PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles NFL Draft prep picks up at Senior Bowl

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

The Senior Bowl practices started in Mobile, Ala. Bo Wulf is on the scene and connects with Zach Berman about the latest on the Eagles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To the PHY Eagles podcast from Mobile, Alabama. I am Bo Wolf, joined by Zach Berman. Zach, how are you? I'm doing great, excited to see you, a little bit of FOMO. I got to admit. Yeah. I'm not quite sure what you're doing. Oh, this is my Clint Hurt impression.

Oh, I was trying, I was wondering why your picture changed. We can get to that. But yeah, I got to admit, like, you know, I, I, I talked to Emily sometimes when she has, you know, phone all about like social stuff. I don't get that, but definitely have that regarding the senior bowl because I see all these pictures on Instagram and on Twitter and I'm watching it,

watching the whole practice and wish I was there so eager to talk to you about what's going on down there. Well, you did a great job running things with Handsome Rich yesterday. That was a fun episode to listen to. So I hope you're doing well. I hope Emily's doing well. I appreciate that. You had the pillow in your shirt there. That's probably the biggest news that's going on in Vin Philly.

That came out last year. That I had a pillow. That according to the NFL network, the Eagles are adding Clint Hurt, former Seahawks defensive coordinator as their defensive line coach, who has a long history with Vic Fangio. They were together in Chicago. And then also, We don't know the capacity yet for Carl Scott, but comes over.

He has a background in defensive backs, and presumably we'll be in some variety there working with the deep backs. So this staff continues to fail out, but a lot of changes still left to be done. Now here's my take on that, Zach. And we've got some interviews from practice coming up as this episode goes on. We're going to talk to Dan Brewer. We're going to talk to Olivia Reiner from the Inquirer, and then on the P-H-L-Y YouTube feed, you will see a bit of a longer interview with Jimmy Kemsky from Philly Voice,

and I brought this up to Jimmy. But, Zach, imagine that you are Sean Desai, and you have been fired mid-season by the Eagles in favor of Matt Patricia, a not good defensive coordinator. you've also been you've been forced to suffer the ignominy of not just getting to leave but having to be promoted upstairs

and like a camera on you the whole time so you can't really show your emotions you have to go through this whole thing and pretend to be a good soldier as the defense flounders without you and looks like the worst defense in football then a week after the seasons over you are the like

ceremonial person thrown to the wolves as, oh, okay, Nick Siriani has decided to fire Sean Desai and has been the one to make the call. This is the first piece of news that leaks out, and, you know, you've already been fired. And then you are replaced permanently by your mentor. And then he fills out his staff

with the guys who you just worked with two years ago. Yeah. I hear you. Poor guy. Yeah. I mean, there's a few things in there that strike me as like the most egregious. One being that they had to do the charade of him being the defensive coordinator for competitive advantage that week. And then they didn't want to announce that Nick was coming back, but that they used him dismissing.

Him dismissing Sean Desai as a way of saying. What did he do to deserve this? He's been dragged through the month the whole time. Yeah. that Nick was coming back. The part about, like, him being replaced by, by his, by his mentor and then putting the Seahawks staff together. I, I hear you. And, like, that sucks.

There's also a part of that where that's the business they chose, right? And, like, Sean Dessai knew. They're just a little sprinkles on top of the crop Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sean Dessai knew a year ago that Eagles wanted Vic Fangio, right? That Vic Fangio thing, you know, there's been reported.

that has come out since then, that it went sour in Miami. So presumably the Eagles were, would try to pounce. Like we talked about Fangio as a possibility even before he was dismissed by the dolphins because those rumors had come out. So that part of it,

yeah, it kind of compounds with all the other stuff. But the other stuff, in particular, the charade before the Seattle game, and then the Nick Fykeye, Sean part of it. That part's unbecoming to me. So what do you make of the Clinturt and Carl Scott of it? Yeah, I mean, I like the fact that you're adding guys with legit NFL experience here, right? I thought the Eagle staff was a little thin on that.

And not to say that it's a prerequisite, right? You always need your first chance. But I even spoke to you last year about how at all three last. levels, they had guys other than Tracy Rocker who before coming to Philly, you know, I think had had one or two years with the Titans. But their deep backs coach, their linebackers coach, it was like their first time coaching at the position coach level in the NFL. And that you didn't necessarily have that established experience, although I suppose that's an oxymor or I suppose it's redundant because experience within itself is established. But the experience that was there before. And certainly Clinton hurt, right, a defensive coordinator in the league, established position coach in the league, that gives you somebody who comes with those credentials.

Carl Scott's been around a bit in the league was on Nick Saban staff at Alabama. You know, look, we spoke as we spoke last week, then, you know, speaking to Barry gives them that's potential linebacker coach experience with coordinator experience. Mike Caldwell would fit that as well. So I look at that as really beefing up the defensive coaching staff. No point. Yeah, it's what we talked about last week, about how last year they were at the end of the hiring cycle. And so all of the positions were filled across the league,

whereas now they're at the forefront of it, and they have a chance to beef up those spots, given all the turnover elsewhere. I do worry just a little bit about, like, are they going too fond? are like if they hire Mike Caldwell too and it's like two defensive coordinators and Carl Scott

who's established and what if they hire a former offensive coordinator as the quarterbacks coach like is that too much? Like is that too many egos to manage for guys who are going to have to be subservient in some degree and like can they all be good soldiers and pull in the same direction when they've all been in bigger jobs in the past?

I don't know. I mean presumably you want like a couple guys who were like young and scrappy and trying to prove themselves for the first time. I don't know. I mean, it's all a very inexact science. Yeah, I do think, though, they needed different than what they had last year in terms of that experience. And, you know, I remember talking to Nick about the benefit of having those with college coaching backgrounds.

It wasn't necessarily targeted, but there's a lot of, like, emphasis on fundamentals when you're coaching in college as opposed to, you know, maybe scheme and game. plan related stuff. That might be a generalization, but it is the case here that I look at Doug's initial staff, which was a really good staff. You know, Ken Flagell was a former defense coordinator in the league. I had had those bona fides. And when you have that across the board here, it really does give you a strong established coaching staff.

and I suppose you can say maybe, you know, too strong for Nick, but I don't think that's the case. Nick's entering year three. Oh, I'm sorry, entering year four, it's been to the Super Bowl. And yeah, he is coaching for his job, if you will. But Nick's not a first time coach anymore. And I think Nick, I think Nick can't handle it personally.

Well, the other thing that is interesting here is in terms of the personality dynamics. One thing we've always heard about Nick is that he's, he's tough on the coaches, right? He coaches the coaches hard. And part of the reason that he had the equity to do that is because he had so much loyalty and that that has changed now. But as much as he is supposedly going to be like hands off on the defense now, is that also the case with the position coaches? And so like Nick doesn't have the earned equity with Clint Hurt or Carl Scott to come in and and be hard on them if like they're fan geo guys right like i'm probably just being like pessimistic and a little bit um uh reaction i don't know what the right word is but like it seems

like it's setting up the classic offense versus defense dynamic where like things can get a little bit combative perhaps you know i i don't know yeah uh again i just think what it does Sure. I think what it does is actually almost the other way around is that I think sometimes you need assistant coaches and position coaches who can push back to, you know, who can offer their own ideas. And I think one of the problems with having the internal pipeline, because I like that idea of the internal pipeline. Doug Peterson talked me about it. Nick Siriani has talked about it. The problem is, and I've spoke about this specifically with Doug, is that you have people who are then indebted to you, right? Like their breaks in their career are coming because of you?

And are you getting the type of pushback you need? Are you getting enough contrarian voices or different voices in the room when you have people who go from, you know, quality control coach to assistant position coach to position coach. and it's all because of you, right? So I think when you do have those strong voices from elsewhere, it's beneficial. Now, it's also potentially combustible, but that's, look, that's why Nick's paid the big books is it's your job to manage this coaching staff and to be the head coach of a coaching staff. All right. And so that leaves, Zach, from what we can tell. You know, you mentioned the guys they interviewed for linebackers coach.

presumably that will be filled. We don't yet know if Jeremiah Washburn is going to stay on, if they want to continue to have a separate coach for the edge rushers versus the defensive line. We haven't heard anything on the quarterbacks coach front yet. You know, we'll try to sniff around that here at Mobile, but no word yet. And still no official announcements on the rest of the offensive position coaches yet.

If I can interject real quick, because, you know, I have a list of things. things I want to ask you. And one is that I keep scanning social media for like pictures of Eagles people there. And I remember vividly, we're watching practice two years ago. And you know, we see Joy and Lori Stoutland and Nick Siriani and Howie Roseman. And they're all watching practice together. And there's a handful of Eagles reporters down there, obviously you included. and I haven't seen those pictures of the Eagles staff. Are the Eagles well represented there?

Are they late arriving? How would you characterize that? So the Eagles footprint here is certainly smaller than it was two years ago. You know, obviously we weren't here last year and neither were they, for the most part, because they were still in the playoffs. I haven't seen any coaches. No Eagles coaches are here so far, which sort of makes sense because they're still figuring out what the staff is going to look like.

You know, it wouldn't have been a huge surprise to see like. like Stoutland down here necessarily. Exactly. Yeah. It has just been, you know, you see area scouts. Some of those guys are on the field. They've also, it's different this, or I guess they started doing this a couple years ago where the media is supposed to sit on one side of the stadium

and then like the team personnel is supposed to sit on the other side of the stadium. Not everybody follows those rules. But so, you know, I have seen Jake Rosenberg on the way down here, Adam Berry, Jeff Scott, a bunch of the area scouts. I heard that Alec Halliby was here. I haven't seen him.

But yeah, it's the front office people. The coaching staff, there's no Howie so far, and there's no coaches yet. And what I find interesting about that is a team like Pittsburgh, for instance, right? Who was he eliminated at the same time? They are not rebuilding their entire staff, but hiring a new offensive coordinator. I'll spare you the Arthur Smith joke.

but Mike Tomlin's there on the sideline today, right? And, you know, some teams seem to value having their coaches there more than others. I saw, you know, Deshaun Reed, the outstanding Raiders reporter, he said that, you know, their coach Antonio Pierce and their GM, Tom Telesco, are not there. And that's a team that's, you know, drafting high. But they're kind of relying on their scouts and the rest of their front office. So I do know there's a shift in NFL. circles with some teams to not have like your coaches on site for this event.

You know, the Rams have pulled back from the combine as well. But yeah, like I'm watching today. And I know you and Fran will, well, am I allowed to say that? Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow, Fran and I will dive into the players who are here and talk a little bit more about that. We'll do the, the, I wouldn't, I can't say annual, but the. traditional senior bowl quacketology.

Yeah. I also shouldn't say, am I allowed to say that on a live show? Because like there's no point back in the tuba at that point. But no, I'm watching the practices today. And it's a really good group of offensive linemen, relatively speaking. As you pointed out, you have a diehard piece today on first round options that are there. And most of them were offensive linemen. And we're, you know, I mean, it's safe to say Jeff Stoutland's back, right?

it would make sense for Jeff Stoutland to see, you know, Tyler Guyton on the field up, up close. So it did surprise me when I didn't see it. And there was a big deal made, you know, two years ago when Julian Lurie was visible there on the sideline watching practice. And we know, you know, Julian's increased role in the franchise. I thought we'd see him there with Howie. I did not, to be honest. I just think it's a priority thing. Like they have more important things to do right now.

Like if they had nothing else to do, I mean, remember two years ago, they, they retained the entire staff. Sure. Like, and so this was priority number one. It's not priority number one right now. Yeah, I just think once you have your coordinators in place, I don't know. I think I'm, I was surprised. I thought we'd see at least Nick down there. Maybe they're coming down for a day, right?

They've done that in the past. But yeah, that did surprise me. And the senior bowl sometimes used as like a coach interview convention. You know, specifically in 2016, I believe it was Chris Wilson was hired down there. The Eagles interviewed Chris Wilson to be their defensive lines coach down there at the senior ball and hired him. So that did strike me a bit as surprising especially. And I see in the chat, Jason says this. This is a more stacked senior bowl lineup than you see in the past because they're allowing

underclassmen to play a little bit more. So you have not all your top prospects, but I think a greater volume of better prospects are in there. So, yeah, that surprised me not having that Eagles representation on the ground. Well, speaking of what's going on down here, why don't we use this opportunity to throw to the conversation I had with Dane Brugler at the beginning of practice today. So this is before we saw anything that had happened on the field on day one, more of a preview of what was to come. Just a quick check-in with our old friend, Dane Bruegler, from the Athletic.

Everybody, Bo Wolf for P.H.O.Y, the Senior Bowl. And I just sat down and I have found the number one guy, the most important person here. Jane Brugler from the Athletic, first of all, Dan, how are you? Good. It's going to be with you. for Movill 60s a day. So you love that. Yeah, last time I was here, it was raining.

Not so great. I want to talk about my favorite name here, which I hope that you would like. But we'll do a couple of Eagles questions first. That will be, I'll be quick with you here. Give me who you think will come out as the best offensive tackle here. It's hard not to say Tyler Knight. I'll go home a right tackle. Just the way he moves is different.

Is he the most polished? No. the most technically sound though but when you project him out it's easy to get excited about where he could be down the road so one-on-ones will be interesting for him see how he holds up he has he has got lettuce isn't no doubt but is he for far enough along with this technique where he's gonna be able to hold up against him the past rushes we have this week i see like the the story of him super athletic guy from Oklahoma i think if there is a lane joneson replacement that's the guy He only played right tackle at Oklahoma.

He needs a few courses and stout when you, you know, just get further along than where he is. But again, the draft's all about traits and this guy's got him. Okay, second question. I'm thinking a day two skill position player, wide receiver or running back, somebody to add a little juice to the Eagles offense. Who's somebody to watch here?

I'm a big fan of Roman Wilson, Michigan wide receiver. You know, he's undersized, but that's why you're giving him one day to him. He's his speed, his quickness, he can get open. And really, same things, say the same things about Lavin County. George wide receiver. Undersized, been banged up over his career. But again, that's why you're getting him probably midway through day two, late two or three, as opposed to a guy that's going to go in the top 30.

So you trade off the size concerns for a guy that just knows how to get him. and both Roman Wilson and live and talking. Both those guys, you know how to get open. They're very good to catch point. They can hurt you after the catch. So excited to see both those guys. One more real question. Secondary is the need for the Eagles.

Anybody here that you really like? It's got to be Quignon Mitchell. The Solito Corner. You can make the argument he's the best defense player here. I think the UCLA pass rusher. We've got Tumatu might have a case and a few others. But Quigin on Mitchell's right there in the mix. His ball production is outstanding.

You know, coming from the Mac, you want to see them against maybe some better competitions, better wider sewers, we'll see that for one-on-ones. So excited that he's down here to compete and has a chance to really cement himself as a top 25 guy in the surround. All right, you are a family man. You've got kids. If you're cooking dinner and you're making Tanner Bordellini, what are you using on the side? The great Wisconsin center.

Yeah, he's an athletic player. Guard moved to center this year. He's someone that I think can open some eyes. He's an athlete. He can move. So that's a great, there's some good names down here. Good names. And then last question, if you had one day with a time machine, what would you use them for?

Oh, wow. Just in general, like not prospect related? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it could be. Yeah, go back and fix them on my mothed grass. That's good. Gosh, that's a tough question. But yeah, professionally, I could sure use a time machine.

Go back to time and fix my, um, that's a tough question. my Danny Walker's bit, my projection. That maybe Howie would want to do that too. Yeah, I think that might be the one that he uses it for too. All right, Dan Broger, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We can all read your work on the athletic. You are the best.

Thanks, man. I have a new answer for the time machine, Zach. Let's hear. How about it? Wait, wait, wait, by the way, great job you're an A-lister to kick off. That is huge down there. Good word. Yeah.

The beast of the best. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for hanging with us on the audio, you know, not perfect, but I think Julia did a great job by cleaning it up, making it work. I would go back to Saturday or Sunday whenever it was when I, there was like one of one login that was like every time I tried to log into it, like the page crashed and I couldn't get it to fix. And so I cleared my cookies, but I didn't really pay close attention to what I was clearing and all of my sign-ins for all of the things that I. I'm signed into, I lost all of them.

I got to like figure out what my passwords are, like send myself. It's been such a hassle. So that's what I would change. I what privileged life I've led, but that's that was it. I sympathize with you there because we sometimes take for granted the auto, you know, the auto fill in the password, right? And I understand you can you can get your password with the auto fill, but then once it's out of there, you got to, yeah, you got to do the password.

reminders and the email and you think you've done them all and then all of a sudden you go to a different oh i forgot about this one there's no way i know this password oh exactly yep yeah well uh the two guys two guys he mentioned uh who i think are worth just touching on quickly quinyon mitchell the cornerback from toledo a guy who like you know when he comes in coming from the mac you want to see how he fits in and you just you want to see how he moves and boy like just one practice he looked awesome. He looked like the best defensive player on the field. And I think he could be a potential possibility for the Eagles of 22. And then Guyton, the guy who is the super athletic right tackle from Oklahoma. You think of him as potentially a Lane Johnson replacement needs to put on some muscle. And you know one way that he could do that, Zach? Tell me. We'll put on some weight. He could eat some bagels. Some Brooklyn-style bagels made in Philly with bagels and co. We're talking huge bagels. The biggest, bagels in Philly. They've got a large variety, 15 to 20 different types to choose from daily. They've got seasonal bagels as well. They've got the largest cream cheese variety, 30 different

flavors of cream cheese and smears. And it's an affordable brand, baby. You get a lot of food for cheap. And in today's inflationary world, they think that's key. So, Mr. Guyton, A.J.'s brother, don't think that's true. For the best Brooklyn-style bagels made right here in Philly, head to www.thebagelsandco.com slash store dash locator to find the closest bagels and co near you. And we are going to be in Vegas next week eating bagels, perhaps. But if we're trying to think of how to spend some extra money in Vegas, bagels is one way to do it.

What would you do if you had an extra $100 in Vegas? What would you do? If you were there for the big game, would you buy yourself a great dinner? Would you put it all on red? Would you, you know, would you go to the blackjack table and, you know, double down on 11 and hold on 17 and split those eights? Well, game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. And right now, all users get $100 off when they buy a big game ticket with, Code Vegas 100 with kill or less when it deals all in prices of use from your seat and their

best price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. And this isn't just for the big game, by the way. I was looking at tickets for tonight's Villanova game on game time. And you can see the seat view from your seat before you buy. So you know exactly what to expect when you arrive. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Right now all game time users get a. $100 off a big game ticket with code Vegas 100.

Terms apply. Just download the game time app and use code VEGAS 100 for $100 off a big game ticket. Or if you're not going to the game, use code P-H-L-Y for $20 off your first purchase download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. What else is on your mind? Wait, wait. So, yeah, so I just, I know you'll talk about players tomorrow. one thing I want to just run by you real quick when you talk about Mitchell, the D-Back from Toledo,

because you'll probably get more into evaluation stuff tomorrow as opposed to like Eagle scenarios, I imagine. So Howie Roseman's kind of geared more or leaned more toward the big school player in racing years, especially early on. And do you think there would be, I mean, let's just talk about a type from the beginning. Do you think a corner from Toledo would cause some concern? Yeah. Yeah. I do not think that that is Harry Roseman's type. I think that would be a surprising pick. I mean, he hasn't used. The only first round pick he's ever used, I believe, on a non-power five player was Carson Wentz. You're right. Yeah. I believe that's right. And sometimes he got, you know, criticized for not going for the big programs either, right?

Like, you know, some of them, I should even say that not elite programs, but some of your PAC 12 or your big 12 programs or that aren't, you know, SEC. He kept hearing SEC. I wrote a story a few years ago how the Eagles had drafted guys from who had played in the college football playoff, right? They had only like four in X amount of years. And they weren't taking Alabama players for a period of time. And then you saw this correction in it.

major way, whether it was purposeful or not, you know, Alabama, Georgia guys. And they've actually had some success there. Now, we need to see how the Georgia guys do. But certainly Jaywin Hertz and Landon Dickerson and Devante Smith, they hit on those three in particular. Yeah, I feel like the Georgia thing is maybe hit a critical mass. Sure. I mean, they're not going to, if he's the, if there's a Georgia player at the top of their board, I don't think they're going to not take him.

But I don't think that they want to. add more Georgia guys, do you? Well, it is something, you know, I don't know if they've gotten necessarily the return that they might have thought on some of the Georgia guys. Now, it's still really early. But like you look at this draft, you look at Mims the right tackle. And you just don't see, you just don't see guys who are like 6, 7, 340 who can move like that.

Then again, we said the same thing about Jordan Davis. In this draft, you kind of do, right? like it's a loaded offensive lounge. Sure. Then, you know, Lassiter, the corner. He's someone too who, I mean, from a, you know, size, speed perspective, it's going to be appealing. So, yeah, I hear what you're saying.

They say don't scout the helmet. And I wrote this the other day when I had Mims as my mock. Like if you, as my first round in the mock is that there's a reason why, they're taking Georgia players sometimes, and it's because, you know, like you go with the big skilled guys, you know, you go with traits and skills early on, and, you know, Georgia gets guys with traits. So, like outside of the Kobe Dean who fell to the third round,

Georgia doesn't have a lot of outliers. Georgia has guys who, like, you don't have to talk yourself into the size and the athleticism of a lot of these Georgia players. So of the 10 players who I mentioned as, potential first-round targets on the article that you can read if you were a diehard on all pH-L-Y. You, knowing these guys better at this point than I do, who is the one who you think is like the most likely Eagles type player?

Oh, Tyler Gutten. And, you know, I obviously heard Dane talk about him. But the other one, and I can't say the last name, Kingsley, how do you pronounce the last name? I think it's Sua Matea. Sue Mataya, who was a former top recruit, went to Oregon, transferred. It's actually funny. As I'm watching the senior poll today, it's like you have to put the second school on destination for a lot of these guys because so many of them transfer now.

You know, I saw the rep between Latu and Kingsley. He did a couple matchups today. He's played right tackle and left tackle. He played mostly right tackle today. So they had that one-on-one. and they had two consecutive reps one-on-one. But like both of those, there was a point when Latu was at Washington and Kingsley was at Oregon, right?

And now they both transferred. I think, though, those offensive tackles are what I would really watch as far as the Eagles in the first round. Just looking at it from like what seems like the scope of things and where guys are likely to be ranked and, you know, Daniel Jeremiah came out with his top 50 today. Feels like just to me the kind of thing where the Eagles would look to trade back and maybe pick up some extra capital and take a tackle at the end of the first round.

Maybe so. Yeah, I could see that. I mean, I don't know if there's a position that they trade up for. That's the thing. I think if they trade up, it's more for premium positions. And I don't know if they're going to trade up again for, a defensive tackle or it's a bad edge rusher class this year. So then you're going to trade up then for an offensive tackle, right?

When you could probably trade back. I don't think they trade up for a corner. You know, I think there's going to be some decent corners in the range where they're drafting. But I think actually second round is probably a better spot for corners. But when you look at the strength. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm just saying when you look at the strength of this year's class, and I know it's still early, but it's an offensive.

defensive heavy draft. You know, we've seen years where there's that run on defensive linemen. This year, it's really wide receivers. They are a big strength here. Offensive tackles. Offensive line overall, big strength here. So those are the two positions that they really trump out. There's some good corners, but it's not a good defensive front draft relative to past years.

I actually think if you were going to tell me right now the Eagles are going to trade up from 22, which I think is a long shot. I don't think they're going to do that. But I kind of think corner is the one that makes sense because it's the position where it's not quite as deep, it seems. There might be a guy who you view as a totally different tier who is worth getting. It's obviously a position of immense need long term. And like they're not going to draft a wide receiver in the first round, right?

And complicate those dynamics that way. I think they need to add somebody a tight end or a wide receiver at some point in the middle rounds. But I don't think they're going to trade up for the tackle either necessarily unless it's like there's a run of like three or four guys who are all at the top tier and there's only one of them left. Maybe you move up a little bit for that. But like targeting a guy corner is the one that sort of makes sense to them. Yeah. And we have obviously ample time to talk about it, but both those those. We're here.

We're starting a draft season. Yeah. both the Bama corners, Kooley, McKinstree and Arnold, and then, you know, the Clemson Corner. Those are the, you know, those are three that would kind of be near the top there. Although if you want to look for a sleeper for a trade-up, and I think that he'll, I think he'll go top 10. So it's not a possibility. But if he slips, Brock Bowers. Yeah, you're going to have to miss me with this.

We're probably going to be going over this. for a while. Okay. Yeah. I just think Brock Bowers is, I'm sorry, Brock Bowers is a special tight end prospect and just a rare, rare player. Now, the one thing I will say is the long history of tight ends taking a long time to make an impact in the NFL has changed a little bit over the recent. I mean, obviously we saw Sam the Portizier. Yeah. But tight ends have been able to make a quicker impact lately, but I do not think they're going to be trading up for Brock Bowers. No, I'm saying we were talking about trade-up candidates where you look to trade-up, it's often when there's a drop-off at the position, right?

If you have three corners graded around the same, you're not going to give up picks, especially when you only have one third-rounder this year and it's, well, you only have one third-rounder most years, but you traded your third-rounder. So your third rounders, your comp pick that you're expected to get. They have a lot of fifth round picks, but you don't want to give up one of those seconds, right? So I think that there could be corners there at 22 for them. I do agree that's the most likely trade-up spot. But I think corners tackles, you'll find decent players there in the 20s.

What is your opinion having watched all of these guys on the quarterbacks who are here? here, Zach. The quarterbacks were there. Okay. Because I thought you were going to say the quarterbacks in general. I mean, well, we'll save that for later. Yeah, Michael Pennix is. So the guys who are here, Michael Pennix from Washington.

Bo Nicks and Morgan. Sam Hartman from Wake Forest and Notre Dame. And then on the other side, it's like a huge drop off to the quarterbacks on the other team. Spencer Rattler, who is like way smaller than I expected. He's very small. Joe Milton from Tennessee, Michael Pratt from Tulane, and Gus Bradley's son, Carter Bradley, from South Alabama. I came up with a name for him last night.

I didn't know that he was his son. Fran explained to me that this was Gus Bradley's son. And I said, what's his name? And he said, his name is Carter. And I said, oh, we can go from the Gus bus to the Carter Charter. Well done. Well done. And experienced that Chick-fil-A in the South Alabama Student Union quite a bit, I imagine.

I've been there, done that. So. You also. So anyways, of the quarterbacks there, Michael Pennix, would be the guy who I like the most. And I mean, that's not going on alleged saying that, but dealt with a lot of injuries early on in his career when he was at Indiana. Yeah. People, it seems like Bo Nix is going to be a first round pick. This is weird to me.

I think Bo Nix will be a first round pick. Yeah. I mean, the age thing, you kind of hold that against him. But, like, he was awesome last year at Oregon. There are five quarterbacks who I think could go first round. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here. I was speaking to Tyler Zulie in the office yesterday. Tyler is a big college football fan as well.

And Tyler was saying, like, if you want a quarterback, you got to go this year, not next year, right? Next year is not considered as good of a quarterback class. Now, things can always shake out differently. We'll see. But this is a quarterback year. And obviously we know the top three or the, you know, Kea Williams, Drake May, and then Jaden Daniels. But I think those two guys who are there, Michael Pennix and Bo Nix will both be first round picks. Just from watching them today, one day of practice, not a super noteworthy piece of information,

but just from watching them today, penics looked by far the best to me, like the way the ball comes out of his hand, very accurate. Bonick struggled today. But, you know, these are like very difficult situations where you're working with guys you've never thrown to before and all that stuff.

But Pennix looks good. I love a lefty. So there are not enough lefties playing quarterback in the NFL. So let's get him in, in the first round. I'm curious, though. I'm watching, so I'm watching this today.

And the Nootanghai news breaks, that did not make the NFL network. The talk of the NFL network was Ben Johnson, okay? Very interesting. Yeah, so it seemed to be Ben Johnson, there was a lot of Ben Johnson buzz down there, but like, what's the buzz? Because I've been there in those stands

when, you know, something happens. I mean, vividly, I recall, whether it was two years ago or three years ago, it's all kind of running together now. But when the Brian Flores lawsuit came out, right? And we're there and we're all sitting there. And it's like, man, you know, this is, it's like what everyone's talking about, right? So what was the buzz? Was it, was it Ben Johnson?

Was it coaching changes overall? Like, what's everyone talking about on the bleachers? Yeah, when the Ben Johnson thing broke today, that was the talk of the stands for a bit, whether like he thought he wasn't going to get the job or like he really does just want to finish things in Detroit, whatever it is. I don't know. I can't speak for Ben Johnson. It's an interesting thing to me. I mean, it seemed like people I was talking to over the past couple weeks, it was like foregone conclusion that he was going to Washington and Adam Peters was going his man, right? And so definitely interesting. What about you? Yeah, that did surprise me, right?

So, I mean, we talked about McDonald. I kind of think he's going to get one of these two jobs. Who's going to get the other one? Well, just real quick, Josina Anderson had the report a few weeks ago that like Ben Johnson was asking for a lot of money. And then I saw Schefter had a tweet today that said like, you know, what he was asking for was scaring teams off a bit. Give me a break. So I don't know if that factored into things or not. But yeah, that surprise me.

tweeted this but they were right. And so I apologize, but like, there's no, there's no salary cap for coaches. Ask for what you want. Like, you get me scared off by a salary demand of a head coach, hire the guy you want to hire. Fair, fair. So he's not like he's taking away like it's like a quarterback where you can't all of a sudden you can't pay an edge rusher. Like, give me a break. Yeah, but but there's always, you know, a price that you consider too much, right? Yeah. I don't know I can't imagine he was asking for like $500 million. Like he was asking for something within the range of a head coach salary. Like if you want him, get him.

I'm not saying, and I'm not saying, I would definitely hire him either. I'm just saying, you know, give me a break with, he was asking for too much money. Yeah. I don't know the specifics there. That's just something that has come out since. So where do they turn? I mean, Mike McDonald's is interesting to me, right? you know, actually pleasant from the Ravens too is someone who's held in high regard.

He's the assistant head coach there, Albury Pleasant. Now, when you look at it, like I would talk to Mike Vrable. I think Mike Vrable is a really good coach. I don't know what the interest is there between Dan Quinn and Mike Vrable. I might, you know, kind of steer toward Vrable. But I think if you're the Eagles, we're talking about having these guys in the United States. division, I think you would have been a little bit worried about Ben Johnson as a guy you had to go up

against twice a year. I don't think you need to worry about Mike Frable. I mean, or Dan Quinn. I mean, like, yeah, he's going to get more out of them, right? But like, I don't know, like a Mike Vrable team is not difficult to prepare for. Well, frankly, I think if you're an Eagles fan, and if you're watching this right now, you're an Eagles fan, I presume, you want them to hire Dan Quinn because that weakens the Cowboys right away. Like the- The commanders are going to take some time. The Cowboys, I saw a quote from Jerry Jones today that, like, they're all in for next year, right? Which kind of, what struck me as odd because I thought they were all in for last year, too.

I didn't. Yeah. But, yeah, if you're trying to get a decorinator now, now maybe Al Harris is the guy, right? And you promote them and it's seamless. But I think Dan Quinn is a high-level coordinator. So, yeah, just like Dean said there, if Dan Quinn goes to Washington, I think that that weakens that Cowboys coaching staff. Especially if he brings Chip, that would be fun.

You play against Chip twice a year. Sure. At the site of the first chip game. Imagine if Josh Harris relents to Ben Johnson's demand, he's like, all right, we're going to pay you what you need. And then the next day announces that the Sixers have traded Tyrese maxi because they're not going to be able to afford his long-term extension now because he's got Ben Johnson instead. I think this is coming for two separate pots.

but sure, sure. But yeah, I don't know where they turn. Mike McDonald's interesting to me. And I think if you're not fixated on the offensive head coach part of it, one thing that I was really impressed with Mike McDonald all year, but I was impressed with him this past weekend because what jumped out to me is like Andy Reid had a great initial script, right? They scored early, and then the Ravens adjusted and just shut them down.

Just shut them down. And that to me is a size. Now, a head coach is more, it's about more than ski, right? There's a difference between being a good coordinator and a good coach. But when you look at like the merit of what Mike McDonald's done, and he's worked in an outstanding organization there, he's been at Michigan, right? He's been at Georgia.

I think that's something that they should look hard at, but they're talking to Aaron Glenn today too. Is it Aaron or Glenn? It's Aaron Glenn. Glenn, Ellen. So I don't know where they turn. Frankly, I thought at the beginning it was going to be Belichick. What do you make of this, no Belichick?

Yeah, that, I mean, clearly the Falcons, now I'd like Brahimor, so I don't think it's not higher. Just, you know, get a zip file, use a weed transfer and send Josh Harris your folder, see if it moves him. I mean, if you watch that, save in Belichick documentary. But, no, I'm curious to see where they turn and then Seattle's still out there as well. I keep seeing, you know, don't sleep on Mike Kafka in Seattle, which would strike me as very odd. But, you know, you have these pick of coaches and you go with Kafka. But still, the Ben Johnson thing did throw a wrench in what people were expecting. So that was the buzz there was.

was Ben Johnson. What else were people talking about on the sideline? Well, is that good question? Because I can show you a video of the kinds of things who we're talking about on the sidelines. Now, you can read the collection of options for the Eagles if you are a diehard. We hope that you become a diehard if you are not yet a diehard. But before we get there, I had a chance to talk to Olivia Reiner from the Inquirer about the ways in which her work was maybe affecting your livelihood. Zach, so let's listen to that now. Buddy, Bo Wolfe, here at the Senior Bowl again,

with the award-winning journalist, Olivia, Ryana. Olivia, first of all, how are you? I'm doing well, both. Thank you for having me. Thank you for joining us here. Now, busy travel wig for you. Not only are you here in Alabama, you were in Baltimore over the weekend, got the Jason Kelsey's group.

What was the story behind that? Yeah, so obviously that was like the dream would be to talk to Kelsey after. after the game and I went to that game with the hope that potentially I would see him or run into him somehow, but I knew that that, like I said, was kind of like the lofty goal. So that wasn't when I was going down after the game, that wasn't my backup plan. I had a backup plan. What was the backup plan?

Just to kind of write a little bit more generally about the chiefs going back to the Super Bowl for a second consecutive season, unlike the Eagles, kind of how they were able to do that, like going through some adversity earlier in the season and talking to some of the players. But that quickly went out the window. So when I went down there, I was just kind of my first, I don't know, what I thought to do was just to follow Travis around until I found potentially Jason. And that's essentially what happened.

Did you get caught up in the swift of it all? I did. I did. Yeah, that ended up being a byproduct of my exhibition was. was seeing the two of them, Travis and Taylor. And so was it like most people were following Taylor and you were offered for cases? Correct, correct.

I did, I got a video of Travis and Taylor kind of celebrating after the game. And then once that was done, I was like, okay, actually, so Travis walked up to the stage to accept, like, with the rest of his team, the AFC title. And then once I knew where he was and that he was kind of, you know, gonna be over there, I turned around more or less and there,

Jason was, so it worked out really well. And he was happy to see you, I imagine. Yeah, I think he was happy to just be there and happy to see a lot of people. A lot of people wanted to talk to him. A lot of people wanted photos with him. So I was lucky enough to get a few minutes with him. So it worked out. Generally speaking, how was the first full year?

I mean, it was really nice. I'm very lucky to work with some really awesome experience. People who guided me along the right way. So we've got a good team. And I enjoyed it. It was kind of like a little bit familiar going back to the NFL after I covered the Packers from three years and then moved to the Flyers beat. So covered the team for a couple seasons and now back in the NFL. So there is some familiar, there are familiar aspects of covering an NFL team.

And I enjoyed that. I especially enjoyed the schedule compared to the NHL season. A little less chaotic. But all in all, you know, good season, a lot of good stories, all good stuff. you're okay knowing that you get him at Jason Kelsey's group like ruined Zach's. Oh, I'm so, a couple hours of his life. Sorry, Zach. I love Zach a lot. I have a lot of respect for Zach. So I, any, if he is at all, you know, if he has those feelings that means,

actually it means a lot to me. You know what, that way? You, you have gotten yourselves back in our great graces because you did hook me up with sunscreen. So you're welcome. You have, you have saved the day on that front. What do you make of Mobile? Did you come here you were coming the pack? No, this is actually my first experience, so I'm really enjoying it so far. I really didn't know what to expect and to me this is a lot, I think that this is a good turnout. I don't know, apparently compared to maybe some pre-pendemic years, it might not be as well attended, but to me this is a lot of people for this event. It's fun to see, good to see some football. Feels like it's been so long for us.

There you go. Better than the football we saw up here. Sure. All right, well Olivia, thank you so much for taking the time. That'll do it for PHLY. Thanks for listening. Were you negatively affected by that? Kelsey interview, Zach?

Well, I mean, I was envious, right? Now, I really respected Olivia. Like, she did great work there. She got the story. Love it Olivia. Yeah, she's the sports writer of the, she's a Pennsylvania State sports writer of the year. And she's done a perfect job.

I mean, hold on, hold on. Co. Co. with Mike Jensen, who's awesome. Yeah. Still, yeah. No, I'm saying she's. I mean,

let's just, yeah, she's awesome. Let's be accurate. Like, like, so it, it didn't necessarily throw a wrench because like,

like I, it bothers me more if we're both in the locker room together. And she gets something that I don't, right? Or like, we're both working on something. And she gets something that I don't. Like,

you know, I was at the inquiry for seven years. I did like, the postseason circuit, I loved it. It was so much fun. And I really respect that because it's hard as hell to go there, knowing that you need to find a story for your readership.

How are you going to do it? Like, you don't have the relationships in the locker room. You know, like I remember when Gus Bradley was a candidate being down in Washington, when they beat the they beat the then Washington football team. I remember being in Carolina. I remember being when Sean McDermott got to the Super Bowl. I remember being out in Denver for a Peyton Manning,

Tom Brady game. So anyway, so that's a way of saying that at the Enquirer, that's like part of what you do. I think I would probably have to give like a convincing argument why I would be covering playoff games at P HLY. You could have trim him down, though. I couldn't want to get to. Yeah, probably in hindsight, you know, yeah, I probably could have made that.

But no, I have so much respect for her. And she delivered that. Like, that's not handed to you. You got to get on the field. You got to find Jason. You got to get Jason being willing to talk, and you got get Jason to be honest, too. And so she did awesome. And she deserved that.

Yeah, I was envious to the story for sure. Like I saw it and I said, Dan, like, I wish I got that. But I will say it's, it didn't pain me the same way if, you know, we were both working on who the Eagles were hiring. But so let me ask you that. Why does it pain you so much to be asleep when the news of Kellen Moore breaks, when you're not, everybody's getting that anyway. You're not breaking that. Well, I mean, A, A, you hope you're on top of it. but also, you know, when it happens, you want people to come to you for what you think, you know.

And if you're eight hours late on that, that's bad. I think you should give yourself the same grace for that that you're giving yourself for the Kelsey thing. It's actually much less of a thing because it's not, all you're talking about is putting out a couple tweets. No, no, I could have written something. You know, we could have done an emergency show on Saturday night. I was not going to do an emergency show Saturday night. I could have done a video on demand. Like, yeah, I should have been in a better positioned on Saturday night.

The game Sunday. I did see we have a comment from a pharmacist, Defop, who is making the case that you should not be giving Advil PM such gas. You know, you don't need the Advil. And you need just some over-the-counter. Benadryl to get you to sleep. My bad. I'm sorry. Yeah, I will take that. It's just, it's kind of like what I had in the medicine cabinet. I think this is an old, this is an old Shield's mom tip that, you know, you never, you never need the brand name thing. It's all you just get the generics. Yeah, it's just what I had in the medicine cabinet. So that's, that's, that's all it was.

But my fault there. Maybe get some codeine next time in the medicine cabinet. Yeah, yeah, why not? But let me ask you, too, what's it like down in Mobile? Like, every time I'm there, it seems like it's grown a bit since the year before. The event changed, you know, it used to be at Lead Peoples. Now it's at South Alabama. You know, is it different? There's a lot of senior bowl hipsterism going on from those of us who have been here,

who have been coming here for, you know, over a decade now because it has gotten not as good for the media. I think part of that is because it has maybe made it easier to attract the players. There is like the media access is much less. You know, it used to be, you got to be like right on the sidelines during practice, watching practice. Now it's much more segmented. There, you know, there used to be like times for.

for everybody to talk to the players, like on a Monday before practices started, you could, you know, there was like an hour when you got to talk to the players from every team. That has been eliminated. That used to be like there was like a radio row that was like in the player hotel and now you need credentials to get there.

But the flip side is they've, you know, they're attracting better talent in theory. I don't know if that's actually how it's played out in practice, but it's still good, it's still fun. It's still a great way to see all of these players on the field. The last time you'll see them on the field before the draft. You know, the combine is great. You need those measurables, but this is the last time to see them in action.

Good point. And it's also great because it's, you know, it's a small town, the downtown of Mobile. And so, you know, you pop into the different restaurants and bars and there are, you know, different familiar faces from the NFL. I think that, I think that too. It's like we talked about at the beginning, like not all the head coaches and GMs are necessarily coming like they used to, but it's still some fun people watching. Yeah. And, you know, that's the cool part about like Mobile and Indianapolis for the Combine, too, is that you're all kind of scattered in a central place.

You're generally going to the same restaurants or coffee shops or bars. And, you know, if you did a senior bowl in a different city, it wouldn't have. have that same effect. Same way if the combine moved, right? The combine was in Los Angeles. People would be all over the place, right? It wouldn't be the convention element that you get. And that's even more the case in Alabama because, you know, there's like four or five hotels in the downtown area. There's a lot of people who actually have to stay on the outskirts and then get into downtown. So, yeah, it's like I said at the top of the show, I have, I have FOMO. You know, I am envious of you and living vicariously through all the reporters down there.

FOMO better than Mofo. I would say so. I would say so. How was the show yesterday? At the top, it was a good show. He did a good job to run the show. He did a great job. Emily said, why are you nervous?

Like I was like really prepared. You know, she's like, I'd never seen you. You know, nervous for a show. said, Bo is so good at running, you know, the show of being like the point guard. I would say even more than point guard, the quarterback, right? The point card's more of the distributor. You're like, you are, you know, you're, you're central to the offense, right? So now, like the backup quarterback gets in and I got to know all the play calls. I got to know the ins I got know the opens, the ins and outs. You know, I got to have my eye on the time. I got to listen

to what he's saying, Rich, so I can have the conversation. But also, because, because, you know, aware of like what is uh you know we need to get to this ad break and then also what's the chat saying is there a super chat um i had a few things i want to get into you you don't want to go too deep on a single topic but you don't want to go bear so this was all stuff that i was i was playing out i i mapped out what the show would be and uh yeah it was it was fun i have i have more respect for you well that's kind of you to say i appreciate that but it you it didn't There was no drop off. You did a good job running the show.

How did it feel? I was fun. Rich was great to speak with Julia, as always. I did an amazing job. And yeah, yeah, it was fun. But yes, as Ryan says in the chat, I do have one complaint about the show. The I love you at the end.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know what, though. You know, I am, though. It's like your emotions and my emotions are different. I love when Tony Cornerizer said, is, you know, we'll do better tomorrow or, you know, yeah, it'll be a better show tomorrow, something along those lines.

That's, that's a sentiment that I... What a rude thing to say in front of Rich. No, it's more, you should want to be better every day, right? I don't want to be worse tomorrow. I don't want to be the same tomorrow. I know today has not been my best show. I will not be on the show tomorrow. Thursday, I'm going to bring it.

Friday, I'm going to bring it. So, yeah, like I very much feel like that, that's it. If your sentiment is, I love you to the crowd, my sentiment is, I promise you a better show tomorrow. I think that's sweet. Even if you're, you know, thumbing your nose at the beloved listeners and viewers. Never. Never. By the way, if I put in the Discord, and if you are a diehard, that's part of the benefit is you had the Discord channel.

You can submit questions. Discord right here. I see what you did there. You can submit questions in the diehard in the Eagles mailbag tab. And I will answer every single question. I got that inspiration from Charlie O'Connor. I used to pick like eight or ten. I'm going to answer every question within reason, right?

Like if you're asking for honeymoon details or something like that, don't need to do that. But like within reason. Why would you take it there of all places? No, I'm saying, like, this is not the form for, like, personal stuff. But I will answer, what? What? Of all the things you could have said that were unreasonable, you had to go to your own honeymoon? Well, you, because you always bring that up to me, right?

I know, but some people don't know that background story. You're talking about, like, where you went on your honeymoon. The way that you said it was talking about. You know, the details of the down and dirty. That's not at all what I was referring to about. I was referring to, come on, okay. Point being an inappropriate question for a mailbag, but, you know, point being, I will take all your Eagles questions.

I will take, if you have, like, industry questions, if you have anything like that, I'd be happy to answer. So, yeah, put that into Discord. and I will coordinate with Bo when his senior bull content's coming out. But I'm going to work on that tomorrow and it could run on Thursday or Friday. Sounds good. We look forward to that. Remember, you can be a diehard on all p.hly.com.

Get a good deal. And you also get, in addition to all that content, and the Discord, you get discounts on the merch. So all that stuff is worth it. And make sure that you are liking and subscribing, doing all that stuff on the YouTube page. Thank you to everybody for. watching and listening today. I will be back tomorrow with Francis Duffy to talk senior bowl quacketology. We will have at that point two practices each from the American and national teams down here in Mobile to talk about. We're going to try to match

guys who might make sense for the Eagles in different rounds. And then on Thursday, Zach and Handsome Rich back in the saddle before Zach and I are back together in person on Friday. So a fun week of shows here on P-H-L-Y. Thank you to And then Vegas next week. Make sure we, yeah, let's just keep saying that. We'll be on the scene in Vegas next week. So pump for that. And then Vegas next week.

And then Vegas next week. And then Vegas next week. And then Vegas next week. And then Vegas next week. All right. We got it. And then Vegas next week. We totally keep saying it.

And then Vegas next week. You don't have to keep saying it. just wanted to reinforce that. And then Vegas next week. I just want to reinforce that. The company is making a big investment in having us on Radio Row, and we will be there giving you the sights, the sounds, and scenes and interviews, and it's going to be fun. And then Vegas next week.

So for all of us here, P.H.O.I, we thank you for listening. We will talk to you tomorrow. And as always, for Zach, we love you.