PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Temperature check: Can Nakobe Dean & the Philadelphia Eagles defense turn things around?

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

What’s the confidence level in Jalen Hurts right now? Jordan Mailata and the offensive line? What about Nakobe Dean, Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Jordan Davis and the mostly hapless Eagles defense? Nick Sirianni?It’s time for a bye week temperature check with Roy Burton and Rich Hofmann.(00:00) - Intro (02:50) - Video of Quinyon Mitchell talking trash to Mike Evans (05:00) - Adams (06:40) - Stevie Nicks on Kelce podcast (09:00) - Bryce Huff (12:30) - Missing on first round picks (15:20) - Jalen Hurts, killer mistakes every week (16:57) - Some passes you don’t make in Madden (18:00) - Turnover battle (19:15) - Josh Allen’s highs are higher than Jalen Hurts’ highs (23:27) - Coaching staff, off to a terrible start, Sirianni (26:00) - Fangio (27:35) - Disappointed in Howie and Jeffrey (28:40) - Should we have seen some of this coming? (29:27) - Haven’t had a blow out lead (31:00) - Some positive ways the team can bounce back, the schedule (33:00) - Easiest remaining schedule (35:00) - Minnesota (37:07) - Other teams (39:19) - Vic Fangio’s defenses have improved as the season goes on (41:38) - Linebackers (45:52) - This is sometimes how NFL seasons go (50:20) - What position would they trade for? Pass rush, edge rush problem (52:29) - Cooper DeJean’s future, Maddox has not been good (54:34) - Does the Nick Sirianni discourse die down? (55:51) - Can Saquon Barkley keep this up? (57:56) - Howie’s offseason Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Guess I need a little work on that. We'll work on that. We're working on that. Hello and welcome in to the P.HLY Eagle Show presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHLY 365 when you sign up. Whenever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Hello, I am Rich Hoffman. You know me.

I think you should know this guy, my longtime friend, who we used to do a lot of basketball coverage together, but now we're talking football because he's good at everything. Roy is good at everything. I try. My friend, Roy, Burton, Roy, how is it going? It's going pretty well. Again, we'll talk about how it's going with this football team in the second,

but I'm doing pretty well. I'm doing pretty well. That's good, man. You know, I got to say, this is probably the best time by week in the history of Eagles football. I'm glad you brought that up because when the schedule came out, I'm like week five by, this is terrible. You know, guys are still going to be, you know,

relatively healthy. I mean, like, you want to buy later in the week a year when everybody's banged up. For my mental sanity, probably for your mental sanity, for people in the chats, the mental sanity, week five by, perfect. Perfect time this year. Perfect. It's just like you forget kind of during the week, like, yeah, there's some hope, right? They can find some pass rush against Baker Mayfield or whatever.

And then you get the Sunday, and they have just been, they've been a tough watch. I get it. They're two and two, so I don't want to pretend like we're watching a tanking football team. Right now. This isn't the Carolina Panthers. But it's been, it's been tough. And I think getting that mental reset also while the Phillies are playing their two playoff games this weekend, that could have.

That doesn't, that worked that well. Okay. Roy, there are a bunch of things I want to talk about today, reasons that, you know, Zach, Boe, especially Zach, the Stone Cold Newsman, we have a little bit different of a temperature than they do. We're fans, right? We're not around the team as much. And I think all the sickos in the chat, they are fans as well.

They can relate. So we're going to talk about some reasons that, you know, we're optimistic. Some reasons we're not optimistic. There are a bunch of those as well. But I did want to get your thoughts on a couple things early on. Did you watch, I was just perusing Reddit and just seeing some of the things that Eagles fans are talking about. Did you see the video of Quinyan Mitchell talking trash to Mike Evans? I did.

I did. And I guess you can kind of juxtapose that with the video of Ante-Matic's talking to Mike Evans about. Fortnite. If you want to do that, that's fine. I'm just saying, you know, my cornerback one talking trash to a hall of fame Mike Evans. I love it. Well, soon to be quarterback, cornerback one, I should say. Love it. I love that kid, man. For the reasons, and we'll talk about this later, when it comes to the reasons for optimism for these next 13 weeks or whatever it is, he's number one. Well, he's not number one, but he's right up there. His level of play has been excellent. It'd be nice if he caught one of those pick sixes that he's basically creating for himself. And that's fine. But he also, he also, just has the attitude. He's got it. He's at the juice.

Right. And, you know, honestly, not every corner needs to be a guy who's a finger wagger and all that stuff. But it seems like

he has really bought into that and his confidence is, you know, there was always players like Jaylon Mills like who would wag the finger. Sometimes he would like to Garter Johnson.

I mean, he wags when he probably shouldn't wagg, you know, would guy drop passes. Clay did it on the wide open touchdown pass that they dropped or whatever.

It was like four times. Which, okay, that's part of the, the position. That's one of the hardest positions to play. But this kid has backed it up. And it was funny that Mike Evans was like, who are you? And Quinnie Mitchell was like, well, like, look, I know we're having a rough game right now, but you don't have any, you don't have any catches on me, basically. So he's made, he's made some great plays as well. Do you, I was also looking

around the NFL. Do you have any thoughts on Devante Adams and kind of where he might go to? Very curious to see how that winds up because, you know, he originally went there to, you know, to play with a quarterback who's not there anymore in Derek Carr. I think he's probably, I don't think they'll trade them. Obviously, they won't trade them in the division. So, you know, ideally, the Chiefs will be a nice spot. By the way, that is so dumb. The Raiders, they are playing a completely different sport than the Chiefs.

Like, if the Chiefs give you the best package by a mile, you're not going to compete with him. Yeah, you don't want to do that because you got to see them twice a year. You got to see him twice a year. They're going to beat you anyway. Who cares, Roy? Yeah. Yeah. No, you can't do it.

I get it. Look, look, if Ty goes to the team who's not the division, but come on. What, is Patrick Mahomes going to stop playing for them? Do you, would you want to trade with the Dallas Cowboys? One of your premier players, would you want to trade the, if they knocked you over with a package, would you want to trade them one of your premier players? If I was the New York Giants or Washington over the past few years and I was rebuilding and we weren't going to be good for a few years, yeah, who cares?

If they're giving me the best package by my mouth, like let's say they offered a first round pick, and everybody else was offering it too. The fact that that man comes into your building once a year and you go to his building once a year, it matters. I'm telling you, that stuff matters. Owners do not want to get shown up, or GMs, especially owners, don't want to get shown up by a guy that they traded away

to come back in their building and show them up. They don't want that to happen. We can disagree on that. So it does seem like he really wants to play for New Orleans or the Jets, or the Jets, which is so funny because he just loves familiarity that Devante Adams. You know what? Let's be real.

Derek Carr, I know he had a good first couple of weeks. Like, Derek Carr is not one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football. Yeah, but they're really good friends. Didn't they, like, live near each other at some point, like close to each other or something? They have a really good relationship.

I know they go back high school or whatever it is, like a long time. Guys want what they want. So, I mean, I don't knock a guy. If you told me I can play wherever I want or go wherever I want, let me go with my friends. Let me just take out.

Well, I would prefer Devante Adams was playing in the AFC. Absolutely. Keep them over there. Don't need to see that. Even though we have Quigia Mitchell, don't need to see that. Yeah. Is there anything else?

Oh, yeah. Jason Kelsey getting Stevie Nix on the... Saw that. On the Christmas album. I have a couple thoughts on that. Yes. First off, great get. Wow.

Huge get. That's huge. I do think it would be funny, though, if, like, if the Eagles are five and nine in December, like, Jordan Milata is going to have to sneak that his golden pipes singing another song through. Like, it's not going to be quite as cute if they end up stinking. I don't think they're going to be that bad. No, they shouldn't be. But if they actually, like, tanked, I wonder if the Christmas album sales would also do.

Yeah, that'd be, that'd be a funny. Because, again, like, the sale, the album sales go a little bit differently when you're, you know, 10 and 1, 11 and 1, you know, than opposed to, you know, kind of pull up the rear in the NFCs, but they'll be fine. But I got to say, getting Stevie, that's, you know, that feels like that'll boost the sales regardless. That's a, like, now, this is a charity album, right? I believe this, don't the approaches go to charity. So, yeah, so I always wonder about when you pull in a big name, or are they just doing it, to give you a solid, I guess.

Like, Stevie, they could just giving you a solid in the booth. I mean, kudos to Kelsey because, you know what I mean? Like, again, that's a pretty good get just to get just off the strength of being a good friend, you know. Come on. The lady sang dreams? Come on. Rihanna? My girl, Stevie.

She's great. Okay. Let's, enough talk about nonsense. Let's get to the... We have to talk about this team? We do. We do. And we're going to start with the things that are worrying us.

And when I, when I pose this... Is there's a scroll here? Is there a goodness gracious. Yes. It would extend all the way to Julia over there. That little Nazax gift where he goes on stage at the MTV Awards and he has a scroll and it kind of just like falls on. Yes, exactly. That's the list of things

that are bad about the Eagles right now. Okay. But seriously. So I posed this question to you before the show. Yes. And the first thing you said was... I gave you two words. Pass rush. Pass rush, pass rush. You cannot win in the NFL without a consistent pass rush. This team has six sacks on the season. and two of them coming from your edge rushers, right?

You got Brandon Graham with one, you have sweaty Jay with the other. I think Huff, I think who has the exact ball and has two of the other. And even the BG one last week, like that was, they screwed up the blocking. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I'll give it to him. He's, you know, 36 years old. All of us old guys, you little help, you know, when we get, you know, athletically. 100%.

And he's been their best player. He's been their best edge runner. He's been our best edge rusher. Again, he's 36 years old. He's been your best edge rusher. That shouldn't be the case. can't have BG, be your best edge rusher. I think we've already written off Bryceoff.

I think the Bryceuff experiment's over and written off and things like that. It's over? I think it's for me. It's over. I think you could write this off. So what does over mean? Is he like playing like 20% of the snaps the rest of the year? I think it's like you can't expect anything you get from him is a bonus, I believe, at this point.

Because I just don't think he's going to be, I don't think he's going to evolve at this point. I think he's going to get it and be a consistent pass rusher. So I think it's over. I think you just need those. You need Josh sweat. You need Nolan Smith. You need those guys to step up because, you know, Unless they step up or unless you make a move of the deadline,

then I just don't see how this team wins more than nine or ten games. I understand the Huff skepticism because, like, look, I'm still holding out hope for him, but I got to say it's not based on anything I've watched the first four games. It's just that he had double-digit sacks last year in limited stuff. So, like, I'm sorry, like you can't forget how to play football. You just don't get bad. I know. This feels like a Ben Simmons thing.

He forgot to be like, come on, man. Like, this is even easier. Like, why can't you rush the passer? So here's the thing, though. Is like, did he get double-digit sax? No, no offense to our guys. But did he get double-digit saxes because he's playing next to Quinn and Williams? He has Quincy Williams mind.

Like, is he a product of the guys next to him? Or is he just that talented of the guy? We're the scheme. I mean, it's funny. It's funny. I've seen people, I'm sorry. I've seen people talk about the turf because he played a lot of games on turf last year as opposed to playing in grass. And he just doesn't have the same get off here.

There's a whole lot of things. theories about this. I don't care. I've written them off. You are very optimistic, so you believe that there's something there. Not very optimistic. Well, okay. Slightly optimistic. You think that there's something there. I don't see it. So I don't know whether it's grass or his teammates or whatever. I just don't see it. Maybe you could convince me it otherwise. I'm not resorting to the playing surface thinking that's magically going to change things. Like, sure. When the Sadd Fathers screwed us in the Super Bowl, fine. I can understand that because Hassan Reddick had had a great ear to that point. And that clearly

mess with them. But I'm not going to say that that treacherous MetLife Turr is the reason that Bryce Huff was getting to the pastor. Honestly, man, like, you know, people tweeted out a lot of videos of just him getting those sacks last year. Like, he was, beating guys with speed and power. He looked like a competent, speedy, you know, third down edge rusher. Like, okay, like, a normal dude. And it's been brought up in the chat that he is not, uh, he's not playing at a four point stance. You know, it's funny. I think Baldi has kind of mentioned that too. That if you, if you get him away from sort of outside linebacker technique.

I don't really know if that's available to Vic in this. Like Vic has been flexible with the off coverage versus the press coverage. And I think what Fran has said over the past few days, I got pretty mad the other day, Roy, I was like, why don't you get up and contest these guys? But it seems like Vic is actually pretty flexible with that. And Fran also said, like, you know, honestly, they were playing off coverage the first few games. And it wasn't a disaster. And for most of those, you know, it was more of the run defense.

That was an issue in the, in the. those games. I wonder if it could be a little more flexible. Just, you know, get your hands on the ground. Put the hands on the ground. Let's see what happens. It can't be any worse. Literally. I have one thought about just the state of the defensive line on the pass rush. And it's that Jordan Davis is the anti-Quinian

Mitchell, where, you know, first round picks, Roy, look, I am not as smart as Fran or Bo analyzing this stuff. But if you miss on first round picks, the bill comes due at some point, right? And for the first round picks, right? And for the first year, Jordan Davis was playing like, I forget the exact number. I think it was like 25% of the Eagle snaps. And obviously, like, look, he had Javon Hargrave out of him.

He had Fletch out of him. And the Eagles were killing teams. So nobody cared. That's right. Nobody cared. The Eagles were rolling. They were getting sacks. Everybody on the line was getting sacks.

Yep. But there was something in there that he wasn't ready to play. And when eventually he has been forced into a more prominent role, I don't think he is the only person responsible for it. I'm not completely giving up on him yet. But the early returns have not been great, and he's been part of a pass rush that has been non-existent for, like, what are we talking now?

Like 10 straight games if we go back to last year? Yeah, pretty much. It's been bad. And it's funny. Quinion Mitchell is on a defense that is a mess right now. Right. But he's still. But he looks good.

And that looks like the Eagles have deposited something where, you know, when there is competence, whether it's Fangio getting as you know what together or just them getting better players, like they're going. going to be all right at corner for a long time it seems like with that kid so that that's part of it and and fran also brought up one other thing about that roy like he he is experimenting fangio that is with different fronts like did you see at the beginning of last game he starts with a front where he plays three d tackles and one edge rusher yeah like he's he's trying different stuff none of it is working i guess the hope would be that he's going to land on something that works at some point but

yeah i mean like part of the like it's like he almost gave up on the pass rush, right? Where he's like, and Milton Williams, you know what? You've flashed a little more than all of our edge rushers. That's the thing. Why don't we line you up on the outside

and see what happens? I think that's the thing. If you lined everybody up, if you just said all your defensive line, give me, you know, like who's been the best this year? You know, it's probably been, you know, Jalen Carter, in no particular order.

Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Brandon Graham, I'm not even for his fourth, but whatever. Thomas Booker. Flashing. Yeah, the interior guys have been better than the other guy. So maybe it's like, like you said,

you know what? here's my best four guys. Let me line them up. Let me see what they can do and just figure out maybe, you know, between these guys and maybe I can kind of rotate these other guys in NASCAR style like the Giants used to do. Maybe I can find a diamond in a rough, you know, if I only have to play Nolan Smith, 25 plays a game. So I agree with you. I think that is by far the number one problem on this team.

And it's the one that I don't know where the solution comes from unless you make a trade. Yeah. Like I think the rest of these you can argue, all right, like a little coaching, a little bit smarter, play from the players, maybe move a couple pieces around. You can fix it. I'm not sure about that one. That one is... That's a little dicey. Yeah. Okay. So that's clearly number one. Number two reason, Roy, and this is the one I said after you said pass rush. It's just, Jalen Hertz, I think there are things he can build on. I think I've seen stretches of play from him this year, handling the blitz, throwing well with motion at the start of the year. He needs to

avoid the big mistake. And, you know, I looked it up. He is currently 11. in QBR, which I think is not the end-all-be-all, but I think it's a decent snapshot of kind of all right. He's been around average to slightly above average overall. But I got to say, even in this case, I would probably dock him a few more points because he's just making one and a half absolutely killer mistakes every week. Right. And, you know, a lot of people are pointing back to the high turnover numbers from last year. You know, if you combine it, nobody's turning the ball over more than Jaylen Hertz since the start of 2023. The issue I have is like, how are these turnovers coming about?

I understand that a high volume of turnovers is bad, but I think even worse is that when you look at these turnovers, like he has three fumbles lost, Roy. Two of those are just terrible. Like he's just holding on to the ball. It's Carson Wentz pocket presence. I hate saying that because I don't think. No, you're right.

I don't think he's on the Carson Wentz trajectory. I think there's still more to work with. Carson Wentz in 2020 was broken. And I don't think Jalen is broken, but he's making those killer mistakes. And we do have to call it out. And then you know, you look to some of his picks, like the one against New Orleans, where Devante runs a good, runs a bad route.

Okay. We can live with that one. But they're, man, the one at the end of the game against Atlanta, sneaky, really bad decision. He made up for it the next week by hitting Godder. Well, the triple coverage interception of the Green Bay game. He's got to cut down. Like these are like some of these are passes. You know, this is my saying.

I have, you know, those old man sayings. these are some of these passes are passes you don't make it mad, right? Like if you have the controller in your hand and like maybe if your finger slips, maybe you throw that pass to Devante Smith and triple coverage. You know, maybe you throw the interception that he threw last week. It's just like some of these passes or some of these interceptions are just inexcusable and then the pocket presence. I mean, I might be a little bit more upset by the pocket presence.

Because the interceptions happen, you know, like they shouldn't to this extent, but they happen. The pocket presence at this stage in your career, you just have to be more aware. I mean, when a man rushes past you in the pocket, he doesn't disappear, right? Like, this isn't a video game where once an enemy is off the screen, like, he's going. He's still behind you. You have to have that awareness of yourself to say, hey, there's a guy behind me. I don't know if he's active or not active. I got to get out of the pocket.

I got to get clear. And for a guy this deep in his career making those same errors, it's really, I mean, I mean, this is stuff you would expect that of rookies, second-year guys. I mean, Jalen Hertz is, you know, getting paid a quarter of a billion dollars. Like, you just can't make these mistakes. And it's a huge part. I mean, the defense is part of it, too. But when you lose the turnover battle, 12 straight weeks. Every week.

That's unbelievable. That was a stat that I was not aware of. So is 12 straight weeks? Until, yeah, or they haven't won it in 12 weeks. Okay. That was a stat I was not aware of. That is mind-blowing. It's unbelievable to not win.

Because, again, we all know that, you know, winning the turnover battle means you win the game 70% of the time, whatever the status. You have to win a turnover battle to win the game. If you never win the turnoff, if you don't win it for 12 weeks, it's amazing how good how this team even won some of these games they won because you can't lose a turtle, consistently lose a turnover battle and win games. It just doesn't work. So, you know, like he's had some good moments, but I, like, look,

I think you have to dock him a really good bit for those turnovers. I don't have anything else, like, good to say about it. Just like, stop doing it. Stop turning it, stop turn the ball over. And I agree with you. It's the fumbles where he's holding the ball like a loaf of bread. And there's, you know, five seconds since he's snapped the ball, right? And that can't happen.

The clock in your head has to kind of go off. But let me ask you a question because, you know, Jalen Hertz obviously leads the league in turnovers, you know, since whatever the cutoff is. Right behind, Josh Allen, right, I think maybe three interceptions behind him. Hasn't thrown a pick this year. But he has a bunch of fumbles, you know, for the same period. Josh Allen's highs are higher than Jailen Hertz's highs. So I think Josh Allen makes up for his turnovers as opposed to Jailen Hertz. I mean, Jailner Hertz, you know, he has highs.

I mean, we saw the Saints game and things like that. I think if Jalen Hurts made a couple more big plays, a couple more big runs, would that affect how you think of how you think of him? Sure. Would he not be a turnover merchant anymore if he could have pulled out, you know, a 40-yard run every now and then? Sure. I mean, but Josh Allen is more dynamic on the ground and like rolling out and making throws, you know? And Jalen, you know, I think he's become kind of more of a move-the-chains guy with running.

He's so much better when he's going down. downhill sideways I don't know what happened over the past years maybe honestly the the 2022 season was just misleading and that they had everything schemed up perfectly and he was never a guy that could really run sideways and kind of make you miss and those things in a way that Josh Allen can but yeah you need him going downhill and then like it's funny I was thinking of Josh Allen on that first play of the game where he missed Sequin the other day yeah and I was like Josh Allen gets out of all that we saw he at least gets it in balance right we've seen that there from Josh Allen before so

So, yeah, no, I'm with you. It's like, I don't even think the turnovers, there's too many turnovers, but yeah, you're right. Like if he was making big plays to cancel out some of those things, I think we would look at it differently, but he's not. So that, that's one thing. You know what? I think, Roy, we can take a break here. I will come back in a second, and we will continue to talk about some reasons that we are frustrated, and we will get to that. And, yeah.

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Okay. Back to the birds. Quickly. there were a couple things, you know, again, not a full-length scroll like you were talking about, but there were a couple things I wanted to hit on that are not really specific to the team. I guess, okay, so the first one is specific to the coaching staff. And I think Bowenzac have done a great job of talking about this. But I can say as a fan, it really has bothered me.

And it just seems like the Siriani decision and the decision to bring in the two coordinators in the offseason. They're off to a terrible start. Terrible. Look, look, there's three quarters of the season left. You know, we don't want to judge just on that. But like, you know, we talked all offseason about the CEO coach and can he, you know, manage the game. Can he handle the vibes? Like, Roy, ostensibly he has the least responsibility in the league of any coach.

Any coach. He gets talked about in his local market after these games. And I think rightfully so, in a lot of cases, more than any other coach in the league. I agree. Well, part of it is because at least with the offense, he can't keep his hands off of it. And he's admitted to it, even though he says he's the passenger driver, the backseat driver, he's in the passenger seat. This is clearly a very... He needs to be out of the car.

Yeah, like, you know, like I wrote on Twitter. Like, yeah, you can be the backseat driver. You can be the passenger. But you can't grab the wheel and steer the car into a telephone pole. You need to be in a car seat. In a bag. Like, this is like, just if you're, if you're the CEO, be the CEO. Like, the CEO of a company doesn't mess with the financial statements, right?

Like, they don't, you know, come up with the marketing plan. That's what the CMO is for. That's what the CFO is for. Just be the CEO. Just be in your car seat. Let Kellan Moore and let your big fan. You'll do their thing. I know I'm being hard on him with the car seat analogy.

But, like, honestly, I understand that he's an offensive guy. I understand that they've had success under him offensively. But, man, like, Kellan Moore should be driving this. He should be. And I will say, I've been disappointed the last. few weeks. I understand A.J. Brown, like, losing him, losing Lane Johnson last week, those guys to all pro-calibal players. I think they're probably the two best players on the team now, now the Kelsey and Fletcher not here. It just, I'd like to see a little more creativity from him.

You know, it felt like they really ran like a lot of motion. They dialed up a lot of good stuff in that first week against Green Bay. And then we've seen, I don't know, we've seen less of it. And I don't want to completely get on Kellanmore because I think when you give him his full complement of players back. Sure. That's when he and Hertz really need to, you know, put the pedal of the medal and start scoring some points. And then Fangio.

Like, last week was really bad. Like, Fangio got panced last week. And I was really frustrated. You know, as much as I was frustrated with Siriani and there were some grumbled. Could they fire him? They were going to fire him after the league. Or whatever. Vic Fangio was the reason and the defense was the reason they lost the game.

Like, I understand, you know, we can complain about the game script. Should they run the ball more? They marched down the field. Baker Mayfield was getting rid of the ball in like 1.9 seconds because the game plan got screwed up. Yeah, yeah, when you're down 21-0-0 off the rip, I mean, it's really hard. It's really hard. And again, I could rip Kellyn Moore for last week, but when you're down 21-0-th, that really changes a lot when it comes to the game script.

But just to get back to your, you're kind of more point, you know, polar jam in the chat, no AJ for three games will do that. I mean, yeah, not having AJ Brown means you need to be, I believe you need to be a little bit more creative on offense. I don't think more creative. Well, yeah, more creative on offense. I just haven't seen that or haven't seen, again, I would think you would move to more and more run-centric offense, you know, without A.J. Brown and without Devonte at least last game to half. And we just haven't seen it. Yeah. Neil Deaver saying that Nick did not drop the past of Berkeley. Yeah, he, there was a past decision, though, on that play. Probably should have ran it. I don't really care at the playwork. I don't, I don't want that risk. So, look, I think his decision-making cost them that Atlanta game. And that's, look, it's a small sample. I think over a year, he's probably not. kind of like make so many costly in-game decisions.

I mean, the decision against New Orleans was terrible too. So that has been bad. And look, more than Nick, too, I'm just disappointed in Jeffrey Lurray and Howie Roseman too, right? Like they're the ones who are here all the time. They're the ones that said, this is going to be the infrastructure. This is going to be the setup that works. And it's just, again, I think it's bigger than Nick.

And that's been a swing and a miss. And they've been really like a great general manager, great owner for a long time. Sure. But this is not the sustained level of success with Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. Like the Eagles have they go up and down, which I think in some ways is more impressive than those other

franchises when they don't have the quarterbacks that just give them nine or ten wins every year. But like, look, they've messed up on some decisions and it seems like, I don't know. This has been a bad start. I mean, it's hard to build two separate Super Bowl rosters and, you know, they've done that over this time. So, I mean, like,

Kudos to Howie for doing this. I just want to get back, though, to the, I guess since we're talking about Lori and Roseman, because obviously they're the brain trusts behind the whole situation, whatever. I'll call it a hierarchy, but I'm not sure what you want to call this hierarchy, the coaching hierarchy. Should we have seen some of this coming? Like, should this have been something that we could have seen? Because, again, Nick Seriani obviously was, you know, in the passenger seat when it comes to hiring these coaches.

Should we have seen it coming when, you know, you bring in somebody who's not, Nick Seriani's pick to be your OC bringing Vic Fangio to be the DC should we have seen some of this I don't want to say bad chemistry but just some of this bad energy should we have seen this coming well Jeffrey Ler and Harry Roseman should have right it's more

more so them than us and look we'll see like I think Kellan Moore and Vic Fangio have shown over their careers they are competent at their job competent to good at their jobs and look they got they got a nice easy schedule coming up on the way here one more thing that bothers me Roy and this is just a general observation

The Eagles have not blown out a team since I think the Miami game last year. We're almost on a calendar year where they just have a big comfortable two possession win like Tampa had against them last week. We're like this is kind of like, you know, the Super Bowl ceiling. You know, I think we're a long ways from that right now. Sure. But like the Super Bowl teams, I remember the 2017 team doing the electric slide because they were just. Oh my God. And people hated it.

People hated that. but they were killing teams. Like they were smoking teams. They were so bored, they were thinking of stupid dances to do. And I'm thinking of the 2022 team as well, right? There was that stretch in the middle of the year, like Pittsburgh, Tennessee, where AJ was catching those long bombs. Right, right.

It was just a lot of fun. They were running off the score. And I think we learned last year that, like, learning how, or like knowing how to win and winning all these close games, man, that's going to catch up to you at some point. It catches up to you. That's going to catch up at some point. And I'm not saying, look, the NFL is a hard league. They all get paid.

you know, obviously the margin between winning and losing can be very small. Sure. Once in a while. Can you smoke a team once in a while? But the problem is you can't smoke a team if you consistently lose the turnover battle, just to get back to your point. If you're giving up two interceptions a game or an interception of the fumble a game and losing that turnover battle, it's hard to win.

I mean, you're what's the 31st team in turnover differential in the NFL? I mean, you just can consistently win, and especially blow teams out if you're going to be, you know, minus one, minus two turnovers every Sunday. Yeah. Okay. I think that's enough, enough negativity. All right. Let's talk about some positive things.

There are some things, I think. I do think there are some ways this team can bounce back. And the first one is just the schedule way. Okay. Like, I want to be honest. Like, that Brazil game was such BS. I saw that. So it's BS because it was a home game for us?

Yes. A home game for us? Yes. And it's super far. and it was poorly put together by the NFL. The field stunk. There's a million things. It was terrible.

Let me, let me, let me counteract this. Everybody's going to have one of those games. Like, there's going to be, you're going to be the road team for somebody else's a Brazil game. We better not. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. It all evens out. It all evens.

And we won ours. We want it. So I'm good. Doesn't matter. It's in the past. We better not have another one of those games for a decade. Zach mentioned the other day because he was, I think he was quote tweeting an interview that one of the higher-ups in the NFL, put out there. He said, keep an eye for the Eagles for an Australia regular season game because

of Jordan Milata. You know what? It makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. There should be like a three-week buy on either side of that. It's got a double-bye. It can't happen until we get the double-bys. Just because our left tackle, who is great. I love, I love Jordan Milata. Amazing. Love his personality. Love his level of play. Love his story. I don't want to play a game in Australia just because we got him on the team. What if it's a row game? What if it's somebody else's a road game? A little better but not really. You still have to travel.

You're just opposed to getting out of the Eastern time zone or just the United States time zone for Eagles games. Like one London or Germany game for every 10 years. Oh my goodness. That's it. That's it. We've got to grow the game, Rich. We've got to grow the game. No, right. They play the actual football in Brazil.

It's fine. Like they're not going to have the next Tom Brady from Brazil. I'm telling you. It's great. We don't know that. They might have the next Jordan Milana. You don't know? You don't know.

I'm here for growing the game. Let's grow the footprint, baby. Let's do it. Roger Goodell. Let the other teams grow the game. And also, Roger Goodell, if you care about growing the game, like plan it out a little. Well, yeah. Don't have the teams just stay at the hotel for two days before.

Yeah, that was a mistake. But. Easy schedule. Easy schedule. I saw a pro football network had them with the easiest remaining schedule. And I think there are different methodologies to it. football outsiders, they, or I guess it's not football outsiders anymore, whatever Aaron Schatz's company is, had it third, ESPN had it forth.

Regardless, they have an easy schedule on the way. And I would say just these next four games, Cleveland. Yes. Giants. Yes. Since you that, I think that could be a harder game just because, like, since these defense is bad, but their offense, I'd be pretty afraid to go against with the way the Eagles defense playing. They're still scoring a crap ton of points.

Sure. And then you get the Dougie P's at home, and the Dougie P's might not even have Dougie Pee. at that point. Doug E. And then by the time since he comes here, will they have something to play for? I mean, again, like, they might have packed it at that point. Yeah, so however you want to judge the schedule,

these next four games, very winnable. Again, I see, I hate doing this because, again, you should say, they should probably go three and one, you know, with these next four games. But you know it's not that simple. It's not that. It's not easy. Like, you just can't just kind of chalk it up because that's what we did with the first four games of the season and they're two and two.

But you can do that with the Phillies if they're. playing like the white socks or something. You could do that. This Eagles team, I don't feel confident enough to say they should be three and one after these four games. But just to kind of dovetail on your point and my point, this whole league's terrible. Yeah. Like the NFL, I mean, how many really good to really good teams are there just in the NFC?

Like in your opinion, I have a list. Your list is probably similar to my list. I just don't think there's that many good teams. and so like you only need to you know beat nine teams to get into playoffs 10 of these teams are going to playoffs these teams are awful so the three and one teams are

and the other four and four and O team I think the lions are very legit I think the lions are legit so lions are on my list who else is on your list of good two very good teams in the NFC I mean I think you have to take Minnesota somewhat seriously Minnesota's got to be serious

just because of their defense now I'm a little curious if that that holds the rest of the way through I mean, Minnesota to me has been the best coach team in the league. I think O'Connell does a great job with the offense. And Brian, Brian Flore is the best defensive coordinator going right now, I think. Spags, too. Yeah, Spags is also.

But, yeah. I mean, Spags has the big moments in the playoffs as well. But they also have Sam Darnold as their quarterback. Like, let's see if that. Seventh-year-Wonder Sam Darnel? Let's see if that continues. I mean, outside of them, I don't know. That's the day you have to think about it, right?

The ladders are probably good now that they're relatively healthy other than CMC, I think the Niners are good. I don't think they're worst and good. I think they're good. But definitely a step down from last year. Definitely a step down from last year. And I think Seattle's good. Again, their defense is atrocious.

But I think they're good. Again, they're a good team. Other than that, right? I don't think there's any other team you would classify as legit good in the NFC. So if you only have to worry about four good teams, as mediocre as you are, you can find your way to the dance.

All you need to do is get a ticket to the dance, right? Get yourself in a position where you get a ticket to the dance. Maybe you catch the dinners on a bad day. Maybe you catch the joint on the bad day. Maybe you win a couple games. I think this team, as crazy as it sounds, is still good enough to get to the dance. Yeah. And I think that that dovetails into my second point, and that would be number one, the injuries.

But overall, the talent level, right? You mentioned that there's not any super convincing teams, and I agree with you. Now, I will say, I'll feel better about that argument. Can we get a couple blowouts at some point, though? You really want this blowouts at some point, though? You really want this blow? No, I want them to win by 10 points. That shouldn't be crazy.

They got to cut these turnovers down. They got to clean up a lot of stuff to do that, though. A lot. They got to get some pass rush. I don't know when that's, like, my point is, a lot needs to be cleaned up for them to start blowing teams out. I don't know if that happens week six against Cleveland. I don't know if that happens.

You know, I don't know how long we have to wait until we see that. Yeah. But, look, if you line up their rosters against a lot of these teams, Like, you would think that outside of the pass rush, which is the one thing where I just, you know, Jalen Carter obviously is super talented. He's had three really quiet games. And I'll give him a break last week because Baker Mayfield was getting the ball out super quick. And I thought that was a Fangio secondary failure for the most part. But like, again, overall with this defense, the defense just needs to have their floor is too low.

Right. Like you can't have one amazing game. And the Saints game was amazing. The defense completely won the game. Now, as Boas pointed out, you know, like that was the new Shanahan offense. Like, again, most teams are going to play three wide receivers. You got to figure out a way whether it's nickel or, you know, putting an extra defensive tackle on the field, whatever it is.

You just got to play better against that. Yeah. Because that's what most of the league does. Everybody does it. It's so funny that the Shanahan offenses are usually what gives people trouble. And Fangio seems like he's pretty good against those. Like, he's like, all right, man, you want to do these play action and these. 21 personnel, two tight ends, all these different things.

It's like, I'm fine against that. But if a team just runs out basic 11 personnel, which is the most popular formation by a mile in personnel grouping, that has been pretty rough. But I think overall, like you look at the talent level, especially when they get these guys back. Like, again, I think there's a lot of talent in the secondary. Sure. I think if, you know, if Darius Slay, who I know has been super annoying to a lot of fans this

week, and I got to tell you, I get it. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I get it. I think that guy has been a pretty darn good eagle over the past few years. Obviously not perfect, but again, that is a tough position to play. Absolutely. Yeah, like, don't go on like Parsons. There's certain things you do not do in this city and any city after a loss,

one of which is going to an opposing players podcast. And talk about one of your teammates, about how one of your teammates got burned. And especially like, especially with like CJ Gardner Johnson getting mad about that and throwing passive aggressive stuff. Like, Roy, this feels like like a teenage high school drama. the CW right now. It's like, man, like, can you just like figure out the coverage and not miss a million tackles as a secondary? So that would be another thing, too. A third thing before we get to a break here, I would say that, and my friend Schil Capati, I had a stat the other day about this,

that Vic Fangio's defenses have improved typically as the season has gone along. Now, at some point, you would hope Vic would be like, well, we got to figure out the first month of the season. Like, just being like, just accepting that it's going to be a slow start. I don't like that. But the Dolphins were not very good the first few weeks of the season last year. And I think Sheila had the stat that they were fourth. It was either EPA or success rate the rest of the year, which was super impressive because that group was unbelievably banged up. Jaylon Ramsey and all these guys.

And like I know a lot of those guys didn't end up liking Uncle Vic as they sent them out the door. But their defense was a lot better. And it felt like, you know, especially, I know they played a net freezing cold playoff game against Kansas City. They were going to win that game. No, that was a loss. But they were pretty tough down the stretch. So I think that is the hope. And I saw that Prince Blup mentioned in the chat, like not having a preseason.

Now, that's, I mean, that matters, man. I mean, I know it's an old guy take. But I think, again, with a new DC, I think stuff like that matters. Well, and it just matters when I know a lot of other teams approach it the same way. The Eagles seem just dead set on avoiding injuries. No one get hurt. Right. And all those things.

I don't know what the right answer is. But like, when you miss a million tackles, I think it is fair to point out that, you guys really didn't go live a lot in the in the preseason you know they always talk about too oh we get so much work in the in the joint practices you had one joint practice against new england one day right right i don't know it just it just seems like you know and seriani always talks about well we always win the first week it's like well you know your team but your team's not great so like you're not you don't look sharp you never look sharp that first week it's it's so funny too because it's different than what the andy reed teams will do because the anti-reed teams were

not good at the beginning of years either yeah but that was because they were a little two beat up. They really stressed the fundamentals and hitting and getting in that level. And so he basically had a formula. It's September. We might go two and two. You know, might start one and two or whatever. But we'll get, we'll get cooking.

Like October, November, we'll start rolling. I don't know. I would just, I would say, my rule of thumb is, if you have a new DC, if you have a new O.C., if you replace 95% of your offense allegedly, you might want to throw those guys out there in August, let them get some work with some bullets flying. Just say.

But I think if you look overall at the roster, there are a couple players that, like, even the linebackers, right? Nikobe Dean, bad week last week. Bad week. But he's had a couple of really positive games. And I'm just hoping, like, Nikobe, Vic, can you figure out, like, how the bad games are just not disasters, right? Like, can you, like, you just need, like, competent level play. Basically, base level play for your linebackers. See, I think he can get there.

I think, I don't think this all has to be, you know, disastrous level games or really great games, too. I think he can find, like, the water can find its level and he can give him. view competency, which is all you're looking. It's all you mean. From that position. So that's, look, I think the roster is good enough to rebound here. And, uh, all right, Roy, I got one more take for you, but we, uh, we need

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GladhaerMCTR.com or call 610 980-4,000 to get started. As a reminder, the P-H-O-I Eagle Show is presented by Bet365. And, Roy, the last thing I would say about a reason for optimism, too. It's just like,

this is sometimes how NFL seasons go. Like, sometimes a team looks up and down in September and they get some juice the rest of year. The 2021 Eagles, they figured it out. Now, I think that team did an awesome job of maximizing its talent that year. You needed to get AJ and Redick in here

and actually changed the calculus, running the ball to that degree. Hertz was not ready to throw enough to beat a team in the playoffs or whatever. But they did a great job that year. I thought Nick and Stuyken, not as much canon, but Nick and Stuyken did a great job

of maximizing the talent on that team. And I think with the Eagles, we got spoiled for about a two-year-stretch because right in the middle of that season to the middle of last season. I'm looking at this right here. I believe from the midpoint of 2021 to the midpoint of 2023, Jalen Hertz went 32 and 6 as a starter. That's unsustainable. That's unsustainable. Yeah. And again, it's like last year, like you knew there was a little bit of a facade. Like they were winning football games, but you know they weren't a good football team. So I think I don't want to say I'd rather lose games,

but if you're going to expose yourself as a mediocre team. I'm just saying it's normal. No, I agree, but I'm just saying, like, if I'm going to expose, like, last year's team was basically mediocre. Like maybe a hair above mediocre, right? Well, they went from, they were mediocre when they were winning games. They went to the worst team in the league. Yeah, I agree.

It was more than that. It was crazy. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're probably, you're right. You're right. Overall, they're probably around. So, but if you're going to be a mediocre team, I'd rather, I'd rather you make it clear.

and known week five, then, you know, week 16, when you have a chance to, you know, clean some things up? Because, again, like, this is a mediocre team. We have, you know, we talked about the pass rush. We understand. But guys are coming back. You know, we'll fix it. Like you said, you know, move a guy, move a piece here, move a piece here. I think they'll get a lot of things fixed.

I'd rather you understand, hey, this is the list of things that need to get fixed, week five, then, you know, again, week 14, week 15. Yeah. And look, they have Quinnion, Mitchell. It looks like he's going to get continually better. And they have Sequin Barclay who's been fantastic, unbelievably fantastic. Maybe the best offensive player in football, honestly. It's been.

I think him and Derek Henry. I mean, like, those are the two guys. That Henry run last week, man. Oh, my God. I can't believe he's still doing that. He's flying. Man. And I don't know.

But, again, you have Seekwan Barclay. You know, AJ Brown's coming back. Devote's coming back. On the other side, Cindy Brown's coming back. You know, he's going to be activated off PUP. Every healthy, I'll take every healthy body in that secondary. I can take at this point. Give me four guys who can cover something, and I'll go with that.

It's true. They should have options in the secondary. Like, okay, Isaiah Rogers, he doesn't know the rules on special teams. I don't know. Probably not. But he, like, has a lot of talent, it seems like, in terms of being able to cover. But he hasn't been out there. And Kili Ringo, again, it's like, I really wish Isaiah Rogers or Kili Ringo, just the caliber of players they are.

I just wish that guy played defensive end, you know? It feels like the Eagles just have too many guys on the back. and and you know I sleigh has frustrated me at times this year I will say like that I think it was Trey Palmer who caught that touchdown in front of a former that was a nice throw I was decent I was a decent cover I was a good throw I was

I was frustrated with them because it's like come on man you can't cover Trey Palmer but like it was a good ball by Baker on that one too but it feeds your quarterback he's got to make that play I mean he's got he can't keep giving up game winning touchdowns yeah that was a game whatever so they did the drink London touchdown like that the drink London touchdowns like what do you

well especially afterwards too He's like, great route, man. Great route, way to go. Yeah, good, good job, buddy. It's like, no, man. Like, no, like, don't, you don't need to share banana putting recipes with the man. Like, you're trying to stop, dude.

Whatever, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Let Fran say great route. Exactly, exactly. I don't need performative anger, but it's, I don't know. Yeah, like, he's been on a bad run.

Yeah, like, you just don't, like, I know people in the city, you know, want you to, like, you know, turn into the Incredible Hulk if you give up a game when he touched out. I understand. Like, that's what some people want, right? Like these players aren't going to do that. And again, I don't want them to do that if that's not, like that's not your personality. You have lives too.

Yeah, but I get it. I understand. Like, you know, you guys are friendly, but. Just don't go on a Cowboys podcast. Right, yeah. Just be a little bit more upset. That's all I'm asking. Don't go on a Cowboys podcast.

Okay. Five quick questions for you, Roy, and then we'll get out of here. Let's do it. Just kind of what I think are kind of some swing questions for the season. So if the Eagles make an in-season trade, what position do you think they target? I just got to go back the pass rush. I mean, I think they get an edge rusher. I would like them to get one.

I don't know who's available, but again, it's week five. So I'm sure between now and, was it week nine, trade down on, week nine, week ten? I'm sure between now and then somebody will be out there. So I think they don't make a move and try to fix that edge rush problem. Yeah, I mean, you saw it last year with Montes Sweat. The Bears traded for him. Yeah, they traded like a second for him. It's funny, though, the trade market for past rushers is, now maybe this is a good thing.

Maybe it's more of a buyer's market. than you think because honestly, what they got for Hassan Redick, I know the Jets completely bungled the contractual situation, but they didn't really get much for a guy who gets 11 sacks a year. So maybe that's the case, although I think there is an argument to be made that in-season when teams actually think they can do something and they're probably a little more desperate at that point

than when the off-season, when they have the draft available to them and all those things, that they might have to pay a little bit more of a premium. I think it's 100% pass-rrrratcher too, Because I just think the roster's pretty solid elsewhere. I think other than other like if we took pass rush out I mean who would you want to go like you know make a move for like what position like I can't think of one offhand like maybe linebacker but I'm like split in Harris because again like I think again you just need warp level of production out of like those out of ball in the Kobe Dean and I think you I think you could get that so is there you know could you get a backup running back on the cheap that like so Sequin just doesn't get completely worn down right you know you don't have to put. and Gainwell in there on those key snaps. And Sequin, you know, plays eight straight snaps and just puts his hand up.

Be like, coach, I need a blow for a few players, which happens. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. That is the obvious position, whether it's D-Tackle, D-N, they just need a little bit more juice up there. Roy, another question I have because Vic Fangio basically hinted that this move is coming, and I'm hoping it's coming this Cleveland game right after the buy. Yeah.

What do you make of Cooper de Gene so far? Like, because Avanty Maddox has just not been very good. Not been good. No, so I don't. I think Cooper de Gene, like you said, you know, with the bye week, it's going to have, you know, probably two full weeks to kind of, you know, play with the ones and practice with the ones and be ready. I think he's going to be fine.

He really can't be any worse than Avante Maddox. I know, you know, in the chat, I know people are anti-PFF grades, but Avondi Maddox has a horrible PFF grade. I'm pretty anti-PFF grades. He's like, he's, is it the Chris Collinsworth thing, or is it just a general? No, I actually like, I'm a bigger Chris Collinsworth.

I know a lot of people don't like him because of the Super Bowl call. And I agree that wasn't his best stuff, him and Al. But I've enjoyed Collinsworth over the years. I just think like PFF grades are super subjective. Right, right. I think different people like you don't always know what the scheme is, what the responsibility is,

all those things to just like kind of slap a number on that at the end. Now, like look, I think sometimes they do a good job and obviously they have people that work really hard and just using, you know, quarterback rating or yards and stuff like that. Like, no, there's a lot of nuance to it in terms of grading a player. But I'll just tell you, like, Avanti Maddox gets beaten this tackles every week. You don't need a grade, you know, subjective grade for that. You can see it with your eyes.

I'm sure their grade is fine for him. Yeah. You know, like, it wouldn't be good. And I just think the big thing is, like, I don't know if Cooper DeGine is any good. Like, to expect him to have a Quinnian-Mitchell impact right away. It's not going to have that. We don't know. But Avanti Maddox is not playing well enough to hold him all.

because Cooper DeGine has the promise of like, all right, yeah, he might not be that great at the start, but he's young enough where he might get better. Exactly. And he might be a guy that, you know, when you find your footing in December and you got all those home games, he might be ready to go. And that's something that Bo has talked about a lot. That's, I don't know if you know about the church of Ellis. Christian, you know, Christian Ellis, Bo loved him and was furious that the Eagles let him go.

But the general point is that the Eagles, they kind of went for the quick fix too much with, you know, Shaq Leonard and all. those guys. And like sometimes you've got to play the younger guys that have a chance to maybe improve and, you know, get a little bit more competent. So I think that situation is going on with Cooper Dijian. All right, quick one here. Does the Nick Siriani discourse?

Does it die down? You know, winning is the best Cologne, right? So they win some games. I think we stopped talking about this and like these upcoming next four games are pretty win-able. So yeah, once they rip off a couple of wins, I think we'll stop, you know,

bashing this dude, calling for his head. I would like it to die down. I would like to just talk. I would like to, and honestly, it's just like, just stop with the game management decisions.

I'm not going to blame you for Vic Fangio's defense. Vic Fangio's defense the other day. Don't blame you. Like, lost the game, that wasn't, that's all him. It's all him. Yeah,

so I hope, you know, win a couple games against these bad teams. And don't put yourself in, you know, fourth and one positions where you have to make, make a call that people hate,

you know? I feel bad for him in some sense, because I'm a pretty be aggressive, type of guy. I just, I am not as as big on kicking the field goals, although he messed up in that one New World's game, come on. You got to take that field goal. You got it. You have to. But it's funny that I feel like all of those high leverage plays are going against him right now. Every single one, man. And I feel like if he keeps doing the

you know, the fourth and three, fourth and four from the 38 yard line or whatever, some of those are going to start working. Like the law of average, everything is going to bounce out, right? Okay, so I would like to stop talking about, about next year. All right, let's do it. Okay, can Seekwon Barkley keep this up? I hope so. He's has, I looked it up, he has, he's on pace for 361 touches,

which is like Derek Henry level of touches. But again, that's only because he only got the ball 12 times last game. So before the last game, he was on pace for like some disgusting amount of touches. I think it was like 390, 400. I think he can, I think, just to kind of get back to your original point about maybe bringing in a back or running back, You probably are going to need to figure out a way to spell him in October, November, so he's okay in December. And I don't know if Kenneth Gable is that guy. Because I just don't think you can give him, I mean, again, he's relatively young, but I don't think you want to give Sequin 30 carries or 30 touches a game between now and now and the playoffs.

So between now and then, they have to figure out some kind of better rotation to get game else with carries. But I think as long as they keep him fresh, I think he can keep this up. This goes back to my point, Roy. We've got to start blowing out some teams, man. Got to blow some teams. Got to stop turning the ball over. It's all connected. If you're up 20 in the second half, you can start running Kenny game.

Run some Kennedy game. Yeah. Right. Whoever this new person is. Will Shepley play that first, was the first play? Throw some Will Shepley out there. Throw some Ben Van Sumer in out there. There you go.

Put some of the second one. Full back bed. Don't throw Ben Van Zuma. That play was pretty ridiculous. I don't know what that play. Like, what was that? I don't know. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. But yeah, they do need to find a way to limit his touches. But I got to say, like, I am blown away. Like, it just. He's unbelievable. Just some of the, some of the, the run, some of the cuts, his ability to just run away from defenders. Like the fact that he's basically hitting, you know, like a 50-yard play every week,

like that's not normal. It's not real. It's not, yeah, we're not used to that. Again, like, this is a team that finally spent up, you know, to, you know, address the running back position. And you got a guy, like, you can see the clear difference between him and guys like DeAndro Swift and Miles Sanders. I mean, it's clear. Like, like, this is an elite back and this is what an elite back can do, you know, with an elite offensive line and with skill position players that are basically on the same.

level. Yeah. It's been it's been a great start and I gotta say how he's offseason not looking great in a lot of senses like no like CJ Gardner Johnson has not been you know I kind of had him as the average guy you know obviously because Huff is already an F minus. You know, you have, uh, Zach Bond's been good. There's been. It's been and not obviously getting him although you might give him uh, Fangio credit for that because it seems like he was the guy who pushed for him. Devin White, uh, you know, Zach has been hitting maybe he's not on the team tomorrow. That's like a, that's like a Friday afternoon. A little news dump.

A little news dump. But yeah, it's been bad except for Seguan who's been just unbelievable. Yeah, we didn't even talk about John Dodson and whatever. Yeah, well, I mean, he's on the field the entire game, but they just never throw them. Never get a target. All right. Last one, real quick. Yes.

Do you believe in Washington and Jalen, or sorry, not Jalen Danyl's? Jaden Dens. Who have, that guy has, basically not punted for like three weeks. You're like three games, even if it was at one punt or something like. Yeah. It's like obviously that's not sustainable. But I mean, he's a super dynamic, like talent, man. Like he's good. Like once, once, you know, the accuracy, like by accuracy, I mean like, you know, touchdowns.

You know, once he starts throwing for touchdowns and, you know, like using his arm to get down to field a little bit more, I think that's going to be a really dynamic offense. That's a decent team. I mean, I know, I think they were. They shouldn't be a dynamic offense, right? They got McClure. I understand. They have one receiver and they don't even throw to him all the time. They don't even throw to him all the time.

Like, Zach Ertz is their tight end. Like, it doesn't make any sense. I love Brian Robinson, so I'll give her a cast. But, like, skill position-wise, like, they're, I mean, they might be on part with the Giants, skill position-wise, maybe worse. And it was supposed to be a bad offensive line coming into the year. And they're doing a great job. So I think that part really scares me because it's like, man, is this just the, the

quarterback is really playing at that high level with that surrounding cast. Right. That worries me a little bit. I guess the only thing I can cling to hope on is that that dude, he takes too many big hits. Yeah. And I think in the last couple weeks, he's probably dialed that back a little bit. I felt like his first couple games against Tampa against the Giants. He was running into the secondary and putting his shoulder down.

He's just not big enough to handle that over a full season. So that one, see, the last few weeks, though, he's been. He's been better. Yeah, like when I saw the first couple weeks, I think we probably were in sync because I saw some of those hits. So I'm like, I had visions of RG3. I really did. I'm like, this is the same thing we saw with RG3, taking too many unnecessary hits, and then, you know, you take one hit too many, and then that's it.

And I hope we don't see that with Jay Daniels because he's a fantastic talent. He's unbelievable. It's also too, you know, he's a little bigger than this. But I just remember, like, the first time I ever saw Mike Vic, just covering, covering the Eagles in their practice facility, just seeing him walk around. Like, it's amazing that he was not that big of a guy. He was like six feet tall and slender and you could just see because he was not the greatest at sliding and and was awesome for it You could just see him wear down over a season and I wonder if Daniels might might have that but I got to say like I've just been super impressed with these

He's really good I guess I guess my hope is that Cliff Kingsbury offenses have usually started pretty strong and then they've they petered out as the season has gone along But man it's like you said like Zach Ertz is prominently involved in these guys don't plan Right exactly is he title one like you know other than Terry you know name the other Washington receivers like like they're not they're not a very very deep skill position team but I mean this team puts up a bunch of points I mean he's taking great care of the ball and I will say he got crunched on this play but this is the good type of crunch because he was hanging in the pocket the throw he made to McLaren to seal the sexy game wow I mean that was just that was a big time that was big time stuff big time throws as

they say the advanced stats that was one of those big time throws yeah well like look I I hope he doesn't get injured, but I hope something bad happens to his play because... Something bad happens to his play. I'm not... The generic, you know, I don't want anything bad to happen to him, but, you know, it's going to down a little bit. Just start throwing some turnovers. You know, maybe Brian Robinson starts fumbling a little bit

because I'm not ready for a world where Washington has a legit quarterback. Somebody different has someone's division at some point, right? Like, it's good. We've got to, you know, we keep past the baton between the Eagles and the Cowboys. I mean, somebody else has to come up and be that third team, right? I feel like Washington every five years has the year where the division's not good and the Eagles and Cowboys kind of stink. They poke their head up and then they get blasted in the wild card round usually. Yeah. So I think that's, well, look, the Eagles don't figure this out.

That's very much in play. It's not like Jane Daniels. It's not like Jane Daniels if the Eagles keep this up is going to have to keep his pace up either to be ahead of him. No. Okay. Roy, that was a lot of fun. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate all the sickos hanging out with us in the chat.

I believe tomorrow, Julia, it's me. me and Fran tomorrow closing out the week. It's a bye week for Bowen, Zach as well, and they will be back next week. So from me, from Roy, and from Julia, behind the scenes, thank you for hanging out with us today, and we will see you tomorrow.