PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | The Philadelphia Eagles split-squad draft: Who can build the best roster?

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

It’s the 2024 Flit-Squad draft, where two competitors enter in an attempt to build the best roster from the Eagles’ 90-man roster. The Eagles have great talent on offense, but they’re not super deep. After A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, are there wide receivers worth adding? And on defense, there’s considerable depth in the secondary but how differentiated is it?Zach Berman and Bo Wulf get in the ring for a head-to-head tussle. Parris Campbell, mon dieu! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, and a welcome to the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast on a Tuesday, high noon, Bo Wolf, Zach Berman. We have gotten in the time machine, my friend, and we are ready for the 2024 flit squad draft. I know you're excited. I am excited. This is a game that, or a matchup, a draft, a strategy, and approach that I always look forward to because I think it's instructive in seeing where the game. Eagles are deep and where they're not, where they're best players. They're deep where it matters. But invariably, it turns into you not trying to assemble the best team, but you're trying to assemble team that is better than your team, which is the best team. I mean, that's. No, you'll just load up on wide receivers.

So I have no one. So that I have a better team than you. No. That's how games work. I am on to your strategy. And I also understand, too, that no matter how this team is, is, is, is, uh, is, uh, assembled you will declare yourself a winner. Well, that's for sure.

Yes. But I feel good going into this, and I'm not going to let your mind tricks deviate me from my plan going into this. All right. If you are new to the conceit here, it's pretty straightforward. Do the Eagles have a roster? We are going to pick our players from that roster and try to create a team of 24 players. So on offense, we are allowing Jailen Hertz as the quarterback for both teams.

otherwise that would just decide whose team was better, right? So we're each drafting a backup quarterback, a running back, a tight end, two wide receivers, one other offensive skill player, whether that's a running back, tight end, or wide receiver, five offensive linemen in their positions, left tackle, left, guard, center, right guard, right tackle, one flex, and then on defense, an edge, two defensive tackles, another edge, two linebackers, two corners, two safeties, a nickel, another flex player. and the other wrinkle that we have here, Zach, we get two free agents each.

So unsigned players on the street. If the Eagles are particularly light somewhere, you can draft at any point, a free agent who's on the street, a little bit different than we did last year. Last year we did it at the end. I think it's probably more fair. New wrinkle. You can draft at some point. If you want to draft Justin Simmons in the first round, that's up to you. You can do that.

Just a little extra game theory here. and see who comes up with a better team. And, of course, sound off in the comments throughout the episode when you know that I'm winning. And it has to be a player expected to play. I can't draft Aaron Donnell. Right? He's like, I mean, you can draft him,

but if he doesn't play, he doesn't play. Okay, yeah. I thought you might want Julio Jones again. Well, I mean, if I can get Julio Jones three years ago or five years ago or six years ago. Listen, we've already hopped into the time machine once. We might as well do it again. We've already done that.

But if you recall, the, if they play with Zach Ertz a few years ago, we kind of let him slide down the board and then he ended up being on the team. I don't recall that, but good callback. Yep. All right. Now, this is going to go one, two, and then one, one, one, one from there. Do you want to do rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes first?

Would you like to just decide who goes first or second? What makes better for the show? Oh, I think people love to see a rock paper scissors. do they especially the audio listeners all right ready let's still only count's right one one shot not oh not that's great okay yeah rock paper scissors shoot my scissors beats your paper okay so you get first pick so i am going to let you go first i'm going to take you second i thought you do it to get the first pick no you to get it to have the choice well you did not specify that ahead of time but i will play by your rules so obvious that's very clear it was not made clear it was to see who

who goes first, rock, paper, scissors, shoot. That's literally what you said. You did not say that, but we will roll with it. I asked you if you wanted the choice. All right. So with the first overall pick of the flit squad draft, I will go with A.J. Brown. Reasonable selection?

Because my fear is that if I went with an offensive tackle or so on from a different position, then you would just go A.J. Devante. and there is, as we've noted, a significant drop-off at wide receiver. So I will make sure I lock in AJ Brown. Okay. This is a smart pick because no doubt if you had not taken a wide receiver, I would have taken both wide receivers. And so by virtue of that, I have no choice but to take Devante Smith with my first pick.

And then you could go a couple different ways here. Parrish Campbell? You could go Paris Campbell, certainly. Jason Poe is sticking out like a sort of thought. I'm on my board. But, you know, you could go, Lane Johnson, you could go Jalen Carter,

you could go Jordan Milita if you wanted to get freaky. You could take another offensive player, but I think that the smart move for, you can only take one. So that's interesting. But I don't think you're going to do that if I do that. I'm actually going to go off the board here.

Wow. Already. This is not what I expected to do. Mm-hmm. And you are Mr. Defense. For me, I'm Mr. Football team. I'm Mr. Football team.

I believe in a football team. But the way... The team, the team. As Jim Harbaal says. No, you know what? I'm not going to do it. I'm taking Lane Johnson. I got to stick to...

After all of that. After all of that, you go with Lane Johnson. I got to, you know what? He's the... he's older, there's some injury risk, but he is the best player on the team. I'm going to take Elaine Johnson. So I don't want to be boxed out of one of the two offensive tackles.

I think they have three offensive tackles. And if I don't get the third one, I'm okay with that. But my fear is if I don't go with Jordan Milata at the spot, then you have these bookend tackles at a spot where the Eagles are still figuring out their death. So I am going with Jordan Milata right now, an ascending player. That worked out how. I was hoping. That's good. That means that I can now take the player who I consider taking, I'm taking the best defensive player on the team. I'm taking Jalen Carter. Okay. That he was my other

choice there. So this has gone for the audience. This has gone totally chalk for me so far. That was my clear top five. And it actually went in the exact order that I did it. One, two, three, four, five. Very nice. You've scouted well. You've scouted well. Now it's interesting, as I say. in the NBA draft. That is true. And boy, what a draft that was. What a draft that was. Cannot believe what the Sixers did?

And how about the Flyers this past weekend too? Wow. How about it? My goodness. And what a series for the Phillies. And that's a debate. Okay. You know what?

Let's talk about the debate. What was your favorite part of the debate? I'll talk about this debate here. Oh, yeah. I'll let you off the hook. Yeah. No, I don't talk politics on this show. I'm happy to talk offensive.

Yes, silence speaks volumes. No. So I'm in a position here where my number six pick, I don't know if I necessarily want to go with my, with the sixth guy here. It's a position where I feel like there's a significant drop off. I don't feel like he's the sixth best player on the team. But I am going to do it because the strategy in this game is, looking for a combination of talent and depth and you're looking for a position where you you don't feel like option two is as good so this is why you wouldn't go dari a sleigh here

because eagles are deep at corner um so the player i'm going with at this spot is dallas goddard and i'm going he's the sixth player on my board for the reason that i mentioned because if you don't end up with dallas goddard then uh you have c j usama or grandcock there i'll see whoever you pick But now I have two of the Eagles top three receivers Because I consider Dallas Goddard their third receiver Yeah, I think that's the right pick game theory wise However game theory is not where football is one's at So now this is the year when game theories football is one in the trenches and

There's one all pro caliber Player on the board in the offensive line so I'm taking Lennon Dickerson and now all of a sudden my offensive line, which is what is the most important thing in football aside from the quarterback. I don't know if you know that. Yes. Is, mine is going to be better than yours. Okay. So, Land and Dick, that's a good pick. And I got to say, this draft has literally gone exactly as I have spected out, which makes me think that either you have access to my files or that you and I are thinking similarly here. I don't think it's much of a stretch to see how this would start. But now is

where it gets interesting. I thought it's, as they said in the last. Yeah, I thought I got interesting two picks ago. So I am going to go with one that you might mock.

I know what you're going to do and I am going to mock it, but go ahead. I'm going to go with blue chip players. Okay? And look, the appeal of the Eagles in past years has been their strength

on the lines of scrimmage. I think they are really good on the lines of scrimmage this year. But if you're saying, if you're asking an opposing team, where do the Eagles really stand out? It's their skill position players are elite. Okay? And I think we did this exercise on the show two weeks ago where I had the Eagles as what, second best or third best group of skill players in the NFL. No, I had the coaching staff second.

I had the Eagles third, I believe, in skill position players. And so I'm going to make sure that I had. I'm well equipped at the skill spots. Give me Sequin Barkley. High for a running back. I get it. But look, the Eagles paid premium money for a premium player, and now I have a premium player.

So, okay, Bo's offense is going to be, well, I'm curious who else besides Devante Smith is going to get the ball. You could go with a free agent, I guess I get that. I have Sequan, Barclay, Dallas Goddor, and AJ Brown. I feel good about that. Unfortunately, your quarterback's probably going to have no time to throw the ball based on the way things are looking because what I'm going to do. This is the year that you chose to do that. What I'm going to do here is take the other offensive tackle of starting caliber quality here.

I'm taking Mikey. Fred Johnson. I'm taking Mackay Beckton. Now listen, maybe there is some concern that he can't stay healthy, but on paper, that's not a concern. So I have Mackay Bechton as my left tackle. I have started out with Devante Smith, Lane Johnson. Landon Dickerson, Jalen Carter, and Mackay Beckton, to your Sequin, Dallas Goddard, A.J. Brown, and Jordan Milata.

Okay. So this now is where the draft gets interested. No, this is where the draft gets interesting. Because this is where you start to deviate from the board. And this is when you start to say, all right, where are how's this draft gone? I did not have Bechtin as my number nine or eight player there. I wouldn't expect that you did. So there's a few different directions here.

One thing I do want to point, well, I don't want to point anything out until later on in this exercise. But now I'm going to turn toward defense. And I do think the Eagles have depth at edge rusher. But I am going to make sure that I can rush the quarterback. I'm going to go with someone who had double-digit sacks last year. And that is Bryce Huff. Even though I think Bryce Huff. What a coward.

What a fraud you are. Oh, excuse me. We just had it. Last week, we had E.J. Smith on the show. And you're pound on the table, making the case that Josh Sweat is going to have a better year than Bryce Huff. And now push come to shove. You're building your roster and you're taking Bryce Huff. You're stabbing Josh Sweat in the back?

Please let me explain. And this is not fraudulent. Have some principles, man. This is, this is not fraudulent. Have some scruples. This is not fraudulent. I am not assembling a team for me to, say is the best team. I'm assembling

a team for the audience to say Oh, get out of town. No. What we're going to do? This is Mr. Pizza Shop. Make a good pizza. Don't make the popular pizza. Get out of get out of here. You want a pizza that's going to sell. At the end of the day, I don't want to have any dough left. I want to be like Takenois. I want to sell out my

dough. Okay? And this is pathetic. And so. You think you know a guy. Character counts, man. So Chris is going to put up this great graphic of my roster versus your roster. And we're going to leave it to the audience to decide. And when they see that graphic, are they going to be more compelled by Bryce Huff or they can be more compelled by Josh Swet?

After all, the Eagles showed what they thought. Okay. So then I'm just going to draft. I'm going to draft Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar and, you know, I don't know, just popular people. And then all of a sudden that people will vote for me. How about build a football team? You've been covering football for a decade. What do you think matters?

So I will say that the team showed which one they valued based on the contract that they paid. And then the market showed. Okay. So now you admit defeat in that argument. I do not admit defeat. What I am trying to do is I'm going with a populist way of picking a team. What are you looking at? What is that?

We don't have a camera behind us, do we? No. It looks like Zach lost his backbone. It's gone. You know what? I'm going to stand up straight in my seat and operate with the type of dignity that I feel is necessary for the Flit Squad draft. I mean, don't be envious that I'm not envious. I just, I mean, like, I have the top skill players.

All of a sudden, it's laid bare that you don't believe in anything. No, this is not. It's so let me tell you something. When you do a mock draft, you can be a prognosticator. Okay, you can be an evaluator You can be an evaluator or give me a forecaster Okay, in this, I'm forecasting more so than anything You know, like I'm I'm forecasting to the audience demands

Like I'm I'm pathetic That's it's yeah, all right, I'm gonna take Bryce Harper as my quarterback Well, Bryce Harper doesn't play quarterback Says who? By the way, do you realize that you've now done six minutes on me taking Bryce Huff? Like that's not a controversial thing You took Mackay Beckton

It's controversial because you make the case that Josh Swett is better. If you rewind the tape, because I watch back all our shows, I said, look, I'm not going to pound the table for this. And you said, and you literally said, E.J., what's it like to see Zach pound the table? And I said, but I think there's some recency bias to Josh Sweat's game that I can't deny the way he played the backstretch of the season. But if you look at the 17 games from the middle of last year or from the middle of 2020, to the middle of 2023, he had 15 sacks in those 17 games. That's an argument I feel strong about. I don't know if that's an argument that they feel strong about in the chat.

Therefore, therefore, I'm taking a populist approach. And please, like and subscribe and comment. So obsequious. Pathetic. You know what's not pathetic, though, Zach? What's that? The Bet Park Sportsbook app. It's not pathetic.

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or of j brown um all of whom are or dow scott or all of whom are on my winning team trumark financial uh is federally insured by the nc ua it's an equal opportunity lender and for more information visit trumark dot com slash p hl why all right well some people are just groveling as they're building rosters because we know that you know they give out super bowls for whoever has the best uh clicks in the off season i believe that football is one in the trenches zach and i think there's a long history to bear that out as a true football man i know that you are attracted to flash a little bit safe a little bit at. My offensive line is already way better than yours. I'm going to make sure that that

remains the case and you have absolutely nobody to protect whoever your quarterback is. Cam Jurgens is my pick here, the Eagles starting center. And my offensive line now is almost filled out. I'm feeling very good. Okay. Fair enough. So what I'm going to do then, and look, I've obviously like Cam Juergens and the Eagles, we're still figuring out what it looks like behind him there. There's a few different options. But when I talk about a few different options, versatility on the Eagles offensive line is important. So I don't have a left tackle. But if I go with Tyler Steen, Tyler Steen can play right guard for me or he can play right tackle for me. And that is something that I am considering. So are you taking him or no? You're just talking it out.

I wasn't initially going to take him, but I am worried that you're going to box me out on the offensive line. So I am going to go with Tyler Steen. Right now, I am putting him in as my right tackle because the Eagles do have more versatility at guard than they have on the interior than they have at tackle or they have more depth I should say so right now I'm going to go with Tyler Steen and put him at right tackle but I also know as the draft materializes I have the option of moving him in the guard okay a couple places I could go here I'm going to play offense instead of playing defense and so I am going to take a place player who I think there is a pretty significant drop-off between him and the other players at his

position. He also is bringing me some versatility. So if the draft plays out in some other ways, I can move him around. I am taking the guy who is going to bring my defensive attitude, Zach, and that is C.J. Gardner Johnson. I'm putting him in a safety for now, and we will see how it goes from there. Yeah, I like his competitive zeal. So that's, that's, that's, you've often said that. That's a good way to go. That is, that is not a bad pick. C.J. was someone that I had considered. But you know what I think is most important is rushing the quarterback on defense.

And look, Josh Sweat. Well, a player who you poo-pooed no less than five minutes ago. It's going to be hard for him to play for you now that you've already driven back the truck up over him. Did you know that from the middle of the 2022 seasons to the middle of the 2003 season in the 17-game sample there, Josh went to 15 sacks and 17 games? Did you know that Will Shipley is Lashon McCoy?

No, he's not, but he's actually, if you look at the three highest strata running back since 2008, it is Lashamacoy, Miles Sanders, and Will Shippley. Do you admit that that was absolutely ridiculous? Oh, no, it's a factual statement. It's not as misleading as a fact could possibly be. Is saying two plus two ridiculous? Once again, Bill, you're entitled to your own opinions. You're not entitled to your own facts.

The way that you manipulate that quote-unquote fact is absolutely ridiculous. and misleading at best. So what you're saying is you're arguing that a fact is incorrect. To say that these two players were drafted in the top 60 picks, this player was drafted like 139th, and he belongs with them as opposed to the guy who was drafted four picks later is not honest with the audience. That show was a week ago.

He's done like five shows since then. You'll be laboring this point. You'd be laboring this point. I think you're so focused on that show with EJ. Like we've done, you had Fran on. We had like, come on. Yeah, what an episode yesterday with BLG. Yeah, seriously.

You're so focused on. Anyways, Josh Sweat, Josh, look, my, I've shown you with my actions. Oh, you haven't. What I have. The actions are you, the type of player. Well, because I knew you were going to take Josh Sweat. So there's a little game theory here. Okay.

So now I have the Eagles top two edge rushers, and I have the Eagles. I have three of the Eagles top four skill position players. In addition to an ascending left tackle, okay, and one of their starters on the offensive line. You've now drafted a backup, correct? So, and you have A.J. Brown, I'm sorry, Devante Smith and who catching the ball? Okay, yeah. I have so much time to protect my quarterback that it doesn't matter of your cast. I feel pretty good about my team right now, you know.

So how do the 2021 Eagles look? Or actually, how did the Eagles look in the playoffs last year out of curiosity? Interesting. Have you ever heard the Eagles talk about the bad seasons that they've had? And what hasn't been? Oh, they had bad offensive lines. Yeah. Who's protecting your quarterback?

You got Garbonzo beans up there. Short my lot is Garbozo Beans? Come on. Yeah. One offensive line does not. does not an offensive line make. And that's why I'm going to go ahead and do the aggressive thing here. And I'm going to take Matt Hennessy.

Okay. So I have a starting caliber player at every position on my offensive line. And so my offensive line, Mackay Beckton, Lennon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Matt Hennessy, Lane Johnson. And from there, we will see how you fill yours out. Okay. Yeah, so there is a drop off at defensive. The Eagles have three starters on the defensive line right now. I mean, not including edge rushers.

But there's a drop off at nose tackle in particular. Jordan Davis has some upside here. But I'm going with Jordan Davis in this pick. And I feel strongly about it. Now I have three of the Eagles starting five on their defensive front. So certainly offensive line is important, but so is defensive line as well. This one, I will accept the ping pong here, a player who I believe in more than you do. And I think you can make a good case, deserves to go over Jordan Davis, given what matters in the NFL.

I'm taking Milton Williams, a better pass rusher of the two. Fair enough. Okay. So do you want to reset the board or should we keep rolling here? Sure. Let's take a look at how, you know, you go one more pick, so then we'll be even because you went first. So after you pick, then we'll be even. Okay.

So now there's a handful of different ways you can go. Certainly there's been a drop-off in the or there's the secondaries wide open at this point, right? Other than C.J. Garner Johnson. The Eagles are especially deep at corner. I recognize that. But I still think Darius Slay is a high-level player. and I want to make sure that I feel good about my spot. I'm going to go with Darius Slay here just to make sure that I have high-level play

and I know I can kind of wait on the second guy because there's some options. All right. So now we can reset the rosters as we take a look at that. Zach's team, Sequin Barclay, Dallas Goddard, A.J. Brown, Jordan Milata, Tyler Steen, Bryce Huff, Jordan Davis, Josh Sweat, and Darius. Slay. My team so far, Devante Smith, Mackay Bechtin, Landon Dickerson, Cam Juergens, Matt Hennessy, Lane Johnson, Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, and C.J. Gardner Johnson.

Now, I could return serve at Corner, but instead of doing that, I'm going to lock in the starting safety combination for the Eagles. And I'm going to have Reed Blankenship paired with C.J. Gardner Johnson. I think that, you know, if you were, as you have said, stacking the best players on a team, Reid might not go at this spot, but given the drop-off at the safety position, I feel good about Reed Blankenship. Fair enough. I did not see you going with that spot there, but that's a good way to go.

So at this point here, yeah, this is, this is a, this is a, a this is a tough one. I'm compelled to go corner. All the linebackers are available. There's a drop off at Detackle. I can go with a flex edge, which could be an interesting strategy as well. The thing is, do you go with Nolan Smith there?

Do you go with, or do you go with Brandon Graham? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make sure that I got a strong corner combination. And I'm going to go with Quinyon Mitchell here. Okay. And so I understand that the Eagles are deep, and you can say Keely Ringo and Isaiah Rogers is a formidable cornerback combination. But knowing I have Derry Slay and Quineau Mitchell, I feel comfortable in those spots. Okay.

I think that's reasonable. What I'm going to do here then is take advantage of the new rule, Zach. I'm going to draft Justin Simmons. So that means that you will not have, I mean, I'm worried that you get Justin Simmons. So now I have Justin Simmons and read Blankenship. I can move C.J. Garner Johnson to the nickel if I need to. I've got some defensive flexibility. Justin Simmons, I'm drafting my, my free agent signing.

Okay. From Justin Simmons in 2019 or Justin Simmons now? You of all people, how dare you? If you give it, you guys... Just some intellectual consistency would be nice. If you give it, you got to take it. A question about the free agency rule. Does it have to be one on offense, one on defense, or can it be...

Good question. It doesn't have to be. What do you think? How would you like to do it? I'll defer to you on this. We already changed the... Like last year, we waited until the end anyways. So, yeah, let's do one on offense, one on defense.

Okay. I think that's a better way to go. Okay. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to make sure that I continue to have options passing the football. And I know you're not high on this guy, but I'm going to go Paris Campbell here. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.

Interesting. Because now, presumably, you know. We should bookmarked. this is the point in the episode when Zach lost the draft. Oh, really? Everybody remember that. So at this point, Bo has Devante Smith and one free agent receiver spot. Okay.

And I have Sequin Barclay, Dallas Goddor, A.J. Brown and Paris Campbell. You are so confident that Paris Campbell is better than the other options on the roster. Yeah. I mean, Paris Campbell is where you lost. This is fine. Okay. This is good. It's a nice moment of demarcation.

It's a nice moment of demarcation. You declare one a loser doesn't make one a loser. Yeah, I'm fascinated to see like that, that 2021, the playoff game last year in Tampa, you loved watching that offense that day, right? Well, I think we're going to have a better plan of attack on this game. Okay. Okay. All right.

I'm going to take, do I care about that? Not particularly. I'm going to go ahead and take who I believe is the second best corner on the roster. at the moment. You let him go in favor of Quinnian Mitchell. I'm taking Kili Ringo, who has had an outstanding spring. Looks good to me. And I think it could be the week one starter opposite Darius Slay. I take Kili Ringo. Okay. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to go with Cooper Degene. And Cooper Degin is my nickel. He can also play safety in a pinch. But I'm going to keep him at a nickel. Now I got Slay Mitchell and Dijin, who I feel is going to be there week one

starting group. Okay. Fair enough. Let's see. You know what I would super care about this a ton, but it is the last spot where there's a clear top player relative to the rest of the players on the roster. And so I will go ahead and lock in Devin White as my linebacker. Gotcha. I always knew you would overindex the linebacker spot.

Yeah, over index the one starting caliber player on the team at the position. You get so offended by any comment here. You said this is where Zach lost. You say this is where Zach lost the draft and I take it in stride. I say you over index linebacker and you're ready to riot down Cowell Hill. All I did was respond. So as we look at this roster now, the offensive line is not a spot where the Eagles have a lot of options here. But I'm going to make sure that I'm in decent shape.

Wait, so explain to me the rules are we're judging the guy being on the team, right? So for instance, Max Sharping is a player who has started 33 games in the NFL. Okay? Yes. But if he's not on the roster, then he doesn't count for my or. Well, I mean, to be fair, to you, not every player who we draft is going to make the roster. I don't think we can necessarily judge it based on that. Good point.

But it's what you think their level of play is going to be this season. Sure. What he did in his starts previously doesn't necessarily matter. So then you know what I'm going to go, I'm going to go Nolan Smith. And I'm going to continue to, uh, um, boxing you out of edge rushers. Okay. He's your flex, your defensive flex. He's my defensive flex.

Yep. Okay. That's fine. Nolan Smith. Yeah, I mean, what an impact he made last year. Okay. But Kila Ringgo. What an impact he made last year, right?

Kierlingo played last year and looked good. Okay. I don't know what you were watching. I like Keeley and I like Nolan. Okay. I mean, Nolan Smith, I have a long history with it with Nolan Smith.

I correctly projected him to go in the first round. Nailed that one. You continue to lie to the audience. Nailed that one. Once again. To reveal that you have absolutely no standards or scruples. How does anybody, how can anybody trust you as a reporter?

Once. when you act like this. Please don't question my integrity as a reporter. I am simply saying, Emperor has no clothes here. I'm well-clothed here. A little wrinkly shirt. Debatable.

Wow. So I'm going to give you two factual statements. And since 2008, the running back that he goes draft, the third highest was Will Shipley, or among the three highest running backs that drafted was Will Shipley. and that in 2020, I projected that the Eagles would take Nolan Smith in the first round, and they took Nolan Smith in the first round.

Once again, you're entitled to your own opinions. You're not entitled to your own facts. You say that. You are not entitled to twist the facts however makes you look good despite the fact that what you are saying is wrong or misleading at best. You remind me there's an old lawyer line that when the facts are on your side, argue the facts when the law is on your side argue the law and when neither is on your side just argue and that's you're kind of taking the the door number three there so if you were reading someone and they said the eagles are going to draft this player 10th overall that's what they're going to do and the eagles

then ended up trading up for a different player and drafting that player 200% later in the draft and they then took credit for that. You would not laugh in their face and say that that person was... So let me ask you this. A snake oil salesman? Okay, once again, I came back up straight,

and I'm not going to dignify that, the snake oil salesman part. So anyone who said that Jell and Carter, unless you took Jail. What? Monorail. Monorail? Monorail.

What? What? What's that mean? Is that snake oil? salesman's cell as monorails. Deals did not draft Jalen Carter number 10. Unless you said the Eagles were going to draft Jalen Carter number nine overall, unless you said they were going to trade up number one.

You did not get that pick correct, right? I disagree. I think if you correctly, if you predicted they were going to trade up for Jalen Carter, that's correct. Okay. So I predicted that the Eagles would take Nolan Smith in the first round. Once again, we don't need to relitigate this. I'm just, I was just, you shouldn't have to relitigate facts anyways. Like, this is an opinion.

Will Shibbley thing is absolutely ridiculous. It's a fact, Bo. It's barely a fact. Something can't barely be a fact. It's either It's either true or it's false. The way that you group it is it's insane. It's like if you said...

Okay, you could say it's selective reasoning, but you can't say it's not true. It's like if you were drawing a map of America and you drew a circle all the way to the very bottom of Florida and you said, okay, Jacksonville is part of the northern part of America and everything below Jacksonville is in the south.

And instead of you were saying, Jacksonville is in the north and, you know, Miami is in the south. And that's it. That's exactly all it is. Those things are so much closer together than everything else you are grouping with the second round running backs or Jacksonville.

No, that's not at all. You were just drawing a circle and saying this is a fact. It's like saying that Shanghai is the third biggest city in the world, which is one of the three biggest cities in the world, which is accurate, right? Tokyo, Delhi, than Shanghai. But Tokyo has 12,000 more than Shanghai, whereas Shanghai has the difference between three and four is not significant.

Yeah. Absolutely not. So, yeah, Tokyo is so far ahead of Shanghai, similarly to how Lashon was so far ahead of... It is either completely misleading or an absolute misunderstanding of how numbers were. Let's get back to that up because it's a fact. It is a fact. And once again, you could say that cabin over there is a different shade of red. That's fine.

but if I say that is red and you say it's blue, it's red. It's a red. It's a red cabinet. Okay. So, anyways, I'm up, right? I honestly don't know who's up. You're really appalled by the Will Shibblet.

That happened like a week ago, bro. Well, you're the one who just re-brought it up. You took Nolan Smith. I think that was the last pick. Okay, all right, you're all right. On defense, I have Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Devin White, Keeley Ringo, C.J. Johnson, Reed Blankenship, and the all-pro Justin Simmons.

What do I do here? I'm going to make sure that you have nothing at safety, which is one of the Eagles' lighter positions on the team. I'm going to take Sidney Brown. Okay. So you got Cindy Brown at safety there. So what I'm going to do is this is the spot in the tract where you're kind of like all over the place.

here. I need offensive line, but I don't see you going with the offensive line right now. You could box me in with a sixth player, but that would strike me as you leaving yourself exposed there. But I kind of need to play the board here. I am going to go with Avante Maddox, I'm going to play him at safety, because that takes a cornerback option away from you as well. Probably a smart pick. I think that's fair. All right.

Well, that means you can't take another corner. Although I guess you could take a corner and move him to safety. I think that would be reasonable, not insane. And I guess you could move to Jean to safety. So you know what? I want to make sure then that I get Isaiah Rogers as my other outside cornerback. I think that's the appropriate thing to do. And so then I am in a spot here at linebacker where, you know what?

I still believe in you, Nicopa Dene. Okay? And I'm going with Nicopa Dean at linebackers. Now I do have a starter at linebacker. You know what I didn't factor in, by the way, is that the fact that I took Isaiah Rogers, now I'm the way. who's playing to the crowd because we know how much everybody that's everybody who watches and consume single content that's a very strategic thing to remind the crowd of the of that yeah yeah

that's good uh okay um i don't have any edges but you can't take an edge you could do that i don't know that i think there's a huge difference between i actually want to box you out at offensive line and use my flex on a sixth offensive lineman but i don't think that there's a huge difference between say Fred Johnson and Trevor Keegan and how you would use them so I'm gonna I'm gonna let that go and I'm gonna take the player who and do I want that no I mean I know who you I know you love him that that da da da da da da da da da da da da da I'm gonna take I'm gonna take Zach Bonn okay the player who Vic Fangio coveted so much and I can I have a I have a an opportunity here.

I can play them at linebacker or edge, depending on how the rest of the draft goes. Okay. So I have Jordan Davis at defensive tackle, but I don't love the rest of the Eagles defense tackles here. So I was going to use my free agency spot on safety, but I'm going to use my free agency spot at detackle. Okay.

I like that. And I can go with Callais Campbell, who I think fits in that kind of role. If I didn't have, you know, if I had, you know, if I had, John Carter, Milton Williams here, he would not be my option. But I think getting Campbell to be with Jordan Davis, with Bryce Huff and Josh Swet, I certainly like that possibility. I think that's fun.

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So when you get those shady rays, which you should, you know where they look great? They look great on the golf course. And you know where they'll look especially good at Valkenburg Country Club in Blackwood, New Jersey, on July 13th for the P-HLY. First annual Liberty Open. Look at that graphic here. It's a scramble format. You can sign up as a single, for some more,

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So make sure you check that out. It's a 2 p.m. shotgun start. But in addition to that, you can find all our events on all p h oi.com where if you're a diehard member you'll get access to our exclusive uh coverage um we so we had great stories last week from kyle newbeck we had great stories last week from charlie o'connor in uh now by the way train we're in july training camps coming up um if you check it out this week you're going to see also i don't want to say awesome stories you're going to see stories that i'm writing that i'll put thing up there uh in addition to next week

in the week after that, and then by that point, we have training camp and we'll have regular coverage on all-PHly.com. You can access that by being a die-hard member. People are always asking

how they can help us out or how they can support us. Being a die-hard member is a great way to do it. So head over to all-PHly.com now and join the best sports fans in the city. All right. Let's reset things here. Take a look at the rosters.

Zach on offense. Sequin Barclay, Dallas Goddard, A.J. Brown, Paris Campbell, Jordan Milata and Tyler Steen, what looks like an okay fantasy football team on the outside, but an offensive line with one starting caliber player and another player whose name the head coach forgot

when it mattered when he was asked who was going to start at the position. On defense, Bryce Huff, Josh Schwett, Nicobey Dean, Jordan Davis, Callais Campbell, Darius Slay, Avante-Maticz, Cooper DeGine, Dijon, Mitchell, and Nolan Smith. For me, Devante Smith, arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL.

And he is protected by one of the best offensive lines ever assembled. Mackay Beckton, Landing Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Matt Hennessy, Lane Johnson, and on defense. The best player on the team, Jalen Carter, along with Milton Williams, Devin White and Zach Bond, Keely Ringo, Sidney Brown, Reblankenship, and C.J. Gardner Johnson with Isaiah Rogers and Justin Simmons himself. What a secondary that has been assembled there. We'll see how it plays out over the rest of the draft. Okay.

Let's see. The positions you can draft, linebacker safety everywhere on offensive line. You know, do either of us really care about having Kenny Pickett or Tanner McKee? That's an interesting one to come up. I'm going to go ahead and take the... This is tough because I think you and I have different preferences. on these and so it's like i don't know if i even feel like using a pick on one where you would take the other guy i'm gonna go uh i mean i know that this is bad podcasting but i just this is

this is what happens when you feel like your backs against the wall in a draft right i feel like i'm operating from a position of strength here it's just like how how badly do i want to crush you no you see the howie o'sman says calm decisions and calm times these these decisions were made when I was preparing for the show, not when I'm on the clock. I'm going to go ahead and take. Those wide receivers looking pretty thin right now, huh? No, I'm not worried about that. I've got good wide receiver options in my holster.

I'm going to go ahead and, do I care about that? Nah, you can't do that. Okay. What I'm going to do is, I'm sorry, this is awful. I'm going to go ahead and take Kenny Gainwell. That's my running back. I know you'd rather have the highest drafted player in white Clemson history. Which is not true because Trevor Lawrence was the number one overall pick. That's interesting actually. So the two highest white players from Clemson drafted are Will Shipley and Trevor Lawrence and so Will Shipley should be paid like Trevor Lawrence. Well actually that's

also not true because there have been other players there but in any event we don't need to that's a very weird bucket to be discussing on this show so look I like versatile players I don't know if this player's versatile but the Eagles are certainly seeing if he is the good thing is

I have Cooper the Gene who can play safety if this doesn't work out I have Quinnion Mitchell who can play nickel if this doesn't work out So I'm going to go James Bradbury, and James Bradbury is my safety here. So now my secondary is Avante Maddox, or Daryslay, Avanty Maddox, James Bradbury, Cooper the Gene, Quignan Mitchell. Okay, I want to say that three of these guys were starters when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl. Two of them were the Eagles top two picks this year. Okay.

So I have demonstrated experience plus upside. This is a melting pot of, you know, they're all going to come together and they're going to make a great. secondary jumbalaya so um i feel good about this yes i feel good about this all right very funny to to go back to the super bowl all right uh i'll try to speed things up now since you can't take uh other positions you can take a linebacker so i'm going to take i'm going to take jeremiah trotter junior over warren berks okay and uh and move zach bond to one of my edge spots fair enough uh do you have a flex player on an offense still I do.

You do. Okay. So then I don't have a lot of things on the outside of offense. But so I do need to start thinking about the offensive line here. And you know what? I'm trusting Jeff Stalyn, best offensive line coach in the NFL. He's doing a good job developing these guys. Okay.

So I'm going with Trevor Keegan as my left guard. Okay. All right. Since you've done that, I'm going to go ahead and take Fred Johnson. Okay. Because he's the last player. It's fine with me. I think he was definitely going to make this team on the offensive line.

So I'm going to take Fred Johnson to block your Fred Johnson pick. Which is good. Now I can wait on the offensive line. So look, I'm going to continue to add to my wide receivers. The Eagles have two rookie receivers. Anaya Smith and Johnny Wilson. They have Britain Covey. But you know who I'm going to go with here?

Give me John Ross. Really? Speed on the outside, baby. Okay. I got A.J. Brown, Paris Campbell, John Ross. Look at that draft pedigree. That's a very classic. Look at that draft pedigree that I have gone from me with Sequan Barclay.

Man, you know, your corners, they need to make sure that they see my, the back sides of my skill guys because they're going to be running past these guys all day long. Do you know what John Ross ran in the 40? 4-2-2. 4-2, right? And think about that.

How many catches do you have last year? A man was with his son. Okay. And that is what you come with. Okay, that was good. How many guys do you have the year before that? man is with his son. And that's when you come on.

All right, that's good. I like that, Zach. All right, I'm going to take Johnny Wilson. Ah, that's why I was going to go with, actually. Yeah, I'm happy to have Johnny Wilson. I was actually, when you were given that pitch, that was the one that I was actually a little bit worried about. Yeah, that's why I wasn't going to go with me.

I looked at the death chart. And I'm like, you know what? Bo can try to convince me on John Ross, and I don't want Bo to convince me on John Ross. So a man with Zwiths with his son. Yeah. So I got that there. You know what?

I'm going to stick to, I'm going to continue going with the draft picks here. Actually, no, I can wait on the offensive line. But actually, so you're not taking a linebacker, right? I can. I have a flex. Oh, you have a flex. I don't think you're going to take Warren Berks.

But you can't take any off. offensive linemen so it's it's really the backup quarterback is the only kind of position that's up or linebacker for you or the or yeah or linebacker for me and in that case I'll take Kenny pick it okay yeah he's there he's our QB2 we've won games in the in in in this league I feel good about that okay uh you can still take a flex so I'm gonna take I'm gonna lock in a nice Smith okay as my other as my other as my other wide receiver okay um So then I'm going with, I'll go to Warren, Berksett linebacker. Okay. In that case, I guess you can still take, you can still take a flex on offense.

So I'm going to just fill this out. I will take Grant Calcutera. Okay. I think we're now in a spot where we can just fill it out. So you have, who's your center? Dillon McMahon? Dillon McMahon is my center. Okay.

Who's going to be your right guard? Or are you taking a tackle to me? move steen to red guard my tackle is going to be somebody who now i need to it's a bit of a projection whether he can play left tackle okay i'm sorry whether he could play right tackle but i'm taking a two-time first team all pro a three-time second team all pro okay give me the top offensive lineman on the free age the top offense tackle on the free agent market david bactiore oh geez he's still live wow

we got David Bactiari as my offensive tackle and he's my free agent signing who's your actual and you still have to fill out that position is it right guard or right tackle do you want to add an eagle for oh okay

because he's in the free agent spot gotcha okay you get one more Eagles offensive lineman you can take a Jason Poe you could take a I will go Max Sharping Mark Sharping

yeah for his versatility yep who's going to be your offensive flex player my offensive flex player one more player on the he goes offense yeah so I'm I will go with Will Shipley yeah figured you would okay and then finally you get to sign a free agent on defense my free agent oh no I did I have I've class Campbell so I need to draft someone I'm going to go oh yeah you got draft a defensive tackle yeah I'm going to more Ojima okay put that in the wrong spot okay All right.

Obviously, I'm going to make Tanner McKee, my backup quarterback, and I feel like I have the better player there. My edge, my last edge joining Zach Bonn is going to be Brandon Graham. Love that. And my defensive flex player, let's see, I have a secondary right now of Keelioringo and Isaiah Rogers on the outside with Justin Simmons, Reblankenship, Sidney Brown at Safety, and C.J. Gardner Johnson in the nickel.

So I could add a corner or I could add another defensive edge player. What do I think is better? Like would you make an Eli Ricks case? Would you make a Tyler Hall case? I do like a Tyler Hall. But I think given the makeup of my edge spot, I'm going to go ahead and roll the dice on the Eagles, rookie third round pick.

Give me JLX Hunt. Okay. Add it to the mix. I like that. And then finally, my offensive free agent, I know that this is going to, I like having spice.

practices. I want to have a real interesting battle between the offense and the defense on the practice field that's going to lead into good energy on game day. Give me slant boy. Michael Thomas. I was thinking of going with him. I thought about Hunter

Renfro, but I'm going to Michael Thomas instead. So one last look at the roster. Here's Zach's offense against my defense on offense. Zach has Kenny Pickett. Well, we have Joan Hertz. Well, yeah, we have

John. Okay. Sequin Barclay, Dallas Goddard, A.J. Brown, Paris Campbell, and Freddie Mitchell, I'm sorry, John Ross,

former first round pick. But it's Jordan Milata, Trevor Keegan, Dylan McMahon, probably Tyler Steen and David Bakhtiari with Will Shipley in the wings, blocking a group

led by Jalen Carter. Wait, and... Jailen Carter. is going to be blocked by Trevor Keegan, Dylan McMahon, and Tyler Steen. Good luck. And then Max Sharping and his 33 starts. Good luck.

If I need to bring you Max Sharper off the bench. You're going to roll your protection to him, and all of a sudden, Milton Williams is a free range to the quarterback. Got Brandon, Graham, Zach Bonn, and Jalix Hunt. Woo! Some force on the outside. Linebackers, Devin White and Jeremiah Trotter Jr., and that secondary is going to be able to cover and really arguably be positionless, given the makeup that they have.

CJ Gardner Johnson, Isaiah Rogers, Keeley Ringo, Sidney Brown, Justin Simmons, and Reblankenship, that's a lot to cover with what you've got on the other side of the ball. Boy,

are we going to be able to just line up and bully you? Oh, okay. Mackay Beckton, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Matt Hennessy and Lane Johnson, the best player on the team,

with Kenny Gainwell, Crancockatara, Devante Smith, Johnny Wilson, and Anaya Smith. Oh, baby. A lot of trust in the Eagles. And probably Michael Thomas in there. Probably Michael Thomas in there as well going up against your group of Jordan Davis, Morrow Ojamow, Josh Sweat, Bryce Huff, Nikobe Dean, Orenbergs, a solid secondary of Darius, Mitchel, Avante Maddox, James Bradbury, Nolan Smith in the wings, and Callias Campbell involved inside as well. So three of the Eagles starters from the Super Bowl, plus their top two picks. Okay. I mean, do you want to draft Kaiser White? Is that going to make a difference? I would like Hudson White, but he's not available in this game.

Okay. Three of the Eagles starts from Super Bowl. Wow. Great. How they, how they doing that game? Well, they were third in DVOA that season. Just want to make that clear. Was there any player on the team in particularly who made the deciding play in the game? You mean the guy who's second team all pro? Yeah, James Bradbury, second team all pro. Yeah. How did he do last year? Less year he struggled, but if you know, he had an on again, off again thing in his career. And by the way. So in 2028, he should be good again.

The team has showed you what they thought with this contract, right? Because, and so look what he's guaranteed this year. All right. It seems pretty clear. I'm reading the chat now that everybody agrees that my team is better than yours. But if you also want to weigh in, if you're not in the chat live, let us know what you think, how this played out with hashtag Flit Squad Draft. tell us why you think my roster is better and how you feel about Zach juking the stats and gerrymandering maps the way that he has gone about misleading you.

You know, maybe you take offense to that. Just because Beau says he won doesn't mean he won. And for longtime listeners, you know, it's like an old trick. You know, you say you win something. And then you think that because you say you win it, if you say it enough, that people don't believe. Oh, no, I was referring to something else. But that doesn't make it true. That's why we leave it up to voters.

So we'll see what the voters say. Okay. Thanks to everybody for listening and watching this episode of the PHY Eagle's podcast. Back tomorrow at noon. Have Handsome Rich join the show. A little stream yard edition. Looking forward to that. Thank you to Julia for putting this bad boy together and everybody who watched live and for listening after the fact.

Once again, hashtag flit squad draft. Tell us why you think my team was better. And we will talk to you later. Thanks to everybody for listening and watching. And as always, we love you.