Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily: Insight On Eagles Jakorian Bennett, Brett Toth, Nolan Smith, And More From Thursday's Practice
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody. Welcome into this edition of the
- 0:12Speaker 1: check Odaily. It's Andrew Decheko from Inside the Birds dot
- 0:14Speaker 1: Com and today's Thursday, so we're trending closer to Eagles
- 0:19Speaker 1: giants before the bye week. And it was also the
- 0:22Speaker 1: longer day that we get to see practice of the
- 0:25Speaker 1: three days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So there's always a lot
- 0:28Speaker 1: to glean and I always like to set the scene
- 0:31Speaker 1: and you see the warm ups. Then after that you'll
- 0:34Speaker 1: see the players kind of go their separate way. So
- 0:38Speaker 1: on the field nearest to us, you'll see on one
- 0:41Speaker 1: side of the field the pump returners, which are Johan Dotson,
- 0:45Speaker 1: Xavier Gibson, Quez Watkins, Britton Covey, and Cooper dejen and
- 0:50Speaker 1: they field punts.
- 0:51Speaker 2: And now on the other.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Side of that field, you'll see defensive backs coach Christian
- 0:56Speaker 1: Parker working with Quinya Mitchell and normally a Dori Jackson,
- 1:00Speaker 1: but Odori did not practice today, so it was Jacoreyan
- 1:04Speaker 1: Bennett who was a full participant today after having his
- 1:08Speaker 1: twenty one day practice window opened on Wednesday. Great news
- 1:12Speaker 1: there for Jakourian. And then you see the other the middlefield,
- 1:19Speaker 1: if you're walking in the other direction, that's where the
- 1:21Speaker 1: offensive line goes. So after I was taking in a
- 1:24Speaker 1: little bit of the pump return and watching Jakoorian and quinnyon,
- 1:29Speaker 1: I walked over to see the offensive line just to
- 1:31Speaker 1: get a better sense of maybe what the alignment was
- 1:33Speaker 1: going to look like or or what it was going.
- 1:35Speaker 2: To look like for that day.
- 1:36Speaker 1: And it was Brett Toath up first at center with
- 1:41Speaker 1: the starting unit, and that kind of gives you an
- 1:44Speaker 1: idea of how they're looking to approach this weekend. I've
- 1:48Speaker 1: talked about the different configurations and how Jeff Stoutlin historically
- 1:51Speaker 1: doesn't like to alter two positions for continuity purposes, and
- 1:57Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense. And who knows a
- 2:00Speaker 1: full week of Brett taking center reps, and he didn't
- 2:03Speaker 1: take any center reps or very few leading up to it.
- 2:06Speaker 1: He's been primarily working at guards. So now having those
- 2:10Speaker 1: those reps with the ones this week at center, it
- 2:13Speaker 1: maybe will instill a little bit more continuity for him
- 2:18Speaker 1: and comfortability for Brett where you're not necessarily being thrown
- 2:22Speaker 1: into the fire for lack of a better term.
- 2:25Speaker 2: So that was a takeaway from there. I also saw.
- 2:30Speaker 1: Some of the injured offensive linemen that are on ir
- 2:32Speaker 1: Willie Lampkin, who I've gotten asked about a couple more
- 2:36Speaker 1: than a couple times since the Cam Jurgen's injury. He
- 2:39Speaker 1: was working, So was Cam Williams who has a shoulder injury,
- 2:45Speaker 1: and Miles Hinton as well.
- 2:47Speaker 2: They were all working on the on a near field.
- 2:50Speaker 2: They were holding pat holding the.
- 2:52Speaker 1: Blocking pad and taking turns. And then later in practice
- 2:55Speaker 1: I saw Nolan Smith with a trainer working on a
- 2:59Speaker 1: far field.
- 2:59Speaker 2: No One.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Smith did not have his twenty one day practice window opened,
- 3:03Speaker 1: but I imagine that he's still on track to be back
- 3:08Speaker 1: in action sometime in November. But he never want to
- 3:12Speaker 1: rush things, obviously if the player isn't totally ready to go.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Brandon Graham was back out there. He was moving around,
- 3:21Speaker 1: he was getting some work and we didn't get a
- 3:23Speaker 1: chance to necessarily hone in on the edge rushers, but
- 3:26Speaker 1: they were on a far field and you can't miss
- 3:28Speaker 1: number fifty five. He was out there bouncing around a
- 3:31Speaker 1: lot of energy. There was always the strip drill that
- 3:34Speaker 1: we get to see the strip circuit where players will
- 3:38Speaker 1: go through and they have this pad, this you.
- 3:42Speaker 2: Know, vertical pad where there was like a football.
- 3:44Speaker 1: They'll crowed into it and the players will cycle through
- 3:48Speaker 1: looking to punch the ball out and recover it. And
- 3:51Speaker 1: then they go over to this large pad which was
- 3:55Speaker 1: you know, and it's elevated a little bit and two players.
- 3:59Speaker 1: So the first two plays, zach Bond went first in
- 4:01Speaker 1: the drill, then THEA Kobe Dean went so Zach Bond
- 4:04Speaker 1: held the ball after the drill and it was the
- 4:07Speaker 1: Kobe's turn to try and strip it from him, and
- 4:09Speaker 1: then both players tumble on to the pad and then
- 4:13Speaker 1: na Kobe had to hold the ball and then whoever
- 4:14Speaker 1: went third had to do the same thing, and they
- 4:17Speaker 1: kind of cycled through it in that way.
- 4:19Speaker 2: So that's that's Thursday practice and.
- 4:23Speaker 1: Always a joy to watch because I love watching practice
- 4:28Speaker 1: for one, but I like to to hone in on
- 4:33Speaker 1: and watch Christian Parker work with Quinyon and normally a Dorri,
- 4:38Speaker 1: but today Jakoorian and I'm always just enamored with Christian Parker,
- 4:42Speaker 1: who I believe is the best in the business of
- 4:44Speaker 1: what he does and a future defensive coordinator work and
- 4:48Speaker 1: what and listen to or watch how he's able to
- 4:51Speaker 1: work with with some of those players and the punt returners.
- 4:56Speaker 1: They're sometimes having to field two punts or two at once,
- 5:01Speaker 1: and sometimes if it's going to be a rain game,
- 5:04Speaker 1: you'll see them spray water. So you're keeping an eye
- 5:07Speaker 1: on their focus and how they track it in and
- 5:09Speaker 1: all that. It's always really interesting to watch. But that
- 5:13Speaker 1: was practice. Now let's get to the injury report, which
- 5:18Speaker 1: has a notable name who didn't practice again, who popped
- 5:25Speaker 1: up on Wednesday.
- 5:26Speaker 2: Let me just get to.
- 5:27Speaker 1: That not practicing today. Wide receiver AJ Brown with a hamstring.
- 5:31Speaker 1: Cornerback of Dori Jackson with a concussion, Center Cam Jurgen's knee,
- 5:36Speaker 1: outside linebacker's he's ochiali hamstring. Now, AJ Brown was on
- 5:40Speaker 1: a working when the team was stretching. He was working
- 5:42Speaker 1: out on a far field. But he didn't go today
- 5:46Speaker 1: and he wasn't able to practice for the second consecutive day.
- 5:50Speaker 2: That's something to certainly monitor.
- 5:52Speaker 1: But I'll get to that in the second because there's
- 5:54Speaker 1: a move that League was made before practice that gives
- 5:58Speaker 1: them potentially some more depth going into Sunday against the Giants.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Limited tight end Grant Calcatre with an oblique guard Landon
- 6:07Speaker 1: Dickerson ankle back, defensive tackle Moro Jomo's shoulder, Linebacker Jeremiah
- 6:12Speaker 1: Trotter junior ankle, full Jacorean Bennett pectoral, tight end Dallas
- 6:17Speaker 1: Goddard caff defensive.
- 6:19Speaker 2: End Brandon Graham not injury related.
- 6:22Speaker 1: So before practice, the Eagles announced that they opened the
- 6:25Speaker 1: twenty one day practice window for wide receiver Darius Cooper.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Darius Cooper has played twenty snaps on offense, seventeen on
- 6:33Speaker 1: special teams, and he was a He was active for
- 6:37Speaker 1: the first three games, went on ir after the Rams
- 6:40Speaker 1: game with a shoulder injury, and he was a full
- 6:45Speaker 1: participant today in his first practice back, which is a
- 6:48Speaker 1: promising sign going into Sunday potentially as the Eagles, I
- 6:54Speaker 1: should say, as AJ Brown's status remains in doubt, I
- 6:58Speaker 1: would say, but Darius Cooper's player who the Eagles really
- 7:01Speaker 1: like in terms of his blocking ability. If you think
- 7:03Speaker 1: back to some of those early push plays, Darius Cooper
- 7:06Speaker 1: was in there, and he has sort of a frame
- 7:10Speaker 1: and a mindset and a skill set that really translates
- 7:14Speaker 1: favorably to doing some of that dirty work that maybe
- 7:17Speaker 1: you've seen Johnny Wilson do over the years or last season,
- 7:21Speaker 1: I should say Ben Van Sumer and a lot of
- 7:24Speaker 1: those players who aren't there right now. Darius Cooper can
- 7:27Speaker 1: do some of those things, so he's back and he
- 7:30Speaker 1: was full go. But there's a world in which the
- 7:35Speaker 1: Eagles may not have aj Brown for Sunday. Again, We'll
- 7:38Speaker 1: see what Friday determines, because that's when the team puts
- 7:42Speaker 1: out their official game status. Adorri Jackson's not likely to play,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and if he can't go, I would imagine that that
- 7:50Speaker 1: would be Keeley Ringo who starts. But Jacoreyan Bennett's an
- 7:54Speaker 1: interesting player because I would imagine him being full go.
- 7:58Speaker 1: That's also a promising sign for Sunday. But if you're
- 8:01Speaker 1: the Eagles, you want to give him as many snaps
- 8:04Speaker 1: as you can defensively, I would imagine to get a
- 8:06Speaker 1: better evaluation going into the trade deadline. November fourth is
- 8:09Speaker 1: the trade deadline, and without having seen much of Jakoorian Bennett,
- 8:13Speaker 1: he arrived in early August, and Vic Vangiel really said
- 8:17Speaker 1: that he gave him an incomplete because he hadn't seen
- 8:19Speaker 1: enough of a Jaquorrean Bennet to give an accurate assessment.
- 8:22Speaker 1: So I think taking all that into consideration, you would
- 8:24Speaker 1: think that the Eagles want to give him some reps
- 8:26Speaker 1: defensively to gauge where he is and for Vic Vanjoel
- 8:30Speaker 1: to find out who he is or who he isn't.
- 8:33Speaker 1: But I would imagine this is going to be a
- 8:35Speaker 1: game in which Kiely Ringo starts big game for Kiee.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Ringo would face the Giants for a second time. I
- 8:42Speaker 1: would be looking to see if he's able to correct
- 8:44Speaker 1: some of those mistakes and miscues. Having seen these wide
- 8:48Speaker 1: receivers like Wandell Robinson, little Jordan Humphrey. You might see
- 8:52Speaker 1: Darius Slayton this week, who has given the Eagles some
- 8:54Speaker 1: trouble over the years.
- 8:56Speaker 2: But I think the Eagles have.
- 9:00Speaker 1: A very good job of instilling confidence in Keighley at
- 9:04Speaker 1: every turn. Whenever Vic Fangios asked about Ringo, he mentions that,
- 9:08Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna need them, or we may need them,
- 9:10Speaker 1: and they will need him this week. And I didn't
- 9:13Speaker 1: think he performed two. I thought he performed fair against
- 9:19Speaker 1: the Vikings when he was pressed into service, and he
- 9:22Speaker 1: was going up against a very challenging receiving corps.
- 9:24Speaker 2: Of course, but I think.
- 9:26Speaker 1: That that Keighlely has had some promising signs. Now he
- 9:29Speaker 1: has to be more consistent and for him to be
- 9:32Speaker 1: able to establish staying power and put his stamp on
- 9:36Speaker 1: that position, he has to be more consistent. He knows that,
- 9:40Speaker 1: and that's what the coaching staff is going to look
- 9:42Speaker 1: at look from him. But what I will say about
- 9:45Speaker 1: the Eagles is they've done a really nice job of
- 9:46Speaker 1: giving him opportunities. You can never look back and say, well,
- 9:50Speaker 1: they never really gave so and so affair shake. They
- 9:53Speaker 1: give a lot of players, and in this case, Keigley Ringo,
- 9:56Speaker 1: every opportunity to cement their status. It's going to be
- 10:00Speaker 1: up to Kilee to maybe plant the seed in the
- 10:03Speaker 1: minds of the coaching staff that yeah, I can do
- 10:05Speaker 1: this and you don't need to look externally. The same
- 10:09Speaker 1: applies for Jakoorian Bennett. This is a big week for
- 10:11Speaker 1: both players because if you perform well enough, you may
- 10:16Speaker 1: be able to sway them in a way where they
- 10:18Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to go out and try to and
- 10:21Speaker 1: try to add a corner at that position. And let's
- 10:24Speaker 1: be honest, a lot of the names that I've heard
- 10:26Speaker 1: out there or who could potentially be out there, aside
- 10:29Speaker 1: from a Denzel Award, they're not that much better, significantly
- 10:34Speaker 1: better than what they already have, and it would take
- 10:36Speaker 1: a little bit of time for them to even be
- 10:38Speaker 1: fully onboarded and have the grasp and the understanding.
- 10:43Speaker 2: Of what is entailed within that defense.
- 10:46Speaker 1: So I think between Jaquorian Bennett and Dorrie Jackson Akili Ringo,
- 10:51Speaker 1: you have enough there. In fact, I would go as
- 10:53Speaker 1: far as to say that corner back is a strength
- 10:56Speaker 1: when you have two corners like Quinya Mitchell and Cooper Degen.
- 10:59Speaker 1: Not many teams around the NFL are afforded that luxury.
- 11:02Speaker 1: Now Quinnon plays corner, Cooper plays Nickel. They're two different things,
- 11:06Speaker 1: just ask Vic Vangio. But I think that between the
- 11:10Speaker 1: three players that I mentioned, the Eagles can certainly get by.
- 11:15Speaker 1: The question remains this week the offensive line situation, and
- 11:19Speaker 1: it looks right now like it'll be Brett Toth. And
- 11:22Speaker 1: you know what, honestly it should be Brett Toth. If
- 11:24Speaker 1: you think back to the Thursday Night game, Brett Toth
- 11:27Speaker 1: was left guard, and I think that he didn't. He
- 11:32Speaker 1: struggled at left guard in that game. But I think
- 11:34Speaker 1: in this game you keep some continuity there. You give
- 11:38Speaker 1: him a full week of reps and you make do
- 11:40Speaker 1: with what you can, and you try to get Cam
- 11:42Speaker 1: Jurgens healthy, and hopefully this bye week will serve the
- 11:47Speaker 1: likes of Cam Jurgens, Landon Dickerson and some of those players. Well.
- 11:51Speaker 1: I did speak to Jacory and Bennett today, had a
- 11:55Speaker 1: really good conversation with him, and one of the things
- 11:59Speaker 1: that he said, you know, this is just based on
- 12:02Speaker 1: returning to practice following his I ar stint and I
- 12:04Speaker 1: did transcribe this one. I haven't transcribed all of what
- 12:07Speaker 1: he had to say, but he said, you don't realize
- 12:09Speaker 1: how much you love something until you can't do it
- 12:12Speaker 1: no more. I know it's kind of short term or whatnot,
- 12:14Speaker 1: but it sucked not being able to go out there
- 12:17Speaker 1: and just help the team. Just watching it, I definitely
- 12:19Speaker 1: learned a lot, but I'm glad. I'm feeling good. Mental's good,
- 12:23Speaker 1: physical is good. So I'm just kind of ready to roll.
- 12:27Speaker 1: That has to be music to the years of Eagles fans,
- 12:29Speaker 1: who I'm sure are very curious to see what Jacorey
- 12:31Speaker 1: and Bennett can provide. It seems like it's trending in
- 12:35Speaker 1: the direction where he will be available for Sunday, and
- 12:38Speaker 1: who knows, Brandon Graham could very easily be available Sunday,
- 12:42Speaker 1: Full Go two days in a row. I go back
- 12:44Speaker 1: to what Vic Vanrew had to say on Tuesday. It's
- 12:47Speaker 1: going to come down to retention and conditioning, and there's
- 12:51Speaker 1: regular conditioning.
- 12:52Speaker 2: And there's football shape.
- 12:54Speaker 1: Football shape and contact shape are going to play a
- 12:57Speaker 1: big role into how it's going to go. I had
- 13:03Speaker 1: a good conversation with with cam latsu and passing, and
- 13:06Speaker 1: I was talking to him about the special teams tackles.
- 13:09Speaker 1: I believe he has seven now and he mentioned that
- 13:11Speaker 1: last week when I told him he had six. He
- 13:13Speaker 1: was he's been thinking about that now, and he's like,
- 13:16Speaker 1: I think the league leader has twelve. And cam Latsuo
- 13:20Speaker 1: has been just phenomenal on special teams.
- 13:22Speaker 2: He had four tackles in the preseason game alone.
- 13:25Speaker 1: But when he put that into context, he said, man,
- 13:27Speaker 1: I realized that, like, you get four tackles on special
- 13:30Speaker 1: teams a one game, that's really hard to do. He goes, now,
- 13:33Speaker 1: I kind of have a different perspective on that, and
- 13:36Speaker 1: he's like, I'm going to try and get a couple
- 13:38Speaker 1: this week and start to now it down. I said, well,
- 13:40Speaker 1: if you get ten, you'll be tied it for a
- 13:43Speaker 1: second in the NFL or close to it, and he
- 13:45Speaker 1: doesn't even have the full complemented games. Remember he was
- 13:48Speaker 1: on the practice squad for week one, so I always
- 13:51Speaker 1: liked talking to him in passing and heat lockers, right
- 13:53Speaker 1: next to Xavier Gibson, and Xavier Gibson is one of
- 13:56Speaker 1: the more positive people you could ever talk to, and
- 13:59Speaker 1: just how he looks at every situation. He's grateful for
- 14:02Speaker 1: every opportunity and he just has a very unique perspective
- 14:08Speaker 1: on every situation. So good stuff from him. And he
- 14:12Speaker 1: mentioned that, and I've talked to him about the thirty
- 14:14Speaker 1: seven yard return. He said, yeah, there are a couple
- 14:16Speaker 1: of holes that I missed. So you know, you get
- 14:18Speaker 1: a little rusty if you're not out there that much.
- 14:20Speaker 1: But I thought he was really productive because to me
- 14:24Speaker 1: just upon the you know, watching it a couple of times,
- 14:27Speaker 1: it wasn't even that apparent. I thought he did a
- 14:29Speaker 1: nice job there. He and Will Shipley had a good
- 14:32Speaker 1: rapport And I asked Will about the communication between the
- 14:35Speaker 1: two Tuesday when we did our show for WBCB, and
- 14:38Speaker 1: that was a really good show. So if you get
- 14:41Speaker 1: a chance and you haven't caught that, please do because
- 14:44Speaker 1: I think you'll really like it. But yeah, every time,
- 14:47Speaker 1: every time I get a chance and they're around, I
- 14:49Speaker 1: always just chop it up with those with those two
- 14:52Speaker 1: guys and talk a little special teams and cam lat
- 14:55Speaker 1: to somebody who I've you know, I've talked to for
- 14:58Speaker 1: a number of weeks now, and you know, we'll kind
- 15:00Speaker 1: of we'll converse over you know, special teams or what
- 15:05Speaker 1: it's looking like this week. We'll talk tackles and and.
- 15:09Speaker 2: Things like that. So it's it's all good.
- 15:12Speaker 1: And Saquon Barkley spoke today, Cooper Dejean spoke today.
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- 16:16Speaker 1: I have a story out on Inside the Birds dot
- 16:18Speaker 1: com about Brandon Graham, working on one on Landon Dickerson
- 16:21Speaker 1: who spoke on Wednesday, and a story on Drew mccouba
- 16:25Speaker 1: as well. There's probably gonna be something out there from
- 16:29Speaker 1: me about Jacoreyan Bennett. I want to write a story
- 16:31Speaker 1: on Jacoryan again. I had a really good conversation with him.
- 16:35Speaker 1: I think very highly of him, having watched him at Maryland.
- 16:38Speaker 1: I'm a Maryland Terps college football fan, and he can play.
- 16:43Speaker 1: He has a unique skill set and I think he
- 16:46Speaker 1: gives a different I guess a different skill set than
- 16:51Speaker 1: some of the others like Dori Jackson or keiey Ringle.
- 16:54Speaker 1: I think they all kind of compliment each other pretty
- 16:57Speaker 1: favorably in that seense. But good conversation. He's grateful to
- 17:03Speaker 1: be back and and kept a positive mindset the whole
- 17:09Speaker 1: time he was out.
- 17:10Speaker 2: And we'll see what the what what what the next
- 17:13Speaker 2: couple of days hold.
- 17:14Speaker 1: But the Eagles have their final practice on Friday, and
- 17:18Speaker 1: then it's.
- 17:20Speaker 2: Game time on Sunday.
- 17:21Speaker 1: So we'll keep an eye on the official game status
- 17:24Speaker 1: for the for Eagles Giants, and I'll have all those
- 17:28Speaker 1: updates for you right here on to check odaily. We'll
- 17:30Speaker 1: have it for you on Inside the Birds dot com.
- 17:33Speaker 1: This has been to check odely. I'm Andrew to CHECKO
- 17:35Speaker 1: and I will catch you on the next one.