Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: A Look Inside Eagles TE Situation, NFC Playoff Contenders?
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Football for is powered by The Inside the Birds podcast
- 0:02is brought to you by Bet three sixty five. Whatever
- 0:04the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At Bet
- 0:08three sixth from the Inside of the Birds podcast is here.
- 0:11You can get that on all podcasting platforms, and of
- 0:14course it's a Wednesday edition of Football at four. Jeff
- 0:17Boucher also writes for Philly Voice dot com and he
- 0:22had a nice piece up there that I was reading
- 0:24last night about some of the free agent additions into
- 0:27the tight end room, and it's funny motion I was
- 0:29reading that. I kept thinking back to the time that
- 0:32a big topic of conversation was Dallas Goddard not returning,
- 0:37and now that he has returned, you right, the Eagles
- 0:40have a deep tight end room. This was a room
- 0:42that we were scratching our heads and wondering what they
- 0:45were going to do there, and they all kind of
- 0:47gathered this week and as they get together. Jeff Boscher,
- 0:51by the way, you can read this article, TEU shows
- 0:53depth of Birds tight end room. They are there for
- 0:56the tight end University, which is something that has kind
- 0:58of happened. It's another season where all the tight ends
- 1:01at a three day summit for tight ends, and they
- 1:04all the tight ends around the league get together and
- 1:07it is it's in Nashville. They all get down there
- 1:10and Dallas Goddard is there along with Grant Calcatara, e J. Jenkins,
- 1:16the two free agent signings, Kaylan Grantson and Harris and
- 1:20Bryant aren't there. So we got Jeff Mosher back on
- 1:23the line here and Jeff, this tight end University is
- 1:26happening down in Nashville. It's the week where tight ends
- 1:28kind of are celebrated. And as you write about this
- 1:31here that you know Goddard, we didn't know he was
- 1:34gonna come back. We were wondering how this room would look.
- 1:36And then as you write how deep this room is,
- 1:38and I'm wondering, is that position gonna change, evolve or
- 1:42be different now with the new offensive play caller.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Well, certainly as the opportunity to evolve. And one thing
- 1:48I wrote was that I can't remember a tight end
- 1:52room that deeth and that experience. I mean, you can
- 1:57look at the Super Bowl team, the first one twenty seventeen,
- 2:00where you had Dallas Goddard and I'm sorry, you had
- 2:03zach Ertz and you had Brent Selleck a lot of
- 2:06experience and talent there, and you even had Strey Burton,
- 2:08who I think was there a second maybe third year
- 2:11at the time, I forget. So there was some good
- 2:15divers and Burton was a guy who played quarterback at
- 2:18times at Florida and was quite sort of that offensive
- 2:21weapon type. So they had a good diversity of skills.
- 2:24But Mike right behind Dallas Goddard. Now you have three
- 2:27fourth round picks. One of them is Grant Calcutta who's
- 2:30been playing for them for the last three years, and
- 2:32then Alan Granton and Harris and Bryant are both fourth
- 2:35round picks who were in situations with quarterbacks battle offenses.
- 2:40Bryant won the Mackie Award in college, so I mean,
- 2:44do you know he came into the league with some
- 2:47stential to catch and ball. I believe it was over
- 2:48a thousand yards in a round, well did the touchdowns
- 2:51and when he was at I think it was at
- 2:53school at So that's pretty good when you could say
- 2:55you have three fourth round picks with all have NFL
- 2:59experience behind your starter, and then even a guy like
- 3:04j Jenkins who's been with the team who's a converted
- 3:07wide receiver. A guy's two hundred and sixty pounds and
- 3:09they've been really working on getting his blocking acumen up.
- 3:13So that's another guy who's going to be in the mix.
- 3:15And a guy Cameron Lot too, they got from the Niners.
- 3:19He was I believe a third or fourth round pick also,
- 3:22so he hasn't Nick Neiers Nick years from Vinkings.
- 3:26Speaker 3: Yep.
- 3:26Speaker 2: So you got a lot of guys here who have
- 3:28experienced and can do things, and they're not all going
- 3:31to make it.
- 3:33Speaker 1: Jeff, you know, we look at this tight end room.
- 3:34You got Goddard, what's the room in your mind? Who's
- 3:36got the best shot at getting the next reps behind him?
- 3:39Is it still cal Katara or is it one of
- 3:42the guys that they've added and that we've talked about here.
- 3:45Speaker 2: Well, it kind of depends what they're looking for. I
- 3:48think that Well, cal Katara has been the guy establishing
- 3:52a rapport with Jalen Hurts, and you can see he
- 3:55can give you something in the passing game, it doesn't
- 3:59give you watching the blocking game. And he's willing but
- 4:03not necessarily able. It's really not very good at it,
- 4:07and then it hurts the team at times. Now Kylon
- 4:09Granson is also not blocking tight end, but if you
- 4:12look at his career averages, I mean he can stretch
- 4:14the field for a tight end, getting between twelve and
- 4:17fourteen yards per catch, and he can probably run a
- 4:20little bit better even than cal Katera can. So if
- 4:23they're really trying to open the passing game, you could
- 4:26see Kylon Grantson being somebody who I thought looked pretty
- 4:29good in a couple of the OTA sessions that were
- 4:32open to the media Paris, and Bryan caught a couple
- 4:35of passes too, So you know, the big question I
- 4:38have is can Harrison Bryant block well? Can he block
- 4:43better than cal Katara? He has come from some offenses
- 4:47there and with the Raiders last year and the Browns
- 4:50before that, where they do like to run the ball
- 4:52and they're asked to block. So if he can block,
- 4:55we already know he can catch the ball well, then
- 4:56maybe you would get more of an od than Kylan Granson.
- 5:00But it's looking for just past, past past, and Granson's
- 5:04the guy.
- 5:05Speaker 3: Yeah, it will be interesting.
- 5:06Speaker 1: That'll be an interesting you know, uh training camp to
- 5:09see how they you know, elect to kind of keep
- 5:11that root together, break it up do something different because,
- 5:14as we said, Kevin Batula might want to incorporate the
- 5:17tight end a little bit more right then, and to
- 5:18do that he might look at guys a little differently.
- 5:20Although Calcata has shown, uh he can catch the football.
- 5:25While you know why Goddard's been out, he has been
- 5:28a part of the of the passing game there. Now
- 5:30do they consider keeping four tight ends? How deep and
- 5:33experience this group looks.
- 5:37Speaker 2: I just don't think that that's necessary anymore. With what
- 5:40you're able to use on your practice squad and having
- 5:42guys that you can elevate that to me, it's a
- 5:45waste of a roster spot unless you've got like a
- 5:48young developmental one that you want to make sure you
- 5:51hold on to. But even then, for its kind of
- 5:53a lot, all.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Right, Jeff Boscher Football at four for the Inside the
- 5:57Birds podcast, tight End you good stuff there. Read that
- 5:59article about Goddard because you guys had Godard on him
- 6:02talking about how things could be different. You know, you
- 6:05take a look at what Goddard brings to the table.
- 6:08We would imagine this is his last year here with
- 6:11the team. But do you, like you look back and say,
- 6:14could they get more from him or is this what
- 6:16he is? Because every year we feel like, oh, this
- 6:18is gonna be the big year for Goddard. There's so
- 6:20much there, you know, when you look at him, some
- 6:22people think he's one of those top ten tight ends,
- 6:24but the numbers just don't really break out.
- 6:26Speaker 3: He always gets hurt.
- 6:27Speaker 1: But could he be Do you think he could or
- 6:29should be a bigger factor in this offense?
- 6:33Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to be a bigger factor in the
- 6:36offense than he was when it mattered, and that was
- 6:38the postseason. He led the Eagles and catches or receiving
- 6:41yards during the playoffs, so he was, you know, the
- 6:45facto stat wise, their most important pass catcher in the playoffs.
- 6:50Could he have a bigger role throughout the season. Sure?
- 6:53Obviously a lot of that is dependent on staying healthy.
- 6:56But what mitigates him maybe being in that Kelsey Kittle, Laporta,
- 7:04Rage or McBride right is the fact that the offense
- 7:07is never going to revolve around him.
- 7:10Speaker 3: Never.
- 7:10Speaker 2: He's never gonna be a centerpiece. He's far behind, well
- 7:14not far, but he's behind aj Brown Devonte Smith in
- 7:18the pecking order. So at there might be a game
- 7:22or two or sporadically throughout the year where he gets
- 7:24more targets than those guys. But at the end of
- 7:26the year, when you know, like we were talking about
- 7:29the back of the baseball cards for a guy right
- 7:30when he's struggling at the end of the year, Goddard's
- 7:33going through if he stays healthy, her game average be
- 7:36right behind Davante and right behind A. J. Brown in
- 7:40targets and receptions.
- 7:42Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 7:42Speaker 1: And you know, by the way, you got Davonte Smith,
- 7:45who maybe has one of the best, you know, the
- 7:47number two receivers in the league. Got aj Brown, who
- 7:50might be the best wide receiver in the league.
- 7:52Speaker 3: That makes it difficult to kind of fit the tight end.
- 7:54Speaker 1: But as you kind of indicate it, you know, come
- 7:56playoff time, when everybody's on high or alert, that's when
- 7:59Goddard could be at his best. So it's like you
- 8:01almost have to wait all season long to kind of
- 8:03reap the benefits of this talent that you have.
- 8:07Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and you hope for his sake that
- 8:10he can stay healthy this year be more productive because
- 8:13this is probably his last year as an Eagle. And
- 8:16I think if you're an Eagle fan and you have
- 8:17an appreciation for Dallas Goddard and the two Super Bowls
- 8:20he's been to and the one that he's been able
- 8:22to help deliver. Then you want to see the best
- 8:25for him and so have him have a nice healthy
- 8:27years and go on and wherever it is next year
- 8:30after that, and you know, good for him, all.
- 8:34Speaker 1: Right, man, Well, you take a look at some of
- 8:36the other things that are going on as this little
- 8:38lull period before by lay inside one month of training camp.
- 8:42Yesterday with Adam we talked about the Lions and are
- 8:46they the biggest threat in the NFC? Do you put
- 8:49the Lions or somebody else as the biggest threat to
- 8:53the Eagles in the NFC?
- 8:56Speaker 2: You know, I asked some major question marks about the
- 8:58Lions because they have great talent, but obviously the two
- 9:03coaches you really got the most out of that great
- 9:05talent are not along with Dan Campbell are not there.
- 9:09And those are the two coordinators, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glen.
- 9:11So we've seen that with the Eagles, you know, a
- 9:13lot of great talent until on twenty three they had
- 9:16new coordinators and it didn't work out very well with
- 9:18Sean Desigh and Brian Johnson, and they had to clean house.
- 9:22So I think that those are I think from about
- 9:25fifty three man roster standpoint, Yes they are the biggest
- 9:28chuff Eagles. But is there another team that might have
- 9:32more together? I'm you know, I just tap one last
- 9:36sort of arguments back and forth. I like the Ramps.
- 9:39I think they've got the continuity, the great coaching staff,
- 9:43the quarterback play, the defense that really came along last
- 9:47year and is young. They're a little deficient in some areas,
- 9:50like you look at the secondary and it's not great,
- 9:52but they added DeVante Adams. I think that they're on
- 9:56their best day can give any single team a run
- 10:00for its money. So it wouldn't surprise me if we
- 10:02talked about the Rams similarly as anyone else's big threat
- 10:07to the Eagles in the NFC.
- 10:09Speaker 1: All right, Jeff Boscher Football four here on the Sports
- 10:11Bats Live ninety seven three ESPN.
- 10:13Speaker 3: Yeah, the Lions.
- 10:14Speaker 1: I like your pick with the Rams too, And I'm wondering,
- 10:17you know we were talking about because the Lions are
- 10:18plus one forty in the North, they're the favorite over there.
- 10:22But are the Bears this year's version of Washington? Do
- 10:27you look at them as one of those type of
- 10:28teams that they could be a challenger. A team that
- 10:32went to the NFC Championship Game last year, the Commanders,
- 10:34the County came out of nowhere.
- 10:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they could be I think about the
- 10:38last two kind of teams like that, Washington last year
- 10:42and then Houston the year before, and they really played
- 10:44in divisions where there wasn't as much balance I would
- 10:48say as the NFC North. Obviously, you know, the Eagles
- 10:50are very good and Washington had a contend with that,
- 10:52but Dallas was not very good last year. The Giants
- 10:55have been not good for quite a while, just like
- 10:58Houston and the AFC South. You know, it's not like Jacksonville,
- 11:03Tennessee and who am I missing in that that division
- 11:08are perennially awesome.
- 11:09Speaker 3: Yeah, Minnesota, Green Bay, Indianapolis.
- 11:12Speaker 2: Right, So yes, this great rookie quarterback season and win
- 11:16a division that's not as ballast as I think as
- 11:19the NSC Norse. So the Bears could be a lot better,
- 11:21but you still got to get through a schedule that
- 11:23includes the Packers, who I would put right there with
- 11:26the Rams and maybe the Commanders. When you asked me
- 11:28about teams that could threaten the Eagles. I think the Packers,
- 11:31if they can get Jordan Love to play twenty percent
- 11:34better than they did last year, I think they'll be
- 11:36a very very good team. I think the Vikings, we
- 11:38don't know about the Party, but every other aspect of
- 11:41that team is pretty good. I think they're going to
- 11:43be formidable regardless. And of course the Lions, right So
- 11:47I think, no matter what, the Bears could be a
- 11:50twenty five percent better than last year, fifty percent better.
- 11:53And it doesn't mean they're gonna win thirteen twelve games
- 11:55like the Commanders did last year.
- 11:58Speaker 1: The Commanders last year yet went to the NFC Championship
- 12:01game kind of a surprise to everybody. Could the Bears
- 12:03be that surprise team? We'll see? And as we talked about,
- 12:06and you know, we a lot of people look at
- 12:09the NFC East, and we talked about Washington earlier in
- 12:12the week in the NFC East, this whole who's repeated
- 12:15in the NFC. No one's done it since the Eagles
- 12:18all the way back. So they've got a lot that
- 12:19they had to kind of buy into. And we talked
- 12:21about could they you know, dominate the division there. They've
- 12:25got to dominate a lot of really good teams this year.
- 12:27That's the thing you talked about, the Rams, the Lions,
- 12:30just the teams in the NFC. It's going to be
- 12:32very important to win those NFC games this year. If
- 12:36you want to be that a year ago.
- 12:38Speaker 2: It is, and there'll be some surprises. You know, we've
- 12:41been doing on inside. The Birds are annual NFC East
- 12:44previous year. He's with Greg coast Tell where he really
- 12:46goes into the tape and breaks down schemes, newcomerce free
- 12:50agent signings for each of the four teams. We did
- 12:52Dallas and there's no question that the Cowboys have a
- 12:56lot of talents. There's no question that when Dak Prescott
- 12:59is healthy, they win on average, I think eleventh to
- 13:02twelve games a year, which is not easy to do
- 13:05in the NFL. At their playoff history aside, because we're
- 13:09not talking about that right now, we're just talking about it.
- 13:10He's going to be a formidable full right for the
- 13:14seventeen weeks of the regular season, and if they're healthy
- 13:18and their players are playing well, the ones that are
- 13:21really good, they've got a lot of good players, so
- 13:24they should be formidable.
- 13:26Speaker 1: All right, Well, we know that this time of the
- 13:28Year is the list version of the season. Nick Sirianni
- 13:32on the list. He came in as the number eight
- 13:35head coach in football. And I'm wondering, like, is that
- 13:38a fair number for Nick Sirianni. Do we not give
- 13:40Sirianni the credit he deserves? We talked about this back
- 13:43when he signed his contract.
- 13:44Speaker 3: But is eight fair?
- 13:46Speaker 1: I looked at the seven guys ahead of him, And
- 13:48if you said, hey, you can replace Nick Sirianni with
- 13:52any of these seven guys, do you automatically do it?
- 13:58Speaker 3: Wow?
- 13:58Speaker 2: Eight? So seven guys? I mean I don't, Yes, but
- 14:03I gotta think that you know McVeigh is on that list.
- 14:08Speaker 3: Oh, you haven't seen this list.
- 14:10Speaker 2: I have not seen the list.
- 14:11Speaker 1: Yes.
- 14:12Speaker 2: This is a.
- 14:13Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus ranking of the top returning head coaches
- 14:18in football. Nick Sirianni is on the list of the
- 14:20top ten. He is number eight.
- 14:24Speaker 2: Andy Reid is one.
- 14:25Speaker 3: I'm sure Andy Reid is one. McVay two, McVeigh three.
- 14:32Speaker 2: Who the heck am I missing?
- 14:33Speaker 3: What?
- 14:34Speaker 2: Kyle Shanahan.
- 14:36Speaker 3: Kyle Shanahan seven.
- 14:41Speaker 2: I mean, fellowchick's not coaching anymore, right. I just got
- 14:44to make sure that in my head that I'm not
- 14:45missing some five or six times champion here.
- 14:49Speaker 3: No Belichick on this list?
- 14:51Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, who's so? Who's two?
- 14:54Speaker 3: Number two? Number two is Sean Payton?
- 15:00Speaker 2: Okay, okay?
- 15:01Speaker 3: One, Andy Reid? Two? Where's Sean Payton? Three?
- 15:05Speaker 2: Sean McVay, All right, where's see Carrol. I'm sure he's
- 15:08on the list.
- 15:09Speaker 3: Now, he's not in the top ten, so he did
- 15:12not make this list. Okay.
- 15:15Speaker 2: I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed with this list
- 15:17because I'm sure Kevin O'Connell is probably honest because he's
- 15:20a darling. And even though.
- 15:22Speaker 1: He's Kevin O'Connell, he did not make the list, by
- 15:24the way. So number four is John Harball.
- 15:29Speaker 2: Forgot about that, that makes sense.
- 15:31Speaker 3: Number five is Mike Tomlin.
- 15:34Speaker 2: Sare man, I'm seeing, I'm bad. This is suwhere he
- 15:36is getting to me?
- 15:37Speaker 1: Number six is Jim Harball, and number seven was Kyle Shanahan.
- 15:43Speaker 3: Number eight was Nick Sirianni.
- 15:44Speaker 1: So of the group of Andy Reid, Sean Peyton, Sean McVay,
- 15:51John Harball, Mike Tomlin, Jim Harball, Kyle Shanahan. Are you
- 15:57automatically saying if they're available? Sorry, Nick, You're out?
- 16:05Speaker 2: Listen. I think you can make some good arguments for them.
- 16:09I know a lot of people don't want to hear that,
- 16:10but I mean I laughed at Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, but
- 16:13he did make it to a super Bowl. Now he lost,
- 16:16Nike Sirianni won, But I don't. I'm never the type
- 16:19that says just because this guy won one and this
- 16:21guy lost one, that automatically means guy who won one
- 16:25is better, right, because that's that's fore day. We can
- 16:27go through quarterbacks like Joe Flacko is better than than
- 16:30Dan Marino. I don't think so. So I get that.
- 16:34I just don't know what to me. It's playfaller bias
- 16:39or it's side of the ball bias. You know, Mike
- 16:41Tomlin defensive mastermind, Kyle Shanahan offensive plakeballer mastermind, and Nick
- 16:47is constant he will always be. And then you just
- 16:52said Carrol's out on that list either. This guy's been
- 16:54to two Super Bowls and one one, just like make
- 16:56Siriani right. So it's that constant. If you don't specialize
- 17:00on a certain side of the football, you just don't
- 17:03get the same respect as those who do. I mean,
- 17:06that's the only way to read it, I think.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Yeah, well, if you're not the play caller, you don't
- 17:11get the scene. Like being the play caller is the
- 17:14equivalent of like being that's like your way of being
- 17:18a star at the coaching rank, right If you're not
- 17:20a play caller, you're vanilla.
- 17:23Speaker 2: Right now, John Harbaugh is only higher on that list
- 17:26than Nick Kiani is despite being the same kind of coach,
- 17:29because this man has been to two Super Bowls, one
- 17:33to one and is literally in the playoffs every year
- 17:37with different quarterbacks. Now, I mean he's he's had to
- 17:40like accomplish some of the most difficult things in sports,
- 17:44compared to say Kyle Shanahan, who's just been an offensive
- 17:46play faller on and not really good teams. Right, and
- 17:49he's on the list with no Super Bowl wins. But
- 17:51look at what John Harbaugh had to do his resume
- 17:55just to get on that list as a guy who
- 17:57doesn't specialize on one side of the ball. And that's
- 18:00for the unfairness, is all right.
- 18:02Speaker 1: Jeff Bocher Football at four powered by the Inside of
- 18:04the Birds podcast here on the Sports Past Live. Check
- 18:07out his coverage of the Eagles and Philly sports over
- 18:10at Philly Voice dot com. He's got plenty of more
- 18:13of this. We got a good Phillies article up there
- 18:15as well. Check out all of that stuff at Phillyvoice
- 18:19dot com and of course football at four here on
- 18:22the Sports Batch.
- 18:23Speaker 3: All right, most we'll talk to you Mike real quick,
- 18:25real quick.
- 18:25Speaker 2: You want to have fun in my Silly Voice story today.
- 18:28I did twenty years of Eagles drafting safeties going back
- 18:31to two thousand and five, and how every single one
- 18:35of them was basically a miss. None of them. I
- 18:39mean there were some there, okay, Nate Allen was okay.
- 18:41None of them signed a long term second contract with
- 18:45the Eagles. Is that not amazing? Twenty years?
- 18:48Speaker 3: That's unbelievable.
- 18:50Speaker 2: Fifteen safeties, I believe was the number and now one
- 18:53of them was able to see a long term second
- 18:55contract with the Eagles.
- 18:57Speaker 1: I thought Nate Allen was gonna be the one we
- 19:00all did.
- 19:00Speaker 2: We all did. Then he had the torp to teller
- 19:02and he's he's one of the few on that list
- 19:05that actually re signed. But it was a one year
- 19:07deal and then it was just kind of an okay
- 19:10year and then he went off to the Raiders and
- 19:11got hurt again. But man far more, far better in
- 19:15free agency with their safeties and draft. So you hope
- 19:17that Andrew mccubaugh, who he's battling some ghosts here, well.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Hopefully they can you know, defeat that ghost at safety
- 19:26end the back to back NFC easting that number twenty
- 19:29years in counting no back to back NFC East champions.
- 19:33Jeff Bocher, All right, buddy, we'll talk to you next week.
- 19:35Speaker 2: All right. By the way, I'm team Edgecomb if you care.
- 19:38Speaker 1: I do care Team Edgecomb. Yeah, I'm out on Ash Bailey.
- 19:41I'd be on the Edgecomb camp as well. I'm actually
- 19:44trade back. I'm on team trade Back.
- 19:47Speaker 2: They hear that. But I want Edgecomb. I love the attitude,
- 19:50the hustle, the versatility, the athleticism. I just feel like
- 19:54he's got an opportunity to develop better some of the
- 19:57other guys because the floor is, I mean, the ceiling
- 20:01will be really high for him.
- 20:03Speaker 3: I can get on that.
- 20:04Speaker 1: Hey, listen, if they make a picket three, Edgecombe would
- 20:06be my guy.
- 20:08Speaker 2: There you go, all right, man, take care?
- 20:09Speaker 1: All right, brother, We'll talk to you on Monday with
- 20:11a motion Monday mailbag here on the Sports Bats Live
- 20:15ninety seven three ESPN