Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / ITB Pregame: Eagles Most Worth Watching In Preseason Opener Vs. Bengals

Transcript

ITB Pregame: Eagles Most Worth Watching In Preseason Opener Vs. Bengals · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Inside the Birds is back. What's up, everybody.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: It is Jeff Mosher, Andrew de Checo, Adam Kaplan's on
• 0:17
  his training camp tour, and we got a preseason game
• 0:20
  that we want to give you guys a couple of
• 0:22
  players that we're looking out for. So I said, Andrew,
• 0:24
  let's give him about, you know, twelve guys six each,
• 0:27
  three offense, three defense each that we are really honing
• 0:32
  in on for this Eagles game against the Cincinnati Bengals,
• 0:35
  the preseason opener at the link seven point thirty. So
• 0:38
  without further ado, Andrew, let's get right into it. And
• 0:40
  I want to start off offense, then we'll get the defense.
• 0:43
  So we're both gonna give three guys each on offense.
• 0:46
  Let's start with you give me like one guy on
• 0:49
  offense the first guy comes to mind that you're really
• 0:52
  keeping an eye on against the Bengals.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Anayah Smith, the Eagles second year wide receiver. This is
• 0:56
  a big summer for him, a big, big preseason because
• 1:01
  last preseason did not go particularly well for him. He
• 1:05
  was able to kind of get a different perspective, take
• 1:07
  a step back because his rookie campaign started with an
• 1:10
  injury and late late last season. He had some success,
• 1:14
  mostly in the season finale, but in training camp in
• 1:17
  one on ones, I've noticed and being able to separate
• 1:20
  the top of routes and kind of do some things
• 1:22
  working with jaywhen hurts after practice, and there's a sort
• 1:25
  of a log jam there at wide receiver, and so
• 1:28
  I'm looking to see if Anius is able to get
• 1:30
  going in terms of the receiving aspect, but also the
• 1:33
  special team's part of it, because no one seems to
• 1:36
  have taken the reins in terms of the punt return job.
• 1:40
  That this is where I think he could come in
• 1:42
  and provide some game day value.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to think Anniah Smith will get a
• 1:46
  good amount of run early in this game.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I matchine, you know A. J.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Brown's not playing, DeVante Smith's not playing. I mean Nick
• 1:53
  Sirianni hasn't come out and said that, but we know
• 1:55
  he doesn't typically play starters, and I'm not sure if
• 2:00
  if Johan Dotson really is or needs to play. I mean,
• 2:03
  he's the number three receiver, and we've seen in the
• 2:05
  past that even key role players who don't need to
• 2:09
  necessarily prove anything don't play. So I think that Ania
• 2:14
  Smith is going to get a lot of run early,
• 2:16
  probably work right there with the starters in the preseason
• 2:20
  game with McKee at quarterback, you would imagine, and yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I would.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I think it's fair to describe his camp so far
• 2:26
  as up and down, because it looked like it started
• 2:28
  pretty good. I know he's had a couple of drops
• 2:30
  you'd like to see cleaned up.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he hasn't flashed a lot in team drills.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: I don't know, if anything, He's had just a handful
• 2:37
  of catches and eleven on elevens and seven seven's, But
• 2:41
  in one on ones I thought he's had some interesting
• 2:43
  matchups with Cooper dejen winning on some of those short
• 2:46
  routes where you can see a short area quickness, and
• 2:48
  I think for anias, when you're able to make plays
• 2:50
  like that, it builds your confidence inevitably.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: All Right, So I'm gonna stay on that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: The first guy I picked was in a similar mold,
• 2:58
  and that's Johnny Wilson. We both picked the two receivers,
• 3:02
  second year receivers who were drafted last year. I'm picking
• 3:05
  Johnny Wilson for the same reason. I think he's gonna
• 3:07
  get a lot of run, you know. I think the
• 3:10
  from what we see in camp. The Eagles are probably
• 3:11
  gonna come out against the Bengals and mixed twelve personnel
• 3:14
  and eleven personnel. They played a lot of twelve personnel
• 3:16
  in camp, So when it's eleven personnel or when it's twelve,
• 3:21
  you'll probably see Anya Smith and Johnny Wilson out there,
• 3:24
  and when it's eleven you'll see Johnny Wilson on the outside.
• 3:28
  You'll probably see Anya Smith in the slot, and then
• 3:30
  maybe another receiver on the outside. Ordinarily we'd say Terriss Marshall,
• 3:34
  but I don't think he's gonna be back for the injury,
• 3:36
  so it might be someone like Elijah Cooks. I'm not
• 3:38
  exactly sure who it's gonna be, but I would think
• 3:42
  that Johnny Wilson, given that he's been running with the
• 3:45
  first team a lot. With Aj Brown or Devade Smith out,
• 3:48
  we'll get a lot of reps early in the game.
• 3:52
  I thought Andrew he you know, we both agreed early
• 3:55
  the first few days of camp. He wasn't using his
• 3:58
  body grading wasn't you know, he's not in that separator,
• 4:00
  but he's got a nice six six sixty seven frame.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Wasn't using it great.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: However, I feel like Over the last few practices, Hurts
• 4:08
  has started to target him more. He started to make
• 4:10
  some catches around the seams, and that's a positive development
• 4:13
  for him.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's made a couple of nice catches in traffic.
• 4:16
  And then how about the block that he had to
• 4:18
  spring a day Dylan. It was a seven on seven
• 4:21
  drill on Tuesday, sprung him up the left sideline, and
• 4:26
  I think that that really kind of accentuates what Johnny
• 4:28
  Wilson can bring to the offense.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: In theory.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Now it becomes can you take a step as a
• 4:32
  wide receiver? Because as the wide receiver for I mean,
• 4:36
  you're just to play away from having to be able
• 4:37
  to play meaningful snups.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Definitely, all right, sticking with offense, who's the second guy
• 4:44
  you're looking at? And we probably could have guessed this
• 4:47
  week's ago that he would be on your list.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Go ahead, Darien Kinnard.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: No, the other guy who I thought you were going
• 4:54
  to say first.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: Will Shipley?
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, Will Shipley.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: He's going to get a lot of run in this game.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: And this is where you're really able to kind of
• 5:04
  get a better assessment in terms of where he is
• 5:06
  because last year he had just thirty carries sixty five
• 5:09
  offensive snaps. But he seems to have turned a corner
• 5:12
  and really starting to hit his stride in training camp,
• 5:15
  catching the football well, doing some good things in space.
• 5:18
  He made a really nice catch a few practices ago
• 5:21
  where McKee threw the ball low. He catches it a
• 5:24
  few inches off the ground and doesn't really break stride.
• 5:27
  He's playing with a lot of confidence right now, but
• 5:28
  I want to see how he's able to sort of
• 5:31
  acquit himself, getting north and south and doing some of
• 5:33
  those things in pass protection. And I do expect him
• 5:36
  to see quite a bit of snaps.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: Well.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: One thing that's good is that the Bengals have decided
• 5:40
  they're going to play their starters in this game. I
• 5:42
  assume that's both offensive defense, not just on one side
• 5:45
  of the ball. They've said they want to start faster.
• 5:47
  This will be Al Golden's first actual game as defensive coordinator.
• 5:53
  He is the new Bengals defensive coordinator, the former of Notre.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Dame defensive coordinator. Right, Notre Dame. Yeah, that's where he was.
• 6:00
  So he did a great job at Notre Dame.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And so you if you if you're trying to test
• 6:05
  and get an evaluation of guys, you'll throw some blitzes in,
• 6:08
  so I think that'll be good for will Shipley. I
• 6:10
  would imagine in some pass pro scenarios that we'll get
• 6:13
  to see how he holds up in that department. Yep,
• 6:18
  on the same vein in pass pro and in other areas.
• 6:22
  My second guy is Drew Kendall. Andrew we as we
• 6:25
  as we've prognosticated or you know, going into camp, he
• 6:29
  was pretty likely he was going to work his way
• 6:31
  up to second team center fairly quickly.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: He has done that.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: He is the only player outside of Cam Jurgens on
• 6:38
  the roster who is a natural center and has been
• 6:41
  snapping its center since his Boston college days. He's the
• 6:44
  son of an offensive lineman. I think he's done well.
• 6:47
  I'm noted in a recent pod he did a really
• 6:49
  nice job in one on one drills. I forget who
• 6:54
  was against and now it wasn't either Gabe Hall or something.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: And I just liked his combination of his footwork and
• 7:06
  his paunch, and he had a plan. So I'm really
• 7:09
  you know, Tanner mcke's gonna be out there and the
• 7:12
  Bengals are playing their starting defense so he should get
• 7:15
  a good opportunity.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: It's hard sometimes to look at center.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But I also want to see his athleticism, because you know,
• 7:22
  we've gone from Jason Kelsey to Cam Jurgens, and I
• 7:24
  don't think Kendall is quite that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I know he's not quite that guy's in athletes. I
• 7:28
  want to see how they use him.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Can they run some of their kickouts like they do
• 7:32
  with Cam that they used to do with Jason Kelsey?
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Drew Kendall is a guy that I've written about on
• 7:38
  Inside the Birds dot com and he's starting to come
• 7:42
  on a little bit after sort of trying to find
• 7:44
  his way earlier in camp. This is his first live action,
• 7:47
  so I'm curious to see how he performs.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Definitely, all right, let's round out our offensive players to watch.
• 7:55
  You've got an offensive lineman not named Drew Kendall that
• 7:57
  you're going to be keeping your eye on. And something
• 7:59
  tells me, Andrew, uh, based on some past precedent, that
• 8:03
  you might be able.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: To see a lot of this guy against the.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Bengalist preseason iron man.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: That's Darrin Canard. So Darren Canard is obviously ping pong
• 8:12
  between right guard and right tackle, So he's showcasing some versatility.
• 8:16
  He was on the team last year, made it out
• 8:18
  of camp in a bit of a surprise. I think
• 8:21
  I had him on my fifty three and a year
• 8:25
  of working with Jeff Stotland, it seems like he's really
• 8:27
  making notable strides in his game. He's going to play
• 8:30
  a ton, We've known that, but it's the versatility, Jeff
• 8:33
  that I think gives some stability to a lot of
• 8:37
  youth there in terms of the Eagles have a lot
• 8:39
  of depth on their offensive line, so I think he
• 8:41
  kind of gives them a little bit of experience and
• 8:44
  can give some value in terms of game day you know,
• 8:47
  in game day deployment.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you imagine he'll be starting right tackle.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: That's basically where he's been with the Eagles, But you
• 8:54
  never know sometimes guys.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: And Matt Pryor missed was limited right the last day
• 9:01
  on Day ten, and the Eagles do like Darren Canard
• 9:04
  all right.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: So yeah, Darien Caernard will round it out for you.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Next one for me is a guy that I think
• 9:11
  we'll start talking about a little bit more.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: You already have written a little bit about him. We've
• 9:15
  talked about him a little bit.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: But usually after the first preseason game, he start to
• 9:20
  see some movement at practice with the depth chart, and
• 9:22
  this guy's made some plays. It's Darius Cooper, wide receiver.
• 9:26
  I kind of wrestled between him and Elijah Cooks, but
• 9:28
  I feel like we've given Elijah Elijah Cooks a lot
• 9:32
  of discussion and certainly he's deserving of it, and.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: He'll get some early run too.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: But Cooper is a guy, a rookie free agent Andrew
• 9:39
  who he gets a lot of targets with the second
• 9:42
  and the third teams, and he's made some plays and
• 9:44
  seems like he either catches a touchdown or helps move
• 9:47
  the ball and move the ball drill with the second
• 9:49
  team nearly every practice.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: And he's really seemed to develop a rapport with Tanner McKee,
• 9:55
  and that's something that I think should lend itself to
• 9:57
  a little bit more cohesion in terms of the offense
• 10:01
  when in preseason, let's face it, it's generally sloppy, but
• 10:06
  Tanner McKee and Kyle McCord and Dorian Thompson Robinson the quarterbacks,
• 10:11
  they have shown that they can be capable and navigate
• 10:13
  the offense. So I think it's gonna give guys, to
• 10:15
  your point, Jeff, like Darius Cooper, more opportunities to make
• 10:19
  the most of their targets.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: What have you seen from him if anything? From a
• 10:23
  special teams standpoint, Andrew.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: Not a ton, Not a ton.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: I'm curious to see if they get him involved in
• 10:30
  the pump return game or it maybe as a gunner
• 10:33
  or running down the field on kickoffs. Because you're right, Jeff,
• 10:37
  and I'm glad you mentioned it, because he has had
• 10:40
  some nice moments and the moment has not been too
• 10:42
  big for him aside from a fumble, but there was
• 10:45
  a time where Tristan McCollum punched it out of his hands.
• 10:49
  He's really been consistent and seems to be able to
• 10:52
  gel with whatever quarterback he's working with, and he's made
• 10:55
  plays in short to intermediate levels to even deep passes
• 10:58
  as well.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Right, I did make a note of this, I forgot
• 11:01
  to say it on the pod, and I'm not sure
• 11:03
  if you saw it too. The last practice they had,
• 11:06
  which was on Tuesday, they did a ton of red zone.
• 11:09
  You saw that ton of teams drill, a ton of
• 11:11
  seven and seven. He took a first team rep. It
• 11:14
  was only one that I saw, but I wrote it
• 11:16
  down because I absolutely saw it. He was in the slot,
• 11:19
  and he may have taken a few more that I
• 11:21
  didn't see, but I know that he at least got
• 11:23
  one rep with the first team, which is a lot
• 11:25
  for a rookie free agent.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I think that he's really come on and it's been quiet.
• 11:30
  He's been overshadowed a little bit by Elijah Cooks. But
• 11:33
  I'm glad you gave him a mention here.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely wanted to shout him out. He's done
• 11:37
  a nice job. Looks pretty shorthanded, all right. So those
• 11:40
  are our six offensive guys for you, it's a Nia Smith,
• 11:44
  Will Shipley and Darren Canard. For me, Johnny Wilson, Drew
• 11:47
  Kendall and Darius Cooper. Maybe after we're done, I feel
• 11:50
  like we should throw a few honorable mentions.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Some other guys.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. I want
• 11:55
  to transition to our six guys on defense.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: First.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: You gotta hear a word from our great friends at
• 12:01
  Sky Motor Cars.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Sky Motor Cars and West Gutter.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: There's a different kild of dealers all the Texas one
• 12:07
  look with their highline pre on vehicles the people all
• 12:10
  over the country what the honor Bredge Goulder. Make sure
• 12:13
  you don't spend the time with your money before you
• 12:15
  purchased the car. Sky Motor Cars allows you to make
• 12:18
  all the decisions regarding your next vehicle. At sky Motor Cars,
• 12:22
  you never have to spend more than death's jury. There's
• 12:24
  a Skymotorcars dot Com today are called six ten, nine
• 12:28
  to one, eight, seven fives.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: And if you stop into skymotor Cars out there in Westchester, PA,
• 12:37
  make sure you tell them Adam, Jeff or even Andrews
• 12:40
  sent you. You will get a great deal. The best
• 12:43
  car shopping experience I am. I'm telling you guys, you
• 12:46
  gotta trust me. If you've ever if you had to
• 12:49
  buy a car in last year and a half, you
• 12:50
  realize it is an absolute circus.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Nobody is inventory. You have to custom order it.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: You can't even get everything that you want because it's
• 12:57
  not available. Sky Motor Cars makes it so easy. Great inventory,
• 13:02
  great customer service. People want to help you, so please
• 13:05
  make sure you stop in or visit them at skymotorcars
• 13:09
  dot Com. All right, let's get to our defensive players
• 13:13
  that were watching against the Bengals in this preseason opener.
• 13:16
  We both we were very similar, so I made sure
• 13:19
  we have three different guys. But Andrew, go with your
• 13:22
  first guy on defense you're watching.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: So I had two under the radar type of guys
• 13:28
  and then one that's sort of fastly becoming a household name.
• 13:31
  The first guy is Gabe Hall, the eagles second year
• 13:34
  defensive tackle out of Baylor. Look, you don't make a
• 13:37
  move in sending Thomas Booker to the Raiders and sacrificing
• 13:41
  some of the depth, because Thomas Booker likely would have
• 13:43
  made this team if you don't feel comfortable in one
• 13:47
  Ty Robinson, the Eagle's fourth round pick, but also someone
• 13:50
  like Gabe Hall that's also not forget. And I have
• 13:53
  to mention that Byron Young, another young defensive tackle, he
• 13:56
  was missed practice and has missed the last two with
• 13:58
  the groin injury. So they still made that move, which
• 14:00
  suggests that they're happy with what they've seen from Gabe Hall.
• 14:03
  I've seen him win on one on ones. I've seen
• 14:06
  him get into the backfield, get to quarterbacks on a
• 14:10
  fairly regular basis, and at six foot six, two ninety
• 14:13
  five he can play every position on the defensive line.
• 14:16
  He mentioned to me last season on the Inside the
• 14:17
  Locker Room podcast about how going against Landon Dickerson, and
• 14:21
  he did admit, yes, the battles were largely one sided
• 14:24
  in favor of Dickerson, how much they helped get him better.
• 14:27
  And I'm seeing a noticeable difference in his consistency because
• 14:32
  last summer he didn't really make much of a dent
• 14:34
  at all in terms of the rotation or really trying
• 14:37
  or really flashing in any way. But this summer's been
• 14:40
  drastically different.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with you.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: This is a player coming out of Baylor, Andrew who
• 14:45
  we've talked about he should have been drafted on talent
• 14:48
  and athleticism alone. He was viewed as a player who
• 14:52
  just needed a little bit like more coaching, harder coaching,
• 14:56
  the proverbial kick in the rear end. And who knows
• 15:00
  if he got it or not, or if he just
• 15:02
  you know, spent the year with Clint Hurt and just
• 15:06
  the light came on. But it certainly seems like this
• 15:09
  camp he is playing like the player that he was
• 15:12
  at Baylor.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And he was a good player at Baylor, and he could.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Be a really nice story Andrew if he can play consistently.
• 15:19
  It'll be hard because obviously he goes up three guys
• 15:22
  well for really, if you count Robinson, who's a fourth
• 15:25
  round pick already ahead of him on the depth chart.
• 15:28
  But if the fifty three were made today, he's probably
• 15:31
  on it because there he's at least a fifth defensive tackle.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And I feel like right now he can only play
• 15:36
  himself out of.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: That spot by not having a good preseason arrest of camp.
• 15:40
  But it looks pretty good for him, at least for
• 15:43
  the moment, and that's great.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: There was one more thing I wanted to mention about Gabe.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So my colleague Jimmy Kemski at Philly Voice,
• 15:51
  he does this media poll that you and I took it.
• 15:54
  He does this every year right where he goes around
• 15:56
  asks about thirty people in the media whose stock is up,
• 15:59
  but whose stock is down, one one player each. Right,
• 16:02
  So Gabe Hall.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Wound up coming in tied for second in his poll
• 16:06
  for stock up.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: I took them, took them nice.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Now Moro Joemos sort of ran away with it.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: But I don't know.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I don't know if he could be a stock up
• 16:16
  if he went into training camp with considerable buzz.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: You're talking about Moro.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Moro, I agree with you.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I felt the same way too, And even Jimmy wrote
• 16:25
  that he didn't even realize that last year Moro was
• 16:27
  sort of the leader in the clubhouse for stock Up
• 16:30
  as well. But it just speaks to people noticing Gabe
• 16:34
  Hall really standing out there, that he was tied for
• 16:37
  second with.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Some other other good players there.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: So Gabe Hall definitely someone were watching against the Bengals.
• 16:43
  For me, this is a little bit obvious, but I
• 16:46
  think it it makes it no less important, and that
• 16:49
  would be Killey Ringo cornerback. And part of it is
• 16:54
  that because the Bengals are going to play their starters,
• 16:58
  I'm assuming Joe Burrow was gonn be out there, to
• 17:00
  Yagans will be out there, Jamar Chase will be out there.
• 17:03
  Who knows, you know. I mean, that's what Brian, That's
• 17:05
  what Zach Taylor is saying. I've seen coaches say that
• 17:08
  and then literally play them a few snaps and get
• 17:11
  him out of there, you know. Sort of they say
• 17:13
  it just to make sure the players are in that mindset,
• 17:15
  but they don't.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Really play him.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: But either way, Killy Ringo has got a lot to
• 17:19
  prove year three. We've talked about it a lot. I
• 17:22
  just hope that the Bengals really do play their starters
• 17:25
  for a series or two so that we can see
• 17:27
  Killey Ringo match up against some pretty good talent.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely that that that is an obvious one, but
• 17:33
  one that that certainly bears watching.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: This is a critical three game stretch for Keilley.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: All right, So that's our first guys on defense. Who's
• 17:43
  your next guy on defense that you'll be watching?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Second year safety Andre Sam. Now, to my eye, Jeff,
• 17:51
  he's taken the most of the second team reps of
• 17:54
  that sort of well, I guess compared to Tristan McCollum,
• 17:58
  I've noticed Andre there almost every time they're out there.
• 18:02
  And Vic Vangil he mentioned some of those backups safeties
• 18:06
  and he said Andre's been playing well. And when you
• 18:10
  compare that to someone like a Tristan McCollum, who he
• 18:13
  mentioned obviously in the spring is throwing his hat in
• 18:16
  the ring as being in contention for the starting spot.
• 18:19
  He didn't mention Andre Sam, But I think Andre Sam's
• 18:21
  actually had a better camp, at least in my estimation.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: So you have that year on the practice squad.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: C J.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Gardner Johnson was sort of a big brother to him,
• 18:31
  so presumably he showed him the way and he was
• 18:34
  able to kind of be in the meeting rooms with
• 18:35
  Joe Casper and everything. I think you're going to see
• 18:38
  a much faster and more confident player in those games.
• 18:42
  He's probably going to rack up a lot of tackles.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking he's going to play pretty early because obviously
• 18:47
  read Blanket Ship won't play as a starter. It'll be
• 18:50
  interesting to see if mccooba gets out there. He made
• 18:52
  it out there for practice on Tuesday in a limited form, so,
• 18:57
  but he did participate.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: In some seven on seven in two teams.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I thought at one point he might have, you know,
• 19:03
  hurt his armor, reinjured it, but he looked okay. I
• 19:06
  mean he needs reps, so if he can play, will
• 19:09
  be out there. But they also may not feel like
• 19:11
  he's one hundred percent, so I don't know. Uh, Sidney
• 19:14
  Brown will definitely play, McCollum will definitely play, and Sam
• 19:17
  will definitely play.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: So once was seen in Max and Hook as well, seem.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Definitely seem Yeah.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to say who's gonna play early oh yeah, right,
• 19:25
  So without blankenship, you would think the two guys that
• 19:28
  would play would be mccouba and Brown. But if mccooba
• 19:31
  doesn't play, then it would be Brown and McCollum, with
• 19:34
  Sam coming in, I would think in other packages or
• 19:37
  even splitting some time there.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: So I don't think you're gonna have to wait real
• 19:40
  long to.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: See Andrews Andre Sam get onto the field even if
• 19:44
  mccuba and Brown do play.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and by the way, Tristan McCollum has had has
• 19:49
  had his some moments as well in training camp, and
• 19:52
  the Eagles like him clearly. Just to my eye, it
• 19:55
  seemed like Andre was getting more slightly more reps with
• 19:58
  the twos and has been around the football and awful lot.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And again going back to if the Bengals wind
• 20:05
  up playing.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Their starters for a couple of series, would.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Be nice, nice tests for the defensive backfield of the Eagles, and.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Sam would be a part of that.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: All right, So you're my second guy has been invisible
• 20:17
  in camp, and that's why I'm putting him squarely on
• 20:20
  this list.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I think if he was having a really good camp,
• 20:22
  he might not.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: He's the type of player who might not play like
• 20:24
  because key reserves don't play. But as he's Ojali has
• 20:29
  done really nothing. And you know, I try to take
• 20:31
  this a little bit with a grain of salt. We
• 20:35
  don't get to watch all twenty two, We don't get
• 20:38
  to go back. Sometimes guys are playing better than you think,
• 20:41
  you know, even Vic Fangio mentioned that, you know, we
• 20:44
  don't always see all the plays right because they happen
• 20:46
  so fast and we don't get to see the replay.
• 20:48
  But honestly, with edge rushers, I feel like you notice
• 20:52
  when they're when they're invisible, and you notice when they're not.
• 20:55
  And Ojelari so far has been squarely behind Josh Rusche
• 20:59
  as far as these guys who've come in, the newcomers
• 21:02
  and just flashing and making their presence known. So you
• 21:05
  would like to see him get out there and remind
• 21:08
  you that he's been a pretty good pass rusher throughout
• 21:10
  his career.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, on the surface, the Eagles are really
• 21:13
  light there at edge rushers, but behind Noan Smith and
• 21:16
  jayalixs Hunt, Josh Uche's had some moments. I think he's
• 21:20
  clearly had the better summer summer compared to Azi's O Jealari.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: But that's only three players that they can count on.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: This is a this is a big, little three game
• 21:28
  stretch for o Jeli, and he's gonna have to to
• 21:31
  really show up or the Eagles are going to have
• 21:33
  to have to make a decision.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, all right. Your last guy on the defense
• 21:38
  that you're looking.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: At Eagles fifth round linebacker Smile Mondon Junior. He's been
• 21:44
  one of my favorite players to watch in training camp.
• 21:47
  Rangy sideline to sideline and really really intelligent as you
• 21:51
  might expect from a Georgia linebacker. You know, it's very
• 21:54
  hard to you know, you got to remind yourself that
• 21:57
  he was a fifth round pick. And I think I
• 21:58
  even went on the record Jeff saying that I thought
• 22:01
  he was one of the best Day three values period
• 22:04
  because of watching him play for the last three years.
• 22:08
  And I mean just watching him plaster Saquon Barkley on
• 22:11
  a scramble, droll in the end zone, or run fits.
• 22:15
  He's just active, He's instinctive, and he attacks down hill.
• 22:18
  He's fearless. At six foot two, two hundred and twenty
• 22:20
  four pounds, wouldn't surprise me if he gets double digit
• 22:22
  tackles in this game.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been really impressive Andrew, and he's probably gonna
• 22:27
  be out there early. It'll be interesting to see. Jehad
• 22:31
  Campbell is the guy who needs reps. I think Vic
• 22:34
  Fangio would liked him to get the reps. But in
• 22:37
  his press conference, I think on Monday or Tuesday, Jehad Campbell,
• 22:41
  I think it was the second time he's spoken. He
• 22:43
  kept mentioning getting his shoulder right. You know it's he's
• 22:47
  He was off the limited list for the first time
• 22:50
  on Tuesday, so he was a full participate for the
• 22:53
  even though we know he's been doing pretty much everything,
• 22:55
  but it was really Tuesday that he was finally considered full,
• 23:00
  full go. But he still said getting the shoulder right.
• 23:02
  And I do wonder if the team will just hold
• 23:05
  off one more week on him before getting him.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Into a preseason game.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: And if that's the case, without Nikobe Dean, with Bond
• 23:13
  still having well Bourne wouldn't play anyway, but he's.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Got the back contusion.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: And if Campbell doesn't play, you got to think that
• 23:18
  Trotter Junior and Smile Manden would get a ton of
• 23:22
  first half action, right and a lot of yaps.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, you mentioned Campbell. Maybe haven't. Maybe the Eagles
• 23:29
  holding off one week Mcooba, maybe maybe as well.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: I'll have to wait and see.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: But Tuesday was his first eleven on eleven period since
• 23:39
  Day three.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: Day three was a day where he hurt himself.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: So with the shoulder, sometimes you might want to be
• 23:44
  a little bit more gradual, but both players do need reps,
• 23:46
  so it's kind of a it's kind of hard to
• 23:49
  strike that balance.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a catch twenty two my last guy. We
• 23:54
  talked about him a little bit, but I've really got
• 23:56
  Sydney Brown on my radar in this first game, not
• 23:59
  necessarily for his like you know, you want to see
• 24:03
  him play well, you want to see him do tackle well,
• 24:06
  but I really want to watch him within the framework
• 24:08
  of the defense Andrew and you know Vic, Well, Vic
• 24:12
  doesn't do much exotic stuff anyway, so he doesn't have
• 24:14
  to worry about hiding things in the preseason other than
• 24:17
  a few creeper and simplits is. But I want to
• 24:20
  see do they use him in a post safety as
• 24:23
  a box safety. You know they're gonna start off too high,
• 24:26
  but I think VIC needs to see him in both situations.
• 24:30
  We know he can come up after the snap and
• 24:32
  sort of lay a hit over the middle. But I
• 24:35
  would actually like to see him get a little bit
• 24:38
  of man coverage just to see if he's improved in
• 24:40
  that area. I'd like to see him as a post safety,
• 24:42
  to see his range sideline the sideline, especially if you
• 24:47
  got the Bengals top receivers in there, Higgins and Jamar Chase,
• 24:51
  even if not they You know who's the rookie they
• 24:53
  had last year who is pretty good?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I want to say, is it Burton? He was a
• 24:58
  guy that they tried to.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Get down the field Burton or something like that. Yeah,
• 25:01
  it was like Jamar bur or something like that, but
• 25:04
  he was a Baker Bert.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, folks, my brain is uh is failing me.
• 25:10
  Andre Yoshavis is a pretty good He'll probably get some
• 25:13
  some time.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: So I want to see how he's deployed, and I want.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: To see that he's comfortable and instinctive, and that he's
• 25:19
  not swimming in the playbook. You know, he shouldn't be
• 25:21
  swimming in the playbook at this point of his career.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, that's that's a great one.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: He's gotten a ton of first team reps this camp,
• 25:29
  with Macoba missing a sizeable chunk. So we'll see if
• 25:32
  that translates on the field. This is a big summer
• 25:34
  for Sydney Brown.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jermaine Burton was the name I was saying.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: Of course, and I love this tape that coming out.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it seemed last year.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Well listen, he's you know, it's really tough to get
• 25:47
  on the field when you've got T Higgins and Chase
• 25:50
  and Yoshavis playing well. But they did put him on
• 25:52
  as an outside sort of backup X and they did
• 25:54
  try to throw the ball deep to him at times.
• 25:57
  In fact, I think he went I think Burrow went
• 26:00
  deep to him on fourth down.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Remember there were two.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Fourth down conversions yet it was either fourth down or
• 26:06
  third and short, and they went deep to him. And
• 26:07
  I'm like, why are you throwing the ball deep to
• 26:09
  a rookie when when you got like a short yardage situation.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: But that's what they did.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: So those are sorry, So those are our twelve guys.
• 26:16
  I'm going to reiterate them. The guys you're watching on
• 26:19
  offense or a Naias Smith, Will Shipley and Darian Canard
• 26:22
  on defense, game Hall, Andre Sam and Smile Monden Junior
• 26:25
  for me, Johnny Wilson on offense, Drew Kendall the center,
• 26:29
  Darius Cooper rookie free agent wide receiver, and on defense,
• 26:33
  Khilley Ringo, Azizo Jalari, and Sydney Brown. So real quick,
• 26:38
  just off the top of your head, a couple other
• 26:39
  guys that are gonna be on your more second half guys,
• 26:43
  you know that's sure. Yeah, the guys who the people
• 26:47
  may not be knowing much about.
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll give you two.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: I was gonna say rookie Mac McWilliams, but he may
• 26:52
  play a little earlier. Lance Dixon, the linebacker at a
• 26:56
  Toledo number forty one. On defense. I've not him when
• 27:00
  he's attacking downhill as a blitzer, but I've also seen
• 27:03
  him fare pretty well in coverage and he's a rangy guy.
• 27:06
  He's bounced around to a couple of different colleges. I
• 27:10
  think he has some ability. And he's played on all
• 27:13
  three units at one point in training camp. And we'll
• 27:17
  see this is this is big for his development. And
• 27:20
  when you're not going to see a lot of the
• 27:22
  you might not see Campbell, you're definitely not going to
• 27:24
  see Bond. That opens the door for Dixon to get
• 27:27
  some valuable reps and then the other. I guess the
• 27:30
  other player would be running back Shan Derek Powell. And
• 27:34
  at five foot seven hundred and eighty three pounds, he
• 27:37
  definitely has some juice. He can catch the football. Really
• 27:40
  productive college career at Central Arkansas. The opportunities haven't been
• 27:46
  as much as you might expect in training camp. The
• 27:48
  snaps are pretty infrequent when you're that far down in
• 27:51
  the pecking order, But I think he's made some nice
• 27:53
  plays on stretched runs and catching the football. There's another
• 27:56
  play the other day where he caught a pass on
• 27:59
  the flat Dallas game. The linebackers trying to hold onto
• 28:01
  his jersey, he shakes it off and he picks up
• 28:03
  some more yards.
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: So he's a scrappy type of player.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: From my end, a tight end not named Dallas Goddar
• 28:10
  or Grant Calcutta absolutely needs to start making a play.
• 28:13
  You know, Bryant's been invisible in camp. Grantson not invisible.
• 28:17
  He gets targeted every once in a while. This is
• 28:20
  the type of scenario where I'd like to see him
• 28:21
  at least stretch the field.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: A little bit.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I've actually been a little I don't know if you've
• 28:25
  felt this way, but I've kind of been a little
• 28:27
  bit impressed by Nick Muse.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: So we'll see if not so much.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: No, okay, all right, and more and more mandatory mandatory
• 28:38
  mini camp.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: He had like three highlight reel catches and he hasn't
• 28:41
  really stood out to me too much.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: None of the bunch to be to be fair.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah really yeah, and that's why I made that point,
• 28:48
  like some tight end not named uh you know, Calcultara
• 28:51
  or god it, it would helpful, be helpful to have
• 28:54
  a nice game. And then the last guy, you know,
• 28:56
  the rookie tackle hinting, Miles Hinton looks like he's been
• 28:59
  getting better in camp, so we'll see. You'll probably get
• 29:01
  a decent amount of run in the first and probably second,
• 29:05
  third quarter and fourth, So just want to see how
• 29:07
  he holds up in pass.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Bro that's another way. Yeah. Yeah, So that's about it.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: You know, we'll probably do this again for the second
• 29:16
  and third preseason games.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: But that's a good.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Variety and menu of Eagles that you should all be watching.
• 29:22
  Some of these guys are really pushing for spots. Others
• 29:24
  are just trying to make their name known. And we
• 29:27
  know Andrew that we see some depth chart movement. After
• 29:31
  that first game, you know, then the day off Friday, I.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Think Saturday, there was room practice.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: That's really the time in camp where all of a sudden,
• 29:38
  if you see a guy, you might see some guy
• 29:40
  move up or move down because there have been a
• 29:42
  couple of weeks of evaluation in a full game.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Now, yeah, that's what makes see I like preseason football, Jeff,
• 29:50
  because you got to remember, throughout the draft process, I
• 29:53
  scout a lot of I evaluate a lot of these players,
• 29:56
  and then you get to see them each and every
• 29:57
  day in training camp. So you want to see what
• 30:00
  you've seen on the practice field matches what you see
• 30:02
  on the on the you know, game field and games situations.
• 30:06
  So this this this the preseasons for guys much like
• 30:10
  the ones we mentioned today.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I surprised myself. I watched the Hall of
• 30:15
  Fame game deep into the third quarter. Wow, So I was, yeah, yeah,
• 30:19
  I was like, oh.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: There's Kamani Venal. I kind of liked him coming out.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I thought he was gonna add a little change up
• 30:24
  to that Chargers backfield. You know, you started like talking
• 30:27
  about names of guys who were drafted on Day two
• 30:30
  or day three. Uh, it's kind of funny, but yeah,
• 30:33
  that's absolutely what the preseason is all about. And that's
• 30:36
  gonna do it for this edition of Inside the Bird,
• 30:38
  the leading podcast in Eagles Intel, As always, we thank
• 30:42
  you for flying with us Inside the Bird. Be sure
• 30:49
  to check out our friends at phlsports Nation dot com.
• 30:52
  They're enhancing the fans experience with their coverage of all
• 30:55
  Philadelphia sports teams. For the fan, by the fan is
• 30:58
  their motto, so make sure you check them out at
• 31:01
  PHL SportsNation dot com and on Twitter at pH L
• 31:05
  Sports Nation