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The DiCecco Daily: An Offensive Player Who Could Undertake A Surprisingly Larger Role · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Everybody? Welcome into this edition of The check Odaily. This
• 0:13
  is Andrew Dechecko. Our positional previews series is over, but
• 0:17
  the podcast continue on.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Hope everybody enjoyed that.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: If you missed anything and I covered ninety players, you
• 0:24
  can go back and grab that wherever you get your podcasts. Today, though,
• 0:29
  we're going to talk about a certain player, a third
• 0:32
  year player for the Philadelphia Eagles that now has an
• 0:35
  opportunity to undertake perhaps a more prominent role, this time
• 0:41
  on the offensive side of the ball. I recently caught
• 0:45
  up with Eagles fullback Ben van Sumerin and he had
• 0:49
  a lot of interesting things to say, especially in terms
• 0:52
  of his remarkable recovery process, and we're going to delve
• 0:55
  into all of that. There's also a story that is
• 0:59
  either on INDs dot com or will be on Inside
• 1:02
  the Birds dot Com today that has this written out
• 1:06
  and maybe in a little bit more in depth and
• 1:08
  put things into context a little better, because when you're talking,
• 1:12
  you know how it is, sometimes you're you know, you
• 1:14
  may leave out a detail or two. But let's rewind
• 1:18
  back to last season, and this is all information that
• 1:22
  that Ben has that it's in the story and everything,
• 1:25
  and he's mentioned it, but this is a player who
• 1:29
  entered last season as an intriguing linebacker with a lot
• 1:33
  of qualities, right, This is somebody who runs a four
• 1:36
  to four. He has a forty two and a half
• 1:38
  inch vertical He was a running back at Michigan linebacker
• 1:42
  at Michigan State, made strides in that area with the Eagles,
• 1:46
  and he was a decorated high school wide receiver. So
• 1:49
  he has a very interesting background and perhaps one of
• 1:52
  the best athletes on the Philadelphia Eagles. And that's not
• 1:55
  a stretch by any means.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: You rewind it back to March, and he was really
• 2:04
  asked to be He's not asked.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: He was total, you're going, this is what we're gonna do.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: You're going to be a fullback and we're going to
• 2:13
  make you a full time offensive piece. So that was
• 2:18
  something that he met and embraced with open arms. Ben
• 2:21
  is a very selfless teammate. He loves contributing in any
• 2:26
  meaningful way to team's success.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: That's what he's all about.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So of course he opened he embraced that with open arms,
• 2:33
  and it's really interesting to see where he's able to
• 2:38
  take this position, because I have to be honest with you,
• 2:41
  the reality of this situation is is that you're not
• 2:43
  going to find a fullback with this kind of athleticism
• 2:46
  around the NFL. Now what that all means in terms
• 2:49
  of how they utilize him or different or things of
• 2:52
  that nature, Well, we're gonna have to wait and find out.
• 2:56
  But he can run routes, he can run the football.
• 2:59
  We know he can block, and he can play special teams.
• 3:03
  So if we're going to rewind it a little bit further,
• 3:08
  Ben suffered a knee injury in practice. It was the
• 3:11
  Friday before the Ravens game, and he was running the football,
• 3:16
  he said, and it was kind of a fluke thing.
• 3:18
  And he goes through an arduous rehab process but makes
• 3:21
  a remarkable recovery.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: You know, he was lifting in March.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And then you know, really was able to go heavy
• 3:30
  the last two and a half months without any sort
• 3:33
  of limitations. He was running at full speed in the
• 3:36
  beginning of April, and he says he feels as strong
• 3:40
  and as fast as he's ever been. His weights at
• 3:42
  two forty two that's the plan for him to play
• 3:45
  at And so he has just taken a situation that
• 3:50
  many would have looked at as, you know, you can
• 3:52
  hang your head, you can sulk, you can look at
• 3:55
  you know.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: As woe as me.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: But instead he attacked the rehab process. He had his
• 4:00
  surgery in Los Angeles, and he's really taken to his
• 4:04
  new position. And I have to re you know, sort
• 4:08
  of reemphasize the NFL has not seen a player like
• 4:12
  this in recent memory. So I asked him about Leonard Weaver.
• 4:17
  And Leonard Weaver, for those listening who maybe aren't familiar,
• 4:21
  was a player who while his career was extremely limited
• 4:26
  and brief here in Philadelphia because his career was ended
• 4:30
  tragically with an injury. It was the first carry that
• 4:33
  he had to start the twenty ten season. But this
• 4:36
  is a player in Leonard Weaver, who was an All
• 4:38
  Pro for the Eagles in two thousand and nine and
• 4:41
  a Pro bowler as well. Multifaceted skill set, could block,
• 4:45
  could run, could catch the football, and he was sort
• 4:48
  of a unique talent at that position. And so I
• 4:52
  mentioned to Ben, I said, hey, you should check out Leonard.
• 4:55
  He was already aware of who Leonard Weaver was because
• 4:58
  a lot of the whipment staffers were briefing him on
• 5:02
  that and giving him.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: That history lesson.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: They encourage him to go to YouTube to learn a
• 5:06
  little bit about Weaver see some of his highlights, And
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  I asked Ben, I said, when you watch those highlights,
• 5:12
  did you see a lot of did you draw any
• 5:15
  comparisons to your game?
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  Speaker 2: And he goes, yeah, I did. We were very similar.
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  Speaker 1: And so they encourage him to also wear number forty three,
• 5:23
  which he now of course dons, and the reason for
• 5:26
  that is they told him the last time that the
• 5:29
  Eagles had at all pro fullback, it was Leonard Weaver
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  who wore number forty three.
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  Speaker 2: So there you have it.
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  Speaker 1: That's sort of the connection piece there as to how
• 5:38
  he landed on that number. But there are some comparisons
• 5:42
  to their skill set, and I would argue that maybe
• 5:45
  Ben has more explosive qualities because he does have that
• 5:49
  long speed. Now he just has to put it all together.
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  And we also don't yet know how the Eagles choose
• 5:55
  to utilize the fullback and really in what capacity. But
• 5:58
  I think that's all urging signs for what's to come
• 6:01
  this season. You're going to see some some new wrinkles
• 6:04
  in totality for the offense, who obviously they're going to evolve,
• 6:09
  as you've heard this spring, that's the plan, and we'll
• 6:13
  have to see, you know, what that all entails. But
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  what I can say is is that Ben has has
• 6:20
  sort of really attacked the rehab process and taken to
• 6:24
  his new role. And I saw him do some individual
• 6:27
  drills or OTAs and really throughout the whole process he
• 6:32
  was positive. He maintained that he was ahead of schedule.
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  And I think that that has to be an encouraging sign,
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  not only for the Eagles.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But but for for.
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  Speaker 1: What he can bring to the offense from a skill
• 6:44
  set standpoint, and you know, you talk about he mentioned
• 6:50
  how he leaned on Saquon Barkley, who also had a
• 6:55
  knee injury in his past. He talked to Lane Johnson,
• 6:58
  who's played a lot of football, has battled through a
• 7:00
  lot of things as he was working through the recovery process.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: He mentioned that he initially.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Started out in Florida ahead of OTAs his early spring,
• 7:10
  where he was really focusing on, you know, adding strength
• 7:14
  and getting back to running, and then he eventually transitioned
• 7:18
  to pliometrics and he hasn't had any restrictions, you know,
• 7:25
  as of late, so I think you could expect to
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  see a player who's ready to kind of get to
• 7:30
  training camp and kind of pick up where he left off.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Now, he didn't.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Mention something interesting about how he had to divide the
• 7:38
  time last year, because he said it was a pretty,
• 7:42
  you know, big commitment. He would spend the days in
• 7:45
  the defensive meetings and then you know, if he for
• 7:50
  to get the offensive installs, he would either have to
• 7:53
  get there early or he would have to stay late,
• 7:56
  and those installs were provided by Eagles tight ends coach Jason.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Michael and then eventually.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I should also add that there are two players that
• 8:06
  he deemed to be pretty instrumental in helping him sort
• 8:09
  of master both sides or at least make sure that
• 8:12
  he was dialed in and.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Had those details.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And that was Zach Bonn on defense, who Ben called
• 8:19
  one of his best friends, and center Cam Jurgen's another
• 8:22
  really good friend of Van sumer and on the offensive side,
• 8:25
  who helped him sort of learn and he educated him
• 8:29
  on the blocking schemes. So you notice that there's I mean,
• 8:35
  I've mentioned it many times, but there is a culture
• 8:38
  there in Philadelphia where everybody is trying to help one
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  another and they all are pushing towards a common goal
• 8:46
  and there aren't any egos.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: And so I'll leave you.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: With this because I mentioned to Ben about the city
• 8:53
  of Philadelphia, because he really seems to have endeared himself
• 8:58
  to the city.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: He loves Philadelphia.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: He's mentioned that to me on multiple occasions, and he
• 9:04
  kind of elaborated on that and expanded. He said, you know,
• 9:08
  in Philadelphia, you know, you hear all these different, you know,
• 9:10
  veteran players who get here and it's.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: The cool thing to go hard.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: He mentioned about being a try hard is something that
• 9:19
  is celebrated here and encouraged. It's not like that everywhere else.
• 9:24
  Because he's mentioned even at the college level that there
• 9:28
  are players who maybe either higher recruits or they've been
• 9:32
  established a little bit and maybe they aren't of that mindset.
• 9:35
  And that's certainly not been he said. I couldn't disagree
• 9:38
  more with that mindset. He said, He's all about, you know,
• 9:40
  giving maximum effort, one hundred and ten percent, and that's
• 9:43
  what this Philadelphia Eagles team is about. That's what this
• 9:46
  fan base is about. It's about production and what you do.
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  And he said, and that's all that really matters, and
• 9:52
  he goes, I love Philadelphia.
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  Speaker 2: I love this organization.
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  Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, but he gave a really really good quote
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  and it really, you know, pulls the curtain back on
• 10:01
  what makes the Eagles so special and what makes this
• 10:04
  city so special. So I think that when the story's out,
• 10:08
  you should go back there and read it because I
• 10:10
  think you'll enjoy it.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: But that is sort of an.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Up to date overview of what you can expect for
• 10:18
  Ben van Sumer and going in into his third season.
• 10:20
  I've got a lot of questions on Ben, and I
• 10:23
  know there's a lot of intrigue out there based on
• 10:25
  his skill set and how he could potentially be deployed.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: So I thought that that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Was a really interesting, you know, sort of a backstory
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  and the details that he was able to provide because
• 10:38
  this is.
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  Speaker 2: A big season for him.
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  Speaker 1: He's entering his third year and I think the best
• 10:42
  is yet to come. So that's going to do it
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  for this edition of the Czech o'daly. I am Andrew Dechecko,
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  signing off for now. Talk to everybody tomorrow.