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Football at Four: What to Expect from the New Eagles OL Coach? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Josh mcfilly for Mike gel here in the sports Bash
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Speaker 1: Football at four Yes, powered is it every day by
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0:32
Speaker 2: Andrew the Checko.
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Speaker 1: Joining us on a Thursday as we dig into who
0:37
Speaker 1: is Jeff Stoutland's replacement?
0:40
Speaker 2: Why is he here?
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Speaker 1: Along with the Eagles how will they address their off
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Speaker 1: season needs? Of course, Andrew Chuck has a great article
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Speaker 1: right now at Inside the Birds dot Com talking about
0:52
Speaker 1: the new offensive line coach.
0:55
Speaker 2: Andrew Woman, How you doing today.
0:58
Speaker 3: Josh, I'm doing great, man, Great to be with you now.
1:00
Speaker 2: I want to clarify the guy's name is Chris Cooper? Correct?
1:05
Speaker 3: Yes, like the actor.
1:06
Speaker 2: See That's what.
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Speaker 1: I thought, But I've seen some people trying to phonetically
1:10
Speaker 1: spell it out differently, So I want to verify before
1:12
Speaker 1: we started talking about the guy, because I think.
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Speaker 3: I'll say it's Chris Cooper, right, you know, I'm sure
1:20
Speaker 3: you'll hear a lot of different variations of it. Yes,
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Speaker 3: but that's that's not I mean, I'm pretty used to
1:25
Speaker 3: that right now, living in this area here, and you
1:28
Speaker 3: know a ton of different pronunciations exactly a lot of
1:30
Speaker 3: players and coaches.
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Speaker 1: Well, let's get into it, because I think that who
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Speaker 1: he is is actually very interesting, Andrew, as you wrote
1:36
Speaker 1: about it inside the Birds dot com, because this isn't
1:39
Speaker 1: just some rando guy that they hired. He is someone
1:43
Speaker 1: who actually has a lot of connection to people on
1:47
Speaker 1: the current Eagles coaching staff.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, well, let's let's unpack this. Because he spent
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Speaker 3: the last four years as the Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach.
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Speaker 3: The performance of that offensive line was very underwhelming. Now,
2:00
Speaker 3: context is needed for the twenty twenty five group because
2:04
Speaker 3: they threw a lot of money and a lot of
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Speaker 3: resources at trying to fortify that offensive line, signing Ryan Kelly,
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Speaker 3: the veteran center who struggled with concussions. They drafted Donovan
2:13
Speaker 3: Jackson out of Ohio State in the first round to
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Speaker 3: play guard. They signed Will Fries to a monster free
2:19
Speaker 3: agent contract to play right guard, and they were ravaged
2:23
Speaker 3: by injuries. Now it's on Chris Cooper, much like you
2:27
Speaker 3: saw with Jeff Stotlin, to elevate the performance of those
2:30
Speaker 3: offensive linemen that you are working with. And I don't
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Speaker 3: think he did a great job with that. They surrendered
2:35
Speaker 3: sixty sacks last season, and the run game left a
2:38
Speaker 3: lot to be desired over the past few seasons. But
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Speaker 3: to your point, Josh, yeah, there's some overlap there. He
2:44
Speaker 3: spent time with the Miami Dolphins in twenty seventeen and
2:48
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, and Josh Grizzard, the Eagles pass game coordinator,
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Speaker 3: was there when he was in Minnesota as their offensive
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Speaker 3: line coach. He overlapped with Sean Mannion, of course, the
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Speaker 3: Eagles newly appointed offensive coordinator when Shawn Manning was a
3:00
Speaker 3: backup quarterback, And then, of course, he spent some time
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Speaker 3: with Vic Fangio as an assistant offensive line coach when
3:06
Speaker 3: Fangio was the head coach of the Denver Broncos. So
3:09
Speaker 3: certainly that familiarity and understanding of that Kevin O'Connell style
3:14
Speaker 3: should lend itself to easing that transition as the Eagles
3:19
Speaker 3: look to reimagine that run design.
3:21
Speaker 1: I think the other part that's interesting is that this
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Speaker 1: is a guy Andrew that has played in the NFL.
3:26
Speaker 1: So another side of the coin, which is, you know,
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Speaker 1: Stalin was a guy that most of his experience was
3:32
Speaker 1: as a coach, right with four years experience, whereas you
3:34
Speaker 1: have now a guy and Chris Cooper is someone who
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Speaker 1: is saying now when he's teaching the line, he can
3:40
Speaker 1: also say when I played, I have actual hands on
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Speaker 1: experience in the twenty first century.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a big thing. Because whoever's filling the shoes
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Speaker 3: of Jeff Stotlin, the iconic offensive line coach who was
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Speaker 3: in Philadelphia for thirteen seasons, it's always going to be
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Speaker 3: a daunting task. But what Chris Cooper has working in
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Speaker 3: his favor that he should command respect early having played
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Speaker 3: the game with the highest level ninety games, seventy nine
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Speaker 3: career starts, and was a really solid player when he
4:08
Speaker 3: was there with the Denver Broncos. So I think that's
4:10
Speaker 3: really going to help in terms of getting the buy
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Speaker 3: in and commanding a room. So as far as the
4:15
Speaker 3: player development piece goes, well, that's part of what made
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Speaker 3: Jeff' stout one so special and one of one, so
4:21
Speaker 3: that remains to be seen. Also, you have to wonder
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Speaker 3: what style of offensive line the Eagles are going to
4:26
Speaker 3: be coveting in free agency in a draft, because if
4:29
Speaker 3: you're going to play that wide zone style, that stretch,
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Speaker 3: you know, those stretch runs. I'm not saying they won't
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Speaker 3: still do inside zone, but you're gonna typically look for
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Speaker 3: offensive linemen that have a little bit more athleticism. They're
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Speaker 3: good moving laterally like a Cam Jurgens when he's right.
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Speaker 3: So I'm curious to see how that all transpires.
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Speaker 2: Well, you gotta levy right into my next question for you.
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Speaker 1: Andrew Checko joining This Football at four powered by the
4:53
Speaker 1: Inside the Birch podcast. His latest article at Inside the
4:56
Speaker 1: Birth dot com further detailing who is Jeff Dallin's replacement,
5:00
Speaker 1: who is Chris Cooper? You mentioned with the style that
5:03
Speaker 1: they're going to play with, help the audience understand it.
5:07
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people might not fully grasp
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Speaker 1: the fact how different this style of offense that Sean
5:14
Speaker 1: Mannion is coming with the Philadelphia versus what the fans
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Speaker 1: have seen in recent years.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's the expectation that he's bringing in this
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Speaker 3: these different concepts based off of the coaches that he's
5:27
Speaker 3: worked with in the past. To what extent well, we're
5:29
Speaker 3: going to find out because Kellen Moore was also expected
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Speaker 3: to completely put his fingerprints on the offense and that
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Speaker 3: lasted about a month before the head to scale things
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Speaker 3: back and become a run heavy team. But you're going
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Speaker 3: to see more emotion, like more under center, some play action,
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Speaker 3: middle of the field utilization. It's a West Coast type
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Speaker 3: of mind that you're getting in Sean Mannion. So ball's
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Speaker 3: got to come out quickly, timing based, you're throwing in rhythm,
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Speaker 3: and so all of those things are going to be
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Speaker 3: a stark contrast from the style the Eagles have played.
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Speaker 3: And then the game you're looking for linemen who are
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Speaker 3: fluid movers. Laterally they can get out in space, climbing
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Speaker 3: that second level with ease. It's also going to require
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Speaker 3: patients from the running back, and that's not something that
6:11
Speaker 3: for all the great things that Saquon Barkley has done
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Speaker 3: in Philadelphia, he's not the most patient runner, nor is
6:16
Speaker 3: Tank Bigsby. I think Sakwan's a little bit more on
6:19
Speaker 3: the patient side. Than Bigsby. Bigsby kind of just finds
6:22
Speaker 3: his own hole. But in order to really thrive in
6:24
Speaker 3: that kind of style, you have to be able to
6:27
Speaker 3: let blocks develop and find the crease and go from there.
6:31
Speaker 2: You just mentioned it was very interesting.
6:33
Speaker 1: I just thought of this is you just mentioned about
6:35
Speaker 1: the fluidity the type of offensive lineman that has the
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Speaker 1: most success in this type of offense. Is there a
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Speaker 1: guy currently on the Eagles that you look at and
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Speaker 1: say that guy is someone who fits what they're going
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Speaker 1: to do well?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Cam Jurgens, I think Jordan Mylotta can do that.
6:53
Speaker 3: Landon Dickerson's more of that rogue grader maler type. He
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Speaker 3: can probably do it, but I think he's best for
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Speaker 3: or what the Eagles used to do with that inside
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Speaker 3: zone where you're just kind of surging forward and knocking
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Speaker 3: lineman backwards. I think that's really where he's at his best.
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Speaker 3: But Landon Dickerson can do anything, but I think he's
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Speaker 3: at his best one moving forward versus latterally Tyler Steen.
7:15
Speaker 3: I would think that that those type of concepts, those
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Speaker 3: designs should play to his strengths a little bit more.
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Speaker 3: He can move well, moving side to side lane Johnson
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Speaker 3: as well. Lane Johnson's as athletic as they come at
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Speaker 3: right tackle, but I think more so from Landon Dickerson's perspective,
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Speaker 3: and maybe even to a degree, Jordan Mylotta. He's six
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Speaker 3: foot eight, however many pounds and you know, sometimes if
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Speaker 3: you look at the past lines that have had a
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Speaker 3: lot of success, they're on the lighter side, but and
7:46
Speaker 3: they get by with their quickness and fluidity.
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Speaker 1: I think that brings us to the other side of
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Speaker 1: this conversation because as we closer to March in April, Andrew,
7:56
Speaker 1: I know you the guys the Inside the Birds podcast,
7:59
Speaker 1: you're right inside the Burds dot Com. We're going to
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Speaker 1: be transitioning even heavier into the offseason. So now that
8:04
Speaker 1: we have established this coaching staff, the Eagles obviously have needs,
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Speaker 1: and one could argue, Andrew, one of those needs is
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Speaker 1: the offensive line. Who is the heir apparent de Lane Johnson,
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Speaker 1: Is Tyler Stein the right guy to continue to be
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Speaker 1: the right guard? There are some questions about this offensive
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Speaker 1: line moving forward. So for you, Andrew, and obviously we're
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Speaker 1: very early in the offseason process, what is the best
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Speaker 1: way to address some of these needs?
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Speaker 2: Do you think it's going to be.
8:32
Speaker 1: Going out and getting free agents, or do you think
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Speaker 1: the Eagles are going to need to be little more
8:38
Speaker 1: heavy in the draft o line market.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a fantastic question, and I think it's going
8:44
Speaker 3: to be positioned dependent. So if you're asking me asking
8:47
Speaker 3: me about the offensive line, I would say you want
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Speaker 3: to lean towards getting those stopgap players in free agency
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Speaker 3: that have played that style before. I look at someone
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Speaker 3: like a Dalton Reisner who was with the the Broncos
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Speaker 3: when Chris Cooper was there. He was with the Minnesota
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Speaker 3: Vikings when Chris Cooper was there. He can play left
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Speaker 3: or right guard. He's not going to break the bank,
9:08
Speaker 3: certainly won't be cost prohibitive, but he's going to be
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Speaker 3: well versed in the style. And the reason why I
9:13
Speaker 3: say you want to go for an experienced player in
9:15
Speaker 3: free agencies because we don't yet know how Chris Cooper
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Speaker 3: is going to fare in terms of player development. With
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Speaker 3: Jeff Staltlin, he felt pretty comfortable drafting a player on
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Speaker 3: Day one, two or three and know that he's going
9:27
Speaker 3: to help that player realize their potential. Now, if you're
9:30
Speaker 3: looking at safety, for example, well, I think Joe Casper
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Speaker 3: has a pretty strong track record early on in his
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Speaker 3: young career for developing defensive backs and getting them to
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Speaker 3: play at optimum level. He's now their defensive backs coach,
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Speaker 3: replacing Christian Parker, and I think in the draft you
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Speaker 3: want to maybe look for a more athletic type of
9:50
Speaker 3: player who would pair well with Drew mccouba, because that's
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Speaker 3: the way the league's trending. In the modern NFL, you
9:55
Speaker 3: have to be able to cover a lot of ground,
9:57
Speaker 3: and for all the great things that Reed Blanket Ship
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Speaker 3: does from directing traffic and being such a dependable option,
10:03
Speaker 3: Vic Fangio has lauded him for his football intelligence and
10:05
Speaker 3: all of that, you need to probably get a little
10:08
Speaker 3: bit more adept in coverage from that position, and I
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Speaker 3: think in addition to Drew mccooba, you could probably get
10:15
Speaker 3: more athletic there and then tight end as well. I
10:17
Speaker 3: think the best course of action would be to resign
10:19
Speaker 3: Dallas Godder if you're able to come to an agreement,
10:21
Speaker 3: but then certainly draft his understudy and have him learn
10:25
Speaker 3: from him for that season. So it's kind of position
10:28
Speaker 3: dependent in my estimation.
10:30
Speaker 1: If I can backtrack to what you were talking about,
10:32
Speaker 1: the safety of him and Andrew, which is, do you
10:35
Speaker 1: think that if they got a better number two corner
10:38
Speaker 1: on the outside, is that enough to maybe offset some
10:44
Speaker 1: of Reblankenship's you know, limitations as an athlete, or do
10:47
Speaker 1: you feel like it doesn't matter who the other corners
10:50
Speaker 1: are getting, a upgrade of a Blankenship should be the
10:54
Speaker 1: option no matter what.
10:57
Speaker 3: Well, I think this season Reid has sort of a
11:00
Speaker 3: in terms of coverage. He's always been a really solid
11:03
Speaker 3: tackler place with good anticipation makes up for whatever he
11:06
Speaker 3: lacks from athleticism, with high level football intelligence and instincts.
11:12
Speaker 3: But I still think you need to get more athletic
11:15
Speaker 3: in that area, a player who you can move around
11:18
Speaker 3: and they might be a good matchup against move tight
11:20
Speaker 3: ends and things like that. To be clear, they need
11:23
Speaker 3: to upgrade at cornerback too as well. But I do
11:26
Speaker 3: believe that when you're looking at it through the lens
11:28
Speaker 3: of the Eagles free agents at safety in particular, that's
11:31
Speaker 3: an area where I think they could upgrade and read
11:34
Speaker 3: black Ship should have a fairly active market. I would
11:38
Speaker 3: imagine he's still a young players. He's a great story
11:42
Speaker 3: of development and he's probably going to be cost effective.
11:44
Speaker 3: But I just think knowing the Eagles and what they are,
11:48
Speaker 3: you know, how they build teams, that they have a
11:50
Speaker 3: really young secondary, and I believe that that's an opportunity
11:53
Speaker 3: for them to add to that area. But they do
11:55
Speaker 3: need to add another cornerback as well.
11:58
Speaker 1: I know it's a couple of months out from the
12:00
Speaker 1: so I know you haven't you gone fully into it,
12:02
Speaker 1: but I know you're a big draft guy, Andrew, as
12:05
Speaker 1: we've known here from your year's here of football four
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Speaker 1: powered by the Inside the Birds podcast josh Anny Filay
12:10
Speaker 1: for Mike gil on Thursday edition The Sports Bash on
12:12
Speaker 1: nine seven three ESPN.
12:14
Speaker 2: Do you think this is going to be a good
12:17
Speaker 2: year to draft the tight end?
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Speaker 3: I do, but I don't think. I don't think the
12:23
Speaker 3: Eagles can afford to wait past Day two. You need
12:26
Speaker 3: to get a player that isn't it necessarily a dart
12:29
Speaker 3: throw with some upside where you feel comfortable with them
12:34
Speaker 3: a couple of years down the line. They need to
12:35
Speaker 3: get a succession plan in place, which is why I
12:38
Speaker 3: look at that that day two areas as really optimal
12:43
Speaker 3: for them to to really to really put you know,
12:47
Speaker 3: four to five that position for the foreseeable future. If
12:50
Speaker 3: you look at what they've done in the past, whether
12:51
Speaker 3: it was Brent Selek, zach Ertz, Dallas Godd or it's
12:55
Speaker 3: been the second round where they've sort of found a
12:58
Speaker 3: sweet spot there. They have a lot of knee but
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Speaker 3: I do think that either at some point on day
13:04
Speaker 3: two is where they should probably address it, just to
13:06
Speaker 3: make sure that you're giving them the best option moving forward.
13:09
Speaker 3: And really depending on what Sean Manning wants to do,
13:12
Speaker 3: that second tight end may be involved in this offense
13:15
Speaker 3: quite a bit, and you ideally want to get that
13:17
Speaker 3: player who can help you almost immediately and.
13:22
Speaker 2: Before we let you go.
13:23
Speaker 1: The other question that has been circulated a lot this offseason,
13:27
Speaker 1: and whether it's fair or not, but it has been
13:30
Speaker 1: by a lot of fans, has been what is the
13:32
Speaker 1: future of Jake Elliott. This is a guy who is
13:35
Speaker 1: a two times world champion, but he has had some
13:38
Speaker 1: issues at times in recent years. Do you believe it's
13:42
Speaker 1: time to maybe bring in some competition for Jake or
13:46
Speaker 1: do you think that the Eagles need to give him
13:49
Speaker 1: another offseason to try to recalibrate and come back and
13:52
Speaker 1: see what he can do next year.
13:54
Speaker 3: Well, I think he's built up enough equity with the
13:57
Speaker 3: Eagles to bring him back for another season. But that's
14:00
Speaker 3: not to suggest that they shouldn't bring in competition because
14:03
Speaker 3: he's larger. He's gone uncontested each and every summer a
14:07
Speaker 3: lot of times. If you can remember back to the
14:08
Speaker 3: Andy Reid years, they would bring in a kicker to
14:11
Speaker 3: training camp to you know, take a little bit of
14:13
Speaker 3: pressure off David Akers and not have him take on
14:16
Speaker 3: all that you know, all that work. But they were
14:19
Speaker 3: never viable contenders for a roster spot. I think this
14:22
Speaker 3: time needs to be a little bit different. You don't
14:24
Speaker 3: often see kickers get drafted, not not an abundance of them,
14:27
Speaker 3: I should say. So, maybe you bring in an acclaimed
14:30
Speaker 3: undrafted free agent. Maybe you see a younger player as
14:33
Speaker 3: a free agent right now, like when the when it
14:36
Speaker 3: opens on March eleventh, that intrigues you a little bit.
14:39
Speaker 3: You bring him in, you sign him to a modest contract,
14:42
Speaker 3: and you see how the chips land. But they do
14:44
Speaker 3: need to make sure they have that rectified moving forward
14:47
Speaker 3: because it's cost the Eagles some games.
14:49
Speaker 1: He's Andrew Checkers, I got all of his coverage all
14:51
Speaker 1: the Philadelphie Eagles at insidethebirds dot Com. Great article up
14:56
Speaker 1: right now about new offensive line coach Chris Cooper.
15:00
Speaker 2: Who is he? What can we expect from him?
15:02
Speaker 1: All the details as he covers the Eagles all year
15:05
Speaker 1: along with us here on the sports Patch Football four
15:07
Speaker 1: at Andrew the checko on the X platform.
15:11
Speaker 2: Andrew, appreciate the time. Talk soon.
15:14
Speaker 3: I'm surprised you didn't get into any of the Kevin
15:15
Speaker 3: Patulo conversation.
15:18
Speaker 2: I kind of no care.
15:20
Speaker 3: Oh well, that's that's fair. But you know, he he
15:24
Speaker 3: landed on his feet.
15:25
Speaker 2: I know, well I made the joke. I'm glad to
15:27
Speaker 2: see that I made the joke yesterday. Andrew that the pert.
15:30
Speaker 2: I don't know who's happier that Kevin Mattulo has a
15:32
Speaker 2: new job.
15:32
Speaker 1: Is it? Is it Eagle fans or his wife because
15:35
Speaker 1: he's from the Florida area.
15:37
Speaker 3: Well, it should be Kevin because it gives him a
15:39
Speaker 3: fresh opportunity to to kind of, you know, redevelop or
15:43
Speaker 3: tap into another level of his coaching coaching prowess. And
15:47
Speaker 3: I think that he was sort of unfairly scrutinized here
15:50
Speaker 3: to a degree. And I think a lot of that
15:52
Speaker 3: iyre that was directed solely at him was a little
15:55
Speaker 3: misguide at a time, so I'm glad to see him
15:57
Speaker 3: land on his feet.
15:57
Speaker 2: Listen, as long as you don't say he did his
16:00
Speaker 2: job like a J. Brown, I'm good with you, Andrew.
16:02
Speaker 3: Okay, no, no, The offense was was far far from
16:06
Speaker 3: being among the NFL's elite. That that there's a lot
16:09
Speaker 3: of areas of opportunity there.
16:10
Speaker 1: So well, Andrew, I can confirm that you always do
16:13
Speaker 1: a great job covering the Eagles and we appreciate your
16:16
Speaker 1: time and we look forward to having you on again
16:18
Speaker 1: next week.
16:19
Speaker 3: Thanks Josh, take care man.