Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: Are The Eagles Just an Average Team?

Transcript

Football at Four: Are The Eagles Just an Average Team? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right jeff mosher's here uh football at four on
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the sports bash uh you guys out there listening you
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: heard what mike gollick said uh on the gollicks today
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and he said you know right now the eagles just
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: seemingly are a average football team jeff mosher uh are
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the eagles just a average football team is mike gollick
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: right that yeah he's watching a team that's just an
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: average team.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: You know it's funny um Birds Weekly, which is an
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Inside the Birds show, right, with Derek Gunn and Barrett
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Brooks will be out later. And Barrett Brooks said almost
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the exact same thing. What he said was they're an
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: average team with above average talent. And right now, any
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: data you look at, whether it's real analytics data or
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: just basic data on rankings and things, would suggest to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you that the Eagles are are playing like an average
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: football team.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Now, should they be, should they be average? No, but
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: they're playing like one right now. I think that's fair
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: to say.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Um, when you look at this and say the biggest
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: issues that they need to resolve here, what are some
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of those things? I mean, I know you wrote about
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that over at Philly voice.com. Uh, you got to talk
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: about some of the things you're an average team. How
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: do they become better than average?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Okay. So what I addressed in the story, I really
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: encourage everybody to check it out because it's, um, I
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: use a lot of visuals to explain, but one of
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: their biggest issues they have to resolve right now, maybe
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the biggest one offensively, is that they are transitioning to
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: a new scheme and a new identity. And they're trying
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: to execute certain plays that are schematically new for them,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: going under center, running wide zone. You've seen their screen game, right?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: They're trying to do with orbit motion. They're trying to
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: do things schematically that aren't working, not because it's new,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: but I think it's fair to question whether they have
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the right players to execute what they're trying to do.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And I use the parallel of the Niners and the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Packers and the Rams. Those teams all have players, tight
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: ends and wide receivers, who are equally good at catching
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the ball and blocking. Maybe not 50-50, but they can
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: all catch. They can all block. They have guys like
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: George Kittle, Devontae Adams, Tucker Kraft. Anybody on the Rams,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Puka Nakua can block. Their tight ends are good pass
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: catchers too. The Eagles have, at the moment, one-dimensional players.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Guys who can either block or who can catch but
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: can't block. And they're big. Tay Wicks is really their
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: only receiver who can give you some blocking presence. I
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: put in an All-22 clip of an outside zone run.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a stretch zone run by Barkley where you can see
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Barkley get seven extra yards because of Wicks' downfield blocking
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: on the edge. And then you see one where Devontae
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Smith similarly is getting blocked back into Barkley and Barkley
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: trips and he doesn't get the yard. So I think
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: there's a fundamental problem here. What you want to be
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: able to do, Mike, in this offense is be able
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to put personnel on the field without telling the defense
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: what you're going to do. You want to marry– run
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and pass by running the same different plays out of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the same formations and personnel groupings. But you can't, they
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: can't successfully do that right now because it's hard to
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: run on the edges when you don't have anyone to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: block there. It's hard to run from 13 personnel when
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: your slot receiver is Mikhail Lemon. I showed a play
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: of him just completely getting blown up by Nick cross
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: and Barkley getting stopped right at the line of scrimmage. The, the,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: There's a transition, there's growing pains, but I think it's
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: also fair to wonder, and at this stage of his career,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Dallas Goddard doesn't block like he used to. Can they
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: execute basic running plays and other plays that they're trying
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: to do with the personnel that they have? Because I'm
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: not sure some of this is just coaching up. You
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: have to look for these kind of players in your system.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: That's why the Packers, Niners, and Rams do that.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems that the Eagles right now, it seems
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that you're hinting at they don't really have the personnel
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: to run what they want to run.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I just buried the lead. Like the team
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: they just played, right, the Bears, they can do so
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: many different things out of 12 and 13 personnel. Also,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Sam Roush, a guy they drafted early, third round from Stanford,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: can block. He can also catch a little bit. He's
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: had a couple of nice plays for them out of
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: these under center 13 personnel. Looks like you think you're
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: going to run the ball, but then the guy releases
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: and catch the ball, right? Who are those players for
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the Eagles right now? They have tried, I counted, five screens,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: and all five have been blown up. Three to Makai,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: two to Barkley, because guys haven't been able to block
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: for them. I just mentioned the inside zone run. So
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: they're really struggling with an identity. And because of that,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: if you look, Mike, they have increased their under center
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: percentage to try to get up there with those teams.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They're now under center about 31% of the time. compared
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: to like 20% before in years past, but they're still
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: among the NFL at the bottom of play, a pass
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: percentage under center and they're low, like 22nd in play
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: action pass from under center. So what's the, what's the great,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: what's the benefit of going under center, right? If you're
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: not even able to marry that play action game with it,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: that's the whole, point of the Sean Mannion offense that
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: is not helping them right now.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So is this a patience thing? It's like, Hey, bear
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: with us.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I think, I think some of it can be because
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: maybe you can coach up a little bit better. Maybe
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: you can improve as blockers. I think it's more of a,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: a personnel versus play calling issue. Then I think that
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: inside running is where the Eagles really have been way
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: better in the past. And you can still run inside and,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: even when you're under center, they probably need to funnel
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: more of their runs for now inside while they don't
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: have good perimeter blockers. They probably should stop calling screens
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: off that orbit motion to Mekhi Lemon. If you don't
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: have somebody out there who can block in front, do
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you want Devante Smith? Devante Smith tries. I'm not saying
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: he's a bad effort guy, but he's 170 pounds. How
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: often do you want him on the outsides blocking bigger guys,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: trying to make room for either screens or, or outside.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the play that they tried it this
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: week with Zach Ertz out there as the lead blocker.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, Zach Ertz is what he is. He's not
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: a blocker. And at 36 years old, even if he
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: ever was a blocker, which he wasn't, I'm sure now's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: not the time in his first game back that he's
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: going to go out there and lay the wood to
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: spring a play there. So it just seemed like an
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: ill-advised time to call that play. Right.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So you want your offensive staff to look at the
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: first three weeks and say, okay, Is this an issue
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: of we just– you know how they say like we're
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a hair here away, a hair– we're almost there, we're
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: almost there? Or is there a reason? Because in all
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: of these All-22 clips that I put in the story,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: you can make an argument for why a better block
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: leads to a way bigger gain if not a touchdown.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: But you can also, I think, make an argument that
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: you're not getting that better block, that you don't have
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the guys who can do that. So does the offensive
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: staff recognize that and say, okay, we can still– be
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: newer and we could still be under center we could
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: still do things that we haven't done in the past
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: but we have to call plays that have that are
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: still catered to our strength now the issue with that
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: mike to your question is okay let's say you want
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: to run the ball up the middle more well now
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you've got cam jurgens at left guard and drew kendall
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: at center and while kendall has played well Juergens hasn't
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: necessarily played as well. And you're still not moving people
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: off the ball like you used to. So I do
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: see both short-term and long-term issues here with the Eagles offense.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Let me get your thoughts. You brought up Juergens internal fix,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: got to just roll with this, let him get used
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to that spot. Cause it's apparent that that left guard
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: position seemingly is a big factor in some of the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: success and failures of some of these play calls. Yeah.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is what I think you and I
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: had this discussion last week. It's, there has to be
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: an acceptance that no matter what you're doing and no
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: matter how you're changing things and even the, with the
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: ability to improve for Kendall to continue to get better
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: and Juergens to adapt, this is not the offensive line
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: of Eagles past. It just is not. You saw some
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: glimpses of moving people in the first half against the bears, right?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And that's encouraging. However, last year, There were some games
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: against some bad run defenses like the Giants the second
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: time around when the Eagles won, Vikings, right? There were
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: some games where Saquon had like I think three or
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: four games where you started to say, all right, I
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: saw it, but then it would disappear the week after
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: when you played a good run defense. So as much
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: as I was encouraged by some of the things I
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: saw against the Bears in the first half, I do
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: have to wonder, are we going to be able to
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: see a repeat of that game? against a much better
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: defensive front by the Rams and the Jags. I don't know.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: We'll have to see.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it's apparent that Jeff Juergens is struggling
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: at left guard and I, and I don't know that
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: they have an internal option in there, Jeff. I mean,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: who else would even be a possibility to say, Hey, look,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Juergens is just not meant to play, you know, left guard.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to go somewhere else. Is that
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: even on this roster?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the only– this is just me
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: workshopping in my head that question that you just asked
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: me for the last two or three days. And what
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: would it take for the Eagles to be real people
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: movers again up front to give Barkley the lanes that
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: he needs? And, like, the only thing I could really
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: think of would be if they can coach up Micah
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Morris to be good enough to play because he's 340 pounds.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: He's a big, big dude and he's a very athletic dude.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: If you're able to get him out there, maybe you
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: move Steen to left guard because Steen has played on
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the left side before and you put Juergens back at center,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: it would give you bigger bodies at those two guard
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: positions like you had in 2024. And maybe that helps
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: you move people just more easily than you have in
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the past. But that's a big ask. This is a kid,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: six round rookie. I'm literally just workshopping this because he
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: has a monstrous body and is a good athlete. I
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: don't know that that's anything that the Eagles would even
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: consider realistic.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Right. And, of course, you have a third-round pick, Markel Bell.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: He's more of a tackle. You know, I can't imagine
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: they try to move him there. Fred Johnson got some
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: burn there, I guess, one day at practice a couple
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I mean, did they just say, hey,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: let's get our five best guys on the field, go
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: down that route? We'll see. I mean, I guess Jurgens
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: is going to be the guy, and he's going to
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: go up against Aaron Donald. on Sunday, and that might
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: be a problem. So it's a big game here because
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you're going to play Jacksonville next week. If you could
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: somehow find a way to beat the Rams here, you
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: drop them to one and three, and that's a tough
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: spot for them to possibly kind of climb out of here.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, just think about the issue I just discussed, right?
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: The Eagles have succeeded by putting multiple bodies on Aaron
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Donald in the past and funneling their run game away
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: from him. but we just talked about how hard it
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: is for them to run the ball to the edges
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: instead of up the middle and all the issues that present.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Don't think the Rams aren't seeing that on tape. Don't
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: think the Rams, who have about five or six guys
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: in their front that are really good, not just Aaron Donald,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: even without Myles Garrett, they got some guys who can see, oh,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Zach Ertz is going to play his second game in
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a year. He's out there trying to block on the edges,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: or Johnny Munt is on the edges. That means they're
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: probably going to try to run there They have nothing
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: in the passing game, so we can ignore that and
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: funnel our defense accordingly. It's problematic right now.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Jeff Bosher, football at four.