The Josh Innes Show - Did The Eagles Make The Right Move?

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

The debate on Philly radio is about Sirianni's decision to rest the Eagles starters in the season finale. Let's listen to the WIP morning dudes debate. In fairness, it's a good debate. How will this decision impact their playoff hopes? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, let's see here. So one of my favorite things that I've started to do on these Mondays after football games or after just football games, whenever they are, is I like to check out WIP's Twitter because they post videos of all their host talking about the things they saw. And apparently their morning guy, Joe DeCamra, is not happy about the way the backups looked for the Eagles. It was not pleased. You know, I mean, God forbid, backups not be as good as starters, right? I mean, my God, but let's do this. Let's play a couple commercials in here, the rage. I did not listen to the audio.

All I do is read the caption, and then I'll listen to the audio with you. But, I mean, in Philadelphia, my man is upset that the backups, the backups, the people who are not good enough to be starters, that the backups didn't do their job yesterday, which was apparently to go out and beat Washington. as backups as either way they were favored in the game for what it's worth but let's play a couple commercials and get to that audio all right let's see here let's give this a listen to the WIPA morning show bitching about the backups I blame balls I got Siriani for some of that type of stuff I got Kili Ringo in mind I've got the freaking 17th wide receiver Cooper in mine who they would have scored a touchdown but he does okay I catch a ball for the

fourth time all year let me taunt Do you think that was a real big It was a horrible call but they made it Yeah it was enough I'm not the fact that Ria's still doing it after they you know kind of dismissed everybody else you know Angelo left and then they're like I did Al you're gone

and all these guys but look at Ria's still Kagan Ria's a very lovely person by the way I never had any issues with Ria she was very nice very clear you did it I'm going to give it to Kili Ringo I mean can we add to Corey a minute, can it be a dual? They're, ah. Well, I feel like I'd kill myself having to break down what the backups did.

Like, this is where I kind of draw the line in the sports media world, right? Like, I think I can talk about a lot of dumb shit in sports media. Like, having to break down the backups that played in this game is like, my God, I think I'd shoot myself. Again, Howie's got his work cut out in the offseason to replenish the backups, because clearly the Eagles' backups are not good. Here's the thing. They're backups, Joe. I guess someone going to throw that out there and be like, hey, Joe, they're backups. Like, what is your expectation that every, all 53 dudes that are on the roster are all amazing players?

Like, hey, you better get out there. I don't care what you do in this postseason, Howie, but you got your work cut out for you, Bub. You better go out there and get me some solid backup players, bud. Most often that is. And pretty much everybody knew we won't. Well, yeah. I mean, they made one trade or two trades to try to rectify. Multiple.

Well, and this is what, the whole offseason, we talked about how many guys they lost. And it didn't end up affecting the starting defense the way we thought. It's the depth. The whole team is nowhere close to what it was. And also, and I'll use. I mean, that happens, man. Like, what do you want? Like, I'll never be a guy that gets all up in arms about, you know, oh, our backup guys are, I mean, that's life.

Like, when people bitch about a backup quarterback, there might be five teams in the league that have a backup quarterback that they like. there's a reason why the guys are backups, right? Now, some teams, like, you know, like, I think Washington has a decent backup with, like, Marcus Mariotta, right? Like, you can look at guys like that. Davis Mills has actually proven to be a very solid backup. And if not for Davis Mills, the Texans don't make the playoffs. So credit to the neck. But most teams just have dog shit.

Like, I understand the guy that was playing quarterback for the Chiefs yesterday isn't their backup quarterback, right? Like, I think they have a decent backup with, what's his name, with the mullet. But, like, this guy, this Ola-Duke. or whatever the hell his name was, one of the worst quarterbacks I've ever watched play football. So, like, I get it. Like, you want to have better, but it's backups.

They're the reserves. They're not the starters. That's why they are who they are. This isn't very difficult. Seattle, a decade ago, as an example, because I remember when the Eagles got Chris Margoes from Seattle. And it's like, well, how do you get that guy who's that good at special teams?

Because they're paying all their great starters. It's like, all right, it's time to pay Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson and the running back and this guy and that guy. So you get to plead it when you pay Hertz and A.J. and Lane and Malada and on down. Thank you for breaking down obvious things. I think I've had enough of that. So there you go. So that's what they're talking about in Philadelphia, apparently, today. And also they're very upset. Oh, oh, good, good. Okay, here we go. Now we're cooking. Now, this is what I'm really looking for here.

The morning team debates Nick Siriani's decision to sit eagle starters on Sunday. Now, going into the game, there was a chance they could have moved up in the world a little bit, but not much. Like it was, you know, I mean, I guess, well, I guess then the bears, since the bears lost, that means the Eagles could have moved up to the two. Real talk, there isn't a huge fucking difference between the two and the three. there isn't that big of a deal and if the bears go out and lose then it really doesn't win the bears lose it doesn't matter then right

so there's not a huge difference between being the two seed and the three seed right but you know whatever let's see what they're angry about here today I can accept as an Eagles fan this premise if my team can't beat San Francisco at home

they weren't going to win the cerebral anyway that's where I now I think the thing from yesterday factors more into the second round if you lose at Chicago. Every team. Yeah, but, you know, I get that.

Duh. But, like, Chicago may not win. So you might be playing two home games anyway. Like, because the situation you're in, you're a battle-tested team with a quarterback that's won a Super Bowl and been to another one, with elite playmaking

wide receivers. Now, granted, you're a very flawed team. You are very flawed offensively, and none of this may matter. But But even if you have to go to Chicago, you'd have the advantage over Chicago. You are a battle-tested team that's been there, done that. You're used to playing in cold-weather stadiums. There's no advantage that I would give them over you other than, I think, you know, throwing

the football-wise, their quarterback may be better than yours, but your quarterback winning games-wise is better than theirs. But like, was it worth playing your guys in the last game of the year for the chance that You could flip-flop with the bears and get the two. And, you know, whether you're playing the bears at home or away, you should beat the bears because you are a better team than the bears, and you've been there before and you've done that before, and they haven't. All this is going to be moot because the bears are going to lose to the Packers

for all the reasons I just said. They haven't been there. They haven't done it. But let's continue. You need the right path. Some luck goes into this. The right path helps. Some luck goes into this. Throw caution to the win and go out there and whoop people.

You also don't know what the path is. Last year we thought we were going to Detroit, Detroit lost to what. You've no idea what the path's going to be. Like you can't predict the path. The path is to beat the Bears. This time, absolutely beat the Bears. It's tough to be the team three times in a year. This time, we could predict it.

This time. Boy, my man's angry. My man, John Ritchie is fired up on this. Looks good, too. Got a nice little beard action going on, nice little glasses. John Ritchie fired up. We knew that the lions were going to take on the bears and that they had a chance to win of your chance.

But you don't know if they were going to win, and I said, Jesus Christ, he's angry. I mean, that sounds like legit anger. That's not like sports anger. He's like mad at these guys. He's all fired up. He's all fired up.

Shut up, Joe DeCamra and other pud. Fuck all of you. Last week, we were making a mistake. Not playing our starters. To be fair, the outcome of Detroit and Chicago was not decided until like $359 yesterday. And the Bears were favorites going in. You're right. I mean, just because you've predicted that Detroit would win.

It's a smart move to say, hey, that team, they're division rivals. They know each other. It's going to make the lion season. You just know Dan Campbell's going to have that team ready to do. But that I agree with. You know, like, boy, if you heard audio of Dan Campbell after the game, like you would have thought they won their little Super Bowl and then he was all angry that, like, they didn't get a chance to play in the playoffs because we're not even in.

But if we were in, you know, we just messed up a couple times. If we would have been in, who knows what we would have done? Like, no, you, well, you're not going to be in because you lost a Max fucking Brasmer. And J.J. McCarthy and the Packers twice, you lost us. You should have lost to the Giants, so lose me with all that. But I don't really. And ready to topple the bears. That's what they do.

That gave them pride. That he's right about, 100%. They were a proud team. I'm telling you this. If I knew going into yesterday. I wish we were a proud team. In that same respect. If I knew going into yesterday, if Detroit had beaten Chicago on Saturday,

I still would not have played the Eagles Thursday. Same, Joe. Same. But you can't have a... But here's the other thing about playing starters because you get worried that a guy might get hurt in a meaningless game, but a guy could get hurt getting out of bed and could step wrong, getting out of the shower. So, like, this is your job. Your job is to go play football.

So I've, like, I don't know. I'm not a believer that there's a huge difference between the two and the three because I'm not a believer in the Bears. Now, again, that's my opinion. The Bears very well could win. You very well could win. And then you have to go to Chicago, right? And it's going to be cold and miserably cold. And I get all that.

Guess what? You know, you've played cold weather games before and you've won cold weather games before. I don't know how much of a difference it makes playing at home versus playing on the road in these things in professional stadiums, which in my experience aren't really all that loud anyway compared to college. So, again, I don't think it's that big of a deal. The idea that you're resting guys, if that's what you want to do, if you feel like that's the strategy you're going to go with, then go with it. But, like, I don't think, like, there will be examples of times where I think it matters. Like, you want an example of when it matters?

In theory, the Rams could have rested their starters yesterday because they're already in the playoffs. But the Rams won it, no matter what they were going to play on the road, they knew they were going to play on the road. The Rams did not want to have to play anyone other than Carolina. The Rams did not want to go to a Philadelphia, for instance. they wanted to be in that five seed and they wanted to play the shitty Carolina Panthers. And I guarantee you, if it were flipped and the Rams had to lose to guarantee they could play Carolina, not one fucking starter would have seen the field. But it was important to them and vital to them to take on Carolina as opposed to taking on the Eagles or somebody else.

That's not the scenario we're looking at here with the Eagles. You're talking about whether or not you could be playing a second home playoff game, which, by the way, you might anyway. Because if you win and you're the three-seed, you're rooting against the Packers, right? And you'll know that before the game because the Packers play on Saturday. But if you win that, you do your job and you root against the Bears, you might be playing at home anyway. You might be playing the Packers. You might be actually at that situation, you'd be, oh, the Packers, sorry, the Packers, if they win,

the Packers will end up playing the Seahawks. So you're going to end up playing the Panthers or the Rams at home. probably going to be the Rams. So again, I understand that you could have carved your own path and you could have won that game and guaranteed that no matter what, you're the number two seed and you're more than likely playing back-to-back home games

and I get all that. So I get the argument. I just don't think it's that big of a deal. That's idiotic. No, and should not play Devante Smith? That's the point. He can not have it both ways. We're all on the same page with that.

No, but that's what I'm saying. That's where he gets, he loses me. and I was fine with them not playing. Okay. But him saying, this is our belief in our process, and we fought our process. No, you didn't. You let a guy get a personal milestone. Yeah, which is nonsense.

So he doesn't matter as much as the other guys? Like keeping Devante healthy doesn't matter as much as keeping AJ healthy. I think it's stupid. It's inconsistent. And again, that's glaring. When you're a player, the inconsistency is glaring. And now that's going to stick in everyone's mind. Wait a second.

You know, John Ritchie is pretty good. And I always thought that. Like, I worked with him a couple times, but I think he's gotten a lot better. Like, John's pretty good. Like, he's very good at that. He's a solid former player type guy. I think he's better than Ike. That was good.

But at the end of the day, I don't think it matters. Now, again, I'm banking this on the Bears losing. But, like, let's say the Bears do get a win, right? Let's say they beat the Packers, right? And they spread in that game is the Bears are favored by a point and a half. Cool. so let's say bears do win that game and you end it now it may be moot because you may lose I don't think you're none of this may matter if you lose now the argument then could be again

the argument would then become well you should have gotten the two you could play the packers which would you rather play the packers the 49ers like I guess my question about resting guys is how much benefit does it actually have like how much benefit do guys and this is something a player can answer that I can't answer but how much do you you benefit from taking a week off. Like, how much does not playing in that game benefit you? Like, health-wise. I mean, I'm sure you start feeling a little bit better if you're nicked and bruised

or whatever. But that's what I would want to know from a player. Like, does it really matter? Because a lot of guys would rather continue playing. I mean, look at the college football playoff. You get a buy week and these teams all lose when they get a buy. Would you rather, you know, have your guys playing hot, playing well, and write it in.

Like, your pros, like, are you just as likely to get hurt, you know, in week 17 as you are week 15? I don't know. But I don't think the Bears are going to beat the Packers. So it's going to be moot because you're going to play another home playoff game anyway. My guess is it's going to be against the Rams. And I think the Packers are going to face the Seahawks. But not a bad little debate. That's a debate that I think is fair to have. Sometimes debates are annoying. And I think there's a legit argument to be made for either side. And I think there's different cases where it matters. The Rams needed to play their guys because the Rams did not want to end up in a situation where they were having to face a Philadelphia versus facing a shitty team like Carolina.

I think this is a different spot, though. Like, is there that big of a difference? But anyway, more to come.