Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: Going Inside Eagles Situational Roles

Transcript

Football at Four: Going Inside Eagles Situational Roles · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Football and four is powered by the Inside of the
• 0:01
  Birds podcast. It's brought to you by BET three sixty five.
• 0:03
  Whatever the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At
• 0:07
  BET three sixty five, Adam Kaplan from the Inside of
• 0:10
  the Birds podcast is here every Friday. We give it
• 0:13
  to you with Adam of course, the guys at four o'clock.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: We're gonna be getting.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: One month to Eagles training camp on Sunday. One month
• 0:23
  to Eagles training camp this Sunday. Think about that, Adam
• 0:27
  Kaplan as we get ready for the start of Eagles season.
• 0:30
  Here in one month, man, the countdown, this is the
• 0:33
  final football at four outside a month of Eagles training camp.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: We get to see Adam on the stream. Everybody, what's happening.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Right, that's right, man, Yeah, that's right. So yeah, we're
• 0:43
  about just over four weeks. And remember they don't practice immediately.
• 0:47
  In fact, the thing what happens is they report then
• 0:52
  the first day of practice is super light factor. They
• 0:55
  have the acclimation period. In the five day acclimation period.
• 0:57
  It's not like that. It wasn't like that when I
• 0:59
  first started to coming to the league. In fact, what
• 1:00
  I used to love Mike is this. The first day
• 1:04
  of practice was almost certainly in pads, and there was
• 1:08
  some hitting, like they can't do that anymore because the
• 1:10
  change is yeah, exactly in the CBA, right, So you
• 1:13
  couldn't hit the first day like they used to.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: The paths were popping, as they used to say.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: But not only do the Eagles not hit, they're just
• 1:22
  not They're they're limited to time in days they could
• 1:23
  be in pads. But look, the off seasons, I've said
• 1:26
  many times, is like double a baseball. You gotta be
• 1:29
  careful of of of what you hear and what you
• 1:31
  see and what you read. It's more for the coaches
• 1:34
  to see where the players are mentally, and then the
• 1:37
  physical part comes in comes to training camp and particularly
• 1:41
  for the young players in the preseason.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: All right, Adam, Today we're gonna take a look at
• 1:44
  an interesting conversation football for We're gonna detail the Eagles
• 1:48
  situational roles. It's you know, we're just talking in a
• 1:50
  last hour about foot baseball analytics. Situation in baseball football
• 1:55
  not much different here some of the situational roles, and
• 1:59
  the Eagles almost seems like they're gonna have a lot
• 2:01
  of platoon situations here. Let's kind of break them down.
• 2:04
  Let's start with the running back spot. Are we going
• 2:06
  to see as heavy Saquon Barkley or will somebody else?
• 2:11
  Will Shipley or somebody else have a situational role on
• 2:15
  this team a bigger one than last year.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Yes, okay, so they're a running team.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: That's not gonna that will not change with Saquon Barkley
• 2:21
  being all the roster.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: That's just something that they did.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: They made a decision last year when they signed Barkley
• 2:26
  the offense would go for him, not through hurts anymore.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: And it worked, I mean, it really worked, and that
• 2:31
  that'll stay.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Now. The question is situationally, what are they gonna do.
• 2:36
  Are they going to keep Barklay in on third downs
• 2:38
  because Kenny Gama, who was their main third down back
• 2:40
  and by the way, their hurry up back which means
• 2:43
  two minutes, four minute uh sometimes goal line?
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Is that going to change at all?
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: What we he's not here anymore? Like who's that going
• 2:53
  to go to? Is it going to go all to Barkley?
• 2:56
  Our feeling here is that it'll either be Barkley or Shipley.
• 3:00
  Aj Dillon, who, by the way, it would signed really
• 3:03
  to be the main backup, particularly if Barkley would get hurt,
• 3:08
  but Shipley could actually in normal situations, actually play more.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Now, going to your point, will they situation?
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Will they give Barkley in the first half a series off?
• 3:20
  Half the series off? What will happen Mike? If they're
• 3:23
  up by seventeen points with ten minutes left in the
• 3:25
  fourth quarter, will they pull Barkley out and put aj
• 3:28
  Dillon in? You would think they would, But we have
• 3:30
  to get there yet. They have a general idea. They
• 3:35
  always know a general idea of what they want to do,
• 3:37
  but they tweak it depending on what they see in
• 3:39
  training camp. So our feeling here on the third down
• 3:41
  back is depends on the yardage, depends what the score is.
• 3:45
  But more often than not, they're going to split it
• 3:47
  between Barkley and Shipley. Now I say that Shipley's got
• 3:50
  to show he can block, We're not going to know
• 3:52
  that until they get through training camp. How well does
• 3:54
  he pick up and sort? It's called sorting. This is
• 3:57
  what running back coach is called sorting. Where where's the
• 4:00
  pressure coming from? They got a pre snap Sorting is
• 4:03
  what it's called. Barcoley was not good at this with
• 4:05
  the Giants. We were told he's gotten better at he's
• 4:07
  still not quite good enough. He's still working through it.
• 4:10
  So this is a big change, Michael, third down. As
• 4:12
  we get through the running back position, not having a
• 4:15
  game well anymore, that's a big deal.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, think about game well not being here all right,
• 4:19
  Levin personnel, one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers.
• 4:24
  Who's that third wide receiver?
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's gonna be Johan Dotson. That's certainly gonna that's
• 4:28
  a lock.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Like there are not a lot of locks here because
• 4:31
  when you go to tight end, boy, there's a lot
• 4:32
  that could be different.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: But it's gonna be Johan Dotson. Then the question is
• 4:36
  who's the fourth receiver?
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Not that they play a lot of ten personnel very little,
• 4:41
  but who will be Like, if let's put it this way,
• 4:44
  if a j. Brown or Smith couldn't play, we know
• 4:46
  Dotson would start. Well, who's the next guy in the rotation?
• 4:50
  They don't know that yet.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: There.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: That's something Mike that they'll get through in training camp.
• 4:55
  They'll they'll figure that out. Whether it's gonna be Johnny Wilson, Terrace, Marshall,
• 4:59
  Danny who we like, Avery Williams, a nice Smith is
• 5:03
  only an inside receiver that wouldn't affect anything but.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: The fourth receiver.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: They'll have to figure out again that the fourth receiver
• 5:09
  will not figure at.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: All unless somebody gets hurt.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm kaplin football at four from the Inside
• 5:15
  of the Birds podcast. Let's go to twelve personnel, which
• 5:17
  brings in two wideouts, two tight ends. We know the
• 5:20
  two wideouts are but Dallas Goddard. For a while, we
• 5:23
  weren't even sure if he was going to be here.
• 5:24
  He's now here. But now who's he partnered up with?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so in twelve, Now there are differences in twelve.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: You could have.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Twelve with Goddard and somebody else, which is either gonna
• 5:36
  be Harrison Bryan or Grand calcul Terror most likely.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Or because what happens is you either one F.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Goddard is the Y tight end or the move tight end,
• 5:45
  which is their F position. The Harrison and I'm told
• 5:48
  he could PLAYF, he could play the Y, And then
• 5:52
  you've got Grank calcul Terror, who's an F tight end,
• 5:54
  or Kyler Gretson, who's an F tight end. Neither really
• 5:56
  what you call inline tight ends, though they can do
• 6:00
  what if you asked him to do it, But that's
• 6:01
  not really what they do. So there's a there's a
• 6:03
  big variance here. My money will be on Harrison Bryant
• 6:07
  to beat out, to beat out Calcaterra. I know Calcuata
• 6:10
  is then advantage because he's been here on her training
• 6:12
  campus the two, and that doesn't mean he'll end training
• 6:14
  camp and the preseason as the two.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Brian on a one year to year deal.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Calcu Terri's contract expires that for the season and granted
• 6:21
  on a one year deal. So that's a battle, Mike,
• 6:24
  That's absolutely a battle. And then the other battle will
• 6:26
  be who's going to be the main tight end? Uh
• 6:29
  if Goddard got hurt, who's the backup? They don't know
• 6:31
  that yet. They'll figure that out by the end training camp.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: All right, Adam, Let's look at the offensive line situational roles.
• 6:37
  You know, you've got that swing tackle, that backup guard,
• 6:41
  and of course the backup center and all of these spots.
• 6:43
  You know, my lot of missed time last year. Johnson
• 6:46
  seems to miss a game here and there. The two
• 6:48
  guards landon Dickerson, he had some injury issues. You don't
• 6:51
  even know who's going to start at right guard, and
• 6:54
  Jerkins is coming off an injury.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the situation roles well Kenna, Lamb and Bark something
• 6:58
  highly unforeseen will be their backup right tackle, left tackle.
• 7:03
  The backup center job is either going to go to
• 7:05
  Brett Toath or Drew Kendall. They would love to be
• 7:08
  Drew Kendell, but he's got to win it. That that's
• 7:12
  this is probably more natural position. Heard from a scout
• 7:16
  that had his area. He's co scout for Boston because
• 7:20
  of Boston College. He said that Kendall he just doesn't
• 7:23
  see him as a guard. He could play it, but
• 7:25
  he's really a center. But he's got to win the job.
• 7:27
  And then Matt Pryor. Now the question will be there
• 7:30
  is okay, let's just assume Stein's their right guard.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: That's he's clearly the clear favorite. Then the question is
• 7:36
  who's the first guard off the bench?
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Is it Ken Young Green who got cross train at
• 7:41
  right and left guard?
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Matt Prior's played both in his career. What will they do?
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: My money will be on Matt Pryor, to be honest
• 7:47
  with you, because Stout knows him he's back.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: He's back for its second tour of duty.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: He could play right or left tackle, but It's funny
• 7:54
  when when he was drafted no one saw him as
• 7:56
  a guard. Stout did, and honestly that talking to some
• 8:00
  that had him over the years, he kind of is
• 8:02
  not a bad backup lineman.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: I know he's much beligned here on the first time around.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: I get that, but he wound up making a decent
• 8:09
  amount of money, Mike, and he's in the back nine
• 8:11
  of his career. But this is not a bad signing
• 8:13
  of the eleven deals that were signed that were one
• 8:16
  year deals.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he gets lost in the sauce a
• 8:18
  little bit.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: He's a guy who started a lot of games out
• 8:20
  there for the Indianapolis Colts, so he's been a guy
• 8:23
  who has plenty of starting you know, thirty nine games
• 8:26
  of starting experience for him in Chicago as well. Last
• 8:29
  year he started fifteen games. So yeah, I think people
• 8:32
  forget prior because he kind of gets lost in the sauce.
• 8:35
  So let's go to defense and get some of the
• 8:37
  roles that we're looking at here. We know Jalen Carter,
• 8:40
  we know Jordan Davis, we know Moro. Ojomo is another
• 8:43
  guy that everybody sees to be talking about. Who aren't
• 8:46
  we talking about?
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the top backup tackle.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Now those three, now, Carner will play the most snaps,
• 8:53
  no question, on their defensive line.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Remember, they don't play with they don't play with.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: A true true edges with their hands down in the dirt.
• 9:04
  Unless it's third down. They'll do some wide nine, not
• 9:07
  a lot. The question is, Okay, we know a Jomo,
• 9:10
  Davison Carter are the guys who will play the most.
• 9:13
  Who's that first guy, who's the first guy off the bench. Well,
• 9:16
  it's either gonna be Ty Robinson or Thomas Booker. Booker
• 9:18
  could play multiple positions. Booker could play some nose. Ty
• 9:21
  Robinson is not a nose tackle it. If it's Carter
• 9:26
  or Jomo can't play for some reason, it's either gonna
• 9:30
  be Ty Robinson or Thomas Booker.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: My money's gonna be on Ty Robinson. That I really do.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: I he's got more upside Mike. I think he's more talented.
• 9:39
  And that's a guy I know they were really excited
• 9:41
  about getting. And I'm gonna go with Ty Robinson there.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: All right, Adam Caplan, let's go to the you know,
• 9:47
  one of the other spots on the defense here that
• 9:50
  has two new faces and we don't know what their
• 9:53
  situations were what kind of roles they might have, But
• 9:55
  we were assuming that Azizo, Jalari and josh Us are
• 9:59
  gonna have some roles.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: What might they be?
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, here the way it ended campus because
• 10:04
  he's Ojelari was the first Edge, he was their subpackage rusher.
• 10:09
  He's the guy who would fill in if if Nolan
• 10:12
  Smith couldn't play or hunt. Now we'll see what I
• 10:18
  want to see is do they do they have oj
• 10:20
  Lari playing both sides or just one? But we strongly
• 10:23
  feel that oser Lari will be the first guy off
• 10:25
  the bench and Us will be the fourth guy, and
• 10:29
  that that's so that's the way we look at it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: I know some people think they should sign another Edge.
• 10:35
  They don't feel that way right now. I know the
• 10:36
  Eagles could always change their mind, could always do that,
• 10:39
  But right now it's Oje Lari and I love that signing.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: It just it was it was a it was a bargain.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: It's just over four million, three million in cash and
• 10:50
  then they these plus the signing bonus which is over
• 10:52
  two million, so it's four point two eighty five million,
• 10:55
  So the total cash it's a bargain.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: USHA got way less than that. I only got a
• 10:59
  quarter of that, so whush. He's got to prove himself.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: But oja larai Mike, based on the contract and based
• 11:03
  on his upside.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: To me, he's got that beg role right now all
• 11:07
  over him. I see that totally.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I know talking to Andrew and Jeff
• 11:12
  this week, and of course you were earlier. You know,
• 11:15
  we're all kind of seems like everybody likes Hunt, right,
• 11:18
  everybody kind of seems that Hunts going to I don't
• 11:22
  want to say not give you any worry, but that
• 11:24
  the questions about him are going.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a guy who's green as grass. Really
• 11:29
  when you think about.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: It, Mike, this is his fourth year as an edge rusher,
• 11:34
  two years at the college level at Houston Christian Okay,
• 11:40
  he had to learn how to be an edge rusher
• 11:42
  at a lower level of college football, and now he's
• 11:45
  in his second year as a professional edge rusher.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: I said this at the end of last season.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: If he wants up starting which right now, he will be,
• 11:55
  just be careful of the expectations. The upside is huge.
• 11:58
  He's still learning. You nailed it. He's really green, he's
• 12:01
  got length, he's growing into his body. Really smart kid.
• 12:07
  I just be careful for the expectations. It's been an
• 12:09
  incredible story. And Mike, before we move on to the
• 12:11
  final piece of this, let's not forget Mike. When they
• 12:14
  drafted him, they were not going to play him. That's
• 12:16
  the real story here. He was in healthy and active
• 12:20
  Week one. Their plan was to not play him unless
• 12:23
  absolutely necessary. Well, what happens is is.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Dryce Huff played poorly then had risk surgery. So now
• 12:33
  he started playing.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: He was their fourth edgeressuer BG suffers a serious injury.
• 12:39
  He now goes from being the fifth to now becoming
• 12:44
  a rotational third guy and then starting Mike.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: He wanted to being a starter late, So you got
• 12:48
  to understand that.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: All right, Let's get the last two here, both special
• 12:52
  teams related. They signed Avery Williams. But is he definitely
• 12:57
  going to be in the situational role of kick return
• 13:00
  and punt returner.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right now, He's definitely gonna be one of them.
• 13:02
  They'll figure that out in training camp.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: It's either going to be Avery Williams, Shippler, Keelan Robinson
• 13:07
  returned kicks at Texas and palm returners, Avery Willams or
• 13:10
  Nias Smith. And I actually did well with it in college.
• 13:14
  He just got hurt last season, so those roles are stole.
• 13:17
  But so so we're just in closing here. There are
• 13:20
  a lot of roles. The reason why I wanted to
• 13:21
  put this under radar, mic There are a lot of
• 13:23
  roles which Jeff and I really have not talked a
• 13:25
  lot about. This stuff is real. These there are a
• 13:28
  lot of roles that are going to be decided in
• 13:30
  training camp, but they're situational roles.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: We know there's a lot of things up for grab
• 13:35
  when you lose five key players on defense. You got
• 13:38
  special team stuff that all starts in about one month
• 13:41
  from now. Adam Kaplan from the Inside of the Birds podcast,
• 13:43
  which you can get on all podcasting platforms just search
• 13:46
  Inside the Birds. Thanks Adam, Thank you, all right, Adam Kapling,
• 13:50
  everybody here on the Sports Bats Live on ninety seven
• 13:53
  three ESPN for Friday's edition of Football at four.