PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Where does DeVonta Smith rank among the recently extended wide receivers?

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Fresh off another spring practice, we’re taking a look at some of the wide-ranging issues surrounding the Eagles, the NFL and the world in another rousing edition of Tic-Zach-Bo. Where does DeVonta Smith rank among the recently extended wide receivers like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle and Nico Collins? Who will play the second-most snaps for the Eagles at cornerback? Zach and Bo close send you off to the weekend in style. 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.

sending you off into the weekend with some eagles talk bo wolf and the man who has been convicted of stealing your hearts jack birman how you doing doing great excited for the show look forward to a friday show absolutely we got tick zach bo coming back for number two summer Fridays have a have a have a have a good feeling to them summer friday some or not i i like what our flyers group calls it they call it they call f around fridays mm but you wish that they didn't say the letter and you wish they said the actual word because you're all about authenticity. I am about authenticity, but that'd be a weird YouTube headline, you know, if you spell it out. But I like calling it F around. Did you know, by the way, before we get

into this, I was reading an article about YouTube and the proliferation of it. It's the second biggest search engine in the world. Did you know that? I did know that. Okay. That's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Wait until you find out about Mr. Beast. Oh, I know all about Mr. Beast. What's the third biggest? Oh, I. Born Hub?

I don't know, Bo. I don't know. I don't know. It was, I thought that was an interesting fact. Okay. Yeah. Any other facts? You want to drop on us?

Well, a lot in the Tick, Zach, Bo. Okay. Well, let's explain what Tick, Zach, Boe is to the newcomers, Zach. You have come up with some discussion points, some topics for the three-by-three grid. of Eagles, NFL, miscellaneous, convince me, predict, Woodpecker you rather. Yes. And we're going to bop around and see how it goes. And some of these lean more topical to the Eagles.

Some of these are just for fun. Some of these, yeah, it's going to be a fun conversation. And it's a way to try to increase Bose. Well, I don't want to say, I don't want to say Bose usage rate because your usage rate is pretty good. Too high, I would say. But more. Certainly according to the commenters from yesterday. it is show. Put

Bo in the spotlight of answering some of these questions. Okay. Which I like a value of perspective. We get to have the discussion together. Exactly. Let's start NFL. Yes. How about that? Let's start NFL Woodpecker you rather. NFL would pecker you rather. Okay. This is one that

you see if you saw yesterday morning news came out, Jalen Waddle. Well, we're getting to the good one right away. Yeah. Signed a contract extension with the Miami Dolphins. He is now the third wide receiver to sign a, or I should say the third big name receiver to sign a contract extension from his rookie deal. So excluding like AJ Brown, players from their rookie deal. That includes Nico Collins, Amon Ross St.

Brown, and the third one since Devante Smith signed it. So if you remember when Devante Smith signed his deal, he was the first. He was the he was the early mover or the Eagles were the early mover. And similar to G.I.1 Hertz last year, a number of these contracts came thereafter. So Devante signed a record-setting deal and then the record was quickly broken, right? We're not record-setting, but market setting, if you will, for the player coming off

the working contract. So of these four, and Stavante Smith, three years, $75 million. Jalen Wadle, three years, 84.75 million. Nico Collins, three years, 72.75 million. And Amman-Ross, St. Brown, four years,

$120 million. We can get into the guaranteed. Some of that is, whether it's fully guaranteed guaranteed signing that type of thing but of those four at those general contract terms the APY given the player in the contract

would you how would you rank them I found this exercise interesting and it was a little bit different than I expected you know I sort of expected and knew that because

like of proximity bias I was going to probably lean towards Devante Smith being the guy. You know, we see what he does every day. I like in theory, he can win in so many different ways as opposed to some of these other guys. You know, Jill and Waddle, if he loses a little bit of speed, is he going to be quite as dynamic? You know, can Eamon Ross St. Brown win on the outside?

Nico Collins has only done it for one year. But, like, it is interesting if you just go down and look at these guys' numbers and stuff. Like, DeVante's best season is the worst best season of these four guys. Now, Nico Collins says, as I said, only done it really one year. He's missed 12 games over the course of his three years. But last year, 80 catches for 1,300 yards and eight touchdowns.

You know, Devante's never, never topped 1,200. At like 6-4-215. Right. And he's the most prototypical, you know, outside wide receiver body type. So you could understand betting on him. I think because he has missed the most time and because it was only one year, I would probably put him last on that list. It's also why he's getting paid the least amount of money.

These guys are also mostly about the same age. Now, Amon Ra, Sam Brown is a year younger. Actually, on the other three, he'll be 25 in October. Waddle has missed four games. Sam Brown's missed two. Devonte's missed one. I think you could make a strong case for any of those other three guys to be at the top of that list. Now, you're trying to parse out little different things like, you know,

Devante did it, you know, 64 for 916 in his rookie year with no AJ Brown and an offensive passing game that was pretty bad, right? St. Brown's done it in an offense that, you know, wasn't a great passing offense to begin with until, until last year. And Wadle had a good first year with two and a bunch of injuries and no Tyree Kill. And he has done it in sort of different ways as well. Like, you know, that first year was like a bunch. It was like 100 catches for like five yards of pop, right? and then he's been explosive next to Tyree Kill. I kind of find it hard to like do the Zach pound a table for any of these guys.

I think I would have to take St. Brown first. Interesting. Just because he's the youngest. He's has the, like his production is the best. And then I would let my bias take over and go with Devante over Jill and Waddell. Just because I'm a little bit more convinced that like as as if skills erode or he has to adjust to the like different play styles i believe that devante can do that a little bit more than while yeah if if we were doing peckness

no i might have said the same thing about tyrie kill like you know the speed the speed may not age well and he is certainly aged well so if we were doing peck nest migrate uh i would nest devante like i think devante is the most reliable there of of those four i think there's the the least amount of chance that you're regretting Devante's deal. Like I think Devontey to use the Vick, how you'll explain in Vic Fangio, I think the floor is

really high. Like you're getting just a real solid, dependable receiver. But like you mentioned, I don't know if DeVante's high watermark is certainly Jalen Waddle. You saw he was the higher draft pick because the speed that he brings,

St. Brown's production in that offense. There's a reason why St. Brown is the second high paid receiver in the NFL now after AJ Brown. Nico Collins, you're right, fits that prototype, but you haven't seen it as much. The fact that they traded for Diggs makes you think, and there's not as much guaranteed money in Nico's contract, but they were able to act. He was a later round pick, right? There's more incentive there.

But it tells you, I think to your point, you're saying the fact that they traded for Stefan Diggs tells you that they don't view him as a one act. Exactly. Right. Exactly. So I would. With Tankdale there as well. Sure.

St. Brown, that's such big money for, but he's so strong. Like, that offense was really good in large part because of St. Brown. Now,

Laporte is a big part of it. Right. I'm curious to see James Williams. He's more of a volume player. Exactly. You know, he's got the fewest yards per catch of all these four guys. I just,

it's hard to argue with, with the level of production and the consistency. Both he and Devante have been healthy. And so when you see these deals, do you feel even stronger about the Eagle strategy to act quickly? I mean, I think they did the right thing with Devante for sure. You know, Waddle getting like, what is it, like an extra $3 million per year, basically. Yeah, that's a good deal. I think I would rather have, and that's probably tilt's the favor of Devantes.

Although, I mean, at that level, you'd rather just have the better player. You'd pay the $3 million. Sure. Yeah, I think they did the right thing. We've talked about that. I think probably when a bunch of people are going to be signing similar deals, yeah, it is to your advantage to if you're going to do it anyway, to do it first. Yeah, and I heard when I put this out yesterday about why the Eagles do it,

I can't ask why the player does it. Well, when Devante signed that, that was a huge deal, right? Devante is signing a market-setting deal for among those players. It's just, it's similar to J-1-Herts last year. When J-1-Hert signed that, you knew. the next one was going to be higher. So someone has to go first. And I always respect it when a player feels comfortable with the contract,

they feel comfortable with the situation. It's like, why are you waiting to see what this other guy gets or where this guy gets? If you feel happy about the offer and the situation, you might as well do it. And the Eagles, like, they're decisive and they're quick. And sometimes you're seeing this with the Cowboys with CD Lamb. Like there's no reason why the Cowboys shouldn't have signed CD Lam at this point. So it behooves you to act quickly. I think somebody's sort of making a similar point in the chat,

which I think if you're going to make the case for Devante as number one, you probably do feel better about his skill set could fit on any offense in football, right? Whereas there's probably a little bit of a question if that would be the case for Amon Ross and Brown. but I think we are probably underselling St. Brown just because of like the anchoring if he was a fourth round pick and, you know, that offense does, does different stuff. I think I think he's done enough to be respected that way. That's fair. I just keep going to the Peck Nest, my great example. Like, Devonthe's the guy who I just feel most comfortable with long term.

Okay. But I think don't you think part of that's just because you know him the best? That's true. But, you know, I don't think people are saying that. things about St. Brown. No, but he was prolific at Alabama. I mean, the Heisman trophy winner. He's been with top receivers elsewhere.

He's been with top receivers in the Eagles, finds a way to fit. And I feel like he just does everything. He could play around the formation. Again, might not be your 1,600-yard receiver, but I just feel the consistency with which he plays jumps out to me. So you would take him at the top. Given the contract, yeah. I would rather Devante at 25 million than Brown at 30 million.

Yeah. Or St. Brown, I should say, at 30 million. All right. Let's go to miscellaneous predict. Miscellaneous predict. Okay. There were a lot of articles this week and podcasts this week about NCAA football returning, the video game returning.

I imagine you and me were similar 10 years ago and in those years before where we were building college football powerhouses. Absolutely. There's a lot of anticipation for this. I thought Misleonis predict was going to be something about jail time, but we'll say that for another time. Yeah. So what Bo is referring to is I tend to kind of look for current events for this. And I was deciding, I was like, yeah, it's probably a little too edgy for the show.

It's supposed to be a lighthearted Friday show. I was thinking, how can I interspers some current events into this? And I was like, it's better probably for our viewership, for the next. nature. Let's just avoid the current events today and go with something a little lighter. Julia, do you think that's a good approach? Oh, Julia, Julia wants to fire here. Yeah, so that's, that's, do they cover this in the West Wing? No. Well, there's, there's some things like vice presidents of the West Wing, but never, never like this. No. Aaron Serkin did not have this.

I mean, the president did not disclose multiple sclerosis or MS, but it was not like, oh, it's not like this. Multiple sclerosis, but not 34 of them. So getting back to see the way football. That was a good line. Yeah, so you can see why I tried to just kind of keep this, keep this vanilla. and say football and say football

will it meet expectations I was reading some reviews this week I was listening to some podcast predict like a well are you going to play this will this get a generation of people who might have gotten who might have abandoned video games

or have kind of fallen out of love with video games we'll let's get them back into it and is this gonna is this just kind of this concentrated Twitter world, if you will, that's excited for this game,

or do you think this is, this is come July 16th, everyone's talking about NCAA football and people are buying systems again and buying video games, that kind of thing. I don't know if it's going to deliver completely on the hype.

I mean, they're certainly landing it in the right spot of time, right, when there is that, that lull. But I, yeah, I mean, I don't know that I will actually play it.

Okay. But I'll be excited to, find out about it. And I'm interested. I could, I could see myself potentially doing it. Are you going to buy a system? You don't own a system now, right? No, I have a, I have a switch. Okay. Yeah, that's, but I haven't, I haven't used it in a while. You know what? I got the switch for, um, was it the 21 season when the egos had a bunch of long road trips. Yes. A long flight so that I could do something on the plane. Play a, play a little FIFA on the plane. Okay. That's what I, that was my switch. You could read a book, right? That's, that's, that's, that's permitted.

Okay. Or I could, you know, build up Brighton and make some nice transfers. Yeah, to me, I was for you, um, I know, you, you know, you nag on Reed for, you know, simming to the Super Bowl. Did you prefer, did you like playing the games more or building the, yeah, recruiting and stuff? The recruiting. A hundred percent. Yeah, exactly. And, and building it up, absolutely. Didn't, didn't really play many of the games. I've told this story. before I think but my favorite my favorite of the like recruiting engines it was an NCAA football game I want to say

it was like you know 2002 or something like that it might even have been older than that and when we would go on road trips we had the little like you know they had like a contraption where you can the PlayStation 1 could like connect to like the you know the power

source in the car but it only worked if like we were really pushing down on it or something like yes and so my brother and I would be doing the recruiting but like one of us would be charged with doing like like pushing to make sure it didn't and we had you know you have to save it every opportunity just in case but what i liked about it was they had the the pipeline where like if you if you recruit enough people over a couple years from the same state like it becomes a pipeline and then all of a sudden it becomes easier to get those guys and like building up those pipelines

was fun who was your team changed it around i didn't know i didn't stick to anybody okay yeah we also used to do the what was your best dynasty we also used to do the um like we would get the athlon guide. Oh, yes. Put in all the names. Exactly. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, so what's interesting now is because of NIL, the names are in there. But you can't transfer the draft class over to Madden because they're not in the NFLPA. Oh, interesting. So they have their own, like that's their own association. It does look like the, you know, the clips, I find Madden, like, I don't think that I could play a game of Madden right now. I think I would find it completely unintelligible. It does, it looks, it looks a little bit more doable.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is one of these things where they've spent 10 years preparing for this, right? Madden, they're redoing it every year. The complaint from Madden players is that there's not much of a difference from year one to year two. It's just like updated rosters and they're making you spend, you know, $60 on the new game. So was Reid excited? For NCAA?

Well, he's not a big college football guy right now, but I imagine, I mean, we're going to have to play it. He's really excited for the new Madden. What does he play? On what? PS5. PS5, okay. Yes. And he's taking it over from me. I mean, yeah, I have. Will you, will you two try to build the dynasty together?

I hope so. Or I like to play against him, right? I've said this. Yeah, well, because right now, when he's doing his offseason, I'm not as interested in watching that. But I would love to play against him. Yeah. Okay. Well, one thing that you and Reed will not be doing, Zach, at least for another, let's call it 12 years. is sucking back a few Miller Lights because a lot has changed over the years but one thing that hasn't is NCAA football and the great taste of Miller Light. Miller Light sparked the debate that we all know in 1975. Great taste less filling.

Great taste less filling. What's more important? Well, the good thing is you don't have to decide with Miller Light and honestly, it's still unsettled. Miller Light is the same taste that hasn't changed. 1975. It's the best light beer because it tastes like beer. None of this fancy, fancy nonsense. You're getting a working man's beer, someone who can read a right aid disclaimer. That's the kind of callous hands you're getting with this Miller Light. And it's less filling. Miller Light keeps it simple, undebatable quality, great taste, only 96 calories. It's the beer that strips away.

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Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer calories and carbs than premium regular beer. I have a soft spot for companies that are from here and cater to people from here. And that's True Mark Financial Credit Union. When you join a credit union like True Mark Financial, you become a part owner, which means profits come back to you instead of going to shareholders, better rates, lower fees, and a better return on savings. And more flexible options with all the same digital tools and tech to make our lives easier.

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That's trumark.com slash p.l-y. Federal insured by the N-C-U-A. All right, let's get to an Eagles one here, Zach. Yep. Let's do Woodpecker on Eagles. Okay, would you rather Kenny Pickett starts five games for the Eagles or the Eagles have five different starting offensive line combinations

including only one with Lane Johnson in it. So in other words here, would you rather Jan 1 Hertz going down for five games and Kenny Pickett stepping in or the offensive line being so brutalized by injuries including injuries to Lane Johnson that they're kind of mixing and matching Do we know how many games we're talking about in terms of, like, is it going to be five games of different offensive line combinations or is it?

Yeah, five games are different offensive line combinations. Okay. So it's just five games? Yes, but it's not, it's not like one player's out for just that game. It's their. Lanes out a week. Exactly. There's a rotation at right car.

Yes, exactly. My lot of misses a game. Yes, exactly. They have to move back to in over from the right to left one week and that kind of thing. If it's the same amount of games, I would rather have the offensive line. Okay. Disarray, assuming I'm the Eagles. Yes, yes.

Now, if you're saying Tanner McKee, it's maybe a different conversation because then all of a sudden I'm excited to see what the young man can do. But, yeah, I would say, I would say I'd rather have the quarterback than the perfect offensive line. I ask because I've made this point on the show. that the years when it's really gone bad for the Eagles, it's because the offensive line has been battered. And the Eagles don't have the type of depth on the offensive line, or the proven depth, I should say,

that you might want. Now, Hennessy started games, Beckton started games. So they've made strides to do that. Now, they also have two unproven starters, or two starters unproven in their spots here. So I just wonder if you're looking for where this year could go bad for the equals, it would be injuries to the offensive line. Maybe, I mean, Kenny Pickett, could you go three and two with Kenny Pickett?

Sure. With his talent around him? Sure. Yeah. Could you go three and two with a backup offensive lineman? And you have Jeff Stoutland. Yeah, that's true. I just think I, when I was framing this question, I wanted to find a way to incorporate

Kenny Pickett starting, but also look at like the sum of the overall offensive line injuries compared to just the concentrated quarterback injury. And sometimes when there's, I'm not, now, if Jalen Hertz is out for an extended period, that's bad news. But if there's a month without Jalen and you have these skill players and you have a good offensive line, you would hope that you can tailor your offense and kind of make it work with Kenny as the point guard, whereas if each week there's no continuity on the line, that would leave me concerned.

Well, I think you can tell what the Eagles think matters based on their resource allocation this off season, right? They made an effort, traded the equivalent of a third round pick to get Kenny Pickett for that possibility, right? And so they were more worried about that than sort of addressing the offensive line in a bit more of a patchwork way. Now that, you know, they're paid, they paid Mackay Beckton real money. They paid Matt Hennessy real money, but they didn't make it a priority.

a huge priority to upgrade the depth on the offensive line, not as much as they did draft pick compensation-wise with Kenny Pickett, right? And we touched on this on yesterday's show, but in the two practices you've seen, is there anything from Pickett that's made you believe him, I should say believe in him more or believe in him less? I don't want to overreact to two spring practices. I mean, you know, we watched Marcus Marriota last year,

and that was an underwhelming experience as a passer. I don't. It's, yeah, I'm not, I'm not blown away by Kenny Pickett by any stretch of the imagination, but yeah, it's only been two practices.

I don't want to go, I don't want to go crazy. Would you have stacked the deck for Tanner McKee to be the backup? I thought, I thought he was ready for it, but, yeah, me too.

That's like, they gave us their answer to this question, that they were, they were so concerned with backup quarterback that they, they went and got pick it. Well said. Okay. You know what?

Let's go tick-tack-toe on Woodpecker, you rather. Let's go the miscellaneous woodpecker you rather. Okay. I like this one. I've been watching a lot of NBA playoffs here, and you've seen, you saw Luca last night close it in Miami. I'm sorry, in Minnesota talking trash to the crowd. You saw Anthony Bennett.

I keep saying Anthony Bennett. I said this on the other show, too. It's something with Minnesota number one picks. Anthony Edwards closing it in. That's an understandable. Closing it in Denver, okay? But then you saw jail and Brunson closing in Philly, right? But then you also see, I can keep going.

You saw Halberton closing in New York, okay? Would you rather win a deciding game on your home court in front of your fans and get the... Adulation. You've seen the NFC championship games in Philly against Minnesota, against San Francisco, and that atmosphere and how, like, awesome that much. must be for the players, or knowing how competitive you are. Would you rather win it on the opposing team's court and shut up all these people who've been heckling you?

I mean, great question. What sport am I playing? You pick. I was thinking, yeah, I mean, in my mind now it's basketball and hockey, but if it changes, you can give me the sport. Well, here's what, and then maybe I'm just making this more complicated than it needs to be. No, I like this. But I kind of like the football.

Football is much more of a full team game. You know, you've got 53 guys, 70 guys that you're, you know, bleeding and sweating and crying with over the course of a year. That like full party in front of, you know, the link, that feels like that's a home one where you would want that to be the full party. Whereas like if you are a superstar NBA player and it's like you are so, individually the focus of everything and it's all about you like yeah like the shutting up everybody is kind of seems like a lot of fun yeah when you see luca and you saw anthony edwards um that seems that seems

awesome like yeah exactly yeah i think i'm wired both ways okay i would probably uh completely sport agnostic i think the shutting people up is fun fair enough how about you probably i'd like how how you reframed it by sport. I would probably want to win a title on my home court or my home ice. Yeah, I like that too. You know, and that's obviously not applicable in the NFL. I agree with that.

But winning the title at home, I would like, but closing out a series. So let's take the NBA or the NHL. The first three rounds, I want to win on the other teams quarter ice. Yeah. At home,

I want to celebrate with my fans. The final, the final celebration. Exactly. Yeah. I want to lift the cup or lift the Lerner The trophy in front of you. In a series, you're adding more juice to the next round too.

Exactly. Okay, I like that. Yeah. You know what, Zach? Let's snake it around and let's close out the tick-tack-toe of miscellaneous with the convince-me-on-miscellaneous. Okay. So I'm excited to watch, I believe it's called Clipped. It's on FX.

I hope, or no, I'm sorry, it's on Hulu. I apologize. It's the mini-series, the dramatic mini-series of the Los Angeles Clippers scandal with Donald Sterling and everything that happened there. So this got me thinking. What would you, not a documentary, a dramatized mini-series similar to, you know, I watched the Lakers one on Showtime from the Jeff Proman book. O.J. Simpson's kind of a stretch from a sports thing, but I watched that on FX, right, the O.J. Simpson thing. What sports event would you want to dramatize miniseries for? Oh, man.

I feel like I'm not going to give you the best answer. Yep. Because I would need a lot more time to think about it. But some ones that come to mind. I mean, obviously the Eagles drafting J.J. Arthega White Side over Paris Campbell. I think it's pretty high up there. Who plays Jeffrey Lurie in that one?

Who plays? is Jeff Buehlery. Actually, that could be a full episode. Casting director, cast the movie. He's casting in Eagles movie. I like that. I kind of like that. That's a, I mean, that's a home run for a July show. Love that. You know which one comes to mind? And maybe it's because I listen to the Pablo Tori finds out an episode about it a month ago

or so, is the famous Yankees Reliever's Wife Squad. Oh, yes. Okay. That would be an interesting one. I think that would be make for a good series. In terms of like more of a bigger cast, I mean, I feel like it would be hard to pull off because it's so basketball centric,

but like, you know, the stars of the dream team, the original, the 92 dream team. I like that. And then they're, you know, you know, Charles going to Barcelona and all that stuff. Like that would be a fun one. You know what, actually?

How about just inside the NBA? Oh, that'd be fun. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Barclay. Yeah. Yeah, how about the, yeah, how about the, like the, a mix of your sork and sports night. Oh, I was just thinking that. Exactly.

Yes. But it's inside the NBA. You need good writing. I like that. I like that. What comes to mind for you? So it was an anniversary yesterday of the Colangelo thing, but I don't know how that would, how that would, that seems more of a documentary than a miniseries.

But if you can make that. I don't know. That's a bit. I think there's some good miniseries. I mean, just the, just the relationship with the wife is. Sure. Very ripe for. Yeah.

That's a good one. Yeah. If you turn money ball into a movie, you could probably turn the Calangelo thing. Yeah, that's a good one. Well, you start, I mean, you start with Hinky, right? That's how it begins. Yeah. And then the other one for me is you and I actually talked about this with Marissa last year in Cleveland on a show, the Manteitale documentary.

But turning that into a mini series, I think that could be a compelling miniseries. Okay. Yeah, that's not bad. you're going to watch Clipped? Probably not. No? Really? Yeah, I'm not that interested in it.

Oh, okay. This is really. Yeah. Oh, for summer TV con, that's like the top of my list. I get these alerts on my phone, you know, for all the things I subscribe on Apple News. And one of them is, it's always like the top 20 TV shows to watch the summer, our top 20 movies to see this summer.

And when I was going through the TV shows, I'm like, eh, nah, yeah, like, oh, Clipped. This is speaking to me. So I promise you next weekend, I'm going to be glued to my TV watching Clip. I like Shane's idea in the chat of Frank Langella for Jeffrey Lurie. He was an owner in Eddie. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah, that's right.

He was the owner of Eddie. He was going to move the Knicks to St. Louis. And Eddie would not allow. My favorite line reads in the Frost Nixon movie. What's that? Of the president does it, it's not all right? Okay. It's a good one.

You performed that well. Yep. Also topical. Also topical. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yep. Okay.

Yeah. Give us some other suggestions in the chat. I like that one, Zach. All right. Let's go to Eagles predict. Eagles predict. Okay. And this, you can tie in some OTA talk.

Rank the most defensive snaps among these cornerbacks. Quinnion Mitchell, Isaiah Rogers, Healy Ringo, Cooper de Gene, Avanti Maddox. So here you're obviously looking at what the roles are going to be, what you've seen this year, what you expect the lineup to be. You can even factor in injuries protections if you would like. but again, I'm going to repeat this in case the audience wants to play with us. Quinion Mitchell, Isaiah Rogers, Keely Ringo, Cooper DeGine, Avanti Maddox.

So this is interesting because there are a few dynamics here where, for instance, I think Cooper de Jean is more likely to play 30% of the defensive snaps than Keelie Ringo is. But I think Keelie Ringo is more likely

to play. 80% of the defensive snaps than Cooper DeGine is. Sure, because of injuries, right? Like if, like, I can see Keeley Ringo being a starter on the outside, and I can't see Cooper DeGine being that as a rookie,

but I can also see Cooper DeGine having a role in the defense maybe as Nickel week one and Keelearingo just being on the bench if everybody stays healthy, right? So there are some moving parts of the dynamics there. I remain, you know, of the thinking that Quinnia Mitchell is going to be

the start of week one. I'm not going to let two weeks of OTAs push me off of that so I would I would rank him number one I think it would be a disappointment if he you know barring injury was not number one on this list Isaiah Rogers we talked about it yesterday I think that has been the thing that has moved the needle the most for me over the past two weeks that like Isaiah Rogers seems like he may in fact be a part of the defensive secondary but even still I'm putting him behind Ringo and Dijine

like do I do I put Dejean second probably now Avanti like Avanti and Isaiah Rogers both of those guys could potentially not make the team like I think that's on the table for both of them

whereas like if they if they both make the team Maddox is going to be on the field in some capacity whereas Isaiah Rogers could make the team and just be on the bench or be a you know a replacement guy but he might be more like to actually make the team. I think in the end, if I'm just going snaps played,

I would probably go, I would probably go Quinyan Dijin, Ringo Maddox Rogers. Okay. Just, you know, Maddox has trouble staying healthy. I still am not, like, I'm not fully believing that Isaiah Rogers is going to be a, you know, a starting caliber player. I think that's a bit of a leap. Yeah, I want to ask you about that. my practice notes thoughts are now up on p hl y.com i held off on reading other content until i

finished those and so when i was reading other content this this morning one sentiment that i saw elsewhere is that asaiah rogers can push quinionette mitchell for a starting job do you see a scenario where asaiah rogers is starting over quinian over quinian mitchell or do you think no matter what if it gets to that point quinian is going to be starting uh i could see a scenario you know Because I can see Ringo starting over, but it would surprise me if Rogers is starting over Mitchell. It would surprise me, but, you know, is Vic Fangier the kind of guy who wants the reliable veteran as opposed to taking the chance on the young guy? And this goes back to the conversation we had at the combine about the tension between Harry Roseman saying, yeah, like Nick and I talked about this. like we need our young guys to play at some point.

And Nick's saying, oh, yeah, we're not going to really do anything different. And the coaching staff is always incentivized to do what they can to win on a weekly basis, whereas the front office has a larger picture at hand. And you and I agree that like sometimes you got to take a step back in the beginning of the season to do what's best for, you know, the December Eagles. You know, like Quinnia Mitchell snaps that he gets in September will make you better in December, right? even if right now he is not quite as good or reliable as Isaiah Rogers. Coaches don't think that way.

I don't think Vic Fangio necessarily thinks that way. So, yeah, I could see a scenario where Isaiah Rogers starts week one and, you know, in September until Quinnia Mitchell earns the job. But I don't think that that would be the best course of action. I'm curious, and obviously you, I wouldn't know the answer to this, but you do know the way the Eagles think. Do the Eagles view Isaiah Rogers similar to just, Justin Evans and Terrell Edmonds last year where it's just like a guy who's almost like a placeholder type.

Or do you think they look at a 26 year old corner with starting experience who has speed? And they view more as part of like a potential long-term option here. Because Evans and Edmonds, it was pretty clear like they're starting over. Yeah, I don't think they view him that way. Those guys are one-year patchworks who are here to be beat. now. I think Isaiah Rogers was just like a distressed asset. They thought they could turn into something potentially. And yeah, if he is good, then he can be here for a while. He's, you know, he's not at the tail end of his career like, like those guys were necessarily. I think, yeah,

I think he's an investment that they bought low on and are hoping can, you know, go into video on you. That would be huge, right? That would be huge. Now, the last part of this question, How would you rank these guys? Mitchell definitely won. I would go to Gene 2, Ringo 3, Maddox 4, Rogers 5. Yeah, so we have the same. I am curious. The people, what do you attribute the level of love?

It's not quite Ben Van Sumerun-Rim level. No, it's more. It is more, yeah. Yeah, like the people love Isaiah Rogers. The people have been obsessed with Isaiah Rogers. the entire time. And maybe the people were right. Yeah.

We kept talking them off the ledge. Then we see two practices. We're like, ooh, there might be something here. It was in the headline of both of our pieces. You know, it's the unknown. It's door number three. I think it's the, what's that, the Monty Hall scenario. Which we got the percentages wrong last time we talked about it.

Okay, yeah. But it's, it's your, it's almost burn my house now. Yeah, yeah, you're intrigued. by door number three. And, yeah, it's, I think when someone's suspended for gambling, it's like different than than if you're signing a guy who's been injured in four different places, right? Sure, yeah. Because it's like, ooh, you're out, you're out smarting the league here, right?

Plus, he could help make you some money. Well, only if you win. I mean, my grandfather, I remember my grandfather, I always telling me, we'd be driving to Atlantic City. and he would point you know you get to this point on the AC Expressway and you see you pass the toll and you see all the casinos there right and I was always like mesmerized by this this was back there'd be Bowie's Grand and the Taj Mahal this was pre-Borgata that kind of thing pre-ocean club and he would say you'd say they don't build those because people win and it was a lesson

income, I've always tried to keep with me ever since. They built them because they don't pay their contractors. I'm staying so far out of that conversation. But you are actually right about that. There were a lot of people stiffed in Atlantic City, unfortunately, and that's the, that is, I hate when that occurs, when people, when,

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The goat. I saw an interesting story yesterday that with the new kickoff rules, they're considering having Justin Reed and not Harrison Bucker do kickoffs next year. And the reason being that the thought is in this play, the kicker has to be a tackler, right? It's more of a, like it's almost like an offensive defensive play. And so it's an interesting premise. Now, apply this to the Eagles here. If it's so...

Hold on. Can we at least appreciate the irony here of Dave Tobe explicitly saying because this is now a football play, we need a real man on the field. I suppose there is irony. I mean, that is literally what is happening. He is saying that our kicker is not enough of a man to be on the field when we're playing football. I don't want to conflate. like he's saying Harrison Butker

go make me a sandwich get back in the kitchen I don't know if he's specifically saying that but there is irony to that I certainly see what you're doing there and yeah I hear you there but in any event Justin Reed is a safety tackler now what does make this different is like we have seen Justin Reed kick the ball he can really kick the ball

yeah so well so what I'm going to say here is so Jake Elliott who's extraordinarily valuable to the Eagles one of the best kickers in the NFL that just gave him an extension to make one the highest pay kickers in the league. Terrific athlete, not a big guy. I think we can admit that. Not a big guy at all.

Well, that's relative. Definitely relative, for sure. So are you risking, and we have seen, by the way, the Eagles lost their starting punter two years ago, trying to make a tackle. And it affected them there. This is typically how, a specialist gets injured is trying to make a tackle more so than planning your foot wrong or

that type of thing yeah it's celebrating um so if you're is so so convinced me one way or the other do you during the spring during the summer see if you have a linebacker or a safety who could uh or even a defensive end or something like that who could kick for you or do you say let's not mess with this. Let's just get the best kicker. I think it's worth experimenting with if you have a guy like Justin Reed who can like really do it. We have seen, you know, one of the fun

practices every summer is when, you know, Nick Siriani is like they're trying to identify who their emergency kicker is and you've got like, you know, Cam Juergens toe in the ball against the post and to be fair from what we've seen with the Eagles, like they haven't had a guy. Sure.

Like that. Like Camus did not do it that well. He did it, but not. He did it. But like, He didn't do it to a level where you would be willing to have him be on the field instead of Jake Elliott, right? Like, Jake Elliott can kick it in such a precise way that it really is unlikely that he has to be involved. Like, it's this push pull of like if the kick is so bad, then you're probably going to need that guy. If it's a good enough kick and plays well enough and everybody knows where it's going, then you probably won't need that guy to be a tackler. So yeah, I think it's worth seeing if they have that guy. I think it's probably unlikely that they're going to have somebody who can do it well enough to make that.

gambit worth it. Okay. The other thing I was thinking here is would you ever consider rotating practice squad elevations on just kickers off the street and use them purely for kickoffs to keep Jake Elliot from potential getting injured? Or do you think that spots too bad? Because there's always a player dressed on game day who does not get into the game. Yeah.

But that said, he could get into the game. It feels like a good. good opportunity for a kicker on the street to just get yoked. That's true. That's true. Come in and and Steve Weatherford style. Yeah, let's pump that creotene. Like let's let's get going.

Not necessarily going to make it my better tackler, I guess. But that's an interesting, that's an interesting idea. I think it's like how many times is Jake Elliott really going to need to be involved in the tackle? I don't know. I don't know what to look like. It is kind of a, you know, we don't know what to expect with this kickoff. And then the last part of this I wanted to ask you is if you're like Ben Van Sumeran or Andre Sam or someone like this, are you spending the next few months or next few weeks? Like I'm going to learn how to kick, man.

Like I just see Justin Reed can do this. This could help me make the team. Yeah. I mean, I think he should probably spend his time working on playing linebacker. Sure. Yeah. So he can make the team. But yeah, you're going to mess around.

Like if there's somebody who has that skill set, then yeah. I think they should tap into it. Like Mackay Garner's done it in, I growing up, yeah. We had to comb through these bios, see if anybody's got a soccer background. I like that. There was a time.

I remember the seven round mock draft two years ago when he goes for looking for a punter. I had them going with Zach Davidson because he was tight end slash punter. Oh, yeah. You know, I want to pull up the beast. I'm going to just, I'm going to search in the beast for soccer.

Oh, interesting. Wow, we've got 45 results for soccer. Jaden Daniels. Austin Reed. Dylan Laub. Okay. Dylan Johnson. Isaiah Davis.

Roma Dunzee. Ricky Pearsall. Xavier Worthy. Jalen Polk. Brendan Rice. No Eagles yet. No Eagles yet. Tage Washington.

Okay. Why don't you give me NFL Predict? Then we can close on the Eagles. Okay. NFL Predict. Okay. News came out yesterday that the Chicago Bears are going to be on Hard Knocks this year.

Predict. Will the Bears be a fun Hard Knocks watch? Yes. I think that's an interesting team. Absolutely. I mean, I assume they're going to get good access to Caleb Williams. That's fun. You know who did not like Hard Knocks in Detroit was DeAndre Swift? He felt he was misconstrued or, I don't know, misconstrued, mischaracterized, misrepresented would be a better term.

Okay. He felt he was misrepresented. If you remember they had like due sale, just reaming him out every half. episode. Yeah. That's right. I remember that. Yeah.

So I'm curious if, uh, do you think Eberflus is someone who's going to be? You've got, uh, now I know that Vince is going to be watching because the bears have Keeran Amagogy. So hopefully he gets a full episode. Yeah. Uh, former Eagles great Ryan Bates. Going to have to be, uh, interesting as well. And Kevin Byrd's on there.

Uh, Austin Booker, member of the, uh, Bowulf shadow draft. Oh, Kevin Byard. Maybe we'll get, uh, Kevin Byard's, uh, Eagles thoughts. from Hardnach's looking for some more. Tramine Edmins. They got Tramaine. The other, TJ Edwards, obviously.

I bet T.J. Edwards will be an interesting if they do something on him. You know, hometown guy. Exactly. I think it'll be a good one. Jalen Johnson. You're talking about sex?

That's true. He's recovering sex addict, right? DJ Moore from right over there. Correct there as well. Matt Pryor. I don't know they had Matt Pryor. Yes. That's a good one.

Maybe a Ryan Polsey and Cunningham, you know, buddy comedy there. Yeah, there you go. Maybe we'll get Matt Pryor talking about sitting to pee like we got him to do at the Super Bowl. You know, if NFL films is doing their research, that'd be a fascinating. Would it? Well, it's a debate that comes up often. Fortunately, I am with Brandon Brooks on that one. I feel comfortable being on Brandon Brooks's side.

okay yeah yeah brandon and i are kindred spirits in that regard but apparently so apparently so yes both both good enough to be on the field on kickoff real men well brandon brooks one's got hurt on an extra point right so you have to debate whether that the merit to that there you go yeah all right let's let's let's let's go convince me eagles let's close this bad boy out convince me eagles okay so we talked about this briefly on the show yesterday but this was a topic. I also talked about this with Jamie today. Jamie was filling in on the I think Gargano show did a great job. So we saw Nolan Smith is up from 238 to 245. Jordan Davis down the 350 from more than 350. Does weight matter for these situations?

Like is this a fun offseason talking point? Or do you think it matters what weight Jordan Davis is playing at for the way he plays. Do you think it matters what weight Nolan Smith is playing at for the weight he plays? I mean, of course it matters. Well,

we're talking about like the degree to which it matters. Yeah. Like if it didn't matter, then they wouldn't be worried about it. Well, no. So I said on the show today that I think it's more relevant

for Jordan Davis. We heard Baldy say on our show last year that conditioning was a problem. Now you have to wonder how many snaps do you want Jordan Davis to play, but

in theory him being in in better shape helps i think it's less relevant for for nolan smith so much of his game is athleticism you certainly like strength and you want to see that shoulder to be healthy but if nolnsmith's 238 i don't think that's problematic well yeah and the thing that no one smith said yesterday is like you know he he talked to jeremiah washburn about wanting to be at 245 and washburn said as long as you can still be sure as athletic as you are then that's okay um I mean, it definitely matters, right? If it's the same continuum of like as long as you can still maintain this and, you know, be beefed up. Like, you know, Kelsey has talked about this at different times of the course of his career.

Like if you're a little bit bulkier, then, you know, sort of like your joints will hurt more. You know, it'll be harder to make it through the season. With Jordan Davis, you're right. I mean, it's a real question mostly about conditioning. Like if he's if he's 350, which is light for him. He's still going to be big enough to do the job that he needs to do. But I also think, like, a lot of the weight stuff is maybe about, like, projection early in your career. Like, what weight can you put on as you're talking about, like, draft prospects?

Maybe less important for, like, the 60-year veteran of, like, a five-pound difference in one direction or another. You want to be a little bit lighter, I think, as your career goes on so that your body can recover better. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's, I think it is, I think you're. you're right that it is probably more interesting from like a like a reporter's noting this and like oh here's a little thing than it is in practice but if a guy's making a change then it's notable what position you think is most relevant that like does it matter to you what devante smith's weight is does it matter to you what a running backs weight it depends on the type of player in the position too right like yeah like i you know i'm not worried

about the quarterback sure wait probably um but a player in space. Yeah. I think it matters. Like I think a linebacker it matters. I think for Jordan Davis it matters because it's a thing that we know that he's struggled with. Yeah.

I guess, I mean, I guess guys in the front seven would probably be my answer. Okay. What about you? Yeah. I'm less concerned with wide receivers. I learned a hard way. I admit from Emmanuel Forbes that it probably matters more for four corners. Corners, you want that that strength to hold up.

against these these big physical wide receivers. I think it matters more for, I think it matters less for guys for trying to run away from somebody. Like, yeah, I guess a running back, you want them, you know, Donald Pumfrey was, was like small, right? But I think of Devonet chain last year for Miami.

He had, what, 7.8 yards to carry. If you're fast, you're running away from someone. Like, I don't need you to be 220 pounds. So I guess playing style matters there. I'm always fascinating. Yeah, and it's also like, you know, there's a difference between does it matter that Emmanuel Forbes weighs 165 pounds versus does it matter if he weighs 165 or 170, right? Like it matters that he's light at the position, but would it change if he was five back

to pounds or not? I don't know. I also think there's a lot of nuance to the weight conversation in that I saw an interesting story out of Green Bay, Christian Watson. I don't know if you saw this. His left hamstring. was like X percent stronger than his right hamstring. And that was leading to an imbalance that led to injuries, right?

So weight distribution probably matters quite a bit. And you see this a lot in offensive linemen. Like sometimes an offensive lineman will come in like jacked, right? But what you keep hearing it, and you do a good job point this out, is like how important the lower body is, right? and they talk about this sometimes with the tackles, like J. Vaughn Hargrave had a big backside, right? And sometimes that helps you with the width.

I was going to say, I didn't know where you were going with. You do a good job talking about this, and it turned out to just be because I talk about butts sometimes. Well, no, but like weight distribution, you hear from trainer sometimes. I remember talking to an Eagles trainer. You will say more bubble butts on the defensive line

than on the offensive line. Offensive line, you get a little bit more of a pancake thing going on. Sure, sure. But I've heard from some, I heard from a trainer one time that you don't want your guys like focusing on beach muscles. It's like you want them focusing on their core, on their lower body. And like that's, that's really important. If you're focusing so much on, on like, you know, your arms, your chest, there could be a weight distribution issue. And Tom Brady's famous for believing in like pliability.

as opposed to bulkiness. So anyways, I was trying to figure out how to incorporate that Jordan Davis-N-Smith conversation. It's also tied in a little bit, I think, with what Paris Campbell was talking about. You know, he's talked about the injuries he was gone through. So, you know, we know that the Eagles care a lot about injury prevention. And he did say that early on it seems like they do a little bit more. Like they have to rate their level of soreness

and each part of their body after or before every practice, right? And the staff takes that all into account in terms of putting together their plan and their practice loads and stuff like that. So that was interesting. I recall, I hope I'm attributing this correctly. I think it was Emily Kaplan from ESPN writing a story on hockey players and their, like the strength they have and their backside that it's hard for them to get jeans. like their proportion so it's like a big thing in hockey is like towered uh so it's because they're they work so much on like their glutes and and that part of their body um pitchers too pitchers butt you got to be in your post position you got to have a nice

round butt is that why you're a good pitcher yeah there you go a good pitcher's butt well i don't know you know maybe i had a good pitcher's butt because that was a good pitcher chicken or an egg there right yeah i still talk about my pitcher's butt Do you? All the time. In what context? How does that come up? Say pitcher's butt.

Like someone compliments you on your butt and you say pitcher's butt? It happens every day I walk down the street. Someone says, look at the pitcher's butt on that guy. Yeah. Okay. They call me Debo. That's a compliment, I suppose. Yeah.

Okay. All right, Zach, good stuff on Tixie. Yeah. What do you got going on this weekend? And we and I are going to celebrate our anniversary. We're going to spend some time. All right. Yeah, we can go to New York and I'll see a couple of,

comedy show and go to a museum and have nice dinners. Yeah. Have a nice dinner. It'll be fun. Good for you. You deserve it. I don't know about deserve, but I'm grateful. You can do, you can talk about who was the guy?

Who was, did you remember the guy they signed the transaction? Dading back to eight years ago. Oh, that you brought up on the show. I forgot it already. I know Tai Powell was the one who retired. Yes. And I said on the show that he went to Rutgers and we had a great listener who chimed in and said I was he loves the show but I was wrong.

Tai Pal did not go to Rutgers. Wow. Ty Pal went to Arkansas. Derek Lott. Derek Lott was the guy they signed and released Ryan Quigley. Okay. So raise a toast to Ryan Quigley this evening. How about you?

Where are you going? Or not going. What are you doing? Yeah. Sticking around. Yeah. Any fun plans? Nothing big.

We'll see. I'd like to hang out with the family. It's a good. That's what it's all about. zoo, the baseball park, anything like that? The baseball park. Everybody knows the baseball park. I'll probably do some park hopping.

Park hopping? Park hopping? Okay. Yeah. You know, Sunday is more of the like their classes and activities day. Tomorrow will be more of a more of an open canvas to see what we do. We haven't decided yet. Okay. Maybe the baseball park. Maybe the baseball park. Enjoy.

All right. Yeah, that'll do it for this episode of the P.A. H-L-Y Eagles podcast. Thanks everybody for listening and watching. Back next week. Next week is Minicamp week. So we are going to have full coverage of what is supposed to be three open practices. Minicamp may end up being two.

We'll see about that. We also have a possibility of a fun show on Monday. Well, it's going to be a fun show either way. But maybe some surprises along the way. And JM, F you. So that'll do it for this episode. Thanks to everybody for listening and watching. talk to you on Monday for Zach and Julia I'm Bo and as always we love you.