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The DiCecco Daily: Gritty LG Landon Dickerson Playing Through Pain, Pushing Along Best He Can · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome into this edition of the check Odaily. It's Andrew
0:13
Speaker 2: Dechecko here from inside the birds dot Com. Saturday, at
0:16
Speaker 2: four o'clock, the Eagles announced they've activated wide receiver Darius
0:19
Speaker 2: Cooper from injury reserve to the active roster. He will
0:23
Speaker 2: be one of five wide receivers available Sunday afternoon when
0:26
Speaker 2: the Eagles take on the New York Giants. In addition
0:29
Speaker 2: to Cooper, the Eagles will have Davonte Smith, Johan Dotson,
0:32
Speaker 2: John Metchi, and Xavier Gibson, who doubles as the team's
0:36
Speaker 2: kick returner available. Remember AJ Brown, with the hamstring injury,
0:41
Speaker 2: won't play this week. He is out but not playing
0:45
Speaker 2: this week, and then with the bye week, it now
0:47
Speaker 2: gives aj a couple of weeks to recover and be
0:50
Speaker 2: back in time for when the Eagles take on the
0:53
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers November tenth. So that's your roster transaction
0:57
Speaker 2: for Sunday afternoon. There were no pre to squad elevations
1:01
Speaker 2: and I know some maybe we're looking for Quez Watkins
1:04
Speaker 2: elevation or something to that effect, but this week the
1:08
Speaker 2: Eagles did not elevate anyone from the practice squad.
1:11
Speaker 1: That's your roster move.
1:13
Speaker 2: Let's move on to my notebook, and throughout the week,
1:16
Speaker 2: I'll compile a lot of quotes. I'll talk to different players,
1:19
Speaker 2: and I like to package it into shorter stories where
1:24
Speaker 2: there'll be about three particular items that I find to
1:27
Speaker 2: be interesting. And we'll start with Landon Dickerson, because Landon
1:32
Speaker 2: Dickerson's a player who clearly has been playing injured this season,
1:36
Speaker 2: but I don't know if it's fully appreciated all of
1:39
Speaker 2: the attrition that he's had to withstand throughout his career.
1:43
Speaker 2: He's had thirteen surgeries, and on Wednesday he mentioned that
1:46
Speaker 2: he's about seventy to seventy five percent healthy this year
1:50
Speaker 2: shouldn't really be a surprise.
1:52
Speaker 1: But one of those.
1:52
Speaker 2: Surgeries came in August when he had to have a
1:56
Speaker 2: minor procedure on his right meniscus. Remember he suffered that
1:59
Speaker 2: injury in the open practice. Then he dealt with a
2:03
Speaker 2: back injury leading into the season opener, and that sort
2:06
Speaker 2: of led some to believe that maybe that was going
2:09
Speaker 2: to be up in the air, but he.
2:11
Speaker 1: Gutted it out. He was available for that game.
2:14
Speaker 2: And I think what we've learned is Landon Dickerson should
2:17
Speaker 2: never be counted out. He played in that game. He
2:20
Speaker 2: played all but eleven snaps in that game. The injury
2:24
Speaker 2: forced him out for an early exit, but Brett Toth
2:26
Speaker 2: played the remaining eleven snaps and for Landon, he said
2:31
Speaker 2: that it's something that he sort of had to learn
2:33
Speaker 2: to play with. He said, you know, you don't manage it,
2:36
Speaker 2: you don't manage it better. It's football. And I think
2:39
Speaker 2: when you look at the inconsistencies of the Eagles offense,
2:43
Speaker 2: particularly as it pertains to the running game, everyone going
2:48
Speaker 2: into the offseason was kind of looking at Saquon Barkley
2:51
Speaker 2: having touched the ball four hundred and eighty two times
2:54
Speaker 2: last season, and maybe wondering how he was going to
2:57
Speaker 2: respond following a season where he handled the ball as
3:00
Speaker 2: much as he did a pretty sizable workload. But I
3:03
Speaker 2: don't think enough was made about how that attrition could
3:05
Speaker 2: affect the offensive line, who had a shortened off season.
3:08
Speaker 2: By the way, remember Saquon Barkley didn't get touched all
3:11
Speaker 2: that much last season, which is a testament to the
3:14
Speaker 2: offensive line and the holes they were paving for him.
3:17
Speaker 2: But you're seeing it manifest with injuries to Dickerson, who's
3:20
Speaker 2: had three injuries this season, the meniscus.
3:24
Speaker 1: The back, and now the ankle.
3:27
Speaker 2: Cam Jurgens is out for this week with the knee injury,
3:30
Speaker 2: but he had offseason back surgery and that's going to
3:33
Speaker 2: take some time for him to get back to full strength.
3:35
Speaker 2: Lane Johnson earlier in the year, I think it was
3:38
Speaker 2: even in the Rams game, he was battling through an
3:41
Speaker 2: injury which ended up being it was a neck injury
3:43
Speaker 2: that was a stinger. So you're seeing how those type
3:48
Speaker 2: of injuries maybe are affecting the offensive line they're not
3:51
Speaker 2: at full strength. But I think the poster child for
3:55
Speaker 2: this is Dickerson, who plays through so much.
3:57
Speaker 1: He's tough as nails.
3:59
Speaker 2: And a modern day warrior in my opinion, because there's
4:03
Speaker 2: many injuries that he sustained that a lot of players
4:06
Speaker 2: would have been out for. But I think what you've
4:08
Speaker 2: learned is that you can never count Landon Diggerson out.
4:10
Speaker 2: If he's available or able to go, or if he
4:13
Speaker 2: believes he can help the team, which is key, he's
4:16
Speaker 2: going to be out there. But in Week five against
4:20
Speaker 2: the Broncos, it looked like he was beginning to return
4:22
Speaker 2: to form. He was driving lineman off the ball and
4:24
Speaker 2: channeling the overall dominance that accompanies his reputation, and then
4:29
Speaker 2: the ankle injury popped up. He said, I had definitely
4:32
Speaker 2: started feeling better in that game. That, Yeah, then you
4:35
Speaker 2: end up having that and you go back.
4:37
Speaker 1: And do it all over again.
4:39
Speaker 2: But when you look at the offensive line as a whole,
4:42
Speaker 2: clearly injuries that have mounted earlier in the season, and
4:46
Speaker 2: I think that plays a big part into the run
4:48
Speaker 2: game inefficiencies, and this bye week comes at a critical
4:52
Speaker 2: time for them. But you know, Landon said, yeah, this
4:56
Speaker 2: is after he's sustained the ankle injury and had to
4:58
Speaker 2: overcome all of that, And he said, yeah, it's shitty.
5:01
Speaker 2: You start off the year having surgery and you don't
5:02
Speaker 2: get back to one hundred percent. You try to go
5:04
Speaker 2: play and you're getting messed up again. You kind of
5:07
Speaker 2: get into a cycle of that. But yeah, it's just
5:09
Speaker 2: football transitioning.
5:10
Speaker 1: Now.
5:11
Speaker 2: Rookie safety Drew mccuba, I spoke to him this week.
5:14
Speaker 2: When you look at what his body of work has
5:16
Speaker 2: been this season, there's a lot of questions as to
5:20
Speaker 2: how he's performed through seven games, and I think that
5:23
Speaker 2: was underscored when you heard Vic Fangio on Tuesday say
5:27
Speaker 2: that when he was talking about his season that it's
5:30
Speaker 2: uneven the abilities there.
5:31
Speaker 1: He's just got to be more consistent.
5:35
Speaker 2: What shouldn't be lost in all this is that Drew
5:38
Speaker 2: mccuba leaves the Eagles with two interceptions, and he was
5:42
Speaker 2: selected in the second round to pair with Red Blanket
5:44
Speaker 2: Ship to arm the team with a new look playmaking
5:47
Speaker 2: tandem in center field for Fanjo.
5:49
Speaker 1: To work with.
5:50
Speaker 2: And much of the appeal surrounding macuba centered around his
5:54
Speaker 2: ball skills, his football intellect, his versatility. But even at
5:58
Speaker 2: five to eleven, one hundred and eighty six pounds, mccuba
6:00
Speaker 2: had demonstrated an ability to generate splash plays as a tackler,
6:04
Speaker 2: and we'll get to that in the moment because he
6:07
Speaker 2: sort of tapped into that again against the Minnesota Vikings.
6:10
Speaker 2: But as Fangio said, there's been some coverage bus there's
6:15
Speaker 2: been the inevitable pitfalls for a first year player facing
6:18
Speaker 2: the likes of Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, and
6:22
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield to start the season. But I think one
6:24
Speaker 2: blemish on mccooba's game that has been evident is the
6:27
Speaker 2: inconsistencies in tackling. The most recent instance that immediately springs
6:32
Speaker 2: to mind would be in Week six against the Giants
6:34
Speaker 2: when mccouba failed a corral wide receiver Wandel Robinson en
6:38
Speaker 2: route to his thirty five yard touchdown. And then last
6:41
Speaker 2: Sunday on a second and eleven, mccooba was also unable
6:45
Speaker 2: to wrangle Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson along the sideline,
6:49
Speaker 2: who scooted past.
6:50
Speaker 1: Him for what became a forty yard catch and run.
6:54
Speaker 2: There was another moment in the Vikings game which I
6:56
Speaker 2: alluded to that mccuba demonstrated how tackling could become a strength,
7:01
Speaker 2: charging downhill on blasting running back Xavier Scott at the
7:04
Speaker 2: one yard line following his four yard run.
7:07
Speaker 1: But mccoopa spoke on that he was very candid.
7:09
Speaker 2: He said, I feel that's one area I'm lacking on
7:12
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to find some consistency and build some
7:14
Speaker 2: consistency within that area. But that's something I've always done good,
7:18
Speaker 2: and I feel like it's going to take a matter
7:20
Speaker 2: of just work and I feel it's going to pay
7:22
Speaker 2: off eventually. So I'm gonna just keep working on what
7:24
Speaker 2: I'm lacking, which is open field tackles to be specific
7:27
Speaker 2: right now, and try to stress myself during the week
7:30
Speaker 2: in practice, putting myself in those situations as much as
7:33
Speaker 2: I can, and then try to capitalize once it's time
7:35
Speaker 2: to play. He then expanded on how he can hone
7:38
Speaker 2: in on that aspect of his game throughout the week.
7:41
Speaker 2: He cited putting himself in those stressful situations as frequently
7:45
Speaker 2: as possible and trying to make quote unquote everything look
7:48
Speaker 2: how it's supposed to look and make the tackle. He
7:50
Speaker 2: also mentioned staying after practice with wide receivers and running backs.
7:55
Speaker 2: But the reality is is that this is a long
7:57
Speaker 2: season and growing pains for rookies are inevitable. They should
8:00
Speaker 2: always be taken into account, especially in a pass happy league.
8:04
Speaker 2: But amid the occasional blips, there have also been tangible
8:07
Speaker 2: signs of progression in the form of Macouba showcasing his
8:12
Speaker 2: range and knack for being around the football. His football
8:14
Speaker 2: IQ has also revealed itself on numerous occasions, but even
8:18
Speaker 2: Mcooba's own assessment of his first seven games was conveyed
8:21
Speaker 2: as uneven, aligning with Fangio's evaluation. He says, I wouldn't
8:27
Speaker 2: say I'm happy with my performance, and I wouldn't say
8:29
Speaker 2: I'm mad with my performance. I feel like my biggest
8:31
Speaker 2: thing right now is just building consistency with what I
8:34
Speaker 2: do and just growing. That's going to take time, but
8:37
Speaker 2: I'm willing to go the long way with this thing
8:39
Speaker 2: and see how far it takes me. But my main
8:41
Speaker 2: focus right now is just growing each week and getting
8:43
Speaker 2: better each week. With how the season's going, anything can
8:46
Speaker 2: happen in a week, So I wouldn't say I'm happy
8:49
Speaker 2: or mad with my performance. I'm just all about growing
8:52
Speaker 2: in the system and this scheme. The final piece here
8:56
Speaker 2: of my notebook, Enhanced Ball Knowledge aids rookie defensive tackle.
9:01
Speaker 2: There was so much intrigue surrounding fourth round defensive tackle
9:04
Speaker 2: Ty Robinson coming out of the draft that was apparent.
9:08
Speaker 2: I get asked a lot of questions about him. I
9:11
Speaker 2: got to ask a lot of questions about him in
9:12
Speaker 2: training camp and even the early part of the season
9:15
Speaker 2: when he hasn't factored in all that much defensively. But
9:18
Speaker 2: it's taken some time for the twenty four year old
9:20
Speaker 2: to prominently factor into the team's rotational plans. For reference,
9:24
Speaker 2: Robinson has logged just twenty eight defensive snaps in five games,
9:28
Speaker 2: nineteen of which were crewed in a Jalen Carter list
9:31
Speaker 2: Week six loss to the Giants on Thursday Night Football.
9:36
Speaker 2: In consecutive games against the Buccaneers and Broncos, Robinson canbine
9:39
Speaker 2: for just three defensive snaps. The available data probably would
9:44
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been fathomable if you suggested prior to training
9:49
Speaker 2: camp that he would be so sporadically implemented into the defense,
9:53
Speaker 2: but the implementation has been gradual. Even off the field,
9:58
Speaker 2: consistency has eluded rob as the Nebraska product has changed
10:02
Speaker 2: lockers less than two weeks into the season.
10:04
Speaker 1: He was first.
10:05
Speaker 2: Issued Brandon Graham's old locker, and then that was assigned
10:08
Speaker 2: to Darius Smith leading into the second game of the season,
10:12
Speaker 2: and now, of course that space belongs to its rightful
10:15
Speaker 2: tenant in Brandon Graham. But what has been apparent for
10:19
Speaker 2: Robinson is his routine. He typically arrives at the team's
10:23
Speaker 2: Novacare complex around seven forty five to eight o'clock every
10:26
Speaker 2: morning before grabbing breakfast. The rest of his days are
10:31
Speaker 2: jam packed, involving a combination of meetings, workouts, practice, and recovery.
10:36
Speaker 2: Robinson even established a pre practice regimen, venturing into the
10:41
Speaker 2: steam room and then the cold tub, followed by a
10:44
Speaker 2: shower before walkthrough and practice. The end of his days
10:47
Speaker 2: revolves around recovery and film study. While the involvement on
10:50
Speaker 2: game days and production might suggest otherwise, the routine and
10:54
Speaker 2: the benefit of time I've been really hell bent on
10:56
Speaker 2: that whenever you assess rookie rookie development and play. It's
11:02
Speaker 2: given Robinson a tangible on field boost as he navigates
11:06
Speaker 2: these uncharged waters. Remember, he was a fixture on the
11:10
Speaker 2: Nebraska defense and now has to take sort of a
11:13
Speaker 2: back seat as he navigates his rookie campaign. But the
11:18
Speaker 2: game has slowed down and the ability of understanding his
11:20
Speaker 2: role it's catching up. He talked about how he's able
11:26
Speaker 2: to kind of watch NFL offenses and how everything slowed
11:29
Speaker 2: down for him. He's gaining more confidence in himself and
11:33
Speaker 2: trusting what he's saying, and when he goes out there,
11:35
Speaker 2: he said, it's like the middle of the third quarter
11:38
Speaker 2: and that's the first play go out there. Obviously you're
11:40
Speaker 2: watching the game from the sideline, but when you go
11:42
Speaker 2: out there, you're trying to figure out all right?
11:45
Speaker 1: What are these guys liking to do out here?
11:47
Speaker 2: What does the flow really out on the field actually
11:50
Speaker 2: feel like. I'll ask the older guys that are out there,
11:52
Speaker 2: how's it feeling, how's it looking? What are you noticing
11:55
Speaker 2: these guys doing? So when it is my time to
11:58
Speaker 2: go out there, I'm able to kind of plug in
12:00
Speaker 2: and not really have to try to figure out that
12:02
Speaker 2: as the play goes on.
12:05
Speaker 1: I think the.
12:06
Speaker 2: Coolest thing here is that while ty Robinson may'veoly accounted
12:10
Speaker 2: for six naps in the eagles twenty eight to twenty
12:13
Speaker 2: two win in Minnesota, he contributed more than the box
12:15
Speaker 2: score or stat line may indicate. And he recounted this
12:20
Speaker 2: situation where it was a standard conversation between himself and
12:23
Speaker 2: fellow defensive tackle Moro Jomo as it pertained to how
12:27
Speaker 2: to attack the interior and what moves to work, and
12:30
Speaker 2: it happened to coincide at a critical moment, down five
12:33
Speaker 2: with just under eleven minutes to go, the Vikings faced
12:35
Speaker 2: a third and five from the Eagles.
12:37
Speaker 1: Ten.
12:38
Speaker 2: Quarterback Carson Wentz fielded the shotgun snap, but was quickly
12:41
Speaker 2: met with pressure up the middle. He never got the
12:43
Speaker 2: pass off as a Jomo dropped him for a seven
12:45
Speaker 2: yard loss. He says, really that was just for that
12:49
Speaker 2: specific call, just because kind of how they how the
12:53
Speaker 2: way the center was playing it. We didn't know if
12:55
Speaker 2: we were going to have guard help, but I just noticed,
12:57
Speaker 2: especially with JC Jalen Carter jabbing with his quarterback hit.
13:01
Speaker 2: I was like, you know, you can kind of do
13:03
Speaker 2: the same thing but add a little extra flavor.
13:06
Speaker 1: Then ty Robinson continued.
13:07
Speaker 2: Then when he went out there and hit it, I
13:09
Speaker 2: was pumped because I was like, see, I told you,
13:11
Speaker 2: I told you.
13:13
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14:13
Speaker 2: And to kind of illustrate this a little bit further,
14:16
Speaker 2: when players are afforded the benefit of viewing still shots
14:20
Speaker 2: on the iPad coming off the field, The plays don't
14:23
Speaker 2: exactly tell the whole story without video, but Robinson usually
14:27
Speaker 2: has a unique perspective because he's able to diagnose plays
14:30
Speaker 2: in real time and on the JumboTron after the fact
14:33
Speaker 2: while his teammates are on the field getting the next call.
14:37
Speaker 2: Right now, he's ensconced in a deep interior group with
14:40
Speaker 2: Jalen Carter, Morojomo, Jordan Davis, and Byron Young, so there's
14:44
Speaker 2: not a lot of available snaps for ty Robinson to
14:47
Speaker 2: even absorb. But his scarce usage shouldn't be viewed as
14:50
Speaker 2: an indictment of his play throughout the week, but rather
14:53
Speaker 2: a byproduct of a rich position group over the course
14:56
Speaker 2: of an NFL season, a lot can change as players develop,
14:59
Speaker 2: grow into rolls and take on increased workloads due to injury.
15:03
Speaker 2: Whenever the time comes for Robinson to take on more,
15:06
Speaker 2: he's better equipped now with the benefit of time to
15:09
Speaker 2: answer the bell.
15:10
Speaker 1: He says.
15:11
Speaker 2: The ball knowledge has gotten better, definitely as I'm watching film,
15:15
Speaker 2: as we're in position meetings and stuff. It's not just
15:17
Speaker 2: the defensive play call and what's done with that, but
15:19
Speaker 2: when I see this type of formation, what are the
15:22
Speaker 2: most common blocks I'm gonna get out of this formation,
15:24
Speaker 2: whether it's a double team cutout reach, is the guard
15:27
Speaker 2: gonna pull and center gonna block back, or if I'm
15:30
Speaker 2: on the tackle, is the tackle gonna kind of do
15:32
Speaker 2: a fake hinge so the center can come and kick
15:34
Speaker 2: me out because the guard's pulling type of deal. And
15:37
Speaker 2: now that's kind of like where I'm trying to elevate.
15:40
Speaker 2: The next part of my game is just when I
15:42
Speaker 2: realize the formation, especially in the box, knowing this is
15:45
Speaker 2: the most likely your favorite play out of this formation.
15:49
Speaker 2: This is the type of block I'm gonna get to
15:51
Speaker 2: the running back and the tight ends I'm to the
15:54
Speaker 2: running back and the tight ends away so this is
15:56
Speaker 2: the possibility of what I'm going to get conversation with
16:00
Speaker 2: all well, with Ty Robinson in this case. And I
16:05
Speaker 2: really like putting this notebook together because I feel it
16:08
Speaker 2: it really ties a lot of things together that I'm
16:09
Speaker 2: not able to get to during the week. Hope you
16:12
Speaker 2: all enjoyed that. Hope that shed some light on some
16:14
Speaker 2: pertinent topics that I'm sure you were all wondering about.
16:17
Speaker 2: And we'll see what happens when the Eagles take the
16:19
Speaker 2: field against the Giants. It's in a big matchup one
16:22
Speaker 2: o'clock Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
16:25
Speaker 1: For now, that'll be all for me. This has been
16:27
Speaker 1: to Checho Daily.
16:28
Speaker 2: I'm Andrew de Checo and I will catch you all
16:30
Speaker 2: on the next one.