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Football at Four: What's Next For Eagles Passing Game Post A.J. Brown? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, the Eagles and the Patriots seem like they have
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: been dance partners going all the way back.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Almost into the season, we started to hear a little
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: bit of murmurs about this.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: So now that the actual trade has been consummated, let's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: take a look at.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: What about this Eagles passing game?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: You know, I want to ask this question for Adam Caplan,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: who joined us now for football at four. Can they
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: actually have a better passing game without Aj Brown? I
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: know it sounds ridiculous. Adam, we talked about all that
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: he has done.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: He is the.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Career leader in yards in a single season, receptions in
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a single season. He has four hundred and sixty more
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: yards in close contested passes than anybody else. I mean,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the four years that he put together here are historical
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and Eagles lore.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: But can they be better without them?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Mike could be with it? Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I learned my lesson that thinking team can't be good
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: or great. So I'm going to go back to twenty two. Right,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: it's the first season the Chiefs played without Tyreek Kill.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I went on record, you know I do WHB I'm
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: on in Kansas City every Thursday. Have been for seven years,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: eight years, and I said, there's no way guys, I'm sorry,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: there's no way that winning Super Bowl that without Tyrie
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Kill I mean, and it's funny they want up bringing
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Marquez vald A Scantling in Junui Smith Schuster are still
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: playing Kadarius Tony who beat who got the Eagles in
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: the Super Bowl sky More who did well there but
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: in that game, but not very well for his career.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: And so what they did is, you know, I was surprised,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: but they decided to play small ball. There was not
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of explosive plays downfield. The Elephants would shift
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: towards Travis Kelsey, who was still playing at a high
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: level then, and they were able to win back to
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: back Super Bowls. Mike, It's just that goes to your point. Yes,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: it's difficult, but you have to find a different way.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Great coaching, great quarterback played, great scheming and and getting
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: guys open. There's a way that you do it. And
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: if Sean Manny could do that. I'm not saying they
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: won't miss a j Brown, of course they will, but
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: there's another way that they can win big.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: And you know, listen, we were talking earlier about what
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: he has done in Philadelphia, AJ Brown and I think
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you about fifteen hundred yard his first season here.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: In the last two he was more in the thousand
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: yard range.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: So so good.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he was elite when he got here.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: He was very good the last couple of seasons. But
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: now moving forward, how does the passing game look different
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: without him?
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: That's probably Mike the number one issue going forward. Howard
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: coverage is going to be dictated because with AJ Brown
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: on the field, you have to count for him. He's
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: He's a nine round runner. He could also run inside routes,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: although didn't run as many as we thought he might
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: because they did a bunch in Tennessee and they may
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: do again in New England. For the fact I know
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: they will. With the Eagles, we take Brown off the field,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: we know DeVante Smith will be their number one Passaitury
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Know you asked me Friday when we talked about this,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: what I told you what once this tray gets done,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: what it's going to look like. But we didn't talk
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: enough about Devonte Smith and what he can do. He
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: basically could do everything. If you run a run doubt
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: deep downfield, he could do that. If you want to
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: be a possession receiver.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: He could do that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: He's one of them. Not only one of the most
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: talented and tough receivers, he's one of the most unique receivers.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Because guys who weigh like he does, He's weighs less
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: than one seventy Probably they don't typically they typically can
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: only do one thing. Well, these are like a deep threat. Well,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: he can do it. He could do everything. He could
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: play slot, he could play the Z position. He's not
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: ather Nick Sirianti. Mike says that they don't really they
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: don't go buy X, Y and Z receivers. They just
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: go buy inside or outside receivers. But Smith could line
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: up just about everywhere. But they don't have that physical
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: presence as a starter opposite him. Makay, Lemon and Smith
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: will be your starters barring something unforeseen by week one.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: And then when they when they go to a three
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: receiver package what we call eleven personnel, it'll be Smith,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: it'll be Lemon and Dontavian Wicks. And then when they
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: want to get speed in there. Now, this is where
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: it gets interesting. Mike Brown runs the best out of
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: all their He's the fastest. If you look just like
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: a forty time. But who you taking off the field? Like,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: how you how you putting them out there? Are you
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: gonna put them in just an eleven personnel? Will they
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: play some ten with Dontavian Wicks, Smith, Lemon and Brown?
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: That could be interesting.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Do you think that AJ would have been a fit
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for what manion and that style of offense?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the bang A play, the Bangate. We talked about
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: this so Greg Costell, who you know from NFL Films,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: who's done our show for many years. I remember we
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: were watching tape of a j one year and he goes, oh,
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: that's the bang A play. They love that play. That's
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: a three step play action and bang the balls out
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: of his hand on a quick slant that he that
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: you could run. Every offense runs it. West Coast is
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: a timing based offense. You absolutely could have done that here. Yeah,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: it's a good question, Mike. AJ would have been a
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: fine fit for it. But AJ was determined to want
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: to to want to leave like that. That's been a
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: deal now, Mike, the entire offseason, we know this is
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: going to happen, which didn't know exactly what the compensation
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: would be. We knew would be a first round pick.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: And you and I haven't talked about that since the trade,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: because I know you and Jeff talk. Wow was going
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: on while it went down. But Eagles did the best
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: that they could, I mean, getting a getting more than
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: a first round pick. They wanted a one in the three.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I was told they got a one in a five.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: The Patriots for for a long time laughed at the Eagles.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: They were not good. They would have done it. They
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: would have done a two and a three. He goes,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: weren't going to do that. They wanted a one. And
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: the compromise, Eagles gave up a twenty eight. I mean,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: they're getting a twenty eight first round pick down a
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: twenty seven. They'll get the better the two fifth round picks.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: One of them one of those pickses was the Garrett
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Bradbury trade. The Bears and needed a center, so the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Pitches got a fifth back. But overall, Mike, I, the
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: thought around the league is that the Eagles did pretty
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: well considering Browns about twenty nine in a couple of weeks,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: and there are a lot of people think he might
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: have two.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Years left in him Adam with the Eagles, aj Brown
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: one sixty three yards on deep routes. It's the most
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: in the NFL. Twenty eight catches eleven touchdowns on ball's
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: fifty yards or more, second best in the league. How
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: do they replace that, Mike?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: So schematically they're going to do everything they can when
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Hollywood Brown's on the field too, because Jalen is a
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: phenomenal deep ball thrower. Hurts is what's funny about that
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: is we didn't really know that coming out of Oklahoma.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: It wasn't really mentioned much, but he became, particularly in
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: twenty two, the best thrower, one of the best he
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: throw to the National Football League. So so how could
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: they bring that ball back? Well, every offense has deep throws,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: even West Coast offenses could be off play action, Bascon Madex.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: You're going to do everything you can to get Hollywood
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Brown in the ball down field. He will be their
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: shot play guy. That's well, by the way, why they
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: signed him, That's why they guaranteed five billion for the season,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: which is I felt a little bit rich, Mike. To
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: be honest with you, I'm until we get to training camp,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: we're not really going to know how much he's going
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: to play. Because Lamon's got to start, he's a rookie.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: Smith starts with's a guarantee twelve million over two years.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: He's got to play, you know in Hollywood Brown h
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: It just depends. He'll be a situational receiver, Mike. To
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: answer your question, he'll do that. And don't forget about
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Darius Cooper, our favorite from our show. We love him.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: He's been a great story in terms of an undirected
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: free agent. And then Elijah Moore, who's really a slot
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: or as the receiver is a major long shot to
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: make it. Of course, the blocking receiver Johnny Wilson, he
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: does one thing well and boy today miss it lassie,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: and he can block.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Lastly, when you look at this offense and this new scheme,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: who does this help?
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: How does it help?
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Well? You gotta be detailed in your route running because
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: the balls if Hurts gets through the ball in time,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Mike a majority of the time. If he does this,
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: it's gonna help Lemon because he in every West Coast offensive.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Like I put this out when the Eagles traded up
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: to get Lemon, Mike McCarthy won and Lemon Bailey because
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: they're gonna run a lot of leven personnel and he's
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: to run his offense. He believed that he needed a
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: big time slot receiver and Mackay Lemon is that guy.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: It's gonna help Lemon, right, there's no question in this
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: West Coast offense he was gonna run. I know that
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: they're gonna blend it from the guy that they brought
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: into passing in coordinator from Tampa. It comes from the
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Shanahan system and Manon who's more from the mcvagh system.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: They're gonna blend both the slot inside receiver, as Nick
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Sirianni calls him, going to benefit Lemon and absolutely Smith.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: They should dominate here. Uh Wix will be there over
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: in the middle, possession receiver, Hollywood, Brown's there is there
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: is there a shot play receiver. Goddard by the way, Yes,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: he'll be featured, no question about it. The thing is Mike,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And this is what get back to the top of
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: our conversation. I get that they don't have a J. Brown.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: You outline that the stats that are out there in
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: terms of certain type of catches and some things that
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: he's done. But between Wicks, Smith, Lemon, Brown, got Art,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: and Stowers, he's not going to play a lot rumber
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: zach Ertz only played forty of the snaps on offensive
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: rookie season. Stowers may not even play that much, but
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: he's a great athlete and he's a move tight end.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: With all those past target guys available, they're gonna be okay,
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Mike if they can block. And last year wasn't their
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: past blog and which was the problem? Was the run block?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: All right, Adam Capell, there you go. What'd you think
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: you liked the conversation? You okay with that?
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: I asked around? Yep, oh yeah. Look, if the Patriots
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: are still good, it's going to be a late first
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: round pick. Okay, that's the Rams. Yet, got to understand,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: the Chiefs were not in it. No matter what was
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: out there was nonsense. Jagguars were not in it. Chiefs
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: were not in it. They may have had a conversation,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: but they were truly not in it. The Rams were
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: severely in it, big time in it. But they they
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: dropped out. Okay, months ago it was just the Eagles
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: and in the Patriots in the Brown deal. If if
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Elliot Wolf backed out, who knows what would happened to
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: trade them?
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: What about the Garrett deal?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: That was real in terms of their talks with them.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I told our Patriot members last night, as I told
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: them last spring, as I told them, this is real
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: that their interest last year, I said, the problem is
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I was told the Browns absolutely positively will not entertaing
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: any tox. This is last year at this time, no
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: matter how much Garrett wanted out, And I give it
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Interwberry credit. This this credit. He was at least willing
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: to listen. And then the RAM and then they kept
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: telling Nope, that's not going to do it's not going
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: to do it. And then they got their match. But
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: you know what it makes the Rams not that they
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: weren't that the odds makers had them as the prohibitive favorite.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Their odds now are they They've been shortened up Mike,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: depending which book, anywhere from plus four fifty plus six
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: hundred to win the Super Bowl. So it's going to
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: be harder. There's no question it's going to be harder
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: when you put Miles Garrett and the Eagles will see
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: him one o'clock Eastern and week.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Number four, Yes, s he will.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: He'll be in Philly and by the way, the Eagles
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: will be in Foxborough for a preseason game and a
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: joint practice.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I should be there August six. We will have adam caplan.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Of course, the football at four on Friday, Eagles continuing
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: OTAs mandatories next week. Adam appreciate it man, Thank you,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Adam Kapling. Everybody football at four and of course our
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: football at four each and every day on the Sports
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Fast Live at four o'clock