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The DiCecco Daily: Would Would Eagles Strategy Be Vs. Chiefs If Dallas Goedert Doesn't Play? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, what's happened? Everybody?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of the check O Daily. It's
• 0:14
  Andrew de Checko. And it feels like the Eagles haven't
• 0:17
  played a game in like a month. But here we are,
• 0:20
  just a few days away from Eagles Chiefs. You know,
• 0:23
  I was thinking about that today, that it feels like
• 0:26
  so much time has passed since the Eagles played a
• 0:28
  football game. But we'll have a week two matchup to
• 0:32
  talk about. But before we do that, let's get into
• 0:36
  some of the news and notes from Thursday at the
• 0:38
  Novercare Complex. We'll start with the practice report, and there
• 0:44
  was no sign of tight end Dallas Goddard, who's dealing
• 0:47
  with the knee injury, on the field during the media
• 0:50
  attended portion of practice.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: This marks the second consecutive.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Day that Goddard has been sidelined and it leaves his
• 0:56
  availability for Sunday in doubt. To say, and we talked
• 1:01
  about this on the previous episode. The Eagles sorely need
• 1:05
  production from the TP from that tight end group, and
• 1:08
  without Dallas Goddard there, that severely depletes that room. And
• 1:13
  from a broader perspective, the Eagles lost Johnny Wilson, who
• 1:17
  did a lot of dirty work in the blocking department.
• 1:20
  Ben Van Schumerin on the opening kickoff and the opener,
• 1:23
  and the Eagles had a vision for him offensively as
• 1:27
  a blocker in that full back role, but also of
• 1:30
  course special teams. And then not to have Dallas Goddard
• 1:34
  week two. Perhaps that's the way things are trending. It
• 1:39
  really again, it weakens their ability to do things in
• 1:44
  terms of different packages and the blocking, especially if Goddard
• 1:50
  can't go, it's going to be Grant kal Kata, who
• 1:54
  has started games in the NFL in the absence of Goddard,
• 1:56
  and Kylon Grantson, who the Eagles signed in free agency.
• 1:59
  He made the team when Van Sumerin went out. He
• 2:01
  got some looks in that fullback role, and he's played
• 2:05
  a lot of football during his time with the Colts.
• 2:07
  So they have two experienced players there. And then I
• 2:10
  mentioned Cameron Lattu as a likely elevation. Cameron Latu was
• 2:14
  a player that offensive coordinator Kevin Patulo mentioned as someone
• 2:18
  who could or was capable of fulfilling the Van sumer
• 2:22
  En roll along with Granson, And the day after he
• 2:26
  said that, on the practice field, I spotted him wearing
• 2:29
  number thirty six and talked to him in the locker
• 2:32
  room after that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: That was his first day.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Wednesday was his first day playing fullback, but he was
• 2:38
  also on the first team kick return unit as a blocker.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: So that's a name to keep an eye on.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: That might be your three headed tight end contingent, let's say,
• 2:49
  but it's not looking good for Dallas Goddard at this
• 2:52
  present time, so let's just go right off the top.
• 2:56
  Not practicing Thursday, tight end Dallas got it with the knee.
• 3:00
  Quarterback Tanner McKee with the right thumb, running back will
• 3:03
  Shipley with the oblique injury. Limited tackle Cameron Williams with
• 3:08
  the shoulder.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: He's the rookie.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Remember the Eagles kept him on the fifty three man roster,
• 3:13
  but he was limited today with the shoulder injury. Full
• 3:16
  go today, Guard Landon Dickerson with the back, and outside
• 3:19
  linebacker Jay Loox Hunt with the hip. So great news
• 3:23
  on Landon Dickerson and Jay looks Hunt Landon Dickerson, And
• 3:26
  I want to reiterate this because this point is well
• 3:30
  worth driving home. He is a modern day warrior in
• 3:35
  the football sense because tough as nails. Just when you
• 3:39
  think that he's going to be sidelined for a while
• 3:41
  or even for a game, he finds a way to
• 3:44
  get back on the practice field. His toughness level or
• 3:48
  threshold for pain, whatever term you want to use. It's
• 3:51
  on another level. But it is worth mentioning because I
• 3:54
  do think that that.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Should be.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: That should be commended for what he's been able to
• 3:59
  do and play through. It seems like he's trending on
• 4:02
  that way. I would be surprised at this point knowing
• 4:04
  that he's full go here on Thursday, barring a setback,
• 4:07
  he'll be that guy that you'll plug in and he'll
• 4:09
  be the left guard to have an interesting matchup there
• 4:13
  in the trenches with Chris Jones.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: So they're gonna.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Need all of the you know, all of the ammo
• 4:21
  that they can get there in terms of the offensive
• 4:23
  line that you want them to be at full strength
• 4:24
  to see what they're able to do.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: It's going to be good on good.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So we talked about the tight end situation, but for Dickerson,
• 4:35
  that's definitely an optimistic sign that he will be available
• 4:40
  on Sunday. Will Shipley sidelined for the second consecutive day.
• 4:44
  He was president practice, but he was an idle observer,
• 4:48
  and with Shipley removed from the equation at least for
• 4:51
  this week, look for fellow running backs Aj Doen and
• 4:55
  Tank Bigsby to see an uptick in usage. Bigsby appears
• 4:59
  to be the next man up a kick returner, which
• 5:00
  of course that was will Shipley's role on game day,
• 5:03
  primary role, I would say, but between Dylan and Bigsby,
• 5:08
  knowing that Tank Bigsby got here just earlier this week,
• 5:11
  I think it's fair to say that it would be
• 5:13
  aj Dillon who takes more of the workload behind Saquon
• 5:18
  Barkley until Tank Bigsby's fully up to speed, and then
• 5:22
  I'm expecting Biggsby to be the player that the Eagles
• 5:25
  lean on because he has a future here in Philadelphia.
• 5:28
  They traded a fifth and a sixth round pick to
• 5:30
  get him in here, not solely to return kicks, but
• 5:33
  to factor in offensively and then, of course with a
• 5:36
  long term vision in mind. No throwing again from Tanner McKee,
• 5:41
  who's still working through that right thumb injury. He remains
• 5:45
  a non participant after sustaining that injury late in training camps,
• 5:49
  so that means that Sam Howell is likely to step
• 5:52
  into that number two role again behind Jaywen Hurts for
• 5:54
  another week. Another observation from practice, and this one's worth
• 5:59
  note because last week, I think it must have been
• 6:05
  the Monday, it must have been Labor Day.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I'm trying. I'm getting all my days mixed up.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: But on a Thursday, that's where the Eagles do a
• 6:12
  lot of special teams.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Work, so you'll see the punt returners get work.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: The kickoff team and the offensive linemen are on a
• 6:18
  separate field. But while the players were focusing on kick
• 6:22
  coverage off to the side on a separate field, defensive
• 6:26
  backs coach Christian Parker was working with cornerback Quinnon Mitchell
• 6:31
  and cornerback of Dori Jackson. Dick Vanjeol earlier this week
• 6:36
  said right now, yes, was the plan to roll Dori
• 6:40
  Jackson back out there for week two as the starter
• 6:42
  opposite Mitchell. And when you hear that and then you
• 6:45
  see those two corners off to the side with the
• 6:48
  defensive backs coach, that seems to track in the way
• 6:52
  that Dorri Jackson will be the week two corner.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Not really a surprise. I think that's the right approach.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: That's just my opinion to really gauge about what he's
• 7:01
  able to do. He's not going to be facing as
• 7:04
  prolific of a passing game as he saw against the
• 7:08
  Dallas Cowboys, So give him another opportunity see what he's
• 7:11
  able to do and maybe build on that and get
• 7:13
  that continuity and chemistry in the secondary. You don't want
• 7:16
  to necessarily move too many pieces around. It's really hard
• 7:19
  to establish that kind of cohesiveness when you're jostling around
• 7:24
  with different positions. So from the looks of it, and
• 7:27
  there's context clues here, it would appear that adri Jackson
• 7:30
  is going to be the Week two starting cornerback. And
• 7:35
  let's also not forget that Vic Vangeo's had that sentiment
• 7:39
  a couple weeks ago of giving whomever started opposite Mitchell
• 7:43
  a good long leash.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: That was his wording.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So it appears that Odori will get that opportunity. Transaction Tracker,
• 7:51
  and believe me, there's been so much movement from the
• 7:55
  bottom of the roster and the practice squad. I don't
• 7:57
  blame you one iota if you've had some difficulty keeping track.
• 8:02
  But as the roster continues to churn. Thursday morning, the
• 8:07
  team inc defensive tackle Gabe Hal to the practice squad
• 8:11
  after Gabe Hall had cleared waivers.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Not really a surprise there.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: The Eagles are going to continue to work with him
• 8:16
  on his development. Hall made the Eagles fifty three man
• 8:19
  roster out of training camp and he had five snaps
• 8:22
  in the opener. And in a corresponding move, defensive tackle
• 8:26
  Jacob Sykes, signed Wednesday, was released from the practice squad. Interesting,
• 8:31
  there little roster tango, and that has just been a
• 8:36
  common theme throughout really the last six weeks, I would say,
• 8:41
  throughout training camp, but certainly once the season, once the
• 8:45
  initial fifty three was established, you're seeing a lot of
• 8:48
  tinkering with that bottom portion of the roster and of
• 8:51
  course the practice squad, and I would expect that.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: To continue throughout the season.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And for you number Officionados wide receiver Javon Baker, who
• 9:00
  the Eagles signed of the practice squad, he was initially
• 9:03
  issued number forty six.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Now he's wearing a proper number for a wide receiver
• 9:08
  and that.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Would be number eighty six, previously worn by wide receiver
• 9:12
  Elijah Cooks who was released earlier this week. Who knows
• 9:15
  Elijah Cooks very well, Maybe returning at some point this season.
• 9:20
  But there's a couple of different notes from the locker
• 9:25
  room on Thursday, and I spoke to defensive tackle Byron
• 9:28
  Young very briefly, but I asked him, I said, have
• 9:33
  you gotten any notification or clarity as to who was
• 9:38
  credited with that force fumble because it was really shared
• 9:41
  between Jahad Campbell and Byron Young. And he said, I
• 9:43
  haven't even heard anything about it. But he did indicate
• 9:46
  that he felt good and that he was prepared to
• 9:49
  play those snaps, and he played twenty two snaps in
• 9:52
  the opener. Obviously, he couldn't have foreseen Jayalen Carter getting
• 9:57
  ejected before the game even started. But I think that
• 10:00
  kind of, you know, gives you a peek into his
• 10:02
  mind in preparation that he was ready to handle whatever
• 10:06
  workload was thrown in his direction.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: It's a testament to.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: His conditioning and just how the Eagles practice and their
• 10:14
  approach to each week and training camp and is also
• 10:20
  getting players ready for games. I also had a conversation
• 10:26
  with Britain Covey and Britain Covey who's on the Eagles
• 10:29
  practice squad if you don't know, And I wrote a
• 10:32
  story about this a couple of years ago about how
• 10:35
  involved he is with the return units, or at least
• 10:38
  he was, and he would have meetings with his gunners.
• 10:42
  He would have and the vice players, just the whole
• 10:46
  unit based off of what the opposition's punter was doing,
• 10:50
  how the ball left his foot, and he just saw
• 10:54
  the return game almost as an art and the way
• 10:57
  that he broke things down was truly, I mean, it
• 11:01
  was fascinating. And I wrote a story about that and
• 11:04
  talked to different players on his coverage unit about his approach,
• 11:07
  and he wasn't shy about taking players aside throughout the
• 11:10
  week and saying, hey, look, this is what they're looking
• 11:12
  to do, this is how they're gunner, this is how
• 11:16
  they're gunner attacks it, and this is what you can
• 11:18
  do to combat it. But I asked him, I said,
• 11:20
  are you still involved even though you know you're in
• 11:23
  a reduced role. You're on the practice squad and you're
• 11:25
  not going to be factoring as a returner on game situation,
• 11:28
  at least at this time. And he mentioned, well, right now,
• 11:31
  I'm really just helping Jahan, which I thought.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Was notable, And then I asked him what's it like.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: To return punts at Arrowhead Stadium, because if you remember,
• 11:42
  he did return a punt their punts there. It was
• 11:46
  twenty twenty three, the weather was not great. I think
• 11:49
  it may have been a Thursday night football game, maybe
• 11:51
  a Sunday night game. I can't remember. The Eagles won
• 11:55
  that game. It wasn't a pretty one. I remember Mark
• 11:58
  Quez Valdez Scantling, the Chiefs receiver dropped the pass late
• 12:02
  in that game that would have probably been a touchdown.
• 12:04
  But nevertheless, he said that it's not as hard because
• 12:08
  they aren't there aren't the swirling wins. And then he
• 12:10
  often and we've talked about this over the past few seasons,
• 12:14
  but he said, it's not like MetLife where you have
• 12:16
  to account for all of those factors, whereas Arrowhead's a
• 12:19
  little bit more straightforward.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: And he likes the Eagles unit matched.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Up against the Chiefs based on what he knows that they're,
• 12:27
  what they have and what the Eagles have, especially in
• 12:31
  terms of their gunner like Keeley Ringo, who was a
• 12:34
  player that he mentioned that that should have a should
• 12:37
  have a good game.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I had a really good.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Conversation with eighth year defensive end Eagles veteran Obo okoronkwell,
• 12:47
  and he was not active for the first week of
• 12:49
  the season.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But what I quickly picked.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Up from talking to him one on one is that
• 12:55
  he is a really good locker room guy. He's someone
• 12:59
  that I feel like teams want in their locker room
• 13:03
  for leadership qualities, but also what he's able to bestow.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Upon younger players.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: And if you missed yesterday's podcast, I mentioned that when
• 13:13
  we met Zadarius Smith for the first time, he mentioned
• 13:16
  how much of an influence that OBO had in getting
• 13:19
  him to Philadelphia, that they talked about it and that
• 13:22
  was one of the factors that drove him to Philadelphia.
• 13:27
  And so I went to Obo today and I asked him,
• 13:30
  I said, what was the message that you related to
• 13:34
  Zadarius to get him here? And I even transcribed the
• 13:37
  quote because it was tremendous he said. I told him,
• 13:40
  they're a very, very, very detailed team. They're really about winning.
• 13:45
  The culture is really good here the locker room, both
• 13:48
  from the front office to the coaches to the players.
• 13:50
  There's a great relationship between all three and that's always
• 13:53
  a good thing. I really love how positive it is
• 13:56
  here and how everything that we do it makes sense
• 14:00
  brings us closer to it brings us closer to winning.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: It's all about winning.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It's about winning games here, and it's about playing your
• 14:07
  role and being the best in your role. And I
• 14:10
  told him, I said, if you come here, you're going
• 14:12
  to know exactly what your role is.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: You're a veteran guy.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: You're going to be the oldest guy on defense, so
• 14:17
  a lot of guys are going to look to you
• 14:19
  for guidance. And you're going to be able to rush
• 14:21
  the passer here because that's what Vic puts us in
• 14:24
  position to do.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: We'll get after the quarterback. Then I said, and.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I'm here, so if anything didn't get you, I'm here.
• 14:32
  So I asked him, he's been in a number of
• 14:34
  different locker rooms in the past, and I said, at
• 14:38
  what point, Olbo, did you realize that the culture here
• 14:41
  was special and what they're building is something that's dissimilar
• 14:45
  atypical to what you've seen. And he said, you know,
• 14:48
  you walk into the building and you see Jordan Davis,
• 14:51
  and he referred to him this is his words, not mine,
• 14:55
  big refrigerator of a man, smiling ear to ear.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Laughing with the defensive backs.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: And then he said, then you'll see Jordan Malatta over
• 15:02
  there with the wide receivers and the tight ends, different
• 15:05
  groups just mixing together. And he said usually there's position
• 15:10
  group clicks, and he said he hasn't seen that before
• 15:13
  and he's been in the league for eight years. He
• 15:15
  equated it to a melting pot of different personalities and
• 15:19
  people from all different walks of life sitting together, eating
• 15:22
  and talking about anything.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: And then he said, it's really dope.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: But another thing that OBO provides, and I'm big on
• 15:31
  shedding light on some of the things that go on
• 15:33
  behind the scenes that a lot of folks maybe aren't
• 15:35
  privy to, because I feel like that's really important. You
• 15:38
  often hear Nick Sirianni talk about owning your role, accepting
• 15:41
  your role and doing it to the best of your ability,
• 15:45
  and you just heard in that quote there that Obo
• 15:47
  alluded to that. So that's something that's really resonated. But
• 15:50
  it's important for me and I wrote about this with
• 15:52
  Brett Toath over the summer.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: But Obo's had a really profound.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Impact on Jay Loox Hunt. He mentioned that he's very athletic,
• 16:01
  he's very raw. The sky's the limit for him and
• 16:04
  Nolan Smith, but he said Jaylyox is younger. He plays
• 16:07
  on the right side predominantly like he does. He also
• 16:10
  mentioned that, you know, you can go on Instagram and
• 16:13
  YouTube and there's a thousand different rushes that you can find.
• 16:16
  But he said that he told Jaylyox, you got to
• 16:18
  find your tools, use your tools, find what works for you,
• 16:22
  and master those. In fact, the message that he said,
• 16:25
  master the things that you do well and hone in
• 16:27
  on those and really perfect those, and that's when the
• 16:30
  production starts to come. So I found that to be
• 16:34
  really important because he strikes me as a locker room
• 16:38
  glue guy, a player that really enjoys being in Philadelphia,
• 16:43
  has embraced the culture, and that really resonated with me
• 16:48
  when I talked to him. So those are just a
• 16:50
  couple of the different nuggets from today's locker room session.
• 16:54
  I wrote a story on Jehad Campbell and the promise
• 16:57
  that he's shown in week one on Inside the Birds
• 17:01
  dot Com. The practice reports written on Inside the Birds
• 17:04
  dot Com. I have more stories in the works. The
• 17:08
  Rookie Diary with Mac McWilliams Eagles Rookie Cornerback is logged
• 17:12
  and that'll be out later this week. Great conversation with
• 17:15
  Mac and I really look forward to bringing those to
• 17:17
  you each and every week, and there's plenty of other
• 17:20
  coverage headed down the pike. We still have a few
• 17:22
  days left before Eagles Chief, so make sure you're staying
• 17:26
  plugged in with Inside the Birds, listening to all the
• 17:28
  different shows on the platform, staying on top of Inside
• 17:32
  the Birds dot com. And we're going to continue to
• 17:35
  bring you coverage each and every week.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: That's the only way we know how to do it. Anyway,
• 17:40
  this has been to check O daily.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I am Andrew de Checko, and I'll catch you on
• 17:44
  the next one.