PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles sign WR Parris Campbell, plus a close look at the bottom of the roster

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

‘Tis the season of inscrutability. With the league meetings on tap next week and draft season to follow, it’s time to pause and consider the players currently at the bottom of the Eagles’ roster. From familiar names like Mekhi Garner and Zech McPhearson to newcomers like Terrell Lewis, Darian Kinnard and Jacob Harris, we dive deep into the guys you might one day need to know. Maybe. Zach Berman and Bo Wulf set things up bracket style, as is their custom. 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.

Eagles podcast, Bo Wolf, Zach Berman on a Thursday, the first day of March Madness, Zach. How you doing? Doing great, excited for the show. Look forward to this day every year when I was growing up. I used to take off, I used to have a cold or whatever. Absolutely. On the Thursday. This was you could convince mom and dad to let you stay home on this day.

And then my mom started catching on around like fifth grade, sixth grade. She was on to me then. But I love the first day of the NCAA tournament and looking forward to some good bracket talk, our version of bracket talk today, along with other Eagles news. Yeah, a bit of a surprise because you and I were batting around ideas for this show

and I gave you on one hand. You know, we could have a big picture. Jalen Hertz conversation, you know, has anything they've done. This offseason changed your expectations for the year that is going to be ahead for him. They've got a new offensive coordinator. They got Sequin Barclay to take some of the maybe running load off of him, all that stuff.

Or we could talk about like the guys at the bottom of the roster. And you are Mr. like, let's grow this show. Let's make it for the widest audience possible. And you said, no, no, no, no. Let's talk about Laceda Smith and Taiwan Mullen. That's what you want to do. I wouldn't necessarily frame it that way.

Although that's not inaccurate. I don't want to use that J-1-Hert's card, if you will, right now, right? That's a show that I want to spend time preparing for, watching some film on. I would imagine there's opportunities to have multiple Jalen Hertz. Yeah. So I thought like, okay. And then I wanted some, you know, you're only doing a show the day of the NCAA tournament. Well, sure.

Four times, right? So this, the Tuesday, Friday this week, Thursday, Friday next week. What about the Monday of the national championship game? And the Monday of the national title game, right? So people are in the brackets right now. So I thought we could do a bracket type. show and yes i think this has a chance to be our most inscrutable exercise yeah uh and and and knowing the mind that you have i figured you would come up with an interesting wrinkle and you

did uh and then as i'm there prepping for the show the eagles make news to well they made news last night too since we last spoke so two new additions to the roster since we talked yesterday why don't you tell us about it yeah so the big one is is what uh just came out which is paris campbell is signing with the Eagles. Are you hot in here, by the way? My hot in here? No, I'm not hot in here. Are you guys hot?

Are you hot, Julie? I'm a little bit hot. Here it goes. This is gold right here. Look at that. That joke is gold. How about that? Look at you.

You crack and Joya up. It's great to have Joya back, by the way. And yeah, look at that. Four days in a row. Freshly washed. Freshly washed. Still looks the same color. Colored in a run.

What color do you think it is, Julia? Thank you, Joy. Thank you. Thank you. I think there's some orange. He thinks it's orange. Where's the Flyers thing in the background? No, it's a different.

It's a different change. Yeah. All right. Paris Campbell. Anyways, yeah, Paris Campbell. This is according to ESPN's Adam Schaefter. I'm working on confirmation of it, but there's no reason to think Adams is wrong on this.

Paris Campbell, who, a second round pick in 2019, Eagles fans are very familiar with this story. By now, the Eagles were choosing between Paris Campbell and JJ Arthago White's at the number 57 overall pick. They chose JJ. Paris Campbell goes two picks later to the Colts. Their offensive coordinator and their wide receiver officiato at the time was Nick Siriani. So, actually, but in his time with Siriani really was not productive. he was injured during those first few years. He came on a bit in his last year with the Colts, 2022.

He had 63 catches, signed with the Giants last offseason. Really had a nothing season with the Giants. He had 20 catches for 104 yards. Throw a guy out of the bus. But Parrish Campbell, 27 years old. Whatever his name was, Ben Danucci. Tommy Gutlets. Tommy DeVito, okay?

Tommy DeVito and Ben Danucci are not alike. I mean, they are alike. They're similar level quarterbacks. And so Paris Campbell, who is at the 2019 combine, he ran the fastest 40 there, 4.31 seconds. He had a 90 catch season at Ohio State during his last year there. It's kind of a gadget type player. You're not expecting a high A dot with him. But he's a poor man's Curtis Samuel, you might say.

You know, it's interesting. That was the guy he replaced at Ohio State. So they played a similar role in Urban Myers' offense and really hasn't been able to be that in the NFL. He's played 70% of his snaps in the slot. And I think that's what you can expect from him. Well, I know you touched on it. But he is a sort of an infamous, like, player in Eagles history

because the debate when they were on the clock, and it was like a debate by all reports that was happening while they were on the clock between J.J. Erthago-Whiteside and Paris Campbell and Jeffrey Lurie put his thumb on the scale for J.J. Arthago Whiteside as the story is told. And, you know, Harry Roseman would say that, like, that's who was at the top four board. But some of the scouts were agitating for Paris Campbell. Obviously, neither one seems like they were the right pick.

And Terry McLaurin went later in that draft, right? But, and DK Metcalf also went after. And, like, those, like, Metcalf was a medical issue. But it's just funny that, like, he's here now. And it's like what might have been. Yeah, you outlined it there. And let's get into the weeds because you and I have done a lot of work on that draft. And that pick in particular is like infamous in Eagles history.

You could say, why were they like choosing between two guys when they were on the clock? Like shouldn't you have that prepared ahead of time? That's a reasonable response. Especially at the same position. Yeah, if memory serves, they were expecting the draft Mikul Hardman that year. right and the um the chiefs traded up in front of the eagles took hardman and that was like the guy that that that they really liked so hardman's off the board and then they're kind of going and there was a difference of opinion on j j j versus paris campbell um j jay j like you said the belief was that

Jeffrey Lorry kind of pushed the scale on on on JJ the reports or these things that that we heard we've done reporting on this is that and this might be you know some sort of of history revised but that the the data back group at the Eagles the analytics back group like JJ the contested catcher age exactly well there's it's the old expression that you know a good pick has a thousand fathers and bad picks an orphan, right? No one kind of wants to take credit for a bad pick. But just to finish that thought, Eagles fans kind of lament they didn't take D.K. McCaff. From our reporting, D.K. McHaff was not a consideration for them in the second round because of the medical grade that he had. It wasn't their evaluation of the player. It was

that he had the medical red flag. When Jeffrey Lurie and the Eagles kind of look back at that draft, the player they feel they missed out on was Terry McLaren, who went 76. Yeah, I think there is, like, in talking about this thing that happened when they were on the clock, right? It is, it is probably true that, like, we don't, we don't have the full story of what happened. And it's not exactly, like, our understanding is probably not exactly reflective of what the actual conversation was like. And you would wonder, like, why, how could it be that you were on the clock still debating between two players at the same position? isn't that what all the work you do leading up to the draft is all about. The flip side to that is like even if it's not exactly what happened,

the way that it's relayed tells a story that like that's how some people in the building viewed it. And it's the story of it is more about not everybody being in lockstep, right? And it didn't take long for that story to come out, right? It wasn't like just because people got fired and JJ Arthago-Whiteside didn't turn out to be. much of anything, unfortunately. It's just, it's like that was sort of the dynamic in the building. And people thought that like this was Jeffrey Lurie putting a stem on the scale. And we've also talked over the years many times about like, that's totally his prerogative.

You know, he owns the team. That's fine. And, you know, he's been around these decisions for a long time. And Howie Roseman has been around him for a long time. Of course they're going to talk about these things. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to lead to a bad decision. You know, you could argue that this is what led to Jalen Hurts. Sure.

but it's just an interesting you know sliding doors of of Eagles picks and probably wouldn't have turned out all that different if they had picked Paris Campbell yeah that's the thing the Paris Campbell part is important here because Eagles fans kind of lament they could have had D.K. Metcalfe. It was never JJ or Metcalf.

It was JJ or Paris Campbell and yeah they could have gone Paris Campbell. Now Paris Campbell look I was really high on Paris Campbell going into the draft. I actually, I was searching through, like, I did the Twitter search at Z. Burm, Paris Campbell. There's always receipts. And I was actually on 975 with Jamie Lynch.

Wow. Yeah, I see the Jimmy Lynch quote tweet, like Z Burm talking up Paris Campbell. And I was saying Paris Campbell is a guy to watch out for that Doug Peterson's has been looking for this type of player for the Eagles offense. And I mentioned, you know, that's, that's where the fastest 40 and the 90 catches. All that was there.

Paris Campbell was someone who I really like coming out of Ohio State. Clearly hasn't had the career that was expected of him. Injuries are a part of that, but he also hasn't really been like the dynamic threat. But he's still young. There's familiarity in the building with Nick Siriani with Kevin Patuo. And, yeah, I don't think this changes the Eagles draft plans whatsoever. But what this does, and we've been talking about it, you never want to be in a position where you're forcing a pick. Like you don't want to go into the draft saying we need position X to fill the depth chart.

You want the draft to be a long-term thought process, not like we need to fill the spot on the depth chart. And Paris Campbell gives you an option for the number three spot. So can I ask you then why all of a sudden you're okay with this, but you were so anti-Divante, Parker? Yeah, of course you can ask me. You can ask me anything on them. Well, not anything. Within reason, shouldn't offer you that. Yeah, because I think Paris Campbell has, has a little more upside and a little more juice. Now, now the Devante Parker thing, there's literally no guarantee money in the contract. Right. Which we said at the time. Oh, okay. My point is this. We're doing, last week, we're doing live shows for every signing.

If every move they made, I'm like, yeah, okay. I said at the time, Devante Campbell, just doesn't do anything. I would rather have signed a 26-year-old with upside or some theoretical upside than Devante Parker there. Paris Campbell has... But it's not, it's, he's not taking anyone's spot. It's a free roll. It's totally fine.

Yeah, but there's an opportunity. I would check what Sunset Shaz says here. There's an opportunity cost with every signing, too, right? So... Not really. Who's, they still signed Paris Campbell. He's not taking anyone's opportunity away. I'm not saying it was either or.

I'm saying in at some point every rep that Devante Parker takes this summer is a rep that in theory could go to somebody else. Okay. There are also so many reps to go around. Okay. I mean, I really, it's the exact same thing. I really don't think the most products. If if all it does is allow you to not have to reach for a wide receiver in the fourth round or whatever it is, it's fine. Honestly, I don't think we need to relitigate that Devante Parker's saying. I will. We're going to talk about Devante Parker every day from now. until August.

Yeah, I mean, I got nothing. I just, I was unmoved by the DeVonte Parker signing. I like the Paris Campbell signing more because of the upside. Paris Campbell has never in his career done anything even comparable to Devante Parker. You're Mr. Julio Jones over here. Yeah, like, I'm just looking for a little bit of intellectual consistency. Yeah, I, um, I didn't think that I would. into a wall, my Devante Parker opinion.

We did an emergency show on Devante Parker. I was like, eh, I'm unmoved on this signing. And now all of the sudden, I'm like, all of the sudden, all of the sudden. All of a sudden. All of a sudden. Okay. Suddenly, I am being treated Devante Parker. Like, I gave the vows at my wedding to Emily, like for Devante Parker. I mean, yeah.

I like this Paris Campbell signing more than I like the Devante Parker signing. Should we make a bet on who's like who's going to have more receiving yards for the Eagles? Actually, I actually think that I might go Campbell just because I feel like if they're going to keep a guy and he plays a role just to be the wide receiver screen guy. Maybe that I could see them talking themselves into that. So I'm not sure I want to go on that thing, but we certainly know where you stand. Yeah, I'm going with Paris Campbell here. I adore Paris Campbell. Oh, look at you.

Very nice. I can't do that. I can't do that. Where's your Montreal? Give me a little bit of the French Canadian. I think that's a generalization that they go, I spend a lot of time in Montreal my life. I've never heard someone go.

I've never heard someone say that. Well, I guess that's more French. I think that's a generalization. Yeah, no. that there's all i i used to i used to go to montreal to visit my family there it's about every year right up there and uh the stop sign would say arrette yeah my my french isn't good but that's how i would learn my french from uh what the street signs were in montreal now you know there's a good like if you see the if you see the little hat over an e yeah it's usually means that like in

English, she would put an S after. So Arret is like arrest. Oh, is that right? Yes. Oh, we. We. We. There you go. All right. Well. Oh, and then the other signing last night. Yeah. So this actually came out. This was on the transaction wire, the NFL transaction wire. I actually got a text from someone on the beat. So the Eagles signed Tyler Hall, the cornerback, slot corner was with the Raiders. Love a guy whose name sounds like a place that you might have lived in

college. Okay. I've never thought about it, but that's fair. So was with the Raiders the past two years. You and Matt Gell, just sub to shenanigans living on Tyler Hall. With the Rams at one point.

So Tyler Hall actually, so as I was saying, it's not about us, but I got a text like, hey, good job breaking the Tyler Hall signing. And I was like, literally, this was on the NFL transaction wire. Like this wasn't... Were you the first to tweet it? I don't think...

I think John McMullen. I thought McMullen. Yeah. Yeah. I think McMullen did. Credit to John Mack. Actually, credit to the NFL for... This was on the...

Credit to McMullen for, you know, popping in first. Yeah. So each day, the NFL has a transaction wire that we and the media get access to. And so I got back for... I check it every afternoon. And I was actually at the barbershop yesterday. And I got back from the barbershop and I checked. I said, oh, it's Tyler Hall.

And then I saw... How about this? You and I both getting haircuts on the same day. Yeah, yours is a sharp, man. You look good. It's like we've synced. No, we're in a visual medium now. Anyways.

The odds of the same day. What are you going to, you know, who knew? So I, I guess it's actually not that bad because you're getting haircut like every fourth day. I can't hear it every fourth day. I was due, though. Anyways, Tyler Hall has experiences a slot cornerback with the Raiders. We said last year that the Eagles will, Howard Roseman said, the Eagles weren't well stocked enough during training camp at slot cornerback.

Tyler Hall gives them some experience there. Again, not something where you say he's your starting slot this year, but he has legit NFL experience. Went to Wyoming with Marcus Epps, I believe. So him and Marcus might be training out in the gym out in California together. But yeah, so slot cornerback addition. So those were the two moves for the Eagles. And a quick shout out. You can check out.

We have a story, but it's really almost like a landing page up on all phtly.com right now where every player that the Eagles have added, there's, I have like a capsule on his role. And then there is a quote that the player said. So like his words. And then you can find actually a link to the grades that Bow and I did. And embedded in there, you can find our video recaps for every single player. So you can check that out on all-PH-L-Y.com. And that is, please be a diehard, but that is actually free for all to read. Well, there you go.

I want to get to another quote of somebody else in a minute. But before we do that, Zach, want to talk about Philly sports trips, because I don't know how many of you are watching who took part in the Philly sports trip down to Clearwater with our good friends on the Ph. H-L-Y Philly show. But talking to Jamie and Renee and Tyler, they were just talking about how much fun they had talking to everybody. They had the sit down with Charlie Emanuel and Philly Sports Trips just did it up for him. And it was a fantastic time. Everybody was raving about

the experience. And so we are excited to further this partnership with Philly Sports trips looking forward to many more fun things in the future. And you can go to all p.hly.ly.com slash events to learn more and keep an eye out for maybe some exciting opportunities ahead. Game time. We talk about game time often on here. I went to the Sixers game on Monday. There's a big Flyers game coming up this Saturday. You know, the Phillies are coming up north.

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Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P-H-L-Y for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. You were talking about the quotes that some of the guys had said. I wanted to ask you about a tweet you put out yesterday. Okay. That, you know, everybody's always reading Z-Burm's tweets,

But I feel like I heard from more people about this tweet you put out than any other tweet you put out in recent history. And it was all about people wondering about like why it is that Howie Roseman needs to have this particular quote on his office wall. So let's give the backstory here. The Eagles have the Eagles, we've compliment them in the past. Their video staff, production staff. Outstanding. Yeah. Yeah, and they were following Sequin Barclay for Sequan's first day in Philadelphia.

So you kind of see what's cool for this. Like, I know it's cool for the fans to see any of this. What me as a reporter I like to see is it takes me to places I can't often go, right? A little palace intrigue. Yeah, I can't just walk up to the second floor at NovaCare and knock on Jeff Stoughton's door and knock on Al Calbee's door. Knock on Brandon Hunt's door. It would be fun for you to do that to try at least. I would love that.

I've been up on that floor. See how far you can get before you get accosted. It's been a bit of time since I've been up there. But yeah, I've been up there. In any event, Howie Roseman, so you see his office. And when they've done this in the past, and Nick, I admit, I always like to see what's in the office, right? I mean, I have a screenshot. Sorry.

I have a screenshot from a few years ago of Nick's office. and I saw there was like a rocky thing and I was just trying because you can always find stories in these little details, right? People are deliberate about what they put in their office. If you took a screenshot of us doing

a remote show sometimes, you can say, why is that book in that corner and why is that sign in that corner? And I can give you significance for each of those. Anyways, in these office, so Howie has a big quote graphic there that says producing talented players year in and year

out is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Clearly how he thought this was important to have up there, right? It's a daily reminder. It's something he sees every day. That quote. And that quote is actually from Theo Epstein, who, as I've said before, and long-time listeners know that I have a great admiration for Theo Epstein's team building and leadership ability.

And Theo Epstein said that in a 2011 interview with Buster Olney and, you know, and he has been in the magazine, also have great admiration for Buster Only. So I would have loved to be partied to that conversation, right? But yeah, so that's a, so you got to think, this is something that Howie has earmarked and kind of put away. I don't want to speak for you, but I would like to just guess as to the arc of your understanding of that quote. I'm guessing when you first saw that quote, you said,

huh, that does not look like anything particularly incisive. It's basically just a description of his job. I wonder why that's up there. And then when you saw that it was Theo Epsi, and you were like, oh, okay, well, okay. Well, now, now I love it. It's Theo. Wow, your impression of me is, I don't think that's how I talk. And I could have given you the Melbourne.

I laid off the Melbourne on that one. Yeah. So, no, when I look, because. I mean, it's not the most incisive thing. Well, typically you see like motivational stuff up up there. You walk through NovaCare complex. you have like, you know, inspirational Martin Luther King quotes there, right?

And Jonas Salt quotes and Vince Lombardi quotes, right? And you have like, you know, there's certain quotes that are kind of, whether it's cliche or it's kind of on form, it's the prototypical, you walk by that, it motivates you, it inspires you. This is one, yeah, it kind of sounds like the job description of a player.

I also don't love the verb producing. Okay, why not? Well, because he's not making the players. Okay, he's acquiring the players. Yeah. Well, in any event, it was the context with which Theo Epstein said it is relevant. Theo Epstein was asked in the interview how he can instill a winning attitude with the Chicago Cubs. And he talked about when there's long-term contracts, you can only do so much to influence a player's behavior.

but you can have a significant impact on young players that you draft or sign, what they stand for as players and in their lives. It's important to have a farm system. Everyone in the organization cares about producing talented players year in and year out. It's not a luxury. It's a necessity. So essentially what this is is like building this sense of culture, this attitude from within, producing these players from within,

like have it so that when Jason Kelsey leaves, retires, you have Cam Juergens waiting. When Fletcher Cox retires, you have, let's say, Jill and Carter waiting. Now, what's interesting here... Yes, is I've recited on the show a number of other times, a quote from Theo Epstein from his resignation letter in Chicago, where he talked about

like a broken record here, but he talked about the difference between building a team and maintaining a team And he said he wasn't as good at the maintenance stage of it. So actually, what's interesting about this quote is he wasn't as good at kind of the replenishing of the talent. Or like when you get, he was really good at finding that talent and acquiring that talent and putting that attitude in place and getting your Chris Brian and your Javi Baez and Kyle Schwerber. And I can go on down the list. But then when those guys get traded or when those guys sign elsewhere, who are the next guys up, right? And that's kind of the big question for a lot of these teams.

You're not in baseball terms. You're not drafting 1-1 when you're winning, right? And it becomes much harder to always have like that stable of players coming up in the system. And so I found this that. I mean sustaining success in these leagues where they're built for parity is very difficult. Yeah. So that was interesting. And I actually think Howie had a quote in his, so the office has been redesigned.

And Howie had a quote before where I might be butchering it here because I don't have it in my notes in front of me. But you're not paid to play. You're paid to win. And I forget who said that. But it was kind of like an interesting thing to look at each day. clearly how he was intentional with putting this up there it's not like he just walked into his office one day it was like oh there's a quote for the o fsine in 2011 he's choosing what's going up there exactly so well that's why i think people were were so taken by it because it doesn't it doesn't seem like

something that's like you need this daily reminder but okay but it's it's that's what's interesting about it being in his office it's it's not as if this is in the locker room like this is it yeah it's only it is interesting it's only for him to see right so it's like he's viewing this as a each day. It's not like they're putting this, you know, some of these, the Martin Luther King and the Jonah Salkwell, that's, those were in a hallway that everyone in the building walked through, like Jeffrey Lorry or Joe Banner or Don Smolensky or whoever was putting that to get was putting the facility in place at that point, like wanted that, that quote up there. Yeah, this is for Howie in Howie alone to see every day. So, yeah, that, I found that note worthy.

Anything else from the, from the Sequin video that you thought was interesting. It was, I've seen some people referenced, um, the Sequin after seeing like Brandon Graham and then seeing his new coaches. It was like, yeah,

that was the, that was very funny. Yeah, the key and peel. Am I pronouncing you correctly? Yeah. Um, but no,

just kind of like, uh, inside people's offices. I, I've never been in Al Calhby's office. You, you see Halby's terminal of computers there. And same thing with Brandon Hunt.

And, um, You know, Stoutland, Stoutland talking to him. Like, oh, Miles Sanders is my guy. Yeah, it's like, we're really driving home to Miles Sanders thing. So I enjoyed that. Okay. Last thing from the, like, Eagles content sphere, did you think there was anything interesting

from the Lane Johnson, Jordan Milata appearance on New Heights? Yeah, that offensive line room needs some renovations, right? They have a massage chair that doesn't work. I mean, Dippin Dots, though. I knew they had a Dippin'Dots thing, but it's curious how you get that rebutt replenished all the time. No, you were about to... No, I thought the most...

I thought the funniest thing was how often Fred Johnson is falling asleep. He has a condition. Apparently has a condition that makes him fall asleep. Yeah. Landon Dickerson's on his phone all the time. Yeah. Like that. So there was a... Who was the name?

I was actually going to text you. I didn't know if you had listened to it. When he was talking about... Lane was talking about the other guy who who liked him other than Stoughtland. I didn't know if he said Howie, but I don't know if he said Lonnie or something like that. I have to listen back to it. I didn't catch that.

No, Lane's impression of Stoughton. Very good. It was like spot on. Yeah. Not Eagles related, but I got on me. I was cracking up alone in my car at Lane Johnson's story of the girl who wanted to hook up with him in like eighth grade or seven three. That was very funny. It's a very funny story.

The self-deprecation there. going to play NFL Blitz. Yeah. Kelsey's story about dancing. The girl wanted to go to the dugout. And he's like, I'm not in the baseball. There's no game going on. Like, didn't pick up the clues. Like, come on, Jason, you know.

And then Jordan Milaida kind of ripping on them. You know, Jordan Milaida was much more smooth. So, yeah. What? You're, you're, you're, I'm not going to say what I want to say. Okay. I don't know what you were going to say, but anytime you say, I'm not going to say what you, what you, I like when you do that because typically when you say things that you want to say, those aren't very, um, uh, becoming for me. So. Okay. Should we get into the inscrutable game? Yeah. And we're going to play this over two days. You know, we've got the first round these next two days. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense.

Uh, by the way, I hope everybody joined the, uh, sickos bracket. Uh, on, on ESPN. Look forward to keeping track of that. The winner are going to get to come on the show if they want to. Yeah. And if anyone wants to give some score updates in the chat, I would love that. Who did you bet on in the Michigan State game? That's the first game. Mississippi State.

Chris Jans. It's got great defensive team. Not as good this year as last year. I'm sorry, not yet. Yeah, not as good this year as last year. But I'm surprised. You would have struck me as well. I was that in March.

I mean, can't bet against Izzo. I mean, come on. That's like a basic thing that's, I mean. I'm sorry. Is that not? I said that. Your general frame of reference for most things? Basic?

Oh, former first round pick. Wow. You call me basic? Yeah, like Mississippi State more this year than the Michigan State. But Michigan State's got a local guy on their team. Their point card. It's local. Oh, yeah?

AJ. Eponessa? Now, AJ Howland, I think it is. And, yeah. H-O-U-U-, L-A-N-D, I believe it is. Okay. Very exciting.

And did you take, by the way, you teased your blue blood. Did you take Kentucky to win it all? I took Kentucky to win it all. And I'll give you a quick thing on Kentucky here. I think that in the Unsevite Tournament in particular, my views on the Unsevite Tournament have kind of evolved over the years. And I admittedly don't follow college basketball as much as I used to. and when I covered it, like, I could give you the skinny on every team, right?

But I would love to, it's like a half dream to one year just fully immersed myself back into college basketball just for a season. I think that would be fun. But I think the thing that jumps out to me about teams now is you've got to have guys who can get their own buckets, right? Like you watch Virginia.

The reason why, and I've watched a lot of Virginia basketball over the years, the reason why Virginia struggled so much in my eyes, recent years in the tournament is they don't have guys who can create their own shots and make their own buckets. And Kentucky, I know they have worked to do defensively. They're not a great rebounding team, but they have four guys who you get the ball to them and they'll create their own shot and score. And I think in close games, and when you're trying to go six and oh, having a number of guys who can get their own bucket, that's what jumps out to me.

Okay. I like it. All right. What we have here is a bracket of mostly future signings and a couple other players on the roster with very lofty expectations, because the truth is that most of these players signed to futures contracts are facing an uphill climb to make the week one roster. There are about 25 of them, and so we've extended the bracket to get it to 32. And the stakes here are for most of the players, unless otherwise noted, it's the odds of them making the week one opening season active 53 man roster. Okay. And for a few other guys, we'll have different stakes, but that's the general baseline, and we're going to go through it bracket style. We've got 32 contestants. And as Zach said, we're going to do this over the course of two days. Are you ready to begin? Let's do it. All right. Our first matchup, randomized matchups, cornerback Taiwan Mullen. Now, Taiwan, spell differently, T-I-A-W-A-N, but it is pronounced Taiwan, according to the Eagles bio. Taiwan Mullen is 5-8-181.

He's a slot guy, I'm assuming, by the body type, was on the practice squad for a short time after being undrafted as a rookie last season with the Chargers, spent a little bit of time with the Eagles, signed him to a futures deal. He's going up against, and this is a different one, the odds of Devin White being on the Eagles in 2006. Oh, okay.

All right, I prepared for this differently. I thought these two columns were going against each other. Oh. I see, okay, so that's no problem at all, though. I can, I'm still, I'm still prepped to do this. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's not how brackets work. Right?

You're the one who was saying, Mr. Brackets. Yeah, I thought. I get it, but that's, it's okay. That the two columns facing each other where who was going against each other, in any event. Between these two, I'm going to go Devin White on the team in 2026. I think Taiwan Mullen's just, even though the Eagles had him on the practice squad last year, I think he's going to be caught a bit in a numbers crunch in the slot. And I think there's a pathway to Devin White recapturing his form and the Eagles resigning him, right?

The one-year contract is essentially like a show-me deal. He's still young. He's, you know, 26. So if he rediscover his form and if he's like an alpha in the middle of the defense, then sure, the Eagles, the Eagles keep them. They don't let him go like they let CJ Garner Johnson go. Yeah, I think without having had a chance to watch Taiwan Mullen play, the fact that he wasn't able to make a roster with the chargers that was pretty defensive back poor from our understanding.

And the fact that they signed what's his name yesterday, Tyler Hall, competition at nickel pretty steep. I don't think that Devon White's going to be on the team in 2026. I wonder if I should have made that even loftier, but yes, I think that is more likely. Yeah, the extent of my time when Moleon conversations were about Indiana football. So, didn't get a chance to watch me in practice.

Nate Sudfeld? No, kind of the direction of the program, right? When they made the coaching change, they hire Kurt Signity, so that kind of thing. Okay. Well, we've got one matchup down and now it's time to talk about our friends at Foco.

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You like what I did there? It was good. You did it? On purpose? Yeah, I did, actually. Thank you. I couldn't give a straight face, though. Then the laughs a little bit.

Okay. Don't laugh at you. Anyways, opening day in the United States is coming up. It's one of the best holidays of the year for all of us. And you can join our very own Jamie Lynch, Renee Washington, and John Foley for a pregame live show and watch party at Bet Park's Casino and Sportsbook. Our friends at Miller Light will have 16 ounce specials. from 11.30 a.m. to close. P.HLY is going to be raffling off PHLY swag,

game day swag, and more. And then courtesy of our friends at Cors Light, we are hosting our first of many Sixers watch parties. Join us at Deeks Barbecue on West Berkeley Street when the Sixers take on the Cavs at 730. That's March 29th. Show up and enter a raffle to win two tickets, Section 116, road 13, to the April 9 Sixers Detroit game. You can see Kate Cunningham in person. Deeks will be offering $3.20-ounce drafts all night long. check out all of our upcoming events at all phtly.com under the events calendar to RSVP. And I've already made the pitch, but make sure you become a diehard so you can read

exclusive content like a mock draft that's dropping tomorrow that is going to be fun to write this afternoon. Okay. Next up, Zach McPherson, who transitioned to the slot last summer and suffered a season ending injury, former fourth round pick. He is still on the roster back for another year to compete. He goes up against Jason Poe. Jason Poe 6-1-300 center from Mercer, when undrafted in 2022, has spent time with the Niners and the Jets,

one of a couple potential backup centers on the roster at the moment. Yeah, so if I'm basic with my evaluations and I like big school players who are high graphics, Jason Poe doesn't fit that description. He does not, but you know where he's good. Where? At the Poe of attack. Oh, look at the Poe of attack. Oh, look at that.

Play on words. You're good at that. How do the Ravens not sign Powe? Edgar Allen, right? Yeah, come on. They made a good signing today, Josh Jones. I think they were watching our show. Yeah, boy.

Eric DeCosta was watching that and was like, hey, Zach Berman thinks this highly of him. I mean, if they trade for Parham next, then you'll really know. He really like Kyle Hamilton coming out of the draft. Day three of Parham watch continues. Between these two, I would go, Zach McPherson, who had a real big special team's role two years ago, Super Bowl team. It's coming off the injury.

Should be healthy for this offseason. He'll have a shot to be a depth corner slash special teams guy. Yeah, I'm not sure that he was going to make the team last year. Interesting. You'd think it was like a last stand type thing, putting him in the slot. Maybe. Now, you know, Goodrich, who will talk about ended up making the roster as the backup slot,

and I think McPherson probably would have made it over Goodrich just because he is better on special teams. But yeah, I think he's got an uphill shot to make this roster. Whereas Jason Poe probably has a more difficult road. I would agree with that, so I'm happy to go McPherson.

Maybe we should have done separate brackets for this one just since it's the tournament, but it's too late to do that now. This is fun. I always like a bracket. All right. We have a matchup now

of two non-futures guys. And remember, we're shooting for very high, lofty expectations here because these guys do not have a great shot. So we're going, Keeley Ringo starts all 17 games for the Eagles in 2024,

or James Bradbury makes the Pro Bowl. Yeah, so between these two, I think Keely, starting 17 games, I think this is more like a 116 matchup here. Maybe not, but look, I liked what I saw from Keely from that Seattle game on. I didn't like it so much during training camp, but I thought he showed some juice. If the Eagles don't draft a corner high or trade for a big name corner, I think Keely Ringo goes in the camp

The Front Runner to be the starting corner I agree actually I kind of wish I'd made this one more lofty too Kind of defeats the purpose of the game If the winner is going to be like Keely Ringo Going up against Devin White But I agree Keeley Ringo It's our game we can defeat the purpose of it

I have something that's on my mind if I can Sure Who was reaching out to you about that tweet You said you've never heard more people Talk to you about that tweet Who's are you getting like side Not about you about Like from a Howie, like, why does Howie have this quote?

Oh, okay. I was like, not a complaint about you. Oh, okay. No, no. It's like, did you see this tweet? Oh, got it. Why does Howie have this on his wall? Gotcha.

Okay. All right, fair enough then. Yeah. I was like, I'm sorry. I was just trying to give some insight behind the scenes. No, no, no, no. I think, yeah, I did not mean to say that it was a critique of you. Gotcha.

It was like, why, why, what, this quote doesn't mean anything. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. It would, you know, it would be like, uh, you know, if we had a thing on the wall here that said, talk about football for an hour.

Inform and entertain the audience. Yeah. Yeah. I would actually like that. Inform and entertain the audience, right? At all times. All right. We move on.

Defensive tackle Thomas Booker the 4th. 6-3-301 was a fifth round pick of the Houston Texans in 2022 out of Stanford, played 10 games as a rookie where he was playing defensive end. Eagles have moved him to defensive tackle since he joined the practice squad last season. A man after your heart, a two-time academic, all-American.

From Baltimore. At Stanford. He'llman school, I believe. Thomas Booker, his sister played tennis at Princeton. And speaking of a man after your heart, I saw this in his bio. Would love to manage a tech company. That's awesome.

I mean, I admire that. I would, I mean, I went, shout out to our, our, a loyal listener when I was in Seattle got the Amazon sphere. It's awesome. Thomas Booker, he's going up against Grant Calcutera. And the lofty thing for Grant Calcutera is 20 catches in 2024. Yeah. So with this year, this might be a bit of a minor upset, but I'm going with Thomas Booker.

Really? Yeah. Eagles don't have a lot of depth. On the interior, if they're looking for kind of like that detackle, DN hybrid type, they have Milton Williams, maybe Thomas Booker, you know, you think of him as like a three, four end type player. He could, he has draft pedigree. He was on the practice squad last year, but new coaching staff now, maybe Thomas Booker pushes for it.

I would go grand calcutera here. Yeah, I figure it. Because 20 catches is like, you know, if Godder goes down and they don't end up signing a backup tight end and they're just giving the job to Calcutera. That doesn't seem too lofty. Let's go Calcutera. Yeah. That's where I was leaning. Okay. I like the case for Booker.

By the way, I should mention my name. Michael when we were in Seattle, I didn't want to like if he's trying to keep his identity to himself, but I think first name's fine. Presumably there are more than Michael working for Amazon. Yeah, shout out to Michael. Shout out to

Michael Richards, your good friend. What? Kramer? Yeah. No, definitely not. Next up, tight end matchup. Noah Tangiyai,

good ping pong player. Yeah. Going up against Albert O. Kwegbenam, and we made his very lofty eight touchdowns in 2024 for Albert O. Yeah, Noah doesn't leave. Noah's got a little Richard Rogers to him.

He spends some time in that tight end room with Richard Rogers. It's like, Richard, what's the key to keep coming back here, right? Right. And I don't think Albao gets eight touchdowns. So the threshold for Noah is to be on the roster opening day. Is that right? Yes.

Yeah. The 53 men. Yeah, exactly. I don't think it's likely than a touchdowns for Albrado. I think it would go Tonguea. Yeah, I'm going Tonguea here. That's the beauty of this game is these are outcomes that are not likely. It's this long lasting game that has been.

sweeping the nation for all these years. This is fun. You see, this is what's great about Bo is he comes up with different framing devices to have a conversation about things. I wanted to do a, when we were talking about the show ideas yesterday,

I was like, how about we have a bracket of like every player on the Eagles? Right? And we come up with the best player. I was like, nah. What is that? Come up with the best player on the team. I mean,

that would be fun. I thought having like A.J. Brown against Lane Johnson in the final four would be, would stimulate good conversation, right? Instead, we go, Noah Donnii versus Alperdo, get a gay touchdowns, but this is also good conversation. You chose this too.

Yeah, no, I like this. I like this. Shout out the Stark. We were talking to Stark, we were talking to Stark, you know, our, our co-worker here. And he's like, what are you guys talking about today? We're like, the bottom of the barrel. Go for nine people. Yes.

All right. Tyler Hall, who they signed yesterday. Tyler Hall wins the job and is the Eagles primary nickelback this season. or we're going with another futures guy here. Wide receiver Griffin Hebert 6-1-239, which is a little hefty for a wide receiver, undrafted out of Louisiana Tech in 2003, ran a 4-5-8 on his pro-day,

joined the Eagles practice squad in week 16, and of course is still part of the Eagles monster recruiting efforts to get Legerius sneered over from Kansas City. Yeah, so when the Eagles sign Griffin. I think they listed him as a tight end. He's kind of like a tight end wide receiver hybrid. They've got a couple of those.

Yeah. Now, let's see if he can pull in Sneed, right? I mean, he's got to pull that. He's got to be the ace recruiter that they expected. But I'm thinking between these two, I would go Tyler Hall, who's been a primary nickel before. Yeah, I go Tyler Hall as well. We can talk about him more as it moves on.

Next up, Joseph Engada, the big-bodied wide receiver from Clemson, who made a couple had a couple days of some minor splashes in training camp last year, but ultimately did not make the roster, spent the year on the practice squad, or ya boy, Darian Conard, who was a fifth round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, 65322,

played only one game over the course of his two seasons in Kansas City, still just 24 years old. It did not test well athletically, but he is a big fella and has a, you know, long limbs according to the mock draftable charts. Where do you come down on this one? Yeah, this is a hard one. Oh, and this one for Karnard is active roster all year, not just making the week one

roster. Yeah, this is a hard one for me. This is a, this is a good matchup for the selection committee here. This is one. This is like your Mississippi State. Yeah, it's a hard one to determine. I liked what I saw from Joseph Engada last offseason. I thought he came on.

There was a time when I had him on the 53. clearly did not make it, but they kept them around. They gave my big bonus coming out of Clemson. I did hear recently that, like, watch out for Conard. And maybe there's little Fred Johnson here, right? A player they sign on the waiver wire, it looks good in camp, and they try to keep him. I'm leaning toward Engada just because the threshold has to be on the active roster all year. Right?

Maybe there's like an IR stash or something with Conard. That's interesting, yeah, I can be talked out of this. Yeah, I mean, I would say my general philosophy on the futures guys is kind of the opposite of your draft pick pedigree, because my thought process is if a guy was a third round pick, he was given every chance by his team. Like teams gave up on him for a reason. Now, late round picks is a little bit different.

It's a sliding scale. And so, you know, we'll get to like, you know, we'll get to Brandon Smith or Terrell Lewis coming up a little bit. Like those guys play premium positions, have all the athletic tools in their bodies, and multiple teams have said no thanks. Right. So that's that's like enough signal, whereas a guy like, even if it's Jason Poe, like what if he was thought of as a bottom of the roster guy everywhere he's been, but he's given a shot, it's like D'Andre Carter. if he gets in the right spot and he gets a chance to fight for a job, then maybe he can do that. I don't know.

I think Kahnard is sort of in the middle there. The chiefs are a good organization. It's not like they've had coaching turnover. So Andy Heck got to look at him for two years. Didn't think that he was worth being on the roster. Good reference. You know, they've got Prince Tago winogo, so they thought that he was sub that.

But Kinnar does sort of look like a Stoutland type project. He's got these huge physical. tools. I think I would lean Kinnard. Okay. Yeah, I like your point there about some of these guys on future contracts who were draft picks elsewhere and did not make it. You know, Alex Singleton.

Like the guys who in my memory end up like eking over the line are guys who have been underdogs the whole time. Well, yeah. So to that point and like we're in draft season now, I remember talking to an executive one time. I thought I asked like this great question, how do you hit on a pick in like the seventh

round or something like that? And what the person said was, was like, you can't have the hubris to think that you're evaluating guys that are, like, on TV every week better than everyone else. Like if a guy's, if, now, J.on Mills was the exception, but there was an off off, off the field thing there. But like, if there's a guy who's starting on Alabama or LSU and they're on the board in the six or seventh round, it's, it's, it's not like you're like, oh my God, you know, our evaluation of him is, you know, the rest of the league doesn't know who this guy is. you're better off taking a swing on a Jordan Maillada, like a Bryce Brown, someone who was a former top recruit who really didn't play much college football. Take a swing on someone like that

than someone who's like on TV every Saturday that people know about. Yeah, I think it's like free agency. You always want to be thinking, why is this person available? It's like in a trade conversation. Why are they still on the board? And if it makes sense, then yeah, I think you can trust your evaluation. Otherwise, you've got to sort of second guess it a little.

bit. So are we going InGhda or Conard? I'm deferring to you. You're going Conard here? I would go Conard. All right, let's do Canard. I was, I like Joseph and Goda. I've only talked to him a couple of times, a nice guy. I was never all the way. Yeah, you were kind of saying, Zach. I've been sort of skeptical of him.

Yeah, this was now this summer. Our new listeners will see this. Bo is an awesome training camp observing. Oh, here we go. It's true. And his history with the 53-man roster is evidence of this. But, and his history with Camp Crushes, too, is evidence of this. But also, Bo knows.

Bo knows he's an astute practice observer. So if, like, his co-host one day is like, it's like, oh, I saw this, this tall wide receiver make a nice catch in seven-on-seven. And Bo's like, come on. I mean, I'm over here watching one-on-ones. This is, like, real football. Seven-on-seven where there's no pads on. It's basically a glorified passing drill.

And you see a six-three receiver catch the ball over a five-nine corner. And you think this guy has some juice. You were probably missing that that was actually Tanner McKee pop and not Joseph and got a pop. Yeah, you're like, I remember my first beer, right? So, yeah. Okay. All right, last matchup of the first half, the left side of this bracket of the futures guys here.

We've got Mackay Gardner, who almost made the team last year, spent the season on the practice squad, was elevated for a couple games, was a corner in camp. It seemed like they moved him to safety once the season started. that's where he was lining up when he was elevated in those games. He's going up against the aforementioned Brandon Smith, the Penn State linebacker slash edge rusher, who tested out of the gym in the 2022 pre-draft process was a fourth round pick then and one of four Smiths on the Eagles roster

and was a journalism major, Zach. And a great journalism program at Penn State's produced outstanding reporters such as Jenny Vrentas, right? Is it Vrentas or Vrentas? It's Vrentas. Okay. Sorry, Jenny. But Jenny, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's, if it's a former co-worker of mine,

awesome reporter, went to Penn State. No doubt about it. One of the best in the game. Yeah. So, they should name this sports journalism program after Jenny. It's saying that's a, I mean, not after a curly. I'm sorry, I have to research this. But in any event.

Curly? Is that what you're going to say? Yeah. But I might be conflating with a different curl. I'm confused. Give me one second here. You talk real quick. Can you talk instead of like this? Oh,

huh. All right. Let's talk about things that are curler. All right. All right. All right. Correct. The John Crowey Center for Sports Tournalism.

I am correct there. I was worried. that there was like a curry involved, I'm sorry, a curly involved in the paterno thing, and I might have been conflating it, and I was going down the wrong thing, but I was correct on that. Good save.

Yes, yes. I saw a, I got to keep going now. I saw a joke on Twitter last week that made me laugh. Now I'm, now I'm worried. You're transitioning from Joe Paterno to I saw a joke on Twitter. last week. Yeah, I like I will just say so the joke

it's not something the joke about okay but it was in the context of the Eagles we can laugh about it okay. Do you know what I'm going with this? No let's say. Okay. When James Franklin like said when James

when James Franklin talked about the situation with Howie Rose like with San Sequin Barkley someone put I know the joke and I don't know if you should say it. Okay, so I won't say it then. Okay, thank you. All right.

So I won't say it then. Okay. So, Mackay Garner or Brandon Smith. I will go with Mackay Gardner here, special teams value, versatility in the defensive back. I think that the Mackay Garner has a chance to win this whole thing. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.

I would go with Mackay Garner over Brandon Smith too, Although between Brandon Smith and Terrell Lewis, more guys of that three, four edge body type that we've talked about. Maybe they're looking for. Yeah. Maybe one of the, like, you know, let's say Zach Bond suffers an unfortunate injury. You need another guy there. They've got a couple backup options. Yeah.

Yeah. By the way, She'll went to Penn State. That's who I should have mentioned. I mean, Jenny obviously is awesome, but Sheel is awesome too. You weren't doing that on purpose? No, no, no, no. No, I wasn't. I didn't want to leave anyone out, but I need to mention Shield.

I don't know. He don't need to mention him. Yeah, definitely need to mention. enough. She was awesome. Okay. All right. I think we should probably call an end. Yeah, because we're right halfway through. We're right halfway through the left side of the bracket. We'll get the right side of the bracket tomorrow. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read the other matchups for you so you can think about this and ruminate over the next 23 hours.

Okay. On the other side of the bracket, we've got Noah Ellis going up against Terrell Lewis being on the active roster all year. We've got Lacetus Smith going up against Chiquan Davis. We've got Julian O'Quara being on the active roster all year going up against TDP, Tyrion Davis Price. We've got P.J. Mustafa going up against Jacob Harris. Mario Goodrich against Tristan McCollum, La Raven Clark against Brett Tooth,

Austin Watkins Jr., against Taran Jackson and Lou Nichols against Ben Van Sumeran finishing in the top two in snaps among Eagles offball linebackers. And then we'll play it out from there until there's just one winner. Very exciting. Very exciting. and good matchups by you.

Hey, thanks. I guess they'll do it for this episode of the P.HLY Eagles podcast. We are back tomorrow to finish up one of the most inscrutable exercises we've ever done. We're going to talk about what happened in the tournament today. And we're actually hoping to have a guest tomorrow, which would be exciting and waiting for final confirmation on that. So good stuff for you, Zach. Yeah, I'm excited for tomorrow's guest. Me too.

That's awesome. It happens, yeah. Yeah. I don't want to, you know, overprimise and under-deliver. Okay. But I think it should be, I think it should be good. Yeah. So that'll do it for this episode of the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast for Zach.

I'm Bo. We thank you for listening and watching. Make sure that you subscribe and like all that good stuff on the channel. Thanks to Julia for gaming it up today. Great to have her back. And as always, we love you. Like the mayor.