes to like their path to the Eagles and how he's how he's been. Philadelphia suburb, South Jersey suburbs. No, I mean, you know, like, no, you had people who played football. You have people who did not play football. People who've worked in college departments. You've had people work in NFL departments. You've worked in investment banking, right? So there's a lot of different backgrounds, and that's something Howey's paid attention to.

And to Howie's credit, like, you know, the league incentivizes, like literally incentivizes minority hires from like the higher ups of the organization. But how he's done is they've had a strong pipeline from like the lower levels of the organization. You know, people, you know, such as, you know, Ian Cunningham and Brandon Brown and Caitlin Rage, right, have gone on the bigger jobs from the lower levels or the mid levels of the Eagles front office. Jeremy Gray goes from Assistant Director of Pro Scouting to Assistant Director of Player Personnel, Cam Bradfield moves from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southwest where Brad Obie left the organization. And then Terrence Braxton, actually, I deleted what his new title is.

He's player personnel. He's player personnel coordinator. And then the other interesting thing here, Tim McManus had reported just before the announcement had come out, the Ted Rath, who we understood to be like the player performance guy, you know, like the face of sports science in the organization had left the organization. And this is interesting because when we talked to, I believe it was Devin White the other day, about, no, it was Paris Campbell who was talking about the, like the injury prevention operations, like the apparatus that they have here with the Eagles having stood out as different than the places he has been.

He mentioned Fernando Noriega and not Ted Rath. So honestly, that probably. probably should have tip us off. Kudos to Tim for tracking that down. But Fernando Noriega, now director of player performance and sports science slash head strength and conditioning coach, in addition to Ben Wagner and Dustin Woods also being involved there. Yeah. And so the Eagles have kind of spread Ted's responsibilities around.

Ted's been on the speaking circuit recently. And, you know, he did have a big role in the organization. And it seems Eagles are splitting that up now. and Fernando is the key figure there. All right. I am, though, very curious about Dustin Woods' title, interpersonal performance director. It's teaching people that have better conversations.

I need to sign up for that one, for sure. You know, next time I see Dustin. Just a few words of mumbo-jumbo in there, and Zach will be there. Next time I say, now, I do have the story a few years ago. Dustin writes inspirational messages on the sandwich for Devante Smith, is that right? I think that's right.

Yeah. So next time I see Dustin in the locker, I'm going to ask him for some conversational help. I'd like to see how that goes. I hope you're going to when that happens. I sure know I need it. There you go. All right.

Well, maybe one thing you could do, Zach, too, maybe loosen it up for you. Help those interpersonal conversations is just suck one back, you know? Grab yourself a nice cold, Miller light, crack the top, and suck it down, because a lot has changed over the years, but one thing that hasn't is the great taste of Miller Light. Another thing that hasn't changed, rather, is that it remains less filling. So what is the best thing about the original light beer?

Is it the great taste? Is it less filling? Great taste, less filling. Great taste, less filling. Great taste, less filling. Rip off the clothes. Well, good thing is you don't have to decide. Miller Light sparked this debate in 1975, and we still haven't settled it.

So when you are debating and, dreaming about all of these changes to the Eagles front office, or maybe do you think that we could, all of us, all of us buzz, can we pool together enough money to get 10% of the Eagles? Let's make a call to Jeffrey Lurie. Well, maybe highfalutin, but if you're having a couple of miller of lights, you might as well dream about it. Because it's all about the great times that you have

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Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer calories and carbs than regular than premium regular beer. Yeah, there's a joke sometimes that minority owners, what they get is access to better tickets, right? And I say you don't need to buy no team to get better tickets. You just need to have the game time app on your phone. Hey, oh, because game time is the place to go for killer last minute deals all in prices, views from your seats, and the lowest price guarantee. game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets, including MLB tickets.

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What's your take on opinion on men walking around with their shirts on? Just like in the course of the day. Wait, say this again with men walking around with their shirts on? Without their shirts on. Without those shoes. Is this the thing? Like at the beach? There's a guy in the neighborhood in the neighborhood today walking with a stroller.

No shirt. I mean, maybe he's proud of himself. He wants to. I mean, obviously he's proud of himself. He's going. something off, but like... Yeah. Yeah.

It's like, who's... Was it Sean McVeigh that you joked about when they had hard-knock? Nobody loved seeing themselves topless moment Sean McVeigh. Yeah, the shirt was off in the first five... I mean, I truly had to restrain myself from just going for the bit and just taking my shirt off as I walked past him. I thought that would have been really funny. I thought it would have. I know that it would have, but I mean, what are we doing?

No, I'm a proponent of keeping the shirt on. It's like, it was like 7.45 in the morning. I mean, it was very humid this morning. It doesn't have to give him that. If you're not at the pool, you're not at the beach, keep your shirt on. Pants, I understand. You want to walk around with no pants. That's fine.

I don't know what goes on outside the Wolf household, but no, pants are a requirement. Okay. All right, Zach, let's talk about the actual practice we saw today. It was a light back. We got 16 minutes to do it, yeah. That we have seen. Yeah. Only two sessions, really, of seven-on-seven or team periods with the start.

A few things to talk about. It was a, you know, they did Red Zone to start with in terms of the rotating cast of characters at cornerback with the first team. It was Isaiah Rogers to start the day, Keeley Ringo, the second session, and there were really only two sessions. What did you see? Anything notable, anything pop out? Overall or, yeah, anything. I thought John was the, this was the least action of the practice, the five practices that we have seen this spring. Yeah, Johnny Wilson made a nice catch right in front of us.

It's a nice play. That was like a proof of concept play because it was him going up over Isaiah Rogers. It was tight coverage and it was exactly the kind of play that you dream about when you add Johnny Wilson to your team. It's the kind of play that you think that he can make because he is the size that he is. And it was a really nice play. Well said. I still, you know, I give all the. statements of prefacing.

It's not a big deal. I didn't think Jowen was exceptional today, right? There was a pass that he missed down the left side line. So I don't know my notes in front of me there. He did hit Goddard once for a score, but it was kind of late on the play. But, yeah, I didn't think the offense was, like, exceptional today. It's kind of been a theme throughout. J. Allen said afterwards,

that a lot of this is just kind of like learning and applying the system. 95% of it is new. So it is what you'd expect. There is a big acclamation period here. And that's essentially what OTAs are for. You know, if anyone saw my rough drafts and my stories, they're not very good. That's too bad. Yeah.

Sometimes the final drafts are very good. How many drafts are we talking? Well, no, actually, I've got to be honest with you. For like a practice observation, I'm not doing like drafts of stories. and she's kind of a stream of consciousness you're putting it up right but how about a book honestly i wish i could say i had a lot of drafts of the book i was under confined period of time so what you see there i mean it's fortunately it's it's it's edited but um you know i hope that my third book i i have about uh like a year or two you know i'm i was envious when andy mccullough

said he spent a year reporting and like six months writing or whatever you know i i did the whole Shabang and defend four months. So you got to stop. You got to stop downplaying this book. Gas this bad. No, I know. I'm not downplaying it. I'm just saying that you're talking about drafts.

Like, you know, they always say your best writings here at rewriting, right? There wasn't as much rewriting here. But I'm excited for the world to see it. Me too. And I have some interesting. I have some cool news coming soon on the book as well. I'll save it for next week's show, a little tease. Ooh.

And I think it's going to be relevant Eagles fans. Yeah. That's very exciting. Anything else from practice today? Because it really was a light practice. Yeah, James Bradbury remains out. So James Bradbury did not practice this week. Trying to think here.

Mackay Beckton still at guard. Yeah. Some people, some people, Gaz and I'm Kenny Pickett, did that match what you saw today? I honestly, I saw some of those headlines on Twitter. I haven't read the stories yet. It did not. I didn't get in my car today thinking,

Oh, man, Kenny Pickett lit it up. No. But look, sometimes he was a nice pass he made in the red zone period to the back of the end zone to Ania Smith. And it looked like Ania Smith had gotten both feet in, but it was ruled out. I think he was juggling as he came down. Nice to see Anya Smith involved a little bit. It was a good pass by Kenny Pickett, but also like a little bit into the progression. And who knows if that would have turned out to be even an actual pass.

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, Jalen Hertz, you mentioned the 95% comment. What did you make of that? He said that the offense is about 95% new stuff. And then he was also asked given sort of an open-ended, what have you seen from Nick in terms of his willingness to change and like embrace change?

And he just sort of rushed it to the side. Like, that's a good question. I don't have an answer for that. in this this palace intrigue of everybody trying to figure out are these guys copacetic he sort of swatted that one away what do you what do you make of that yes i'll answer the second part first and this is like an ongoing thing with jowen there were there were two different occasions why can he just why can't he just do it yeah there was the Seattle situation last year right and then there was the end of season when it was like you know about or about nick coming back

and it's like why won't he just say one nice fake thing about that's what I'm saying is that look look maybe you know you you just want to be difficult

with with a reporter sometimes it's like that like I'm not going to give you the benefit of subscribing to your narratives you know like he said the day after the so the press conference

after the Tampa A game he's like is that like why wouldn't Nick be back like is that a thing you know you know he kind of gave a weird answer then he said the next day by his locker he's like i didn't even know that was a topic like i mean point you know point being with with with with jailing like there's he's he's he's a very smart guy he's very

intentional i i i don't get why he he's uh he's so tripped up at any question that's just like say something nice about your coach here you know it's so weird it's like it because because because what you said it lends to into intrigue like there's there's times i get when we, the media. And the media is not, no, not one whole thing. I think you and I, if I may, flex here are very responsible and nuanced and give like smart takes. I think sometimes there's other places you can go for outrageous, you know, for outrageous

things, sensationalist things. What's that? Name names. No. But, but that said, Jalen's not helping himself. when it's like when he's like I don't think it's a big deal but it's also like come on man yeah exactly it's like the it's like the easiest thing to do is just like say something say something nice about you know these these guys get up there and there has about 10 different players right

and you just give like generics yeah this guy's playing hard you know how's how's nick doing and look I I love when you when players think and give honest answers but I also also don't think this is like a question that should really trip you up. You know, Nick's, Nick's been, Nick's been great at being the head coach of the team or, you know, he's doing a good job connecting with you. Like,

there's so many things you could do. It's just, um, that's, that struck me as odd. I did like the, go ahead. No,

no, no, I liked his little story about Fangio. Like Fangio's been talking some, talking some smack during practice and all he just says to him is 2.0. Like, that's his record. against Vic Fangio in actual games, which I like, which I like. Yeah, that's that is a good one there.

It's a good thing they didn't hire someone from Tampa, right? By the way, we didn't talk about this. I really liked the nugget from Devin White about Todd Bowles. That like, you know, there's the platitude of like that guy was a father figure for me, but like that they still talk all the time. And I think it's interesting from a, from two things. One is like this is a guy who fell out of favor there last year. And by all accounts was in the doghouse.

And the fact that they remain in touch and like Bowles said that he, you know, he thought that Devin White needed a change of scenery. I think I think probably says good things about both of them as people, right? One for Devin White to not like close that door and be open to constructive feedback. And also from Todd Bowles from like the. you know like that is a show don't tell of like the Nick Siriani M.O. Like you like they're creating meaningful connections.

Like you know, you make me better and we can and we can be connected. Like the fact that that Todd Bowles is like that and by all accounts is like that with a lot of his players. Just a nice thing to hear. Yeah, well said. That's that's a great point. I like that. No, I don't think that Todd Bulls have that connection with Michael Kendricks. because Kendrick didn't remember him.

Yeah. No, I've always said, like, in this job, you can tell what someone really thinks about someone by, like, how quickly they call back. So I remember when you did the Darius Lay story a few years ago, and like Calvin Johnson calls you back, right? Calvin Johnson doesn't have to call back a reporter in Philadelphia, but clearly Darius Lay was someone that he valued, right? And so, you know, in the NFL, all these aren't always co-workers. These are, as Jeff Stoutland said, this is your family. You spend more time with them than your family.

And, you know, Devin White worked closely with Todd Bowles for five years. Todd Bowles was the defensive coordinator who directed him, was his head coach. And it was interesting because he was asked about the change of scenery. And Devin's like, I don't know if I necessarily needed that. But if Todd says that, then he's probably right. So, yeah, so that was good. What about Mr.iani today? Well, no, to get back to Hertz, the 95% comment.

Yes. I want to touch on that because what that showed, frankly, was this is a totally different offense, right? The talking point from the coaching staff has been like blending the concepts from Nick Siriani and Kellan Moore together, right? And Kellan Moore says they did so many good things, you don't want to throw those out, right? And then I'll... And they're explaining that some of the different. differences here are, you know, small and nuanced where it might be the exact same concept on the paper, but your keys are a little bit different or it's called something a little bit different or like where, how the route is supposed to be run is a little bit different, things like that. Yeah, like Devonte Smith says, there's only so many ways to want to run a route. There's only so many routes you can run, right? It's not as if a coach comes in and puts in like these newfangled, you know, you know, things.

football's been going on for 100 years here, right? But it does show you when when Joan hurts the quarterbacks is about 95% of it's new, that this is a new offense. This is not Kellynne Moore calling Nick Sirianney's offense. I think this is going to become abundantly clear as the season progresses that sometimes you hire a coordinator, but it's like it's the coach who's still running the show, right? This is, this is Kellynne Moore's offense. I was skeptical of this.

when, you know, Nick Siriani made the, you know, when they made their end of season press conference. And he said, like, they're going to look for somebody to take over the offense. And I just, I was skeptical of the idea that Nick Siriani, who loves offensive football, loves his offense, was going to be willing to be hands off and that it wasn't going to be leading to the potential of like a too many cooks in the kitchen type thing. How is this thing getting built? but everything that we have seen and heard indicates that that is what is that is the truth that this is Kellyn Moore's offense

Nick is spending more time elsewhere in the building is not in he's not in every offensive meeting and that that is actually the way that this is going and I think that that is interesting yeah and and and to add to that point I think one of the problems in 2020 and he was with a tool to tell you COVID and all that

but they wanted, like, Rich Gangarello to come in and add these concepts to Doug Peterson and Press Taylor's offense. We're gathered here today for the marriage of the passing game and the running game. And it ended up being... Now it. No one knew what the hell. Yeah, that's when this is us. Now it's what. Blings us.

Togava. Tota. I think I'm going to watch that with Casey this weekend. I'm going to introduce him to the Princess Bride. Oh, no, that's when this is us. That's a callback to long-time listeners. Do you remember that? I do remember that.

I had forgotten about it, and it did serve the purpose of momentarily making me very angry. Okay. Well done. Yes. So, so point being there that this is, you know, Kelloggling Moore is here. and it's not just Calmore. Like it's it's it's it's Doug Nussmeyer right. And what's interesting is in the past you would hear Jalen talk about like Nick and

Patuo, right? And everything today was it was Callan and Doug right. It's it's Callan Moore and Doug Nussmeyer. And I think the rest of the offense is the rest of the offensive coaches are learning the Kellemore Doug Nussmeier offense. All right, Zach, I do have a bit of a surprise for you before we close the show today. as I know Brennan needs to get this ready. But first of all, I'm not going to be on the show tomorrow.

So I would like to say congratulations to Chris, our dynamic social media man who does way more than that and can do so many different things. He's getting married this weekend. We hope that everything goes well. Congratulations, well deserved. Get some well-learned time off. He's a superstar.

But he was able to put something together from our time at the Brian Dawkins Memorial, the Brian Dawkins Impact Foundation golf event on Monday. Zach had a putter in his hand for the first time. We get to see how it went. Outside of mini golf. Outside of mini golf, yes. All right.

This is embarrassing. I wish this one. We need to go to the batting cage one day. We can do that too. What's the slope situation? It's a little left to right, a little left to right. I have played the video game. Okay.

Tiger Woods, you see the green? And you do the math based on... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish they had those calculations here. For him, no. All right, the left or right, we'll stop. It's good. You got up there.

Yeah, that was a practice. Let's delete that one. Okay. It's hard. It's a fast course today. It might go, right? Lifting too much, right? Yeah.

Zach. First made fun of the day. First made put in my life. Outside of like mini-calf. Yeah. Gails it. I thought we were showing everybody's shots. I want to make it clear.

When I say first made shot of the day, that was not first made shot by me. That was the first made shot of anyone in the day, including Bo and Jamie are like real good golfers. These guys have like the garb. They speak the language. They know their way around a golf. course, right? All I know, like I need the, uh, the lighthouse. But you nailed it. You

know, it was a you banged it in. Yeah, I, I got lucky. Zat and clocks right supposed to Zach. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I don't know how to golf. I want to learn how to, that was great work by Chris, by the way. You're, I thought it was going to show, I thought it was going to show everybody's, um, pots. And, uh, we were playing what closest to the hole? Is that what's called closest to the pin? Yeah, it was just a little putting contest. You're the only one who made one. I was the only one who made one there.

So I got lucky. I admit that. There was no touch to that. To be fair, yeah, a few of the worst puts I've ever seen in my life. But that's okay. You're a new guy. But, you know, it's like finding a girlfriend. You don't need them all that like you.

You just need one, right? And so I didn't need to make all the puss. I just need to make one. Okay. It's like finding the girlfriend. I like that. All right, Zach, anything else from today to talk about it. Do you want to touch on anything that the corner said or Mackay Beckton or would you like to get into that with Rich tomorrow? Yeah, we'll get into that with Rich tomorrow and then we'll the next five weeks as well. You know, we'll have ample opportunity to talk about that. I do think the big news today was, you know, Jeffrey, the front office. I'm glad we hit on on that.

We'll wrap things up. I think what I'll do is when we do tick Zach Boe with Rich, some of the prompts might be like he picks the question, but then I provide like insight on the answer, right, you know, for the, for the Eagles part in particular. So he picks it, and then I have to answer it. And then the other two categories will be more rich-centric. That's a way for us to address what we saw specifically at training camp during the past week. There you go.

Or I should say minicamp. Well, that'll do it in that case for this wrap-up of Eagles minicamp. Much more to come over the next weeks and months as we prepare for them coming back for training camp. for Zach and Brenna hanging out today and everybody watching live we thank you very much we will talk to you tomorrow at noon

for all of us here as always we love you