Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily: Who's Stock Is Up For Eagles After Spring Camps?
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? Everybody?
- 0:11Speaker 2: Welcome into another episode of The Checko Daily. It's Andrew
- 0:15Speaker 2: Decheco here with you Eagles beat reporter friendsidethbirds dot com
- 0:19Speaker 2: and it's a nice day out, so I'm walking and
- 0:21Speaker 2: talking with you. But as promised, I'm going to get
- 0:25Speaker 2: into my stock ups after spring practices and then tomorrow
- 0:30Speaker 2: will be stock downs. And understand that you're going to
- 0:34Speaker 2: see this defensive Uh, it's gonna be very heavily featuring
- 0:38Speaker 2: defensive players here. But context is always important. In case
- 0:43Speaker 2: you missed the other podcasts where I've mentioned this, the
- 0:45Speaker 2: Eagles are in the midst of the installation process with
- 0:49Speaker 2: this offense, which shouldn't really be a surprise. They're laying
- 0:52Speaker 2: the foundation and working through some things, learning the personnel.
- 0:56Speaker 2: The personnel, learning the coaches. There is verbiage that has
- 1:00Speaker 2: to be taken into account, and there's just a lot
- 1:03Speaker 2: of newness, so it's not really It probably wouldn't be
- 1:08Speaker 2: really fair for me to look at the offense and
- 1:11Speaker 2: be able to say thumbs.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Up for this player that player and then kind of
- 1:15Speaker 1: go down the list. Do I think that it'll improve?
- 1:20Speaker 2: Yes, Well, when you get to training campus where you
- 1:22Speaker 2: really learn a lot more. So for me, it just
- 1:25Speaker 2: wouldn't be it wouldn't be fair to read too much
- 1:29Speaker 2: into it from an offensive standpoint. But there are two
- 1:33Speaker 2: players and they may raise a couple of eyebrows, but
- 1:36Speaker 2: they stood out to me for different reasons. And running
- 1:40Speaker 2: back Tank Bigsby is a stock up because when I
- 1:43Speaker 2: look at Tank Bigsby, you can clearly see a player
- 1:47Speaker 2: that put a lot of time in the weight room
- 1:50Speaker 2: this offseason. You can see a lot more definition. But
- 1:54Speaker 2: he's also a lot more explosive and when you see
- 1:57Speaker 2: him in the open field, it's sprinting. Think that that
- 2:00Speaker 2: really underscores how hard that he's worked this offseason and
- 2:04Speaker 2: the approach that he's taken to maybe undertake a little
- 2:08Speaker 2: bit more of a role in this offense. Now, to
- 2:10Speaker 2: be clear, it's going to run through Saquon Barkley, and
- 2:12Speaker 2: I think Saquon's primed for a really big season. Everything
- 2:17Speaker 2: with this offense I think will ultimately revolve around the
- 2:20Speaker 2: running game. But that's not to say that you can't
- 2:23Speaker 2: establish a more volume not even a volume base, but
- 2:28Speaker 2: a more defined role for Tank Bigsby, who last season
- 2:31Speaker 2: was really implemented sporadically and was curiously utilized in certain spots.
- 2:37Speaker 2: I think this year you're going to see the Eagles
- 2:40Speaker 2: have more of a of a of a clearer vision
- 2:44Speaker 2: and a plan and how to maximize what Tank Bigsby
- 2:48Speaker 2: can bring. And he's a powerful runner. He's really unorthodox
- 2:51Speaker 2: with how he goes about finding holes and sometimes he
- 2:55Speaker 2: creates his own holes. But he is someone that has
- 2:59Speaker 2: a lot of juice, a lot of bursts and explosiveness,
- 3:03Speaker 2: and I do believe that you'll see a little bit
- 3:06Speaker 2: more of him this season. But I thought in the
- 3:09Speaker 2: spring practices he's on this list because you can see
- 3:13Speaker 2: the difference in how he returned compared to last season.
- 3:17Speaker 2: And I thought that when he had his opportunities, even
- 3:20Speaker 2: catching the football on occasion, he checked off a lot
- 3:23Speaker 2: of those boxes. So I thought he did a lot
- 3:26Speaker 2: of quality. I thought he did a lot of quality
- 3:29Speaker 2: things this spring. So when I was compiling my list here,
- 3:33Speaker 2: I had to make sure that Tank was on it.
- 3:35Speaker 1: The other player is EJ.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Jenkins, the tight end who's been around for a couple
- 3:40Speaker 2: of years, spent a lot of time on the practice squad.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Also, he's been on the active roster over the past
- 3:45Speaker 1: couple of years.
- 3:45Speaker 2: He actually played in Super Bowl fifty seven, so he knows,
- 3:51Speaker 2: you know, he has a sense. You know, he's been
- 3:54Speaker 2: in the building and all that. There's a lot of newness,
- 3:56Speaker 2: as there is for all tight ends. There's a new
- 3:58Speaker 2: tight ends coach and Ryan Mahaffey. And that's not to say,
- 4:02Speaker 2: that's not to overlook the newness of this offense, which
- 4:07Speaker 2: I think is really going to incorporate the tight end
- 4:11Speaker 2: with a lot more frequency than we've seen in recent years.
- 4:14Speaker 2: But there's also context that's required here because Eli Stowers
- 4:18Speaker 2: didn't factor all that much into team drills, and so.
- 4:24Speaker 1: You know, e J.
- 4:25Speaker 2: Jenkins was the beneficiary of some extra reps this offseason,
- 4:29Speaker 2: and you have Dallas Goddard, you have Eli Stowers. Johnny
- 4:33Speaker 2: munt is a blocking specialist, so one would presume that
- 4:37Speaker 2: he's on pretty solid ground when it comes to making
- 4:40Speaker 2: the roster.
- 4:41Speaker 1: And you know, Cameron Lattu has been here.
- 4:44Speaker 2: He's a really good blocker. The Eagles liked him to
- 4:47Speaker 2: utilize him as a full back. I think he has
- 4:49Speaker 2: a lot more to offer than simply being a fullback.
- 4:52Speaker 2: He was a tight end that flashed quite a bit
- 4:54Speaker 2: at Alabama, you can see the frame.
- 4:57Speaker 1: Man is he a really.
- 5:01Speaker 2: Really bulky and then filled out tight end in terms
- 5:04Speaker 2: of just muscle mass. But he's another player that I've
- 5:07Speaker 2: been very bullish on and will continue to be.
- 5:11Speaker 1: But EJ.
- 5:12Speaker 2: Jenkins is someone that had a couple of nice catches
- 5:15Speaker 2: from one from Andy Dalton, one from Jalen Hurts.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Both of them were almost identical. They were down the seam.
- 5:21Speaker 2: He had another one where he caught it almost a
- 5:23Speaker 2: tight end screen and you could see a little bit
- 5:25Speaker 2: more of his straight line explosiveness. Now, he's not a
- 5:28Speaker 2: twitchy or overly fluid player. He's six foot six, two
- 5:31Speaker 2: hundred and fifty five pounds, but he did get a
- 5:34Speaker 2: lot of work this spring. He's also flashed at other
- 5:39Speaker 2: OTA sessions in years past, So take that for what
- 5:42Speaker 2: you will. But for someone that sort of inherited extra
- 5:47Speaker 2: reps because you weren't seeing as much from Eli Stowers,
- 5:51Speaker 2: I think you have to look at that as a positive. Now,
- 5:54Speaker 2: he did have a drop on the final day, and
- 5:56Speaker 2: he's gonna have to get that cleaned up because last
- 5:59Speaker 2: summer he put together a pretty consistent training camp. But
- 6:02Speaker 2: then there was one day late in training camp where
- 6:05Speaker 2: I think he was credited with three drops or something
- 6:08Speaker 2: like that, so he's gonna have to be a little
- 6:10Speaker 2: bit more consistent when it comes to that aspect. But
- 6:12Speaker 2: you look at his body type, he's been a development.
- 6:16Speaker 1: He's been a good story of development as a blocker.
- 6:19Speaker 2: He was a collegiate wide receiver, and he's on this
- 6:21Speaker 2: list because I thought that he maximized the opportunities that
- 6:24Speaker 2: he did get, and that was someone that going into
- 6:28Speaker 2: the spring sessions, I wasn't really expecting to see that
- 6:32Speaker 2: much work, so that.
- 6:34Speaker 1: Was a sort of a pleasant surprise.
- 6:37Speaker 2: Now we're going to flip gear, change gears, and flip
- 6:39Speaker 2: over to the defensive side, where there was a lot
- 6:41Speaker 2: of players that I could have put on this list,
- 6:44Speaker 2: but let's start with cornerback Greek Woean and cornerback Greek
- 6:48Speaker 2: Woean is every bit of six foot four. You see
- 6:52Speaker 2: the length and the wingspan, but it's the athleticism, the fluidity,
- 6:56Speaker 2: the ability to flip his hips and run with receivers,
- 6:59Speaker 2: whether it's done Tavian Wicks or a speedster like Hollywood Brown.
- 7:02Speaker 1: In fact, there.
- 7:03Speaker 2: Was a play that was a deep ball from Jalen
- 7:06Speaker 2: Hurts last week where he was running stride for stride
- 7:10Speaker 2: with Hollywood Brown and really narrowing that window and not
- 7:13Speaker 2: allowing a lot of space and forcing the incompletion. He
- 7:16Speaker 2: had an interception on the last day on a pass
- 7:19Speaker 2: over the middle where he sort of broke on the
- 7:21Speaker 2: football and took it away. It looked like Jalen Hurts
- 7:23Speaker 2: was looking for Dallas Goddard. And then there are other
- 7:26Speaker 2: plays that he made in confined spaces, like a red
- 7:28Speaker 2: zone situation where he was able to break up a
- 7:30Speaker 2: pass last week. And this is someone who just made
- 7:33Speaker 2: a play every day. And when you think about that
- 7:36Speaker 2: cornerback position last season and how much instability there was
- 7:40Speaker 2: on the spot opposite Quenya Mitchell, what Greek Women represents
- 7:45Speaker 2: And again it's still a question until you see it
- 7:48Speaker 2: manifest in training camp and carry over into the regular season,
- 7:51Speaker 2: but everything that we've seen and the practices open to reporters,
- 7:57Speaker 2: it should lead to a lot of optimism with how
- 8:00Speaker 2: he can fit in this defense and sort of perverting back.
- 8:03Speaker 1: To the player that he was as a pro bowler
- 8:06Speaker 1: as a rookie.
- 8:07Speaker 2: We'll see what happens when the pads come on, but
- 8:09Speaker 2: he's on the list because he was sort of a
- 8:13Speaker 2: mystery in terms of what he was going to be
- 8:15Speaker 2: able to do because you've seen the good from Leak
- 8:19Speaker 2: one and you've also seen the inconsistencies during his time
- 8:22Speaker 2: with the Seahawks. Well in the short time that we've
- 8:25Speaker 2: got to see him, and the key is it was.
- 8:27Speaker 1: A small sample size, but it was very impressive.
- 8:30Speaker 2: So I thought that he was You can make the
- 8:32Speaker 2: argument that he was the standout of the spring.
- 8:34Speaker 1: So he leads my list here.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Outside linebacker Jaylyox, Hunt would be another player who qualifies
- 8:43Speaker 2: for a stock up. And the reason why he's on
- 8:45Speaker 2: my list, I am very bullish on his upside and
- 8:51Speaker 2: the progression that he's shown. It's been a steady ascent
- 8:54Speaker 2: for Jlyx. He played two hundred and forty one snaps
- 8:57Speaker 2: as a rookie, carved out role as the third pass
- 9:01Speaker 2: rusher in a three man rotation later in the season
- 9:04Speaker 2: on a Super Bowl winning defense, and then last season,
- 9:07Speaker 2: what does he do? He leads the edge rushers in
- 9:10Speaker 2: snaps with six hundred and ninety three, He leads the
- 9:12Speaker 2: Eagles in sacks with six and a half. He leads
- 9:15Speaker 2: the team in quarterback hits with twenty four, and he
- 9:18Speaker 2: also led the Eagles and interceptions with three. So his
- 9:23Speaker 2: assent has really been drastic and he's sort of taken,
- 9:29Speaker 2: you know, really taking control of his development. And I
- 9:33Speaker 2: know that when he was drafted, he was coming out
- 9:35Speaker 2: of Houston Christian he spent three years at Cornell playing safety.
- 9:39Speaker 1: So the belief, the widespread belief.
- 9:42Speaker 2: Going into the draft process and throughout, was that Jay
- 9:46Speaker 2: Looks was going to be somewhat of a project and
- 9:49Speaker 2: it would require some development and patience as he learned
- 9:53Speaker 2: the position and the intricacies and nuances that came with that.
- 9:57Speaker 1: But that hasn't been the case.
- 9:59Speaker 2: And when you listen to what Fic Vanjo has to say,
- 10:02Speaker 2: and he said he's just going to keep getting better
- 10:03Speaker 2: and better. He needs to keep doing what he's doing.
- 10:06Speaker 2: And he said he'll rush better, he'll play the run better.
- 10:09Speaker 2: But he seems really optimistic about his outlook heading into
- 10:13Speaker 2: the twenty twenty sixth season. Then you hear someone like
- 10:16Speaker 2: Jonathan Grenard say Jalox is like a freak and really
- 10:18Speaker 2: highlight all the things that he can do. You listen
- 10:21Speaker 2: to Jay Oax Hunt himself and mentioning what's different about
- 10:24Speaker 2: his game, attention to detail, which is something that he
- 10:26Speaker 2: says he always seems to say, but just having a
- 10:29Speaker 2: better understanding of his approach, being able to calculate which
- 10:33Speaker 2: pass rush moves he wants to implement on a given play.
- 10:37Speaker 1: He's just a much more refined player.
- 10:38Speaker 2: And then when you see it translate on the practice field,
- 10:41Speaker 2: you're seeing someone who is twitching, explosive.
- 10:44Speaker 1: You see the athleticism.
- 10:45Speaker 2: Dropping in a coverage he intercepted Andy Dalton, which is
- 10:49Speaker 2: sort of a prevailing theme if you're looking at it
- 10:51Speaker 2: from the lens of last season. He just has a
- 10:53Speaker 2: really good feel for navigating space, which is huge in
- 10:56Speaker 2: a Vic Fangio defense. There were other plays this spring
- 10:59Speaker 2: where he stormed into the so you can see his
- 11:01Speaker 2: anticipatory traits and his instincts that everything seems to be
- 11:05Speaker 2: coming together for him at the right time. And now
- 11:07Speaker 2: he'll be playing opposite Jonathan Garnard. But Jonathan Garnard didn't
- 11:11Speaker 2: participate in team drills, and that was a team decision
- 11:13Speaker 2: and for precautionary reasons, he had shoulder surgery in December.
- 11:17Speaker 2: But I thought jay loox Hunt really took advantage of
- 11:20Speaker 2: the reps that he was getting. And again it's spring practices.
- 11:24Speaker 2: But you can just see it with jay Loox. You
- 11:26Speaker 2: can see it from the way that he moves, from
- 11:28Speaker 2: how he processes things, from just how he sort of
- 11:32Speaker 2: attacks the day to day. He's very consistent and you
- 11:36Speaker 2: can see a lot more of a polished product relative
- 11:40Speaker 2: to where he was from his rookie season. And I
- 11:44Speaker 2: have a unique perspective of that because I've covered jay
- 11:46Speaker 2: Loox from day one, and I can also tell you
- 11:49Speaker 2: that he's added muscle from year one to year two,
- 11:52Speaker 2: and he's become more of a He's added a power
- 11:56Speaker 2: element to his game that complements the entice athleticism that
- 12:01Speaker 2: he provides. But he's on this list because I thought
- 12:04Speaker 2: that he really as I outlined, you can just really
- 12:07Speaker 2: see it with him. And there were a lot of
- 12:09Speaker 2: times this spring where you know, they don't count for
- 12:12Speaker 2: sacks because you don't do that in spring practice, you know,
- 12:15Speaker 2: but he was very disruptive and you could just see
- 12:18Speaker 2: his natural feel for space and dropping in the coverage.
- 12:22Speaker 1: And I really do believe that he's.
- 12:23Speaker 2: Prying for a breakout season, so it wasn't hard for
- 12:26Speaker 2: me to put him on this list. Then I go
- 12:28Speaker 2: to Jeremiah Trotter, Junior and Jeremiah Trotter Junior had the
- 12:33Speaker 2: benefit of taking on the first team reps, the bulk
- 12:37Speaker 2: of the first team reps in training camp because Johad
- 12:40Speaker 2: Campbell was sidelined as he's you know, working through that
- 12:43Speaker 2: shoulder injury. And for Jeremiah Trotter Junior. And I've said
- 12:46Speaker 2: this before, but I believe that he could.
- 12:48Speaker 1: Be a starter on teams out there.
- 12:51Speaker 2: He just happens to be stuck at a team that's
- 12:53Speaker 2: immensely talented and deep at the linebacker position. But every
- 12:57Speaker 2: time he's gotten his opportunities, he's made the most of it. Now,
- 13:00Speaker 2: does he have uber athleticism, No, that's not his game.
- 13:03Speaker 2: His game, though, is instincts. It's playing with anticipation, it's
- 13:08Speaker 2: processing things. The football intelligence really jumps off off the
- 13:13Speaker 2: practice field when you watch him play, and there were
- 13:15Speaker 2: times where he was jumping routes, nearly coming out with.
- 13:17Speaker 1: An interception on a pass to Will Shipley.
- 13:19Speaker 2: His former college teammate at Clemson, on an Andy Dalton pass.
- 13:22Speaker 2: He just always seems to be in the right place
- 13:24Speaker 2: at the right time. And he's a simon sound and
- 13:27Speaker 2: a dependable player, and he's a luxury for the Eagles
- 13:30Speaker 2: to have, so you have to feel really good about
- 13:33Speaker 2: Jeremiah Troter junior and entering his third NFL season. He
- 13:37Speaker 2: just quietly shows up every single day, goes about his business,
- 13:41Speaker 2: and fundamentally he checks off that box. A simon sound
- 13:46Speaker 2: and being disciplined, you know, he checks off that box
- 13:50Speaker 2: as well. He's just a steady presence and he provided
- 13:53Speaker 2: some stability there opposite Zach Baughn working with the first
- 13:58Speaker 2: team this spring game day.
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- 15:00Speaker 2: The last player I want to mention is someone who
- 15:02Speaker 2: I've talked about enough now that I imagine that he's
- 15:05Speaker 2: no longer someone who's off the listener's radar.
- 15:09Speaker 1: But it's linebacker Chance Campbell. And so Chance.
- 15:12Speaker 2: Campbell is someone that last season was on the practice squad.
- 15:17Speaker 2: He was never elevated for a game, but he's played
- 15:20Speaker 2: in four NFL games. He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans,
- 15:23Speaker 2: and he suffered an ACL tear in late August of
- 15:27Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. Signed with the Eagles just a few
- 15:30Speaker 2: days before the preseason finale. So logically the thought process is, well,
- 15:35Speaker 2: he's a player that they brought in to absorb some
- 15:37Speaker 2: reps and not expose players that they're going to be
- 15:41Speaker 2: counting on in the regular season to needless risk. Well,
- 15:44Speaker 2: when they signed them to the practice squad off of
- 15:46Speaker 2: just such a brief sample size, that tells you that
- 15:49Speaker 2: they knew all that they needed to know about Chance
- 15:51Speaker 2: Campbell and he is someone that has overlapped with Bobby King.
- 15:55Speaker 1: I've outlined that many times.
- 15:56Speaker 2: Before, but it bears repeating because sometimes it's a different audio.
- 16:00Speaker 1: And look, when you.
- 16:03Speaker 2: Saw him on the practice fere, you don't quite know
- 16:05Speaker 2: what to expect. But he was lauded for his work
- 16:07Speaker 2: behind the scenes on the scout team and a piece
- 16:09Speaker 2: done by the athletic which you're hearing from players like
- 16:14Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley and really really prominent players on the offensive
- 16:18Speaker 2: side who are just gushing over Chance Campbell and what
- 16:22Speaker 2: he's provided.
- 16:23Speaker 1: It's a great story.
- 16:23Speaker 2: I suggest you read it and that'll give you some
- 16:27Speaker 2: more insight into and support what I'm saying now. And
- 16:32Speaker 2: you don't quite You didn't quite know going into the
- 16:34Speaker 2: spring what he was going to be able to provide
- 16:37Speaker 2: as a linebacker because we haven't seen in practice. And
- 16:41Speaker 2: what I can tell you is is that this is
- 16:42Speaker 2: a player who he flows to the ball with urgency.
- 16:46Speaker 2: You can see the tenacity that he that he sort
- 16:49Speaker 2: of exhibits when you know, snapped a snap. There were
- 16:53Speaker 2: times where he nearly came up with interceptions. Another player
- 16:56Speaker 2: who seems to be in the right place at the
- 16:57Speaker 2: right time, which I believe speaks to his football IQ
- 17:01Speaker 2: and he sniffed out an end around to Danny Gray
- 17:04Speaker 2: on one occasion. But he was working with Smile Monden
- 17:07Speaker 2: Junior with the second team, getting valuable reps there.
- 17:11Speaker 1: But he looks like a.
- 17:12Speaker 2: Player who has been in the league for you know,
- 17:14Speaker 2: a few years now. He was playing fast, he was
- 17:17Speaker 2: playing free, and I think that really bodes.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Well for Chance going into training camp.
- 17:23Speaker 2: But I think to a larger point, what I was most,
- 17:27Speaker 2: what struck me most is that the Eagles seemed to
- 17:30Speaker 2: be involving him with a lot of the players who
- 17:35Speaker 2: have been mainstays on special teams. He was working with
- 17:38Speaker 2: the likes of Cameron Latsu, Jeremiah Trotter Junior, Will Shipley,
- 17:44Speaker 2: just players who have been part of the nucleus for
- 17:47Speaker 2: Michael Clay in terms of the coverage units. Chance Campbell
- 17:49Speaker 2: has been working with him Smilemonden Jr.
- 17:51Speaker 1: As well.
- 17:53Speaker 2: So that's something that I sort of will file away
- 17:55Speaker 2: for training camp. But I thought that he did everything
- 17:57Speaker 2: that he could with the opportunities that he had to
- 17:59Speaker 2: make an impression. We'll see how the reps are allocated
- 18:03Speaker 2: once training camp rolls around, they're they're going to be
- 18:06Speaker 2: diminished a little bit because you also have to remember
- 18:10Speaker 2: that you had Campbell. Well we'll factor into that, but
- 18:15Speaker 2: he's on this list because he had he was consistent,
- 18:19Speaker 2: and he made the notebook. He made my notebook on
- 18:23Speaker 2: a few occasions. So Chance Campbell is another player that
- 18:26Speaker 2: you should be keeping an eye on because I have
- 18:28Speaker 2: a feeling you'll be hearing his name again this summer
- 18:32Speaker 2: in training camp. Those are my stock ups and for now,
- 18:36Speaker 2: that's going to do it for this episode of The
- 18:38Speaker 2: check O Daily.
- 18:38Speaker 1: I'm Andrew de Checo.
- 18:40Speaker 2: I'll catch you all on the next one.