Postgame Show: Eagles Tie 31 - 31 Against the New York Jets

but a good performance. Donetheless, Head Kushnick Sirianni still looking for his first win at the Helm. But there was a lot of good stuff in that first half, I thought, especially from the offense. There was a ton of bright spots, a lot of patients throughout that first half, and a lot of guys, especially Kenny g really showed up. Yeah. I thought we saw some really good things offensively, and you saw some crisp offensive play. I thought Joe Flacco

looked sharp. He really had a good week of practice as well up there in Floren Park, so going up against his former team, I thought he showed up this play. I mean, there's not much else to say outside of Boston Scott doing a great job in the open field, really well executed play. I think I'll be breaking this

one down a little bit later in the show. The Eagles being able to finish off drives, and what's the thing we talked about in the Kickoff Show, right is I want to see them finish and I thought the offense did a good job. Three of the first four drives ended in touchdowns. That's what you're looking to see from an offensive standpoint. You'd like to be able to see the quarterback captain. The offense moved the football down

the field. You had some big plays, but then you had had some drives where they had to matriculate it and get dink and dunk and get the ball down. They did a good job overall tonight. Joe Flacco was wheeling and dealing out there. He came up with some good good stuff. He was extending plays, which I think is something that the Eagles are working on. It's it's a strength. It's been ash strength in the past few weeks. And we talked about also in the Kickoff Show. That

offensive line. We got to see a lot in terms of the depth, which was something that we mentioned before the game started and Andre Dillard. I wanted to ask what you thought of his performance. Because Jordan Mailatta has been the big talk at left tackle. Andre Dillard has been banged up through camp, so we haven't been able to see much of him, although Jordan Milatta has been pretty dominant at that position. But we got to see

Andre Dillard for a long time tonight. We did, and I'm excited to kind of dig into the tape tomorrow and really get a sense of how he did overall. But we got to see some flashes where you know, he releases out to the perimeter on some screenplays and he's able to get you know, big on big and get and get some defenders out of the way out in space. So look, that plays in his athleticism. That's something you'd like to see from Andre Dillard. I'm excited to dig into the film and see how he looked

in his first extensive preseason action since twenty nineteen. On the other side of the ball, t Y McGill, Yes, what are our thoughts? There? A really strong performance and this is a guy that has flashed almost on on a weekly basis, not just here in the preseason, but throughout training camp as well. He's really really quick, really active. He's got heavier hands than you would expect for an

undersized defensive tackle. He's been on and off the roster ella for the last couple of years, and he really just kind of flashes. And what flashes most about him is his effort, his energy, his play personality. I thought that showed up today. We saw him chasing the football consistently, but you saw some TFLs. We saw a couple of sacks there from t Y McGill, so showing off one of the reasons why he's been able to stick in

the NFL for as long as he has. Looking at the big picture now, like we said in the Kickoff show, guys were fighting for a job tonight and you can see that fight in jaj arthego whiteside, he was fighting for it. Now the next few days until Tuesday, where those roster cuts are made from eighty players to fifty three. What is that going to look like after tonight's performance. Yeah, we'll see exactly when those official cuts are made. And make sure you're tuned in to at Eagles on Twitter.

Make sure you're tuned into Philadelphiagles dot Com, the Eagle's mobile app, social channels all across the board. Make sure you're tuned in because once those cuts are official, you'll be able to find them on all of those channels. But at some point for Tuesday's deadline, the Eagles will get down to fifty three. Then the next day, Wednesday, is when they can get to that sixteen man practice squad.

But yeah, so obviously a lot of tough decisions that will be made here in the next couple of days. Definitely decisions that coaches around the league would say it's not the best part of the job, but being a coach. Now, they have joint practice film, they have training camp film, and they have three preseason games. What does it look like for them when they're gonna all sit down, They're gonna go back, They're gonna look at this film before they make these decisions. What does it look like from

a coach's perspective. You're evaluating the whole body of work, and we set it in a kickoff show that it's all about the more you can do. So, if you're an offensive player, what can you do in your own position? If you're a running back, can you help as a blocker. Can you help us a pass catcher obviously as a runner? Can you move around the formation? Can you go play special teams? Are you're a returner? Can you cover kicks? Can you be a punt block on the punt block team?

What else can you offer this football team? And so the guys that can answer or could check more boxes there, they've got more of a chance to be able to stick. And those are the discussions that it's not just they're going to start now that the front office, the coaching staff, they've been having those discussions over the last couple of weeks and months. Now it's going to all come down to these next couple of days. It's it's gonna be busy,

that's for sure around here at the Novacare Complex. Now, as we said before, Nick's Arianni really views these joint practices as preseason games. So again doing that math, they've the Eagles and played a total of seven preseason games. Looking at all those joint practices and the film from those preseason games for in, what do we know now

about the twenty twenty one Eagles. I think we know that they're gonna play really, really hard, and that's been the One thing that has stood out is that the energy level has been consistent from Practice one all the way up through was a fifteen practices total. Sixteen practices total plus those games, I think we've seen a really high level of energy on both offense and defense. The coaching staff they are going to harp on development and

players getting better week after week, game after game. That's been consistent here in camp. I think we'll continue to see that as well. That's gonna be big for a lot of these young players. The first year players, second year players, third year players, expect to see them make incremental improvements throughout the course of the season. So teaching and then the energy level, I think those are going

to be constants here with this football team. And I think it's important to note that now after that whistle was blown, there's sixteen days until the Eagles hit the road to take on Atlanta for Week one. So that's a lot of time, right to get the wheels in motion with your fifty three guys. What's that going to look like over the next sixteen days to prepare this team, keep them focused for Atlanta. So basically what happens now once training camp is over Obviously, the media, we're not

at practice every single day throughout the entire practice. So once that media session ends, that little media window where cameras are out there for the first fifteen twenty minutes, cameras, media all go away, and now the team starts working

on game plans. And not only will they focus so you're here on Atlanta, but a lot of teams will also maybe sneak in a couple periods here and there every day, especially this coming week where we're looking at Week two San Francisco, Week three, four, you're looking at those opponents as well. But next week, that's when it's gonna be all Atlanta all the time, getting ready for

that Week one opponent. Obviously, look this this coming week here, it's gonna be all about the decisions, everybody getting their body right, making sure you're good to go, but getting ready for Atlanta that starts tomorrow. Sure, and this week can be kind of treated like a bye week, right, so you're gonna want to try and get your bodies back, get your guys healthy and ready to go, which is

a certainly a benefit of not playing next weekend. However, with those sixteen days, I know people get a little worried all that time off, but I know Nick Sirianni is going to have these guys ready to go. And that was the point of having these joint practices the way that they had them. It was hot up there in New York and New Jersey this week. Both days of practice Tuesday and Wednesday were scorchers. It was hot

and humid out there after the rainstorm even tonight. So those guys got a lot of great work in and you know they're going to continue to recover, be ready to go. Here. We got a couple of weeks that sixteen days is gonna go fast, all right. So now this week's approaching, it's busy around the Novacare Complex. For you, what's some things that you're going to break down? So for me personally, I mean, we'll dig a little bit into this film here from the third preseason game against

the Jets. But all eyes are now going to start looking ahead towards Atlanta. So whether it's on the Eagle line, the Sky Podcast will be preparing for that, but also as well for Eagles game plan our weekly show we do our film breakdowns of the Eagles upcoming game, the opponent and how they're going to win the matchup. That's the goal every single week over on Eagles game Plan. So production for that has already started. We'll have film

breakdowns every week with coach Siriani. We'll have great co sell My Quick, John Clark, I Grease. It's always a lot of fun. So all of those breakdowns they all start right away. So excited to get going there. But for look for the team, like I said, it is all about getting now to that regular season. You've made it through camp, you've made it over that hill. Now it's about trying to get yourself ready for week one. Now. One position group that we talked a lot about on

the Kickoff show was the running backs. Now we didn't see Miles Standers, we didn't see Jordan Howard, But what did we learn about the other running backs tonight that maybe we didn't know before. I'm see Kenny Gainwell still proving to be what he's shown in the past few weeks at camp, but what can we really learn about them after tonight? Yeah, I think it wasn't even necessarily about like learning something new. It was also about just

let's just see the guys perform. We haven't seen Kenny Gainwell have that level of performance up to this point. And we talked about it earlier that he did not play in twenty twenty, right, he opted out of his sophomore season in Memphis. But great to see him perform the way he did under the lights. All right, we'll speak in a Kenny Gainwell. We're going to head over to the press conference, and here from the running back himself. Hey,

questions for Kay. Hey, can't you just talk about, you know, the progress you made you the preseason and how just how you feel about yourself going into the regular season. Let's just came a preseason too, ready to work, you know, And I came in with my head down. It's ready to take every I since it came my way. So came into ready to work. And going into the season, you know, I'm just ready to work. Put it all

out there on the field. Did you feel like in the beginning of training camp that you have like any rush to knock off because you didn't play last year? Um? No, not really. Um I just I mean I came in ready regardless of anything, you know, just came in ready to work. Over the last month, where do you think you've improved the most um, overall just you know, um learning, you know, learning from the older guys listening, Um, just being smart with just the place, you know, just taking

it day by day. They practice a sweet We saw you get a lot of work as first team back and hurry up situations. How can you help when that role in particular? Um, just being ready when my name is called, just going in, attacking everything I had to do whatever, you know, whenever my name is called, Just going in and just do my job. Along those lines, how how was past protection coming along? It's been coming

home good, you know, um easing every day. I try to work hard to get better and you know, do everything I had to do. They moved around a lot in the formulation here. Um is that something that you experienced a lot of Memphis? Yeah, that's exactly why it's marriage in Memphis. Can moved from slot outside to inside. Um, playing outside of the tackle, like right outside the tacking. You know exactly what's going on now. So I'm very comfortable with that. I'm good to pick one guy on

the team is gonna have a big season? Us here who we're you just saying? I say myself, you know, and basically the whole team but I'm gonna bet on myself every chance I get how to feel together in the end zone. Man, it felt good. You know I had to let less team all. You know, I felt good. You show some patients on that run. Do you think like the game has slowed down for you since you since you first started OTA? So where you are now?

Oh yeah for sure. You know. Um as you go day by day, you learned play, knowing what to do. You know, everything is slowed down. Okay, I appreciate you. All right. We heard from running back Kenny Gainwell again we were just speaking about in before turning over to his press conference. What do you think adding him to the running back room is really going to do for

this offense in this team. Well, I think it just gives the offensive coordinator, the offensive coaches another dimension, another running back that can impact the pass game as a pass catcher, because we've seen him at Memphis be moved all around the formation. He just talked about it there, how he was moved into the slot, he was moved out wide, and yeah, he can break off big runs like we saw today in chunks, but he also can

run routes like a wide receiver. He has the ability to finish at the catch point like a wide receiver, just such a natural pass catcher, and you love having that out of the backfield. It's one of the biggest mismatches in the sport is getting a running back on a linebacker on a safety at the second level. With that ability to make plays down the football field and all three levels, it's something that's going to be a

big part of this offense. As we're learning more and more about these running backs and now these wide receivers, it's going to be really interesting to see how Stiken in Sirianni kind of use them together. YEA, use the wide receivers, use the running backs in unison, how they can complement each other on this offense. Yeah, And we've seen a little bit of that in the preseason where you'll have those split back looks where the quarterbacks in the shotgun. You have a quarterback or a running back

on his right, another running back on his left. You can do a lot of different things from a motion standpoint and a matchup standpoint, and sometimes it's eye candy. Neither of those guys get the football, but it opens up space for others. So I'm really excited to see what they can continue to do out of those looks. And if you're in defense, how hard is it to look at that either game plan or to be able

to read the offense correctly. That's the thing is that if you're in man to man coverage, you have to figure out who's going to be covering each of those backs one on one. Not every team is going to have two linebackers that you feel comfortable with matching up to running backs in space. And if you're gonna play a play in zone, like I said, those motions that can really mess with the eyes of a zone coverage defender.

So if you've got a running back going across your face this way, another one going this way, if you go this way or the other, well, now you open up a gap behind you and can you throw it to a tight end or a streaking receiver whatever it is. So you know, we've seen that from the Eagles a little bit it here in the preseason and some of these games. We'll see if they continue to do it into the regular season. And we know Sirianni is not going to show no, not at all, anything exactly exactly.

And that's a huge benefit that the Eagles have this year is there's really no film on this team. Right. We can sit here and we can talk about the preseason, we can talk about joint practices until we turn blue in the face, but at the end of the day, we don't know what this Eagles team is truly, truly going to look like until it's Week one in Atlanta. Yeah, I mean, no NFL team knows what Nick Sirianni's offense, his offense where he is calling shots, what that is

going to look like. No one knows what a Jonathan Gannon defense where he is calling shots, what that looks like. That is something that the Eagles have to their advantage going into Week one, and then even then for the San Francisco for nine ers to only have one week's worth of tape, that's not a lot, that's not a very large sample size. So the Eagles certainly have that going to their advantage going into this game. And talking about Jonathan Gannon's defense, a big thing that he has

been very vocal about is his focus on takeaways. Yeah, we saw that towards the end of the game there they had a big takeaway the Eagles defense. How important was that do you think to Cap that off for the defense before they head into the next week. It's a good question because it's something he talked about Jonathan Gannon this week at a press conference up in North Jersey where he mentioned it was a forced fumble last

week in New England late by Raekwon Williams. And it's just a good example for these guys to be able to show something on tape and say, look, all these things we practice every single day. Here's a good example of it. Look it happened here in the game. This is what we were trying to preach. This is what we're doing. It's one thing when you show the Indianapolis Colts do it, or you show the Minnesota Vikings do it.

But it's great to have your own film and say, hey, guys, like we have done this, this is what we want it to look like. This is the standard. And so anytime you can have that, even if it is just preseason film, it goes a long way. Absolutely. Speaking of the defense, a big name on the defensive side of the ball that we talked about in the Kickoff show was Milton Williams. Would you think of his performance tonight?

He flashed, he did some good things Honestly, I thought a lot of the rookies on the defensive side did some good things here tonight. We saw Zach McPherson come up with that interception in the end zone on the two point play. We saw Tarron Jackson make plays to we polo to a bunch of these guys. So it's to see Milton Williams in the first half showed up at defensive tackle. He looks like he played most of

his time inside tonight. I'm excited to go back through the film, but I thought he flashed and he's continued to flash. He has gotten He's one of those guys ella that on the short list of who has gotten better week after week after week. Milton Williams, he is

on that shortlist at the top. Absolutely. Now, when you look at the team off the field, right and you think of Jalen Hurts, who's stepping into this new role as the quarterback of this team, what does the preparation look like for a guy like him, Well, it's first off, it's tough because you have to prepare for your first time as a starter, right Because I remember this guy who's only started four games coming into this year. This

is brand new for him. He was the third string quarterback a year ago at this time, so he's got that. But then you're also preparing for a ridiculous defensive scheme Week one against the Atlanta Falcons. Demps is one of the toughest coordinators to prepare for in the NFL. Comes out of retirement, took last year off, now he's back here with the Atlanta Falcons. He is a beast to prepare for. From a blitz standpoint, a disguise stamp point. So all the things that Jalen's got to worry about

from a first time starter standpoint. Then you add on top of that, oh yeah, I gotta go up against Dean P's in Week one. That's gonna be a big storyline that we're not talking about now, but a week from now that'll be a big question of press conferences and a big thing that we know about Jalen Hurts that we've heard all through his college career at both Alabama and Oklahoma and now since he'd been here at the Eagles. Of course, as those intangibles, right, we hear

about his leadership, we hear about his passion. We were talking about how excited he was, he was ready to go for practice. Right. Sometimes he's up at the podium and it's like Nick Saban is speaking out of his mouth. Right. He is just wired to win. And we remember when he was at Oklahoma, right, he would just win a game and then there were photos of him all over Twitter in his dirty Oklahoma soon as uniform lifting weights in the weight room. That is how he is wired.

And we know that's the kind of Jalen Hurts we will get here in Philadelphia. But when you start to talk about now, you know this is this his show, right, and he's going to be going up against a tough defense week one and once that's going to look like in terms of preparation he's got He's got some work to do, no question. And you and I are both from Philadelphia. We understand how much everybody here loves the passion, right,

and Jalen Hurts absolutely matches that. And that's something that fans will continue to see from him during his time here in Philadelphia. But it's a big test obviously, Like I said, you're preparing for your first time as a starter, and you've got a big test. And they're even looking past that, and he's not looking past it, but those first few defenses a lot to prepare for down the stretch. Early on. You know, it was mentioned, I don't know if it was this past week or two weeks ago camp,

the week start to blend together. I don't even know what danas, but it was mentioned that he quizzes guys in the hallway where they're walking around the Novacare Complex. How important is he for the development? You know, we've been talking about these young guys on offense, for that

wide receiver group, for some of these running backs. How important is it to have him a guy like Jalen Hurts who's a proven winner be here and he has that mentality where he's always going to keep them on their toes and he's going to get the best he

can out of these guys. Well. And that's the thing like when you talk about all you know, it's a younger team, you don't have a lot of veterans, But when you have guys that are wired the right way, even if they're young, if they are put in a position, in a leadership position, like Jalen Hurts is the number one quarterback. You know, you look at Davonte Smith and what his role is offensively. Now you've got that authority to be able to assert yourself and be able to

kind of set that standard. And I think you're going to see that from a lot of these young guys. You still have those vets, you still have on the offensive side of the football lane, Johnson, Jason Else, zach Ertz, you still have those guys. But then to have some of the young guys able to show the way and say, hey, look this is how we're going to continue to do things.

You love having that in the building. It's interesting to see the balance, right because you have an offensive line that the dudes on that line won a Super Bowl, right, then you've a young guy like Jalen Hurts coming in kind of taking the reins of this offense. So finding a balance in the leadership on the offensive side of the ball, I think it's interesting. I think it's going to really be a huge part in how this offense

is built as weeks roll on. But there's a lot of good things, a lot of hope, a lot of things to be excited about. If you're a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Yeah, absolutely. When you have those young guys, it's so fun to be able to watch them continue to develop. I've made the comparison in the past, just looking to last year, two of the bright young players that kind of took that next step, and we were like, wow, really excited

about their development. Jordan Milatta on offense, Josh Sweat on defense. Two members of the twenty eighteen class in their third year who took that next step. We're expecting big things from here this fall in year four. It's fun to be able to watch players develop, but it takes time. Josh Sweat was not Josh Sweat. Josh Sweat now was not Josh Sweat in twenty eighteen. Jordan Milatta, we've said before he didn't know how to buckle his chin strap three years ago, right, you don't know how to put

his pads on. Now, all of a sudden, he's let's start. He's got his pads off the entirety of Game three. So, you know, the way that we've been able to watch these guys develop, you got to do the same thing for the young guys, whether it's the rookies or the second year players. You look at Jalen Hurts, Jalen Raager, the rest of that sophomore class, same idea. You gotta

let them continue to develop. And you know, there's there's a lot of veteran blood that was brought in in the off season on the defensive side of the ball as well. That has been so great for that side of the ball when you have Anthony Harris Stephen Nelson who joined the team later on in the off season. Yeah, even like the Eric Wilson's great, I'm gonna cut you off. We're going to head to the press conference with Joe Flacco. Some guys, I didn't see you all last year at

all in person. I don't think huh, it's all over FaceTime. But whatever, Joe, the collection of honeybacks here, how much did they fit what they wants to do on offense and the different lessons you didn't Yeah, well, listen, I

know that those guys are doing a good job. I mean it's yet to be you know, we're still pretty in pretty early stages here in terms of how things are going to fit in and especially since we haven't gotten into the regular season to see what we're really gonna you know, really end up coming out of this season being good at But these guys are doing a really good you know, they're doing doing really good at you know, picking everything up and being as versatile as possible.

Go that throw to h Jay j everything await side. You like your rules, you're right, but you know, just take us through them, play with just see where we're looking. Yeah, we're you just running two basically two corner routs with some flats and trying to get out of bounds at the end of the half and pick up another chunk. Gets a little bit closer. Um felt like the left

side where I was looking wasn't really working. It got a little bit of pressure, was able to escape out right, and then just that portion of the field was you know, it was open, and he kind of felt that. He turned up Um and did an awesome job catching the ball and then getting into the end zone from the air. Obviously.

I mean, I think that was all him once the ball got in the air, it was it was all him catching the ball and then getting those last ten yards or whatever it was to get get himself in the end zone for a touchdown. That was huge. I pointed a little bit, but I think he was already turning up given given everything you've done in your career, Joe, Like, what what is your juice? Love for a preseason finale.

It's funny. I think people probably see that, they see, you know, guying has been third he's playing in the last preseason game, and they probably think, oh, he's just he's just out there hanging out playing football, you know,

just playing a game. But no, I mean, I'm sitting in the hotel today getting myself ready, just like I would any other game, you know, especially we haven't you know, obviously still we haven't won in this preseason and his Nick's first job as a head coach, and this first you know, a new staff, so you know, I've been there before, and you know, these guys want to get a win. So these games are these games are still importantly.

Some of the guys are out there with are obviously trying to make a roster sometime, some of them for the first time. How much do you put on yourself together, That's what I'm saying. I mean, that's why you cannot take any games, any plays for granted, they all count as NFL football games, and and guy's lives are and livelihoods are always at stake. Guys, livelihoods are always a stake. So you want to be a guy that can help those guys achieve whatever they want to achieve and not

not kind of way them down. So so given that you wanted to get a win, what like, what was the reaction after the win that came into that was all good? It was all good. I mean, everybody was excited and and listen, there was a lot of really really cool plays out there that out there today. So I think coach Sirianni was excited for everybody and just really proud of how hard we played and and all that.

Long time is there is there a right or wrong approach to the preseason and whether you'll play your starters even in the final game went the Chiefs to tonight or like the way you guys have handled it year. Yeah, listen, I it's tough to say there's probably no right or

wrong way. It's it's probably we all sit there afterwards and if something bad happened or if something good came from it, six weeks down the road, you know, you realize, oh, maybe it's because they played their preseason that their guys in the last preseason game where something bad happened, It's like,

why why were they doing that? You know? So I think it's one of those things that we can all all kind of look at, you know, whether them depending on what happened, and give our critiques of it or our applause for it. So just one of those things. You gotta do what you feel is right with what your team has and how much they've played before and all those things, and just stand by your decision. Joe, about the way you played and just came through to prision.

Oh yeah, yeah, it's tough to kind of answer questions about yourself. But listen, I was excited to get out there today and be able to move the ball down the field and score some points. So that was a lot of fun. Joe. Playing with the second team offensive line throughout the summer, what did you learn about your offensive line depth heading into this year. Oh, you could tell pretty quickly that we have a bunch of guys

up there that can play football. You know, they're not just big guys that can move and block, but they understand the game. And that's you know, nobody You can't see that necessarily on TV or you know, or if you don't really necessarily know exactly what you're looking for, but a lot of the guys up front have you know, really good football IQs. They just have football sense. They know how to play, they know how to you know where to go naturally and things like that, and I

think that that's really big at every position. But when you can get a group of offensive linemen that can do that well, it just takes your team to the next level. The next time you play might need to be a situation you don't expect coming in cold, something like that. I guess from I'm from now going forward, what do you do to prepare for that type of scenarios? Right listen. I mean obviously before last year, I hadn't had a lot of experience at that and it is different.

You know, you have to make sure that you attack, you know, the early parts of the week just as if you were the starter, even though you're not going to be able to get the reps, because the biggest thing is making sure that you feel prepared going into the game without getting the reps throughout throughout the practice week, and that's just nothing to be taken lightly. You have to you know, you have to work your tail off

and approach it the right way. And as long as I think that's the biggest thing for me, as long as I do that during the week, which I know I will, and I can go on into Sunday feeling confident that I'm prepared and if something happens, then yeah, that's what you're there for. Joe. You touched on the running backs at the beginning of this when you when you stay at a Kenny there at that second drive, guys, man, you put me on the spot. It's it's tough for me to kind of listen. We had some room out

there to run. I think our alignment did a good job, and I think those guys hit the whole. They didn't hesitate, they went. I know on one of those I scrambled, um, you know, I was looking for my receiver and I scrambled to the left, and he did an awesome job showing up for me, getting you know, getting the attention to my eyes, kind of grabbing me and giving me a spot to go with the ball. And that was a big play to kind of move the chains and

keep going. So um, I think he's starting to kind of get his legs underneath of him out there and feel confident about just making decisions quickly and going and trusting his feel and I think he was able to do that today than y y'all doing what do you think I'm gonna walk off touchdown into a conversion? We're going through your mind at that time, you had to

win in your hand. Yeah, you know, yeah, obviously we all wanted to win that game, and we wanted to execute at the end of the game, and we didn't do that. What do you say to Michael Jacquett who is making a positive play? But obviously from a situational awareness standpoint, it might have questioned, sure, yeah, no, we talk about that all the time and it's a it's a no Moss situation. Well, that's what we call it in that scenario. So you get a turnover, you're supposed

to stay down. Um, we didn't communicate that well enough with him, so he just tried to make a play. We got to do a better job coaching it. Obviously, nobody on No Stars and Defense played everyone except for a few white receivers. But why did you want to get some of the youngs savers work? I just I feel like they still needed they need a little bit more work to get out there, catch a couple of balls and go. We try to run a big deep

all the quiz. It just Joe got hit on the play and just wanted to get him a touch and get him a catch and then get him out. What is your kind of Uh yeah, yeah, because he got that one shallow the little shallow route, he got that catch. We finished a drive and then he came out. So it gets preseason. But what is your messaging? Is it the same after a game like this it would be the regular season? How do you what's the teaching moment? What do you kind of tell the guys? When do

you get packed to him? You know, it kind of just wrapped up that training camp and preseason's over, and you know we got another week before we are into a preparation for Atlanta. But you know, the talk was, hey, we got one more week of work, but training camp, you know, training camp, preseason's over. We'll get better from this week and then we'll be onto onto Atlanta the following week. Handle this next week? How do you handle this next week? Because it is like a an extra one.

Uh yeah, competitive situations to get you know, good, I'm good. Get the guys um. You know, obviously we'll be down on numbers, you know, because we're gonna have to make some cuts and so it will be more reps for the ones um just to make sure that they're getting ready,

you know, continuing to get ready. We've really ramped up their their reps as it is, but continuing to get ready to play seventy plays or plus, uh that week one at Atlanta And so big picture, what's your takeaway of where you are after three games in playing and four weeks of practice. Yeah, well, you know what, we we talk every every day about getting better every day and you know, loving the climb of a season and

just continuing to do that. And so I do I feel like I feel like some of the veterans players and might have talked talked yesterday. You know, it's really good. One thing that was really good we were all in the hotel together for the past four nights. It was kind of like old training camp when you went away, right, And so that was good. I felt a lot of connecting um with the players there. But the message was the talks that we had had is like, hey, this

was a physical training camp. It was a fat I mean, we those guys practiced hard, you know. And and again I think that you know, I know, we weren't on the field, you know, there's times we were on the field for an hour and fifteen there out of times we're an hour and a half. Times we're hour and forty five times there or two hours. But you know,

we got a lot of work done. And so I do believe like the only way you're getting better every day is if you're practicing hard and you're going full speed. And I believe that we did that through the four weeks of training camp and got better every day. And now it's hey, we got another week of that to get to get ourselves righty, we still got two weeks before we play, so let's just stay on that course of Hey, continue to get better, continue to get better,

continue to get better. So we have all those points accumulated. So to say, once once we step into Atlanta, how do you think ya will see? Yeah, you know, I have to watch the tape that that's a that's a tough spot. Like I'm kind of looking. My eyes are more in the in the secondary and you know sometimes you know, you know, Stouts looking at him a lot, you know, and Roy his assistant. But so sometimes you know, I'm only seeing if a bad thing happens to to

a tackle. But um, you know it was important for him to, you know, because he had had been out to get some reps in there and and go out there and play again. I thought he was having a great camp before he got hurt, and so I'm excited to watch the tape. You know. It felt like he played pretty good. We had we had to Joe was what thirteen or sixteen with a with a drop and you know, so he had time to throw. So I'm looking forward to watching him play and have a better

evaluation for you after that. We've seen teams like the Chiefs tonight, for instance, they play their starters into um, you know, a couple series. We see teams like the Rants of Play. Anybody, Why had you guys decided to follow this philosophy and not playing the starters? Jeff, I thought like it with the way we practiced the last two days, like the way we practiced against that that you guys were at the practice against the Jets, that's

that second day and even in the first day. I mean, that was a hard physical practice there, and to me, that's a game. The way we played that that practice was a game, and we treated the post practice just like we would treat a post game. When we came in and evaluated, we did the whole film session and the charts that we look at just like a post game and to me, like, you don't ever come off

of two days rest and play another game. So, um, I didn't think that would be good for our guys healthwise, and I felt good about where we were, and that was the decision I made with the ramps. This is four years. I think this is something they've decided. Is this something that you guys went into the preseason thinking yeah, there, you know, because because we don't want to get our

guys injury. Yeah, not necessarily. I mean everything was evaluated like we we had every intention even even that we practiced against the Patriots, we had intentions of playing them in that game. So it was just everything was a

case by case and that. Like I said that the last two days, and I appreciate coach Sala and his staff and his players because we got a lot, a lot of work done against them, and um, I know we left, we're leaving New York a better team than when we came to New York, and so again appreciate them for that. And you know, it was we felt like we got the work done. We needed to and nothing was final until you know, after that practice and we're like, all right, we're probably good. We don't need

to see them seen through three games. Now you've gotten to go through the process of you know, getting the plays in and communication and stuff. Have you learned anything? Are you gonna maybe adjust anything now that you've got I thought it. I thought it was really smooth. I mean I thought it was really smooth operation. I thought we were getting plays off pretty quick. Uh, you know, we did. We did a you know, I thought a couple of times. I never felt like we were down

low at all. I mean we were getting the play in and we were getting snapped a lot of times at twenty, which is good. That's how That's how I want to play. I mean, more plays, you get more yards, you get more points you get So I thought the operation was really what really good. Um, uh, you know, Shane did a good job. You know, I was calling the play to Shane. Shane did a good job of talking in there. When when we're in two minute situations, Kevin Patulo is really doing a lot of Hey, here's

our scenario of of what we're in him. Um, Jim Bob Cooter is is uh, he is UM getting all the scenarios for us from the two minute around the league so we can prepare for it. So you know, I just I felt I felt really good and those two minutes, you know, I don't, I don't. I can't remember what happened against UM New England. I can't remember if we went down to the three and the two minute, but I know two of the three games we had good two minute drives and and that's where you're really at,

situational football at its greatest. And so felt really good with the operation on the headsets and UM talking through things, and you know, UM didn't get any challenges, but hey, uh, there's the regular season for that. Before the game, you talked about your message to the team was there's been final preseason games where guys have won a job, changed minds and stuff like that. Were there any cases of

that here tonight? Making decisions more difficult? Again? I think I think what you saw is I thought, I think you saw a lot of players, you know, play their hearts out and that and and and play hard and play physical. And I saw a lot of guys, you know, have some success. And I don't want to single anybody out. Again.

I got to watch the tape and see it, but that was definitely the message I wanted to get across last night, that hey, there's here's five guys that have made the team on that last on that last game. Like sure, you don't discredit what they did all the way to that last game, but you know, in particular, like here's what and we've kind of showed clips of those guys. Here's the plays that they made in that last game that changed our minds as coaches, that got

him stick. And I think the guys, the guys really felt that, and they and they you know that then they they thought I really I thought the meeting last night was good in the sense that it put that sense of urgency. I know they all had their sense of urgency with it, but you know that you guys can change our minds and go out there and play player player tails off. And I really felt like they did that tonight. They left it all out in the field.

And again I have to watch the tape, but all those guys should be proud of themselves of how they played and should feel good as to the sense that's that that you know, they put left it all on the field and put it all on tape. Which what's your personal philosophy about weighing what a player can do for your week one versus maybe the upside that they

have down the line and making these decisions. Say that in in as you look at the players, weighing what they've done so far and how they can help right now compared to their upside and how they can help down the line. Yeah, I think everything you do is you gotta be ready to win that first game. And they all count, right, they all count big time. And it's such a good parody in this league. So whoever's gonna give us a chance to win, we're gonna have

them on this team. Well, on the one drive, I think the second drive, how is he different now than he was when he first got in the building? Which, yeah, he he was hyatt when he first got in the building, And now I just see his personality coming out, just be getting more comfortable. He's a great kid. And uh, um you kind of you see his personality coming out

because he's had some success. Um. One thing that that you really notice about him, you know, Yeah, he's he's shifty and he can make guys miss and he's got great hands. He can run routes. Um, he can he can hit the whole and make and make big runs. He is tough and you know you see that on his college table when you're when you're with a guy every single day and you're watching him practice every single day. Um, he just shows his physical toughness and his mental toughness

every day. And and usually guys that are tough players, those are guys that you're like, I can't go to the game without him. Um, And so that's what he showed me. It really is really stuck out, particularly in in you know, the joint practices, how tough he is, and then it just goes over to the game. Can I answer your questions though, Yeah, there's your first year and this is also you're there's one less preseason game, so personally, think how ready do you feel to start

the season. Let's go. I'm ready. I'm ready, Uh you know, but again, you know, I'm excited for this team. I'm excited for the guys that we have on this team to to get going and getting to game one. But you know, if we're we're truly a process driven team where we want to get better every single day, because we know if you make those deposits every single day of getting better, you know, and you and every single day you pay the deposit, pay the deposit, pay the deposit,

You're gonna be ready playing. We still have two weeks of preparation. So am I really excited? Yeah? I want to go start game playing in Atlanta right now. And I'm really excited about a goose mumps thinking about, you know, going up there and playing playing at Atlanta and with with this team, with this, with these guys. But you know, I gotta I gotta be as as the head coach. I gotta practice what I preach, and that is, Hey, we got two weeks left before we step on that field.

Deposits are due every single day. All right, Thanks, I appreciate you. J You've obviously been through a lot your first two years here. How big was it to be able to kind of cap this third preseason with the performance like this? Um, I mean, I'm never a lot feel good. But at the same time, you can't look in the past. I mean, she's gotta take a day by day. Um. The moment you start looking too much in the past, started looking too much into the future,

you miss your opportunity, um where you're at today. So that's just kind of been my mentality. It's just you know, day by day, no matter what happened yesterday, whatever happens tomorrow, like you know, be focused and be present. But today, how do you feel about your your chances to remaining I mean, like, it's not my job, you know, my job to go out there and play football and whatever

it happens happens. As you know, I can't worry about that, um, and you go out there and play, have fun doing it, helped this team win games? You feel like you put together a good enough summer to do that. Yeah. I mean, you know, I really haven't had time to reflect on you know, the past and the last three four weeks, um, just because like I said, I just try to you know, day by day, you know, get better every day, UM do it. I can't help this team win games and

then everything else is out of my control. Kind of take us through the touchdown from your perspective, Yeah, yeah, I was just you know, really really happy that Joe gave me a chance to go up there and make a play, especially you know at the time when team needed it, right before halftime. Go up put some port, uh some points up on the board, and yeah, I was just just just happy that he trusted me to come down, and I'm just happy obviously that I came down and did it, and uh I was able to

do it for the team. Come back out and just keep playing. Nick said, he showed you, guys examples of players that kind of change the coach's mind. Making a couple of plays in the preseason for this game, you have a touchdown, but then immediately afterwards you make a stop. On special teams, how much have you worked on your special team's prowess to kind of get in in that kind of mode. Yeah, I mean, you know, going into the training camp, I told myself, you know, big players

are going to happen, states are going to happen. But one thing you can control is give an effort. And I feel like, you know, as a receiver, blocking is something that's always effort based. You know, either you give effort and you do a writer or you don't. Special teams is the same way. Either you give effort, go down and hustle and make a player at least disrupt the play, or you know, hold your guy up and then you know like punt, you know, making sure your

guy doesn't get to the point the punter. So yeah, I mean that's just kind of like my mentality is going into it controlling what I can control, which is like effort, um, being aggressive when I when I get a chance to be aggressive, and making a play when when it comes to me, if you think back to your first preseason, you didn't dress in the final preseason game. You know, you were coming off that big third preseason game. What perspective do you have now that you didn't have then.

I mean, you know, two years you get it. You're getting a lot of experience, you know, the ins and outs of things that go on in the league. Obviously, you know, back then it was different. I was a rookie. I was still you know, getting my foot and trying to figure out what this whole league is about. Um, you know, two years later, now I got a pretty good grasp of how things working. Um, the biggest thing that I learned is at the end of the day,

were still playing football and uh doing the things. Like I said, I think in one of the interviews way back is it's just going back to what work for me in college, and that's showing effort, giving effort in and doing the things that take no talent and um, the things that do take talent at the talent take over and don't worry about the result. And uh yeah, I'm just happy that you know, I was able to come down with a few players tonight and you know,

help this team out preseason. But it's kind of a tough way to end, you know, on that hail Mary past. What's the move to the team like after something like that. Yeah, I mean it would have you know, it always is good to win, especially after such a big play by your quite but UM, I mean, like like you said, it is the preseason. UM, a lot of things we can look back, uh from the last three weeks, the last three games and learn from um and then going

forward getting better. At the end of day, if we're getting better, I feel like, you know, progressively we've gotten better, UM every week as a team, UM individual league, you know, collectively connecting with each other and you know, just building that team chemistry and you know, now it's now it's

time to let a show for real. When you look at the overall town level, the wide receiver, what do you see as far as I mean obviously there are a lot of young guys like yourself and everything, But how do you kind of view the depth of the wide receiveries year. I mean, we've got a lot of talent in that room. Um. The biggest thing I feel like that you guys probably don't knows. We have a

lot of uh great personalities in there. And you know it's all about competing obviously, but you know, getting each other better collectively and individually, and you know, learning from each other. Um. I mean I ask guys, you know, things that can help me with my game sometimes you ask me things. Um, you know, it's it's it's a great group of guys to be around. Um, and you know we're we're real, real friendly to each other. You know, it's just just a great group of guys to be

around in and a great room to be in. Thanks, thank thank you guys. All right, we heard from Joe Flacco, Nick Sirianni and right there jj Art Thako Whiteside. Do you think coach is ready for Atlanta? Ready for Atlanta? I think we're all ready for Atlanta absolutely absolutely well. Earlier this evening, Fran was able to break down Boston Scott's forty nine yard touchdown. We're gonna head to that, all right, Let's bring this all the way back to

the opening drive of the game. Eagles getting into the end zone on three of their first four drives in the first half. You love to see it from this Eagles offense. And we're gonna take a look at the long forty nine yard touchdown from Joe Flacco to Boston Scott comes on one of my favorite plays in football. If you've been following me here on Philadelphiagles dot com, you know I love to talk about some mesh. That's the play. Let's take a look at exactly why it works.

What you see with mesh is you're gonna get a lot of routes over the football and what that does, as you can see, it creates a lot of traffic here in the middle of the field. And when you have lots of traffic, you've got the ablity for receivers to gain some separation. On defense. If you call us a pickplay on offense, this is a great job to get receivers open and a nice job to get a quarterback a nice easy lay up throw. Keep an eye

here on Boston Scott. You can see he comes in late motion, he's gonna run a little bit of a wheel route. Now, once the quarterback gets the sense that the defense is in man coverage, you could see that this defender he also traveled over with Boston Scott. So that was a little bit of a tip for Joe Flacco.

This is man to man coverage. This defender is one on one with Boston Scott and knowing that he's got all of these routes working over the middle of the field, this defender he has got to work around this garbage, right. He has got to get over the top and stay clean just in case Boston Scott works vertically. This is going to play right in the Scott's hands because he's got the speed to get to the sideline and out

leverage that defender. So we're gonna let this roll just for a little bit and we'll see how that comes to be. Again, you're gonna get all those receivers working vertically. That creates that traffic over the middle of the field. Now, Boston Scott's got the football. Now he's got to just be a playmaker. And what's great about this is that once he's won on one in the open field, he knows he's got that ability to cut this back inside. The defender knows that too, he's got to protect against that.

So you're gonna see Boston Scott throw that little stutter as if he's gonna cut back, and now he's just gonna put his foot in the ground and bust it down the right sideline. Let it roll. Watch the move. He leaves the defender in his wake right there, cuts him up, and now he's gone off to the races forty nine yards catching run. Love the mesh play. Here's a great example why Eagles get on the end zone here on the opening drive, they go up seven nuts and ella. That play is just one of my favorite

plays in all of football. It was a key central play to the Eagles for their Super Bowl run back in twenty seventeen. That mesh concept. So as soon as I saw it, I was like the Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff like paul I point. I stood up in my chair, but I was like, that's gotta be the Rico review this week. Got a touch on the mesh play to Boston Scott for the touchdown. Very exciting for a preseason game especially, But that's a rap on the preseason we

made it. Training camp, check race season games, check off to Atlanta. We go Sunday, September twelfth. The kickoff show we'll air at twelve fifteen, and then it's off to the races. We're on the home stretch, excited to get home. Now we are for fran Duffy. I'm Gabriella Djevanni. Thank you so much for joining us for the postgame show presented by Rico. Have a good night.