PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Short week, time to think about the Commanders on Tuesday | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders are already two days away from a prime time football Thursday Night Football game. The PHLY Eagles show explains why the Birds would never ruin our co-worker Vinny Curry’s retirement night. Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense will give Vic Fangio and the surging Eagles defense their best test since Joe Burrow. Can Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley & AJ Brown lead an Eagles offense past Dan Quinn & the Commanders? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone. Welcome in to a Tuesday edition. Normally, Rich and myself are in on Wednesdays, but this week's all out of order. This is the PHLY Eagles podcast presented by our friends at Bet365. Find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Use that promo code, PHLY365 at sign up for new users, and you can get yourself $150 in bonus bets right away. Rich, one of the great things about Bet365. five is they have early payout offers in the NFL. And the Eagles would have fallen into that category on Sunday. Had you bet the Eagles, you would have gotten cashed out there right on the spot in the third quarter, because that was kind of a laffer, feed up, and enjoy the day on Sunday. I've loved the Eagles the past three weeks. Actually, the Jaguars game probably would have come back to bite us. But having that early payout option would have been huge.

Now, I've had the restraint to not pick them in my newsletter, because that would have jinxed it. So not all heroes were capes. The Eagles are playing very well because I am not putting the jinx on them. So, yeah, they've been great. Yeah. And it's a bit of an odd week here as we're in on Tuesday with the Thursday night game. Our co-worker Vinnie Curry is officially retiring as a bird on Thursday.

So it's going to be a real special day here for everybody at PHY. With our new coworker and friend Vinny, it's going to be awesome for him and his family and friends on Thursday. So the whole week's out of order. thing you know, we're already looking at a game day approaching on Thursday. But let's, how could there be more juice to this game? I know. You already have this great matchup, this Thursday night game, which again, I'm not crazy about the quality of Thursday night football, but standalone game for everybody to watch.

And then it's Vinnie Curry retirement night as well. Vinny Curry retirement night. Can't lose on that. He goes by a million in that game. Let's briefly, and Zach Berman is going to join us at 215. Vic Fangio and Kellan Moore spoke today. we'll find out the latest from Zach on what he's hearing. Does Jordan Myelada play?

Do they give them the extra rest? All that good stuff. But your thoughts on Sunday, we got to watch the first half together at the Rookout and Mannyunk. And when you left, it was kind of like that odd feeling of like before that touchdown, right before the half, it was like, why are you only up one? You've gotten like three takeaways. You've been in the red zone a bunch.

You're dominating the game. Yet you were almost down in the game. So when we left each other, it was. kind of like a little bit of an icky feeling of like, oh, this isn't going to be one of those games, is it? And then they score before the half and that's pretty much the nail on the coffin for the Cowboys. Once I got into my car and I listened to Merrill call that last drive of the half, you felt like everything was fine.

The lesson here is that Merrill Reese can save anything, right? He can get you out of any bad situation. And it was great. So you know what's funny? In reading Zach's game story from Texas, I thought it was hilarious that Lane Johnson, the first thing he said was like, yeah, I was more worried about the commander stealer score at the beginning of the game. Like, you know what's funny?

We always say like, don't look ahead, focus on the opponent in front of you. It seems like the Eagles were like, yeah, we were going to kill this team. You know, it might have taken, it might have happened right away. It actually probably took a full half for that blowout to get into effect. But they, they seem like they were looking ahead and that's fine because they smoked that. I mean, Cuba Rush is horrible. Like, and the Cowboys, they're in tank mode.

And I was looking at tankathon yesterday in the NFL. There's no reason that, you know, the Cowboys shouldn't, you know, just throw in the towel. Who's your coach next year? I mean, does Jerry Jones have the balls

to bring in a Bill Belichick or a Mike Rable, like that alpha male type? Or does he want more of like that, you know, retread coach? I'm sure he's going to want Ben Johnson, but Ben Johnson wants $15 million, according to reports off season.

I don't think Jerry's going to pay that, but you'd have to think he's going to be desperate enough at this point to want to talk to Belichick, right? What about Deion Sanders? Well, if they get Chodor Sanders, which they probably can't because Dak Prescott's getting paid all the money, dumb bastards. Yeah, I mean, especially if Shador is a part of it. Anyway, it was great to watch. Like, if you're a high draft pick and you have a chance to take Shador, I know you're paying

Dak and like, it's not my salary cap to figure out. But if you could get Shador, you know Dion would probably want to follow him. and he's got the tie-in with the cowboys. I just, I think Jerry Jones, I mean, Mike McCarthy was a retread. Sometimes, you know, these. He seems to like those guys. Sometimes these owners, though,

but when they make the hire and it doesn't actually work out, they want to go with the opposite. And Dion Sanders is pretty much the polar opposite of Mike McCarthy in every single way. And it's funny, right? Like, it's been Eagles Cowboys for most of the past seven, eight years at the top of this division.

And now it's Eagles, Washington. Zach had a great tweet. The Eagles and Washington, and play twice a year, but it's rare for a game to have this type of juice. The last time that both teams had records more than one game above 500 entering the game, November 26, 2000. Wow! Donovan McNabb, year two of the Eagles, year one of him starting full-time.

He also noted that Mike Mamoula had a sack for the Eagles in that game. Love that. I did not know that. And Skip Hicks was the leading rusher for Washington. The one thing I do remember from that game, Jamie. Donovan McNabb had an incredible juk I believe it was on the guy's name was Mark Carrier The defensive back

He ran like crazy You're in good like random knowledge Sure yeah My memory's bad in a lot of like Normal ways Random random stuff sometimes Like when my girlfriend tells me to like Clean the apartment and I just forget about that

That might get screwed up But I do remember that Mark Carrier got juke by Donovan McNabb On November 26th The important stuff here The important stuff It is wild. So you mentioned that. And I went to college in D.C.

And one of my like best friends from college is, you know, his grandmother had, you know, D.C. I don't even want to say the old team name. D.C. season tickets for like a lifetime. And as broke college kids, you know, the Reds, well, I almost said it. The D.C. football team, they, they sucked. And, you know, he always got her ticket. So we started an annual tradition where he would always take us to the toilet bowl that was FedEx Field. every single year.

And four of us go, you know, we're like best friends from college and we call it the annual. So I've been to 17, 16 games at FedEx Field. Like combined between the Lincoln FedEx Field, the majority of them are at FedEx Field. So probably like 12 or 13 at FedEx Field of Eagles Redskins. And the weird thing.

Yeah. So like, you let it drop. You let the R word drop. Oh, I did. Yeah. Damn, I was trying to be good. You know what that reminded me of? I remember listening to an Eagles broadcast.

I was driving to my friend's house, and I had WIP on before the game, and Eskin let that drop. And he was talking, he was talking to Meryl, and Meryl goes, it's the commanders house, it's the commanders.

It was awesome. And Askin wouldn't let it go, and Meryl wouldn't let it go. Anyway, you just let it drop. Because for 13 years, I did go to that game. So anyway, it's it's something i have firsthand knowledge with and the weird thing about this series from taking

my friend to some reciprocal games at the link the dc football team the commanders always seem to play well in philadelphia yes they do and philadelphia always just dominates fedex field so it's like an inverse home field advantage in this series um you know the cowboys yeah you're right they're dead and jaden daniels is kind of the future here jalen hurts uh is the best quarterback in the division I don't think anybody can really dispute that. I mean, Jaden Daniels at the end of the season can, you know, it's a different conversation, but he's still 10 games into a career. So I don't think you can crown him ahead of Jalen Hertz now.

But if you're projecting forward in the NFC East Rich, Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels, like, this is going to be steel on steel. This is going to be a great divisional rivalry for a while. Yeah. And I mean, I think it's obviously year two, but I do think the post-Snyder bump is just like, Yeah. That just seems like a happier organization right now. And by the way, as somebody who's followed Josh Harris sports owner for a long time,

I am not saying Josh Harris is like the greatest sports owner in North American history. But when you go from Dan Snyder to him, I just think it's a pretty big bump. Now, obviously, Jaden Daniels probably deserves most of the credit. Yeah. That's the way that's the way this goes. But it just seems like such a happier product. I mean, you said you went to all of those games in Landover. By the way.

What an awful stadium. Awful stadium. Awful to get in and out of. Awful location. Awful. Everything about is awful. Awful press box for those Big Js listening. I don't think there's probably too many, but yeah, complete dump.

Dan Snyder used to make, my dad used to tell me that Dan Snyder was the only owner in the league for a long time that used to make the journalist pay for Wi-Fi in the- Get out of here. Yeah, it was something crazy like that. And I know more story. He used to... I mean, he did much worse things than that. Oh, yes, much worse.

What a creep pervert. and go to hell, Dan Snyder. He used to force people to call him Mr. Snyder. Like, I've heard some stories down there about him. He's just the worst. So, yes, it's a low bar to clear. What is with the owners? I'm using a West Wing reference.

I'm sad Z-B is not on yet, but, you know, talking about... So I've never watched the West Wing, and I've always considered it. Are you telling me this is a must-do? Yeah, I mean, well, look, I think Zach really needs to give the... Okay, Zach can push me over the one-yard line here. But I don't know. I like it. I've heard great things.

Pretty easy. I think it's actually pretty easy watching, despite the fact that they talk so fast. Anyway, in one scene, President Bartlett talks about how he's like, yeah, I just prefer people call me Mr. President out of, like, respect for the office. He's like, I'm not actually like that, I don't have that high of a, it's not an ego thing, basically, is what he was saying or whatever. But anyway, Mr. Snyder really, really thought that way.

He thought very highly of himself. And yes, the bump is there. Jaden Daniels is probably mostly responsible. But this looks like it's going to be, you know, a premier division rival here for a long time. And the story coming out of Dallas, I went on the all-NFL show yesterday with Adam Hogue from Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, and Bo Brock from Phoenix. And they were, Chicago, yeah, they were asking me about the game. And I was like, the story of the Eagles right now is the defense. I was like, there's no touchdowns allowed in three of the last five games.

games. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeGine have me irrationally excited. Zach Bonn is flying around like Brian Erlocker out there. Vic Fangio defense seems to be bearing fruit. And Adam, who covered the bears for a long time and knew Vic Fangio from his time out there was like, yeah, the Vic Fangio defense works. And it does seem, you know, Vinny started telling us week three, like, hey, you know, I've been talking to some people. They feel like they're close down there. They feel like they're fully bought in on the system. I think they're going to turn a corner here. And sure enough, they did right out of the by rich, this defense. I think it's not a coincidence that Cooper DeGine getting instituted into the starting lineup is a big reason for this. But I think the Vic Fangio

scheme, they're all bought in. Tony Romo was highlighting some of it on Sunday. This defense looks real and they're going to get a good test on Thursday night. It's crazy. I mean, Bo has talked about how the blueprint for this specific Eagles team has changed defensively. Where it used to be just pour every resource into the front four and kind of piece it together on the back end. And just with these two picks, it's now the opposite, right? They're a more balanced group. They're winning because they're able to pass off these routes. Their coverage is all buttoned up.

They're tackling really well. But also the blueprint for this Eagles team has changed. We thought heading into the season, it had to be elite offense, decent defense. confident defense. I mean, the defense is better than the offense right now. Yes, they are second in the NFL and points per game behind the Chargers. It's awesome. Yes, the defense is bordering on elite. Now, look, in fairness, and we're going to get to Zach Berman, so we've got to take care of some business here momentarily. In fairness to them, there have been some dreadful quarterback play. I mean, Cooper Rush, Daniel Jones, like some of these guys just straight up stink. Cooper Rush, we were cracking up watching that. He's so bad.

But they also did face Joe Burrow. And the next three games in a row, Jaden Daniels, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson. Like if you want to find out what the Eagles defense is, you're going to find out real quickly. So Zach Berman is waiting, and I want to get to them. So let's take care of some business here and talk about some of our friends. And that's my friends over at the GameTime app.

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So take the guest work out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code P HLY for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Again, just create an account and redeem code P HLY for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. And Jamie, we have talked about this off camera, but I'm just not that handyman. And so what do you got to do? You got to call a handyman. And I imagine many of our listeners are in that same boat as well.

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They bring helpful to your home. Visit Ace Hardware Home Services online at www. www.aisehardware homeservices.com to get you started on your next project. All right. This is the P.HLY Eagles podcast presented by Bet365. And I've already made them wait 90 seconds more than I told him over text message today. And that's on me. I know when he hates that Bo does it to him, but I think we get a little leeway.

way here, Rich. Let's welcome him in from the NovaCare Center. Zach Berman joins us. Well, in a second, he will join us from the other side. The other side. But Kellan Moore and Vic Fangia, there he is. Hello, Zach. Hey, it's worth the wait, guys. Good to see you. It looks sunny in the room today compared to your normal lighting. Did they get some Jerry World glass panes in this room? What's going on? It looks bright in there. Yeah, so I took notes from my visit to AT&T Stadium down in Texas, and I realized that there are, that there's actually shades here. And I can open the shades that have natural light come in. So when I say windowless room, I always thought it was windowless.

And then I was here one time last week waiting to come on a show. And I'm like, oh, wow, there's, there's light. And then I realized when I was covering the Eagles Cowboys game that you can actually open. shades, right? And so now, so now in the spirit of Jerry Jones, I'm going to let the light shine in. Wow, I kind of want to like deep dive how you didn't notice there was a window there for weeks upon weeks. How familiar with this room are you? I've been coming in this room for about 30 or not for about eight years. And you just noticed the window? And I just noticed the window. I mean, typically, yeah, I just noticed the window. I got to say, I've been coming. I've been coming. I've been coming.

coming into this room. And it's always closed. The window's always closed here. And I've been coming in this room for when I'm on the five. I've spoken to players, players, family members, coaches. Like on the phone, this is like a studio space in the Eagles Media Center. And I've been coming up here ever since they constructed. I've done hits here for, I can't tell you how many shows.

And I never realized that right here, there is a window that has shade. Zach, that window is enormous. Yeah, yeah. You just so locked in on whatever hits you were doing, whatever writing you were doing. Locked in at all time. Locked in, right? You know, you have a conversation, you know, I remember I was in this room one time doing a story. I was speaking to Kyle Long ahead of an Eagles, Bears game in 2007.

team. And I just tried. And I was staring like right at the spot with it. And I never once thought, oh, those three shades came open. And I got to admit, I did not open the shades here. Someone who was in this room at another time, opened the shade and never actually closed it. So, yeah.

So it just so happens to come at a time when we're talking about son on a football field. This is so funny. So I think I can say Jerry Jones didn't do anything for the PHLI. I think I can speak for Rich. I think me and him are very prone to being sweaty. So, Zach, I'm always observing where the close-by windows are to get a breeze. I guess you're not a run-hot kind of guy, huh? Well, it's more just, you know, this isn't my space, right?

Sure. I don't want to mess with it. The most that I do, look, I'm already knee-deep in this conversation. We might as well, right? Oh, we're in. There are lights here, okay? And so sometimes I actually plug in the light to have kind of the professional look here. But I never realized that there was the window there.

It's so big. Yeah. Yeah. I hope Bo's watching right now. All right. I guess we have some of me also to talk about. I can talk about window gate for the rest of the bit here, Zach. All right.

Kellen Moore, Vic Fangio. spoke. We'll get to them in one second. I guess the pressing question on the X and O standpoint for Thursday is, is Jordan Maillata trending towards playing, or is this just the practice window and he'll get 10 extra days rest? No, so I would be surprised. Well, the good news is if the audio was working for the important stuff, right? That's, yeah, we got the window gate taken care of. Thanks for your time, Zach. We'll see you later. No, we'll figure that out in a second here with Julia. Oh, God, that...

He did. He gave up on the headphones when he saw it was failing. Yeah, we're going to try and reconnect there with Zach. Look, look, the window gate got too hot. The important part was great quality. He was moving the computer around. It was... Yeah, that would be rich.

Like, we have some pretty massive windows in here. That window was half the size of this. Imagine not knowing that there was a window three feet to your right. I have been in that. room I think twice before and I think the first thing I noticed was that when you walk through the door the window is right there like you're looking at it's not hidden yeah oh that is that might be my favorite Zach kid I've ever done that is tremendous so we'll try to circle back with Zach but he's logging back in right now

it does I think Zach was about to say Jordan Maillata is not gonna play Thursday it sounded like he was leaning towards trending towards not playing but we'll get the word on that I love the idea of of activating the 21-day window, too. I'm picturing, like, Howie Roseman, just pressing a big button, like, boom. Activate him. Yeah. Yeah, but I would give him, at this point, I think Fred Johnson's been efficient enough

that you just give Jordan the extra 10 days because it is that soft tissue hamstring. Like, do you need them? Yes, but, like, can you survive without them? I think also, yes. So let's welcome Zach back in here. Zach, you can pick right up where you were finishing off there on Jordan Milo. Yeah, sorry about that. I was blinded by the light that I forgot to charge my AirPods, right? So, yeah, so I heard what you said here, and I actually have a difference of opinion.

And I've seen this school of thought elsewhere that the Eagles will have extra time to get my lot of ready for L.A. I don't think you activate the practice window or exercise the practice window or open the practice window unless you think there's a good chance that he can play on Thursday night. And the reason for that is they're not actually practicing this week. They just have walkthroughs. And walkthroughs are essentially like glorified game plan. You know, it's your, you're going through your game planning. As a matter of fact, I asked Nick Siriani yesterday, like how they can ascertain Milita's readiness without walkthroughs. Oh, I'm sorry, without practice in like only a walkthrough week.

And he acknowledged that's a challenge of it. And they have to be creative. So the reason why you would activate a window or open a window two weeks, open a window. open a window, I opened this window here, right? Open a window two weeks sooner is to get the guy practicing for a week and then, you know, he has kind of the week leading up to it. I personally think the Eagles open the practice window here to try to get my lot of ready to play on Thursday. I agree with you that Fred Johnson's done a respectable job. Sure.

I think he's been great. I think that there's things they've had to do to. compensate for him out there at times. And I think getting Milot back would would be huge. Now, I don't know how, you know, the Washington edge rushers aren't elite. You know, I mean, poor Fred Johnson. He had this four-week stretch where he's playing against like all pros every week. And then My lot would would go back in the in the lineup against like, you know, Dante Fow or Warren's Armstrong. But, but I think that I'm expecting if I had to had to put the odds on it. I think there are greater odds that Milaata plays than doesn't play.

I just think it's cool that the Eagles have been missing an awesome player at a premium position and they've been able to win these games fairly easily. But I do agree with you, Zach. Like obviously getting Jordan Milada back opens up the offense. I think Fran mentioned it yesterday that basically, you know, they might not have to chip as much. They can do some other things with the offense. So Zeeb, I looked at your Twitter timeline and there are probably more pressing issues, but this one really stood out to me. Vic, here's what you tweeted. Vic Fangio said a big part of Jalick's

Hunt's increase in playing time was because Bryce Huff is playing with a cast on his thumb that keeps him to four fingers in games. So they're trying to limit Huff's early down snaps as a result. So I ask you for the second time in a few weeks. You buying that? So it's interesting.

Vic volunteered that. And, you know, I asked Vic, why J.OX Hunt has earned more playing time or what he's done there in more playing time. And he mentioned, he mentioned Huff and the injury. So he could have taken that answer and just focus specifically on Hunt, but he mentioned the injury. And he kind of said that Hunt has had, oh, I'm sorry, that Huff has four fingers like dangling off him when he's out there. So they're trying to limit him. This is what I, I don't know if Fangeo well.

I wish I knew better. JPP was able to do it with three fingers. that's yeah that's true like actually but in my encounters with Dick Fangio he he he doesn't BS you right I don't think he would say that about Huff if that wasn't a factor here

that said I don't think that they're they're like I'm trying to figure out ways to play Huff more right now right and I do think they're trying to find ways to play Huff more I said this last week, and this was before Nick said it, and then I said it after Nick said it.

The Eagles really like Huff. I'm sorry, Hunt and Huff. I'm confusing me, too. Eagles really like Hunt behind the scenes. I've been hearing that inside the building. I've been hearing that this is a, you know, if you're looking for someone who's going to emerge in the second half, I've been hearing J-Ox Hunt's name. So it doesn't surprise me that J-Ox Hunt has earned more playing time.

It did surprise me as I talked about with the guys, or as I talked about with Bo and Fran pre-game, that Hunt was taking the second team reps in the five-man front. Yeah, just off the top of your head, Zach, do you remember the timeline last year of when Nolan Smith started to get a little more playing time? Could they be on similar-ish timelines where it's like week 11, 12, you know, the rookie corner has been turned and they just start to play them more? Do you see like a similarity there kind of comp wise?

Good point. Yeah, maybe so. Now, I think last year, if I'm being honest, I think Smith was a little behind, right? Or I don't know if I would frame it behind. I don't know if Smith was showing enough. Well, it's a first round pick compared to a fourth round pick to your point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if Smith was, I thought Smith should have been pushing for playing time a little more last year.

I think Hunt has worked his way into this conversation. I thought this would be like a red shirt type year for Hunt. And it was pretty clear during the summer that he had more juice than that. Zee-B, you also mentioned that Kellyn Moore talked about the sunlight. This probably is more of a pet issue for me because I just, I was watching that game. I just was like, look, I am not a Jalen Hertz apologist. It looks like he legitimately can't see. And then obviously you get the play later on where C.D. Lamb watches a touchdown,

just whizz right by his seat. So I brought this up yesterday to our Dallas counterpart, Clarence Hill. And he kind of scoffed at it and was like, because I made a joke that like Jalen Hertz was blinded. And those were like not necessarily Dallas Cowboys sacks. They were kind of like blinded. Like I can't see my receiver's sacks. And he kind of scoffed at it. It was like, no, no, that's the Cowboys defense.

I think there's some truth to it. Yeah, it's interesting that, you know, Kellan Moore obviously spent, what, eight years in Dallas as a player, as a coach. He says this has always been an issue. And that he tried to plan accordingly. He tried to call the game accordingly. First quarter, they were going toward it. second quarter, they were going away from it, right?

And so he did acknowledge that it affected them out there. Now whether that was the result of the sacks, it's probably somewhere in the middle. I frankly wish I did more reporting on it the day of. I got to say, in 13 years going to Dallas, I was thinking about this morning when Anthony asked me. I think I've only covered three day games there. Every game at night. Yeah, I did a ton of them for Sunday night football. Anytime Cowboys Eagles was a possibility for NBC to grab, they grabbed it.

So a lot of those games were at night. Yeah. So I'm kind of embarrassed that I didn't catch on to it being an issue really until I got asked about it on the PHILI Eagles post game show. And that's when I was like, oh, wow. And then, yeah, and then you started hearing more talk. Jalen didn't bring it up afterwards. But Kellynne Moore did acknowledge that this is something that affects them. He said it affects both sides as well.

It's like I get it. Like you don't want to say, ah, that's the classic loser excuse. Ah, the sun was in my eyes, those type of things. But I actually think it was in its eyes. That's the point I made to Clarence. I was like, look, the Cowboys are going to say it's an excuse because they're a loser organization. The Eagles aren't going to say that because Jayland. And Clarence's point was there are curtains there.

They close them for the WWE events. They close them for concerts. But when it comes to the Cowboys, Jerry is a stubborn old. man and he will not close the windows. It's absolutely bonkers to me. Yeah. I, I'm seeing in the chat now, I probably deserve all the jokes that I just didn't notice the windows. Yes, probably true. I didn't notice there was a hole. I did notice there was a hole in the stadium. It's a good point. I mentioned this on the show yesterday. Look, I don't know that the topography of Arlington, Texas.

It just, it befuddles me that they would build that stadium. And like, not account for the, you know, you could build it. I imagine north-south. Yes. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, I don't know some references, but I do know where the sunrise is and the sunsets, right? So there's a way to avoid that, I would imagine, with the direction that the state is facing it's a great point yeah it's it's unbelievable for a billion dollar stadium zach anything else note noteworthy from either kellen or vick that jumped out to you today

did the issue of like being able to get their guys some rest in that game on a short week come up at all what else was noteworthy to you yeah it it came up obviously they were they were happy they were able to do it they've been able to do it what three of the past four weeks but especially on a short week uh this is an interesting nugget and i've kind of referenced it in the past how Vic Fangio gets a lot of credit for the evaluation of Zach Bonn. Fangio said that Bond's name first came up from Hallie Roseman. Howie Roseman presented Bond to him, and it was as an edge rusher, as a backup edge rusher slash special teams contributor, which was my understanding when they signed

Zach Bond of how they were going to use him. And Fangio watched tape and said, no, he's an inside linebacker. So Fangio is the reason why Zach Bonn's. playing inside backer. And I asked Van Gio, like when a guy's playing at that level, what does that do for the defense? And he said, he said from the beginning, defense has neat, good linebacker play. So, you know, it's, it's kind of what Eagles fans have been kind of pounding the table for for the past however many years that Fangio values this. Now, it was supposed to be Devin White out there, but it was, you know, I'll give Fangio credit from the first

time I spoke to him and I asked him the question about inside linebackers back in May. He meant the first name he mentioned back then was Zach Bond. And I was a little skeptical because I was kind of following the money. And I was like, well, you signed Devin White here. You tripped it. You spent a third rounder on Nicobi Dean. And then we're watching minicamp. And Zach Bond's out there. We're watching training camp. Zach Bond's out there. We're watching pre-seat. And so then like they, Vic Fangio has shown you with his actions the way he's thought about Zach Bond. Do you feel a certain affinity towards him as a fellow ZB of the world?

Yeah, you know, yes, I feel a connection with the ZB, but he spells his name incorrectly, right? He spells with a K. This is like Bo and Bo Allen's great debate, yeah. Oh, I'm not like offended by it, right? Okay, that's good. I got Zach Gertz back in town this week. And so this is kind of the nuance. Hey, we're already off the rails here.

I might as well keep going to go. Yeah, it's going into it. Okay. So, like, phonetically, it would be ZACK. But if Zach is short for Zachary and then Zachary is Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y, if you're taking off the AR-Y, it's the Z-A-C-H, right? So if you write it as Zach with a K, you're kind of creating a new name. Now, if it's on the version of-Benzheny, right?

It's got a little attitude, a little spunk to it, might come out of the womb with a skateboard Or a cigarette, you know, like more that type of guy. I mean, I do remember growing up. Like, Zach Morris was the Zach you wanted. Zach attack. I believe he was ZAC or. I think he was CK, if I'm not mistaken. And that goes to my bad boy point, kind of Calibro, surfer.

Yeah, I was on an island. Oh, okay. He's a K. All right. I was on an island. He had the cell phone, you know. He was kind of a little more advanced. That's a big cell phone.

He's all he needs to say. I mean, Kelly Kapowski, it doesn't get any better than that. You have my utmost respect. But I think Zach Z-A-C-K is not Zachary. I think it's just bad boy Zach. Yeah, it's so that's what's nice. It's its own name. You're creating a name there.

So that's why I'm partial to the Z-J-C-H. But I see Zach Wheeler. Yeah, look, I get it. I don't hold anything against the case. But when I see Zach Ertz on Thursday, we might have like a ZHCH. Well, I think ZACKs have to have facial hair. I think that's part of the requirement of being a CK. I'm not becoming a CK, man.

I like that. I like that visual. The idea of you and Zach, Zach, it's a nice knowing look. Not because you covered him for a long time and he's a good guy and you know him well, but because you spell your name the same way, you know, a little Batman. And Alfred, look at the end. That would be good. That'd be fun.

Yeah, there's a chapter in the book, the franchise on, on Zacherts, which, by the way, if I'm using this talk about windows and name spelling, I should say, tonight after, I'll be there a little late tonight because I got, I got Eagles locker room and Jalen Hertz. But then I'm heading to Puddler's Pub in Bridgeport. I'll be signing copies of my book supporting pediatric cancer. it's at Glenn Mac now. Yeah. Yeah. Angelou Cotality, Al Morgani, Jason Stark. They have the great Philly Sports Debate beer that is debuting.

So it's kind of the party for that. And I'm a hangar on selling books there. But please, please come by if you're around Bridgeport. Yeah, it's a great spot with some great beers. That's a great event there. So, Zach, just remove yourself from the Big J journalism world for two seconds and tap into Zach Berman, the football nerd. How excited are you to watch a Jay?

Hurts and Jaden Daniel's kind of future of the NFC East rivalry begin on Thursday night, primetime. This is awesome. This is awesome. The Eagles, Washington should be a better rivalry. And I was looking this up today. These two teams haven't played against each other when both teams were at least one game over 500 since 2000. November 2000.

Think about it. They play two games every year. Okay. So that is a long time. Now this isn't all like all Washington stinks. There were times there when the Eagles were struggling. And then there were times when Washington might have been like two and one early in the season, that kind of thing. But for this, for there to be a high leverage NFC East game on November 14th, when the two teams are kind of at that point, that, yeah, I think this is great for Eagles fans.

It's great for Washington fans. You know, I understand people of our generation. You know, Dallas was the team and you kind of dislike Dallas. But I always thought like geographically, the Giants are an hour and a half up the road. Washington's two hours down the road. Like, you know, there's much more crossover with Giants fans and commanders fans that, and I used to work down in Washington. I lived in Charlottesville.

So I'm excited for high leverage Eagles Washington games. That was Zach in college. We used to pack like six dudes in a minivan and drive up from D.C. to go to the link to go to this game. Because I told Rich earlier, I've been to, I think either 18 or 19, Eagles, D.C. football team games in my life together. I'm with you. I think it could be a great rivalry. And it's just never, it's kind of like Sixers Knicks where they've never synced up being good at the same time. And now we kind of, you know, have a budgeting rivalry with both the commanders and the Knicks. We need some Sixers Wizards rivalry too. right let's let's let's look well they're a very unsurious franchise yeah

favorite couple flags there next year yeah perhaps he will be could be um all right any final thoughts before we let you go here zach any more window um observations or what's your favorite kind of window are there different kinds of windows um i'm a big fan of bay windows where you get like the little reading nook in it oh okay all right i i see that i'll go florida ceiling um I'm with you. Florida's, yeah. Let's just remove the wall. You're in like a hotel and they have the Florida ceiling.

Hell yeah. It's awesome. Yeah, it is great. So I'll give you a window into what's happening here today. The Eagles have a walkthrough at 4 o'clock, all right. And so they're on the grass at 4 o'clock. Locker rooms open at 5. I'll be in there at 5, obviously sniffing out some Jordan Mila.

information, hoping to chat with Jordan then. I'll see the latest with Devante Smith, with Dallas Goddard with Darius Lay. Jalen Hurts will talk during that period, so talk to Jayland. I'm looking forward to catching up with Johan Dodson. This is obviously a big game there. There's the connection with, you know, Brian Johnson was here last year with with Jalen. He's, he's down in Washington. So getting a, I'll be working in the locker room. And then tomorrow, I'll speak to Siriani. we'll have coverage. Franz got film reviews on all phtly.com.

I'm going to have a piece up. Les Bowen has a column coming. So make sure you check that for the latest. And I got to give, I know this was announced on the show the other day, but the Eagles sent out their official release about an hour ago that Vinnie Curry officially retiring with the Eagles

as first broken on the PHY show on the PHY Eagle show. But, you know, Jeffrey Lurie has a quote in there about Vinny that I tweeted out and excited that Vinny's going to get the honor that he deserves on Thursday night. Yeah, it's going to be a really special night for Vinny and his family and the Eagles family. Vinny's the best. He spreads joy. Zach, I'm going to leave you with the conspiracy theory about Vic Fangio taking bullets for Howie Roseman today. I think he is, you know, he is up front and kind of an old school and he says what he thinks. He also might be trying to cover for

a disastrous free agent signing. Maybe, but he also kind of took all the credit for Zach Bond. So I don't know how much he's thinking about how he's ego in this. Fair point. All right. You're the best, Zach. Appreciate everything today. Talk to you guys soon.

All right. See you, buddy. Just a tort of force. I mean, that. I mean, what a hit. That was the best CB I've ever seen. He's good every week, but that was unbelievable. I could talk Windows for 15 more minutes with Zach.

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I bet 365. must be 21 and older and physically located in PA. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and once help, you can call or text 1-800 gambler. Jamie, we have a Thursday night game this week, and I have to say, what better way to enjoy the game and head into the weekend with an Eagles W than with our friends at Miller Lite?

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Celebrate responsibly, Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer. All right. Now, there was some serious laughs there with Zach Brom. and the window stuff was fantastic. But it did make me think of the Mike McCarthy picture that we have to get to. Let's just laugh at the Cowboys expense because it's always fun. And, you know, they're down bad right now, Rich.

We should do the honorable thing and let them grieve and just, you know, say it's a lost season already in week 10. But what's the fun in that? Let's kick them all they're down. We wouldn't be who we are if we let them slide. Now, I saw this picture yesterday on Twitter. and one the way it went down, doing the postgame show with Beau, Fran, and Vinny.

We saw Jerry Jones doing the media scrum out in the tunnels and he's saying, oh, this on the moon, you know, old man yelling, incoherent, jibber, jabber. An old man literally yelling at a cloud. Literally, where's the moon? Let's just knock it down. Yeah, that's exactly what people are saying, Jerry. No, how about you just close the bleeping curtains?

It makes no sense. So at the same time, Jerry's doing this. C.D. Lam is in the, a locker room telling media, yeah, I lost that touchdown in the sun. I couldn't see it for anything. So he's immediately getting contradicted by one of his players. Hilarious. One of his star players. That he reluctantly played at the final hours. Reluctantly paid a billion dollars at the final hour. So objectively hilarious the way that was going down. And then Mike McCarthy does his press conference yesterday. And I saw this picture on Twitter

and I had a good old-fashioned belly laugh at the irony of this. Mike McCarthy is doing his press conference, and they have to bring in a sunblocker to block out the sun for the head coach. That is hilarious. I need like 5,000 words on the architect that has built both the Cowboys Stadium and their practice facility. that thing's called the star and in every way I think it's the most state of the art building

in maybe professional sports it's amazing it's got all these amenities obviously it has all the things for fans to do they they bring fans on tours as their as their players are doing the bench press in the in the gym but the one thing they don't seem to have is that they don't understand where the sun is coming from how to deal with that it might like look everybody has their blind spot. And I guess like ZB, the blind spot for these architects were the windows and the sun. Well, I mean,

Zach loves floor to ceiling windows and I guess the architects did too. And you would think you spend in a billion dollars, you could at least get some like LED digitalized shades that could like put something like the star up or something. You hit their remote and it comes right

down. You get a Tupac hologram light show in the windows, like whatever. Very, very hilarious. that the sun is just wreaking havoc on the Cowboys Stadium. Oh. So Julia put a poll up. Oh, all right. What's your favorite type of window?

You can read that? Oh, man, I need to get back to the eye doctor. It's a little hard, but it looks like Bay Window is in the lead. I will say I'm not... Bay, Bay, Bay, Bay, Bay, Bay. I'm not sure that's a fair poll because I think some people are showing some support to our man there and backing them up. Okay. I love a Bay Window.

Not that I would ever, like, sit down and read, but the thought always crosses my mind. And like, that'd be a nice place to have a cup of coffee and read. See, I think we need to go out on the street in Philadelphia. And again, I know pretty much everybody in the entire Delaware Valley is a sicko. But maybe asking them before if they've listened to the show and then pulling them on the windows. I think that would be a better sample size. You know what I really want to do? I actually have a window renovation at home in mind.

Our kitchen sink goes, Julia's been to my house. The kitchen sink goes right out to the deck and I have the grill right on the other side of the kitchen sink. and it's just, you know, your traditional 1960s old school window, I want to change it into a sliding bar window so that you can pass out to the grill from the kitchen. So I have big window dreams at home of my own. So this is the official window show of the Philadelphia Eagles. We're going to have to get some window sponsorship in here.

So that was one funny thing that the Cowboys have done. Objectively hilarious. By the way, there's no funnier coach that could be standing behind whatever that makeshift shade is than Mike McCarthy. Look, if you're the PR team and you know Jerry Jones is taking bullets and shrapnel out here this week for his stadium design, you have

to be like, hey, Mike, you got to tough this press conference out, man. We can't throw a shade blocker up at your press conference. We're going to admit to failure yet again. I'm sorry, if John Harbaugh or Nick Siriani or Mike Tomlin is standing behind that shade, I don't think it's, I think it's

20% less funny. Mike McCarthy is just, he's the perfect guy standing behind it. So the The next hilarious part of the Dallas Cowboys just unfolding this week is Michael Parsons. And after the game, he just, he didn't know when to stop his soliloquy on Mike McCarthy when asked about him. And he basically said, like, to surmise and not in an exact quote, like, you know, I feel bad for the Zach Martins of the world, the guys who are kind of on their last run of it

here, the guys who worked so hard, basically implying that Mike McCarthy doesn't work hard. Now, I don't think he, I'd be shocked to find out if Mike McCarthy wasn't actually working hard. I think Mike could just put his foot in his mouth. So, of course, Rex Ryan goes on ESPN and absolutely eviscerates Michael Parsons and called him all but a POS. Like, went hard. It was actually pretty unreal for network TV. So Michael Parsons has his podcast last night, and he's like, don't let these TV analysts spin what I said. I never said that, this.

And he goes on to call Mike Zimmer, the defensive coordinator. of the Cowboys, Mike Zimmerman. His direct defensive coordinator, I know he's been hurt. He called him Zimmerman for like seven months at this point. This is not week three of the Mike Zimmer experience. This is not training camp. This is week 11 of the NFL season we're entering. Michael Parsons is, I think it's funny that he was with Darius Slay when Darius

I was getting a lot of grief from Eagles fans. It seems like he's kind of on the on the same trajectory here. Of course, it was his podcast. And it's like, I don't want to be the shut up and dribble guy. I really don't want to do that. Sure. Like, I think players having outside interest, like, that's a good thing. And having lives a good thing.

I do think that his objectives, his priorities, they're like a little out of whack right now. Yeah. It's not, it's just like, like, Look, it's like Draymond Green. He's punching out Jordan Poole and then doing a podcast about it three days later. And it's like, you know, I get your point. Like, I am pro players doing whatever the hell they want in their free time. Like, I don't give a damn.

But at the same time, like, read the room. So I have not listened to the, is it called the Micah Parsons podcast? I've never listened to it either. I don't know when it's going. But Draymond Green used to drive me crazy because he's like, this is the new media. He's like, you're getting it directly from the source. when he would go on the he would go on his podcast after games he just lied to you it would be stuff that just was factually not true and it's like the person who is the protagonist of this story is often the worst source because they're biased and trying to make themselves look better yes so i don't know if michael parsons is doing that but also just like hilarious it's funny too because and you know he wants to be here he wants you know it he does uh from white hall so jalen has the uh has the golf clause in his contract apparently that's I mean, you know, put the podcast clause in Micah's.

I think they might have to put the podcast clause. But, I mean, look, I'd love to have Michael Parsons. Yeah, he's a great football player, bad human type of thing. If you've ever read some of the lawsuit stuff from Penn State. Oh, yeah. There's some, eh, yeah, bad guy. Okay. But phenomenal player.

So it's always fun to laugh at the Cowboys, especially when they're down. There was one other thing I wanted to point out because I was just looking on Cowboys Reddit. It's always fun to check the reddits of teams that are struggling. And Jerry Jones said this on the radio. He said that he's, this was from John Machota from the Athletic. He said that on Ezekiel Elliott, we're not living in the past with Zeke. That's it? Yeah.

I mean, I've never seen somebody living in the past morning. That is the most in the past signing I've ever seen. The fact that I know Rico Dowdle was there as well. Sure. Well, they got Dalvin Cook, too, don't forget. Yeah, throwing the medicine ball against the window. Yeah, marquee signing. Those national NFL reporters should just be embarrassed.

Markey edition. Downey, come on. Right from the agent's mouth. What are we doing? Just because he's throwing a medicine ball against a wall. Yeah, I'm glad this turned into a Cowboys Choggle Fest. It's always good to laugh at your rivals. But going into the season with Ezekiel Elliott, at least arguably,

as your top running back is that is the definition of living in the past. Come on, man. That is an embarrassing move. All right. As we get out of here, you know, the playoff pictures are starting to take shape. And all of a sudden, it's week 11 in the NFL rich. And, you know, Vinny always kind of said, like, once you get into the middle of November, like, this is when you want to be playing your best ball.

This is one of you want to be preparing for playoff ball. You want to be firing on all cylinders. The Eagles certainly are. Yep. Have we had this conversation six weeks ago? If you asked me, are they a Super Bowl contender? I would have said, no, they're probably not. Now a lot has changed.

And I do think they're right there behind the Lions. The Lions, really impressive win on Sunday night when Jared Gough throws five interceptions and you have no right to be in the game and you find a way to win it. They're good. CJ Stratt was lighting up in the first half and the Lions defense went out and went,

all right, Jared Goff's not winning this game for us tonight. They held CJ Stroud in the Texans to zero second half point. and they shut them down and the lions found a way to win. That could be one of those games you look back on and it's like, damn, that's like, that was the catalyst to their Super Bowl run. So I think the lions are in tier one by themselves. That would hurt if the Eagles at the end of the year, that's the difference between a buy and making Jared Goff come to the link in cold weather versus the opposite.

And the Texans missed the field goal. Like, what was it, a 58-yarder they tried? So just brutal. So I want to do contenders or pretenders with you. And this is Super Bowl. I think your point is valid, though. Like, if there's only one team in the conference that is clearly better than you, I think you have to be a contender by definition.

Absolutely. So the Lions, we both agree. Contender. Eagles, contender. I think they're absolutely a contender. 49ers. They get back Christian McCaffrey on Sunday. Brock Party had a really good game.

You know, Debo Samuel's back. Iuk's done for the year. But Christian McCaffrey is back. They looked good. 49ers, contender or pretender. This isn't like a playoff team. Can they win a Super Bowl? This is the one team I'm going to wimp out on.

Give me a few more weeks. Their schedule is hard. They're Seattle, Green Bay, Buffalo, then it gets a little easier, Chicago Rams, but then Detroit and Arizona at the end as well. They are the team that I think could get hot in these last couple of months. And we look at them drastically differently.

I think McCaffrey changes everything. Yeah. Just because they are getting McCaffrey back now. The question is like, How long is he going to hold up? Well, he looked good on Sunday from the little bit I saw. He looks spry. He looked quick.

Apparently the reports are he was feeling good. He said it was fun to play football again. We'll see. I mean, to your point, like, what was it, double, you know, Achilles, tendinitis or something he's dealing with? Like, sounds like it's prone to come up again. You never hope for injuries. I hope he plays healthy and all that.

As much as I dislike them, I can't call them like a, a true contender yet pretender no no no oh okay they're in the gray area between i i i'm saying i even though their record is what it is five and four right now um and even though they have not like blown out really anybody in the last few weeks i i still have to respect their town yeah sure the team we're playing on thursday the washington commanders so i i think they're probably going to be a pretender but i like basically i am wildly impressed with both the quarterback and the coaching staff because when you look at that roster, that does not look like a seven and three roster. It's like, wow, these guys are relying on a bunch of old and unproven players, you know,

like heading into the season, I was like, all right, Austin Eccler, Zach Earts. Like, you know, and honestly, it kind of reminded me of the Sixers, circa 2016 when they got like Gerald Henderson and Sergio, Robert, guys, when they just wanted to get pretty washed old guys to professionalize. I talk myself into Sergio. I remember. To professionalize the roster for the younger players that you, James, Daniels in particular. The difference is Washington's been good, right?

Those Sixers were not good. And I see people discrediting their record a little bit. And yeah, like I know they have not played like a juggernaut schedule. But like the Eagles, they got smoked by Tampa Bay earlier in the year when Tampa had their guys. You know, they have two respectable close losses to good AFC. To Ravens, yeah. North teams in Pittsburgh. Like that's not a crazy bad loss.

So basically, I think the Eagles should win this game. I think they're the more talented. a team. I think their defense in particular. So you're kind of with me. They're a year too early of being a true contender. And I think that's going to play out over the last couple weeks. But I do want to give them respect to this point. Like this is not a complete fluke right. No. They've been good. No, they're very efficient on third down. Jaden Daniels isn't turning the ball over. But I do think it's, I think next year you have to worry about them as a real contender. And I think they're, I don't want to say pretender because I want to show them respect, but I don't think they're a true contender this year.

I think they're the opposite of the 49ers. So the 49ers, I think might, play themselves into being a if I had to look at it right now obviously they're a contender right now the record and their point differential and all that stuff says that but if you made me look at the crystal ball for like the next few weeks

and how this plays out I think they probably take a little bit of a step back Eagles win the division and because nobody wins the NFCs two years in a row they are the obvious pick to win the division. That is a bizarre thing to everybody watching on TV you can go to all p.h.l.com

to continue watching as we finish up here contenders and pretenders Kirk Cousins in the Atlanta Falcons. Pretender. Baker Mayfield in the Tampa Bay box. Pretender, but I think it's mostly just because of how banged up they are. Okay. But they believe Mike Evans is back this week.

Okay. So they'll get a little help back. I think Godwin's, he's done, right? Yeah, that was a pretty serious interview. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think Evans is back this week. Did you see the play that Baker made last week against Bosa, where he basically stiff-armed him at both.

to had him dead to rights. Baker's rolling out to his right. Stiff arms him with his left arm, carries him for about seven, eight yards, and then throws a dime to Rashad White, kind of in the middle of three guys. I did not see that one. I respect the hell out of Baker. I do too, man. It's like, I hate what announcer say, like, man, that guy's a competitor because it's like, yeah, okay, we're playing a sport. We're competing. That's what's going on. But I don't know, man. He's just, there's something about it. Like, he's gritty. He's cool. He's, he's better. He's irrationally confident. He's probably a little more confident than he's, his physical skill set.

Yeah. He should be. He's kind of just like a gamer, you know? Like he shows up, the Arizona Cardinals. And G. Gans, Jonathan Gannon, leading the charge for the hot Cardinals. I think the Cardinals are good. Kyler Murray from some of these film grinders, you know, I follow on Twitter,

is really playing a pretty good quarterback right now. I kind of want to take the coward root out with this one and see in two or three weeks. But I feel like they're more content. than they are pretender, and that kind of shocks me a little bit. I like watching that team play offense, man. That Trey McBride, too. He's a beast. Yeah, he's really good.

Kyler is playing better than I think he's played in a few years. Yeah, and credit to him because Call of Duty came out like three weeks ago. And he's put that all to rest, you know? Like, it's all behind him now. He even won a game on Call of Duty release weekend. So this is New Kyler, 2.0. Yeah, I don't think they're going to be one of the top contenders at the end of the year, but they're playing well.

there's two other teams that are interesting in the NFC and then we'll move on to the AFC the Green Bay Packers Jordan Love seems like he's getting a little healthier they have a great run game you know above average defense what do you think of the Green Bay Packers so I think they could get there it just feels like Love has not been I think he's been hurt healthy the entire year

and I think he's trending towards finally getting healthy a little bit from some of the stuff I've read out of Green Bay so if he does get healthy do you buy them sure sure I mean some of the stuff he did in the playoffs last year. I'm looking at QBR, which is obviously not the end of the 15th in QBR, Jordan Love. It just feels like he needs to be healthy. I mean, when he is

right and he's able to make those throws off his back foot, the arm talent is way up there. One of the top guys in the league, obviously they do it with a bunch of different weapons at wide receiver. They're not overly reliant on a couple guys like the Eagles are. So yeah, I think they get there. By the way, I think the NFC is just a lot better

than the AFC, which is funny because AFC's top heavy and then just guys. Heading into the year, I think most people looked at the AFC and said, man, there's a lot of really good teams here. And it's like even the Chiefs, they're human. I bet against the Chiefs every first half and bet them the second half.

It's how every game has gone from. They're slow starters. They can't cover. And then they pull a rabbit out of the hat at the end, mostly on the backs of their defense. Patrick Mahom. is like human this year. He's pulling out wins every fourth quarter

and they're the first team to win 15 in a row since I believe like the 2001 Rams or something. So like they're great, but it does feel like they're playing with fire a little bit. I hate that I have to respect them because of what they've done over the past few years, but it has been a little fragile. The last one in the NFC,

I think I know your answer. Brian Flores and the Vikings defense is nasty. Brian Flores is the boogeyman. Sam Donald might stink. Just don't believe in the quarterback. Yeah, Sam Donald looks like he's turning into a pumpkin again. Yeah. Pretender?

Yeah, I mean, one of the best coach teams in the league. I think what O'Connell does offensively is also really impressive with probably a little bit less talent than Brian Flores as well. I mean, pretty good receiver out there. Yeah, Justin Jefferson helps a lot. All right, so by our estimation, let's see. We have Eagles, contender, lions, obviously contender, Falcons. No.

Pretender. Cardinals, TBD, but no. Packers, yes. Contender, 49ers, yes. So we basically have boiled it down to four contending teams in the NFC. I feel like that feels fair. And watch it be Falcons Packers. It'll be none of those four.

In the NFC championship. All right, moving on to the AFC before we get out of here. We just talked about the Chiefs. There's no way you can call them not a contender because of who they are, their DNA. It's just so annoying that they're undefeated. I think Andy Reid is 38 wins away. from the Belichick record now, if I'm not mistaken. Bill wants to get back in to try and...

Yeah, he's going to be knocking on Jerry's door. Because Andy's just... He's rolling off 12 and 13 wins. Is he going to be the greatest coach of all time when it's all said and done? I mean, with the most wins? Yeah, I think so. And in terms of McNabb to Mahomes,

the scouting of quarterbacks, like the innovation of the offense, and, you know, he could be the best at the end of it. And if you also judge, you know, whose tree was better, whose assistance went on, better coaches. It's no contest. So the Chiefs, obviously,

pretenders, the Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson, this guy might end up being a five or six time MVP at the end of his career. He is unbelievable. I love watching on play. I'm with Noah Curry out there where I love watching Ravens football because Lamar Jackson to me just toys with defenders.

He's cool as hell. It's just, it's a fun watch almost every single time. And I love John Harbaugh. I think the Ravens are a lock contender. Sure. But part of the reason they're fun to watch is their defenses look very fraudulent, particularly their past defense. And the Kyle Hamilton injury.

Some of the stuff Chase was doing to them last week. Like, it's so crazy that as an Eagles fan, I watched that game and I was like, come on. Where's the Well, they don't have Quignan Mitchell, you know? Where's the connectivity on the back end? Come on. This is, this is pee-wee stuff here. I mean, Jamar Chase, fantastic player, but.

Quinyon Mitchell had him in prison. Yeah. But their offense is nasty. Dynamic, and they can And they just got Keaton Mitchell back. So now they have kind of like the thunder and lightning back field so explosive on the ground but also lamar is just making he he makes these plays where he like runs back 25 yards the one on the sideline last thursday sidelines and it's just like that's a play that nobody else in the league's even sniffing nobody's been great and he waits like the way he toys with the fenders how he waits for them

to get on them and then just like he hits the turbo button and he's just gone and like the player like dives and they're like oh what the hell just happened it's really fun to watch uh the san diego chargers jim harbaw No. Pretender. Justin Herbert's playing good football. They have a good defense. Too much Jalen Rager on that team. Love it.

Pittsburgh Steelers, Russell Wilson, leading the division actually ahead of the Baltimore Ravens in division standings. Are you buying the Pittsburgh Steelers? They have perhaps one of the best players in the NFL and T.J. Watt. That guy is unbelievable.

Contender or pretender? Pretender. I don't believe. I don't believe. quarterback. Okay. I'm real desperate. I just picked them up in fantasy football because I have C.J.

Stroud, who is just a terrible fantasy quarterback this year. Russell Wilson, three touchdowns last weekend. And as Bo pointed out, you know, Nick Siriani is going to probably draw up about 10 different hard count calls to try and get the commanders jump off sides Thursday night. The first play is going to be jail. It's going to go into the huddle. First and 10. All right.

Hard count on one. Ready quick. So you're not buying them. Cincinnati Bengals. No? I think if they get in the playoffs, they could be. They're like the best bad record team, right? Yeah, they lose every one score game and the Eagles are the only team that really blew them out.

Joe Burrow might be playing the best outside of Lamar Jackson. I think Joe Burrow is probably second in the NFL and quarterback by the year. That Thursday night game was unbelievable. Last week was such a blast to watch. My buddy texted me at halftime. He's like, oh, this game sucks. And I was like, are we watching the same game? Like, Lamar and Burrow are just slinging it out here. It hasn't really equated to points yet. Awesome. And then second half just explosion. That game was awesome. And then a little sympathy shout out to our friends at DNVR. You buying the Broncos and Bo Nix? No. Okay, me either.

You said the bills. I'm buying the bills too. And the bills. Yes, obviously the bills are in there as a contender. So we have basically four teams we believe in the NFC and Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, and the AFC. It's a seven-team league. All right. And the Eagles are one of them.

And that's all you can ask for entering week 11 of the NFL season. It's good stuff ahead. Thank you to everybody Julia, my eyes I can read it, I can read it We have a winner for the windows. Oh, all right, nice. Bay Window is the winner by

44% Florida ceiling window 39% sliding window 10% and other 5%. Florida ceiling is nice. I started watching this show on Apple TV with Sasha Baron Cohen and is it Kate Blanchet? No, who is it? One of those old-timey English great actresses. I'm really blanking.

One of them. Yeah, one of them. And the kitchen is floor to ceiling and then ceiling glass. And I'm so envious of it every time I watch it. It's a revolutionizing the window game. Zach Bervin. What a, what a pro. So that's going to do it for us here at the PHLY Eagles show. Thank you to everybody for hanging out in here. If you want to hit that thumbs up button on your way out of here, we'd surely appreciate it. We love you all. You can spend your time anywhere, but you spend it with us, and we're very appreciative for Julia,

for Rich Hoffman, Jamie Lynch. Short week here. We'll be back next Wednesday at our normal time, 2 o'clock next Wednesday, back on the normal week. Final thought, Rich, it's going to be great to have a weekend

of just Eagles free football. Thursday night games do kind of suck. I hate Monday night games, but having a weekend of just, like, put your feet up and be a football fan, always enjoy the hell out of that. It's going to be great, and it's going to be even better

when the Eagles win. Oh, yeah, we should do our predictions. We're not going to... Oh, you'll be on the pregame show. Never mind. We don't usually do predictions, but, yeah. Yeah, we'll be on the pregame show. Also, we have a watch-along.

Oh, yes. Let us mention that. Me, Rich, and Fran are going to be doing a pre-game show, a watch-along, a halftime show, and then the normal post-game show with Vinny on Thursday. So if you want to open a Miller light with us on Thursday, we're going to be watching the game live in our living room. Me, Fray. We should title that Watch-along, the two dumb-dums and the smartest

guy possible. Yeah, Fran will be taking his notes. You get to watch us, pick his brain. He's actually working. Me and Rich are probably making jokes and taking notes. So hang out with us, open a Miller-L-Light on Thursday night, and let's kick the commander's ass together. But thanks to everybody for tuning in today.

We'll see you soon here on the PHY Eagles podcast. See everybody.