PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - The Eagles OVERHAULED an aging Super Bowl defense into the best defense in football in two years

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

OTAs are underway and we’re looking into the ways in which the Eagles completely overhauled a defense that went to the Super Bowl into the best, young defense in football, shedding players like T.J. Edwards, Marcus Epps, James Bradberry and even Darius Slay into the core group that now includes Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Jihaad Campbell, Jalyx Hunt and Kelee Ringo. Deniz Selman joins Zach Berman and Bo Wulf, armed with magnifying glass and all. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And welcome for the PHAMY Eagles podcast. Presented by True Mark Financial. We've got Zach Berman. We've got this guy in the middle, the professor, and we've got Poe Wolf. It's going to be hard for me to rebound from that odd pronunciation of your name I had in the cold open. It shows already off the rails as far as I could say. It wouldn't be that bad if you had never said it before. Well, yes.

Well, yeah. But for someone who's known me for years. And then Danese, what is that? Yeah. No, that was funny. It was good. Yeah. Well said.

There you go. doing, Zach. Doing great. Excited for the show. Is that a new shirt? I think I've had it for a while. But you haven't worn it on the show before. Do you have my show outfits cataloged?

Not catalog, but I'm pretty good at your wardrobe. And I don't recall that shirt. Chat, chime in. Have you seen that shirt before? How should I feel about I'm pretty good at your wardrobe? I'm pretty good at knowing your wardrobe, remembering your wardrobe. Why? What material is that?

I like that. It is a surprising material. Yeah. I don't know. Is that at leisure? Is it? It's like a little thicker than like a... I don't know. It's a nice shirt. Yeah.

Look at that. I don't know. It's just a shirt. Well, it's a good. It's a nice shirt. Thanks. How are you at your own wardrobe? How am I at my wardrobe? Yeah. Got the, got the vest. Do you plan it out? Not necessarily. I was actually wearing a different hoodie earlier and it got cabashed.

So if you saw... Yeah. Yeah, if you're watching the Anthony show. By who pray tell? By my lovely wife, Emily. Yeah, she's like, no, you're not wearing that. So she just didn't, she didn't like it. But you're already going to go straight hoodie?

I already wore, yeah. And then I was, by that point, I was heading out the door, rushed through the, you know, top, top hoodie on the pile. So, yeah, I wouldn't say plan, but I make sure that I don't wear the same. same thing twice in a week. I think it's, I think it's safe to say, and I think this is like you can hang this banner in the Berman household if you want. I think it's safe to say you've got the best, most varied vest game in the Philadelphia podcast space. Wow, that's a very specific space. And one that often doesn't have video. I suppose so. I suppose so. It's a big college football

look now, by the way. Okay. That a lot of the college football coaches go with the go with the the vest. Brable always goes with the vest in the NFL. I like the vest because the versatility, the mobility that you have, right? Sure. Yeah. So do not expect this to be deviated in this direction. But anyways, yeah. I don't think I've worn a vest since I was like four years old. Yeah, I'm not a big best guy either. Not that I, no judgments. It's just no, I mean, trust me. I'm not offended by your word of takes. So yeah. Okay. Now, now, now,

Now you're going too far. Now you're poking the bear. I don't think that's what you want to do. Definitely don't want to. Only one of us picks out our own clothes. Okay, definitely don't want to poke. Anyways, let's get to it. Yes.

Now, we have to talk about yesterday's OTAs. Now, I think, I feel like we chewed most of the meat off of the bone from the things that we saw yesterday, but a few things to follow up on. But, Professor, this is the last time we're going to have you before your big summer sabbatical. Where you go? Yeah. Well, we're doing Turkey as usual. It's where my family's from. For those of you don't know, we're going to be in Turkey for eight weeks.

And then at the end, we're doing a three-week adventure through Columbia. So, yeah, that's what we're doing. Dynamic stuff. All right, good. No, I mean, it's... All right. As our eagle's sicko. I don't know what you were expecting there.

The people don't know. Yeah, yeah, no. Yeah. Okay. We haven't been to Columbia before, so we're very excited. You, I'm sure we're hanging on every word of the updates from yesterday's OTA. The first time they've gotten to see the Seagull's team practice. Yeah.

What was most interesting to you? Your reporting that Quinyan Mitchell was on the left, the entire practice was interesting. Probably the most interesting thing. The offensive line stuff was kind of as expected, right? I think we thought Steen would be the starter at right guard. I think, like, Kenyon Green being on the left is more of a, because Landon Nickerson's not there. It pushes everybody up the depth chart.

It was more. He was on the right. He was the back up right. No, it was on the left. Yeah. So you said Matt Pryor started on the left. And then Kenyon Green was up second, right?

So that makes me. Right. Right. And they're coming toward us. My left. It's like a little bit interesting. It's kind of like left field. Yeah.

It's kind of like left field. Right. We go by the, they do have specific names based on the organization. And it's the opposite of baseball. Because like, you know, Everands baseball game the other day.

Sure. Like the coach was like, you're playing left field, like move to your right. Like in the kids, you know, it's just kind of kind of fun. Yeah, that is confusing. And in football, it's from the perspective of the, of the, where you're actually here. Yeah. I thought, I thought. My take on Kenyon Green being on the left is actually, it is, uh, it is more of a

reflection of a Trevor Keegan saying they really, they want to see Trevor Kagan only played on the left last year. He needs to cross train at the right. Kenyon Green has already played both positions. They just want to see how he looks. I think they are, and in terms of Kenyon Green competing to play at right guard, it's going to matter more about how he's moving in conjunction with Lane Johnson

than just orienting himself at right guard. And so I don't, I would not worry about him being the second team left guard if you're thinking, is he going to compete it right? Interesting. My take was that Kenyon Green was himself more of a left guard. That may be possible. And that was why. Like, you know, it's like you're here.

It's your first day, first week. whatever, why don't you play on the side you're used to. I think Fran said that as well, right? And it's like, okay, why don't you start on the left and then, you know, Mackay-Bectin was not a guard at all. So maybe it didn't matter with him as much, but like he started on the left as well. So yeah, we'll see.

I think with Stoutland offensive lineman, you want to see that second year, you want to see them working at a different position. And so I think that's the way that I'm sort of reading that. Okay, yeah. Go ahead, Zed. Yeah, I think that's, those were the main takeaways and then it was interesting also and zacking your perspective on

because you were at the presser yeah quinian mitchell's own reaction to playing on the left was he just said like well i'm working at both exactly yeah he didn't he didn't put too much stock into that what was the face you're making i'm trying i i thought i thought i had kenyan i had kenyan green have right card of my notes and i'm trying to see here yeah the other daves and garrows at Kenyon Green in the right guard. Jeff McLean at Kenyon Green at right guard. So there's some type of discrepancy. Is it possible that he did one in one drill

and one and the other? Yeah. I was going based on the team. Were you going based on the team drills? I was going initially based on where they were in offensive line. Oh, I was doing in the team. But I didn't. I mean, maybe he was.

Okay. I was. Yeah, okay. It's also possible, where they had the second and third team offensive lines some guys stayed on and didn't so it's possible that he did two different things with two different groups

but when they were doing and with stout it's usually more about where they're practicing because it's all about getting the individual steps correct he was on the left side at the end of the day there's no job available at left card right so it's going to be between him and steen for right card no matter what and I'm sure he'll get chances okay yeah the quignon thing

Zach you think you think Quinion himself was just sort of getting through that press conference. Exactly. I think I think Quinnian had 10 minutes and was just trying to get to the end of the answers on on on all of them. I mean, and that's not to take away from Quinnian. I think like J. Alex Hunt was being a little more thoughtful

up there. I think I think Dallas Goddard had a specific approach to his press conference. I think Cooper the Gene was being somewhat thoughtful up there. I think Quinnian was just trying to get to the end of the answers. You know, I'm a big Dallas Goddard fan, but I appreciate it that he wasn't like over the top about hooray, I'm back. But he also wasn't, he also didn't seem like he was going to be sour about it. You know, like just the fact that he's there.

Yeah. Like willing to talk to the media on the first day of availability is like I thought was a good sign. Right. I think he understands the situation. Frankly, he saw something similar with Zach Ertz. Now where he would push back on me if I brought that up to him is that, well, was Zach Ertz? had the replacement waiting. Yeah.

Like there's, there's no one in the building who Dallas Goddard's like, okay, this is going to be the guy. Now, had they drafted someone in the first 60, you know, 70 picks, 80 picks, maybe that would be different.

But I think he's seen this time and time again and he referenced that. He's seen friends go through this. He's seen teammates go through this. And he said this is the first offseason in seven years when he's had to deal with the business side of it. Like I think the fans need to understand.

that, or the fans should understand, he's, he's never been a free agent before. He signed a contract extension during his fourth season, like early in this fourth season. So he's never gone into an uncertain offseason in his entire career. This is the first time he's experienced something that many players deal with every offseason and even high profile players deal with time and time again throughout their careers. It's interesting to look back one, one generation before that as well and think about Brent Selleck, right? Because he stayed long enough that he had.

actually became the backup. He became tight end two. There's probably not a world where Dallas Goddard survives to become tight end two, right? I mean, nor would he want to. Nor would he want to. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Okay. Let's spend a minute or two on one of the players that was not there yesterday. And there was some extra reporting from Jeff McLean today about Bryce Huff's absence, Zach. What do you know about why he is not at the Novacare Complex at the moment? Yeah. So Jeff said he hasn't been here all offseason, right? which would add up to kind of some of the context clues that we've heard here.

And it's pretty simple is that if you're not, well, I shouldn't say pretty simple. It's if you put two and two together, if you, there's a chance he's not going to be on the team this season. Then, and I brought this up on Anthony's show, you might not want him participating right now because post-June 1st is when you would move him. And you don't want some type of injury to pop up that would keep you from moving. him. So just to kind of lay this out why June 1st is relevant, we talked throughout the offseason about cash versus cap. The cash here is inappable. It's a guaranteed contract. He's getting paid no matter what, right? The cap is what matters here. And if the Eagles were to cut him or trade him a month ago or even today, cutting him, they would take on $28.8 million

in dead money. There'd be, they'd be $21.4 million in the red and cap savings, right? trading hand would be 19.7 million in dead money where this is pre-June 1st. This is according to over the cap? Over the cap, yes. Thank you. Should credit that. Post-June 1st where you kind of spread this, this hit out is the dead money on a trade. So, I'm sorry, post-June 1st cutting would be 19.7 million.

Post-June 1st on a trade would be they would actually have a cap savings. of $4.386 million. There'd be a dead cap of $3.02, $4 million, but there'd be savings. There'd be cap savings with a trade. Now, it takes a willing trade partner for that to occur. I don't, if you spoke to me

before the draft about this, I would have said Atlanta screams a possibility here. Atlanta took two edge rushers essentially in the first round. They no longer scream a possibility. No, you never know. A possibility! They also signed Kirk Cousins like for a lot.

You would, you would think they wouldn't have signed a, they wouldn't have drafted a quarterback. San Francisco 49ers, that's a team I would watch. Robert Saw, obviously being the connection. They tracked them.

They drafted Mikel Williams, but that's a team that doesn't have much edge rushing depth right now. Yeah. The Las Vegas Raiders, that's a team I would pay attention to as well. That they have Crosby and they have Coons, but beyond that, they don't really have that.

They don't have a lot of depth there. Wilson has been a disappointment. So I would pay attention to the... He carries his own cap situation. Exactly. Maybe that's an interesting one. But... Huff and a pick for Tyree Wilson or something.

Maybe. So if, so there are financial benefits, cap benefits to the Eagles making a move post-June 1st year if they don't have designs on Bryce Huff being on the team. They could say, take your time here while we figure this out. This could be Bryce Huff trying to force their hand. there's there's a handful of things that could be at play here the next time you know the eagles have

mandatory minicamp uh on june 12th i believe it is uh so there's one day of mandatory minicamp by virtue of it being mandatory he's required to be there the eagles could make it an excused absence you could also cancel minicamp they could also cancel minicamp there's a handful of things here so we'll see i've thought going into i thought going into the all season i didn't expect him to be back but I thought you hit it on the head when we spoke about it with Flu World Order that it's tough when you look at the numbers like try to squeeze something out of him

but at this point I'm curious because I'm not certain or I shouldn't say not certain I don't believe it helps the team with him not being like edge rusher is my biggest concern on the Eagles depth chart right now by far if you think Bryce Huff can help you as an edge rusher then you should try to squeeze something out of him But I thought, I think Vic Fangio showed through his actions last year that he did not think Bryce Huff could help him as an edge rusher

because they needed edge rushing help last year and they did not turn to Bryce Huff. To me, the real question here is what are the personality dynamics? You know, is Bryce Huff willing to be here? Yeah. Is Vic Fangio willing to have him? And if so, I would rather just keep him around and let him compete to be the third or fourth edge rusher

because the money's already paid. Yes. I don't, you know, whatever value you have, you're going to attach a pick in order to get somebody to take him. I would rather just have him in the building. But it's possible that he's going to be cantankerous and you're worried about that, you know, diluting the pool or affecting the pool or whatever.

Or it's possible that Vic's just like, I don't want that guy. Yeah. So those things are realistic. My fan fiction hope is that the reason they brought back Joe Douglas is, okay, you're excused from the spring Bryce, we're going to send you on a vacation. Just you and Joe.

You guys aren't going to hammer this thing out. Where, too? Good question. It's fan fiction. So let's play it out. St. Petersburg, Florida, where Joe first discovered him at the East West Shrine game. Okay.

I like the St. Petersburg. You? I don't mind to St. Pete. Yeah. St. Pete Beach. Yeah. Wow. You go right to the beach.

I like that. Well, that's where they had team hotels were. I like the Cuban restaurants there. Nice. Yes. So, yeah, get Joe Douglas. here just to get Bryce Huff's head on straight and then get him here and he can be an occasional third down edge rusher. I don't believe that's why Joe Douglas is here, but hey, it would be

money well spent. So you bring up a good point and it goes back to the James Bradbury situation last year where we said why are they even doing this with James Bradbury? There was no financial benefit to moving on. James Bradbury to his benefit was willing to be like a value added at training camp. It was not going to be, I'm sorry, cantankerous, sure,

was going to help out younger players, was going to compete in earnest to try to make the team. He made the team and then very quickly got into it. Did he really make the team? I mean, yeah, they used the 50s. No,

I know. I know he technically made it. I mean, they could have kept some, yeah, so he did make the team, then conveniently was injured there, or I shouldn't say convenient.

It was inconvenient for him. Yeah. But that, the human dynamics cannot be discounted here and how how does that play out he's the 17 million dollars annual the average annual salary that is that's that's what he's on the books for this year right and the by virtue of the signing bonus that's what he's going to get paid and so uh there's nothing they can do about that it's more the uh the cap ramifications now yeah i mean having watched him last year what do you have any hope it's just like i don't see how any

NFL team is thinking he's going to be good. You know, like, it's like... Two years ago. Yeah. Was he? I don't know. I was always a little bit... I think I've done...

I think I've done my spiel before on like how overrated socks are when it comes to like, like evaluating a player. Like obviously they matter a lot in the game. Like in the effect the game a lot. But like, you know, just... Yeah, he got a lot of sacks. He was on a defensive line that had a lot of other good players. He came in a...

on third down fresh, you know, like all these, all these things like set up for him. Yeah, but if you could do that again, that would be great. And some of the sacks were like a little fluky. I mean, yeah, I understand, but like, like how good was he? You know what I mean? Like, it's like, I feel like how good he was that year. That wasn't a credible role

to play, right? He's overpaid. That's done. Yeah. But can he still be a functional part of the defense? Right. A guy who can come in when everybody's tired and give you a couple good pass rushes. So some team and play 12 snaps a game. Right. So,

That would still be very helpful for that. If the expectations are more similar to what they were with the Jets, you're saying maybe it could work out. But it's not going to, I don't think it's going to happen here. I mean, I don't think there's much of a chance that Vic is going to be like, okay, let's try again with this guy.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. It's kind of sad. I mean, it's not like Bradbury, right? It's not like late career, obvious decline at a position where we know that at that age that happens. Yeah, I feel bad for the guy. career. Like he's young and he could still have a good career, but last year was a really bad

look. And I think it's kind of a bad look that he's not around all summer. It's like I understand telling him not to come. Well, I understand them telling him not to do team drills so he doesn't get injured on May 29th. But what about not being here at all? Like is that something they tell him? Good question. Why would they tell him that? Like what do they get out of that? That's a good question. Unless both sides are trying to work together on this. Just from a human perspective, you know, We don't have to, like, cry for the guy. You know, he's getting paid a nice amount of money. But, like, yeah, he goes from a bad team, signs with a really good team, gets paid a lot.

You know, this is somebody who's finally recognizing my worth. And I, and it's just not a good fit. I have this, like, really disappointing personal year. You're like, he must be in his head about all this stuff. Meanwhile, the team goes and wins the Super Bowl. With him. With him. Everybody around me is the happiest they've ever been.

And I'm still miserable. Like, that's, that's got to be a. tough, a tough year. Yeah. Yeah. It is also the challenge of free agency in that I understand tampering goes on before, but it's not as if you spend time talking to who your coaches will be, figuring out how your teammates would be. It would be akin to you're the best host in the city if a media company in, let's say, Portland, Oregon wanting to bring you in.

and they're like, we'll offer you this, this money. And you're like, well, who am I on air with? It doesn't matter. All right, what am I talking about? It doesn't matter. You know, it's just like, at least I mean, he would know he knew. No, but I'm saying, but yeah, but it's, it's not as if like you, he doesn't know how you or you don't know how you'll jive with your program director, with your co-host, like that, things like that. That's the challenge.

That's the inherent challenge of free agency. Do you think, Zach, haven't covered Howie for as long as you have, that he would be willing to judge. that he would be willing to just sort of bite the bullet, admit the mistake here, and attach a pick in order to get off the contract. Yes and no. So the reason I say yes and no,

I definitely think Howie would be willing to move on. I think Howie recognizes some cost. I think Howley understands you're not going to bat a thousand, but I think there's a part of Howie that wants to extract some type of value. So I don't think, I think Howie would be much more prone to trying the trade,

like, all right, this is a player you're not going to keep. I know you're not going to keep them. Just throwing to me here so I can do the Taygallon thing. I can go publicly and be like, you know, our scouts love this guy coming out. And then when you cut them two months later, no one thinks about it. But the flip side is I think that Howie believes that there is still something left here potentially. Maybe not. Sure.

But I would imagine that how we probably have. having been the driving force and signing Huff in the first place, that he doesn't think if he was here again, it would go any worse than last year. I think he would, I think he thinks he would get a little bit more out of him. And roster-wise, there's more room.

I mean, Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat both left and the guys who are replacing them are not expected to play as many snaps, right? And so you've got, you know, yeah, more opportunity on the roster than there was last year. Yeah, I go back to what I said a few minutes ago. If you believe he can help you in any,

like not even to the point of seven, million dollars a year. But just if he can provide some type of pass rush juice, try to make this work because this in, I'll talk about it quite a bit over the next two, three months. This is my biggest concern about the Eagles is how are they going to affect the quarterback from the edge rushers. They have, we saw Nolan Smith come on last year. But beyond that, Azizzo Jalari is a question mark. Jalach's a question mark. Josh Ujee's a question mark, right? There's, it's a lot different than last year where say what you want

about Josh Sweat. Josh Sweat had a proven track record of getting to the quarterback. The Eagles don't really have that right now. That's interesting that that's your main concern. It's definitely not for me. Like outside quarter and the second. Very judgey there.

Outside corner. That's interesting. It's interesting in that it's wrong. No, no, no. No, I think maybe I just haven't been considering it that much because I didn't think it was that great last year. Like it's not like the edge rushers were like the strength of the defense last year.

It was like the defense as a whole how good the coverage was that made it so good. And then all the sacks in the, you know, in the Super Bowl like made it seem like, you know, obviously that begs the question. What is your biggest concern? Yeah. I mean, I think it's what we talked about a few weeks ago maybe where I think it's outside corner two is my biggest concern. And then the safety two is my second biggest. Because I think the thing that made the defense so good last year was how interchangeable.

the safeties were and also how the both outside corners were trusted enough that Fangio felt like he could call any coverage on any side of the field in any situation, regardless of what receivers were lined up. Quigionne Mitchell played 100% of his snaps at right corner. Slay played 100% at left corner. He was just like, you guys are good where you are. And because of the way it was constructed,

because the back seven was so good and so buttoned up, it didn't matter quite as much that the edge rushers were just solid. Exactly. And I think that like the way Nolan Smith, and J. Alex Hunt finished the year last year. I think that they're on a, they're on a trajectory for the edge rushers to be as solid as the ones were last year.

You know, like, well, I mean, this is the, you know, you spend, you spend one week around an NFL team and all you're going to hear is about how, uh, the two things are connected, you know, the front and the, and the back seven. There, there, there's no distinction between the two. You know, they help each other out. But it's true. And so yeah, if the, if the back seven is not as good,

then all of a sudden the onus is even more on an, group that is not great on paper. Yeah, I mean, I think the fundamental difference in the way Professor Salman and I view this is the evaluation of Josh Sweat, is that I don't view Josh Sweat as a replacement level player. I mean, the marketplace showed Josh Sweat is an $18 million year player, right? Oh, no, that's not a difference. I don't think Josh Swet is replacement level.

Oh, well, so they lost Josh Sweat and they didn't replace him, per se. They lost Darius Slay, and they didn't replace him per se. But I think that losing Josh Sweat is a much bigger loss than losing Darius Slay. Yeah, see, I'm not so sure about that. Because outside corner, you're on the field, every play, and the offense has an opportunity to pick on you based on the way they call the play, whereas you can hide a replacement level eddresher in certain ways. And also, I think last year, we were talking about how the team had lost to San Reddick

and Fletcher Cox and hadn't really replaced either one. Like I came on here at the beginning of last year and how wrong was I, right? And said, like, this defensive roster is worse than last years because they lost Asan Reddick and they lost Fletcher Cox.

Yeah. And I didn't have to bring that up, by the way. I'm volunteering that that I said that. Obviously, it was wrong. Like, I mean, and we can talk about defensive roster later on the show. But like, Assan Redick and Fletcher Cox were two of the best players

on the defense. They both left. Neither one was replaced. Appropriate. They did sign Bryce off. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Right. But in the end, like a few weeks in, it was clear that like the other one was your play. You know what I mean? So it was like through Jalen Carter just getting better. Through Milton Williams getting better through Nolan Smith. Like we didn't think Nolan Smith was going to be if Nolan Smith had the year last year that Jalick's Hunt had, it wouldn't have been like, oh good. Nolan Smith is progressing. Instead, Nolan Smith was awesome. Yeah.

And Jalick's hunt, who we didn't even think was going to play. Sure. Ended up being as, you know, like. So maybe it's because of what happened last year that I think that I think that. Well, look, if you had told me last year that not only did Hassan Reddick and Fletcher Cox leave, but that Bryce off was going to be a nothing, that the defensive line would still be fine. I wouldn't have thought so, but maybe that was like a just a crazy year. And when you look it down the depth chart and say, well, who's going to be the third and fourth edge rusher on this team? Is it going to be Aziz O'Jolari and Josh Huchet? Is it going to be Antoine Powell, Rylind?

Like, is Antoine Powell, Rylind going to be this year's Jail Ex Hunt? Probably not, right? Like, you're probably not going to get those outcomes. So yeah, I mean, I know we have an ad break and other things to talk about. I'm just so, I would love to talk at some point about, uh, there's no some point. He's going to be gone for like three months. Oh, that's not the last time on that seat professor Selman. I mean, you never know, but I'm genuinely, you know, from like a football perspective.

I'm still going to be like on earth. Like I mean, you know, I'm genuinely. fingers crossed. No, no, no. I like from a football perspective, I'm genuinely curious, um, how, you know, I think you can hide a corner more than you can hide. I think you can get by with a solid corner more than you can get by with a solid edge direction. But like we can, so I love to have that conversation.

I think, I think the way that Howie Rosamond has built teams in the past would agree with that. I think this Vic Fangio defense, it might not be the case. Yeah, I mean, 2017, that was clearly the case, right? They got by with like, whatever, but like the defense was so good last year. Sure. And it was, it was just so, like, clear that it was because of the coverage. And that doesn't mean he can't be good a different way.

I also think like the Jalen Carter part of this affects things. Like if Jalen Carter somehow is even better next year, then all of a sudden that just the job is easier for the defense events. And so maybe it's an easier lift to get to respectable there as opposed to that other corner. Yeah, I think offensive coordinators are going to be showing their team clips of the end of that Rams game and be like, we're not going to do that. You know, like if anything, we're going to, you know, have three guys on them. instead of zero like they did.

Fun conversation. Good conversation. Much more to come and talking about how Howie Roseman has turned over this defense after this word from our spots. Eagles biggest mistake in signing Bryce Huff.

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You know what? It would be kind of interesting if you said, but what's the last thing on your browser? I would probably answer that. What's the last thing in the last thing on your book? Like if you open, if you open your browser, what website comes up? The draw at the French Open.

Ah, okay. Who's winning? Cocoa Gough won today. Gotcha. Shout out to Adam Lefko. Doing a great job over there. It's on second major in a row or it looks like I might be dusting my brother

in our head to head. It's on TNT this year, right? First time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's good because it used to just be on the tennis channel. This was the event. It was more difficult to watch.

You can also, I think every match is on max, but you need like the extra level of subscription. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Too much. Wait, it's an extra level beyond the normal max? Yeah. Yeah, and you know what's ridiculous?

Oh, that is ridiculous. They call it the standard or whatever, but it's like the outer. It's like basic standard and then. I don't like that. You're paying. You're already paying. You should get what you.

You should get what you. There's three different tiers on Max. Who can't even remember the name of your own app. Yeah. You got three different tiers? At that point, it's just pay-per-view. Yeah, I don't like that at all. Yeah, that's what everything is.

That's messing the customer up. No, it's everything. All right. You know what doesn't mess the customer up? The good folks at Cherry Hill Mitsubishi. So we're going to talk about the big deal presented by Cherry Hill Mitsubishi. And, uh, professor, this has been a bit of a, uh, a pet focus of yours. Hmm.

And just comparing among, among many. The, the current depth chart to the depth chart. chart from the Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and you look at how much things have changed on offense. Not a lot. How much things have changed on defense? There is not a single starter remaining on the team. Yeah, I mean, the only players who were even on the roster in any way in that year,

who are still with the team are Jordan Davis. Displaced by Linval Joseph. Nicoby Dean. Back up, didn't get on the field. Reed Blankett. Intercepted Aaron Rogers made it clear that he was a super. We're looking at the Super Bowl from that year. What about Patrick Johnson?

And yeah, well, you know, if you're yelling at me at home. I mean, I see him on the thing. About the only players. He's highlighted. Patrick Johnson left and came back. PJ. Is he going to make the team this year? Is a question I was going to ask you guys?

Patrick Johnson is the fourth guy, if you insist. Patrick Johnson, by the way, made the team last year. Correct. And played in week one. So he gets a Super Bowl ring, right? Correct. Yeah, absolutely. There you go.

Right. I'll go forth. We'll be proud. There it is. So. That's the one I remember. When you look at that actual Super Bowl, Jordan Davis played 10 snaps. Nicoby Dean did not play any.

And Reed Blankenship was on the field for one snap. And that was the James Bradbury holding the only snap in which. Interesting. Why was you on the field? Dime. Only snap a dime. Okay. Yeah.

All you guys wanted dime. Bad memories. Bad memories. So the turnover on that side of the ball, remarkable. And then you look at the other side, Jordan Milata, Landon Dickerson, Lane Johnson, Dallas, Scott. Devante Smith, A.J. Brown, Jalen Hertz. That's seven of the starters are the same.

And they will be now the same for... Cam Jerg and sort of playing the Nicopi D. And exactly. Grant Calcutera was on the team and played in that game. So if you want to... I see it there. You gotta say it. Brett Tooth was on IR and he's on the team now. So there you go.

But the contrast between the two there is extreme. I mean, there's 14 players total, including Jake Elliott, who are still with the team. only three of them have been continuously on the team on the defensive side, none of the starters. The offensive continuity is remarkable when you think about the fact that other than Dallas Scottard, all of the starters that I just mentioned, very likely to be on the team next year as well. I mean, you know, we're talking about, and other than AJ Brown, they were all on the team in 2021. So, I mean, like, you know, next year is 2026, right?

So you're talking about six years in a row that, what, five of the 11 offensive starters are the same? I mean, that's not going to, that's not, I don't think that's the case on any other NFL team. I mean, I didn't go through the full exercise, but that amount of continuity is, is remarkable on offense. And it makes being a fan really fun because it's like, it's our guys. You know what I mean? Like it's something that in the free agency era, you don't see much anymore. No. Where you've got like two star wide receivers, a bunch of star offensive linemen, the same quarterback, you know, the same tight end for a while.

It's pretty cool. And then you have exactly the opposite on defense. So do you think that this was an intentional? roster building strategy of Howie Roseman thinking that offense is more consistent year to year. Defense is less sticky and so we can turn it over more

or do you think it just happens to be like what they kind of lucked into because this is who they had on offense. They had older players on defense. Those were just the picks that they happened to make. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens the next few years with the defense having gotten so young whether they try to keep the defense

as continuous over the course of the next several, you know, signing cycles. To me, this is like, I doubt it will happen that way. I think they're going to have to cycle the reverse way. Like, I don't, I don't think they're going to be wanting to rebuild the defense when they could sign Jalen Carter. Oh, I see. You think, you think the defense is going to stay as because of all the young players on defense. Five or so guys who they extend on defense. And I think there's going to be a time when three drafts in a row are going to be incredibly

offensive heavy. Yeah. So from 2019 to 2021, the Eagles had seven picks in the first two rounds. All were offensive players. There you go. And so I think Howie very much saw a defense getting old. And I think he saw a defense getting old in that Super Bowl season. And he felt that it started before that, of course.

But I think that it was very much by design that, all right, and he also knew because they had players they were paying, they needed to get young cost control. players on defense. So I think it was a deliberate approach by how to turn this over and turn it over specifically through the draft. Now, Zach Bond, they couldn't have accounted for him being that good.

But mostly these were draft picks that hit and then C.J. Garner Johnson. Right. Yeah, this is all interesting. So you think that eventually the defense is going to become the stable part of the roster and the offense is going to turn over, but I'm looking at the stuff chart asking you where?

Like who? I don't think that. Like is Milata, Dickerson, Durgens, the wide receivers both wide receivers at some point, but it went. And Sequin.

I mean. Well, yeah, running back, I'm not even counting because you're never going to have a running back for very long,

right? And so, so that's, that's going to change. But, and Seqon's going to be here longer than, you know,

any other guys before were, probably. When you look at tight end, I think two offensive lines and I think a wide receiver. Okay, got it. So you think,

but, okay, because Lane's going to retire. Yes. Yes. But do you think, but that's not really a choice. He's just going to retire.

move on from Landon Dickerson earlier than they did from, you see what I'm saying? Like they have to make some choice for that to happen. And I don't see them wanting to do that. And I think it does have to do with offense is more stable from year to year. So once you've bottled it and it's good and the Eagles offense. Yeah. And I've talked about this a lot has basically been the same level like for the last four years.

Well, I think you're right that if it's, um, if it comes to a decision point. and you have a Landon Dickerson and an equally good defensive player. They would choose the Landon Dickerson over here. Yeah. But I also think the way that the defense is built, like, you know, they're going to sign Jalen Carter to a monster extension the first second that they can.

Yes. Quignan, Mitchell, and Cooper de Gene. I would say I would feel more confident they're going to sign Cooper to an extension than Quignan, just because Quinean's a little bit older. But I think they're probably going to sign Quigionion as well. probably Nolan Smith. Yeah. It's possible Jalek's Hunt as well.

And so all of a sudden now you're paying and maybe if Jihad Campbell hits, they're going to want to pay him too. So that's like six guys already. I think you can probably rely on getting by on players in like mid-round rookie contracts on defense than you can on offense. But I do think that they're going to be thinking at some point here, the draft first three rounds have to be offense heavy. Yeah, that's probably right, though we go into a lot of drafts saying those kinds of things.

Yeah, no, I thought they're in surprising us. So, yeah, no, it'll, it'll be interesting. But I mean, just looking at this depth chart from Super Bowl 57, it just, I felt like I was looking at like a different team, you know? And it's only, I mean, you called it three years ago, but it's only like 28 months ago or whatever. And it's like Casson Reddick, Fletcher Cox, Linval, Joseph, J. Lonargrave, Josh, Swett, T. T.J. Edwards, Kaiser White, Darius Slay, James Bradbury, Avanti Maddox, Marcus Epps, C.J. Gardner Johnson, when you read the list, it's like other than, you know, but it's also an interesting list here last year. Hassan Reddick was a big money for Agent Edition. Right. C.J. Garnet Johnson was a trade. Darius Lay was a big veteran acquisition. There's one other guy in there. Oh, Hargrave was a big. Right. That's true. And Bradbury, they paid money. And Bradbury as well. And so those are veterans that you're paying relative to most of the offensive players are home.

grown except for AJ Brown. And so now that the defensive players are going to be homegrown, you're going to have a little bit more room to maybe get some veteran. And yeah, and that's true. That's a big difference. And you know, also continuing to look at it by the way, next guy's in, the guys who played the most snaps are all gone as well. Like Brandon Graham and Omikosu, Milton Williams. I guess we already said like everyone's gone. But yeah, I mean, I think Milton Williams is actually a good comp for the Landon Dickerson thing that we're talking about. He'll be the guy who ends up leaving because right. Like I think if Milton Williams was an offensive player, they probably would have signed him.

Oh, I see what you mean. I see. Right, right, right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So like if Moro Ojima has the kind of season that Milton Williams had, is he going to be extended long term? Or is he going to be the next Milton Williams, and then we're going to try with, you know, the next guy there. Yeah, so I think this comes down to how they view a blue chip player. I don't think they viewed Milton Williams as a blue chip player. I think they view Lyndon Dickerson as a blue chip player or at least close to it. But generally speaking, I think these, Eagles are going to continue to pay offensive line and defensive line.

I think where you might see this imbalances, I'd be surprised if they're at a point, at least when their quarterback is on a second deal, when they have big money allocated to both wide receiver and secondary. So right now, especially once that Devante contract went in, they gave AJ a new deal, is their wide receivers are paid a lot right now. Their tight ends paid a good amount, and their corners aren't. And if that flips when Cooper and Quinyan get paid, then I imagine it's at a point in their roster building

where they have wide receivers on rookie deals or tight end on a rookie deal. And I think that's where you see it is kind of delineating between the line of scrimmage and then the wide receivers in the corners. And it almost lines up perfectly, right? AJ and Devante are probably going to start to decline just as the Quinyan and Cooper contracts are going to kick in, I guess. Yeah.

depending on how they're structured, which will they be allowed to structure them that way? We'll talk about that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but the big question, and again, this is... The big deal, even. The big question at some point is,

does Jayland get a third contract here? Because then that, or do they kind of reset it at a quarterback at some point? There you go. All right. More to come on the other side after another word from our sponsor. We've all been there.

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Happy anniversary today. This is the day. Happy anniversary. I didn't bring that up to get that. I brought up to lead into an ad read. Okay. It wasn't tried to try to get the happy anniversary thing. Thank you.

We'll get that in after the. Yeah. So, yeah, I want to have a celebratory drink. And let's say I order a cocktail. And now he's like, wait a second. You know, how much sugar is actually in that cocktail? And I say, all right, what should I have? then she might say, well, go Papp's light.

It's like, of course I should go Papp's light. It's 96 calories. It's 3.5 grams of carbs. This is basically like drinking a healthy drink. It's a new light modern beer from, I was going to say like drinking water, but that would deviate from the taste because this is not water. This is crisp and refreshing. It's a new light modern beer, and they use high quality ingredients

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Number nine. Looking fine. Number nine. Was it a Memorial Day weekend? Yes, Sunday Memorial Day. Sunday Memorial, the great time to have a wedding. We did the same.

Yeah, ours was the 24th. Yeah. Sunday night, right? It was Sunday, yeah. Yeah, easier to get the venue, better, better situation,

and people are off of work. It was the 24th. Yeah, yeah, we celebrated. Yeah, we celebrated, we actually did not celebrate right on the day either. It was 16.

Yeah, we got married in, at the Magic Gardens, like in the actual. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, nice. Yeah, South Street. Yeah, it was awesome.

Yeah, yeah. We, We booked the whole thing And we like we have like a sit down Our caterer used the basement As the kitchen and we had Mexican food And it was uh we had a we had like a band and the whole thing They don't do that anymore they don't have events like that

I was gonna say I've walked by there many times To rent it out it's hard to do it is way more official than it was yeah Back then it was like a you know like a like a non-profit running it and they were not We benefited from the fact that they were not profiting Was it nice weather? It was a little too hot probably But it didn't rain. Yeah, no, it didn't rain.

Awesome. So, Zach, since you did the proper celebration last weekend. Yeah. Is there, did you do anything today to add on to it? We'll do a nice dinner tonight? What are we going to do? Yeah, we're going to go out dinner tonight. Okay.

Yeah, we're going out dinner. And yeah, we try to get real. Back a couple of Papp's lights, I hope. We try to get the real ID this morning, lying still down the street. I mean, if anyone has any suggestions for where I can get a real ID and not give up, two hours of my. my day. Don't get me started on this. I paid $70 for them to send it to me and they just didn't

send it. Like it got lost in the mail or something and I emailed them and they, the reply involved like three solutions, all of which involved me going somewhere. It's like, why don't you just send me another one? Like I guess they just don't do it. I feel like there are a lot of situations in your life, Dana, is that I've heard about where you're expecting something and you have to send an angry email. That is, that is true. Yes. Yeah. I was like my bike got stolen and I didn't get my real idea. The same year. No, it's okay. Claire says you have to give up the time. My life is, my life is fine. There's got to be

like at some point, there's it reaches a critical mass where enough people have the real ID and you don't have to wait in line for two hours. Bring her passport to the airport. That's what I said to Emily. Yeah, she, she wants it, she's like, no, we need to get the real ID. And I was like, we can wait a few months and just bring the passport.

It's just annoying. I mean, I'm, I am perplexed by how many people are in line every time we go. I like that that was also your morning activity on the anniversary. Well, no, we went to F-45 together and then from there.

They're looking great. That's nice you to say. Thank you. I don't have that shirt on, but... The shirt's a little bit too big, a little bit too long, so I don't really want to wear it at a normal capacity, but on air, you're not going to see the bottom.

Sure. It's just the top, so it's fine, yeah. Yeah, all that. I mean, when we're at the desk, I get to think about is waist up. Yeah, that's why I don't wear pants. But your... Yeah, I've got shorts and flip flops. Your wardrobe decisions change quite a bit when we're in Studio A.

You have to factor so much into consideration. Sure. You don't want an Andy Reid introductory press conference in Kansas City situation. I wasn't thinking that, but I suppose, I suppose not. No, it's it's those chairs, you know, the chairs are tough in there, too. Yeah. So real tough. Listen, it's a hard life. You got to decide how far back you're going to sit in those chairs.

I mean, yeah, chairs are brutal. The things we do, it's, you're welcome. We still haven't seen Fran's response to Sequin's shorts. Looking forward to that. Yeah, I mean, a real shot across his bat. I thought we did talk about that. No, no, but we haven't seen his actual response. Like we haven't seen shorts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can he hike him up even higher? Exactly, exactly. That was a direct challenge from Seekwan, and I think Fran needs to do some short shots. Okay. Professor, what did you make of the rumors here about or, you know, also the actual comments from Roger Goodell about some salary cap loopholes that they may be trying to close. Right, yeah. So I'll read the tweet from Ari Maheroff. He said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said owners had a lengthy discussion at the league meetings about the salary cap system, how well it's working, whether teams are operating within its intended spirit. and what changes might be needed in the next round of collective bargaining with the players' union. In short, owners are already looking ahead to potential changes to keep the system fair, competitive, and free of loopholes.

And as an Eagles fan, I'm thinking, you know, like they haven't attacked the Eagles enough with the tush push and everything else. Now, a friend with more understanding of salary cap rules than me told me that they're probably talking about void years as the loophole to eliminate. and that would be something where if they just ditch void years, it would reduce teams' ability to have cash over cap, which I know, you know, we've talked about on the show where, you know, you put a bunch of void years in, you spend the cash, and then, you know, you end up spending more than the cap.

The loophole that I've always wondered about that we talk about how Jeffrey Lurie uses this is how teams use the signing bonus as a cash advance for the player, which can be spread out with no interest across many years against the case. cap and it rewards owners like Jeffrey Leary who are willing to spend cash today. And it hurts cheaper owners like Jerry Jones, who's much richer than Jeffrey Leary, but just doesn't spend money on the team. If you just think about it from a voting block standpoint, there are more cheaper owners than there

are willing to spend owners. Exactly. And I've frankly been surprised that they've let the owners willing to spend early get away with this. Now, if you ask, well, is it a loophole to just spend more money? If you think about it this way, like I've always thought of it as the spirit of the salary cap, right? Is that you want teams to spend the same amount on their rosters so rich owners don't have an advantage competitively. So it creates parity. And maybe more importantly to some of the owners, it also doesn't lead to an increase in player compensation on the market, right? Where the rich owner, like, you know, like drives up the market prices. The signing bonus is a loophole there in that you sign a player with a massive signing bonus. You spread out the cap over a bunch of years,

including years where the cap is much higher. And so it ends up being a smaller percentage of the cap overall, on average across all the years, then it would be if it was just the normal annual like salary. So it seems like a solution to that. If I were asked to come up with a solution for that. Which they should ask you. Well, if they did ask me, I don't know.

I don't know if it's like a, I don't know if it's enough of a problem. A warden professor? Yeah. But I would say that this is not my area of expertise. This is not exactly game theory. just to just call Ask Any Wharton Professor? Yeah, great. It's like you have to have an understanding of interest for this, you know? Like it's, you need.

So, but yeah, it seems like a solution would be to count all signing bonus cash against future years cap as a percentage of those future years cap, right? Rather than the same amount in absolute dollars. Now, the same friend who knows more of the cap than me when I, when I proposed this, said that if they start adding that component, it'll start, it'll reduce teams incentives to extend players early. Yes. Would reduce the number of players who signed before for agency.

That's not something that the owners would necessarily want. And it could also drive down, you know. It would be beneficial for the players more than the owners in that case. Maybe, but also like it would prevent players from getting those big signing bonuses, which might not be good, right, for them. Yeah. It would hurt their upfront money, but it would, it would, it would add risk to players. It would compel teams the pays you go more.

Right. Right. So I guess the question. So the question becomes then like, what do you guys think about this? Like, do you think it's something the league should be trying to address? Why are they trying to address it? Will they address it? And as an Eagles fan, like, will it hurt the Eagles in the end?

Yeah, so first off, I disagree with the premise of the discussion, which is it's not a loophole. It's a strategy, okay? And I think that's an important distinction because any team could do this, right? Any team could utilize it. It's not as if the Eagles are doing something that other teams can't. And they're not the only team that does it. They are known to do it, but Minnesota does this. Cleveland does this.

So it's a strategy that any team could utilize. I don't think part of the definition of loophole is that it's only for some people. There are loopholes that everyone can use. Fair. But I think it's the connotation of loophole, right? And there's a management council that reviews every contract. every team has a database which which shows like spells out verbatim every contract so every team could see this this is this is not like the push push where you're um you know you're practicing it with something that like other teams can't see it would be as as as if they had to send the film of their practices to every team all right so uh i kind of object to the league like saying team. are circumventing the cap.

I agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because everyone's rich enough now, it used to be that some owners literally weren't rich enough to pay the cash for signing bonuses, and some were.

And if that were still the case, then it would seem like a loophole because it's like technically there's a salary cap, but if the owner of the Packers couldn't afford to sign a player and the owner of the Giants could, you would still have that like large market,

small market difference. Well, that's a great point. It would turn into baseball, right? But that's not the case. All their owners are rich. enough to pay. Yeah, that's, and that is a great point that's important to make, because when you, when you pay, uh, when you pay guaranteed money, it goes in escrow, right? So, uh, you do need to have that cash on hand for that to happen. You're right. Now, what, loophole, funny word. Yeah,

loophole. Lou poll. Don't, I mean, what about? We're not talking about Lou, Lou, Lou Nichols' poll. That's a different situation. Loophole. Loopole. Much more to come on that front in overtime. So I'll say this, is that Bryce Johnston with the Eagles, he's a bright guy, eaglescap.com. We all remember that site.

I remember it very well. I don't know if we all remember it. The three of us. Anyone who's anyone remembers. The three of us remember that site. Okay. We got intern Ethan here, shadowing for the day. I don't know if Ethan remembers it. Remember eaglescap.com, Ethan?

No, you got three of us. Don't speak for Ethan. Keep Ethan's name out your mouth. Got three of us too. Got some homework to do tonight. So my point is, is that I've heard, I've spoken to Howie about this, I've discussed this, is that there's a thought

that if you're following the trend of the league, then you're too late on the trend, right? Is that if this is something that, everyone starts to do it's no longer a competitive advantage to do it my guess is that the Eagles will like if if this goes in the

place the Eagles won't be rendered ineffective in terms of contract I think they'll continue to find strategies to maximize their I think the eagle to your point I think the Eagles would view any significant change as a benefit

to them because they would think that they can figure out figure out the new strategy figure it out better than other teams. My understanding of this, and if I'm wrong, please correct me is that they have an operating budget, okay? And they're told, like, be as creative and effective as you can within this operating budget. And so within what the rules of the cap are, that's that. That's what they do.

And so if there are changes in the CBA or changes in how they constructs your contracts, what they will do is they'll figure out the most effective strategy from there. And I think it's, you know, you don't win just because you want to win, but I think the teams with owners who care about winning first and foremost will always be at an advantage. I guess my fear is that they're going to make the rules such

that you can't care more. You know what I mean? Like you just won't be allowed to spend the, what if you just aren't allowed to spend the cash in advance anymore? You know what I mean? Like, what if they made the salary cap really be like a year-to-year cap? You know, like that's an extreme case. I don't think that would happen,

but you could change the rules in a way where there's nothing to figure out anymore. You know what I mean? And it would just become like whoever drafts better wins. Or, you know, like, like, that's an extreme. But I think it used to be that the Eagles had the cap figured out better than other teams. I'm not so sure that's true anymore.

I think the thing that's more true now is that the owner's willing to spend. Right, right. And so if you change the rule such that you're not allowed to spend, then what happens then? You know, like, yeah, but they're also, they're suppressing salaries,

but yeah yeah they're aggressive at contract extensions at being first you know they benefit from the erie mover advantage time and time again uh so i i think that they'll probably view it as all right where are you allocating the money how can how can they do that to who you know um whether it's it's paying veterans a certain amount paying you know maximizing certain draft pick capital right i i think they will figure out a way. They'll adjust accordingly, is my guess. Julian, I'm sorry I missed your text message about overtime. Best host in the city.

Lucky. All right. What else is going on? I'm in overtime. I mean, I have a lot of gloves off now. This is our last time seeing Professor Selman for six weeks. Yeah, no. It's, uh, it's, I'm going to miss you.

Yeah, I'm going to miss being here. I love being in studio. I've been, I've been trying to come in on the days where you guys are in studio and not not virtual so yeah there we go uh i'm not gonna expand too much on that but yeah no i'm i'm happy to jump on uh you know if you want me to do a virtual ospreys hit or something take your time um wait there was a day to do that so wait was it the what's the day that you guys are going to talk about um um Harrison Bryant you know i'm looking forward to that day august yeah i'll be 17th or stuff like that. I have that on my calendar already. I'll be somewhere in Columbia, but I'm not going to miss that one.

You got 36 shows before camp. But there was, I don't know if it was serviceable. He's going to be servicable. A video or a cameo that you did, but you did one, I guess, was walking in Turkey. Oh, that was for the Osprey. Oh, I was in Croatia one year and then I was in Turkey one year. terrific backdrop. The shield goodbye one was in Turkey. We did the Bosphorus. And then the one year, the year before that,

I was in like a medieval Croatian city. And we did the best subparading player on defense. Zach, seriously. Wow. Unbelievable. I mean, could Zach's phone have said anything that would irk bow more than that? Not only is it interrupting the show.

More on brand. Yeah. That's all our phones. No. That has never happened to my phone. No, no. My phone does not talk, first of all. Second, I have it set to never talk to me.

And I also don't have chat chabt. Do you want to just let chat chapt to be? Are you going to let your students give you a failing grade now? Also, what did I say that prompted it? No, I lifted up my phone and it activated Siri. Oh, okay. And Siri is now connected to chat GPT in the new operating system. that's yeah if you if your phone's no no right you lifted up your phone and that activated Siri just no I think when I lifted up my phone I pushed one of these buttons by accident I mean usually my phone's in my pocket wow I think it pushed a phone to activated Siri I apologize it is unprofessional but yeah no that was uh I appreciate you coming on what's less professional that or talking about wet dreams unprompted what do you think I mean it was very prompted

the owner of the team prompted it oh you know he talked about it you think it was prompted I thought you were saying us talking about it on the show I see I no no no yeah I thought like Jerry Jones was asking him about what dreams I wouldn't put it past yeah

yeah yeah no but I care a lot about the backdrop I actually think yeah I think Bo was terrific on yesterday's show but when you're in that studio space I think you should adjust the computer a little bit more so you don't see above the back.

You looked like you were in the bat cave and you're coming at me for my backdrop there? Wow, okay. Well, I promise if you guys have me on a show this summer, I'm happy to jump on. I will have a beautiful backdrop plan. No matter where I am, because we're going to be in all beautiful places.

I will set that up. I don't know if that's something. I'm just trying to invite myself here. Help me out, Julia. I don't know. Looking down at me for my wardrobe and my backdrop. I complimented your wardrobe. I was trying to change the topic.

Yeah. Got chat GPT doing all his work for him. Don't ever say that. I do. Listen. I'm going to be reading these articles with a much more key eye now. I was up to 1117 last night working on that article. Yeah.

How long did it take for chat GPT to finish? Julia, remember when I used to sit like on the side when we had this three person set up? When did I get in the, when did they start putting me in the middle and why? You know, we need to do a history of this. It wasn't my choice. Yeah, Khalif says it's a good point.

You did happen to crank out that book pretty quickly. All right. Please do not ever make that type of accusation. No. A book is like running a marathon, right? Like you, it's one step at a time or 70, you know, one word at a time or in my case, 86,000 words. Bo's going to put that book through, turn it in and come up with a report.

Turn it in for those of you who don't know as a faculty tool to see if students cheated by using AI, which doesn't really work. Oh, okay. Yeah, we have a different contractor. How do you, this is a serious question. Yeah. In like repurposing your own reported work. Do you, are you rewriting it? Are you, you know, how are you getting away from making it self-plagiarizing?

well it's a good question i mean quotes are verbated everything else is you're of course but yeah but yeah but like you'll you know you'll you'll copy and paste things then like re you know re you'll i'm sorry you'll copy and paste quotes but like you always get afraid of like am i copying pasting something that i so you're very careful about that but no uh yeah your own stuff yeah yeah um now there are times when like um um There's a quote that I, that, yeah, there's a, there's a quote that somewhere else. And then you reference, like, told. Told John McMullen.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, for instance, Greg Bishop had a great piece. And the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Greg Bishop from Sportel, Strait. And I had spoken to Saquan about, you know, speaking to the therapist, the team therapist, right, or team psychologist. And he didn't tell me what, you know, because he speaks to himself on the sideline,

but he didn't tell me what he says. And he told Greg Bishop that he visualizes being the Black Panther, right? And gave this great anecdote and texted Greg, like awesome work. I wish I had that. But for those who are not watching, he just pounded the table and anger. And anger. And in earnest. And so, but so the Black Panther there is referenced.

Told Sports Illustrated. Got it. Everything that said, now, what if it's one that you did? Do you say told L-P-H-O-I, told P-H-O-I or told me? Or told Zach Berman?

You go full third person. What do you mean? I never say told Zach Berman. Well, that's what I'm asking. For instance, if you were... Oh, if you've referenced someone else,

if you're referencing a story that you wrote during the season, how do you... Oh, no, that's just the player said. I was present for that. Okay. Told Zog Berman would be weird. What's that?

Even if it was... Like if it was the Garrett Nussmeier thing. Yes. Which actually didn't make the book. Would it have been, do you say told P.H.O.I? No, no, no. That's just the person said. Okay.

You're not giving yourself credit for the exclusive reporting. No, no, no. In the introduction, it talks about like all the quotes here are what were either said to me or said at a, in a setting where I was present, or in a press conference. setting, okay? Unless otherwise noted. Unless otherwise noted. I said if it said directly to someone else, it's noted. And what about the, what about the miced up stuff? Yeah, so that's, so that was the challenge here. There's a lot of mic'd up stuff on there. And so because I can't

have every single piece of dialogue being like, um, on the mic on the mic on the mic on the mic. So first reference for dialogue in every chapter is as captured by team microphones. And then it's, I think that's reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that, and I explained that in the introduction, because it would literally ruin the flow of the entire book if every single.

I don't think that's necessary. Yeah. Yeah. And so. And what if it's a scrum that you weren't in, but you saw the video or read the transcript later? Is that also team microphones or is that like, no, that's like a presser.

Yeah. At that point. Well, typically. Told reporters. Told reporters. So there's, so there was, so there was one time that happened. very specifically that I recall, which was I was not at the third preseason game this year. And I quoted Nolan Smith talking after because Nolan Smith played.

He was the only starter who played other than Cooper to Gene. And I put in there told reporters, most of those other scrums I was I was out of present for now. The one difference is post game. post game I might if it's said in a group I might just said so-and-so said

and treated it like a press conference but anything in the in the locker room if I wasn't there it's yeah it's identified gotcha okay good good little inside inside book yeah super chat from

Philly drone who says Professor Danes at all where do you land on Jalen Ramsey to the Eagles is that a thing that people are talking about I'm not seen it.

I don't know if I have any thoughts on that. I mean, I don't think I'm quite as excited about Keely Ringo as some people. So I'm worried about CB2. It's your number one concern. Yeah, it is my number one concern. Jailen Ramsey would make, would be an upgrade over Keely Ringo for sure.

Yeah, I'm saying that without any knowledge of this rumor or, you know, like any kind of financial implication or anything like that. Yeah, my sense is it didn't go great with Vic Fangio in Miami. Right. And I also don't think the Eagles are hunting a high-price corner right now. So that would really surprise me. Yeah, I think that would be pretty. It is very funny how, like, the contrast between how Jim Schwartz brought, like, every player he'd ever worked with.

Yes. Like, in Buffalo, like, onto the Eagles in some point. And we haven't had a single player. We had a single player. That's not true. Perry Nickerson. Yes. Perry Nickerson's the only one. How dare you?

Okay. Well, he hasn't played. So we haven't had a single player actually play in a game. Yeah, to be fair. Van Gio really wanted Andrew Van Ginkle, like badly. Right. I think Hallie was like, Vic, this guy's going to cost us a lot of money. He's coming off injury.

Let's just go Zach Bond. And they do that. And then Vic's like, Hallie, this guy doesn't play outside linebacker. So move him over. The, you guys were talking with Fran yesterday about how Falfangio's used corners in the past, and he has had corners travel in the past. He's also had an outside corner in base move into nickel and nickel. He has done those things.

And, you know, in fact, the last stop he was at in Miami in 23, Kohu was nickel on nickel downs, but he played on the outside and base. Eli Apple came in to play on the outside on those nickel downs. They played a lot more base that year in Miami than the Eagles did last year. but so as recently as two years ago, he was, he did do the outside to nickel thing. So, I mean, I'd expect that to be Cooper de Jeanne's role. So actually this, so I agree. I don't think Cooper de Jeanne is coming off the field this year.

Right. Number one. Number two, if Jahad Campbell is really good, I think they could play more base than they did last year and then some fans might think. But why would Jehad Campbell be in good effect? Because base in this set, what I'm calling base is three defensive tackles on the field. Yeah. So I think that they could have like, well, no, like they could have a five two front more often. Yeah.

But with three defensive tackles on the field. Yeah, but I'm saying, I'm thinking four D backs, right? So like, so in those cases, so they'll have 40 backs on the field more often than they did last year. If, if Jihad Campbell's so good that he wouldn't be on the field with Zach Bond more frequently. Okay. I mean, so that would involve a complete change in structure in the sense that, like, last year, whether it was base or nickel, there were exactly two linebackers on the field. Yes. It didn't change the number of linebackers.

It was just a matter of, is it Cooper DeGine or is it like a third defensive tackle? I think they're, yeah, I think unless they're, unless they take off an edge rusher, I think they're going to have three three-d tackles on the field more often this year. Okay, it'll be interesting. I was wondering if, like, to me, it wouldn't matter more if Nicoby Dean is ready. and in the second half of the season you're in service of getting the Kobe Dean back on the field and Jahad Campbell on the field, then maybe that would make sense.

But I still, I don't think it's, I am still expecting there to be base for snaps again. Yeah, I would think that too. The one thing that would change that is if the second outside corner just isn't good. But, you know, those early down snaps where you're thinking about being in base are typically not passing downs anyway.

So I don't know, I don't really know like how much, how much that wouldn't really matter. Because the guy coming off the field, would be that that second corner when you go to base. But again, like, does that matter on what you think is going to be a rushing down? I'm not sure. Okay. All right.

How do you feel about, you know, there's like Quintanamo Bay, Quignan Island or whatever? What about the coophole? Does everything have to be about imprisonment? Like, can't there just be? Well, it's just a loophole. Couphole. Oh, got you. Okay.

Why is the ability to bend the rules slightly called a loophole? I actually don't know this. Like what is the like etymology of that or the origin of that? There's a guy named Lou. Lewis. I probably should have just looked this up after the show and so on the Louis pole. And he bent the rules. You got you.

You got it up set? Yeah, I got it. Oh, Julia's got it. Originally the word meant an arrow slit, a narrow vertical window in a wall through which an archer could shoot. Ah, it was an archery thing. Yeah. Okay.

So it was like, was that, was that cheating? I guess it's, it's like, you can shoot without being shot at and therefore it's cheating. Okay. Interesting. Loopholes were commonly used in the U.S.

built during the 1800s. Now, did you have any follow-up questions for Julia about her burning man? Oh, man. No pun intended. I kind of burned them before the show. I had a lot of questions, but I kind of asked them all already. I'm not sure how many of them are show appropriate. Yeah, we did hear about a specific tiny little cape being used.

Which you'll have to wait a story for another day. Yeah. All right, Zach, ready to go? Where? I'm going to celebrate your anniversary. Oh, yeah. I got to go work after this. Are you going to play off baseball tonight?

No, ours was cancer. So it didn't get moved to tonight? No. Oh, it got moved to Saturday, you said. Yeah. Oh, never mind. Sorry, I wasn't listening very well. We went indoor last night.

I wonder what an indoor situation? And they found a facility. And it was, uh, we split it up like, like five on five. And, um, players hit more, uh, yeah, the kids had so much fun. No, nice. Coaches pitched. We got, we got round of 16 tonight against the Jaguars, the Jaguars. The Jaguars.

So, so Bose and my. I don't say Jaguars. Everon and Casey are in the same baseball league. I don't know if we've mentioned this on the show before. There are 16 teams in the league, and they're all different kinds of cats. So a challenge for the chat could be to try to come up with, and Claire's not allowed to participate,

because her son's in the league as well, come up with 16 different cat names that they came up with. And I will say that I had not heard of like five of these kinds of cats before. Yeah, it's an interesting challenge. that they give themselves to I think the next age level up is all different kinds of sea animals I don't know right yeah all 16 are the ones below or not the one but the two below is uh bugs oh okay and the one below is uh was tball last year and that was all different kinds of space things oh that's right everyone was on the novas and you know they played against like the stars and stuff

like that so franz coming hard to the hall he thinks he's got a few yeah franz guys tigers Jaguars, leopards. Yeah, he's going with the low-hanging fruit here. But yes, those are all four of those. Yeah, he's good so far. Six out of ten. He has six already? Links.

Oh, links is one of them, yes. Ocelot? Ocelot is one of them as well. Okay. You know. Zach has never wanted to be anywhere else more. That's actually not true. There's been times I've wanted to be other places more.

Wait, is Bobcats one of them? It must be. Cheetos is, yeah. I'm not sure if Bobcats is one of them. It seems like, I think it is. It should be, but, you know, maybe it is. I don't think civet is in there. Any big, any big take sack?

Yeah, just to join the discussion. Well, we have to say them now. Lions, Links. I don't think you have to. Pumas, wildcats, that's us. Leopards, the servels. The Caracals. Caracals.

It's a hard name for kids to pronounce. Panthers, Jaguars. This is my favorite. The saber tooth. Yeah. The tigers, the Bengals, the cheetahs. the Cougars, the oscillots, and yes, the Bobcats. So there we go.

That's a Rizzi. He just goes with minor league team names. Okay. Yeah, that's lazy by the commissioner. So he's the Grizzlies, which I believe is the Fresno affiliate for the Giants. Where the first baseman. Oh, Price Eldridge.

Man, from Northern Virginia. Six, seven, lefty. I can hit. There you go. Yeah. There it is. You had a big hockey take you had unveiled before the show started. Oh, yes. Okay. If you want me to share. Yeah. So look, I've been following all our Ph.L. Y Flyers coverage, I hope everyone does so. I've been consuming a lot of, a lot of NHL mock drafts. And I'm not pretending that I'm an NHL Scout, but just like the profiles of the players. I'm a Roger McQueen guy for the Flyers. The, if he is, so if you're unfamiliar.

Bobby Queen. Roger McQueen, he's a legit center, six for five. skates well short for a center 6.5 oh that's a big you don't typically get that but he's 7 feet you know all right big time talent this is the problem

has a back injury the back injury is causing you want to use the big early pick on a back injured guy well that's why he's falling down the board but this is like but everything is like if this hits you get you get a big time player

and my point is you're drafting number six swing for the fence here right get a guy you need a center. Don't just go with someone, don't just, no, swing for the fence. Try to get the guy who's going to hit. Go with the upside.

Take the Howie Roseman approach here. In relation to Steve McQueen? I don't believe so. No. The top player, well, there's the big dilemma in the draft, if you'll call it such, is that the New York Islander surprisingly got the number one pick.

And one of the best players in the draft is this player James Higgins, from Long Island, grew up an Islanders fan. But he's not, there's like a clear number one pick, this defenseman Schaefer. And but the islanders have this rare chance to get this homegrown player from the, from Long Island, grew up an Islander's fan. And it's like, can you pass on Schaefer? Well, they trade down?

That's what they should do. Yeah. I don't understand because the, the team drafting. Are they allowed to? Oh, yeah. They're allowed to. Oh, yeah. Baseball are not allowed to.

Yeah, yeah. Baseball, not like, for instance, the nationals have a real tough decision coming up with Ethan Holiday, who I would take. Boy, that's just me, not the Tennessee pitcher. Save that for a June show. Stay tuned for that. Stay tuned for that. But, yeah, I would definitely go Roger McQueen. Christopher W. says, I like McCle, he would like more in the teens because of the injury.

Yeah, I mean, I remember Michkoff was a risk. And look, it's a risk that paid off. So all risks pay off. Then in June, we'll get into what the Sixers should do. Has it paid off? What's been the payoff? With Mishkov? I'm just saying, like, as a casual fan, I haven't seen any payoff.

Would you rather than take that spot? I understand. He's good. Yeah. Just waiting for the payoff. Stay in your lane, Selman. I can't wait for the six. I just waiting for the pay.

I can't wait for the Sixers conversation in June. Oh, my God. 36 shows left. All right. I am literally counting. Well, you guys, not sure why we went so long on this episode, but that's okay. Fun stuff. We're back tomorrow.

Fran, let us on the chat. Are you coming into the studio tomorrow? What do you want to do virtual? I think that's the expected thing, right? But I just want to double check. I thought Fran would be here today. Say goodbye to me, but I guess not. He doesn't.

You know, his usage rate isn't high enough. It's the four of us. It's a whole thing. Oh, I see. He needs the ball. I already, I already booed him on text. So I don't need to boom again. That will, in fact, do it for this episode of the PHLY Eagles podcast.

We are back tomorrow, 2 o'clock, closing out the week. Let us know in the chat. See, Fran thinks it's remote. It was supposed to be maybe remote. Maybe it was going to be in studio. There's a bit of a whole thing going on. I mean, don't act like you are making a sacrifice doing it remote. You would prefer for it to be remote.

It's like, oh, no sort of, all right, like there's some shocks. I guess I'll do a remote and not drive in. On a Friday? I know that's what you would prefer. That's fine. But don't act like. Actually, no, because there's, I got to tell you, of the next seven Fridays, tomorrow's the Friday where I'm more than able to do it in the studio.

Okay. But there's some other Fridays where I'd much prefer remote. But I'll do whatever Fran wants. So whatever Fran wants. It's up to Julia. It's up to Ethan. It's up to Bo. We'll find out what Ethan thinks after the episode.

Either way, we will be live at 2 o'clock tomorrow, so we look forward to that for Julia and Ethan and Danese. And Zach, we will talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. And as always, we love you.