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The DiCecco Daily: Updating Eagles Injury Report and More · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on, everyone? Welcome in to another episode
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of DiCecco Daily. It's Andrew DiCecco, Eagles beat reporter for InsideTheBirds.com.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: This isn't going to be a really long podcast. I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: actually at Bishop Eustace in South Jersey because they're playing
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Camden Catholic, which, if you read my story on InsideTheBirds.com,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: James Bradbury, former Eagles cornerback, is an assistant coach there.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And I wanted to check out some Friday Night Lights
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: as I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: lot of those opportunities this season. Because I will be
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: pretty busy. But let's get to the most important information.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And that is the injury report for Friday. Jonathan Grenard
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: is out with the pec injury. He will not play
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon against the Commanders. And tight end Eli Stowers
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: is listed as questionable with the hamstring. Not really surprised
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: with Grenard. If you've been listening, I've given my reasoning
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: as to why it's a really difficult injury to play.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: lift and be able to do some different things from
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a recovery standpoint. And I would imagine that they just
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: need to build up that strength and stamina. That's a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: difficult injury. And I read for you some of the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: quotes that He's trusting himself and the training staff. They're
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: not going to push it. They're taking a cautious approach here,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: which is expected when you have this kind of an
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: injury with this caliber of a player and knowing how
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: important he is to the Philadelphia Eagles. You're not going
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to rush him out there, especially when you have a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: number of players you can lean on in the interim
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: in J. Lux Hunt, Nolan Smith, A.J. Epinesa, and A.K. Ebikady.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: No Grenard, but that's the way that it's shaping up.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You're going to see a lot of J. Wilks Hunt,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of Nolan Smith, and maybe a mix of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Ebba Cady and Epinesa because they're both different players. One's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: more explosive and athletic. The other one has a different
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: body type. He's physical. He's going to set the edge
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and be much more of a force in the run game,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but they have a really good variety there. I mentioned
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Jeremiah Washburn, the Eagles outside linebackers coach, referred to the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: flavor of this particular iteration of the pass rush room
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: as Baskin-Robbins. because of the variety that they have and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: then with Stowers we're going to have to wait and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: see how that all shakes out I imagine that that's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: going to take some some consideration knowing that it is
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a soft tissue injury but in the locker room he
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: said it's the plan that he'll give it a go
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: that he'll be available to play on Sunday so encouraging
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: news on that front one oddity that I noticed in
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the Eagles locker room and by the way they knocked
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: down the back wall so they expanded it so there's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a lot more room it's much more spacious and a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: lot of the auxiliary lockers used to be in the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: middle which were reserved for practice squad players they're now
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: in the back and they have a little bit more
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: room as well, but there's a lot more room to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: walk around. But the, the thing that I noticed that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I found to be interesting is there's a number of
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: players that are on the practice squad that are in
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: those that have those auxiliary lockers, but there's also some
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: players on the practice squad that, who have the main
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: lockers that bracket the perimeter of that locker room that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: players on the 53-man roster have. There's a lot of
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: practice squad guys that have that. Cole Wisniewski, Keyshawn James Newby,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Chance Campbell, John Ajuku, Jake Majors, Andre Sam still has
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: a main locker. Who am I forgetting? Um... Let me
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: look at it really quickly. But there's a lot of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: players there that have the main lockers. And that could
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: be for a number of reasons. I think sometimes you
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: tend to defer to players that you drafted, players that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: could end up being game day elevations at some point,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the more or less nucleus of the practice squad, because
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of it, entails moving parts, you often will
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: see that shuffled throughout the season. And it makes a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: lot of sense to players that I just mentioned that
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: have those lockers. But it is interesting to see who
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: has those and who's reserved to the auxiliary portion. I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: also should mention, Uar Bernard and Joshua Waberu also have
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: main lockers. Britton Covey has a main locker. Gabe Hall
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: has a main locker. So really the ones that don't
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: are Jaden Blue, Xavier Gibson, who I'll get to in
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a moment, Robert Longerbeam, Damian Pierce, Maximus Pulley, Mason Rager,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Carson Steele, and Karan Amadaji. So those are just the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: players that are in the back that I was referring to. Anyway,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: just something to note. While I was on the practice field,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I noticed Xavier Gibson. Former Eagles wide receiver slash punt
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: returner was on the field going through warm-ups, and sure enough,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I referred to the roster there, and he was listed
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: on the practice squad. So he's back, and the team
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: announced that he's back, and Danny Gray is placed on
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the practice squad injured reserve list. Tough break for Danny Gray.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the injury is, but he's dealt
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: with a lot in his career. I think he's a
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: talented player, third-round pick of the 49ers some years back,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: but he's been sort of snakebitten by injury. Really good
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: practice player. I've written about him. Different players from Quinion
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Mitchell and Cooper DeGene have outlined how he's helped them
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in practice. So there's a lot of value for having
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: someone like that on the practice squad. That's the point.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Andre Sam, tremendous practice player. He's around for a reason.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: He knows the defense. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: And Danny Gray brings you that explosive element. But Xavier
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Gibson is back. And if you remember, they had him
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: on the 53 for a little bit last year. He
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: had a shoulder injury. And I think that even... I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: think that was something that he was playing through. So
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: just an important, uh, to, to keep in mind there.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And he had, um, some tough moments there as a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: punt returner in terms of just decision-making and, um, really
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: good guy. Glad to see him back. If you have watched, uh,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: hard knocks with the jets, maybe three, four years ago.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Now you'll see his personality. He comes across as just
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a a really likable person, someone who's relatable. And if
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you've seen that, you'll know what I'm talking about. If
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you haven't, you should check that out. It's a really
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: cool moment, actually, when they tell him that he made
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the team. He makes the team, and on the first
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: game of the season, in overtime, I believe, he takes
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a pump return back for a touchdown to win the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: game for the Jets. So he was one of those
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: training camp stories that they chronicled in the Hard Knocks series.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: In the locker room today, we heard from Devontae Smith.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I spoke a little bit to Tank Bigsby. I spoke
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to Willie Lampkin. I'm trying to think. Jordan Mailata also spoke.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And Makai Lemon spoke after practice. He talked about being
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: excited for his first NFL game, which no surprise there.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Talked about working extra on the practice field. which is
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: something that he says that he does every day. He
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: says that he feels that he's caught up, he feels good,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and he's right with the team. Those were his words.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He said it's hard to put into words how excited
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he is to have his first NFL game. he has
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: been putting an emphasis on returning punts, catching punts, extra
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: punts after practice, and he said just being ready for
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: whatever the coaches need me. You know, I'm there is
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: what he said. Interesting one here, Devontae Smith has taken
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: on a much larger leadership role this year. I've noticed
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: him being a little bit more vocal. He's typically been
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: more of a reserved kind of guy, but he's really
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: taken– You know, the onus on him being the elder state,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: being the veteran of that group and being someone that.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: is the top receiver. There's no question. There's a reason
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: why he's elected a team captain. He's typically a lead-by-example guy,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: but he's invaluable when you consider about what he brings
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: from just a mentorship standpoint with regard to a Makai Lemon.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: And he said, Makai Lemon said, yeah, it means a lot.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Him being a role model, being the type of receiver
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: he is in the game, just the type of person
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: he is off the field is kind of similar to to,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to how he moves. And he said, so it's definitely
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: cool to have him, you know, show me the ways
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: showing me the veteran ways as a young rookie. So
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: he definitely appreciates him for that. So that was Makai Lemon,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: not a ton there. Um, but it was, it was, uh,
• 9:12
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• 9:17
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• 9:21
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• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Devontae Smith, he talked about the advice that he would
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: give to Mekhi Lemon. He said, Just go out there
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and be you, man. You know, make the plays when
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: they come to you. You can't dwell on if something
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: goes wrong. That's part of the game. That's before the game.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: You're not. No one in the league will have a
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: perfect game. Something is going to happen, whether it's you
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: miss a block, whether it's you drop a ball, whatever.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Whether it's your turn or whether it's you run the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: wrong route, no one has a perfect game. He said
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: something is going to happen, so it's all about how
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you respond to it. So he didn't want to get
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: into the specifics of the conversation that wide receivers coach
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Aaron Moorhead had with him in terms of just reaffirming
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: his leadership and what he needs from him to be
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: able to command that room. He smiled, and the question was,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: while not maybe getting into the specifics, was it a
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: different kind of conversation than you've had with Aaron before?
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, because like I said, I think
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: they're looking for me to kind of be more vocal
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and do some things with guys and things like that,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: just to kind of help guys with, especially in our
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: room with all the new faces and the things that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: we have. So I'm just reading through some of the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: transcripts here, but, um, that was Devante Smith and Makai Lemon.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: And yeah, the Eagles and commanders will take the field
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: for 25. And I'm looking forward to this game. I
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: will give you my official prediction. I think Eagles win
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: 2313 and, The defense really takes the lead here, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I'm expecting a pretty strong performance from the defensive line,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: namely Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Mauro Jomo. Jalex Hunt has
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a really favorable matchup in this one, and I think
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: he's going to take advantage of it. But the Washington
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Commanders have a really vulnerable interior offensive line that I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: think they'll be able to bring some heat and force
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Jaden Daniels off his spot. Then I look at the secondary. Look...
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I think the Eagles could have the top three corners,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm including Rick Wallen clearly as the third in
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the NFL, but they have to go out there and
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: do it on the field. You have two all pros
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeGene who need no introduction,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: but I think Rick Wallen is really the X factor
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: that takes this defense to another level. And let's not
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: forget how how stout they were really last season while
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: toggling between a Dory Jackson and Keely Ringo and not
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: having that stability on the outside before Dory eventually was
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: able to take command of that position. But you add
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Rick one to this mix and he performs as expected
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: as the Eagles are expecting. And this defense is, there's
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: no reason why it won't be top two, top three,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe better. So we'll see how that all shakes out. Offensively,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I'm expecting a big performance from Saquon Barkley. I think
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: he's going to command a lot of volume in this game,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: especially while the passing game works through some things. And
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I think that's a fair expectation. Understand that if the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: offense does, in fact, get off to a slow start,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that's okay. That's expected. The growing pains are– they sort
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of accompany– newness and when you're being asked to do
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: things that you haven't done and it's not an offshoot
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: of offenses that you've done in the past not entirely
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: anyway you have to understand that there's going to be
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: moments where it looks good and there's going to be
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: moments where you might be a little frustrated watching it
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: but hey.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see what the Eagles do in terms of their
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: practice squad elevations, but for right now, that's going to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: do it for this episode of the Checko Daily. I'm
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Andrew DiCecco, and I'll catch you all on the next one.