The Ringer NFL Show - The Eagles Are Legit Super Bowl Contenders | The Island

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

Welcome to ‘The Island’! Each week a guest tries to persuade Nora Princiotti to agree with an argument they feel strongly about. This week’s guest is The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia, who points out the reasons he believes the Eagles' hot start is sustainable and why they could lift the Lombardi trophy at the end of the season. Will Nora join him on the island, or sail elsewhere? Host: Nora Princiotti Guest: Sheil Kapadia Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Call me sentimental, but to me, the most joyful moment in sports is the soccer goal. And when that goal happens at the World Cup, well, it's pretty good. I'm Brian Phillips. With the 2022 Men's World Cup approaching, I'm making a podcast called 22 goals on the Ringer Podcast Network. It's about 22 of the most fire emoji goals in the history of the tournament. We're going to have so much fun. Hello and welcome to the island. I'm Nora Provinciati, and we have got a great episode coming at you today about one of the NFL's hottest team, the Philadelphia Eagles, I'm very excited to talk about, particularly because we have my wonderful colleague, Sheal Kapadia, here to join us for this episode.

Sheal, thank you so much for being here. We chose you over Benjamin Solek, who of course, I'm sure is just shattered that he has not been included in this eagle-centric episode, even though, of course, we're very sad to be without him. But without further ado, will you tell us what this Eagles island that you're on is? Yeah, welcome to the Eagles, our legit Super Bowl contenders island. Think of the island like a record, spinning on a turntable. Only now, that record is skipping. We've got, you know, if you want to get a little angry here, that's okay. You know, the clientele here, we're used to that.

if you need a hokey. We've got, we've got the hokey's here. We've got, if you want to dress in sweatpants, packs and sweatpants, no one's going to judge you here. It's like you're just running down to Wawa, grabbing something and coming back. So listen, the island's getting a little bit filled. We got a nice crowd right before the season started.

But now three weeks into the season, you got to get in here pretty quickly because there's not going to be many seats left pretty soon. Okay, right. So like let's nail down exactly what this wonderful island with its hoagies and its Wawa is because if we're calling the Eagles legit Super Bowl contenders, they're 3 and O, everybody's psyched. They are seventh in the ringer power rankings right now.

So of NFC teams, our guy Austin Gales still got the behind the Packers and the bucks. So one thing I think we're definitely going to have to talk about is just like where they stack in the NFC in particular. Second of all, I did some perusing, you know, around the usual suspects, the athletic, ESPN, all the various power rankings. They are, there are a surprising number of places that have them like third or fourth,

sometimes even just behind AFC teams, so ranked as the top team in the NFC. But I think there's sort of a built-in assumption, a lot of those lists. A lot of them will sort of explicitly say, this is a snapshot in time, right? This is not necessarily predictive,

but this is just telling you who's sort of, who's stacking up where. But the, the Eagles, I think we have to talk about in a way that's a little bit longer range than that. Because to me, the story of the Eagles going into this season was, can they avenge the kind of like, oh, they're getting exciting towards the end of last year and then totally fall flat in the playoffs? And can they answer the questions that that loss created? I mean, I remember Jalen Hertz saying, this loss does not define us after that.

and we're watching them go about the whole off season, thinking to ourselves, or at least for me, can they make that true? And so far, so good, right? But I want to look at this island, not just being a snapshot in time of the 3 and O Eagles, but to examine if they've answered those questions in a way that tells us,

are they legit Super Bowl contenders, as you said, which refers, I think, to, how they will fare over the course of the entire season. So, Sheel, I guess the place to start is, were there any central questions that you had about this Eagles team coming into the season that through three games, you think are the biggest things that they've answered? Yeah, I think there are two that stand out to me, right,

when you ask that question. Number one is, what is Jalen Hertz's ceiling? I mean, I've been asked about Jalen Hertz. I feel like every interview I've done for two years and always in the back of my head when I'm describing the things he does well and how he's performed in the back of my head was always, well, what's his seal? What does the best version of Jalen Hertz look like? And can that player compete on a field with someone like Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady or I mean, we can go on and on with whoever you think the top seven or eight guys are? And that Monday night performance in week two against the Vikings was a version of Jalen Hertz that I didn't know existed, really. I mean, the way he was throwing the ball, his arm strength, the way he was ripping throws in,

types of throws, he was attempting the way he was reading the field, his decision making, all those different types of things. That made me totally rethink. I mean, if we did this, you know, after week one or even if we did it after week three, but that Monday night football game, he was not as good in it. probably wouldn't have been coming in as strongly as I am. But knowing that that version exists, even if it's not the guy you're going to see every week, that makes me reconsider what his ceiling is and what the eagle ceiling is.

So that's one. And then two is just when they make the trade for AJ Brown, you're always wondering, have you seen teams trade for wide receivers? We're seeing something in Las Vegas right now, and it's not going great. So you always have that in the back of your head. Are they going to be able to just integrate this player without any issues?

And the guy's just been a beast. I mean, we knew he was a beast in Tennessee. He's as good as advertised. He just solved so many problems for them. Like they had a third down. I think it was in the red zone last game. And it's just like, all right, well, what's the play call going to be here? Do you get cute with like an Andy Reed shovel pass or something that gets schemed up that has, you know, all the filled Twitter going nuts during the week?

Nope. Slant to A.J. Brown gets the defender on his back, catches the ball like the three yard line. It's so strong, just powers through and scores. And so it's like those types of things. things, sometimes you don't have to overthink it. Like to me, sometimes coaching is just like, all right, our guy is amazing. We don't need to scheme stuff up. Let's just give him a chance.

So that's been the second thing that stood out is that A.J. Brown has just solved so many problems for them. And the integration of A.J. Brown into this offense has really been seamless. And I think Hertz showing that his ceiling is higher than some people would have thought. And the integration of A.J. Brown have to go hand in hand, right? Like we're seeing Hertz. He's fourth an EPA per drop back. 9.4 yards per attempt.

which is not something I would have seen coming. And a big piece of that, and Devante Smith is involved in this as well, but AJ Brown in particular seems like he's sort of unlocked the middle of the field for Hertz and for that offense in a way that's really, really important to him being able to make some of the plays that we didn't know if he was going to be able to.

And particularly having those two receivers who could be number ones for any team, but here they're sort of 1A and 1B, the two of them being such good catch point receivers, such good, so good at like moving their bodies in ways where it's okay if the pass isn't perfectly right on the money. They can twist, they can contort, they can make it okay. So do you, is that just a perfect marriage?

Do you think there's one piece of just those two receivers making it all click versus Hertz's own development that's contributing more to this than the other because, you know, I don't want to use them to take away his improvement and his accomplishments. Something that I was reminded of in prepping for this pod that had totally escaped my mind is that this is the first year since he has been in high school when he's had the same coach and coordinator in consecutive years, which I don't think we can underrate as a factor in how a quarterback would just get better, right? So I really don't want to be taking away from Jalen Hertz here. But do you think that him being able to unlock some of that higher ceiling passing

offense just has to do with those receivers? Or do you think that he has really made strides as an individual player? It's a great point because, and it's like with a three game sample talking at this time a year, I'm always like, well, I thought this after this week. And I think this after this week, that's kind of how it goes. It's a small sample sport. That's okay. We like to react. every week. So after week two, I was like that, you know, he was just making incredible throws that he had not made before. And so that was just like independent of the wide receivers. I was seeing maturation from him that I didn't know I was going to see. And just this morning, I was, you know, for our Philly Special Pod with Ben Solek, I was just going through the film

of this last game against the commanders. And Jalen Hertz, the numbers, 340 yards, three touchdowns. They have 24 points at halftime. And then you go through it and you're like, this was not like an elite quarterback game, honestly. And that's, again, not to take anything away from him. But this was a, hey, our guys, Devante Smith over there and A.J. Brown are a lot better than the people covering them. If I throw some of these balls up, they're going to come down and catch them. Like, that's what the game was. He wasn't making like pinpoint accurate throws or making, you know, getting to like his third read or doing this unbelievable quarterbacking stuff. He was like, oh, a single high safety, I have a one-on-one. Yeah, I'm going to chuck it up there.

And those guys, I mean, Devante Smith just had an incredible game. Like you made three incredible contested catches that you're saying, all right, you probably can't make those like nine out of ten times. But at the same time, if you have Smith and AJ Brown, two really talented guys, then you give them opportunity. So this was more of just like execute the offense, throw the ball up. I thought he missed some throws. Honestly, it sounds crazy when you throw for 340 yards.

Like, what are you talking about? Shield, he missed some throws. Like, that easily could have been 450 yards, honestly. if you connected on like two more throws. Like he took a couple more deep shots that you're like, all right, that wasn't a great throw. They had a shot at it. They didn't get it.

But I think that speaks to sort of the big picture, which is the supporting cast. When you have an offensive line that it's one of the best in the NFL, when you have these players on the outside that can win one-on-one. You don't have to be perfect. Now, your point before was a good one that, hey, you're not going up when you go up against like the Bucks defense or something in the playoffs. Well, now it's a little bit different.

You leave those plays on the field, and it's all anyone's time. talking about if you lose the game. So that is different and you don't want to do that week in and week out, but certainly with the supporting cast over the course of a 17 game season, like you don't have to be perfect every week. You can have weeks like last week where you kind of just go through and you're like, wow, the numbers look great.

You kind of won without really breaking a sweat. The game was over by the time the fourth quarter, quarter rolled around and it's a real luxury and speaks to kind of the strength of the rest of the roster. This is, I'm getting embarrassingly far ahead of myself. here. We've watched three games, but it's fascinating to me because, look, Hertz is playing at a MVP candidate level, right? Like, if this was supposed to be some sort of make or break year because of the draft picks that they have coming down the pipeline, so far emphatic make,

right? But the question of what kind of, you know, every quarterback in the NFL is going to perform differently based on who their supporting cast is. But, but. but we do identify these guys who are the guys who, you know, raise the level of everybody around them versus the one, trucks versus trailers is sort of the common, common way of putting it. And because I think a lot of people think of the Eagles, includes myself,

as a team that is often forward thinking, thinks and sort of outside the boxways about roster construction, how they respond to that question of how much is this a perfect marriage of the guys around the quarterback and the quarterback, versus how much is the quarterback just raising the level of everybody that's there is really, really fascinating. One, just because they have so much, they have so much in terms of resources for next year and beyond, particularly while he's on a rookie contract, that will get really,

really, the sample size, I guess, of ways in which they spend that will be sort of satisfyingly larger than in most instances. We'll sort of get to see how they think about it. I just think it's fascinating. That is not, that is not even this year. And we've only gotten like three minutes into this year. So I shouldn't get so ahead of myself. But I just, it's just like, it creates all these fascinating sort of A, B scenarios for the Eagles going forward.

You mentioned the B defense. Let's talk about the Eagles defense. This defensive line, I think, was a unit that last year, they didn't feel like they were getting. great results against the top quarterbacks. They'd be okay and then they'd go up against a really good offense and wouldn't be able to get pressure. We saw them add Reddick, Jordan Davis, in the offseason. It seems like that's going pretty swimmingly, obviously.

We saw all the sacks against Carson Wentz, but overall, their ability to get pressure, particularly just by rushing four. Did you see that coming going into the season because of those additions? I definitely thought they had a good pass rush. I didn't know how, good it was going to be. The issue last year was, like, they had good players on the defensive line, but they were playing soft zone coverage so predictably week in and week out that quarterbacks

could just, like, you had no chance. I mean, we, we always hear, you know, anytime probably you've interviewed a defense after a game in which they have zero sacks. What do they say, well, the ball was coming out quickly. Like, it's probably 100% on the NFL reporting scale that that happens every time. It was really true with them last year, you know, there were quarterbacks completely 90% of their passes against the Eagles on the season. As a total, it was 70%. That was the worst in the NFL over the last two years. So like the pass rush and the coverage didn't, you know,

they weren't married. They weren't aligned. It was like, all right, you're going to rush with four and you have a great pass rush. Well, guess what? They have no chance because the ball's coming out in two seconds because you have wide open receivers, six yards downfield with no cornerback near them. So I think that's been a big key difference this year. They've mixed up their coverages more.

They're playing a little bit more man coverage. They're disguising stuff a little more. And quarterbacks you saw on Sunday with Carson Wentz have had to hold on to the football a little bit more. So your point about the four-man rush is really important. I was just looking at stuff earlier today. They have 10 sacks with a four-man rush this year that's tied for first in the NFL. And so every defensive court, well, maybe not Wink Martin.

Every defensive coordinator other than Wink Martindale would probably prefer to just rush for if they can. Like, that's the luxury. That's the dream. You don't have to commit more. You can still hit the quarterback and you can still drop seven into coverage. But when you can't do that, what's your plan B? Last year, they didn't have much of a plan B.

This year, they kind of do. They're like, okay, if we're not getting to the quarterback, we'll blitz a little bit more. We can disguise a little bit more. We can drop to edge rushers and blitz our middle linebacker. They're much more creative this year with their personnel. So I think you're right that it definitely starts with just the names up front, the pass rushers up front. They've invested so much money in that group. And that's

going to be the core of what they do. But they're like allowing those guys to succeed more this year than maybe they did in the past. It seems like from, from what I've watched so far this year, Darius Slay is having a great, great start to the year. Has that, you've watched this team more closely than I have. Is that as good as it looks? A hundred percent. Yeah. And he was great last year. I remember I had to do like an all pro team at the end of the year. And I think I just, He was like my last guy off, but he really played at that level last year. And this year, it's only three games, but he's been even better. I mean, the ball production, the willingness to just take on Justin Jefferson in some of those snaps, those one-verse-one matchups.

He's done that. And really, their whole cornerback group has been good so far. You know, James Bradbury kind of fell into their laps because the Giants released him and they signed him. Like, they didn't have a great play and be there. I mean, maybe you trade for someone else. But like, that was a key, key move that you make. in the summertime where if they didn't have that, that number two corner spot, we'd probably be talking about that right now as a huge weakness.

And then their slot corner, Avanti Maddox has been fantastic also. You know, I think he's performed at a really high level. So with those corners, they have the ability, the trust, I think, where if they want to play a little bit more man coverage, if they want to match up to some of these teams, they're able to do that probably differently than they were last year. Okay. So we've talked about some of these answered questions.

these reasons why I should join you on Eagles Legitimate Super Bowl Contender Island with its well-stocked Wawa. Let's talk a little bit about what weaknesses sort of remain, right? Since we're not talking about that second cornerback, what should we be talking about? Particularly because, you know, no offense to the Lions, Vikings, and commanders, I don't know that that 3-0 came against an absolute murderer's row of opponents, right? I think we're not totally, like I'm, I'm, I like the Lions offense. I want to like the Vikings, but I'm a little shaky right now. The commanders, I think, are not a good team.

If there are, if there are weaknesses that might show up against better competition, where are they? Well, the funny thing is with the schedule, like, we might be having this conversation in January. Because if you look at football outsiders, they have the third easiest remaining schedule in the NFL. Like, if you just go week by week, I think they're going to be favored in every game other than maybe the Packers. And I think the Packers is at home. So, like, who knows what the teams will look like at that point?

They might be favored in every game the rest of the season. So they've got a lot of cupcakes. And that was the case even going into the season. I think they had the second easiest projected schedule. So it might not be until the playoffs or there might be a little sprinkling here and there about they faced a good team. and didn't play well. It might be this weekend. I guess the Jaguars.

I mean, the Jaguars have been outstanding so far. So maybe it'll come right away. Concerns going forward. I mean, one is Hurts has that ceiling. Hertz is capable of playing really well?

Is he going to do it for an entire season? Is he going to do it in the playoffs? You know, you mentioned that Bucks game last year. Like that would kind of shape the off season. And they didn't handle that well. They didn't handle a lot of the aggressiveness that the Bucks threw their way,

whether it was blitzing or disguised blitzes, where they're only rushing four, and all of a sudden it turns into this chaotic game where he's scrambling around and guys aren't open, and the bucks were not passive in that game. And I think we saw that from the lines in week one. It didn't work out great. We saw a little bit of that from the commanders in week two.

And Eagles move the ball. Don't get me wrong. They hit on a bunch of big plays, but it wasn't one of those where they were just like methodically first down after first down. You know, they hit on a lot of explosive plays, which is great. So now if it's a more talented defense that's going to play like,

that, I think that certainly could be a test with Jill and Hurt. So that's the concern offensively. They haven't run the ball great. You know, they've had a couple, they've had opportunities to kind of really pat on to the score in the second halves of these games and they haven't run the ball great. So I guess that's a minor concern. My biggest concern is probably schematically, defensively. I mean, I was really hard on the defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon last year. I thought it was really vanilla. I thought it was a really boring defense. I don't believe you can play defense where you're saying we're not going to give up any explosive plays at all cost. Go ahead, complete those seven and eight yard passes.

Like, I mean, you've talked to defensive players. Like, they don't want to play like that. They're like, no, we're putting the quarterback on his back and we're going to take it to him. And so I won, you know, so far so good through three games. Listen, the defense has been a lot better than it was last year. I'm giving gaining credit. I do want to see that over the course of an entire season.

I want to see that when, hey, something's not working in the first half against this good offense. What's your adjustment? Are you willing to change what you're, game plan was in the second half. Can you match wits with a Tom Brady or an Aaron Rogers? You know, those are real, those are the questions when you're talking about how far you're going to get in the Super Bowl.

So those are probably the biggest concerns. And so far they've been really healthy. Obviously, if you lose a Kekog like A.J. Brown, some of the guys we talked about, AJ Brown, Darius Lay, that's going to completely change the complexion of your season. But I think those are probably some of the key things. they can actually withstand injuries, I would say up front, offensive line, defensive line on both sides of the ball pretty well. Like if they suffer some injuries there, they have depth,

but you're always looking at the key spots where you might not have depth and with how good as Brown has been so far this season. And then corners a thin spot. Those are probably the two that I would outlaw. Does either of the point about the offense, just wondering if there might come moment against a good opponent where all of a sudden the switch just turns off or the question about Gannon being able to make defensive adjustments. Does either one of those come up to you when

you look at how they haven't scored very much in the second half? Because they have been this sort of like chunk scoring team, right? I think it was Solac who had that stat against their second quarter scoring. Right. Is that through three games too small of a sample size to mean anything or do you see any sort of pattern there with either what you just talked about with the offense or the defense? I think it's a small sample thing. It's like something I've got my eye on, but like you really can't tell unless you're in a close game, right? And you have to score in the second half. They've been up by 51 points total at halftime over three games, the highest, you know, margin in the NFL. And so, you know, it's just like a natural tendency to not be as sharp like Hertz missed on a deep ball. They had some protection. breakdowns last week offensively. And so it's fair to kind of point that out and look at it at the same time.

If they were in a game where the opponent had 21 points, I'm sort of like, I kind of feel like they would have been able to score and finish out some of those drives. So I wouldn't say it's something where I noticed it yet where it's like they're not making adjustments. They're just, I mean, it's been pretty, it's been a little vanilla. It's been a little less sharp than it's been in the first half. And so it's something to keep an eye on, but probably not something to panic about.

All right. So, Shil, I'm going to have to figure out if I want to be on this island or not. And I don't want to get embarrassed, especially even just a few days out. I don't want anybody tagging old takes exposed four days after we release this pot. And other than maybe that Packers game later on in the season, you mentioned that the Eagles' upcoming opponent, the fight in Doug Peterson Jaguars, might be the toughest test they get the rest of the way. based on what we've seen so far early in this very, very young season, which I'm going to say for the 8 millionth time.

What are you looking for in this matchup? Yeah, I think defensively, the way Trevor Lawrence has been playing, like he just seems so confident and comfortable. The ball last week was just coming out so quickly. He hasn't taken a lot of hits. He hasn't taken a lot of sacks. He seems to know where to go. He's taking the layouts.

That's precisely the type of quarterback. that when the Eagles play like they played last year, where they're playing, all right, two deep safeties, go ahead, will dare you to put together a nine-play drive? Like the Jaguars did that on the Chargers all day long on Sunday. And so if that's your plan A, fine. But if the other team's moving the ball, then how are you going to adjust and what are you going to do differently?

So I think that certainly is a key when you look at the Eagles defense against the Jaguars' offense. And then on the other side of the ball, how do you handle their defensive line? Their defensive line has been, the Jaguars has been outstanding so far. I mean, they've got athletes, Josh Allen and Trayvon Walker and the veteran Roy Robertson Harris and the nose tackle, holy fatu Kasi. Like they've invested in that group and they're playing really well together with these stunts

and the other stuff they're doing up front. So this past week, the Eagles offensive line do not dominate against that Washington front. If you look at their run game, if you look at some of the issues you mentioned in the second half, a lot of those where offensive line issues. Now, I still think their offensive line is really good. But if you told me there's a scenario, that Jaguar's defensive line gets the better of the Eagles offensive line. And it's kind of an ugly offensive performance by the Eagles. That would not necessarily shock me. So I think those are kind of two keys. And then I'm just curious, Doug Peterson comes back to Philly. I mean, listen, it's different than Carson Lent. There's a statue

with Doug Peterson outside. Doug Peterson is beloved by the fans, by the players, on the team that played for him. I mean, there were people in the building who totally, when Doug Peterson was let go, they would say, okay, we can see why he was let go. But man, we're going to kind of miss having him around. Like, we liked having him in the building. He was just a fun head coach to kind of lead the organization.

So he was very well liked. I mean, I don't know that there's anybody in the organization that would personally have a bad thing to say about him, even if those people thought that he should have gotten fired what he did after they had a disastrous 2020. So I think it'll probably be a little personal for Peterson. You know, you've won a Super Bowl. He gets them to the playoffs.

The following two years, they have one bad season. We're now looking back on it. You're like, well, you know, Carson Wentz hasn't exactly lit it up since that season. And Doug Peterson's probably looking at it going, wait, you've got Nick Siriani, A.J. Brown and Devante Smith. Like, look at the guys I was doing this with when I was coached there. So I don't know if I'm overthinking that or not, but I do think, you know, there's probably going to be some tricks that he pulls out in this game and just looking at how that Jaguars team

responds to him. Like after was it the first win where they had kind of a locker room video where they handed him the game ball and they're going nuts. They're just like so happy to not have Urban Meyer anymore and to have Doug Peterson. So I don't, I haven't made a prediction for the game yet. I don't know. I think it's going to be a close game. I do believe that the Jaguars are a really good team. Like if the Eagles blew out the Jaguars, then I might have to come back next week. be like, you know, the island might be the Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl Island because I do think they're a tough team. But I think it'll be a competitive game. I'm kind of buying the hype around both these teams through three weeks. I don't know if that would mean the island is getting bigger or smaller. We'd have to find like an adjacent one. Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to move to it. Yeah. You take a little boat to it or something. Yeah. It's like an offshoot of the main island. You need to have some type of like membership ID to get into the result. or something like that. It's like it's an archipelago, you know?

And you go down and the islands that are further out in the chain, they're more and more elite and they have fancier and fancier wawas. That's right. I do think it's going to be really fascinating, especially because they don't have the same personnel. Obviously, I'm not going to say that this is the same caliber of defense that the Eagles went up against against the bucks in the playoffs. But Mike Caldwell is the defensive coordinator in Jacksonville.

He came from Tampa. He was their linebacker's coach. And a lot of those guys fit together in at least a schematically similar way. Like they want to be tough against the run in a similar way and then have all of that depth on the line, which I think has particularly been borne out in just how well Josh Allen's playing. Because it seems like particularly getting Walker in there and just having more depth has unlocked. a new level of his game. So it's not the same

it's not the same level of test, right? Like that that that that Bucks defense is so notoriously difficult to run the ball against although now that the Eagles are a little bit less of a run heavy offense. So there's a bunch of things that have changed but it's still, there is that consistent how do they fare against this style of defense

that I think will be really interesting. All right. I think we're reaching our moment of truth where I figure out where in this beautiful island's chain. I'm going to land. Can I give you one quick anecdote before you decide to join? Yes, please. Please, please. This is just, if you want to move for the update, well, let's say the school is on the island.

Okay, we'll blend real life here with fantasy life. So my daughter's teacher on the island, she sends out an email every Monday, just kind of setting up the week. And the email today on the island, you know, started out with, I had a great weekend, you know, especially since the Eagles won. And line two on the email was, I tore my meniscus. So she still had a great weekend because the Eagles won. She led with the Eagles winning and she had a great weekend on the same weekend where she tore her meniscus and now has to teach a bunch of elementary school students. And so if you just want to mood on the island of what's on everyone's minds and how everyone's

feeling, I just thought, you know, that was a final anecdote that I wanted to get in there for you. You know, priorities are important. I don't want to be, I don't want to be on any island where people don't know their priorities in line. I think that, that tells me. So, okay, so what we're really talking about here is, can I, in good conscience, go against Mr. Austin Gale's power rankings and stack the.

Eagles ahead of the Bucks, Packers, Rams. 49ers is sort of easy at this point because of the last time that we watched Jimmy Garablo on television. But it's called the Bucks, Packers, and Rams. And I won't hold out on you here, Sheel. I'm on the island. I'm totally there. And I'll tell you the reason why. And of course, everything that you just so wonderfully explained about how Hertz has shown that his ceiling is higher than maybe we would have expected or felt like we could count on going into the season, how, you know, so far, so good Jonathan Gannon being willing to keep getting that pressure just with four rushers, but then play a little bit more man, use a little bit more in terms of match coverages on the back end. That's all working out really well.

Really like that for the Eagles going forward. you mentioned something, though, that is ultimately the reason why I have confidence in this, which is that when I look at particularly the bucks and the Rams of that top trio of teams in the NFC, the Packers could fit into this as well, depending on how a couple of health things turn out for them.

But when I look at those teams, there's one thing that troubles me that does not trouble me with the Eagles, and it's their offensive line depth. I think that is such a big factor that maybe we haven't totally started to talk about all that often in terms of the NFC playoff contenders and how far they're going to be able to go this season. But I just look at particularly the interior offensive lines of the Bucks and the Rams as things that are going to be serious limiting factors for them. A lot of the offensive issues and health is particularly with Tampa Bay a big part of that as well. But I worry what they're going to be able to do over the course of an entire season.

And now we're talking about, especially in the case of a team like the Bucks that doesn't have a lot of competition in the division, we're talking about how they fare in the playoffs. But when we get into January, when all of the attrition of an entire NFL season, reason has happened. I really feel good about the Eagles for all of those reasons, but also because I feel like they can withstand a couple injuries there. And we're looking at some of their chief competition in the conference. And they've already started to stack injuries. And we see quarterbacks like Tom Brady, you know, we don't have a question about his stealing, but we still see it affecting him. They've got an entire season to figure it out. But I think at least,

right now, like, I will go, I will go to the furthest island in the chain for all of the reasons that you just stated. But I think that's one that really, I'm glad you brought up because I think the depth that they have in the trenches is something that's going to make this not a September sort of flash in the pan, but something that is more sustainable, not just going to the end of the season, because again, the schedule's easy, but in terms of what they're able to accomplish in the playoffs. So, Sheal, let's go. Let's go to watch. Let's go to the island, Wawa, and get some lunch. Someone get, someone get Nora a Shorty, you know, maybe a La Cologne if she wants one, maybe

a Kenny, if she's thirsty. I don't know if anyone knows what any of these are in the audience, but you can Google it. This is what life's like on the island or you can come and visit as well. Is La Cologne as in the fancy coffee or does this mean? Oh, I love La Cologne. Yeah, come on. That could have been closed in like 30 seconds. a little cold brew.

I'll leave with that next time. You know, go to the beach. Watch some Jalen Hertz. This is great. This is great. Fantastic. All right. Well, we'll see if we're back here next week after a trouncing of the Jacksonville

Jaguars where I don't know. Will they put a Siriani statue up next to the Peterson statue or is it Jalen Hertz or is it? I don't know who's going up, but I guess we'll have to find out. Thank you so much for. for doing this show. It's been an absolute blast. And I feel like I learned a lot, which is always the goal. Thanks for having me. It was fun. This has been the island on the Ringer NFL show feed.

Thank you so much for listening. We will be back next week. But for now, uh, Shil is absolutely cranking out pods this week. And we'll have you covered on the feed tomorrow going in depth on some newsy NFL topics. Thank you to Stefan Anderson for production on this episode as always. And to Connor Nevins and Arjuna,

Ronpawal for additional production supervision.