Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Ask An Eagle On Patreon: Vinny Curry Sees Big Potential In Eagles EDGEs Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The following is a shortened version of our monthly Ask
- 0:03an Eagle live stream for our Patreon members. Each month,
- 0:08our Inside the Birds Patreon members get to talk directly
- 0:11and answer questions to a former Eagles player, coach, or
- 0:16front office executive in the chat room. To be part
- 0:19of our Patreon community, sign up at patreon dot com
- 0:23slash inside the Birds. That's patreon dot com slash inside
- 0:27the Birds to get access to all the great benefits
- 0:31of being an Inside the Birds Patreon member. I'm really
- 0:43excited personally to bring Vinnie Curry to Ask an Eagle.
- 0:47Vinnie and I got to know each other really well
- 0:49when he was an Eagle. And the one thing I'll
- 0:51say before you guys have questions is I don't think
- 0:53of Vinnie Curry the Super Bowl champion. I think of
- 0:57Vinnie Curry the first two years of his Eagles career.
- 1:00This was the hungriest man you have ever seen in
- 1:01your life, just to get the opportunity that he and
- 1:04BG weren't getting. And we would talk about it a lot.
- 1:06You know, Jim Wasspern had his guys and they were
- 1:09doing their thing. But once Vinnie got his opportunity, man
- 1:11that hunger really came out.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Man.
- 1:14Speaker 3: Man, that that that experience and that feeling you know
- 1:19you as you guys know, Man, I like the reason
- 1:22I played football because I'm an Eagle fan.
- 1:24Speaker 4: He was like, Man, I can't wait going down there
- 1:26and they thing.
- 1:27Speaker 3: So the emotion that was running through there and to
- 1:29really be a part and that season was special in
- 1:31every emotion that you ever felt why you picked up,
- 1:34why you picked up with football, and why you play
- 1:36the game.
- 1:36Speaker 4: To let it all out right there was unbelievable.
- 1:39Speaker 1: I love it, love to hear it all right, Vinnie,
- 1:40I'm not gonna I'm gonna be quiet now and let
- 1:42people start asking you questions.
- 1:43Speaker 4: We're gonna start off with Wilton.
- 1:45Speaker 5: Hey, Bennie, So glad didn't have you, man. So during
- 1:48the Super Bowl, this this passtball would be just won.
- 1:52I caught one of the interviews from one of your
- 1:55teammates in Tampa, Jereal McCoy. He was like borderline raving
- 1:59about how how when you came there you brought this
- 2:02like winter mentality and was like, you know, a front
- 2:05runner leader in that group on the D line everything,
- 2:07and it kind of and it shocked me because seeing
- 2:11how I had no idea, for one, how cerebral he
- 2:14was and knowing the front and you know, being able
- 2:16to see things like that. So so hearing him ray
- 2:18about you about you know, just in that sense alone
- 2:20was the tackler. So it made me want to ask
- 2:23you what was your mindset when you got there? Like
- 2:25what was what was your mentality of Like, Okay, even
- 2:28though I'm not in feeling no more, I'm now you
- 2:31know here in Tampa, you know, what was your kind
- 2:34of mindset? And how do you think the coaches were
- 2:36kind of you know, you wanted to wanted to use
- 2:38you in a sense when.
- 2:40Speaker 4: We move went down to Tampa to go down.
- 2:42Speaker 3: Uh that that year was freaking Mitch, Jpp, myself, bow
- 2:50Joel Uh. We got we had just drafted Vita and
- 2:55the first three or four games we were rolling.
- 2:58Speaker 4: We were on fire.
- 3:00Speaker 3: But I end up having a high Engle spraand thing.
- 3:02Jpp has some issues with his need like we just
- 3:05started dropping life flies. But that whole training camp, just
- 3:09the mentality and the focus and to understand, look, guys,
- 3:13we're going to spend so much time with each other.
- 3:16That's how the great ones become great, and that's how
- 3:19teams win that bonding time. We all laugh about it,
- 3:22but the more time we spend with each other and
- 3:25the more focused and understanding that we have for one another.
- 3:29Speaker 4: Goes a long way.
- 3:30Speaker 3: And that's the time of mentality I try to bring
- 3:32to the Bucks.
- 3:33Speaker 2: We got a guy here at Jalx Hunt and you
- 3:36and him play obviously similar positions, and you have similar
- 3:39stories and that you're coming from, you know, schools where
- 3:42the level of talent that you played against, you know,
- 3:44it was like it was a big concern you being
- 3:46a Marshall guy and him being you know, obviously from
- 3:49Houston Christian.
- 3:50Speaker 4: So I want to ask.
- 3:51Speaker 2: You, like, was that really a big deal for you
- 3:54when you know, obviously when you came to the league
- 3:56against like the level up and talent, did you really
- 3:58notice it?
- 4:00Speaker 3: So you know, at the DM matchup it's a one
- 4:02on one mino ain't mino. So at the same time,
- 4:07it really never bothered me, you know that type of stuff. Pressure.
- 4:12Anybody who knows me, like, I love the Rodster the
- 4:15occasion and like the more pressure you put on me,
- 4:17the better I'm gonna perform. And jeerlex I actually got
- 4:23to me and him when he got drafted and got
- 4:25to hang out with him a little bit and just
- 4:27the where he be, where he was at, and where
- 4:31he's becoming. Oh man, I think why washing number is
- 4:34doing a phenomenal job with him and like and I
- 4:38told him, I said, when your time come, you want
- 4:40to know, but you but you got to continue to
- 4:43be yourself and we got you here. Guys like that
- 4:46always have the extra motor. Don't ever forget that because
- 4:49at the back of their mind they know people are
- 4:51kind of doubting it and that that's going to help
- 4:54him fly around.
- 4:55Speaker 6: So it's a twofold question. One, how did your techique evolved?
- 4:59And number two, for somebody like Nolan Smith, who was
- 5:02a tweener, you didn't know where to play him, and
- 5:05especially in two years, people like, oh he's a bus
- 5:07he's not doing much. And then last year with the breakout,
- 5:10How what do you tell somebody like that who maybe
- 5:13is going through something of what he went through To
- 5:16keep them going and keep them moving in the right direction.
- 5:18Speaker 3: You got to understand trust the process, understand like what
- 5:21got you here? How'd you become a first round pick?
- 5:25How'd you become one of the Georgia greats? You know,
- 5:28just understand that haven't understanding and showed us the lean on.
- 5:32That goes back to what I was telling you is
- 5:34in the beginning when I say, you know, we have
- 5:37to lean on each other for families, like.
- 5:39Speaker 4: I had, truly had great people in our room.
- 5:44Speaker 3: You know, that's my best friends to this day that
- 5:47it's probably a week that I don't go with in
- 5:49that group text.
- 5:50Speaker 4: You know that helped. Oh my god, you have craziness.
- 5:56Speaker 6: Yeah, and Chris Long, Fletcher Cox.
- 5:59Speaker 3: Everybody, yes, because at the end of the day, even
- 6:03older players, even older players like you know, I still
- 6:05talk down Tap. I talked to Tri I probably talked
- 6:10to Trent Cole every day. Those type of vts, that
- 6:14of the dumb teaching the game and understand what comes
- 6:17with this. But the thing is when we got like
- 6:21like the show, I imagine you're winning the super Bowl
- 6:23and then I drafted Nolan, so imagine I'm pressure that.
- 6:26Speaker 4: Was on it.
- 6:27Speaker 3: Yeah, So when we got drafted, it was super pressure
- 6:31because you got the t Coles, you got the bunks,
- 6:35you know, man, so he got me and flesh. You
- 6:36got all these guys shoes to fill fit in. But
- 6:39instead of trying to fill shoes. You got to create
- 6:41your own print within side yourself. So that's one thing
- 6:44that you know. And then he had a great vet
- 6:46in the room as well, Noland. I'm pretty sure he
- 6:48bounced a lot of frustration or concerns of BG. You know,
- 6:53and BG is one of the like one of the
- 6:55greats to bounce some type of ideas off, because like
- 6:58I said, man, he he been through it all out.
- 7:02Speaker 7: Have asked us. He was like, hey, who do you
- 7:03guys want on? I was the first. I was like, Vinnie,
- 7:05appreciate that man, huge man. So I have I have
- 7:09a question. So you got to go through a bunch
- 7:13of coaches with the with the Eagles, pretty much all
- 7:16of the Eagles coaches since since Andy except for Sirianni.
- 7:21So I have two of our question. One do you
- 7:25would you have liked to play for Sirianni?
- 7:27Speaker 4: Absolutely? The passion he brings is up Vinnie Curry's alley.
- 7:34It turned down for why it's not? I'm a high energy.
- 7:39Speaker 7: And then the second question be like out of all
- 7:41those seasons coming into them was seventeen? Did it feel different?
- 7:46Speaker 3: So mister Lorry, make us do a community built a
- 7:50community thing like kind of like, you know, city bonding
- 7:55along with the team bonding, and I remember me. And
- 8:00then he was like he told everybody, he was like, look, man,
- 8:03see the next time we come in paint, we could
- 8:05be paying the trophy.
- 8:06Speaker 4: On this wall.
- 8:08Speaker 3: We went in the Super Bowl and everybody was like, yo,
- 8:12you damn right, yeah, damn.
- 8:15Speaker 4: I would never forget that because.
- 8:18Speaker 3: Once training camp started, if you go back, we once
- 8:22training camp started and Miami came to town to practice
- 8:25with us, they need to release that footage.
- 8:29Speaker 4: Man.
- 8:29Speaker 8: I just want to echo everybody sentiment. Man, we love
- 8:32you and big Eagle fans all of us and appreciate
- 8:36the hard work in twenty seventeen. And my cousin he
- 8:39passed away, but he was a big fan of yours.
- 8:41He was an Eagle fan too, but he he loved you.
- 8:44He always talked about Vinnie Curry and Chris Long. Those
- 8:47were those were his guys from the twenty seventeen team.
- 8:50Speaker 4: So I just got a quick question for you.
- 8:53Speaker 8: When you're playing on a team like that, like the
- 8:55twenty seventeen team, and you're a defensive end and you're
- 8:58playing in such a a room that's deep, where you
- 9:01have five or six guys who could probably legitimately be starters.
- 9:06Is it harder for you during during the game days
- 9:10where you do get those snaps. Let's say you're only
- 9:12playing fifteen to twenty STAPs because you know they're distributing
- 9:16the workload throughout those six or seven guys.
- 9:19Speaker 4: Good question, That's a great question. So so check me out.
- 9:23Speaker 3: We used to have this thing like, man, you gotta
- 9:25get you know, in the beginning of it, like we
- 9:27watched the way the carib was going to beginning I
- 9:28to get into the rhythm of it. I remember going
- 9:32into that season like I don't care if it's five plays,
- 9:35ten plays, I'm gonna make something shake. I promise you
- 9:37you remember the most quarterback hits on first and second second.
- 9:43Speaker 4: Down out the retire league. And that drove me like
- 9:47I wanted to be the.
- 9:48Speaker 3: One to have the most tackles for loss on the
- 9:50first second down, most quarterback hits on this first and
- 9:52second down, you know, and most pressures from the.
- 9:56Speaker 4: First and second down. And I did, you know?
- 9:58Speaker 3: And that was the thing that Jim kind of challenged
- 10:02me on once I started talking about it, and it
- 10:03was like all right, he had to he had the
- 10:07gift to get into.
- 10:07Speaker 4: Your mind and make you play out of your mind.
- 10:10Speaker 3: So it was just one of those things is if
- 10:12you already know the answer to the test before you
- 10:15go there, you got to just make the everyone count.
- 10:18And that's why where people be like, oh man, you
- 10:20see the way the Eagles is rotating and rolling it around.
- 10:22We started that whole eight man front thing. Yes, the
- 10:25Johnny started the four man passed rush with the how
- 10:28they got there, but the eight man rotation and the
- 10:30way it's going because we were playing so fast and
- 10:34such at a high level, now, that's that's we're looking
- 10:38at it now a couple of years down the line,
- 10:40everybody's trying to do it.
- 10:41Speaker 4: They're trying to imitate it.