PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles training camp: Big day for Saquon Barkley with running game in focus

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Saquon Barkley was the focal point of Tuesday’s practice in sweltering humidity at the NovaCare Complex, with a few breakout runs and a showcasing of his talent as a pass blocker. Kenneth Gainwell continued a strong camp as well for an offense looking for more explosiveness out of the backfield.Zach Berman and Bo Wulf run through their notes from the third of four straight practices in a row ahead of Friday night’s preseason opener. 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.

Hello everybody and welcome to the PHY Eagles podcast. I'm a Tuesday, 2 o'clock, Bo-Wolf. Zach Berman, man, it was a hot one today at Eagles Camp, Zach. Focus on the running game. We're going to get to all that. We're going to run through our rubric again. We've got lots to talk about no change at right guard, much to the chagrin of one particular YouTube commenter

who can jump off a bridge as far as I'm concerned. Zach, how are you? I wouldn't wish that upon anybody. I'm doing, well, I'm doing great now. A short bridge. He survives, but his phone. is all of a sudden. Gotcha.

Yeah. I'm thrilled to be in air conditioning right now. It was a hot one. Anecdotally, those who watched the Anthony Gargano show today, I was the guest with the training camp segment every day. 10 o'clock, I'm on. Anthony, intelligently so, wants the field in the background, right? Like, so we do it on our phone from the practice field.

And so it's like doing a FaceTime call. In the middle of it, I was giving an answer, which actually I didn't get to finish. J.P. asks me about the book that Sequin Barclay was reading. And I'm giving this answer. And then all of a sudden, my phone just goes blank. And the image that I get on the screen is, let me, I'm going to read, we've all seen this, but I'm going to show you, temperature. iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it.

So it was so hot outside that I couldn't finish my interview. I went back on with Anthony, but we didn't pick up what we left off. Yeah, I think that's for the best. Enough of the book talk. The anti-book? No, I just, you know, come on. Are you fearless? No.

Okay. Are you? No, actually, Chris Long gave a great graduation speech in 2018 at the University of Virginia, where he spoke about the importance of fear. And actually, that speech really resonated with me. So I understand the sentiment. And by the way, what we're talking about is Sequam. Barclay asked Jayhoun Hurts if he's fearless and he's been asking different players this

He doesn't seem as fearless to me, Seguan Barkley himself. Well, no, he said he is fearless. I don't believe him. Okay, well, all I can do was ask him and he answered. So, yeah, no, I actually think fear, fear can be a great motivator. Fear can be a great driver. Sure, I agree with that. So I would recommend everyone check out Chris Long's speech from 2018 at the University of Virginia.

Okay. Let's get into it, Zach. Let's run through it. Let's start with the quarterback. Now, today was a little bit more of a focus on the running game. They did some four-minute stuff, but Jalen Hertz, obviously, still out there. Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee both spoke after practice. Tell me what your takeaways were on Jalen Hertz today. Honestly, I thought Jalen was fine. I didn't think he was. He wasn't asked to do much today. Exactly. There weren't as many passing plays, like you said. I thought there were a few good runs in there. He is moving well. I thought there was a real good pass in, Now, like, it seems like an obvious pass, but it was, it was in a quick hurry-up drill to A.J. Brown, the slant across the middle there, like, perfect place.

Easy money, always. Exactly. The type of play that, you're right, easy money, that if you need six yards and it got to have a situation, boom, throw that slant to AJ. And, but you can tell, obviously, because that's, that's, that's timing. That's, that's, that's rhythm. So that jumped out to me. But overall, yeah, I mean, I do the. I did the clip that we have on social, on Instagram, Twitter, and whatnot on TikTok, and it's camp in 60 seconds, right? And typically, when I've done it, I talked about Jalen Hertz. I didn't talk about Jalen today because Jalen wasn't really in my notes much today. You asked Kellynne Moore about the lack of interceptions from Jalen Hertz this summer. I know it's been something that you've been focused on. Do you think that is unequivocally a good thing for Jailen Hertz,

or are you concerned at all that he's not pushing the needle a little bit? Yeah, so, Kelloggles said that he thinks Jaylon's still being aggressive. And I am seeing that. There are passes downfield, right? So he's putting the ball in tight windows. Jamie has his two beautiful daughters here today, so nice to see them and his wife, Addie, as well. Good to see her. That's who Bob was waving to, and that's who Joy is waving to as well.

For all the audio listeners? For all the audio listeners. So, yeah, so I think that that is accurate to an extent. I don't know if he's being as aggressive as maybe he was in some previous camps. There are a number of, I don't want to say dump-offs, but easy passes to the backs. I don't think that's a bad thing. I think high percentage plays, like take it if you can get it, as J-1 will tell you, you can't go broke making a profit, right?

So, yeah, now the caveat here is he's not facing heavy scheme type stuff, right? Do you disagree with that? Yeah, I don't know that that's true. Okay. I think they throw interesting things on him. Okay. On the defensive side, yeah. On the back end?

Yeah, I think so. Okay. I don't think it's super vanilla. And there's lots of different pressure looks as well. There's different pressure looks, but I'm saying like, you know, in those first few games in particular last year, who's talking about unscouted looks, and you're seeing a lot of unscouted looks. And I think he's seeing things here. Maybe it's the nature of practice that he's more familiar with.

Well, yeah, that's for sure. Okay, how about Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee? They both also spoke after practice today. Anything on their news front? Did it, you need to be restrained from Pickett at all? No. Okay. You're not a picket fencer.

You are a, you, you're clearly in Club Tanner. Okay. Okay. So you think I would have tried to stab him? Were you not the one who in Devante Parker? You said I was Devante Parker's like, I forget the expressions that you used here. So when I turned that on to you and you. Well, I never accused you of wanting to kill the man.

I didn't accuse you of wanting to kill him. Had to be restrained. What am I going to do? Bite him? So, yeah. I thought I thought Pickett was fine today. I mean, I'm calling it like I see it. I said he had a very good day of practice yesterday.

And Tanner McKee threw an interception today. But on the whole, I do think that Tanner McKee has looked better than Kenny Pickett. Now, you know, there is a little bit more carryover in the offense for McKee than there is for Pickett. It's a new place. It's a new surrounding. But, yeah, he has not looked awesome. Well, so one thing from today's practice is heavy situational, yes, but a lot of the situational type stuff, was hurry up, end of clock, end of game situations.

And certain plays where, like, you're using design quarterback runs, right? And Kenny Pickett does move well. Like, that's one thing between the two. It's not saying much. No doubt about it. But Pickett, and I actually think Pickett's at his best when he's on the move. And we've seen him in college with the Steelers, create plays, extend plays. and he's he's a natural runner.

And so I think that today showcase some of what Pickett does well. I'm curious in the game because I do think he can improvise well. But McKee, I'm with you. McKee's been just really decisive, gets rid of the ball quickly, operates within the offense. There's things I like about him. Okay. All right.

Let's move on to our rundown of the... By the way, I see Provalon-Gon-Gon-Jon, says, I'm okay with keeping three QBs on the roster. To me, like the default's keeping three QBs on the roster. I'm not operating under the presumption that they were ever going to cut McKee. And I thought, like, tip, you know, not a chance. But last year, you and I had the conversation about whether they would keep two or three. But it behooves you to keep a third, number one based on like roster mechanics.

And the other part of it, too, is Tanner McKee, who, if it was, We discussed this last summer. If he showed any type of promise they would keep him because he was drafted as a developmental quarterback, it wouldn't, it would be ill-advised for them to not keep ten. I mean, I suppose the only way they would keep two is if there's a quarterback injury elsewhere, they traded picket. You're not keeping Will Greer, right? Then you do what you did with Nate Sudfeld where you have a guy on the practice squad, right?

Yes, though, yeah. With these three. Who was the guy from whom? Reed Senate. reads Senate. Yes, exactly. You claim somebody elsewhere, yeah. Exactly.

So with these three. Tanner McKee is more guaranteed to be on the Eagles week one roster than Kenny Pickett is. Yes, exactly. So, you know, I felt comfortable asking Tanner McKee about his background in Brazil today because I'm expecting him to be on the roster for the Brazil game. Yes. Very, I mean, you can talk about it if you want. He spent two years as a missionary in Brazil.

And I tell you what, just the little bit of the Portuguese he was willing to say. Fantastic. Yeah, so I have some alerts, as you well know, and there were some articles over the summer about McKee going to Brazil. I mean, you must have more than some alerts for Tanner McKee, Brazil articles to be reaching your alerts. Eagles. So what do you have, like 80? No, I get nightly, I mean, I'll just say if, if Howie Roseman or Nick Siriani hacked my phone. And, like, they, they saw the nightly email alert with their name on it.

They'd probably be like, Zach, you've gone from, like, nice guy, diligent reporter to, this is a little much, man, right? Although, when Nick was hired, I did talk about how he met his wife, so that probably, yeah. His intent was already up. Exactly. Exactly. And how he's never done a speaking engagement in the tri-state area where I haven't showed up at. So, yeah. Yeah, I think they're, I think they would not be surprised.

They're well aware. Yeah, okay. But yeah. They already know. So we can get to Tandermakee a little bit later in like the press conference and I'll get put. Anyways, I'm expecting him to be on the roster in Brazil. Okay. Let's talk about the action at practice today.

Give me the first team player who did something that you would like to talk about. Sequin Barkley. And I imagine that might be the case for both of us. But Seekoine Barkley, who's in the thumbnail today for a reason, heavy running day. So there's two things to isolate with Saquan Barkley. First off, from a running perspective, he now, we always talk in training camp. You can always see so much from the backs, right?

They whistle the plays dead. There's no hitting. But what you can ascertain is explosiveness, cutting ability, things like that. So he took a handoff from the left side, and I don't know if it was a jump cut or, I'm sorry, he took it from the right and he cut to the left. but he was quick to the cut and explosive out of the cut

and that's that's what you want to see from Barclay because you wanted to get that head of steam. The other part, and I'll defer to you on this too because we were actually watching it from different spots. I was in being during one-on-one's O-line D-line. Two-on-twos. I would never miss a one-on-one. Sorry, sorry, yes, two-and-twos.

Actually, it's three-on-three. Yeah, it's a combined rush. They're working on passing off games and stuff, which is a good drill, but it's not as germane. Okay. I don't need to watch everyone. Gotcha. Okay.

Well, then novices. Lord knows I would not miss that. Then novices were watching it, okay? And then on the field right next to it was running backs against like backers, linebackers, which. One of my favorite drills. You don't see that very often. And Sequin.

As blitzers, not in coverage. Yes, exactly. And credit to Jimmy Kanski from Philly Voice. I was watching with him. He's like, Seekwan so much better than all the other guys. And so I turned and I watch. And there was in particular this rep against Devin White. He and David White went against each other like,

five times during this period. So yeah, I'll defer to you on this. It's good on good. Devin White is their best blitzer. And Sequin looked awesome. I mean, and it is no comparison to the rest of the guys. And we can get to everything else that happened. But yeah, I think Sequin won like four of the five reps

and then had one other good one against somebody else. Looked awesome. And I think from a big picture standpoint, this is interesting because you think about the other running backs they have and Will Shipley and Kenny Gainwell. and first of all, Will Shipley, for all that he has done as a receiver, this camp, was lost in pass blocking.

And not even, I don't even mean lost and didn't know what to do, but like he was getting moved around easily. Like we joked about the Kenny Pickett panicking him yesterday. Like he is unplayable in pass protection just based on that one drill right now. And so you think about what those guys bring to the table,

Gainwell and Shipley, in theory, third down back types. Yeah. That's what Sequin's so good at. Exactly. So why would that be the situation when you're taking Sequin off the field when he's by far their best past protector and by far their best past receiver? It's like the larger picture of one of those guys going to get on the field.

When are you going to spell Sequan? I don't know that they have a guy who does the things that Seekwon doesn't do. Well, what doesn't Sequan do? I think part of the appeal of Sequan is that he does everything. That's why they're paying him $13 million. but we've both said this frankly since they signed them and certainly coming off the owners meetings when we had the first chance to talk to the coaching staff in the front office about Saquan which is the Eagles are going to use him all the time like he's he's not going to come off

to field very often he's going to get a lot of touches uh I think the Eagles internally view this is like a two year deal and run the brakes off him for lack of better term in those two years like He's here to be the featured running back, a 275 to 300 touch player. And in today's practice, yeah, you saw the pass blocking. You saw the catching. He had, I think, two catches that I had in my notes. And then you also saw the running, like I mentioned, this was what you're expecting from Sequin to do everything running back.

Yeah, this was my favorite drill of practice. And Sequin, I mean, he really was awesome at it. Now, I will say that I don't know that I have been, like, blown away by Sequin's explosiveness over the course of camp. There have been a couple really nice plays. There was one today. There was one yesterday, which was really nice where, you know, Jalen Hertz fakes the read or, you know, has a read on it, hands it off to Sequin who comes around the left side. There's a guard pulling around, and it popped for a big play.

And that was the first time where I was like, oh, wow, he is moving at a different speed. But, like, the pass protection stuff, like that was big boy. stuff. And he and Devin White were sort of going after each other in a competitive nice way. And Devin White was giving him dafts because White got him once. But it was like he sort of threw everything he had at him and Sequin held up very well. Well said. And physically, too, look, we've all heard like the line about Sequin's thighs and quads like things like that. But he is, he's just built physically different than the other running backs. I think back, I covered the New York Giants. And did I talk about this on the show? Brandon Jacobs, it was just, he's just, he's just,

just like so imposing. Right. And Sequan Barkley, you see him with Kenny Gainwell, Will Shipley. Not a knock on either of those guys, but Sequant's just built differently. Just a couple other notes from that session. And one of these guys would have been my second team player to talk about. But aside from Shipley, who was disappointing, man, Nikobie Dean did not have a good session. And usually that is something that you would think he could do is coming forward a little bit.

and he was not looking good. He wasn't disengaging or he wasn't getting it? Yeah, I mean, he wasn't moving guys back and he wasn't getting around them. He was pretty well handled. Sort of the same for Ben Van Sumeran, not showing a ton of pop. Trotter did a pretty good job. Kenny Gainwell did a pretty good job. And then even Lou Nichols and Kendall Milton held around a little bit.

So just some things to pay attention to. Any chance, because we're all looking for Easter eggs, when you keep doing these Lou Nichols mentions that he's on, He's on the He's on the list. Like, not saying that he's the crush, but... He's on the list. Okay, he's on the list.

I am... I am... Zach, I am on the fence. Okay. About whether to announce... Oh. You gotta tease that. Like, we gotta put that on the, on the promotion.

Like, we're trying to get... We're trying to get Mr. Beast numbers here, right? So you tell me... Speak for yourself. Yeah. You don't want Mr. Beast numbers? If you want Mr. Beast numbers, you got to show more skin. I don't know.

You got to tell about your crush. That's how we get it. I am like maybe ready to call it. Wow. An actual gas. Okay. How about this? How about this?

There's no practice on Thursday. Can we make the, it's before the first preseason game. Yeah. Can we, we need to get people raising a tune in other than like preseason preview. Can we say that is the day that the crush is unveiled? Sure. Or I say revealed. Wow.

So there you go. Thursday, August 8, 2 p.m. Find out the Bo Wolf Camp Crush. You can only see it here. I mean, there is no other place that you will find the identity of the 2024. Well, you know, aggregators are going to, yeah, I mean, we're going to say. I mean, you could ask E.J. No, there's, there's going to, what's the aggregator like dove climbing or whatever?

Yeah. So, you know, we get off after the show and then it's, it's going to say. We'll see if anything changes over the next 48 hours, but I, I mean, I feel, I feel was sort of committed. Wow. Was this what it felt like when you decided to propose to Rachel? Like, all right, you made that decision. No, I'm much more nervous about this. Oh, really?

Wow, okay. You weren't nervous? No, that's not true. I was very nervous. Me too. My brothers were, my brothers were like, why are you so nervous? Do you think she's going to say no? And I was like, I just wanted to go perfectly.

Yeah, I was very nervous. Yeah, me too. That's a good sign, right? It means it matters. you. Yeah. Fear is a good thing. I just ask Chris Long, the 2018 graduation speech at the University of Virginia. There you go. All right, before we get to the rest of the players we want to talk about from today's practice, let's talk about our friends, our new friends, at Bet365. As I pull this up, bet 365, two words. Never. Ordinary. Just like you, you're

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No, I mean, basketball, yes. It's disappointing. Basketball is the only thing you're watching? Yeah, I mean, I'm not a huge Olympics guy. No, I mean, I'm not a huge Olympics guy. If it was at a time when training camp wasn't going on, I might consume more of it. Typically, when NAMI goes to sleep, I am transcribing stuff from the day. So sexy.

Yeah. And I, well, but that's not, but look, that's an excuse. I do have typically a baseball on in the background. Interesting. I keep I keep abreast on the headlines like I know what you watch the 100 no I saw that's the one where I saw the photo finish yeah yeah it's like the Jerry Seinfeld line between yeah yeah it must have been an extraordinary race I did not I did not watch it I'm sorry I'm not an Olympics I do love the World Cup but interesting yeah I don't I can't really get into the Olympics why why do you think what is that why I can't get in the Olympics yeah I can't get in the Olympics yeah I'm just not invested in the sports. So that's, I love competition. Like patriotism, right?

But yeah, I'm just not. I like competition much more than patriotism. Part of the, part of the appeal to sports for me is like the context. And I just don't. But what better, what easier context is there than who is the fastest person in the world? Like that is so cool. Every sport is like, you know, maybe Messi is the greatest soccer player who's ever lived, but maybe not everybody got to play soccer.

Everybody in the world, able-bodied, can run. And this person is the fastest person of every person in the world. That's so cool. I'm not disputing it. I just, like, if it's on, I won't change the channel. I just don't actively seek it out. The other thing, too, and maybe the 2026 or the, I'm sorry, the 2028 Olympics, in L.A., which, by the way, J.O.N. Hertz.

Yeah, why, by the way? Flight football is being introduced to that one, so the NFL is very important. But, yeah, he has, like, no connection to L.A. or... No, I think he's one of the faces of the NFL, but... So he was carrying the, or, like, the torch football type thing at the Coliseum. But anyways, I bring this up because I get a lot of alerts on my phone. And when the stuff's on prime... Tanner McKee gave a Portuguese interview.

When we get... So I typically, like, know the result before it's been broadcast. So I think in 2028, when it's broadcasted live, I might be more into it because I don't like watching something where I know what happened. Yeah, that's fair. Okay. By the way, I hope, I mean, no one in the chat should misconstrue the patriotism thing. I just mean like, I like, I like, you know, U.S. soccer. Don't worry about it.

All right. I like U.S. soccer too. Yeah. Uh, the, we, this morning put on the, uh, like the, the climbing event, like the speed climbing wall thing. It was insane. These guys get up the thing in like five seconds, like like Spider-Man. What's these four?

It's like a rock climbing. Yeah. I've never seen it before. Yeah, I'd never seen it before. It was insane. I was, wild. And I, and shout out to our PHLI Sixers group, because I saw them talk about this. It's three on three.

Is that new in the Olympics? This is the second. Okay. Why is there a necessary? I don't know. Yeah. But also why is the American men's team like awful? Yeah.

They've got all these old guys. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that. Weird. All right. Who was your second team player to talk about from today, Zach? Well, I hope I'm not picking.

I hope I'm not stealing your thunder here. But Moro Ojoimo. You are, but that's okay. That's good. It means we're both watching the same break. Yeah. And by the way, Moro Jimo, a holdover member of the core form of the Boolof Camp Crush is from last year. Well, I mean, first off, when you pick four of 90, your odds of hitting are much better.

Yeah, but if you go four for four, it's not about getting one. I mean, one of them read Blankenship, the starting safety for the second year in a row. The other, Tanner McKee, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. The third, Moro Jumo, popping, as we're talking about. And the fourth, Christian Ellis, getting reps with the ones for the Patriots. With the Patriots. They're going to have a better defense than the Eagles. You think so?

I do. Okay. So, yeah, Moro Jimo, man, he is a. presence in the middle of that line today. He penetrated. There was one splash play. He blew up a run play. Yeah.

Where he was just sitting in the backfield. But there were times when, you know, I was watching from behind the end zone and he kept brightened down 97, right? Yeah. He's had a really good, like, last five practices or whatever. Yeah. No, he's looked awesome. And what, what is interesting from a macro perspective that I'm starting to think about,

is like, OJMO has looked awesome. Mm-hmm. But we've also seen Pops from Thomas Booker and, like, PJ Mustafa has had a little bit of juice. Like, the second and third team defensive tackles have all looked pretty good. Maybe the more we see that is that a reflection of the interior offensive line, depth not being so great. Maybe. But I think actually that the OJMO play from today, the big one, was against the starters. Sure.

So that was, I think he has looked very good. Let me ask you this. is there does Moro Ogemo factor into your Milton Williams long-term evaluation? Because like we talked about, if you pay Milton Williams like you know you're going to pay

John Carter one day we'll see about Jordan Davis. We don't quite know yet about Jordan Davis, but I imagine Jordan Davis is on the team year a year four, potentially year five, and we'll see about thereafter. Different types of players but you're, you know, the

when they drafted Moro Ojimo, one thing we said is potential Milton Williams replacement in terms of like the athletic profile the way he plays and so you you wonder if he is good do you let Williams walk at the end of the season and then OJMO moves up the depth chart it's an interesting fallback I don't think it should factor into whether they want to bring back Milton Williams or not because if you just think about the timing of it you know if you're signing Milton Williams to an extension most likely there's like two years of real guarantees in there and then year three is something you could potentially get out of and those two years would be the last two years of ojimo's rookie contract as a sixth round pick so it's not prohibitive in any way

and you probably want to keep those guys fresh so i think i think it's fine um but it is also nice that if ojima pops then then maybe it's not as burdensome if you lose milton williams and this by the way is also why like in late rounds we always talk about you know draft on upside right use use rookie free agency for like the solid player who might be will help now. If there's someone as young as OJMO with those athletic traits, like even if it's a position where you theoretically have a crowded depth chart or there's not a path to playing time, like never think about plugging needs in the sixth round or seventh round. Like think about all right, who's a good upside swing?

Because Ojima, when they drafted them last year, you weren't like, wow, the Eagles need another defensive tackle. But now you're sitting here and you're, and you're, you're saying this is a better situation than if they had drafted like a running back last year who didn't have upside or something like that. Okay. So for my second team player, we haven't talked about the offensive line yet today. And we can't go 32 minutes without talking about. Well, listen, Tyler Steen practiced today in team drills after being a limited participant yesterday.

And it was Mackay Beckton with the ones at right guard, Lane Johnson at right tackle. and with the twos, it was Tyler Steen. Now, they did a little bit of a rotation today where they sort of brought on a new offensive line midway. It seemed like they're pitch counting some of those guys. And so it would be like Milata would still be on the field and Juergens would still be on the field, although sometimes it was Tooth.

But then on would come Trevor Keegan and Tyler Steen and Fred Johnson. So like Tyler Steen was getting reps protecting Jalen Hertz. But he wasn't working next to Lane Johnson. you know, I don't want to call it. We'll see how it goes over the next couple weeks, next couple of practices. But, I mean, it certainly looks to me like they're moving forward with Mackay Bechtin as the current starting right guard. Well, he was technically limited today, you know, based on the information we got from the team. But no, look, it's, it's fair.

He's back at practice. I mean, I actually think the individual drills tell this story even more. He's up with the ones. Steen is with the twos. Like, that's what's happening. Yeah. It's a fair question. We speak to Nick Siriani tomorrow at 940. I don't think Nick will, I'm sorry, yeah, 940. I don't think Nick will say specifically that one's ahead of the other. But this is why we're here. We always talk about the value of training camp is we see it all in front of us. Like we've seen this happen. And we haven't seen it make a change. Yeah. Well, and again, I don't think that Mackay Bechtan has had a great summer necessarily. He's had flashes, but he's been up and down.

Right now, he's their person. And yeah, and on Anthony's show, VG was asking me, like, do you think they're invested in seeing Tyler Steen work out because he's a draft pick? And I said, this is a little different situation than like if Matt Hennessy, by the, you know, and we'll get to Hennessy in a second. But if it was like him competing against Matt Hennessy, first of all, I think they see a lot of upside in Mackay Beckett. And based on the age profile, based on like just how unique he is size-wise, former top 15 pick. And Tyler Steen, if Tyler Steen's outcome right now at this stage of his career is swing tackle, I think they're okay with that. I don't think they would view that as like this major miss right now. You kind of see the way things develop.

But Isaac Seymalu year two, they wanted him to kind of be a starter. He wasn't a starter. They made that change during the season. but he was a valuable depth guy that year and then he kind of grew into that. Tyler Steen, the Eagles drafted him hoping he could play guard, but he was a tackle in college and the development curve might be different than like year two. He's a starter. So I think I don't, I think Beckton, they view is a unique player.

This is not from, I think from their perspective, I should say, Bexton's not this like journeyman stopgap guy. I think he's someone they view as a potential long-term piece if he's good. We should run through the actual injury report from today. Orrin Berks continues to not practice with a knee injury. Paris Campbell out again with a groin injury. So C.J. Garner Johnson, this is the big one. Shoulder injury.

The word from the team is that they don't expect this to be super long-term, but I think it's something to monitor. Because he's had shoulder in the past, shoulder injuries in the past. Yeah, and this was the thing about C.J. Garner Johnson's press conference the other day where he was, you know, being very boastfully, like, oh, you guys always tell me, like, I'm not good enough or I can't do this or I can't do that. And that's fine. Like, to some degree, you got to be wired that way.

Like, you know, you know, whatever you need to do to get yourself better. But nobody is saying, nobody doesn't think that C.J. Garner Johnson is a good player. The question with C.J. Garner Johnson is, can he stay healthy? And, like, the next day, he suffers a shoulder injury. Like the guy misses time all the time. Maybe their heart, maybe it's bad luck. It's not structural. Yeah, like the lacerated spleen.

Right. Maybe it's because he plays a very physical style and he invites that contact. We've talked about that with Dallas Godder. But like, you know, you can't help the team and be like Mr. winning personality if he can't stay on the field. Yeah. And so we'll see the extent of this injury. He was at practice.

He was going through the mental reps. His shoulder was attached to his body. No, but I mean, but sometimes guys are inside, right? But no, it's a fair point. He needs to stay healthy. You actually, this was your commentary when they signed him, was the health component of it. Like, can he stay healthy here? And I think the Eagles know this too because his deal was structured that it's not a long-term commitment,

that there is an out after this year. They, I think more of the question slash concern is if he's not out, there. It's not a position where they have a lot of depth. Now, Sidney Brown eventually comes back, but Avanti Maddox was with the first team today. Yes, we were going to say. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, James Bradbury is someone who could mix in. They actually also spent, they did a lot of rotating on defense today,

like putting the first team defensive line with the second team, secondary and stuff like that. So there was also a period where with the ones, it was Bradbury and Maddox. They were sort of rotating guys through. Yeah, but as it's constructed at the moment, this is not, this is the weakest spot from a depth perspective on the roster number one maybe tight end linebacker okay i mean fair um but i was listening to the show on the way home yesterday and i thought you made a good point that i did not think about which is if quignon if if you're happy with ozaya and keely uh at corner and quignon is is your slot then maybe they they do say to cooper the gene

let's learn safety now. It could be, you know, you could be a long-term starter here, right? Because that was always viewed as like if it doesn't work at a corner, you can eventually move it there. But maybe from a necessity perspective, you can do that. Yeah, I think safety is going to be very interesting. Just how it all shakes out. Well, we'll see how long this C.J. Gar-J. Johnson injury lasts.

Do you believe that it's short-term, or do you think it's posturing, you know, is Justin Simmons a possibility all of a sudden? Good question. I don't think it's long term in the sense that, like, in October, we'll be saying, we'll be talking about this injury. But it could be the type of thing that knocks them out of the next two, three weeks of training camp, right? We might see them next in week one. I wouldn't roll that part of it out. But I don't think it's, I think that if this was one of those things that's like two months, then I think they would softly put the word out there.

I think you're probably right. But just from a roster standpoint, I mean, you've got reblankenship. You have now banged up C.J. Gardner Johnson. You've got a couple guys with versatility, right? And Bradbury and Maddox who could play there. You've got Sidney Jones who might be ready for week one. I think it's probably a little bit more likely he starts the season on PUP. And then you've got Cooper DeGine who, you know, when's he coming back and where is he going to practice when he comes back?

I think that's going to be very interesting. You're absolutely right. we were talking about the offensive line and you mentioned Brett Tooth there as the second team center today I was thinking about this when I saw it Brett Tooth is basically being what I thought Matt Hennessy was going to be right he's like the top backup at guard

top back up at center and that's interesting to me because Hennessy is someone who has starting experience good age profile me Hensey has like after the first two days of practice has only played right guard I think he's looked fine. Better than a lot of the other guys. I'm very confused about the Manhattan City thing.

I don't have a good answer. I don't know if it's a size thing. I mean, Toth is a big guy, right? Or I should say bigger. But no, that struck me that when I saw, you know, Toth obviously was playing, you know, first guard earlier this week. And now we see him as the top center that jumped out to me. And just to finish up the practice report,

injury-wise. Mackay Garner and Brandon Smith both continuing to be out. Austin Watkins Limited with an illness and Shaq Davis practice for the first time this summer. I saw him yesterday. Was that yesterday? Yeah. He's back. He's back. And you mentioned Juergens.

That Juergens, there was no one, you know, he left practice yesterday. And it was characterized as an illness. Yes. Yeah. All right. Before we get to our ad read here, let's get a little super chat. Jalenald, sicko, Dio, Mad Day. Always a tongue twister. Just checks in from my. Montreal. It's a classic. Zach, Zach, Zach, Zach, Zach.

I would say Montreal, Montreal, Montreal. I love Montreal. I love Montreal. And shout out to my grandmother, my uncle, my cousins all there in Montreal. Love it. Happened to Mr. Patriotism. Well, I'm half Canadian, right? I mean, my, my mom's Canadian and my grandmother's, well, my mom's an American citizen now. But my mom grew up in Canada. So I'd love Canada. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it's not mutual exclusive. I love my country, you know, my family's country as well.

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or just to accumulate compound interest. Truemark Financial is federally insured by the NCUA and is an equal opportunity lender. For more information, visit trumark.com slash p.h-l-y. All right, let's work on to the third team. Who was your third team player of the day? Well, it doesn't have to be player of the day. Just somebody you want to talk about.

Josh Job. Oh, interesting. Josh Job had a real nice play along the left sideline where it was like, I mean, if I can call it a peanut punch, Uh, Joseph and Godda made the catch. Yes.

This was a, now credit, this was a very nice throw from Kenny Pickett. Yeah. Back shoulder drove it deep. It was about like 20 yards down the field. You are welcome back in Ocean Township. Okay.

They are going to serve you that chicken vodka wrap at Giannis. I'm going to bite that chicken vodka wrap just like I bite through Kenny Pickett's neck. So, uh, yeah, Josh Job, who's someone who, look, I haven't written Josh Job's name down much this summer.

When we talk about him in relation to the roster. We typically mention special teams. But this time last year, we were talking about him as like the number three corner. And this was a good play today. I actually wondered if, like, if Joseph and Goda would be upset that there was a little physicality involved there, right? It wasn't a contact period. If Joseph and Ghana can't out physical Josh Job, you know, what are we doing? He punched at the ball.

It's not like he knocked him away. Yeah, so that I'll mention Josh Job for that one. Job is interesting because, I mean, they are so deep at cornerback. Is Josh Job that good at special teams that he's going to make this roster? I don't know. I don't think so. I would think right now not. But let's presume that Cooper DeGine is healthy enough to be on the week one roster, right?

Slay, Quinion Mitchell, Keeley Ringo, Isaiah Rogers, Cooper DeGine. That's five locks already. Is Eli Ricks ahead of Josh Job? He's probably a better corner, but Josh Job brings more on special teams. can they get enough special teams value out of the other guys there? I think probably so. Then you add in Avanti Maddox and James Bradbury as well. I don't know.

I don't know how I feel about Josh Job. I don't think he will make this team based on his skills as a cornerback, as nice as that play was. I think if he makes the team, it's because they love what he does on special teams. I don't know. I don't know if they think that highly of him. Yeah, and this is why I'm leaning more and more toward Cindy Brown's starting season on Pup.

even if like there's a outside chance there now just to kind of let everyone know what the rules are here he can't practice okay if he returns to practice he's no longer on pup and he's ineligible to start the season on pup and he wouldn't be able to start the season on iR either because it's it's it's not an injury unless they recreate the injury right um but the way howie thinks about the roster is that look it's dynamic over the course of the year you're more likely to have a roster spot open in week three, week four, then you are week one, right? So if you think that like someone like Sidney Brown, borderline week one, maybe week two or week three,

it behooves you from a roster math perspective, considering the fact that he's not a starter, to start him on Pup, like don't bring him back to practice, give him a little extra time to return. You designate the window, what, after week two, week three, you start that window, and then week four, you activate him. You know, after week four, you activate him. I think that would be the way to go just because if there are guys like Josh Job where you say, all right, we're still not totally there yet with some of these young guys from a special team's perspective.

We want him around. We don't know what the roster is going to look like in three weeks. It's also easier to waive somebody in week three and get them to practice squad than week one when teams are still kind of putting their roster together. That's one thing that I've heard teams say in the past. Interesting. I don't know if I believe that. You don't believe that? Yeah, that's interesting because I mean, I think that's actually, I would think it would be the opposite.

Because I think if you release a guy when all of the league is releasing guys, there's a better chance of you getting this guy through. Whereas if you carry it, this is the order of operations thing I complained about with Casey Two Hill. Once you signal to the league that you thought this guy was worth a roster spot in the beginning, then when you release him, then all of a sudden there are fewer people to be claimed. I think the guy's more likely to be claimed. As it's been explained to me, it may be this is wrong. I understand your logic there is that the way some GMs think is that, all right, that 48-hour period after that-up people are more likely to be looking for people. Yeah, you're like shuffling around.

Come like week three of the season, week five. It's like this is your team unless you're like feeling a specific need. You're not just claiming a guy for developmental reasons. Yeah, I feel like this has burned the eagle specifically several times. Two Hill, Christian Ellis last year. That's a good point. You know, this is. That's a good point.

So, yeah, maybe I was misinformed. Well, I don't know. Yeah, I also, but I also don't know if they were, if Job is the kind of guy. Sure. Like, the other angle here is that because of all the practice squad elevations, you don't have to worry so much about losing a guy like that. And he's an older play. He was 24 when they had him.

He was, what, 26 now? So when they had him when they signed him, he wasn't born to the team. Yeah. 13 player. I'm going to, I'll give Sean Stevens the shout out again after a big day yesterday.

Shout out to that mysterious guy who said, go right about it. Jeffrey Lurie was right. Last play of the competitive period today, I believe it was. Tanner McKee trying to throw a ball in on third down near the goal line.

And Sean Stevens gets an arm in, breaks up to pass, and then Andre Sam halls in the interception. So Sean Steven continues to be, he's popping a little bit. Yeah, for him. And I'd like Andre Sam, on that play, had a little swag.

Is it Andre Sam, where is it Sam Andre? All right. I actually have a little take here about this. Oh, I want to take. This is the second day in a row when you have something you've been wanting to get off your chest about a long running bit. Yeah.

So I make a joke yesterday. I thought it was funny. You didn't, okay? Which is the Jason, the JC Kelsey, so that's who it was. And you completely know sell it. Okay. I'm not asking you to sell Andre Sam, Sam,

Sam, Andre. And you're like, you're like, my joke. are funny or you said something like that. Oh, no. I would never say that all of my jokes are funny. And I'm saying this bit about like, you know how many times I tolerated? Is it Sam Andre or Andre Sam? Yeah, but usually you just tell me what it is. Okay. Yeah. That's the back and forth. It's a nice little repartee. It is Andre Sam. It's a little through line for the sickos. And what's the, I Julia might know this more than me. And, and I think you and Julia would know this. I don't, I don't know French as well here. Why?

I adore the French. The, what's the apostrophe after the E? Is there specific? No, the French ones are for the apostrophe that are on top of that. You've got the accent, goo and the accent grove. Yeah, okay. But this is just an apostrophe, I think. This is just an apostrophe.

Okay, all right, well, that I know. I know just the apostrophe. So, yeah, he has, it's not Andre without the, it's Andre apostrophe. Right. Important enough. What do you think that, what do you think? that that's replacing? What do I think it's replacing?

That apostrophe. It's replacing something. It's, um, I mean, that's what apostrophe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I don't know. Unless it's supposed to be over the E to emphasize the.

I don't think, I don't think they've been getting it wrong all this time. There's been guys who like, uh, wasn't, I forgot the player who they were saying his name wrong the whole time, Demetris Bell maybe. Yeah. I, I don't know. What do you think it's replacing? A W. A W.

Oh, Andrew? You want to be Andre? It's got a little more, it's a little more panache to it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Andre Sam, and by the way, did you notice who was in Andre Sam's face celebrating after that interception? C.J. Gardner Johnson? Anthony Harris, former Eagle Safety, who's now helping with the coaching staff this summer.

Yeah. Yeah. That's been interesting. Good chatting with, I saw him the other day. I thought you'd be a connection? Well, no, he pulled out the house the family. And I'm like, that's my line. I'm the house the family guy, okay?

You have ownership over how's the family? No, I always say, how's the family? How's the family? And so, yeah, he saw me. He said, how's the family? Doing great on Anthony. I mean, yeah, that's as a safer question as you could possibly ask. That's why I ask it.

Yeah. Wait, so according to his Twitter, it's an apostory over the E. Ah, okay. So the Eagles have it incorrect. Okay. Oh, wow. What a fine from Julia. Julia, that's a good work, Julie.

Now, that's a, that's an ague? Ague. Right? Yeah. Because I remember you say graved, like grave towards the ground. So it's not Andrew. It is an agoo. It's Andre.

Okay. Well, Andre Sam, you can watch him in the preseason game this week. There you go. Okay. Last thing is the play worth mentioning. Also the press conference nugget. I'll give you my play worth mentioning. My play worth mentioning was it was the Andre Sam one.

Oh, okay. So my play worth mentioning is we have the. identity now of the Eagles emergency snapper, emergency kicker, emergency holder. A couple of these are holdovers, but they did this at the end of the field goal period in opening warmups. You have Grant Concatera snapping to Britt and Covey holding for Braden Man. And on the first of these plays, Britain Covey dropped the snap, rolled right, it's a fire drill. Brett Tooth breaks free to the end zone.

Britt and Covey lofts a pass up to Brett Tooth, who bobbles it, and then hauls it in as he gets both feet in bounds for a touchdown. Now there's no defense, obviously. And then on the second one, a high snap, but Covey gets it down and Britten Man knocks it through. So there you go. I was on Anthony's show when that happened. Do you mind if I used that in the practice notes? No, not at all. I'm going to pull that from the show.

I'll credit you because it's important to credit. And then I will, yeah, that's a good nugget there. There you go. You know what? I love going on Anthony's show, but I knew I was missing something in those first 22 minutes. You just knew it. All right. What's your press conference, Nug?

So two things here. First off, Jeremiah Washburn. I asked Jeremiah Washburn, who has been with the team for a while now, but he's now working on his fourth defensive coordinator, okay? And- Jeremiah was a line coach. So if you think, like going from Jim Schwartz's defense, the Jonathan Gannon's, the Sean Decis,

now Vic Fangio's, that's a lot of staying power. There's been, he survived a few staffs here. he's the only defensive coach who's a holdover for that long, right? And so... He's probably the answer to the thing that we were debating about, we were wondering about earlier, isn't he? Which one? What, we debate a lot.

About the short vacation. Okay. Probably, right? Maybe so, yeah, maybe so. It's a good point. So Jeremiah Washburn, I asked him about surviving these, you know, these four coaches. is how he's done it. And he gave a good answer.

He said actually the keys there is like to know the people you're hiring. And he's who are hiring. Yeah. No, no, no. Who they hired, not the people hiring. I see. Yeah, yeah. He said he's worked with Vic Fangio in the past.

So he said it was actually really cool. He said he was an old line coach in Chicago when Vic Fangio was a decorinator. He's worked with Fangio in two different places in the past. And so that background helped him out. He loves working with Vic. What an interesting career. Jeremiah Washburn. Yes, exactly.

You don't know a lot of people who have had as many different jobs as he has had. Yeah, actually to that point, he's a former scout because I asked him you know, as someone with a scouting background

and when I asked this question, I got to give myself a pat on the back guy. I know what region he used to scout in, okay? Okay, I know what region he used to scout him. You know, I said, when does Houston Baptist get, or Houston Christian get across your radar?

And he's like, he's like, well, it's a good question because, you know, I used to scout that area. Yeah, right. And I'm like, come on. You don't think I have a Google Alert for you, man? And then, so, yeah, he said that they've had a lot of success with like mid-level small school players at that position. But he said that his wife could have been at the Senior Bowl and like seeing that there was something there. in J-OX Hunt. Jeremiah Washburn also said that from a

from a pass-rush perspective, they need to, like they need to view it like the sum of the parts is greater than, you know, that the hole is great than some of the parts, right? Yeah, I think that's right. Because it can't just be, you know, you're replacing Hassan Reddick with Bryce Huff.

It can't just be Josh Sweat's going to look like he did in 2022. Although he said Josh Sweat played better last year than the numbers indicate. We can debate that. it can't just be Nolan Smith's going to break out. It needs to be. He said it needs, it reminds him of 2020, which might not be the best comparison because they're different. He said, but their big message then was like, it's about the group here. It's about the group. And that's what he was, he was really emphasizing with the pass rush. Interesting. Yeah, I do think Jelix Hunt, by the way, I agree with what Vic Fangio said the other day that like he popped early. But since the pads have come on, it has been a little bit less so. And maybe that transition is taking a little bit longer. He has been a little bit more quiet over the past week. And then as I, as we both briefly mentioned, I asked Tanner McKee about his background in Brazil. Like the Brazil game is very meaningful to him. He spent two years there on his mission, like you mentioned.

Only a month or two in Sao Paulo, but he's got, he knows a lot of people in the area really advocated for the food. He talked about, you know, if you've been to a Brazilian state, steakhouse in the states how they have the meat on the stick and he said you can get that all over like real fresh beef that's from there that's uh uh had a good price um he's he's done a lot of Portuguese interviews he mentioned that like the wearing green thing um is like it's a it's a real thing and he doesn't understand why it's a big deal of course you can't go into that I actually I think it's not going to be a real thing for the for this game here yeah it's a real thing down there and now yeah right but but the the people there understand that this is a football

this is an NFL game and this is not a palmerish game like yeah he said yeah he said um and then a few of his teammates caught win before the chief's game last year i guess he did an interview in portuguese that he spent time in rizil and he said a j brown's Portuguese is made him laugh so there you go you should ask him to say Gabe hall and Portuguese. Gabe Hall. Nice. Yes. All right. Good stuff today, Zach. Nice and tidy. Anything else you want to get off your chest? Yes. So we still don't have firm word one way or the other on how the guys are going to play, how the preseason is managed. Nick Siriani, like I said, speaks at 940. Tomorrow I would not have your hopes up on him announcing a rotation.

he has not typically done that in the past. We will see. Tomorrow is there. It's four consecutive days of practices. I'm imagining a little lighter session tomorrow. So we can see there. We'll monitor C.J. Garner Johnson's injury. I really think that's the big one.

Oh, and the other thing too, John Ross came off the field early today too. So we'll see if there's anything to that. And is it John Ross or is it, Ron Ross? It is John Ross. Thank you very much. He has children. He has a son back home. Let's make sure.

All right. That'll do it for this episode of the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. Back tomorrow. Same time, 2 o'clock to talk about the last of four straight practices for the Eagles. Then on Thursday, I guess we're going to do it. Open up the curtain and unveil the identity of this year's Boat Wolf Camp Crush before. Pre-game show and post-game show on Friday night when the Eagles open up the preseason. Make sure you're hitting the like button.

and subscribing all that good stuff for all of us here at PHLY. Julia working it out in the back and discovering the truth about the Andre Sam accent ague. We thank you for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.