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Football at Four: The Early Word on Eagles Week 1 Opponent: Commanders · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Josh Henning from Mike Gill here. Yes, it is Friday.
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  Speaker 1: It is football at four. And that means we will
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  Speaker 1: be talking with Adam Kaplan in just a couple of
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  Speaker 1: minutes here on the Sports Bash on 97.3 ESPN. Our
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  Speaker 1: first look at the Eagles' first opponent for the 2026 season,
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  Speaker 1: the division rival Washington Commanders.
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  Speaker 2: And as always, football at four.
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  Speaker 1: all of their live entertainment coming up this fall, including
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  Speaker 1: Sebastian Maniscalso, September 17th to the 20th, and September 24th
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to 27th. Again, that's TheOceanAC.com. And one of the reasons
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  Speaker 1: why we're going to get into with Adam and talk
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  Speaker 1: about the Eagles' first opponent is because, you know, we
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  Speaker 1: have spent so much time this week here on 973
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  Speaker 1: ESPN talking about who the Eagles are, right?
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  Speaker 2: Who is Jalen Hurst? What is the Eagles' offense? The
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  Speaker 2: depth chart?
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  Speaker 1: There's so many things for Philadelphia that we've talked about
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  Speaker 1: this week, but yet we forget that they have an
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  Speaker 1: opponent coming up. Part of the football season analysis is
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  Speaker 1: who's on the other side of the field. And I
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  Speaker 1: think that, you know, I think Washington is going to
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  Speaker 1: be easily one of the five teams I am most
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  Speaker 1: fascinated to watch this year, not just because they're in
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  Speaker 1: our division, but because... The extreme, and I mean extreme,
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  Speaker 1: difference between who they were in 2024 to who they
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  Speaker 1: were in 2025. And a huge part of Washington's problems
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  Speaker 1: last year was injury related. They had a ton of
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  Speaker 1: injuries on the offensive line. Jayden and Daniel having multiple
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  Speaker 1: injuries last year. They had injuries on defense. The injury
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  Speaker 1: bug and the lack of depth really negatively impacted them.
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  Speaker 1: So there's got to be an in-between, right, of who
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  Speaker 1: is the Washington Commanders from who they were as the
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  Speaker 1: breakout team in 2024 versus who they became because of
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  Speaker 1: injuries in 2025. So I have a ton of questions
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  Speaker 1: about this matchup because I'm still a believer in Jaden Daniels.
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  Speaker 1: I'm still a believer in who he can be, what
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  Speaker 1: he can be. I loved him in college. I was
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  Speaker 1: a huge fan of his when he first joined Arizona State.
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  Speaker 1: And I was so excited for him when he transferred
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  Speaker 1: to LSU because by the time he left Arizona State,
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  Speaker 1: the whole program had kind of gone sideways because of
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  Speaker 1: the violations from the coaching staff that were deemed by
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  Speaker 1: the NCAA and the recruiting violations and the COVID violations
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  Speaker 1: and the whole program basically went sideways. And so Jaden
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  Speaker 1: needed to get out of there. He went to LSU,
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  Speaker 1: wins the Heisman, has a great season, becomes the second
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  Speaker 1: pick in the draft. And what he did his rookie
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  Speaker 1: year was much in line with what I thought he
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  Speaker 1: was capable of. And I thought that the marriage between
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  Speaker 1: him and Cliff Kingsbury was a perfect marriage. And that's
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  Speaker 1: part of the conversation we're going to have today on
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  Speaker 1: Football at Four with Adam Kaplan on 97.3 ESPN. It's
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  Speaker 1: about who is the Washington Commanders for the 2026 season,
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  Speaker 1: the Eagles' first opponent. Adam Kaplan joins us now for
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  Speaker 1: Football at Four here on 97.3 ESPN.
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  Speaker 2: Adam, welcome in. How are you doing today?
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  Speaker 3: Josh, I hope you're doing well. Yeah, it's the week
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  Speaker 3: one opponent. In fact, the first injury report for both
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  Speaker 3: teams comes out on Wednesday afternoon, so... Here we go, Josh,
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  Speaker 3: the season right around the corner.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start with who Washington is.
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  Speaker 1: I talked about Jaden Daniels and who he is, but
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  Speaker 1: part of who he is is going to be impacted
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  Speaker 1: by the fact that Washington, like Philadelphia, has a new
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  Speaker 1: offensive coordinator.
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  Speaker 3: It's really interesting. So David Blau, the Washington commander's offensive coordinator,
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  Speaker 3: is just 30 years old. He was sort of like
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  Speaker 3: a young journeyman, third-string quarterback for the Lions, and he
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  Speaker 3: made a decision to get into coaching, and he's really smart.
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  Speaker 3: My understanding was, had the commanders not promoted him, he
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  Speaker 3: probably would have joined Ben Johnson in Chicago to replace
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  Speaker 3: the offense coordinator who wasn't calling the plays, who's now
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  Speaker 3: calling the plays for Baltimore. So, Josh, it's going to
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  Speaker 3: be interesting. So I expect a little bit of... ben
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  Speaker 3: johnson concepts uh... it may be a little of cliff
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  Speaker 3: kingsbury because kit cooking kingsbury was let go i want
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  Speaker 3: to run some interesting concepts but when you really look
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  Speaker 3: at it it's going to be a west coast offense
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  Speaker 3: just like he was going to be running and because
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  Speaker 3: no one truly see what it could do because This
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  Speaker 3: is his first time calling play. There's a little bit
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  Speaker 3: of a mystery of what it's going to look like.
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  Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to it, Josh, with David Plough here,
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  Speaker 3: a 30-year-old offensive coordinator just in his third year coaching.
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  Speaker 3: I was with the Commanders when they hosted the Dolphins
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  Speaker 3: for a joint practice. And I could tell you, Jay
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  Speaker 3: Daniels was elite that day. He was incredible. And I'm
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  Speaker 3: interested to see how this looks because we'll get to
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  Speaker 3: it in a second. They have major offensive line concerns.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Laramie Tunsell, who, first of all, he's the
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  Speaker 1: big loss. Torn triceps tendon a couple weeks ago. I
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  Speaker 1: know Nick Allegretti, I think he missed almost all at
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  Speaker 1: training camp because of that calf strain. So, you have
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  Speaker 1: two important parts of the offensive line on top of
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  Speaker 1: the whole situation with I don't even know what is
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  Speaker 1: going on with CM Cosby.
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  Speaker 2: Is it an illness? Is it not an illness?
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  Speaker 1: They got serious issues on the O-line because if any
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  Speaker 1: of those guys are unavailable, the depth behind them is
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  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, Adam.
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  Speaker 3: Yep, and I didn't get any sense that there's any
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  Speaker 3: panic with Cosby, but he's over his ACL injury, which
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  Speaker 3: was against the Lions two seasons ago. And he clearly
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  Speaker 3: was not himself, but it's healed. And Josh Connelly is
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  Speaker 3: an absolute stud. Right tackle, and by the way, he
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  Speaker 3: was a left tackle at Argon, but he did a
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  Speaker 3: great job last season as a right tackle. But the
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  Speaker 3: problem is with Tunsell out through at least the entire
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  Speaker 3: regular season. Brandon Coleman, who Tunsell replaced, is going to
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  Speaker 3: be the left tackle for now. Now, G.J. Humphreys came in. Humphreys,
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  Speaker 3: a journeyman, former first-round pick. He's near the end of
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  Speaker 3: his career, Josh. He could play right or left tackle.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure they're going to have him be ready at
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  Speaker 3: left tackle if need be. And then Alec Reddy, who's
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  Speaker 3: going to move from guard to center, He's been hurt.
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  Speaker 3: It's been, by the way, their center position after they
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  Speaker 3: cut Tyler Biotich has been a nightmare. So they've got
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  Speaker 3: problems starting center going through left tackle. And Chris Paul's okay.
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  Speaker 3: He's a good run defender. He's not a great pass protector.
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  Speaker 3: This is a problem going against, perhaps, the best front
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  Speaker 3: seven in the National Football League and the Eagles.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And speaking of Jane Daniels earlier, who he's throwing to, hey, Adam,
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  Speaker 1: Terry McLaurin and Stephon Diggs would be a great tandem
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  Speaker 1: about six years ago, right?
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Now they're the two headliners, and the guys behind them,
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  Speaker 1: it's a lot of youth and a lot of inexperience.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and really, Diggs doesn't run all that well anymore.
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  Speaker 3: The Patriots cut him. He was going to make too
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  Speaker 3: much money anyway, and they made a decision when they
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  Speaker 3: signed Romeo Dobbs, and they knew they were going to
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  Speaker 3: trade all offseason for A.J. Brown. There was no Stephon
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  Speaker 3: Diggs coming back. Look, he really should be their third receiver,
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  Speaker 3: not number two. McClure is their number one. He's their ex-receiver.
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  Speaker 3: DeAndre Brown, by the way, could run. He's got good size.
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  Speaker 3: He signed one year for $ 10 million and was hurt
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  Speaker 3: with the Jaguars. They didn't want him back. Trayvon Burks,
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  Speaker 3: who kind of revived his career last season with Washington,
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  Speaker 3: for a first-round pick with the Titans, he's there as well.
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  Speaker 3: And Christian McCaffrey's younger brother, Luke McCaffrey, is there. You're right.
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  Speaker 3: And Antonio Williams, who eventually will be their lead slot receiver,
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  Speaker 3: the very talented receiver, their renter out of... Out of
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  Speaker 3: Clemson now, Josh, the one thing I'll add is Chiggy
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  Speaker 3: Conquo is going to be there. He's going to be
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  Speaker 3: their pass-catching tight end. John Bates is their wide. They're
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  Speaker 3: a blocking tight end. Conquo could run, but not real
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  Speaker 3: strong at the point of attack. He was an underachiever
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  Speaker 3: with the Titans. So this is a pass game at
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  Speaker 3: the Eagles. I know they don't know quite what's coming
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  Speaker 3: because you've got guys who have never called plays before.
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  Speaker 3: They're going to run a different scheme. But they should
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  Speaker 3: not struggle against this passing game.
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  Speaker 1: Adam Kaplan, today's football at four, powered by the Inside
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the Birds podcast, insidethebirds.com, at Kaplan NFL on the X platform,
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  Speaker 1: talking about who the Eagles opponent is week one, the
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  Speaker 1: Washington Commanders, and part of finding out who they are, Adam,
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  Speaker 1: is on the defensive side of the ball, they have
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  Speaker 1: a Brady defensive coordinator with a background from the Vikings,
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  Speaker 1: Durante Jones.
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  Speaker 2: Talk about what this means for Washington.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're going to run a 34 front. Now, he's
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  Speaker 3: going to run some of what Brian Flores does, but
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  Speaker 3: Brian Flores is so unusual. So unorthodox, the way that
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  Speaker 3: he runs his defense. It's hard to copy it. But
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  Speaker 3: what the Eagles will have to expect is the unexpected.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously they're going to look at Flores' tape and
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  Speaker 3: go from there. And they've completely revamped their front seven, Josh.
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  Speaker 3: With Sonny Stout, the first-round pick. With Clayson, who came
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  Speaker 3: over from New England. He's a really good, talented edge rusher. Adafioe,
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  Speaker 3: who's coming off a career season... formerly of the Raiders
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  Speaker 3: and Chargers. Tim Settlesback, he's a journeyman tackle who's been
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  Speaker 3: previously with Washington. He's back. So it's going to look different.
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  Speaker 3: They were down with their fifth edge rusher last season,
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  Speaker 3: Charles Amedda, who's a pretty quality backup there as well.
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  Speaker 3: So it's going to look different. And look, They brought
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  Speaker 3: in Leo Chenault, a very talented linebacker slash edge rusher.
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  Speaker 3: And Frankie Lugo, I'm told, is going to play more
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  Speaker 3: of an edge rusher this season. This front seven, Josh,
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  Speaker 3: is going to look totally different than the Eagles have
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  Speaker 3: faced in recent years with Washington.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what might look familiar to people is who might
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  Speaker 1: be on the field week one, Adam, because former Eagle
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  Speaker 1: Rasul Douglas is on the commander's roster. And this is
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  Speaker 1: an interesting thing because Philadelphia, with their new offense, they're
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  Speaker 1: facing a Washington team that has basically almost no depth
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  Speaker 1: at corner.
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  Speaker 3: They don't. With Trey, almost the best corner on injury reserve,
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  Speaker 3: it's a shame. He's really good. He played well before
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  Speaker 3: he had the leg injury and then missed the rest
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  Speaker 3: of the season. See, this is what's going to have
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  Speaker 3: to happen. Either Amik Robertson, who's really best at nickel,
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  Speaker 3: who did play some outside for Detroit, or Mike Sandler still,
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  Speaker 3: who was great at the nickel two years ago, did
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  Speaker 3: not play as well outside. One of them's going to
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  Speaker 3: have to play outside. Russell Douglas might have to start. He's, look,
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  Speaker 3: the guy won a Super Bowl nine years ago with
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  Speaker 3: the Eagles. He's just turned 31. He's really more of
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  Speaker 3: a zone corner. It's going to be tough for him.
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  Speaker 3: You're right, Josh. They're just not deep at corner. Now,
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  Speaker 3: I know the Eagles are, look, they're passing game might
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  Speaker 3: get off to a slow start, because it didn't look
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  Speaker 3: great in the preseason, or really in training camp, very inconsistent.
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  Speaker 3: But if they could protect, well, you've got to test
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  Speaker 3: the secondary, Josh. We'll talk more about this in Football
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  Speaker 3: at Four coming this week, but that's something you'll have
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  Speaker 3: to do is try to get after the secondary.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Adam Kaplan back on Tuesday after Labor Day weekend
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  Speaker 1: here at Football at Four on the Sports Bash on 97.3 ESPN.
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  Speaker 2: Adam, great stuff today.
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  Speaker 3: All right, man, thank you.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: At Kaplan NFL on the X Platform.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Inside the Birds podcast, like, subscribe, and download wherever you
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: get your podcasts.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Josh Hennig here, all night, 7-3 ESPN.