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ITB: Who Are The Biggest Reasons For Optimism About The Eagles' Defense? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Inside the Birds Iss Back. What's going on? Everybody is
0:14
Speaker 1: Jeff Mosher Adam Kaplan. We're finishing our two part podcast
0:17
Speaker 1: series on what we're optimistic about for the Eagles in
0:21
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six season. In the first part we
0:24
Speaker 1: did offense. This part we're gonna do defense. And Adam,
0:28
Speaker 1: it's not that I did struggle with this one a
0:31
Speaker 1: little bit because honestly, we could do a show and
0:34
Speaker 1: we probably and we will do this on what more.
0:36
Speaker 1: I mean, the defense is so good there's hard to
0:40
Speaker 1: find things that you're not optimistic about. But we both
0:43
Speaker 1: got a little bit creative with our selection. So I
0:45
Speaker 1: look forward to going through it. Like you mentioned in
0:48
Speaker 1: the last podcast, doesn't have to be a player, it
0:50
Speaker 1: could be a coach. Yeah, that be something a concept
0:53
Speaker 1: like pass rush or something like that. So yeah, so
0:57
Speaker 1: this will be an interesting series to go through what
0:59
Speaker 1: we're optimistic out for the Eagles on defense.
1:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
1:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, in general, you're optimistic about the defense.
1:06
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean it should be dominant. We'll talk
1:08
Speaker 2: about why probably over the course of the show and
1:12
Speaker 2: leading up to training camp, and obviously during training camp
1:15
Speaker 2: and then to the season. They're stacked This they're they're
1:18
Speaker 2: really really stacked. Things have to happen, of course, health
1:22
Speaker 2: and uh, the new corner of course needs to play well.
1:28
Speaker 2: And you know that's that's actually two new corners, but
1:31
Speaker 2: one of them in particular, it's got to play really well.
1:34
Speaker 2: But overall, I'm really bullsh on this defense because they're
1:37
Speaker 2: really really talented.
1:39
Speaker 1: They are very talented. They got a lot of good players.
1:41
Speaker 1: They've got attle good young players too. So that's going
1:43
Speaker 1: to parlay into number one, Who did you who are
1:47
Speaker 1: your number one player that you're most optimistic about.
1:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the look you could you could go with
1:53
Speaker 2: Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis. Those are layups, But I want
1:57
Speaker 2: to kind of go deeper on that, and I'll explain why.
1:59
Speaker 2: So for those of us, for those of you who
2:01
Speaker 2: have been with our show from day one or at
2:03
Speaker 2: least in the last three years, you probably know how
2:05
Speaker 2: high we were on Jylex Hunt in terms of really
2:08
Speaker 2: really big upside, but it was going to take a while. Well,
2:11
Speaker 2: he's actually he's advanced earlier than we thought, Like last
2:17
Speaker 2: year league them in sacks and interceptions. This is a guy.
2:20
Speaker 2: This will be his fifth year edge and edge rusher
2:24
Speaker 2: two previous in the pros and two years at Houston
2:26
Speaker 2: Christen and before that a safety at Cornell. What he
2:29
Speaker 2: did last year he kind of leaves you wanting more
2:32
Speaker 2: in a good way, like you can't wait to see
2:34
Speaker 2: what he does this season. He's got to beat out
2:36
Speaker 2: in Nolan Smith. I don't see that being a problem.
2:39
Speaker 2: The question will be how good could Jalax Hunt be?
2:41
Speaker 2: Is he going to be? Now? Of course Fanjo will
2:43
Speaker 2: make a call, will be eighty percent playtime sixty fifty.
2:47
Speaker 2: Don't know that the training camp will help answer that
2:49
Speaker 2: and its performance during the season. But he does so
2:53
Speaker 2: many things really really well. He drops and coverage well,
2:57
Speaker 2: he's so explosive as an edge rusher. He's getting better
2:59
Speaker 2: with it, his technique. It just it's fascinating to see
3:03
Speaker 2: where this guy could go.
3:05
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm really interested to see if he
3:08
Speaker 1: has more. He has so much athletic upside, and he's
3:12
Speaker 1: already recognized a lot of that potential. I'm wondering if
3:15
Speaker 1: there's a step of being it. Can he be the
3:17
Speaker 1: type of guy that can move inside if they want
3:20
Speaker 1: to do that and play him like Brandon Graham used to,
3:23
Speaker 1: Oh so that you can play more edges. You can
3:28
Speaker 1: play Nolan Smith and Jonathan Garnard, or you can play
3:30
Speaker 1: Jonathan Gernard and Arnold Abukeettie or Arba Kenny and Smith.
3:34
Speaker 1: On the outside, Grenard gets arrest and you're moving Jaylex
3:37
Speaker 1: Hunt inside. But then on the second The answer to that,
3:40
Speaker 1: or the counter argument of that, Adam, is that as
3:43
Speaker 1: an edge defender, he really picked up on the on
3:47
Speaker 1: the nuances so quickly of the Fangio scheme, and being
3:50
Speaker 1: a former safety probably helped because he's really good when
3:53
Speaker 1: he drops into coverage. You have three interceptions last year,
3:56
Speaker 1: he had to pick six against the Viking. So he's
3:59
Speaker 1: really like the archetype edge guy you want in VIXED
4:03
Speaker 1: defense because he can play the run, he can rush
4:05
Speaker 1: the passer, and he can drop into coverage. And I
4:08
Speaker 1: don't know how much you want to take that off
4:09
Speaker 1: the field, even though they have, you know, so many
4:11
Speaker 1: good edge rushers.
4:13
Speaker 2: I know, I know his pressure rate is good, a
4:15
Speaker 2: lot of upside, good length, over six foot three, explosive,
4:20
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things well, and I just I'm
4:22
Speaker 2: so interested to see how good of a pass rusher
4:25
Speaker 2: he could be. Overall six and a half sacks doesn't
4:27
Speaker 2: really tell you even close to the whole story because
4:29
Speaker 2: if he does win the job, which is what I
4:31
Speaker 2: expect at pressure rate, could he be five? Could we
4:36
Speaker 2: have five a game, six a game? Could he be
4:39
Speaker 2: Could he be a ten to twelve sack guy for
4:41
Speaker 2: a season? Absolutely, when he just did six and a
4:43
Speaker 2: half sharing time, he was more or less a starter
4:48
Speaker 2: over Smith. But it's gonna be fascinating. This is one
4:53
Speaker 2: where how he took him in a third round, which was,
4:56
Speaker 2: you know, by the way, kind of bold. We talked
4:59
Speaker 2: about it. We thought he before that draft. We talked
5:01
Speaker 2: about it with Greg Cosel. What we're hearing his third round.
5:04
Speaker 2: We didn't know the Eagles was going to draft him,
5:06
Speaker 2: but what we were hearing his third round. But you
5:08
Speaker 2: wouldn't probably see anything significant until year three. Well, it
5:12
Speaker 2: happened in year two, and he took a big jump
5:14
Speaker 2: from year one to year two. You want to see,
5:19
Speaker 2: really wanted to see in year three, can he be
5:23
Speaker 2: that big time pass rusher like Jonathan Garnard by the way,
5:26
Speaker 2: you know, who he added in the off season was
5:29
Speaker 2: another guy that we'll we'll probably talk about him later,
5:32
Speaker 2: but Jonathan Garnard was not expected to be this good,
5:35
Speaker 2: and his pedigree is a lot different because he was
5:38
Speaker 2: a big time pass rusher coming out of college or
5:41
Speaker 2: a good, really good pass rusher come out of Florida.
5:43
Speaker 2: I mean, he just really blossomed us a pro. So
5:46
Speaker 2: to finish this off, I'm so curious to see what
5:49
Speaker 2: Hunt becomes this season.
5:52
Speaker 1: It's still amazing to me. I mean we talked about
5:54
Speaker 1: last year's breakout, but really, eight games into this kid's
5:57
Speaker 1: rookie year, he went from special team to end that
6:01
Speaker 1: rotation with Josh Sweat and Nolan Smith Junior. And then
6:05
Speaker 1: the next thing you know, he's sacking Patrick Mahomes in
6:07
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and really starting to, you know, make
6:10
Speaker 1: a name for himself. And I you know, we went
6:12
Speaker 1: into last year wondering is that was that real? Or
6:15
Speaker 1: is that flash in the pan? And then he showed
6:17
Speaker 1: a really good year. I mean, I think the sky's
6:19
Speaker 1: the limit for the kid. And at this point, the
6:21
Speaker 1: only thing I wonder is like, does VIC start Nolan
6:25
Speaker 1: Smith Junior along with Grenard just on first and second down?
6:29
Speaker 1: Because Nolan a better run defender than pass rusher. Right now,
6:34
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's a better run defender than Hunt.
6:36
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that's he's a better run defender than
6:38
Speaker 1: pass rusher right now? Or does Vic say I don't
6:41
Speaker 1: care Jallex Hum's my best or second best edge or
6:44
Speaker 1: I can do much more. I'm just gonna put him
6:46
Speaker 1: on the field is as much as possible. That's the
6:48
Speaker 1: only unanswered question at this point.
6:50
Speaker 2: Well, a couple of things here on your on your point,
6:53
Speaker 2: So he'd sixty two percent playtime of defense because he
6:57
Speaker 2: played so much on defense, he did not play on
6:58
Speaker 2: special teams as much as special teams percentage went from
7:03
Speaker 2: fifty six fifty six percent in year one, which you
7:06
Speaker 2: were talking about, and then just twenty three percent last season. Right,
7:11
Speaker 2: he's trending towards being a full time starter. I now, again,
7:15
Speaker 2: as you said, situationally, how does VIC see it? Is
7:19
Speaker 2: it two thirds play times? It is it? Okay? He's
7:22
Speaker 2: going to play sixty percent? He played sixty two? Is
7:24
Speaker 2: he fifty eight percent? Smith on rundown? There are a
7:27
Speaker 2: lot of ways to do it, as you were talking about.
7:29
Speaker 2: But as a pass rusher an overall football player, I
7:34
Speaker 2: cannot wait to see what happens this season.
7:36
Speaker 1: All right, good stuff, So my first candidate for who
7:39
Speaker 1: I'm optimistic about is someone I was not overly optimistic
7:44
Speaker 1: about when they signed him. I wasn't down on him.
7:47
Speaker 1: I just didn't know exactly how I would feel the
7:50
Speaker 1: Riquel In signing. I'm swayed because I trust in Vic Fangio,
7:56
Speaker 1: and it surprised me when Vic said he was going
7:59
Speaker 1: to be a three down, four down player, right, because
8:02
Speaker 1: that's not how he was in the Seahawks, and that
8:04
Speaker 1: was a great defense and Mike McDonald's a great defensive coach,
8:07
Speaker 1: and he basically determined through his actions and almost trading
8:11
Speaker 1: him that he didn't feel like Greek Wallen was a
8:14
Speaker 1: full four down player, three down player, however we want
8:16
Speaker 1: to call it. It's hard to say three down anymore
8:18
Speaker 1: in the NFL because so many teams go for it
8:20
Speaker 1: up fourth down. But the point is a full time player.
8:22
Speaker 1: But Vic has said that he is going to be
8:25
Speaker 1: that enough that he's moving Cooper to gen to safety
8:29
Speaker 1: in base and that's Reek wall in spot. And originally
8:33
Speaker 1: I thought that that was risky given the history, but
8:36
Speaker 1: in Vic, I trust at this point, you know, and
8:38
Speaker 1: I do think I think it's already obvious that he
8:41
Speaker 1: should be an upgrade over at Dori Jackson.
8:43
Speaker 2: That's not why if he's not, let me tell you something.
8:45
Speaker 2: If he's not, I'd be shocked. I mean i'd be shocked.
8:49
Speaker 2: Now I know Vic. You know he doesn't throw around
8:53
Speaker 2: compliments often, but he did with one and we was
8:57
Speaker 2: kind of surprising because Vic's talk about it. He was
9:00
Speaker 2: asked by the media about his opinion on what he knew,
9:04
Speaker 2: and he Vic knew that he was available, and Willem
9:06
Speaker 2: was available to the trade deadline. They were trying to
9:08
Speaker 2: move him. Not a secret. No, it's not a secret
9:10
Speaker 2: around the NFL, very well known. And but the thing
9:14
Speaker 2: is Vic kind of vouch for his tape despite him
9:19
Speaker 2: at one point being benched. We're having this playing time
9:23
Speaker 2: cut and then you know they had the thing with
9:26
Speaker 2: Josh Shob. It's really interesting. I mean, he's he's very
9:31
Speaker 2: bullshit on him and as you said, he wouldn't be
9:32
Speaker 2: doing that, he wouldn't be moving to Gene to safety,
9:34
Speaker 2: no more corner for Coop. Yep, he didn't feel this way. Now, yes,
9:39
Speaker 2: Willem looked phenomenal to OTA's. It's only OTAs as we've said,
9:42
Speaker 2: it's kind of like doua. A baseball needs really nothing right,
9:46
Speaker 2: it's fly football, so it doesn't mean much to me.
9:49
Speaker 2: But tranning camp are going to get a better answer. Yeah,
9:51
Speaker 2: We're gonna get a lot of answers there. Yeah, because
9:53
Speaker 2: I don't know if he'll even play in the preseason
9:56
Speaker 2: and then they'll go into the to the regular season.
9:58
Speaker 2: But I'm looking forward to seeing him on on Smitty
10:01
Speaker 2: and training camp and whether it's whoever it is, Wix
10:07
Speaker 2: of course has got some length. It's gonna be fit.
10:10
Speaker 2: The training and battles were great with Sligh and A. J. Brown.
10:13
Speaker 2: We've talked about that many times over the years. I'm
10:16
Speaker 2: looking forward to seeing if they could challenge one because see,
10:18
Speaker 2: he answered the challenge big time, but I just did.
10:21
Speaker 2: It's hard to tell because that the practice are so light.
10:24
Speaker 2: So we'll see, but I'm looking forward to it.
10:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, And there's the reality check point of it too,
10:29
Speaker 1: where Willan thought he was going to get paid on
10:31
Speaker 1: the free agent market, didn't, so we had to sign
10:33
Speaker 1: a one year deal and so some sometimes that motivates
10:36
Speaker 1: guys and hopefully it motivates him, and if it does
10:39
Speaker 1: and he plays well, then you have a star studded
10:42
Speaker 1: secondary because you already got a lot of really good
10:43
Speaker 1: players back there. And then once Vic said he watched
10:46
Speaker 1: tape on him, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, because
10:48
Speaker 1: because we all remember the press conference where Vic said
10:51
Speaker 1: that he never even watched tape on Adruroy Jackson. That
10:53
Speaker 1: was move So you could tell the difference right away
10:57
Speaker 1: and how he felt about getting rekoled. So that's why
11:00
Speaker 1: I'm I'm it Vic's optimistic, then I'm going to be
11:03
Speaker 1: optimistic then custom I.
11:05
Speaker 2: Mean, it's it's a big deal. There's no question because
11:10
Speaker 2: if Willand doesn't play well, he's got two options. He's
11:15
Speaker 2: got Jonathan Jones or he moves he moves Coop back
11:18
Speaker 2: to corner, which they really don't want to do. Right.
11:21
Speaker 2: Very clearly, Vic sees him as a safety or a nickel.
11:24
Speaker 2: He'd rather him not play corner. He's done it, he's done.
11:28
Speaker 2: He's done, fine with it. But he could do it
11:30
Speaker 2: if he needs to, Vickle do whatever. He didn't like.
11:32
Speaker 2: The thing I respect about not that I didn't know
11:34
Speaker 2: this about him from talking to people who work with
11:36
Speaker 2: him before. He gets along with front offices, but he
11:39
Speaker 2: he does things his way. And you know, if a
11:44
Speaker 2: front office is like, why aren't they whyn't you doing this?
11:46
Speaker 2: He's gonna do it the way he wants to do it, right,
11:48
Speaker 2: That's just the way it is. So we'll see what happens.
11:51
Speaker 1: All right, Let's go to your number two. Who else
11:53
Speaker 1: are you optimistic about?
11:54
Speaker 2: All right? So we mentioned Jonathan grenardan passing Now he's
12:00
Speaker 2: the kind of guy now looks at it and he
12:03
Speaker 2: changes teams here he you know, he with the trade.
12:07
Speaker 2: It's coming off an injury effect. The one there's really
12:09
Speaker 2: really really only one negative in his career. Had a
12:13
Speaker 2: bunch of injuries. Left the left shoulder surgery, try to
12:16
Speaker 2: play through what he could, and he had season ending
12:19
Speaker 2: surgery on his left shoulder. Two years before that, he
12:22
Speaker 2: missed time with an ankle injury. Year before that he
12:25
Speaker 2: missed time with a calf injury and then foot injury
12:28
Speaker 2: before in twenty one. That's something as he gets older,
12:31
Speaker 2: he's now twenty nine that you have to take a
12:33
Speaker 2: look at. But here's the thing, man, his pressure rate
12:37
Speaker 2: was really good over four pressures per game when he
12:39
Speaker 2: was healthy. High upside as a pass rusher. Remember he
12:43
Speaker 2: was amongst the leaders the previous two seasons in sacks.
12:47
Speaker 2: He plays the run elite first step quickness, elite explosive. Okay,
12:54
Speaker 2: Coachable wants to be great, great story of development. There's
12:59
Speaker 2: just as an absolute steut of a football player. And
13:03
Speaker 2: you know, the Vikings they didn't want to pay him
13:05
Speaker 2: because he's coming off surgery and he's been a story
13:08
Speaker 2: as a third round pick. Okay, unlike Jaylex Somewhere, they're
13:13
Speaker 2: actually expectations. See played edge in college. This guy does
13:17
Speaker 2: it all. I know there in social media. I know
13:19
Speaker 2: there were a lot of people are disappinted. Oh yeah,
13:21
Speaker 2: a bad year. You don't say it was hurt right,
13:24
Speaker 2: miss nearly half the season with a shoulder, bad shoulder, right,
13:27
Speaker 2: So I mean you got to now if you want
13:29
Speaker 2: to say he's had injuries in his career, it's true.
13:30
Speaker 2: It's a fact that you can't argue. It's a fact.
13:32
Speaker 2: That's the only negative his career. I am really optimistic
13:35
Speaker 2: that he's He's done plenty of stand up pass rushing.
13:38
Speaker 2: He's played in forty three front thirty fourths as a
13:40
Speaker 2: stand up pass rusher. I I love this thing. Their
13:44
Speaker 2: depth at edge is fantastic.
13:45
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
13:46
Speaker 2: Like that's a that's one of the positions on defense
13:49
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about depth. They've got it.
13:52
Speaker 1: I agree, And to your point on what people are
13:55
Speaker 1: saying about how we had a bit, I think one
13:57
Speaker 1: thing that sticks out to me, Adam, is that you know,
14:00
Speaker 1: sometimes you get a player and maybe maybe this is
14:02
Speaker 1: a good example of missing on Bryce Huff who plays
14:06
Speaker 1: in a different scheme in a certain way. You think
14:09
Speaker 1: he's gonna transfer to your scheme or fit into your defense,
14:12
Speaker 1: and it doesn't work out. I think with Grenard what
14:15
Speaker 1: really sticks out to me is he has been a part,
14:18
Speaker 1: a big part of two really really good defenses. I mean,
14:23
Speaker 1: he comes from Minnesota where even when he was healthy
14:26
Speaker 1: two years ago, they were a top five scoring defense.
14:28
Speaker 1: You know, they give up a lot of yards I think, no,
14:30
Speaker 1: not a lot middle of the back yards, but they
14:32
Speaker 1: were top five scoring defense last year. Yes, he didn't
14:35
Speaker 1: play as many games, but Minnesota was a top ten
14:37
Speaker 1: scoring end point yards defense. So he comes from a
14:41
Speaker 1: good defense. And then before that is with the Texans.
14:44
Speaker 1: We all know how good they have been defensively for years.
14:47
Speaker 1: I think his last year there they were a top
14:48
Speaker 1: ten defense. They were definitely on the come up. So
14:51
Speaker 1: I don't worry that Jonathan gard is gonna come to
14:53
Speaker 1: this Eagles defense and not fit, not be up to
14:56
Speaker 1: the task. I mean, he's been on good defenses. He's
14:59
Speaker 1: been the mad the reason why those defenses are good,
15:02
Speaker 1: and he's been around good defensive player. So to me,
15:05
Speaker 1: this is a smooth and seamless transition, and as long
15:08
Speaker 1: as he's healthy, as you mentioned, he should come in
15:11
Speaker 1: and be absolutely fine. There shouldn't be no worry about
15:14
Speaker 1: acclamation or it was. He a decent player on it
15:17
Speaker 1: who just collected sacks on a bad team. Now he yeah,
15:21
Speaker 1: won good defenses. He can play.
15:23
Speaker 2: No, he's been, I mean he he was. He got
15:27
Speaker 2: vote for Defensive Player of the Year in twenty four.
15:30
Speaker 2: He was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal in twenty four, and unfortunately
15:35
Speaker 2: he missed five games and parts of others with the
15:38
Speaker 2: shoulder problem. So he look, the sack numbers were down.
15:42
Speaker 2: Pressure was actually pretty good. The sac numbers were down
15:44
Speaker 2: because he missed too much time and he's doing the
15:46
Speaker 2: bad shoulder. So I'm folix. I mean, he talked about it.
15:49
Speaker 2: They purposely limited him in the offseason because he was
15:52
Speaker 2: going off surgery. He's expected to be ready to go
15:54
Speaker 2: in training camp. I don't expect him have a great year.
15:57
Speaker 1: Same here, same here, all right. My number two is
16:00
Speaker 1: not a player. It's more of a concept of what
16:04
Speaker 1: I'm optimistic about. And I know that there's a lot
16:06
Speaker 1: of skepticism or questions and people are still wondering if
16:09
Speaker 1: the Eagles are gonna sign another player at this position,
16:12
Speaker 1: which they might, but I am cool with where they're
16:16
Speaker 1: at at safety. In regards to like the number three safety,
16:19
Speaker 1: you know, Cooper de Gene and mccuba are gonna be
16:21
Speaker 1: your starters, I'd actually say I probably have more questions
16:24
Speaker 1: about Macuba and his ability to stay healthy because of
16:27
Speaker 1: his slight frame right and the injuries that he's had.
16:30
Speaker 1: Then I do worry about whoever is going to be
16:32
Speaker 1: that third safety, whether it's Michael Carter the second, whether
16:35
Speaker 1: it's Marcus Epps, whether somebody else figures out a way
16:38
Speaker 1: to get into that competition. But I just think between
16:41
Speaker 1: Eps's experience, Carter's acumen as a nickel who has been
16:46
Speaker 1: being crosstrained, nickel and safety have a lot of commonalities
16:49
Speaker 1: to them, especially when you're playing one high anyway and
16:52
Speaker 1: that other safety is coming inside. I have I'm I'm
16:56
Speaker 1: alright with it. I think they're gonna be okay. I
16:58
Speaker 1: think EPs has never given you a reason to think
17:00
Speaker 1: that he can't hang in this defense. And Michael Carter Jr.
17:05
Speaker 1: Now in year two of Vic's defense, and you know,
17:08
Speaker 1: we know about his relationship with Joe Casper, I think
17:10
Speaker 1: that he'll be I think the I think going out
17:12
Speaker 1: and signing a guy is basically not probably not as
17:16
Speaker 1: good as what you already have unless that guy. I
17:18
Speaker 1: don't know. I can't think of a guy right now,
17:20
Speaker 1: but we know what the free agent landscape at that
17:22
Speaker 1: position looks like. It's not very good.
17:23
Speaker 2: No, it's not. And you know Marcus aps Is, he's
17:28
Speaker 2: a smart veteran. You know, he's not a great athlete.
17:31
Speaker 2: He understands the defense Vic said. He kind of said
17:35
Speaker 2: he was pleasantly surprised with the way he performed. But
17:38
Speaker 2: he's a kind of guy you're going to be looking
17:39
Speaker 2: to replace him at some point. Michael carrs should push him,
17:42
Speaker 2: if not take the job in training camp. We'll see
17:43
Speaker 2: what happens. But uh yeah, safety right now and Macouba.
17:49
Speaker 2: The mccooba thing is, look, he's he's got to stay
17:51
Speaker 2: on the field. They have zero depth that really don't
17:53
Speaker 2: have any depthit safety. It's the only position on defense.
17:58
Speaker 2: Like they proved last year, Barring Young was a real,
18:00
Speaker 2: real good first guy off the bench, real good, did
18:02
Speaker 2: a real good job. Great find for them. Off waivers.
18:06
Speaker 2: We'll see about Ty Robinson and you know, Gabe hol
18:09
Speaker 2: still in the roster, but aren't strictly developmental and take one.
18:13
Speaker 2: Graham's on there. But we talked about edge. They have
18:16
Speaker 2: good depth at inside backer, corner. They have some depth.
18:20
Speaker 2: Jonathan Jones is the first guy off the bench. We'll
18:21
Speaker 2: see about Bennett. But safety is a big worry for me,
18:24
Speaker 2: to be honest with you.
18:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would say overall, if there were injuries,
18:28
Speaker 1: I'd be worried. But I'm kind of keeping this into
18:30
Speaker 1: the scope of the number three safety is either EPs
18:34
Speaker 1: or Carter, and everybody's very panicked about that, but I'm
18:37
Speaker 1: I'm not. I think it's gonna be all right now.
18:39
Speaker 1: If one of those guys has to be the starter
18:41
Speaker 1: and then the other is the number three, and then,
18:43
Speaker 1: like you said, you you lose a guy for injury,
18:46
Speaker 1: then it becomes a little bit of a different story.
18:47
Speaker 1: But right now I'm cool with whoever the number three
18:50
Speaker 1: safety is going.
18:51
Speaker 2: To be right. And remember it's situational this this position
18:54
Speaker 2: with Degene playing safety situationally, so it's not like you know,
19:00
Speaker 2: how he did say they still plan to add one.
19:03
Speaker 2: But that guy's the guy might just be the forced safety,
19:06
Speaker 2: not even play, you know.
19:07
Speaker 1: Right right, the only guy Regency that we ever talked
19:11
Speaker 1: about was the the guy from the Cowboys whose names
19:14
Speaker 1: escaping me right now. He's a pretty good player for.
19:16
Speaker 2: The Donovan Wilson.
19:17
Speaker 1: He's still out there.
19:18
Speaker 2: I'm not mistake, Yeah he is. Yeah, yeah, I mean again,
19:22
Speaker 2: anyone you sign has got to be told, Hey, listen,
19:27
Speaker 2: we're playing Coop and n in bass safety. Got these
19:32
Speaker 2: two other guys. They're not gonna play very much at safety.
19:34
Speaker 2: That's just the way it is place obviously. And Nickel, yes,
19:40
Speaker 2: but who knows who. And to be honest with you,
19:44
Speaker 2: Carter's a better athlete than Apps.
19:46
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
19:48
Speaker 2: So let's just say we forget. You know, Michael Carter
19:50
Speaker 2: was a safety at Duke as soon as the Jets drafted,
19:53
Speaker 2: and they made him Nickel and he's pretty good Nickel, yep.
19:56
Speaker 2: So it the thing about the cot they have, They
20:00
Speaker 2: have players at safety, it's just the quality yep. You
20:03
Speaker 2: know eppside the ACL injury three years ago. Not the
20:06
Speaker 2: same player sim his thirties now, Michael Carter has it
20:10
Speaker 2: played safety in a long time. So yeah, it's just
20:13
Speaker 2: it's kind of an unknown. They have players, it's just
20:15
Speaker 2: kind of an unknown.
20:16
Speaker 1: Fair enough, all right, Let's get to our third third thing, person, coach, scheme, think, concept,
20:22
Speaker 1: whatever that we're optimistic about. What do you got?
20:24
Speaker 2: So this one here is a Vic Fangio protege and
20:29
Speaker 2: that Shoe Casper, who Joe was here in twenty two
20:33
Speaker 2: then Vic, I guess they got to know each other
20:36
Speaker 2: when Vick was not coaching, when he was visiting the
20:38
Speaker 2: Eagles a lot, and then became a consultant. Jeff and
20:42
Speaker 2: I would it's so funny when we saw Vic Vic
20:46
Speaker 2: at Dolphins training, Camper like, why is he everywhere with Eagles?
20:48
Speaker 2: What is going on here? Right? Okay, so you know
20:51
Speaker 2: he he got to know Joe Casper liked him, and
20:54
Speaker 2: it's not a secret Joe Casper is very well thought
20:57
Speaker 2: of within the football operations. When Vic hangs him up,
21:01
Speaker 2: if Joe hasn't become a coordinator elsewhere, he could be
21:04
Speaker 2: that guy, either him or Clint hurt. But now he's
21:08
Speaker 2: got to oversee the secondary and he's we talked about
21:11
Speaker 2: the safety position, which is one that he knows very well,
21:14
Speaker 2: and they got he's got to get wool and going.
21:18
Speaker 2: I know they have a corners coach and Roy Anderson,
21:20
Speaker 2: but he's going to be responsible for the whole deal
21:24
Speaker 2: with Christian Parker moving on. So but I'm up and
21:26
Speaker 2: optimistic that he'll be able to handle this, take this
21:29
Speaker 2: even further. And by the way, I love when Vic
21:33
Speaker 2: they asked, I guess the media asked about Casper to Vic,
21:36
Speaker 2: and Vic had no idea that he had a new title,
21:39
Speaker 2: no idea, what's that?
21:40
Speaker 1: Didn't he actually say what you've been saying for years,
21:44
Speaker 1: like you can't really pay attention to titles.
21:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, that don't mean anything. It's what do they actually do.
21:48
Speaker 2: It's it's it's personnel people. It's jo with personnel people.
21:54
Speaker 2: More often than not, the guy, especially with the Eagles,
21:57
Speaker 2: they just have the same job. But they they are
21:59
Speaker 2: giving him their give him a new title, so they
22:00
Speaker 2: could give him paya maybe a little bit more responsibility.
22:04
Speaker 2: A lot of teams do that. I just thought it's
22:06
Speaker 2: kind of funny. But yeah, he's very well thought of
22:08
Speaker 2: Joe Caspert. It's been a really good story of development
22:10
Speaker 2: as a coach.
22:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I think it was really fascinating for you
22:13
Speaker 1: to pick because we don't really talk about it a lot.
22:15
Speaker 1: But it's a huge, huge issue of not having Christian
22:19
Speaker 1: Parker anymore. He did such a great job here as
22:22
Speaker 1: a defensive back coach and defensive back developer. Now he's
22:25
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys bringing that whole concept and scheme and
22:29
Speaker 1: philosophy to the Cowboys. Now he still needs to get
22:32
Speaker 1: his players to do that, but they got some. But yeah,
22:35
Speaker 1: now Joe Casper steps into a really important role of
22:38
Speaker 1: being that that guy, that developer, that coach. They bring
22:41
Speaker 1: in Mike Keller Greeno to work with Roy Anderson too
22:45
Speaker 1: under him, but he is definitely one of the next
22:48
Speaker 1: guys in line, and the focus will be on him,
22:51
Speaker 1: especially with the secondary Now you have so much talent
22:53
Speaker 1: in it that it's got to be manicured the right
22:56
Speaker 1: way and he's going to be responsible for it.
22:58
Speaker 2: Now.
22:58
Speaker 1: I like that.
22:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, looking forward to seeing how this develops here. But
23:03
Speaker 2: the whole group, and they've got a lot as usual,
23:07
Speaker 2: the Eagles have a very deep coaching staff, you know,
23:09
Speaker 2: they're one of the deepest staffs of the National Football League.
23:11
Speaker 1: And you've picked too, because I think in the Offensive
23:13
Speaker 1: podcast on Monday, you had Sean Manion as one of
23:17
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Speaker 1: All right, So for my last one, Adam, I needed
24:21
Speaker 1: to think outside. I wanted to think outside the box
24:23
Speaker 1: a little bit, use a little bit of a crystal
24:24
Speaker 1: ball approach, And so I was looking at positions and
24:29
Speaker 1: where I thought guys could really show you their promise
24:32
Speaker 1: and potential if certain things happen. And at linebacker you
24:38
Speaker 1: have Johad Campbell and Zach Bowen, but I chose Jeremiah
24:42
Speaker 1: Trotter Junior as someone I'm really optimistic about because and
24:46
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to do this to be like a
24:48
Speaker 1: negative person, but I do feel like the Eagles of generally,
24:52
Speaker 1: well two years ago, the last two years, they've had
24:55
Speaker 1: to rely on the backup linebacker because two years ago
24:57
Speaker 1: Nikobe Deane got hurt and Oron Brooks had to go
25:00
Speaker 1: in for the playoffs. And then last year Johad Campbell
25:03
Speaker 1: was a backup linebacker who started the first eight games
25:06
Speaker 1: until Nikobe came back. And I just don't know if
25:09
Speaker 1: Zach Bourne and John Campbell can each combine for seventeen
25:12
Speaker 1: starts this coming season, because it's just a position that
25:15
Speaker 1: is very grueling, especially in Vic's defense, and you know,
25:18
Speaker 1: Bonn is stayed healthy for two years now, but he's
25:21
Speaker 1: another year older. But so I'm what I'm saying is,
25:24
Speaker 1: I do think that there's going to be some reason.
25:26
Speaker 1: It could be a game could be too be longer
25:28
Speaker 1: to get Jeremiah Trotter, that Jeremiah Trold Junior is gonna
25:31
Speaker 1: be out of the field. And this is a guy
25:32
Speaker 1: that you and I have watched in practice in the
25:36
Speaker 1: times he has gotten to play. He's just like you
25:39
Speaker 1: would expect a coach a player's kid to be. I mean,
25:42
Speaker 1: he's smart, he's instinctive. We know he's not the greatest
25:45
Speaker 1: athlete in the world, but he overcomes that right with
25:49
Speaker 1: just he's so far in his understanding of the game.
25:52
Speaker 2: Like t J.
25:53
Speaker 1: Edwards I remember, I remember we would say that about him,
25:56
Speaker 1: but he still needed to develop that over years. I
25:58
Speaker 1: feel like Poter has always had it, and if he
26:00
Speaker 1: has to play, I'm very optimistic that he's going to
26:03
Speaker 1: play at a good enough level to keep the defense
26:06
Speaker 1: rolling and working well.
26:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, he could play by the way he could. He
26:09
Speaker 2: could he could play either inside backer position. He's been
26:12
Speaker 2: cross trained both as I understand it, so and he's
26:14
Speaker 2: done very well behind the scenes, like really really, it's
26:16
Speaker 2: the first guy off the bench, right, So yeah.
26:20
Speaker 1: You know, very good on special teams.
26:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just but he's look, he's it's a fifth
26:24
Speaker 2: round pick. These guys are backups generally, but he's got
26:29
Speaker 2: a lot going here. He's just smaller than you'd like.
26:31
Speaker 2: There's nothing he can do about it. Remember what greco
26:34
Speaker 2: Sell said, he liked Trotter's tape more than Dean's just
26:37
Speaker 2: college tape college college skip only. Yeah, he's he he
26:41
Speaker 2: which that Hey, that's and and he's kind of from again.
26:45
Speaker 2: I know he's a fifth round pick, but everything he's
26:47
Speaker 2: whenever he's played, he's played well, hasn't played very much.
26:49
Speaker 2: But practice player, good practice player, good special teams player.
26:53
Speaker 2: Here we go.
26:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, the last two training camps, which are
26:56
Speaker 1: his only two so far. It has surprised me how
26:59
Speaker 1: much I would go back to my notes afterward when
27:01
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out who made play and how
27:04
Speaker 1: often I had like fifty four is there and covered,
27:06
Speaker 1: or fifty four there to make tackle or fifty four
27:08
Speaker 1: Like he's always there. It just always seems like he's
27:13
Speaker 1: around the ball and makes plays in practice. And that's
27:17
Speaker 1: why I'm pretty good.
27:18
Speaker 2: I know.
27:18
Speaker 1: We always say you can't judge what you see in OTAs,
27:21
Speaker 1: you can't judge. Yeah, but the fact that he's gone
27:24
Speaker 1: on to be a pretty good specialties player as well
27:27
Speaker 1: has made me feel like if he had to play
27:30
Speaker 1: several games, he'd be fine. I don't think he'd be exposed.
27:32
Speaker 1: I think he would. You would see that he can
27:34
Speaker 1: play this game, and maybe there's an argument to be
27:36
Speaker 1: made that on another team that doesn't have a Zach
27:39
Speaker 1: Bond and a first round picking John Campbell, he could
27:42
Speaker 1: be a starter. I think he made there.
27:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, can't disagree with at all.
27:47
Speaker 1: So that that's who I'm optimistic about, under the premise
27:51
Speaker 1: of if he has to play, he's gonna play well,
27:53
Speaker 1: and the defense is gonna keep going just fine. I mean,
27:57
Speaker 1: obviously i'd love to have Campbell and Bond play seventeen games,
28:00
Speaker 1: but this is sort of a situation where if you're
28:03
Speaker 1: asking him to play, I think you'd be impressed with
28:05
Speaker 1: how he played. So that that's our guys, that's our
28:08
Speaker 1: our three concepts players coaches, however you want to call it.
28:11
Speaker 1: That were optimistic about on defense, and that's been a
28:14
Speaker 1: fun series. We will have more coverage this week here
28:18
Speaker 1: on Inside the Birch. Just make sure you keep staying tune.
28:21
Speaker 1: Oh and make sure you're catching the check O daily.
28:24
Speaker 1: He's been doing this awesome podcast series right where he's
28:28
Speaker 1: catching up with former training camp legends, guys who either
28:32
Speaker 1: enter training camp with like a name for some reason,
28:36
Speaker 1: or they made their name at camp and it just
28:38
Speaker 1: didn't pan out. He already did one with Cornelius Ingram,
28:42
Speaker 1: who is just don't know a. He was awesome to
28:45
Speaker 1: cover back when two thousand and eight, I think when
28:48
Speaker 1: the Eagles drafted him. Awesome guy. But the interview was
28:51
Speaker 1: really cool too. Andrew did a great job and it's
28:53
Speaker 1: nice to walk down memory lank.
28:54
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah man. Two ACL injuries, man just yea. He
29:00
Speaker 2: never never wunt up play in a regular season game,
29:02
Speaker 2: not at all. He was one of those guys you
29:05
Speaker 2: go to trend camp, you go, man, I cannot wait
29:07
Speaker 2: to see this guy go. And then he gets hurt again.
29:09
Speaker 2: Poor guy.
29:10
Speaker 1: He was bitter about it. He's talked about being bitter
29:13
Speaker 1: and angry at the game and worst luck. And now
29:18
Speaker 1: he is I think a two or three time high
29:22
Speaker 1: school champ championship high school coach in Florida and girls
29:27
Speaker 1: basketball championship coach. So he's won championships in two different
29:30
Speaker 1: sports at the high school that he intended kid.
29:34
Speaker 2: And I think he's got kids either in high school
29:37
Speaker 2: or college or playing I'm pretty certain.
29:40
Speaker 1: In fact, I think Quinn. I think there's a Quinnon Mitchell.
29:44
Speaker 1: He knows quinnyon Mitchell from somewhere too. I don't know
29:46
Speaker 1: if Mitchell is Fumbhawthorn, Florida. I went to that high school.
29:50
Speaker 1: The check real quick. Now he didn't go to the
29:52
Speaker 1: high school, but there's a connection between those two as well.
29:55
Speaker 1: But yeah, great, great story, great job by Andrew, and
29:58
Speaker 1: there's gonna be more that you can all right, that's
30:02
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode of Inside the Birds.
30:04
Speaker 1: The leading podcast it Eagles Intel and as always, we
30:07
Speaker 1: thank you for flying with us Inside Number. Be sure
30:13
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30:16
Speaker 1: enhancing the fans experience with their coverage of all Philadelphia
30:20
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