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The DiCecco Daily: More Eagles Squarely On The Bubble Entering Camp-Defense · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's happened? Everybody? Welcome into this edition of The
• 0:11
  Checko Daily.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Andrew de Checko here bringing in another edition, and we're
• 0:16
  gonna keep.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: This one relatively short. A lot going on today, and
• 0:21
  we're gonna.
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  Speaker 2: Pick things up with talking about defensive players who are
• 0:24
  on the bubble. And I'm gonna name three, just like
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  I did for the offensive side, and we're going to
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  start with the defensive line, and I'm gonna.
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  Speaker 1: Say defensive tackle Thomas Booker.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Thomas Booker played in all the games last season
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  as the Eagles fifth defensive tackle, played sparingly. They had
• 0:43
  a really nice training camp. Every time I see Thomas
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  Booker play whenever he was on the field, whenever you
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  saw him on the field in training camp, you see
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  a relentless effort and pursuit to the football, which really
• 0:55
  embodies what Nick Gierani looks for and what Vicvangeo looks
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  for from his defensive players when he's on the field.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Same way in the regular season.
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  Speaker 2: I can remember him chasing down a screen pass in
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  the Falcons game. He's also the backup nose to Jordan Davis.
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  So when you take all those things into consideration, yes,
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  he has the inside track. But Thomas Booker, being the
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  fifth defensive tackle in the rotation, life is always in limbo.
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  Your status on the roster is in limbo, I should say.
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  And I think when you look at it, he's gonna
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  be pushed by the likes of Gabe Hall, who is
• 1:33
  entering his second season after a decorated career at Baylor.
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  Speaker 1: Now he's gonna have to put it together and be
• 1:37
  more consistent.
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  Speaker 2: But they also have Byron Young, a third round pick
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  a couple of seasons ago from the Raiders who they
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  claimed off waivers. Now, he only played in a handful
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  of games for the Raiders, did not play in a
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  game for the Eagles last season. He was injured after
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  being claimed shortly after and he was really put on
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  ir and that was it. But he's a young player.
• 2:01
  He can give you positional versatility. And the Eagles did
• 2:05
  again place a waiver claim on him. So this is
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  going to be a summer where I'm expecting them to
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  get an extended Look. So you look at Gabe Hall,
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  you look at Byron Young, I think they're going to
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  be pushing Thomas Booker. However, Booker has the inside track,
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  I would say, but This is what makes this interesting
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  because the top four guys, you have Jaywen Carter, you
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  have Jordan Davis, you have Moro Ojeomo, you have Ty Robinson.
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  Then there becomes a question do you keep five or six?
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  They've kept seven, as many as seven in one season,
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  and that was a couple of years ago. If you remember,
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  Contavious Street was the seventh, and this year, I could
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  see them keeping six. But the way that the numbers
• 2:44
  are shaking out and you look at the offensive line
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  and things like that, where they could go heavy, they
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  might only keep five and so you could have a
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  three person battle for that spot. Another position that we're
• 2:56
  going to take a look at is edge rusher, where Josh.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Is a player who I would deem to be on
• 3:02
  the bubble. I think he makes the team.
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  Speaker 2: To be clear, this is before a training camp, before
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  we have that additional information. But he's somebody who has
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  just five sacks combined over the past two seasons after
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  having eleven and a half and twenty twenty two with
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  the Patriots playing thirty eight percent of their snaps. He's
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  a player who is one dimensional. He's a situational edge rusher,
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  purely a pass rusher. And doesn't give you much in
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  terms of run defense. But on one hand, you could
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  say at the Eagles pass rush corps is a little
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  light in terms of depth, so you would think that
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  he would make it.
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  Speaker 1: And be a shoe in.
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  Speaker 2: Well, not so fast, because he did draft somebody in
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  Antoine Powell Ryland.
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  Speaker 1: They signed Patrick Johnson in free agency.
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  Speaker 2: You have holdovers like kJ Henry from the practice squad
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  and O'shawn mathis from the practice squad. Look, is it
• 3:53
  likely that Joshua Usha makes the team? Sure, but we're
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  gonna find out pretty quickly whether or not he actually
• 3:59
  fits in Vick Fangio's system, because we also learned that
• 4:03
  about Bryce Huff pretty early on, that it wasn't going
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  to be a match. But there during the spring he
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  heard his name pop up a couple of different times.
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  I get the sense that the team is intrigued with
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  what they have there, just a one year proved deal,
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  and he's been such a streaky or I guess he's
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  been a bit of an enigma in his career, so
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  you don't quite know what you're getting. But I think
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  that in an ideal world, he slops right in as
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  your fourth edge rusher. And you feel pretty good about
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  that because you're not asking him to be a prominent
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  piece of your rotation. But he has to perform. And
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  there are other players that I mentioned that are going
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  to have something to say about that. So we'll have
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  to wait and see how that goes. But that's why
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  Joshua Usha is on the bubble for me.
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  Speaker 1: Anyway.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, finally we're gonna round things off with cornerback Eli Rix.
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  So Eli Rix is an interesting case because he was
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  kept on the roster all season despite the constant roster
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  toggling to sort of balance out injuries and practice squad
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  elevations and everything else. But or practice squad signings, I
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  should say Parris Campbell comes to mind, but Eli Rix
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  never was affected by that, despite Owa appearing in seven
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  games last season. Look, this is a twenty three year
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  old cornerback who has really good coverage ability, and he's lengthy,
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  and he played a lot. He played three hundred snaps
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  as a rookie. He's an outside corner by trade, but
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  played most of the snaps as a rookie at nickel
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  out of necessity. But I think it speaks to what
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  they think they have and Eli Rix or what he's
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  shown on film, there just wasn't really a spot for him.
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  Speaker 1: Now you can.
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  Speaker 2: Say, well, why didn't he factor in on special teams? Well,
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  a couple of reasons for that.
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  Speaker 1: One.
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  Speaker 2: Eli is not necessarily somebody who is going to be
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  really good at tackling, very proficient in terms of tackling,
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  and he because he does have that wiry bill. But
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  what he does give you is good cover ability and
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  good length. And again, I keep going back to this.
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  You can make a case for him making the team
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  if Eagles go six corners. Obviously Quinya Mitchell, Cooper, Dejen
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  Keevy Ringo, Dori Jackson, Mac McWilliams the rookie, and I
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  could see them keeping Eli rix because they're going to
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  have to start the stockpile cost effective depth, because there's.
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  Speaker 1: Going to come a time where the Eagles are going
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  to have.
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  Speaker 2: To pay their defensive players and you can't go especially
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  light there because you have to start to look at
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  cost effective depth to furnish those groups. And that's kind
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  of the way that I see it right now. I
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  think that there is a path for him to make
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  the roster. You would like to see a little bit
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  more special teams value there, but who knows, perhaps we'll
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  see that and it's going to be a big summer
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  for Eli Rix. So that those are three names right there,
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  Thomas Booker, Joshua Usha and Eli Rix.
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  Speaker 1: Those are my defensive players who enter training camp on
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  the bubble.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously, the next six weeks will alter the course of
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  whether or not they move off of the bubble, but
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  it's gonna be fun to watch anyway.
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  Speaker 1: This has been to CHECKO daily. I'm Andrew to CHECKO.
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  Have a good weekend.