Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Ask Greg Cosell on Patreon: What's The Easiest Change The Eagles Can Make?

Transcript

Ask Greg Cosell on Patreon: What's The Easiest Change The Eagles Can Make? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The following is a shortened version of our Ask Greg
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Cosell show on our Patreon platform for our Bomb Post
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Touchdown members. Our members get to talk directly to Greg
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in a live chat room and have Greg answer their
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Eagles and NFL questions. To become a member and get
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your chance to talk directly to Greg or to enjoy
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: other bonus ITB content on Patreon, go to patreon.com slash
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: inside the birds and sign up.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: What would be the first thing you would do in
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: regards to trying to make this offense even representable?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: You have a couple of things that are working against you, Frank.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Number one, you have three new starters on your offensive line,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: two of whom, by the way, were street, you were
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: free agents. So, you know, you're dealing with that to
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: start with. And the offensive line is totally about cohesion.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: But the run game, I remember when I, When Phil
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Sims was on my matchup show in 1993, his first
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: year retiring out of football, he told me that the
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: run game is so much harder to teach and coach
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: than the pass game. And he said, people don't realize that.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Because everybody looks at the pass game as, you know,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: that's the sexy thing. He said, the run game is
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: so much harder to teach and coach. And right now,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: there's pretty significant issues with cohesion. And teams are well
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: aware of this. So what they do is they get
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Jacksonville did it. They got their linebackers immediately up into
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: gaps because the timing between players on the old line,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: when you're doing combo blocks or double teams to come
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: off those blocks and then block a second level player, Frank,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: that's all working together. That's not having a conversation on Wednesday.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: That's working together. You know, it might start with a
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: conversation on Wednesday, but when it happens at full speed,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: You know, it's a different deal.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: I was thinking, of all the reviews you've done, is
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: there anything that they can hang their hat on?
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: My response to that would be that it's the NFL
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: and you've got to be able to coach it and
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: do it at some level. You know, this is the NFL. So, yes,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: it takes time and there will be plays in which
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: you get beat. I mean, sometimes I think people think that,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: you know, if you're a good team, you never get
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: beat on any play. We know that's not true. It's
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: the NFL. But right now they're at a point where
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: it's almost hard for them to function. That's unacceptable. You
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: have to be able to function. The point is it's
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: the NFL and you've got to fix this to some
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: degree where you can run an offense.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Have they simplified things from what you can see?
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Teams, any team, when let's say you're struggling, because, you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: it's a long season. Sometimes teams, good teams have a
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: bad game or two. And, you know, what a lot
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: of teams do at that point is they go back
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: to their staples, things they feel really good about, that
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: they practiced all offseason, beginning with OTAs, minicamp, training camp.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Every team has staples and foundations, Rick. that they feel, okay,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you know what? Maybe we'll run it out of different formations,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: but here's the play. We really feel good about these
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: five concepts. We can do this against anybody. I mean,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I think you almost have to do that. You have
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: to say, you know, this is what we do. This
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: is what we believe we do well. We can dress
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it up with motion. We can do that. We can,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: you know, try to create... I discipline issues for the defense.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: We can try to create run support issues with motion.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, we're going to
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: run these plays. So I've been debating whether to get
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: NFL Sunday ticket.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Did you see anything, Greg, that would make it worth
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: it as a fan?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Look, you know, if you're a fan, you're a fan.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not, you know, obviously would I prefer
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: to see them win than lose? Yes. But I don't
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: have a horse in the race the way, you know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: you guys do. I mean, that's, you know, I'm not,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: I'm not, you know, throwing things in my TV or
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: crying when the game's over, you know, I'm just watching
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: red zone and moving on to whatever they're showing, you know?
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: And then I come in and watch the tape of
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: as many games as I can every week. You have
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: to assume Judy, they'll get better. I mean, you have
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: to assume with more practice and, you know, look, that's ideally,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that's what coaches do. Coaching is teaching. So you hope
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: that that's what's happening. And you, Like I said, you
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: almost have to start from scratch in many ways because
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: of who they're putting out there on the offensive line.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: And again, I don't know what's being taught. You know,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: I'm not there. And there's 10 different ways to teach
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: things in the NFL. So, you know, I don't I
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: don't know what their thought process is, but you would
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: just have to assume it's going to get better.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: So I have two questions.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: One.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Did you notice, did Campbell come in any time as
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: an edge rusher? But what did you see from the
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: edge rushers? And the other thing is, it seems like
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: in Pangeo's defense, with them playing zone, it's easy for
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: teams to find holes in the zone.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Is there.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: Miscommunication when they hand off receivers that is opening that gaps?
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: Or is that just Pangeo's zone that, hey, there's holes
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: in it?
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, theoretically, there's holes in any zone.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: That's why it's a zone. There's voids. In an ideal world,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: they like to play where they can close those holes
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: as quickly as possible. I think they've had some communication issues, Carl,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: this year and adjustment issues on the back end. And again,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: I don't know why. You know, both tremble touchdowns in
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: this game. There were communication issues. We've seen that a
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: couple of other times this season through the first six weeks. Uh,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: so I can't, again, I can't answer why, but you know,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: one of them involved woolen. Maybe he's doesn't get it
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: yet the same way, you know, you're supposed to. Um, uh, so,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: you know, that I can't answer, but it does exist.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Campbell was not used as an edge rusher. Um, they
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: ended up playing that seventh round rookie, James Newby. He
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: played 48 snaps, which was 61% of the snaps.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: And the interesting thing about Grenard is he only lined
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: up on the left on all his snaps. He'd never
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: lined up on the right, which is where he had
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: lined up predominantly in the two previous games he had
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: played on his 37 snaps.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Is there any way that you think they could adjust
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: to that?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Or are they just going to, that's just something that
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: teams are just going to do and we're just going
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to have to live with it?
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: They lined up Coker offset in the backfield one time
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: in the game. On that play, the Eagles chose to
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: play man coverage. And because he was offset to the
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: boundary and it was trips to the field, what happened
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: was is they got stuck with Vaughn matched on Coker.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: And as good a player as Vaughn is, and he's
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a great zone defender in coverage, he's not going to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: match up man-to-man to Coker. So that was one of
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: those plays where, you know what, the offense won because
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: the Eagles chose to play man. So the offense won.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: That was the matchup, and that favors Carolina. It was
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: a huge play in the game too, by the way.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: But one thing that Carolina did do, starting with the
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: first two possessions, And this is something that the Eagles,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: and Vic will fix this, is they would motion. They
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: line up McMillan as an outside receiver and then motion
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: another receiver outside of him. And the Eagles, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: kind of quarters luck. So what happened then is McMillan
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: would end up running his route on Makuba. And on
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: the first two possessions, he beat him on a curl out,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: and then he beat him on an out cut.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: So my question is on the offensive side, on Makai Lemon. Now,
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: I'm not a tape expert like you. I watch some
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: of his college stuff and in the NFL. he doesn't
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: appear to be a great separator. Like he doesn't have
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: great speed, but I keep hearing he has short area quickness.
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: I think the short area quickness is like a Wes
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: Welker or even like a Britton Covey. These guys, they separate.
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: And then, but they're, but even when he separates, it's
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: like he catches a ball and he's getting creamed right afterwards.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like it's, do you see anything in
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: his game?
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Well, it's funny you say that because, you know, I'm
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: sure most of you guys know that I evaluate about
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: 200 to 250 college players for the draft in great
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: detail every year. And, I was not, and with me,
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: as you guys know, none of this is personal. I mean,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I just sit here and I watch tape and I
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: take my notes as I watch guys. I didn't see
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Lemon the way a lot of people did. Like I
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: know the Eagles obviously did because they traded up in
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: the first round. The player that I thought Lemon, and
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: just so you guys know, when I'm watching a player
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: and finish watching them, I don't sit and, you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: put my hands on my head and go, okay, who
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: does he remind me of? Either somebody comes to mind
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: or somebody doesn't, you know? If no one comes to mind,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: I just have my notes, what I think he is,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: and I move on to the next guy. But the
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: guy that Lemon reminded me of, and this guy's a
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: nice player, but to me, he's not a first round player.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: The guy he reminded me of was Khalil Shakir. And
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: that's who I think Lemon is. And guys like that
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: then become dependent on how they're deployed within the context
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: of an offense. He's not a big time number one
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: in my mind.
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: I see that, too. He's got great hands, but he's
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: like the defenders all over him. I mean, he's catching
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: the ball. He's getting nailed to the guys right on him.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: Like there's no there's no yard after catch.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: And the other thing, too, Brad, is and I've mentioned
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: this before, you know, and I'll mention to you guys
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: is run after catch. You have to decide what that means.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: In other words, if a guy catches a ball and
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: there's no one in front of him and he runs
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: 20 yards, that's not run after catch. There's no one
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: in front of him. You know, anybody could do that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Run after catch is where you create the yardage. yourself
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: by what you do whether it's elusiveness shiftiness power competitiveness
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: whatever it may be you're creating.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: The extra yards greg i'll ask you this on the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: defensive side of the ball i think there have been
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: uh four guys in particular that i've just been you
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: know greatly disappointed by in regards to expectation and i
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: want to get your opinion on of the four. Who
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: do you think has just not played to the level
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: we thought they could play to, you know, going into
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: the season? And those four guys would be Jordan Davis,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Cooper Dejean, Jahad Campbell, who we've talked about a lot,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and Andrew Makuba.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I don't think Dejean's had a great year up to
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: this point. You know, I think his first two years,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: he was really, almost a dominant impact player on a
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: weekly basis. I think he's been exposed a bit in
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: man coverage this year, and I think that's one reason
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: why most people did not see him as an outside corner.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: He was really, really good in the slot for two reasons.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Number one, they normally don't ask him to play a
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: ton of man in the slot, and he's a great
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: zone defender because he has unbelievable spatial awareness and an
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: understanding of route concepts and really just an innate understanding
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: of of that match-carry-deliver principle that is so essential to
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: the Vic Fangio approach. And he's a physical, physical competitive
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: run defender because in the slot, there are times, depending
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: on the defensive front, where the slot has to be
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: a B-gap defender in the run game. And he can
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: do all that really well. But for some reason, they're
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: playing a good amount of man, and he's getting matched up.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: And I think, Greg, that's kind of why the defense has,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? It feels like they're hanging
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: in the game, but there's never any type of impact plays.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And it feels like that's where Dejean or Makuba especially
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: could be those guys.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: You watch Campbell and he moves really nicely. He looks good.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: You know, he looks great in uniform, but he doesn't
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: make any impact plays. Exactly. And again, I'm not sharding
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: him and I don't know what he's being specifically asked
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: to do on every play within the context of a
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: defensive call. So I'm not going to sit here and say,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: He stings. I wouldn't talk like that anyway, Frank, as
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: you know. I don't talk like that. Never. When I
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: talk about players. So, you know, I can't sit here
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: and say he's bad, but he just doesn't make any impact.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: For a guy that is, you know, 6'3, about that
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: 240 plus, that is fast, that's active, you know, has
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: some physicality to him. He just, you know, there's no
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: impact plays.