Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Inside The Data: Do Metrics Suggest CB Jakorian Bennett Is Eagles' Best Starting Option?

Transcript

Inside The Data: Do Metrics Suggest CB Jakorian Bennett Is Eagles' Best Starting Option? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome to a new edition of Inside the Data.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: On Inside the Birds, I'm Jeff Motion. Of course, we
• 0:17
  have our data and analytics expert Sam Finkle with us.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: As promised, we are turning the page away from the
• 0:24
  summer mail bag series and into the twenty twenty five series.
• 0:28
  And you know what, the analytics slash story fairy just
• 0:31
  hit you right in the head last week, Sam, as
• 0:34
  the Eagles bring on a new cornerback, they trade for
• 0:37
  Jacorean Bennett from the Raiders, and I would say he's
• 0:40
  a player just based on some of the interactions I've
• 0:42
  had with people that a lot of Eagles fans aren't
• 0:45
  really familiar with. And so what you've done a great
• 0:48
  job is doing your best to help them get familiar
• 0:51
  with him, not only from his background, but also analytically
• 0:55
  how he profiles and compares to the current cornerbacks who
• 0:59
  are competing for starting jobs.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: So we'll take a look in this episode.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: On the newcomer and try to figure out if this
• 1:06
  guy is going to just be another body or a
• 1:09
  real competitor for the starting job.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: But it's pretty exciting to have a new name.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Into the mix, absolutely, especially this time of the year.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So how did you go about deciding before we
• 1:21
  sort of dive into the charts and the numbers, how
• 1:25
  did you go about deciding what kind of analytical picture
• 1:28
  you wanted to paint for the viewers and the listeners.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I figured a good way to do it
• 1:34
  is kind of just look at everyone, every corner's last
• 1:37
  season performance that is in the room or was in
• 1:41
  the room last year. The relevant names, so we're talking
• 1:45
  you know, Jacry Bennett obviously, Dori Jackson, Kiey Ringo Quinnon,
• 1:49
  Mitchell Cooper, Dejene, Darius Slay, and Isaiah Rodgers.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Good, that's a good mix of corners and that's people
• 1:57
  who are the Eagles fans are familiar with.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And that's good. And I don't want you to.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Give your entire summary now when we go through the
• 2:05
  numbers first, But did you have like a preconceived notion
• 2:09
  or a perception of who Jaquorian Bennett was before you
• 2:13
  started this?
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I watched a little bit of his film before I
• 2:17
  even started this, and I felt pretty comfortable with a
• 2:20
  lot of what he did. Doesn't mean he doesn't have weaknesses,
• 2:24
  but there were definitely some things I felt pretty good
• 2:26
  about that it brings to the room that's unique and
• 2:28
  different than what they currently have, which is interesting.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely great. He's obviously a very good athlete. We'll
• 2:36
  get into that. I mean, the athletic testing is through
• 2:39
  the roof, and that's something that the Eagles really looked
• 2:41
  for and pretty much, you know all the players that
• 2:44
  they bring in, but especially from that position. Someone who
• 2:48
  I in the league, who's very familiar with the Eagles roster,
• 2:52
  described Jakoorian Bennett to me as a little bit of
• 2:55
  a miniature version.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Of KILLI Ringo.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: He's not as tall and big as Ringo, but he
• 3:00
  feels like much like Ringo, Bennett is a good athlete
• 3:04
  who sometimes struggle being overly physical, handsy, and also for
• 3:09
  having really good athleticism can be a little bit I
• 3:14
  think he said stiffest, but it's almost more like lacking
• 3:17
  great fluidity. You want your corners to be able to
• 3:19
  just flip those hips really easily, and usually the smaller
• 3:23
  athletic ones can. But that's not his number one area
• 3:27
  of expertise, which makes sense.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: If it was, he'd probably had been at first round
• 3:30
  pick no.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: And that's fair, and it's interesting that you've already kind
• 3:34
  of created this you know analysis between Ringo and Bennett
• 3:37
  because if you remember, they both were fourth round picks,
• 3:40
  one pick within each other, right, and they actually, interestingly
• 3:44
  both were Houston's picks at one point, which is even
• 3:46
  another ringkle that people don't necessarily talk about, but I
• 3:49
  know they talked about the you know, they're they're the
• 3:51
  second pick of the of the fourth.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Round and the third pick of the fourth round.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: But there are very similar So if you look at
• 3:58
  their breakdown, and we can just do that before we
• 4:00
  even get into this analysis. You know, Ringo ran a
• 4:04
  four to three six and Bennett ran a four to
• 4:06
  three flat. You look at the vertical jump, and that's
• 4:10
  where you really see the difference, right Killey Ringo ran,
• 4:14
  I mean so ran right, he had a vertical jump
• 4:16
  of thirty three point five Jacoreyan Bennett, on the other hand,
• 4:20
  had a vertical jump of forty point five, so a
• 4:22
  pretty significant difference right off the rip there. And you
• 4:25
  look at the broad jump and it's ten two for
• 4:28
  Ringo and eleven to one for Bennett, so I think
• 4:32
  he's an even better athlete.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: And then if you look you know, how we.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Did those production athleticism score analysis earlier the offseason.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Look, you look at them, and I have the numbers
• 4:43
  for both Bennett and Ringo, And for Bennett he had
• 4:47
  a production score of sixty three and an athleticism score
• 4:50
  of ninety nine ninety nine, which is pretty crazy.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but you look at Ringo.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: His production was seventy nine, but his athleticism was seventy seven.
• 5:00
  I think he's a different caliber of athlete than Ringo,
• 5:03
  and I think we saw some of the limitations of
• 5:06
  Ringo's athleticism, particularly when he was trying to cover Jamar Chase.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you know, I didn't hold the back shoulder completion.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Against him as some did, because you know, I've seen
• 5:17
  some really good corners.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Get back shouldered by Jamar Chase before. But to your.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Point, the out route you got to you gotta be
• 5:24
  able to get there instinctively, make the tackle, wrap him
• 5:27
  up and prevent that.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: And he did.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Look, he showed exactly what we talked about, first being
• 5:31
  a pretty good athlete, he was a little slow to
• 5:34
  get there, and then just you know, I guess being
• 5:38
  slow is that he just couldn't change his direction on
• 5:40
  that out as Jamar Chase broke to the outside and
• 5:44
  then so he had a lunge at his ankles and
• 5:46
  and did not come up with the tackle. So yeah,
• 5:48
  so to Coryan, Bennett will now get you know, he'll
• 5:50
  get that opportunity and he's already gotten in there to
• 5:53
  run with the first team and this will be a
• 5:55
  big week for him with the Browns.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Coming to town.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into some of the charts that
• 6:01
  you put together and we'll go through each.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: One and kind of explain what they're there are to
• 6:09
  show them.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Obviously for our listeners, we'll make sure we're very clear
• 6:13
  on what it is. The first chart is NFL twenty
• 6:16
  twenty four Cornerback Statistics, right, so these are just your
• 6:19
  your basic standard cornerback stats.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I just want to be a little bit
• 6:25
  explicit on the outset on this is that the touchdowns allowed.
• 6:30
  I use the NFL Pro I mean, I'm sorry, I
• 6:32
  use that PFF statistics. I used NFL Pro for everything else,
• 6:36
  And so they're going to be a little bit skewed
• 6:37
  when you look at if you look at only one source.
• 6:39
  And the reason I did like to typically do this,
• 6:43
  but NFL Pro allows you to watch if you click
• 6:46
  on the numbers. Watch how the touchdowns were allowed and
• 6:49
  the touchdowns it allowed that were granted to Bennett.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: They had two of them.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: He did not allow the touchdown on either one of them.
• 6:57
  And then I watched, I watched adri Jackson watch, I
• 7:00
  watched all of them, and I was like, none of
• 7:02
  these are actual, like they were in the area, but
• 7:05
  he wasn't his responsibility clearly in coverage, and I think
• 7:08
  PFF does a better job of capturing that. So I
• 7:11
  use PFF for that.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I really don't like to mix and match, and when
• 7:15
  I do, I want to be really explicit on it.
• 7:18
  I did mix and match a little bit here, all.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Right, great, No, that's that's great. You did it in
• 7:22
  the right way, in the thorough way to paint a
• 7:24
  better picture and give more accurate analysis. So I'm sure
• 7:27
  everybody can appreciate that.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that you're saying that.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: So, so what do we have Let's go through to
• 7:34
  Corey and Bennett and the others.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think it's important first off to just
• 7:38
  look at snaps because we talk a lot about which
• 7:41
  positions right when you play more there's volume statistics and
• 7:45
  it's inverse when you're on defense, right, you're going to allow.
• 7:49
  It's not for tackles, right, You'll have more tackles as
• 7:51
  you play more snaps typically, but you'll allow more yards also.
• 7:55
  So I think looking at the snaps is really important
• 7:57
  to contextualize this analysis. So, I mean, you look at Bennett,
• 8:01
  he had four hundred and thirty four snaps before his
• 8:04
  shoulder injury took him out for the season. Adorri Jackson
• 8:07
  provides a pretty good analog. He has four hundred and
• 8:10
  six snaps. Ringo really doesn't have didn't have much last
• 8:13
  year at one hundred and nine. Obviously, Mitchell had nine
• 8:18
  hundred and six, so it's a lot more. So you
• 8:20
  just got to factor this in a little bit. Dejeane
• 8:23
  had five to ninety four, which is pretty close. It's
• 8:25
  a lot more. It's more than Bennett is close. Sleigh
• 8:28
  six sixty four, which again is more. And Rogers also
• 8:32
  a pretty decent analog at three hundred and sixteen.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Right, So the only I think in this comparison, the
• 8:38
  only thing that we really should qualify is that of
• 8:41
  all these six guys, right, seven seven guys, Dejeane snaps
• 8:46
  by and large came from the slot, whereas everybody else
• 8:50
  came from outside, and you're defending a different route tree.
• 8:54
  In some cases, you're defending more, right, because slot receiver
• 8:58
  has become such an important role in the NFL these days,
• 9:01
  it's almost become a more high volume role than occasionally
• 9:03
  the outside receiver.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: Oh, you're absolutely correct, And honestly, if I was, if
• 9:08
  we were really talking about the slot, you would have
• 9:10
  like Avante Maddox in there too, Like there would be
• 9:12
  other corners we talk about too. I just wanted to
• 9:15
  give familiar names just because these stats in a vacuum
• 9:18
  don't make much sense, right, So I think just seeing guys.
• 9:23
  I put Cooper to Gene because you know, everyone knows
• 9:25
  how well he contributed, and especially with Quinnia Mitchell. What
• 9:28
  I don't think people realize, and what we'll get to
• 9:31
  is how impactful Sleigh and Rogers were, And I think
• 9:34
  that these charts will kind of show that, and because
• 9:38
  that there is such a void that left between those
• 9:41
  two absence.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Right, got it?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So what jumped out to you from these seven names
• 9:48
  that you put together here?
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, tackles were relatively high for Bennett and
• 9:54
  Dori Jackson considering their snap count. I mean they're both
• 9:59
  pretty solid.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: That's important, but that's not that's you can't underrate that.
• 10:03
  In a Vic Fangio defense, vic absolute to be able
• 10:06
  to tackle.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and also the yards allowed, you know, decent stuff,
• 10:14
  nothing too crazy. But if you look at you know,
• 10:18
  just the three that were that are being evaluated for
• 10:21
  the cornerback two position, Jacorey and Bennett had the least
• 10:27
  yards per reception allowed at twelve point eight and Ringo
• 10:31
  had the most at twenty four point three.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: When you look at that, you.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Know, contextually, you look at Quinion Mitchell who had eleven
• 10:39
  point one, Cooper Degen who had seven point two.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Again playing a different position.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: Like you said, it's important to understand uh Slagh at
• 10:47
  twelve point two and Rogers at nine point eight. So
• 10:51
  you know, you look at it, it's it's a little
• 10:53
  bit worse than where Slay and Rogers were, but it's
• 10:58
  pretty comparable to a versus Ringo, who's just in a
• 11:02
  completely different world.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And again that's that's weighted.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: By his the fact that he's at one hundred snaps
• 11:09
  versus four hundred snaps, So there would be probably you
• 11:12
  would think some regression to the mean.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: The more he played. However, hope the stats are the stats.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a pretty high yards per reception allowed number.
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, And I think the other stat I would
• 11:25
  like to bring up is the rating, right the quarterback
• 11:27
  rating when targeted. What I think is really interesting and
• 11:32
  I think paints a pretty good picture is Bennett is
• 11:35
  also the best in that at eighty six point seven and.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Then you look at you know.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: The liten you got eighty three point eight and eighty
• 11:44
  eight point eight, so he slots right between where Sleigh
• 11:48
  and Rogers were, which I think is a really good
• 11:50
  indication of his ability when he's playing. Again, Ringo is
• 11:55
  at one forty nine point three, but again you would
• 11:57
  hope that regresses to the mean when he as a
• 12:00
  higher volume, and the Dori Jackson's at ninety two point two,
• 12:03
  so you know they're not that far off, but you
• 12:06
  know there's a significant advantage that Bennett right there.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, I think your point on how if you
• 12:13
  look at his four hundred and thirty four snaps, that's
• 12:16
  more than Isaiah Rodgers played last year, less than Darius Sleigh,
• 12:19
  but right in between there and have a comparable QB
• 12:23
  rating against the comparable yards per.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Reception and zero touchdowns allowed.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: You know that that's pretty impressive because Isaiah Rodgers allowed
• 12:32
  two touchdowns on three hundred and sixteen snaps and he
• 12:36
  Benet allowed.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Zero on four to thirty four.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Now, there's a whole lot of context that can go
• 12:40
  involved surrounding the type of touchdown. But we were only
• 12:44
  working with the stats that we've got here, and I
• 12:45
  just think that that jumps out to me what you
• 12:48
  were at, what you were making about Slay and Rogers.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, and I think once we get into the advanced
• 12:53
  stats you'll see even clearer picture on this.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's do that advanced stats and cornerbacks.
• 13:00
  That's trying to get both on the.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Same screen here, all right, what do we have. There's
• 13:06
  a lot of a lot of letters and numbers and
• 13:08
  percentages here.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, I think really just go through the chart, right, So, uh,
• 13:16
  catch percentage allowed we're gonna start with. So that's that's
• 13:18
  just the you know, targets receptions divided by targets.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: That that's what we determined.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: That then the expected catches based on their based on
• 13:28
  NFL pros algorithm, how many should actually be allowed.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Like based on their formula.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: Sure, then their catch reception over expected is just you know,
• 13:38
  that percentage subtracted by the expected For corners, you want
• 13:42
  it to be less, right, it means that you're allowing
• 13:45
  less than expected, So a negative number is preferable.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: There coverage e p A.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: That's just you know, expected points added. It's always in
• 13:54
  the context of the offense. So a negative number is
• 13:57
  also better because you're taking less points. They're less points
• 14:01
  being scored by the offense. In right, target percentage is
• 14:06
  just how much they're targeted, you know, to buy the
• 14:10
  snaps that they played. The average separation is just that,
• 14:14
  it's how mentioned the super receivers separate on them. Tight
• 14:17
  window is less than one yard of separation. Hawk percentage
• 14:23
  is a measure of how often a player disrupts a pass,
• 14:26
  divided by targets as the nearest defender and yards after
• 14:30
  catch per reception.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Also very self explanatory.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, so some of these numbers are a little bit
• 14:35
  all over the map, right, I mean, I think what
• 14:38
  jumps out is that he had a minus ten point
• 14:41
  two on catch reception over expectation, which means, as you
• 14:46
  point out here, it was expected that sixty one percent
• 14:50
  of these balls will be completed, but only fifty one
• 14:52
  percent were caught.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So that's a good job by him.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, there was more separation on average again
• 15:00
  him than the other two. A higher degree of separation, right,
• 15:03
  and I guess more tight window throws completed against him.
• 15:07
  Is that fairness or is it less?
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: I'm so it just means he's forced less tight windows. Okay,
• 15:14
  So it seems like his recovery to the ball is
• 15:18
  like so again, tight window is less than one yard
• 15:20
  of separation. So when he's he gets separated on but
• 15:24
  he's he has the speed where he can recover.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: That's what these statistics sort of tell. That's the story
• 15:29
  it kind of tells.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: And yet despite that closing speed, the yards after catch
• 15:35
  per reception against him are higher than Jackson's and Ringos right, No,
• 15:40
  I'm sorry, just hiring Jackson's not.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: So kind of interesting stuff.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: And again that everything you know, you try to separate
• 15:50
  the context from We don't know the plays, right, we
• 15:53
  just know that these are the This is the culmination
• 15:56
  of all the plays pass plays against him.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, and so you just look at these numbers, and
• 16:02
  I mean Bennett in just the cornerback battle, he wins
• 16:06
  three out of the five, right, So I mean that's
• 16:10
  that's a pretty maybe it's six, but either way, he
• 16:16
  wins half of them, which is a pretty good spot
• 16:19
  to be. Yeah, So I think that's a good way
• 16:23
  to kind of describe him. Ringo loses four out of
• 16:27
  the six, so that's again another spot to show maybe
• 16:31
  he is not necessarily the answer, and jack Jackson is
• 16:35
  kind of in the middle on a lot of these areas.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Sure, I feel like the best way to look at this,
• 16:41
  you can, whether you can disroove it, is really comparing
• 16:45
  Bennett more to Jackson and then Slay and Rogers because.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Of the because of the snap counts, and because of
• 16:53
  the role right sure, Jean again slot a killy just
• 16:58
  such a small or sample size compared to those two
• 17:01
  that it's hard to know where the stats would be
• 17:05
  if you projected.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: It out to as many snaps as Bennett, as Slay
• 17:09
  as Rogers.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: No, for sure, And I think part of what I
• 17:14
  realized when I was doing this analysis is how much
• 17:18
  of a mistake the Eagles made by not resigning Rogers,
• 17:22
  you know, especially at his market value. I mean you
• 17:25
  look at his catch rate over expected, it's also minus
• 17:29
  ten point six. Yeah, you know, you look at his
• 17:33
  average separation, it's two. It's the best out of all
• 17:35
  these guys.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: His tight window percentage is twenty seven point three percent,
• 17:42
  his hawk percentage eighteen point two percent. And he's he's
• 17:46
  a sure tackler, which you can see with the yards
• 17:48
  after catch per reception at three point three, which is
• 17:50
  right kind of where Darius Slay was. And I do
• 17:53
  think if you look at Slay stats, the Eagles are
• 17:55
  really going to miss that. They're going to miss the
• 17:57
  consistency they had from Slay and Rogers. And I just
• 18:01
  I really, if I have one criticism of the team,
• 18:04
  it was not resigning Rogers.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I think it was a misstep fortive. That was not
• 18:10
  a mistake of evaluation. That was a decision of cash
• 18:14
  us and they weren't going to pay certain moneys for
• 18:20
  certain players. You know.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and look, I get it, but I think what
• 18:24
  you what you're losing in that value And it's probably
• 18:26
  part of the reason they had to make this trade,
• 18:28
  or felt like they had to make this trade because
• 18:30
  there is a vacuum there.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Sure. Sure.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: And then so you broke down the stats from the
• 18:36
  preseason game last week against the Bengals, which is good
• 18:39
  because now you got a little bit more of an
• 18:41
  even target share.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, for sure, And I think it helps quite
• 18:46
  a bit to kind of understand where each of these
• 18:49
  players are at.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: Something I didn't include in.
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: Here that I probably should have was, you know, their
• 18:54
  their snaps, but they're all relatively similar. So if you're
• 18:57
  looking just at their past snaps, you know, everyone is
• 19:01
  pretty much ranging from eleven to nineteen. AJ Woods had eleven,
• 19:06
  Perry Nickerson had nineteen. Everybody else is either sixteen or eighteen.
• 19:11
  So it's relatively consistent among everybody.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: And we knew that. We knew that Ringo and Jackson
• 19:19
  gave up yards to struggle.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Jackson gave up four catches for forty five yards and
• 19:23
  eleven a catch.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Again, they were going up against the Bengals first teamers.
• 19:26
  But he's a nine year vet.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: You know, he's got to go out there and represent
• 19:29
  himself as well, which, as the numbers shown, not so great.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: One o four point two quarterback rating against him.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: To be fair, it is one of the premier offenses
• 19:37
  in the NFL two and against one of I mean,
• 19:41
  both Higgins and Chase are two of the best receivers
• 19:45
  in the league. But that doesn't mean that they're not
• 19:47
  going to face tough, you know, competition. So I totally
• 19:51
  understand that part of it. And I do think that
• 19:55
  you know, having you know, the egos starting defensive line
• 19:59
  would help quite a bit and probably mitigate some of these.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Numbers to an extent.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: But still they were not promising numbers that the performance
• 20:09
  was not anything that's encouraging for anybody who's watching.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: It, right, And I know we're Penn State Homers, but
• 20:16
  I actually think three castro Field has had a pretty
• 20:18
  nice camp. I don't know if he's gonna make it.
• 20:20
  I could definitely see him back on the practice squad.
• 20:22
  I like how he's kind of tall and long, long armed,
• 20:25
  but I thought I've seen him make plays in camp
• 20:28
  a couple of past breakups. He generally seems to be
• 20:32
  understanding how to play within VIC system.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I really like three castro Fields as a person too.
• 20:39
  You know, he was on the team when I was there,
• 20:42
  and he's one of people I really respected, and I
• 20:45
  honestly really would love to see him get more of
• 20:47
  an opportunity, especially because it's wide open. I don't think
• 20:50
  he'll have an opportunity to compete for the spot, but
• 20:54
  for a depth role.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: It would be pretty.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Cool to see him make the team, but again, practice
• 20:58
  squad's probably more likely.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Like he said, no doubt.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: All right, oh these were the other guy.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry I forgot that the chart was broken up,
• 21:05
  but Parry Nickerson got in there, Eli Rix got Eli
• 21:08
  Rix has had a nice camp, Sam. He's really kind
• 21:10
  of coming on too. So we call it a three
• 21:13
  a three person competition, and I'm not saying Eli rix
• 21:16
  Is is the fourth, but he's been on the team.
• 21:21
  They've kept him for a reason, and he's starting to
• 21:23
  show up a little bit more in practice.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe we'll update this chart if see how it
• 21:28
  goes next week.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right, So that is basically how we're
• 21:34
  wrapping up to Corey and Bennett there. I think the
• 21:38
  advanced stats were really interesting and really kind of paint
• 21:40
  a picture of who he is and the athleticism that
• 21:43
  he has and the success for a Bad Raiders team.
• 21:47
  He was a fairly successful corner, so it's not surprising
• 21:50
  that he's come in and already got first team reps
• 21:54
  and is considered in the mix for this job. What
• 21:56
  is your What is your final summary on it. How
• 21:59
  do you this thing playing out.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: So Gregorian Bennett has consistently been overlooked and underappreciated throughout
• 22:06
  his career. He was a zero star prospect, had to
• 22:09
  go to Juco before going to Maryland, didn't get a
• 22:12
  lot of respect coming out of Maryland. But he's proved
• 22:15
  everyone wrong. I don't think anything changes. I think he
• 22:17
  wins the job, and I think he plays pretty well.
• 22:19
  I do think it'll be a rotation for the most part,
• 22:22
  but I do think he'll have an opportunity to play
• 22:25
  early and often, and I think he won't disappoint.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It's a good point you're making. This thing doesn't have
• 22:31
  to be settled by a week one. VIC can certainly
• 22:33
  continue it out. I mean, he's got to settle on
• 22:36
  somebody to start, but I've seen guy. I've actually If
• 22:39
  people remember, in twenty seventeen, Role Darby got hurt for
• 22:42
  ten games.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Right after they acquired him.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: He played in the season opener and then it was
• 22:46
  out for ten games, and the Eagles juxtaposed Rasseul Douglas,
• 22:52
  who was then a rookie, and Jalen Watkins, and he
• 22:56
  played both of them in different down and distances and the
• 22:59
  situation rationally and got the best out of both. They
• 23:02
  went nine and one in the ten games, Darby miss
• 23:05
  So I think Vic can be creative here and he
• 23:08
  can figure it out, and he can give Bennett more
• 23:10
  time if he thinks Bennett eventually will be the.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Guy who's best of the three. That might be by
• 23:15
  week four or week five, you never know. Yeah, we
• 23:18
  saw that with Cooper to Gene.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: You know, Cooper obviously had an injury, but he got
• 23:21
  inserted into the lineup in week six and then took
• 23:24
  off from there.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Absolutely all right.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Also, I asked you to put together just some stuff
• 23:29
  on Darius Cooper, this wide receiver out of Tarlton State.
• 23:34
  Everybody's familiar with Taulton State, who has really been lighting
• 23:38
  it up in camp. So what kind of data did
• 23:41
  you put together on him?
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: So it became very easy to do the data because
• 23:45
  I already did it right when we did UDFA analysis.
• 23:49
  We already had that three year college statistic that I did.
• 23:53
  What I didn't do is rank him among.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: The drafted wide receivers. But when you do.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Rank him, and again you have to factor in the
• 24:01
  fact that he played lesser competition.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: He did I mean that's but you have.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: To be excellent against lesser competition to even be in
• 24:08
  this conversation, which he was. Yes, So I mean you
• 24:12
  look at him, you know, with what he did in
• 24:15
  his last three years, and he had one hundred and
• 24:18
  fifty eight receptions, which is fifteenth among the.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Thirty two drafted receivers.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: He put up thirty one hundred yards, which was third,
• 24:27
  and that third was only to Tet and Ricky White,
• 24:33
  but they both had about fifty more catches than him,
• 24:37
  So he put those numbers up with fifty fewer catches,
• 24:40
  so pretty impressive, very much so. The yards per reception
• 24:44
  was nineteen point eighty three, and he was only second
• 24:48
  to Dante Thornton, who got drafted by the Raiders, who
• 24:51
  had a third of the amount of catches. So I
• 24:55
  think you have to understand, like he had fifty catches
• 24:59
  and had a high so to sustain that high yards
• 25:03
  per reception is significant even against lesser competition.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: And then he was first in touchdowns with twenty eight.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: That's that's really impressive stuff. And I'm gonna piggyback off
• 25:13
  something you said. I when I speak to NFL personnel
• 25:16
  people and I catch up with them and I try
• 25:19
  to get evaluations. We have a lot of conversations about
• 25:21
  how you judge players from Taunton State or small small schools.
• 25:26
  You know, our friend Klay Harbor went to I think
• 25:29
  Missouri State, right, and the common the common response is
• 25:35
  that when you're judging a player who plays at a
• 25:38
  level like this, what is important to see is that
• 25:42
  this player dominates the level of competition every single week.
• 25:48
  It can't be you know, you dominated eight games, but
• 25:52
  then there are two games against the two better teams
• 25:54
  in the Swack or wherever you came from the Sunbelt, right,
• 25:58
  You have to dominate year in, I mean week in,
• 26:02
  week out to be drafted or even be considered as
• 26:05
  a priority free agent.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And as the numbers you just put.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Together here comparing him to drafted wide receivers show he did.
• 26:12
  He dominated the low Milton Williams dominated at Louisiana Tech
• 26:17
  or Louisiana I'm sorry, week in, week out. It might
• 26:20
  have been Tech when he was there. They've changed it
• 26:22
  a little bit. But that's the point here. This is
• 26:24
  not Flucius. This is not the result of a few
• 26:28
  good weeks where he, you know, lit it up and
• 26:30
  then he was pedestrian on every week.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: This guy his stats are unbelievable.
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, day in day out, Like you said, so he
• 26:38
  might have a he might have carved out a role.
• 26:40
  I mean, look, we have his statistics from the Bengals
• 26:43
  game there, and if you look at it across preseason,
• 26:46
  you rank it. He was seventh for targets, he was
• 26:49
  second in reception, second in yards eighteenth and yards perception
• 26:54
  with a fifty threshold, and then second in touchdowns, which
• 26:59
  again with one. I mean there was only one person
• 27:01
  who had too so right in preseason so.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: And this was versus this.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: This is a comparison to every single wide receiver right
• 27:09
  in week.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: One preseason week one.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Preseason week one. Yes, I'm sorry, Yeah that said its doors.
• 27:17
  So that's really fascinating. I like this kid.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: What really sticks out to me just watching him and
• 27:25
  practice Sam is that nothing he's doing is sort of
• 27:28
  flucish in nature.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Like he's not making these fifty to fifty catches. He's not,
• 27:33
  you know, beating guys down the field thirty yards. He's
• 27:35
  just getting open.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Consistently, getting targeted, consistently, catching the ball consistently.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: And when you see that, that's actually a better thing.
• 27:45
  Than sometimes.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I always use Hank Basket as an example of a
• 27:48
  guy who just came and made highlight reel.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Catch after a highlight reel catch, and then wasn't that guy.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's pretty decent for an NFL player, given
• 27:57
  that he went undrafted. But the point is some of
• 27:59
  that flucish stuff goes away when the competition becomes just
• 28:04
  starters versus starters and nothing he's doing.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Those seems for him like out of the ordinary.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Just makes the notebook doing the normal things, which is
• 28:14
  good for him.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's repeatable, right, I mean what you're saying, it's
• 28:18
  hard to you know, repeat that consistently. But when you
• 28:21
  get open, that's that's something that's a technique that you
• 28:24
  can kind of rely on a little bit more.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: So. I think that's an excellent point.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I look forward to doing it.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Maybe we'll do by the end of the preseason something
• 28:32
  else on him, because he's going to get more opportunities
• 28:35
  I assume here coming up with at least the twos
• 28:38
  and then even some ones.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: He's already gotten some opportunity of the ones, and maybe we.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Can get some advanced separation data or yards or you know,
• 28:46
  catch over expectation things like that.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: By the end of the preseason, see how he measures up.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: One thing I'm interested in is what if he'll play
• 28:54
  the slot. I mean, he had two slot snaps preseason,
• 28:57
  which is six point one percent of is you know, totals,
• 29:01
  So I'm very interested where they line them up.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be a great development for the Eagles, who
• 29:06
  who you know, don't exactly have other than Ania Smith
• 29:09
  like a natural slot receiver. So yeah, really looking forward
• 29:13
  to that. I think the fans are excited about him
• 29:15
  now too, so Sam, great stuff. Yeah they should, they should.
• 29:18
  Thank you so much for the work on to Corey
• 29:20
  and Bennett and Darius Cooper. That's going to do it
• 29:22
  for this edition of Inside the Data on Inside the Birds,
• 29:26
  and of course we'll be back again soon, so keep
• 29:29
  listening and keep watching. Thanks to everybody who is tuned
• 29:32
  in for Sam Finkel. I'm Jeff Mosher. We'll catch you
• 29:34
  all on the next one.