Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: Final Takeaways From Eagles Off-Season
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Football and four powered by the Inside of the Birth podcast,
- 0:03Speaker 1: which you can get on all podcasting platforms, and of
- 0:07Speaker 1: course it's brought you by the Fanatic sports Booking.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City.
- 0:12Speaker 1: No have the Phillies there tonight, Big screens, big bets,
- 0:15Speaker 1: gate day, hits different at Ocean.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Learn more at the oceanac dot com. Don't forget check
- 0:20Speaker 2: out all the live at Ocean Casino Resort.
- 0:23Speaker 3: Now.
- 0:23Speaker 2: I told you earlier.
- 0:24Speaker 1: They got the Blues Traveler, Jin Blossoms and Spin Doctors show.
- 0:29Speaker 1: They got three eleven coming with Dirty Heads coming up
- 0:32Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks here, I think July eighteenth.
- 0:34Speaker 1: I was supposed to go to that show, but I
- 0:36Speaker 1: think I have a conflict that day, so not gonna
- 0:39Speaker 1: probably be there. But they got some good shows coming
- 0:41Speaker 1: up at Ocean Casino Resort, three eleven, Dirty Heads. We
- 0:45Speaker 1: talked about the Gin Blossom. Somebody asked her about one
- 0:48Speaker 1: hit Wonders, and it stemmed from him booking tickets to
- 0:51Speaker 1: the Gin Blossoms show with that's actually the Blues Traveler.
- 0:55Speaker 2: I think they're the headliner.
- 0:56Speaker 1: Blues Traveler Collective Soul is actually playing at Ocean Senior
- 1:00Speaker 1: resort as well.
- 1:01Speaker 2: All right, we got football at four.
- 1:04Speaker 1: By the way, appreciate the football for all season, off
- 1:08Speaker 1: season and now into the summertime. We'll give you a
- 1:11Speaker 1: lot of football perspective of what the Eagles are thinking about.
- 1:14Speaker 1: We take a look back as the OTA's have just finished,
- 1:18Speaker 1: and we'll dive into that right now with our buddy
- 1:21Speaker 1: Adam Kaplan from the Inside the Birds Podcast.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Adam, what's up man, Mike?
- 1:25Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we're now five weeks away from training camp.
- 1:27Speaker 3: Eagles have shut down their off season and now you
- 1:31Speaker 3: know they get a breather for the summer. But as
- 1:33Speaker 3: you said, we don't take a breather. We in fact,
- 1:35Speaker 3: we do every Wednesday night with our Patreon group and
- 1:39Speaker 3: we appreciate. Uh. Probably you've gotten a dozen or so
- 1:42Speaker 3: Football for listeners have joined over the years. We've noticed
- 1:45Speaker 3: because you know, we asked, how did you hear about us?
- 1:48Speaker 3: And yeah, we've had some people who've heard you and
- 1:50Speaker 3: I talk, or Jeff and I talk, or Andrew and
- 1:53Speaker 3: I or Andrew and you talk about our company, and
- 1:58Speaker 3: they're with us every Wednesday night. We love at and Uh,
- 2:01Speaker 3: it's great, Mike, this has been a fun offseason in
- 2:04Speaker 3: that lots of twists and turns, and we're gonna have
- 2:07Speaker 3: an offense. Mike's it's gonna look different. That's that to
- 2:10Speaker 3: me is really the story.
- 2:11Speaker 2: So let's get some takeaways from that right there.
- 2:13Speaker 1: The offensive scheme we only saw two days out there,
- 2:17Speaker 1: but it's the change evident, Mike.
- 2:20Speaker 3: I told you when Sean Manu was hired it's going
- 2:23Speaker 3: to look different, and it does look different. It's not
- 2:26Speaker 3: that they won't use some in the same place, of
- 2:28Speaker 3: course they will. You don't junk stuff that works. Like
- 2:32Speaker 3: Kella Moore talked about that. When he took over, his
- 2:34Speaker 3: game is completely different. His saw process was different. But
- 2:38Speaker 3: they wanted to use some stuff that hurts liked, and
- 2:40Speaker 3: then when things weren't going well, they had to scale
- 2:42Speaker 3: back a little bit. This Geme is West Coast lots
- 2:47Speaker 3: of now. We still think it's going to look at
- 2:49Speaker 3: least a passing concepts, Mike. Our thoughts were back in
- 2:53Speaker 3: February that it would look more like McVeigh. It sure does.
- 2:56Speaker 3: Being at the practice, not only this time, but just
- 3:00Speaker 3: talking to people who have been there, you're seeing a
- 3:02Speaker 3: lot of what we call minus splits or condensed formations
- 3:05Speaker 3: and what this does Mike because so many teams now
- 3:09Speaker 3: are playing more man coverage. The more you play your
- 3:12Speaker 3: receivers inside, the easier it is for them to get over.
- 3:14Speaker 3: It's not easy, but it's easier because it's hard to
- 3:18Speaker 3: press when the past targets are lined up inside. You're
- 3:23Speaker 3: going to see that. You're gonna see some exotic formations.
- 3:25Speaker 3: We saw some of that. You can see stack releases
- 3:28Speaker 3: we saw. I saw a burst motion which the Eagles
- 3:31Speaker 3: have never used before. That's a Sean McVay, Kyle Shannon
- 3:34Speaker 3: more Sean McVay. When the receiver is lining up insided
- 3:38Speaker 3: right before the snap, he bursts outside. So you're gonna
- 3:42Speaker 3: see a lot of different stuff. But yeah, you're you're
- 3:43Speaker 3: going to see some stuff that every offense runs. Yeah,
- 3:46Speaker 3: so she short area stuff, hit routs. That's in every
- 3:49Speaker 3: NFL offense, by the way, not just the Eagles, which
- 3:51Speaker 3: I find comical, like people think, like Kevin Pottola only
- 3:55Speaker 3: ran that because that's all it would work. Now every
- 3:58Speaker 3: NFL offense runs those. But you're going to see a
- 4:01Speaker 3: lot of formation variation. The quarterbacks is going to be
- 4:04Speaker 3: under center, which we told you about back in February.
- 4:07Speaker 3: You're gonna see a lot of motion comparatively two years past.
- 4:10Speaker 3: That's coming, and I'm everyone should embrace this. It's gonna
- 4:13Speaker 3: look fun. I'm not telling you it's gonna look great
- 4:16Speaker 3: early on. I told you Mike back in early May.
- 4:18Speaker 3: It's they won't. Their offense will not look good in
- 4:21Speaker 3: the offseason. I'm telling you that it wouldn't look good.
- 4:23Speaker 3: It didn't from a timing part of it. And guys
- 4:27Speaker 3: understand where they're supposed to be quarterbacks throwing on time.
- 4:30Speaker 3: It's all new to them. Although Andy Dalton is the
- 4:32Speaker 3: one quarterback who did play in a version of this,
- 4:35Speaker 3: a different version of the West Coast offense, though, but
- 4:37Speaker 3: the West Coast with the Bengals many many years ago.
- 4:40Speaker 1: So I guess that would explain why Dalton maybe is
- 4:43Speaker 1: getting a lot more or getting some second team reps
- 4:46Speaker 1: because he has a good handle on this. Maybe he
- 4:48Speaker 1: looks pretty good in it because all of these quarterbacks,
- 4:52Speaker 1: the timing is going to be big here.
- 4:53Speaker 3: Big time. When you're running a West Coast offense. It's
- 4:57Speaker 3: not like it's not like in the North turn off defense,
- 5:01Speaker 3: which is the power run deep passing. It's more five
- 5:05Speaker 3: and seven step drops. This is more three and five
- 5:08Speaker 3: the ball A three step, A three step drop is
- 5:11Speaker 3: one point one to one point three, five step is
- 5:14Speaker 3: one point five, and a seven step drop is one seven.
- 5:19Speaker 3: So you got it's got to come. It's got to
- 5:21Speaker 3: come quickly. It just has to and and folks, look,
- 5:24Speaker 3: you're going to see it in training camp. Uh for
- 5:27Speaker 3: for the season ticket hollders, you're allowed to go to
- 5:29Speaker 3: the Jefferson Health Training Complex. Mike. Uh, you're going to
- 5:34Speaker 3: see some things. Oh geez, what's wrong today? Well, they're
- 5:37Speaker 3: they're learning this new offense. It's going to take some time.
- 5:39Speaker 3: I kind of warned people their off season with Kella
- 5:42Speaker 3: Moore was not good. In twenty four, training camp is
- 5:45Speaker 3: much better. There's got to be some patience, but it's good.
- 5:48Speaker 3: It's gonna be fun to watch the growth and it's
- 5:51Speaker 3: eventually going to hit Mike at some point.
- 5:53Speaker 1: All right, Adam kaplan football at four, let's go. We
- 5:56Speaker 1: just kind of hinted at it. What about ten and
- 5:58Speaker 1: m Key's role here because a lot of people is
- 6:00Speaker 1: the sun he used the backup. Doesn't seem that that's
- 6:02Speaker 1: the case.
- 6:03Speaker 3: No, it's actually this is the There have been very
- 6:06Speaker 3: few surprises the offense looks like we thought it would look.
- 6:10Speaker 3: But the thing that's just stunning is like, what is
- 6:12Speaker 3: with this rotation? He touched it in passing. Why are
- 6:17Speaker 3: Dalton McKee rotating with the twos? Which Nick Cyrianna confirmed
- 6:21Speaker 3: that when the media has not been there, which has
- 6:23Speaker 3: been most practices, the media has got very little look
- 6:26Speaker 3: at their practices. You know, they just don't when many
- 6:29Speaker 3: years ago, you get the media here in Philly would
- 6:32Speaker 3: get they'd be able to go to every practice. Not anymore.
- 6:35Speaker 3: But it has been a rotation between the two of
- 6:37Speaker 3: them with the twos. It's it's really a stunning development.
- 6:41Speaker 3: I didn't see this coming, but I okay, so it's happening.
- 6:44Speaker 3: We want to know why we're looking into this. The
- 6:46Speaker 3: why is what we want to know that it's happened
- 6:48Speaker 3: as a story, but the real story is why why
- 6:50Speaker 3: would you do this? Now? You might you might be right, Mike,
- 6:52Speaker 3: I know you were just saying in a passing it's
- 6:55Speaker 3: because Dalton's been in this offense before. It's a deridive
- 6:58Speaker 3: of it. Maybe maybe, I mean, that's possible. And also
- 7:01Speaker 3: you know, call Peyton's there by the way, who did
- 7:04Speaker 3: have a It did show some March strength, but unfortunately
- 7:07Speaker 3: there was a timing issue with his past target and
- 7:09Speaker 3: the past target went the wrong way and Payton through
- 7:12Speaker 3: a pick. But he's a big dude. He is, by
- 7:15Speaker 3: the way, number ten in your program at quarterback.
- 7:17Speaker 2: All right, let's look at the wide receiver group.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Obviously major changes here, in fact, wholesale changes. If you will,
- 7:26Speaker 1: only one guy, uh seemingly from last year's group will
- 7:29Speaker 1: be back, and that of course is Devonte Smith.
- 7:31Speaker 3: Yeah, wex you know, so let's go for it. You
- 7:34Speaker 3: mentioned Devonte Smith. He'll be their lead past target. There'll
- 7:37Speaker 3: be a distance between he and whoever it's going to
- 7:40Speaker 3: be the number two guy, which should be Mikay Lemon
- 7:42Speaker 3: if he's up to speed. But they made a trade
- 7:44Speaker 3: for Dan Davian Wicks. You know, he's familiar with the
- 7:49Speaker 3: West Coast terminology. You know, they don't number in system anywhere.
- 7:51Speaker 3: They're running the Berberge system, which is West Coast. He
- 7:54Speaker 3: knows that system. He knows Sean Manning. You know. In fact,
- 7:57Speaker 3: he did say this is interesting. He's play tight with
- 8:00Speaker 3: Ryan Hafy, the new ten Ends coach. They were together
- 8:02Speaker 3: in Green Bay. He said he's been a mentor for him,
- 8:05Speaker 3: so that that's very kind of interesting. Then you've got
- 8:08Speaker 3: Hollywood Brown, Daris Cooper's back, and Johnny Wilson, by the way,
- 8:11Speaker 3: I do want to mention he is really healthy. Hey, look,
- 8:13Speaker 3: he's not a speed demon, but he really offers something
- 8:16Speaker 3: in the run game. And let's not forget he's over
- 8:18Speaker 3: six foot six. He looked fine. He did look healthy,
- 8:22Speaker 3: and Lachenmore had a who had a good offseason. He
- 8:24Speaker 3: still launched out to make it. So they've got Mike,
- 8:27Speaker 3: as you said right correctly, they've got a new past
- 8:31Speaker 3: target group. It's been kind of revised, but they have
- 8:34Speaker 3: enough depth. Now the question is the quality of it
- 8:37Speaker 3: and we'll learn more about that in training game.
- 8:39Speaker 1: All right, let's go to some other things that we
- 8:41Speaker 1: learned from the Eagles offseason in recent OTAs and mandatories,
- 8:46Speaker 1: which is the personnel grouping.
- 8:49Speaker 2: We talked about this with Jeff.
- 8:50Speaker 1: ESPN dot Com wrote an article that says, hey, that
- 8:53Speaker 1: they could have a sneaky good twelve personnel grouping, but
- 8:56Speaker 1: what diverse looks are you looking for from the personnel grouping.
- 9:01Speaker 3: Unfortunately, Mike and McKay lemon missed over two weeks of
- 9:04Speaker 3: practices and he's a little bit behind, not that he
- 9:05Speaker 3: won't start Week one, but which didn't see him enough.
- 9:09Speaker 3: But when they go to eleven personnel, they'll run plenty
- 9:12Speaker 3: of that Smith, Lemon and then Wis. Then when they
- 9:18Speaker 3: go to a faster package, you've got Smith, You've got
- 9:21Speaker 3: Hollywood Brown, You've got Stours who could play the exposition
- 9:26Speaker 3: he said tight end, no question about it. But every
- 9:29Speaker 3: NFL team will wind up lining a tight up at
- 9:31Speaker 3: the exposition. The Eagles did it with zach Ertz when
- 9:33Speaker 3: he was here, though he's not very fast. Obviously Goddard's
- 9:36Speaker 3: done it. They've got a variety of formation variation. Then
- 9:40Speaker 3: when they go to twelve personnel, Goddard month is going
- 9:43Speaker 3: to be the why tend. That'll allow Goddard to play
- 9:46Speaker 3: the F position, to be the move ten end or
- 9:48Speaker 3: to go out for a pass. Stowers will play the
- 9:50Speaker 3: F position. That'll be is that is the mike, that's
- 9:53Speaker 3: the offset tight end that's behind the offensive line. You'll
- 9:57Speaker 3: notice that the guy's about a yard behind it. That's
- 10:00Speaker 3: so he doesn't take head on contact because Stowers needs
- 10:03Speaker 3: to learn how to block. Calcaterra is still there, and
- 10:07Speaker 3: then Daikwon Wright he's a long shot to make it, Mike,
- 10:10Speaker 3: but he can make it very interesting. He is the
- 10:12Speaker 3: undrafted free age out of Mississippi. It's a super freak athlete.
- 10:15Speaker 3: He's number forty five. I do watch him in Wednesdays
- 10:18Speaker 3: practice and Camp Blot who's still there. So the good
- 10:21Speaker 3: thing is Mike, they could run a variety of personnel groupings.
- 10:24Speaker 3: And I also saw some thirteen personnel, which is three
- 10:27Speaker 3: tight ends and one receiver. So that Wednesday's practice, Adam.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Let's look at defense a little bit here. Obviously, aj
- 10:34Speaker 1: F Banessa they brought him in. What about this group
- 10:38Speaker 1: as opposed to what they had a year ago?
- 10:40Speaker 3: Yeah, Padasa's really Look, he's technically an that rusher, but
- 10:44Speaker 3: you're not signing the rust of passer. He's really not
- 10:46Speaker 3: a pass rusher per se. He is a power and
- 10:50Speaker 3: that is in a forty three front, which the Eagles
- 10:52Speaker 3: will running nickel. They're base thirty four with two overhangs,
- 10:55Speaker 3: but in nicol you could play him inside it tackle.
- 11:01Speaker 3: He's six foot six now, depending mic on how much
- 11:03Speaker 3: he weighs, if he's only two fifty or two fifty five,
- 11:07Speaker 3: then he'll just be a techling an untresser, but he's
- 11:09Speaker 3: going to play the run. He's in there to play
- 11:11Speaker 3: the run. He's a supreme run defender. He's a long
- 11:13Speaker 3: shot to make it. Mike, they've got it, They've got
- 11:16Speaker 3: enough death. But this is a competition thing in training camp.
- 11:20Speaker 3: That's why they signed him. In fact, they're so deep
- 11:23Speaker 3: at Edge with with the Grenard trade. He replaces obviously
- 11:26Speaker 3: Jalen Phillips, Jaelex hn Ebaicetti, Nolan Smith. They're only going
- 11:31Speaker 3: to address four. They only play three. Joe Tryon Schayenka,
- 11:35Speaker 3: who missed two days of practice. He's not gonna make
- 11:37Speaker 3: it anyway if he does return. We don't know why
- 11:39Speaker 3: he wasn't there for the final two days. Minimal guaranteed
- 11:43Speaker 3: money in this contract. We didn't quite understand why he
- 11:46Speaker 3: signed here, what he did that that kind of surprised us.
- 11:51Speaker 3: But the thing is, Mike, they've got so much depth
- 11:54Speaker 3: at Edge. That's a good thing to have. And you know,
- 11:56Speaker 3: maybe just maybe Vic Vic Mike might just start rotating
- 12:01Speaker 3: a little bit more. We'll see, all.
- 12:03Speaker 1: Right, Adam, Let's go to one thing that I find
- 12:05Speaker 1: it will be into because if somebody asked me the
- 12:07Speaker 1: other day, you know, is the ceiling of this defense
- 12:10Speaker 1: better than the ceiling of last year's defense.
- 12:12Speaker 2: And one of that thing, one of the differences on
- 12:14Speaker 2: this team. You know, obviously you've got.
- 12:17Speaker 1: You've got Woolan in there, which I think many people
- 12:20Speaker 1: think is an upgrade, But overall, the speed of this
- 12:23Speaker 1: team on defense should be something that stands out.
- 12:26Speaker 3: It is that's on my list here, Mike. So if
- 12:29Speaker 3: you just look at the guys who are new here,
- 12:31Speaker 3: Grenard is a faster edge rusher than Phillips. He's not
- 12:33Speaker 3: as big, he's more explosive. Rake Wollan at six foot four,
- 12:38Speaker 3: can on a flat out fly. He's one of the
- 12:41Speaker 3: rare tall super tall corners, and he might wind up
- 12:45Speaker 3: being the tallest corner in the league this year. He's
- 12:48Speaker 3: one of those guys who actually runs very well. A
- 12:52Speaker 3: little bit high hip, but he can move. Cooper Degen
- 12:55Speaker 3: is a freak athlete, like as it gets. Mitchell moves
- 12:58Speaker 3: very very well. Jlex Hunt who Gernard, by the way,
- 13:01Speaker 3: who's johnthan Garnard loves doing some scouting. I don't know
- 13:04Speaker 3: if you heard his press conference and he was asked
- 13:07Speaker 3: about his first impression of Hunt. He said, an athlete,
- 13:10Speaker 3: he's an athlete. Epiquette's explosive, by the way, so's Nolan Smith,
- 13:15Speaker 3: Moro Jonas has got good shot, eric quickness. No explosive
- 13:19Speaker 3: that Jordan Davis is for a big man, you know,
- 13:21Speaker 3: explosive Jalen Carter as Mike. So this John Campbell, by
- 13:25Speaker 3: the way, once he gets on the field, this is
- 13:27Speaker 3: the most explosive defense they've had since Nick Sheryani became
- 13:31Speaker 3: their head coach in twenty one.
- 13:32Speaker 1: All Right, finally you look at Cooper Egene and how
- 13:35Speaker 1: his season is going to look differently.
- 13:38Speaker 3: Yeah, this is on what has changed. No more cornerback Mike.
- 13:42Speaker 3: They have no plans for him to play corner. He's
- 13:44Speaker 3: going to play nickel and he's going to play safety.
- 13:47Speaker 3: As Jeff and I were talking a couple of weeks ago,
- 13:50Speaker 3: there may be some weeks he doesn't play nickel. Why
- 13:53Speaker 3: if there's a team that's going to play, it's going
- 13:56Speaker 3: to be heavy run like let's say it could be
- 13:59Speaker 3: like the by the way, the Rams. Now this is
- 14:01Speaker 3: space on last year. If they come in and still
- 14:04Speaker 3: are running a ton of twelve and a lot of
- 14:06Speaker 3: thirteen personnel, she may not play nickel in that game,
- 14:09Speaker 3: whereas years ago. If you're gonna face the Rams, you're
- 14:12Speaker 3: playing nickel and you're playing dying because they don't play eleven.
- 14:16Speaker 3: They don't play twelve personnel or thirteen personnel. But charlm
- 14:19Speaker 3: Fay shocked us last year when he changed, so just
- 14:23Speaker 3: get used to it. It's gonna look different. And by
- 14:25Speaker 3: the way, he has put on so much mass on
- 14:27Speaker 3: his frame. He walked right by me. I didn't even recognize.
- 14:29Speaker 3: I'm like, who is this guy? I'm like, well, that's
- 14:31Speaker 3: the great. So he's put on a lot of muscle.
- 14:35Speaker 3: He looks bigger, and it's gonna this defense, Mike, is
- 14:38Speaker 3: gonna be fun. They will. They're probably gonna be some weeks, Mike.
- 14:41Speaker 3: Let's be honest. There's gonna be some weeks. We're gonna
- 14:44Speaker 3: have to carry the football team.
- 14:45Speaker 2: All right. There you go.
- 14:46Speaker 1: There is a look back at the final takeaways from
- 14:49Speaker 1: the Eagles offseason. And of course, would you say five
- 14:53Speaker 1: weeks to training camp, man, that's ways run the game.
- 14:55Speaker 3: I mean it should be running twenty fourth to twenty fifth.
- 14:58Speaker 3: You know, they can't practice the first day they were
- 15:00Speaker 3: where they could they price the next day? You know,
- 15:02Speaker 3: you got the first five days you can't do anything.
- 15:04Speaker 3: It's very light. It's the acclamation period. You know. It's
- 15:07Speaker 3: funny and this is like an annual thing for me
- 15:10Speaker 3: when any Reid was here before they changed the rules.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Is that you could actually hit the next day after
- 15:16Speaker 3: your report like they used to do that, but not
- 15:19Speaker 3: anymore unfortunately.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Well we look forward to it.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Have a couple of weeks off with the offseason for
- 15:24Speaker 1: the Eagles fans, but they will be back in training
- 15:26Speaker 1: camp in just over a month.
- 15:28Speaker 2: Will be all over it for football at four right
- 15:30Speaker 2: here on the Sports Bash.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Thanks Adam, you gotta check that right out, and Kap
- 15:33Speaker 1: and everybody here on the Sports Bash