Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: A Discussion on Eagles DeVonta Smith's Role and More
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Jeff Boscher will be jumping in today's football at four
- 0:03Speaker 1: a chair and of course the Eagles now making their
- 0:07Speaker 1: trade for AJ Brown and a lot of people talking
- 0:10Speaker 1: about AJ Brown and the comments that he made that
- 0:13Speaker 1: are are they getting taken out of proportion the fact
- 0:17Speaker 1: that he said that he didn't leak information out. I
- 0:22Speaker 1: think this is where this is being misconstrued a little bit.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Brown is essentially said that he knows that he can
- 0:29Speaker 1: tell the media things because it will get them to
- 0:36Speaker 1: pay attention. He's not saying like, I'm going to the
- 0:41Speaker 1: media as a sources tell me and that source happens
- 0:47Speaker 1: to be AJ Brown. He's saying, I'm telling the media
- 0:52Speaker 1: when they ask me things. That's why I answer in
- 0:56Speaker 1: the way that I do. Here's some of the stuff
- 0:58Speaker 1: that Aj Brown he's saying. I'm not a villain. I
- 1:02Speaker 1: just say things to try to get the team to focus.
- 1:07Speaker 2: I wouldn't say the ability because some of the things that
- 1:09Speaker 2: it was done, it was it was done purposely to
- 1:12Speaker 2: give us a police you know. I know if I
- 1:16Speaker 2: say something in the media, I know it's to propel
- 1:20Speaker 2: propel us to work on it. Because now everybody's talking
- 1:22Speaker 2: about you know, so it's like, are we gonna really
- 1:24Speaker 2: fix it or not?
- 1:26Speaker 1: So he's saying, in other words, what's wrong with the
- 1:29Speaker 1: offense passing. He's not leaking information, he's telling the media
- 1:35Speaker 1: what's wrong passing. So he says the noise outside sometimes
- 1:41Speaker 1: you know that the noise couldn't be ignored, and you know,
- 1:46Speaker 1: it was his way of trying to fix things.
- 1:49Speaker 2: I feel like we just started pressing as a team,
- 1:51Speaker 2: you know, and uh, you know the noise that come
- 1:54Speaker 2: with it because everybody's expecting it and you can try
- 1:56Speaker 2: to like deny it all you want to. You know,
- 1:59Speaker 2: we're you know, we said all year not defending nothing,
- 2:03Speaker 2: but yeah, we are, you know. And it was a
- 2:08Speaker 2: conversation that you know, we spoke about in the locker
- 2:12Speaker 2: room obviously, you know, we said that we need to
- 2:15Speaker 2: be said in the media. I think we're away because
- 2:18Speaker 2: that was always a mission, is there. I think the
- 2:20Speaker 2: mission should have been, you know, just giving you all
- 2:23Speaker 2: at least every day with the chips they may because
- 2:25Speaker 2: you can't control the alcohol.
- 2:27Speaker 1: So this whole week has been a very interesting one.
- 2:31Speaker 1: Let's bring Jeff Moscher in and yesterday, you know, we
- 2:34Speaker 1: broke down a lot of what happened at the OTAs
- 2:36Speaker 1: the Eagles moving on now obviously without AJ Brown, but
- 2:40Speaker 1: a lot has been talked about it.
- 2:41Speaker 3: A J.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Brown is being made out like he was secretly going
- 2:45Speaker 1: behind closed doors and telling media members stuff as a
- 2:50Speaker 1: quote unquote source, and that's not really what ended up
- 2:53Speaker 1: happening here.
- 2:55Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want to go really too far down
- 2:58Speaker 4: a rabbit hole on this particular subject. I'm not talking
- 3:00Speaker 4: about AJ Brown. I'm talking about when because it's become
- 3:06Speaker 4: just so commonplace, but when one sentence of a video
- 3:11Speaker 4: or one line in a story is taken and put
- 3:15Speaker 4: out there with no context, and then everybody reacts to
- 3:19Speaker 4: it on the toxic social media platforms that we have,
- 3:24Speaker 4: this is what results. Somebody I understood. I watched the
- 3:27Speaker 4: full video of what AJ was saying. He was saying
- 3:29Speaker 4: when he was talking to the media. He was, as
- 3:32Speaker 4: you were, just playing, saying things to get it out there.
- 3:34Speaker 4: He wanted it to know and he thought that would
- 3:36Speaker 4: help push teammates. That's not leaking. He's not saying he
- 3:39Speaker 4: was secretly going to play you know, people in the
- 3:43Speaker 4: media and saying So that's just not AJ style. So yeah,
- 3:48Speaker 4: I mean even today I didn't know if he wanted
- 3:50Speaker 4: to talk about it at all, But like you know,
- 3:51Speaker 4: I wrote something for Philly Voice on Saquon Barkley Tank
- 3:57Speaker 4: pigs Be the running styles. Made an innocuous statement about
- 4:02Speaker 4: how Tank Bigsby, his style of running is a is
- 4:05Speaker 4: a better fit ordinarily for what for a wide zone
- 4:09Speaker 4: because he's a one cut runner and has played under
- 4:12Speaker 4: center or ran from under center before than Saquon Barkley.
- 4:15Speaker 4: In that story, I made it clear Saquon Barkley is
- 4:18Speaker 4: the bell cow. It doesn't matter who's more familiar with
- 4:22Speaker 4: the scheme. But now you know, people have taken one
- 4:25Speaker 4: an aggregation in one sentence and making it seem like
- 4:27Speaker 4: I'm saying Bigsby's better than Saquon Barkley or Barkley can't
- 4:31Speaker 4: be a good one cut runner, but there is a difference,
- 4:35Speaker 4: and I was just highlighting that.
- 4:37Speaker 1: All right, most your show life after AJ Brown, It's
- 4:40Speaker 1: something that you guys discussed on inside the Birds. Let's
- 4:44Speaker 1: kind of look at this Devonte Smith without AJ Brown?
- 4:49Speaker 3: Is he different? Do they use him differently? Does? How
- 4:53Speaker 3: does his life after AJ Brown got to work?
- 4:55Speaker 4: Now? Well, his life means a lot more targets Mike.
- 4:58Speaker 4: I mean, because you look at the situation, and I mean,
- 5:01Speaker 4: he's clear and far above any other receiver on the
- 5:06Speaker 4: team right now in terms of proven talent and what
- 5:09Speaker 4: he is. So you would be crazy not to think
- 5:12Speaker 4: that Joel and Hurts will be looking to get him
- 5:14Speaker 4: the ball as much as possible. But what he isn't
- 5:18Speaker 4: is a natural X receiver that he can win from
- 5:22Speaker 4: the outside. He can win from the X occasionally, but
- 5:24Speaker 4: he's a very slight of frame. It's not two hundred
- 5:27Speaker 4: and ten pounds like AJ Brown, So you're not going
- 5:29Speaker 4: to place him at the X spot and have him
- 5:32Speaker 4: run the main three routes that you normally see X
- 5:36Speaker 4: receivers run, which are deep down, the sideline, deep dig
- 5:41Speaker 4: where you kind of across the middle of the field,
- 5:43Speaker 4: or the hitch which everybody loved, the hitch routes to
- 5:45Speaker 4: come back hitch. So when you're you're still going to
- 5:48Speaker 4: see DeVante Smith playing Z receiver, moving around, occasionally lining
- 5:53Speaker 4: up in the slot, and probably having a more diverse
- 5:57Speaker 4: route tree, which is good because he's a great route runner,
- 6:00Speaker 4: probably the best. He's always been the best route runner
- 6:02Speaker 4: on the team, even with AJ Brown. Uh and they'll
- 6:05Speaker 4: use him that way and try to get him the
- 6:07Speaker 4: help of using space and good play action under center,
- 6:11Speaker 4: which draws linebackers in and creates space over the middle.
- 6:16Speaker 1: So obviously, because we were looking at other offenses that
- 6:19Speaker 1: you sean Mannion style, we think anyway, like the twenty
- 6:21Speaker 1: twenty three Niners, where like Brandon Aiyuk had one thousand
- 6:25Speaker 1: over one thousand yards. He was the high volume receiver.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Then the tight end was the next guy. The next
- 6:32Speaker 1: you know, Debo was the next wide receiver. He only
- 6:35Speaker 1: had like eight hundred yards. We look at the rams,
- 6:38Speaker 1: you got Puka Nakula, who's a high volume guy. Devonte
- 6:41Speaker 1: Adams is like seven hundred yards, Like, so he's way
- 6:45Speaker 1: next down the list.
- 6:47Speaker 3: You know you look.
- 6:48Speaker 1: In in Where else did we look?
- 6:51Speaker 3: I think Seattle where jack Green green Bay.
- 6:53Speaker 4: Green Bay is a good example of you know, having
- 6:55Speaker 4: a lot of receivers. He had Jacksonville, same type of offense.
- 7:00Speaker 4: And I think the Eagles will. I think the goal
- 7:03Speaker 4: is to look like those twenty twenty three nine ers
- 7:05Speaker 4: you were talking about, because if you look at yards, yes,
- 7:09Speaker 4: Ayuk had the thirteen hundred yards and I think eight touchdowns,
- 7:12Speaker 4: which you know you would take from Davonte Smith, you
- 7:15Speaker 4: could certainly see that kind of season that would be
- 7:17Speaker 4: the most yards of his career. But if you look
- 7:19Speaker 4: at receptions, all four of those guys were between sixty
- 7:24Speaker 4: and seventy five. Was very spread out between McCaffrey, Kittle, Ayuk,
- 7:28Speaker 4: and Deebo And touchdowns I think three of them at seven,
- 7:31Speaker 4: one of them at six receiving touchdowns, so very spread out.
- 7:35Speaker 4: The Eagles, I don't know if they have enough, if
- 7:38Speaker 4: their talent is ready for that yet. You know, Davante
- 7:41Speaker 4: Smith is, and I think obviously Goddard can be if
- 7:43Speaker 4: he stays healthy. But you're still waiting for guys like
- 7:46Speaker 4: Lemon and Stours to really grow and mature before they
- 7:49Speaker 4: can probably consider themselves equivalents in a reception or a
- 7:53Speaker 4: receiving touchdowns share. But it is a chance for Dantevian
- 7:57Speaker 4: Wicks to exceed his totals from his time in Green Bay.
- 8:01Speaker 1: All right, let's get to Wicks, because what is wis here?
- 8:05Speaker 1: What was he there? What is he here?
- 8:07Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean he's a player who's moved around, but
- 8:09Speaker 4: he has the body of an X receiver. I mean
- 8:11Speaker 4: he's over two hundred pounds, he's all right around six
- 8:14Speaker 4: six one. I mean he's a big, strong, physical guy
- 8:17Speaker 4: and he can play that X spot. I mean, but
- 8:20Speaker 4: he could. He's also versatile, he can move around. He's
- 8:22Speaker 4: got good contested catch skills. He's got pretty good hands.
- 8:25Speaker 4: I haven't studied enough to know what kind of route
- 8:28Speaker 4: runner he is. I'll hit up We'll hit up Greg
- 8:30Speaker 4: Cosell for that on Inside the Birds next time we
- 8:32Speaker 4: have him on. But because he's a true natural X receiver,
- 8:37Speaker 4: he can give you that alignment there and then it's
- 8:41Speaker 4: up to him and Jalen Hurts to make it work
- 8:43Speaker 4: from a connection standpoint.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Uh, Makayle Lemon, who has a hamstring problem right now.
- 8:48Speaker 1: I mean, that's not a great way to start things
- 8:50Speaker 1: off here. But when you look at those other offenses
- 8:54Speaker 1: that we kind of talk about, does he compare to
- 8:57Speaker 1: somebody that you could say, oh, he reminds He'll remind
- 9:00Speaker 1: me a lot of what so and so did so
- 9:03Speaker 1: and so or somewhere.
- 9:06Speaker 4: You know, if he was a little bit more explosive
- 9:08Speaker 4: and he's a good player. When I Sixplo'm talking about
- 9:11Speaker 4: the run the run element, like you know how fast
- 9:13Speaker 4: you are, uh, and then you know he's a little underside.
- 9:17Speaker 4: I might try to make a Jaden Reid comparison, but
- 9:20Speaker 4: I don't think he can be used gimmicky like Reid
- 9:22Speaker 4: is on sweeps and and things like that. But Jalen
- 9:25Speaker 4: Jayden Reid is a great inside receiver for the Packers
- 9:28Speaker 4: because he's versatile and he can make yards after the catch.
- 9:31Speaker 2: Uh.
- 9:32Speaker 4: So there might be a little bit of a a
- 9:34Speaker 4: comp there in usage because that's what mkayle Lemon's going
- 9:37Speaker 4: to mostly be right now. A slot receiver. He'll sure,
- 9:40Speaker 4: he'll he'll get a few opportunities on the outside, but
- 9:43Speaker 4: when they're an eleven personnel, you're gonna want Devonte Smith
- 9:46Speaker 4: on one outside spot. You're gonna want Wix or Marquise
- 9:49Speaker 4: Brown on one outside spot, maybe Darius Cooper who knows.
- 9:52Speaker 4: And you're gonna see Lemon on the inside a lot.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Uh. The one guy there too, uh, Tucker Kraft, who
- 9:58Speaker 1: played eight games last year already two catches for almost
- 10:01Speaker 1: five hundred yards and six touchdowns. Do you see similar
- 10:04Speaker 1: production out of Dallas.
- 10:07Speaker 4: Goddard, Well, if Dallas god It of five years ago, yes,
- 10:11Speaker 4: you know, I mean Dallas Goddard of now is starting
- 10:14Speaker 4: to get up. There is blocking regressed a little bit
- 10:17Speaker 4: last year. He can still catch the ball really well.
- 10:20Speaker 4: But I think, yeah, when I think of Dallas Goddard prime,
- 10:24Speaker 4: like just three or four years ago, you know, what
- 10:25Speaker 4: was that year where he had just a terrific year,
- 10:28Speaker 4: stayed healthy. I think he had close to six hundred
- 10:32Speaker 4: yards that year, maybe more. I'd have to go back
- 10:34Speaker 4: and look. He had yeah, eight hundred and thirty yards
- 10:37Speaker 4: on fifty six catches in twenty twenty one, So that
- 10:39Speaker 4: was one two three about four or five years ago. Yeah,
- 10:43Speaker 4: that that that was Tucker. I mean Toughcraft's really good,
- 10:46Speaker 4: very very good. So you know, and then you would
- 10:50Speaker 4: have that guy yet because Goddard is a little bit
- 10:52Speaker 4: past the prime and and Eli Stallers isn't ready to
- 10:56Speaker 4: block like like Kraft can you.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Like twenty twenty three, the next receiver after Ayuk in
- 11:02Speaker 1: San Francisco was Kittle. So it shows you how involved
- 11:06Speaker 1: the tight end can be in this offense.
- 11:09Speaker 4: Yeah, what did Gottard have last year? Got it a
- 11:12Speaker 4: pretty good year too, because he had eleven touchdowns, He
- 11:14Speaker 4: had six hundred yards.
- 11:15Speaker 1: He had a lot of those little touchdowns on like
- 11:17Speaker 1: the inside like pitch, he had like those.
- 11:21Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, but you know, his yards per catch last
- 11:25Speaker 4: year was a little bit. It was starting to it's
- 11:28Speaker 4: been starting to regress. It was all it was almost
- 11:30Speaker 4: twelve two years ago, and then last year.
- 11:32Speaker 1: It was Dallas Goddard is a much better version of
- 11:35Speaker 1: like L. J.
- 11:36Speaker 3: Smith.
- 11:36Speaker 1: It was like, this is the year L J. Smith's
- 11:38Speaker 1: gonna have the big year, and it just never came.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Like we always think that Goddard's ready for that big
- 11:43Speaker 1: breakout because you know, he was behind Ertz for those
- 11:46Speaker 1: first couple of years, but he always felt like if
- 11:48Speaker 1: he was given the chance and then he always gets hurt.
- 11:51Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean Kraft for the last two years
- 11:54Speaker 4: has been at fourteen to one yards per catch and
- 11:56Speaker 4: last year was fifteen point three yards per catch before
- 12:00Speaker 4: he got hurt. So that's quite different than Goddard, whose
- 12:03Speaker 4: average per catch for his career is around eleven point four.
- 12:06Speaker 4: So again, not that God or it's not I'm not
- 12:08Speaker 4: trying to sit here and you know, say anything bad
- 12:10Speaker 4: about Goddard.
- 12:11Speaker 2: He just not.
- 12:12Speaker 4: Kraft's got a little extra juice to him.
- 12:16Speaker 1: What kind of role an impact does Hollywood Brown have.
- 12:20Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm
- 12:23Speaker 4: you know, we can talk about it and we've surmised
- 12:25Speaker 4: it on inside the Birds, but he's weird in that
- 12:29Speaker 4: he's a what you would think is a deep threat
- 12:32Speaker 4: receiver who has not necessarily been used that way, especially
- 12:39Speaker 4: as of late you know, I mean early Baltimore. He
- 12:43Speaker 4: had some when he had a thousand yards. He was
- 12:47Speaker 4: up around like year two, he was up around thirteen
- 12:49Speaker 4: and a half yards per catch. That's still not a
- 12:51Speaker 4: lot compared to like what DeShawn Jackson wants for the Eagles, right,
- 12:55Speaker 4: I mean again, his average per catch for his career
- 12:57Speaker 4: is eleven point six. That's not really stretching the field
- 13:02Speaker 4: the way you think of a guy who I think
- 13:04Speaker 4: ran a four to two at the Combine or whatever
- 13:06Speaker 4: it was.
- 13:07Speaker 3: Uh So the Blazer, we know that.
- 13:09Speaker 4: Yeah, but he can run, he is quick, he's very
- 13:12Speaker 4: he's got Jimmy Kemsky has written about this afhilliate voice.
- 13:14Speaker 4: He's got really good body control for a small guy.
- 13:17Speaker 4: So he's got a decent amount of production in the
- 13:19Speaker 4: red zone, catch the ball and get up field on screens,
- 13:22Speaker 4: which now the Chiefs used to use them a lot.
- 13:25Speaker 4: So I'm really kind of interested to see what purpose
- 13:29Speaker 4: uh not what purpose, but what role he winds up
- 13:32Speaker 4: bringing to the I would have to think an eleven personnel.
- 13:34Speaker 4: If it's third and six and third and seven, probably
- 13:38Speaker 4: gonna have him on the.
- 13:38Speaker 3: Field, right and look the Eagles.
- 13:42Speaker 1: It's funny because the third wide receiver or even maybe
- 13:46Speaker 1: the I don't know, would he be the I guess
- 13:48Speaker 1: he would be the Would you.
- 13:49Speaker 3: Say he's the third or fourth option? Fourth option?
- 13:53Speaker 4: I guess right, I would call him the four Well,
- 13:55Speaker 4: I would call him and Wicks interchangeable depending on down
- 13:58Speaker 4: and distance, you know, like, you know, you might want
- 14:01Speaker 4: to have Wix in there on third and four, third
- 14:04Speaker 4: and five, You might want to have Brown in there
- 14:06Speaker 4: third and seventh or nay, you know, just again all
- 14:09Speaker 4: if you're in the red zone, I would ordinarily say
- 14:12Speaker 4: you might want to have Wix. But again, Brown's been
- 14:14Speaker 4: pretty good in the red zone in his career, so
- 14:17Speaker 4: he gives him optionality, he gives him depth.
- 14:19Speaker 3: Well, question the question is what.
- 14:21Speaker 4: If Various Cooper is really good? Mike? What if he's
- 14:24Speaker 4: like really good? Okay, because remember if you're the f yeah,
- 14:30Speaker 4: and if you're the fourth or the fifth receiver, you
- 14:32Speaker 4: gotta contribute in some way on special teams. So we
- 14:35Speaker 4: already know the top three because of their contract or
- 14:39Speaker 4: their draft status or Smith, Wis and Lemon. Uh, you
- 14:43Speaker 4: know Brown four? Right now? Does Cooper make it as
- 14:48Speaker 4: a five? And then what does that do to Johnny Wilson?
- 14:51Speaker 4: What if they like another wide receiver?
- 14:53Speaker 2: You know?
- 14:53Speaker 4: I mean there's a lot. There was Eli Moore is
- 14:56Speaker 4: on the team, elij Moore.
- 14:58Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot to figure out there about Eliza Mitchell,
- 15:01Speaker 1: Elijah Mitchell.
- 15:03Speaker 4: How about it? Did you see that? Did you see
- 15:05Speaker 4: the I don't know if you happened to. I wrote
- 15:07Speaker 4: this funny sort of story that some people took way
- 15:09Speaker 4: too seriously about why are the Eagles so obsessed with
- 15:12Speaker 4: the forty nine ers because they have like five or
- 15:15Speaker 4: six of former forty nine ers on their roster right now.
- 15:17Speaker 1: And the running back, the running back from the third
- 15:20Speaker 1: rounder that they got from the Niners a couple of
- 15:23Speaker 1: years ago.
- 15:23Speaker 4: Which one there was Trey Sermon and then there was
- 15:25Speaker 4: ty Davis Price. Yeah, ty Davis Price, he was also
- 15:29Speaker 4: a third round.
- 15:29Speaker 3: Well, I was.
- 15:30Speaker 1: Bringing up Sermon because wasn't he the guy that Siriantti
- 15:33Speaker 1: mentioned and was like, whoa he got a shout out?
- 15:36Speaker 4: You know, yep, he was. But you know there's Ambrey Thomas,
- 15:39Speaker 4: there's Terry Castro, Fields's camera Latu in the past there,
- 15:43Speaker 4: I mean they have that, They've had like so many
- 15:44Speaker 4: former forty nine ers. It's kind of funny.
- 15:47Speaker 3: Well, little hibernation. Well, next week the mandatories.
- 15:51Speaker 1: So the mandatories are on Tuesday and Wednesday next week,
- 15:56Speaker 1: so those will be some fact finding stuff on this offense,
- 15:59Speaker 1: I would imagine.
- 16:00Speaker 4: Right, I would imagine. So, yep, a.
- 16:02Speaker 1: Little bit, we'll get a little bit there. You know,
- 16:05Speaker 1: Aj is not going to be there, so that's now done.
- 16:07Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about woh he didn't show
- 16:09Speaker 1: up to the mandatories.
- 16:10Speaker 3: He is out. Obviously, we'll see.
- 16:12Speaker 1: I think one of the big things will be the
- 16:14Speaker 1: Makai Lemon, that hamstring situation. That kind of stinks, you
- 16:17Speaker 1: know that, the fact hopefully he doesn't go into training
- 16:19Speaker 1: camp with that thing lingering.
- 16:21Speaker 4: Hope not. That would suck. I agree, But it is
- 16:24Speaker 4: a long long off season before. It's a long time
- 16:27Speaker 4: before September thirteenth.
- 16:29Speaker 1: So all right, Well, Jeff Boucher and the guys over
- 16:32Speaker 1: at Inside the Birds, they did a whole breakdown of
- 16:34Speaker 1: the Eagles wide receiver room without aj Brown. So check
- 16:38Speaker 1: that out at the latest Inside the Birds podcast. Wherever
- 16:41Speaker 1: you get your podcast, it's on all podcasting platforms, and
- 16:44Speaker 1: of course that Inside the Birds dot com and Philly
- 16:47Speaker 1: Voice for more from Jeff Mosher.
- 16:50Speaker 4: Thanks man, you gotta take care.