It's really hoping I didn't have this opportunity again for a long time. Good to see you, guys. Just wanted to start out saying on behalf of the Eagles organization, we were really sorry to hear about the sudden passing of Tao. You know, a young guy gone too soon, so best to his family thinking about him. At this time. This morning, we completed a trade with Miami Dolphins. Jay GI's Philadelphia Eagle. We're excited to add him to our team, to our running back collection. We think he's a good
player who adds to our group. We're excited about that and having him here going forward questions. You know, it's one thirty five right now, and we're gonna look at everything that's our job right to do at this time after today, it's kind of waiver wire and practice squad, so we're doing that, but without predicting the future. You know, we feel really confident about our team and comfortable for a rap. Jay was the workhorse in Miami. Do envision
him having that role here. We like our running back group. You know, this was an opportunity that came to us that we thought was a good player who could add to our team. A young player who's under contract for the next couple of years. And at the same time, everyone's seeing the way La Garrett's run when Dell's had
really good games for US. Corey. We brought Kenyon back as well, So it just adds to the group and all that stuff playing time is sorted out by the coaches, but La Garrett continues to be our starter and just really excited to have that group and add a good player three in the Miami Harold however that this year he even after wins, if he didn't get enough touches, he would get upset and cause a friction in the
locker room. Is that something you guys can found out during your evaluation And do you think that was isolated to that to that team and to that experience. Yeah, we do a lot of research onto players before we trade for them. Not only do we do a lot of research for a guy like this before when he comes out in the draft, but we do that here
before we make a deal. And really in this league, you do business with people that you trust, and we feel like we have a good understanding of what was going on there, and we also have a good understanding of what we have in our locker room and the chemistry that we have on this team, and we weren't going to bring anyone here that with disrupt team chemistry. And we feel very confident and comfortable about the player. Reports out of Miami that the Dolphins were concerned about
his knees and his long term health. How extensive did you guys look at that? And what's your level of comfort with his knees? Yeah? The beautiful thing is that we do physicals on players, and you know, I'm not a doctor, and we have a lot of faith in our medical staff and our trainers and doctors, and we share that information before we make a trade like this, And I'm not concerned about any reports other than the ones given to us. You feel that Garrett will feel
go after run that deadline? Yeah? Again, I don't think we felt compelled to do anything here. We thought this was a good opportunity to improve our football team, not only this year, but going forward, would remain the starter. And if so, what why is that the case? Oh, Garrett's been productive when he's gotten the ball. He's a warrior, he's a two time Super Bowl champion um and we're really glad to have him so, UM, you know, I really shouldn't get into kind of starter roles. That's really
up to the coaches. But um, we're counting on the garret here going forward. This is no reflection of any of those running backs. This was a good opportunity for the Philadelphia Eagles and our job is to add good players who fit what we do. And um, we believe that Jgi does that. It's clearly at seven and one, it's it's clearly a rare opportunity. How much did you have to motivate you act? Well? I think you take
into account where you are. You know, it's certainly different when you're seven and one than if you are having a losing season. Um. But at the same time, we're not gonna do anything that puts us in a bad spot going forward. Um. Again, a big part of this trade is the fact that this is a twenty four year old back who's not just on a one year deal.
But if there are opportunities to improve our team and improve where we're at, we have responsibility to the people on the field, the people off the field, our fans to evaluate everything and that's our job and that's what we've been doing here. Really throughout the course of the season. How long did this trade come come about? Here? Was this something that have been quick right at the deadline? Was is something that you guys have been in communication
about for a while. Yeah, so we still have some time before the deadline here, but it came together fairly quickly yesterday. And I think that's a testament to the relationship we have with the Dolphins organization and kind of the trust that goes back and forth on both sides. And we saw the player, you know, we had the player here in Philadelphia on our field and he's one of those guys that when we came back after those practices, we said, you know, that's our kind of guy. He's
got the mentality that we're looking for. He brings the kind of presence and he plays the kind in a way that we want to play and that we want to represent our football team with and our fans with. So um, we had done work on him. That's one of the benefits to having these practices, these scrimmages and um. You know, so when it came the opportunity came about, we had done our homework last year just watching the build.
What have you seen for the reasons for that, Well, I think you look at the Chargers game in the Falcons game, and you could argue you put the team on his back. That's this season. Obviously, last year he had a tremendous year, twelve hundred and forty nine yards averaging almost five yards to carry. But this a physical downhill running back who can pick up yards after contact. He can make people miss. He had fifty two catches his junior at boise Um again twenty four years old.
But when you watch him and if there's an alley, he's getting something and Um he's also he's going to impose his will and defenders, so protection he's done well, you know, and sometimes in past protection you don't know the responsibilities, the assignments. I think that's one of the hard things about scouting is we don't know the play call Um, We don't know any of where the line shifting. And but we have background on him. We've spent time
with him, we interviewed him at the combine. And again, when you make these trades, you trust the people that you're dealing with. Him are always up front with the people we trade with, and Um we have the same relationship with the Dolphins. Yes, we've had a great reserience. It hasn't caught a lot of balls in the NFL. But like you said, he did in college, do you feel like he could be more productive as receiver than
he has been? Sure? I think that's one of the things maybe going into this year that they were working on. I know when they were here there they were working on getting him more involved in the passing game. And you know, all that stuff comes, but we go on what we've seen, and what we've seen is a tremendously productive guy who's twenty four years old, and you know, we think he'll fit right into the culture and the team that we got going on here. Le Garrett's awesome.
You know, he wants to win. He's won. He's all about winning. Um, he's been in situations before that they have been productive backs on the team. Um. He's been a tremendous team guy since he's walked in the building and a leader for this football team. And um, nothing changed today. You have done some work on him this summer when they were here. Did you have a sense back then that he might be available? No, not at all.
You know, when other teams come in here are scouts and certainly led by Joe Um, they evaluate every player that's out there for the week. That's one of the benefits of getting through them. You look, you look at every player and it helps you through cuts. It helps you when you're in a situation like this where you don't have a lot of time. UM. So our scouting department writes up every player that's here based on their
week of practice. UM, and we're observing them. We have guys at every position group and it's a testament to our scouting staff that they do this homework on them and puts us in a position right away where we can make a move like this downhill running ability. How does he do laterally on stretch players. I think that's
a part of their offense. Is that correct? Yeah, And you just got to look at his ten plus carries that he's had over the last two years and um, certainly when he gets out in space, he's a force to be reckoned with with not only his power but his speed. Um. I mean, it's it's hard to rush for two hundred yards three times last year he ran
against Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Yeah, that's a hard thing to do in the National Football league, and he does against good competition and tough environments, and again we think he's gonna fit right into the group. How much do you like your draft picks? How uncomfortable are you right now with what you have heading into twenty eighteen draft. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. You know, we'd like to have more picks, but at the same time, we want to get good players. And you know, that second round
pick was a payment for Carson. That third round pick is for Ronald Darby, you know, a guy we thinks a good young corner in this league. And we still have two fourth round picks, and we traded a fourth round pick for a guy with we thinks a good young player in this league too. So when you look at the percentages on hitting unpicks, you try to balance that by the same token, we have a lot of confidence in our scouting abilities, our scouting staff, and um
we want to give them more and more resources. But um we felt like this was the best move for our football teams. Contract. Isn't your long term thinking a solution? I'd have a position, Well, I don't necessarily know that there's a problem that we need a solution, you know, Um, I think that when we look at our running game, it's been pretty successful of us for the season. Um,
we think we got good players there. But um, when you look at having the stable backs, when you look at playing in December in tough conditions, um, and bringing those guys coming off the bus, you know, it's something that we're excited about. Um. You know, we draft and developed players and v was probably one of the most
improved players on our football team during training camp. And you draft those guys, you develop them, you put them through the program so that they get opportunities like this, and we have a lot of confidence in him. Um. And the rest of the offensive line is intact, and we have some veteran players behind that that have started
games and been successful in the National Football League. So, I guess to answer your question good, just before the season, you said that you felt you had eight starters on the offensive line. Is that why we haven't seen a move, you know, to get a tackle in here after Jason Peter's injury. Well, I think we're comfortable with our group too. And you know, it's not so easy, you know, just to go and get good players in the National Football League.
You know, it's not like Um, there's a treat they just pick tackles off of and you say, let's just grab that guy. So, Um, you know, we went into this with our roster knowing we would have some injuries. Again, we draft players so that we can develop them, and we're excited about seeing those guys in action, and we still feel like we have some starters in reserve too. Of your expectations so far, Sevenday one in the southern one. At this point, you know you're making a trade to
get a running back over the top. You know, my expectation is every week that we got an opportunity to win another game. We got a long way to go in this season. Um, we're just trying to do whatever we can from our perspective to improve the football team. One make you approach the trade deadlining differently, Um, I
think similar to how I answered that before. Certainly your perspective is different based on what your record is, but by the same token, you know, we're not sitting here and saying we don't care about our draft picks or the future. You know, we got twenty four year old quarterback and we want to be in a position to consistently compete. Thanks,