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Football at Four: Discussing And Explaining Eagles Situation On Defense · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Football 4 is powered by the Inside the Birds podcast,
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  Speaker 1: and it is brought to you by the Fanatic Sportsbook
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. You got a
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  Speaker 1: busy night. Flyers and Sixers plus the World Series. You
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: can listen to the Sixers right here on 97.3 ESPN.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The Flyers on our sister station, rock1041. com. And we'll pick
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: up the World Series in progress right here on 97.3 ESPN.
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  Speaker 1: Football at 4. And, of course, Jeff Mosher is on
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  Speaker 1: a Wednesday as we take a look at a lot
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  Speaker 1: of things happening. Getting ready for Washington on Sunday night football.
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  Speaker 1: And both these teams, you know, 2-5, 1-4-1, have their issues.
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  Speaker 1: What's in it for the winner, Jeff Mosher? Does the
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  Speaker 1: winner feel better?
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  Speaker 2: For 24 hours, for sure. Yeah, it always feels good
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  Speaker 2: to win, right? The winner, I guess it depends which
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  Speaker 2: team you are. I mean, I think the way things
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  Speaker 2: have gone for Washington going back to last year have
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  Speaker 2: been so bad that they're just trying to build off
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  Speaker 2: of something, find some positive momentum, probably help save Dan
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  Speaker 2: Quinn his job if he can. The Eagles, you win,
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  Speaker 2: you get to what, three and five? I don't think
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  Speaker 2: it really changes a whole lot in terms of being
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  Speaker 2: under the microscope from the up above on what the
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  Speaker 2: Eagles would do when the trade deadline comes.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff, a big theme of Nick Sirianni's media availability today
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be effort. He was asked, was there any
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  Speaker 1: issue with the effort on Monday night? Did you watch
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  Speaker 1: that game afterwards and wonder if effort was at the
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  Speaker 1: top of the list of questions?
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  Speaker 2: So we talk about this a lot when teams don't win.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a very hard thing to decipher. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you can certainly find areas where you don't think a
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  Speaker 2: guy is going 100% or doing everything it takes to
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  Speaker 2: swarm to a ball if he's on defense, right? But
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  Speaker 2: sometimes when you lose, you're swimming mentally also. And I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to confuse being in a malaise with just
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  Speaker 2: not giving effort. I think We've talked about like Jihad
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  Speaker 2: Campbell struggling to key and diagnose, and there'll be times
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  Speaker 2: where he's just not firing into that hole to make
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  Speaker 2: the tackle. But that doesn't mean he's not giving effort.
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  Speaker 2: It might mean he's just swimming and confused and tentative,
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  Speaker 2: which is a little bit different. You know, Barrett Brooks
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  Speaker 2: does a show with Derek Gunn on our platform. It's
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  Speaker 2: called Birds Weekly on Inside the Birds. And I listened
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  Speaker 2: to what they said. I listened to Barrett a lot
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  Speaker 2: because he played. And there were times where he was
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  Speaker 2: breaking down things that happened in games, not just yesterday
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  Speaker 2: or Monday night, but in past games where he just
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  Speaker 2: felt like that's a player not getting it right. But
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  Speaker 2: then Barrett has noticed a couple of times, you know,
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  Speaker 2: going back to when Jalen Hurts got hit late against
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  Speaker 2: the Bears and not enough people coming to help him
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  Speaker 2: up and finishing plays. Barrett talks about a lot. And
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  Speaker 2: there are times where you see guys not finishing, playing
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  Speaker 2: to the whistle. If you want to lump that in
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  Speaker 2: with not giving maximum effort maybe, you know, but I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to sit here and accuse this team of
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  Speaker 2: not trying hard or not trying to win.
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  Speaker 1: Let's also look at this defense and some of the
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  Speaker 1: problems they've had. Could they have done more to help
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  Speaker 1: the pass rush with some simulated pressures, blitzes? You know,
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  Speaker 1: do they have to think about that? You know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: looking at the snap counts. Eva Katie leads the snaps
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  Speaker 1: for the edge rushers. I got at Vanessa, uh, who's
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  Speaker 1: been hurt. I've got hunt who probably is not a
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  Speaker 1: hundred percent. I got Grenard. So should I have thought
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  Speaker 1: about maybe dialing stuff or did they dial stuff up
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  Speaker 1: and it just wasn't working?
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  Speaker 2: No, they didn't blitz a whole lot. And that was interesting.
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  Speaker 2: I think just seven times, um, on 27 dropbacks. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: so this is also something that, um, I talked about
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  Speaker 2: with Sam Finkel on Inside the Data. That'll be out
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow morning because the data really shows two different things.
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  Speaker 2: Dak Prescott has struggled against the Blitz all year, and
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  Speaker 2: the Eagles have been Blitzing more because of what you
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  Speaker 2: just said, Mike. They don't have a good edge rush, right?
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  Speaker 2: But Vic decided not to Blitz Dak as much as
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  Speaker 2: you might have thought, given that Dak was struggling against it.
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  Speaker 2: But there's some analytics that show that, yes, Vic is–
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  Speaker 2: blitzing quite a bit more last few weeks, but it's
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  Speaker 2: not been productive for him. You know, we confuse that sometimes. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: Vic's blitz rate is up.
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  Speaker 1: Vic's blitz rate is up.
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  Speaker 2: Well, guess what? Success rate isn't up on those blitzes.
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  Speaker 2: So he had to make a choice. Do I try
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  Speaker 2: to generate more pressure through blitzing and leave myself vulnerable?
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  Speaker 2: Or do I just play it more conventionally and leave
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  Speaker 2: myself vulnerable? It does feel like no matter what button
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  Speaker 2: he's pushing these days, it's not working.
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  Speaker 1: Big time. It doesn't seem to be working for the
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  Speaker 1: run defense either. Why did they struggle so much to
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  Speaker 1: stop the run? We can talk about what they have invested,
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  Speaker 1: but now that the dust has settled a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: you go back. 155 yards to Javante Williams. They gave
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  Speaker 1: up over 200 yards on the ground. They gave up 6.2
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  Speaker 1: yards of carry to Williams. This is an area that
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  Speaker 1: you shouldn't be looking back on and saying that was
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  Speaker 1: how you got hammered in this game. Because that's where
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  Speaker 1: you're spending all your money. Right.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, we've seen this a couple of times.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't know how to.
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  Speaker 2: Truly parse it because this one came at the worst time,
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  Speaker 2: but I mean, you remember last year, right? The bear,
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  Speaker 2: obviously I remember the bears just had an unbelievable field
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  Speaker 2: day with the run game against the Eagles. And then
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  Speaker 2: two years ago in route to a Superbowl in week three,
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  Speaker 2: two week, two, the Falcons really ran all over the
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  Speaker 2: Eagles as well. With a lot. And they won that
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  Speaker 2: game on a last drive late. If you remember a
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  Speaker 2: Saquon dropped that pass, that would have like ice the game.
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  Speaker 2: And then Kirk cousins drove him out in the field. But,
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  Speaker 2: They ran the ball really well against the Eagles that day.
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  Speaker 2: The Eagles tend to snap back from that, but I
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  Speaker 2: think the fair question is at the time you needed
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  Speaker 2: it the most, like why does that happen when you
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  Speaker 2: have some of the best run defenders in the league?
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  Speaker 2: Why does, why is Jordan Davis getting reach blocked out
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  Speaker 2: of a, out of a gap? Why is Jalen Carter
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  Speaker 2: getting completely controlled by Tyler Booker? I mean, I know
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  Speaker 2: those guys are, are good players, you know, Tyler Smith
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  Speaker 2: and Booker, they're good players in their own right. But
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  Speaker 2: so you can convince me there'll be some, some battles
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  Speaker 2: that the Cowboys would win in the trenches, but all
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  Speaker 2: of them, I mean, that's, that's what it felt like. I,
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  Speaker 2: it just, it's really surprising to see guys of that
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  Speaker 2: stature for the Eagles get just completely dominated.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, it's, it's interesting because, um, you're right.
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  Speaker 1: They just got hammered all over the place. And it
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  Speaker 1: seems that, um, you know, one of the big things
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  Speaker 1: here is, um, The tackling's not very good, but there
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  Speaker 1: was nobody in the area to tackle. I mean, they
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: were just having huge lanes to run through here. So
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  Speaker 1: I wonder if it's a blip on the radar, bad
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  Speaker 1: week defensively. You have them from time to time over
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  Speaker 1: the course of a season. You just don't play well.
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  Speaker 1: Or is this an underlining issue that we see that
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  Speaker 1: is going to perpetuate throughout the rest of the season
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  Speaker 1: to make it even uglier?
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  Speaker 2: I think that remains to be seen. You know, it's
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  Speaker 2: funny because the Bears, if you go back to that
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  Speaker 2: Monday night game this year, the Bears didn't run the
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  Speaker 2: ball well. against the Eagles. It was that they passed–
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Case Keenum looked like he was Joe Montana
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  Speaker 2: for a game there.
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  Speaker 1: And Washington– Last year the game against the Bears was
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  Speaker 1: the game, was the blip on the radar where you
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  Speaker 1: just got absolutely gashed and you just couldn't stop them
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  Speaker 1: for that day. Right.
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  Speaker 2: For six weeks it felt like– well, it hasn't felt.
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  Speaker 2: For six weeks the Eagles defense more so has been
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  Speaker 2: bad about giving up big plays in the passing game
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  Speaker 2: at inopportune times. You know, you go to those last
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  Speaker 2: two drives by the.
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  Speaker 1: Rams, right?
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  Speaker 2: You go to the Tennessee, got them on a big
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  Speaker 2: play to Iumanor, right? We can go through and find
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of explosives that the Eagles have allowed in
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  Speaker 2: the past game that have really meant a big difference.
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  Speaker 2: But in the run game, not so much. There was
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  Speaker 2: like that one big run by, was it Spears or
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  Speaker 2: Pollard in the Tennessee game? There was one maybe by,
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  Speaker 2: what's his face, Tootin in Jacksonville.
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  Speaker 1: Jacksonville, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it hasn't been consistently poor like this. This
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  Speaker 2: was just one of those games that we see once
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  Speaker 2: a year from this defense, and it came at the
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  Speaker 2: worst time. Now, but we also, Mike, saw the continued
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  Speaker 2: struggles in the past game giving up explosives to C.D.
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  Speaker 2: Lamb and Pickens, and that just made it the perfect storm.
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  Speaker 1: I want to get your take on Cooper Dejean and
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  Speaker 1: the season that he's having and, you know, everything. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: talking about after the game for the second time now,
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  Speaker 1: back-to-back weeks, he looks like he's seen a ghost. Like,
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  Speaker 1: he just doesn't have any answers. The position changed, the
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  Speaker 1: way they're using him. You know, Blankenship's no longer here. Like,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder, like, is he looking around like, my guy's
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  Speaker 1: not here, I'm changed position. Like, it just seems that, like,
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  Speaker 1: something's way off on him.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you look at Cooper, you talk to him
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  Speaker 2: in the locker room, and it feels like he's having
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  Speaker 2: an out-of-body experience. He can't believe how bad he's playing, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're in the locker room, so you can see
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  Speaker 1: it and feel it. I'm watching it on TV, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm like, this guy looks like he has no answers.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It's been tough for him. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I can't sit here and tell you why all of
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  Speaker 2: a sudden he's not playing well I can.
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  Speaker 1: Well the way they're using him this year is it
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  Speaker 1: discernibly different than the way they've used him in the
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  Speaker 1: past well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah I mean obviously he's playing safety and base although
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  Speaker 2: they haven't played a ton. They played like 20%, 25%
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  Speaker 2: base defense. So he's only playing safety a fraction of
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  Speaker 2: the time. But bottom line is that was outside corner
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  Speaker 2: for him last year, a fraction of the time. Now
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  Speaker 2: it's safety. Maybe it's too much for him to handle.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't really play safety at Iowa, but I would
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  Speaker 2: even say that, um, most of the plays he's allowed
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  Speaker 2: have been from the slot. It's it's, that's where he's comfortable. No,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: is the moving around on the defense, weighing on it
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  Speaker 2: mentally so that it's making him incapable of playing as well. His,
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  Speaker 2: he has had before in the slot. That would just
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  Speaker 2: be like speculation. I have no idea. I think sometimes
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: guys just don't play well. And, And it gets in
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: their heads and it becomes a thing, you know?
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  Speaker 1: Well, listen, you know, I talked to both Dijon and
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  Speaker 1: Blankenship together at the Super Bowl. And they're obviously very close.
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  Speaker 1: And now that guy's not there. And you wonder who's
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  Speaker 1: the guy in that locker room that he connects with
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  Speaker 1: and you're losing. You are in a different role. And
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I just look at this. He seemingly was a home
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  Speaker 1: run to be a part of this defense in the future.
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  Speaker 1: You wonder what the Eagles are thinking right now about that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then, you know, when you talk about you
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  Speaker 2: can't get in the guy's head, he knows it's not–
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be a contract year, but it
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: could be because it's his third year. So he could
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  Speaker 2: have been up for.
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  Speaker 1: And the conversation, Jeff, constantly has been, well, you know
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you have to pay Mitchell and Dujene. Those guys are
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: coming up, and here they are. Yep.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And so maybe that is factored in. Who knows?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I just– I think he's in a rut
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  Speaker 2: right now, Mike. And in fairness, he's going, I mean,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: when you get beat by CD lamb, that's no shame, right?
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  Speaker 2: He's a good player. There's no, there's no doubt about it,
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  Speaker 2: but he's, and some of the issues they've had have
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: been communication issues to your point about not having read.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And then how he and woolen have communicated on some
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  Speaker 2: certain motions and switches have not been great. So that,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: that plays into it, but he's also gotten just straight
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  Speaker 2: beat by some guys. And that's, that's, that's been surprising.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and the other thing is, Jeff, it seems that
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: teams are getting the matchups that they want. They're trying
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: to get their guy lined up on him. Is that
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  Speaker 1: a schematic thing from this defense?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, sometimes it is. Not Cooper, but obviously. So
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: George Pickens does not play in the slot in the
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Cowboys defense. He's played, if at all, just a small
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  Speaker 2: handful of slot snaps. But clearly in that one game,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: formation where he was, they had two slot receiver because
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: they went four wide, right. They got him matched up
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: against Makuba, I believe. Right. Didn't that, that Pickens caught
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: his touchdown against Makuba.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: So that was obviously schematic. And again, um, Makuba is there, right.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, Pickens makes a great play, nothing you can
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: do about it, but that's why you do those things.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: You want your, one of your best against, you know,
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  Speaker 2: someone who's, you know, a safety, not a slot receiver. So, uh,
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  Speaker 2: slot defender, um, So, yeah, some of that is also– yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and I believe that the touchdown– the touchdown last week,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: who did they play last week? The Panthers, right?
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, yep.
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  Speaker 2: I can't remember who caught the touchdown. Was it Waller
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: where there was a miscommunication between Cooper and Reek Wollin?
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: That was something that went similar to happen in the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Bears game, I believe, with Cleve Raymond. So, yeah, I
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: think schematically they're trying to use motions, right, to widen
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: a player who looks like an inside player, but he
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: winds up becoming the outside player. You know, number two
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: becomes one, one becomes two. And that causes like a
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: late minute switch off or communication breakdown between those two.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: And you've gotten touchdowns off that.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Well, we spent a lot of time looking at these
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: issues on defense because we thought this was going to
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: be a really good unit this year. It's hard to
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: judge them. They were on the field so much. They
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: haven't been bad. You could say, like, hey, I thought
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: they would be better, but they haven't been bad. They
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: were bad on Monday night.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this was the worst. To me, this was the
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: worst effort or the worst performance from the Vic Fangio
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: defense that I've seen since he's been the Eagles coordinator.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: If you go back to the Chicago game last year
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: where they got steamrolled in the run, actually, that was
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: still a battle for the Bears. They had trouble throwing
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the ball. I think it was really windy that day.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I remember that. It was very windy. There weren't too
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: many great passes that day. And then even in that
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Falcons game, Cousins didn't really light up. But this was
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: just a full-on failure from D-line to linebacker to corner
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: to safety. There was nobody who really played that well.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Jeff Mosher, Football 04. Let's look at this offense because
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it's been a disaster and I don't think anybody has
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: any anticipation for much growth here. We don't know what
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Barkley's status is, what Smith's status is. I would ask
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you this question. I feel like I'm just hammering McKee,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: which whatever, who cares? You know he's not the future
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of this team, right? And I'm not suggesting that you
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: go to Joe Milton and that's going to get better,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: but How many games do the Eagles really want to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: watch Tanner McKee play quarterback?
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I think they want to watch him play until there's
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: a reason not to. You know, I mean, the bottom
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: line is.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: There's a reason why I'm asking it in this vein,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: so go ahead.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the NFL is full of smart people,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: but it's also full of desperate people. And it's very
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: easy to paint a picture of Tanner McKee as, you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the way he started this season off as... everything around
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: him stunk and it was a bad environment, but then
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: they got healthy here. Then they got healthier and he
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: started to see a running game. And then, you know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: if he's throwing the ball a little bit better two
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: or three weeks from now, putting some touchdowns up, then
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden you're hoping somebody signs him. You
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: get a better comp pick type thing like that. That's,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: that's really why you'd want to play him to try
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: to help out his value. If you heard it, who cares?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's leaving at the end of the year anyway.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's not that big of a deal.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And I get that. Okay. So Tanner McKee is a
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: sixth round pick. So the expectations is if he is
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the third string quarterback for a couple of years and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: is capable for the one or two appearances, fine. Great.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: You drafted a guy in the fifth round this year.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, please. No, no, no.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I understand. And my point is then why would you
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: draft a quarterback in the fifth round and and then say,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I have no intention to use this guy.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: You're going to get me in trouble. You're going to
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: get me in trouble. I'm going to start talking to
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: you some uncomfortable truths about Cole Payton. I'm going to
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: stop you at you drafted a quarterback in the fifth round,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to be honest with you, because I'm not sure he's
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: a quarterback, but people are going to get mad at me.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: All right. And these are fair things to say. But
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: then it goes back to, why would you take this
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: kid in the fifth round? It's not like, what were
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you thinking that you're going to use? It's not like
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: a seventh round throwaway pick an international player. You took
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a guy in the fifth round and you're saying that
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: he can't be an option at all.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, clearly they're saying that because how fast did
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: they not only sign Joe Milton, but he was the
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: backup quarterback last week.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Yes. Right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: That's okay.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: And Sirianni was asked about that today. And in so
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: many words, he basically had to say, well, the guy
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that gave me in the fifth round has no business
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: being here.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So that, so the answer to your question, this.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Isn't me saying, how dare they not play their fifth
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: round pick? This is more of what were they thinking,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: taking this player in the fifth round, if he's not
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: a quarterback and you have no role for him?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I will say this. We, we, we had similar
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: talks about Jill. I'm not calling Colpate and Jalen hurts.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying sometimes we don't see the bigger picture
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: for what the Eagles plans are when they use a
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: pick on a certain guy. And, um, if you could
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: get Taysom Hill type player in the fifth round and
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: by year two or three, use them that way, is
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: that worth a fifth round pick given like the percentages
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: of your fifth round pick, even being an impact player
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: in a league, I think you can make an argument
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: that if that was your plan and you were going
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: to use them that way. And he, you know, Taysom
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Hill for the saints would come up with some really
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: big plays in and every game in the NFL, you know,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: is like a, is a one possession game. So if
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: you thought he could really help you tilt, a game
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: six or seven times a year. That's big, right? Or
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: however many games he got into. And for a fifth
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: round pick, the Eagles were willing to make that gamble
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: because let's be fair. They have made some gambles in
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: that regard, whether it's day two or day three, Jordan,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: my Lada example, right. That have paid off for them. But,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: So it looks bad now, but that one needs a
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: little bit more time to judge. But to your question
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: about being a quarterback and getting a chance to play quarterback,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: he's not there at all.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: So I like, so when I put Joe Milton's name
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: in for, do you know what it says when you
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Google search Joe Milton?
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: What does it say when it doesn't say Eagles quarterback?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It says internet personality. That's what it says.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I was unaware.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Joe Milton. It says internet personality.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Is that the same Joe Milton? Or is there a
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: different Joe Milton? That's a common name, right?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I'll do it again. Joe Milton III. When I click
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: on him, there's a football player with a Dallas helmet on.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: It says Joe Milton III, internet personality. Okay.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: That's good for him. I guess he is the social
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: media quarterback.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: All right. So that's where we are with the backup
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: quarterback situation. You have an internet personality and a guy
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: who apparently isn't a quarterback.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Isn't it sad when your internet personality is probably a
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: better quarterback than your other quarterback?
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Yes. So my question about Milton is, Do you have more?
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: There it is, by the way. Joe Milton, internet personality.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Do you have any intrigue to see him play at all?
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not unintrigued because I know he can throw the
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: ball like 70 yards in the air without even effort.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: He's sort of got like a Michael Vick-like arm. So
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: if the Eagles lose their next five games and they're
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: two and, what would that be? That would be two
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and ten, right?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess the question would be, listen, Jalen Hurts
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: isn't coming back this year. McKee has never really fit
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the vibe of the backup guy to a guy like
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts. Why do these teams do this? Where you
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: have a guy who runs an offense a certain way,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and then the backup quarterback can't do anything the same
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: as the starting quarterback. It makes no sense.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, I think that was part of the issue
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: of this, the whole convoluted issue of bringing in Andy
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Dalton and then actually cutting him at a time where
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: you didn't realize you might need him a week or
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: two later. I mean, who that that's part of the
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: convoluted year.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: You remember when I, what you remember when they had
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: these three, I would say this makes no sense. The
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: pecking order makes no sense. The snap counts in practice
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: don't make sense to carry four quarterbacks. Like I, Nothing
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: made sense about Cole Payton on the 53 to me,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: but I'm not Howie, and he's way more accomplished than me.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And all this goes to the theme of the day
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: is the dysfunction that Nick Foles says is in Philly. Like,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: you're looking at some of these roster decisions. I mean,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: that's just the tip of the iceberg of, like, what
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: were they thinking when they put this roster together in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: some aspects?
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. I mean, there were reasons– Look, there were
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: reasons to think that if things went well, that the
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: team could overcome that wonkiness that you're talking about. But
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: things have gone opposite. So when that happens, the wonky
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: things you do. I'll give you a perfect example. 2024,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Howie's offseason sucked if you were doing it based on
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: hit rate on individual moves, right? It didn't suck because
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: he signed Saquon Barkley, who had an unbelievable year. But
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: that's one move. What about the Bryce Huff contract? What
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: about the Devin, who was the linebacker from the Buccaneers? Right, Devin, right, right.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: You could find, no, it wasn't Devin Bush, was it?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Devin White, Devin White.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the linebacker, Devin White, Devin White.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Devin White. So my point is there were a
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: lot of, wonky decisions, but Saquon Barkley and Makai Becton
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: out of nowhere hit. And let's be honest, Zach Bourne
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: was luck too, that it overcame the fact that you
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: poured like 50 billion, all that money into a pass
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: rusher who didn't play for you. So, and then who
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: you had to trade the next year. So that's my
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: point is when things go well, when your roster and
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: your culture around that can, can compensate for your mistakes.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Some of, to be fair, some of the decisions, you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: in free agency, you got Barkley. That's a huge one.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: You got Becton who really turned out bond, turned into
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: an all pro. They also drafted players that really helped
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you out. Dejean Mitchell, right? Nekobe Carter. They were hitting
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: on a lot of those guys. Now they're not only
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: missing on free agents. They're also not getting any help
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: from draft choices, of any substance. I mean, you could
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: say Lemon had a nice game the other night. Okay, great.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Other than that, I mean, jeez, it's been pretty bleak. Right.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: So it's not often that you can sign this, you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: pass rusher to a huge contract, have it totally bust
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: up in your face, and nobody cares, right? It's just
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: not often. But now you've gotten to a year where
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: your bad draft picks or the bad drafts haven't developed yet, right,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: and your free agent additions. I mean, Rick Wolin... Listen,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: we said this from the start. Great speed, great traits,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: obvious good signing in terms of needing a corner and
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: him being talented, but we pointed out that the Seahawks
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: did not play this guy on first down and on
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: rundowns because he doesn't defend the run real well. They
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: didn't think he did, and they wanted to trade him
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: in the middle of a Super Bowl run, okay?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. All right.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I come here and he does some things good, but
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: he also does not want to touch anybody in the
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: run game. And that hurts you at times.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, to me, he's a clear indication of
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a guy who had that, you know, that rookie year.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: He kind of came out of nowhere and was like, wow,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: look at this big guy that they got in the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: sixth round. And he's really and then he's lived off
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of that for a while and has not been very
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: good for the majority of his career. And it's like, hey,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: you get sucked into, hey, he was a really good
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: player for four months of his career. And, yeah, he struggles.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: He doesn't want to tackle. He gives up a lot
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: of big plays. And you're paying the guy $ 12 million.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And you took a look around. He makes $ 12 million.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Grenard makes $ 25 million. Those guys aren't helping you at all.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And you wonder how they're fitting into the locker room, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: It's been Murphy's Law for the Eagles this year.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: No doubt. Hey, I remember, you know, the fact that
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: they play a Sunday night game. I remember seeing at
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the end of the schedule, they have three straight home
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: games in December. Yikes. That at the beginning of the year,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: you're like three home games in December. What a way
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to end the year. Your playoff push. It's going to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: be an interesting building in December.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Especially with one of them being in Seattle.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken, Saturday afternoon. Yes. Oh boy. One's
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve. Yeah.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Who's that against Houston? Well, right now Houston's facing the
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: same issues, but if they get their stuff ironed out,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: they're not, they're not an easy team to beat.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You've got Houston on Christmas Eve. You've got Seattle on
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a Saturday afternoon and you've got San Francisco. Oh gosh. Yikes. Actually,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the San Francisco game, I think, is on the road.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's Indianapolis. Yeah, actually, that is.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Indianapolis.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I think it's Indianapolis.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the time Indianapolis gets to town, they
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: may look like the Eagles of last week with all their,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll see if Howie Roseman follows suit to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: what Indianapolis is doing here and starts to. We'll get
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: into that, I'm sure, at some point here on Football
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: at Four. Jeff Mosher from the Inside the Birds podcast.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Make sure you check it out on all podcasting platforms.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: All right, man. We'll talk to you.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Have a good one, Mike.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: As always, Jeff Mosher, Football at Four, here on the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Sports Pass Live on 97.3 ESPN. Adam Kaplan is in
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: for the next couple editions of Football at Four.