PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - With Jihaad Campbell and Drew Mukuba, did Eagles hit AGAIN on first two draft picks?

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

There are plenty of questions about the state of the Philadelphia Eagles offense. Is Kevin Patullo the right offensive coordinator? Is star wide receiver A.J. Brown healthy? But under Vic Fangio, the ...Eagles defense rebounded in Kansas City against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. After linebacker Jihaad Campbell starred in the Eagles’ Week 1 win, Drew Mukuba starred in the Week 2 win. Did Howie Roseman nail the Eagles’ first two draft picks for a second consecutive year? Bo Wulf, Jamie Lynch and Rich Hofmann will discuss. EJ Smith will call in from the NovaCare Complex and Mina Kimes will give her thoughts on the state of the 2-0 Eagles. It’s all on the PHLY Eagles Podcast! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:01 Happy hump day. Let's talk some birds. Handsome Rich Hoffman, Jamie Lynch in studio. We're going to hear from E.J. Smith at the Novacare Complex and Mina Kimes talking ball. Let's get to it. P. H.S.Y. Eagles podcast coming up next. From the Xfinity Studio. Welcome to the P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast presented by Bet365 and Ashley. We've got a big Wednesday show coming up for you. Handsome Rich is here. Jamie Lynch is here.
Starting point is 00:01:15 Well, Wolf's here, but who cares about that? We're going to hear from E.J. Smith, live with the Novacare Complex in about 10 minutes. Then about 2.45 are going to be joined by Mina Kimes to talk about the first two games of this Eagles season. Gentlemen, how you doing? Jamie, have you done Rich's Eagles quiz yet? I have. I was one of the beta testers. Yeah, I bet you were. I'm a master beta guy.
Starting point is 00:01:38 So I had to get someone wrong on purpose to make sure that the system works. Yeah, sure. So I had to like, at Rich's, you know, request. He said, get a couple wrongs. We make sure that the, it's hard. It's tough. It's hard. It's good, though.
Starting point is 00:01:55 And people should refer people to sign up because it's a lot of fun. Where can people find it, Rich? Well, you can find it on the site, on all-P-H-L-Y.com, the Philly ultimate, or the Ph.L.I. Ultimate Ph. Or you can find it in the newsletter, too. And if you subscribe to the newsletter. To the newsletter. We have the referral code in there.
Starting point is 00:02:16 The Eagles quiz is the first one guys. All you need to do, just refer one person. Just one. Tell your brother. Tell your friend. Tell whoever. Tell the guy on the street. Doesn't matter.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Use your wife's email, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Take that Eagles quiz and see how you do. Rich is a, I did get a couple wrong. Yeah. I'm not a, I forget scores right away. Yeah. I can't even tell you the score of Sunday's game against the cheese.
Starting point is 00:02:41 I just, that's 2017. I guess that's right. made the graphic. They just go right out of my mind. That's the only reason. So that's one where I did not, even though the Super Bowl just happened. This guy's a good deep cuts like, oh yeah, a guy. Like Riches brain. And then the other one, the GM, I could not get the name of that GM. He actually just passed away, unfortunately. Jim Murray. Don't give it away. Oh, well, that's a freebie.
Starting point is 00:03:03 Yeah, that was bad. That was bad job by me. Freebie. All right. Well, we both did it. I was there with you committing the crime also. The hardest one. Oh, well. All right. Let me get a little temperature check with you guys
Starting point is 00:03:18 because we've spent the first couple days talking a little bit about, you know, the state of the passing game and how concerned are you? Let's start with you, Rich. What's your level of concern with, you know, the whole Petulow situation? Man, talking about this team is hard. It just is because the passing game was terrible.
Starting point is 00:03:39 It was really bad, but we have dealt with a lot of bad Eagles teams through the years, and this is clearly not one of them. And they just win and win and win. And that's amazing. So, you know, I've been kind of talking about this in the newsletter. Like, am I going to raise my voice at Kevin Petullo after a Super Bowl win and a two and oh start?
Starting point is 00:03:59 No. But, you know, maybe a few suggestions here and there. Maybe like A.J. Brown should have more than, what is it, 35 yards through two games, maybe, you know? So it's one of those things where I think it is somewhat. concerning. It's weird because I thought heading into the year bow, after last year and the struggles of the
Starting point is 00:04:19 passing game, everybody thought, all right, well, most of this offense is back. And, you know, you have Mackay Beckton who's gone. But, you know, after this training camp where Tyler Steen clearly showed that he's a pretty good player, I thought these guys were going to hit the ground running and it just has not exactly been the case. Am I super
Starting point is 00:04:35 worried in the long term? Maybe not. Because this Eagles team has shown that the first month of the year is not always telling. And they can certainly get better. Now, that was mostly on defense, I would say, last year where they made the big turnaround. So that's a long-winded way of saying, I don't know. I don't know. It will grow tiring, I think, in a few weeks if Kevin Petullo is talking at the press conferences and saying, well, we didn't get to it. You know, we had some deep shots in the game plan, and we just did not quite get there.
Starting point is 00:05:05 But for now, it's like, it's one of those things where you just note it and you say, like, look, I think they're going to have to be better at some point. And this ultra-conservative ideas, of just avoiding turnovers. I think that's going to bite you at some point when you're playing a better offense. But for now, you know, let's see if they get better. How about you, Jamie? I have the conflict of like the Hogi Mouth,
Starting point is 00:05:26 700 level guy inside of me that is like, AJ and Devante need to be a bigger part of the game. And then I have my rational thinking side of me that's like you went into Kansas City and you won. You beat a division opponent at home on banner night with all like the extracurriculars. And you pulled one out. You're 2 and 0.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Shut the hell up, Hogi Mouth. Yeah. But to Rich's point, like... Are those on like your shoulder? Yeah. Hogi Mouth on one and rational sports fan on the other. It, I mean, it clearly is a problem. Like, that has to be corrected, but I'm not...
Starting point is 00:06:00 Yeah, I think it is rational to be concerned about it now. I'm not. I also think I have, because we've talked about this so much, I'm trying to get beyond, is this good or bad? and trying to think more about the why behind it. Sure. This is, you know, they went into the game plan and this was their game plan.
Starting point is 00:06:20 You know, they're doing these things that are very predictable and very static. It's not a surprise to them that, you know, they have run every single time out of pistol except for the first, you know, snap of the game or that when they bring on these two and three tight end sets, they're overwhelmingly going to run or that everything is two by two
Starting point is 00:06:38 with the wide receivers and they're very predictable routes. Like, I imagine they know those things. So why with Devante Smith and AJ Brown and Jalen Hertz? Is that the way that they want to attack? I can sort of understand it in the Chiefs game because if you're thinking, we know that we're going to get heated up by Spags, we need to make the answers a little bit more predictable.
Starting point is 00:07:00 Maybe that's part of it. Maybe this is what Jalen wants to some degree. But that's what is more interesting to me now that I've gotten through like three days of, yeah, this is kind of boring is like, why is it the way that they're doing it? Well, and this is different, I think, from last year
Starting point is 00:07:17 where in the middle of the season, you know, Fran had a great piece on the site. I remember he was saying he's just not seeing it as quickly as he needs to. I think he's seeing it right now. Yeah, me too. So it's even weirder where it's, I thought against a lot of those all-out pressures from Spags,
Starting point is 00:07:33 the blocking was great for the most part. Sequin was picking up Blitzers. Jalen was standing tall in the pocket. Eyes downfield. there was the one play where he had to check down to Saquan. There was just nothing else there. I think he's doing a lot of things really well. I mean, the deep throw to Devante, excellent job by everybody on that play.
Starting point is 00:07:50 Yeah, but for some reason, it's not happening right now with AJ and Devante. And yeah, I'm curious to see why. I don't have a ton of answers. The limited Devante usage, it confuses me more than AJ because like we talked about on the post game, I don't think AJ's 100% yet. So that one I can go, all right, he just needs some time.
Starting point is 00:08:07 He didn't really participate in a ton of, of training camp. They put him on ice to make sure he was ready. He's getting his sea legs under him. Like that one I can rationalize in my mind. The Devante one, that's where I'm like,
Starting point is 00:08:17 okay, where is he? Because he needs to, especially with no Goddard last week. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when you look at some of the usage charts about wide receiver like distribution in the league, they're at the bottom. And you have one of the best wide receiver rooms
Starting point is 00:08:31 in the NFL that really shouldn't be happening. I do think Calcutera, like I know he's been the whipping boy over the past few days. He's not playing well. And if he is your first tight end, that's an issue. That's an issue.
Starting point is 00:08:44 And the fact that some of his routes were not great either, it seems like he was confused a little bit on the depth on some of those routes. Well, you have to be good at that because you're not a good run block. You have to provide some value in that regard. So that type of stuff,
Starting point is 00:08:58 it's like, all right, when you get Goddard back, like that should look a little bit better. And that's got to be the hope. I will say, De Niz does have me like, The pistol thing. I was watching the game and I was like,
Starting point is 00:09:11 oh, here comes another run. Yeah. They're in pistol. The stats on those are pretty eye-opening. Well, and look, I think at some point,
Starting point is 00:09:17 it's going to be a hell of a tendency breaker. Right, right. It's going to be the ultimate tendency breaker. Right. In the second quarter, hopefully, of this Rams game,
Starting point is 00:09:24 they run a play action. I'm just assuming AJ and Devante, there's going to be like nobody in the picture. Right. On that one, it's going to be that level of a tendency breaker. But yeah, maybe getting to those,
Starting point is 00:09:33 uh, those tendency breakers within a game, getting, you know, It doesn't have to be 50-50. I'm not saying that, but certainly not being quite as predictable out of those formations.
Starting point is 00:09:44 That would be nice. But again, I'm not mad for just pointing out what's going on. They're two and oh. Life is good. And I don't expect things to continue to be this bad. I do think there's a natural level of improvement coming. I would think so.
Starting point is 00:09:58 There has to be. It can't really be worse in terms of like, you know, forcing the ball down. They can be turned the ball over. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. I mean,
Starting point is 00:10:06 if they're winning games, like they did in week two in November. That's what happened in 2020. Shut your ass up. We won. And I think we, yeah, that's what everybody was saying. And then it just, it wasn't good enough at some point. Now, the big difference between 2023 and now is this defense not going to fall apart like that? I agree.
Starting point is 00:10:22 Sure. Yeah. All right. We're going to hear from me, Jay Smith, in just a moment, but first a word from our sponsors. What you do not need is to go over to a buddy's house for the game and get fan fished. You don't want to get there. You're ready to watch the bird. play the Rams, and all of a sudden you're dealing with buffering and changing apps and all this stuff.
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Starting point is 00:13:01 visit your local Ford store. All right. Back on the PHLY Eagles podcast. Do we have our man from NovaCare? One moment. All right, Julia's efforting. How would you open up that Xfinity mobile call-in line? His NovaCare set up so far.
Starting point is 00:13:20 You know what? I've listened to the Wednesday shows with E.J. I have not watched. So I'm going to have to compare to those of a man who. All right, joining us on the Xfinity mobile call-in line, the PHLY Eagles Insider with the red mic, Bleeding Chiefs Red, there he is E.J. Smith.
Starting point is 00:13:43 You're not watching the show? It's our show. You got to watch, Bo. I can consume it. I have to consume it in different ways. There are people who listen, so I have to hear what it's like for them. No, you got to watch. You got to watch. You got to subscribe. almost 50,000. Come on. Okay. Well, I'm going to tell you what.
Starting point is 00:14:03 You got to hit that like, but I'm watching right now. And I'm giving you an F. What is you're showing us the duct? You're not even, you've got no backdrop here. It looks like you could be anywhere. There's no, there's no sign that you're at the Eagles facility. You know, you know, this, this is on brand for you and your grainy camera for the years that you had it.
Starting point is 00:14:23 This isn't about the backdrop. This is about the light. Your work office set up. He's going to have to go to the Novicaa complex and fix it. this for you? No, this, the lighting is king here. You know, you got to make sure you got the natural light. I got balanced light. I got it. Listen, this is a good set. I'm even using, you guys can't see this. I'm using a, like an old repurposed tinfoil tray to like prop my laptop up a little bit. So there was some effort. I was also efforting to be here. Okay. Yeah, we see the mic here.
Starting point is 00:14:52 E.J. Smith, sponsored by Satan. Yeah. How does Julia feel about you constantly coming after this microphone? You know what? I got something. I got a bonus pick with Julia while we're here. Oh, here we go. This is great. Yeah. You gotta get into this, Julia. Julie and I were texting back and forth during the ad reads.
Starting point is 00:15:11 And I said something and she wrote LOL. But I'm in the same room with her. And she did not laugh out loud. Oh, get out of here. That's not what LOL means in 2025, grandpa. He literally wrote back to me, liar. Are you a ha-ha guy? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:29 He is. That's tepid, man. Ha-ha is rough. No. The L-O-L is funnier than the ha-ha, though. Even if you're not laughing at-l. It's kind of a mean thing to send back if you actually thought it was funny. Like, I've told him that before.
Starting point is 00:15:45 You text ha-ha. It's like, okay, this guy doesn't, this guy, that's a no-cell. How would you rank? What, give me your ranking in the order of the text responses? All caps, L-O-L with a few O's is like the, you're actually laughing. laughing out loud. LMAO with a couple of O's is also good. All caps even.
Starting point is 00:16:04 I feel like LMAO is a higher level of laugh. All caps LMAO is like that's pretty good. And then from there, a lot of ha-haz is pretty solid. And then from there, LOL and then like a giant tear skip. Like we're talking like you're going from like the 15th best quarterback in the NFL to like, you know, insert like PJ Walker, somebody who's like out the league completely. that's ha ha well what about ha with an exclamation
Starting point is 00:16:33 that's like sarcastic you gotta drop that in like the group chat right like you gotta you gotta hit somebody with that there's also well there's also actual l.O.L which is I guess there I guess you know Julia didn't say actual LOL some people do that but you know I don't I don't
Starting point is 00:16:51 I don't really I'm literally that one as much there's there's the ha ha text response to I'm a big fan if you're in you're in the group chat and you get like six or seven Nothing on those babies. Yep. What a high. Julia just texting me actually LOLing.
Starting point is 00:17:05 So now she's, now I can trust that she's honest once again. All right, E.J. What were the big takeaways from Nick Siriani's press conference earlier today? Yeah, I mean, he was asked right from the jump about the tush push and the reaction around it and how he feels about the scrutiny that's come out after the Chiefs game. And he didn't offer much, but I did think it was interesting that he did not offer. He did not say anything about the way it's officiated. He just said it's not something that they have to deal with right now.
Starting point is 00:17:35 It's not something that they can control, you know, acknowledge the fact that the play is going to be legal this season. You know, after Kevin Petullo mentioned that, like, defenses line up offside against it so frequently, and I thought it was interesting that Jordan Milata mentioned yesterday on a WIP that people mimic the cadence, you know, like the opposing defenses will try to mimic the Eagles cadence to try and get them to jump on to false start. So I thought it was interesting that Nick didn't mention some of the officiating challenges. And I think that might be the right approach for the Eagles to take here because I do wonder if you start to really belabor the fact that it's a difficult play to officiate, if that's offseason ammunition for the rest of the league to say, oh, well, you know, it undermines the integrity of the game because there are so many different rules. I thought that Fray made a good point on social media about this. Like, there are a lot of plays.
Starting point is 00:18:23 I think Jason Kelsey also said this. Like, there are a lot of plays that are hard to offici. where, you know, guys jump offside or, you know, like the offensive linemen are trying to time the snap. So, yeah, I think if you really try to really get granular about the rules of the push, that might end up backfiring on the Eagles. EJ, you talked yesterday about how Siriani, he focuses on turnover differential and explosive plays.
Starting point is 00:18:48 In his two pressers this week, has he kind of contextualized this start with, okay, no turnovers, but not too many explosive plays. How has he kind of seen the Eagles hand? that formula so far. Yeah, he talked about how turnover is turnover avoidance is the number one thing. You know, it definitely, the term he uses is double positive. And I think you can tell both by the way the Eagles are operating offensively and even the way that he talks about it, that the turnovers are the number one thing, you know, being able to take the ball away and being able to avoid giving the ball away on offense. So yeah, I think he's been pretty consistent with that.
Starting point is 00:19:26 And I think that that is informative when you look at the way the Eagles have been on offense, really since the midway point of last season. You know, I was looking at the numbers yesterday. And, you know, Jalen Hertz had six turnover worthy plays in the first two weeks of last season and four actual turnovers, three interceptions and a fumble. This year, he has only had one turnover worthy play and no turnover. So I think that we have seen like a concern that, again, it's like instructive of the, the conservative approach they've had on offense.
Starting point is 00:19:53 And I think that is a Nick Siriani, Halen Hertz attribute at this point is that they are turnover, reverse maybe to a fault sometimes in the production of the passing game, but you can't really argue with the results. I mean, they've won a lot of games by not inviting that variance, as Bo puts it, in those games against teams that they probably have a talent advantage over anyway. E.J., very talented wide receiver room for the Rams.
Starting point is 00:20:19 One definitely will be in Canton one day. One's kind of on a trajectory to possibly get there one day. Did Siriani talk about the challenges that Puka and Devante Adams pose on, you know, the concerning CB2 position? Yeah, you talked about how McVeigh deployed, Sean McVeploys those guys too and how difficult there to prepare for it. It's funny because he called Puka Nakuwa like a big, strong receiver. And obviously, like his measurables aren't that. But when you watch him against the Titans, like he does run through tackles in a way that he's like, you know, I got that compact frame. I found it interesting that Nekua is lining up in the slot 61.1% of the time this season, which is up from 29.9 the year before.
Starting point is 00:21:01 And obviously, it's because Cooper Cup's not a part of this offense, he's in more of that role, you know, that versatile role where they move him around the formation. And I do wonder if McVe, I mean, he is so well known for hunting matchups, if this is a week where Nakua is on the outside a lot more. But if he gets there through motion in ways where the Eagles cannot shade coverages and, you know, be able to give a door. to help against him. So yeah, that's a matchup that's going to be really tough. I also wonder if this is a week where Quinion Mitchell follows a guy like Devante Adams just because he is more of that stationary outside the presence. So I think that's going to be one of the more interesting chess matches. Every time that McVeigh and Fangio play or, you know, are matched up against each other,
Starting point is 00:21:42 the matchup is one of the more interesting ones to watch. Obviously, Fangio has some very historic success and really some very historic templates against this McVeigh offense. But yeah, no, I think that the way that the wide receiver core is going to be deployed against the Seagull secondary, you know, Adori Jackson kind of had a nice, like, under the radar week. You know, you didn't have the Seas-get degrees type of performance against the Chiefs. But I think it's right back into the proverbial blender of good wide receiver matchups and needing to make sure that they insulate for them this week. I like that you have called out the Fangio McVe of it all because remember last year, of course, this was such a huge deal. and yet the other side what decided both of those games
Starting point is 00:22:24 last year was the other side of the ball where they just could not stop the run do you expect that to be a thing and then I also want to ask you about I have always felt like for whatever reason Nick Siriani in particular kind of bristles at like the McVeigh love because he owns them.
Starting point is 00:22:40 Have you noticed that? Do you feel that and did you pick up on any sense of that? Doug owned him, Nick owns them? I feel like I didn't sense that today. He really did talk about No, actually the opposite, because Nick was talking about how, as a wide receiver's coach, you know, the wide receiver appreciator that he is, you know, the connoisseur of wide receiver play that he could tell that McVeigh is, he has a history in coaching wideout. So actually, I think he went the other way to. Oh, interesting.
Starting point is 00:23:07 This is like his Belichickian, like, has to compliment the opposing head coach. Interesting. And then do you think that they're going to lean on that ground game because, you know, the Rams let up so many big runs last year? Yeah, I mean, it would make total sense. But this Rams defense has been really good this year. You know, in all the advanced metrics I looked at today, they have been playing really well. Don't go full Kubiak on us here. Two weeks.
Starting point is 00:23:32 I mean, they've got talent, though. I do it. I don't know. The thing I've been thinking about is like, I think that they should be able to lead on the run game in most games. And I do think, I was listening to you guys' discussion about the predictability and the run game, being able to lean on it, it kind of alludes to this point that I wanted to make, which is like the Eagles offense was predictable at times last year.
Starting point is 00:23:54 It's not like they threw out a pistol very much last year. You know, when they went into pistol, you knew they were going to run. There is an element of this offense where it's like, we don't care if you know what we're going to do. We're just going to beat you up and we're going to move people off the ball and we're going to succeed anyway. So I do think the absence of explosive plays in the run game kind of exacerbates that predictability.
Starting point is 00:24:13 And maybe you could make the argument that the predictability is contributing to it. But I don't know. Something tells me if Dallas Goddard was in that Grant Calcutera, tight end one in those, you know, in that 12 personnel set, like, it doesn't matter that you knew they were going to run. You know, like, I don't know. I think that that was like one of the Eagle superpowers last year. And I understand now that things aren't going as well, you do want to look at the coaching staff and wonder, like, can you vary these looks?
Starting point is 00:24:37 Can you become a little bit less predictable? But I don't know if the predictability is always, I think it's maybe overstated because I do think there were times last year where it was like, We knew what they were going to do. Everybody in the stadium knew they were going to run the ball, give it to Saquan. It was just a matter of stopping it. All right. Anybody else got anything for Mr. Satan over here? I do think I'm a little worried.
Starting point is 00:25:00 I mean, three ha-has? How does that end? Ha-ha-ha. Yeah. That's one I can't get a feel for. Oh, that's a big one for me, though. And that means, like, I would say, like, that means I'm in a good mood. Like, when I was texting you, I was amused.
Starting point is 00:25:14 Yeah. Now, how about the ha ha ha h? You know, like it ends on the H and not the ah. I think that's a sign of it being genuinely funny that you're not like. Just like, you're not even looking. But it's intentional too. Yeah. You're signaling by ending on the H that this was, it really took you out of your normal response.
Starting point is 00:25:37 Right? Yeah, I'm a big, I'm a big just like, ha-ha guy. Like, I'll just do that. So I'm not, I don't care what it is. I don't care what it is. I don't care what it ends on. There might be, there might even be a J in there,
Starting point is 00:25:47 you know, like the Spanish. Oh, oh. That feels a little bit like you're doing that on purpose. No, I promise you, I don't.
Starting point is 00:25:56 No, like, you just saw how quick I can do that. Like, that's my number one thing right there. That's quick. All right, everybody gets your thumbs up and let's say that.
Starting point is 00:26:06 All right. E.J. Smith, we will talk to you tomorrow at 2 o'clock, live on the Xfinity mobile call in line coming to us. from inside the HVAC system at the Novacare complex. Real quick, E.J., off of yesterday show,
Starting point is 00:26:19 have you gone and listened to any Limp Biscuit since? No, I thought about listening to the Beatles, but no, I haven't listened to either. And again, I want to make sure everybody's clear on this. Oh, Julia is aghast. She wasn't here yesterday. She was doing the B. Brian Graham show yesterday.
Starting point is 00:26:36 She's got a chance to hear this. He says the Beatles are, are you ready for this? Oh, no, no, let me say. Not timeless. That's his description of the Beatles. Wow. Their music sounds old. It sounds like from a time.
Starting point is 00:26:51 As someone who shares the same name as your wife, have you heard the song, Julia? The Beatles song, Julia? Day in the Life. I really don't. I prefer the Mountain Joy version of that song. Wow. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:27:03 I don't know. I'm not. Bacoon sounds like a mountain joy. Julia. That song. I walked in. That song doesn't sound modern at all. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:13 There was a clip of the Gargano show up this morning on the TV out here and there was a nice photo of Blake Trinan wearing his hat backwards and I swear to God I thought it was Fred Durst. And then both saw what Fred Durst looks like now which is not what he looked like 25 years. He lived hard. Yeah, he's got a whole new hairstyle. You got to keep rolling though.
Starting point is 00:27:33 Oh. I was going to get that too. Yeah, I don't get it. It's okay. It was just a little, I was a little too young for the limp biscuit. I don't think you. were though it just missed me by like a couple years i think i'm 31 i think i was a little too young last question from the chat how do we feel about a he he oh it feels a little weird
Starting point is 00:27:58 it's a little yeah it's a little not like that no naughty j didn't like how that one it just hit my ear wrong yeah i didn't like that one he's there stranger he he he sailor all right All right. Thank you, E.J. We'll talk to you tomorrow. All right, guys. Love you. See, man. All right. Time for another break. And then on the other side, we're going to explore the question of whether
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Starting point is 00:30:36 Real quick, are you guys staunch like summer, fall? Like, do you adhere to the date of the season? Or are you still kind of in, or have you already shifted into fall mode, even though it's not officially fall. This is a weird weather time where it's kind of perfect weather time but yes. It started earlier this year I feel it did. August was unusually cool. You can wear a t-shirt and shorts
Starting point is 00:30:57 or you can wear a hoodie and sweatpants too. And I'm I feel the only things I wear about I feel that you're yearning in my loins for soup season already. Okay. But it feels too early. I feel like it's too early for soup season. It is but I want some. I don't want to yuck your yum. Yeah, I want to get a crockpot going one Saturday with college football on but it feels
Starting point is 00:31:14 too early. What are you going to do crockpot? You know, chili or? Do you count chili as a soup? No, chili is not a soup. I love a Mississippi pot roast. You ever do one of those? No. Getting a little sexy with that.
Starting point is 00:31:26 I just love like an all day like crock pot like soup seasons. It's like 80 degrees, I think, on Saturday. Yeah, it's still too early. I feel like September is fall to me. Yeah, I feel like that, but it, yeah. All right, that's all. It's also a weather-based thing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Weird. Okay. That's all. This is weird. I feel like the seasons have shifted over like our life. lifetimes where I think I probably moved back a little bit where I don't know I feel like it's like late April early May it's still so pretty cold honestly and in September it's look we don't need to get a whole global warming discussion but September is hot man it's 80 degrees and late September
Starting point is 00:32:04 yeah we got a chili maker in the chat Dave P what up he's making some chili this weekend nice let's get a little thumbs up in the chat here come on I did want to ask you guys before we get to this discussion about Drew McCuba and Johan Campbell, and we got handsome rich on the show. I want to talk just about handsomeness for a sec. Robert Redford. All time, I think I might make the case to the most
Starting point is 00:32:27 handsome American whoever lived. I think if Eileen Lynch, my mom was weighing in, she'd put up a big fight for Harrison Ford, but I don't think she would fight you too hard on Robert Redford. Robert Redford is, I mean, he's a babe. I forget. My Kinsey scale changes for Robert Redford. There was a story going around yesterday.
Starting point is 00:32:46 actor. I think it was Mike Nichols with the graduate where Robert Redford was so good reading for that role. And he was like, you're, you can't do the role. You're too good looking. Nobody would believe that you. Nobody would believe it. And Robert Redford's like, what do you mean? And then it's like, well, he's like, I don't know about that. I think I could do it. And then and Nichols is like, well, have you ever had trouble like getting a girl? He's like, what? He didn't understand. He genuinely did not understand the concept of being interested in a girl. Any girl. Like any time in his life. And he was like, what does that mean? Like, you know, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:33:21 And it seemed like he was, he was very genuine. And I think Mike Nichols was like, that's why you can't play. Yeah. And listen, I see it. I mean, the way he aged too. Yeah. I mean, just a fox till the end. Kind of looks like a little bit like Roger Daltry there.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Okay. Yeah, listen, I love D'Amico, as people are saying in the chat. But, you know, this is, we're talking about, you know, the what's good now versus what's good forever. Julia, great job. Look at these things.
Starting point is 00:33:48 Wow, what a slideshow of this hunk. Oh. And one of the great actors and, and a good, you know, a great human.
Starting point is 00:33:54 Yeah, his interpersonal abilities, but yeah, he seems like a great person. You know, seemed like he was fighting for the right thing. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:34:00 Shout out to Bob. Yeah. I got to, I got to dive into some more of his movies. I've only seen, like, surface level. I got to do a little bit of a deeper dive.
Starting point is 00:34:11 Like the big, the big one, the sting. You see. Pitch Cassidy. Sting. I haven't seen. Jeremiah Johnson.
Starting point is 00:34:15 Yeah, but I found out that that meme, like, five years ago, and my brain exploded that day. I found out like five hours ago. I've been picking up pieces of my brain ever since. What a tribute to his acting ability. I thought that was Zach Kalfinacus. He's the most handsome guy in the world to transform into Zach Galfinac. That's unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:34:38 Underrated Robert Redford movie. I mean, probably not underrated for older people, but I think for, you know, seven movie younger people. Three days of the Conner. I had a lovely night to myself like three years ago just watching that movie. All right. I got to put it on the list. Yeah, all right. A little spy type movie. It's good.
Starting point is 00:34:55 Julius says up close and personal. I have not seen that one either. Good bad for talk on a Wednesday. All right. That's going to bring us to Shady Rays. The Future is Bright. And let's talk about the future being bright for a couple early players on defense for the Eagles. And I'm thinking about this through the prism of last year, the Eagles very clearly,
Starting point is 00:35:18 I mean, drafted arguably the two best defensive players in the draft with their first two picks. They nailed those picks, change the face of the defense. Yeah. Rich, do you feel like we are like approaching that already? Is it too early? Yeah, I mean, I think it's too early to at least give them the stamp of approval that you would give Quinyan and Koup because they did it. There's only one, Quinnion. They did it all.
Starting point is 00:35:41 Look at these boys. Oh, look at those hands. boys. Good job, Drew. Anyway. Playing the bongos. You're the one who did to do it. I'm all to the place with that and giving away the Jim Murray answer earlier.
Starting point is 00:36:05 A little wet way. In action? It's like one of those studio shows Bill Simmons complains about. How many people can I? fit of the table. We could fit five now with these guys. By the way, speaking of handsomeness, Jihad jumps off the screen.
Starting point is 00:36:23 That dude is total pack. That two shots fired him. Drew. I mean, I don't mean, speaking of Drew, and there's two guys and you're only going to talk about one.
Starting point is 00:36:32 I mean, I've had this thought before. You know, Jihad's got quite a smile on him. I think that's fair. Yeah. I think that's fair. I would say,
Starting point is 00:36:40 wait, to get back to Michael. Which did get interrupted with some great bongo, playing and what will he actually and all that stuff. I think it's a very promising start for the two of those and I mean so much of the NFL is just you know do you keep hitting on your draft picks
Starting point is 00:36:55 and you know we talk about you know maybe the Eagle scheme in some respects there are frustrating aspects about the team but the thing people always come back to is man these guys got a lot of talent and the fact that they're on this run of basically four straight amazing drafts looks like it might be five
Starting point is 00:37:12 with these guys. Makuba I'm very interested in that Vic seems to be a little more tepid with his praise where he's, you know, he, I thought he summed it up exactly how it felt the other day where he was like, man, he made some great plays that Blitz was awesome. The third downstop where he fought through the coverage and then and then raises the hand for fourth down after it's over. That reminded me of Cooper DeGine against Jamar Chase last year. Oh, I like that. Running him down. It's like, man, that's, that's a ballplayer right there. But there are some other elements where we don't know.
Starting point is 00:37:45 exactly what happened on that long Taekwan Thornton touchdown. I wonder if he was a little bit involved there. And Vic said, look, we do need to eliminate some of the bad plays as well. But as far as like a start and a guy who really didn't play a ton in training camp to make so many positive plays early on being thrown into the fire. That's good. My gut is that jihad is real deal. Like you can put him in that defensive rookie of the year conversation.
Starting point is 00:38:07 My gut with Drew is he's one of those guys that's going to be a ball hawk. He's going to make some plays for you. He's going to be in right positions a lot of time. but he's also going to burn you here and there. Now, there's obviously room to improve that, but I think that, and look, that's a,
Starting point is 00:38:22 you know, that's a long career in the NFL. Oh, that's still probable, yeah, for sure. So if he can improve on that, but like I think there are going to be those plays
Starting point is 00:38:28 where Mahomes maybe trucks him because he's a little smaller. And maybe there's a play, like to Rich's point on the touchdown where he's out of position or doesn't quite understand the assignment. Might not have been his fault too. We don't know.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Yeah, we don't. But then there's also going to be plays where he comes up with interceptions and force fumbles. And I just think he's, he's going to be mostly good with some bad. And we'll see. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:38:49 I don't want to pour water on McCuba yet. I think he's very good. It's a little bit early, I think. And I also think if you're just looking at it from the draft, how that played out, it is also true that Xavier Watts, who went at the picked Eagles traded out of in the third round,
Starting point is 00:39:07 has looked really good so far, arguably better than McCuba. Billy Bowman, who went in the fourth round, has looked pretty good. Jonas Sanker who went in the third round has looked pretty good. And so if you were someone who thought that maybe they reached on Macuba and could have waited on a safety because there was kind of a similarly graded group,
Starting point is 00:39:25 I don't think that you would be dissuaded from that yet. But there's something to be said for if this guy's good, you know, that's a fine pick. And there's also, there isn't really anyone who went right after Maccuba who like jumps out as like that would have been a better pick. I think if you were playing it out again from Howie Roseman's standpoint, The thing would still be, is there a chance we could have moved up in round two for somebody else and then gotten a safety later anyway? But I think there's no doubt that at this point, they've got to be pretty happy. I think Jahad Campbell, they're over the moon.
Starting point is 00:39:55 Yeah, I think he's the real deal, no doubt about it. He's in that conversation at the end of the year when it comes to defensive rookie of the years. I mean, to have that start after, you know, missing OTAs and missing some of the springtime stuff to come in and be able to pick up what players say is a very complicated and trusting system. that Vic Fangio runs to get it like that in game one. Like I think that's just, that's rare. Well, and that's why the third and one stop from Akuba. That was my favorite play he made. I know the interception actually won the game,
Starting point is 00:40:24 but, you know, there's a little bit of luck in that. And I do, I do think there is a little bit of small sample bias where it's like, this guy has a notice for the football. He gets the interception in his preseason game that he plays. And then he makes the big play here. It's like, well, let's see if this goes through a full season. I know he had five interceptions. last year at Texas as well.
Starting point is 00:40:44 But when he's making the plays where he has like the smarts to run through all of that traffic and then the toughness to make the tackle, they've drafted some really good tacklers over the past few years. Superdegene is a phenomenal tackle. That's such a luxury. It really is. It's a good point.
Starting point is 00:40:58 Yeah. So. And that's what jumps out when you watch this team, right? Like just these guys are so physical. So sound. Yeah. Yeah. Just sound football all across the board.
Starting point is 00:41:06 A quick super chat as we transition out of the future is bright from Shady raised from Chase Daniel Plainview who says, I find Nick Wright's Eagles takes dumb and incurious. I agree with that, but he says, is there a Syracuse grad that provides more informed Eagles analysis? Now, CDP,
Starting point is 00:41:25 we've got to work on your grammar here. That's got to be a who, not of that. We're talking about a person that you're asking about. So let's clean that up. And then the answer is very clearly, if you are of the opinion, Michael Barkhan, right? That Nick Wright is tilted the wrong way. You want someone who's a little bit more
Starting point is 00:41:41 of a Homer. I mean, Adam Lefco is standing right there. Yeah. You got Barkin. You got Lefco. MacGelb has Eagles' opinions. Yeah, MacGelb. Yeah. That's all that really comes to mine. Yeah. Andy McCullough? No, I didn't know he was a Syracuse. Tony Bunn, Syracuse?
Starting point is 00:41:57 Tony Buns? Yeah, not an Eagles fan, but he'll have some stuff for you. NBC's Philly just hired a Syracuse kid to cover the Phillies digitally. He's probably in the know and has Eagles. Let's get him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Bob Costis. Yeah, you do have Bob, yeah. All right.
Starting point is 00:42:15 Yeah. Good question, though. Yeah. All right. Let's take our last break here on the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. And when we return, we will hopefully be joined by Mina Kimes of ESPN. All right. Here's what you need to know about Ashley.
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Starting point is 00:44:20 just a season, it's a feeling. Visit your local Ashley Showroom and start saving today. How about that? Look at that. I mean, the work going on behind the scenes by Julia, fantastic job. Feels like SNL. Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, say nothing of the pants situation that's going on.
Starting point is 00:44:41 All right. Yeah, I think, I think, do you have any of the other rookies been interesting to you? Well, you know, Ty Robinson haven't seen. Yeah, haven't seen too much. Yeah. Inactive week one. Of him, yeah. MacMac Williams.
Starting point is 00:44:57 Mac Williams, haven't seen. Yep. So, yeah, I'm- Darius Cooper is the answer. Well, he's been doing a great job on the tush pushes. I am very excited to see him in the game. It's funny. We looked at John Dotson not getting those snaps.
Starting point is 00:45:09 That's because Darius Cooper's taking all those tush pushes from him. He's pushing guys around in the russ pusses. Run game two. Darius Cooper's going to have a catch this week. You think? That's a prediction. Yeah. Man,
Starting point is 00:45:19 that'll be a tendency breaker. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be a tendency breaker against the ramps. All right. Let's go back to the Xfinity mobile call in line and welcome in Mina Kimes. The VSPN and the Mina Kimes show. Mina,
Starting point is 00:45:31 thank you for joining us. How are you? Hey, I'm good. That was a great ad read. By the way, I was sitting while you're doing the Ashley's furniture. Super well done.
Starting point is 00:45:40 Thank you very much. That means a lot coming from a pro. Um, okay, last time we talked to you was right before week one. So we now have two games to discuss. And I guess the question is for, uh, if you're talking to the in-laws and they're telling you all this, this passing game is terrible like we're two and oh, but that's not good enough. Do you, do you play along or do you say, uh, no, you're two and oh, don't worry about it. It'll get better.
Starting point is 00:46:07 Uh, I, I might agree with them that the passing game is, is something to, uh, to talk about. I don't think it's something to hit the panic over, the panic button over. They literally have gone through this now for a couple of years, right? And I think being two and no matters, and I think it matters against decent competition. And I think the defense is playing well and the run game looks fantastic. But if you want to get back to the Super Bowl and win it, and that should be the goal for the Philadelphia Eagles. This passing game has to look better than it has early on.
Starting point is 00:46:36 And so what to you jumps out there? Because we have talked a lot this week about the predictability. You know, everything is these two by two sets. And when they're, you know, by formation, they have been very predictable. I am personally, like, I am offended by how much 12 and 13 personnel they've been playing. I don't think you need to run out of that. But that's a separate conversation. In the passing game, what jumps out to you?
Starting point is 00:46:59 Well, they've like only run out of 12, right? I like that was when I was looking this last week. Yeah. So that's not good. Obviously, Goddard, you know, that's a big part of that. But, you know, just the deployment of A.J. Brown, I think is probably, the single biggest most annoying thing to watch. I mean...
Starting point is 00:47:17 Does he look all the way right to you? I don't think that's the problem. Okay. I mean, I feel like conservatively 60% of his targets were slants. I don't have the chart in front of me. I think that is conservative, yes. He's way too good to be limited this way.
Starting point is 00:47:40 Like, you know, how about a crosser? Can we get him on a crosser? He's AJ Brown. He's giant. He's fast. He catches everything. He beats up corners. So that's been frustrating to me because, you know, I think defenses are going to keep blitzing them.
Starting point is 00:47:54 We can talk about that with the Rams. And the answer to the blitz has to be something other than just AJ on Slam or a pray or go ball to Devante. Mina, do you find them to be as somebody who looks at the entire league, a frustrating team to talk about? Because you have things, you know, you just said. how about a crosser, like a very simple thing in an intermediate route. And yet they're the Super Bowl champions. They're two and oh.
Starting point is 00:48:19 And they just ruthlessly win every single week. But it just seems like the offense is very predictable. They have two star receivers who are not getting the ball at all. But yet they continue to just win games. No, I enjoy talking about them because at least we can like diagnose things. Like what I find frustrating is the team like the Ravens that loses in dumb ways, right? Oh, yeah. And as an analyst, they'll ask me the next day on TV.
Starting point is 00:48:42 what's wrong with the Ravens? And I'm like, I got, yeah, you know, I don't know. Stop losing in stupid ways. Whereas with Philadelphia, they're very talented. And I think you can actually point to specific things like, hey, let's see AJ Brown use this way. Hey, maybe defensively, I actually think the defense looked pretty good. But I think with Philadelphia, it's part of the reason why I'm not panicking.
Starting point is 00:49:01 They're too talented. They're so talented. They'll figure it out. There's obviously the coaching change. So I think as a fan, I'm sure it's frustrating to watch them, you know, have the Ferrari parked the way that it's. been, but at least it's fixable. And so I want to ask you about this because we've been trying to get beyond, okay, like,
Starting point is 00:49:19 is this good or bad the way that they're playing? And more like what is the why behind it? And Siriani and Petulow have talked about this a little bit. And to me, it feels like maybe they have learned the wrong lesson from last season, which is just that, okay, if we don't turn the ball over and we sort of like decrease the variance, we are going to out-talent people and that's going to be good enough. and I do feel like that is wasting your resources a little bit. But how do you feel about that, like given the talent that they have,
Starting point is 00:49:47 AJ Brown and also Devante Smith, who was going underutilized, like, is it, are you okay with like, let's just make this game as low possession and like very basic as possible? And then we're going to come out in the end because maybe our defense will, will make a big turnover. I mean, two red zone turnovers in a row these last two weeks. or, I mean, are you of the opinion that, like, if you have a talent advantage,
Starting point is 00:50:13 you probably want to maximize possessions and you want to make it so that over the course of, you know, more possessions, your talent's going to win out that way. Like, kind of leading the witness a little bit. I know, I didn't quite land the plane. Competition matters a lot. Okay, so I think week one,
Starting point is 00:50:31 things were really thrown by the Jalen Carter injury, and I feel like that kind of threw that whole game, you know, into, chaos and week two i think they correctly identified that they had a talent of advantage versus the chiefs offense and so and obviously steegs spagnolo it's tricky with what he does pressure wise so i think you can write that off to some extent i don't think that's going to fly against this rams offense i think this is the week where you need to see uh the ferrari come out of the garage because this rams offense can go matthew stafford has looked incredible for the first two weeks
Starting point is 00:51:06 the season. I think the combination of Donate Adams and Puganakua is going to give this Eagles defense unique issues. So the offense needs to keep up. You cannot play that style of football. You can't be conservative in this game. You got to make the most of your talent on offense against this. And also competition
Starting point is 00:51:22 because the Rams defense, I think on the secondary, there's a lot of places that the Eagles can take advantage of. But you got to throw to your monster is to take advantage of those weaknesses. So I think this is the week you got to see it. Okay. Let's get into this matchup then. And for those who don't know, You know this Rams team very well.
Starting point is 00:51:37 You spent the preseason doing their games, right? So let's start on the Rams offensive side of the ball. And given the history of McVeigh and Fangio, this is obviously going to be a fun chess match. But if you are game planning for, okay, we know the Eagles have this one weakness at that outside corner spot at Indore Jackson. Do you expect that, and E.J. Smith brought this up earlier,
Starting point is 00:52:02 do you expect that maybe Pooka Nakua spends more time on the outside than in the slot so that he can, go up against the Dori Jackson? You know, I got into this a little bit on my show, Minicom Show featuring Lenny, previewing the game. So I went back and looked at last, how they used Nekua in the divisional round, and he was lined up way wide, way more than he's used to.
Starting point is 00:52:23 Queenie and Mitchell got her in that game. You know, you remember that, of course. And Stafford, I think over 50% of his targets in that game were to receivers lined up wide, which is way above his average. We usually think of Puka Nukua being aligned. in the slot or tied to the formation. But there was a concerted effort to get to de-emphasize Cooper Jean in that game.
Starting point is 00:52:42 John McVeigh is a very smart coach, right? He's not going to roll out there and say, let's do what we do. He is going to find ways to go after your second cornerback position, whether it's Nakua or Devante Adams, who I think looks really good. In my mind, you know, there's only so much you can do to protect that early on, you know, the Vic Van Gio, he's not leaving him on an island. He tries to give him safety help. But the other thing with the Rams is like the way,
Starting point is 00:53:06 Stafford is playing, even if you have great coverage, he's killing guys. To me, it's all about Jalen Carter and getting quick pressure. Of course, you remember he basically called game the last time these teams played. The Jalen Carter, the impact he had in that game was so dramatic that the Rams just completely changed the entire. They brought back an old center because they were so upset about that. So I think, but the Rams offensive line has looked like a question mark to me early on. Stafford's been under a lot of pressure.
Starting point is 00:53:31 And I think quick pressure is going to be key. Can you get it up the middle against this? and flush Stafford out of the pocket. I think that's going to be paramount for Philadelphia. Mina, what did you make of a Fangio going blitz heavy against the Chiefs? I mean, I thought that was pretty cool after the Super Bowl
Starting point is 00:53:46 when he famously doesn't blitz at all. And he, you know, he gets asked in his press conference this week, well, why did you blitz more? And he said, well,
Starting point is 00:53:52 I needed to this time. I didn't need to the last game that we played. Well, he also, like, he took him by surprise a few times, right? I mean, other than Mahoma scrambling,
Starting point is 00:54:01 he mostly got him. The McCuba blitz, I love. I think I said this on NFL live, but the Eagles blitzed DBs at the lowest rate in football last year. Third down, dying personnel. Who's thinking to send MacUBA? I loved that from Fangio.
Starting point is 00:54:16 It was right for that opponent. Don't know if it's exactly right, though, for this one. I think with this one, you really want to get pressure with four. You really want the interior, I think in particular, to dominate the way that Jalen Carter is capable of, but hasn't shown this far.
Starting point is 00:54:32 All right. Other side of the ball, back to the discussion of the Eagles offense. What should we expect from the Rams defense? So Rams defense pretty similar to last year. Very good four-man rush weaknesses behind that. I think you can run on them. Akila Weatherspoon is not playing in this game.
Starting point is 00:54:49 So I think we're probably going to see a lot of Emmanuel Forbes. Which, I mean, listen, I don't know if you remember this, Mina, but A.J. Brown essentially ended his career. It's basically why is the Ram. Right, exactly. So like if they can't get AJ going this week, then we really got some problems. Yeah, or whoever's on him. And I also think you're going to run, you want to run at him. He's a smaller corner.
Starting point is 00:55:09 The Eagles have been, you know, it's looked to me like it's been a lot of outside zone this season thus far. I think that's a matchup you want. You want to make Emanuel Forbes tackle if he's out there. You know, I think it's just going to be, for me, for Hertz and Petulow, which is Chris Ullo is going to throw a lot at you. He's pretty creative with his pressure design. You saw that actually, right? In the divisional round, I remember he got them a few times with simulated
Starting point is 00:55:33 to pressures where he'd walk up the linebackers. You could tell Hertz was bothered by that. So I think they have to come up with a plan for pressure, not just the standard rush. And they got to get Hertz answers that aren't just slant to AJ Brown over and over. Right. Or Chuck a Deep, which that worked okay.
Starting point is 00:55:51 I'd like to see a little bit more of that. They had like a play action pass, I think, to Granson, I want to say that I loved in this last game. It was like the, I thought that might have been an RPO is like the only one they ran all day. It was an RPO. And then they popped a screen to Devante, too. That was excellent.
Starting point is 00:56:07 That was very successful, if I remember correctly. Like, just mix it up, please. Yes, that's actually the one, and we haven't talked about this. The one part of the offense that looks better this year than last year is the screen game, which was mostly non-existent last year. What is your read on, on Jalen, Mina, because to our eyes, he's actually playing better than he did last year.
Starting point is 00:56:26 It seems like he's seeing things quicker. It's just that maybe the answers aren't quite there. Yeah, he's fine. I think it's hard to, know if it's sometimes with the absence of the passing game if it's about him if it's scheme versus him not pulling the trigger on stuff right um you know it i think he has thrown the ball well he looks really dynamic as a scrambler this season or undesigned runs so the ability is there i think it's just kind of like is it willingness or is it coaching right now that's that's constricting
Starting point is 00:56:55 this offense i think we're going to learn a lot this week okay mina kimes very last question uh very quick which is a bigger violation from EJ, thinking that the Beatles are just okay or never having heard of Limp Biscuit? Wow. Probably the Beatles take because Limp Biscuit feels like a generational thing. He's really young, right?
Starting point is 00:57:16 He's 31. I feel like it's within range. I'm definitely the Limp Biscuit generation and I don't think we're better for it. All right. I'll say the Beatles thing. Nina Kimes. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:57:30 we'll talk to you in two weeks. Bye guys. All right. I feel like EJ gets off, gets off easy there. I just love that the whole music universe is revolving around the Beatles and then biscuit right now.
Starting point is 00:57:45 Just nothing in between. It's like one of those. I underrated yesterday was the idea that he'd never heard of Bach or Dostoevsky. I mean, Julia, you got to watch yesterday's show. But yeah, I feel like, I feel like other Julia.
Starting point is 00:58:00 is going to be dragging E.J. through the mud. I think she's got to... Back down to hell with that microphone. Think she's going to be having some classical music in the house? She should be bumping that from when he comes home. Some Dostoevsky, followed by Fred Durst. We have breaking news. And this is honestly disgusting, breaking news, Rich.
Starting point is 00:58:22 And I will tell you what it is. When we return... Is this like a touch too early? Is this okay, Julia? Okay. The Eagles have made a roster move. They have added somebody to the roster. And you're going to think to yourself, huh, this is very interesting.
Starting point is 00:58:36 I wonder if it's somebody from the practice squad who's been playing. Maybe Marcus Haps deserves to get promoted to the practice squad two weeks in a row. Or it's someone who they really need at a position. Maybe a tight end. We find a blocking tight end. Ah, that's a good idea. Unfortunately, it is not any of those things. It is a very bizarre retread here.
Starting point is 00:58:55 And I will tell it to you in overtime. That's right. Welcome back Kenyon Green. to the active roster. What's the deal with that? Got unprotected. I honestly, I don't know what's going on with this one.
Starting point is 00:59:17 I mean, listen, he's a talented player. We never really saw it in the summer. You know, Jeff Stalin doesn't seem to have taken a liking to him necessarily, but the, you know,
Starting point is 00:59:28 the practice squad, then the active roster, then the waving, then the back to the active roster. Why can't they just put him on the practice squad? Who's no, nobody's, nobody's,
Starting point is 00:59:38 claim. So, like, we'll just put them on the practice squad. I don't, don't you, aren't you going to have to promote Marcus Epps at some point? I think so. You know what? This is the, everybody, everybody's worried about the passing game. I'm worried about what's going on in the front office, man. I mean, with this, it's been an active couple weeks, like he could bring Gabe Hall back. Like, you know what? Gosh.
Starting point is 01:00:02 We didn't even get to. This is, uh, uh, Willie Lampkin Bowl. Yeah. Yeah. Still on my arm, but. No love, love. there with that claim. I mean,
Starting point is 01:00:13 Lampkin versus Dylan McMahon. Only one can survive. Absolutely. I mean, that's going to be the, I'm sure Fox is going to highlight that matchup before the game. You know why I miss man?
Starting point is 01:00:24 This is just a random guy who has been on the Eagles practice squad. I miss Jack Stoll. You mentioned a blocking tight end. Jack Stoll. I'm just thinking back to that long Devante touchdown against,
Starting point is 01:00:37 I believe it was against Cincinnati last year. And Nick Siriani after the play is over, he goes to Devante and is like, you got a thank Stoll. He just blocked the guy for like 10 minutes on that play. And he did. And I just, yeah, that blocking tight end skill set, I'm missing it, man.
Starting point is 01:00:52 Yeah, they desperately need that. And I don't know if you caught this, but last, well, they believed last week, the, I think it's the Saints promoted Stoll from the practice squad to the active roster. And my sense is that was because maybe the Eagles were trying to bring him. Elmore's like, look, I saw a little bit
Starting point is 01:01:08 of their, let it happen again. I saw a little bit of their game. We got to get this guy. Plus, everybody knows. Jalen trusts him. Yes, he does. Does he trust Kylan? Does he trust Grant?
Starting point is 01:01:17 I don't know. Not the way he trusts Jack. Yeah. I am, I know you're going to talk about it with Fran and E.J. And Dana is over the next few days. I do think the point that you're going to need
Starting point is 01:01:29 to actually take the trading wheels off for this game is going to be important. I am very worried about the right framing from Mina too. Yeah. Very worried about Adori Jackson against Sean McVeigh with two excellent receivers. It's just at some point, Uncle Vic's not going to be able to scheme around Adori.
Starting point is 01:01:46 And that's going to be trouble. So I think they're going to have to score a lot of points. Now look, is this a defense that they have scored a lot of points over the past years? Mostly through the ground last year, right? It's hard to, again, you wonder if Sequin breaking off
Starting point is 01:02:00 basically a record number of 50 plus yard runs last year is sustainable. This was the team that he got a ton of those against. It was crazy. Like once he got to the second. level against the Rams. I mean, it was, it was a house call every time. And this is the, you know, this is the challenge for defensive coordinators, right? Is, do you commit more guys to the box? And Dain is, I'm not talking about when they're loaded up and it's an even
Starting point is 01:02:23 matchup here. I'm talking about if you're like an 11 and you're still bringing eight to the box, then if you get through that second level, Sequin's off to the races. Yeah. Do you feel like Sequeon looks like he has the same juices last year, just to your naked eye? I just don't think he's gotten quite the same blocking. Yeah. As, as last year. year maybe maybe a tick less but I don't know I feel like I don't think there have been real chances to see like like when he's gotten to the second that's the right answer it feels like he has you know like the touchdown run against the chiefs uh like it would have been an 80 yard touchdown probably if it was in a different part of the field um and you do what what what I'm definitely still seeing
Starting point is 01:02:59 is like you know the shiftingness in the backfield to make a guy miss I think he's had a lot of very impressive four and five yard runs in the first few games like what he was 22 for for 88 last week. That's right. Yeah. Look at you with the numbers. Yeah, I don't know. It's just stuck. Stuck in my head. Yeah. That's why he's the quiz master. Absolutely. Yeah. That's not an answer on the quiz though.
Starting point is 01:03:19 Would you like to be a like a quizo guy? Yeah. I think I would. Okay. I mean, I like that. We should make that an event. Let's make that an event for the diehards. Yeah. Handsome Riches Quizzo. Yeah. I mean, like just, you know, hanging out at a bar on a Wednesday night. You know, they got the Phillies game on. Bring me back my pencils. Don't steal my pencils. that's always a big thing. Yes.
Starting point is 01:03:41 Well, and also, too, I mean, there's rampant cheat. The one thing I wouldn't want to do with this, rampant cheating, you're modern quizzo. Sure. I mean, there's nothing more frustrating. Julia likes a quiz. Julia's got a weekly quizzo team, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:53 It's just very interesting, though, right? Okay. Do you like the regular one better? Are you working hard or something? What is it, like, name that tune? Or is it like music, like, trivia? No, it'll be like there's categories. Like, the last round is you have.
Starting point is 01:04:18 have to name the first and last name of the artist, spelling matters. And then you have to name the exact song title. Spelling matters. Other, other rounds are name what movie this song is from or what show this song is. Yeah, I like that. And the first round, I think, is usually just like some kind of theme. And you have to name the artist.
Starting point is 01:04:39 We had a, we had a, like a trivia thing in college where it was like a, like, there was this, there was like a traveling thing. that went to campuses and it was like a thing that went on stage and like you have a team and then one person goes up. And we got like, you get like a $500 thing if you win. And I was the one who went up. Guess I took it down, no big deal. And I remember that the championship answer was,
Starting point is 01:05:03 it was like a, you know, name that tune and it was TV theme songs. And like, you know, right up my alley. Sex in the city was the answer. Was the winner. But I mean, it's an easy one. You're going to go right in. Here we go. Yeah, great one.
Starting point is 01:05:18 There you go. That sounds like a lot of fun. So we, maybe we can work at some point. New side gig for you. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll see you guys at Wednesday night,
Starting point is 01:05:27 some random bar in the Delaware Valley. Yeah, we're going to do it at Fran's house. So does he have a bar set up? We don't know. Yeah, when you get to, when you're able to get to the fifth set of questions
Starting point is 01:05:42 on the PhD, the ultimate PHLI sports quiz, in the answer key is Fran's address. And you can join us. And also the date of the quiz. Spelling important, though. Spelling important. And there is one very good Easter egg
Starting point is 01:05:59 in the answers there by you, which I really appreciate it. All right. Handsome Rich, great job. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, E.J., thank you, Mina. And that's all we got. Tomorrow, we're back 2 o'clock.
Starting point is 01:06:11 E.J. and Fran right here in studio, the return of Swooper. Maybe some other things going on. We'll find out. And of course, we talk and get into this matchup with the, So thank you to Julia. Thanks to everybody for being there.
Starting point is 01:06:23 And by the way, please check out the latest episode of Brandon Graham Unblocked on the Brandon Graham Unblocked YouTube channel. Hit subscribe to that bad boy for us. Please, you know, comment and share that. Very fun conversation with BG. A great story about the elevator, which was the highlight of my week. Unbelievable. But then also some like some real nitty, gritty defensive line stuff. Also his thoughts on the tush push and Jillen Hertz's smack talk.
Starting point is 01:06:50 and his thoughts on the Rams. So good conversation. And thank you, Julia. Remember, it takes a little to be a big. Big brothers, big sisters. This is their month. We're trying to do what we can to support them. So if you can find it in your heart, please donate. That's all we got. Thanks, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.

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