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The Intel With Greg Cosell: New Eagles WR Dontayvion Wicks "Has Ability To Be Three-Level Dimension Player" · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to a special edition of The Intel with
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Greg Cosell. I'm Jeff Mosher with Adam Kaplan. Of course,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we have Greg Cosell, and we're gonna ask Greg to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: give us a nice quick breakdown of a new Eagles acquisition,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: then make a trade for a veteran wide receiver, Dontavian Wicks,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: who comes over from the Packers. And Greg, the Eagles
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: been very active at wide receiver, you know, with their
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: moves yeah, root all season, and we know the AJ
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Brown situation still hangs in the balance, but we just
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: want to focus on Dontavian Wicks with you your evaluation
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of him throughout his career. Adam and I have noted
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that he's a talented kid, but who's been inconsistent throughout
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: his career. What has your tape evaluation been on Dantavian Wicks?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You know, he was a really interesting guy because I
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: remember doing him coming out of Virginia and he had
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: a really good next to last year. And I remember
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: doing him that summer because as a lot of people
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: probably know listen to us, I do a lot of
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: guys this summer before from their you know, junior or
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: sophomore tape, assuming they're going to come out the next year,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: which is what happened with Wicks, and he had a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: really good I don't know whether it was junior or
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: sophomore year, but really good. And I remember thinking to myself,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: this guy's an NFL receiver. He's big, he wasn't a burner,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: but he could run well enough. I even thought watching
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: his tape that perhaps he could line up at boundary
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: X in the NFL at times, just because of his
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: size and his ability to work between the numbers. And
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: then that last year at Virginia, the whole passing game
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: fell apart and his production fell down, and obviously he
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: was Was he a fourth or fifth round pick something
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: like that. Fifth, yeah, And I think that if he
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: had a similar year to the year he had prior,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: he wouldn't have been a first round pick, but you
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: might have seen him go Day two late, you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: in the third round perhaps. And I think in the
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: NFL he's shown the same kind of traits. Now he's
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: been injured a bit, he's in a pass offense that
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: he was in a pass offense with Green Bay that
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: didn't feature one receiver, so he wasn't necessarily a high
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: volume target. But I think you saw flashes and snapshots
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: of what he is. He works the middle of the field. Well,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: he's got really good size. He can get vertical, not
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: as a burner, not just to run by people, but
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: because he's big and he has stride length. So in
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: some ways, he's sort of a complete receiver that's just
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: not special. You know, he has the ability to be
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: a three level dimension player. He's not special in any
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: one of those categories. But don't forget he's coming from
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Green Bay where Sean Manion was the new offensive coordinator,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: so he's obviously going to be familiar with the entire system,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and obviously Sean Manion, who I'm sure had a lot
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to do with the desire to get him, feels that
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: he could be a contributing volume target in this offense
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: that they're installing. What this means for AJ Brown? None
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of us know the answer, or that there's speculation every
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: single day. We don't know the answer to that question.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: But if indeed that were to happen and AJ Brown
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: would be gone, is wix aj Brown?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: No?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: But he's a quality NFL receiver.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I think the question we would have from your tape
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: evaluation is, let's break it down. If the Eagles have
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: aj Brown and if they don't, what kind of usage
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: as far as positionally, where does he align best in
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: either situation?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: And I think that's a great question, and I think
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: that that speaks to the changing nature of the NFL
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: and pass offense and Sean Manyon being part of that
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: sort of newer evolution where hey, we have an X,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: we have a Z, we have a slot. That delineation,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: depending on the coach, is not the way it once
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: was because Sean Manion comes from the Sean McVay Kyle
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Shanahan school of thought and philosophy, where there's a lot
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: more pre snap movement, So you're not just lining guys
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: up static as oh, he's the X, he's the Z. Oh,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: now we have a slot. They don't do that anywhere
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: near as much as some teams and as everybody did,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: you know, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. So now the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: delineation changes. You can line up guys in different spots.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: There's more pre snap movement, there's more reduced formations where
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: even a guy who's theoretically the single receiver might be
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: much tighter to the formation, so he's not necessarily split
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: out at where we think, oh it's a boundary X.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: He split out. So you know, Wicks obviously because he
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: knows the offense. He's not just that one guy. Oh
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: you can only line him up in this particular spot
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: and that's all he is. So it's it's not a case, Jeff,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: of where oh, this is what he is and that's
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: what he's going to do and that's it. You know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I think that there's going to be a lot more
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: moving parts in this past game.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Jeff on that point, just to close this out out,
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: because you know, I was talking to someone over the
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: weekend and pro personnel who said that he absolutely could
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: line up in different positions. But Greg said, he does
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: have the size that you like for the exposition. But
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: the one knock on him was the four to six
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: two at the combine and then the pro DA was
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: not much better at four or five eight.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: That's going to.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Knock you down, That's what That's really the reason that
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: you can't justify drafting a guy in the first three rounds, right,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: that doesn't time in the four fours. It's heard like
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: stories like Gaankwon Bowling of four seven two that those.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Are extremely rare yep.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: And I remember Bill Polion telling us on our show
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  Speaker 3: many years ago, Hall of Fame General manager by position,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: there's a forty time where if you're over it, I
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: don't care how great your tape is, we're not drafting you.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And that's that's why he dropped. You know,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: it's funny you say that, And there's always exceptions. And now,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: obviously you have to decide how you feel about a player.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: But I remember Michael Thomas ran a four or five
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: seven or a four or five eight. DeAndre Hopkins ran
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: a four or five seven or a four or five eight,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: And I'm certainly not comparing Wicks to either one of
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: those guys. Could well be a Hall of Famer. Thomas,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: for three or four years was as good a receiver
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: as there was in the league in terms of production.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: But you know, then it comes down to how you're
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: deployed within the context of an offense.
• 6:10
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• 7:10
  Speaker 2: They didn't trade for Wix because they want him to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: be a vertical dimension. I mean, can he get that
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: way because of size and stride length and he can
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: go up and get the ball yeah once in a while.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: But they didn't make this move because, oh they see
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: him now as the vertical guy in their offense. Right.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: You know they may have Marquise Hollywood Brown for that,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I correct. So when you look at all the moves
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: they made, including you know, obviously Elijah Moore, DeVante Smith
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: comes back, Greg, I think if AJ Brown's on the team,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: then you have that natural X and you might see
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: more traditional conventional sets, whether three by one, two by two.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: If AJ Brown's not, it sounds like you'll see a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: little bit more of those what you said, think you
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: will then sets where where do you see then the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: rules for say, Davante, Dantavian, and Marquise Brown all three
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: fitting in just ye.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I think DeVante Smith and Marquis Brown can line up
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: anywhere and they can be used as pre snap movement
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: players as well. So you know, I think they fit
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: exactly what Sean Mannion and the new staff want to do.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: You know, wis theoretically maybe he's not a motion guy,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: but he certainly can line up in different spots. It'll
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: be very interesting to see now what happens, because you
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: know they did sign Brown, they traded for Wicks. You know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: it does lead one to believe that there's probably active
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: talks going on with AJ Brown. You know, again, are
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: they forced to trade him? No, But we'll see what happens.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: You know, because right now, as you mentioned, you just
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: mentioned a bunch of guys. Now, obviously, Elijah Moore is
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: a guy that's been around the league. You know, you're
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: not necessarily he could be cut too, you know, you
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: never know about a guy like that. You know, you know,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Wicks is not likely to get cut, Hollywood Brown is
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: not likely to get cut, but you never know. So
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: we'll see where they go with all this. But you know, look,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: the Draft is coming up and in less than two weeks.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: You know, sometimes there's trades. Didn't the Eagles get a J.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Brown on Draft Day? They did? Yeah, so you never know.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you never know how this is going to
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: play out.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: That's right, all right, great stuff, Greg, thank you so
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: much for the breakdown on dayan Tavian Wicks the newest
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: addition to the Eagles wide receiver family. For Greg Cosell
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and Adam Kaplan, I'm Jeff Mosher. You've been watching The
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Intel with Greg Cosell.