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TABLE TALK: Reflecting On The 2023-2024 NFL Regular Season · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We are recording this podcast episode on Monday,
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January eighth, twenty twenty four. By the time you hear this,
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some things may have changed, but we hope you enjoy the show. All
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right, everybody, you're listening to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
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podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world,
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over ten and a half years strong. We got a great discussion come in
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your way as we reflect on this twenty twenty three twenty twenty four NFL season,
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the regular season that is now in the books. There were a lot
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of surprises. There were other things that weren't so much a surprise as well
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when we looked this season as a whole. But we've got a great guest
0:59
coming to us this week. He's a good friend of the show. Let's
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get to that discussion right now, and it is great to have back on
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the podcast. If you've been a consistent listener up the PST podcast show during
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the course of this NFL season, you heard of a decent amount on our
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Eagles postgame podcast shows. He was so very generous with his time to step
1:18
in for the guys when they weren't able to join us. We have from
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Philadelphia Soccer Now dot Com don't want and only Josh Schuster, Josh Buddy,
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thanks so much for jumping on our table talk discussion this week day time.
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Jeff, It's always pleasure. It's always fun talking with you talking football,
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and you know we're not I don't know if we're going to get into the
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Eagles too too much. Quite frankly, I'm honestly like exhausted from thinking about
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this team, where they were, what they're doing now, what the future
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looks like for the Philadelphia Eagles organization. So I kind of wanted to do
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just a reflective podcast here about what we saw during the course of this NFL
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season in general, because we saw some surprises, as I mentioned in the
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intro, some some things that weren't so much of a surprise too. But
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I think it was overall a very interesting NFL season in a lot of different
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ways. So let's start on the quarterback position here, and I think from
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a quarterback standpoint, and I'm wondering what players surprised you from this past regular
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season. I can say for me from my standpoint, I'm gonna go to
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a guy named Justin Herbert for the Chargers and how he really during the time
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he was on the field, underperformed and was very just not the type of
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quarterback I thought he was going to be this season. I mean, so
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much inconsistency from him. And then on the flip side of things, you
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have CJ. Stroud, who was a huge surprise for all of us as
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a quarterback coming out of Ohio State, and as we know Ohio State quarterbacks
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you usually don't pan out too too well in the NFL. But man,
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he certainly took the league by storm. So I'm wondering, Josh, what
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quarterback or quarterbacks really surprised you during the course of the season. Yeah,
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so I'll do a bad and a good one and Eagles fans are going to
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be happy. My dad, My dad is Jalen Hurts. When you and
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your Herbert comparison is funny because both quarterbacks have signed massive contracts, right,
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and so they're locked in, right. The problem I have with Hurts is
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he has more talent all around than the Chargers, and the level of expectations
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are just wildly different. To me. When you had mentioned Justin Herbert,
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I wasn't really surprised even the year leading up to him supposing to go one
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overall, he flopped. It's just what he does. He got the money
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from I almost said San Diego, but from the Chargers because when they have
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a player, they have to pay him because they leave otherwise. My good
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is also not going to make Eagles fans happy, because my good shroud is
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a good one. But I tried to do a veteran and mine's going to
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be Dak Prescott. There you go. I don't think we understand the season
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Dak Prescott had. We kind of view him as overrated. But I was
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thinking about it last last night because I can't stop dwelling on the Eagles.
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Dak threw for forty five hundred yards, which is the most he's ever thrown.
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He threw four thirty six touchdowns, which is the second most he's ever
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had. He only threw nine interceptions, which is also one of his career
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lows. He had his highest quarterback rating he's ever had, of one oh
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five point nine. He had a phenomenal season. Now is that going to
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translate to playoffs that? I don't think so, but we'll see. But
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he's had just the tremendous year This year, and I didn't see that coming.
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He was intentional about trying to get the interceptions down, and he did.
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I kind of rolled my eyes when I had heard him talking about it,
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But for me, he was the pleasant surprise in a bad way.
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I guess yeah, I feel you, because if you look at the week
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eighteen quarterback rankings. After Week eighteen, I should say Dak Prescott arguably is
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the number two quarterback in the entire NFL, Lamar Jackson being number one.
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I think us Eagles fans really wanted to discount as much as possible what Dak
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Prescott could have done this season, and ultimately what he did do is essentially
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what you're saying. We just don't want to give credence and respect and credit
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to the Cowboys organization for something, especially after we've seen a player like Dak
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Prescott fold a number of times during the course of a number of seasons.
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So I think that's a really good one. Quite frankly, Josh, Dak
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Prescott absolutely surprised so many of us. But as we're looking toward this quarterback
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position and moving along with our discussion here Josh the backup quarterback, I think
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it's becoming so much more important in this league. In this season, I
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think really showed us the reason why. Look how many teams lost their starting
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quarterback this past season. They just floundered game by game because they didn't have
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a competent backup quarterback. Now, yes, it's easier said than done to
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get that competent and solid backup quarterback if your star quarterback goes down. We
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understand that, of course, but the Philadelphia Eagles arguably been able to you
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know, they've been one of those teams that have been able to get that
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done in the past. I mean, even as awful as the last Giants
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Eagles game was of this season, putting in Marcus Mariota, who quite frankly,
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he didn't do a terrible job as a backup quarterback. You know,
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thirteen to twenty, one hundred and forty eight yards, seven point four yards
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per attempt, a touchdown, interception, eighty two point nine rating he ended
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the game with. I mean, that's that's not terrible for a backup quarterback
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position in this league if you're trying to be competitive in games, and I
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think we're gonna end up seeing more teams targeting that quote solid backup quarterback in
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the future. So I'm wondering, Josh, what are your thoughts on this?
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And I do wonder too, what the quote competent backup will look like
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for teams in the future. What are your thoughts here? Igree with you,
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it's going to need to become more and more and more important each year
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that teams follow. I'm going to call it the Eagle philosophy because for years
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they've done this, Right, the Eagles always have a competent backup, and
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that's one of the reasons why they're competitive. If their starter goes down,
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there's somebody who can fill in, who can move the ball. The other
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example that I'm going to use is the popular one. Who's Cleveland with Joe
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Flacco, Right, I mean he came in and honestly, he played.
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He's played better than DeShawn Watson. Yes, so. But the other example
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I'm going to use is Jake Browning in Cincinnati. Right, I mean he's
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come in his QBR, which is not the quarterback rating. It's kind of
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confusing. What ESPN does. They have their own. It's based out of
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one hundred his QBR for the season, and he played a number of games,
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right, So this is the snapshot of your quarterback goes down is out
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for the season, you need someone to carry you. As QBR was over
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sixty, which is good. That puts him, you know, in a
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top two thirds, which is great for a backup quarterback. Absolutely also led
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him to a winning season. Yeah right, So, I mean the backup
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quarterback is becoming As it becomes a more and more passing league, it becomes
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increasingly important. Absolutely does great, great insights there, my friend. And
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you know, I really thought, as we look at this one particular team
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I want to bring up next, I thought that the Patriots would actually have
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had a better season. I mean I didn't think they'd be great by any
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stretch or win the AFC East, but I thought they would be a lot
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more competitive than they were this year. Of course, Mac Jones just just
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completely imploding. The offense just didn't know what to do with the quarterback position.
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The defense was floundering throughout the year. I'm wondering what does the end
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of their season mean to this franchise as they are looking forward. Of course,
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questions about Bill Belichick still being the head coach or not being the head
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coach. Bill O'Brien was recently brought in as the offensive coordinator. It was
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a complete disaster this year, and they are a team that is bereft of
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talent, of course, but where where again, where do you see this
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franchise going in terms of their path forward? Here? Yeah? So there's
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two teams in then AFC East that really learned a hard lesson as to the
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importance of a good backup, and it's the Jets and the Patriots, right,
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yep, yep. Both those teams have excellent defenses. But both those
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teams, I mean, I don't really consider Mac Jones a starter, but
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the points they have nobody after him, yeah, right, And so both
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those teams without a starter weren't even able to move the ball. I mean,
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they were winning games like three nothing or a part of the games that
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were three nothing. All they needed was a touchdown. Totally different outcome.
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To me, the benefit that Belichick has and the New England fans, to
10:07
be honest with you, have is that Brady left first, right. Brady
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left first, he went to Tampa Bay, he had success. They've already
10:16
had that grieving process. So for them it's really just hope either way.
10:22
And for Belichick I think he's cemented such a legacy, it's not going to
10:26
matter. To be perfectly honest, I don't know how great of shape New
10:31
England is left because you pointed out they have no talent none outside of the
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defensive end, defensive side of the ball, there's nothing. So I guess
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long answer, Belichick is going to be great. He's going to get that
10:46
Don Schuler record. The fans in New England, they're probably okay because they've
10:50
already had their breathing process, and the Patriots will still go down as one
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of the best organizations for over a decade in history. Yeah, you're thinking
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he stays. Are you think? Are you thinking Bill Belichick stays? You
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know, they give they give him the opportunity, but you know, they
11:07
give him the opportunity to kind of quote make things right. And because of
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that leash being so extremely long, longer than probably any other NFL coach,
11:18
that he may actually stay. Is that what you think? Yeah, I
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mean, I'll quit. It kind of like to an X that you're dating.
11:26
Sometimes, if you're on the fence about whether you should stay with them
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or not, it's easier to deal with the situations and problems that you know,
11:33
rather than starting over fresh and there could be other situations you don't even
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know how to deal with. And so reports are, I don't know when
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this is going to go up, but reports are that he's willing to give
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up control in a variety of areas. Yeah, that to me just shows
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he would rather deal with the beast that he knows rather than the beast he
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doesn't know. So over over twenty something years as a head coach, of
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course, you're gonna wanna You're gonna want to stay with the beast that you
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do know. That beast being Robert Kraft in the front off his brass for
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sure. So all right, well let's move along here, because I'm wondering
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again. You know, there were a lot of surprises this past NFL season.
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We've already talked about some of them in terms of the quarterback position and
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uh, you know, certain teams here. But I'm wondering, like,
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what what NFL team really did surprise you most in terms of what they weren't
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able to do this past regular season? And maybe maybe it is the Philadelphia
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Eagles. I was thinking maybe we could think maybe maybe beyond Philadelphia Eagles here
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with this one. But I'm wondering what it is for you. I'll let
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you know mine in just a bit. So what's that. What's that team
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that really surprised you because of what they weren't able to do this season?
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Honestly, Jeff, I think it's the Bears, And part of it's my
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own doing. I kind of bought in the Justin Fields hype. I even
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drafted in Fantasy. Now I did win my championship, ooh, congrats.
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But yeah, I really thought, you know, I loved the trade that
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they did where they brought in DJ Moore. They brought in talent, and
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I thought they had this really great defense. Green Bay had lost Aaron Rodgers
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the Lions. I wasn't going to buy into him until I had actually seen
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it like this year. Plus they have Jared Goff as their quarterback, and
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I thought, you know what, Chicago is really going to do something this
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year. And I even had him winning the division. Wow. Man,
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they just they just bombed. First, the season was terrible. First half
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of the season was terrible. Justin Field's kind of coming on a little stronger
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that second half of the season. I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's almost
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yeah, that's almost worse though, right because at least at the beginning of
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the season, you could think, Okay, we have a high pick,
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we need a quarterback. He's not the answer, and really he turned out
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to be. Okay, it's the same thing with the Jordan Love situation.
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The two of them are exactly the same. But yeah, mine in Chicago,
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I'll tell you mine is. It is the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I
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say this because I went into this season. I love how you mentioned fantasy
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football because I was actually gonna mention fantasy as well. I went into this
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season thinking, Okay, who could potentially be that dynamic duo this year?
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And I said to myself, It's gonna be Trevor Lawrence and Calvin Ridley.
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And boy was I wrong with that. I really thought Calvin Ridley coming back
14:30
was going to be able to take take those necessary steps to actually be like
14:33
that true number one wide receiver, number one wide receiver that we have seen
14:39
in Philadelphia with AJ Brown. You know, there's a number of number one
14:41
wide receivers that I thought he could potentially be like. And it was incredibly
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disappointing, such a disappointing season for the Jaguars and our buddy Doug Peterson from
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the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from years ago, thinking that he may be
14:58
able to get that team to the next level. They made the playoffs last
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year. They were playing for a playoff spot and they just couldn't get it
15:05
done in Week eighteen. So for me, that was actually one of the
15:07
biggest surprises. I really thought Trevor Lawrence and Calvin Ridley were going to be
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a dynamic duo this season. It didn't happen. I don't believe it's going
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to happen in the future. Jacksonville, as they do every year, they
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got to go back to the drawing board and say, Okay, you know
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what kind of talent can we bring in free agent wise? How can we
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get more depth where we need it? So it's a Jacksonville Jaguars for me.
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Yeah, I think I've mentioned before. I'm a big South Carolina football
15:33
fan and I had to watch Trevor Lawrence for years just tear up my beloved
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Gang Cocks, and I can tell you I have no tear shed over him.
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Frankly, I'm not going to call him a bust, but how he
15:46
was talked about, he was the next Andrew Luck and all that. I
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couldn't be happier. But he's an average to above average quarterback, but he's
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not a top ten QB. And it makes me so happy. Absolutely,
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Oh god, it's still it still gets me. I gambled. I was
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like, I'm gonna do a quarterback wide receiver draft here in this in the
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one particular fantasy league I was in, Josh, and I was like Trevor
16:12
Lawrence Kelvin Bridley. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm like,
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I got it. I got this going forward and nothing not that. I
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was like, oh boy, I don't know if I'm doing that again.
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I also did that with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey. I actually gets a
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couple of leagues. I actually got both of those guys, and honestly,
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that really didn't pan out for me as well. So I'm gonna have to
16:32
go back to the drawing board myself when it comes to fantasy. But as
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we're moving along here, let's getting to the NFC East, Josh, because
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NFC East wise Man, the Giants and the Commanders, gosh, what horrible
16:44
seasons, and and yes, injuries were abound from both teams, you know,
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and you can only go to the injury like the the injury page.
16:55
You know so many times before you know, coaching gets involved schematically, how
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the T teams are performing as well. These front offices are going to need
17:03
to make some dramatic improvements of this coming off season if they're going to even
17:07
get to even get to five hundred next year, that five hundred based type
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of play in the future. What are your thoughts with both of these organizations
17:15
here in the NFC East that we continue to follow. They're pretty much a
17:19
disaster here at this point. Ron Rivera fired today from Washington. I don't
17:23
know what you what are your thoughts on where these two organizations go? So
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I have very different feelings about these two organizations one and I'll talk first about
17:36
Washington. I feel for Ron Rivera. I mean, he navigated a team,
17:44
name change, ownership change, all of that. However, I do
17:49
think the future is bright for Washington. They will have a bunch of cap
17:53
space. Joshua Harris, for as much as Stixers fans may not love him
18:03
as an owner, you can't deny the investment he makes in the areas where
18:12
his teams are. They own the Devils. They completely rebuilt that area in
18:18
Newark. It's not unpleasant to be around up there. I used to live
18:23
up there and my wife and I went to a concert up there. It's
18:27
amazing what they did in Philadelphia and even just encouraging the Flyers to improve the
18:36
Wells Fargo Center. I was just at the Wells Fargo Center. I couldn't
18:38
even believe I was in Saint Marina. And they also make investments in their
18:44
communities right in Camden. For Washington, it's going to be great. I
18:48
think that they're in good hands. I think they'll figure it out. And
18:49
Sam Howell is he's kind of like Trevor Lawrence. I put him an average
18:55
to above average quarterback with the Giants. I mean lived up in the New
19:00
York area. I honestly wish nothing but misery upon their fan base and upon
19:06
that organization. So like when they signed Daniel Jones, I was just I
19:11
was so happy. I was so so happy. Me too. And the
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fact the fact that Brian Dable is there, who was after last season was
19:18
you know, the second coming of the brightest offensive mine ever in the history
19:22
of the NFL. For them to flounder this year just it makes me so
19:27
happy. I don't think the ownership can get out of their way and they're
19:32
talking about doing a complete rebuild again, like you still aren't even out of
19:34
the first one. Yeah, So I wish nothing but many, many,
19:38
many more years of misery for them, and it probably will happen. Yep.
19:42
Look, I go back to last year, and yes, as as
19:47
as ticked off as we all are at Nick Sirianni and the Philadelphia Eagles and
19:51
the organization in general with where they're at right now and how they completely bombed
19:56
when it came to the NFC East last year, Nick Sirianni should have been
20:02
the Coach of the Year. I'm talking about last year, folks. Yes,
20:03
last year, he should have been Coach of the Year, not Brian
20:06
Dable. I'm sorry, that's what should have happened. I'm with you where
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I loved. I loved when they gave Daniel Jones the contract extension. I
20:14
was like, yes, yes, for years to come, hopefully we see
20:18
this guy implode. So I'm completely with you, Josh for sure. And
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again, folks, we are talking to Josh Schuster from Philadelphia soccernow dot com
20:26
at fly Guy Josh ninety one on Twitter. Give him a follow and to
20:30
close us out here, I'm wondering, is there a team, Josh,
20:33
who you think is that that shiny can do no wrong team who might actually
20:41
get trounced in the upcoming playoffs here? Do you have any ideas here?
20:45
Yeah, so my heart wants to say the Dallas Cowboys because it was a
20:52
joy. Yes, right, And McCarthy flops in the playoffs often. Dak
20:56
Prescott, he can have a great rate of season the playoffs happen, and
21:00
he just he wills and so that would bring me great joy. Another answer
21:07
I thought of was Detroit. Their coach is very aggressive, and in the
21:14
playoffs, that normally does one of two things. It works in your favor
21:17
or it burns you. Matt Stafford is coming back into town, you don't
21:22
think he's going to be super motivated. I have a feeling that may happen.
21:27
But the main one I came down to was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Right,
21:32
you're hearing all about Mike Tomlin and the fact that he's never had a
21:36
losing season, so on and so forth. They just lost their best defensive
21:40
player, and without TJ. Watt, that defense is wildly different. I
21:45
just I don't see any way that they can win speaking of needing a adequate
21:49
backup, they don't have a quarterback. It's amazing that this team is where
21:55
they're at right now. I'm glad you just mentioned this, Josh, because
21:57
it's something I've actually been thinking about for the past weeks, thinking that this
22:00
team, who stinks in so many different ways and various appenues, is where
22:07
they are at right now. I mean, even Kenny Pickett stunk when he
22:11
was under center. The fact that they don't have a competent backup, the
22:15
fact that they're actually in the playoffs, it's pretty incredible that they were actually
22:19
able to do it. I think one of the luckiest teams in the NFL.
22:22
Quite frankly, yeah, I mean, I think Kenny Pickett is when
22:27
we were talking about a good backup. To me, Kenny Pickett is the
22:32
prime example in the modern day NFL of what a great backup is. He
22:37
can use his legs when needed, he can throw the ball at any elevation,
22:44
and if he's used in short spurts, he's good. So he's a
22:48
prime premiere backup, but he's not a starting quarterback. Great way to end
22:53
our table talk discussion, Josh Schuster Again, folks, Philadelphia sokernow dot com
23:00
at flag Eyed Josh ninety one on the Twitter also known as x Yes,
23:04
I'm finally saying it all right, all right, Josh, buddy. Great
23:07
talking to you. Thank you again, not just for coming on this Table
23:11
Talk podcast, but all the Eagles postgame shows that helped us out with it
23:15
was great just talking to you, getting to know you more, my friend,
23:19
come back join us down the road. We'd love to have you back
23:22
on the show anytime, Jeff, and thank you for having topics other than
23:26
the Philadelphia Eagles so we can have good and pleasant conversation. I love that
23:30
Josh brought up the Pittsburgh Steelers in all honesty. I know last week on
23:34
our Opposition Territory show, we were talking to Alison Cohler from the Steelers Wire,
23:40
and I really didn't get into it too too much in terms of like
23:42
interface or anything like that, but I just could not believe that this Pittsburgh
23:47
Steelers team is where they're at right now in the playoffs. It's actually mind
23:49
boggling to me. Given everything that I saw from this team during the course
23:55
of the season. They were on a decent amount in my area of Pennsylvania,
23:59
here over the course of this twenty twenty three twenty twenty four season.
24:03
Man, I just cannot believe they're in the playoffs. Glad Josh brought it
24:06
up, but that's gonna do it for us here on Table Talk. This
24:07
week, we've got our Opposition Territory podcast coming to you. Stick around for
24:12
that. Evan Winter from A to Z sports dot Com. He's gonna be
24:15
joining us to preview the Eagles Buccaneers wild card playoff game. It's going to
24:22
be an interesting discussion for sure. And then our regular show coming this week.
24:26
Lenn and I are going to be talking about everything in the world of
24:30
Philly sports. And we got a great guest as well to talk about the
24:34
Philadelphia seventy six, So stick around for that. I'm on threads at mister
24:38
Jeff Warren. The show is also on threads at Philadelphia Sports Table and that's
24:45
gonna do it for us, folks. You all take care, We'll catch
24:47
you next time.