PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles look to bounce back on short week against New York Giants

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

The Philadelphia Eagles lost their first game of the season against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, blowing a 17-3 lead to fall to 4-1 on the season. But the Jalen Hurts and the Eagles have a short week, and they will take on Jaxson Dart and Brian Daboll and the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football. Can Hurts and A.J. Brown get on the same page? What did Kevin Patullo and Vic Fangio have to say? Rich Hofmann, Jamie Lynch and EJ Smith break it all down, while Bo Wulf talks to Brandon Graham. It’s all on the Philadelphia Eagles show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Welcome. H.O.I. Eagle Showup. Welcome to Expendant and Steele. Presented by Fett 365 and Ashley Furniture. My name is Rich Hoffman, alongside with my co-pilot today, Jamie Lynch. E.J. Smith's going to show up at some point.

It could be three minutes from now. It could be 35 minutes from now. But E.J. will be here to tell us everything that he learned at the Novacare Complex today. Should be a good show. James, how you doing? Well, no other sports will affect my mood today, Rich, because we're here to talk about the Eagles and the Eagles only.

But last night sucked. Sunday sucked. Last Saturday night sucked. So it's time to flush the turds and move on to positive thoughts. And hopefully that's the New York Giants being a slump buster here for the birds. Man, it's been a brutal few days. We do have the union supporter shield. So shout out the union.

I know Andrew Frazier, who's producing our show today. was pumped up about that one. Oh, yeah. But yeah, that's all we got. That's all we got. Yeah, no, honestly, after a tough loss on Sunday for the Eagles, I am thankful to be talking about the Eagles today on the short week. And, Jamie, it was Peter in the chat.

Thank you very much for complimenting my cinematography. You did, yeah, you got some good scrum video from the locker room. And, Jamie, in those scrums, some of my favorite kind of layings. media questions being out. Oh, yeah. When there's a Thursday game and the team has a bad loss, the media says, is it not a bad thing that you're playing a few days?

I'm like, these guys, like, they like don't want to play on Thursday night. No. I mean, I guess the positive is you do get 10 days off. It's the quote unquote infamous mini buy. My favorite nonsensical moment from your footage on Sunday in the locker room was Dave Uram asking AJ Brown about the defense letting up points and him just looking I'm going, man, that's a crazy question. The A.J. Brown scrums are

something intense. And I mean, he's got a lot of pressure on him, I would say, in terms of like, there's just a lot of focus. And obviously, there is something weird going on between him and Jalen for sure. I don't want to speculate too much because, you know, I'm not there every day. I don't have anything really to report on this. But it's clear. And you can kind of just feel the weight of all the pressure on AJ ground there. I felt bad for him. I think I found what he did last week addressing the media about the tweet. And I do that in quotes.

Very admirable. I didn't believe a word of it. But I appreciated his efforts to publicly squash it because there's clearly something going on there, Rich. And it's unfortunate. We can't have nice things for long amounts of time in Philadelphia. And it does seem like this is not. not to make too much of it, but it seems like it's headed for divorce at some point here.

I don't know how tenable this is. I hope not, but yeah, it feels bad. It doesn't feel great right now for sure. But I appreciated AJ's efforts to do what he did last week to get in front of it. But you're right. Like a lot of eyes and ears are on his locker stall after every single game. And that is a lot of pressure. The chat is loving my cinematography.

Let's keep those comments rolling in. I'm, uh, that's, I would say, brightening my Tuesday as the sports teams in Philadelphia are struggling. Jimmy, I do think that AJ play, it is indicative of sort of the situation on this team right now, not even the interpersonal stuff. Yeah, sure. And it's that there's superpower from the last few years, particularly last year. It does not exist.

The offensive line, particularly in the running game, they're not able to run at will anymore. And that's why I heard E.J. talking about this on Anthony's show yesterday. I thought the run-pass ratio focus was a little bit misplaced, where I think these guys sort of know, we can't run out the clock. Like if you told me that the Eagles were whatever it was, 38 to 11 last year, no, that would have been crazy. If they got up 17 to 3, they would have been able to run that game out. They're not able to do it.

Now, I mean, I think there are some things you can look at. Like the toss play to Sequin, that was pretty good. Yeah. That was creative, right? You know, it's a same side toss play where you get him running on the outside. And I do think the Eagles this year statistically, if you look at it, they have been a little more successful when running him towards the outside. That would make sense to me too. Well, with your right guard being banged and Lannin Dickerson clearly injured, I think that does make a lot of sense.

Look, the conversation that nobody likes to have this year, you talk about superpowers is the reality is the offensive line are mere mortals this year. They're not getting that push that we're accustomed to in years past, whether it being passed. I saw Jordan Maillado on skates on Sunday. Like, that's not something you see very often. Yeah. And I mean, some of it might be, and I forget who mentioned this, but I thought this was a great point in that we talked about Sequin last year and the heavy workload that he had to deal with. And was he going to be 500 touches as fresh this year? But think about the offensive line and really how physical.

they played all of last year. I mean, Jam, they had to play a wildcard game last year, despite being an awesome team because there's only one by now. They played four more games than a lot of teams last year. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot. Jordan Maillado on his show recently on the radio, talked about this offseason being like the worst feeling he's ever felt in his career in the NFL.

He said normally after a season, it takes them like a week or two to start kind of feeling normal again. He said this one took months. And when you think about Juergens having his, his surgery, Landon having his surgeries, Lanes had the neck issue, and my lot of, you know, saying he felt like crap in the, in a lot of the offseason, you know, not only is the shorter off season, you played four more games, like you said, these guys are just beat up. I think Sequin looks physically the same. I just think the offensive line is, they're not superhuman this

year. And it's unfortunate, but it's not crazy like to understand why. Well, and think about, Franklin brings it up in the chat. We say Franklin. All of those tush pushes, too. I do wonder if that takes a toll. Sure. I lot and I think a bunch of them are on record saying that, yeah, that play rocks, but it also hurts them very much.

Kelsey's talked about it too on his podcast. Like, yeah, that's like, it's a good play. We like doing it, but like it hurts. So I would add another element to why they're struggling to, Jamie, is that they're not pouring the same resources into the offensive line. And by the way, This has worked out splendidly over the past couple of years. You cannot have a better draft than taking Quinyon Mitchell in the first round,

Cooper de Jeanne early in the second round with those trades. But the last two years, we did wonder, all right, is offensive tackle of the future going to get picked? Is that guy going to be able to play guard right away? They have not poured like those top top resources at the position. I think it's worked out okay. I think they are a more balanced team in some ways. Sure. But it's natural to see some attrition when you're,

you're not taking those high-level dark years. Yeah, I used to have this conversation with old Bjorn, who just came out with a new book here, a former colleague of ours. And he was always like this. Bjorn? Bjorn? It was a beau joke from when ZB's book got released.

Don't worry about it. But I used to always have this conversation with ZB about the right tackle of the future. No, say Bjorn. I'm in on the joke now. About when they were going to take. the right tackle of the future. And Bjorn used to think, like, oh, this is the year. And I'm like, no, this isn't the year. I really believe, like, Lane has three or four more years. And I'm like,

you don't get that guy until maybe like a year or two out. And now the way Lane has talked, he talked with Busting and the boys in training camp and a couple other podcasts. And he kind of said, like, yeah, the end is near. I think this absolutely is going to be at the year. You have to target a right tackle in the first round of the draft. You know, you do have to start thinking about those things. Cam Juergens, look, I hope he's healthy, you know, like, but back is awful. I mean, anybody that has back issues can tell you how much that sucks. And Landon Dickerson, you know, like those legs have a lot of wear and tear on him. So he worries me about his long-term. Oh, yeah, big time. But, like, look, I mean, it's part of it is that he's a warrior and he plays through

everything, but he's also a guy who's been hurt throughout his career. By the way, Bjorn definitely knows some great Scandinavian food cities. You think Bjorn's eaten horse before? Sure. Yeah. Stockholm. Great food city. Awesome.

Great food city. I've always wanted to go, but maybe one day. Ravik, great food city. Yeah. So, yeah. Look, it is what it is. You know, like the offensive line's human. And the problem is they don't really have an identity on often.

No. They don't have something that they can fall back on. Uh, old Pat Fienis in the chat says, another good thing. Like, they are going to have to focus on getting an edge rusher in here too. So like, I can't believe we're talking about first round picks, but like it lended to the offensive line conversation. Yeah, like those are probably your two needs of like needing to add some young talent because the, the defensive edge group is, I know Vic talked about it today and we're going to talk about it. But, you know, that's a little bit of an area of concern too. You're not getting organic pressure from your edges. And none. Nolan Smith going out. He's the guy you expected to take that kind of next leap to the next level. You didn't see it in a very small sample size. And I'm not concerned about Nolan in the future, but he's not there right now. So you are going to have to fight.

That first round pick this year is going to be an interesting discussion internally. Like, you're probably going to need Elaine Johnson replacement. If you're drafted at the back of the end of the first round, and you're probably going to need some edge help too. So that's going to be a good battle internally. It's also going to depend on where they are. drafts and hopefully they... 32nd again, of course.

They get it together. Yeah. Hey, look, 30 second could have gotten Josh Simmons. You could have gotten pretty close to Josh Simmons. Yeah. And look, ultimately these concerns that we have, offensive line, maybe edge group or whatever, they're not insurmountable. Like, there's still a very good football team there

and, like, they can overcome these things. Do you think they're very good football team right now? They're a winning football team. Maybe not a very good football team. But I think that's the, of there being a good football team in there, if that makes sense? Oh, I think there's definitely a possibility. There's a good football team.

Yeah. And I think the offensive... They're leaving a lot of meat on the boat. And I think the offensive line, if they're able to get healthy and feel like themselves again and get that push and establish a running game and maybe open up some more passing game, I think that's probably the key to this offense figuring it out. Like, I'm not concerned about Jalen. I'm not concerned about A.J. and Devante or Seekwan.

I'm a little concerned about a little bit concerned. That's fair. But I'm most concerned about the offensive line and the lack of... of what they've been the past couple years. Well, and Jamie, but I thought the AJ play where he stopped on that route was indicative of, yeah, the offensive line is not going to be able to just end the game for you, basically,

by just hand the ball off to Sequin, give Jalen great pass protection. So these skill guys are going to have to play at a really, really high level. And some of this is that it's different from 2023. 2023, the book on Jalen Hertz was just blitz and blitz him, like crazy. And now teams are starting to run those sim pressures. They're starting to drop

seven, eight guys into the, into the route. And the Eagles, for whatever reason, are not able to pick them apart. I saw Baldy on Anthony's show talk about how bad they are at the scramble drill. It's again, like some of the plays, like the Eagles offensive line was not great in the game on Sunday, but they also had enough reps and pass protection where I felt like they held up. And it's like, man, they should be able to hit a bigger play at some point here. you know, the Devante one was the one where I was like, all right, they're going to snap back into form. They figured it out. That was a 57 yard play. Like, that's huge. And if he led him a little bit more, quiet part of my brain's like, that could have been a touchdown. But I'm not going to

complain about a 57 yard. I didn't go back and look at that. Yeah, I think it was a slightly underthrown, but it's not a real issue. Yeah, yeah, I'll take it at this current state. But the AJ won, like, man, that was a touchdown. And I understand where he's coming from, like mentally he's probably run that route, you know, because it's not technically supposed to come to him and he did see the arm pump. So he probably thought like, oh, that's not going to come to me and just took like a, it's human nature, right? Like these guys can't be perfect all the time. But optically, after the past like week or two and what they've been through, that was a tough look. Especially like, look, wide receiver, it's clearly a goofy position.

Yeah. You spend sometimes half the game just running routes and you're like, is the ball ever going to come? Yeah, my way again. So I understand that. And Adrian Brown, I think through the years for the real film grinders, they'll tell you, yeah, he might quit on a couple of that. I mean, some of that might also just kind of be preserving your energy. Sure.

But yeah, I mean, it was like the worst possible timing for that to happen. It's also the worst possible timing for him and Jalen Hurts to not exactly be on the same page because they need their skill guys to step up and take a little bit of pressure off the offensive line. So that is. That sucked. And especially, you know, and look, you know, Jimmy Kemsky, I believe was the one that reported it yesterday. Good. That Jalen, AJ, and Sequin got in a closed door meeting and talk things out.

That's what good teams do. You try to address things. Our old co-worker, Branding Graham, you're going to hear from shortly last year when he slipped up on the radio. I don't think he slipped up by accident. I think that was a, hey, you two need to get in the room and sort this out. So again, back-to-back years. Guys have had to get into the room and sort things out. Not great.

I mean, I'm just thinking about all the times that I have let something slip that I shouldn't have. And that BG moment was in all time. That was. And they still won the Super Bowl after it was over. Yeah, because look, that's when these things are not in, they're not insurmountable. Like, AJ and Jalen don't have to, or AJ and Jalen don't have to be best friends to be effective on the field. I'm just curious what the meeting was like Were they in

I would love to be a fly on that wall They're on a couch Who leads it? Is Big Dom in there? Are there canoles on the table? Do they have drinks? Are they having smoothies from the Novacare Cafeteria?

I would love to see that conversation Those long meetings can be You can get bored after a while Like does Sequin have a lot to contribute To that conversation? him being involved with that raise my antenna a little bit. Like this is clearly an AJ and Jalen thing. Why was Sequin in there?

Maybe he's the one that's like, you guys got to figure this out. Is he on Team AJ? Or is he, or to your point, is he the mediator was like, let's go, guys, we got to get to this. It's a great question. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's funny that he was a part of it. Okay, Jamie, one more thing before.

Or it's like when you like fire somebody, you need HR to be there. like you need a witness. So maybe like Seyquan was just a witness to their awkwardness, you know? Well, it's funny. Like imagine you see it in movies a lot. I'm thinking like the first scene of, I think, wedding crashers where they have the mediators on. They have lawyers on one side and the lawyers on the other side.

Yeah. I hope Seekwan was probably in the middle of those two. All right. We've probably speculated a little bit too much about a meeting that we have no idea about. Well, it's not nothing. You know? Yeah. We just don't know the details, but clearly something's up.

Okay. Jamie. but Sequin is going back to New York this week, and he is playing his former team, only got to play them once last year because he took that last game off. And everybody said, oh man, he's not going for the record.

He better win the Super Bowl. Guess what? He won the Super Bowl. Yeah. But in his first game last year, when the offense had that superpower, remember that. I mean, they just,

it was just a beautiful performance. 17 carries, 176 yards, a touchdown. I think there were a couple pushes in there that he really could have ended up. Was this touchdown, if I'm going to remember, it was a fairly long run, wasn't it like a 60 plus yarder? Is this one of the ones where he was smacking himself on the head?

I'm trying 68 yarder. Yeah, I think he was like smacking himself on the head. He was so excited to be scoring at MetLife Field versus the team that kind of scorned him. Those were fun times. Hopefully the running game can return to that because, man, 10.4 yards per carry, Rich. That'd be pretty nice to see.

That would be awesome. Yeah, I mean, well, it's so funny. that how the conversation turned into, man, you got to get Sequin more touches. And if this was last year, I completely agree. But I also do understand that like running Sequin up the middle is like, that means second and eight at best right now. Last year, no, obviously he was hitting some of those gigantic plays. So yeah, got to get Sequin more on track.

And Jamie, like honestly, ever they lost that game the other day, I didn't feel any differently than I did after the first four games. It's like they played one. Very good half. It wasn't exactly one half because obviously the fourth quarter was the one that really, really messed. Yeah, the first half of the third quarter was solid. The sake on touchdown was a great call. They finally hit a big play to say one, but it's through the air.

Yeah, and shout out Mina Kimes for nail on that one last week. The Broncos linebackers were the area to attack there. Yeah, it was like a bad quarter and a half. Yeah. And until they play a full game, it's like, all right, they're going to play stretches of each of these games where they look good. that does make me feel a little bit better, like, to go back to your point that there is a good team in there, okay, we've seen that. Yeah.

For half of a lot of these games. Just haven't seen four quarters yet. But then they also just play like not just a bad half, but like a terrible half where the offense is, I don't think they're last anymore in terms of three and out percentage, but they're pretty darn close. Well, right after the Sequan touchdown, I think it was three, three and outs right in a row. So De Nez can put that into his database and let us know. know where they, where they rank now. But yeah, I mean, that was kind of the game right there.

It was you go three, three and outs after that play. So what they did was they, they played half of a game very well, half the game very poorly. That's what's happened for this whole season, basically. And this time they lost. And that's what's going to happen when you're in these coin flip games. Now, did the calls at the end absolutely stink? Yeah. Yeah, they did. Oh, they did. the Goddard one was like offensive to the eyeballs. That was your least favorite one? My least favorite was probably the Zach Ballin one just because what the hell is he supposed to do there?

I feel bad for defensive players. I turn into... Yeah, like, come on. I wish Malcolm Jenkins could talk about that. Malcolm Jenkins, when he played for the Eagles, was so good after games. He would just handle every single question. Obviously Malcolm was always in the news.

he was, you know, like the leader of the defense as well, he would take like 40 minutes of questions after games. But man, if a late hit ever got brought up, he would always take the defensive player's side. He might take the defensive player side when it was against the Eagles. Yeah, I mean, it's bang, bang. Like the guy's, who was it, uh, RJ Hampton or whatever?

It was, I forget. It was fighting for an extra yard. It wasn't a dirty play. He was trying to make sure that the Broncos did not get a game changes. Yeah, like that guy's fighting for a first down with the game on the line. Like, what are you doing? All three were really bad,

but the Bond one probably incensed me the most. I mean, picking up that intentional grounding was egregious, and the Goddard one was pathetic. The intentional grounding one, that made me the maddest. And it's in part because the NFL just does not deal with that rule correctly. No. The spirit of the rule, they need to change that

because quarterbacks, they don't even look at the receivers. And then they just point, okay, that guy's, somewhere in the vicinity. Ridiculous. No way Bo Nix was trying to complete that ball. Okay, Jane, before we get to a break, there was one other thing I wanted to talk about, you know, behind the scenes,

Jamie does run our Twitter account, and I think this mightn sense him a little bit. Uh-oh. Jamie, did you hear that Sean Peyton decided to blast Meek Mill in the locker room? And then he asked the driver of the team bus to reroute. I would assume they would just go on 95 to get to whatever the private airport.

it is where they're trying to go. Instead, he decided to drive down Broad Street, maybe make drive past Skinny Joey's Cheese Steaks, maybe some of the murals, you know, maybe take a right on Passyunk at some point and go down, and go into Center City, Philly to let the city of Philadelphia know that the Denver Broncos are here to play. Any thoughts on that? Did you ever watch, I'll tell you what immediately came to my mind. You ever watch Chappelle show? I'm sure you did, right? Yeah.

The player haters ball. Yeah, I believe it was Patrice O'Neill, RIP. RIP. When he goes, man, you corny. That was exactly what came to mind when I saw that from Sean Payton was like, man, you won. You can do whatever you want. But that is so corny. Like, just so corny.

Well, it's just funny, like, driving down Broad Street as if there'd be like a bunch of, like, a rabbit, Red Eagle fans like, no. Just like a bunch of like. People see a tour bus going by. and they're like, okay, it's a tour bus. You know, like, what the hell? That was, that's lame. Well, and it's a little hard for me to reconcile

because on one hand, it's like, look, the Eagles had not lost a game in over a year that A.J. Brown and J. Hurts both finished it. Yeah. So on that, on that, hate, hate, hate, hate. On that point, you're like, all right, yeah, I guess it should be right for them to enjoy it and enjoy it. On the other hand, I'm like,

Eagles are very mediocre. right now. Like, I don't actually think this is like a franchise changing win. Who knows? I mean, their defense is very good. And I thought Nick's made some, some good throws down the stretch. I saw our DNVR, uh, sister station counterparts say it was the best Broncos win since 2014. And that might be true. They have not had a, a good, it could be true last 10 years. Yeah. Like, you're also maybe overval, overrating what the, to your point, what the Eagles are right now. And they're, they're a beatable team. They've been in at, like, look, I don't think they're going to lose to the Giants or lose to bad teams.

Like, I still think there's a good team in there, but you're, they've been playing with fire. Jaylin after the game was like, yeah, those things don't bite you until they bite you. And Sunday it bit them finally. So, you know, it is what it is. Anyway, I'm just saying, we'll write that down in the note. Yeah, Sean Payton, you corny. And see what the Denver Broncos do the rest of the year.

And guys, if you start to lose some games, we might, incorporate that drive down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. into some of our... I wish I could say we'll see the Broncos in the Super Bowl, but I don't think Denver's going to be there. I think the Eagles still have a shot. Look, they'd just better back it up.

It's my whole point. Okay, let's hear from a few of our friends, and after that, we are going to play an interview that Bo Wolf did with Brandon Graham. I believe Bo asked BG about some of Sequin's leadership qualities. BG was there last year. So if you want to know, know sort of how Sequin was able to bring Jalen Hertz and A.J. Brown together. I actually don't know

if that's what's in the interview. But Faux asked BG about Sequin. That will be, that will play right after the break and then we'll be back. Hopefully E.J. will be here. I don't know. Mr. Smith comes to Philadelphia. I don't know exactly where he is if he's not a lead foot Bjorn as he used to be. Okay. We will hear from a few of our sponsors. And first, Jamie, the other day, was over at a friend's place and he was pumped to watch football was it but wolf's house might have been and his setup it was a total mess lagging buffering and switching between apps trying to find the game he claimed he was a big fan but when i was there i felt like i had been fan fished see if you call yourself a football fan you've got to have xfinity it's the ultimate sports destination i can find

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about, you know, there was their report yesterday about a meeting with age. and Jalen and Seekwon, and I actually don't want to get into the AJ Jalen stuff. I want to ask about Sequin as a teammate because so many guys gave him credit last year for kind of like changing the energy in the locker room. We saw Jalen saying it in the mic'd up for the Super Bowl. What were your impressions of Sequin as a teammate and what did make him, you know, a good teammate? Well, I knew he was going to be a captain sooner or later. I thought it was going to be last year, but you can't do it in the first year.

Tough to do it in the first year. You're trying to learn the team. You don't want to make that mistake or not, like, giving somebody some time to really see what he's about. You're also going to make somebody else mad at this point. You can't give the new guy. I've been here. I've been here and you're going to do that.

But Sequin definitely came in, man, just open arms, just whatever the culture was. He just adapted to it. But then he made his way around, and he was a good teammate himself. He just wanted to win. And he's doing right now what it is that. that it takes to win because it's not always great when you got a bunch of different personalities in there. But I think he's doing a great job,

you know, wearing that seat this year, and then having to step up and talk with some guys and make some things happen, especially as a leader, man, because sometimes it's uncomfortable and you've got to do some uncomfortable things, but you get comfortable in the uncomfort. And I'm loving that he's doing that,

because all they want to do is win. I would imagine, too, it's a little bit easier to lead when you're having a historic season. Oh, yeah. Like he was last year. That too. Right.

But he sees, even this year. Well, that's what I mean, is that this year, when he doesn't have those same numbers, that same production, you know, he still has to swallow his ego and do those things. And that shows you who a person really is

because it's all good when it's all good. But when it ain't all good, who are you then? And are you going to be consistent? with who you was when it was all good? Or are you going to be the one that, oh, I didn't know you do this when things bad? Yeah.

And then that's even with business, man. You're going to business with people. You don't know how people is when they can only, when there's time for them to save themselves and then leave you out to dry. Yeah. It's like, oh, man, I hate to, that's the last, that's the last thing you want at that time.

Yeah. But you find out who that person is. So I'm happy that he's still himself. even during some of the, of what we call hard, because it ain't as hard. We're four-on-one, but it's just, we just want to get on the same page about things, and so sometimes it's not always easy to try to address it right away

because people will let it linger for a while, and then by then it's too late. Do you think that what you're saying there, like it's not that hard, we're four-and-one, that that perspective is maybe lost on some guys, that, like, you think this is bad, like, you know, I've been on teams. been way worse.

One in four or whatever, yeah. Yeah, and we wasn't winning those games. We was losing, and then it became a bigger thing because now the media is really talking. We won and four, we stink. Then our emotions getting the best of us, and so we probably saying stuff and stuff that we're not as proud of

and we add more fuel to the fire instead of trying to come out of it by how we respondent to it and start to, you know, get better together. And yeah, man, that's why, I'm happy that he stepped in and doing some things, if that is true on that, because all you want to do is just see guys win on and off the field. How about the defense? We talked about this a little bit on unblocked, but the pass rush, the four guys up front not getting home a ton, and we see how much Vic is doing to try to create pressure up front.

What's your belief in those guys to turn things around? My belief is stay consistent with how you've been preparing or how you've been doing, learning each other, learning how each other rushes, just the whole flow of their game. Because, man, I know what to expect from JC in certain moments. I know what to expect when we run in certain line games together. And then sometimes it's not always the same on the other side where, like, guys, you probably never rush with or didn't rush with as much,

like a Jordan Davis. but y'all learning each other. But you got to do those things. You got to do it in practice. You got to do it with your coaches. Your coaches always make sure that we are together and we are doing those things. But you got to make sure that you're taking this serious

so that you know in that moment in the game, it shows up in a big way of what we practice. Your self-excluded, if you could add one teammate of yours in their prime to this defensive line, who would it be? and they prime man who then took over a game i'll get like asante to play the other corner side oh i like that you know what i'm saying i like that because that's where we're getting hit right now like you know we're getting hit on that and it's sad to say uh my boy keely is stuff is so

like historically underrated um i think he should be in the hall of fame no for real i mean all them picks that he had? Come on, huh? And, you know, didn't he win? People act like those, like those picks just happened. Right. You know? He jumped them. He jumped some of them routes.

That was his whole thing. And that's the most important thing you can do on defense. I mean, yeah. Asante is very high up in my book. And so I hope that for him, too. I hope he get everything that's coming to him. And he will. I believe he will.

And one of the few guys who talked as much as you did on the field. Yeah, and that's why I liked him. Because, you know, I played with him, what, three? years, two, three years, yep. 10, 11, 12, yeah, I think that's right. Uh-huh. How was his trash talk game? Oh, he was good.

He still talked trash now on his podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to him. Shout out to that boy, Sante. I was out there. I was on his podcast. We talked a little bit.

No, nice. Yeah, that's cool. I can look that up. See, if there's good a material that I can pick up. Uh-huh. This game coming up against the Giants. Like, are you worried about it at all? I know you told Anthony that you think that this loss

is maybe good for them, like, why would that be? Because, like you said, Sequin and them, they all having conversations together. They're starting a conversation. That's all you ever want, when things are not up to the standard that you wanted to be. You want people to start the conversation because sometimes we can just kind of let it go and say, oh, it's going to get right. But no, sometimes you've got to put in a little work, a little effort. And I love that that's what they're doing because, man, sometimes it's needed.

and you feel a lot better as a player because you got a little more understanding of something that you might have been getting wrong by yourself. Got it. Okay. I mean, you're not worried about this Giants game at all? I'm not worried about it at all. I think those guys are,

they are having those conversations. It's only going to make us even stronger as a team and better together. And, man, we see that they got the passing game up to a little standard, but now we, let's have our balance to tackle, that we know and let's play these situations the best because Nick Siriani is one of the best

of them, I would say, in situational ball. And so let everybody do their job and everybody show up and do their part. I mentioned this on the podcast, and we never circled back to it, but I was at the game one of the Phillies game. And there you are up on the board, you know, getting everybody's sex. When did you record that? I recorded that and this year, actually, it was just. This year, it was probably June.

Okay. Yeah, maybe May. Do you ever get tired of seeing your own face? No. But I'm not naive to think that people don't. And then, you know, it's funny because, you know, some people be like, dang, BG you everywhere. Hey, man, look, I'm working.

Yeah. And that's it. That's just how I look at it. But I do. Oh, so that's money, you know. Yeah. It's also an opportunity that you don't always get at this time. Right. Because I could have been retired and then not nowhere.

Right. And so I'm thankful for that. But just no. But I like the idea of at least like, you know, your wife being like, could I just have enough of BG please? I know. On another commercial, come on. Oh, yeah.

Nah, baby girl and baby boy, they love it. Because when we was all at the game, that's all they kept saying, that's you, daddy on TV, on the screen. I didn't even know that I'll be on the screen like that up in the Lincoln Financial. Yeah. Okay. That's all I got for you this week. BG.

It's a short week, you know, short conversation. Short week. We got much more to come on the P.H.L.I. Eagles podcast. Thank you to Brandon Graham. We'll talk you later. And we're back on the P.H.O.I. Eagle show live from the Xfinity Studio presented by Bet365 and Ashley Furniture. my name is Rich Hoffman. I am here with Jamie Lynch and look who's here. E.J. Smith shows up during the break here. E.J., how you doing?

I'm doing well. I feel like I timed this almost perfect. It was perfect. We were talking for a pre-show. We were like, man, if E.J. shows up during the Brandon Graham segment, he can slide right in. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's good to be back. I appreciate you guys. They're keeping the studio warm for us. But now, I figured this is like, people have been asking me what it's like doing a daily podcast. And I just got to say, like, I get excited about coming into the studio and talking about the Eagles. Absolutely. Yeah, I felt like I needed to get it coming in and get my fix on an Eagles talk here. Okay, so let's go right to getting your fix right now.

What did you learn today? I believe Vic Fangio was the only one who talked. Yes. And then, uh, and then, uh, Kevin, in the night? Talk later? Yeah, like five, five something. After dark with Petula.

This is a very like Vic Fangio. Like, this is very on brand for Vic Fangio that it's like, well, I usually talk in the early afternoon. So like, I'm going to stick with it. This is my routine. Not going to change the whole schedule just because of a Thursday night game. So no, we came in early to hear from Vic Fangio. I thought there were a few notable things that he talked about.

I think probably the newsiest stuff was about Keeley Ringo and Nacobo and Nacobie Dean, their roles in the Eagles defense moving forward. So I did listen to this, E.J. But what did you make? It seemed like he sort of left the door. But let's start with Keeley first because he's the one who we definitely know is going to play this week or be available to play this week. he got asked about Keely in terms of, okay, why was he in the game last week if Adori was available to play?

And is that going to be the case moving forward? What did you make of his answers? Yeah, he said that it was a combination of Adori Jackson coming off of the injury, but also Keely Ringo playing good enough is how he put it. And I honestly feel like that is how I would characterize the way that Keely Ringo has played through the two games that he's had an expansive role. I think that there still is like that chaotic potential for Hsui Ringo in the Eagles defense. like, you know, obviously the pass interference call that was, the flag was picked up.

Like, that's kind of like the razor's edge you play with Kili Ringo, a physical corner who can maybe be a little panicky when the ball is in the air. But honestly, it's not like he, it's not like Adori Jackson was playing well before that. I think that Kili Ringo, I think honestly, reading between the lines of what Vig Fangio has said about Kili Ringo, I think that they want him to develop some confidence in that role and really grow into it. So, yeah, I didn't, I didn't take his, his answer as like, necessarily like, a negative for Keely Ringo by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, I think you said at worse, it would be both of them playing. Yeah, like that sounds bad. But the way I view it, yeah.

Like if they're the same, I'm going to go with a young guy that can develop. Like, Adori Jackson's a baked pie. So like, I'll see out the upside here of Keeley in hopes that it pays off for you in weeks, you know, 15 through 18. Yeah, I've been saying this since training camp. It's like if there, if it's equal, go with a young guy. Yeah, obviously I've been on Keely. You're still holding that stock.

Yeah, but I still think that there is a chance. for him to develop. Is he ever going to be like a difference maker at corner? I mean, maybe not. But like, is a Dory Jackson? Exactly. He could develop into a, you know, solid member of the secondary. Also, like, we're getting to a point in the season now where it's like you don't really want a lot of moving parts. You know, they've moved to Andrew McCuba as the full-time safety. And I think that the secondary has benefited from that. I think if they stick with Keely Ringo for an extended period of time, there's a chance that this is just the Eagle Secondary and that they can really grow from there. And even when Keely Ringo did have,

have that tough training camp. It felt like Vic Fangio's comments were, I would say, less Vic than usual, where at least he was, you know, he was leaving the door open for Keely to getting another shot. We saw that a couple weeks ago where he said, hey, look, Keely's going to get a chance here. Now, he probably knew that Dori Jackson was not going to be available for that game. But yeah, it does seem like he has some degree of a soft spot for him and at least believe in, okay, this guy's got the tools, like we're going to give him a shot. So I guess the last thing before we get to break, E.J., with all that in mind, I would be surprised if Keely wasn't the starting corner this week.

I would be too. Yeah, I agree with him. I agree with you guys. Yeah. No, I think that he's done just enough. And he's kind of been on the edge a few times of making the play that kind of costs him that opportunity. But I think the way that Vic put it was a good way of putting it. Like he's played good enough to continue in that role.

And by the way, E.J., before we get to the break, thank you for defending my boy Q's honor yesterday. that nasty bow wolf was coming after him and somebody had to stand up to him and defend him. So thank you. Yeah, I found it interesting. Vic was asked, like,

are you guys putting too much on Quinion's plate? And then he's like, no, I think he's fine. Yeah. I think too much can be made of like a good physical receiver at the catch point making plays that like really, it's tight coverage.

What more can you do? It's like, you know, the old adage like those guys get paid to. Yeah, Cortland Sutton's a pro. Exactly. I'm not worried about Quinnian Mitchell.

He's like the least of my worries, really. He had my boys back yesterday. Well, E.J. and I were talking in the press box, take you a little bit behind the curtain. And EJ kind of made a soccer reference where it's like you judge the goalie on the goals. Oh, yeah. I mean, Quinion gave up some catches the other day,

but like some of those were good back shoulders. Yeah. And you sort of judge him on the completions that he gives up. I know he did slip on the one. That was an easier type of play. But if you're going to have to make, you know, a 90th percentile throw, at least an a throw,

that tends to show you that, the corner is pretty good. I appreciate you bringing up the soccer analogy. I try to keep them to a limit. But yeah, you judge the keeper by the goals that he allows. And if he is in great position and they're all just like absolute world-class strikes from outside the box, that changes the way you view a keeper. The same way with the corner, like he's in tight coverage and he gives up a catch,

it's like, you know, if it's the Isaiah Rogers example or it's like, okay, this guy needs to be better at the catch point because this is a habit, you know, the Ronald Darby, like he's always in good position. that's a different story, but when you look at the catches that Quineon gave up in that game, it's like, come on, this guy, this guy's still really good. Yeah, I love a good cross-sports analogy, and I love a little ad break, and we are going to hear from a couple of our friends right now. Guys, do you remember when BG stripsack the goat for the first Philly Super Bowl ever? Well, now BG is bringing us his crooked tea strip sack pack so we can savor the flavor.

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this is one sack that you're going to be proud to display. So grab yours today at a store near you or on GoPuff. And for our guy, BG, we have to send a shout out to the Philly area bars. carrying crooked tea. Thank you for showing your love. That would be sport and social Allentown, garage fish town, city tap and Logan Square, and Wicked Wolf on Chestnut. Go check them out on game day or a night out and tell them that P.H.L.Y. Sports say you. You always got to have a guy. And sometimes that guy has to watch your money. And that's why

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from the NovaCare complex. I guess we should get into NCOBE Dean now. Vic Fangio, he was asked three separate questions about the state of Nikobe Dean, who was listed, I believe, as a full participant on the practice report. I know that is just a guess, right? They're not practicing. Yeah, it's the estimation.

On Monday after a game. But what did you make of what Vic had to say about Nikobe? Yeah, I mean, I certainly think that Vic Fangio is slow playing Nikobe Dean's reintegration into the defense. And I think that probably is indicative of, the organizational feel. I don't think it's Vic Fangio holding him back. I think that the team is easing him back in and you can tell from talking to Nkobi that he is anxious to get back on the field. So, you know, Vic said that there's a chance that he will, you know, be activated and be on the

active roster for this Thursday game despite the fact that the Eagles aren't going to have much practice time. But if he does come back, Vic said it's not going to be like a full-time role. It's going to be in a limited role and limited scope reflective of the fact, I mean, of multiple facts, but Vic pointed to the fact that they're not going to have much practice time before this game against the Giants. He was asked like, how can you have all three of these guys? You know, how can you manage these three? It's the million dollar question. It's easy to say because of the fact that he's coming back from injury and has not got a lot of practice time. That's why it won't be a full-time role. Yeah. But there's also the element of you mainly play two linebackers in the modern NFL and they got

two pretty good ones already before NCOB Dean steps back on the field. Yeah. So when asked about that, He gave a pretty succinct answer. We'll figure that out. I think that it's probably leaving the door open because you never know with injuries if it's going to solve itself. I love that. We'll figure it out.

We'll figure it out. Vic really knows that I mean, we trust you, Vic. I mean, I appreciate it. You know, sometimes I fill up a graphic. Let me tell you. I mean, there's not a coordinator I trust more to figure it out than Vic Fangio in recent Eagles' memory.

Yeah, again, an injury. he could make this a moot point, you know, if one of those guys goes down. Obviously, Eagles aren't hoping for that, but that will, you know, that's a factor in here too. But yeah, I think he's going to have to be in a limited role for at least to start, probably for an extended period of time because of the way that those two guys are playing. I think that there probably is a role, a rotational aspect that he could be on the field. But his skill set is different than Zach Bonn and Jahad Campbell. And like, it is less versatile than those two guys. You can't do quite as much. You know, obviously, you think about that.

the Eagles run, what was in the run game, I think Nikobe can help you in some of those facets, but he's just a different linebacker. Honestly, this sounds like he played really well for them last year. I think it's important to remember that when you are evaluating him as a player, but like, I do think that like in Jihad Campbell and Zach Bonn, you're kind of seeing like what a modern, like, very like pushing the edge of the position linebacker looks like in today's game. N'coby actually, it's funny because he is also kind of like a modern linebacker, but in a different package, I would say. So it'll be interesting to see what his role looks like, but

yeah, I mean, you're not going to upset what has been probably one of the, one of, if not the best linebacking cores in the NFL. So get into Vic's shoes real quick. If we're talking about like weeks, you know, 14 through 18 here and all three guys have, you know, warranted play on the field. Is it just

sub packages where he's coming in and Bonn and Campbell are going to the edge and blitzing more? Like, is there any scenario where all three can be on the field effectively? It's funny. because if you told me that they didn't have Vic Fangio, if you told me that they had maybe a Nick Rallis, who obviously was the Eagles linebackers coach, when Jonathan Gannon was a defensive coordinator, I probably would start to wonder if this is going to look more like a 3-3-5.

You see it a lot in the college game. You don't see it much in the NFL, and obviously it's like, and there's reasons why I don't think that the Eagles are going to do this for the record, but it's three defensive tackle types playing a little bit further apart, and then linebacker, two outside linebackers that fill out that defensive linebacker. to kind of make it look more like that 5-1 front. We've seen the Eagles use a penny front with those two linebackers on the edges. And you can do that with the Eagles linebacking corps, but I don't think you want Zach Bonn and Jehad Campbell majoring

in being those strong side on the ball linebackers. They have so much range in coverage. They've got so much capability in the middle of the field. You don't really want to take them out of those situations too many times. So I think there are probably instances where you could talk me into that. even on early downs, if you're telling me that, like, those two guys are closer to the line of scrimmage to get Nicobie Dean on the field,

and maybe you still work in Cooper to Gene in the slot, now you're talking, now, like, you could talk me into those types of looks, but first and foremost, I think you just keep those guys on the field. Don't overthink it. You don't want to change your whole defensive system for NCOBD. Yeah. Totally. No, I mean, it feels like you'd have to put Jihad Campbell

or Zach Bond one of those two in an actual edge rush to, to fit the system. Yeah, and I don't think either of those guys are, I don't think it's worth it for either of them. If we were talking about this back in April, I probably would have been more bullish on like the Jihad Campbell Eddrushr's experiment. We haven't seen much of it.

Vic doesn't seem all that interested in it. So I don't know, I have a hard time believing that that's really in the cards for Jihad Campbell right now. Oh, they walk them up to the line. They do their sim pressures, but not in a full-time role. And also, I mean, Jihad Campbell,

maybe not quite as much last week. I haven't really read too much about the run defense, but it seems like he has made steps already in sort of diagnosing the run and doing sort of those traditional linebacker things that will take him from good to great. Okay, E.J., a couple other things. Injury report for this game, I believe we saw Sequin Barclay on it. Yeah. Saw Landon Dickerson on him and Grand Calcutera on it.

What's your read on what those guys are looking like for Thursday night? Don't rush anyone back to that field. Yeah, no, that's what I'm thinking. thinking about like the MetLife situation. Big neighbors fantasy team. I mean, O'Dell called it Death Life Field. Death Life Field is a good. It's a great nickname.

I saw my former colleague Jeff McLean reported that he thinks that Seekwon Barkley will play and that Landon Dickerson's probably less likely. And so Grant Calcutera also less likely. You know, to me like, it's going to be hard to read the T-Leaps of the injury report because they're not going to practice. But I don't know, Seekwan, I sort of didn't get a sense from Seacuan that he's worried about an injury. So my guess is he'll play based off of Jeff's reporting, a front of mine there. And then with Landon, I think he needs a couple weeks. You know,

you need to buy him some time to recover. Absolutely. We were talking earlier about like the uncomfortable problem with this offense right now that nobody really likes talking about because I don't is the offensive line is just they're mere mortals this year. They're not the super humans that we're used to dealing with, which was such an advantage for the Eagle and and why they won the Super Bowl. But, like, Landon is number one. He's clearly hurt. He's clearly playing through pain.

I'm giving that guy a couple weeks off in hopes that he can get right. Juergens, like, also maybe the mini-buye can help him a little bit here before the real buy. But, like, Lane, these guys are just beat up. Yeah, they're banged up. I'm not rushing anybody back to the field here and just in hopes they can get right. Yeah, you know, Beau mentioned, like, the run of offensive linemen that the Eagles missed out on in the draft. and it brings me back to when they drafted Landon Dickerson, and it's like this guy doesn't have a clear path to the field in his rookie season,

and he ended up playing like 15 games that year because of injuries. It was Brandon Brooks that got hurt for the season. So, you know, the Eagles are usually good about being a year ahead on these types of things, and I think you're seeing why they prioritize it. And, you know, the fact that they haven't this year, I mean, man, like, you think what this offensive line would look like if Fred Johnson weren't back in the building. Yeah.

You know, they don't have the depth that they've had in the past, and you're starting to see it. Yeah, like the Trevor Keegens of the world haven't, like, kicked down any doors and been like, hey, I'm deserving of some playing time. Exactly. So, no, I mean, they are still one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. Yeah. They're four and one for a reason. But it is interesting how this year's team isn't built exactly the way that we've seen how Harry Rosen built a roster in the past.

All right. Real quick, we're going to talk to a few more of our friends. And then we're going to ask E.J. about what's going on with this passing game, why they can't function against those SIM pressures that Uncle Vic runs all the time. But first we're going to hear from a few of our friends. All right, Philadelphia, listen up because there's a new name in town, shaking up the snack game. And that's our friends over at Righteous Felon. Me and my wife, any road trip we're ever on. There's always a bag of jerky in the car with us because it's just a great road snack. It's a great snack at the office. We send our girls to school now with righteous felon beef sticks because they too love them.

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Thank you for to BDogg for pointing out that I need some rest. I do need some rest, but I'm going to get some tonight. No bad baseball. Yeah, you're grinding. You guys did a great job on the not very fun postgame show last night, but I did enjoy you three. Just like I felt like I vented through you guys in the show. Yeah, I appreciate capturing the temperature of Philadelphia last night. Thank you guys.

And we did good numbers on it because there were a lot of Dodgers fans making fun of us. And you know what? To those Dodgers fans? Thank you. Yeah, thanks for the numbers. Yeah. Any day of the week. Yeah.

Also, like and subscribe, you know. There were a couple that did too. Yeah. They were like, you know, I'm going to throw up a subscription. I'm like, well, you're like a Los Angeles fan. That's fine. That's yeah. Like and subscribe.

They just really want to know about Jalen Hertz versus zone coverage. Well, they're about to get that right now, E.J. Because on Franz piece on all p.hly.com. And by the way, our Eagles coverage on the site, awesome. We got EJ's day after piece. We got Les Bowen. The early bird. Yeah, we got less chiming in with all of his years of experience

on what's going on with the passing game. And we got Fran breaking down the film. But Fran pointed out in his piece this week, guys, something that we saw a little bit last week against Tampa where before that game it's, oh man, it's Todd Bowles. He's going to blitz him the entire game. Can Jalen get the ball out against the blitz? And in that first half, it's as good as it's ever looked against the blitz.

And then in the second half, Todd Bulls says, all right, this isn't working. So let's play a little bit more traditional coverage. The Eagles are struggling a little bit against those SIM pressures when they drop eight, when they drop seven in coverage. I guess, E.J., what do you make of that? Because it's a different thing. I mean, it's not that the Eagles haven't struggled at times against that

throughout the Jalen Hertz era. But a few years ago, it was the exact opposite, where the Blitz was the big issue. And this wasn't as big of a deal. Yeah, I feel like we're starting to see, like, the evolution of how defenses are playing against the Eagles in real time. Because you're right, the last two games, we've seen defenses that are typically man blitz defenses,

you know, aggressive at the line of scrimmage, send a lot of pressure and play man behind it. We're seeing those defenses try that for about a quarter and a half and go, this guy seems like he's caught up to that, you know? And I think credit to Jalen Hertz for catching up to it. I think, you know, man, there were times in the last couple of years where you would watch this Eagles offense against blitzes and you would just go, I have no idea how they haven't found

answers against that. They have found the answers. And now the action to the reaction to the reaction to here is, like you said, sim pressures where they're dropping a lot of guys into zone coverage. And Jaylen Hertz's numbers against zone coverage this season compared to man coverage are staggering. I mean, the success rate, the EPA per dropback, both significantly lower in the negatives against zone coverage and positive against man. And I think it is just a nature of like, how do you, like if you're a defense and you're playing in your, You're looking at AJ Brown, Devante Smith, Dallas Goddard when he's in the lineup, Seekwan Barkley matched up against a linebacker.

It's like, you're not going to play man against those guys. You know, I remember, like, hearing from somebody a few years ago, like you can't even play a man against Jalen because he's a mobile quarterback. You always have to spy him. Now, on the flip side of things, like zone coverages, especially those, I mean, call them crowded zone coverages or max zone coverages, whatever you want to call them, where they're only rushing three or four. Eagles have not been able to take advantage of those.

and I think the big reason why is because to beat zone coverage is often, there needs to be timing, anticipation, and rhythm, which are three words we would not attribute to the Eagles offense right now. So I think it's funny because, like, this conversation's been going on all season. And originally I was like, it's a little reductive to just say, like, zone coverage is how you beat the Eagles, the Eagles offense, because there's so many different types of zone coverages. But I do think these heavy zone coverages, these crowded zone coverages,

where they're going to rotate the safeties late, and they are just going to try and muddy. the picture pre-snap and only only to drop a lot of guys into coverage. Yeah, we haven't seen the Eagles offense really catch up to that quite yet. Like you said, too, you're going to need the skill position players to get in more of a rhythm to sort of pick up the offensive line because they're not really testing the offensive line quite as much on those plays. I thought there were some opportunities down the field. Okay, we'll talk about this and some other stuff, maybe a little bit of Eagles Giants in

overtime. Real quick, E.J., on that, like when you were describing that, isn't the RPO? Like, isn't this kind of the perfect counterpunch? I like the RPO the other day. You started to see more of it this past week than you had in the first three weeks. Yeah, I think that's going to be important for them. Isn't that their counterpunch to this? I think, I think that is always kind of the conventional wisdom is that, like, you know,

the nature of like an underneath whole defender and a, like, whether it's a lineback or a safety, you can manipulate that player with the RPO game. And how much, like, the Eagles run game has been dominant. and then how much it's been struggling. I think the RPO game is really important. You saw instances on tape against the Broncos defense where guys are just flowing so hard downhill to Saquan Barkley that it opens up space in the RPO game.

Like I know people talked about, you know, Sequan Barkley's production and his carries in that game. I think the RPO game is actually like a good thing that the Eagles are going to have to turn to with how much they've struggled in the run game. And like, I know that this is kind of like mental gymnastics here, but like Grant Calcutra and Dallas Goddard combined for 40 yards in that game,

I kind of chucked that in with the rushing total. Like, you know, if you're running an RPO and you're chucking it out to the flat, the Dallas got it or Grant Calcutera, to me that kind of is just like an extension of your run game. So to me, I think like as the Eagles look for their identity, the RPO's are going to have to be a big part of it. Now, it's not that simple. You know, obviously like a few years ago, I mean, in 2022, the RPO game was like the cornerstone that, you know, they built the passing game and really the run game off of. I don't think you can do that as much.

in the modern NFL, just assuming the defensive coordinators have caught up a little bit to that. But we've seen the Eagles do it. We saw the Eagles do it well against the Broncos in the first half. I think that they're going to have to expand that menu because to me, that is like a big part of beating zone coverage. Another part of it is the timing and anticipation and the rhythm, guys being able to get on the same page. Like there were instances where I felt like Jalen Hertz, I wouldn't call him turn downs, but maybe just like the timing wasn't there. And if Fran did a good job of breaking some of those down where it's like, call it Jalen's. worst game of the year. Not a terrible game, but compared to how he was seeing it the first four

weeks. Exactly. And he was, he had made a stride seeing it in those first four games. So, which is funny because it was almost a career day for Devante. You know? Yeah. I mean, if he hits that AJ pass, it's like 300. Oh, the game's over. We're not talking about a loss. Game of fine margins. But no, I do think like, it's funny, AJ Brown said this a couple of weeks ago. Like, we're going to keep getting zone coverage until we beat it. Yeah. And I think that that is totally true. Like, I, I was actually quite surprised with the Broncos how, how they came, their approach in the beginning of the game surprised me. Like, you know, I, I said on this show, me and Danaz argued about it. Like, I was like, I don't think they're just going to go,

yeah, we'll match up in man coverage against these guys and just hope for the best, which is kind of, I mean, it's, yeah, it's maybe a little bit, like, oversimplified, but I do think, like, their plan going in was to be a man coverage team with heavy blitzes. And then, yeah, they realized, like, oh, this version of the Eagles offense, you're better off rushing three from a weird place and dropping the rest of those guys in coverage. And I also think this is an extension of the run pass conversation, which I completely agreed with what you said. Yeah, those numbers don't look good just in the box score.

Yeah. When it's, you know, 38, 11, whatever it is. But the Eagles have not run the ball very well. Right. So far this year. And like you said, the RPO game, you do have to add that in with the running game because like, you know, they're taking away the run and Jalen's dumping it off to the tight on those short passes.

But yeah, I mean, I think so much of this is they do need to get this running game going. Yeah. And that's where, like, that's where you want Kevin Petullo to be creative. That's where you want your offensive coordinator to manufacture certain looks for certain players. Like there have to be ways to get Saquan Barkley the ball outside of let's just run inside zone. Like that same time. Well, I was going to say he seems to be more successful to the outside this year than the inside, which is a reflection of the offensive line.

Yeah, I think it's a reflection of the fact that, you know, Jordan, my life. lot of even Cam Jergens dealing with the injury Tyler Steen all of these guys obviously lane is good at everything so I think he's kind of a separate conversation but he's beat up this year he's probably not the same lane I think like especially with with Jordan land in to a certain degree cam especially and steen those are athletic guys like getting them out in space I think it works a lot better for what what this run game can be like that same side toss play that they ran like that you see those guys getting downhill getting to the second and third level and chasing guys down like I've always found that to be one of the superpowers of the Eagles offensive line.

I always said with Kelsey, the thing that made him special is that he could chase down, who's quick enough to chase down a linebacker or a safety and then powerful enough to knock him them over when he gets to him. The Eagles have a lot of those guys up front. So I think the space game is going to be important for them in the run game. I think we saw that against the Broncos. It's just a matter of like dialing that up more, having plans off of it. I still kind of feel like it was a little Mickey Mouse that right after they ran the toss play,

they ran a play action off of it. like maybe let it breathe a little bit. But no, I think that those were some of the encouraging things we saw from the Eagles offense against a little fake pitch. Look, and they also have somebody in Jeff Statland who, yeah, he's had a lot of talent to work with, but he has coached a bunch of different run schemes throughout the years and coached him well. So some of this is probably going to fall on him to figure out which ones are the best with

this group. Okay, guys, short week, it's, I mean, it's kind of hard to talk about a game. Like, you know, we're still sort of picking through that Broncos. game, but they're, they're going to play in 48 hours in New York. Jackson Dart. Jackson Dart, you know. And Scataboo. Yeah, those are the guys. Giants, not a very good football team. Good defensive line. Let's say they got a good front.

Yeah, very good. Dexter Lawrence is going to eat if, I mean, no land in Dickerson. That's kind of a scary matchup there, proposition there, E.J. That's like the worrying thing is like, you know. Here's some of the numbers on each team, by the way, just in general. You think about like the matchups. gave Jason Kelsey trouble early in his career and like the Dexter Lawrence types. Yeah. I mean, Vita Valleah was probably an even better example,

but Dexter Lawrence has more juice as a pass rusher specifically. So again, like we'll see like what the Giants plan is for this game. But I mean, if you're studying what the Eagles struggle against, like to me, it's hard to imagine that they're not going to rush for and drop seven into coverage and that the Eagles are going to have to be ready for that. Yeah. And the other part too is, you know, our defensive edge group. You talk about the Giants and that's their strength, our defensive edge group.

Like, I know Vic talked about it today and you can elaborate on that. But, you know, Quinyan, part of like why he's hung out on an island on Sunday. Too much time. There's just absolutely no pressure organically from this Eagles defensive line. I can't imagine a short week is going to help that much. Yeah, it's interesting because I think that our experience with edge rushers in this town versus Vick's experience, like coaching defenses, is at. odds here. He's a little more realistic.

Well, he just doesn't seem to care that much about the lack of production. And I'm sure he'd love to have difference makers, but I think you know, I found something Jailix Hunt said interesting. Sorry, I just left to the comment. Radfrak said, the Ojelari revenge game. I'm coining it now. Yeah, I like that. That one's off the table, EJ,

you can't have that. Some positive improvement for Aziz today. Yeah, and I thought it was interesting that, you know, we talked about how Vic has a soft spot for Kili Ringo. He did mention that, like, he thinks that Jalick's hunt has a really bright future today. And he, again, He doesn't like hand out those out. Yeah, he doesn't hand out compliments.

So, and he also threw some shade at a Houston Baptist and Cornell. It's like those aren't exactly football factory. Wow. I laughed enough at that where I was like kind of felt like the kid in school that got in trouble. Like you probably shouldn't be laughing that much. I'm not sure. Huchin' Baptist catching strays. No, that was that was a good comment.

I mean, I laughed at it, but I wasn't in a professional. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I just think like one thing that Jaylick said last week that I found interesting is that like Vick's defenses are not set up for edge rushers to really like, yeah, you think about some of like the top guys in the league and the freedoms that they're afforded. Not wide nine stuff. Yeah, Vic does not give you those same freedoms. You've got more responsibilities.

It's more of a read and react than just to go get the ball type of situation. Now, they still need more production from it. It feels like there's a trade to be made there at some point. Well, the Bengals just, you know, they got Joe Flacco. So Trey Hendrickson, pipe dreams might be off. The table for a couple weeks here. They're going for it. Yeah, they're pushing all in with Joe Flacko.

But yes, it does feel like, it feels like how he's going to be working the phones here in the coming weeks. Yeah, but to me, it feels like Vic is less concerned about it than I think the numbers would indicate. Feels like with Jackson Dart, one of the things that he has done, that Jamie and I were calling him the dude perfect quarterback. Yeah, in the offseason some of those videos. But it does seem.

like he does make some plays with his legs. I also, he takes some insanely hard hits. Oh, yeah. But that is something, you know, it's only a couple weeks in the Jackson Dart experience. I feel like if you got him five or six weeks down the line, he might be really banged up, as we've seen

with some of these running quarterback. Jayden Daniels, we talked about it. I think it was after week one. I was like, this kid's got to learn to stop taking hits. And Jackson Dart is better built than Daniels. But like, I don't know why it takes these probably because they're trying to earn their way. in the NFL, but like, yeah, you're right.

Like Jackson Dart, you got to stop taking hits, man. Well, and especially when you look at the Giants receiving core, like, yeah, not a loaded group by any means, and I think that's probably putting it lightly. But anyway, I think he's going to try and extend a bunch of plays with his legs, and that's something that the Eagles are going to have to deal with this week. Yeah, Vic mentioned, like, his inclusion in the quarterback run game and how that's something they have to be prepared for. It's not interesting that Jackson Dart said over the offseason, I guess in the pre-draft

process that he models his game after Jalen hurts. Yes, I remember that. Well, I like that. Yeah, I mean, top five quarterback probably in the league. Well, it's just something you don't hear all that. No, you don't. Despite how good Jalen has been and how successful he has been throughout his career. It's not something you hear a ton of.

Yeah, I wonder if there's going to be a genre of quarterback that starts to emulate some of the things that Jalen does. I mean, as more and more guys come into the league as like dual threat quarterbacks, You'd think that it's a lot harder to say, like, you model your game after Lamar or Josh Allen. Jalen is a little bit more of a practical but still effective template. Yeah, I mean, when you talk about injuries. Practical. Yeah, like, Jalen does a pretty good job for the most part. Now, when there's a play to, you know, lean into some contact and if it's like potential goal line,

Jalen's going to lower his innate ability to avoid taking his head. But he's very, he reminds me of Russell Wilson in a way where Russell, in his prime was always able to get out of bounds. You're going to get me in trouble for that because I've said that I think Jalen is reminiscent of Russell Wilson. E.J, me and you are way too sympathetico this week here. But like Russ was always very smart of getting out of bounds or getting down and curling out of a sack and just like, you're giving me a stink eyes. You don't like the Russell Wilson comparisons?

No, I do. I would say the one difference is that, and this is not just on Jalen, Russell Wilson, some of those scrambles, he would kill you with throws. Oh, yeah. Eagles got to get better at them. Yeah. When Jalen extends some of those plays, like scramble drill, somebody's got to get open. They got to figure that.

Fran was talking about that in our discord this week where, and I think part of this is on the receivers too. Like, I've heard Travis Kelsey and like some of the bills receivers talk about playing with an Allen and on the homes and somebody that can extend that play. Like, you can't do what AJ did. Now, human nature, I understand why AJ did what he did on that one route. But like, you can't give up on plays when you have a guy like Jalen Hertz playing quarterback. because there is a chance he's going to pull some Houdini stuff out of his rear end and a play is going to be there. Like it's something they have to kind of work on. Yeah, it's weird because they've been effective at it.

Yeah. There have been times where I've complained that the Eagles offense is overly reliant on the production they get from Scramble Drills. And it kind of felt like in the second half against the Broncos, they were over reliant on the production they thought they could get from Scramble drills. And again, if AJ catches that pass, we're having a different conversation. but I still think that that issue would be an underlying thing from the game. Is that like, you know, because another one that kind of flew under the radar is the one where Jahan Dotson, like, you know, pirouettes up the field and Jalen throws it and basically Jahan Dotson looks over the wrong shoulder and doesn't see it.

Yeah. Like those are the opportunities that Jalen affords you as a quarterback who can extend. But for whatever reason, they are not connecting on those. And it is, it's a tough ask because it is like, sure. I used to always say that like bad stuff always happens when we are in overtime. I guess I could have cursed. But when Jalen starts pointing in the backfield, it always seems like that's always the beginning of the end for something in the Eagles offense.

But like those are the scramble drill instances that they're hard to perfect. But if you can hit on a few of those, they do yield a lot of explosive players. I've heard Dionne Dawkins jokingly talk about how much he hates blocking for Josh Allen because of these things like you just can't give up on those plays. Franklin Delano Bluth says Russ is a clown. Um, okay, fair. But the thing I was going to ask you guys, has he played himself out of a Hall of Fame career? I, is he on the doorstep?

Is he? I don't know. I think that, like, is he in? I think the, the chat's reaction to Russ is reflective of like, this is a weighty comparison, but just hang with me for a second. All right. Just hang with me. All right.

overtime. I like where this is going. Like Kobe Bryant's, the end of Kobe Bryant's career, people started to talk about him, like he was this inefficient, you know, empty calorie score. And then he retires And five years later He's like No, the guy was pretty good

I think like Russ was pretty damn good I'm not saying Russ is Kobe Bryant But I'm just saying like The recency bias of like A poor end to a career Sometimes can

In like color your view of a player And then when they go away And you stop thinking about them Being terrible on the Giants Or being terrible with the Steelers Then you think like That guy's career is pretty good So I feel like

I feel like he'll come back up I feel like Bill Belichick's gonna be in that same boat Well, Anija, you know more about this than I do. I mean, the pro football Hall of Fame is so goofy and how they pick people. It's basically like a writer has to advocate in front of other writers. It just seems like a very... Big Fards Jones has two good seasons. Stop.

I mean, Russ had like a seven-year prime that was pretty damn. I don't think he's in for the record. I think he's on the doorstep. Like one of those McNabb types that gets close but doesn't get in. I think he's above McNabb. I do too. He's definitely... I think he's above McNabb.

Super Bowl. Yeah, he won a Super Bowl. Bowl. Did he get MVP? I don't think he did. And he killed the Eagles for a long stretch to. I think last year against the Steelers was the first time that the Eagles actually beat Russell Wilson when he was... You might be right on that. When he was a starter, he just had a ton of success against them, especially like extending plays,

just like a lot of helpless, man, the defense played that perfectly. And Russell Wilson just did a great job. And you talk about Sean Peyton being corny. I mean, Russell will be the cornyest dude that ever walked in the NFL. Jaylen has a huge edge in that department. Yeah. By the way, that hat on Sunday was something else.

I don't think my dad's got that one. No, he doesn't hear it. The unfit with that side of the enclosure. I mean, I saw him come out. I just started kind of like, chuggling.

I was like, what is that hat? That was what we lost to the Broncos. Now, he can do whatever he wants, man. Super Bowl champion. He's clearly,

he's got the Jordan thing going on right now. I just saw a poster outside for the Jordan store, right? a mere half block away. Pro football reference, Hall of Fame monitoring.

I do give some credence to. It's got Russ in that hall of thing conversation. What's his passing yard total? Let's see. Passing yards. Yeah, I just got to find it. 46,921. It's a pretty good number.

Last thing on Russ, did you see Richard Sherman last week and Tony Gonzalez being like, he's terrible? Well, that kind of tracks. for Sherman, right? Yeah. He had always hated him.

I mean, that was like a very much like a buddy Ryan Eagles thing where the offensive defense were very much at odds with each other, even though they were having. What was that locker room fight? It was Percy Harvin and, was that Russ? Percy Harvin. Remember the big Seahawks? Was it Earl Thomas and Percy Harvin?

It was definitely Percy Harvin and somebody. I think there were wives involved. Yes. Yeah, it was real spicy. That Seahawks locker room was like a disaster by the end. All right. That was a good 10 minutes of Russell. and talk, even though.

He will not be playing on Thursday night. No, he'll be playing Jackson Dart. But Russell will be there, I guess, holding the clipboard, right? And then, M and James watching? What a collection of backup quarterbacks over there. What a quarterback room that is. Jackson Dart. He's got quite the characters in his position room.

Could make for some good hashtag content on the NFC. Real quick. And I can't believe the Giants let HBO back in there. When does that start? Even the part of that. Did it start? I don't believe it started. Safelein's got a documentary coming out.

That's this week, right? The ninth? There's no way they lose this, right? This week? Yeah. I think they probably win a little easier than they have. But it's all opponent-based. It's not really any sort of confidence in news. I just think they're better. I mean, I hope, like, playing on that field a short week,

that certainly worries me. Their front certainly worries me as well. But I don't know. I just think there's a lot. lot more talent on one side of the ball. I think the Eagles. Again, the Giants have been a mess. I mean, they've been one of the worst franchises

in professional sports. Over the past decade, we'll see what they have. It's pretty great. Yeah, it's been awesome, in fact. Because I went to college with a lot of New Yorkers, and they're all Giants fans, and it's pretty great. Yeah. It's pretty good.

I hadn't looked at the spread yet. It's a girthy spread, seven and a half. And that's a lot because the Eagles have not been getting huge spreads, which I think rightfully so over the past few weeks. Okay, E. EJ, what is your schedule for the rest of the week here? So we'll get to the locker room around five today. We'll hear from Kevin Petullo.

And then we'll hear from Nick tomorrow. And then, yeah, I'll be in studio tomorrow, 2 o'clock. Excited for that. So is Swooper tomorrow now? Yeah, Swoopers tomorrow. We got the professor in, too. Oh, a Wednesday professor. Wow.

It's going to be fun. A lot of good information to come tomorrow. I would prepare for it to be at least a 90-minute show, maybe two hours. I'll let Julia know. Yeah. Yeah, like I said, a lot of good information tomorrow, and then we'll have you guys all covered on Thursday, too. Jam-packed Wednesday show, E.J., I wonder if in the locker room you're going to hear the classic media question.

I know losing's not a good thing, but is it good to get back out there on Thursday night so you can flush that one right away? Hope we hear a couple of those and hear the players. I'm sure we will. And J. Shy, I will be sure to work earthy into every show I ever do here at PHLY going forward. Thank you for the comment. Okay. On that note, that was the PHLI. Before you get up here, come on.

Please hit the like button and subscribe. If you haven't already, thank you to Jamie, thank you to E.J. Thank you to Andrew for his producing work here. My name is Rich Hoffman, and I will leave you with, we love you.

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