PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Rapid-fire NFL Draft questions for the Philadelphia Eagles with Fran Duffy
Episode Date: February 28, 2024Live from Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine, it’s time to cover some draft ground for an Eagles team with three picks in the first two rounds. Kool-Aid McKinstry is a sick name, but what abo...ut his game? Is his Alabama teammate Terrion Arnold even better? Are the Eagles too overindexed on Dallas’s to draft Dallas Turner?Fran Duffy joins Zach Berman and Bo Wulf to discuss all the hard-hitting questions about this year’s draft class. 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.
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In Indianapolis, Bo Wolf, Zach Berman on Radio Row, joined by Fran Duffy of Philadelphia
eagles.com.
Fran, how are you?
Thank you for joining us and playing along as we all sit here without any pants on.
Yes, as we know, that is always on the table when you are involved.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, do not put it on the table.
I'm very happy to be with both you guys here for Radio.
I'm excited for the three-man weave since it was just me and you at the Senior Bowl.
Yes.
I have Zach here with us today.
And I'm not in.
on the no pants bit. We're all very professional here. We're wearing pants. Let's make that
abundantly clear. Okay. Some of us are wearing pants. Let's at least keep it at that. We've got a lot
to talk about today. We're going to, we're going to just sort of rapid fire, throw some draft
questions at your friend as we are here for the combine. We've got, you know, next week to really
preview free agency, all that good stuff. But, you know, we want to make use of you. So we want to do
a little bit of that. But before we do that, Zach, give us a little stone cold newsman update to kick
things off. Sure. Since we last spoke, the NFLPA released their player survey. They did this last
year at the combine. It came out today. We're going to get into it in tomorrow's show because we have
Fran today. We're going to talk draft here in the combine. But just to give a quick overview, the Eagles
were ranked number four among 32 teams overall. And among the A grades were the cafeteria,
which Fran can attest to. Head coach and ownership also received A's.
and weight room received an A minus, and the strength coaches received in A minus.
So we'll get into more.
And then if I gave the A grades, I should give the C grades too.
The treatment of families was a C grade, and the team travel was a C grade.
So we'll get into all those details tomorrow.
That's what both calls the tease.
But that's the news that's up.
Back to you in studio.
Thanks.
Great.
Yeah, we'll talk about that tomorrow.
I've got some more thoughts, I think, on the Nick Siriani stuff from yesterday that we can get
too, but let's save that for tomorrow.
Let's talk draft with Fran.
First of all, how are you?
I'm great.
I love an indie.
Yeah, I love an indie.
It's a great food city.
Great job. Dynamite dropping.
It's a great food city.
I think, I know you and Sheel will bust on other writers for saying this.
They should never move the combat.
They really, they really should not.
All the other options, it just makes too much sense to keep here for a lot of reasons.
Yeah, but from what I understand, like that's, that was not a pleasant experience.
it's, you know, for most people.
I loved it.
From an event standpoint.
But, you know, to each his own.
I love Indy, though.
Just the connectivity.
Like, the connectivity.
How about we go somewhere where, and I know that the weather was nice the first couple
days?
It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to go somewhere where it's not freezing every day.
Right.
Every year.
Yeah, that's why they have jackets.
You do have a jacket when you walk off the plane.
I think the big thing is obviously the efficiency from like the medical portion of it.
That is a big reason.
That's why it hasn't moved yet, is that they haven't.
found a solution for getting 320 plus MRIs done in, you know, over a four-day span and having all of
those medical facilities here in downtown Indianapolis. It's so crazy. This is the only place in the
country with hospitals. Well, you know, there's a reason why it came here to begin to begin with
the central location being a part of that. But having all of those facilities ready to go,
this is a big convention city already. So like having all of that stuff in place, it just makes
too much sense. Well, being a big Adele guy wants to monetize the combine a little bit. Of course.
No, I just, I just.
Any way to make a buck, both of it.
Exactly.
Okay.
And Zach, did you have a good evening last night?
Yes, I love coming to the Combine.
Nice evening.
Nice dinner with you, among others.
Who between the two of you do you think enjoys the Combine more?
I would say Fran.
Wow.
I feel like that's a mission for you, Zach.
Look, it's, I enjoy the Combine.
I think Fran probably gets more out of the Combine than I do.
And so, you know, Fran's going to be at the, in the stadium this, this, this week.
And so I love the, I just love all these NFL people in one city.
And there's a certain energy, there's a certain buzz.
It's the start of the non-playing season from my perspective.
The NPO.
There go.
I don't know why you call it.
The NPO.
It's CILES.
But, no, I will give Fran the honors there.
And I will gladly take the owner's meetings, mantle.
There go.
Yeah.
We all know that.
Yeah.
Mr.
Money,
money,
money, money over here.
Okay.
All right,
let's talk a little,
let's talk a little shop here,
friend.
I want to start with having known you and your draft process for a very long time.
And some of the things that are your,
like,
some of your best historic things that you are a little bit outside of consensus on and nailed.
I believe that corner is one of your,
if not your best position.
Now,
you may feel free to disagree.
but I think cornerback is a very realistic possibility for the Eagles in the first round or in the second round with those two second round picks.
How do you see this group stacking up?
How does it compare to two years past?
I think it's a good cornerback group.
You know, it's not the same as a couple years ago when you had Patrick Churton and J.C. Horn both go in the top ten.
There's not going to be that kind of draft this year where you see those two guys go off that early.
But I think there are a lot of players you can be really excited about, especially in the first round.
Cooper dejean from Iowa. He's not going to work out.
That's the white guy, Indianapolis.
Everybody knows.
The corner back from Iowa.
He's a corner back from Iowa who's great athletic testing.
Great athlete who could be a corner, a nickel, a safety, he's done a little bit of everything.
He's been a great punt returner.
Tough, physical, instinctive, man, zone, press off, inside, outside.
You love everything about Cooper de Gene from that standpoint.
Quinion Mitchell from Toledo.
You got a chance to see him down at the Senior Bowl, first round prospect all day.
Everybody else from here and out is going to be not white, correct?
Correct. Yes. So now that that's established.
That is for me sure.
I like both Alabama corners,
Kool-Aid McKinstree and Terry and Arnold.
A lot of people really like Nate Wiggins as well.
We're really athletic corner from Clemson.
So there's a bunch of, I mean, that's five names right there
that people are talking about in the first round of this track.
So for the Eagles,
tell us what like, what would a Vic Fangio corner look like?
And what are the skill sets that would be a little bit different
than other teams might be looking for?
You know, I think that over the course of,
Vic Fangio's time in the NFL over the, you know, where you go to San Francisco,
to Chicago, to Denver, you know, I think a lot of people are quick to point, oh,
it's, it's quarters coverage, so it's a lot of zone-based things.
But, you know, you go to Denver, and his last year in Denver, they played man coverage as
not as much as anybody, but they played a lot of man coverage and more so than
that they had played previously.
And a lot of that was because of the talent that they had at corner.
They drafted Patrick Sertan and they said, this guy's one of the best young corners in football
already.
We're going to play a lot of man.
And so I don't know that I would look at it and say, oh, look,
They have to go with Quiginan Mitchell because, you know, he played so much off zone and that's how they're going to be.
I think that there are, you know, there's always the mix of the on field and the off field.
And so that's going to kind of open the door for really any of these guys.
And then it's going to be up to Vic Fangio and the defensive staff to really kind of cater what they want to do from a coverage standpoint to that player's skill set.
You mentioned the two Alabama corners.
Coed Wade McKinstree was the cover photo for today's show.
It seemed going into the year, he was getting more of the hype.
And he was like the top guy. Terry and Arnold overtook him.
Is there some like post hype charm to Kool-Aid?
And is he someone who I guess do you see Terry and Arnold as the superior player?
Or do you think there is some charm to Kool-Aid?
Yeah, I think that when you look at Kool-Aid, the reason why he probably got a little bit more of the hype,
he started as a true freshman.
And when you do that for Nick Sabin in the secondary, there's going to be a lot of hype associated there.
He was a five-star recruit.
obviously the name for what it is.
Like there's name recognition there.
It's one of the best names you can find.
But I think when you look at Kooliid, how he test this week,
I think we'll be a little bit lesser than when you compare him to some of these other
corners that we've talked about.
I don't think he's going to test as well as Wiggins.
He wouldn't have tested well as Dijin.
If Dijin was going to go, I think Arnold will test a little bit better.
Quinion Mitchell, I think he's going to run on the four threes.
I think he's going to run a little bit better.
So I think when you look at the overall testing, I don't think Kool8 is quite that level of
athlete, still a good athlete, but I think with all those other guys,
you're talking in that blue chip level.
You know, if you look at the relative athletic score, the RAS score,
those guys are going to be like nine plus.
And I think Kool-Aid's probably going to be in like that eight and a half to nine.
So we're picking nits there.
But I think when you look at Terry and Arnold, a little bit more tracy.
So like the height weight speed is going to be a little bit more intriguing there.
The ball production was absolutely there for him this past season.
Both of them were starters coming into the year.
So it's not like, oh, you know, you didn't really see anything of Terry and Arnold.
But I think this past year is it the kind of thing where like the ball
production is there because the teams were throwing away from McKinstree?
Well, I can tell you that here this year.
So this past this past season, Terry and Arnold was targeted on 17% of his of his past
coverage snaps and Kool-Aid McKinstree was targeted on just 8%.
So yeah, the team stayed away from Kool-Aid McKinstree, whereas they went at Taryn
Arnold. Now Arnold did come through and was productive this past season, but he did see a little bit more
action.
All right.
So, you know, one of the nice things about being here in the combine, we're in the corner.
So we get to see everything that's going on at Radio Row.
We see people walk by.
Peck nest migrate, Dane Brugler, Greg CoSell, Tony Pauline.
Um, all right.
So, uh, that's a good one.
I mean, I got, I think I got to nest Dane Bruegler.
I think you got to, yeah, you got to, you got to nest Dane Bruegler.
Um, I mean, I, I think you got to, I mean, those are some, some interesting peck.
Yeah.
I think I'm going to I think I'm going to peck my longtime co-host on the Eagle Line
the Sky podcast, Greg CoSell, and then migrate Tony Pauline.
Well, let's hope that he doesn't see this.
I mean, he might have gotten his four miles.
He might be outrunning right now.
He's, I know he runs like four miles a day or whatever it is.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, so Cooper de Gene.
He's not testing this week?
He's not.
He had an injury lateness.
He's nothing too, too serious.
But it did cost him the last couple of games for Iowa.
And then it cost him a little bit of the training period.
So he's going to try.
Dane actually reported a couple weeks ago that he's going to try and test for teams in April.
And the thought process that he might move to safety, is that reverse racism?
No, I don't think so because he played all over the field for Iowa.
Honestly, like a name that popped into my head while watching Cooper to Gene,
because there was a lot of this written about this player when he was coming out.
Jalen Ramsey was viewed as like, is he a corner?
Is he a safety when he was at Florida State?
because he played safety that final year.
They wanted to get him inside.
They wanted to play him close to the football,
you know,
because he was placed,
you know,
down close to line of scrimmage so often.
But he was a dynamite corner.
And that's kind of how I viewed DeGine.
I think when you look at the height,
weight speed profile,
I think they're very, very similar.
Now, Jalen Ramsey, you know,
has been an outstanding corner.
Was a top five pick, top 10 pick.
DeGine's not going to go that high.
Now, if he had tested,
maybe there was a little bit more buzzed that way.
But I think that Cooper de Gene,
like from a archetype standpoint,
is that kind of defensive back.
Now, this is known,
as an offensive tackle draft, offensive tackle wide receiver.
Why is this such a strong Ode tackle draft?
Who are the guys that set this apart from?
Obviously, last year was a bad one, but even like a middle of the pack Ode tackle.
I think depending on what you want, like you're going to find it here in this class.
And so if you're looking for your light-footed, you know, dancing bear type, you've got it.
If you want your road grading right tackle, you've got it.
If you want the technician, if you want all the different archetypes are all there with this offensive
a tackle group and they're there in spades.
I mean, you look at Olu Foshanu from Penn State.
You look at Amarius Mims from Georgia, J.C.
Latham, Alabama, Kingsley Sua, Mataia
from BYU.YU.
Wow.
Bang.
Look, you asked me about it with the bed.
The senior ball, I said I was not ready for it at that point.
We're ready now at this point.
But, you know, Tyler Guyton and Joe Alt,
you just go right down the line.
All these guys are legitimate players.
You find out you messed up Joe Alt.
Yeah, Joe Alt.
Joe Alt.
Joe Alt's brother played for the Flyers.
You know that.
No, I actually didn't know that.
Well, there you go.
All right.
Tell you guys.
that one. But no, there's a, there are a bunch of legitimate first round talent
prospects at that position. Now it's just to be beauty in the eye of the beholder in
terms of how they come off the board. Well, let's, you know, in terms of
I have the beholder. We know that the beholder here is Jeff Stoutland. We know
that he likes to say, uh, I'm looking for unusual. Unusual. Right. Right.
Sure. Who were the guys who have those unusual traits? Well, that's what
makes this one fun is that there are a lot of guys. You would say,
unusual in different ways. Yes. And that's the thing. So, uh, Kingsley,
Mata'i'i.
All right.
So we're going to go,
we'll go back to him from BYU.
Now you're just showing up.
21-year-old rookie,
who was a captain this past year as a red shirt sophomore,
was number three on Bruce Feldman's freak list at 6-7-3-50 or whatever he came.
And you do not see a lot of 21-year-olds coming out of BYU.
No, no, you don't.
He's not your typical.
He was Penny Sewell's cousin.
He started at Oregon and then transferred to BYU this past year.
So he's got all kinds of ability.
The traits are there, a little bit unpolished as a younger player,
but high character,
everything you want.
He's played.
He has started at left-taxie.
and he has started at right tackle.
There's a lot to like about that profile.
But then you go to Marius Mims from Georgia, only eight starts in his college career.
I mean, you don't see that along the offensive line.
But he's six, he's listed six seven, three 40.
And he does not move like six seven three 40.
He's going to be one of the more impressive movers on Sunday.
I can't wait for this offensive line workout on Sunday because you have so many of these guys
that are viewed this way.
Troy Fautanu from Washington.
Similar kind of, he's six four, you know, 300 pounds, outstanding athletes.
So he's got some unusual movement patterns for an offensive lineman.
Tyler Guyton, who we got to see down at the senior ball.
He's a former tight end in college, only a one-year starter at Oklahoma at offensive tackle,
who looks the part and is a true, like, outstanding foot quickness,
dancing bear type of offensive lineman.
And so all these guys are unusual in their own way.
J.C. Latham is a brick house.
He's probably the strongest player in the draft.
He's been a two-year starter at right tackle for Nick Sabin and Alabama.
So depending on what you're looking for, again, you've got it in this class.
There are some guys with outstanding physical traits.
Are we staying on the tackles?
I know this is rapid fire.
Go ahead.
So someone posed a question to me the other day, who is the most likely in this class
if you had to bet being all pro?
And my answer was Brock Bowers.
And here we go.
There's a lot of talk, right?
I saw Daniel Jeremiah talking about positional value last week.
Brock Bowers is, I think, just like a different player.
What's your view of Brock Bowers?
And if you take away the TE and you just look at him as like offensive weapon,
does that change the way you view him?
Bo's rolling his eyes.
I hate this so much.
I side with Bo on the offensive weapon handle.
I probably felt differently about that, you know, four years ago,
five years ago, six years ago.
But I think, look, at the end of the day, like when those guys go into meetings on Wednesday,
day when they come in for game planning you know there's not an offensive weapon room in the uh in the
building wherever he goes right he's going to go to the tight end room and so he's going to be a tight end
uh i think at the end of the day when you look at bowers he's outstanding he goes to the offensive
weapon room dinard robinson is his position right exactly uh i mean to me like people are very quick
to say oh he's better than kyle pitts i mean pits was pitts was outstanding oh you know i know i know i
know i don't tell you pitts was outstanding at florida they are very different players you know pits
was like a wide receiver in terms of his usage and what he ran down the field.
Bowers is much more, and he's an outstanding athlete in his own right.
It's a shame that he can't go or I don't know if he's doing a full battery of test here
this week.
But when you look at Bowers, he can run.
He's really strong.
He's really tough.
He's not a plus plus blocker, but he's a more than good enough blocker.
And what he can do with the ball on his hands and at the catch point.
I mean, he's a game breaker at the position.
That said, I think when you do look at and, you know, Daniel Jeremiah made the point that it's
about like the franchise kind of.
I don't even think it's necessarily all about the franchise tag numbers either.
I think even if you start looking down at like, all right, you know, Travis Kelsey and his
contract, from an A.A. Y standpoint, how much he makes a year compare that.
That's like similar to, you know, what Gabe Davis is going to make on the open market this
year, right?
As a, like a mid-level wide receiver too.
And so to me, like the proof is in the pudding in terms of how teams value that position.
By the way, I think Boe is going to love Brock Bowers because he's from Napa.
He is from Napa.
As a, why, because I'm a whino?
As a wine connoisseur, yeah, someone who enjoys a good more, um, or low, I think you would.
Now we got to do a whole sideways thing.
I got to tell you we don't drink a more low.
More low.
Yeah.
Here's my Brock, you know, on the one hand, there for a long time, like tight ends did not make an impact early.
And that has changed of late.
So that's, that moves me a little bit.
but I mean if we're talking in the first round
if you're drafting a tight end
that tight end better be one of the three best
tight ends in the league
hence the all pro designation that I said
okay but like that is a that is a
very small margin for error
and to your point like if you get
the 45th best receiver in the league
that is better than the sixth best tight end
in the league right
and you know tight end is not an immediate need for them
the idea like the offensive
weapon idea like oh if you just put
wide receiver next to his name like
give me a
break. If you put wide receiver next to his name, he wouldn't be very good.
I think he would, I think he would be good. Yeah, I think he would be good. But at the end of
day, he's going to be a tight end. Right. And so you kind of have to have that designation.
At the end of the day, you want good players, right? And you made that you talked about a couple
days ago, I believe on the show where you said that you can be overplayed a little bit.
I think the surplus value thing is a little bit overstated. Yeah. It's about like the, the, the,
hit rates at important positions. This is where you get good players. And that's the thing is
that if you, if you accept the fact that no one is a certainty in this whole process,
the most, I remember the, the safest player ever was Go Deeks, Aaron Curry.
Curry, my man.
Oh, yeah, oh, he is, I can't miss.
Yes.
And he missed.
Like, you look at everything about his profile.
I say, oh, he's going to be a long time starting the NFL.
Even if he's not an all pro, he should be a good player.
And he didn't make it.
And so if you say, hipster opinion, I always thought Alfonzo Smith was a better player.
He didn't hit either.
Of course, he did.
But I think, I think, it's such a bow.
Listen, I watched every, I watched that team play every week.
He was the better player on the defense.
But that said, you know, if you're going to take your shots in the first round,
to me, you take it at the more boom-bust positions.
I agree.
Yeah, I agree.
Okay, next position to talk about is the edge, I think.
If we're talking at 22, it seems like this is not a huge, like, you know,
10 guys who are going to go in the first round edge group.
I think my most important question to you is,
should the Eagles be concerned about drafting a player named Dallas
if they have to be in the division with the Cowboys?
Great, great callback.
Shout to Les Bowen.
That's the Dallas Reynolds question, even they have a Dallas.
Yeah, the edge rushers feels like not necessarily the strength of this class,
but maybe some guys who could be in play at 22 or around that neighborhood.
Yeah, I think that it's similar to what we were saying with Corner,
where there's not that guy that's going to go,
that's a lock to go in the top 5, 6, 7, right?
And look, for the first time ever,
it might be completely offense only in the top 10 of this draft.
But I think when you look at Dallas Turner,
you look at Jared Verst, you look at Laotulatu.
Those are the three guys that I think people are talking about,
you know, in that we'll say like 8 to 20 range.
And are all those guys going to go in that range?
Could somebody sneak in?
You know, could Missouri's Darius Robinson,
sneak in there.
Is there another player that could potentially
break in there, chop Robinson, right?
So, you know, he's going to test well this week.
So I think when you look at that position,
that's the range where you're seeing the first one
come off the board.
And then you know how this goes.
It's all about, all right, are there going to be runs
at other positions that could cause someone else to fall?
Latu's medical this week is going to be a big thing,
you know, after he had the issue early in his career,
Washington that forced him to medically retire before.
Firefighter.
I did, yeah.
Yeah, he did firefighting.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, him and Grand Capatera.
Oh, geez.
All right.
I did not know that about Lato.
I do like LATU is awesome.
He's also 35 years old.
I don't know if he's 35, but he's as skilled a rusher as we've seen in the top of the draft.
Lot too.
Yeah, a lot too.
Okay.
What's the, what's the scattering report in terms of like profile for the players for those other guys?
So Jared Verse, started his career at Albany.
And then after a couple of years, transferred down to the Florida State and was one of the most productive players in the country.
You don't see a lot of Albany to Florida State.
No, that pipeline doesn't really exist typically.
But I think when you look at first.
No, non-stop flights from Albany to Tallahassee.
No.
Good student unions in both towns.
But I think when you look at Jared Verst, he's explosive, he's powerful, he's violent.
He's a good run defender.
I think the athleticism isn't like a huge, huge strength of his game.
I don't think he's going to look great like in the three cone or anything like that.
Like an AJ Eponessa type then.
Yeah, I think so.
But he's, you know, Epinessa.
What I liked about Epinessa coming out,
was he had like that inside out versatility i think i think when you look at verse he's a straight like
more of like a josh sweat like he is a pure base defensive end like let him line up
overtackle and go that's kind of what you look at here with jared verse uh the production was outstanding
not just last year but even this year as well as he continued to get more attention he was still a
handful for offensive lines okay um Dallas turner yeah so he was a big time recruit uh so he was a
right up right up back sally big time recruit uh he is more athletically given
And he's been productive.
I mean, he was an all, all SEC performer over the last couple of seasons.
If I, if I remember correctly, yeah, he had, yeah, he's had, he had 10 sacks this past season, was a defensive player of the year in the SEC, 6-4-240.
So a little bit of a lighter package than the other guys.
But to me, he, he can win with length and power.
And he can also win with speed.
And so having that ability to win from, with multiple ways, I think that's a little bit different than like a chop Robinson.
Yep.
where everything with him is speed, quickness, first step.
I want to win off the ball and turn the corner.
That's Chop Robinson's game.
Too quick.
I'm deferring to both.
I'm sorry, I'm deferring to Fran for all the evaluations.
I'm just giving like the little nuggets here.
Sure, yeah.
Okay.
Dallas Turner arrived at Alabama as a, I think he called it a COVID-260.
And he says his preferred playing weights like 255.
And then Jared Verse is going to be a Vic Fangio favorite because he's from
Burwick, Pennsylvania.
Here we go.
So if the Eagles take Jaredverse, we can spread PHOI to like, you know, the Berwick audience.
No, that'll be huge for us.
I'd be, I would love the Berwick audience.
Burwick's a nice town.
I've never been to Berwick.
I've never been to Burwick.
I've never been to Burwick.
I've never been to Burwick.
I've driven through Berwick, actually.
That doesn't count.
Burwick's a nice town.
Did you have a meal?
Did you have a meal in Berwick?
I did not eat.
I can't tell you kind of food cities.
So now you're just lying to the good.
people of Berwick they're going to turn their backs on us I didn't go through
Burwick and say this is a crappy town I said this is a nice town yeah they didn't
even you know dain them with a stop off I didn't even pee there I did not I did
not stop the pee in Burwick no long time sickos know that we have we have a
Fran's draft spreadsheet is like I mean it's is the thing of legend and it's
unbelievable but what I am impressed with today is the deftness with which you
are able to just pull these things up quickly.
I mean, not just the information you have,
but the quickness that you're able to just bounce around,
position to position, pull up these nugs.
Look, it's a, it's a,
I wear all year on this sheet.
So I know how to navigate and get in and out of tabs
and be able to find a guy if I need them.
So it shouldn't be a surprise.
Do you, I mean, you have a lovely son, Francis?
Yes.
Would you say that this is like your second child?
It is a labor of love, for sure, this thing.
And like a child, you've seen it grow over.
the years.
Seen a growing,
evolved over the years.
This is my,
this is my 12th combine.
And I would say
for the difference
between this one
and the one from my first combine
is definitely a little bit different.
It's definitely evolved over the years,
for sure.
Well, you know what hasn't changed
over the years, Fran?
I know.
I've got a guess.
The great taste of Miller Light.
Because it was the original
light beer and to this day
it is still the best one.
Miller Light has more of the taste
you want and less of the stuff
you don't had a nice dinner and drinks with Zach Berman yesterday.
Never seen somebody put back so many Miller Lights as Zach did.
Miller Light is great because they keep it simple,
undebatable quality, great taste, and only 96 calories.
It's the beer that strips away everything you don't need
and holds on to what matters most,
a light beer that tastes like beer, less filling,
and only 96 calories, the original light beer since 1975,
and when you are hanging out with your buds,
you want a nice bottle of suds.
And that's what Miller Light is bringing to the table.
Times change, but you can always enjoy
the great taste of Miller Light.
Tastes like Miller Time.
To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door,
visit millerlight.com slash p.h-l-y birds,
or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer.
Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
96 calories per 12 ounces.
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That's rocketmoney.com slash p hly.
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And while I have you here,
you notice that I'm wearing some p hly swag.
This is the last day of our 30% off sale
on the pHLY locker.
So take advantage while you can.
You can look like the second most fashionable Eagles beatwriter.
That would be me.
Behind Josh Tolentino.
Fran, are there guys?
I know you're still going through the process.
What number? What's our number right now?
How many guys have you watched?
I have done just over 190.
Oh.
I've watched at least a couple games for 190.
190 guys.
This is the callback to Zach saying, listening to you said, oh, you do him?
Oh, yeah, I did him.
Yeah, he was good.
That's a good callback.
Are there guys who you are already ready to sort of plant your flag on as being
higher on than consensus?
That's a good question.
the Nate Petermans of this draft
I would say
Kingsley Suamataia
I mean I had to get the name
You worked so hard on the name
Yeah that's the thing
I gotta make sure that I get it in there
I would say like I don't know if I'm
Quite ready here on this player
But I am surprised at how little love
Keon Coleman from Florida State is getting
The wide receiver
Who you know you rewind back to
September and you go to October
He was a top 15 pick
In most mock drafts that you saw
and it feels like a lot of people are, you know, the shine is worn off a little bit.
And I'm not really sure why.
I think he's going to come out here and he's going to test really, really well.
And so maybe that buzz works back the other way.
But to me, when you see a 6 foot four receiver who doesn't put the football on the ground
and can attack all three levels, he's a little bit unpolished as a route runner,
I don't think that he's a surefire prospect.
I'm like, oh, man, this guy is definitely going to make it.
But it's the same kind of bet that you make with a DK Metcalf where, you know,
you're, hey, you're going to bite, you're going to bet on that height weight speed.
Now, Metcalf had the medical issue that kind of made that a cloudy eval.
But I think when you look at Keon Coleman, it's a similar kind of discussion there.
Okay.
I'm higher.
I feel like I'm higher on Cooper Degene than most.
Yeah.
Tyler Nubin, the safety from Minnesota.
I do like a, I like a Tyler Nubin.
He did not go down to the senior bowl.
But I think when you look at like the height weight speed there, the play personality, the way that he plays the game.
He's able to impact a lot of different ways.
ways. I like Tyler Newbin from Minnesota.
Just kind of looking through the list here in terms of other guys.
I feel like Brandon Dorliss would be a player a little bit higher.
Yeah, the Oregon defensive.
Lots of that transfer, right?
No, he was at Oregon the entire time.
Oh, no.
Ruins Zach's day.
Well, the big thing, at least from my, from my memory, I believe he was Oregon the whole
time.
Zach is Googling frantically.
Oh, no.
This is difficult.
I have it.
It's just Oregon.
Originally committed to Virginia Tech.
Ah.
Oh, all right.
You can split the different.
difference there. Deerfield Beach High School
down in Florida. You had the
broad strokes right, but the fact check was wrong.
But Brandon Dorlis,
he's cut from the Milton Williams
cloth. He is that kind of...
Another friend of your favorite. That's right. I was
very big on Milton Williams. And his ability
to win from multiple techniques, his aggressiveness
against the run, his athleticism,
very similar body types. I think when you
look at Dorlis, you look at Milton Williams, I think it's an easy
kind of apples to apples comparison. Okay.
And now what about, you know,
I said the thing about
cornerback being one of your better positions historically.
Do you agree with that?
I haven't like done a, you know, I haven't quality controlled myself that way.
I have confidence in my ability to look at corners though.
I think when you look at, what are the positions?
What are the positions?
Yeah, Tradavis White.
I was being on Tradavis White.
Zaving Howard.
I was big on Zavon Howard.
There are a few other guys in there over the years.
But I've had plenty of misses as well at that spot.
What are the positions you feel best about and the ones you feel?
are the most difficult.
So I very much enjoy studying corners,
offensive tackles.
And I think that a lot of that is because the body mechanics of both positions,
you know,
having to play in reverse,
you know,
doing the unnatural that,
you know,
for defensive line,
you're getting off the field.
Yes, exactly.
I think that I enjoy watching that position for those reasons.
I love watching receivers.
You can get kind of numb watching the same guy,
the same kind of guys over and over,
especially from certain offenses,
but there are so many different body types of receiver
that you're always going to find something that you like.
And then pass rush.
I love watching pass rushers as well.
In terms of my worst ones.
I mean,
like safety must be just...
Safety is tough.
It's just hard because you've got to watch the play so many times
to figure out what you think they're supposed to be doing.
Just the way that, you know,
that in this role with what I do now,
I don't need to like have a big board
and have the, you know,
have like constantly update rankings for like fans
to be able to take in, right?
So I can watch two games of a player in September
and then not watch them again until March and I'm fine.
But if I do that at safety,
if I only watch a couple games and then I fast forward like four months.
Yeah, that can be tough.
So with safety,
you always feel like you want to watch four,
five, six games.
I just don't always have the time to go to watch like four or five,
six games at a time of a player.
So I would say safety,
but I love watching safety because it's so similar to corner in a lot of ways.
So I'd say that would be the toughest.
Let me get,
let's get into like the mechanics of when you're watching film.
Like what,
when you're at home,
what's the balance when you put the kids to put Francis to bed?
Wrong verb, though, by the way.
You're never watching film.
You're grinding film.
Right.
Okay.
When I'm doing a guy.
I'm going to be changing your verbs for the rest of the show now.
So it has changed since, since we've,
we had Francis.
So since we were blessed with him coming to us four years ago.
it used to be I would go into the office very early and I would try and get stuff done early in the morning.
Football guy.
Yeah, right.
So now that has changed.
And now I get more of it done like at night.
So after Francis goes to bed, maybe we watch a TV show with Meg, you know, we take it in a little.
What are you watching this?
So I, uh, I just finished for All Mankind on Apple.
Oh, okay.
Excellent.
I loved it.
Space guy?
I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say I was space guy, but I loved the show.
It was a I like the alternate history idea for space guy.
Every now and then, Zach, says something that has this smile on his face and I don't know what he's smiling about it.
He goes, space guy?
And he was like looking at me like he just said the funniest thing in the world.
Well, he was disappointed with her no cell.
That's part for the case.
Space guy?
I enjoy, I enjoyed for all mankind, though.
The first two seasons, I thought I was very strong.
I know.
You got to lay it out.
What are we missing here?
I look at the time of his life it's it's yeah it's yeah that's a good question I thought it's a good question
I'm gonna go to the prospects today just I'm gonna ask them space guy for a for all that guy was pretty good though
okay so now post for all mankind then you then you're then you got the late night yes and uh you know
usually you're doing like uh like what's our screen set up at home uh so i i've got I've made a nice little
setup for we moved a couple fall the two december's ago so moving guy uh yeah moving guy um no so i uh
so when we when we moved to have my own office so have the uh a nice little setup in there a couple
screens work that works out so what what is it two screens um plus the laptop what so uh at the office
okay i had a four screen set up four yeah well because what we want two for the film and then two for
everything else okay uh day trader over yeah so we got we got i got away from that i
I was told it was too much.
So we had to back, we had to back off on that.
Everybody else was jealous.
Yeah, we had to, we had to back off on that.
So I'm down to three screens there.
Fran got four monitors.
Screen guy.
But, yeah, I've got a couple screens and we make it work.
Why can't you give me a straight answer?
Two screens?
Three screens.
Yeah, three screens.
Okay.
All right.
Go ahead.
So there's a, there's a few prospects here that Philly fans are especially familiar with.
Anyone who was watching St. Joe's prep a few years ago remembers the juniors, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
I mean, I like watching high school football.
So we don't need to get into Marvin Harrison Jr. I mean, I think for the sake of an Eagle show, he's going to be long gone.
But there's a lot of intrigue about Jeremiah Trotter Jr. I remember watching a Syracuse-Clemson game and seeing that Axeman celebration.
I didn't realize that it was the first time he did it.
He actually made his father cry.
when he did it, brought tears to his eyes.
You can find a story on all-ph-l-y-l-y-com about that.
But what's your sense of Jeremiah Trotter Jr.?
And I know in Philly, they're scouting the name.
If you don't scout the name, you just scout the player, what jumps down mind?
I think a lot of the things you loved about Nukobi at Georgia
are present when you talk about Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
He's really physical.
He's really instinctive.
He was the heartbeat of that defense.
Even as a young player, a lot of the veterans there would look at Jeremiah
Trotter Jr.,
and he was kind of that guy for that unit.
So, you know, he brings the physicality.
He's been a good tackler.
We'll see how he tests this week.
I think that will be important for his draft stock.
I think at the end of the day, you're probably looking like middle to late parts of day two.
That would be my guess right now with Trotter.
Do you think that that is like duplicative with Nicobudian?
Would you want two guys like that on the field?
Yeah, I think that it depends on how you're going to play defensively.
And at the end of day, you just want good players.
So I don't think that that would be if you had two guys that were similar, then maybe you'd go towards the varying skill set.
But if he's the best one and it's clear and clear and you know what, that's the guy that we want to go or that's the position we want to go with here, then I don't think that that's a turnoff from that standpoint.
As we think about like how the Eagles can get back to being really, really good, we have talked about like their their key to success, I think is, you know, being a top five offense.
where are the places in the draft where they could do that?
Is there like a day two running back who offers a lot of pop?
Definitely.
You know, I think in terms of like explosiveness,
I don't know that any of the guys were talking about day two
or like that kind of like explosive athlete.
The only one I would say would be Jalen Warren,
or Jalen Wright rather, yeah, Jalen Wright from Tennessee.
He's got some juice.
He was a big time sprinter in high school.
It was a freak, freakless guy for Bruce Feld.
over the athletic this past summer because of what he can do as a straight line athlete.
Showed it this last year at Tennessee, too.
I mean, it broke off a lot of big plays, both as a runner and as a pass catcher.
So if you're looking for like some juice there at running back, I would say that he's probably
your best bet.
But there are a number of backs I think are going to go off the board when you get into like,
you know, mid round two into round three that it's just a matter of when that runs starts.
So Jonathan Brooks from Texas, Ray Davis from Kentucky is a really tough physical runner.
actually started his career at temple.
Audric Estime from Notre Dame.
Trey Sermon, I really like as well.
Trey Sermon?
Trey Benson, sorry, Trey Benson.
I'm getting my name is all right up here.
Trey Benson from Florida State.
I think when you look at him and his skill set,
both these guys, both he and Ray Davis,
Marshaun Lloyd as well, are tough physical runners,
you know, downhill can work through traffic
and have the ability to create their own yardage.
So.
Martin Franca?
He's from Delaware.
I believe you.
He's definitely Martin,
Frank guy there. I feel like Ray Davis is a very funny name for somebody to have these days.
Feels like a 1920s name. Ray Davis.
He was a strong draft take right there.
He was there when Almos first opened. He was there in a dimly lit corner.
Yeah, there's a picture of Ray Davis on the wall and St. Elmo.
I think Bo's guy among the running backs is going to be Braylin Allen from Wisconsin.
I think the youngest guy in this draft, the 20-year-old, like a 245-pound,
running back,
where's number zero?
You'd like to see it, yeah.
He's going to know what I like.
I think you're like young guys.
Oh, that's true.
I know you're like young draft prospects, I should say.
Young guy guy, I'm a young guy.
Alan's going to,
he's really explosive.
I think he's going to test really well this week and more of the straight line stuff.
So the jumps and the 40-yard dash,
I think will look good for Braylon Allen.
What else you got, Zach?
I have so many things here.
Let's here.
So let's,
we talk about offensive skill guys.
On day two,
I would imagine early day two, but even perhaps in the Eagles range,
Texas has three offensive skill players who are going to go in that range.
Mitchell, is it Adonai Mitchell?
Adonai Mitchell, yeah.
And then Xavier Worthy and Jutavian Sanders.
I like Mitchell when he was at Georgia.
And then you, and then Worthy's a big speed guy.
And then Sanders, I mean, I have a tight end fetish, apparently.
But what's you for admitting it?
What's your read on the, on the three,
Texas skill guys.
So I like Mitchell.
I like Sanders a lot. I like Worthy.
So I'm glad you brought all three
guys up. We'll start with Mitchell.
If you're looking just purely
at his top 15, top 20 plays,
you would put him up against most of the
top players in this class. And what I love
about Mitchell too is that when
the lights were shining brightest,
he always showed up like the biggest games,
biggest moments. Like a Bradley Robey type.
Like a
dynamite dropping.
You know, I remember that was the thing that people said about Deshawn Jackson as well.
It was like, oh, when they play, when we play prime time, you always kind of looked at Deshaun and knew he was going to come through.
Mitchell has been that guy, both at Georgia and at Texas.
And I think when you look at him, he's got a skill set, again, like when everything looks exactly the way you would want, he looks like an Odell Beckham type.
He's got a lot of twitch coming out of breaks.
His ability to get off a jam is impressive.
He can snag the football out of the air.
he's got juice to attack all three levels.
So there's enough there with Adonai Mitchell.
It's just more of a consistency standpoint there.
With J.C. Sanders, really athletic, undersized, move tight end type.
What can he do as a blocker?
That's the question.
So that's kind of the archetype he falls into, but he's great with the ball in his hands.
He was used a lot down the field.
I love that offense with Texas.
I think Steve Sarkeesian does a great job from a design standpoint, and they do a great job
of getting their playmakers to football at all three levels.
And Sanders was one of those guys they took advantage of.
And then worthy, he kind of reminds me a little bit of Zay Flowers.
He's that kind of a player, a little bit undersized,
might be more of like a slot, like movement type,
but can be used vertically down the field,
had some drop issues over the course of his career,
but also showed the efficiency and the ability to make the big play as well.
So that's how I view all three of those guys.
And then another question I want to sneak in before passing back the bow
is that the Eagles have gone heavy on the national champs the last three years.
Michigan is well represented here at the combine.
18 guys.
Yeah.
18 guys.
I'm not going to ask you to bring up offensive linemen.
Wow.
Backup offensive linemen.
I'm not going to ask you to break down all 18, but who's your favorite of the Michigan players?
Because it's not as if you know, you're looking at Michigan guys going in the top 10 here.
It's more like in that range that Eagles fans will want to study.
I would say it's JJ McCarthy would probably be my favorite of that group.
See again.
I mean, the way that you were able to just pull up and quickly search.
I mean, you know, Command F.
I'm not like splitting the atom here.
Command F, you know, parentheses, Michigan, like a...
This is guy?
I would say that I look at JJ McCarthy, first off.
I love the profile there with him.
He'll be a 21-year-old rookie.
I know that the volume has not been there from like a past game standpoint.
The quarterback profile-wise, that bothers me a little bit.
There's, and I think there's something to that when it comes to, like, oh, the number of passes.
But you have to remember, too, like, it's the,
It's what people said last year about like the Eagles offense in 2020.
Oh, well, you know, they haven't been good in the second half of games.
It's like, well, that's because they, you know, it was run the ball, nurse a lead, you know,
and kind of run to victory.
When you, he came out of games in the second half, like more than half the season this year.
They took the pedal off and just kind of wanted to run the football.
So he's got plenty of starts under his under his belt, AJ McCarthy.
28 starts is plenty.
He's played just under 1900 snaps, which is also that that's plenty.
He just hasn't had a lot of pass.
attempts. And so I think when you look at it, it's not a, oh, you know, he hasn't played a ton.
It's more just the way that they wanted to play football. It's like Matt Ryan at Penn Charter.
That is great reference there. That's correct. He used to hand the ball to Tony McDevitt.
How he comes in this week, how he measures will be big. He's listed right around 200 pounds.
It's a little bit light. So how big is he? But he'll be a 21 year old rookie. I love the way he
attacks the middle of the field. He's got a pretty live arm, consistent accuracy and ball placement and
touch. I like JJ McCarthy. I think he, I think he, I think. I think.
think at the end of the day, he will go in the top 10, top 12 of the draft.
Interesting.
I mean, it's probably, if you're from the Eagle standpoint, that's good.
Like a lot of quarterbacks going early, a lot of wide receivers going early.
It pushes some guys down in their range, potentially.
No, I think that that will be helpful.
And then we'll see in terms of like the offensive tackles.
You know some of them are going to go.
How many of them go?
I think that will bump some more of those players down.
Just keeping an eye on the chat as the show has been going on.
I need to let you know.
First of all, Brenna says hello.
I'm very excited to see you.
Outstanding edition for your team.
We see putting the T.E. and Mistress for Zach.
We see Franwich.
Yeah, I like that.
What's going on here?
And my favorite only friends.
Ah, nice.
My favorite's Fran Duffy needs a coaching job somewhere.
A lot of love for Fray and a shot.
That's nice to say, but.
I'm coaching a six-year-old flag football team, so I might need you to jump on.
See, that I'm all in on.
That I will get in because that's,
the time commitment there.
You remember when you were designing us route concepts for our flag football league?
Well, that's what you know, you mentioned this on the show yesterday.
You're like, oh, I've seen some great receivers in bubbleball.
Like no mention of a guy that, how many passes I ever dropped for you?
I mean, listen.
Can't give me a name.
You were very good player.
But.
Oh, man.
Oh, wow.
All right.
First of all, but I found you to be more of a difference maker on defense.
On defense, sure.
Okay.
Because you were diagnosing everything that was going on.
Yeah.
And, I mean, I cannot sit here.
and honestly say that like Alex Seiforth wasn't a more dynamic weapon on the outside.
Drew Masiangelo with the enormous speed and the explosive speed that he had.
Greg DeLuca.
Yeah.
Wide catch radius.
I mean, I like throwing to a friend, but if I'm being honest, I can't put you number one.
I am glad that at least you gave some credit to some day.
It wasn't just a nebulous like, oh, like, you know, I saw some good receivers.
And then, I mean, Jeff Weidmeyer as fast as it gets, although he was usually more on Alex
circles to you.
Yes.
And, you know, what I enjoyed about those days was that, you know, we, while we drafted new teams every week, it was typically the same, you know, similar.
Yeah, a lot of.
A lot of overlap a week a week.
And there was one day, I believe, one time when Michael Clay played.
Yes.
And boy, did that make us look ridiculous.
I mean, he was going like 40% and just like dust and everybody.
Yeah.
When you, there's just like a different tier, like multiple tiers of athlete when you talk about anyone that played collegiate football versus, you know, regular people.
It's, yeah, not close.
Yeah.
go anything else space man i have i've i've got a question i i stuck in too uh so you're up now
in the ping pong well we got to be wrapping this up a little bit because the the the c h geo guys are
coming in a minute why don't you give him one more one more is so i was i was hoping that in your
michigan answer you would talk about mike sandstro or junior colson okay and i ask those because
those are two positions that the eagles fans are watching closely here um and i ask i hope i'm
pronouncing correctly, Sandstrel.
I believe that was correct, yeah.
And because slot cornerback, I heard Daniel Jeremiah say last week, this is, he has, I think,
14 cornerbacks with top three grades, or grades in the first three rounds, but he said after
like the first few, you're looking a lot of slot guys.
Yep.
And to me, Mike Sandstrel's like one of those guys.
Someone you can fall in love with just in terms of when you watch him play.
What jumps out about those two players in particular?
So let's talk with Sandstrel first.
listed 510182 so very undersized and for that reason has been mostly a slot corner
came to Michigan as a four-star receiver recruit and actually played receiver his first three seasons
there caught five touchdowns had a bunch of catches over the course of his first few years and then
made the move over to defense and played some and played nickel corner the last two years now he is
a fifth year senior played a played all five years will only be 23 so not a not a huge anchor on the
draft stock there but has been extremely
extremely productive when he has played. You look at the just this past season. Six picks, six
PbUs, two force fumbles, a sack last year, seven PbUs, an interception, two sacks, six and a half
TFLs. He's always around the football. He's got really light feet. I do the change of directions
outstanding. I expect him to look really good in position drills this week. Only one penalty
in 26 starts on defense. A really aggressive player downhill. So I think when you look at
Sandstrel has only played defense full time for a couple of years. He's a little bit older. So there's
there's some projection, but history is a core four special team starter.
So you're not worried about that.
The floor, I think, is really, really high.
But now it's just a matter of the ceiling.
And so, you know, how he tests this week, I think will dictate where he goes.
If he tests really, really well, I think he's squared day two.
If he doesn't test, if he does not test well with those other things that we talked about,
then I think it's like, all right, we get into like the later rounds.
But I do like Sandstrel.
Junior Colson is, he's a fun player.
He's not
He's not the fastest, but he's fast enough.
How fast is he?
We're going to get a sense here on Thursday night.
6.3, 247 pounds.
So he's got legitimate NFL size.
And at that size, I don't think that he was a bad athlete.
So I do like that a lot.
He plays through contact really, really well.
He's a strong tackler.
He's been in the single-digit.
You're a tackle guy?
No, I'm thinking of Chris Jones.
Sporty.
How?
I don't know.
Junior Colson, the last two years within a single digit in a mistackle percentage.
What a funny thing to happen.
He overcame that adversity.
Poor guy.
How, why was that in your head as I'm talking to throw up?
I don't know.
I think I was going to ask you a question.
Who's most likely to run for you like Chris Jones?
So that said,
Junior Colson.
It's a good player.
I think that he'll probably be in the day two discussion,
sac once all said and done.
All right.
It's literally crying.
Real tear,
real tears coming out of Beau right now.
Like Jeremiah Trotter watching the X operation,
Bo is shedding tears right now.
All right.
That's going to do it for this episode of the P.H.O.
Y, Eagles podcast.
Fran,
where can our listeners?
I mean,
obviously they know who you are,
but if not where can they...
The Eagle on the Sky podcast.
I'll have a recap of the Combine.
Myself and Ben Fennell.
We did a preview of what to expect in all the drills.
So drills don't
start until tomorrow afternoon. So you've got some time to be able to take that in. It was about 90 minutes.
It was a long show, but got through everything there. I got a cheat sheet series with
articles getting ready for every position. And I also have a piece coming out this week on
behind the scenes of the formal meetings of the that happened here at the combine.
I love that. I met with some people here with the Eagles. They kind of gave me a sense of the process
into those meetings. So that'll be a fun piece. That's a tease, which you were well-
Quick nugget to supplement that Jeremiah Trader Jr.
has had a formal meeting with Eagles.
So when you read Fran's piece, you would know that this is what happens in those formal meetings.
Yes.
All right.
Well, there you go.
So that'll do it for the episode of the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast from the Combine here in Indianapolis.
We are back in Philly tomorrow at noon.
And same thing on Friday.
Thank you, Fran.
Thank you, Zach, for all of us here.
We thank you for listening.
Thank you for watching.
Enjoy your space time.
And as always, we love you.
We're all silly like the mayor
