PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles-Minnesota Vikings postgame show: Cooper DeJean and co. make their case

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

The Eagles closed out the preseason on a sunny, summer day in South Philadelphia. Kenny Pickett looked a little better and Tanner McKee looked a little worse. Cooper DeJean played deep into the second half, while Nolan Smith played a surprising amount. Tyrion Davis-Price maybe fumbled away his roster spot?With cuts looming to pare the roster down to 53 on Tuesday, Jamie Lynch and Fran Duffy take you through everything you need to know. Bo Wulf joins from the LINC. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, doing my best Bo Wolf impression. Welcome into the P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast postgame show. Myself, Jamie Lynch, and with the great Fran Duffy, we got Julia behind the scenes. Bo Wolf right now is currently at a Jahan Dotson introductory press conference in a postgame setting. He is going to join us after Nick Siriani's press conference. We will carry the Nick Siriani press conference for you right here. So you don't have to go anywhere. we hope to be your home for Eagles post game on the internet this year, Fran.

And I don't know Nick Siriani personally. I would imagine he is slightly irritated by today's performance because overall start to finish, we'll recap everything and the fringe guys and who did well for themselves today and all that. Overall, just kind of a sloppy game. A lot of penalties, some drop passes, kind of a coaching nightmare. Not that it was their fault, but like everything that would irritate a coach kind of happened today.

Yeah, you had turnovers, you had penalties, you had long drives on defense, short drives on offense. A lot of things that you would look back and say, not ideal, not an ideal way to end the preseason. But that said, you have to keep in mind, obviously, our viewers know this is many of the players you saw here today are not going to be playing two Fridays from now in Brazil against the Green Bay Packers. And so, yes, you'd like it to look a little bit smooth in this, but the sky is not falling in Philadelphia. It's funny. Every time they show Sequin Barkley and A.J. Brown and Dallas Goddard. Jalen hurts and on the bench, I just go, man, I can't wait to watch the actual real product. But we are finally done with preseason football.

A lot of these guys we won't see anymore. Will Greer might have just taken his last professional snap of football ever. You know, we don't know how that works. You know, the roster decisions are due this week. The 53-man roster is due by Tuesday. I believe they said at noon. Yep. Is that correct?

Noon. And then Wednesday, the 16-player practice squad is going to be set. We might see some trades before then. We might see some movement. Duran Bland for the Dallas Cowboys just went down today, six to eight weeks for him. That's a big loss for him. You have a bold prediction we'll get to at some point in this show. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yes. So a lot's going to happen between now and Tuesday. But as a whole, before we get into some of the nitty gritty of who played well, who didn't, who kind of, who stole the show for you for the Eagles today? if you had to pick one player on either side of the ball or special teams that kind of

really did well for themselves today on the on the on the on the you know the roster battle ahead yeah i would say one player that to me flashed more than any would be julian a quara uh the pass off the edge i mean had a sack late in the first half that stopped a uh that stopped a scoring drive for minnesota or stopped a touchdown drive from minnesota they were still able to get a field goal uh and then was able to force an incomplete pass on the ensuing possession for the minnesota viking So for me, Aquara, it's going to be, it's going to be tight, obviously, with the numbers off the edge. It's going to be a tough uphill climb for him to be able to make it. He would be competing with Patrick Johnson, I think, for that final spot off the edge.

Johnson gets the nod because of special teams value, but Aquara is a long, versatile, explosive. He showed the ability to be able to beat tackles in a number of different ways here today in this game. And he's a guy that's done it here in the NFL. I mean, he got a nice contract from Detroit a couple of years ago. This guy's been around the block a little bit. And so Patrick Johnson, the arrow you think is pointing up with him. He's in year three. We talked about the special teams value,

but is that going to be enough to unseat a guy like Aquara who's got that level of quality play as a defense event? Yeah, he certainly was jumping out all over the screen today. And if you're just joining us, welcome into the PHY Eagles post game show presented by Bet365. Find out why it's never, ever ordinary at Bet, and look who we have in the chat with us. Zach Berman live from California.

Zach, you absolutely, sicko. Get out of here. Go hang out with your wife. But no, great to see you, Zach. Yes, Aquara is an interesting one. As he disrupted today. You know, another guy on the defensive side of the ball, I think that did himself a lot of favors was Van Sumer as well.

I thought he kind of shined a little bit there. That's why Zach is in the chat, by the way. Exactly. He's checking it on BVS. He's big BVS guy. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So it's going to be very interesting. You know, a couple position battles, you know, probably got decided today.

And, you know, I'd love to be a fly on that wall when the coaches and Howie are sitting in there and trimming, you know, whether it be those final three or four spots and who can bring what versatility to the team, whether it's a tooth or somebody else or somebody like a Tristan McCollum, who, again, I thought was another guy that kind of showed some flashes of playmaking ability. you know, Van Sumeran is another guy that showed up. McCollum, these are all fringe bubble type of players. And, you know, a Joseph Engada, who may have been considered a bubble type of player, probably did himself some harm today. McCollum and a Van Sumeran and Okoara really kind of shined and probably gave the coaches more to think about. Yeah, I think at the end of the day, when you look at Howie Roseman, Nick Siriani,

the scouting staff and the coaching staff, as you're trying to figure out who's going to make this final 53, who's going to make that. 16-man practice squad that you mentioned, who's worthy of sticking around on the, as an injured reserve candidate as well, because remember, there's a new rule that's going into effect this summer where teams can now place up to two players on a short-term injured reserve, but you don't have to hold a spot on the initial 53. That used to be the rule before, Jamie, was that if a guy got hurt and you wanted to keep them through, you had to keep them on the initial 53, and then you could put them on injured reserve the next day. The NFL changed that ruling here this year. And so if there's a

player that got dinged up here in this game or in this week of practice. And you would say, you know what? We're not necessarily counting on this guy for the first five, six weeks. Let's put him on ice for now. We can address it later. And we saw a number of players did not play today in this game that you would say, okay, but could a Jalix Hunt be a player like that? Or hey, you know what? We know we're going to bring it along slow with Jailix Hunt. That could open the door for someone like a Patrick Johnson or Julian O'Quara to make this team. And so how teams, and specifically the Eagles, because we know that they are typically, you know, on the forefront of trying new things from a roster management standpoint. They will see if anybody tries to get creative with how they try and use those two spots.

Yeah, Kagan might be another guy. No question. Him in Hunt today, you know, minor dinged up. And you wonder how much of that is legit versus how much of that is the roster construction game of like, hey, they didn't play the final preseason game. They were dinged up. That's it. So we want to put them on ice for a couple weeks. So all that stuff is going to be very, very interesting.

Tanner McKee versus Kenny Pickett, the much debated QB2 controversy. Tanner McKee, another nice drive there in the second half. Didn't result in the touchdown, unfortunately, but he looked pretty good. I guess that's kind of, at the end of the day, you know, not a major, major storyline. Because as you said, both guys are going to be practicing. Both guys are going to be there. Will Greer is probably done here. I can't imagine he's a practice squad guy.

But you do want to have some young quarterback within the system. on that practice squad. Anything stand out to you from McKee today? I thought both guys looked fine. Both Ian Pickett. It wasn't a terribly productive day for the offense, obviously, which I was only putting three points on the board. I think they had more turnover on downs than they did points in this game,

which is not ideal. But I think when you look at the quarterbacks, both of them had some key passes dropped. And so the receivers were not able to come up with some of those big plays for them. E.J. Jenkins had the one in the end zone on the corner route. That would have been a tough grab. He had to leave his feet. It was looking over the shoulder.

defender on his back. So a tough situation there, but, you know, Joseph Ngata, he dropped one from Pickett and then dropped one from McKee on fourth down in the red zone, a slant right on the numbers goes through his hands, pops up, and it's an interception in McKee's name. So, yeah, it wasn't a great day in the box score for your quarterback, but I didn't think either of them played, you know, over-the-top bad. Yeah, maybe the most interesting thing today was Cooper DeGine and the way he was used. We talked about it during our halftime reaction. Vic Fangio, seems to have a blitz toy in Cooper DeGene. Of course, it's always hard to tell preseason what translates into, you know, week one

and how much are we going to see DeGine even on the field. All that stuff is to be determined. But it was interesting that Cooper DeGine had appeared, much like Tanner McKee earlier in the preseason, his day was done. And then, oh, not so fast. They brought him back in defensively for a certain, I believe it was a third and longish package. And then he came back into punt return, two kicks. what did you make of Cooper DeGine's debut as a Philadelphia Eagle?

Let's get a guy who has not played a game. You made the point during halftime. This is a guy who hasn't played in a year. So let's just let him go out, go through the paces of a real game. This is the best action we're going into the regular season. He played a lot of nickel and then played the special teams, as you mentioned. So we saw him against the run. I'm excited to go back and watch the tape and see what he looked like against the past.

But I thought you saw some good things from Cooper DeGine today, certainly playing downhill. Hill. You mentioned how he was used as a blitzer. I really do think we talked about this at halftime as well. I think we're going to see a decent amount of blitzing from this Eagles defense this year. And a lot of that is going to feature the linebackers and the nickel corner. And obviously, that was the role that DeGine played today. Well, Hogi Mouse everywhere are going to be thrilled to hear more blitzing this year. We're getting direction from Bo down at the link.

He thinks the Jahan Dotson press conference is worthy of a little peek in. Oh, let's do it. And I'm a huge fan of this trade. I know you are as well. I love Dotson coming out of Penn State. I think he absolutely made the team better. So let's listen in to Jahan Dotson. Be the best version of myself.

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles Twitter account. How old the Eagles? Did you ever come to an Eagles game as a kid? No. I hate to say it, but I was never an Eagles fan. Boo. But, you know, I'm making my whole family Eagles fans today. All right, good answer.

You saved yourself. I'm going to leave that out. Giants fan. No. just keeping it in my hands being ready for my opportunity when it comes so it's not so it's familiar it's familiar having this feeling

and just having around me all right we time that one great and got the final question there is Jahan Dotson welcome to Philadelphia but you know what are your thoughts on Jahan Dotson I love the kid coming out of Penn State. I thought he was going to go in the second round that year. I really wanted the Eagles to kind of target them. But he ended up going in the first to Washington. He burned the

Eagles last year. The kids got speed. My friends in D.C., say he can get muscled off the ball a little bit on contested balls, but runs great routes, flashes the speed. What are your thoughts on Jahan Dotson? Because he's an exciting late addition to the team. Yeah, I think there's two ways that you want to kind of structure that answer, right? There's the player in Jahan Dotson, and then there's the decision to trade for him at this point in the calendar. I'm a fan of both because I think when you look at Dotson, this is the exact type of receiver that the Eagles should have targeted in trying to make a trade before the season starts.

He can play inside and outside. He's got some pedigree to him. You have two years of cost control until he's a free agent. He has shown talent here in the NFL. He obviously comes with draft pedigree. And it's not like, hey, you know what? He got drafted the first round and he hasn't done anything. He has been productive in the league.

We've seen what he can do against the Eagles. now he's going to try and make plays for this Eagles team. I like his hands, especially going back to Penn State. He caught nearly everything throwing his way. He was a beat. The route running. The route running was there. To me, like, yes, play strength.

That was an issue. He was under 511, under 180 pounds when he was coming out of college. So he's not going to be a physically imposing guy. He's not known as like this tough guy across the middle. But I think when you look at his ability to be able to pull in the football consistently, that was honestly one of the things that kind of heard him this off season. A lot of the things you heard was, hey, you know what? he's got a case of the drops he's right now, has he lost his confidence?

I think any time you have a change in coaching staff, a change in regime, which there was both, obviously, in Washington in the last couple of years, you have a new GM in town that did not draft Jahan Dotson, you have a new coach that did not have faith in. This is their third offensive coordinator in three years. If you've got the ability to go in and say, hey, you don't, you don't value this guy as much as the previous regime, let's go in and see if we can get value here. A lot of people are saying, oh, third round picks a lot to give up. You got a fifth round pick back. So you're trading from the fifth round, or from the, third round down to the fifth to take on a receiver that, hey, if AJ Brown or Devante Smith

stub their toe and they miss a game, you're not completely out to sea without a paddle with Jahan Dotson as your number two receiver going into a game when you still have Sequin Barclay and Dallas-Dogner. I think that's a good trade to make. I think it's a good talent to take up gamble on. I like the trade overall. I like the decision. Yeah.

And one of those third round picks was, you know, from Howie's mastery before you had the extra. So it ain't going to kill you at all to take a shot on that type. of guy. We will talk about a couple of those other guys, but I'm glad we got the Dotson, you know, trial run done there for the press conference, as we will be bringing you Nick Siriani's press conference coming up here in a little bit. Now, Fran, Eli Ricks, we've talked about, Zach and Boe have talked about a possible trade candidate as all of a sudden now the Eagles have a deep secondary, which is an amazing thing to say after last year's end of the season and what that secondary was.

Eli Ricks, probably a guy that Howie Rosen is going to be active on the phones with. How do you see that playing out, Josh Job, you know, that bottom end of the rotation in the cornerbacks. I think they feel good about the position. And with the Duran Blan going down, we can get to your bold prediction as well here. You know, it's going to be an active couple days on the phone, I think, for Howie. Yeah, you're always trying to find where can you get value. And if Eli Ricks or Josh Job or any of these corners, Zach McPherson, if they're not going to make the 53 and you don't think they're going to be able to sneak through to your practice squad and you say, hey, you know what, if we're not going to be able to get this guy back, is there any way we can make a trade and see if we can get anything back for him in a deal?

And so you start looking around, okay, who are the teams that might need a corner? You mentioned Bland. Dallas is going to need a corner. Do you want to trade with Dallas? Exactly. That's, you know, Washington and the Eagles just did it. But typically I would think, you know, you're not competing with Washington for the division. You're competing with the Dallas Cowboys for the division. So if you do internally like Rick's a lot, do you.

do you want to help the Cowboys out, then that's where you say, you know, pay me. No, no question. But a team that I think it would make a lot of sense for, and if I would say, where is Eli Greg's going to suit up here this fall? I would look, if it's not here in Philadelphia, I would look at the team that the Eagles just played.

You look at the Minnesota Vikings. They lost three corners due to injury. And obviously there was the, I don't know if you saw this this summer, the rookie fourth round pick, I believe Kyrie Jackson, Oregon tried to die tragically at an automobile accident this summer. And so they were missing.

some cornerback depth. They had one of their starters go down with an injury on the first day of camp. They've had other injuries there this summer. So they're clearly looking for cornerback help. They went and signed Stefan Gilmore, ironically enough, from the Dallas Cowboys. He played there in Dallas last year.

They signed Gilmore this summer. But also, whenever you're looking for these kind of trades, these kind of late in the offseason acquisitions, who are some connections on the coaching staff? People that might be inside the building and say, hey, you know what? Let's take a risk on this guy. I know him.

We feel like we can get him up to speed quickly. Minnesota's DB coach is Durante, Jones, who was the DB coach and defensive coordinator at LSU over the course of Ricks's early time there. He came from Alabama, but started his career at LSU. He was a big time cornerback recruit. So there's someone in the building that might be Zach Berman pounding on the table for an Eli Ricks to try and get him in the building. So that might be a trade partner that you say, okay, you know what, maybe there's somebody there that we can try and see if we can get this deal done. I like that. You're not getting that knowledge everywhere, folks. Thanks for tuning in here to the

p hely eagles post game show podcast we'll be carrying seriani briefly and then we'll be talking to bo wolf who's going to get some sound in color from the locker room and from coach seriani hopefully he's pounding the table like zach getting the hard questions answered at the press conference but fran i want to run through some of these guys now i don't want to push you into final predictions right you know you have 48 hours to kind of fine tune this and get your final cuts but let's talk about some of these position battles some of the guys that had opportunities today to really win a spot on it. So let's just go through some of them. The linebacker won.

Orrin Berks showed up today. He had a pretty nice game. He split the gap a couple times, made some nice running play tackles versus Van Sumeran. You know, Orrin Berks could be a guy that maybe if he's not going to be on that 53, maybe you try to flip for something.

How do you see Van Sumeran versus Orrin Berks here? You know, I kind of wonder if both guys don't make it. And you'd be a little bit heavy at linebacker, but again, this is where some of these decisions for the final 53 kind of come down to, it's not necessarily Orrin-Berricks versus Van Sumer. It might be Orrin versus Van Sumeran versus Joseph Nagata versus Eli Ricks,

versus Tristan McCollum, who on the bottom of the roster can bring you the most value. And so I think when you look at Berks, he was brought in this offseason as a veteran back end of the roster type of backup high floor. Well, you drafted Jeremiah Trotter Jr. And he has done some nice things here in camp, enough that you say you feel pretty good about him making the 53 is van sumer and the special teams value that he brings is that enough to definitely cement him in there burks is tough we had bow on pregame he he said that he felt like with pencil right now that he put burks on the 53 well he is the back to back to back champion in the

well almost he he did not get it last year so three years before that he's trying to get that back from andrew all right uh i think when you look at burks i think i would put thumbs up and i think I might lean that way for Van Sumer as well. Both guys might make it. So do they keep five or six of these guys? So is Burks, does that mean if he's making the team he's contributing on special teams? I think he's got to. Okay. I think both of those guys will have to. A couple comments in the

chat. ZB. in California says great insight on the position coach. Zach, I completely agree. That was great insight. And Andrew Keats says, man, Fran is a pimp. I also agree. He actually left his cane and fur coat over there to come into the studio.

But a couple other position battles. going on here. Unfortunately for Joseph Ngata probably did himself some damage today. He and Anayas and Paris Campbell, Paris Campbell had a nice play during the game, but you kind of have a little bit of depth at wide receiver here. You know, they showed the 12 wide receivers during the game. All these guys aren't going to make it. And some of these guys aren't really practice squad worthy. How do you, how do you break down that back end of the wide receiver depth here?

I think with the Jahan Dotson, trade, that kind of put a nice solid pecking order on the table there for the Eagles. Everybody kind of falls into their natural position. Yeah, exactly. So you feel, okay, Britain Covey and Johnny Wilson as your four and five, you feel pretty good about that, knowing Covey's going to be a special team's contributor as a return man. Johnny Wilson is not thrust into the starting lineup as a rookie sixth round pick, and you feel pretty good going into the season that way. So I think when you look at that, you have those five guys, I don't know. Again, would you rather keep Oren Berks or would you rather keep Joseph Engada?

or Anaya Smith or one of these guys. To me, I think you probably go with the guys that can help you on special teams. And I don't think that In God, I can do enough there to be able to provide that value. I would say he's probably on the outside looking in at this point, and certainly after today. I haven't crunched the 53 breakdown like you, Zach and Bo have, but I would think five wide receivers is probably enough with the elite talent of A.J. and Devante at the top, as you said, do you want a six wide receiver or do you want an Orrin Burks who can, you know, has some experience in this league, He can play special teams. So that'll be an interesting one.

And then he is Smith. Is he practiced squad worthy in your mind 100%? I think you probably want to try and see if you can bring him back. Now, he was a fifth round draft pick. So there are going to be teams out there that had draftable grades on Anaya Smith, you would think, of the other 31 squads. And so there are going to be teams that when he hits the waiver wire and say, okay, should we go out and bring him in?

What did the pro tape look like? So the GM's going to look at whoever the pro scout is that's in charge of the Eagles, what did Anaya Smith look like? Like in that scout, he's going to know everything that happened with all the reports about Anaya Smith, all the tweets about Anaya Smith. He's going to have a good summer. We went to the preseason tape. The tape was okay. He made some catches over the middle.

It showed a little bit there in the final game against Minnesota. But would we rather have that or the guy that we've had here all summer that we know everything about? That's the thing with receiver is I feel like everybody's got young receivers that they're trying to grow and they're trying to develop. So you might be able to get Anaya Smith through to the practice. Well, if he makes the practice squad. I will make a vow to get his name right because I keep going to Neas as in Aeneas Williams. I got to work on that second eye. It keeps tripping me up.

So if he makes a practice squad, I promise you, sir. I will pronounce your name properly. All right, to the offensive line. We talked about this quickly at halftime. Gates certainly looks to the part as a mean SOB, tat it up, long hair, no gloves, looks the part. They like him. He got paid previously in this league versus Brett Toeuf, a guy that's been here a couple

years they have some sweat equity with and you know jeff stoutlin probably loves that he can play all five positions on the line how do you kind of do you think both have a shot is it one or the other here what are your initial thoughts on those two it's typically tough for the guys that get in so late in the game and gates did not sign with the team until it was the first through first or second week even of training camp but so my initial gut reaction would go towards toth and say okay he's the guy that would get it especially i think his versatility is a little bit better than Gates. Gates has the ability to play three spots. In theory, I think you can look at Brett Toeuf and say he could play up to five spots for this offensive line in a pinch. And so to me,

I would say that Brett Tooth probably gets the edge over Gates, but it wouldn't shock me if it went the other way. Okay. A couple more. Running back, they're probably only going to keep three. We've talked about that, that it's probably just Shipley-Ging-Wale. And this guy, Seekwon Barkley, who's new here, we'll learn more about him. But the reality is Seekwan Barkley was signed to be a three-downback. So depth at running back, look, if Sequin goes down, it's a whole different story, but depth that running back is probably not of the utmost importance here on the 53 construction. Davis Price did look outside of the fumble today. He ran hard.

He ran patient. He ran pretty well. Any shot there for a fourth running back to make the team, or you think it's just those three? I think my gut would say that Davis Price would be able to get, you'd be able to get him through to the practice squad. And that would be the guy that you'd probably look at it. If he got scooped up, what does that mean for sweet Lou? Yeah, that's tough. You're not going to keep two with the practice spot.

So, you know, I, look, they showed us today that Davis Price right now is the guy that they, that they have higher in the pecking order. How do you think Bo is digesting all this? Breakups can be hard. Yeah, not that well. I mean, there's a reason why, you know, I think that Matt Quentin came through with a solid for him. And I let him kind of get out the back door on that for the camp crush. We'll get to the Mount Joy song because he's another one. Safety wise.

Yeah. Sam made a couple nice plays in the running game today. He came downhill hard, stuck his head in there, makes a lot. some nice tackles. But Tristan and Collin, again, a guy that kind of popped off the screen a little bit, made some plays. Cooper DeGine's selfishly stolen interception away from my boy. But that's going to be an interesting one. And then Bradbury, not playing today is either one of two things. One, they know what he brings to this team. They like it and he's going to make it. Or two, we're done with him. Going to move on. No reason to play him today and get worse tape out there. What do you make of that

kind of, I guess, Sidney Brown's going to start the year on the pup, we assume, so he'll probably be down for six weeks. So that does kind of allow you a little bit of flexibility to bring, you know, that fifth safety onto the 53. Well, how do you take the James Bradbury decision today? I would take it as he's done here. Okay.

I think the salary cap implications probably meant like he was going to give it a full camp and a go. And I would, my gut says he's done. Yep. What do you make of it? I kind of think that he's on the 53. I do. That's going to be an interesting one.

Yeah, that's going to be. when they talk about the beat writer, 53 man contest. That is going to be a big one, I would think, that's going to be divisive amongst all of the beat reporters. Because when you look at Bradbury, that's a heavy price tag. You think this is where Bo's title is determined right here? Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a big one, for sure. It's like one of those when a 3C gets knocked out of March madness,

it's like, oh, everybody rips it up. That's going to be one where if Bradbury makes it, half the beat team or beat is going to be upset with themselves. So I think when you look at Bradbury, we talked about the value in the kickoff in the pregame show is that he's got. got the veteran savvy. He's got position versatility. He can play corner inside or safety. And he's going to be a good mentor for a lot of these young DBs. You're going to be paying him anyway. Yep. Do you try and get that value? If you can get a McCollum or a Sam or both to the practice

squad, remember, it's a big practice squad. You might be able to get two of those DBs in there. So to me, I think he's on. And I think that it would, this was a, you know, we're not going to put him out there. We feel like he's definitely locked in to the 53. But I could be wrong. It'll be interesting. to see that play out the next couple days. Yeah, very well, very much will be interesting. We've got to get to a super chat here from Josh H says not concerned about that game, nor are we. DeGine looked good for missing camp and McKee is still better than Pickett. Agree on both of those.

I thought Cooper DeGine kind of looked like he hadn't missed any time in terms of physicality. He clearly missed hitting people. He looked quick off the, you know, on the blitzes. And my man's biceps and arms looked bigger than I. He's rocked up. Yeah, it looks like he got a little more swell since his Iowa days. So I agree with you, Josh. I think all those points are valid.

Yeah, I'm excited to see what DeGine's role will be early on. I think that Vic Fangio was, you know, he wasn't overly committal in terms of how he was going to try and use DeGine early. There's a lot of time left before then. He hasn't shown us a ton yet. So that's as he's getting back onto the practice field. I'll tell you what, you play in this game. He played a half and change here today. He's got another full week of practice.

I think there is a possibility that you get into week one and he's playing a key role in that secondary on the inside in some kind of form of sub-packages. And that allows Quinnian Mitchell to be that outside corner for this team. So I think that's going to be fascinating to see what the coaching staff, how they view Cooper DeGine now after what has been a week and change on the practice field. You got a half a game here and then you got another week. We'll see it play out.

Yeah. Back to that safety between Sam and McCollum. How do you view that? Is there a clear win? of those two. Bo told us pregame that Sam kind of got the nod in practice this week, although this McCollum guy won't go away. He shows up on it in every game. It's the, quintessential good problem to have, I think, with both these young guys, Sam, a little bit of an older rookie. McCallum's been in the league for a couple years now. Him and his twin brother came out of Sam Houston State a couple years ago. His twin brother is a starting nickel

or outside corner now for the Bucks down in Tampa. But I think when you look at McCollum, he's got explosive traits. He saw him flying around. the football field over the course of this summer. Got his hands on the football today. We've seen him make plays against the run. He'll come down on the blitz as well. So I think when you look at both these players, they'll come down to how have they done in special teams.

And that is going to be a big thing that if they're going to make it, it's going to be because of special teams. Yeah, to the offensive line. Trevor Keegan today missed the game because of a minor nickup. We just talked about it. Maybe he's one of those guys. They try to protect on that injured list. I thought he played pretty well.

I know the PFF grades on him in the first two games of the year were pretty strong. You know, decent equity in terms of draft capital spent on him. Looks like him, McMahon, Matt Hennessy, Kinnard are the four kind of, you know, big question marks on the offensive line. How do you make sense of those four Matt Hennessy brought in as a free agent? You know, minimal money spent, former Templeman. Kinnard might be a first in preseason history. It feels like he played every single snap. What do you make of these for?

That I think is got to be the first time that's happening for in a long time. An offensive line to play every snap and every preseason game. I have not heard of that before. So to me, that is new. But I would say Kinarz probably outside looking in. I would say it's probably unlikely for him to make the 53. He's played some tackle and guard. So he offers that versatility.

But I think it's unlikely that he does make it. So I would say he's probably outside looking in. I think Hennessy is outside looking in. I don't think that he's going to make it to this 53 man roster at this point, which is surprising, considering that he did get some free agent money here this offseason. But to me, it comes down to, you talk about Tothin Gates. I think those guys are competing probably for one spot. Does Kegan make the 53?

Or was this injury enough to be able to sneak him onto one of those injured lists and say, okay, we're going to put them on ice for a little bit. Kegan has only played at one spot all summer. And that is typically not something you see from an offensive line in the Eagle scheme. Typically, Jeff Stoughtland likes those backups to be able to move in at some different spots. I've only seen him at left guard all summer. And Beau might, I haven't been on the practice field for the last week. Bo might be able to correct me on that later.

But Keegan, I think right now, the way that he needs to play, he either needs to be a technician or he needs to be like a mauler, like moving people off the ball. I don't think the technique is quite there yet consistently to say, you know what, if there's an injury to land at Dickerson, I feel good about Trevor Keegan stepping in right now and playing. I think you feel probably a little bit better about Gates or about Tooth stepping into that spot. And so for me, I think that Kagan, you'd like to be able to see if you can sneak him to that injured list if possible.

Yeah, that'll be an interesting one to, I mean, Jeff Stoutland when he speaks, though, and if, you know, like they listen, right? Yes. So it's based. He's earned that. Yeah. So if Jeff Stoutland is going to chime in on one of these guys, you know, I think that goes a long way, obviously. Fran, you know, let's take care of some business before we get to Nick Siriani and the great Bo Wolf. You want to take us away with game time here.

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Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer calories and carbs than premium regular beer. All right, let's continue on with kind of bubble watch. Some guys, you know, that might have a job up for grabs. The tight end. position. E.J. Jenkins today. Yep. You know, missed one in the end zone that I'm sure he would love to have back.

Would have been a tough line, but you'd like him to come up with him. Sure. Versus Albert O. This is for the third tight end position. How are you seeing this one? I thought, you know, last week with that jumping catch that Jenkins made pretty tremendous play in athleticism, former wide receiver converted to tight end. How do you see the Albert O. E.J. Jenkins.

I mean, E.J. Jenkins has a Mount Joy song written after. them now. Like, it's, it's kind of hard to, uh, to not make the team after you get, you know, one of the up and coming great bands writing songs about you. To me, E.J. Jenkins has done more this summer than Albert O has to. And I think when you look at that and you say, okay, if your entire culture is built off competition and, hey, go out and prove yourself, it's not like Albert Oak Wigabins got this great, you know, pedigree from an eagle standpoint. Yes, they traded a pick for him last year. They bought them back in free agency. But it was a one year, kind of a prove it contract. I think when you look at Jenkins, he's just done more. Now, again,

would have loved for him to come up with one of those catches, certainly the one in the end zone from Tanner McKee here in the second half. But I think when you look at Jenkins, he's done more. But I still don't know. Is that enough to definitely lock him in for a roster spot? Or do you feel like, hey, you know what? We'll go in with two tight ends to start on this 53 on Tuesday. And then, you know, if Jack Stoll shakes loose with the New York Giants or if there's another tight end that we target, we can go and trade. for that guy or pick up that guy on waivers and that becomes tight end two or tight end three. To me, I would say that Jenkins over Alpertoe, but I don't think that that means he's a lock for

the 53. Gotcha. Yeah, I would think Jenkins has put a little more on tape than Alberto has this preseason. Thomas Booker, I saw, you know, I didn't notice him a ton of ton today, but there was one really nice play where he shed a double team, kind of made the quarterback get outside the pocket, rush a throw a little bit. what do you make a Thomas Booker's chance to make this team? I feel good about it.

I wouldn't say he's like a stone cold lock, but I feel probably like 80%, right? 75, 8% that he's probably on this team. I think what he's done this summer, his ability to disrupt both against the run and the past. I feel good about his ability behind Mora Ojamo and above Marlon Tuo-Piloteau. That's kind of where he is in the pecking order for me.

Yeah, he's been an exciting one. So let's head down to the Lincoln Financial Field and listen to the old ball coach as Nick Siriani just started his press conference here, courtesy of the Philadelphia. the Eagles Twitter account is our standard here. So it's a good example that if you don't play with good fundamentals, we missed some tackles. We, you know, we fumbled the football.

We didn't take the football away. We had a takeaway that had a penalty. We had some penalties. We'd had some drops in some critical areas that would have led to points. And all those things led to points. And so that's what you hope that doesn't happen, but that happened today. And so it's just a good example. If you can have all the town in the world, have all the best plays in the world.

But if you don't play with good fundamentals, I don't care what level you are. It's going to affect if you win or lose the football game. And so that was the message of, you know, to these guys of, hey, you know, if you don't play with, you know, just like I just said. But also the message after the game also was that's the last time that those 91 guys will be together. We're going to have to make some tough decisions. but it was a good camp. It was a camp that we, you know, guys worked their butts off. We got better.

And it took all 91 guys to get better, not just the guys, the 53 that are going to make this team. It took all of us. But that is the last time that those 91 guys will be, you know, Philadelphia Eagles together. You've been after different versions of this over the past several weeks, but not as official that the offensive ones did not get a game snap during the preseason. Dave, you ran muscles.

his way in there. What led to that decision? Yeah, again, you always take everything into account of how many reps you got, you know. I'd say this week we had two, you know, we didn't have a joint practice this week, but we had two joint practices, two inter-squad practices

that were scrimmages. And again, everything up front is live. The only thing that's not live is the tackling to the ground. So the receivers are are live except for they're not getting tackled. Everything is completely live. And so we felt like the work that we got in the joint practice versus the Patriots,

the inner squad that we had at the stadium prior to our first preseason games, and then the two inter squads scrimmages that we had, you know, was our work for the ones. And that's why we decided that way to go that way. And I get it. That's everybody's job is to say, what if they would, should they have played? Should they not have played? You know what?

I have to make the decision and I get that. I understand that. I have to make the decision that I feel is best for our team and if our team and if I feel our team is ready. And I felt that. I felt that we were getting a lot of good back and forth. Again, hard practices out there for, you know, for two hours, you know, which has been more than what we've been.

And so I felt like we got enough work to be ready to go. and I'm comfortable where we are leading into this week, into this upcoming, I guess, a couple days before we get into the game week mode. But I'm comfortable where we are and looking forward to some more good practices. How important was it to get Cooper to Jean into the game, be able to play as much as he did?

Is that a dip cup or is he a straw? Obviously, you always got to go back and look at the tape and see exactly. It's a straw. It's hard to take an assessment of how. somebody played based off the tape. You can always have an idea of some of the splash plays that they've made.

And I saw him make a couple of really good plays. I thought he looked fast and physical out there. Made a couple tackles that I thought were really good. Made a had a penalty that we're going to want back to negated a with interception in the first drive. So but it was good to get him out there and playing meaningful snaps, seeing that he hadn't played this preseason. And so I guess that goes into the question you asked, too.

Why didn't these guys play? Well, I felt that they had enough snaps through all the things that we did. Cooper did not. That's why he played. So everything's taken into account on that part. But I thought, again, I thought there were some good things. There's going to be some things to clean up. But it was good to have him out there because he's talented and we're excited about his potential.

What is the Redbury learning a new position? Why didn't he play to them? Yeah, everybody. everybody had different reasons for why they didn't play. Because we know he's cooked. You know, with James again, same deal. You know, we felt like he was in a position where we were comfortable, and that's why he didn't play.

How do you see his future with the teams you had with? How do you see his future with the team, Bradbury? Yeah, you know, obviously we like James had some really good moments here and had some really good, has been a great teammate, made some great plays here. And so, yeah, I'm excited that he's here and, you know, has the versatility that he has. I'm not going to see notions you had about the linebacking room before this week when Warren came back and before this game when he played. How much do you think he's going to make you guys think about this decision? And what have you liked about him over the last week?

Yeah, it's a deep room. I'm really, I think that's been a fun room to kind of watch play out of, you know, competition. because I think there's been there's guys at the top, there's guys in the middle, there's guys that you think would be at the back end. They've all really competed well. And so, you know, we got some tough decisions to make. And this is never a fun time here at this particular time, but you've been preparing for it, right, the entire time. Everything's evaluated. So that's a deep room. And naturally, you can't keep all the guys and you keep the guys that you can because, you know, I know all those guys can help us win football games. A couple more? Today more motions offensively to this point, even without playing the starters.

Maybe didn't want to tip your head. But how have you noticed the advantages? Is it a slushy? I need answers. With motions being able to dictate what you want to. I was enjoying my soda too much. I couldn't hear you. Yeah.

Yeah, again, we're doing different things to, you know, to hide plays. We do different things to get information. There's multiple reasons why you would motion, why you wouldn't motion also. And so, you know, without tipping the hand, that's why you do it, right? You do it.

So you can get some information. Sometimes you do it just to hide some stuff, and that's the way those things go. With the eyes, Nick, he expressed to me and some other reporters in Baltimore, he was a little bit disappointed, really seemed to come on the last couple weeks in this particular game, what have you seen from Anaya Smith in sort of that term?

Yeah, you know, obviously, it's a, you know, there's steps to when you get into the NFL. It's a different game. And so, you know, sometimes people start fast, and sometimes, you know, it takes a little bit of time. And so Anias has done some really good things. He's had some things he has to learn from. but you know he's growing like the rest of the guys because he's working his butt off and so he made some nice plays today

that were good but you know like everybody we all got work to do to continue to get better this press room's missing a silverback to dominate it where's Zach Berman when we need him keep getting off to maybe a slow start or not back to the soda you know in that first

no no it's fascinating I just answered him why why I didn't play him as it means I'm right. If I was worried that we weren't going to go to start, I'd play them. But because of all the work we have, I'm not worried about that. We've got to go out there and play and execute now, but now I'm comfortable where we are. What are you going to know? In terms of Jahad Dotson, you know, he added him now, it looks like four through the rest. They're going to be open there. What in terms of details, what's going to be, do you think, the deciding factor in terms of making who makes roster at that position?

Yeah. Obviously, we got a lot of different, a lot of tape to rewerewit. that we've watched that we have to rewatch and again deep room it's a deep room and John just adds to that the depth of that room and so just like the linebacker position just like the receiver position we got a lot of tough decisions to make and you'd rather have tough decisions to make that means you're you have good depth right that you're comfortable like oh man I'd be really excited if this guy's on the team and really excited if this guy's on the team and that's what that's you know that's where Howie and his staff have done

such a good job of getting the talent here. So we have these conversations of, you know, all right, who's number 53, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49. Like, who's the, who is it between for the five and six receivers or the four and five linebackers? So, again, makes it for hard decisions. But, you know, that's only helping your team when you're having those types of discussions. All right, thanks, folks. All right. I personally love when the media really, like, kind of, you know, all go for it at once and they have to decide who to go to.

But the real question of that press conference, I think, was what's in the cup? Is that a recovery smoothie? Does he have a fountain soda? Did he bore a Miller light on ice? That is a bold move. I've been to a lot of coach press conferences in my life. I'm not sure I've ever seen a straw up on the stage before, Fran. You're risking.

It's a whole new season. Well, that's the thing. You're risking if you have the straw and you pull the straw out a little bit, there's that awkward noise, that cringy, like, you don't want that. Especially on the press conference, Mike. That's terrible. Yeah, but nothing major there. The Bradbury question, of course, he's not going to answer truthfully.

Orrin Burke's. He had a little insight there. You know, overall, nothing earth-shattering by any means there. But Bo Wolf is going to be joining us momentarily from down at the link. I will say, you just mentioned earth-shattering. I remember being a teenager. I grew up here in Philly just like you did, Jamie. And I remember when they opened Parks Casino.

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store, now right to your front door. So make sure you're visiting Ace Hardware Home Services online at acehardware homeservices.com to get you started on your next project. All right. Bo Wolf is joining us live momentarily from Lincoln Financial Field. We will continue some of this bubble discussion of the players that we've been going through here. But let's bring them in here. Bo Wolf, how would you grade Fran Duffy's first round of live reads here at PHLY?

A plus. Oh, look at that. Creating on a curve, like a Zach Berman grader. What is going on here with this backdrop? Is this phone on the floor? Good question. Here's the deal. Okay. You know, there's no way that I could beat Zach's background, right?

So how can I take you somewhere different, somewhere you might not get to see? That's the whole job of a reporter, right? Sure. Take the reader, take the listener, take the viewer somewhere that they cannot get. Where I am right now is the visiting team coaches booth, okay, up above the stadium, and I am on the ground underneath, and you, can see here, the roster bubble conversation, whose bubble is going to pop. What you see here, this is hardened gum underneath. Oh. And this thing is just filled with old gum.

There you name it. Does it, is that? Are the black things right there? Is that gum or is the yellow the gum? What you see right there also is a sticker, there's a princess die Eagles jacket sticker that has been stuck underneath here. What that is going on? Surprised on a visiting team, got a hold of it. But yeah, look at all this gum. Disgusting slabs that are coming through the link. Unbelievable. They think the Philadelphians are the ones who have no class. What is this? This is disgusting. Of all the places you could have done this from, this was on the bottom of the pecking order for me as to where you were going to end up doing this hit from. Can you do a little pan out? Can we see you? Are you laying on the floor like Kate Winslet and the Titanic? Can you paint me like one of your French girls? Yeah, he's right now.

Well, I expect nothing less and nothing weirder from Bo Wolves. What have I done? I don't know what I'm doing here. Randy, I mean, you reconsidered your life career after this. Well, there's a nice backdrop right there. There we go. So Boat Wolf, I guess the 30,000 foot view from your take of the game today, what stood out to you, what jumped out to you?

What do you make of today's final preseason game? I think the biggest takeaways for today, for me. me. Number one is Nolan Smith playing as much as he did. I do think that there is some signal there that, you know, he is, he is not Vic Van Joe's favorite player. I think our first round pick in his second season to be playing that deep into the final preseason game is probably not great signal. You know, I thought Tanner McKee took a little bit of a step back and Kenny Pickett looked a little bit better than he did the first two preseason games. Still not super great. You know what? It's hard to make too much of the final preseason game, right?

There are guys who flashed and you wonder if it's going to be just enough to get them onto the team. Tristan McCollum, I thought, had a really good game and made a good case to be, you know, like one of the last players on the team on defense if they need some extra safety depth. I thought Andre Sam was solid as well. I thought Orrin Burke's made a good case. He was flying around, but you got to keep in mind the context of this is a guy who has fresh legs and has been in the league a long time.

he's going up against backups. Like you should expect a pretty high level of performance from him. He delivered on that. I don't know if it's going to be enough for him to get on the roster. And then on offense, like I thought Turing Davis Price looked good. The fumble, you know, it's hard to wonder how much that's going to matter. If they keep a fourth running back, it's going to be him. But I don't know if they if they want to or need to keep a fourth running back.

Bo, just circling back to the linebacker conversation. And I don't want you to give away too much. Obviously, you'll be submitting your final 53 here in the. the coming hours. But when you look at Ben Van Sumeran, Orrin Berks, Jamie and I were talking about earlier, is it one or is it both? Is it neither? How do you kind of view that duo there at linebacker? It's just hard for me to believe that the Philadelphia Eagles are going to keep six inside linebackers. It seems like too much. And, you know, I know that we care about the new kickoff rule and maybe that's going to change rosters a little bit. But, you know, if Orrin Burks

doesn't sign somewhere else. They could put them on the practice squad week one, elevate them, also see how injuries shape out. I wouldn't be surprised that both of those guys are in in the Novacare complex on the team this season, but I would be

pretty surprised if they keep six guys. And I also think they'll think about it long term. Like, Orrinberg's is a nice player, but if he's not starting for you and he's not your number three, I know he's a good special teams player, but you might as well have Ben Van Van Zummer

on the roster because then you can keep his rights for the next two years. Bo, Aquara today really kind of jumped off the page a little bit. What do you make of his chances here? I thought he had a tremendous game today. He did. And all three of those guys competing for what you would imagine is the sixth and final edge spot have had flashes over the course of the summer. Patrick Johnson is a bit more of a known commodity for the Eagles. They know that he's very good on special teams. We all remember the big play he had at the end of the Ravens game, you know, getting that sack to give Jake Elliot the do-over. Romeo O'Quara, as you saw today, has passed rush juice as well, and so does

Terrell Lewis and has flashed a little bit at times over the course of the summer as well. So, I mean, right now, I would guess that O'Quara is not on, but he's a player who, you know, they signed to a futures deal. I think we did the exercise back in, like, February, which of those futures guys has the best chance to make the roster, and we landed on O'Quarrar. There There is real, like a background of his pass rush production. So there's a reason to be, you know, intrigued. But I would I would lean right now towards Patrick Johnson only because they know what he brings on special teams. And he has looked pretty good as an edge structure this summer as well.

Bo, one added wrinkle to trimming down to the 53 man roster this year is the new rule from the league about the two IR spots, the short-term IR spots the teams can use. And you might have a better sense of this rule than I do. and Zach, but my understanding is that it just allows teams to be able to put guys on ice for up to six weeks, potentially the full year, right, that previously they would have had to be on the 53 before you could put them on IR. Is there anybody on this roster right now that you think that the Eagles could use that to their advantage for? And if so, who would that be? Yes. I think there are several candidates. And I think this is a, you know, you have to think about Howie Roseman maximizing, keeping control of as many people as possible. And so,

So, for instance, Trevor Kagan suffered an injury at the end of practice the other day, did not suit up today. I would be pretty surprised if he's not placed on injured reserve at this point just because, like, they're not going to need him in the first four weeks of the season. It's four weeks for the, at least four weeks for the new IR rule. So that is one. Now, I do have to tell you something. All day, I was looking, I was trying to count, I was trying to figure out the guys who were not playing.

Did I see them on the sideline? And there's one player who I did not see on the sideline. And then I went and then I saw I went down early to see guys coming off the field, go into the locker room, didn't see him anywhere, didn't see him in the locker room. Isaiah Rogers. I don't know. I could have just missed him. It could just be me missing him, not seeing him.

I tried to ask around. Nobody knows anything. But it's a little bit on my radar. I don't know. What if something happened to Isaiah Rogers? Would he be an injured reserve guy early on? Hmm. Interesting. That would impact Cooper DeGine, right? Ironical, because I think that now you say, okay, maybe Quignan Mitchell is your outside corner.

Can we put Cooper DeGine on the fast track to be in the nickel in week one? What did you think of Cooper to June today, Frank? I thought it was a solid day. It wasn't all perfect, but it's the first football. Jamie made the point. I mean, he finished the season last year at Iowa hurts. This was the first time he's been on a field in, you know, 10 months plus. So to me, I thought that it was mixed results. I'm excited to go back through the film to see a lot of the past game stuff. There wasn't a ton of great replays with the past game on the broadcast,

but I thought he showed up as a blitzer, showed up as a run defender, a really nice tackle on the goal line one-on-one. So I thought we saw some good. I wanted to go see what he looked like moving in space, though. Yeah, I think the coming forward stuff was all good. He's got the physicality that you want there. You know, there were a couple plays where I think it was Lucky Jackson both times

where they were incomplete, but it's sort of because the ball was not there on time and he didn't get his feet down. like he did shake loose of Cooper DeGine. If there is something with Isaiah Rogers, I don't know if you would go DeGine Week 1 or if you would just go Quinead Mitchell on the outside and base, inside and nickel and like Kili Ringo would be on the outside.

That would be a tough call for Vic Fangio. Bo, let's talk about Eli Ricks. You guys have discussed for a while, him being a prime trade candidate here with their all of a sudden new depth at the cornerback position. DeRond Blan goes down today for the Dallas Cowboys out, six to eight weeks. Do you think Howie Roseman has the balls to trade with the Dallas Cowboys, the team you're competing with for the division? You think he could milk something nice there?

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, if they have the best offer, I don't think that Howie Roseman would be like super nervous about Eli Ricks coming back to bite him. I think I is a good young player. I don't know that he is, you know, if you ever think he's going to develop into a starter or if ideally he's like your top back up on the outside. What's your read on Eli, friend. I like Eli Ricks in terms of being a developmental player, but I just don't think the numbers shake out in his favor with this group right now. I'd rather, if you're saying, okay, which young corner would you rather keep?

Obviously, it's Ringo, right? I mean, if Ringo is your fourth corner, I don't know that Ricks, I know he played in the slot last year, but I don't think that that's something that you want to have for him long term. And so my prediction earlier in the show with Jamie, I think he ends up on the opposite sideline, the team that was there, the Minnesota Vikings, I think it makes a lot of sense.

Their former, their defensive backs coach was with Ricks at LSU. And so I look at that as a connection that would make a lot of sense for that team. It would not shock me if he ended up there when the dust settled. How about Ricks for Lewis Seen? Oh, Seen had two key penalties in the first half.

Yeah, I mean, they clearly don't like him very much. And, you know, he hasn't done enough to be liked, right? But it's he a guy who the Eagles would be like, go we had a good grade on him coming out and and you know make make him a player no that's not I mean to trade an undrafted free agent for a first-round pick I would very much like the the potential value in that kind of a deal so I'm trying to think who else might be it might be I are there was there's one other guy in my mind who might be I are possible but but it doesn't come to mind and Jaylick Hunt do you think is Jaylick Hunt I think that is that is who I was thinking about

thank you Jimmy yeah I think they like Jayluxons and like him want him to be a part of the rotation early. So it depends on the severity of the injury. I think it's an oblique. If he's going to be out a couple weeks, then maybe that's a way to carry an extra person on the roster. But I think they want Jailix Hunt involved on defense. Bo, I was going to ask you about James Bradbury.

And then we'll ask you about the locker room and stuff. Bradbury, Siriani was asked about it. You know, like, what's the deal with him not playing today? They said more or less, like, we're comfortable with what James is, didn't really reveal too much. What do you ultimately make of him not playing today? It either means he's safe, he's on the 53, or it means they know he's done,

and they're going to move on. What's your take on that? Yeah, I think it also would have been a bit of a, I mean, even though he's fighting for a roster spot, like to make him play in the third preseason game would have been a little bit of a shot across the bow, maybe a little bit rude to the guy. I make of it that they probably didn't want him to get injured

in this game and that fully guarantees his contract. We're talking about like a marginal amount of money because if he does get cut, which I expect him to get cut and sign somewhere else, the Eagles get a little bit of an offset on his contract. But whatever teams, it's whatever the veteran minimum is, it's not a ton of money. But I think that's what they were protecting. I was just going to say, any sights and sounds from the locker room, you care to share?

Any Zach Berman Nuggets? Who'd you talk to? Who'd you run around? I know you were chasing down Isaiah Rogers and where he was or wasn't. But what do you make in the locker room today? Yeah, it was mostly guys who are on that roster bubble, you know, like Thomas Booker and Nick Gates and Tristan McCollum and Patrick Johnson, those guys. Like, did they feel like they stated enough of a case over the course of the summer? Most of them do feel that way.

They feel pretty good. Nick Gates was a little hard on himself. Had some bad days, but it feels like he came on as campaign on. I was also doing a little, you know, circling around. survey questions who's the one player on the team who thinks can have a big season that'll be coming out on all phtl wine.com in a little bit but there was not a not a ton of action from you know the the main guys out there but you know what nudity of plenty uh well we appreciate the insight from the eyes and ears there real quick i just want to ask you my last question just to use your

nose what uh what flavor or gum we talk about underneath that desk i mean all different kinds that's the thing like i want to know i wish i could go to the replay booth and see uh how old this is, how many different people have been doing it? Is it one guy who like comes to the same spot? Maybe it's a division rival and it's, this is his way of thumb and his nose at the Eagles. I don't know. Yeah, he's doing the old, uh, Rick James, uh, bleep this house and he's just

throwing his gum all under the desk. But last one, uh, Nick Siriani, um, preseason had the, uh, maybe a soda, a slushy. He was sipping out of a straw up there with the cup. Any idea what's in that cup? Think he poured a Miller light on ice? You know what? I wasn't in there because I can't be I knew that I wasn't going to be exact.

I thought, you know what, this is the final preseason game. I don't want you guys to have to wait too long, make this show as quick as you want. My responsibility is to the post-game show. So that was my priority. But if I had to guess, I don't know, smoothie. A smoothie makes sense. A recovery smoothie, perhaps.

Well, great stuff, Bo. Everyone in Philadelphia media is trembling, awaiting your final 53-man roster prediction. I'm nervous. When can we expect that out? Do I just go on spec and say Isaiah Rogers going on my heart? Can I trust that? I don't know.

Probably not, right? A lot to think about here. Well, we can read it all on all-ph-l-y.combo. Great work. Thanks for giving us your best Zach Berman today from Lincoln Financial Field. And you will not be surprised. He was in the chat. He is at a wedding cocktail party talking to everybody he can about

Van Sumeran. How would you feel as that bride and grew? Like, the guy flew all the way across the country, but he can't even be present in the moment. Come on. The grind never stopped. We tried to tell them. Yeah.

So, Bo, you guys are back 2 o'clock on Monday, is that correct? 2 o'clock on Monday, 2 o'clock all week long. And then also we will have, you know, we'll have an emergency pod reaction after the roster gets set on Tuesday afternoon. So plenty of action coming this week on the PHLY. Eagles podcast. Love it. Make sure you're reading Zach and Bo on all p.HLY.com. Bo, have a great rest of the weekend and we'll see you next week. Thanks, guys. There it is. And speaking of which with the Ph.L.Y. Eagles show coming up, the season is two weeks away, which is really actually 13 days

away. A Friday night, Peacock National Game in Brazil, the Green Bay Packers are the next opponent. Jordan Love, one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league now. It's going to be a great game. I think it's the best week one or one of the best week one matchups. Really looking forward to it. It's real now. I will say the next 13 days are like the slowest 13 days on the calendar. In the entire year, the lead up from the final preseason game, we'll appreciate the next

couple days. We'll get to the fit the roster cut down. But that buildup is terrible. And so I am really excited to kind of get through. Although the one thing that will help me personally, just from a greedy standpoint, me getting my feet under me here with PHLI, new shows, excitement, new ideas. Like, that'll be fun. That'll get me through.

But usually waiting for week one, that weight is usually terrible. Yeah. But coming up, we have for the Brazil game, a great event going on here at PHLY. We are going to be at the tradesmen in Center City, Philadelphia, brought to you by our awesome friends at Miller Light. We're going to be doing the pregame show and a watch party there. myself and Bo and some others will be there for pregame. I'm going to be hanging out for the watch party and leaving probably at half time to get back here for the post game to join Bo and Fran. Zach, of course, is going to be the international man of football and we'll be down in Brazil bringing you everything you need to know from the game.

But if you're a diehard member already, you get a sweet discount on this. I believe they're $40 tickets, which includes an unlimited buffet, three drink tickets. We're going to be given out tickets to the Browns game. And if you are SVP right now on all p.hly.com on the events tab, we're going to be giving away some great memorabilia, including this beautiful Jalen Hertz, signed. You can't really see it with the glare of the cameras, but it's right there.

It's a beautiful image of Jalen Hertz. It would look great in any man or woman cave, whatever it may be. So hopefully you can join us coming up for that awesome event, courtesy of our friends at Miller Light. Would love to hang out with you. And guess what? It's Eagles football.

It's real. September 6th. Hopefully you can join us downtown, Philadelphia. We'd love to see you, and we'd love to give a go-birds and a high-five. It's real. Fran, I speak for everyone here at PHLY. It's great to have you on board with us. We are super excited for the season.

A couple super chats before we get out of here. Ethan Gillis says, Fran, there are very, my eyesight as an old man. are there any DCs or DL coaches that might want Nolan in a trade? Could be a good candidate for a player for player trade to get back depth in safety or tight end positions. I would be, before you chime in, I'd be shocked if they moved on from a guy they, you know, have big hopes for. and you know not addressing the dn edge rushing position outside of huff this off season i think they said we're counting on you nolan smith but bow's points about him maybe not being fan jio's favorite is valid

to me i look at it with nolan playing as much as he did today i look at that more as this guy needs a lot of work as a rusher you know this is a guy that we feel good about him against the run his effort his character all of that we feel good about but he needs reps as a pass rusher and so trying to get him as many of those reps. And you always have those conversations with players as a coaching staff and say, hey, you know what? We're feeling like we want to play you X amount in this game. Not that you're asking the player for permission, but like, how do you feel about playing more? And to me, like my experience, like in terms of what I know about Nolan Smith, he's a guy that always wants to be going. And so if he's like, yeah, like I want to play like put me in, I feel like he's one of those guys

that would want to almost volunteer for that playing time. We know he needs to work as a rusher. That's kind of how I view it. I don't think that they're completely down on him. to the point where they would want to trade him for a play. And I'm trying to think of other teams out there. I mean, Dirk Cutter was with Georgia for a couple of years. He's the offensive coordinator in Baltimore. He could be an internal voice there. But I mean, Nolan Smith was universally loved as a guy off the field by the entire scouting

community coming out. Yeah, and everybody loved Nolan Smith. And so I don't think you're going to have to try hard to try and find people around the league that would say, oh, yeah, we feel good about bringing in this guy off the field. Nolan Smith to me, when you talk about an X factor of the season, I don't know. Nolan Smith to me could be this team's biggest X factor. Like he has an opportunity here to make some serious cash in this league to establish a great career here. Like this is, I don't want to say it's do or die because you want to give draft prospects three years before you fully kind of grade them out.

But he has an opportunity here to really make an aim for himself in this league and seize a great opportunity. he might be to me the team's biggest X factor in terms of need versus ability versus like all of it together. The path for me, when I look at Nolan Smith and you say, okay, can he be on that same pathway as Josh Sweat? And Josh Swet, he fell in the draft. He fell to the fourth round because of an injury. But he was viewed as a top 50 type of player, similar type of archetype as Nolan Smith. They were different players, but similar talents. And Josh Swet, year one was essentially a redshirt year.

That's what Nolan Smith was last year. year two that's where you started to see flashes with josh sweat as a rusher and it was year three when he really broke out and so i think if you look at nolan smith and you say this is a guy that can come in defend the run play with effort offer leadership be part of the rotation same thing with brand and graham brand and graham was the same thing he had that injury he made more of an impact as a rookie but then had that injury and it was a slow burn to kind of get back to that he just made his first pro bowl what was it in 2022 right so i think when you look at brand and graham you look at josh sweat two good examples on this team alone of pass rushers taking some time. It doesn't always happen right away. So I would say I

would preach patience with a guy like Nolan Smith personally. I also think just from a skill set standpoint, he is exactly what Vic Fangio wants from a from that position off the edge is a guy that can move forward and drop back to a little bit of everything, offer value as a stunt guy, looping inside. I think Nolan Smith is a really good fit situationally in this scheme. Yeah, prior to this preseason game, the previous two, the package of Hunt and Smith together, on the field. I was like, wow, this is kind of like a de-coordinator's dream a little bit because the athleticism, those two possess. So as Cousin-Graise said, you got to give them three years, except for Anayas, don't you dare call me Aeneas Smith, L-O-L-L. But yeah, I would imagine

Anias is probably a practice squad guy. That would be my guess, yes. So that's going to do it for us here at the PHLY Eagles show. Fran. It was great to kick off your first game day here at P-H-L-Y. Of course, September 6, we will be at tradesmen. Zach Berman's going to be in Brazil. They're going to be bringing you great coverage in these next, you know, 13 days leading up to it. Zach, Bo and Fran. But September 6, it's real. We'll be at the tradesman, giving out some great memorabilia, raffling off some tickets to the Browns game. I hope you can join us. Zach will, of course, be in Brazil, Bo, Fran, and myself here in the studio. Can't wait. Birds football is around. the corner. Fran, great, great stuff and look forward to your career. Oh, we got another super chat

on the way out. Got it. Got it. Super chat from Jalen All Sicko, Dio Mad Day. Did I do that right? I think so. He said, Fran is Journey to the Draft podcast coming back in some way, shape, or form. Yes, maybe not the same name. Yeah, but we'll see what the draft, what a draft show looks like, but you can definitely expect to hear draft takes from me when it comes to the Eagles for short moving forward. And Fran's going to be doing some draft coverage for all city network as a whole as we begin to take over the country. And we wouldn't be able to do it without all you sickos in the chat, all you diehards that support us here. So if you ever want to support us and what we're doing here, trying to bring you the best Philadelphia sports community on the internet, become a diehard at all p.hly.com. You get a free piece of merch.

You get 20% off discounts. You get invites to our Discord. It's going to be worth your while. And on top of that all, you get the best writing and coverage in town. From Zach and Bowen to Jim Salsbury to Charlie O'Connor, to Derek Bodner and Kyle Newbeck. Jim Salisbury, did I say him? Tons of great writers that are worth the investment alone. The rest is kind of the cherry on top.

So if you want to support us here at P.HLY, become a die-hard today or maybe ask somebody coming up hey christmas and the holidays are around the corner why don't you give me a die hard package believe me you're going to love it here we love all of you thanks for hanging out with us thanks to julia behind the scenes for producing today's show the eagle show will be back on monday at two o'clock 53 man prediction rosters will be abound i will be back on monday morning at 11 a m talking about the god-awful phillies and hopefully they put us out of our misery soon just kidding hopefully they turn a corner and bounce back. But we'll see you all on Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone.