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The DiCecco Daily: Revisiting The 2024 Eagles Draft And Forecasting Its Impact On 2025 Team · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody. This is Andrew de Checko. You're
• 0:11
  tuned into to check o'daly. Hope everybody is having a
• 0:15
  good week, and I hope you enjoyed the podcast yesterday.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: And I had a chance to read the story that
• 0:21
  I wrote.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: On Ben Van Sumer and his jump to full time
• 0:25
  full back and some of his progress behind the scenes
• 0:29
  and all of that. I find it to be a
• 0:32
  fascinating piece to his development entering his third season and
• 0:37
  somebody that I think is going to potentially add a
• 0:39
  new dimension to the offense depending on how he's utilized
• 0:43
  or how.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Frequently he's utilized.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But today we're going to talk about the twenty twenty
• 0:48
  four Eagles draft class and where each player figures to
• 0:53
  slot in, what their role will be this season, at
• 0:56
  least on the surface entering training camp. The first pick,
• 1:01
  of course, taking twenty second overall, was quinnyon Mitchell, and
• 1:05
  quinnyon Mitchell, in case you've been living under a rock,
• 1:08
  has had a tremendous start to his career. He pretty
• 1:11
  much erased one side of the field. He brings attitude,
• 1:15
  he brings confidence, and a wide array of a skill
• 1:21
  set that I think is well beyond what you would
• 1:23
  expect from a player now entering his second season. Teams
• 1:27
  are already afraid to throw the football out of his
• 1:29
  side of the field.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Will he be challenged more this year?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, Now that there's a year of tape on him,
• 1:35
  expect teams to try to find ways to exploit him.
• 1:38
  But Quenya Mitchell also has the benefit of studying different
• 1:41
  wide receivers and things like that, and I think he's
• 1:44
  going to really start to emerge become even more of
• 1:47
  a household name this year. As the Eagles top outside
• 1:50
  corner in the second round, taking fortieth overall. It's kind
• 1:55
  of crazy to think that he was even available at
• 1:57
  this point, But Cooper dejen a player that can wear
• 2:01
  a multitude of hats. He's already become one of the
• 2:04
  best nickel corners in the NFL. You can expect to
• 2:07
  see him outside perhaps when the Eagles go to base,
• 2:10
  which isn't very frequent. And he also, if you listened
• 2:13
  to Vic Fangio the spring has a skill set that
• 2:16
  would sort of play favorably to the safety position. Though
• 2:21
  I don't foresee that happening. I think eventually down the line,
• 2:24
  perhaps you could see Cooper Degen be an outside corner.
• 2:27
  But I say all this to say, if you're that versatile,
• 2:30
  you have a lot of ability. And we saw last
• 2:32
  season on the biggest stage, Cooper Degen taking the interception
• 2:36
  for a touchdown. But he's also made plays in high
• 2:40
  leverage moments. Let's not forget that fourth and one play
• 2:43
  that he made against Jamar Chase. He had a little
• 2:46
  bit of hiccups. He had some trouble with Adam Thiewen
• 2:49
  against the Panthers. But other than that, you see the length.
• 2:53
  You see the athleticism, his short area of quickness, his
• 2:55
  ball skills, all of those qualities that really make up
• 2:59
  a top flight nickel corner, and that is one of
• 3:03
  the in my opinion, it's the most challenging position to
• 3:06
  play on defense for the multitude of reasons in which
• 3:09
  I've outlined in my writing and on these podcasts. But
• 3:12
  the fact that he's already so proficient in that role,
• 3:16
  I think you have to feel really good about where
• 3:18
  he's going to go in year two. And let's not
• 3:21
  forget that when he was inserted as the starter coming
• 3:24
  out of that bye week, that was really the solution
• 3:29
  and the glue to that defense in many ways. You
• 3:32
  didn't see the big plays that were surrendered early on,
• 3:35
  and I think sometimes when you play that nickel role
• 3:39
  it gets sort of cast aside. But that's a starting
• 3:42
  position in today's NFL, and for right now, Cooper Degen
• 3:45
  is the starting nickel and a highly effective one at
• 3:48
  that sky's the limit. He's got a little bit more
• 3:52
  praise or at least attention than Quinnon Mitchell. I'm not
• 3:56
  necessarily sure if that's fair. Both players are very good.
• 3:59
  I think because he's maybe a little bit more quiet
• 4:02
  and behind the scenes and not quite out there like
• 4:05
  Cooper Degen, he kind of gets lost in the mix
• 4:07
  a little bit, and not locally but nationally.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And I think this year.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: He's going to get a lot more widespread praise speaking
• 4:14
  about Queenyon Mitchell, and Cooper Degen's probably going to pick
• 4:17
  up where he left off as well. And so the
• 4:19
  third round pick ninety four was Jayalox Hunt from Houston
• 4:25
  Christian And those who have read my work, those who
• 4:28
  have listened to me on various platforms, you already know
• 4:31
  how I feel about the player and his fit and
• 4:35
  how I feel about his trajectory. I think Jayalox Hunt
• 4:37
  is going to have a breakout campaign. He is my
• 4:42
  Eagles twenty twenty five defensive breakout now, stepping into a
• 4:46
  starting role sac and a half last year during the
• 4:48
  regular season, but he equaled that production in the postseason.
• 4:52
  You see the refined hand usage. You see him have
• 4:56
  a much more advanced plan of attack. He's willing to
• 5:00
  mix it up against the run. The more he played,
• 5:02
  the more confidence he seemed to gain, and you see
• 5:06
  the ability. He hasn't played this position very long. But
• 5:09
  I think sort of supporting my opinion here is that
• 5:12
  he has another year of working with Jeremiah Washburn, his
• 5:15
  position coach, who's going to continue to refine certain areas
• 5:19
  of his game, and.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I think he is just going to take off like
• 5:21
  a rocket ship.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't be surprised if he gets seven, eight, nine sacks
• 5:25
  this year. Don't want to put too many lofty expectations
• 5:28
  on his shoulders, but when you look at how far
• 5:30
  he's come in such a short period of time my
• 5:33
  story and I've covered it in the podcast as well,
• 5:36
  but I spoke to his trainer and the Eagles gave
• 5:39
  him directives to add some weight to his frame. So
• 5:43
  now you're having a player who you already saw him
• 5:45
  willing to mix it up against the run and combat
• 5:47
  these sort of I guess, mountainous offensive tackles. This is
• 5:52
  where I think the added size is going to help
• 5:55
  him and be able to be a player that you
• 5:58
  can count on down end out. There's not going to
• 6:01
  be a team that can that can find a way
• 6:03
  to work against him because I think he already has
• 6:05
  the athletic trades and you couple that with adding some
• 6:08
  more size to his frame, man, that's gonna be a
• 6:11
  scary combination. So Jay Oakes Hunt is my twenty twenty
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  five defensive breakout, as I've mentioned before. Then we get
• 6:18
  to the fourth round, taking one twenty seven overall. Running
• 6:22
  back Will Shipley another player that I've outlined quite a
• 6:25
  bit because he is a player on the offensive side
• 6:28
  that is, I guess he's my offensive breakout candidate. When
• 6:32
  you look across the board, there aren't many because Saquan
• 6:35
  you already know what he's gonna do. The wide receivers
• 6:37
  AJ Brown, Devonte Smith of course, and so Dallas Goddard
• 6:42
  has had his moments.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: So Will Shipley this year. Stepping into the number two
• 6:46
  role is something that.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: You can expect and expect to see a different type
• 6:50
  of flair to the offense. And what I mean by
• 6:52
  that is he brings some juice, some explosiveness. He can
• 6:55
  catch the football very well. He's fulfilling the role that
• 6:59
  was previously held by Kenny Gagwell for a couple of
• 7:01
  seasons now and Gamewell that lass shouldn't be discounted because
• 7:05
  he did a lot of little things well that helped
• 7:08
  the offense in different ways. In pass protection, he was
• 7:12
  their two and four minute back. He caught the ball well,
• 7:14
  but he doesn't have the same juice or the same
• 7:17
  explosiveness as Will Shipley does. And if Will is able
• 7:21
  to prove that he can kind of hone in on
• 7:23
  that pass protection, He's going to make himself a player
• 7:26
  that will be able to slot in comfortably in that
• 7:28
  number two role and ward off Aj Dillon or whoever
• 7:31
  else is behind him, because I just think that he
• 7:34
  has so much to offer to this offense.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And I'm not suggesting that he's going.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: To eat into snaps for Saquon Barkley. I would never
• 7:42
  suggest that. But what I think Will can do is
• 7:45
  add another dimension to the offense. And if you're talking
• 7:48
  about looking at Saquon Barkway's workload, well, mix in a
• 7:52
  player who would be the quintessential change up in Shipley,
• 7:55
  and you also have someone in aj Dillon who can
• 7:57
  be that between the tackles guy who can get you
• 7:59
  those tough yards.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: He can also close out games. But I think right now.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Will Shipley has a unique skill set in terms of
• 8:06
  the backfield, and I'm curious.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: To see if the Eagles choose.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: To throw the ball more this season to the running
• 8:13
  backs under this Kevin Patulo offense. But I think Will
• 8:16
  Shipley has a very bright future and I think very
• 8:19
  highly of him and his game.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Fifth Round one fifty two overall An As Smith.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: And As is an interesting player here because last year
• 8:29
  he did not have a good training camp. He seemed
• 8:32
  to be able to turn it on and make enough
• 8:35
  plays late in the summer, including in the preseason to
• 8:39
  kind of hold his roster spot there. Interesting player. He's
• 8:43
  has a stocky, compact build. He does have some twitchiness
• 8:46
  to his game. It's tough to really project with how
• 8:51
  he fits because he's primarily a slot receiver and the Eagles,
• 8:56
  when you look at the game day game day active
• 8:59
  list and how they're going to kind of divide that
• 9:01
  or sort of figure out who they're going to dress.
• 9:04
  If he's just a backup slot receiver, it's hard to
• 9:07
  kind of envision where he fits into the twenty twenty
• 9:10
  five Eagles. However, things could change if he emerges as
• 9:14
  a punt returner, because he was a decorated punt returner
• 9:17
  at Texas A and M. If he's able to do
• 9:20
  that and showcase that dual threat or a multipurpose value,
• 9:25
  well he's going to have a spot. And I think
• 9:28
  that I'm seeing now, at least based off of OTAs,
• 9:31
  he looks a lot more comfortable. He's catching the ball better,
• 9:34
  and he's stacking productive practices. Has he flashed in any
• 9:37
  particular way, No, he didn't in the spring. But he's
• 9:43
  operating differently, he's moving differently, and I think that injury
• 9:46
  that he suffered earlier in the season really gave him
• 9:49
  some different perspective. Or he was able to see the
• 9:51
  game through a different lens and grow and develop at
• 9:55
  his own pace and not be thrown into the deep
• 9:57
  end where it looked like he was a little bit
• 9:58
  overmatched early on. I've had some really good conversations with
• 10:02
  Anaias and I know that for a fact that he's
• 10:05
  gonna put in the work, just a matter of how
• 10:07
  the numbers shake out and how.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: His role shakes out.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Because Avery Williams is there as well, who the Eagles
• 10:12
  signed in free agency. He was really signed to be
• 10:16
  that return specialist. You heard how effusive Vick Sirianni was
• 10:19
  in the pray in praise of Williams and his ability
• 10:23
  to maybe help out on offense even but I think
• 10:26
  Annia Smith is gonna have something to say about that,
• 10:28
  So I wouldn't really rule him out when you're trying
• 10:30
  to figure out the fourth, fifth, and maybe even six
• 10:33
  receiver spots. Fifth round one, fifty five overall was linebacker
• 10:39
  Jeremiah Trotter Junior, taken from Clemson. Trotter Junior is a
• 10:43
  player that the Eagles have been very high on. They
• 10:46
  were pleased with the progress that he made. Now, he
• 10:48
  only played one hundred and four defensive snaps last season,
• 10:50
  so he's gonna have to make a leap this year
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  and they're sort of banking on him doing that. He's
• 10:56
  gonna get a bulk of the first team reps in
• 10:58
  training camp with jo Hot Campbell not expected to come
• 11:01
  back until sometime in August and to Kobe Dean being
• 11:04
  on the shelf. So for Triter Junior to get those
• 11:06
  reps alongside Zach Bond, I think is going to go
• 11:09
  a long way.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: In terms of his development.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And he doesn't have the pro typical size, nor does
• 11:14
  he have the athleticism that you typically look for from
• 11:17
  that position, But what he does have is a high
• 11:20
  level football intellect.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: He is instinctive and he can.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Read and diagnose. Those are all qualities that translate. And
• 11:30
  it's no mistake, it's no coincidence that Vic Vangio was
• 11:33
  sort of I don't want to say heaping praise, but
• 11:37
  he was. You know, he gave him some words of
• 11:40
  encouragement that and I think that when you know Vicvangiel
• 11:44
  and you know that he doesn't just say things for
• 11:45
  the sake of saying so, that should give you some
• 11:48
  idea of where the team is. With Triter Junior right
• 11:51
  now doing a lot, He did a lot behind the scenes.
• 11:54
  He made an impact on special teams. Actually, one of
• 11:57
  the moments from the Super Bowl that stands out to
• 11:59
  me is when he made a tackle on kick coverage
• 12:03
  and he does the axe chop as a nod to
• 12:06
  his father, Jeremiah Trotter Junior or Jeremiah Trotter excuse me,
• 12:11
  And I thought that was a cool moment. And so
• 12:14
  I say all that to say that Trotter Junior is
• 12:16
  going to have a pretty big role as the Eagles
• 12:19
  third linebacker or fourth linebacker. But early on, especially when
• 12:23
  you're trying to figure out how they're going to utilize
• 12:26
  Jehad Campbell in what capacity are they going to utilize
• 12:29
  them like in terms of snapshare early on, if he's
• 12:32
  missing some time this summer and Nikobe Dean, we all
• 12:36
  know that that's a very extensive injury. We don't know
• 12:38
  what that timeline looks like. So Trotter Junior could be
• 12:41
  called upon fairly early. And I think if we're sort
• 12:45
  of taking the spring and the words that we've heard
• 12:49
  as any indication, I think he's going to be just fine,
• 12:52
  especially entering year two. In the fifth round, one two overall,
• 12:58
  Trevor Keegan, guard from Michigan, played one game last year,
• 13:02
  thirty five snaps on offense, and he's a player that's
• 13:06
  going to be vying for a roster spot this year.
• 13:08
  He can play left guard, he can play right guard
• 13:11
  and he even repped its centered in the Senior Bowl,
• 13:14
  so he has all interior versatility, and I guess best
• 13:18
  case scenario for Keegan would be to kind of obtain
• 13:21
  the Tyler Steen role of last season, where you can
• 13:24
  be that reserve guard that on game day they can
• 13:26
  sort of plug him in at either place. But there's
• 13:29
  a lot of competition there in terms of the depth
• 13:32
  along the offensive line. There's Matt Pryor, there's Kendall Lamb,
• 13:35
  who I think is going to be the swing tackle.
• 13:38
  Drew Kendall's there, Darrin Cannard's there, so there's a lot
• 13:42
  of different players out Kenyon Green, so he's going to
• 13:46
  have to do a little bit more than he did
• 13:49
  last summer to really stand apart from the pack.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And we'll have to wait and see.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: We haven't We haven't seen a ton of Trevor Keegan,
• 13:56
  So I'm not going to sit here and tell you
• 13:58
  all that I know what he's capable. I've seen him
• 14:01
  do certain things that maybe indicate he has a realistic
• 14:04
  opportunity to make the team for a second year in
• 14:06
  a row. We're gonna have to wait and see, and
• 14:08
  we're gonna learn a lot about him. I probably know
• 14:10
  less about Trevor Keegan after one season than any of
• 14:14
  the players that we just talked about, but he's one
• 14:17
  that I'm very much looking forward to learning more about.
• 14:21
  In the sixth round one to eighty five overall, the
• 14:24
  Eagles took wide receiver Johnny Wilson from Florida State. Johnny
• 14:28
  Wilson is an interesting candidate here because I have him
• 14:31
  as one of the players who are most under the
• 14:33
  microscope on the offensive side of the ball. Played three
• 14:37
  hundred and sixty nine snaps. I think that was thirty
• 14:39
  four percent of the Eagles offensive snaps. Really good blocker,
• 14:43
  did the dirty work, the gritty, grimy work that a
• 14:46
  lot of players aren't willing to do, the role that
• 14:48
  Zach Pascal sort of carried out to a t with
• 14:51
  the Eagles in twenty twenty two. But for Johnny Wilson,
• 14:54
  what I want to see from him is more of
• 14:58
  a development as a pass catch because as the fourth
• 15:01
  wide receiver, you're an injury away from having to step
• 15:04
  up and play meaningful snaps offensively, and he hasn't shown
• 15:08
  a lot as a receiver in terms of reliability catching
• 15:10
  the football or even generating separation to really suggest that
• 15:15
  he's prime to make that leaper that you should feel comfortable.
• 15:19
  We have to wait and see, but those are certain
• 15:21
  areas that I'm looking to see where Johnny is now.
• 15:25
  He did play twenty four percent of the special team snaps.
• 15:27
  That's going to help him a lot in his roster bid.
• 15:31
  But he's also going to be pushed by an Ayah Smith,
• 15:33
  who obviously feels a totally different role. But Terras Marshall
• 15:37
  is a player that you should all be keeping an
• 15:38
  eye on. Similar body type in terms of frame, doesn't
• 15:42
  have the length that Johnny Wilson has. Johnny Wilson's about
• 15:45
  six foot seven, but he's somebody who can also do
• 15:48
  the dirty work and block and do some of the
• 15:51
  things that Wilson and Zach Pascal and even Alamade Zakias did.
• 15:55
  Doesn't it's not flashy, it's not going to show up
• 15:57
  in the box score, but it's something that is a
• 16:00
  necessity for this offense.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: But for Johnny.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Wilson, with that kind of a body, you want to
• 16:06
  see him be a little bit more competitive for contested catches.
• 16:09
  You want to see him create some separation down the
• 16:12
  field or over the middle and really use his frame
• 16:15
  in the red zone. Those are all things that I'm
• 16:18
  looking to see him do because until he does that,
• 16:21
  I can't sit here and say he's a lock for
• 16:23
  the wide receiver, for though he does have the inside
• 16:26
  track compared to the Andia Smiths or the Terrace Marsh
• 16:30
  or even Danny Gray. So this is a big summer
• 16:33
  for Johnny Wilson and I want to see if he's
• 16:34
  able to kind of add another.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Layer to his skill set.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the twenty twenty four draft class and how
• 16:44
  they sort of slot in as we enter training camp,
• 16:47
  and maybe some expectations for those players. Hope you enjoyed
• 16:50
  it again. I'm Andrew Dichecko. This is the check O
• 16:53
  Daily and I will talk to everybody tomorrow.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I have a great one, OD