PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Reed Blankenskip gets paid: Philadelphia Eagles safety earns cash, signs extension

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

The Philadelphia Eagles took care of one of their recent undrafted success stories in securing Reed Blankenship’s status on the roster through 2025. The safety from Middle Tennessee State has been a reliable contributor since he was first noticed as a BWCC dating back to the summer of 2022. Plus, eyes on the draft and a changing Eagles front office. Zach Berman and Bo Wulf join you for a lunch serving of Troy Polamayo sandwiches. 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.

Tuesday, high noon, Bowulf, Zach Berman, get turned off the noise just as we started. Nicely done, Zach, how you doing? Doing great. Excited for the show. Had a chance just seconds ago to hear from Reed Blankenship about some of the news.

He gets a nice bump from the NFLPA, signs and extension with the Eagles. I need to know what was the reaction from his number one fan, Reed Berman. My son was was pumped. He loves read Blanketship because they share the same name,

not the same spelling, but the same name. And so when I told him yesterday that Blanketship got a new deal, he wanted to adjust Blankenship's contract in Madden, actually. Nice. Yeah, although he paid Blanketship more in Madden than how he did in real life.

But that's the back story there. That's why I sent you a video. He was holding a controller. He was... Oh, that was the controller, I said. Yeah, he was adjusting, He was adjusting the Madden contract. Now, had you just taken that video?

Because I asked you, how is he doing? And you immediately sent me the video. Did you go and do that after the text? Or had you already had that lock and loaded? I did it after the text. I was sitting with him. And I said, Bo wants to know your reaction to the re-blanketship contract. There you go.

All right. Well, let's get into this. You know, we don't always have news on April 2nd. What's the scoop here? Give me the Stone Cold Newsman on it. Yeah, so Reblanketship, who was entering the third year of a three-year contract, he would have been a restricted free agent at the end of the season. The Eagles gave him a one-year contract extension.

So essentially what they did was they bought out his RFA year. And what that means is they wouldn't have to give him a tender next to all season. They wouldn't have to worry about a team signing him and then having to match the deal. The Eagles have done this in the past. They did this with T.J. Edwards in 2021. They extended T.J. Edwards or, yeah, for the, they bought out his R.F. year and then Edwards was a free agent signed a lucrative deal elsewhere. So it's not as if they gave him a contract extension that keeps him here for multiple years or that that doesn't

allow blanket ship to hit the market when he would have hit the market. He's still scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent when he would have been. But what this does is it at least it buys the Eagles that RFA year and it gives blanket ship the security of knowing that he's under contract for the 2024, the 2025 season, rather, as opposed to having to go through the whole song and dance of being tender, you know, is another team going to sign you? Are they going to match that type of thing? Yeah. And actually the like the performance payout from the NFLPA, which was just under a million dollars, is actually more significant relative to like the money that he can make because the, you know, the deals of the extension that we've heard and seen from Mike Arafo

are that like he's making less money per year than the tender, but the incentives, the playing times incentives are what would take it over that. So it's not really like a huge deal necessarily, but it's a nice thing to do for a guy who has obviously outperformed, you know, what he came into the league as. Yeah, and there's so many variables at play, right? I mean, who knows if you would be tendered? I mean, Jack Stoll wasn't tendered.

Then he goes on, he signs a deal with the Giants, right? So it gives you that assurance what Reed Blankenship said, and of course, like they always say this, but he said the motivation was he wants to be in Philly. This was more about staying with the Eagles than it was about the contract per se. Like we said, he still gets to hit the UFA market when he would. Who will be here longer, Reed Blankenship or C.J. Gardner Johnson? C.J. Gardner Johnson. I think I'd go read.

I haven't thought about that, but that's interesting. Let's just, as Mike Garifobo reported, like you mentioned, it's a fully guaranteed 3.935 million over the next two years. He can earn another 1.375 million via playing time and Pro Bowl escalators. Escalators, not escalators. The escalators are $375,000k for 70% playing time, 625K for 80% playing time, 875K for 90% playing time, and 500K for the Pro Bowl. and then you also referenced that he had... It's funny that the Pro Bowl is so low, so much less than the playing time. I guess you think if you make the Pro Bowl,

you're probably playing that much, but... Yeah, probably so. But you mentioned the performance-based pay. This is kind of like a contract adjustment between the NFL, NFL PA. It's bonus money for players who don't make a lot, but play a lot, and he received the second most in the NFL

getting a $923,059-dollar bump, and he found out about that around the same time we did on April 1st and he didn't know if that was an April Fool's joke or not the contract extension was in the works before that the performance-based pump he just he finds out on April 1st he's making an extra 920 plus K

so 920K plus so pretty good for him and this brings up a disappointment that I have Zach and you know we have we have cultivated I would say a great group of sickos who have the right esoteric sensibilities good reference points

and yet yesterday when the NFLPA announces that they're given read blankenship this money I didn't see a single mention from a sicker or anything that the NFLPA had cut a literal milk check that's that was the bone

that you want to be? Guys have got to step up your game. That was your first reference. We got to be better. Okay. I don't need to hold your hand through this. You can do this yourself, okay? Go on.

Just because I was on vacation doesn't mean you need to be on vacation. Let's go. Step up your game. So you're mad that the sickos... It's not the off season. It's the non-playing season. Let's go. That is true.

So you're mad the sickos didn't say, It's a literal milk check. Yes. Okay. They cut a milk check. They cut a milk check. Well, good for him because that's, you know, that, the performance-based pay, you literally earn that, right? So that he, that's money earned.

And the new contract, it gives him, yeah, he's here. We'll be covering him. Again, I don't think that this signals anything about blanketships kind of role on the team. No. Other than he's someone that Eagles want around. He's not someone who's fighting for a roster spot. He's someone who the Eagles want him on this team. We need to see how the safety depth chart shakes out.

But it is, and credit to you, I thought you were going to reference the Camp Crush with the sickos. But you're someone who spotted him right away. It's not hyperbole to say that he was the last guy on the roster, right? I mean, I think that's what Nick Siriani said or Hallie Roseman said. I think it's just a touch of hyperbole. Touch of hyperbole? Well, he was the last safety taking reps. Did he receive the least amount of UDFA money?

He got very little UDFA money. But I think in terms of the last guy on the roster, a UDFA who gets anything is a little bit above a veteran who's been around. Oh, okay. Like a guy who's just been on the bottom of practice squads and might get cut. But the last, the last, the last, very low. The last defensive back on the roster. How about that?

The last safety. I don't know if I can sign off on that. You won't even give me that. Okay. He might have been, but I know if we're going to be definitive. He was the last guy taking reps when cramps started at safety in 2022. As far as I remember. Yes.

And kind of worked his way up, made plays, caught your eye. You were. The movement. You were fighting it in memory serves. Yeah. You said he's not my type. You said he's not your type. I won't use the description that you said that made him not your type.

Well, he was in, he came in old. Yep. He came in injured. He came in white. Yes. So you said an old injured. That's almost three strikes. An old injured white guy you didn't like.

And yet the heart wants what the heart wants. The heart wants. The heart wants. But I give him credit in this sense. And this happened in last summer's training camp. as well, right? We're in camp, and there's a lot in screening camp that you shouldn't read into. One thing that I do tend to read into is when a player's always round the ball, right? Like, if he's just getting all these interceptions, he did this in last year's camp, he did it,

like, that shows to me that there's certain instincts that you have, because especially rookies, they're swimming at that point. Like, they're trying to figure out where they are in the defense. and a lot of the picks that he had it was because he was in the right spot. Like he was, I don't want to say he was matching routes, but he knew where the ball was going. He knew where the receiver was,

and he was making plays on the ball. Well, and you talk about like this, the framing of everything that was missing from the defense last year. You know, one of the guys who was actually playing with some physicality was Reed Blankenship. Maybe to a detriment at times. Yeah, and I think that's like,

if we're going to just analyze the point, player and like where he fits with the eagles moving forward like like the the style of play that he has could invite injury he has an injury history he missed two games last year um do you view him as him and sidney brown who is more likely in your estimation to be like a long time starter for the team sydney brown so you do you think that they view reed blankenship as best case scenario their third safety like this year or beyond let's say the second half of this year, like Sidney Brown is back healthy. I think ideally that's that's what you would want.

Blanketship gives you that depth. He was a valuable special teams player two years ago. And he was a valuable defense player last year, right? He started five games. He played well. Yeah. But I would say that, yeah, I mean, you signed CJ. He took Sydney Brown high in the third round.

Sydney Brown has certain, you know, the, you know, the athletic gifts that he has, the closing, the closing speed, the explosiveness, the versatility. There's, there's, I think there's just more to work with with, with, with, with, with, with Brown. They, I mean, he was a, you know, a star, a star, a gold star player. Red star player. I was making him like a soldier here. He was a red star player rather.

I apologize for that. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I would say. Sydney Brown has a better chance of being... That's what they should do for the Ed Block Courage Award from now on. They should give them each a purple heart. Joe Walker.

Joe Walker walking around with like Bill Pullman in the league of their own showing up. You give it during November, like during the military education month, right? But yeah, so I would say Sydney Brown, but I think re-blanketship certainly has a role. And the thing is this, is when you look at Sidney Brown and C.J. Garner Johnson,

two players who have that versatility, to play safety, the play in the slot, right? So if there's, like, you can have all three on the field at the same time. Well, yeah, this team still doesn't have a definite nickel, right? Sure. And so maybe it's the case that, you know, C.J. Garner Johnson's bouncing back and forth. Maybe Sidney Brown is bouncing back and forth. I think that, like, if Reed Blankenship is healthy, this year he is a starting safety.

I agree with that, yeah. But your read on the contract wasn't like they're committing to reed blanketship being a starter for them. Not at all. No, this is basically... Because I think that was the read of some people. Like, oh, there are... You know, this is a real good contract, like, for... Or a real affordable contract for starting safety.

And I don't think that's the approach the Eagles took. I think it's similar to T.J. Edwards, is that it's just someone... It's someone that they like, that they'll see what they have here, and they'll keep them under contract. Yeah, I mean, this is, like, just a thing to do because it makes sense logistically, you know? Like, they're not going to... They're not extending anybody else after two years, right? Yeah. Like they're not going to do something pay a gun when they don't need to.

Yeah, someone asks me, is Britain Covey next? And I'm like, hey. That sounds ominous. It's like, I like Britain. Oh, my God. Is Britain Covey next? I don't think they're trying to buy out everyone's RFA years, right? I think like, though.

But in any event. And with the undrafted guys, too, you know, the original round tender is not particularly high, right? Because they're undrafted. Right, exactly. Now let me ask you this. As we think about the draft and Cooper DeGine gets linked to the Eagles. Where are you going with this? Well, before the show, I'm just bouncing through every Super Bowl team,

and I'm going back, and I'm going back, and I'm going back. There has not been a Super Bowl team. I don't even know since when, but certainly not since 2000. That's as far back as I've gotten, who had two starting players in the secondary who were white. So is Cooper DeGine off their board? I don't think that affects them, no. I actually had a mock draft on a PHLI a week and a half ago where I had them taking Cooper to Gene in the first round

and Will Shipley in the fifth round. And someone said, like, how big a story. You throw Ricky Pierce all in there? If you have a white running back and a white defensive back, those are not things you typically see. But it's not something. You're not playing the odds. It's not something that crossed my mind.

I was just simply looking at the players. No, I mean, we'll have extended Cooper. I mean, the number speak for themselves. You might have to go back to, you know, 1970. We'll have extended Cooper to Jean conversations come the defensive backroom. But I mean, Cooper to Gene is someone who I think is definitely going to be on their radar. Is it Cooper de Jean or Gene de Cooper? You reached on that one.

You're goddamn right. You're better off with like your Bart Scots. Bart Scott or Scott Bart. Yeah, I mean, I think Cooper DeGine, I'll answer this question honestly. I know it was kind of a joke. But the athletic testing, he did not test at the combine. Had he tested, I think he's someone who would be viewed like surefire top top 20 pick based on the way he played last year, based on the age, based on the versatility.

You just don't have that standardized testing. But I trust Bruce Feldman's freaks list. And he was a freak, according to Bruce. Well, apparently he wrote a letter to every team saying that his back isn't broken anymore. So I'm sure that'll take care of that. As long as he wrote the letter. They don't even need to do the medical check. He wrote a letter.

He wrote a letter. I didn't see that. Okay. Cooper DeGine wrote a letter to every team. Okay. He's trying to get a job. What do you wrote a letter? Are you a letter writer?

I wish that I was more of a letter writer. I regret not being more of a letter writer. How about you? You strike me as, except I don't want to, let me guess that you would like to be a letter writer, but you're also a little bit ashamed of your handwriting. Oh, you know me really well. Okay, let me, so here you go. So I was always taught about handwritten notes and like I always wrote handwritten notes.

And then I saw a Peyton Manning story one time where he had, he had stationary that he writes all these notes on. And so for a birthday one year, I asked for stationary. Like I had never had like personalized stationary. And so I was writing all these handwritten notes to people. But this was actually back during 2018 when I was signing books. And it was pointed out to me that your handwriting is really bad. And then I was kind of self-conscious about all these handwritten notes that I was doing. But yeah, I would write like long extended notes that.

And I still do from time to time. But now I've kind of steered more, I've gone more toward emails now because you don't have to, I still think they had written letters important, but my penmanship, I got to work on that for my next book. Like, I got to work on that and then the way that I hold my pen. It is, it is disconcerting the first time you see it, I would say, from an objective observer's perspective. And so when people take photos when you're signing it, like, I'm like, hold on a second.

And then I hold the pen, the normal way for the photo. I get back to sign it. So, yeah. Now, let me ask you this. Does that lived experience for you change the way that you are with your children trying to teach them how to write? Are you more attuned to how they're holding things? Interestingly, I have commented to my daughter at one point, but no, I mean, I'm trusting their teachers are going to do a good job with that, right? Not to say my teachers didn't.

I think it might have been one of these stories that has kind of like an old wives tale with each passing year. It gets kind of embellished or exaggerated. But as memory serves, when I was in like kindergarten or first grade, my teacher thought lefties wrote differently. Oh. And it was just kind of like learning on your own. Interesting. Because she was like a leftist. I can't do that.

Like you freaks keep over there. Well, I mean, if you want to be honest, there was a generation of students who, like, being left-handed was considered, you know, sinister. And, like, they weren't, you had that, like, there was. My mother-in-law's left, he also had terrible handwriting. No, but, but, I mean, this is a, this is a real thing. I believe, like, during a, you know, during the generation before us, they tried to force, there were some teachers who tried to force left-handers to write. writing. So I'm not blaming any teacher. Bottom line, it's my responsibility. I should have written better. I got to a point where I was like in third and fourth grade where every teacher tried to change it. And it became like a jump shooter who has an ugly shot. And it's just like, look, this is how I do it. I write it. But then when I got to college, I don't know how we went down this course. When I got to college and did you think a read blanket chip was going to carry us for 60 minutes? Yeah, I had read blanket

material. As I got to college, this is actually kind of funny. I would... I like it, read blanket chip material. You walk on you. Like, most NFL safeties walk like this. Read blanket chip walks like this.

You're just doing hacky. So there are two things that happen. First off, my hand would hurt like crazy because you're writing, you know, you have those blue books, right? And you've, you've, like an hour. This is a real thing. This is a thing for children,

like the hand, the grip that you're, you have if you're holding it like this, it is more exhausting for you to be writing because you're exercising more muscles while you do. And because I'm lefty and I would get, and in college you're using ink, right? You're not writing a pencil. My whole hand would just be filled with ink at the end of a, at the end of an exam. It would like an exam and it would just, it would look like you would leave class. What happened to you, man? Either that or like, or there's some, there's some girl across the, across the, it's like,

ooh, there's a bad boy. He's got to look at his ink all over his hand. Yeah, I wish it worked out like that. I think it was more like, is that guy like, what was that guy doing? It was eating paint. Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, in any event, I do, it is funny. It's, it's been commented before.

I'm like, wait, you know, because people want to take a picture of you when you're signing a book. And I'm like, actually, can you hold on one second? and I'm just my grip for the photo because my first, the first few weeks when I was signing books and I would see these photos, I was like, that's what I look like

because you can't see yourself when you write. Andy Reid once commented on it one time too. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I was in his office in 2012 and he commented on my grip from my pen. I'm looking in Google images to see if I can find an image of Zach. Please don't.

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Anything else on a read Blankenship to discuss? So your opinion is this year, it's Blankenship C's a Gardner-John. And I just frame it this way. Do you think that they're still in the Justin Simmons market? Do you still, do you think if, I mean, we haven't really discussed, like, someone like it. The Simmons thing is weird, huh? Yeah, I was about to say Eddie Jackson, but Justin Simmons is someone who's hanging around there. Presumably he wants more money than teams are offering.

They ran around this town corner. Do you think they would still sign someone over read Blanketship? Or do you think it's like Blanketship Sidney Brown combo this year next to CJ? I don't think that they are. eager to sign somebody over reed blanketship but i think if justin simmons is lingering there and lingering there and like is not finding the market he deserves he thinks he deserves and an opportunity is there to add him and you know you pair him back with vick fanjo i i don't i don't think that this reed blankenship thing affects their justin simmons thinking at all do you i don't know but

i don't think so um i mean obviously they are not Like rushing to sign Justin Simmons. Right. Yeah. Like we can obviously infer that. Yes, sure. Knowing that he's been on the market for a month. But if I'm sure that they have like some price in mind and if Justin Simmons's camp circles back to them like, okay, this is what we want to do.

Yeah. I don't think, I don't think this read Blankenship extension affects that at all. Interesting. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you as someone, like I know I puff you up, but I mean this when I say it. Like you're a really good observer of these training camp practices. You've seen all different types of undrafted rookies. You've seen kind of like the former big-time prospect who didn't turn it on when he was in college, but you're kind of hoping maybe now in the NFL.

You see kind of the small school guy. You see the exception body-wise, right? Is there anything that can be learned from re-blanketship story as the Eagles go in that undrafted market this year? I don't know that I would even say that it's an undrafted thing and you mean you never want to like over-learn a lesson based on an outlier but I will say that my bias for safeties especially and linebackers to a similar extent but a little bit less is guys who played a lot

guys who have started a lot and seen a lot of football and have the like the built-in you know You're Malcolm Gladwellian 10,000 hours of reaction time and also, you know, earned the job. Sure. Right? Like I think of a guy like Patrick Queen even who turned out to be a good player eventually, but was like a one-year starter at LSU. Now, you know, you can point you to to Kobe Dean and say that this didn't always work out. But like in terms of like day three safeties, guys that I like, my preference is always going to be like a Chamari-Comari.

Connor type from last year, a guy who has played a lot versus a guy who has like really good traits but didn't earn playing time at a place where obviously they wanted to have the best players on the field. I like that. And then two more things. First off, as the, and you can go back into the all pHLY archives to find this, as the official nickname guy for Reblankenship, what do you go with now? What's the, is there a nickname?

Troy Paula paid. Okay. Did you come up because there was a lot of opinions among the deep acts as they were listening to you do that interview about what the nickname should be? He's going in the year three. He just got paid. What is the nickname? Troy Polymone. I mean, that wasn't an option back then.

What's the? Troy Palomeo. Yeah. I mean, there's a whole article on it. There's a lot of options. I know, but what's the one you're going into? Why limit yourself to one? Okay.

Okay. And then I just want to do a quick game with you. here. Good game. All right. How well did you read, read? Okay? Meaning, you've read his bio.

You've done work on him before for Wolf's Den type content. I'm going to test your memory here. This is kind of the get-the-know-you section where sometimes you find some ideas for your Wolf's Den. I hope I'm not putting you on the spot here. Let's see. I think some of these you might recall, some of these you probably don't. First job. Do you recall his first job?

Was it in food service? No, he was working on a farm in high school pretty much. Everybody did it in the area hauling hay. His bucket list. I don't think that I'm going to do as well as you are. All right, fine. Here you go. But I'm happy to continue to play.

So here you go. Favorite athlete growing up. This one you probably remember. Chipper Jones. No, Mika Fitzpatrick. Milka Fitzpatrick. Okay. And then this is one that you've talked about on this show.

Favorite food? Do you remember this? Manez. Okay. It's pizza with ranch dip. The ranch makes a world of difference. What's his quote? Yeah, I mean, he's having bad pizza.

Okay. But ranch will plus up bad pizza. I don't... I can't put ranch on pizza? That's a violation. We don't put it on it and you dip the pizza in it. I actually don't find that to be a terrible violation. if you are unfortunately dealing with bad pizza.

Yeah, I, yeah. I just wouldn't eat the pizza at that point. Okay, what are you going to do, starve? I have out of respect for pizza. I'm not going to dip pizza in ranch, I mean, but you do you read. Like, I'm cool with that. Toast the bagel, but you won't get the pizza and ranch.

Yeah, toasting bagels how it's supposed to be. You were the outlier of that, I think. I was not the outlier. Some other re-blankenship Inso his prize possession is he collected knives when he was younger. His granddad would let him take one from his collection every year

for his birthday. Someone he would like to meet is Morgan Wallen. I'm not familiar with Morgan Wallen's music. But that's... Especially crust. You can, I mean, you can get a little bit out of the crust in the ranch. His favorite movie, Stepbrothers, and his favorite TV show is Peaky Blinders.

Haven't seen Peeky Blinders. Have seen Stepbrothers. Okay. Okay, so I'll read Blanketship Intel for our audience. I was thinking about pizza and cheese steaks the other day. I think about those often. And my take here is that like Philadelphia's cheese steak pride or where you going to this? No, no, no.

The Philly cheese steak is better than New York pizza in this sense. what makes New York pizza great is the median pizza. You can get really good pizza anywhere except for maybe in Alabama. Yes, Athens, Alabama. Like the best pizza in Phoenix can compare to the best pizza in New York. But the median pizza in New York is better than the median pizza anywhere outside of Naples. But you cannot get a really good cheese steak anywhere, only in Philadelphia. That's my take.

That's why the Philly cheese steak is better than New York. pizza. Yeah, I agree with you there. Yeah, I mean, pizza is pretty versatile. Cheesesteaks are not very versatile, right? Cheese steak, it takes... Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to find a good cheese steak somewhere outside of Philadelphia? Well, first off, you need the roll. You don't have rolls, lots of other places. You need the roll. You need to know the correct steak cheese distribution. You need to know the way to season. You need to know the right amount of time to put it on there. I mean, you know, like, there's a learning curve here. That's like, You can't, you can't put me in...

Yeah, but there are plenty of Philadelphia expats, you know. You can't put me in Brazil and say, just go speak Portuguese, right? You have to learn Portuguese. You have to learn how to make a cheese steak. Yeah, but you're walking along that beach with that thong, and all of a sudden, no one cares what you're speaking. There's no beach in Sao Paulo. That's a misconception, by the way.

Is there a misdorception? That's the financial hub of Brazil. Yes. Okay. Someone's been dougling some Googling. Oh, yes. Yes, I can tell you a lot about Sal Powell right now. Okay.

Zach, what you make of Big Red signing Other Red? Carson Wentz. Yeah. Well, first of all, I saw when I'm in Chase Daniel, I hope I'm not misquoting, that the Chiefs wanted him last year. What do you think the movers say when they show up to move the Wences and see the size of that bed? Like, I'm sorry, we can't do this.

This is going to cost extra. This bed's really stuck with you for a long. time. I've never seen anything so big. No, there was the Al Jefferson bed. Google Al Jefferson's bed. Al Jefferson's bed? Google Al Jefferson's bed.

There was the Al Jefferson bed. I never knew this. I don't remember Carson Wentz's bed, but I remember reading, oh, this bed is not big. Al Jefferson's bed is not bigger than Carson Wentz's bed? Al Jefferson got a custom made bed to come, like, in terms of the size. Oh, no. Carson's bed is way bigger. I don't recall Carson's bed.

There's three people on there. Look at the size of that thing. It's a football field. So anyways, you got Joya laughing here. Yeah, so Carson went to the Chiefs. Anyways, I saw a story that or a tweet from Chase Daniel that the Chiefs wanted Carson Daniel. Chiefs wanted Carson and Wentz last year. But he wanted more money than they were offering.

And then he kind of waited. He signed with the Rams during. the season like come on you got a chance to go to kansas city play from a you know play with mahomes that's where nick i mean that's probably what that's probably what the issue was that's where nick foles resurrected the uh career if you remember um but uh my read on it look carson that's i'm i would want to go to kansas city i would want to work with andy read and behind patrick mahomes and um absolutely you know it's it's you have a chance to win your second super bowl ring uh i mean Carson, I give.

And after, after being on the West Coast in L.A., he gets to go back to a place that shares his values. That was his line in Indianapolis, right? Yeah, yeah. I give Carson credit. And I'll tell you why. Like, when you get to a certain point, and you've been a franchise guy and you've... I agree with this. Like, you can walk away.

You can be like, you know, I have other interests in life. Like, I've been very fortunate to make a good amount of money. I've had a decent career. Maybe it didn't go the way it was, well, it certainly didn't go the way that it was kind of expected to go. But like to be where he was and to kind of become a journeyman backup, which is essentially, you know, what he's become, he's become, you have to love being part of a football team. Like, like you don't do it at that point. Just now, I don't know his situation. Well, and also there's self-belief, right?

Exactly. Deep down somewhere, he thinks that he can still be a starting quarterback. Yeah, but it does take a degree of humility to go from where he was to where he is now. I totally agree. I will tip my cap to that. I respect that. I also think, I don't know. I'm not going to bet against Andy Reid turning him into a functional backup quarterback.

Would you rather Carson Wentz is your backup or can he picket as your backup? I mean, this is just generic team, obviously, not the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, not Philadelphia Eagles, yeah. Good question. I mean, I guess I would probably, I mean, they both also have injury histories that make it like they're not as reliable as you would necessarily want. I don't know. I would almost rather have Carson Wentz if I was generic team B. Yeah, you're probably looking at what the high watermark could be, right?

Like if your backup, there's two ways looking at the backup. Who can win you a game and who can win you a Super Bowl, I suppose, right? And Carson Wenz probably is a better chance of doing what Nick Foles did than Kenny Pickett did. Then Kenny Pickett does. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, obviously, I don't feel strongly about it. Either way, but, yeah, not great options. By the way, I'm waiting for the, you know, Nick Foll's, like, retirement announcement at some point, right?

He's been out for a year now. He's playing pickleball. He's playing pickleball. He was at the Arizona basketball game with Cullen Moore. Did you see that? I did see that. Yeah. So curious to see what happens with Nick.

But, you know, number seven. Two guys who will, I think, maybe this is what they were discussing. just, hey, you and I both are going to look 26 years old for the rest of our lives. Going more Nick Foles? Yeah. Baby faces, both of them. Okay. I haven't really thought about that, but okay. Imagine the odds. If we were doing the show in August 2017, if you said,

no one's ever going to wear number nine again in franchise history, but someone's going to wear number 11 again in franchise history, right? Well, yeah, I mean, yeah. You could have gone like, what if I told you, Nick Foles is. going to win the Super Bowl and Carson Wentz is going to be playing for Andy Reid, you know, on his fifth team in four years. True, true, true. Okay.

All right, before we get going, let's tell you about another one of our sponsors. And those are our friends at game time because buying tickets to your favorite event shouldn't be stressful. It should be easy. It should be relaxed. And, you know, last night went up to New York, Zach, had my NL optissory draft, you know, the fabled draft, had a good time. Now, anytime one of these guys I've drafted is coming to Philadelphia,

I want to know if I can check them out, you know? Is D.L. Hall going to be on the bump? Can I check him out? Is Sunny Gray going to be on the bump? Maybe not quite as excited. D.L. Hall had a tough first start, but go on. Yeah, I'm aware. Anyway, with killer deals on last minute tickets

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20% off events. You have great merch for all teams, a free shirt when you become a diehard member, and the members-only Discord, which is the PHLY Lounge. So head over to all-PHLY.com now and join the best. best sports fans in the city. Real quick, if I can flex for a bit. Let's see it. You mentioned your fancy baseball auction.

And typically, I know this is like esoteric, and I like to stay on point. We have an Eagles topic we're about to get to, but I just need to get this off my chest, okay? So last week, last Friday, I have my auction. It's 16 team league, 30 player rosters. Like, you're really scraping the barrel. And I had a list of one. I mean, it's a mixed league. You're not scraping the barrel that much.

Get out of here. Okay. I have a list of $1 guys. I'm kind of, I'm going for it at the end. And all I had left was room for $1. $1.00. And all my targets were going for like $6, $7. And I'm panicking at this point.

People have too much money left at the draft. And I'm saying, if that's the case. And I'm saying, well, because they're on three-year contracts. So you get a cheap guy. And, you know, potentially. That's too much money left at the end. So anyways. So.

Scraping the bottom of here. Jared Triolo is the best player left on this waiver wire here. Al Jare Trio will go for, he doesn't make the wire in my league, man. I swear to, I swear. Anyways, let me get to this. So I say, all right, I'm going to adjust my strategy here. And I'm going to have to play the wire for some pitching. And I have some guys on injuries who are coming back later this year like Max Scherzerzer.

So I'm just going to go for early results here. And I'm going to look for starters on decent, like fifth starters on decent teams. Oh, I see where you're going. Okay. Take a $1 flyer on. on Blanco, Renel Blanco, on the Astros, a 30-year-old who hasn't been a full-time starter. Literally got the job on the last day of the season. I have like the free trial for MLB TV right now, so I'm watching these games at night.

I'm paid for that bad boy. And man, I'm hooked to my TV last night watching this. Boom, no hitter. So were you not watching Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese? I was going back and forth. I was watching Caitlin Clark. I was watching Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese. Great game.

awesome to watch, really impressed. So good. But I was watching the Phillies, and I was watching, I was watching my guys too. And so that was cool to see Blanco get the no-hitter. Good for you. Thank you. He really sold that one, Beau. Is this one of those, is this a Roto League or points?

Is it one of those where it's like you get like 500 points for a no-hitter or something like that? No, no, no. It's just it's a Roto 5-5. Okay. Who was your favorite player on your team other than him? well I took Bobby Witt in my you love Bobby Witt in my rookie draft in my rookie draft a few years ago

and I took him over Adley Rutchman and um You're gonna get Emily a Bobby Witcher Is he walk around the house and I wrote I have a So I'm not entertaining that I wrote I texted my my brother then the night before the

Rook because he drafted minor leagers And I text him the night before And I wrote Bobby Witt no matter what and boy that has come to fruition so yeah that and then last year you're going to start using witty as like just cool like it has nothing to do with that wit it's just cool like bobby whit it's just cool like bobby whit yeah so this is my other favorite ones i i took uh i took janardias last year on a one dollar deal that because i thought he would get the job this year that looks good he had two homers last night um the one that's not looking to i overpaid for victor scott man i was

I was category chasing. I had been tracking him in the minors. He could steal. He's got to get on base. He's got to get on base. My guy, Dylan Carlson, got hurt. Yeah. Okay.

Anyways. Who possibly cares about this? Yes. She's ridiculous. Okay. I want to ask you, Zach. Yes. You and Rich touched on the Jake Rosenberg news.

I want to start here. Tell me, tell the audience your, you know, we don't know. We're not in the building, but you're understanding from talking to people of like what it is. that Jake does or did? Yeah, so, I mean, Jake's been with the team now or with the franchise since 2011. And so the cap management,

but also the overall roster strategy, right? How, you know, how you're going to allocate resources to what areas, right? How you're going to structure contracts. But further, he was kind of like the point man in dealing with agents. And sometimes in dealing with players, as well.

So, yeah, it's more kind of on the administrative side of football operations, but he was a real big part of putting their cap strategy together for a period of time, structuring contracts, and then really being, you know, it kind of, I don't want to say, got handed off from Howie to Jake, but Jake's the guy, you know, when I talk to agents, like the agent they're talking to is Jake. Oh, I'm sorry, the Eagles rep, they're often talking to is Jake. You saw, like, if you were following the reaction on Twitter, like there were a lot of agents chiming in about how much they enjoy working with Jake.

I think that's actually, it's not even a, like, this is a thing that was foisted upon him because how he didn't want to do it. I imagine it's because he was good at it, right? He earned that role. Do you view this as from an Eagles? You know, they've had guys, they've had, and girls, they've had lots of people leave. Like, this is a person who goes back a long way with High Roseman. Is it troublesome in your eyes at all that he's choosing to leave?

I mean, look, you want as much talent in the building as you can, and by all accounts, he's talented and very good at what he does. And the Eagles have been smart cap-wise. Like, it's controversial in terms of something. I shouldn't say controversial. It's polarizing to a degree in terms of how they structure contracts. And some teams like to pay as you go. the Eagles like void years because they view the cap going up and it doesn't always work out.

But if you make enough good bets, like you'll be in good caps, you'll be in position to have the flexibility to sign who you want. And he's been a big part of that strategy. That said, and like I'm not taking anything away from Jake. I think Jake would probably tell you this too. Jake has talented people who work with him too. It's not as if he's siloed and like he's the only one who puts these contracts together. and like, you know, he's, so you're losing a really talented person in your front office, but, you know, Bryce Johnson's someone who, you know, and I know you're going to touch on that,

but he's kind of worked with Jake and it's been a big part of their cap strategy. They have some other people behind the scenes who deal with that. I mean, in the piece with Jeff McLean last week, and shout out to Jeff, I believe this came out. He won Top Beat Writer by the APSC, well-deserved. Oh, it is. So, yeah, so, but Howie mentioned. Robbed again. Who?

I don't know. Just saying. But like, you know, like Jeff Scott, someone in football administration. Like there's a lot of different not people in the front office who are, who have their hands on this. But yeah, Jake's a big loss. I'm not, there's no way around that. Yeah, I would say that my two cents here is that just the general coverage. of this is probably underselling

the Bryce Johnson part of it. Like you got to be a real Eagle sicko to know even who Jake is but even the level beyond that is Bryce Johnson and Bryce Johnson who was once upon a time a sicko just like you.

He was running the Eagles salary cap website like the over the cap version just for the Eagles and that's how he got the job with the Eagles. And my understanding is that part of reason that that Jake is leaving is because Bryce is like very clearly elevating to a bigger role as the person who is in charge of their salary cap strategy and their their player acquisition

strategy. Yeah, I'm glad I'm glad you pointed that out because he is someone you hear behind the scenes who's a really big part of this too, right? And from, I can't say from Jake's perspective, but just when you look at it, like the Eagles have two assistant GMs right now. they have Al-Calabee, they've John Ferrari. There is, you know, Jake, if Jake has aspirations of doing more and being more as he told Jeff in that story, then, yeah, sometimes you have to leave to do that

because, you know, Howie's not going anywhere, right? And then there's two people under Howie, Al Calabee, we've talked about him on the show, we've written about him. He did interview with Carolina this off-season, but, you know, there's a lot of people within that building that sometimes you have to go elsewhere to kind of advance your career. So, yeah, I think the Eagles are going to be okay. Like they have, it's not as if Jake was sitting in a room alone, you know, putting the contract strategy together over the past few years.

But there is, you know, it's human capital, right? You know, you will lose a certain amount of, you know, intellectual capacity in that building. Sure. And that's why, you know, it's not dissimilar to the conversation of Nick Siriani having to backfill his staff and a bunch of people leave, right? You have to have that pipeline from within. Absolutely. Yeah, it'll be an interesting test and interesting to follow. Last thing, Zach, the Roto Pat, friend of the show for Roto World has his annual ranking of the head coaches in the NFL. Nick Siriani coming in 15th, sandwiched between Mike McCarthy and Doug Peterson, a couple of familiar.

Faces? What'd you make of that? Where would you have Nick Siriani? Yeah, I thought that Kevin O'Connell was a little too high on there Right Kevin in Kevin in Kevin O'Connell's two years Look, and I I like what he's done in Minnesota he tall guy square face Yeah, Philly roots I like I like that you you took that in it like you agreed yeah Philly roots As if everybody in Philly is walking around you know, 6-4 with a square head, like a Lego man.

Yeah, we can all wish about being 6-4, right? Yeah, Kevin O'Connor was 12th on here. Would you take that trade if I could promise you tomorrow you would be 6-4, but you would have a literal square face? Like just sharp edges and actual square as a face. I'm proud of who I am. I'm not trying to, you know, I'm not because... Good for you.

Yeah, and... Well, no, would you take it without the square face? No, but this is the thing you always learn, is the thing that you learn. You can't just have the good stuff and not, you know, like, you have to take the whole package, right? So, yeah, so be proud of who you are.

But, yeah, Siriani's... How disconcerting that would be to wake up tomorrow, 6'4? You just, what happened? Oh, my God. It would help me in basketball quite a bit. It would help me in... Especially if, like, your torso didn't change. It was just your legs lengthening?

Yeah, I mean, I... Weird-looking guy. Yes. Nick Shiriani went from 8th last year to 15th this past year. Kevin O'Connell went from 19th last year of the 12th this year. Okay, no disrespect to Rotopat. These lists aren't easy to put together. But if Kevin O'Connell's 12th, I got to put Nick higher than that.

Yeah, but I mean, Kevin O'Connell wasn't almost fired last year. I would put Nick above Mike McDaniel right now. I don't think that I would. Interesting. So, Stefansky, so here, so your number one, look, he's certainly not top five. You got Andy Reid number one. He almost got fired last year. Yeah, he did almost get fired.

He presided over a terrible collapse. Let's not pretend that didn't happen. No, but I'm saying in three years. Of course, he's not top five. No, but in three years as head coach, he's made the playoffs every year. Sure. He has two double-digit win seasons, right? Yeah, I mean, let's have Mike McDaniel.

What have you done for me lately? Yeah, Mike McDaniel hasn't won a playoff game yet, right? Kevin McDonnell hasn't want a playoff game yet. Nick Siriani. I'm sort of with you on O'Connell. but I think Kevin O'Connell is probably fine. But you got number one here, you got Andy Reed, number two, you got Sean McVeigh,

three, John Harbaugh. I would probably put Hardball number two. I'm a little bit of a Hardball guy. I don't know. What's the last playoff game that John Harbaugh has won? Didn't he win a playoff game this past year? I guess so. Yeah, okay.

But then they lost again, right? No, because they were the one seed. Then they lost. They lost the Chiefs in the championship game. Yeah. I guess you're right. Yeah. Kyle Shanahan,

I have a terrible short-term memory. Yeah, Mike Tomlin, five, Matt Lafleur, six, Dan Campbell, seven, Sean McDermott, eight, Zach Taylor, nine,

Kevin Stefansky, 10. Yeah, I don't know that I like, sack Taylor might be a little bit too high for my liking. I think Dan Campbell is probably

some recency bias, but... Yeah. Sean Peyton at 13. Now, Sean Payton's won a Super Bowl. And even, but... Okay. Yeah.

So is Mike McCarthy? That's what I'm saying. I mean, Sean Payton... Oh, you're saying he's too high. Yeah, I mean, look, these lists are hard to put together. Sure. And as Rodopat says, Sean Payton's one of the best coaches of the 21st century. But I wasn't impressed with what happened in Denver last year.

And then you look at, I mean, Dougie Pee, he went from 10 to 16. That was a tough situation, certainly. D'Amico at 17. I mean, I don't, you could, you can make a case for a little touch higher. I'll probably put D'Amico over, over Kevin O'Connell. In looks or? In coaching. I'm not evaluating looks.

But would you? I'm not evaluating looks. Looks are subjective. I'm asking for your, I'm asking for your subject. Yeah, I can't really give you any insight on that. That's a yes, people. Jonathan Ganon, 23rd, okay? You have 24, right?

No. Oh, yeah. Yes. Dennis Allen, 24th. Which I agree with. Okay. What has Dennis Allen done to keep a job? I agree.

I agree. Is it Dennis Allen or is it Alan Dennis? It is Dennis Allen. Okay. It is Dennis Allen. Once they... Once a potential candidate to be the Eagles defense coordinator, did not take the job, they hired Juan Castillo.

And then the number one coach on this list went to Kansas City. There you go. You know what, Zach? Yesterday's show was just jam-packed. with football stuff. Just nonstop Hassan Reddick talk. Today's show a little bit different. Yeah, well, you know what?

The good thing is, is that we're on five days a week year round. We have some great shows coming up, draft heavy stuff. We're really going to dig in position by position. I think it would be a funny bit if we kept saying we're really excited. We're going to really dig into the draft. And then it's like the day of the draft. And we're like, all right, here we go. Well, that is a bow of staple, by the way.

For the long time listeners, you can appreciate this. is that we'll get to like a week before the draft. And Bo's like, yeah, we have to do this game, this game, this game, this game. And I'm like, what do we do the past three, four weeks? So we can do it. We can do a game this week. Okay, yeah, that'd be good. I mean, I'm ready now.

I know that I'm a bit of a college football sicko. Like, you know, you watch more women's hoops than I do. I watch more college football than you do. Everyone has different tastes. I get that. I'm ready I'm ready to jump into some of this draft talk

so You just want to be as informed as I can be Yes I respect that I need I know Dane Brugger's going to pump out that beast I need that bad boy Yes And then I need my info I need my testing times

And then we've got some good guests on I do want to I do want to figure out We're kind of brainstorming out loud here But the best person to talk to For offensive tackles Maybe it's a it's Brandon Thorne.

It's Baldy. Maybe it's Brandon Thorne. Just like get, because you and I are in agreement that O. tackles the spot to watch for the Eagles in the first round. I've done research on these guys, but I would really trust someone else to tell you that I like a Marius Mims over Tyler Geithen for this reason. Or I like, yeah. I have a tackle thing I want to actually ask you about. Yeah.

Because we're talking about it. I don't think the, like a guy who. was like a right tackle only, this prototype, there is no reason the Eagles can't take a guy who's a left tackle. That's true, too. Right? Like, Jordan Milana can play right tackle. Yes.

If you find that guy, I just want to say that. Like, Jordan Malata does not have to be the left tackle. That's one of the beautiful things about his player development is that he started at such a blank slate that Stoughton got him wiping with both hands, right? He can play right tackle fine. Sure. You don't need it. And now, you know, we can.

we can also argue about the framing of like is that even a real thing where like a right tackle is a certain body type and a left tackle is not anymore but I just think that if you are if you found a guy who's like only going to be or only comfortable on the left side I think that's fine yeah also the two um a sneaky kind of like under the radar thing that we haven't even discussed all offseason when we talk about tackle Jordan my lot is entering the last year of his deal right and as you Stutely pointed out when they signed him, they got him to a below market deal. I don't know if this next deal is going to be a below market deal, right? I mean, he's so young.

He just, his birthday was this week. He just turned 28, right? If he doesn't sign- That's actually older than I thought he was. Well, this is his age 28 season. Yeah, or no, he's 27. He just turned 27. I'm sorry.

He'll be 28 in 2025. And so, or he's, I'm sorry, he has two years left on his deal. He's just turned 27. He's a free agent in 2026. But this is just something to keep in mind. Like, he is, they got him on a blow market deal. They're going to have to pay him at some point.

So the future of both tackles is something to monitor. Okay. We snuck in some football talk. That's good. We did a lot of football talk. We came fresh off the re-blanketship news. Okay, we had literally 20, I don't think you're finding a show right now doing 30 minutes on reblank.

First person to tweet me with the last team that played in the Super Bowl with multiple white guys in the starting secondary will win a prize. I also want to, I said in our ad read earlier that check out the all-P-H-LI.com for upcoming events. I'm just going to give a quick teeth here. I hope I'm not speaking out of line. During the pandemic, it was very, you're looking at me. It was... It was going to go lots of directions. It was very unfair for the Philadelphia Eagles.

No. It was popular among some sickos and our growing audience at that time when you got to watch the draft live with Bow and me together. You know, we were both in our respective homes, but we were not at the facility, and you watched the draft with us. And it was fun. We were, there was some good banter usually at my expense. I don't think that would ever be the case. I was probably overly excited. when I predicted Mackay Beckton to the Jets.

Don't remember. I know you don't remember. But in any event, there is going to be an opportunity. I'm not going to tell you the details yet. You have to stay tuned and watch our show in all PHLY. Big T's here. But to watch the show with us on your screen and potentially watch the show with us

or watch the draft with us in person. So make sure you check that out. And the perk of that is you would get to you would get me Julia. So that would be the best part. And you get to you get invited into Zach's house, which is, which is, you're not doing that. That's definitely not happening. So, yes. Oh, I thought that's where you were going. No, no, no, no. It's at a, wait until you see the size of that bed. It's, it's a neutral third party. Neutral third party. All right, that'll do it for this episode of the P.H.L.Y. Eagles show for Zach and Julia. I am Bo. Thank you for

listening and watching. Do better, Sickos. Next time there's a layup like the NFLPA writes a milk check. Please make sure that you are on top of that. And like and subscribe all that good stuff. Back tomorrow at noon. Noon the rest of the week for all of us here. We thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching. Talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.