PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Philadelphia Eagles training camp: Jalen Hurts stays hot, connects with Johnny Wilson on TD

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

It’s the busiest week of camp for the Eagles as they’re in the midst of a four-day stretch of practices before the preseason opener on Friday night in Baltimore. As Jalen Hurts stayed hot, Quinyon Mitchell continued making moves in his push for paying time with the first-team defense. Vic Fangio also had thoughts on Nakobe Dean, Bryce Huff, Moro Ojomo and more.Join Zach Berman and Bo Wulf for an in-depth discussion of the latest developments at Eagles camp. 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 PHLY Eagles podcast on a Monday high to boy. What an exciting week, Zach. I think for the players who are battling for roster spots, this is the most important week of the summer. You know, everybody has gotten used to the schemes and everything. They've got the pads on four days of practice in a row and then the preseason opener on Friday. So much to talk about. We had a practice yesterday, a practice today that we saw. We got a little structure to the show today.

We've got a few categories we're going to bounce around. And so I start with you from the top, the news that Christian Ellis is practicing with the starters for the New England Patriots. How do you feel about it? Yeah, prep for the show. Do not see that one coming. How do I, I mean, good for Christian Ellis. We'll see him next week. I don't lie.

I wonder if Ellis and the Ellis family is going to be a little concerned when they see you. They're not going to see you in the costume. But they might be concerned. And I will warn them that it's. It's just an act, I think. It is not. What is the act? Nonetheless, good for Christian Ellis.

And look forward to seeing the Patriots next week. I always like going to Foxborough. Why? Why? It's a pain to get to. Well, not for practice. It's not. I mean, it's not around the corner, but it's a good practice setting.

Were you there in 2014? Yes, that was a big MoMA practice. Okay. looking forward to that. It's a good time of year in New England, as it is. So excited to go up there. Well, we'll be on the scene next Tuesday for the one day of

joint practices with the Eagles and the Patriots. So that will be something to look forward to. But, Zach, we do have a lot to get to. A big day of practice today. It was a scorcher after a nice little lighter sort of rain drip practice yesterday. That was a little bit more fun. Lots to talk about here. Let's start with the news up front.

Go through the injuries. Now, both Mackay Bechtin and Tyler Steen returned to practice today after Bechtin did not practice on Sunday, but Tyler Steen was just a limited participant. However, through individual drills when they were lining up, it was Mackay Bechton as the first team right guard and Tyler Steen as the second team right guard. Do you think, and throughout practice,

Tyler Steen did not participate in team drills, Mackay Bechton did? Do you think that this is an indication that at the moment it is Mackay Bechton's job, or do you think this is the beginning of some, you know, like an on one day, Beckton, one day, Steen kind of competition? So when Bechton was out there for the first team snaps when they were doing the backed up drill, I did think it was a big deal.

I thought it was notable. Then as they progressed through and Steen did not participate in team drills, I said maybe it's not as big a deal as I thought. Perhaps I'm hedging there. I don't think it's nothing. I don't think it's everything. And what I mean by that is if Steen were playing with the second team, it would be the first time this summer,

Steen was with the second team. That, to me, would show you there's something to look at here. Until Steen is playing either tackle, because that shows they're prepping him for swing tackle or second team guard, then I'm not ready to kind of declare anything yet. But I think the same thing you thought when Bechtin stepped in and Steen went down,

this was an opening. The Eagles were, like welcoming. I don't think Beckton's play lights out. I don't think what we've seen this past week says Beckton needs to be the starting right guard. But I didn't see anything from Tyler Steen that suggested he needs to be the starting right guard.

So we're kind of looking at this from the perspective of a competition. Perhaps it gets to a point where there's concern. Like neither one of these guys is running away with the job. But as of now, I think there's something to it. I don't think there's everything to it. We will find out once Tyler Steen returns to full participation, you know, if this is a competition or not, or if he is still viewed as the starter. I actually do think what we saw in individual drills was telling because in individual drills,

when they're going through things, Mackay Beckton's at right guard next to Lane Johnson at right tackle. Lane Johnson did not practice as a full participant today. Okay, Lane Johnson was only limited and did not play in team drills. So it was Mackay Bechtin next to Fred Johnson with the starters during team drills. And so if the long-term idea was to get guys working next to the guys they're comfortable with, if Bechtin's the starter, you have Bechtin working with Lane Johnson. If it's to prep him for the day of practice, it would have been Bechtin and Fred Johnson together. And then you let Steen and Lane Johnson work alongside each other because they have, you know,

their long-term, they might work together, but they're not going to on this day. I believe that it is Bechton's job right now. We'll see how it goes. I know that there's... What type of grasp do you think he has on it? One with big hands. Sure. I don't think it's done and dusted.

And I think that that's kind of the nice thing that they have going for them is that they don't have to declare a starter. I think you have seen the flashes from Bechton. There was a play today when he knocked over Jalen Carter. Carter sort of stumbled a little bit, but you saw the power of Bechton's hands. there is violence there i think just how powerful he is he makes it as a you know as a run blocker

um it's a it's still a new position for him though it's it's you would not expect it to be perfect but you know for all the things that we have talked about since the spring uh i know that they're like there's a somebody's like oh they hate tylerstein i like him a lot who said somebody i think there's commenters right there you're reading the comments i saw the tyler steen comments like oh these guys hate tilerstein i don't tell you what if you're reading the comments now we have a lot to unpacking in the comments. I'm not written.

I'm not written, but I have YouTube comments most of the time. Okay. That's the only time because I want to see how the views are going. I go to the page. Sure. I like Tyler Steen, but you're naive.

If you haven't been listening to what we've been saying since the spring, the way that they have treated Tyler Steen versus the way that they have talked about them, they have signaled this from the beginning. Like, I'm sorry for no one ball. Well, I also think it matters to the way they're using Bechtin, is that if this,

for Steen's job, they would not be, like, when Beckton went down, I'm sorry, when when Steen went down, they would have just kept Beckton to tackle. They would have said, prepare to be our swing tackle. This is important. Lane Johnson couldn't miss time. Jordan Milata could miss time. Like, be the best offensive tackle you can because there's a good chance we'll need to turn to you.

And we'll prepare Trevor Keegan or Matt Hennessy or you name the interior player as the backup guard. but for them to be playing Bechtin almost exclusively at guard, eight practices here, seven days at guard, one day a tackle. I don't know what he's doing during the walkthrough is, but I presume it's not that much different. That reads to me like this is their evaluation of him that he can help the team best this year as a guard

and as a potential starting guard. We should also note, by the way, that during yesterday's practice, with no Bechton and no Steen, it was not Matt Hennessy. with the starters at Red Guard, even though that's the only position he's played all summer. It was Brett Tooth with the starters at Red Guard. Stout loves him some Tooth. I actually think Tooth has looked pretty good this summer, but that was a surprise for it to not be Hennessy. Elsewhere on the injury front, Zach, not practicing today, Orrin Berks, again, can't make the clump on the tum.

We'll see if he can get back on the field. Paris Campbell has been down for the last two practices with a groin injury. Mackay Garner out with a hamstring injury, Brandon Smith out with a concussion, and then Josh Job, Eli Ricks, Decton and Steen all limited. So that's the update there. However, two players, two key starters, Zach, leaving practice with injury today, CJ Gardner Johnson, and Cam Juergens. I have two questions for you.

Let's start with Cam Jurgens. Jason Kelsey in the house today to watch practice for the first time this summer. That's who it was? If Cam Jurgens suffered. I was wondering who that was. Wow, what a no-sell. I mean, who was that a joke for? My point is, he's so ubiquity.

He's everywhere, right? And so if you didn't know who Jason Kelsey was, the listeners and the viewers were not out of practice today, they don't know that Jason Kelsey was there. I was, okay, sorry for all the jokes I've sold over the past five years. All right. I have never once asked you to sell a joke. I try to avoid the awkwardness of you saying something in me just stonewalling it.

So who would ever want to do that? All right. All right. Go on. So Jason Kelsey. If Cam Driggins, and I, Cam Jorgans walked off, he looked fine. I know it didn't seem like a big deal. But if Cam Juergens did suffer a season engine injury in the summer, do you think Jason Kelsey would unretire?

No. A few reasons. First off, Jason Kelsey's lost some weight. He's looking leaner. Sveld. Leanor than he was before, for sure. Um, I don't think Jason Kelsey retired, uh, like on a whim. It's really seemed like that was a well thought out retirement.

Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. It wasn't like he just woke up one day. Uh, Matt H says that. That was a very bad joke. Okay. All right. Fair enough.

You can't have them all. Julia goes to. Um, so then, uh, Bo, you don't have to use a pseudonym here. You just, just put Bo W. A pseudonym. A pseudonym. Uh, if you're, if you're, if you're, I mean, you would literally be able to see me typing.

Okay. So, no, I don't think Jason Kelsey's coming back. Plus, he has a pretty good gig right now. He does. Yeah, he's doing well for himself. It is a little bit awkward, right? Because I know not him on retiring, but him coming to practice. Because, like, there is the specter of Kelsey on Cam Juergens.

I know that Kelsey wants to be around the team. He wants to be around football. But I'm sure he also doesn't want to overstep and make it awkward. But you watch them go through individual drills. Kelsey and Juergens are talking a lot. He's, you know, there's just some hand stuff going on. He's doing some pointers talking to some of the other younger guys, like he wants to be around the team. But I'm sure that he also deeply feels that he doesn't want to be a distraction to them.

A few of a few responses there. I think it's more startowing to us than it is to them because he's been around. That's fair. You know, I know a week ago, for instance, he addressed the team. Well, from my understanding, he addressed the team. He's been throughout the spring. Lane Johnson said this. We've seen an anecdotally.

He's been at the facility. So I think it's like for us, it's like, wow, there's Jason Kelsey. For Cam Juergens and the players, it's like, oh, Jason's here today, right? I mean, Lane literally said he has a locker room in the coaches lot or he has a locker in the coach's locker room. Number one. Number two, your other point was, was that he doesn't want to be a distraction. Yeah, he doesn't want to be a distraction. I think anywhere Jason Kelsey goes right now is it's like a big deal like I think that they're kind of used to that but but number three was it nowhere did you like when Fletcher Cox was there you know was Fletcher Cox overstepping was Fletcher Cox casting a shadow and John Carter was it's different though because because of his celebrity because like and there's also a very specific thing that's the place I don't think that's the place.

Like, Fletcher Cox leaving is not like, okay, now Jordan Davis is the new Eagles defensive tackle. It's different. It's part of a rotation. Sure. It's like the center. Our entire understanding of what a center is for everybody who has like been around the team for the last decade is Jason Kelsey. Yeah. Right.

And so it's a different. It's a much different thing. I hear what you're saying. I do think behind the scenes they're particularly focused on making sure. that Cam Juergens does not feel as if he's operating within the shadow of Kelsey. Landon Dickerson went out of his way to emphasize this. I think this is going to be a major talking point. So, yeah, it certainly it's a big deal for the media.

I was talking to you in Elliott Shore Parks and I'll corner my eye. I see Kelsey walking on the field and I said, excuse me. Was that who that was? Yes. Oh, look at that. That was so funny. Yeah, Po, your sense of humor. Goodness, man.

If you didn't do this, you could go in the comedy. Be like Sebastian Manichol. If only I could have done it in an Italian accent. We have a super chat here. Dave with the super chat. He says Isaiah Rogers now leads the day count. 5-3 over Kili Ringo, and it's been a Rogers Day in all three fully padded days. Prior to the open practice, you had Ringo leading 70 to 30 as there been a reevaluation.

Nice question from Dave. Good one. Good one along the depth chart. front. Now, even it is, it's like those counters are being done by who's the first guy. First guy up. I would say I actually thought that Ringo had more reps with the ones today over the course of practice. Yeah, most days other than yesterday. Yesterday, Rogers was most of the ones. But most days, Rogers is first up and Ringo takes most of the work. But I would not say it's 70-30 Ringo over

Rogers for that spot. I would say right now, if we're talking week one, one, who I might go 46, Ringo 44 Rogers and 10, Quine and Mitchell. Yeah, so it's interesting you break up Quinnia Mitchell. We're going to get to Quinn and Mitchell. I did want to ask you regarding the starting cornerback thing, they, in individual drills was happening right in front of me and the cornerbacks were paired. You know, they were doing like, uh, that tackling dummies basically. but the first two up, like in the pair, were Slay and Mitchell.

And then the next two, it was, it was Rogers Ringo. Is there anything to read into that? Like, do you think there's still a part of them that's like, Quignon? This could still be your job here, man. Well, we will get to Quine and Mitchell. We have a little rubric for the show. He's going to be my first team player to talk about. But yes, I do think that there is a real possibility that he could eventually take that spot.

We didn't finish with the injuries. the other guy walking off the field. The other guy walking off the field, CJ Garner Johnson. And he did look, I don't know if it was a serious injury, but he looked in more pain. He was sort of banging the turf and had to leave.

And what was interesting here, Zach, is that with C.J. Garner Johnson down, with the starting defense, it was not Avanti Maddox taking his place. It was James Bradbury for the rest of practice next to Reed Blankenship. What did you make of that? Yeah, that was interesting to me for a few reasons

because they could have gone to Vante-Matic. there, right? That's what they did in the spring. Now, Bradbury was not practicing. Yeah. But I thought Bradbury has been playing decently in this past week. I think so. We haven't necessarily talked about him every episode.

But he's been showing some physicality, maybe almost like in a pronounced way. But there was a play. Let a little wood on Britain Covey yesterday on the open field. Exactly. Which, I mean, if you're going to choose to be showingly, physical if you're going to lay some wood on anybody that's probably the best one to do it with small but mighty right small but powerful is what we used to say when we were writing tied ad copy uh okay i never written tad odd tied pods tied pods let me that's it's actually a very important distinction

it's not tied it's tied pods as a consumer of tie pods perhaps it worked for me no i i always heard small but mighty that's you well thank you yeah you know about powerful but small okay Friday. So, yes, so that did stick out to me. And I am closely monitoring this C.J. Garner Johnson injury because he's important, man. I mean, we can get into later that press conference yesterday, but he does, like, just from a football perspective, he is critical to this team. I did not see him go in.

I heard your account just now. I heard an account from some other people who said, like, Nick followed him in. Did you see that? I did not see that. At first I thought he just got hitting the junk. Okay. It was kind of that rate. He was like on the ground.

Well, that would cause such a reaction. Yeah. That would definitely cause that reaction. What? What? Is that? No, that's funny. That would cause that, that hurts.

I mean, I'm never torn my ACL, but yeah, you get hit in the junk. It hurts. Okay. So. Tell us more. I'll leave it at that. So, yeah, I did not think. There was a thing I felt like in like elementary school where it was like a competition to like it was like almost more macho to because you got it hurt.

Like to really overplay how much it hurt. I felt like this was a thing. I don't know what type of things you were doing then. I know I just think it hurts because it hurts. I don't think it's trying to see macho. It hurts. Anyways, Cam Juergens, he walked off the field right in front of us. You were watching practice with Fran Duffy.

I was trying to kind of learn from you guys. And he walked by, and he seemed, look, I'm not, I don't want to play a doctor on PHLI, even though I'm playing a doctor on PHLI. He didn't seem like a big deal to the naked eye. Yeah, it didn't. It didn't. But we'll see, obviously. The Bradbury thing is interesting to me, and I think there are a few ways to read it.

I mean, one could just be that the way that Fangio has them lining up, Bradbury is behind C.J. Garner Johnson and Avanti Maddox is playing the position that Reed Blankenship is playing. It could be that it's sort of, okay, let's see what James Bradbury can do here with the starter. Does he fit in? You know, if this is a serious injury, we need to know. And also, as we're trying to figure out if it's worth carrying him on the roster, does it make sense? It could just be nothing and we'll see Yvante Maddox there tomorrow or C.J. Gardner Johnson's back. but this is one where I want to just sort of see how it plays out. But I do think that Bradbury has not looked out of place as a safety so far.

And I don't think they are operating or Bradbury is operating as if this is just, you know, roll the clock, keep, you know, play the clock until he's traded. I think Bradbury is providing an earnest effort to be a part of this team and the team is evaluating him as such. There you go. All right. Time now to talk about our friends. at Indeed. Because we are driven by the search for better.

It's like the Eagles putting this roster together. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. And if you're hiring, you know how much like just paperwork you got to go through, all the hoops you got to jump through.

So much busy work. But Indeed's going to take care of so much of that for you. They will take care of the scheduling, the screening, the messaging, so you can connect with candidates faster and then do your actual job. Indeed doesn't help you just hire faster. 93% of employers agree that Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites according to a recent Indeed survey. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences each day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences.

So the more you use indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide. that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And if you're a listener to this show, here's the call to action. Listeners of this show will get a $75-sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash all-city. Just go to Indeed.com slash all-city, all one word right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast,

Indeed.com slash all city. Terms and conditions apply. need to hire. My friend, you need indeed. In sports betting, and in life, you don't want to be ordinary. You want to be extraordinary, right? And whatever the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Bet365 has 90 million users worldwide.

Bet 365 live streams 780,000 events each year. They have early payout offers across NBA, NFL. NHL and MLB. Bet365 pioneered live in-game betting. Today, Bet365 offers the widest range of games and markets available for live-in-game. Betting across 78 sports. And that's such a fun way to bet. You know, you're watching a game and you're like, I want action on this next pitch,

on this next play, on this next shot, right? At Bet365, we don't do ordinary. We believe every sport should be epic. Right now, new customers can get. get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. Use the code, P-H-L-Y to sign up, deposit $10, and claim your offer. Whatever the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. All right.

Here are the categories we're going to go through for the course of the rest of the show. We've got the quarterback report. You know, you've got to write the quarterback did. You got to say what the quarterback did. That's what the people are tuned it in for. you got the first team player you want to talk about second team player you want to talk about third team player you want to talk about a play from practice today worth mentioning press conference nugget one straight thought and then anything else we want to get to Zach so tell me what the

quarterbacks did today what's the big takeaway from jalen hurts can he picket tanner mckee and your boy will greer yeah i i thought jell and hurts had a strong day in the sense that he was efficient right they they didn't really have as much full field stuff there was they were backed up month the start. Yep. They were, you know, goal line a little bit of red zone. A little later on. He did not throw an interception, has not thrown an interception yet this summer.

That streak continues. I did ask. Big Fangio made a nice, is what we're going to say? Go ahead. Yeah, he asked Vic about it. Like, is this something that? I'm liking these Fangio press conferences. Me too, man.

They're good. And you have to sugarcoat. I like that when you have to sugarcoting. He's telling to you straight. He's not gassing up guys or throwing guys down for no reason. There's good context. to it all. You also have to ask the question the right way. Otherwise, it's going to give you nothing and you move on.

You get like rapid fire stuff. It's great. Fantastic. Yeah. The usage rate's terrific, right? You get more in there. So I asked him the turnover. Is it like something that the scheme will bring over time or basically is this concerning? And he said, Gowan's done a really good job of like, you know, playing within the offense, not putting the ball up there.

but he thinks the defense needs to do a better job taking the ball away. And Jalen continues to do that. Like there are no near misses or near interceptions really other than the Thursday night one with Bryce Huff. And then today we'll get to some of the plays, but I thought he had a nice, I thought the ball placement on the Johnny Wilson, not Tyree Jackson, Johnny Wilson catch. This was a short red zone. Touchdown pass. lofted sort of not quite to the corner but high enough for johnny wilson to go up and get it but it looked and again i was on the opposite end of where it occurred but it looked like he threw it behind him

intentionally like to get him away from the traffic and we'll get to it wilson made a nice adjustment on the ball i thought though that hurts uh he had a night or he had two nice runs that i had in my notes one down the left side one up up the middle he definitely looks a fleet of foot. And yeah, just the efficiency is what jumps out to me. Like the ball, there are very few interceptions. I'm sorry, incompletions. Yeah, that's true. The, the scramble that he had, so this was, they were, they were practicing their back, the offense is backed up. It was like first and 10 from the two-yard line. And the first time, it was the ones against the ones, the offense went three and out. Defense got the point. This was like a competitive session,

offense first defense. If you get, if you get a first down, the offense wins. If they, if they stop on the defense wins and they go first team second team third team defense wins every time then the offense gets another chance backed up um on the two yard line and on second down nobody's open there's a pass rush coming and jalen hertz scrambles for an easy first down and this was not one sometimes in practice it's like oh well that's a scramble but like probably the pass rush gets home this was one where it was very clear that had this been a real play jelan hurts absolutely picks up his first down. There was a clear land for him to go to. One, nice to see that, you know, he's willing to take that and he looks agile, a fleet of foot, as you said. Two, it's just a good

reminder that as long as he has that, it changes the offense so much because it provides an answer when there are no other answers. It just changes the upside of everything that they can do. And so as long as that's there, you have to feel much better about just the consistency of the offense's ability to continue to maintain drives. You absolutely right. And it's always been what we've discussed about jailing it with the mobility being like I mean, sometimes it's almost portrayed as like a crutch, you know, you hear animals that say you got to operate from within the pocket.

No, to me, it's a feature, right? It's part of what makes them great. And so if you're able to not just extend the play, but look, You back up. Everything's covered. The lanes open in the middle. You know, take six yards, take eight yards, take 12 yards. I think if G. Owen Hertz can get back to running the way he did in 2022, it'll change so much with this offense. I agree.

Down the depth chart, this is interesting because we've been ahead of it, I would say. You have been ahead of it. You have been ahead of it. You know, Kenny Pickett for the number two job. Like, yeah, yeah, take a whiff, man. I'm taking a whiff. I just, you know, this is the Ball-Knowen podcast. Okay?

If you want to know what's actually going on, listen to this one. I mean, I got to say, I did hear from someone over the weekend being like, what's, you know, what's, what's, what's, what's, like, sniffing at with the quarterback thing? And I said, Bo, Bo, Bo watches practice, knows what he's talking about. Tanner McKee has outplayed Kenny Pickett over the course of camp. That's not an opinion. That is fact. There's no doubt about it. And lately, Tanner McKee has been taking reps at.

Kenny Pickett's expense with the second team offense. Not that Pickett is then working with the threes, but it's like McKee is in with the twos, working with the twos, and Pickett is getting fewer reps than he would otherwise. That said, I thought today was Kenny Pickett's best day of the summer. Okay. He made several really nice throws. The ball was coming out a little bit quicker. I don't think that, you know, Tammy Pickett is in trouble of getting cut or anything like that.

And I thought he looked good today. So if you just expect that a guy in a new place, in a new online, offense is going to take some time to learn things. They have, you know, this is the, what, the third week now, the second week, third week of camp. He is looking better today than he was a week ago. So maybe that continues to ascend. Yeah.

And I still think preseason is going to be a big part of this too, because we don't know yet about the preseason playing time, but I'm expecting very little of Jill and Hertz. And I think we're going to see, I don't think we're going to see a lot of Will Greer either. I think it's going to be Pickett McKee, Pickett McKee, Pickett, McKee. So that will be a better indication. All right, Zach. Give me the first team player that you would like to talk about. Jordan Davis.

Okay. I thought this was a strong practice by Jordan Davis overall. First off, we talked about them being backed up. First play, they were backed up. Well, the first play was actually a false start, but the first, like, actual play. Jordan Davis blows up through the middle or, you know, pushes through. It was hard to tell if this was specifically on Bechton or Juergen or. He was going to be in.

Yeah, because of where I was standing. I was on the sideline. Tough viewing today. Yeah. But. But he came rushing through like a rhinoceros. Yeah. Safety.

And reminded me of the Bucks game last year where just like blew up the play. And it was Jordan Davis at his best. It's the whole idea of Jordan Davis. Exactly. And then I thought too he had a play where he was chasing hurts. And it was kind of, I mean, maybe it's sack. Maybe it's not. but it was akin to like the Josh Allen play last year where you...

When the bar went empty, never recovered. You see him moving, man. And so Jordan Davis stood out to me today. And I think that's a really good sign because it was like this, you know, the next year, I create situations that you might see in the game. And that's... We're going to get to that, but go ahead. That's literally a situation we saw last year in the Bucks game.

There's going to be times when they, the offenses, when the opposing offense is backed up inside their five or at their own goal line. By the way, I really dislike when coaches call running plays in that situation. You know, there's... First and 10 from the one? Yeah, and they always say it, you know, if Coach Flynn or another, if Nick Sirianney's watching, like, correct me if I'm wrong, okay? But they, it's like, let's just try to get some cushion, okay?

but there's a chance, by the way, that your offensive line gets beat on the play. And I think that there's a much better chance of a quick pass, maybe a designed rollout, or a quick slant, something of that nature. That could be a little more productive than running your running back, like right into the guts when they're there. So I've always thought this. And, you know, there was an iTunes comment that said that... Don't get me. Yeah, definitely don't get you started on that. No, I don't like, I don't care about those iTunes comments.

But there was, there was a comment. I don't want to know about it. No, like my analysis of football players is their Madden ratings and, oh, so you could have to comment. Okay. And no, that is, I think I have more. No, it's their draft pedigree. Well, we can get to that later, but I think that sometimes, like, what would you call in Madden in this situation? and, you know, if you're backed up at the one,

would you call a running play where you can get stuffed? Yeah. Or would you call like a quick design rollout or something like that to try to get a little more high probability for like four or five, eight yards? Yeah. Jordan Davis had a very good practice. You're absolutely right. I'm just, I'm at the point now with Jordan Davis where like the whole question is

about continuing the momentum into the regular season. Can he hold it up? But yeah, that's exactly what you want to see. We're at practice. He had a good practice. So that's why. that's fine. I'm not crowning him.

That's all. But yeah, that's what you want to see. I think he would tell you the same thing. The whole goal for Jordan Davis this season is about like the long game, right? Can he be as good as he was the first four weeks of last season for the entire season? Sure. You can't get the week 18 without practice today. That's right.

You're in first teamer. For me, it's Quinnie Mitchell. No. Quinnian Mitchell was. And you're calling him a first team. Again, the starting nickel. Yep. He has started to.

spend much more time as they starting nickel than any of the other players there, including of Bonte Maddox. And he still spends time on the outside with the twos. I talked to Vic Fangeo about this today. And he said, like, when you draft a corner in the first round, you are not thinking about him inside. Like, he's got to be able to play on the outside. And we still think that he can do that. But this has been a nice bonus. There was a play. I thought about this as the play worth mentioning, but since we're on Quiney Mitchell, there was a play today that I thought was really notable. And that was a running play. in the red zone. Quinea Mitchell is in motion, is following the receiver in motion, and it comes

that he is the guy who has to fill the hole. Like he is the run fit for this play in this hole, and he stuffs it, he sticks the guy, really nice play, both the willingness to be physical there and a spot where he wouldn't have been asked to do that as an outside cornerback and then the ability to actually do it. Queenie Mitchell is going to be the week one nickel for this team if he's not starting on the outside. He has looked, I think he has looked really good. as the inside corner. And I'm also just thinking about the cascade effect of this. If you believe that, like, if Kili Ringo and Isaiah Rogers can hold down that second spot on the outside opposite Daryslay,

and if all of those guys stay healthy and Quinnia Mitchell is playing nickel as a rookie, maybe Cooper DeGine is a safety year one. Like, he's not going to get on the field otherwise, and there's a bit of a need for safety depth. maybe that's just where he starts from the beginning if this is the way that the defense is lining up. It's a valid point. And I think that you use Mitchell week one the way that's best for your team and you use Mitchell long term

but the way that's best for him, right? And so I think eventually he'll be on the outside. But yeah, week one, I do think he's going to be inside. I do like the way that he's played. He's taken to this well. You know, anecdotally, I think he needs a new line to Devante Smith and AJ Brown. He told DeVonte Smith.

Your route is trash. You're out of trash. Same thing he told AJ Brown. You got to get a little more creative with that and that. Wow, shots fired from you. But no, he's those guys like how he doesn't back down.

And I bring that up anecdotally because, yeah, he does not, he definitely plays like he belongs out there, right? Yes. If you did not know that he went to Toledo, you would not know. that he went to Toledo, right? Because he plays like a pro, and he is a pro, and I like what I've seen from him.

All right, give me your second team player to talk about. Tyler Hall. Interesting. And Tyler Hall had a nut, well, because there was one play in one-on-ones. This was a nice play. He had an intersection. This was the full, beautiful chaos of training camp where you would really like to be able to be watching up top

or have the practice footage because there were four different drills of one-on-ones happening at the same time. O-line, D-line, one-on-ones, wide receiver, cornerback one-on-ones, tight ends running routes on safeties, and then linebackers blitzing on running backs. It was like the beautiful chaos. Yes. You're right.

And so who was the intended receiver there? I do have it here somewhere. I believe it was an I-Smith, actually. Okay. And it was Tanner McKee throwing the ball, I believe, because I had that down. And Tyler Hall. Yeah, it was an eye smit. Tyler Hall was stride for stride.

Okay. He was like, you can say, all right, should the pass have been in a different spot? I thought I thought Tyler Hall ran well with the play. I thought he showed really good ball skills there. And I'm not saying that he's going to be on the team. I'm not saying that he's been outstanding all summer. But I think he's been fine this summer. And I thought that was a really good rep.

So if we're talking about today's practice, he was a second team player that stood out. For me, I was going to go with Bradbury here just to have that discussion, but since we already talked about him, I think we should take a moment to talk about yesterday's practice where Jeremiah Trotter Jr. spent a lot of time with the starters working next to Devin White today. That was not the case. It was Devin White and Zach Bonn for mostly all of practice with the first team defense when they were on there together. But Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is a player who has been just sort of inching up the depth chart a little bit. And he's worked a lot with Devin White, if you believe that Devin White's going to be on the field. a lot. We can get to Zach Bonn because there's been a lot of gassing up of Zach Bonn as well. Nick Sirriani yesterday went out of his way. Yeah, it's here. Circled back on the C.J. Garner Johnson question about toughness to be like, oh, by the way, like the other guy who's really brought that is Zach Bond. He said, Zach Bond said he wore the green dot at practice at the link on Thursday night.

Zach Bonn, he made a really nice play today reading like a throwback screen to Dallas Goddard. It would have been a tackle for a loss in the backfield. I remain like generally skeptical that this guy who was an edge player and like bit player for the team that drafted him in the third round for four years is going to turn out to be an every down linebacker. But he has had a very good summer, Zach Bonn. And he has clearly earned whether it's trust or belief from from the defensive coaching staff. That's a nice thing to see. But I do believe that Trotter's ascension is going to be the thing that when we look back like week seven, I don't think Jeremiah Trotter is going to be Fred Warner. but I think he's going to be the starting lineback on this team.

I don't know if I would go that far, but I do think that he's played really well in these past three practices. I thought Thursday night he had a good session. I thought yesterday, well, actually, I thought yesterday and Thursday night, but yesterday in particular, he stood out, and we both combined for her notes, and we both mentioned him because there were a few plays, like, as a Blitzer. I mean, he had 10 sacks the past two years in college, right?

and you see him get home there, but he stuffed holes. Well, this is interesting because you think about the skill set of these linebackers. Trotter, as you said, did this in college and has looked good. Fancho, the last few days of practice, has been sending a lot of these inside linebackers. Zach Ballon, I mean, that should be his bread and butter, right? He should be very good at that just based on the skill set. And Devin White, it's one of the things that he is very good at. You just look at the pressure rates.

Now, maybe some of it is the way that Todd Bowles used him was sending him at the right time, but we talked about it in free agency, the like quarterback hit rate for all the linebackers in the league. Like Devin White was at the top. He is very good when he does get sent at getting to the quarterback. So I don't know, Vic Vanjo is not typically like a super high blitz rate guy, but you would imagine that he has some guys here who can do it when he does want to press that button.

And by the way, Nacobo Dean is a good blitzer as well. I think when his best plays this summer have been blitzing, certainly more so than coverage. I also think... The guy whoof. Yeah, I also think... Now, by the way, Vic Fangio did say today, you know, Nicobidian had a good start to camp, but once the pads came on,

he has not been quite as good, and he said he took a bit of a step back at practice on Thursday, which we talked about. Yeah. I also thought it was a nice Nick Boat moment yesterday, too. Because you asked the question, Nick clearly respects you. He comes back and he says, just to follow up the Bo's question. I thought it was nice. It was, you guys have a...

Don't be jealous, Zach. It's fine. I know that you want to have the most important, relationship with Nick, but it's okay. He can, he can answer other people's questions. I just want to tell you, Bo, I'm here paying a compliment to you, okay? That's not a compliment, though. You just saw this in real time. That's not really a compliment. I thought, I said it was a nice. I think it's patronizing. Not, I said it was a nice Nick Boe moment and you take it to, to like a zinger at me, they get totally unnecessary one. I thought it was a nice, I thought it was a nice moment. I thought it was a sign of respect. He could have been, he circled

back. I was more about he wanted to get the thing on Bonn on the record, not that he wanted to like, oh, Bo asked a really good question. I need to give him this other thing. I thought your question stimulated thought into him. So yeah, I mean, goodness, like, I was just trying to pay a compliment to you. I thought that was nice. You're a very nice guy. And yeah, Nick, Nick addresses you by name, right? I mean, it's, it's like, well, if you can't, you can't on the one hand say that he deserves no credit at all for naming every single wide receiver on his roster and also be like, well, but he says your name. He can't have it both ways.

I mean, both. Let's not act like you're as big a deal as Shaq Davis or Austin Watkins. He has certainly seen me more in his life than he has seen Shaq Davis or Austin Watkins or Griffin Hebert. I actually don't, like Griffin was on the practice squad last year, was in every meeting for we would have to actually extrapolate the numbers. You see them three days a week, four days a week, over four years span here. Griffin was in the meeting room every day.

Like, there's multiple meetings. So, yeah, I don't know why we're going down this rabbit hole, but I mean, I think it's a little bit, you're like, he should know me more than his wide receiver debt chart. No, I'm not saying he should know me, but like, you can't also be like, well, he knows he says your name. You can't be not be impressed by names. and impressed by names.

I was just complimenting you. That's all. That wasn't a compliment. Okay. Okay. All right. Next one. All right.

Well, before we get to the third team players that we want to talk about, let's talk about our friends at the L.O. Market. Right aid. The L.O. Market with right aid. You're coming into right aid. You've got to get stuff done, right? Maybe you're picking up a prescription. Maybe there's some household stuff you need.

But take a little deal. detour? Check out that L.O. Market because it's one-stop shopping at Rite Aid. They've got candy, snacks, pantry items, exclusively at Rite Aid, including classics like peach rings and starlight mince to gummy butterflies and sour

worms. You've got the nuts and a trail mixes packed with vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, fiber and protein, popcorn, which is all kinds of choices. I am on the record as being anti-kettle corn, anti-sweet popcorn, but they've got the butter there for you. And speaking of salt,

you got that beef jerky packed with protein plus granola pantry staples like honey and seasoning if you have a snack attack check out the right aid l o market get l o market delivered same day or buy online pick up in store go to rightaid dot com slash shop to order i want to read something here okay uh derian canar commits a blatant holding penalty against brandon graham good rep from matt hennessey to hold off moral ojimo doing mcm stands up Gabe Hall. Quick win from Marlene Tour Pillow to pass Mac Sharping. No one Smith beats Fred Johnson inside. Join Okar Swats, Anim Danquist, Answay for an easy win. I can keep going and going and going and going. And what I'm reading from is the practice report that Bo wrote yesterday with me. These were Bose observations. It's like Hemingway. These are Bose observations from one-on-one. My point is this. This is really good stuff here. And in addition to that, that's just stenography. In addition to that, if you can find different, you know, you can find Charlie O'Connor on Scott Loughton's season. Now there's some writing.

You can find, we can go on down the list. I mean, I'm going to have something that comes in my inbox later from Les Bowen that I'm going to post. Like, Les's insight on. Less, that is not appropriate. What's that? Sorry, go ahead. And there's so many quality stories that you find on all phtly.com, but you're only going to read them if you're a diehard member.

And being a diehard member comes with access to premium written content, but also 20% off events, terrific merchandise that you can get for all teams, which you get 20% off on, free shirts when you become a member, and access to the Discord lounge, the PHLY Lounge, which I am always accessing. and checking out and seeing what's on the mind of our great listeners and viewers. And the people who are on there are all diehard members. And you can be one too if you head over to all p.gly.com now and join the best sports fans in this city. All right.

Let's talk a little offensive line depth. Okay. My third team player to talk about. And that is Nick Gates, who they signed a few days ago, experienced as we talked about with the Giants and the commanders. Segoin-Barkley had some nice things to say about Nick Gates and their time together. Gates has been working exclusively at left guard so far. Great aesthetic for an offensive lineman. He's got the belly fully out, tats all over the place, and no gloves.

So this is like, you know, it looks like somebody that you don't want to run into in a phone booth. And that's where he's meeting these people. I think he's looked pretty good. Now, he also has the benefit of being fresh. How many times are you in a phone booth? And how many times do you meet people in the phone booth, right? Like, I don't mean to pick apart that expression. but even when you did go to phone booth,

were you meeting people in the phone booth? Were you like, let's have a date in the phone booth? Like, let's, uh, uh, don't kinkshame me. It just seems like an odd expression. Someone you don't want to meet in a phone booth. I'm just talking and that's what came out. Like maybe someone you don't want to meet in a back alley,

but a phone booth. Well, yeah, but the reason that I said phone booth, and listen, I didn't, I didn't spend time writing that to prepare it for the show today to be picked apart, but the reason that I said phone booth is because that's the thing that comes to mind about offensive linemen. There's not a lot of offensive linemen. There's not a lot of room to wiggle. Yeah.

Allies are, you know, cavernous by comparison. True. All right. Proceed. I'm good. Okay. All right, yeah. So Nick Gates.

I think Nick Gates has looked good so far, but he has the benefit of being fresh. So there's a little bit of something to that. But I think that they have been. underwhelmed by some of the other veteran guys who they have, Darren Kinnard, Max Sharping have probably not looked up to snuff necessarily. I'm very confused by the Matt Hennessy thing, the fact that he did not get the first team reps yesterday, considering he's only worked at Red Guard,

save for the first couple days of practice. I actually think Hennessy's looked pretty good, but they seem to not necessarily think that. And neither does Philly voices Jimmy Kemsky. Another astute practice observer. Can't credit other people. people either. All right, keep going on Matt Hennessy. I think that Brett Toeth, I have been skeptical of Stout's love for Brett Toh, just given the fact that he's been here for so long

and hasn't earned a role, went to Carolina last season, claimed off the practice squad, they cut him, you know, why are we going back to him necessarily at the expense of a guy like Hennessy? That said, I think Toeuf has looked pretty good, both as the left guard and the right guard and as a center. I think he's had a good summer. So there's, there's a chance that he does make this team, which I would have not said before camp started. But Gates is a guy if you're, if you're just thinking about the game day versatility, who's going to be your swing into your offensive lineman. I think Dylan McMahon's going to make this team. I think he has looked very good for a sixth round rookie. But if he's not going to be, if he can't play guard and they just want one guy who

can do it all, it's probably between Tooth and Gates. And I think both guys have looked solid. Is the team going to sign Brett Tooth, though? If you, if you, if you, cut to it i mean i agree with you so i mean carolina signed him last year cut him quickly thereafter i like brett toth i just think he's someone you can have on your practice squad personally uh the the third teamer for me go ahead um i'll go sean stevens similar to tyler hall he had the interception but also there's there was someone who came up to me at practice yesterday someone i i know who has got a relationship with sean stevens and uh and said why aren't you writing more about sean stevens you made a nice play today yeah well that's why i'm talking about

Okay. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And I said to him, and I was with Jeff McLean from the Enquirer and Tim McMahon from ESPN, both of whom knew this person as well. And why is this so mysterious? Because I don't want to say who the person was. But you and Jeff and Tim all know this person.

Yes. And it was like, why aren't you writing about Sean Stevens? And we said, well, if he gives us something to write about, and literally the next day, boom, Sean Stevens, pick six. Deflected pass, Tanner McKee threw it. It was deflected. It makes the adjustment on the ball, mixed the catch. It was, they were backed up, so it wasn't hard to get to the end zone from there. But that gets in.

I thought it was a nice play in the ball. I don't think it was a tipped pass. I think it was a dropped pass. I think it hit Austin Watkins like in the shoulder and he went through his hands and then went off. his shoulder and then it went up into the... Gotcha. Okay. Thank you for clearing that up. And Sean Stevens gets it.

And, you know, Sean Stevens, someone who was a tryout player, made the team. The Eagles have cut other guys. So he clearly wasn't the 90th guy here. And, yeah, I... Of my third, he flashed as a third team. I'll tell you what. That's not even the play that I was thinking about when you said Sean Stevens. And I said he made a nice play today.

They went live for a period with the threes. and there was a big hole for Tyrion Davis Price to run through. It was probably like an eight-yard run or so. And you see somebody on the defense coming out like a flash, diving at Tyrion Davis Price's legs, making a nice tackle. And it was Sean Stevens. So for a cornerback to take down your boy, Tyrion Davis Price, not too bad.

Sean Stevens on the come. Yeah, give him credit. Cousin of Joey Porter, Jr. Is that who it was? No, it wasn't Joey Porter. Jr. But someone who knows Joey Porter Jr. What is it, Jeffrey? It was not Jeffrey.

Now, Jeffrey did not ask me about John Stevens. Was it Ross Tucker? It was not Ross Tucker. But I got to see Ross Tucker. Nice guy. I'm looking forward to when I watched the replay of the game. I get to hear Ross Tucker's call. Give me your press conference nugget.

Press conference nugget. Okay. Oh, we didn't get to one play worth mentioning. We'll do press conference nugget first. Are we combining press conference nugget in straight thought at this point? If you want to. Yeah, sure. Okay.

Press conference nugget. Vic Fangio. that when he was with the Miami Dolphins. Yeah, this is mine, so this is good. Okay, when he was with the Miami Dolphins, he wanted them to trade for Milton Williams and Howie Roseman wouldn't do it. Now, of course, we don't know what the price was that was being offered.

But there's two ways to take him. There's two ways of taking this. Number one, it shows you that Milton Williams is a guy that Vic Fangio's liked from being in the NFL before, being around the Eagles building. clearly he he liked him not that he wanted him in Miami so that shows you kind of Milton Williams is standing with the Fangio the fact that the Eagles weren't looking to trade or willing to trade Milton Williams last year when they had Fletcher Cox Jalen Carter Jordan Davis also shows

you the Eagles really value Milton Williams like it shows you his spot in the organization so I thought that was a cool nugget with a few layers to it yeah that was that was interesting probably a nice to just lob up to Howie and I don't know it's good good little luggage all right here's my here's my play worth mentioning Zach and this is I think if you're if you are feeling really good vibes about the Eagles you know there was a there's a scene at the end of practice today where Jalen Hertz is

driving a golf cart and Siriani is sitting in the front seat and they're playing you know Jalen's got some R&B music playing and Dom's in the back and they're all they've got these big smiles on their face it's Dom's golf cart yeah okay yeah um Did Jimmy Kempski at Phillyvoys.com report that? No. Okay. I've seen the golf cart.

It has a big domy. Yeah. There's this nice vibes. Here's the thing that's going to make those not so nice. Nick Sirioni in the middle of practice today says this is an unscripted session. We're going to be running scenarios, right? Yes. Okay.

One play. So for the starters, the one play, the one scenario that he has come up with is third and eight, third and goal from the eight. first quarter. That's what he says. Okay. Third and goal from the eight, first quarter. What's our go-to play here? What are we calling?

And do you know what he called, Zach? You tell me. A cowards draw. Did he call it or did he call him more call? A cowards draw. That's the play that we're calling on third and goal from the eight. We're doing a draw and guess what? It was a two-yard gain and guess you're kicking a field goal.

But first quarter, so you can't be, you know, you can't be risking throwing the ball in the end zone. very much on my radar. And then the other scenario that he comes up with. This was a bow moment if I've ever seen one. For the threes, the scenario is fourth and five from the minus 35, meaning the, you know, 65 yards away from the end zone. First quarter, Nick,

I know that you are not going for fourth and five from the 35 in the first quarter. You just called a cowards draw from the eight yard line on third and goal. You're not snapping this ball. I know you're not snapping this ball. The defense knows you're not snapping this ball. Everybody here knows you're not snapping this ball.

If I can interject, everyone around Bo knows they were not snapping the ball because Bo said, I will bet you $20. John Ross over here, I will bet you $20 that I'm not snapping this ball. Yeah, Fran took me up. He said we bet at lunch on it. And guess what? they didn't snap the ball. Well, we got a practice drawn off sides.

And you know what? You do have to practice drawing off sides. That's fine. But if the scenario in your mind that's perfect for drawing them off sides is fourth and five from the 35 in the first quarter, we're practicing the wrong stuff. We're practicing loser stuff. Cowards draw from the eight yard line in the first quarter, fourth and five trying to draw them off sides. Let's practice being aggressive.

This is not a new... Should this be directed at Kellyn, though? Or the Nick? No, because I think these are Nick's scenarios. Yeah, but the play calls Kellyn's play. Yeah, but I... I mean, Nick's not saying... Honestly, this is the first time

where I have worried about the Nick offense influence into Kellyn Moore's offense. Because the Coward's draw on the drawing off sides. Which one was more egregious from your perspective? That is weak stuff. Which one was more egregious from your perspective? The Cowards draw.

Okay. You got one shot to work on an offense. his play call from the eight yard line third and goal and that's what we're doing give me a break and what would you call them that spot a pass what pass what place i don't know what i don't know i don't have the plays in their playbook when i've had conversations with gms before about like oh flex okay when i've had conversations with people before about um like you know this pick or this player they say what would you have done how well how would you have made that well yeah picks are different because Pixar like we all have the same

I'm saying so you wouldn't call the Coward Straw I would say what would you call in that situation? Yeah but I don't have their playbook a pass I don't have their playbook Zach I can't say what which play of their plays I would have called I would have thrown the ball okay okay fair enough you're so you always want to defend them

I'm not trying to defend them I'm simply having a sensible play call you need three points he's also when they're backed up he's yelling at the offense we got to flip the field don't flip the field get a first down first off i i don't like that play either but i can tell you that when i did not like the uh the running the ball backed up what did i do i offered an alternative i said this is the play i would have done what was your play i would have said i said a quick rollout okay you just said a quick pass no i said a quick rollout or a quick slant okay but a quick rollout

is not a play that's just that's a part of the play okay well i would okay all right so if you want to get pedantic, then give the play. Fair enough. Okay. What was your play? The Johnny Wilson touched on. That was a nice play. I thought Johnny Wilson's coming on.

Josh Norris from Underdog has been talking about Johnny Wilson since the draft. And we spoke on Friday's show about how this is a real thing, him getting work with the ones. You're seeing it more and more every day. But it's not just like him working with the ones. ones it's the plays that he's making i thought the i thought the touchdown today was a big boy play right and it's that it's how you're going to use him in that you know he he wasn't as like outstanding in the red zone as you would think for a six seven player six six six and a six seven in college yeah uh but i pointed out the uh one-on-one from the other day him him

catching those those uh jump balls and i i saw it today like again maybe the pass was off for jowland I actually thought Jay one put it behind him intentionally. And he completed another pass to Wilson in the open field earlier in practice, which was a nice completion as well. Yeah. And, you know, we spoke to Aaron Moorhead yesterday. And Aaron Moorhead, one thing that he said was that, like, they thought Johnny Wilson got, like, tired over the game or, like, he wasn't at full,

like, his whole self over the course of the game. And that's something that they're really kind of working with him on. But I heard John on Anthony's show talk about how he's been chatting with Harold Carmichael. Yeah. About, you know, about being a big receiver. I think the Johnny Wilson thing is real. And I thought the play today in the end zone was just a nice adjustment on the ball, made the catch in traffic against, you know, good, legit NFL players.

I'd like what I saw. I do think that the Johnny Wilson ascension is more about what else is here. than this is a guy who has shown that he definitely deserves to be one of the top three receivers on the starting NFL offense. Yeah, and I also think, too, there's a difference between us as beat reporters

and observers of practice and understanding of the team saying, like, pay attention to this guy because he'll have a role. There's difference between that and like watch out Johnny Wilson is a breakout player. Like Johnny Wilson might have 15 catches this season. Right.

But that's a role. on the team. Make sure, by the way, that you are hitting the like button and subscribing and unsubscribing and then subscribing and all that good stuff. Thank you to everybody for watching and listening today. But a couple more minutes here before we leave, Zach. I have one other play worth mentioning. Yes. This was twos versus twos team drill. And Kenny Pickett just absolutely pancakes and lays out Will Shipley, your boy. He was like moving around in the pocket and Shipley got like swatted away like a fly on a windshield. What's what's up with your boy?

Shipley? Yeah. Firstly, he's in the wrong place. And he gets knocked over by Kenny Pickett. Come on. Yeah. I think Shippa has been good this summer. I got to say, Nick did not help his case yesterday.

Oh, my God. I do want to talk about this. Yeah. I mean, come on. Nick goes, Nick goes, you know what? I was talking about, I keep talking about with Will Shippey. There's a lot of things about him that reminded. me of Danny Woodhead.

And I'm like, and I'm thinking a lot of things, Nick. Like the pigment? Like Nick. Come on, Nick. I mean, there's, there's a lot of running back comps you can go with.

Danny Woodhead is like like a different type of player. Danny Woodhill was 58-204. You know, he's like, you know the way he's built. The shoulders. He's at the lower body, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Shipley was never like a volume runner. Like, um, I mean, at least he didn't say McCaffrey. Yeah, I mean, but like McCaffrey, yeah, his college career is more comparable to Christian McCaffrey's than Will Shipley.

I'm sorry, than Danny Woodheads. That's not true. You think Will Shipley's career was comparable to Christian McCaffrey's? I mean, close. He was a five-star recruit who was a freshman starter at Clemson, a three-year player for a major program, big-time team, like prolific production in the ACD. Not that prolific production. Compared to Danny Woodhead who went to what? Like Platte, like Nebraska Platt or something?

Let me see. I mean, Danny Woodhead had big time production for he or I'm sorry, he went to the Chaudrin State. Okay. Oh, yes, Shadron State. So I just don't think the level of production from Will Shepley was not super impressive. I think it's more comfortable. But in any respect, At least you didn't say Peyton Hillis.

Yeah, they're not similar in that regard. But I think Wilship was at a good summer. I think it's a solid summer. I just think Gainwell's looked good in the past few days too. I think so too. Yeah. All right. Anything else you'd like to talk about before we get to the super chat that we have?

No, there's, this was a, first off, I appreciate the structure of the show. This was fun. There's more that I can get into, and we can get into tomorrow, including a book selection from Sequin Barclay that we will discuss or a book recommendation from Sequan Barclay that we can discuss? No. If you want to. Okay.

No, I'm not shaking my head of you. I'm shaking my head of myself. I'm disappointed at myself for not asking Sequin about his tweet today. Okay. I should have asked him. Giving him a chance to clear the air. Okay.

I don't have much to contribute to that. Okay. I did a bad job. me that's all okay um yeah i mean okay but yeah there's and then looking forward to tomorrow's practice overall and then i want to see c oh we didn't get in cj gardner johnson's press conference we can talk about that tomorrow as well but i enjoy the structure of the show okay uh let's check out that super chat from chris who says rate the following eagles backup quarterback sack bobby hoeing a j feely mike mcm oh okay we um and is there a chapter on backup quarterback

in underdogs. I mean, the franchise. The franchise. Well, there's a chapter about the starting quarterbacks who had been backups, Nick Foles.

There was a, there's a chapter of the 2017 season where Jeffrey Lurie talks about the way they valued backup quarterbacks, like, you know, moving on from Chase Daniel. Of these three, yeah, Mike McMahon is definitely the last.

The 2005 season is a, was like a horrible one in Eagles history. And Mike McMahon played there, played it. in that season. I think A.J. Philly would probably,

I mean, I would say Bobby Hoying was the most productive of them as a starter. But they didn't, didn't get them a second round pick. Yeah. So I would say A.J.

Feely, it was more of a winning season. They never had, like, false illusions of A.J. Feely, whereas Bobby Hoying went into the following years

as the starting quarterback. Actually in, like, NFL lower, if you will, Bobby Hoyings kind of viewed as like a feather in the cap of John

Gordon, you know, real good job developing him because he wasn't the same after John Gruden left. I can't think of Mike McMahon without thinking of my friend Pat Mayo's brother, Timmy Mayo, who was a Lions fan and used to refer to Mike McMahon as the Mobile Joe Montana. Ah, okay. Yeah. I think he had a good Madden rating one year. There you go. But he wasn't a high draft pick.

What was the thing you wanted to get to about the high draft picks? Yeah, so I was thinking about this with you. like, I don't back off this because, all right, here, here, let me explain this. And I think, like, you, there's some nuance required. He's like moving around in his seat.

Yeah, there's, he's setting up for a, there's nuance required of this. The way I talk about high draftics is not just like a label, like he was drafted here because he was good. Typically, to be a high draft pick, you have to have a redeeming characteristic

that makes you a high draft. Whether it's athletic ability, you know, your athletic profile is so elite, or your college production was such that it warranted. But typically you check off certain parameters that are like requirements for a team. Teams aren't typically drafting exceptions in the first 10, 15, 20, 30 picks of the draft, right? So there's something to work with there.

So basically what you're saying with the high draft pick, like it's not just, oh, he's good because he was this pick. It's because, no, there is a certain amount of like unearthed talent. here and I understand your point that a draft pick has usually more shots to succeed but often there's there's um whether it's circumstances or maybe they were drafted into a bad scheme maybe they had bad talent around them like there's there's a handful of different things that could maybe there was there was injuries that deter them but that there are often contributing factors sometimes the player's bad and and he comes in and you realize he's bad and he's he's out of the league but other times there are contributing factors that suggest that maybe there's something here we can

figure out that we can determine that we can unearth that this is a project worth exploring. I don't think history bears that out. Okay. I think players who are drafted that early have been given every opportunity to succeed. The meritocracy of it has deemed that they are not that not worthy of that slot. and so like the Eagles went out this offseason and signed or traded for five former first round picks and then a bunch of second round picks like Paris Campbell and Matt Hennessy right they Mackay Beckton and Devin White and you know sayquan's a little bit different can he picket

the players who like whose organizations are most invested in their success and have sure put in the most invest like resource into them have decided that they are not going to enough. I think it's very unlikely that those players are all of a sudden going to go somewhere else and succeed. I remember actually your boy, Joe Banner once talked about this in a Q&A about how like the the circumstantial stuff about where a guy's land is probably overstated because like if if a player is good enough and I think it's probably a little bit different at some positions than others. But there's a difference between wanting to go trade for a guy who was a former first round pick because he's maybe undervalued.

Yeah. Versus like this guy has kicked around the league, you know, you know, Denzel Mims or whoever, like, well, he used to, he was a second round pick. There must have been something there. Teams don't draft exceptions. Well, guess what? He's been in the league a long time. He's had a shot.

I think it's much more likely that a player who entered the league as a late round pick and wasn't given a chance is going to be somebody who pops because he's never been given the chance. Yeah. And just to like build upon this, I hear what you're saying. And I don't dispute that. And I typically don't say like bring in someone who was complete trash somewhere else, right? Or was clearly unworthy of that selection.

But there are times when, you know, there's a player. If you think about like, you know, Stefan Gilmore when he was in Buffalo, it was the number 10 overall pick, right? Showed flashes, but never kind of consistently was one of the best corners in the game. goes to New England was one of the best corners in the game. You look at Leonard Floyd, showed flashes when he was with the Bears, but then he goes to the Rams and becomes like a really productive pass rusher, even more so than he was in Chicago.

Like sometimes the way you're, you know, there's examples of players who were good somewhere. They had a down year late in the year. Maybe it was injuries. Maybe it was contract related like Devin White. And then you go somewhere. So like there's, you know. Yeah, I think there's a difference. I do think that there's a difference between a guy who was a starter, but up and down,

who you're talking about versus a guy like John Ross who, like, couldn't get on the field. But we're taught, but if you look at players like Devin White, players like Sequan Barclay, who are the other, you know, Mackay Beckton, right? These are examples of guys who showed high-level production where they were. Yeah, I think those guys are all a little bit different. I think Sequin is about the team. You have to explain why the team is letting him go. Sure. Right.

Sequin, they're letting him go because they don't think a running back is worth that much money. And he's past the age curve. And they think there's not a lot of tread left on the tires. Mackay Beckton, the Jets need offensive linemen. They're letting him go because they don't think he's worth it. Like, they don't think he's a good enough player. Kenny Pickett, those Steelers are letting him go because he's not their quarterback. I mean, there can be times when the context factors into it, you know?

That's what I'm saying. No, but like the pressure that it comes with that place and this guy just needs a change of scenery. And sometimes like, Andre Dillard was bad in Tennessee. He was bad in Philly, who's bad in Tennessee. That's an example of when it doesn't work. I'm just saying I think that you make it a little bit simplistic about, I don't say, oh, he's a former first-round pick, therefore they should sign him. There are traits and characteristics that allow someone to be a first-round pick that I says,

maybe this is worth exploring, right? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, you're like, didn't you ask, we asked Devin White and Isaiah Simmons question today? I asked Devin White about because Vic Fangio made a comment that he thinks inside linebacker. I asked Vic Fangio if inside linebacker plays important in his scheme. Vic Fangio went to or I didn't say is it important in your scheme. I said so he went to Patrick Wilson's as a Hall of Fame ceremony this weekend.

Also saw Merrill Reese. Congratulations to Merrill well deserving. And so he's there. And so I kind of drew back to that. It's hard to say you're going to have Patrick Will's and Navarro Bowman. But does your scheme require high-level play from linebackers? I think that's a good question. And he said he thinks all defenses now require it because there's your shot at Howie.

He kind of takes the opposite approach of the Eagles. He says maybe 10 years ago when teams were playing with fullbacks, you could have like try hard, tough guys at linebacker and like get by with them. Now that it's more of a space game, you need linebackers who can cover. And it's hard not to have that on the field. He said they're trying to figure out if they have it. So I brought this up, but also Devin White was the last linebacker, last offball linebacker going the top five. The last one to go in the top 10 was Isaiah Simmons one year later.

And he was a linebacker safety hybrid, right? So I said, how do you kind of reconcile these two things that this coach says it's important, but that the league doesn't really value it. And he says he doesn't have an answer for that other than like he's like special. Basically what's his point is that he can do all these different things. So he's trying to tell linebackers who would look at the camera, linebackers who are watching to do all all these different things. All right.

Yeah. He's special just like Zach Berman is special. And that's why we're going to be back tomorrow at 2 o'clock, Wednesday, 2 o'clock, Thursday, 2 o'clock, and then Friday, the preseason of, opener. We'll have a pregame show at 7 o'clock and then a postgame show to talk about everything that happens as the Eagles open things up. What a packed show today. Two practices to talk about back on the practice field in the morning to talk about it tomorrow at 2 o'clock. So, thank you to everybody for watching and listening. May you all have good luck meeting people in phone

booths. And for all of us here at PHLY. We thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. And as always, we love you. Y'all silly like the mayor.