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2023 Eagles Season Preview! (PST Episode 530) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey, everybody, it's Jeff here. We want to let you know that
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we recorded this podcast episode on Wednesday, September six, twenty twenty three.
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By the time you hear this, somethings may have changed, but we hope
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you enjoy the show. All Right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia
0:38
Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
0:42
world. That's right over ten years strong. We got a great podcast coming
0:46
your way. I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here with my good buddy Eric Leonard.
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Eric I told you before we hit the record button, not only were
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we doing our Eagles season preview here on this podcast, we got a lot
0:56
more to talk about. I'm in the middle of a fantasy draft. Fantasy
0:59
football draft. I'm up in like two picks here. I mean, I'll
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get your take on it. Do you do you prefer a draft right up
1:07
to the last minute, see you want to account for injuries or do you
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like want a couple of days ahead like did Travis Kelsey. Thing is big
1:14
right now on Twitter. It's because of you know, the people who took
1:17
There's one guy who took Jonathan was this Jonathan Taylor Jonathan Davis Davis, No,
1:22
I'm just kidding o. J lead singer Corn Freak on a leash?
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Yeah, are you ready? I was gonna finish it with are you ready
1:34
for some football? But yeah, I should have finish out the joke.
1:38
Yeah, Jonathan Davis from Corn, Cooper Cup, and Travis Kelsey his first
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three picks, and everyone's like, oh dude, but if the draft was
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tonight, that guy would not have taken Kelsey. So like, what's your
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what's your take? What do you like? What? Well? I'm getting
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ready to pick right now in the eleventh round quite frankly, but so can
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you can you announce the pick like Roger Goodell? I will, I will,
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okay, all right, with the round eleventh pick for four time champ
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the tenth pick within the eleventh round. Jeff Warren is going to be selecting
2:13
the New York Jets as his defense. Oh as the whole Jets defensive team
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come on the stage exactly. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be picking in
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like four more here. Anyway, this is gonna be fun doing the show,
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doing this fantasy draft. Eric, it's just crawling. We're in there
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now. We're in the twelfth round here, it's crawling. How is this
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possible? One minute? A pick? Yes? After like the fourth round
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is outrageous. All of us have lives and families smoked from us, and
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uh yeah, I was part of one Monday evening and the first I think
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the first four rounds are something like that was like a minute, yeah,
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and it was just it was just rapid fire because you don't know the twelfth
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round if you're if you're going there, what do I do here? Like,
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if it's that big of a decision, you've already lost. Oh my
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god, what do I do here? In a fifteenth round? My fifth
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string? Running? Running? You get to this point anyway, it's oh
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gosh, it's gonna be interesting for sure. But yes, folks, we've
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got a great show here outside of my fantasy football league and team here,
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we're gonna actually be talking about right off the bat, the what is called
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the go ahead entry system in Major League Baseball parks. The facial recognition software
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was recently used at Citizens Bank Park. We're going to talk about this.
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Is this a good idea for where the sports world and sports entertainment for us
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when we go to games, like where the technology is going? I think
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it's gonna be an interesting discussion for sure. And then we're gonna talk about
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the fact that the Nebraska women's college volleyball team set a world record for a
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woman's sporting event, over ninety thousand strong in attendance and they sold out in
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just two days. What does this mean for women's college athletics in the future.
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And then it's all about our Eagles season preview this week we're thrown down
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on the table. We've got Brandan Lee Gouton from Bleeding Green Nation dot com,
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the BGN radio podcast. He's gonna be joining us. Then Eric and
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I we're gonna get into our Eagles predictions, our NFL predictions for this coming
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season as well, and what we think the scoring prediction is gonna be for
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this Eagle's Patriots opener, Week one opener. So Eric, Man, I
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am on the clock here on my traffed. I love it right off the
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bat, but we wanted to really get into and talk about him taking Jalen
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Warren by the way Pittsburgh. Even though it's terrible value, I still want
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the guy because I have a feeling that Naj Harris is really going to be
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crapping the bed this year anyway, not to dork Gallant. I think it's
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a great pick. Thank You's gonna make the season. Like just he feels
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like one of those guys that's just gonna get run down after he's like two
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hundred carry I think, I think, I think you've made a smart pick.
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Jeff, Thank you very much, Thank you very much. Appreciate it
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all. Right back to the show here, back to the show, folks.
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We got a great on Floria the go ahead entry system in the Major
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League Baseball parks again, the facial recognition software system. I mean, the
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goal is to speed up wait times for fans to get into the stadium by
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simply showing your face on this screen. It scans your face and it tells
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you you can go in if it recognizes you and the tickets that you had
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actually purchased. And it was recently used and piloted at Citizens Bank Park,
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and there were some glitches when it first debuted on August twenty second. But
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we wanted to talk about whether or not this is a good idea. Is
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it a good idea for the sports world getting into this potential digital data mining,
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and just what it means for the overall sports experience as well, because
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some people, Eric, have you pointed out quote ethical concerns again like data
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storing and accuracies, things like that. But I mean basically, what you
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can do when you go down to Citizens Bank Park is is you can walk
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through the first base gate at a normal speed and your face is going to
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be scanned and matched to its numerical token within the system itself. So only
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one person in a party needs to register, and their facial scan should allow
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all other members in their group to enter. So what we've seen thus far,
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this isn't necessarily new because the New York Yankees City Field has face ID
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ticket kiosks at certain stadium gates, and Cleveland's First Energy Stadium offers an express
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access program that uses it as well. So it's being used in other areas
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of the country. But there is always going to be that question and concern
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of whether or not, oh there was some static there, whether or not
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that this is a good idea as we keep moving along the world of technology.
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I'll be honest, I don't have a problem with it. I think
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it's the next stage, the next step in terms of our technological world.
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Eric, you and I've talked a number of times on the show, and
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you work in the tech industry as well in terms of you know where things
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are going, where we are progressing as a society. I really don't think
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there's any issues with this at all. Some some people out there who may
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not necessarily understand the whether it's the complexities or whether the it's the direction that
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various companies want to take technology. It's not. It's not always meant for
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some sort of evil thing or that you know, there's somebody behind the curtain
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with a silver tinfoil hat on. You know that's data mining and stuff.
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So I don't know what are your thoughts with this. I really don't have
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a problem with it. I think it's good. If it works, it's
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great. If it doesn't, it's gonna stink for people. So that's that's
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where I come down on this. What are you thinking, Well, I
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think the biggest concerns so far with it, outside of the tin the tinfoil
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hat people, yeah, is that it's actually not catching enough security issues.
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The company actually kind of kind of provides the technology. They're called Evolved Technologies.
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They're out of Massachusetts, and they're I think they're I read that they're
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the third are just security provider in this forum outside of like our you know,
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the TSA and Homeland Security. So they're almost as big as the government.
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I'm sure. I'm sure the government will gobble them up eventually. But
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some of the initial tests, I know last earlier this year a PNC park,
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there were some issues. They they've tested it in Pittsburgh a couple of
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places like Kenny Wood that had a shooting occurrence last summer and it did not
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detect some small knives and guns in testing. But it has a really high
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success rate already. And again, would you know, if you've dabbled in
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chat GPT, that's that's the open AI forum. If you haven't tried that
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yet. I have certainly tried it, and I got to be honest,
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I really like it for what I use it for. Anyway, that's completely
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off the subject. I'm sorry, it's okay, Like a lot of people
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use it, and a lot of people in like management who have to write
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reviews, they use it a lot. That you have to put the information
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in, but the chat the GPT system spits back like a very organized paragraph.
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How to describe your employee based on the data that you put in there,
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right, that's I've seen it use for that. I would not advise,
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especially my supervisors to work for me to do that. If you're listening,
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yeah, but and it's being it's being used a lot in colleges,
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and they're trying to crack down in that. But I don't I don't know
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how you stay ahead of them anyway. I brought that up because it's all
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powered by AI technology. Not as open form as CHATCHYPT. This one uses
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uh what's called machine learning algorithms, so it really really complex coding like Python
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and our code that just it basically just gobbles up information very very quickly,
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turns it around and builds like builds the parameters for it for that company and
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how they monitor security. It's not just to look for a knife or a
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gun. Where I think it's gonna where people are fearful of is where it's
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gonna lead is do you have a warrant out on your like on your record?
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Right, that kind of stuff like not just check for weapons with more
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so like do you have just a parking ticket, your little past on paying.
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I think that where that's where the fear might come from. That's where
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the big brother piece comes into it. I kind of agree with that,
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Like, yeah, you probably could get screwed. But I'll say this,
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if you have a cell phone, you've already signed all of your freedoms away,
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technologically, all of your data. It's already being mined. Eric.
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Eric. If people are listening to this podcast and they're listening to it on
10:28
some sort of smart device, yep, you're giving away data listening to this
10:31
podcast. Okay, you're constantly giving away your data constantly. Yeah, you
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stream, if you stream anything, Amazon knows that everything about you, right,
10:39
if you just go on there their app or their or Prime on your
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TV. I want to say this really quick. I got to throw this
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out there, folks. I'm not saying that we here at the Philadelphia Sports
10:48
Table podcast show are taking your data. Based on what I just said,
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Yes, I'm not that smart. And besides, if you're if you're using
10:54
it to get into a baseball game, you're some mouth breather getting drunk and
10:58
left feel punching someone out. You're You're not the like, no one cares
11:03
about you, You're not that important. But those are the that's another good
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steal, Like you don't have one to begin with. Who cares, right,
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But again, it's it's one of those things like I talked to like
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I talked to people in my family in my life who aren't into tech,
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and they're like, I just don't get it. Why can't we go back?
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It's like get on the train or get it's happening. Yes, like
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I'm in I'm in the tech field. I work for a smart home company.
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And guess what if you want to turn your lights and you want to
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tell I want to tell Lexi's from my lights on, but I don't want
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to give up any of my data. Yeah, that's not how it works.
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If you want to be able to have an automated home or automated anything
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and all of the niceties we have in this society where you can buy purchase
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something on your phone into there the next morning, this is the logical next
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step. Unfortunately. Yeah, it absolutely is. Let us know what you're
11:56
thinking, Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We'd love to read your
12:00
email here on the show and respond to it. This is this is a
12:03
subject matter Eric and I really enjoy getting into so and I will say that
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we did get some email correspondence over the course of this past week from some
12:13
listeners. We're gonna get to that the next time len Is on because it's
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specifically about conversations Len and I were having on the show. So if you
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send us an email, we're gonna be getting to it the next time lenn
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Is on the podcast. So moving on here, we wanted to get into
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again the Nebraska women's college volleyball team setting a world record for a woman's sporting
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event. My god, Eric, over ninety thousand. It was like ninety
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two thousand in attendance at their football stadium. It's sold out in just three
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days. I just find it fascinating how this came about and just what it
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means for the world of college athletics, women's I'm sorry, women's college athletics.
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It's just it's amazing to me how regard lists of the world record,
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this helped to kind of redefine what is possible for women's sports. And of
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course I love to see it as somebody who has two daughters who are very
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athletic and do what they do. I mean, our sports can our sports
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culture, I should say, continues to kind of lean into women's sports,
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you know, finding out that there's a really big audience an opportunity for growth,
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whether it's the w NBA. You know, we've seen it a number
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of times with regard to again volleyball, Eric, you and I went to
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Penn State. The Penn State women's volleyball team was huge as well. And
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we're seeing you know, many TV networks and athletic departments really starting to invest
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in women's sports recently because it's smart business and these are areas with growth potential.
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You know, it's not a charity case type of thing. Women's sports
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is really entertaining and this was really great to see based on, you know,
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just the fact that it's a talented group of athletes, regardless of gender,
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doing their thing. I love seeing it. I thought it was great,
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you know, for women's athletics overall. Man, I agree, and
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we both have daughters that compete in things, and it's awesome to know that
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there's an audience for it at some level, even it's just in person.
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But I will say this about that, I'm that Nebraska thing was probably an
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anomaly. It was probably a huge build up to it, but it is
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pretty amazing that they pulled that off. Like I kind of would like to
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see a thirty minute documentary leading up to how they pulled that, how they
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got ninety thousand people to go to that event. Yeah, I'm sure that
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would be some kind of marketing and planning. They might want to teach a
14:41
class on it, because that's pretty amazing. But excuse me, I will
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say that I think what women's athletics did, especially the pro level, it's
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just they stopped, they stopped trying to compete with the men and just did
14:58
their own thing. Do their own thing exactly. And the w NBA is
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a huge, huge is a great example this because for the longest time they
15:07
try to tie the two win together, and they're just If you watch women's
15:11
basketball men's basketball, they are like two different sports. It's almost like comparing
15:16
NBA basketball with college basketball. At this point, it's its own thing.
15:20
Quite frankly, the women's game way better to watch fundamentally, Like fundamental wise,
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they are so so damn good. Fundamentally. The shooting is tremendous.
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It's the AU levels not as much like it's not it's not as rough and
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tumble as the men's AU. Yeah, boys, AU they learned to shoot
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better, they learned to dribble better, better ball handlers, by far.
15:46
I mean, I forget the women's name from last year, just to just
15:50
that that evil eye shooter that was just taking out everybody in the NCAA playoffs
15:54
in the tournament. I can't think of her name. I'm sure I'm forgetting
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it too. Yeah, but and she was nailing like forty footers, like
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like Steph Curry. And quite frankly, that was the most interesting thing that
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happened in college basketball last year, men, boys or girls. And I
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again, I think they finally realized every sport has its n every sport has
16:15
its own lane, and they kind of found their own. And once they
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once w NBA. NBA is a good example, once they separated the two
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and said we're our own thing. We're gonna have our own season. It's
16:25
different from the NBA. We're not trying to compete, We're that That league
16:30
is actually way more popular now that it's ever been, except for like the
16:33
first two years when it was like huge because it was new. Right,
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right, I'm so sorry I got distracted with my with I thought I screwed
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up. It was your draft, right, that stupid draft. Stupid freaking
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draft. Oh my gosh, No, it's a great It's a great conversation
16:49
to have because I think, you know, at the end of the day,
16:56
you know, in this instance, like it was basically I don't want
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to call it like a one off event. Rather it wasn't really a stunt,
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you know, And I wonder if I wonder if it's sustainable. You
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know, after the Women's World Cup, you know, you hear certain things
17:12
about you know, are you know, making headway in this in this particular
17:18
shape and form. Yet aside from the NBA, I don't know how many
17:23
other women's leagues have really lasted too too long. But I think this really
17:27
has the potential to just get more folks involved again, like you were saying
17:33
earlier, Eric, it's not about just men versus women. It's just women
17:37
doing their thing. And if I think we have more individuals thinking that way,
17:41
then you're gonna see really good products in your faces, and people are
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gonna learn about women athletics even that much more so. I yeah, when
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it only realized to stop comparing the two exactly, Like look at tennis is
17:53
a great example. Women's tennis is just as popular as men's tennis, Yes,
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and they never try to cross the two over. Now, it's an
18:00
individual sport. It's way different than a team sport. But they never they
18:06
never with the women's tennis side, was never like we're gonna go head to
18:11
head next year at Wimbledon men versus women, Like why would you do that?
18:14
You have your own sport, you have your own netche It's extremely popular.
18:18
I think if we like, here's a question that, like, what's
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the next sport that this could work in on a major level. Soccer's one
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thing. We just had the World Cup. It was very it was watched
18:30
by many. I'm trying to think, like hockey to a certain degree,
18:36
maybe I I'm trying to figure so sport you could do that with, Like
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could softball make that run? Probably not, I'm gonna be that's so it's
18:44
own thing, right, So there was there was a time and here I
18:48
look, look, I'm not watching it or seeking it out anymore, but
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there was a couple of years ago where there was women's football on it and
18:56
I forget what I forget what the league was called, but they were and
19:00
all honesty, like they'd wear like these like sexy outfits and stuff like that,
19:03
but they're playing football and they're tackling each other and hitting each other,
19:07
and I was absolutely enamored by it. You know, not because it was
19:11
like, oh my gosh, these are women playing a men's sport. No,
19:15
it wasn't that at all. It was the fact that I was entertained
19:19
by the sport being played on TV. I'm familiar with football. These women
19:25
were running plays that you see in the realm of college football and in the
19:30
pros, and I like football. Everybody listens to this podcast, if you've
19:33
been listening for a while, you know I'd love football. It's my favorite
19:36
sport, and I was enamored by it. I don't know. I think
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I think if I'm not saying women's football is all of a sudden gonna get
19:44
popular, but I could see it, and like you said, too,
19:45
possibly women's hockey as well. I'd love this. I'd love hockey. I'd
19:49
love to watch it. Football football did something close to that or not,
19:53
not the NFL, but I think they had that Foxy football, remember that,
19:57
like women in like bikini. Did you see that? I didn't know?
20:00
I didn't when did I exactly how? I did miss that? And
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I wasn't watching some porn channel. It was actually on TV. Again.
20:07
That's where it goes wrong. It's like, I know, it's not trying
20:11
to compute the NFL, but man, what a step back for man's athletics.
20:15
Yeah, I don't know. I was just gonna have to like,
20:17
what what sport could be the next one? I don't I don't know.
20:19
Actually, I'd love to get our listeners in on this one. If you
20:22
think there's a particular sport where women could really come out strong and you know,
20:29
really solidify a niche uh for them for you know, themselves to that
20:33
particular sport, I'd love to We'd love to know at Philadelphia Sports Tablet gmail
20:37
dot com. We'd love to read your email here on the show, for
20:38
sure. It's a great conversation. So, and before we go to break,
20:42
Eric though, we do have to mention, as we're moving along here
20:45
the fact that the Philadelphia seventy six ers made a move, buddy, They
20:48
made a move today by signing to a one year deal veteran Danny Green.
20:56
Yes, Danny Green come back to Philadelphia seventy sixers, a sixteen year veteran
21:00
out of North Carolina. But apparently, you know, his relationship with Joel
21:06
and Bead is really good. Nick Nurse has coached him in the past,
21:10
probably reasons why he was signed in this particular situation. As we remember,
21:15
Danny Green played for the Sixers in two thousand and twenty, in two twenty
21:19
one seasons and the twenty twenty one in twenty twenty two seasons. He averaged
21:23
seven point eight points, three point two rebounds while shooting thirty nine point five
21:27
percent from deep during his time with the Sixers before tearing his ACL in Game
21:32
six of that UH that series with the Miami Heat there in twenty twenty two.
21:37
So I don't know, Eric, I don't I don't necessarily think it's
21:42
uh. I think it's a good move. I'll say that. You know,
21:45
there's a lot of jokes that could be had here. At the end
21:47
of the day, I do think it's a good move simply because the guy
21:52
can shoot threes, and I'd like to see some three point shots being made
21:55
this year because at this point, I think the bigs are just gonna start.
21:57
We're gonna have five bigs on the floor. The way this roster has
22:00
been set up and the moves made during the offseason. I'm kidding, of
22:04
course, but I actually don't mind the move. But is it going to
22:08
get them past the second round? No, so I don't know what are
22:12
your what are your thoughts? DG back in the house. Do you think
22:18
it moves the needle, Jeff, that's the corny term. I don't know
22:22
if it moves the needle, but I like it. Actually it leaves the
22:27
needle very flaccid and limp quite frankly. But he's a nice veteran guy to
22:33
have off the bench. He's played with Nick Nurse. Nick Nurse is the
22:37
key to this. I'm not gonna get into the Sixers in this show,
22:38
but like just he's the key to the whole thing. I think. Besides
22:41
Harden and be playing together or whatever happens to Harden again, nice to have
22:45
him. If he plays fifty games, gives you ten to twelve minutes a
22:48
game. I like it. My great buddy Macre a friend of the show,
22:53
huge Sixers fan, my six Ers brother. I was in a shower
22:56
this morning for work, got out and I just had a text from Macra
23:02
and said, Sixers are whatever. Oh Sixers are going all the way but
23:06
excellently, I thought hard and trade happened. I thought, I was like,
23:10
oh my god, what happened, and I pulled up Danny Green resigns
23:12
one year deal. I'm like, thanks, match, Wow, you got
23:17
my hopes up, dude. I think that's about it. That's all we
23:22
can say about that particular move. So yeah, that's it. That's it,
23:27
folks. Subscribe, subscribe if you like what you're hearing, if you're
23:30
listening to us for the first time, or on whatever podcast platform you're on.
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If anything happens to your podcast feed, you can head on over to
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Philadelphia Sportstable dot com. We've got all of our shows over there are PST
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special shows as well, and make sure you follow us on Twitter dot com.
23:47
Excuse me, still haven't throwed issues, folks, still haven't throwed issues
23:49
after all these, all these weeks and months. But again, follow us
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on Twitter at Philadelphia PST. You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore, Warren
23:59
Eric at brick allt and uh yeah, yeah, so you got that swallowing
24:03
thing. Is that still a problem? Hold just sticking entire foods down your
24:07
throat? They told me I have abnormal swallowing, the only one in his
24:14
only man in history exactly exactly. I'm an anomaly here. God, let's
24:19
just go to break. When we come back, we've got a great interview
24:23
what we're throwing down on the table with Brandon Lee Gout and from Bleeding Green
24:27
Nation. Let's take a break here. We'll be back in a bit.
24:32
All right. We are back from our break and now it is time to
24:34
get into some Eagles talk. It is what we are throwing down on the
24:37
table and now on the table joining us this week for our Eagles season preview.
24:47
He has been running the ship for quite some time over a Bleeding Green
24:49
Nation dot com and he's co founder of the BGN Radio podcast. Is what
24:55
or BGN Radio? I should say right, BGN Radio Podcast? I guess
24:57
it's it's all the same thing in the and the one and only. Brandon
25:00
Lead go out and BLG. How you doing, Buddy? I'm doing good,
25:03
Jeff. It's been ten years being at beat again, so it's crazy
25:08
how time flies. But I'm excited for the start of another Eagle season.
25:12
Absolutely ten year over ten years for us doing this podcast. We've been in
25:15
this content creation business for a while here, BLG. We've been in here.
25:19
We've been doing this for a really long time. Man, And I
25:22
know look, I know you and your buddy, Jimmy Kemski, you're doing
25:25
a live show shortly after recording this here on September sixth. I know you've
25:30
got your eagle season preview going on BGN Radio, so I just wanted to
25:34
throw that out there for folks. You know, is there anything you're gonna
25:37
be specifically talking about where people can go over subscribe they're gonna be able to
25:40
listen to you as well. You know this good season preview stuff. We
25:44
roll into the regular routine and the swing of things between you know, preview
25:48
shows and postgame shows and everything we have there on the Bleating Green Nation podcast
25:52
feed a lot of different hosts, a lot of different shows, almost daily
25:55
content basically for the people. So a lot of stuff going on absolutely and
26:00
listen, folks. I know there's some folks being like, Jeff, are
26:02
you promoting Brandon's podcast? We are all in this together. Blg's been coming
26:07
on this podcast for years and years, doing our eagle season preview with us
26:11
for quite some time. I look at it as though we're all a community,
26:14
man, We are all a content creation community, and Bleeding Grenation dot
26:18
Com is always killing it and that's why we love having you so let's get
26:21
into the punter situation. Okay that let's just start off with a punter situation.
26:25
BLG Okay, because like, I feel like this is so ridiculous and
26:27
I don't know why I'm so upset over it, and perhaps you can straighten
26:30
me out here, but like, what has been the issue with the Eagles
26:34
punter and this punning situation? Of course, there's gonna be a punter on
26:37
this team this season. They're They're likely not going to have you know,
26:41
Brandon Graham or Fletcher Cox punting the ball. And yes, I know Aaron
26:45
Sipos was out holding today for Jake Elliott if I read some things correctly,
26:49
But they put Aaron Sippos on the practice squad, which I'm not sure I've
26:55
ever seen this front office do that with a punter in all the years I've
26:59
been following this team. Would have been a fan of this team. What's
27:00
the motive behind this entire punter saga here? When the punter is one of
27:04
your biggest concerns, it truly is a good problem to have when you're talking
27:08
about the roster outlook as a whole. Although I will say, and I'm
27:12
right there with you, I think a lot of people are also right here
27:15
with us in terms of being fed up with Aaron Sippos being here. Yeah,
27:18
I mean he's stunk in the playoffs against the Buccaneers back in twenty twenty
27:22
one, and late in the regular season that year, and then he had
27:25
a huge mistake and they goel super Bowl loss, Like, what are we
27:27
doing here? Yeah? What are we doing? How could you possibly go
27:30
through this season? And then let's say he's bad again in the Eagles playoff
27:36
game this season, they make it there like who shocked? Who's surprised?
27:41
Possibly? You you'd feel so foolish, especially when it's not like, well,
27:45
it's just like you know, with quarterback, it's obviously hard to get
27:47
one of the good ones. That's really tough. This is a hunter.
27:49
You can find a hunter on a weight off waivers or sorry, free agents.
27:52
You can find another somewhere. The three guys out, they tried three
27:56
guys out this past week. None of them. You know, I'm surprised
28:00
about that. I thought they were going to sign someone. They still might,
28:03
you know, down the road, they might give Sipass a chance here
28:06
early in the year, like two games to see, okay, like this
28:08
is your last shot. We'll see what he got. They can elevate him
28:11
twice from the practice squad before having to make a decision scision to roster him
28:15
or not, so this could be an extended audition for him. But I
28:18
mean to me, it's though with the devil. You don't know, yeah,
28:22
as opposed to only you do at this point. So the one you
28:22
know is pretty bad. And Braden Man who just got cut by the Steelers,
28:26
and you look at Blake Gillikin too from the Saints, and this is
28:30
way too much putter knowledge that I should even have. But like, those
28:33
guys were respectable last year and Aaron suppose was bad. So just they're not
28:37
gonna be great. But you know, you're not looking for the next Ray
28:38
guy. You don't need that. You need someone who's serviceable. And I
28:41
think there's something that there are people out there, and I don't know why
28:45
the Eagles are not signing those guys. It's amazing that we're talking about this
28:48
at this point, it really is. But let's move on to what should
28:52
be I think the most important aspect of what this team could potentially do this
28:56
season, and it's getting back to the Super Bowl. You know what this
29:00
team is going to need to do to get back to that promised land.
29:03
So first about BLG from an offensive standpoint, I'm like wondering what kind of
29:07
productivity that we're gonna end up seeing from the running backs and the wide receivers,
29:11
the guys at the skilled positions. Will we see that balanced approach kind
29:15
of like we saw last year, which I'm assuming is probably going to happen
29:18
since it's Nick Siria offense, an offense that was basically run based on the
29:22
matchup that was in front of them that week. Or I'm also wondering,
29:26
too, are we going to see a little bit something different perhaps from the
29:30
offense, which I think could potentially happen, thinking this coaching staff may want
29:34
to try to keep some things fresh here and there. I don't know what
29:37
are your thoughts on what type of offense we're going to see right out of
29:40
the gate. I think just from a game script standpoint, the offense is
29:44
going to be different because those were just so good last year. Yeah.
29:47
Yeah, I think they had these huge leads. Statistically, they weren't even
29:51
passing late in games, so they didn't need to because they were basically always
29:53
up by a lot. So I think just from a standpoint of the schedule
29:57
is tougher, the team is not quite as good, and that's not really
30:02
a knock. It's just that when you win fourteen games, there's only really
30:03
room to go down for the most part. So I just think by nature
30:08
of the team not being as good and then being in closer games against really
30:12
good teams, especially you look at the you know, their schedule later in
30:15
the year, they're gonna have to pass the ball more because they're not always
30:18
going to have those massive leads. It's gonna be you know, close game
30:21
or they could be down whatever. So I think from that standpoint at Loon,
30:22
we're just going to see more passing volume on the whole. Obviously,
30:26
if that's wrong then and it's like last year, then great they'll be.
30:30
They'll certainly settle for that. But I do think it's really going to depend
30:33
on gamescript and whatnot. You know, I still think, look, this
30:37
is an offensive line that's really good and they're gonna lean into that, and
30:41
Jalen Hurts is really good at running the football. Talk about like, oh
30:45
you need to scale that down. I mean, you call me do that
30:47
so much Stale Hurts and that's who he is. So I still think it's
30:51
gonna look basically a lot like last year, although I think the passing volume
30:53
will increase. There is a storyline that I'm going to be following closely these
30:57
first few games to see if NFL teams are going to be able to stop
31:02
at all the fourth and short quarterback sneak. That the quarterback sneak push.
31:07
It is constantly, inconsistently worked for Jalen Hurts and this offense. I mean,
31:12
Jason Kelsey is fantastic when it comes to what he needs to do in
31:17
order to make sure that Jalen Hurts is able to convert that fourth and short
31:21
yardage. I know it may sound ridiculous BLG, but that is actually a
31:23
storyline. I'm looking forward to seeing if other teams are going to be able
31:26
to figure out a way to stop this Eagles offense and that quarterback sneak on
31:32
fourth and short yardage. Man, I mean, good luck. Yeah.
31:34
I don't think it's about, you know, tricking anyone. I don't think
31:37
that they didn't know it was coming. I think it's just the execute so
31:41
well, how could you not when you have such a good offensive line,
31:42
you have a quarterback who squads six hundred pounds whatever, like I remember,
31:47
I think it was in the Super Bowl, or there were times last year,
31:49
or Jalen Hurts even got like hit on some of those sneak situations or
31:53
at the line and it didn't matter because he can still power through it.
31:56
Yeah, So I really don't think that's being stopped. I mean, and
32:00
then again, if the teams do start to do that, well, then
32:02
we especially later in the year, I feel like we saw all the Eagles
32:06
doing things off of that, you know, like faking the sneak then pitching
32:08
to Kenneth ganwell or something, so you know, there are little wrinkles that
32:12
you can kind of do off of that play as well, where I just
32:15
I don't think maybe the effectiveness will go down a little bit. Maybe you
32:17
can say that can happen if teams have more time to prepare and they find
32:22
some answers. But overall, I just don't think you're stopping it. I
32:24
think from an overall offensive standpoint, I'm really wanting to just see whether or
32:30
not they're going to be able to consistently do what they did last year.
32:35
If there's gonna be some kind of drop off, you know, could we
32:37
actually see more than the six six hundred and fourteen total yards that they put
32:40
up They average five point nine yards per play last season. I don't know.
32:45
Do you think there's going to be a drop off at all this year
32:47
based on strength of schedule? We know it's very difficult. They do have
32:51
the most quote difficult schedule in the NFL. I think it's going to be
32:54
a drop off at all, or could they actually exceed what last year was
32:59
for this offense? I mean barring injury, which is obviously, you know,
33:01
a big if, but that's not really interesting to talk about because that
33:05
kind of applies to every single team, and potentially even less so than the
33:08
Eagles because of the amount of weapons they have on offense. I mean,
33:12
Jalen Hurts has not necessarily hit his ceiling yet. He just turned twenty five,
33:15
like a month ago on August seventh, So like, I still think
33:21
he could get better. I think that A J. Brown, DeVante Smith,
33:24
Dallas Scotter all had fantastic training camps players in their prime also potentially improving.
33:29
When you look at some younger guys like Devonte Smith there, Like,
33:32
I still think this Skuy's the limit. I mean, this offense really didn't
33:36
lose many pieces at all. Sure, Isaac Smala left to go sign to
33:39
the Dealers, but you have Cam Jurgen's in here, and he pretty much
33:43
won. He ran away with the starting right guard job, and the offensive
33:47
wine is still really good outside of him. So you know, I'm not
33:50
really seeing major calls for concerned there. I know you lose Shane Steikeen,
33:53
but there were I think something like eight teams were interviewing Brian Johnson, the
33:58
Eagles quarterback coach turned offensive coordinator. Now, Like he's really highly regarded.
34:01
I've always thought he was really bright when we had a chance to talk to
34:05
him as the quarterbacks coach. I don't think that's changed since becoming the offensive
34:08
coordinator. Like all signals, you know, point to him being you know,
34:13
this interesting, inspiring kind of option. We'll see for sure when the
34:16
regular season begins and the bullets are live, so to speak. But you
34:20
know, I really think he's bright, and I just think this offense is
34:22
still going to be a juggernaut. There's this talented Glares yep, and it's
34:24
a good infrastructure and the quarterback is trustworthy so I just don't really see where
34:30
the pitfalls are. I definitely think they can exceed that six six hundred fourteen
34:32
total yards that they put up last season. I think it's absolutely possible.
34:37
But moving over to the defensive side of the ball, BLG, I feel
34:39
like expectations are so huge for some of the younger guys, mainly Jordan Davis
34:45
Jaalen Carter. They don't have too too much NFL experience of course at this
34:49
point, but the expectations are huge for these guys. I mean, and
34:52
given Brandon Graham's age, where he's at in his career, like, I
34:57
wonder how much pressure is going to be put on gu like Josh Sweat hasan
35:00
reddick even more given what he did last year, and even a young guy
35:04
in rookie and Nolan Smith, you know, to get that pressure off the
35:07
edge. I'm wondering if the expectations are going to be a bit too high
35:10
for this defense, considering there's gonna be a lot of young talent really needing
35:15
to develop during this first year here. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean you
35:19
need to keep expectations in check for young players. I mean, even someone
35:22
like Jordan Davis who's in his second season. You just look at the historical
35:25
precedent for even these like elite level, especially now defensive tackles like a Quinnon
35:30
Williams, who had like two and a half sacks in this first season.
35:34
Like it's just you don't don't see rookies typically come in or even young players.
35:38
Again, it's like year, third year. It could take till that
35:42
third year to kind of make that big statistical lead. Look at Javon Hargrave.
35:45
Javon Hargrave was not a double digit sack guy and wasn't who he was
35:50
like in Philly who he was in Pittsburgh early on in his rookie contract there.
35:53
And that's doesn't mean he was a bad player, but it's just sometimes
35:55
it takes time for these guys. So I definitely think you have to keep
36:00
rotations in check. At the same time, Jim Carter is really good,
36:02
and if you're looking for someone who could be the exception, you can kind
36:07
of look at it here and see there are good signs that maybe that could
36:09
be the case. It's as tough, I think as a whole, again
36:14
just with how good the team was as a whole, but also specifically how
36:16
good the defense was in the pass for us, there is going to be
36:20
some kind of drop off, Yeah, like there is, Yeah, I
36:24
mean, will this team needs seventy sacks to be as dominant as they were
36:29
last season? I don't think so. I want to get your take on
36:30
that. No, I think you don't. I mean, because you can
36:35
still drop off and you could still you know, like lead the league or
36:37
still be really good, be really effective top five, even like that's that's
36:40
fine. I think I think that's still a really good spot to be.
36:44
And then there's every reason to think they can be considering that. Like I
36:46
know, Brandon Graham's another year older, but he had a great season last
36:50
year. I still think he's going to be a productive role player. Hassan
36:52
Reddick. I don't think it's out of the question. He could reach twenty
36:54
sacks. Like he's only gotten better. His first season Philly was tremendous and
37:00
he did get to nineteen. If you're you know, we're incounting the playoffs,
37:02
so you know, and there could be Like I just talked about how
37:07
there's going to be more opportunities potentially for you know, the Eagle's offensive pass
37:10
if there's some of these close games and there's a lot of passing going on
37:13
on both sides. Well, then that's more opportunities for the Eagles pass for
37:15
us to get to the quarterbacks. So I definitely think that this is still
37:21
gonna be a really good pass us, really good defensive line. Losing David
37:24
Hargrave was absolutely a big deal at significant He's a great player. But there's
37:28
still enough talent here to feel really good about this unit again, folks,
37:31
talking to BLG Brandany Gatton Fallham on Twitter at Brandon Gauton. You can subscribe
37:37
to him on Twitter, he has a subscription account there and also bg N
37:43
Radio. We subscribe on Apple Podcast you should as well, or on whatever
37:46
podcast platform you're listening to us on a great, great content on a consistent
37:52
basis. Two part question for you coming up here, BLG, because I
37:57
know nothing is perfect, and a theme we've been talking about on this podcast
38:00
for some time here with regard to this upcoming twenty three twenty fourth season is
38:04
that I just don't think it's going to be as dominant possibly with this Eagles
38:08
team as we all think, like just absolute pure dominance. I mean,
38:12
Eric and I A little later, we're gonna get into our scoring and our
38:15
regular season predictions about where this team is going to go. But I don't
38:21
think it's going to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I don't
38:22
think anybody really. I think some fans think it will be perfect, and
38:27
other fans who've been around this team and around football for a while. No,
38:30
it's not going to be one hundred percent perfect. So what I'm getting
38:34
at is what's the most concerning part of this offense right out of the gate
38:37
for you? And I'm gonna then ask the same thing with regard to the
38:39
defense. So offense first, what's most what's most glaring or concerning for you
38:45
about this offense as we get ready to do this Week one matchup against Patriots.
38:50
Yeah, I mean, at the risk of sounding very hubristic, okay,
38:53
I don't think there's a big concern here with the offense. I mean,
38:58
you can say, okay, new play caller, but again, I'm
39:01
high and Brian Johnson, so that's not really genuine if I'm saying that new
39:06
starting right guard. Okay, again, I don't really see calls for concern
39:08
so much with Cam Jurgens as much as it's just these are kind of question
39:12
marks to some extent. Yeah, I guess the biggest question of all though,
39:15
would be you know, what's going on or at least if the most
39:19
unknown part of the offense. I'll rephrase it like that, what's going on
39:22
at running back? I mean you're looking at the Eagles depth chart that is
39:23
being issued by the team. It's by the PR department, it's not by
39:27
the actual coaches, but still somewhere reflected of how the organization feels at some
39:31
level, and they're listening all four running backs on their roster at that top
39:36
spot, right. This is not like your situation, who's going to take
39:39
all the touches? And you know, look, I think that there's value
39:44
and having a rotation that's clearly something that's worked in the NFL. It's not
39:46
a novel concept that you could have a running back by committee. But I
39:50
guess it's a question of are you splitting those touches correctly? Are you,
39:53
you know, riding the hot hand? Are you overthinking it? I think
39:58
there's some kind of questions there. I do think DeAndre Swift and Kenneth Gainwell
40:01
at the jump are probably the favorites to kind of be those top two guys
40:05
the start but I think that could fluctuate. Yeah, I think big s
40:07
bon matchup by who's playing well. I think Rashad Penny is still like I
40:12
mean, the numbers back this up. He's extremely talented. It's just a
40:15
matter of I think the kind of want to manage him as a year goes
40:17
on and not expose him to extreme volume where he does inevitably get hurt.
40:22
Yeah, So there's a lot of different things you're balancing there. And again,
40:24
I think it's a situation where it's work out fine, they push all
40:28
the right buttons, they're getting the running backs in and out effectively. It's
40:30
also be a situation where it's like, why aren't they playing this guy Mark
40:32
he's looking good. We don't need to force touches to Kenneth Gainwell when DeAndre
40:36
Swift is looking really good. So that's something they're still figuring out. Yeah,
40:38
all right, Well, what about the defensive side of things. What's
40:40
most concerning for you about this defense? Got new defensive coordinator, some moving
40:45
parts that are new within the middle of the field with the linebacker corps.
40:50
What's the most concerning for you concerning the defense? BLG. Yeah, I
40:52
mean there's still some unsettled things here in terms of if you look at the
40:55
depth chart and you mentioned linebacker, I mean are listing right now to Kobe
41:00
Dean as a starter obviously, and then next to him it's Zach Cunningham slash
41:05
Christian Ellis. And by the way, those are only three off all actors
41:08
on the entire team right now, So god forbid someone gets hurt, especially
41:13
in the Kobe Dean and all of a sudden you're starting Zach Cunningham, who
41:15
wasn't even on the roster until a couple of weeks into camp, and then
41:17
Christian Ellis, who you know is making plays and OTAs and I think has
41:22
done some nice things, but if probably you know, ideally suited to be
41:25
a backup a guy who was on the practice squad for most of last year,
41:28
so there's there's certainly question marks at that spot. And then safety as
41:31
well. I mean read Blanket Ship had a great training camp. I'm really
41:35
high in him. I think he has a higher ceiling than a lot of
41:37
people would probably admit. But even putting him aside, that's great. Who
41:44
is the starting safety next to him? You don't know right now. It's
41:46
justin Evans slash Terrell Edmonds listed as the starting safeties. I don't even know
41:52
if the Eagles know for sure who is definitely starting, and that might even
41:55
necessarily matter in terms of quote unquote starting as much as this is going to
41:59
be some kind of rotation. Yeah, and they could be sharing snaps.
42:01
Maybe Sidney Brown gets evolved involved in the mix here. I think his role
42:06
might evolve as the season goes on, as opposed to being a big factor
42:08
right away. But the fact that there are still these question marks and it's
42:13
week one, like that's a little bit concerning. Definitely a little bit concerning
42:16
for sure, for me, more than a little bit concerning. But as
42:21
we look at this team too, the Eagles are gonna be playing some solid
42:23
quarterbacks this season. I mean some including Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, you
42:29
know, Dak Prescott of course, are going to see again twice this season,
42:31
and I don't know if we want to put Tua in there, and
42:34
perhaps Kirk Cousins at who knows. But still, you know, it's solid
42:37
in their own ways, and we all we know again the strength of the
42:39
schedule, and it's not going to be a cake walk. I'm sorry,
42:43
I just don't believe it's going to be a cakewalk for this team. But
42:46
what are your initial thoughts that the Eagles could get back to the NFC Championship
42:50
Game And what percentage what percentage BLG would you give it at the start of
42:54
the regular season here that they may actually end up getting back to the NFC
42:58
Championship Game. Tough? I mean, I just think people kind of lose
43:01
sight of how the NFL's just hard. It's really really hard to have the
43:06
same success even when you're great, like and that was part of the reason
43:09
after the Super Bowl, like it was so hard for me to even have
43:14
a care about the twenty twenty three season at the time, because it's like
43:17
you have to climb this mountain all over again. You don't just get to
43:21
pick back up when you left off. You have to start all over again.
43:24
And I think we've seen that be taxing in terms of these teams that
43:29
go to the Super Bowl and lose. They don't just get back next year.
43:32
I mean, I think, yeah, seven half in total, and
43:36
only two of them have won it. And one of those was, you
43:38
know, with the best quarterback and best hold coach maybe of all time.
43:42
So like it's really really, really hard to do. And it's not like
43:45
this massive failure if they don't in terms of just the difficulty level of doing
43:49
that. I mean, think, I always think, I always phrase this.
43:51
I've used this like a billion times this offseason. Just think about how
43:53
no team repeats in the NFC East as a whole, just an exact division
43:57
winner, just to just to win the division, which is not even the
44:00
ultimate goal. There's still multiple games beyond that. Like, just doing that
44:04
is so impossible. Yeah, so just to act like they can get back,
44:07
like I can't say it's a guarantee, and it's it's tough for me
44:10
to almost say, like I wanted to say fifty five just that's the number
44:14
that popped into my head. But it's like, is it really more likely
44:16
than not? I mean, what do they have going for them? They
44:20
have the best quarterback in the conference. I still think they have elite offensive
44:22
talent that a lot of teams are not going to be able to handle.
44:25
Same time, there's a lot of other good teams out there, a lot
44:29
of other good quarterbacks. It's especially in the AFC, it's a really crowded
44:35
field. I think by virtue of their conference is weaker. You know,
44:37
that does help at the Eagles a lot. But I'm gonna say like forty
44:43
two percent, Okay, forty two percent. I think it's fair. I
44:45
really do. Like I said, it's not going to be a cake walk,
44:47
folks, for this team to get back. You do not see Super
44:51
Bowl losing teams getting back to the to the Promised Land the following year.
44:55
But who knows, Maybe the Eagles will be able to get it done when
45:00
it's all said and done next February. Who knows. And that's that's the
45:02
beauty of this season. So as we head out here and let you go
45:07
BLG. The final topic I wanted to get into is that we usually see
45:10
a couple of players per season on just about every NFL team who really show
45:15
off some good stuff, but they just kind of fly under the radar.
45:19
Do you have perhaps a couple of Eagles players this season who you think will
45:22
will be that sneaky productive player this year and really start to make a name
45:27
for themselves with the fan base and basically throughout the NFL as well. Do
45:31
you have anybody in mind? I'm going to lean back into the read blanket
45:36
ship thing. I mean, he was making plays in training camp in terms
45:39
of you know, these interceptions he picked off to Shaun Watson multiple times,
45:44
those are some tip passes, but still give him credit for being in the
45:46
right spot and making the play on the ball. We saw him have that
45:50
interception against Aaron Rodgers and as a rookie playing really his first extended action,
45:55
which is crazy because he became the first UDFA ever to pick off Aaron rod
46:00
I don't think that's a fluke Like that was a really nice play and it
46:02
speaks to Read Blakenship's game. That wasn't just like, oh, a fluke
46:06
play. It isn't characteristic of who he is. No, it is characteristic
46:08
because Read Blanketship, even going back to being a u DFA and Eagles training
46:14
camp in twenty twenty two, I mean, he was just so often in
46:17
the right place, whether that's to break up a pass and coverage or make
46:22
an interception, or be in the right place and run support and making the
46:23
tackle. Like, I think he's such a smart player, and in addition
46:28
to that, I think he is talent as well athleticism and physicality and toughness.
46:32
So I just think he's going to be a really good player. I
46:35
don't know, you know that I'm saying this season he has the ceiling of
46:37
a Pro Bowl kind of player, But I do think that's in his career.
46:40
I do think he could eventually work up to that. And I think
46:44
that's not quite what people thought, because I think people, you know,
46:46
didn't even necessarily think he would be definitely starting at safety as training camp began.
46:52
I think there are people thinking, you know, oh, it could
46:53
just be Sidney Brown and Terrell Edeman's but I think read blanketship is kind of
46:57
being slept on, especially you know, from a national level, and why
47:00
would people know his name. He'sn't established himself fully yet. But I do
47:04
think he's gonna be a really good player. Alright, folks, He's Brandon
47:07
Lee out and BLG from Bleeding Grenation dot com at Brandon Gouton on the Twitter
47:12
dot com. Subscribe to him on Twitter as well, and keep listening to
47:15
the BGN radio podcast. Buddy, thank you so much for jumping on for
47:20
our Eagles season preview. You're always so great to join us here whenever we
47:23
ask. Keep up the great work you're doing and hope to talk to you
47:25
down the road. My friend, absolutely again, folks, it's not going
47:30
to be a cakewalk for this Eagles team. It's not. Let us know
47:35
what you're thinking about anything that BLG was talking about there. We'd love to
47:37
hear from you, Philadelphia Sports Tablet gmail dot com. We'd love to read
47:42
your email here on the show and respond to it. So we're gonna take
47:45
another break really quick for you, bring Eric back on. We're gonna get
47:50
into some Eagles predictions ourselves, some NFL predictions for this coming season, and
47:54
the scoring predictions for Week one Eagles versus Patriots up at Foxborough. But again,
48:00
let's take that quick break. We'll be right back all right, folks,
48:05
We are back and we've got Eric back on the show now after a
48:09
great discussion with BLG. We're gonna get into our Eagles predictions here for this
48:15
coming season and some NFL predictions as well. Then we're gonna do our scoring
48:20
predictions for Week one Eagles Patriots that game is happening up in Foxborough. But
48:24
I'm sure you already knew that. Eagles predictions here, Eric, let's start
48:29
off with who is going to be who we think are going to be winning
48:32
the MVPs on this Eagles team offense, defense, and yes, special teams.
48:37
We're gonna do special teams as well. So who is the offensive MVP
48:43
gonna be for this Philadelphia Eagles team? We probably have the same person.
48:47
I think everybody's gonna have the same person because this individual could actually end up
48:52
being the MVP of the NFL this year. So who is it for you?
48:58
Buddy? We both know who it is, But let's let's let's at
49:01
least talk through like our our backups, like the second one. I like
49:07
it. I honestly think A J. Brown could kind of throw his name
49:10
into the end, his hat into the ring for this if Jalen hurts,
49:15
if he becomes the target, and maybe Jalen Hurts has an injury. Knock
49:20
on wood, I'm sorry, I'm doing right now. Okay, and say,
49:25
you know, Marioda comes in or god forbid that happens actually watching him
49:29
in preseason, and say A J. Brown just kills it for another four
49:32
games, you know, six catches one hundred and ten yards one like he
49:37
kind of average that's out. He kind of averages that out for four games.
49:40
Yeah, I think there's there's a world in which he's like all all
49:46
all planets and maybe wins it. It's probably not gonna happen, but he
49:50
would be the one I would like. Maybe if he was one hundred and
49:52
twenty to one, I throw five bucks on it's gonna be Jalen Hurts.
49:55
I think we both that's our prediction. I mean I was going to go
50:00
into him later as well for another one of our topics, but I'll just
50:04
do it now. He's handled this offseason probably his best, maybe of any
50:09
Eagle that I've ever like experienced in my thirty five years being a fan.
50:14
Eric. Absolutely, he has handled himself. It's not even just handling himself.
50:20
It's just how he wants to go about his football career and what it
50:24
means to not only him but the team, the coaching staff, the front
50:29
office, what his essence means to the future of this franchise, and how
50:35
he is just cool, calm and collected about everything. It is astonishing to
50:40
see and astonishing to know that he is likely likely, barring any sort of
50:45
real, real long term injury, going to be around for a long long
50:47
time. Dude, Like we're talking like I'm wondering if this is like Brett
50:52
Farve, Aaron Rodgers ish sort of quarterback we have here, yeah, but
50:55
in today's modern NFL where they don't get touched right right, and with his
51:00
speed and as his athleticism and his accuracy just got better and better last year,
51:06
and it's just going to get better because he works on his game that
51:07
much and he has a really good offensive offensive coaches in place to help him
51:13
out with that. He's just he's he's set up to be that type of
51:17
quarterback in an like there actually is no you can't even say Patrick Mahome because
51:22
he's not even athletic as Jalen Hurtz is. He's kind of like he's almost
51:29
like a Mike Vick crossed with a accurate passing kind. I'm not sure how
51:35
to describe him. That's how good he's going to be because he's so locked
51:39
in. He's a true leader on that team, and we can't forget just
51:44
how freaking good he was last year and just how strong and what a good
51:47
pass and what a good runner he is. I think he's he's all set
51:51
up this year to like run away if they have an awesome season. He's
51:54
great to you know, throw for four thousand yards, rush for nine hundred
51:59
yards, just have one of those ridiculous like Randal Cunningham type seasons. We
52:02
always wanted to have Randal back in the day. Absolutely, I like,
52:08
that's that's the exact reason why you just outlined it for Jalen Hurts. I
52:13
don't need to say any more about it. You outlined it perfectly for me.
52:15
Though. If there was like an MVP offensive MVP two point zero,
52:21
you went with A J. Brown. I was actually gonna go with Devonte
52:23
Smith because I look at these guys as your wide receiver one A and like
52:30
one AA. Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't even
52:34
want to call it DeVante Smith a one B type of receiver because you look
52:37
at what he's done throughout his two years so far in the league with already,
52:43
I mean, he's already surpassed last year that one thousand yard mark.
52:46
In his first year in twenty twenty one, nine hundred and sixteen yards.
52:51
Yes, had five touchdowns, didn't didn't didn't kill anybody in terms of touchdowns,
52:55
But last year seven touchdowns. He averaged twelve point six yards per reception.
53:01
In his rookie season, it was fourteen point three yards per reception.
53:06
He is going to continue to get better and better. His catch percentage is
53:10
sixty six point three percent so far in his career here, and the Slim
53:15
Reaper as everybody likes to call him, is only going to continue getting more
53:21
targets. He's going to continue catching the ball the way that he does.
53:23
He You know what, folks, there's a lot of people out there that
53:27
said he was just going to get injured his first year. My gosh,
53:29
he was going to be then irrelevant afterward. No, he's not. He
53:32
is going to be extremely relevant in this team and in the NFL, I
53:37
think for quite some time. And I think he could be based on his
53:39
route running and just how he how he catches the ball, how he protects
53:45
the ball as well. He's only fumbled twice in his career. I think
53:50
that I think this guy's a limit for DeVante Smith, and I really do
53:53
believe that he could actually go over or be around I should say, actually
54:00
thirteen hundred yards this season, if if, if, if passing is going
54:04
to occur more with this Eagles team, which talking with blg earlier, uh,
54:09
that's that's the likely scenario to happen. Thirteen hundred yards for DeVante Smith
54:15
with his speed and his route running. I can absolutely see that happening,
54:17
Eric, because this is the Eagles slash NFL preview of the show. A
54:23
couple of things. Number one, kudos to a BLG. I was listening
54:27
to the Ringer Eagles show with Skapadia and Ben Sulak. He got a big
54:31
shout out during that show. BLG did so cool. I hope he gets
54:38
he should be at the Ringer level in my opinion, Yeah, podcasting,
54:43
he's he knows his stuff. Man. The other thing is, I'll throw
54:46
this question at you then, but before I do that, we have to
54:50
stop stealing nicknames in sports. I dislike it so much. Slim Reaper Kevin
54:55
Durant was a Slim Reaper in like twenty twelve. I don't. It's just
55:00
like when Ladanian Thomlinson became LT and it's like, hold up, well,
55:04
Lawrence Taylor was LT. Let's let's slow down with the LT crappy. So
55:07
I will never call him the slim Reaper. It's kind of silly. But
55:10
although I would maybe buy that Jersey if I still wore Jersey's Reaper on the
55:14
back number, it'd be kind of cool. That would be yes. But
55:16
let me ask you this yeah, I'm trying to think, and I thought
55:21
of this as you were talking. Do we have the best top two receivers
55:24
in football? Like? My thought was, the Dolphins are pretty damn good,
55:30
Tree Hill, Jalen Waddle. The Bengals have a really good duo in
55:35
Higgins and Chase. I think we have the best top two receivers in the
55:40
league. I do, I do. I mean, if you take a
55:44
look of course, Tyree Hill and Jalen Waddle, like you said, I
55:46
mean, they're definitely up there, top three. I would say, arguably
55:50
top two. But the thing with Hill and Waddle is their speed is what
55:59
is what they're I don't want to say what their main talent is because they
56:01
just are ridiculously talented football players and receivers. But with the Eagles, you
56:06
have such a large human body in a J. Brown, and then coupled
56:12
with the speed of DeVante Smith as well, I mean, and with AJ
56:16
Brown's catch radius, it's absolutely incredible. With Tyreek Kill and Jalen Waddle,
56:22
they're using their speed mostly to not only get open, but in order to
56:28
you know, get those yards after the catch. So I tend to think
56:32
because of having certain certain physical abilities and just the physical body of a J.
56:39
Brown and DeVante Smith. It's kind of like the best of both worlds.
56:44
And I don't necessarily think that the Dolphins have that. So that's why
56:49
I would, honestly, I do believe, and it's not a Homer thing
56:51
at all here, that the Eagles do have the best wide receiver duo in
56:53
the NFL because of the versatility of what their bodies are like and what it's
56:58
able to produce on the field. I think you make a good point.
57:00
I think the Dolphins they don't have a possession receiver, whereas we have speed
57:06
and an AJ Brown who can be a possession receiver as well as an over
57:09
the top speedster as well. YEP, still have no idea why the Titans
57:13
traded him to us for not much incredible And then if you and then if
57:16
you'll expand the question, because this is our NFL preview, do the Eagles
57:21
have the best receiving corps? When he had the tight end to the equation,
57:24
I think if you add in Dallas Goddard, we're way ahead of other
57:29
teams. Absolutely, top two receivers and the tight end combined, absolutely,
57:32
And I think Dallas Goddard even is poised to have a pretty big season.
57:36
You know it's gonna be. There's a lot of mouths to feat of course,
57:38
but Dallas Goddard only had three touchdowns last year. Probably didn't sit well
57:43
with him. And again, Jalen Hurts was distributing the ball to a plethora
57:47
of individuals within this receiving corps and running the ball a lot himself too,
57:52
getting a ton of first downs. As we know at the at the at
57:55
the goal line, it's that quarterback sneak and Jalen Hurts is getting those touchdowns
58:00
too. They're not necessarily good doing fade routes to Dallas Goddard. But I
58:05
think Dallas Goddard is gonna have I don't even want to call it a bounce
58:08
back season because he had a really great season last year. He really did,
58:12
but the touchdowns just weren't necessarily there for him. Again, only had
58:15
three touchdowns last season. He's got a total of nineteen in his career at
58:22
this point. It's been in the league now for five years. So look,
58:25
he's not always coming down with a ton of touchdowns just the way this
58:30
Eagle's offense is run. But I think you make a very very good case.
58:34
I mean in twenty twenty one he had eight hundred and thirty yards.
58:37
As as a tight end, you know, there aren't too too many of
58:39
those in the NFL last year or seven hundred and two yards. But yeah,
58:44
I think you're absolutely right. I do think the Philadelphia Eagles they have
58:46
the best wide receiver corps or just receivers in general in the NFL. And
58:52
I'm hoping as Jalen Hurts becomes more of a target, more of a star,
58:54
that when we're down at the goal line, he looks maybe more Dallas
58:58
Goddard for those touchdowns his legs and just like avoid injuries that'll cost. Yeah,
59:04
you might see an increase in Goddard's touchdowns if Jalen Hurst takes one or
59:07
two kind of scary hits and just frightens the entire fan base in the sidelines.
59:14
So I don't know, I was just thinking about that as you're talking.
59:15
I'm like, I think we really do have like the best receiving corps.
59:17
I don't think it's even close if you do all three. Absolutely,
59:21
and we have one of the best defenses as well. So let's talk about
59:23
who we think is going to be the defense of MVP on this Philadelphia Eagles
59:29
defense. Here because there's a plethora of talent on this team, there really
59:32
is still question marks. And b U B B LG and I were talking
59:37
about those defensive question marks, whether it is it's safety. You know who's
59:42
going to be out there potentially with read blank and Ship. You know that
59:45
the depth at cornerback is ridiculous. They kept eleven cornerbacks on this roster,
59:52
yet they only have three linebackers on the roster. But up front, as
59:55
we know, Man absolutely stacked Josh Sweat, Brandon Ram, Jordan Davis,
1:00:00
Jalen Carter. I really do believe, And yes it's a lot of hype,
1:00:05
but it's so difficult and as BLG and I were talking, it's so
1:00:07
difficult for defensive lineman to really have MVP type seasons their rookie year. But
1:00:14
all the hype with Jaalen Carter, it leads me to want to believe that
1:00:19
Jaalen Carter may actually be the defensive MVP. However, I'm not gonna go
1:00:22
with him. I'm not gonna go with the hype, but I'm gonna say
1:00:25
Hassan Reddick again, I mean it the sacks that he had last season what
1:00:30
this defense was able to do last season from a sack total of seventy Do
1:00:35
I think that's gonna happen again. No, I do not think it's gonna
1:00:37
happen again. Does it need to happen for this defense to be successful,
1:00:42
No, it doesn't. But I do think Hassan Reddick, given just his
1:00:45
age, still in his prime, I think that he's gonna run away with
1:00:51
the Defensive MVP Award for the Philadelphi Eagles defense. Eric, So we don't
1:00:55
compare knows for the show, just so everyone knows. No, we try
1:00:59
to keep it pretty spontaneous because, as I told Jeff when I first started
1:01:02
to I get bored if we if we do like too many notes and folks,
1:01:07
I've known Eric almost my entire life here at this point. Yes,
1:01:10
he gets bored with certain things, and and us trading notes back and forth
1:01:15
would certainly be one of those things. But I also had his son,
1:01:19
Reddick, and yeah, but the main reason is he will be the beneficiary
1:01:24
of an extremely dominant inside defensive tackle position. Yes, yes, Jailing Carter
1:01:30
is gonna wreck Havoc. I think it's pretty unanimous across the league that we
1:01:34
probably got the best player in the entire draft at number nine, and again
1:01:39
kudos to Howie. If you saw Jailing Carter highlights in the preseason on Twitter
1:01:45
and stuff, holy hell, the guy is just mass destructive. If he
1:01:49
has an Aaron Donald, he's not going to be an Aaron Donald. But
1:01:51
if he has the Aaron Donald rookie type of season, he could potentially be
1:01:55
like the Eagles defensive MVP. But I think I don't think they're gonna use
1:02:00
him as much. He's not gonna be a three down tackle, I don't
1:02:02
think right away. And he's gonna need Jordan Davis next to him because Fletcher
1:02:06
Cox is getting older. That's why one concern with the defense. We can
1:02:08
talk about that later is the age at some of the spots. But to
1:02:13
backfill a Fletcher Cox with a jail and freaking Carter, who it looks like
1:02:15
he's going to be just a bald, dominant defensive tackle. I think Assan
1:02:20
Reddick's going to benefit from that tremendously, gonna wind up with like some absurd
1:02:24
amount of sacks, but meaningful sacks, you know, not not the uh
1:02:30
god, what was the guy in twenty twelve? The that idiot that had
1:02:34
like sixteen sacks. He broke the record, but it meant nothing. Oh
1:02:37
my god. Yeah, one of my least favorite Eagles of all time.
1:02:40
But yeah, a San red is a complete opposite of that. I tend
1:02:45
to think he's gonna wind up with another you know, thirteen fourteen sack year
1:02:49
just but but again because of the havoc upfront, to just allow him to
1:02:52
come around the end the end, I'm hoping one of the other linebackers really
1:02:55
steps up, but I think Assan Reddick's gonna be the point of that that
1:03:00
offside rush while the defensive line is just just decimating together offensive line. It's
1:03:07
going to be so nice to watch, man, It's it is something else
1:03:10
when you have a dominant defense on the field because not only they're just killing
1:03:16
the other team's offense and their offensive line, not just because of that,
1:03:20
but what it ends up doing for your offense and keeping them out on the
1:03:23
field. My gosh, just just it's it is going to be so fun
1:03:27
to see. But again, there are definitely I don't want to even call
1:03:30
them holes, but they're just unknowns with the defense coming in, Like the
1:03:35
fact again, the fact that they only kept three linebackers. Eric is like,
1:03:37
oh my gosh, Like what happened? What Zach Cunningham gets injured?
1:03:42
What the heck happens here? I give a dissenting view on the keeping of
1:03:45
like all those cornerbacks. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. I think they
1:03:49
have I think they have real concerns at cornerback and that's why they kept so
1:03:52
many. Yeah, because I was thinking about it, and I was listening
1:03:54
to the ringer Ben and Benn and Shell. They had the same thought I
1:03:59
had, was that and if Darius Slay goes down, You're you're what do
1:04:03
you have out? There's Jeeves Burry, I'm you're a little thin if he
1:04:08
goes out, and then you're like, then you're kind of in trouble on
1:04:11
the edge or on the ends against the receivers. You know, the defensive
1:04:15
interior can only do so much. You got to have those solid cornerbacks.
1:04:19
And that was my one. When they kept so many, My first thought
1:04:23
was, oh great, But then I was like, maybe they did that
1:04:25
because they're a little they're a little scared of what they have. Yeah.
1:04:28
Wise, all right, very good, good defensive talk there, And yes,
1:04:32
we are going to say this right now. The reason why I wanted
1:04:35
to put Special Teams MVP on is simply so I could say it's certainly not
1:04:41
going to be the punter, at least the punter who was going to start
1:04:44
the season, which at the time of recording this, we don't even know
1:04:46
who that is going to be because Aaron Siposs is on the freaking practice squad.
1:04:50
As BLG and I were talking, we started off our discussion with the
1:04:55
punter situation. It's absolutely astonishing. I've never known an NFL team and maybe
1:05:00
it's happened before, I just don't know about it, but specifically an Eagles
1:05:03
team where they're going into the season without having a starting punter on the roster.
1:05:09
It's just it's incredible to me. They tried out three guys this past
1:05:13
week, none of them stuck. How can't you get a punter? So
1:05:16
Special Team's MVP I doubt, I doubt is going to be the punter.
1:05:21
I am gonna have to go not only with one Jake Elliott, and that
1:05:26
may seem obvious because one he's putting points on the board. Two he's been
1:05:30
a steady Eddie now for many years, going back to that twenty seventeen season,
1:05:36
that Giant's game when he kicked that sixty one yard or he has been
1:05:40
a steady presence for special teams for sure, But in terms of tackling,
1:05:44
I like a guy named Josh Job. I think he has worked his tailoff
1:05:47
in terms of special teams. Cornerback who is probably not going to see much
1:05:53
time on the field, who knows, who knows? Like Eric was just
1:05:55
saying, the cornerback situation, who knows how things may work out if we
1:05:59
have some j he's there. But in terms of tackling, hustling, he's
1:06:02
one of the gunners. Josh Job I really like him. But again,
1:06:06
at the end of the day, the guy who puts the points on the
1:06:09
board on Special teams, Jake Elliott I think is going to be the Special
1:06:12
team's MVP. Who do you have, Eric, Well, it's a clean
1:06:15
suite. It's gonna beat Jake Elliott I don't. I don't know who else
1:06:16
to give it to. Yeah, you know, punt return er, kick
1:06:20
returner. They'd have to do something special to win the MVP. Huge shout
1:06:25
out though, by the way, to my two favorite mainstays of this team.
1:06:29
As you know, Jeff, my favorite Eagle of all time is Greg
1:06:31
Ward. Yes, he was still in the roster. Uh, he's seventy
1:06:35
eight years old. He's been on the team since since they started, and
1:06:40
he's maybe he is the special team's MVP. Maybe he gets that punt returner
1:06:44
spot and he just he just runs with it man and he has a late
1:06:46
career boone and if he wins, if he'd won that, that would play
1:06:53
my my favorite moment as an eas fan. Yeah, I remember a few
1:06:57
years ago. I think it was back when Wentz was on the team and
1:07:00
it was end of the season. I think it was Wentz's last season,
1:07:02
and it's I remember we're doing an Eagles postgame show. Greg Ward had the
1:07:08
most receiving yards in that particular game. You're going, who is this?
1:07:12
Why? Why do I care? What's going on here? Greg Ward?
1:07:15
Why do I care? Why? It was great? You can't get enough
1:07:19
of Greg Ward. It was just that guy, Like all my favorite Eagles
1:07:26
teams had that guy that just kept making the roster. Yeah, You're like,
1:07:30
how the hell does he incredible? He's the all timer though, like
1:07:32
he I think four years ago is making the joke that Greg Ward is gonna
1:07:36
be They're gonna retire his jersey. He's still on the roster. It's twenty
1:07:40
twenty three. I was making that joke in twenty nineteen. Here it's incredible,
1:07:44
it is, it's incredible. All right. Well, uh, that's
1:07:48
uh some Eagles talk, and we're gonna be certainly getting into some more Eagles
1:07:51
talking a bit. But let's get into some NFL predictions as well for the
1:07:55
coming season. I'm gonna quickly go through the winner of each division, who
1:07:59
we think is going to take it, and then we're gonna talk AFC Championship
1:08:02
Game and NFC Championship Game, who are Super Bowl is gonna look like the
1:08:08
Super Bowl winner? And who is gonna win the NFL MVP. So Eric,
1:08:13
let's let's start off with these divisions. Let's start off with the AFC
1:08:17
AFC East as well, go East, then out to West. All right,
1:08:21
So let's start the AFC East because it's a division that I think is
1:08:26
going to be fascinating with the Jets, not just Aaron Rodgers, but a
1:08:30
Jets defense that is absolutely stacked. It's fun watching defenses in this league anymore.
1:08:35
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills have done some pretty good things over the
1:08:39
past few years, still haven't gotten to that Super Bowl. They're a good
1:08:45
team again, folks saying there's some holes there as well. New England is
1:08:49
absolutely going to stink in my opinion. We did our our preview show with
1:08:54
our good friend Sarah Marshall from Musketfire dot Com and even she was like that.
1:09:00
She was like, the Eagles are gonna win this in week one.
1:09:03
We're gonna get to that in a bit. But what a great name for
1:09:08
a pot or the site must get fire. I love the musket Fire.
1:09:11
Yeah, yes, and uh and then wait, who else is? Oh?
1:09:16
The Dolphins? The Dolphins? What two was going to be able to
1:09:19
do this year? Again with having Jalen Waddle and Tyree Hill, They're gonna
1:09:24
have a prolific running game. They got a pretty good offensive line as well.
1:09:28
But at the end of the day, I do think that the Buffalo
1:09:30
Bills are going to win that division. I think the Jets are actually going
1:09:34
to get in the wild card. So I don't know, what do you
1:09:38
what do you think? Do you think it's gonna be Bills? I actually
1:09:41
don't. Okay, I had the Bills in one of the wild card teams,
1:09:45
but I think I actually the Dolphins are gonna win that division. Oh
1:09:47
nice, Okay, I think, like you said, all those teams have
1:09:51
holes. The Patriots have a lot of them. I think we'll see a
1:09:55
bunch of those on Sunday. But I like, listen, we're we're freaking.
1:10:02
It's the Jets, dude, Like third, how many years of like
1:10:08
suffering if they gone through and just awful play and just bad luck. And
1:10:12
I just can't see it happening. The two teams, obviously, the Bills
1:10:15
and Dolphins, are the two I would say are going head to head for
1:10:17
the for the top of that spot. And I I don't know. I
1:10:23
don't like the Bills defense. I thought they faltered big time down the stretch
1:10:26
last year they lost in the playoffs. I think two was actually gonna have
1:10:29
a good year. I think he's kind of due for that. Yeah.
1:10:31
I love how he he he's he came out of camp like fifteen pounds heavier.
1:10:36
He shot back at Ryan Clark in the press, which I was like,
1:10:41
and I kind of like that, you know, he's kind of like,
1:10:43
you know, screw Like I like that attitude. Yeah, okay,
1:10:46
I'm not a pity case. I got you know, concustom stuff. I'm
1:10:49
a great quarterback. I've won at every level and I feel like he's gonna
1:10:54
a great year and those offensive weapons he has. The defense is good enough.
1:10:57
I think they're going to squeak out and when the when the all right,
1:11:00
very good, Let's move on to the AFC North Steelers, Brown's Ravens
1:11:03
and Bengals. I'm gonna be going with the Cincinnati Bengals. It's gonna be
1:11:08
interesting to see how Joe Burrow plays early this season given his injury, and
1:11:14
you know what that means to is on the field play and what it could
1:11:15
mean for the entire season. But I just think with that roster, the
1:11:18
Cincinnati Bengals are poised to win the AFC North. Who do you have?
1:11:21
Eric? This is my surprise, people. I live in this area and
1:11:30
there's a ton of these fans. But I think the Steelers are gonna win
1:11:32
that. Holy cow, really do you okay? Kenny Pickett getting it done?
1:11:35
Huh? I think the Steeler is gonna be really damn good. I
1:11:39
think their defense is gonna be just tremendous this year. I think they're gonna
1:11:43
win like nine games, Like I think they're gonna have a real good bounce
1:11:45
back year. I didn't I wasn't sure about winning the division. But I
1:11:49
do think they're gonna be a good team to watch this year. I think
1:11:54
it goes beyond that. I actually kind of like Kenny Pickett quite a bit.
1:11:56
The stories I've heard out of camp where he's just this, he's the
1:12:00
leader in the locker room at this point, like he walked in, he's
1:12:02
the captain. He talk a lot. Apparently, he just kind of walks
1:12:05
the walk his way. By the way, we're up to what a cliches
1:12:09
this show? Walk the walk? I think you said the Eagles offense has
1:12:14
to eat yes and a lot of mouths to feed like mouthe yes are really
1:12:17
we're hitting them all? I should I forget it. I'm not gonna title
1:12:21
it Eagles season preview. I'm just gonna title it cliches. That's what I'm
1:12:29
gonna title the podcast cliches. I would listen to that if I saw that
1:12:34
my Spotify feet and like that. That that sounds awesome. It's just an
1:12:39
entire we should do it. We should do an entire show of just cliches.
1:12:42
We could get. How far could we get? We just jopped down
1:12:45
a hun just just respond with I would love that. Can you imagine we
1:12:47
go to our wives Listen, we gotta do a PST special. It's just
1:12:49
gonna be about cliches. That's what Eric and I are going to talk about,
1:12:53
Honey. They're gonna be like, are you just hiding from us?
1:12:56
Yeah? Point, I just want to be around us. No. I
1:13:00
think I think the Steelers are kind of underrated and in the gambling world,
1:13:03
probably a good value right now of where they're at, I think they win
1:13:09
that division. I don't think the Ravens are gonna be that good. Their
1:13:11
defense kind of stinks. The Browns, I've heard a ton of hype about
1:13:15
them. What do we have any idea how Deshawn's gonna perform good defense?
1:13:20
I'm not sure about that. Coach Natty's the only team I'd be afraid of.
1:13:24
And if Joe Burrow has kind of a nagging injury this year, which
1:13:27
he might have, like what is that team right right, I think he's
1:13:30
gonna play really well. I think he's gonna have a kind of a hard
1:13:32
beginning of the season. I think that injury is gonna gonna kind of linger
1:13:36
and then they'll come on later. But I think the Steelers are going to
1:13:40
be the most, like the most steady team throughout the season. I think
1:13:43
they're going to kind of eke out that division just like the Dolphins will.
1:13:45
So interesting pick for sure. All Right, let's move to the AFC South
1:13:49
Jaguars, Texans, Colts, and Titans. Going with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
1:13:55
Doug Peterson leading this crew, and I think Trevor Lawrence is gonna have one
1:14:00
hell of a season. I think this offense is going to do some pretty
1:14:03
good things, and I think the Jacksonville Jaguars are gonna win this division.
1:14:06
What do you think, Buddy, Yeah, I think Jacksonville two. I
1:14:11
think Tennessee is gonna be right there, just because Mike Rabel is probably one
1:14:14
of the top three coaches in the league yea, even though they have quarterback
1:14:17
issues to say the least. I do think he will coach the ship out
1:14:21
of that team and they'll be right there. They're one of my wildcard teams.
1:14:26
But I think Jacksonville has really good momentum from last season, and Trevor
1:14:30
Lawrence, I think it's gonna just be He's gonna be the next guy they
1:14:32
talk about. Besides Herbert like, is this the next Mahomes kind of deal?
1:14:36
He's obviously the next Mahomes. But I think that's that's gonna be the
1:14:40
dialogue and all talk shows. So all right, very good. And finally
1:14:44
the AFC West the Raiders, Chargers, Chiefs and Broncos. I think it's
1:14:47
self explanatory. At this point in time, Kansas City Chiefs probably taken this
1:14:53
division. Eric, Yeah, I was going through. I was going through,
1:14:58
you know, all the websites the class like, what are your predictions
1:15:00
for the divisions? And some just some some sites just throw crazy crap out.
1:15:05
You're just like, okay, you you were bored. I guess yeah,
1:15:09
I saw I saw one pick the Raiders to win that division. How
1:15:14
that happened? I think case C's I think they're gonna have a bit of
1:15:17
a hangover year. It's not going to be as good. The Homes is
1:15:21
only as good as he's. He's incredible. He's going to be an all
1:15:25
timer, right, we talked about in the show a couple of weeks ago,
1:15:28
but eventually, like you can only throw the ball to Darius Tony so
1:15:31
much, Right, you have to have weapons, But I think their talent,
1:15:36
their defensive. If what's his name Chris Jones comes back, they'll they'll
1:15:42
be in good shape. They'll have they'll have enough to win that division.
1:15:45
I don't understand the Chargers, just mad love in the press right now for
1:15:51
them. They still have that same coach from what I understand, the guy
1:15:56
that was a train wreck atrocious coach last year. And Denver, who the
1:16:00
hell knows what's gonna happen there. I think Kansas City is the easy one.
1:16:02
Who's your wildcard teams? Then? Well, yeah, I didn't put
1:16:05
that on the agenda wildcard teams. So I if I had to go walk
1:16:10
up, like I said, New York Jets is going to be my first
1:16:12
wild card team, and I would probably Oh boy, this is tough.
1:16:17
I mean, I conventional wisdom says you go with the Los Angeles Chargers.
1:16:23
But wait, no, there's three, isn't there? Is there three wild
1:16:26
card teams? Now? Three? Yeah? Three wild card teams? Yeah,
1:16:28
okay, I'd put the Chargers in there, and I would I would
1:16:31
actually also put the uh. I'd probably put the Baltimore Ravens in there.
1:16:38
I think Lamar Jackson's gonna have a fantastic season, and I think he's really
1:16:41
gonna keep that team afloat as he has done in the past. So those
1:16:45
are gonna be my wild card teams. Doesn't seem too unexpecting, maybe to
1:16:47
some, but that's who I have. Who are your wildcard teams? I
1:16:51
got Tennessee since and Buffalo. Okay, all right, I like it.
1:16:56
I like it, all right, all right, let's move on to the
1:16:59
NFC. Al let's start with We'll leave the NFC East for last U NFC
1:17:03
North here Packers, Lions, Bears, and Vikings. I think this is
1:17:09
a very interesting division. Of course, Detroit getting a ton of hype.
1:17:13
By the time you're listening to this podcast, the Chiefs Detroit game on Thursday
1:17:17
night may already be over, and who knows if the Chiefs are going to
1:17:23
decimate the Lions. I don't know. Travis Kelsey may not be playing in
1:17:27
that game due to hyper extending his knee. But I do think the Detroit
1:17:31
Lions are going to really show some stuff this season. But I think the
1:17:34
Chicago Bears, believe it or not, are going to be the division champion
1:17:39
here justin Fields putting things together at this point in his career. They have
1:17:44
him a ton of weapons, and I think a pretty decent run game at
1:17:46
this point, pretty good defense. I think the Chicago Bears are going to
1:17:49
take the NFC North. What do you think? Yeah, I don't see
1:17:54
that at all. But Okay, it's a difficult division to pick because it's
1:17:59
kind of meat meat yo across the board. I mean, every quarterback in
1:18:01
that division. Let's go through him. Kirk Cousins, right, Jared Goff,
1:18:06
Justin Fields who you know, the main talk about him is like he's
1:18:12
just never had weapons? Is he good? Do we know if he's good?
1:18:15
Like, we don't really know that, right? And then Jordan Love
1:18:18
and Green Bay, who has gotten really good pub this preseason. I kind
1:18:23
of like green Bay a little more than other team or other people do.
1:18:27
I actually think Minnesota's gonna win the division. I think Kirk Cousins is just
1:18:30
good enough. I think he's I think he's in a contract year, you
1:18:34
know, and if he is, man, what is there a He's the
1:18:40
classic NBA guy who just balls out, you know, his final year of
1:18:45
his contract. And I think they brought in Robert Flores for their defensive defensive
1:18:49
end or defensive coach. He's gonna that's a really good higher. I just
1:18:54
think the stability there. I think that team they're gonna win the division and
1:18:59
it's gonna be like not interesting at all. Yeah, because that division is
1:19:01
just I know, the Lions get are just getting tons and tons of publicity,
1:19:05
but again, much like the Giants are. I'm sorry the Jets.
1:19:10
I had to lump him in the that is the most one of the most
1:19:13
suffering fan bases of all time. And if that team comes out Thursday and
1:19:17
they lose like thirty four till like twenty to Kansas City on Thursday night,
1:19:24
like, what's going to happen? Yeah, Like I can see that fan
1:19:27
base going sour so fast and like all of a sudden, all that goodwill,
1:19:30
I don't understand what they did with it. In the draft. They
1:19:32
got rid of Swift. They drafted a running back. Yeah, I heard
1:19:36
all the I heard all the well, he's going to be a receiver out
1:19:40
of the backfield and a great runner. I'm just like, why don't you
1:19:43
go defense? Your defense kind of sucks. Like that's the route I would
1:19:45
have went, but hey, I don't run an NFL team. I think
1:19:47
Minnesota is going to in an extremely boring way, win that division. I
1:19:51
actually think that Minnesota is going to be a wild card team, and I
1:19:56
think the Detroit Lions are going to be a wild card team too do So
1:20:00
That's that's what is uh the NFC. That's what the NFC is looking like
1:20:05
at this point, because when we moved to the NFC, well, I'm
1:20:09
sorry, what are the odds and fandel right now? For three playoff teams
1:20:13
from that division? It's got to be eight hundred plus eight hundreds, right,
1:20:16
It's gotta be yes, absolutely, because you take a look at the
1:20:19
NFC South, the Saints, Buccaneers, Falcons, and Panthers. Oh my
1:20:24
god, I just don't know who. And I'm thinking at this point,
1:20:27
when you have Derek Carr, that's probably the best quarterback in that division.
1:20:31
For the New Orleans Saints, I'm going to pick the New Orleans Saints,
1:20:35
you know. And Alvin Kamara is still yeah, he's not the Alvin Kamara
1:20:40
of like four years ago or anything, but still, I mean, I
1:20:43
think the New Orleans Saints are probably gonna win this division. What are you
1:20:45
thinking? I think the same thing, just kind of by default. Yeah,
1:20:50
I mean, like, what are the Eagles in the best position of
1:20:55
all time? Right now. In the NFC, Yes, look across the
1:20:57
landscape, quarterbacks like, let's I just listened to the quarterbacks in the in
1:21:01
the North. How about the South? Yeah, who's Tampa is starting quarterback?
1:21:06
It's gonna be uh uh, it's gonna be Baker Mayfield exactly. You're
1:21:11
going right, car is actually the cream of the crop in that thing.
1:21:15
I think the Atlantic quarterback looks like actually absolutely dog shit. Bryce Young might
1:21:21
be good one day, but that that roster's just not quite there. I
1:21:24
think that team's gonna be atrocious. God bless you, Miles Sanders, and
1:21:28
good luck to you. I think that team's gonna suck. I think New
1:21:30
Orleans is by far the favor to win that division, and they're not that
1:21:33
good. Yeah, yep, all right, very good. The NFC West
1:21:38
Cardinals, Seahawks, forty nine ers, and Rams. I mean, everybody's
1:21:42
gonna a lot of folks out there are going to be saying the San Francisco
1:21:45
forty nine ers. You know what I'm saying, folks, the Seattle Seahawks,
1:21:49
And it's not it's because of the weapons they have, And yes,
1:21:54
San Francisco has weapons too, but I am not convinced that one Brock Purty
1:22:00
is going to be the quarterback of the future for this forty nine Ers offense
1:22:04
and this franchise. I am not convinced by that by any stretch of the
1:22:09
imagination. I don't care what he did in a few games last year.
1:22:13
I really think them trading Trey Lance was it was not only interesting, but
1:22:18
a baffling move in a way. I do not think the San Francisco forty
1:22:23
nine Ers are going to have a spectacular season. So I'm actually gonna go
1:22:28
with the Seattle Seahawks as the winner of this division. Who do you have
1:22:30
here? Eric, You know you go through that division. The Rams are
1:22:34
cooked, They're done, done right. McVay will be in the booth next
1:22:38
year. Eric, Zona is absolutely tanking. They have two first round early
1:22:42
first round picks next year because the Texans are gonna probably suck. They're gonna
1:22:45
absolutely be They're gonna be awful. So it really is between Sam Fran in
1:22:49
Seattle and I was the same as you. I was kind of on the
1:22:51
fence. I'm like, I think Seattle is gonna be pretty damn good.
1:22:54
Actually yeah, And I was going back and forth. I picked Sam France
1:23:00
Ultimately just because of their defense is so damned dominating all of the defensive stats
1:23:04
from last year. The Eagles had all the stats, are all the sacks.
1:23:08
San Fran had all of the like pff like hardcore defensive stats in their
1:23:13
favor. And I do think if Purdy didn't go down in the game against
1:23:16
US in the title game, we still would have won, but at least
1:23:20
would have been at least would have been a game. Yeah, I think
1:23:24
Sam Frand wins. But what a caveat right, right, Brock brock Purdy
1:23:29
is you're starting quarterback? My god, like, and if he goes down,
1:23:33
go ahead and say who's coming in exactly exactly. I have no idea
1:23:38
who it's gonna be. The kid, I can't think his name, Sam
1:23:41
Arnold's right, Sam Darnold, said Donald, And this this Shanahan is a
1:23:46
genius quarterback, genius coach. No, Einstein couldn't Oppenheimer, and Einstein couldn't
1:23:55
coach Sam Darnold to a super Bowl. Okay, let's like, let's slow
1:23:59
down. Like I've seen Sam, I've seen the Sam Donald playbook. It's
1:24:02
not there. And people think brock Purty closed the season out last year.
1:24:06
He's the seventh round pick. He broke his thumb. You know, at
1:24:11
the very end of the season. People think he's gonna come back and just
1:24:14
do what he did. I don't see that happening. They're gonna have a
1:24:15
lot of slog games, a lot of really really tough defensive games, and
1:24:18
they have a lot of weapons, but if you don't have a quarterback,
1:24:21
and I don't think Shanahan is that great of a coach that he can like
1:24:26
make a Sam Donald work. So I picked sand Fran just kind of by
1:24:29
default. But I think Seattle is gonna be right there, and they're gonna
1:24:31
be a wildcard team and man, and they're gonna scare They're gonna be that
1:24:34
one wildcard team besides like Tennessee or Cincinnati. They're gonna be like, I
1:24:39
don't want to play this team in the first round. This sucks. Yeah,
1:24:42
yeah, all right, very good NFC East now, Eric, of
1:24:45
course, they're all gonna be going with the Philadelphia Eagles. They are the
1:24:49
powerhouse team in the NFC, and it's a it's good to be an Eagles
1:24:54
fan, folks. And I do think that this team is going to have
1:24:57
a record of thirteen and four. That's what I'm going with thirteen and four
1:25:00
in the NFC East and and gonna have the number one seed as well in
1:25:06
the NFC heading into the playoffs. So I'm assuming you believe the Philadelphia Eagles
1:25:13
are going to be the division winners, correct, Buddy, Nope? No,
1:25:16
I oh. I think we'll talk about later the predictions for the season.
1:25:21
I think twelve and five. There's no way they're going to have the
1:25:27
injury luck that they had last year. I think, like, like I
1:25:31
kind of prefaced earlier that the team was getting older. You know, is
1:25:35
Jason Kelsey, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham. Are they gonna
1:25:39
make entire season again? You have enough, You have enough young core nucleus
1:25:43
to like, hopefully if they go down for a game or two, you
1:25:46
can bring guys in and they'll they'll be okay. But there's no way they
1:25:51
get it through through the season like the last year injury wise. But I
1:25:55
still think they win the division. I think they're twelve and five again.
1:25:59
I think we can do our wild card teams because it kind of ties into
1:26:01
the Eagles. I think Seattle, the Giants in Detroit are gonna be the
1:26:06
wild card teams. I think this is the year the Cowboys kind of start
1:26:10
to go, oh, Dak's not the guy. Yeah, we stood up.
1:26:14
We gave him a lot of money. He was good enough. They
1:26:17
probably shouldn't have let that offensive coordinator leave Moore. I think that was a
1:26:23
bad move, and to hand over the offensive playbook to to their their knuckle
1:26:29
knuckle dragging, mouth breathing coach. And and honestly, like they kind of
1:26:34
signed their death warrant when they gave Ezekiel Elliott that contract, Like they kind
1:26:40
of pushed him out the door that they couldn't pay him eventually. Yeah,
1:26:44
I think they're gonna miss him big time. And everybody took Tony Pollard in
1:26:46
the first round of their fantasy draft. Do we know he can be the
1:26:50
guy three hundred carries? Like, is he that kind of kind of running
1:26:54
back? Like, I don't think he has that durability? And then you're
1:26:57
you're putting a lot of pressure on on Dak and I just don't think he's
1:27:00
that guy. And I think this is the year Dallas defense is gonna be
1:27:03
awesome. Like when they play the Niners, they play the Eagles, great
1:27:08
defensive teams going head to head, those are gonna be great games, but
1:27:12
I just don't think their offense is gonna be there. I think I think
1:27:14
they missed the playoffs altogether. I'm with you, I do I think that.
1:27:17
I think the Eagles are gonna be first, of course, second is
1:27:19
going to be the New York Giants, third, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders
1:27:24
coming in last in the division. But in terms of the wild card,
1:27:27
I was absolutely serious in that NFC North. I think it's gonna be a
1:27:30
fascinating division. I think we're gonna see some good football play in that division
1:27:33
too. I do think the Bears, as I mentioned, are going to
1:27:39
win the division, but the Lions and the Vikings get the wild card,
1:27:42
and my third wild card is the Seattle Seahawks. I don't think we're gonna
1:27:45
have another wild card coming from the NFC East. Actually I don't. I
1:27:50
don't know. I just I just want to see that NFC North. Like
1:27:55
the Bears and the Lions, I want to see some good football from them,
1:27:58
because you know, the steady Eddie team that you mentioned in your pick.
1:28:00
With the Minnesota Vikings winning that division, I could absolutely see it happening,
1:28:04
of course, but I think that a lot has a lot of shifted
1:28:08
within that particular division over the years here, and I think we're at a
1:28:12
culmination where we're gonna see some good football there. So it's just what I'm
1:28:15
thinking there. And uh, why don't we talk about NFC AFC championship games?
1:28:19
So AFC Championship game, Eric, who do you think that's gonna be?
1:28:25
We're going back to my earlier point about Cincinnati. I think they're gonna
1:28:28
kind of struggle in the beginning because Burrow's going to be I think that link
1:28:30
that injury, He's gonna linger once again, like I said earlier. But
1:28:34
I do think they're gonna make a huge run. I think they're a lot
1:28:38
tougher defensively than most people think. That offense is explosive as hell. I
1:28:43
think Joe Mixon has one or two more good years in them, and Burrows
1:28:45
just kind of bursioning to be like like none of the people talk about.
1:28:49
I almost feel like he's getting kind of pushed to the side for the Trevor
1:28:54
Lawrence Herbert thing coming in. Yeah, Like he's not quite I think he's
1:28:58
gonna like he's gonna just be a killer this year. And I think they're
1:29:00
gonna He's gonna take them to the AFC Title Game, and I think they're
1:29:03
gonna beat the Chiefs in the title game. Bengals Chiefs and the Bengals getting
1:29:09
it done. Ye, guess what, the same one at the same Yes,
1:29:15
Bengals Chiefs again, you know, in the AFC Championship game, but
1:29:19
this time the Bengals taken at the Bengals getting it done and facing, of
1:29:25
course, the winner of the NFC Championship Game, who I obviously have the
1:29:30
I say obviously because it's not a Homer thing. I mean, come on,
1:29:33
folks, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be the dominant team in the
1:29:36
NFC East, and barring any injuries, they are really going to just dominate.
1:29:41
They really are going to dominate this conference. So I think it's gonna
1:29:44
be the Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game. Who
1:29:49
do you think it's gonna be? Same thing? Oh? Get out of
1:29:53
here? Serious? Yeah, I swear it's funny because I said earlier,
1:29:57
we did not compare notes. She's I have the Eagles over the Seahawks.
1:30:01
I think the Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has like one more good run. He's
1:30:08
older than my dad. I realized that, like my dad, I'm scared
1:30:14
to send my dad to pick up my daughter from high school. I don't
1:30:16
want him coaching my favorite NFL team. But Pete Carroll's out there chewing his
1:30:20
gum, you know, Oh he loves gum. Oh my goodness. But
1:30:25
again, we talked about it earlier. I think you're gonna have those teams
1:30:29
that just kind of linger throughout the season and then they're gonna make that nice
1:30:31
run in the last six weeks and like you're gonna be like, holy shit,
1:30:34
this team's awesome. Why are they only ten and seven? Right?
1:30:39
Yeah? See, I was gonna be that kind of team. I think
1:30:42
the defense is really good to make some smart draft picks. Gino Smith is
1:30:45
just steady enough. They have a lot of weapons. Tyler Lockett is still
1:30:49
still a threat. I'm hoping because I drafted him in my fantasy draft just
1:30:55
to get back to fantasy. But I think that's gonna be uh and and
1:31:00
I think that's gonna be an awesome NFC title game. That would be an
1:31:03
in Philly to really like hard hitting but like really good offenses. But again,
1:31:10
I think see I was gonna make that run near the end. I
1:31:12
think they're gonna get in there. And this is again like if you watch
1:31:15
the NFL enough, I watch it enough to know that like teams that dominate
1:31:20
from start to finish usually don't finish, like like look at the Bills recently.
1:31:25
Yeah, but like I kind of feel like a Philly since Super Bowls
1:31:30
coming and we can talk about it, that that's gonna be. That's gonna
1:31:34
be an awesome super Bowl and that's what I think it's gonna be. Yeah,
1:31:38
that's what I think it's gonna be. My god. I mean you
1:31:41
talk about two offensive powerhouses going up against each other. I mean it essentially
1:31:45
was, you know, kind of like the Chief's Eagles Super Bowl this past
1:31:49
year. I mean, just two offensive teams just kill killing it on the
1:31:56
field, two quarterbacks off, just two quarterbacks who are at the top of
1:32:00
their game in the NFL going at it. Oh my gosh. And I
1:32:08
don't know if the Eagles come out on top of it, I don't know.
1:32:11
I'm trying to put the Homer stuff aside. And if it is the
1:32:14
Bengals against the Eagles in the Super Bowl, like we both think it is
1:32:19
this. This is what I would say, because again I don't want to
1:32:24
do the Homer thing, But I think the NFL MVP, who we are
1:32:26
going to get to next is actually going to be Jalen Hurts. I do
1:32:30
believe Jalen Hurts is gonna work as an ass off this year. Yo.
1:32:33
You think so too? Yeah? I think this is the jailer Hurts here.
1:32:38
Yes, it's all set for him. The NFC quarterback landscape is just
1:32:42
weak as hell, and as a result, the Eagles win the Super Bowl.
1:32:45
I'm gonna say that, Yeah, same thing. Okay, this is
1:32:48
not a Homer show. I can say that if if you know me,
1:32:51
I'm I'm the biggest skeptic of all time. But I I'm also logical,
1:32:57
right, And the Eagles have the best off of line of football, not
1:33:00
even close. They're the best offensive line coach Jeff Stalin, not even close.
1:33:04
I think the offense is gonna be top three, and if the defense
1:33:09
can just be top ten or twelve, I think they can be top like
1:33:12
eight with all the weapons they have on that side of the ball, Like
1:33:16
just line it up, like, like, tell me logically why they wouldn't
1:33:19
win the Super Bowl. Besides injuries, besides the typical crap you want to
1:33:23
talk about. Yeah, just just the NFC alone. If you look across
1:33:28
like the quarterbacks and the teams, who the hell is going to be in
1:33:30
the Eagles way? Honestly, besides the forty nine Ers, if brought,
1:33:33
even if Brock pretty plays out of his ass, he's that team is still
1:33:38
not better than the Eagles. Yeah. Look, look, the Eagles are
1:33:41
gonna have some challenges this season. They're gonna face Patrick Mahomes, They're gonna
1:33:45
face Josh Allen, Dak Prescott gives this team trouble. You know that,
1:33:49
we all know that the Eagles are gonna face some tough quarterbacks and some tough
1:33:54
competition this year. And as BLG and I were talking about too, it's
1:33:58
not going to be a cake walk at all for this team. But as
1:34:00
we're talking here and as Eric is saying, things are set up for this
1:34:04
team to have immense, immense success to get back to that Super Bowl.
1:34:11
I do think it's gonna happen. And I do think the Philadelphia Eagles are
1:34:14
going to be the Super Bowl champions, bar again, barring any terrible injury
1:34:18
to Jalen hurts the wide receiver corps completely going down, any any aspect of
1:34:25
the offensive line being decimated. Lane Johnson is so critically important. Please stay
1:34:30
healthy, Please stay healthy, buddy. I just I think it's the Eagles
1:34:34
to lose. It's there, it's their year to completely lose it. So
1:34:39
let Yeah, honestly, it's not even Lane Johnson, like Kelsey needs to
1:34:44
stay healthy. Yeah, we need one more healthy season out of him,
1:34:45
where he's just kind of that cog in the middle because they use him.
1:34:48
They use him as an offensive weapon if you watch the game, like,
1:34:53
he's not just a blocker, he's an attacker, right, Yeah, he's
1:34:57
just a special player. He's a Hall of Famer. But and even if
1:35:00
you look at the real quick if you look at the season, the way
1:35:02
it's set up the last five games at Cowboys, at Seahawks, home against
1:35:08
the Giants, home against the Cardinals, and at New York, you know
1:35:12
you might have the division locked up by like that second to last week,
1:35:16
maybe even third. The way that it could play out, so that that
1:35:20
first you're playing the Cardinals, who are going to be the most like dumping
1:35:25
this season tanking of all time you've ever seen. They may show up like,
1:35:30
we don't have a quarterback, we can't play, we just forfeit.
1:35:31
Well, Jonathan Gannon's an interesting character who we know about. Who's the head
1:35:35
coach of that team? Well, I'm sure the GM By that point,
1:35:40
he's like, we have the first pick locked up. Just stop, We're
1:35:44
not going to find win. Just knock it off, and that last Giants
1:35:46
game might mean nothing in New York. So you again, you might go
1:35:49
into the postseason with a buy again and be three weeks healthy, way ahead
1:35:55
of the curve of every other team going in the playoffs. Side, it's
1:35:59
just lined up for them typically right now, if they stay healthy and the
1:36:01
weapons they have, it's again, we're we're not at home. This is
1:36:05
not a homer like you know me. I just tell you need to convince
1:36:09
me the Eagles won't win or are gonna win. You have to convince me.
1:36:13
But I look at it logically, I'm like, they why wouldn't they
1:36:15
win? I can't see a reason. All right, Well, let's get
1:36:18
to the last segment here on this Eagles season preview. It is the scoring
1:36:26
predictions for Week one Eagles against Patriots up at Foxborough. Head to our opposition,
1:36:31
Territory podcast and you can listen to Sarah Marshall and myself discussing the various
1:36:38
matchups and what we can expect from this game. And I'm expecting an Eagles
1:36:42
win. Eric thirty two to seventeen. Yes, Tom Brady's going back to
1:36:46
Foxborough. There's gonna be a lot of excitement in the air because of it.
1:36:50
But at the end of the day, this Eagles team just so much
1:36:53
more talented than the Patriots at this point. As we know, the Patriots
1:36:57
are probably gonna be bottom of the barrel their AFC East Division, as we
1:37:00
were talking about earlier. But I think it's gonna be thirty two to seventeen
1:37:04
Eagles. Who are you picking for this game? And what's the scoring prediction?
1:37:09
Yeah, I think the pass can be a little better than that.
1:37:11
I think defensively they're gonna be a little more stalwart because they were pretty good
1:37:14
last year offensively. My god, Mac Jones is the quarterback like and and
1:37:21
I want to say, like the Tom Brady retirement, like he's in the
1:37:26
house kind of thing is going to be a positive for that team. It
1:37:29
could very easily become a negative really fast. Where Mac Jones throws two interceptions
1:37:32
and they look at Tom Brady like, why'd you leave? Dude? This
1:37:36
guy sucks ass, right, and they turn on Mac Jones like on a
1:37:41
dime by the second quarter. I think, I think that's kind of what's
1:37:44
going to happen. But I do think the offense is going to be a
1:37:46
little a little shaky at first because Jalen Hurston playing at all in the preseason.
1:37:51
I'm predicting to twenty seven to twenty win. They still win, but
1:37:56
I think the national narrative is going to be like WHOA, I don't know,
1:37:59
I'm not sure, like okay, close, but which is okay?
1:38:01
I kind of want that. I don't like if they go out and blow
1:38:05
this team up by twenty one points, awesome, but I almost want,
1:38:09
like I almost want them off our scent a little bit the week because we
1:38:13
the next couple of games are a little more difficult. So maybe I kind
1:38:16
of want to be like under the radar as a team. I got you.
1:38:18
I did say to Sarah Marshall Journey Opposition Territory podcast this past week about
1:38:25
Mac Jones that I do think he's gonna have a better year. I do
1:38:28
actually think he's gonna have a better year. We're gonna see some growth.
1:38:30
And simply because I think I said to her the phrase like you can't fall
1:38:33
out of a basement window, and because that's Mac Jones, you can't,
1:38:38
you can't do it. Cliche number twelve. Yes, forget, I'm just
1:38:43
gonna call the show. I'm just gonna name this episode cliches. If you're
1:38:46
doing shots, pretty cliche, you're a hammered don't drive, give your keys.
1:38:53
I'm waiting for Jeff to do the see the field through the trees,
1:38:56
the forest through the trees. Yes, sorry, yes, but I'm hoping
1:39:00
this game is easy because they're my God. I hate the NFL schedule.
1:39:05
We play like four days later in Philly. Yeah, kind of Thursday.
1:39:11
That that kind of sucks. And I kind of have to harket back real
1:39:14
fast because I lived in Philly and there's nothing better than a home Monday night
1:39:18
game and or in this case, Thursday and night. I remember twenty years
1:39:24
ago, right, me, LN from the show and my brother BJ We
1:39:28
went to the second game of the season in OZ four, the year we
1:39:30
went to the Super Bowl, and it was Vikings at Philadelphia. It was
1:39:35
the biggest game of the year at that point because Culpepper and Moss were coming
1:39:40
into town. They were it was Eagles Vikings that was like, those are
1:39:44
the two teams outside of the the vic led Falcons, and my god,
1:39:48
the fights and the ugliness had to be worse than any I mean, the
1:39:54
Cowboys games are like on another level. Yeah, but it was the way.
1:39:57
I couldn't believe how ugly this game was. I saw Eagles fans try
1:40:00
to light Vikings fans jersey on fire at one point. Joke while the person
1:40:06
was wearing it. Why I was wearing it, he was lighting a cigarette
1:40:11
and they put the lighter under the jersey. And I'm just watching this like
1:40:14
I'm an Eagles fan. My god, God, too far. But that's
1:40:18
that. If you're a Vikings fan. Just word of warning. I mean,
1:40:21
we we've we've become better as society, but maybe not. Yeah,
1:40:26
just beware. What a great show, great Eagles season preview show. Again.
1:40:31
Thank you to Brandon Ley Gout and BLG from Bleeding Green Nation dot com
1:40:34
for joining us. We'd love to know what you're thinking about with this upcoming
1:40:39
Eagles season Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We will read your email
1:40:44
here on the show and respond to it. And again, folks, if
1:40:46
you did send in some listener feedback, we're certainly going to get to that.
1:40:49
And those conversations that we had with Len last week, we will get
1:40:53
to them in the future. So it's gonna do it for us. Buddy,
1:40:57
you got anything else before we head out of here? Longer show than
1:41:00
usual, Longer show as I hit the mic, Longer show than usual.
1:41:03
But you got anything else? Man? No, two things? I mean
1:41:08
this is this is the Eagles previous show. This is the big one,
1:41:11
right, It's always a big one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so,
1:41:14
And I want some kudos from you. I actually like, did NFL
1:41:17
research for this. I appreciate it. You did a great job. I
1:41:21
held my nose and I did the research. It's not my favorite league,
1:41:26
but I really dug in. I listened to a ton of podcasts, Red
1:41:29
Red articles and yeah, you owe me one. I'm gonna say that,
1:41:32
all right. I think it did a fantastic job. I think it's great.
1:41:35
There's a reason why I asked you to be on this particular podcast episode.
1:41:40
It didn't have anything to do with the fact that Lenn was working tonight.
1:41:43
That's bullshit. We all know why Lenn had to work, but I
1:41:49
actually I do like this show. This one's fun. We should absolutely do
1:41:53
it. We should do an NBA preview one with thirty teams six hours.
1:41:58
Yes, Dad, Yeah, the folks are gonna love that one for sure.
1:42:02
Jeff, let's talk Hornet's defense. Go yes, also in a really
1:42:08
quick oh my gosh, as I have a dry throat here. I also
1:42:14
want to thank my buddy Josh Rodriguez from The Dime Podcast with Josh Rodriguez for
1:42:18
having me on his show recently. We talked seventy six ers off season and
1:42:23
it was a good time. I'm gonna have Josh on the pod in the
1:42:25
very near future as well. So all right, folks, i's gonna do
1:42:29
it here. I need a drink desperately here after talking for as long as
1:42:33
we had been talking, following concrete like you need to stop. I'm still
1:42:38
having throat issues. I'm still having abnormal swallowing. You will never live that
1:42:45
went down every time we hang out, never take a beer or any food
1:42:49
you eat. Are you okay, Jeff? Are you okay? Are you
1:42:51
having abnormal swallowing? God at Philadelphia PSD on Twitter at Brick Pollitt for Eric.
1:43:00
You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren. We are on Instagram as
1:43:03
well. Search out the Philadelphia Sports Table and subscribe. If you're enjoying the
1:43:09
content here, share it with your friends and family. We've got our Eagles
1:43:12
postgame podcast shows coming to you as well. Stay tuned for those folks.
1:43:16
Everybody, take care to have a great Eagle season. We will catch you
1:43:19
next time.