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The DiCecco Daily: My Most Memorable, Obscure Eagles From Past Training Camps · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome into this edition of to Checko Daily. Andrew Dichecko here,
• 0:14
  and with training camp fast approaching, I kind of wanted
• 0:17
  to do something a little bit different and have some fun.
• 0:20
  This is a little bit off the beaten path, but
• 0:23
  I wanted to kind of run through some of the
• 0:25
  more memorable obscure quote unquote Eagles over the past I
• 0:32
  don't know, twenty to twenty five years. And if you
• 0:35
  find this topic interesting and as we go down memory lane,
• 0:39
  feel free to send some of yours in to inside
• 0:43
  the Birds at gmail dot com and I can perhaps
• 0:46
  make this a little bit of a longer one and
• 0:48
  take some of your you know, some of your names
• 0:51
  and your submissions and kind of expand on that. But
• 0:54
  I think that when you start to hear some of
• 0:57
  these names, it may get the wheels turned in your mind.
• 1:01
  But these are some that are really memorable to me
• 1:05
  or players who I had maybe a higher opinion of
• 1:07
  than than maybe some others.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: And we'll kind of go through it. So the first
• 1:11
  player that I want.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: To start with is running back Correll buck Halter, fourth
• 1:16
  round pick for the Eagles in two thousand and one
• 1:18
  out of Nebraska.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: He played five seasons with the Eagles.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Great story of just resilience, right, I mean, this is
• 1:25
  somebody who tore his ACL in two thousand and two,
• 1:28
  his second year, and he also suffered a patell attendant
• 1:32
  injury in his right knee, the same injury two years
• 1:35
  in a row, so three of his seasons were robbed
• 1:38
  of injuries. He ended up playing in seventy four games
• 1:41
  for the Eagles, rushed for one hundred and fifty five
• 1:44
  yards and eighteen touchdowns in the regular season. What I
• 1:48
  remember most about buck Halter is he was fast. Westbrook
• 1:53
  was quicker Brian Westbrook, but buck Halter was faster. And
• 1:58
  I can't help but think back to that two thousand
• 2:00
  and three season when they had the three headed rushing
• 2:03
  attack that had Duce Staley, Correll, Buck culture and Brian Westbrook,
• 2:07
  and I always thought that Buck Calter had the ability
• 2:11
  to be a starting running back in the NFL, a
• 2:13
  feature running back for some team. The Eagles obviously never
• 2:16
  used him that way, and injuries probably sort of clouded
• 2:20
  that perhaps if that was their plan. But what I
• 2:23
  saw with Buck Culter was a player who had home
• 2:26
  run hitting ability. He could pound it between the tackles
• 2:29
  when needed, and he had a nose for the end zone.
• 2:33
  But the story of resilience is something that always really
• 2:36
  stuck with me because it would have been so easy
• 2:39
  for a player to have his career derailed with such
• 2:42
  devastating injuries like the ones that he sustained. And in fact,
• 2:46
  if I'm remembering this, right after the second Pteller Tenant injury,
• 2:52
  there was you know, some thought that that could be
• 2:56
  a career ender, and in many cases it probably would have,
• 3:00
  but he ended up going on to play more seasons.
• 3:03
  He signed, he played with the Eagles for a while,
• 3:05
  but then he ended up signing with the Broncos for
• 3:07
  a couple of years and saw a lot of time there.
• 3:10
  But that, to me was a player whose career was
• 3:14
  robbed due to knee injuries, and you have to always
• 3:17
  wonder what he could have been had it not been
• 3:20
  for that, because the Eagles got tremendous value in the
• 3:22
  fourth round and he did have a very well rounded
• 3:25
  skill set even helped him as a kick returner. I
• 3:28
  think back to the sixth season, so that was one
• 3:32
  the first one that came to mind for me. And
• 3:34
  here's another one, and you may remember you have to
• 3:37
  go back to the two thousand and three season. The
• 3:39
  Eagles had I want to say, maybe five rookie free
• 3:42
  agents who made the team. Well, let's think for a second,
• 3:46
  Reno mahe Quintin, Michael alonso E from the center, Greg Lewis,
• 3:53
  Sam ray Burn, and the player I'm going to talk
• 3:57
  about right now, cornerback Rod Hood. Rod Hood played four seasons,
• 4:03
  started thirteen games for the Eagles, fifty six games total,
• 4:06
  five interceptions. Man, when you think about that, six rookie
• 4:11
  free agents made the Eagles two thousand and three roster,
• 4:14
  the same team that ended up getting to the NFC
• 4:17
  Title Game and playing the Carolina Panthers. Of course, they
• 4:19
  fell short in that matchup, but that wasn't a roster
• 4:23
  that was devoid of talent. I think that that really
• 4:26
  underscores the Eagles scouting and their ability to kind of
• 4:30
  identify talent and those players for signing with Phildelphi knowing
• 4:35
  they were going to have that opportunity and then making
• 4:36
  the most of it. But Rod Hood I thought was
• 4:39
  one of the better third corners in the NFL for
• 4:44
  a while, and obviously not. You can't make that determination
• 4:47
  after just one season. But he started to become that
• 4:50
  player that filled that role where he could step in
• 4:53
  if a Leado or Sheldon Brown had to miss time.
• 4:57
  As a rookie, he was let's see two thousand and three,
• 5:02
  he was behind Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor, Leedo Shepherd, Sheldan Brown.
• 5:09
  But I thought that when he did step in, he
• 5:12
  played well. And then of course when Ledo or when
• 5:15
  Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent moved on, he became one
• 5:18
  of the better number three corners in the NFL. Then
• 5:20
  he became a starter with the Cardinals for a couple
• 5:22
  of seasons and spent a year with the Titans and
• 5:24
  the Rams.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But that was one of the players that I immediately
• 5:27
  thought of.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Went to Auburn, had a decorated career there, and then
• 5:33
  he sort of found a path for himself in the
• 5:36
  NFL as a player. Who I mean, he became a
• 5:39
  starter for the Cardinals for two seasons, so he definitely
• 5:43
  had the ability and it was if not for a
• 5:46
  well stocked cornerbacked room with the Eagles during his tenure,
• 5:49
  who knows, he could have been a starter as well.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And so that was Rod Hood.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: There's another player that you may remember that for me
• 6:00
  if you look at and you kind of forget about
• 6:04
  special teams.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: But it was such an event.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say to watch this player run
• 6:10
  down the field linebacker Jason Short. Jason Short played an
• 6:16
  NFL eure from an two and three. He spent the
• 6:20
  four through the six seasons with the Eagles, played in
• 6:23
  twenty nine games, only fourteen tackles. But it was memorable
• 6:27
  because he was crazed out there. You could see it.
• 6:31
  He was almost foaming at the mouth. He was I
• 6:34
  believe his nickname was full Throttle. And there's one game
• 6:37
  in particular that really stands out.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I believe he knocked himself silly.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: He may have suffered a definitely suffered a concussion on
• 6:46
  the play, but it was a game against the Cleveland Browns.
• 6:49
  He's bleeding from his nose. I believe it was his nose,
• 6:53
  and it was just seeping down and it was covered
• 6:56
  in his covering his jersey. He was getting carted off
• 7:00
  and you just see this player pointing and screaming at
• 7:02
  the Cleveland Browns, and he kind of got the sense
• 7:06
  that he probably had no idea where he was or
• 7:08
  what he was saying, but the intensity that he exuded
• 7:12
  every single game, and he didn't really have a defensive role.
• 7:16
  He was a key special teamer what they used to
• 7:19
  call a wedgebuster back in the day, and that was
• 7:22
  his role and he carried it out to a t.
• 7:23
  I know that he made the four team and that
• 7:26
  was sort of a surprise. But he had a good
• 7:28
  training camp and he proved that he could be a
• 7:31
  valuable addition as a special teamer. And he carved out
• 7:35
  three years, so that's something. There's something to be said
• 7:37
  for that. But I always will remember that particular game,
• 7:42
  the nickname full Throttle, and how he always played with
• 7:45
  such intensity. Now the next guy, he always played in
• 7:48
  Philadelphia for one season. This is back in two thousand
• 7:51
  and three. Again, this is for the obscure players. Buck
• 7:57
  Alter maybe a little bit less so because he was
• 7:59
  drafted and he played number of years here. But this
• 8:01
  player made the team in two thousand and three. He
• 8:05
  was a wide receiver, but he didn't really play that position.
• 8:09
  He was a gunner and he was a wedgebuster on
• 8:12
  special teams. And that was wide receiver Sean Mory who
• 8:15
  went to Brown. He was drafted by the Patriots in
• 8:17
  the seventh round.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I believe it.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I want to say it was like nineteen ninety nine. Yeah,
• 8:25
  it was nineteen ninety nine. He was the two hundred
• 8:27
  and forty first overall pick. Not a big guy, five eleven,
• 8:32
  one ninety three, but he made the Eagles solely based
• 8:35
  off of his special teams prowess in three played in
• 8:38
  all sixteen games. Believe he was even named the Eagles
• 8:42
  Special Teams MVP that season. But he went on to
• 8:45
  have a pretty long career. He was a Pro bowler
• 8:49
  in two thousand and eight with the Arizona Cardinals.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I remember him blocking.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: A punt and that was on like ESPN, and that
• 8:56
  was being played over and over again.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: He may even returned that for a touchdown.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: He played with the Pittsburgh Steelers from four to six,
• 9:03
  finished his career with the Seahawks, though he didn't appear
• 9:06
  in a game there, and he won a Super Bowl
• 9:08
  with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he became a Special Teams
• 9:11
  captain throughout his career. But it also shows and the
• 9:16
  way that Sean Morey played, he just saw something and
• 9:20
  hit it as hard as he could. He was highly
• 9:22
  instinctive and smart. This is a player who graduated from
• 9:26
  Brown but he was a smart player, he was tough.
• 9:30
  He took a lot of hits, he delivered a lot
• 9:32
  of hits, but it came at a price. He suffered
• 9:36
  from post concussion syndrome. And I was reading an article
• 9:41
  that you can find out there, but Sean said that
• 9:44
  his concussion total was somewhere in the high twenties, but
• 9:48
  he was reluctant to admit how many. In two thousand
• 9:51
  and seven, he was knocked unconscious in a game where
• 9:54
  he was with the Arizona Cardinals, and he even mentioned,
• 9:57
  believe this or not, he had four concussions in one game.
• 10:01
  In two thousand and nine, of course he was with
• 10:03
  the Cardinals there as well, four concussions in one game,
• 10:08
  and he mentioned that every time he hits someone or something,
• 10:12
  it was like getting tasered. And that's something that he's
• 10:16
  had to deal with. I was reading up on his stories.
• 10:19
  Every once in a while, you'll go down that rabbit
• 10:21
  hole whatever happened to and that's something that he's dealt
• 10:24
  with over the years, is really working through those challenges
• 10:28
  that are often a company with excessive amounts of concussions,
• 10:31
  and that's the side of football that you don't often
• 10:35
  hear about. You're hearing more about it now, but it's
• 10:38
  tough and when you play the game like that, and
• 10:42
  regardless of what position you play, those are some of
• 10:46
  the health concerns that are sort of a company with football.
• 10:50
  And I also think that because he didn't really play
• 10:54
  much as a receiver, it really highlights how physical and
• 10:58
  daunting it can be to play special teams. Now, the
• 11:01
  NFL has done a really good job in sort of
• 11:10
  mitigating some of the ferocity and some of the explosive
• 11:14
  collisions that we were used to seeing growing up, but
• 11:17
  still that really showcases how just the physical nature of
• 11:23
  special teams and why it gets you know, why it
• 11:26
  shouldn't get sort of just cast aside. But I mean
• 11:30
  right now, last time I looked Sean Moray as a
• 11:34
  high school football coach in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, as a
• 11:37
  defensive coordinator. But that was one of the Eagles that
• 11:40
  really stood out to me because I remember every time
• 11:42
  I would watch him play, he played like his hair
• 11:43
  was on fire. And I do remember him being the
• 11:46
  Eagles two thousand and three Special Teams VP.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I mentioned this player at.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: The start of this podcast, but I'm going to bring
• 11:57
  him back up now because he had a really good
• 11:58
  four year career with the Eagles, but he didn't do
• 12:02
  anything after that. That's where it stopped, and that was
• 12:04
  defensive tackle Sam Rayburn, part of that decorated two thousand
• 12:08
  and three rookie free agent class, made the Eagles at
• 12:11
  a training camp, ended up playing in fifty three games,
• 12:13
  four starts, nine sacks, made a decent amount of money
• 12:17
  based off of that two thousand and four season, if
• 12:20
  I'm remembering this correctly. But I thought that he was
• 12:24
  a good rotational defensive tackle.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: He was strong.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I believe Derek Burgess gave him the nickname truck driver.
• 12:30
  And every time he would get a sack or even
• 12:32
  maybe even a tackle for loss he had fifteen of
• 12:34
  those in his career, he would do like, you know,
• 12:36
  he sort of pumped his fist down like he was
• 12:38
  pulling that, you know, pulling the horn down on a truck.
• 12:42
  And I just thought that that was something that really
• 12:45
  stuck out to me. But again, that's that's something that
• 12:48
  I think really highlights the Eagles evaluation. I mean, went
• 12:51
  to Tolsa six foot three, three hundred and three pounds,
• 12:54
  went undrafted.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And ended up.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Carving out a role as a situational player for the Eagles,
• 13:03
  and I do remember him being really strong and physical
• 13:05
  along the interior and being disruptive at the line of scrimmage.
• 13:09
  He didn't play a ton, obviously, he was still in
• 13:13
  a rotational role there and they had a lot of
• 13:15
  Eagles obviously had a lot of talent there. But yeah,
• 13:18
  Sam Rayburn was one that I thought was going to
• 13:22
  have a longer career. He played just four seasons, as
• 13:24
  I mentioned, and that was really it for him. How
• 13:29
  about this one, and you really have to go back
• 13:32
  to two thousand and six when a product of New
• 13:37
  Mexico State made the Eagles and played from two thousand
• 13:41
  and six and twenty ten, and that is Nick Cole
• 13:44
  offensive lineman.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: He was a guard center.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: What really sticks out to me is that they listed
• 13:50
  him at six foot.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Three hundred and fifty pounds.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: He was probably more like five to eleven and he
• 13:57
  even got some opportunities as a fullback in shortyarded situations. Now,
• 14:02
  he ended up playing his whole career with the Eagles,
• 14:07
  five years, seventy seven games, twenty nine starts.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Was he a top backup?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: One of the more distinguishable backups that you're going to
• 14:16
  go back and remember, probably not, but I remember him
• 14:20
  from saying just the big discrepancy in size compared to
• 14:24
  the other players he was on the field with, and
• 14:27
  how he was able to play multiple positions and also
• 14:30
  play at fullback in certain instances.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: But another player that I think.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Folks are going to remember pretty well, I had a
• 14:40
  high opinion of him. I actually thought this player for
• 14:43
  a while is one of the best nickel coiners in
• 14:45
  the NFL, and that is Hosselijohnson, who really, when you
• 14:51
  look at it, he had a pretty good career. He
• 14:54
  was an undrafted free agent signing of the forty nine
• 14:57
  ers back in two thousand and three after a career
• 14:59
  at Tech. Not a big guy at five nine point
• 15:02
  eight five, but spent the two thousand and three two
• 15:05
  thousand and four season with the forty nine ers. Then
• 15:08
  he was with the Frankfurt Galaxy after a little bit
• 15:11
  of a of a brief period of inactivity there, and
• 15:16
  then he was with the Eagles from two thousand and
• 15:18
  six to twenty eleven. And when I look at what
• 15:23
  he was able to do, I mean, he got four
• 15:27
  interceptions with the Eagles, but that doesn't that's not what
• 15:32
  I'm looking at when I look at Hoseljohnson. That's not
• 15:35
  what I think about when whenever that name comes up.
• 15:38
  It is a tough player who played much bigger than
• 15:42
  his size would indicate, had a nose for the football,
• 15:44
  was very intelligent and sticky in coverage. Again, I thought
• 15:48
  he was one of the more underrated nickel corners in football.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Doesn't have the stats.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: To suggest that or support my opinion, but I really
• 15:56
  do believe it. They found the Eagles found really good
• 15:58
  value when when they were able to get him, and
• 16:02
  he signed a two year deal with the Eagles in
• 16:05
  two thousand and six after the NFL Europe season, and
• 16:09
  it was too little fanfair. No one really knew what
• 16:11
  to expect because he really hadn't done anything in the
• 16:14
  NFL at that point. He played in thirteen games with
• 16:16
  the Niners in four and aside from that, it was
• 16:20
  more of a probably can't fodder, a body to take
• 16:23
  on reps in training camp and you don't think much
• 16:25
  of it. But he carved out a pretty long career
• 16:29
  and then after the Eagles, his last season was in
• 16:31
  twenty eleven. He goes to the Raiders in twenty twelve,
• 16:34
  plays in sixteen games, starts, five picks off, two passes,
• 16:38
  forces of fumble. So he was a player who carved
• 16:42
  out a pretty long career for an undrafted free agent
• 16:45
  initially out of Texas Tech.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's really good value.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And we're gonna end things with a linebacker who was
• 16:53
  an undrafted free agent signing by the Eagles in two
• 16:56
  thousand and seven, made the team, but then he was
• 16:59
  cut and signed to the practice squad the next day
• 17:02
  when the Eagles added a couple players that happened sometimes.
• 17:05
  That is former James Madison linebacker Akeem Jordan A King
• 17:10
  Jordan played for the Eagles in from two thousand and
• 17:12
  seven to twenty twelve. Then he played for the Chiefs
• 17:15
  for a year, then he played for the at the
• 17:18
  time it was called the Washington Redskins in twenty fourteen,
• 17:22
  and then finished his football career with the Toronto Argonauts,
• 17:25
  playing from twenty seventeen.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: To twenty eighteen.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So King Jordan, as a rookie appeared nine games for
• 17:32
  the Eagles, played started one game.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: The big season for him was in two thousand and nine.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: If you could think about that, I remember a linebacker
• 17:40
  unit that started Stuart Bradley A King Jordan, I believe
• 17:44
  was the weak side linebacker, and maybe it was Chris Gocong.
• 17:49
  I'm drawing a blank here, but in that season he
• 17:52
  played in twelve games, started ten, had two interceptions, six passes,
• 17:58
  defended a sack, career high seventy one tackles.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, this is a player who was probably
• 18:05
  best suited to be a backup in the NFL. But
• 18:08
  every time he was on the field, he was flying around.
• 18:10
  He had really good speed, really good range. He was
• 18:12
  very undersized six one two twenty six at that time,
• 18:16
  that was immensely undersized for that position. Nowadays, that's really
• 18:22
  the New Age build for linebackers.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: But yeah, a Keem Jordan.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Ended up carving out a pretty long career for himself,
• 18:30
  and back in twenty eight, twenty thirteen, excuse me, with
• 18:35
  the Chiefs, he started ten games and played in sixteen.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I thought he had a pretty nice career.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: And I always think back to his story and you know,
• 18:45
  James Madison me following college football, I thought that was cool.
• 18:49
  Made the team undrafted, that's never an easy feat. And
• 18:51
  then the fact that he lasted as long as he
• 18:53
  did with the Eagles and kind of carved out a
• 18:56
  role on that linebacker unit. And that was a time
• 18:59
  period with the Eagles that the linebacker situation was fairly dire,
• 19:04
  and so he may draw the ire or may be
• 19:07
  a name that folks don't want to remember, but I
• 19:09
  thought that, all things considered, not a top draft pick
• 19:13
  and all of that, I think that that's one that
• 19:16
  I have that comes to mind when I start to
• 19:19
  think of those obscure Eagles who played certain positions. So
• 19:23
  there you have it. There's my list of players. And
• 19:26
  if you enjoyed this one and you want to make
• 19:28
  your submission inside the Birds at gmail dot com, I'll
• 19:32
  rate them on the podcast and I'll expand and maybe
• 19:34
  add to this list. But it's something kind of fun
• 19:37
  to do. With training camp nearing, there's always going to
• 19:40
  be some names that maybe you aren't familiar with that
• 19:42
  you're going to hear about and players who emerge and
• 19:45
  then in the regular.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Season as well.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: So it was kind of just a fun exercise and
• 19:48
  I've really racked my brain here to try and cover
• 19:51
  some ground and bring some of these players back to light. Anyway,
• 19:55
  this has been to check O daily. I am Andrew
• 19:57
  decheco and I'll talk to everybody tomorrow. Dad,