Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: The Better Roster-- Eagles Or Commanders?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Football for is powered by the Inside of the Birds
- 0:01podcast is brought to you by BET three sixty five.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Whatever the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary.
- 0:07Speaker 1: At BET three sixty five, Jeff Boucher's here today from
- 0:09the Inside of the Birds podcast, a bunch of stuff.
- 0:13This time next week, the Eagles would have practiced already.
- 0:16They will be on the practice field on Wednesday for
- 0:18the first time at ten am is when the Eagles
- 0:21will practice. So by this time next week, Jeff Boucher,
- 0:25who put that up on the screen. There we go,
- 0:27Jeff Boucher's live on the video stream today. By this
- 0:31time next week, the Eagles would have already practiced one time,
- 0:33and we're gonna be talking about what has gone on
- 0:36at Eagles practice. Some of the battles will start, some
- 0:39of the training camp stuff will start by this time
- 0:43next week.
- 0:45Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's sort of a to be determined, right
- 0:48because this time next week would be today's Wednesday. I
- 0:52know that they're probably going to have people on the field.
- 0:55Obviously you report by what the twenty second is, which
- 0:58day that would be Tuesday.
- 0:59Speaker 2: You didn't get your at stroshacker email test.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just checking it. So they report by Tuesday.
- 1:04They got to do the team fitness test. Maybe that's
- 1:06later in the day and then yeah, I would imagine
- 1:09Wednesday is about as light of a practice.
- 1:12Speaker 2: It says right here ten am practice begins. That's what
- 1:16it says.
- 1:16Speaker 4: I should say light ota exercise.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Nick Sirianni will talk at nine thirty. Practice at ten. Thursday,
- 1:25Vic Fangio practice begins at ten. So they're going at
- 1:28ten o'clock every day in training camp. It looks like
- 1:30here to kind of get through. That goes all the
- 1:32way up until their first preseason game. They will practice
- 1:34at ten o'clock every day, and of course we'll have
- 1:37full coverage for you here on the sports Bashed Motion.
- 1:40We talked about the last couple of days. This was
- 1:42an article that we're having some fun with. One of
- 1:43the Washington blogs wrote about how many commanders would start
- 1:50for the Eagles.
- 1:52Speaker 2: What do you think the number was?
- 1:57Speaker 3: This is a Washington blog, right, so gonna imagine they
- 2:00think the quarterback.
- 2:01Speaker 4: I'm gonna imagine they think that.
- 2:03Speaker 3: What are they including all their new editions like Laramie
- 2:06Tunsel and Deebo Samuel.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody was every single It went position by position.
- 2:10How many guys quarterback, running back, wide receiver, one, two
- 2:14and three, tight end, offensive line, then edge tackles, edge corners, slot, safeties, linebackers,
- 2:25all the way.
- 2:26Speaker 4: Guess I'm gonna guess they think five?
- 2:30Speaker 2: Five is the number ye go with? Well, they went
- 2:33with eleven, Yes, they went with eleven.
- 2:40Speaker 4: Five were my five were?
- 2:42Speaker 3: I'm sure they would guess Jane Daniels one, Jane Daniels,
- 2:46Frankie Louvo would be one.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Frankie Louvo and Bond. That was the they they had
- 2:51that go ahead, go ahead. They had that as a
- 2:54toss up. They had that as a toss up.
- 2:56Speaker 3: Okay, So I was thinking Frankie Louvo over not Bond,
- 2:59but whoever the's like over Jeremiah Prouder Junior basically or
- 3:04Nikobe or at something.
- 3:05Speaker 1: I think they had Wagner over whoever's playing the linebacker spot.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Okay, I would have thought that they would have put
- 3:13Cosmy over, say Tyler Stein.
- 3:15Speaker 4: That was what Cosmy is healthy.
- 3:17Speaker 2: Yep, that was one I would Yeah.
- 3:19Speaker 3: I would imagine they would have put one of their cornerbacks,
- 3:22probably Latimore over Kiley Ringo, Slasher, Doria Jackson.
- 3:26Speaker 2: Well, they actually had Latimore over Mitchell.
- 3:30Speaker 4: Well, then they're just that's part of the insanity.
- 3:32Speaker 3: But and then I'm guessing they would have had one
- 3:35of their safeties over the maybe both. If that's where
- 3:38you're eleven, they probably have both of their safeties over
- 3:43legal safeties.
- 3:44Speaker 1: I'm going to actually try to bring the article up
- 3:46onto the screen here so we can kind of scroll
- 3:48through it and look. But yes, Jadeen Daniels was one
- 3:50of them. He was one of the quarterbacks, and they said, look,
- 3:53his ceiling is higher than Hurts. And we talked a
- 3:55lot about Hurts this week. But where are you on,
- 3:57Jayden Daniels.
- 4:00Speaker 4: Oh? I think you're tremendous.
- 4:02Speaker 3: But I think we've seen a bunch of first year quarterbacks,
- 4:06whether it's you know, Carson.
- 4:07Speaker 4: Wentz or you know Stroud's he's Stroud.
- 4:10Speaker 3: We've seen other guys really have really successful year ones,
- 4:13but then not really be able to duplicate that over
- 4:16the long haul.
- 4:17Speaker 4: I think he's got all the.
- 4:18Speaker 3: Tools and the abilities, and I think that they're building
- 4:21the correct way around him. But you know, you gotta
- 4:24They won a lot of one possession games last year, Mike.
- 4:26Any of those games could have including the Hail Mary game, right,
- 4:30So any of those games could have gone either way,
- 4:33and if they did, who knows what we're saying about him,
- 4:35But he's certainly a very very good looking quarterback prospect
- 4:38who could be a really really good one for years
- 4:41to come.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Yeah, and like that one to me is almost like
- 4:43you look at RG three, he was an amazing Rookie
- 4:46of the Year, and then his second year and he
- 4:48ended up getting hurt, which was a shame.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Then he had the CJ. Stroud. He was awesome his
- 4:52rookie year.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Then last year I think he kind of took a
- 4:54step back a little bit, and that had to do
- 4:56with what was around him there. I like Jaded Daniels
- 4:59a lot as well, but I think you know, to
- 5:01have him in the conversation of being better than more
- 5:03accomplished and Jalen Hirsch right now is kind of brebosterous.
- 5:08Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if you want to say he's got
- 5:09a better upside or he has a better you know,
- 5:13skill set, that's fine, but you're right, he's not more accomplished.
- 5:15Speaker 4: And we haven't we haven't judged him on his worst moments.
- 5:19Speaker 3: Yet because he hasn't had that, you know, justin Herbert's
- 5:22another guy who had a really amazing rookie year and
- 5:25then he kind of took a step back. And again
- 5:27you can blame environments surrounding who That's why I think CJ.
- 5:30Speaker 4: Stroud didn't have a great year. I don't think he's
- 5:32any less of a quarterback.
- 5:35Speaker 3: But the reality is, these guys have great years and
- 5:38the league does a few things, and they come back
- 5:40to the pack and then you have to see how
- 5:42they respond to that.
- 5:44Speaker 1: One spot that the Commander Site had ahead of the
- 5:48Eagles was Laramie Tunsel over Jordan may a lotta how
- 5:52about that?
- 5:54Speaker 4: Oh that's see.
- 5:55Speaker 3: And I've been one to say I think sometimes Jordan
- 5:59Mylota gets over he did as people think he's the
- 6:02best left tackle in the game or a top five
- 6:04offensive tackle. And you know, it's like, you know, Trent
- 6:07Williams isn't like, you know, deceased or anything like that.
- 6:09He didn't play last year for a variety of reasons.
- 6:12But there are still some really good offensive linemen in
- 6:14this league. However, Tunsall clearly took some regression. Now, if
- 6:19you want to, if you told me larrymy Tunsell was
- 6:21going to play at a higher level next year than
- 6:24Jordan Mailatta. I'm not I could see it, but he
- 6:27certainly didn't last year, and you have to factor that in.
- 6:32Speaker 1: The other spot was the center spot. They went with
- 6:34Tyler Bedaz over Cam Jurgens and all Jurgons only one
- 6:38year starter there, but already people already kind of you know,
- 6:41that's a spot where I think it was a little
- 6:43bit of a head scratcher as well.
- 6:44Speaker 2: I mean, you know, that's just wrong.
- 6:46Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, Jerkins is a way, way better
- 6:51athlete than Tyler Biatis, So well, you can argue that
- 6:56they're asked to perform their jobs differently because they get
- 7:00Is probably out in front more.
- 7:03Speaker 4: Than they do Beatish. Uh, and maybe Beanis is a
- 7:06little better in pass pro. I don't know. I thought
- 7:07Jurgis was fine.
- 7:08Speaker 3: I don't I don't see any evidence that suggests that
- 7:10Beatis is a better overall center than Durgons.
- 7:14Speaker 4: Just he's just done it longer.
- 7:16Speaker 2: Yeah, that one, I thought.
- 7:17Speaker 1: All right, So let me put the whole, uh the
- 7:20beginning of the list up on the screen here so
- 7:22that people watching can kind of uh see, this is
- 7:25from a hogs heaven, which is a commander's like you know,
- 7:29fan blog, but they are part of the SB nation stuff,
- 7:32so a lot of people kind of read this. They
- 7:33had Daniels Overheurts running back Eagles wide receiver one Eagles,
- 7:37Deebo Samuel over DeVante Smith.
- 7:42Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not I'm not going there, you know.
- 7:45Speaker 3: And then again, this is sort of like the Beanish
- 7:47versus Cam Jurgens discussion because they're not used the same way.
- 7:52You know, Deebo is obviously if you're if you're talking
- 7:54about who's a more multifaceted weapon, well, yeah, obviously, Deebo
- 7:58Samuel can go in there and get bee like ten
- 8:00snaps at running back and break tackles, and you would
- 8:03never even think of handing the ball off to Devonte
- 8:06Smith in fear of breaking him. But if you're talking
- 8:09about route running, field stretching, route tree, not just how
- 8:15you run your routes, but the number of routes that
- 8:17you can run, you would not take Deebo Samuel in
- 8:19that category over Devonte Smith. Now, in fairness, Deebo Samuel's
- 8:24best year has been better than Devonte Smith. He had
- 8:28a I think a two thousand yard season one year,
- 8:30right or like total offensive yard He's been an all pro.
- 8:35Speaker 4: And DeVante Smith has not.
- 8:36Speaker 3: But DeVante Smith has never also been asked to be
- 8:40they'll have the workload and be the number one receiver.
- 8:42Speaker 4: Because he's played across from AJ Brown.
- 8:44Speaker 3: So I can see why a Commander Site would say that,
- 8:48but I disagree with that.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Right then, the slot they went with their two guys
- 8:51over Dotson. You know, obviously DOTSA was a bus there
- 8:55in Washington, so you can kind of say, okay, but
- 8:58Dotson's numbers are not going to make him in the conversation.
- 9:01Speaker 3: Here, not surprisingly, a commander Site would take any of
- 9:04their guys over Dotson because they had Dotson for two
- 9:07years there and he didn't perform to his first round status.
- 9:11Speaker 4: But the names that they're throwing in there, what the
- 9:13heck have they done?
- 9:14Speaker 3: I mean, Luke McCaffrey might be a good slot receiver someday,
- 9:18but who is the other name you scrolled up? I
- 9:20didn't see their other slot name that they had along
- 9:23with Luke McCaffrey. But you know, you want to call
- 9:25it a wash, you can call it a wash, but
- 9:28I don't know. I still think that I would take
- 9:31my chances with Dotson over McCaffrey.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Right now?
- 9:36Speaker 4: Or Lane? Who the heck is Lane?
- 9:37Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 9:38Speaker 1: It must have been maybe a rookie that they drafted there.
- 9:40I'm not that's not ringing a bell on who Lane
- 9:42would be? A night train.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Lane Lane Johnson Johnson, not Leie Johnson. Hair.
- 9:50Speaker 1: You go to the defensive side of the ball edge
- 9:52Eagles Carter three technique, one technique. They're on Pain over
- 9:57Jordan Davis. Now, Jordan Davis, I don't know. We were
- 9:59talking him yesterday whether or not you know, the Eagles
- 10:01view him as you know, has he been a success?
- 10:04Is he what they've wanted? Is he what they thought
- 10:06he'd be? And Pain is a player who is you know,
- 10:09more of a veteran player.
- 10:11Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I'll give them this. I think that's fair.
- 10:13Speaker 3: I mean, really, Jordan Davis is not there one tech
- 10:20in a foreman front as the defense is presented here.
- 10:24He's the shade zero tech and a five man front.
- 10:27When they bring in a fore man front they play,
- 10:30obviously it'll be more of a Jomo, most likely across
- 10:34from Joe and Carter, and so the discussion could be
- 10:36probably pain over versus a Jomo.
- 10:39Speaker 4: And I'm fine with going drawn Payne.
- 10:40Speaker 3: I think Prain is really good, So I have no
- 10:43issue with the Commanders getting that one.
- 10:45Speaker 2: Yeah, so you see edge they went.
- 10:46Speaker 1: So the two edges they went Eagles, which I think
- 10:48is interesting because the Eagles, you know why, you have
- 10:50Jlex Hunt and you have Nolan Smith. Those two guys
- 10:52still have a lot of proving to do. But that
- 10:55is also showing an area of concern for Washington that
- 11:00they don't have any edge rushers with any real you know,
- 11:04credibility at this point.
- 11:05Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really interesting.
- 11:07Speaker 3: I wonder how much they know their own team sometimes
- 11:09because and why I would agree with their assessment. Uh,
- 11:13Dietrich Wise was a really interesting edge rushing addition for
- 11:16them from the Patriots. We did our NFC East preview
- 11:20with Greg Cosell, and Greg is probably you know, he
- 11:24watches more tape than anybody in the league, and he's
- 11:26always been a fan of Dietrich Wise's game, and he kind.
- 11:29Speaker 4: Of thought that was a sneaky good addition.
- 11:33Speaker 3: But sort of like the way josh uche or Azi's
- 11:35Ogelauri could be one for the Eagles, you do not
- 11:38necessarily want Dietrich Wise to be a starter and think
- 11:41you're going to get double digit sacks or you know,
- 11:43twenty pressures or.
- 11:44Speaker 4: Anything out of them.
- 11:45Speaker 3: The Commanders are clearly built with more interior rush, with
- 11:49pain Uh and Jerson Newton their their second round pick
- 11:52from a year ago, and and Kinlaw even getting in
- 11:56there than they are from the exterior. I think they're
- 11:58probably going to have to manufact pass rush, but there's
- 12:01nobody who does that better than Dan Quinn. That's why,
- 12:04Frank you Louver, who plays on the edge and pass
- 12:07rushing downs. He is essentially what the Eagles hope joh
- 12:10Hot Campbell can be a guy who can play off
- 12:12the ball but then in the pass rush come down
- 12:14on the edge or be a joker pass rusher.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Right right, all right, So linebacker, they went with Wagner
- 12:19over Dean and then Luvu over Bond. Excuse me as
- 12:23a toss up, Louver over Bond, And we were talking
- 12:25about this yesterday. I said, if you're going with the resume,
- 12:28Louvu's probably the winner. But if you're going after last season,
- 12:32Bond was better than everybody, including Wagner, and Wagner's probably
- 12:35the next guy below Bond, but Bond might have been
- 12:38the one or second best linebacker in the league.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Last year.
- 12:41Speaker 1: So to say that's a toss up and you're going
- 12:44over your career, are you going off of the last season.
- 12:48Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 12:48Speaker 3: I don't like how they did this anyway, Mike will
- 12:51because I mean, sometimes people play multiple positions.
- 12:53Speaker 4: I would just take the two best off ball linebackers, but.
- 12:56Speaker 3: I would also disagree that Wagner played better than the
- 12:59Coliban last year.
- 13:00Speaker 4: I think Nikobe Dean played better overall than Bobby Wagner,
- 13:04who that's another guy.
- 13:06Speaker 3: Greg co Sel says a very good linebacker, but clearly
- 13:08lost a step, especially against the run.
- 13:10Speaker 4: Last year.
- 13:10Speaker 3: I think the Eagles exposed him on some runs, both
- 13:13in the regular season and in the playoffs. I was
- 13:16a little surprised they brought him back, but I get
- 13:18that he's a great locker room leader. He's a good
- 13:20veteran to have, but a guy at that age, at
- 13:24that position, been around the block, he can only give
- 13:27you so much.
- 13:28Speaker 4: I would I would take a healthy last year, first
- 13:32eleven weeks.
- 13:32Speaker 3: Version of Nikcobe Dean over Bobby Wagner, and I wouldn't
- 13:35think twice about it.
- 13:37Speaker 2: This is where it gets interesting.
- 13:38Speaker 1: You go to the secondary, Ladimir Latimore over Mitchell and
- 13:43then basically their corner two combination over the Eagles corner
- 13:47two combination, and then the slot you got to toss
- 13:50up between Mike Sandrastrill, Strill and Cooper dejen.
- 13:57Speaker 4: Ah Man.
- 13:59Speaker 3: I really see they're fudging it a little bit because
- 14:02Sanders still didn't really play the nickel as much as
- 14:04we thought he was gonna play, So they're sort of projecting,
- 14:07and he did a great job last year as a
- 14:09rookie playing the outside. They're projecting him to match up
- 14:13in the middle. But I don't even like toss up.
- 14:15At least Degene has been in there, improved it, and
- 14:17you can argue that he's already one of the best,
- 14:19if not the best slot corners in the league with versatility.
- 14:23Speaker 4: Sanders still hasn't shown that yet.
- 14:25Speaker 3: I have no doubt in my mind that he could
- 14:27get there, but I haven't seen it, so that to
- 14:29me is a little bit of a homer pick on
- 14:31their end.
- 14:32Speaker 4: Latimoer over Mitchell. I mean, Mitchell was so good last year.
- 14:37Speaker 3: You can make an argument that you've got to do
- 14:39it for over a longer period of time, but Latimore
- 14:41is only gonna play seven games a year. I mean,
- 14:43that's not They're saying a healthy Latimore is a tier above,
- 14:47but when when do you see a healthy Latimore? And
- 14:51again Latimore, he got exposed by AJ Brown last year.
- 14:55Speaker 4: There were times where he struggled.
- 14:56Speaker 3: I mean, he's still a good corner, but there's no
- 14:59evidence yet that says Quinnon Mitchell is not a really
- 15:02good corner. So I think that that's Homersm right there
- 15:05taking a lot of more over Mitchell.
- 15:06Speaker 2: Yeah, and then safe thing.
- 15:08Speaker 3: Is like a total Like none of these guys are
- 15:11proven anything, right, so I don't know, like, yeah, you
- 15:15are trying to throw You.
- 15:16Speaker 1: Got Jonathan Jones and Trey Amos there, I mean, again
- 15:21beating saying that. I mean, even if you would say
- 15:23Dori Jackson is probably more accomplished than both of those guys, right.
- 15:27Speaker 3: Their comment was that Ringo and Jackson are about as
- 15:30average as they come.
- 15:30Speaker 4: Well, what is that?
- 15:32Speaker 3: Jonathan Jones and then Trey Amos, who I like a
- 15:35lot but has never played in a down of NFL football?
- 15:39I mean, did they not learn from Emmanuel Forbes that
- 15:41you can't just assume that your first round corner is
- 15:44going to come in and be a dominant player, Like
- 15:45come on.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Well, this is another one because you got quad Martin
- 15:48over Blankenship and then strong safety Eagles with that tells
- 15:52you how bad there's other safety spot is because the
- 15:55Eagles don't even have another safety at that spot yet.
- 16:00Speaker 4: I like how it.
- 16:01Speaker 3: Says this might be an unpopular opinion. Now, but I
- 16:03start Kwan over Reed. Okay, well, you know, maybe that's
- 16:06why you lose. I don't know why that's considered a
- 16:10strong argument because hogs Heaven dude says he likes Kwon
- 16:13Martin over Reed blankenshit.
- 16:16Speaker 1: So overall they have ten commanders, they say who they
- 16:19believe would start for the Eagles, three toss up center,
- 16:22will linebacker slot. That leaves the Eagles with nine. So essentially,
- 16:27you know they're looking down the big five spots. And
- 16:30then he went by room, quarterback room commanders, running back
- 16:35room Eagles, Wide receiver group, commanders, tight end Eagles, offensive
- 16:39line Eagles, defensive line Eagles, Edge Eagles, linebackers commanders, corners commanders,
- 16:45and safety group Eagles. So you know, basically, their whole
- 16:50thing at the end of the day was you put
- 16:52these the commanders and the Eagles together, that the commanders
- 16:56have closed the gap because they've got ten starters that could.
- 16:59Speaker 2: Play for the Eagles.
- 17:02Speaker 4: My brain hurts, Mike.
- 17:04Speaker 2: Hey, so last week before training camp, my friends, this
- 17:07is this is.
- 17:08Speaker 3: The epitome of off season content. I mean, like late July.
- 17:13I'm sorry, late June, early July type content.
- 17:17Speaker 1: I oh, well, yes, well, but you know, we have
- 17:19a pull question up right now. Which team in the
- 17:21NFC do you think is the you know, biggest threat
- 17:24to the Philadelphia Eagles, And oddly enough, the Commanders are not.
- 17:28Honestly oddly the Commanders are on that list is one
- 17:30of the voting things. But not one person, not one
- 17:33has voted for the Green Bay Packers as the team.
- 17:37But forty two percent have the Rams, forty percent say
- 17:41the Lions, and only seventeen percent are going Commanders.
- 17:44Speaker 2: So far.
- 17:45Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I think when you narrow it down to
- 17:47those three options, I think that that's fair. I would
- 17:50put the Rams, and I would also put the the
- 17:54Lions ahead of the Commanders.
- 17:56Speaker 4: Now that percentage sort of makes it seem like there's
- 17:58a wide golf. I don't think that that's the case.
- 18:01I think it's just that people.
- 18:02Speaker 3: Would rather take those first two teams than team number three.
- 18:06I mean, any one of them can on their best day,
- 18:09can give the Eagles a run for their money. And
- 18:11you know something Adam and I talked about in the
- 18:12podcast that dropped recently, but then we also did a
- 18:16roundtable with Andrew It's gonna come out either probably tomorrow,
- 18:20is I do think that we're all sort of I
- 18:25don't want to say we're giving a leap of faith
- 18:27to the Eagles, because they do deserve it. But this team,
- 18:29this Eagles defense, has lost so much half of its
- 18:33starting lineup, and not just the number of players, but
- 18:36the number of snaps. If you add the number of
- 18:38snaps played by Josh Swat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, CJ.
- 18:43Gardner Johnson, and then what you got from Nikobe Dean
- 18:45who's not going to be available for six weeks, that's
- 18:48a lot not only of snaps, but also a lot
- 18:51of really good production within those snaps. And you're asking
- 18:55a lot of young guys Mike to step into those
- 18:58roles and not only occupy and show that they can
- 19:01handle that number of snaps, but also play at the
- 19:04level that Sweat, Williams, Slay and CJ. Gardner Johnson played at.
- 19:09And that and Dakobe Dean. That is not easy. So
- 19:13I can't, especially when you start off in September and
- 19:15you got to play what the Chiefs are in there
- 19:17on September. The Bucks are in there on September, because
- 19:20they always are. It's gonna be an interesting first six
- 19:23weeks for this defense, and we're really going to see
- 19:26whether or not these guys are ready for their roles.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Not only that, you're expecting Bond to duplicate what he
- 19:33did last year and not take any step back, right
- 19:36to play at that level again with a new partner
- 19:39for the most part next to him, and keep in
- 19:41mind all these guys, Hey, I got used to playing
- 19:44next to Milton Williams neck last year. Well, now he's
- 19:46not there, you know, Darius Slay not there, Safety not there?
- 19:51You know how fast because this is what'll I look.
- 19:54Speaker 2: At this motion. We can end on this one here.
- 19:58Speaker 1: Last year, the offense was what as it was steady
- 20:00Eddie had Barkley that you could always kind of lean on.
- 20:03And then if Barkley was you know, you had the
- 20:05receivers to have a game here or there that kind.
- 20:07Speaker 2: Of carried you.
- 20:07Speaker 1: The offense is gonna be what it is, but by
- 20:10the end of the year. The defense held up its
- 20:13end of the bargain, but it was a process to
- 20:15get them up there. By the time they got to
- 20:18the NFC Championship Game, they shut down Washington and the
- 20:21Super Bowl they play their best, but that was a
- 20:24process for them to get there. Can this defense gel
- 20:28and blend and get to that level by when is
- 20:32really what I think it's going to be a big story.
- 20:34Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 20:35Speaker 3: I mean, there's no doubt that there is a lot
- 20:37of still good talent on this defense, starting with Jayalen Carter,
- 20:41Nolan Smith, Quinna, Mitchell, Cooper Dejen Right, there's building blocks
- 20:45there that are old enough and ready to step into
- 20:48even bigger roles so that you can say, all right,
- 20:51I think the Eagles will still be a really good defense.
- 20:53But the number one as you just mentioned, they were
- 20:56the number one defense by the end of the year,
- 20:58and their turnover ratio over the last I think five
- 21:02to six weeks, seven weeks and then the playoffs was amazing.
- 21:05It didn't start off that way, but it really turned
- 21:08into that way. And we've seen that turnovers and takeaways
- 21:11can be a little bit fickle as far as projecting
- 21:14them from year to year.
- 21:15Speaker 4: You can be really good and just not cause a
- 21:17lot of turnovers.
- 21:18Speaker 3: But this offense I felt needed at times as the
- 21:21dolphense went through its throws, it needed a little field
- 21:24flip here and there to get itself going.
- 21:27Speaker 4: So that to me is a bit. Another question is
- 21:29not only about.
- 21:30Speaker 3: The people in the roles, but can they continuously win
- 21:34the turnover battle week after week like they did over
- 21:36the second half of last year.
- 21:37Speaker 1: Now, Monday, real quick, we were talking about Jalen Hurts.
- 21:40We were trying to find some good comps for him.
- 21:42You texted me Big Ben Russell Wilson, a couple guys
- 21:46as comps to Jalen Hurts.
- 21:48Speaker 2: Did you find any more?
- 21:49Speaker 3: You know?
- 21:49Speaker 4: I just did what I did.
- 21:51Speaker 3: Was last year Jalen Hurts threw for like twenty eight
- 21:53or nine I forget what the exact twenty nine hundred
- 21:56yards and eighteen touchdowns. So I went to the Pro
- 21:59Football Reference and figured out how many quarterbacks, you know,
- 22:03and then going back to the Super Bowl era have
- 22:05won a Super Bowl throwing for less than three thousand
- 22:08yards and eighteen or less touchdowns. And in the last
- 22:12twenty years, Mike has really just been Jalen Hurts and
- 22:15Ben Roethlisberger. And that was year two of Roethlisberger, right,
- 22:18and if we're being fair, year two of Roethlisberger, and
- 22:21I went back and looked he wasn't considered a top
- 22:24five or even a top eight, nine to ten quarterback
- 22:26at that point, but the numbers were similar. And then
- 22:30I thought, well, this is not fair because it's not
- 22:32like Hurts this year last year is reflective of his
- 22:35career so far.
- 22:36Speaker 4: It was just one of.
- 22:36Speaker 3: Those years where he really was low on the pass
- 22:39attempts and yards. So I did the three year average
- 22:42and over the last three or four year average, over
- 22:45the last in that time, Hurts his average about thirty
- 22:47four one hundred and eighty seven passing yards and about
- 22:51four hundred and fifty two pass attempts per year. So
- 22:54I plugged that in and said, how many quarterbacks have
- 22:56averaged that and won a Super Bowl? And since two
- 23:00thousand and five it was Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson in
- 23:03twenty thirteen, and Jalen Hurts. So I think I did
- 23:08all this because everybody seems to think Hurts is disrespected, disrespected.
- 23:12He should be top two, he should be top three,
- 23:14he should be top five, but he just doesn't throw
- 23:17the ball. I think the archetype of what people want
- 23:19out of a top five.
- 23:20Speaker 4: Quarterback is that they throw the ball. They win the games.
- 23:24Speaker 3: You rely on their arm to win it because they
- 23:27throw the ball at thirty two or more. That's the
- 23:29league average thirty two pass stems or more, right, and
- 23:32he's more comparable to a Big Ben early Big Ben
- 23:36and Russell Wilson earlier when you had that great running
- 23:39game in defense, and those guys weren't at that time
- 23:41considered top five top eight either. Big Ben eventually got there, right,
- 23:47but he had to be. He was a five thousand
- 23:49yard passer one year, and he made four straight Pole
- 23:51Bowls and threw the ball all around so well. I
- 23:54do think there are some quarterbacks in these rankings that
- 23:57come out that are unfairly ahead of them. I just
- 24:00think that the evidence shows that until he's given more
- 24:03opportunities to throw the ball more around league average, which
- 24:07is thirty two times a game, then he's probably not
- 24:11going to get that respect as being a top three,
- 24:13top four guy. And I kind of think history shows
- 24:15that that's fair. You kind of have to earn it
- 24:17by being a guy who throws the ball around league average.
- 24:21Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 24:21Speaker 1: Well, the deep dives will all be done, All of
- 24:25the stuff will be done. Next week when we talk,
- 24:27the Eagles will be back on the field and football
- 24:31is back.
- 24:31Speaker 2: Jeff Mosher, well done.
- 24:33Speaker 4: Can't wait. In the words of Parts God.
- 24:36Speaker 2: I'll see it, man, see it.
- 24:38Speaker 1: Bud