Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily "Snow Day" Special Pod, Part 1: What's The Future At WR For Eagles?
Transcript
- 0:10Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
- 0:11Speaker 2: Welcome into another edition of the check Odaily. It's Andrew
- 0:15Speaker 2: Decheko here, Eagles beat reporter for insidethebirds dot Com. Hope
- 0:19Speaker 2: everyone out there is staying safe amid the snowstorm that's hitting.
- 0:22Speaker 1: The Delaware Valley and beyond.
- 0:24Speaker 2: And I'll have two podcasts for you today to provide
- 0:27Speaker 2: some insight and hopefully some entertainment to help get you
- 0:31Speaker 2: through this day. And there's just been some thoughts that
- 0:34Speaker 2: have been crossing my mind over the past week. And
- 0:37Speaker 2: we'll start with the wide receiver position because there's some
- 0:40Speaker 2: questions there. How might it look next season, who's going
- 0:44Speaker 2: to be involved and where might the Eagles look to
- 0:48Speaker 2: go to fortify that group going into twenty twenty six.
- 0:51Speaker 1: And obviously we'll start with wide receiver AJ Brown. Will
- 0:55Speaker 1: he be a part of the.
- 0:56Speaker 2: Twenty twenty six Eagles and if not, where my they go?
- 1:00Speaker 1: Well?
- 1:00Speaker 2: AJ Brown clearly hasn't been happy. He's been frustrated with
- 1:05Speaker 2: the offense that is really run centric, ball security conscious.
- 1:11Speaker 2: They don't throw with a ton of volume, and you
- 1:14Speaker 2: have to wonder whether or not that's going to continue.
- 1:16Speaker 2: I would assume that they're not all of a sudden
- 1:19Speaker 2: going to become this pass happy offense that's going to
- 1:22Speaker 2: have Jay when Hurst drop back thirty or thirty five.
- 1:24Speaker 1: Times a game.
- 1:25Speaker 2: And I'm not under the impression that aj Brown is
- 1:27Speaker 2: suddenly going to have eight to ten targets weekly.
- 1:31Speaker 1: So you also have.
- 1:32Speaker 2: To wonder whether or not that's going to sort of
- 1:36Speaker 2: affect the way that he's looking at this situation. Now,
- 1:40Speaker 2: you could look at it one way and say, well,
- 1:42Speaker 2: depending on who the new offensive coordinator is, maybe that
- 1:45Speaker 2: changes his perception. I got to tell you, based off
- 1:49Speaker 2: the names that are there, I don't know if he's
- 1:50Speaker 2: going to suddenly be wowed by Matt Naggy or a
- 1:56Speaker 2: Josh Grizzard or you know, any of the on the
- 2:00Speaker 2: list of Jim Bob Cooter. I imagine that the offense
- 2:03Speaker 2: is going to look something. I don't want to say
- 2:06Speaker 2: it's going to look similar in itself, but I think
- 2:09Speaker 2: in terms of the passing game, you might see it
- 2:11Speaker 2: look fairly similar in you know, twenty five ish throws a.
- 2:15Speaker 1: Game and spreading the ball round.
- 2:17Speaker 2: The Eagles obviously have a plethora of playmakers, so it
- 2:20Speaker 2: may not be the offense that's going to get Aj
- 2:23Speaker 2: Brown the football, Like I said, eight to ten targets
- 2:26Speaker 2: a game. I just don't think that's realistic. That's not
- 2:28Speaker 2: the style that the Eagles have shown that they're willing
- 2:31Speaker 2: to play really over the last four seasons. So with
- 2:34Speaker 2: all that being said, you have to ask yourself, if
- 2:37Speaker 2: you're going to play that style, do you need a
- 2:39Speaker 2: wide receiver that's going to be of the caliber of
- 2:43Speaker 2: an AJ Brown to complement Devontae Smith?
- 2:45Speaker 1: Do you need two high profile wide receivers?
- 2:48Speaker 2: I would argue not if you're not going to be
- 2:51Speaker 2: a high volume passing attack and you need to invest
- 2:54Speaker 2: money on the defensive side of the ball.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Talk about Quenya.
- 2:57Speaker 2: Mitchell, Cooper dejenjor Nolan Smith. You have to talk about
- 3:03Speaker 2: read blanket ship and free agency. There's just so many
- 3:06Speaker 2: players on that side of the ball that you're gonna
- 3:07Speaker 2: have to make a decision on the pendulum is going
- 3:09Speaker 2: to swing because you got to start paying those guys
- 3:12Speaker 2: to keep that unit intact or as close to intact
- 3:14Speaker 2: as possible. And so you're going to have to start
- 3:17Speaker 2: getting younger on the offensive side drafting players. And if
- 3:21Speaker 2: you're going to play this style, as I said, do
- 3:23Speaker 2: you need to frontline wide receivers, or could you get
- 3:26Speaker 2: by with a DeVante Smith. And let's say I'm just
- 3:29Speaker 2: throwing this name out there, Romeo Dobbs from Green Bay,
- 3:33Speaker 2: who's going to be a free agent, who's a solid player,
- 3:36Speaker 2: but not a headliner like AJ Brown. AJ Brown is
- 3:40Speaker 2: among the best wide receivers in the NFL, and I
- 3:42Speaker 2: think the way that the Eagles playoffense, they could probably
- 3:46Speaker 2: get by with someone of that Cowber to complement Devonte Smith.
- 3:51Speaker 2: Then you have Darius Cooper, who the Eagles really like,
- 3:54Speaker 2: and then you have to figure out what you're going
- 3:55Speaker 2: to do with tight end. Because all of the tight
- 3:58Speaker 2: ends Dallas god Grant, Kal Katara, and Kylon grantsoner be
- 4:02Speaker 2: free agents. I think Dallas Goddard would be a player
- 4:04Speaker 2: that the Eagles should and make it should make a
- 4:06Speaker 2: conscious effort to retain because of his rapport with Jaywen Hurts,
- 4:10Speaker 2: because of the ability to affect, to make an impact
- 4:15Speaker 2: in the red zone. Those are all things that I
- 4:18Speaker 2: believe are going to be instrumental in moving this offense forward.
- 4:22Speaker 1: And I can't imagine it's going to cost a ton
- 4:24Speaker 1: to retain Dallas Goddard.
- 4:26Speaker 2: Knowing that he's going to be He's thirty one years old,
- 4:29Speaker 2: and he does have that injury history despite the season
- 4:32Speaker 2: that he just had breaking a record from nineteen sixty five.
- 4:36Speaker 2: I guess with Pete Retz laugh in regards to most
- 4:40Speaker 2: receiving tight end receiving touchdowns by a tight end in
- 4:43Speaker 2: a single season. Yeah, you would think that he would
- 4:46Speaker 2: have some interest around the league. But I think he's
- 4:48Speaker 2: going to have more value to the Eagles than he
- 4:50Speaker 2: would to maybe another team. But you still look at
- 4:53Speaker 2: it on its face and say, you have AJ Brown
- 4:56Speaker 2: and there's questions whether or not he'll be coming back.
- 4:58Speaker 2: There's questions about Dallas God and whether or not he'll
- 5:01Speaker 2: be able to come back. And you have the offensive line.
- 5:04Speaker 2: So the offense in itself is going to be under
- 5:07Speaker 2: a microscope because, yes, when all the pieces are in place,
- 5:13Speaker 2: it is a high octane group. But I think the
- 5:17Speaker 2: biggest question that I have is at wide receiver. So
- 5:20Speaker 2: I addressed the AJ Brown piece. It's not likely that
- 5:23Speaker 2: Johan Dotson will be coming back. I actually I wrote
- 5:25Speaker 2: a story on Johan Dotson which you can grab on
- 5:28Speaker 2: Inside the Birds dot com where I talk about sort
- 5:32Speaker 2: of his thoughts off his two seasons in Philadelphia. He
- 5:36Speaker 2: mentioned how much he learned and how he got to
- 5:38Speaker 2: Philadelphia and thought that he knew everything, but playing with
- 5:41Speaker 2: aj Brown and DeVante Smith really helped his game. He
- 5:44Speaker 2: learned how to approach practice, and the way that he
- 5:47Speaker 2: was describing what he learned, it seemed like he learned
- 5:50Speaker 2: how to for you know, for lack of a better term,
- 5:53Speaker 2: how to be a pro. And he also mentioned that
- 5:56Speaker 2: he believes his best football is in front of him
- 5:58Speaker 2: and he can help with football. Team won a lot
- 6:00Speaker 2: of games, and how he had to exercise patience being
- 6:03Speaker 2: in Philadelphia because he everywhere Johan Dotson has gone, he's
- 6:07Speaker 2: been the top receiver right He's been the go to
- 6:10Speaker 2: guy in critical moments, and that hasn't been the case
- 6:12Speaker 2: in Philadelphia. Just thirty thirty eight catches I think over
- 6:16Speaker 2: his two seasons, one touchdown in the regular season, had
- 6:19Speaker 2: the touchdown in the playoff game against Green Bay, had
- 6:22Speaker 2: the twenty seven yarder in the Super Bowl to jumpstart things.
- 6:25Speaker 2: But he hasn't been a focal point. And when you
- 6:27Speaker 2: have so many players on that side of the ball,
- 6:29Speaker 2: you're never going to be a focal point. The passing
- 6:31Speaker 2: game ran through aj Brown, Devonte Smith and Dallas Goddard.
- 6:35Speaker 2: And despite him getting a ton of snaps and when
- 6:38Speaker 2: the Eagles were eleven personnel, they he just never was
- 6:41Speaker 2: able to factor prominently in the offense. So I would
- 6:45Speaker 2: imagine he would be gone and take on a better
- 6:49Speaker 2: opportunity elsewhere. But then that leaves the question of who
- 6:52Speaker 2: would fill his role. Well, Darius Cooper the second year,
- 6:56Speaker 2: He's going into a second season now out of Tarbatan
- 6:59Speaker 2: State's he played a decent amount, especially towards this end
- 7:03Speaker 2: of the season, his snapshare started rising. Really helped as
- 7:06Speaker 2: a blocker. He tried his best to fill in that
- 7:08Speaker 2: Johnny Wilson role and I thought he did a nice job.
- 7:11Speaker 2: He was in on the push play personnel, blocking the
- 7:13Speaker 2: edge there and he's a tough, consistent player. And John
- 7:18Speaker 2: Dottson lauded Darius Cooper because I asked him specifically about
- 7:22Speaker 2: Darius and what he observed from him being around him
- 7:24Speaker 2: for the season. Talked about his work ethic, talked about
- 7:28Speaker 2: his coming to practice every day and doing his part
- 7:33Speaker 2: to make an impact, and said how proud he was
- 7:35Speaker 2: of him maximizing his opportunities because he said that's what
- 7:38Speaker 2: the NFL is all about, and that he was happy
- 7:41Speaker 2: to be a part of the milestones that he reached.
- 7:44Speaker 2: And that's a common sentiment that I've heard throughout any
- 7:49Speaker 2: of the wide receivers who have talked about Darius Cooper.
- 7:52Speaker 2: I think he's going to have an opportunity to be
- 7:54Speaker 2: that number three wide receiver. He's certainly going to be
- 7:57Speaker 2: on the team next season, barring something unforeseen like a
- 8:00Speaker 2: bad training camp. But he's a player that the team
- 8:03Speaker 2: likes and they're gonna want to continue to develop. And
- 8:06Speaker 2: I think when he has that blocking prowess coupled with
- 8:10Speaker 2: the experience of playing the full slated games last season,
- 8:14Speaker 2: is going to really help him take that next step
- 8:17Speaker 2: in the summer. So you have DeVante Smith, you have
- 8:20Speaker 2: Darius Cooper, Johnny Wilson will be coming back. Johnny Wilson.
- 8:24Speaker 2: When you look back on this season, he's somebody that
- 8:26Speaker 2: you probably forget about, but his ability to help as
- 8:30Speaker 2: a bigger, bodied, blocking type of wide receiver. It doesn't
- 8:34Speaker 2: necessarily show up in the box score, but he did
- 8:36Speaker 2: a lot to help a lot of the different facets
- 8:39Speaker 2: of the offense, whether that was freeing up teammates on
- 8:42Speaker 2: receiving route on routes or whether or not that was
- 8:45Speaker 2: springing running backs on certain plays. He just had a
- 8:49Speaker 2: big frame and he did the dirty and grimy work.
- 8:53Speaker 2: Now Darius Cooper doesn't have that body type, But I
- 8:56Speaker 2: think when you look at what Johnny Wilson can provide
- 8:58Speaker 2: him coming back from the ankle injury that he sustained
- 9:01Speaker 2: in training camp, should go a long way in helping
- 9:05Speaker 2: the offense with one of those elements that I think
- 9:08Speaker 2: kind of got lost in the.
- 9:13Speaker 1: Magnitude of the season. And Ben Van Sumerin is another.
- 9:16Speaker 2: Player that I would also add to that helping as
- 9:18Speaker 2: a blocker, and the team had plans for him. We'll
- 9:21Speaker 2: see if he's able to return and make a run
- 9:24Speaker 2: at another at a roster spot again. But so you
- 9:27Speaker 2: have Johnny Wilson, you have Darius Cooper, you have Devonte Smith,
- 9:30Speaker 2: and I'm just talking about the players that you are
- 9:33Speaker 2: confident that are going to be back and be a
- 9:36Speaker 2: part of the twenty twenty six Eagles.
- 9:38Speaker 1: Again.
- 9:38Speaker 2: AJ Brown, we don't know that's going to be something
- 9:40Speaker 2: that is going to be a very prominent storyline in
- 9:44Speaker 2: the coming months. But beyond that, there's just not a
- 9:49Speaker 2: lot of surefire answers because or shot fire options that
- 9:55Speaker 2: you can move forward with. I think if you look
- 9:57Speaker 2: towards the draft and maybe draft receiver in the third
- 10:01Speaker 2: round or so, maybe the second round. Again, I don't
- 10:04Speaker 2: know how high of a pick that you need to
- 10:07Speaker 2: invest in a wide receiver if you're going to play
- 10:09Speaker 2: this style, maybe you look to the free agent market
- 10:11Speaker 2: and you add a mid tier or someone who has
- 10:14Speaker 2: some upside who can compliment to Monte Smith, where you're
- 10:17Speaker 2: not necessarily investing so much money in that position if
- 10:20Speaker 2: you're not going to use the receivers all that much.
- 10:23Speaker 2: So it's something that crossed my mind as I'm thinking
- 10:26Speaker 2: about it. Of Course, the Eagles are a better football
- 10:29Speaker 2: team with AJ Brown on it, and at his best,
- 10:32Speaker 2: AJ Brown is a game changing wide receiver who I
- 10:35Speaker 2: view among the very.
- 10:36Speaker 1: Best in the NFL. So we'll see if if they're.
- 10:40Speaker 2: Able to kind of have a resolution there, But if not,
- 10:43Speaker 2: that's what you're looking at going into the offseason.
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- 14:05Speaker 2: Twenty one off season and I'll be at the NFL
- 14:07Speaker 2: scouting Combine, so I'll obviously be talking to a lot
- 14:10Speaker 2: of wide receivers there. I'll be watching a lot of
- 14:12Speaker 2: tape and trying to figure out the best fit for
- 14:14Speaker 2: what the Eagles look to do, and maybe some different
- 14:18Speaker 2: traits that would complement what they have in Devonte Smith.
- 14:20Speaker 2: There's still a lot of time for that, but as
- 14:22Speaker 2: I look at the positional overview of wide receivers for
- 14:26Speaker 2: the foot off Eagles going into next season, that's kind
- 14:28Speaker 2: of where.
- 14:28Speaker 1: I'm at with all of that. And then we'll do
- 14:31Speaker 1: a little bit of a fun.
- 14:32Speaker 2: Thing here because it is a snow day, and I
- 14:36Speaker 2: think when you when you go through those snow days,
- 14:39Speaker 2: you often think about what you can do to pass
- 14:42Speaker 2: the time. I had a funny conversation with someone. I
- 14:46Speaker 2: guess it was a week or so ago that I
- 14:49Speaker 2: was watching a movie that's not a good movie, but
- 14:52Speaker 2: it's entertaining, and I like to be entertained, and I'm
- 14:54Speaker 2: a big movie guy. But I saw Eight Heads in
- 14:57Speaker 2: a Duffel Bag with Joe Peshi, and that's a late
- 15:00Speaker 2: nineties dark comedy. I found it, you know, funny. I
- 15:03Speaker 2: found it entertaining, and some people can throw on in
- 15:05Speaker 2: the background and have some some kind of entertainment.
- 15:08Speaker 1: It's nostalgia.
- 15:09Speaker 2: I haven't seen it in years, but it sort of
- 15:12Speaker 2: led to a conversation of what are some of your
- 15:14Speaker 2: favorite bad movies? You know that they're bad, but you
- 15:19Speaker 2: enjoy them for whatever reason. And I think because of
- 15:22Speaker 2: the of the snow day, this topic is pretty prevalent,
- 15:25Speaker 2: and you know, I've I put that out there, I believe,
- 15:29Speaker 2: on my Facebook. But you know some of the answers
- 15:31Speaker 2: that I got Cabin Fever. There's man, I forget what
- 15:36Speaker 2: someone else told me, but that was one. My favorite
- 15:40Speaker 2: bad quote unquote bad movie that I really enjoy is
- 15:43Speaker 2: in Sino Man with Brendan Frasier, Pauli Shoor Sean Aston.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Not a good movie, but I grew up watching it
- 15:49Speaker 2: and I find it to be entertaining.
- 15:51Speaker 1: So that's something that you can.
- 15:54Speaker 2: Always I always go to when you're trying to find
- 15:57Speaker 2: something to throw on and it's gonna give you that nostalgia,
- 16:01Speaker 2: that entertainment piece. But I'm curious, what are some of
- 16:05Speaker 2: your favorite bad movies?
- 16:07Speaker 1: And there are a lot of them. Airheads.
- 16:10Speaker 2: There's another one that comes to mind for me, another
- 16:12Speaker 2: Brendan Frasier, Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi entertaining movie for me.
- 16:19Speaker 2: The plot's very simplistic. They're a band that's down on
- 16:23Speaker 2: their luck and they want their record heard on the radio.
- 16:26Speaker 2: So they go to the radio station. They take the
- 16:29Speaker 2: place hostage, take everyone into place hostage, you know, because
- 16:34Speaker 2: they want their record plate on the air. Their record.
- 16:37Speaker 2: The copy that they have gets sort of dilapidated, it
- 16:40Speaker 2: gets eaten up in the in the in the console
- 16:44Speaker 2: or whatever it is, and then they have to wait
- 16:46Speaker 2: to get the other one. And they have just these
- 16:47Speaker 2: outrageous demands. There's a lot of cameos from famous people,
- 16:51Speaker 2: famous actors that you'll know, and I just you know,
- 16:55Speaker 2: it's cheesy, but it's entertaining.
- 16:57Speaker 1: So I ask you, what's your favorite bad movie? And
- 17:01Speaker 1: if you have enough.
- 17:02Speaker 2: Of them, maybe you're able to sit there and watch
- 17:04Speaker 2: one on a day like this where there's not a
- 17:06Speaker 2: whole lot going on.
- 17:07Speaker 1: You're kind of, you know, hunkering down inside.
- 17:11Speaker 2: And obviously there's two football games on today which I'll
- 17:14Speaker 2: be watching, but there's always that movie that you can
- 17:17Speaker 2: throw on there and it provides some kind of background noise,
- 17:21Speaker 2: background entertainment. So just some of my snow day thoughts
- 17:25Speaker 2: and I'll have another podcast for you guys later today,
- 17:28Speaker 2: So keep an eye on that right here on the
- 17:30Speaker 2: check O Daily on the inside the Birds platform. I'm
- 17:33Speaker 2: Andrew de Checko and I'll catch you all on the
- 17:36Speaker 2: next one.