Week 5 Postgame Show

off in just a couple of weeks. That preseason game number three is a tough one because, as we talked a lot in the kickoff Show, there are quite a few players fighting for a job. But at the same time, you're not going to see the starters. Really. We saw Miami's their first team offense. They played about three series, but you gotta consider this week they didn't really see much action. So it was tough to match up because of course their offense was going against the Eagles defensive

either second string or third string players. But still a good challenge for that defense. Yeah, a good challenge, and there are certainly going to be things that when the coaches go back and watch it. When the players go back and watch that, they're gonna want to clean up. There's no getting around that. But that's what the preseason is for, and for these backups, this is a good challenge, maybe as big as the challenge that they're gonna see. Hopefully.

You know, the Eagles don't have lots of injuries, and a lot of these guys aren't going to be on the field too often on offense or defense. But I think when you're looking at guys trying to fight for jobs, compete for jobs, this was a really good audition in that respect. We want to really zoom out and start to look at the big picture. What is the twenty

twenty two Philadelphia Eagles going to look like? There are some positions that it's very clear how it's going to shake out, but others not so much, or at least what are the four and five positions on the depth chart going to look like. Let's start with the offensive side of the football. Nick Sirianni fielded some questions earlier in the week. Is he's gonna stick with two quarterbacks three quarterbacks? He didn't want to commit either way. We did see a lot of Gardner Minshew reads in it,

Carson Strong at the end. Interesting to see what they do there. But when we get make our way through the offense the wide receiver group, there's some obvious selections at the top, but we saw some other receivers really

try and make a push here tonight. Yeah, no question, And I think ultimately, when you're talking about those decisions that are gonna be made by the front office to coaching staff over the next couple of days the deadline being four pm on Tuesday, I think ultimately there's a lot of factors at play right because it's not just hey, if you're if you're an outside receiver, or if you're a running back, or if you're a left tackle, it's about what else can you do for this football team?

And that's at the end of the day. That's why the saying that the old adage is, it's the more you can do, and it's not just on your side of the ball, but also on special teams. If you're an offensive lineman, like I mentioned a left tip, if you're a left tackle, can you also play left guard? Can you play right tackle or right guard? If you're an outside receiver and you're trying to make it as a backup, well, you better be able to play on the inside as well. Can you play all three receiver spots.

Can you make it as a kick return or a punk return? Can you cover kicks? So all of those different things come into play, and that versatility so so pivotal for the guys on the back end of the roster as well as from the starting lineup. We talk about the offensive line. I think Ross Tucker mentioned this on the broadcast. Offensive line is a tough position where you are extremely lucky if all five guys that start the season finished this season. It's the nature of that position.

As we know in Philadelphia the past few years, there have been various injuries suffered across the offensive line. So building depth in that area is super important for the Eagles and it's something that as we know, they put a lot of emphasis on year in and year out. But if we look at the five that we know of right now, Jordan Mailatta, Landon Dickerson, Jason Kelsey was about to say Cam Jurgens because that's who we've seen the most up but I can't forget the goat Isaac

Ciumalu and then Lane Johnson. That's a strong core five. But you have to think about Jordan Mailatta is just entering year two as the starting left tackle, Landon Dickerson year two in the National Football League, and also as the starting left guard, and then Isaac Cimala making his return on the right side. What do you see from this group of five going into twenty twenty two. I mean, there's no question it's one of the best units in

the entire NFL. I know Joe Thomas, legendary All Pro former with the Cleveland Browns, talked about how this is the top offensive line in the entire league, made some headlines this week. He is not the first analyst to make that statement. I think widely regarded this group as

one of the best in the NFL. You talk about not just that first team unit, but when you get to the second team and you talk about Cam Jurgens and Andre Dillard and you go straight down the line the rest of that group, You're going to say, yeah, these guys all could could buy to start for a number of teams in the NFL, not just one or two, but six, seven, eight different teams would love to have

some of the Eagles backups along the offensive line. So It's a very deep group, a very talented group, and they're gonna be one of the lynch pins for this offense, both in the run game and in the past game with all that they can do in both facets of the of the game. When we talk about a strong starting five up front, it leads us to the run game, which the Eagles were known for across the National Football

League last year. For the run game that they established throughout the season going into twenty twenty two, that's what's expected of the Eagles to have a good run game, but you can't forget the weapons that have been added to the offense from a wide receiver perspective. So how does that change to other teams around the league preparing for the Eagles When they know they can get you on the ground, right, that's a given, but now what can they offer, especially as Jalen Hurst has continued to

develop as well. I think the big thing is that just having the ability to beat an opponent in a number of different ways, and you could break that up both run game and pass game. I think starting with the run game the Eagles, one of the biggest things about that over the last few years is that it's not just oh they're a great outside zone run team or they're a smash mouth downhill. They can beat you

in a number of different ways. They can go between the tackles downhill and come right at you Defensively, They've got the ability to get out in the perimeter, not just with speed at the running back position, but with athleticism in the trenches. We've seen this summer the Cam Jurgon's blocks out in the edge. But we know number sixty two Jason Kelsey with what he can do out in space. So they can beat you in a number

of different ways there. But then also you factor in the QB run element with Jalen Hurts, the option run game, the misdirection, the deception, all those different angles. Now you have lots of different ways that you can attack an opponent and how they line up on a given basis. And then you get to the past game, and we've

talked about that all summer. When you talk about Dallas Goddard and A. J. Brown and DeVante Smith, and you say, okay, well, all these different body types, all of them can line up inside, are outside, all of them can impact all three levels of the field. You factor in Quez Watkins and Zach Pascal and Jalen ragor the running backs, and you start going down the list and you're like, man, Jalen Hurts has a lot of weapons at his disposal.

So depending on the scheme that you're going up against on any given week, well you've got answers now for whatever an opponent is going to present to you. That's really the value in the way that the Eagles have built this roster, and it'll take its final shape here on Tuesday. I think what's unknown too going into twenty twenty two is what does Jalen Hurts look like as

a developed quarterback. Their teams around the league can hear what is coming out of Eagles camp and hear about the progress that he's making, but we haven't quite seen it yet. He played that first series against the Jets in the preseason opener. We haven't seen him since then in a game situation. So we're out of practice every day. We see what's going on going on out on the practice field, but other teams have not game planned for

Jalen Hurts in year two. So that's going to be interesting as well because last year it was what's a Nick Sirianni offense, What is Jalen Hurts as a starter? There were so many unknowns. Now we know a little bit more. But as everybody kind of continues to develop and the pieces keep getting put into place, what is this really going to look like? We just don't know.

What every team in the NFL saw was what Jalen Hurts put on tape against the New York Jets where he went six for six for eighty yards and a touchdown you throw on the touchdown run that came back off the penalty in that first drive. So I think when you look at Jalen Hurts his ability to impact both as a passer and as a runner, that's a

lot of what we saw a year ago. But those developments that he has made as a passer, and you mentioned it all, we've seen now over the last couple of weeks in joint practice what he's done against Cleveland and against Miami. That last practice against the Dolphins. Nick Sirianni just said it was the best practice he's seen from Jalen Hurts since he's been in Philadelphia over the last two years. So I think when you look at

what his trajectory is at this moment. You've got to be excited as an Eagles fan, and if you're an opponent, you've got to be left wondering, what is this offense going to look like? Are they going to throw the ball at a sixty five, seventy to seventy percent rate? We saw six plays from Jalen Hurts. All of them we're through were pass plays, right, So what exactly is this offense going to look like? Are they gonna lean

heavily into the run game? Are they gonna lean heavily into the pass game, or is it like what we just talked about a few minutes ago, depending on what that looks like on a weekly basis, on a game from a weekly game plan. Well, they've got a lot of answers. Let's move to the defensive side of the ball. We saw both rookies in Jordan Davis and a Kobe Dean's start tonight. What did you see from Jordan Davis when he was put up against another new challenge in

the NFL tonight? A consistent ability to push the pocket and change the line of scrimmage. And look, I know that you know Miami ran for a bunch of yards. There are a lot of mistackles at the second and

third level. There are things that again the defense is gonna want to try and take back right But ultimately, when you look at the play of Jordan Davis, saw a number of times where he was able to change the line of scrimmage and force the running back to bounce our cutback and that's what you're looking for from a guy playing in that position. I'm excited to go back through the tape tomorrow in the day after just to kind of get a real sense of how it looked.

But just fresh eyes just watching the broadcast and taking it in, it seemed like he had another performance that was impressive and reps, reps, reps. That's what's important right right now in the beginning of his NFL career, to just keep putting a hat to a hat and see what he can do in the trenches. For Nakobe Dean, he's going to be in a linebacking room with veteran players like Kaiser White, Hassan Reddick, and now t J. Edwards, who is going into another year is more of a

leader on this defense. How can that benefit a player like Nakobe Dean, Well, it allows him to come along slowly. And it's the same thing with Jordan Davis. You mentioned when you come into a room, as you know the Eagles have up front and the defensive line, there's Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave entrenched right. Milton Williams came on last year as a rookie and now going into his second year, you gotta feel good about where he's at.

But then you factor in Jordan Davis. I would be shocked if you told me that there was a better group of defensive tackles one through four than the Eagles have here in Philadelphia. Then you look at what they've got off the edge with Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham

and Derek Barnett. You factor in Hassan Reddick and what he's going to bring to the table, right, So, I think when you look at what the Eagles bring up front, that's certainly going to be the strength of this defense is their ability to impact the line of scrimmage, change the line of scrimmage, get after the quarterback, stop the run. That's gonna be the lynchpin of what they do on

that side of the football. And their versatility, their multiplicity upfront, that's gonna be another feather in their cap as well. And then when you talk about building this fifty three man roster, there are areas where you wonder who is going to take those places when you get into the safety position, the cornerback position, and those answers will come

in the next few days. But when we also talk about this defense as a whole, when you talk to these defensive players throughout camp, they're much more confident going into year two under Jonathan Gannon. Last year, they were under some fire throughout the weeks in the beginning of Jonathan Gannon's tenure as the defensive coordinator here, and then they start to get into a rhythm and they figured

it out. But now there's a different kind of confidence when they talk about Gannon's scheme that I'm excited to see how it plays outcome week one. Yeah, I think everybody that's watching the show or you know, you've probably taken a language course in high school and college. Well you take it. The first few weeks you said, all right, well, I'm kind of getting it. I see that word, but I'm not quite sure if I'm using it the right way. Am I saying it the right way? Well, now, after

the first year. After the first semester, you feel a little bit more comfortable, right, And now all these guys now for the most part, minus the rookies and the free agent editions, these guys feel comfortable. You know what you're doing. And I always kind of compare it too to learning how to drive. When you're first learning how to drive, you're thinking about everything that you're doing, turning to turn to you know, turning the turn signal on,

changing it into gear, right, shifting into gear. Everything you're doing. You have to think about it before you do it. But the more reps you have at driving, well, then it's just second nature and hopefully you're doing it well. That's exactly what all of these defenders are going on offense too. When you go into year two in a scheme, everything just becomes second nature. Let's take a look at the Eagle schedule coming up here, as we're fifteen days

away from kickoff in Detroit. They hit the road first. They're in Detroit. It's a one o'clock kickoff. As we know last year, that's kind of where the run game took shape was against Detroit last year. It was their coming out party and then the home opener is Monday Night Football against the Vikings. I like this matchup Frand and Monday Night football at home at the Link. It's going to be rocking. It's a good NFC opponent. Yeah,

no question. This is our really interesting first four games for the Eagles here and looks it all starts Week one against the Detroit Lions, which, by the way, you know, obviously look the Eagles they made They made a big turn after that game in Detroit. It was a big win. They were two and five entering that game. That really kind of got things going in the right direction for this football team. But Detroit they also kind of figured

things out as well. Down the stretch. It was right after they made a change from a play caller standpoint, their new offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson. He took over play calling duties in Week ten. And what we saw from that point on down the stretch the final seven eight games was the number one they featured big time the rookie wide receiver at that point, Alman ross Saint Brown, who was a fourth round pick, and they did all kinds of things moving him around the formation. Huge uptick

in motion in play action in screens. So I think when you look at what they're going to bring to the table against the Eagles in Week one. Well, we know the last year it was TJ Hockinson and DeAndre Swift and those were the vocal points. Well, now you added an Alman Ross Saint Brown. They go out and they get DJ Chark and free agency. He brings a little bit more of a vertical element. There's a little bit more explosiveness now with this Detroit offense, and so

that will be a big test. They were one of the most injured teams in the entire NFL last year, so this is the team that's going to be healthy. The Eagles have to be ready for a test here out in the Motor City in Week one. When you look at those first four matchups, they're twenty twenty one records, don't really jump off the page, but all four of those teams look very different than they did last year. Week three, the Eagles are going to see the Commanders.

They're going to see a familiar quarterback, but a new quarterback to Washington in Carson Wentz. And then of course the Jaguars would look completely different as Doug Peterson, who's also very familiar here in Philadelphia went in and try to turn the whole thing upside down and revamp it. It's going to look completely different. Are they going to

be contenders this year? I'm not so sure. But it's a different football team with a stronger culture and much more disciplined coaching than we saw last year than of course, they're on the road in Arizona and then Sunday night football against the Dallas Cowboys, which that Cowboys team looks pretty different than it did last year as well. Right obviously suffering a big injury this past week with their

left tackle Tyrant Smith going down. But look, this is one of those things that I'm sure that if if Nick Sirianni was sitting to your ride, He's like, we can't talk about games in middle October about week one, And I think that's almost if you're an Eagles fan, you gotta approach it that way. It's all right, what happens now? What's next? So all you got the final cutdown here on Tuesday, those announcements, we may make sure you stay tuned to Philadelphiagles dot com, all the Eagles

digital and social channels. Follow Dave Spernaro on Twitter, stay tuned for his calm breaking all of those roster moves down. But after that it's full steam ahead to Detroit and trying to figure out a way to beat that team on the road. You want to start the season the right way, Go one, and oh then you worry about to going too, and oh the worry about going three. To know, the beauty of the NFL is even when

you look at that schedule we're just seeing. We talk about the Eagles team, they look different than they did last year. All of these teams that we're looking at that are upcoming on the schedule look different than they did last year. And that's the beauty in the NFL. We see out of the bye the Eagles faced the Steelers, or they're gonna see Mitchell Dremissy, or they're gonna see

a rookie Kenny Pickett. Who knows. And that's why when you get into the grind of the season and it's week by week, because you truly don't know what's in store, what's coming around the corner. It's a one week season. At seventeen one week season's eighteen one week season's really now with the current schedule format. But look, this is a team and la you and I were talking about

this watching the game. If you look at this Eagle's roster and you compare it to where they were a year ago, and you just go position by position, you can't help but think this team is a lot more talented than they were a year goo, a lot more proven than they were a year ago. This is a team that went to the playoffs last year, that obviously caught fire down the stretch, and they found different ways to win games. You can't help but be excited about

what this group looks like. I know tonight is a little bit different, right It was a little bit of a different squad out there, but think back to what this starting unit has looked like in these two games against the Jets and against the Browns, you can't help but be excited. This is going to be a really fun team. I can't wait to see them take the field in September eleventh. We're gonna bring up the second half of the season schedule here for fans to take

a look. But you mentioned this team, and we talked about this in the Kickoff show. Nick Sirianni earlier in the week said what he learned about this team is

they're tough, they're gritty and physical. What I think is also important to notice Howie Roseman in his opening press conference of training camp, he said, they learned what they have in a head coach in Nick Sirianni last year when they start the season two and five, you learn a lot about people, about players, about coaches when your backs are against the wall, and how he said, now we know who we have in our head coach. So when you look at the second half of this season,

it gets a little tricky, gets tough. The Colts they're gonna be pretty good this year with Matt Ryan a quarterback. The Packers are always good. The Titans are gonna be good. A J. Brown he's gonna have a little chip on his shoulder on December fourth, And then you can never count count out those conference matchups like the Giants, and then of course down the stretch the Cowboys and the Giants yet again. So it gets a little tougher in

the second half of the season. And December is pretty stacked, right, yeah, I mean you've got four division games, like you mentioned, the second half, some of those tough teams that the Packers and Titans both finished as one seeds a year ago, So the Saints, they have a lot of confidence going into the season. It's gonna be a tough schedule. So

the Eagles. All you can do when you have you have to go one game at a time and just stack week after week, week after week, and all of a sudden, you sit there after the first half, you're all right, we're going into the buye uh, you know, and you have a winning record. You feel good about where you're out as a football team. Well, with that, we're gonna head over back down to Miami where we're here from Head coach Nick Sirianni. Yeah, we we. Mike and I talked a bunch this week and I knew

they were playing them. Yeah, no, No, I felt like our guys got two good days of working, um while we were here. So you know, I thought we thought they were ready to, you know, for that week, and I didn't want to over push them and coming into that game after the amount of work that we did in those two days. UM. So I was comfortable with the starters obviously, you know, when you play like that, but it's not acceptable no matter who's against two UM.

But you know, they didn't. They did a nice job, you know, moving the ball and stopping us. But you know, obviously that's not up to our standard play a while playing vas national call this game. Well, you know, everybody's in a different situation and different um, you know, scenarios. You know, we we wanted Read to get some work, We wanted Gardner to get some work. And you know that that was a little bit more about that than anything. That we wanted to make sure that those two guys

got to work, that the reps that they needed. Coach nick Um, obviously things changed this week with the stomach virus for them. So how do you use this as an evaluation tool that sort of affect that No, No, because again, like the second day was good work against the Dolphins the first day and then the second day, you know we got to practice just like we were back at Novocare, right. Um. It just so happened to be to be here, obviously, So we worked hard there

um at practice on whatever day that was Thursday. Um. Again, just disappointed in the um, the execution in the in the game today. I just didn't think we did a good enough job as coaches or players. And but you know that doesn't diminish the amount of good work that we got and for the last month plus in training camp. UM. So you know that's not a good way to leave

with a bad taste in our mouth, to leave with um. UM. But we'll we'll fix it, like we we we UM attempt to fix everything, and we'll go back to work. We'll look at ourselves in the mirror first as coaches and then uh, and we'll get the corrections made the way we need to play, the decisions to have like guys like Kobe and Georgian leave earlier, and then you had guys on the team for like, yeah, some of

it came down to the numbers that we had. UM. To be honest with you, you know, we we everybody was discussed individually, right from you know, from Slay to Jalen to you know, everybody on the roster. So um, everyone was discussed. Uh, some of the twos, you know, we we didn't play our ones. We didn't play some of our ones. Part of me are twos that we're in with the ones during practice because again, like we felt like we got good work with them, um this week.

So there were some twos that didn't play and then read two was discussing whether we were playing them a couple series, whether we're playing them two quarters, whether they were low on a position and you know we had we were low on position as far as the numbers, uh, and then they might head to be ready to go all game. We didn't let guys that um that came out of the game this time take their pads off

because just because of the number situation. So it wasn't it wasn't anything there, just a numbers thing where where Davey almost continuing to play. However, No, obviously I'll have to go watch the tape. But you know, I thought he had a good week of practice this week. It was good to see him back on the field, um, you know, and then today I'll have to walk off to watch it. Man, nice catch on that shallow and showed some uh and showed some acceleration after that, which

was good to see. Um, how many catches did you have? I don't know. I'm not sure too. I'm not sure if I remember what the second one was right off the top of my head. But um, so he did a couple good things. But I'm gonna have to look at the tape. I'm go and look at it. A lot the stuff out there and uh. Um, but I've been happy with them in practice, something that's gonna take

a lofer. So yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's something right with the some of the f tight ends that have been you know, been more of receiving threats in in um in college. That that's an adjustment that they have to make. But you know, they can't be a liability in the in the run game, right, They have to be able to go in there and execute. Yeah, you limit what you ask them to do in this and that, but um, yeah, that's just something that we're

gonna always be working on to get better with him. Um, you know, because he doesn't have a lot of experience with it right now. Obviously you have to watch the film, but Grant was involved in that that pick six and looked like maybe they weren't on the same page. Maybe reread takers coming out. What did you see? Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you. I mean, I know what happened, and I don't want to put it on somebody. We'll fix that in the film room. Um, and so you

know it's all exactly what happened. Uh yeah, Just I'll keep that with within and we'll fix it and get better from it. I feel to give a self assessment on yourself phone this preseason best of players for the last season, how would you great yourself? How? Yeah, you know, it's just so much it's so much different, right, I have a whole full season of coaching in playoff game under under my belts, So uh yeah, I feel everything hopefully.

You know, we ask our players to get better every single day, um, and we can't ask them to do that unless we're doing that ourselves. So you know, I feel like three hundred and sixty five days, I'm a little bit better each day. I don't know if I if I hit that mark every single time, but um, we're trying to get better just like we want our players too. So I feel I feel I feel better about I feel better about myself at this point than

I did last year at this time. A competitor, we all know that you're a little frustrating coming out the field. What was your nactually change sort to the part, Yeah that that's hard when you know we got a bunch of competitors in that in that room, right, um, and so it's hard no matter what you lose something like that bad, Like you know, that's tough. That's tough to stomach, right, Uh, you know that that you come out there and and hats off to Miami. They did a good job and

they're well coached. I got a lot of respect for for coach McDaniel, I got a lot of respect for uh coach Boyer that they're well coached. Um, and they got good players. Um. But yeah, you just you just want to You never want to. You want to never want to come out there and lay an egg like we did. And so it you know, I don't. My message was we got to look at it, and we gotta and we gotta all look at ourselves in the mirror and get better from it. And it starts with

and I'll always put it on us as coaches. First, we gotta, you know, we're the ones that prepare them, and then they gotta they have to be the ones they go out and play. So we all gotta look at ourselves in the mirror and get better from it. And that's the philosophy, no win or lose, that we have after each game, each and every game that we

play here in Philadelphia. Thanks. That was head coach Nick Sirianni following the preseason finale fran He said, he knew that the doll We're going to come out with their first team offense, he said, but that didn't change his plans at all, which leads me to believe that he's confident in the work that they did accomplish down in Miami, even with just one joint practice. You were there for those two days. Does he have a lot to be

confident about after those two sessions, Yeah, no doubt. It's like we talked about on the Kickoff show, that that second practice that was just the Eagles on Thursday. It was a sharp practice. They got out, they went through four or five team periods, including a seven on seven, and then they went in and had to walk through for about a half hour and that was it. But it was a sharp practice to end the week and to really to end the training camp and preseason for

this football team. And so to me, it made sense that they were going to change their plans just because Miami was going to send out their starters. You're not going to just follow suit and do exactly what they would need to do. Let them get their work in. The Eagles got their work in earlier this week, so that makes plenty of sense. From that standpoint, all right, friend, last one of the preseason, what's your RecA review? All right?

So we talked earlier in the show about what players could do across the roster to try and see if they can stake acclaim for one of those coveted fifty three man roster spots. Well, one example of that, we're gonna cover it here in the Rico review happened from wide receiver Devin Allen. Here in the third hoarter does an outstanding job on punt coverage, getting down and helping to force a muff kick on the punt return. Watch

him beat the jam here. That's a jamber from Miami does an outstanding job with an outside stem uses that speed. One of the fastest men in the world, does a great job of helping to force that because if you're a punt returner, you're feeling that heat, you're feeling that receiver, that gunner bear down on you. So he did an outstanding job screaming down towards the punt returner, helped force the fumble. It's that kind of effort that can try

and see if you can earn a job. Not just here again, not just here in Philadelphia but with the other thirty one teams, because all thirty one teams get this film. So nice job by Devin. Owl will see if if it's enough for him. But I think ultimately that's what you're looking for across the roster. If you're Howie Roseman, if you're Nick Sirianni, if you're this Eagle's front office, you went all ninety of these guys at eighty at this point, you went all eighty of your

players making plays like that in the preseason. Well, I'll do it for us for the preseason. That's it for the postgame Show presented by Rico fifteen days, Eagles fans, fifteen days until Sunday, September eleventh, The Eagles will be kicking off the twenty twenty two season from Detroit. Thanks so much for joining us, and as always, go Birds.