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The DiCecco Daily: Free Agents Who Intrigue Me For The Eagles · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: What's going on.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: It's Andrew D'checko with another episode of The Checko Daily,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: and I want to spend this episode talking about some
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: free agents that I'm particularly intrigued with and who I
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: believe could be potential fits for the Eagles. From the
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: perspective of cost and positional need, it's going to be
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: difficult for the Eagles to be able to retain Dallas Goddard.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And I don't know that his price is going to
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: go down after the season that he had despite being
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: thirty one years old and putting up eleven touchdowns, he
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: should have a fairly active market. I would expect him
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to get some traction early. I know the Eagles are well.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I would imagine the Eagles are going to do whatever
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: they can to keep him in the building.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But it's not going to be easy.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: There are a number of teams that probably seem to
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: be a tight end or a pass catcher away from
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: their offense being able to take that next step in
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Dallas Goddard to certainly someone who can fit into a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: multitude of offenses. But in the event that Dallas Godder
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: does not return to Philadelphia, and it's a big if,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: we'll have to wait and see how things play out.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Who would his replacement be. There's no obvious choice out
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: there on the free agent market. You have David and Joku,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: you have Isaiah Likely. I happen to think that Isaiah
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Likely is going to command a pretty robust market given
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: his age and expected upside. But which direction could the
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Eagles go?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Well? I look at a player in Chiga.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Conkrow of the Tennessee Titans who is a fourth round
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: pick for them back in twenty twenty two, as a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: fit from a cost and a positional need standpoint.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: So let's look at his numbers.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Sixty eight career games, forty two starts, one hundred and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: ninety four career catches for twenty seventeen yards and eight touchdowns.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I like his build at six foot three to two eight.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: He's a move tight end. You can get creative and
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: how you deploy him. He's pretty athletic. I like his
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: ability after the catch, and again he's not going to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: break the bank. So he might be a player that,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: at twenty six years old, with relatively little tread on
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the tires, might be a good match while the Eagles
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: look to pair a rookie tight end and maybe another
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: free agent option to round out this room.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So I really like Chiga a.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Conkwo as a potential option if the Eagles aren't able
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to retain Dallas Goddard. It's hard to go into a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: season placing all of that burden on the shoulders of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: a rookie if you take him even in the first round.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Let's say if it's a Kenyon Zadik, who, by the way,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: his stock is going to climb exponentially based off of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: the combine that he had.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: But let's just say it's a Day one or a
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Day two tight ends.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: It's a lot to ask of that player to be
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: able to step in and give you high end production.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So I think you need to kind of guard again
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and add a player in free agency, in this case
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Chega Konkwo as someone who could potentially be used creatively
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: under Sean Mannion, and he has a demonstrated performance, so
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you're not exactly going into it blind or without any expectation.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I mentioned Charlie Kohler, the Ravens tight end who was
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: primarily used as a blocker pretty much an extra offensive lineman.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: He's a name that I brought up yesterday, and I'm
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: curious to see how it would have worked out had
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: John Fitzpatrick, the six foot seven blocking tight end of
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers last season, hadn't torn his achilles
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: on December twentieth, because that would be a really good fit.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: There's familiarity there, obviously with Ryan Mahaffey, now the tight
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: ends coach but coach receivers last year with the Packers
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: overseeing the run coordinating this season in Philadelphia, so there's
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: familiarity there, and as well as Sean Mannion obviously who
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: was the quarterbacks coach for Green Bay. But John Fitzpatrick,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: with that intensive timeline of the achilles recovery, it could
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: bleed into training camp or even beyond that base off
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: of the projected timeline for an injury of that magnitude,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: but that would have been otherwise a pretty sound option.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Let's look at the offensive line, because there's a player
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: there in Sean Ryan, also of the Green Bay Packers
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: who is intriguing because he can play center, he can
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: play guard for you.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: He has some starting experience.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: He started twenty eight of the forty seven games in
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: which he played. He was a third round pick in
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two of the Green Bay Packers out of UCLA,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: and he gives you someone who you like. His size
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: just under six five, three hundred and twenty one pounds.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: I think that he gives you competency at multiple interior positions.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: He sort of fits the profile of what we're expecting
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the offensive lineman to really be able to execute well,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: moving latterly and climbing to the second level and things
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: like that. And if nothing else, he gives you a
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: high end backup interior player. Let's say, if they don't
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: keep Brett Toath for some reason or another, it just
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: gives you more competition and more depth there. And again
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I go back to the familiarity piece. I think he's
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: going to also have a team friendly contract. I can't
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: imagine he's going to command a sizeable deal on the
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: open market. And I look at just the pairing and
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: how that fit might might work for what the Eagles
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: are looking to do with this offensive line as they
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: really try to fill out the depth.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: There a lot of questions.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Drew Kendall is a player that the Eagles really like,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and I have pretty high expectations. I've gone on record
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: saying that he was my favorite of the Eagles day
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: three picks last year because I loved his table at
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Boston College. I think you can really go into it
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: confident that he's going to move forward in a positive direction.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Like what I saw from him in the regular season
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: finale looked a little bit ahead of schedule there, and
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: that tends to happen when you work with Jeff Stoaltlin
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: for a season. When you finally get your opportunity, you're
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: able to see what he was sort of working on
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: and compare it to the preseason. So Drew Kendall's someone
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: you can feel confident in. But you also have Fred
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Johnson and Brett Toath who are going to be free agents,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: and if you're not able to keep Brett Toath or
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: you decide to go in another direction, I think Sean
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Ryan would be another player who can give you a
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: similar output in terms of just the versatility and giving
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: you just experienced step there that I think is just so.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Important right now.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: And I want to round things off by looking at
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: the cornerback position because Cam Taylor Britt, he started forty
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: games for the Bengals, didn't play particularly well last year,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: has some maturity concerns, So I don't know if you
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: want to take that on unless you really vet it
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: out and you know that it's going to give you
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: positive returns and not necessarily be a drawback. If this
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: is a player who's worthwhile, I don't know that he's
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: gonna have he's going to command a ton of money
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: on the open market, but he is a player who
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: has started. He's young, and I liked his game quite
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: a bit coming out of Tennessee. But the player that
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about today is Joshua Williams of
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, you may ask yourself who's
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Joshua Williams. Well, he was drafted in the fourth round
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: by Kansas City in twenty twenty two out of I'm
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: drawing a blank where he went Fayetteville State, and he's
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: played in sixty five games, started twelve. He's a dependable
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: special teams performer. He's played a ton of special teams
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: in his career. For perspective, He's last season played two
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty six snaps. He's never gone under two
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: hundred special team snaps in each of his four seasons. Defensively,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: while the starts are minimal in twenty twenty two, as
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: a rookie, he played four hundred and thirty seven defense
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: snaps that was thirty eight percent of their total. The
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: next season, three hundred and twenty one snaps thirty one
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: percent of that total. Twenty twenty four four hundred and
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: eleven snaps thirty eight percent of the Chiefs total. Then
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: last season he played just seventeen snaps as they had
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Noel Williams who sort of emerged there, Jalen Watson, who's
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: also going to be a free agent.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: He had a solid season.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: They have Trent McDuffie, so there didn't seem to be
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a place for Joshua Williams. But he's young, and he
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: does have the body type that I think is intriguing
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: at six foot three, one hundred and ninety three pounds
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: and still just being twenty six years old. I think
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: it's sort of a smart roll of the dice. I
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: think he's expected to command maybe one point five or
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: thereabouts per season. Looks like he's projected as a one
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: year deal, which makes a lot of sense, But he
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: does for nothing else. He can be a positive depth
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: piece who can help you on special teams. Maybe be
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: that I Isaiah Rodgers' role that was so critical to
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty four Eagles. But best case scenario, he
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: challenges either a rookie or ringo Jacoryan Bennett. Whatever the
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Eagles choose to do at that cornerback spot, maybe they
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: bring back a Dori Jackson as well. I think he
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: gives you a player that you feel at least interested
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: to see what he can do in a positional battle there,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: because I think he does offer a little bit of
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: starting upside, if not for just one season. I like
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the length, he's better, and he's better as a man corner,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: but he can do man and he can play zone,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: and I like his physicality. Sometimes it leads to penalties.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: He hasn't played a ton obviously with the Chiefs, but
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: he is a player that when you're looking at the Eagles,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: and they may just be looking for a patchwork option
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: here and not go swinging for the fences, which isn't
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: going to be realistic, especially if they throw a lot
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: of money at Jalen Phillips to keep him in the building. Well,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: you have to temper your expectations with the free age,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and you may have to look more in the middle class,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: and so you have to get creative and look for fit,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: look for upside, and I think he's a player that
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: he's not going to jump off the page in terms
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: of what he's done to this point, but he is
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: someone that I think has shown qualities of a player
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: that has developmental traits and maybe with another opportunity with
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: another system, can sort of hit his stride a little
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: bit or get back to a player that he was
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: not last season but the year before. So there's obviously
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: a ton of questions about how the free agency is
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: going to shake out for the Eagles, but I think
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: you also have to shop in the value aisle and
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: go for upside.
• 10:43
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  Speaker 2: Someone like a Joe Tryon, who was a I mean,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: he was a first round pick and he didn't necessarily
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: play the standard there. He was with the he was
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was drafted there in
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the first round in twenty twenty one. Then he goes
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: to the Browns. Then he gets traded last season to
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: the Chicago Bears halfway through. Not a lot of production there,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty tackles, fifteen sacks in his career,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: too forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, eight pass deflections, but
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: twenty six years old, I think his length and is
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: something that will be intriguing. He also is solid against
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the run, but there's been times that he's had to
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: drop into coverage and he looks pretty adept at doing that.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And so if you're trying to get a reclamation project
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: or a younger player with some qualities that are going
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: to be appealing, and especially when you try to consider
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: what his fit would be in this Eagles defense, I
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: think he might be someone that qualifies as the Josh
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Uche or Isizo Jilaris signing of last year, because they
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: only have two edge rushers under contract. If you keep
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Jayaln Phillips, you still Howie Roseman and the Eagles typically
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: carry seven or eight edge rushers in training camp. They
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: brought in obo Okoronkwoll the day before training camp, and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: he's another player that they look for experience in that area.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: And I think Joe Tryon show Yinka is a player
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that would be I think maybe just below three million
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: for a one year deal. I mean, if that's the case,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and I think that's thereabouts where he's projected, I would
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: go for that just given the physical attributes, his first
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: round pedigree, and maybe you're able to get something out
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: of him in a rotational role here in Philadelphia. So
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I went through interior offensive line, gave you a corner,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: gave you another tight end, and I rounded things out
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: by talking about Joe Tryon show Yanka, who spent half
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: the season with the Chicago Bears last year, and perhaps
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: he looks for a change of scenery. By the way,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: for those wondering, his measurements split five two hundred and
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: sixty pounds, so a lot of length there, especially if
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: you're able to keep jaywhen Phillips, who's six' five sixty
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: six two sixty himself a lot to unpack here with free,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: agency and there'll be plenty more to come On inside The,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: birds On inside The birds Dot, com and of course
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: right here on to Check. Odaily that's gonna do it
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: for this edition of The Checko. Daily I'm andrew De.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Checko i'll see you and catch you on the next.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: One