Ten Eagles Questions With Jimmy Kempski and Tim McManus!

0:00Oh, welcome to the ringers, Philly Special. We are in a game week five days from now, the two gentlemen who are guests with me here today, they'll be at Lincoln financial field in their Sunday best. Probably getting a little annoyed with some members of the DC media. Okay, I don't know if that's still the case that way that was the case at one time, not everybody we don't paint with a broad brush, but there might be a couple of those their names, our Tim McManus of ESPN Jimmy Kemsky. Philly voice usually I have them on separately in the summer. And you know what? The season's not up on your boy a little bit. So I said, why not just have them on together will knock it out. We'll do a mega Eagle season preview pod and we'll have a lot of fun together. Team Mac, how are you doing?

1:13This is a very comfortable setting for me. Of course she all worked with you for a number of years and Jimmy's like him and I we sit right next to each other in the press box. We've been doing that for how many years Jimmy? I mean, the home games for a long time and then occasionally also on the road is a little more spotty on who you get put next to. But yeah, and what I love about a little bit that Tim and I have prior to every game. It's obviously works for ESPN and you should know this all too well as well. She'll you know you guys have a network of somebody covering every team as a beat reporter. So I get to witness Tim's commerce like pre game conversation with whoever covers the other team for ESPN. And I always find it. I don't know. I just for my own. I don't know if it's funny. Anybody else. It's always just funny to me. And in my mind, I'm kind of like ranking the personality of each of these people. I come over and talk to Tim and some are better than others for sure. I love Jimmy's always like who is this week and I say that it's like all right. And every person comes in. It's like the same. You know, how is your flight? You know, this is start complaining about editors.

2:21And then we then we look Jimmy into the conversation at some point and we you know, it ends up being a three way conversation. It's great. Yeah. Listen, am I various stops those conversations and they might only be 10 minutes. That's the only way I got any information about the company I was working for at the time. It's like, oh, this person actually knows some people. Okay, they're telling me what's going on. Of course, John Kahn from DC. A great guy. John. Yeah, we're not throwing him under the bus. We got a good week one guy. Yeah, we good good week one guy. Yeah, maybe we have. You know, Jimmy, I think you're you retired the press box food ranking. Right. Was this the last time or those ongoing? Yeah, I mean, I retired the bit. I've been to every stadium and there's certain to get repetitive. So I figured like it's probably already had jumped the shark to some degree. I was definitely going too soon if it hadn't. So yeah, I got rid of all that. I'm going to do something else. I don't know what it's going to be quite yet. Well, I was just saying, Jimmy, you could just text me, you know, one through 17, the beat reporters that Tim interacts with before every game. I know you can probably wouldn't want to publish that. But I would be very interested in those rankings. Yeah, baby, we can do that.

3:30I don't have to publish really. I was worried I had this kid nuts. Let's make some enemies. All right, it's going to be a lot of fun. I have then questions. This is the Kapati 10. I think you've both done this separately with me on the podcast. Very simple exercise. I have 10 questions. You pick a number. We go to that number on my list. And I asked you a question about the Philadelphia Eagles. Most of them are about the 2026 season. We look into the future a little bit. We get a little Eagles adjacent with just the job that you are about to embark on here for the next four months or so. I have some questions to that respect as well. Who wants to go first year? I don't know. Who is there? Is there a fair way for me to do this? You're not in the same room. You can't really do rock paper scissors. Tim's been on the beat a little longer than me. I'll give him first pick. There you go. Tim. What do you got? Give me a number. We go to that question. First year. Appreciate that. Jimmy. Let's go number four. Number four. We're scrolling on up here. The number four. Good one to start on here.

4:33Tim, and by the way, I'll ask for you both to answer these questions, but whoever picks the number. We can start with you. So Tim, rank these summer narratives based on which one you buy the most to which one you buy the least. Okay. I've got three summer narratives here that me as someone who I just popped down for a few practices, but I'm consuming all the coverage from you guys. You are three summer narratives that I want you to rank. First one. Cooper University is here. This is a shame. This is a shout out to our friend Andy Greenwald who said, you know what? Are we sure that going from Stoutland to Cooper's going to be all that bad? I mean, this offensive scheme is much easier for the Eagles offensive line. Listen to my line. Listen to Lane Johnson. These guys are loving this. This is actually going to be a great thing for the offensive line moving to this scheme. So that's number one narrative number two. Sean Manion is the truth. The Eagles have found a gem here. This is the next great offensive schema in the NFL. Man, they better win a Super Bowl this year because you know what? He's going to be off as the hottest head coaching candidate in the NFL next off season. So that's number two. Number three, Jalik's hunt is about to make the leap. This feels like the one that there's just a hundred percent consensus on every person who's watched every Eagles practice that we're going to be talking about this guy as one of their best defensive players and a potential.

6:01So there you go Tim from one you're buying the most the buying the least Cooper University. Menace the truth. Jalik's hunt about to make the leap. What do you got? I'm going most believable. Jalik's hunt is the truth. Okay. Yeah, I've been part of the part of the train driving this thing. And I get that it's training camp and oftentimes they're not tackling. They're almost never tackling. And so there is like it's a bit of a tricky waters that we're in. I understand that. But if you consider that he had he was the leader in sax last year, the leader in interceptions and then you just watch him on a snap and snap out basis going against two of the best tackles in the NFL. I think you can make that projection that he he's in line for a monster year. I really do believe that. I think that he is filled out his frame. The former safety still learning the position. It seems like he is he's definitely on the come so so I'm buying in on the on the Jalik's hunt hype. I guess the second one I'm most believing in would be Sean Manion.

7:11I don't think it's going to be an overnight success story for him, but I do believe that he is a talented coaching mind who seems to have a plan that everybody that you speak to whether it's on the record or off seems to be buying into. They see the vision he's laid it out very nicely. It'll take some time for him to develop as a play call, but I am buying into that. That's not to say the last one I put as Cooper. I guess I'm having a harder time just saying all right, the going from stoutland to this next guy in Cooper is just going to be fine. Like it's there's not going to be any drop off. I think we get a little bit carried away. It's been nice to see some offensive blind depth develop, but they still haven't played in a game. We still haven't seen this offense function in a game yet and how it will look up front in this brand new system. I guess while I like what I've seen out of Cooper, I'm still a little bit more skeptical sort of big picture that there's not going to be any drop off from stoutland down.

8:12All right, Jimmy, he's going hunt, manion Cooper in terms of what he's buying to what he's buying the most what he's buying the least what he got. So I would agree that my number one thing would be jail. And I actually thought jail likes how to break out season last year. Right. So I do this thing after every game like it's snap counts. And then I also build in like, I don't know of other. Bloggery kind of things like game ball and so I do like three stars in the same way that like hockey games have it. Yeah, the first star of the second star of the third star. I deal with the reverse way where like if you're the best player, you get three stars. And my readers can't really mad at that. Anyway, I only say that to steal this for the podcast. Yeah, I do like this. I only say that to say that jail. It's led the team in stars last year. He had more stars than a team player on the team. So he had a really good year last year. But I think what we saw this summer is that he's going to go from a really good player to potentially a great player this year.

9:14He like to mention he's going up against Lane Johnson, probably a little more primarily Jordan Milata. And he got more than he's share wins, particularly against Milata, but but against both of them. And we already know he can make plays and coverage. I think he's a little more of a rugged run defender than I think the perception of him is so far because he's like he's a former safety. So like, you know, he's not like a bigger edge defender. So I think maybe people don't think of him that way, but he can play the run and his past rush. His past rush repertoire has really kind of gone to the next level this summer. He's going to have a big year to might probably have Cooper. Overmanian. So I agree with him. We got to see it in games first, but for me, the big concern with Cooper wasn't so much that, you know, offensive lineman are going to start playing poorly all of a sudden because they have one of the best offensive linemen in the league.

10:18You know, you have a bunch of guys that with, you know, pro ball appearances and all pros for guys at four of the five. I've either been doing all pro or or pro ball and the fifth Tyler scene. I thought it had kind of an underrated Lee decent year last year. So I was no concerned about that. My concern was more like long term. Can he develop guys like he did with with my with, you know, with Milata that being the prime example and surgeons and lane becoming like one of the best players ever. After being a little boat brawl coming out of college. But what I saw from three guys this summer in Markel Bell, who was and this is maybe not the highest bar, but he had the best summer among the rookies by far. He wasn't close and he looks like he's got a real chance to take over for Lane right tackle whenever Lane hangs him up. And then we saw two guys on the interior or two young guys in Drew Kendall and in Willie Lapton, who really showed this summer. I think that they're ready to play if and when needed and they will be needed at some point for sure. I think Drew Kendall. I think there's maybe is maybe a little spicy, but I think he might be better than landed Dickerson right now.

11:30But when it comes back from just an assortment of just all kinds of things wrong with his body last year. I don't know that he won't be like if if Lenin has to you know miss him gains due to injury. I think there's some scenario where he gets kind of wally pipped by Drew Kendall. I think Drew Kendall could be, you know, a legitimate long time starter type of player. And then third I go manion not because I don't have any faith in manion or whatever, but I got to see it like I didn't see like an explosive offense this summer. But you know part of that is jail jail hurts didn't have defonte Smith for the vast majority of camp. McCoy lemon wasn't really able to develop because he missed like 10 practices with a hamstring injury. So he's throwing the guys that he's not really from all that familiar with and don't have any wicks and Hollywood brown and you know, Elijah Moore and you know at various Cooper's fight that guy he's most familiar with. And then you know drafted rookie from a year ago. So yeah, we got still got to see it. I had a little more faith in the run game. Maybe that I do in the passing game heading into week one.

12:33Run game is going to be better than it was a year ago again. That's a pretty low bar. But yeah, I probably go jail X Cooper manion. I like the stoutland Cooper take it's like if they're you know the drop off that could potentially be there. Maybe it's not there immediately because you have a bunch of good players who are mostly vets who have played a lot of football. Versus you know, would he be able to take a Jordan Milada or even like like you said Lane Johnson has all the tools. But can you maximize this to be or the best players in franchise history or even Kelsey. You know at the time or can you make it you know he's got the tools. But can you actually turn that into somebody who is a great player. So maybe you don't see that right away now at a Tim's point. Maybe you do see it right away. And after week one we're like, oh man, that offensive line. Yeah, that's there in trouble here after week one. So it's certainly a bit of an unknown. But I do agree with you on JLX Hunt. I think that to me, I've I don't want to say tempered expectations. But my point has been that the strength of JLX Hunt is in how many different things he can do.

13:38You know he's really good at stopping the run and dropping in coverage. If he if that past rush repertoire that you're talking about, if that's real, if we're just like one on one against an offensive tackle, it's third down and he smoked that guy. That's the skill that I'm not sure of that I think would take him to another level where you would be like, okay, no, now we can start having conversations with this guy as one of the best edges in the NFL. So that's kind of what I'm keeping an eye on. I think the floor is very high just because of all the different things he can do well. I'm just not sure about that one on one. Can you win as a past past rusher over and over again? All right. Yeah. Good. What a what a football. He want to start on that summer storylines. All right, Jimmy. What do you got? You're up next here. I'm gonna go three three. All right. We're moving up here. Okay. This is one that I thought about giving you guys a heads up on. But then I thought you know what? They don't even mean any heads up. They're doing radio hits left and right. They're having these conversations on the sideline. They listen. If you're hanging out with ESP, you've thought of every hypothetical. You could be like,

14:41possibly think of every would you rather that you could possibly think of on the Eagle sideline. So I know Jimmy, you've probably thought about this one before it has to do with who are the most indispensable. Eagle. So Jeannie comes down to I still call it the NovaCare Complex. You know what? I shouldn't call it anything. I don't need to be given anyone free advertising. Jeannie comes down to the Eagles practice facility goes to how he rosman's office and says I can grant three players full season injury protection. Aside from Jalen hurts. Let's take the quarterback out of it. He's gonna be on everyone's as give me your how he give me your three most indispensable players. I will make sure they are on the field and feeling good. So this isn't like, you know, they're on the field, but they're the got an ankle injury. They're feeling good for 17 games. Allie, who do you want those three to be? And even though I framed it as how I'm asking you Jimmy said, I don't answer it. Like I think how we would say this. I want to know who you think that. Yeah.

15:41Jerry Kebsky. Who would you say? I'm just kidding, how I love you buddy. Listen, this guy, this divide day, so that's tools in his body. No, don't you know, I'm not going to make you do that. All right, Jimmy. Who do you have as the three most three goals the Eagles can least afford to lose? Devonte Smith, if he goes down their street. I agree. I don't think I even need to go any further than that. And then defensive side of the ball. I think the guy that this isn't a hot take right now. I'm a guy that serves to drink on that defensive. You look at like games that he either missed or was hurt in last year. Like that giant's game he missed week six up in North Jersey. And the giants bullied them like scatterbow, scatterbow ran all over them. Jackson Dart made a bunch of plays with his legs. They were different defense when he was out. And then you look at the bear's game when he was not playing to full capacity because he had like his shoulders were all messed up in that game.

16:46They decided after that game that we got to show you down for a little bit and get you right before he put you back out there. They got bullied in that game too. And then I look at like the Super Bowl where he didn't have like crazy stats like Josh, sweat, data or anything like that. But he occupied breed home free and trace myth. And that allowed all the other guys low in the line to get one on one against tomato cans on that chief offensive line. And that's why they were able to get the pressure and the total destruction in the trenches in that game is because jail because they were so worried about jail and Carter getting one on ones against the trace with the tree, Humphrey or whoever they doubled in with those two guys and then it just let open opportunities everywhere else. So he's the guy and that's why they paid him the way they did this off season. You know, Quinion Mitchell would go down not great obviously, but I think they could weather that a little bit better than if they lost Carter. You know, Cooper, Jean obviously super important players, I bought right on that line, but the like that jail and Carter, that's the guy for me.

17:48And we want it three guys, you said three guys. Yeah. And then I think you know, Devonte, who's another really just safe one where you look at the record when they have them and when they don't is Lane Johnson. Like I mentioned previously that I think Mark L Bell has a chance to succeed him at some point as you know the franchise right tackle, but he's probably not there yet and the drop off from Lane Johnson to like literally anyone is going to be massive. So I think he I'm in the past that we'll see what the new scheme looks like, but he allowed them to do things offensively schematic wise where they just said, hey, hey Lane, go block a TJ what one on one for 70s and that's and you know. We're not going to give you any extra help or anything like that and we're not going to change your offense in any way they allowed it. He allows them to do that kind of thing, whereas no shot you put anyone else in there. So yeah, my guys are Devonte, Jill and Carter Lane Johnson. RT Mac, what do you got? Are two are going to be the same I can't know as much as I'm trying to differ it up here. I mean Devonte Smith, I don't know you can put it any better than what Jimmy said they would be.

18:55If Devonte Smith goes down, you know, taping wicks, big serious been hyping him up next Keenan Allen all that sort of stuff. He hasn't done it to that level in this league to this point. Maybe he'll take the leap this year, but and McKay lemon just I mean he hasn't really shown us anything yet because of the hamstring injury. When he did get in there, three catches for three yards and a drop that led to an interception. So it doesn't seem like he's quite ready for prime time. Devonte Smith absolutely on that top three list Lane Johnson, as Jimmy said, the numbers kind of spell all that out. And I'm going to double up on the offensive line and put the third is Jordan my allotted. Yeah, I believe that the house of cards for the filled up Eagles is built on that offensive front. If it stays strong, I think that the ceiling for this team is very, very high because you already know you have the defense going. And if you can add the ground game like you did in 24, we've seen the recipe. The recipe is there that could get all the way to the to the Super Bowl and win it.

19:55If that ends up being the case as long as the passing game shows up in a timely manner on the flip side. And there's two very distinct sides to the season for me and it all revolves around that offensive line. Lane Johnson and or Jordan my lot of go down or two thirds of this offensive front are not intact and you're implementing a new scheme within brand new offensive coordinator guys aren't quite certain how it's all going to function and you take out the key codes up front. It could be a disaster, right? Like a disaster. So some putting my a lot of N Lane Johnson in my top three along with Devonte. Okay, this is a good exercise because we both have two of the same three. I mean, this has been very clarifying that my gosh, get Devonte Smith just when he's not playing bubble wrap. Don't be. You're right. I mean, it's hard to imagine a scenario where they have a good season and Devonte Smith misses like, you know, more than three games. It just can it just feels like it's going to be very, very, very hard to overcome.

20:57So we've all got we've all got him. We've all got Lane Johnson because we've been talking and writing about the Eagles for a long time. And it's just very obvious that when Lane Johnson goes out of the lineup, this team is going to have a hard time. It doesn't matter who is behind him. So we've all got Lane Johnson. I wrote down on my list four names. One of them was jail in Carter. One of them was Jordan, my lot of Cooper, D'Agein was also on there just because I feel like he's all right. He's awesome at football and does a lot of things that allows them to play the way Vic Fiancill wants them to play. I ultimately landed on Quinion Mitchell as my third. So the argument for Quinion Mitchell specifically over jail in Carter was that I like Ojamo. I'm not saying he's the same as jail in Carter. I totally understand you're going to have a drop off there. But I feel like you still have a good player behind jail in Carter, or maybe you could, you know, withstand him being out for a little bit.

21:57Whereas if Quinion Mitchell goes down, now you're either what moving Cooper D'Agein to the outside. You're counting on Jonathan Jones or Kaley Ringo or you're counting on Michael Carter in the slot. I just don't feel as good about it with the cornerback depth versus the defensive tackle depth. And then listen offensive line. I've already got Marco Bell in the hall of fame. I mean, I saw that guys a beast. I saw it. No, obviously that would hurt. So it came down. It probably came down to, you know, those guys, but I ultimately went with Quinion Mitchell. Am I a dummy? Well, I think it's also matchup specific on some on right. You know, Quinion versus jail in Carter as well. Like you're playing Dallas. You probably not. You probably rather not have jail in Carter than Quinion Mitchell with CD Lamb and George Pickens on the other side playing the Rams. You probably rather, you know, have Quinion and then jail in Carter to cover, you know, Pooke and the Bonte Adams. So yeah, I mean, there's certainly great. There's you probably want jail in Carter. Yeah, that's true. Quinion's is a, you know, he's a first team all pro. I guess I'm pretty going for him no matter what. Yeah, I just thought I just looked at the drop off. Right. So like if Quinion goes out, you could.

23:10And theory put Cupert Jean on the outside of jail and Carter goes out. You still have two good defensive tackles in there. But if one of the offensive tackles goes out, I mean, as much as we've been hyping up Mark, or Cal Bell, we just don't know. Yeah, it's true. All right. Good. It's a good one. We all differed there on the third guy. We all agree on two of the guys. I have a lot of really good players. Yes, they really do. I mean, honestly, when I was just doing, I just wrote divisional previews for every, you know, every division in the NFL for the ringer. And it's always just like, it clears it up for me when I'm like, OK, I were doing this podcast multiple times a week talking about the Eagles and safety and this and that. And then I'm looking at these other rosters. And it's like, oh, they have a question at both left and right tackle. Oh, they, you know, they, they have like one good past pressure or they have one good cornerback. It's like, all right. It's still I'm going to bet on the Eagles roster carrying them to a certain level that these other teams are not going to be able to get to it. It's still a top five roster, I think in the NFL. All right, team, what do you got? What's the next number? Tim's up, right? Yeah, Tim's up.

24:16Yeah, let's go number nine. Number nine. All right. Now we get into a little bit. Yeah, little bit of to be so football hard core. Hey, Eagles. All right. So this is, this is going into the life of the beat writer. OK. OK. So I'm going to grant you there. There are three things. And you as a beat writing group, you have to get together. You only get one of these things. And so you have to decide which one of these three do we want for the 2026 season, you know, Jeffrey Lurie comes down. He says, you know, everyone, no one trusts the media anymore. I want, I want to offer an olive branch here. I want to make your lives easier because I appreciate what you guys still so he comes down. He says, can give you one of these three. Number one, we can open the cafeteria. To media. Maybe so you can eat there. Whenever you want, just listen, don't be talking to the players and coaches, you know, you just got to be on your own. We'll open it up at a different time than when they're all going to be in there. But you listen, you don't have to worry about any other food. It's a great cafeteria staff. The food is top notch. And you can eat there whenever you want. So that's one.

25:30Two, they let you watch practice whenever you want. He says, he says, you know what? I was here in this story about when Pete Carroll was at USC. And he said, yeah, you guys can watch whenever you want. We want all the coverage. Yeah, come down, watch practice, write about practice. If someone screws up, write about it, because you know what, they're going to have to get hard and shelves, shelves, these players. I want them ready for the game. So you can watch any practice you want. The entire season in season out of season, whatever. Those two or number three on January 1st, we are going to send you a schedule of the entire years media availability. So you can actually plan your life. We're not just going to tell you at 9 a.m. Hey, we got this coming up at three. We're going to tell you and I understand this one is a little bit of a leap of faith, because there's free agency and stuff breaking use that happens. But he's like, we're going to tell you the entire schedule when practices are. When availability is our. So that if you need to do something with your kids, you got to do something else, you're trying to get in the whatever.

26:35You can do all that because you're going to know January 1st on exactly when you need to be down here at the practice facility. So those are the three things to him. You can only pick one. You can only pick. There's got to be fierce debates in that media house over this. But your start, you're one of the captains. What are you bouncing for? Let's do this draft style. So Tim will have the first pick. I get pick number two. And then then let's put the third one. Okay, but then you also have to tell me, Jimmy, if you agree with. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. This is a beat writers list for beat writers. I mean, just to heal. It's getting to the heart of the matter for us or what, Jimmy? Yeah. Oh, I have so many. I have so many gripes. I'm about to. I'm about to blame about. The top part about this is we used to have two of these at least the open calf. How long did we have that maybe for was it a year or two years? Jeff, when I was gone, so mean of them, you know, Jeff Skuversky, who I like ruined it for us. Well, I was going to say I knew somebody skirted up because he's a bugging.

27:41Yeah, I've heard different theories about this. He was bugging the most the way that I know it. And I wasn't there for it. But he was bugging Don Smolensky. And then we were gone. But the capture is amazing because it was $4 all you can eat. And the food was out. There's a big salad bar. They had like a smoothie section. You get you healthy. Yeah. Yeah. The chef back there was like there was no. So he's like on my top five list of all people in my life. I've ever encountered my life who was super into his job and what he did. That guy was awesome. And he like cooked up like he was excited to tell you about what he had that day. And we're just like meeting guys. He's like out players in that or all day. He was just as happy to see us as he was to play. I don't know about that. But he seemed happy to see us too. And like he was just really excited about his food and it was all great. Yeah. I had heard it was less this fall. So we're going to have to get some plastic. Different people have different theories about there's definitely somebody who approached somebody that in their eyes they shouldn't have and bothered them.

28:47And then next thing you know we had this beautiful gift just totally taken away from us. And now we never get into the cafeteria. We also just have open practice. Yeah. And this guy closed down. I think I even remember the week. I think it was week two of 2012. It was during the Andy Ray. It was the bad season. Yes. And they were going to play the Ravens. And their plan was to run up tempo. And they didn't want us to let the cat out of the bag that they were going to run up tempo against the Ravens. We got booted out of there. Never got back in there since. So once you have something it gets taken away from you. That obviously hurts. And in the January one media bell. I tell him when we're going to have our schedule for the whole year would just be. I know my wife would be soon. I'm going to say yes families I think would probably vote for that one. Yeah. But I think I'm going to go with the watching practice. As much as I love the cafeteria and the schedule just to be able to have even if you can't report it directly to have that kind of base knowledge going into games and doing these kind of. You know podcasts and heads and just having that knowledge I think I would still put even above the delicious food.

29:53I mean like practicing trick plays you'd be like oh we're going to see that on Sunday. Yeah. And so that was pretty cool. And when we did get booted to Andy's credit he actually came into the media house and like explain to us hey we were not going to have you at practice anymore. But he did it himself as opposed to like having somebody else come in and break the news to us. That's right. So I did respect that for Mandy. I mean for me having the schedule and just for she'll listen to us here we're recording this on a Tuesday the week of week one and we don't have a schedule yet for. For for the week for our media bill. What we did get was a group text that said don't come in on Tuesday. There's no access. No actual schedule like when we come in so we're week one we don't get crazy. So if we were to have a schedule from January one for the entire year. That would make life so much easier. I would take that would be my number one pick like that's that's like the injury luck pick for me. Where it is like it couldn't have been more obvious who is going to be number one overall. I would take that in half a heart. Although Tim does make a point like what being able to watch the practice would be a pretty big deal.

31:01Like don't both of those are like those are pretty good. Yeah, that's like that's like an injury luck number one overall pick and like John L.A. number one overall pick. They're both really good. I think in this and third would be the cafeteria for you know even as good as that was see these guys are smart. They knew if they would have picked the cafeteria you guys would have written the audience would have ripped them. They're more worried about their food versus they can do a great job watching practice here. See I watching practice. I mean in season would just be a lot of fun because you could be like all right. No, this guy's getting some more reps with this for you that they're experimenting a little bit with this and I actually feel like you know 99% of the media who would get to watch that would honor whatever you know if it's like it. I think 100% would try I think someone would probably screw up at some point during the course of a season but it's like okay I can put this in my back pocket. And then you know after the game when you're actually covering the game it's like you get you get more color like hey you know you practice this on we saw you practice this on Wednesday.

32:06It didn't go well like that stuff is such gold you know in the year the behind the scenes super bowl stories that's so like the Philly special one where it's like all right. Well you know they had to they were afraid that they were going to be cameras in the Patriots were going to be spying on them and so they did it whatever it was in the whole time ballroom like that stuff would be great. So yeah the planning one would be great for sure obviously before anyone gets there. Undies in a bunch we all love our jobs you know everyone here worked hard to get to a position where we could write about football we're not actually complaining but I know you let some of you some of you at least like the menu. And I say not many of you say of kind of the jobs that we have so that's why I wanted to get these guys on the record with those three all right there we go all right let's take a break we come back we got more questions or Kemsky and team. The ringers Philly special is brought to you by Fandall the NFL is back and Fandall is making this your most rewarding season ever by kicking off football with a super boost.

33:08So you can win up to twenty five dollars guaranteed so make your pick and get ready for the season to officially begin because when the Patriots or see hawks score so do you download the app to get started 21 plus and then you can get a new app for the season to start coming up to and required must wager and designated offer market max wager 25 dollars restrictions apply see full terms at sports book dot Fandall dot com gambling problem call 1 800 gambler call 1 8 8 8 8 7 8 9 7 7 7 7 7 or visit ccpg.org size chat in Connecticut. All right we are back here on the ringers Philly special three questions down Jimmy what do you got what's next let's go five five will always love you whatever whenever I see you know I just saw one of those school sign where it was like they they put it in the in the yard of like a new student and it said something like will love you or I forget what it was.

34:20And in my head just when I see the will love you it's five will always love you and it'll be like that for the rest of my life. So thank you for that. All right on a scale of one today is a big one Jimmy we're coming out of the break with a hard hitter here on the record on a scale from one to 10. I want you to tell me how you think this season is going to go with the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles jail in Hertz and while you know I'll buy you some time to think about it one means he's a complete disaster like this is the worst season of his career this scheme doesn't work you know we're looking every week we're seeing there's this route open in the middle of the field he's still not throwing it even though that's where the ball is supposed to go he's not playing on time he's taking sacks he's turning the football over the offense. The offense is worse than last year it's basically like this experiment did not work they tried to change the scheme and it didn't work so that's one 10 is the opposite we're like why did they implement this game like three years ago he's a natural it's so quarterback friendly he's carving up these defenses he looks like an MVP candidate the Eagles are super bowl contenders that's a 10 to one to 10 where are you right now with how you think this is going to go.

35:38Where do you know he's going to take some time. He barely got to play with the vaunte all summer and they those guys know each other I don't know how big concern that is but he barely got any time with macaque lemon I thought of times the offensive line got. Tominated in practice by the defense of line and not because they're not good like we know that they're good players but I think that there's some adjustment both to. The past pro scheme and also to you know the wide zone run scheme that they're going to implement. And defensive line just kind of killed them often and they haven't made your advantage of course because they played together for a long time and there are now in year three of this big fan geoskeem so they're cohesive the back end is cohesive. There were times jail and would drop back to pass there's just didn't seem to have anything down the field so i have concerns about the receivers i've concerns about the tight ends i've concerns about the offensive line not their talent but just how it'll all look the first few weeks of the season what they do have going for them is they played two teams right off the bat that's think they got the commanders week one they got the Titans week two so they will have a little time to get their sea legs and we'll see like you know how much that helps.

36:52But then they got some brutal games coming up after that they have their at Chicago their home against the Rams their at Jacksonville it's a brutal three game stretch like right after those first two games that's when I think we'll really see all right. That's where I think we'll see some concerns like really pop up for this offense and. To me determine if they'll you know if if first of all my little theory that it's going to take some time works out if it plays out that way rather and if they're able to fix it but I do think just going to be growing pains this year and I think that you know the general public tends to take what they see first. And that leaves the really lasting impression throughout the entirety of the year the year the Eagles won a Super Bowl they weren't viewed as like a great team really until he started slaughtering teams in the playoffs. So I think just the general perception of what they are throughout the season is going to be you know average to maybe negative eyes I think that it's going to be.

37:55You know not a not a and again. The bar to achieve more than what they did last year is so freaking low like what the the boring bad predictable offense that they rolled out week in week out last year is so is going to be so easy to just be better than that but they got to be measures better than that in my opinion and I don't know that it's going to look that way initially so i'm going to go like five. And I'm going to go like five and a half five and a half okay yeah all right I like I've now I for I was supposed to tell you guys this at the top but I didn't. There's no number 10 don't pick number 10 10 is going to be your prediction for the Eagle season so I was getting a little you know I thought Jimmy was walking till going close to the cliff there I thought he'd give me the prediction for the season and I almost had to yell or tell Clif to shut off his mic because I don't want that till the end he did not do that but basically and Tim this is what you know we we had ZB off. We had ZB on last week and he and I were on this in this on the same page here and it sounds like Jimmy's on the same page to that we don't think this is going to be a season we're at the end we're like you're like jail and hurts crushed it MVP candidate we don't think it's going to be a season where like jail and hurts stinks there's this middle ground where it's kind of like okay you know there was some good there was some bad slow start but week nine he played great you know one of those were like the teams pretty good and you're still not totally sure how this experiment is going to go.

39:21I'm sure Ben's going to go in this new offense and I've already claimed that next off season the story's going to be well year two in this you know year two in the same system for jail and that's going to be the big story Tim where are you are you aligned with where we are or do you have a different take on this. It's funny because as Jimmy was talking I was toggling between a five and a six as the where I wanted to put the meter here and he goes five and a half I'm going to go I'm going to go six. And in some ways she'll kind of feels like a worst case scenario in terms of evaluating the quarterback because it would be really nice to have some clarity as they enter that off season as to be like all right you know what we threw him a brand new scheme he crushed it let's give him sixty five million dollars per season. The other way is all right we gave him this new scheme this is this is the direction we want to go and it's very clear he's not a fit for it. You know we're not going to pay and we're going to figure it out maybe we'll draft somebody in twenty seven maybe is the quarterback for this year whatever the case may be but they have a direction that way if it's somewhere in the middle that gives that puts him in a tough spot and I think that's probably the most likely outcome.

40:30Because eventually I think that the offense is going to be functional because it has some really good pieces it has a good offensive line it has sick one barkly has the bomb they smith and has jail and hurts who has showed up in some big moments but my concern is. That they they're throwing this new scheme at him which is asking him to lean into all the things that he hasn't really measured in before is which has been talked about quite a bit where he's going to be under center with his back towards the defense that he's going to be throwing over the middle of the field and there's going to be the heavy play action and all that kind of stuff and based off what we saw in the summer you know that could lead to more turnovers and my concern is that they test drive this new scheme and then he starts saying you know what the old scheme work pretty good guys. You know and then all of a sudden they're stuck in the middle they got one foot in Shawn Manny's new system and they got one foot in the old system not unlike twenty four which turned out very well but you get the point as to where the passing offense would be. And that kind of situation so that I think is a realistic outcome and and in that scenario I think the offense would be mediocre which is you know basically how the quarterback will be judged some I'm right around a five or six other six.

41:44And that's such an interesting scenario because it could be the coach it could be the quarterback who's like we're turning the football over doing it this way we almost never lost doing it the old way even though it didn't always look great but what's our goal. Is it to have the prettiest offense or is it to win the most amount of games like that could be a very interesting push and pull now organizationally it seems like this off season it was just like we are handing manion the keys he is going to but even for man you might be like man you know I alright I need to part of coaching is adjusting to your personnel and it's like what is that week or what is the point where you're like it's kind of not working the way it's working right now I mean we've all covered and talked about many seasons or how often is there there. There was a meeting with the offensive line in week nine there was a coaches meeting in week 11 the quarterback went to the OC in week six you know like those things happen in the course of the season where this was our plan going in. If we want to make the most of the season we need to adjust the plan and I think that's going to be certainly an interesting storyline because there might be a case like we might be arguing in week.

42:55Seven one of us might say they actually do need to go back to something different this is clearly not working the defense is awesome and you know what it was a great thought but at some point you're trying to win this year and maybe it's more of a blend than we're anticipating right now so that's I feel like just looking at all those things every week are how often did they go under center this week how much under center play action did they run this week wait how the jail in hurts throw any balls over the middle last week and it's like wait a minute. Is this kind of looking like the old offense here that's going to be something we're monitoring so certainly a big storyline in 2026 alright who's up I lost track you guys help me out here I think Tim is up Tim's up okay. What do you got Tim thank you Jimmy for being organized but let's get number six you number six all right. This is a positive one so there you know two questions that there's going to be another question that's maybe the negative side of this but if I told you I look into my crystal ball and the Eagles are going 14 and three this year which is kind of crazy they went 14 and three twice in a three or stretch which for some reason I never registered that in my head and I'm like probably for the rest of our lives I don't know that there will be a three or stretch where they come four or three.

44:1214 and three twice that's crazy 14 and three twice in a three or stretch but I'm telling you this year they actually are going to go 14 and three paint the picture for me tell me here's how we got there they went 14 and three the year when amazing they're super bowl contenders what does that type of season look like for the Eagles. The defense is a top three defense which is enough wide stretch for me I think that's that's very achievable on the other side you have a healthy offensive line and a resurgent sick one barkley doesn't have to be 2000 plus your hearts but you know if he's back to like 1500 something like that and he's able to break loose in this new scheme. Then they're well on their way and then the third part of it would be you know I'm listening to the Philly special pod and like week four week five and you and Sean Syed are like man man you're scheming it up and like they have been so doll for so long and this has been brutal to watch this tape for a number of years but now there's these these innovative looks in the passing game where guys are wide open for like the first time ever and you're not just relying on one on one talent.

45:27So I think that's a good thing to beat the man ahead of you and if you can put all three of those things together like yeah I mean you're up there with with the Rams is the best team in the NFC. All right. What did he miss Jimmy what do you agree with what do you disagree with well on the on your 14 and three in three seasons point they you know they win 14 games in 2022 11 in 2023 14 in 2024 and then 11 again in 2025. So they have more wins the last four years than any other team in the NFL so they have 50 total wins I think the next closest team is I think it's like just one below I'm I think it was. But they have no sense of the NFL for the last four years they have more and of course they go to two Super Bowl so they had both these the success so I think that there be in a weird way there be like I was just looking at like power rankings this morning somebody had them 17th really 17 really. They're the bottom bottom half of the league really their defense it's going to give them just a high floor to begin with as Tim mentioned I mean the potential to be top three they potentially be top one they have in my opinion the best tree over interior defensive line

46:39in the NFL and Joe Carter Jordan Davis more Joe well they have the best tree of corners in the NFL in my opinion in Queen Mitchell Cooper Jean reek wall and their linebackers they Zach Bonn has like a bonafide you know top top five type linebacker in the NFL we'll see what you high Campbell is this year in the second year we'll see what Andrew Vancouver is in the second year they are absolutely loaded on defense and I need to mention it mentioned the edges you know you have at some point Jonathan Bernard coming back we already mentioned the leak that we think she looks on is going to take I thought no Smith had kind of a slow start to camp but he really came on toward the back end I think he's ready to go for week one so I mean they are just absolutely loaded they're going to be good lot teams are going to score many points on them can the offense just be good enough and then Tim mentioned the run game I mean that's what their bread and butter is going to be this year they're going to run it a ton this year I mean as all sort of like as all the Shanahan make they kind of offense that's kind of what they want to be first and foremost that they want to be able to run the ball be able to marry you know the play action game off of that but it's for me it's going to be the offense is going to be as good as that run game goes and I'm with Tim I don't think it's going to look like exactly what it looked like in 2024 because like you know he had the best sick one Barclay at the best running back season and maybe ever and you know and that was a major major drop off to the following year so it'll be somewhere in the middle and you hope that it may be to look a little bit more like

47:582024 than 2025 but I like their chances and being able to run the ball with a healthy align and a healthy sake one and you know they got that they got that high floor right off the bat with that stellar defense yeah I wrote down a lot of the same things best defense in the NFL great special teams I think the top five run game and top five offensive line might be the biggest thing for me it's like I'd not positive how this is going to go if you tell me that's going to be the case then I can get there jail and hurts just looks completely at home in the system it might not be he's throwing for 4,000 yards but it's just like the efficiency is incredible you know just on like a person at basis he is making the right decisions he's not turning the flip ball over the balls coming out on time and like Tim said man is looking like the next great offensive coach here so yeah I think that's what 14 and 3 looks like but yeah it is something you know how a friend of the pod day is we always talk about it's just like he's like I just remind my son every day like the Eagles are not going to be this good for the rest of your life like you're never going to see a stretch like this again which I think if you're probably in your 20s you know or if you're

49:08in your team listen to this yeah you're just like you just expected every year even when we did our we ZB and I did our predictions last week and said 11 and 6 and people were like acting like you're hating on the team yeah like this happened in Seattle I remember I had to say I had to send in my record prediction and then my friend was having a bachelor party so I sent you know a publish and then I got off the plane and I looked and I was just getting ripped for being a hater and it was the same thing I think I predicted the team to win 11 games but they were coming off you know back to back super bowl appearances and it was like you don't believe in this team and that's and then it struck me when we did our pod last week that like that's kind of where it is with the Eagles now we're just like 11 wins feels like you don't believe in the team whereas for the majority of teams in the NFL you pick them to win 11 games and everyone's like oh baby this is going to be you know one of the best seasons we've had in the last 10 years so it's a good

50:08reminder of kind of the context that we're working with here all right let's take one more break we come back we get to the rest of the questions all right we're back here on the ringers billy special jimmy I believe you're up what do you guys I think two is untaken I think I think two is untaken I haven't done a great job here keeping track myself I gotta write it down you're good on two good man you too I'm the same I knew I picked the right uh I guess here today they know how to pick me up but I'm just like posting here uh as the host all right jimmy you've talked about some of these players but I kind of want you to go a little more in depth on the record so I want you to rank your confidence level from player you feel best about to one you have the most questions about going in to the 2026 season these are not the star players but these could end up being swing players I think this season so I've got safety drew macuba by the way I'm going through or Andrew I thought it was Andrew that it switched to Drew but now I hear everyone say an Andrew was there another change that I'm

51:12not aware of probably person to person I've been an Andrew guy okay what are you Tim I'm a well I guess when I talk about a woman to Andrew guy but I know he prefers Drew I know that okay we're going to go and draw Drew macuba jihad Campbell got land in Dickerson these are players that I think maybe swing stuff a little bit here for the Eagles most confident to least confident jimmy uh can I go to reverse order on that one all right let's go Dickerson least confident um he's just he had so many I remember watching him you know talk to us after that playoff loss to the 49ers last year he looked be I looked beat up after most of the games really but even after that game like he was he gave kind of like a rare moment of honesty about how badly beaten down he was from the season just physically and I think that uh it was it it was a Jeremy Fowler

52:13Tim who put out that he had considered retirement I think it was a yes be in right I I forget who who had that report honestly and then land in was like no I didn't I didn't think about retirement yeah you did yeah of course you did so like uh I think the thoughts were there and um from what I saw in training camp first of all it's great that he was even able to participate like aside from due to scheduled days off for him he he practiced every day so there were no like injury setback stories and like that same with cam jurgens were like last year he missed a huge trumpet kick trucking camp um both of those guys seem kind of unready Dickerson in particular last year I think most of it mcl injury well I think it was an episode something in his knee where he probably shouldn't been playing week one but he pushed it and did and I think that probably set that season off to a bad start but both those guys are heading into the week one healthy and ready to go or healthy you know as healthy as they're going to be and ready to go I feel a lot better about jurgens heading in

53:15the week one then I do Dickerson I thought jurgens looked like the guy that he was in 2024 this camp uh I thought Dickerson did not look like the guy that he was in 2024 I think you look a little closer to 2025 than 2024 now I think he's gonna be better this year than he was last year because he's just he's healthier than he was but I'd not confident that he's gonna get back to that pro bowl level type of guard that he was the first four years of his career he's by the way he's only like I think he's still we think of him probably as like an older player I know it's crazy I think he's 27 who it's you know 27 28 and we're talking about him like maybe retiring and like nobody even bats an eye at it let's like that's how brutal this fort is so then uh next concern down one step down from there would be and I'm gonna grade on a little bit of a curve here because I think the expectations maybe are a little higher for jihad than they are for Drew so I'll go child Campbell as my as the middle guy here and it's not because I don't think he's super talented he's

54:19got you know lent he's got athleticism he can affect the passing game the you know idea that he was gonna be sort of a hybrid off all my backers such edge defender didn't come to fruition and I don't think it ever will I think just gonna be an off all my backer going forward and I actually think that'll help him going forward now like Vic Fangio had talked about and maybe he had a little bit of a setback because he was trying to cross-train at both spots and he probably you know should have just been an off-ball linebacker the entirety of the season last year they had some injuries last year he kind of had to play there that's probably not going to be a concern heading into this season so he can just focus on that and we'll see but it was a little eye opening to me that he played in that first free season game to some degree where you know Vic had some level of you know wanting to see him mentally get some extra reps and you know some kind of preseason game setting where he did not have those concerns with with Drew McCuba and you know I thought all throughout camp Drew McCuba wasn't out there like picking off passes left or right or

55:19anything like that but he also wasn't having plays completed on him you know really all that off and I thought he just had a really solid good camp I think we saw his rookie season that he has the take like the turnover gene in him like he can make those plays but I think that what the Eagles probably more specifically Vic Fanchio probably wanted to see from him more specifically it was that he can just be a solid reliable safety first and foremost and then you know take advantage of the turnover opportunities when they come and I think he's kind of shown that this summer so I feel like his stock is a little more up than Jihad Campbell says and he had him grading on a grade based on expectations but I you know so I'd have him McCuba Campbell Dickerson McCuba Campbell Dickerson most confident to least confident yes going into 2026 season RIT Mac what do you got a grier disagree yeah I pretty much agree here I mean with Lyndon Dickerson

56:20even though he's not that old when the Eagles drafted him my understanding is they did so knowing that he might not get passed his first contract so they knew that he had you know some knee stuff that that there was a chance that he and so it's been a success story like he's been in air he's not in his second contract they you know got to the Super Bowl 11 so all those things like it's been a success but he did reportedly consider pondering retirement and just watching him work this summer I guess the best way to explain it I watched him a lot because of like the natural concerns surrounding him and what I saw is like he was okay with the first like initial movement where he would like engage with somebody but it was like the second after that where and I couldn't tell if he was just like pulling off because he's trying to preserve himself or what but like in the next move somebody would beat him and so he wasn't sustaining blocks I guess is probably the best way to put it and the way that he moves in the system to begin with like is he a natural fit

57:22not 100% sure like are we going to see him week two where he's just sort of dragon his leg around yeah I think that's a legitimate concern for Landon Decker said certainly for the person I hope it doesn't go that way but it's a you know that that is a concern so I would have the least amount of confidence in him and I agree with Jimmy that with Jihad Campbell playing in that preseason game was like huh pretty interesting and also you know he has somebody as opposed to Makuba who can really push him for that spot I think the Jeremiah Trotter Jr. can really push Jihad Campbell if Campbell isn't where he needs to be consistently whereas I feel like Trotter will will give you that you know so I think that there's more wiggle room for Campbell maybe taking on a lesser role than initially expected the ceiling's great I mean if he if he is where he's supposed to be then you're talking about a game changing linebacker alongside another game changing linebacker and Fandio has said that this is the probably the deepest position he's got and he's got a lot of the players had a lot of positions so for that reason I'll probably put him in the middle and Makuba I've

58:26liked what I've seen the fact that how he rosemite didn't feel compelled to add a safety in any shape or form tells you that you know Michael Carter and Marcus Epps also did a pretty good job this summer Makuba has been a steady presence and I think yeah he'll he'll he'll deliver on take away as you expected so all right I'm gonna swap Campbell and Makuba but agree on Anderson it's interestingly both play 10 games right 10 10 career starts last year Campbell gets replaced by Nikobi Dean I sort of feel like if Jihad Campbell has reps that aren't great it's less likely to get exposed and we all we all know from years of we don't need to name names and throw anyone under the bus but when the safety's not doesn't know what's going on or isn't playing well I mean that's gonna lead to explosive plays that everyone's talking about all week long and so I feel like you know if you told me a C minus game from Campbell versus C minus game from Makuba it almost feels like the C minus game from Makuba might be more glaring fair fair it hurts you more and it's

59:31just such a tough position to evaluate you know safety whether it's in college or in training camp or just so you really just have to I feel like go a lot by what the coach is telling you and luckily we got Vic Fiancio in the city so if he thinks the guy stinks he's probably just gonna tell you that he thinks the guy stinks but certainly he's gonna tell you with his actions I could be wrong I mean maybe we look up after week one it's like oh you know uh Trotter got in there for this many snaps and Campbell played 70% of snaps but maybe on early rundowns when you felt like the opponent was gonna run the ball you got Trotter out there type of thing so that's possible I'm just gonna I have a little more faith probably based on just the pedigree and first round pick and all that that and in Campbell over Makuba all right that was number two Tim you are up what do you got all right let's go number one number one okay knowing what you know at this very moment

1:00:33how do you think we're gonna look at the 2026 Eagles draft class three years from now so this is basically a temperature check you know I think we can all agree this summer didn't go how you would want the summer to go for your rookie class at the same time we all know that it's very early in these guys careers and you know maybe even later this season we'll be like oh remember when people were panicked over pro player at rookie x in august but now look at them how they're playing so I want to know Tim how you're feeling about this or whether your concern is maybe a little bit more based on what you know now at this very moment I think there's reason to be concerned about this draft class hopefully that's not too you know over committing given that it's so early they haven't even played a game yet but it didn't go the the way that you wanted it to for Makai Leman and and so that's you know that doesn't mean he can't bounce back but also when he was on the field like

1:01:33I didn't see a ton of separation which I guess separation wasn't you know really his his game at the collegiate level either but you know it's it's not the best start for him stowers you can absolutely say the same thing where you know he wasn't getting really any first team reps you thought that at a minimum he'd be able to represent a pass catcher who could give you some matchup problems for the defensive side while his blocking came along but we didn't really see the the receiving aspect either and then you start to get a little bit more promising as you go to to Mark L Bell who who has kind of shown up and looks like he could be the eventual replacement Mike Amaris another you know developmental guy offensive line that looks pretty good but other guys like was Newske was Hart the the entire time Bernard obviously is a is a big developmental guy but how he roseman part of the big formula has been to hit on his draft picks clearly and that allows you to to pay some of your guys huge box and then you supplement that with

1:02:37guys that you're hitting on in the draft and it's a supple thing then the guys you hit on they get paid and then you know Brinson repeat but the last two draft classes like yeah have a chance to not be quite as dynamite as the ones in recent history and I think that there's a little bit of reason to to have some concern about this most recent all right Jimmy what is that how he was on a generational heater there for a little while unsustainable really yeah we were being realistic about it and it's hard to do in the moment because we want to be like this person's a good drafter this person's not a good drafter but the heater he was on I mean it's nothing you know if you go throughout his entire career or if you look at the 10 year of any GM in the NFL quite honestly it's like just having that type of heater for however many years that you know it was is almost impossible and then to sustain it it's like you know just the law of averages are not going to be there with you yeah so I think this one might be well as Tim said we haven't seen him play in the game yet but I think we're on a path to it potentially being a little bit of a

1:03:43dud draft I mean McCoy Lennon we haven't we I mean we didn't see much of them so I think that's one baby checkmark in his favor in a weird way where like we haven't been able to see him for a full camp the one preseason game he played in to mention way earlier not good he had three targets I think it was like three or five yards or something or something like that and I was five it was I think five targets and one of them clanked off his hands and and that's the one interception so I think he was made they were maybe hoping to get him some confidence in that game and it just did not play out that way who knows like what who they'll start at that third receiver spot week one I think it'll be lemon because when he came back from injury bag he was right back in this in the running with the ones yeah I think you know obviously we won't be able to watch practice um you know when stringy camp ended and leading up to the season so maybe hope the ladle come on a little bit for him at some point and they can feel comfortable you know getting him a lot of snaps in week one I don't

1:04:43but I don't know that's like a big I don't know for me heading into week one stowers did nothing man like I was he and when they picked them they picked them partly because he absolutely tore the combine apart he had like broke records on like the vertical jump and the broad jump and he ran a fast 40 and you know he as Nick sorry any kind of said like he can do things that nobody else can just athletically but what he didn't do in camp was anything like he did not he did not do anything like as a receiver he's got a long way to go as a blocker he's going to be inactive week one he will be among the equals week one inactive I don't know it's not a report or anything like that it's just common sense like we saw nothing so nothing from the kept DJ Jenkins on their 53 man roster he's going to play week one and stowers is going to be inactive like who would it like when they picked him on you know the second day of the draft if you were to say DJ Jenkins is going to be

1:05:46active week one in a presumably I mean DJ or stowers was dealing with a hamstring injury but presumably healthy Eli Stowers will not be active it would be like holy crap terrible pick so like I mean he's gonna he's a long term play but at the same time you would have hoped to have seen more than what we saw from him this summer Bell looks great Michael Mars looks great in his first you know he can't play either yet but he looked in my opinion like like he was a raw like really good size good athleticism but raw I thought he like held his own I thought he looked like like you didn't look at a place out there as those types of prospects often do I feel good about him and then just to mention Cole is Newske barely played it all in training camp Keishan James newby same thing he missed like double digit practices and who are Rhinars so far away that I mean we we he's the name it like you won't hear about him again yeah so like next training camp so yeah

1:06:50it's it's not a it's not a it's not a it's not a it's not a it's not a draft class that you can really feel good about this season and I have my concerns down the line too neither of us mentioned Cole Peyton maybe he can see it yeah he's available right now too in my opinion like he was just throwing up like Yolo balls all care did did did not care if a guy was like triple covered down the field he was like screw it um Jay Cutler ring this down the field and we'll hope for the best so there's no way that they like it's okay so they have four quarterbacks right now let's say Andy Dalton or Tanner Vicky becomes the QB2 definitively the other guy gets shipped out if that guy who became the QB2 got hurt at some point there is no way they are not signing or trading for another veteran and going into a game with Cole Peyton as their QB2 no way out there you fill a frivors staying shape in that area that's right yeah the tight end thing is tough because as you know what you

1:07:54were describing there about the combine there is a history at that position of guys who maybe weren't you know the most prolific players in college but have those athletic trades then turning into very good NFL players and I think that was a lot of the thinking at the time that like this isn't based on anything there's got you know at this position specifically this happens but yeah you would have hope to see it's not like you needed him to have eight hundred yards this season but can he be active and play some kind of role and right now it doesn't look like that's going to be the case for Eli Stauer so it could come down to McIleman if McIleman it's like a very good wide receiver two like above average wide receiver two and then if Mark L Bell actually develops into a average starting offensive tackle then that's that's a that's a good draft like if you just you know you look at it but those are big ifs right now okay I think I got two more for you and then we have your season predictions I didn't tell you how long this pod was going to be does anyone have to run use the bathroom Tim you okay over there I'm good man let's keep going okay all right Jimmy you're

1:08:55off seven good eight I believe uh let's go seven seven okay so we did the positive no no I'm sorry I'm sorry I gotta go my boy Donnie Jones let's go eight oh sorry how dare you well Donnie if you're listening you know Jimmy apologizes all right uh we often get questions from listeners I'm sure you guys get get questions to about hey what are the best road trips you know he goes play away games here here and here which one should I go to that kind of thing so I want to know from you Jimmy the best three trips if there's an Eagles fan right now like shoot we were supposed to plan this trip we didn't do it we still have time let's plan a trip get the get the friends together the family together and let's go watch the Eagles play here I'm so excited about football which three would you say and I'll give the listeners a rundown of the road schedule while you think about this so they've got yeah I mean yeah for God yeah week two at Tennessee week three at Chicago week five in London against the Jaguars week eight at Washington week 12

1:10:01at Dallas week 13 at Arizona week 17 at San Francisco and week 18 at the New York Giants in North Jersey all right Jimmy what do you got I mean that's a great road schedule like for in a city and we really were I don't love having to go to Dallas on Thanksgiving I'd probably rather you know spend that with my daughter but that aside it's good cities and we got them in a good order this year too like we got Chicago in September as opposed to like doesn't get much better man and then and then Arizona in December you know usually when when you have two cities like that we're one is super cold in the winter and one is super hot you know like when the season first starts we usually get them at like the non ideal times like I can't tell you how it's like they're usually playing like Tampa week three and that's like always annoying but anyway I would say top three I like New Orleans as like a get in and get out kind of city like you spend like

1:11:01two three nights there wait is New Orleans on the schedule did I miss out oh you met oh you met oh you met this year oh this schedule all right sorry they're going I thought you were predicting maybe you know a divisional round I thought you were just generally speaking now no okay so this this year London's number one like London is an elite just wander aimlessly city if you're into that I love just going out and like not having a predetermined destination in my head and just rack up some steps walk around you will see all kinds of awesome stuff there if you just leave your hotel and walk around for like three four hours it's awesome it's my one of my one of my favorite cities in the world so that's number one two would probably be I mean Chicago in September that's going to be pretty hard to beat in my opinion Nashville's probably going to be a little unsufferably hot I don't know what that but the weather looks like there yet but the food is awesome great food in Chicago to Phoenix I like go with just Sedona anytime we're out there

1:12:04which is absolutely gorgeous as did a you know head coach but I would say I'd buy a rank of one to three London Chicago for what time it is this year yeah if you were like December I would not make my top three and then Nashville third all right London Chicago Nashville team back what do you got so Jimmy and I have both seen the other satish cargo like December where and we I think we both made this mistake right Jimmy it's like the hotel is only a half a mile from soldier field you're like I got this yeah I walked around in 10 degree weather before but there are 10 degrees with the winds coming off the the lake is not the same as our 10 degrees it is brutal so both of us have showed up there with like ice skulls hanging from our ears and those but but in September it's like one of the best cities out there like one of the best destinations

1:13:05you could probably have to have a downtown in America Chicago is it okay yeah I mean I don't blame uh number two I would go Nashville I'm a big music guy and you can obviously you can go down what is it Broadway as the as the main strip but you can go basically to any the first time I was in Nashville we just went it's myself and and a group of of other reporters just went to some side street dive bar and it was some of the best music that I'd ever seen live this guy just on a steel guitar crushing crushing it and I was like oh my god like there's so much condensed talent in Nashville when it comes to music that you can find it anywhere and it's almost always spectacular now kind of if you if you go away from the main strip that's where you get the the less commercial like you know real real good stuff so I definitely have Nashville on there and just to be a little bit different Arizona especially if you like to golf come on yeah we all go up in Arizona I think right yeah that's super bowl yeah and we remember the starter well I can't be and we definitely can't repeat

1:14:07whatever it was yeah it was like the most inappropriate joke I've ever heard I can't remember something about his ex-wife or something yeah it was a fairly special canceled if we yeah it was like it was like shocking it was like with a punch like it was like oh my god I was not expecting that and it was one of those and this happens more often now where you're like why is this person comfortable enough telling me like saying this joke to me and thinking I'm not gonna be like what do you do the confidence to unleash that on four strangers was wild I would say a lot of starters at golf courses that percentage is probably very high yeah a little too comfortable but I guess but yeah Scottsdale is you can stay in Scottsdale while you're covering it that's one of my favorite little towns to go and in fact when we were out there for the league meetings I brought my family with me we did a split vacation where we started out in Scottsdale the league meetings are over then we went out to Sedona and and stayed for the second half and that part of of the state just great great trail all right there you go I was you know putting myself in your

1:15:10guys shoes London easy week five that I'm with Jim I think Jimmy and I went around the same time to London shared experiences and we both said the same thing like oh my god I just had 25,000 steps a day and just walked all around yeah with nowhere to go and stopped and got a coffee and stopped the it was it's an amazing city so that's definitely on there every list test if you're getting Chicago in September by the way before they potentially move that stadium to Indiana which you know that's definite but for now it's a downtown stadium great city great time a year to go that's got to be on everyone's list the third one was a little you know what now this is this is as someone who doesn't have to go cover every game I was like Dallas something's getting doing that one if you're a fan and you're going with family and your big Eagles fans like that you're just not going to always be able to do that so you know that the kids are at the right age or whatever that might be actually

1:16:10fun to go down there and be like let's go watch the Eagles beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving because the stadiums awesome and I do like the DFW a little bit yeah I had a good time when I went to the DFW in the past there so those were the ones I wrote down as Tim knows I'm not a big life music guy so keep me away from Nash Vegas I don't want to be doing that didn't say enough Indian people when I was down there got a little uncomfortable so yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Jimmy doesn't even have to go to Dallas to get the Mac and cheese which is a huge fact that's right then just send it to me by the way everybody you know I try to stay offline more now than I ever had before I try to touch grass but the controversy around Jimmy publishing press box food rankings and then one writer quote tweeting on there to work not to eat and then the you know the Jimmy Kemsky following just instantly digging up tweets from this guy literally posting pictures of himself eating more

1:17:14food I mean listen that's a reason we need to get back online because that brought me more joy than just about any other content this summer so I'm gonna check that out yeah he had taken a picture of the ram spread dude you got to know when you're when you're trying to rip on him for this that there are seats out there that's right I texted Jimmy right after that I told him I'm ready to fight this guy yeah I'm right it's like half a set of humor man give me a break by the way Jimmy what's your streak at for I just hit seven years okay August 27 okay for those who don't know what we're talking about you probably remember it last time Jimmy was on Jimmy has a streak of seven straight years every single day he has published some type of content on the fill it off the Eagles which I would suspect that the person who tried to dunk on him did not know about that streak and I would suspect that that person does not have a similar streak so that would that he knowing

1:18:19that even made it funnier to me that that's that's that's one I Tim I've called that the greatest streak in sports well she'll you and I did birds 24 seven where we try to have something on on the site every day for sure but that was a two-man operation and I know how intense of that was yeah yeah like it'll be like you and we'd be like oh my god what are we gonna do for the wake-up call yeah I've got it today oh my god yeah it's a little tricky in late June for sure and early early July you know late June early July that's a real real dead parody the guy that you're that's the like that's the stuff that's not gonna win Pulitzer's listen Jimmy hats off to you though I mean yeah seriously that's incredible go to whatever Jimmy writes next I want the audience to go and comment with the hashtag filly special bump and thank him for publishing something for you because that's what you want you want something every day for seven straight years greatest certainly the greatest streak in sports media I might extend it to it's better than Dimagia it's better than

1:19:20Ripkin I would call it the greatest streak in sports so Ripkin is in my sights at this point so his if if I continue this through I forget what the actual date is but it's some time it's some time in November I'll pass his number I think Tim I thought he was just gonna start rip rip and rip get ripkins and fraud yeah he did it for like the whole summer or the whole winter off he was playing games in the winter yeah actually it's not you're a loser ripkin slacker we got a sushi clip right there ripkins a loser filly special all right here's the last one Tim you don't have to pick the now I think it's the last one right seven and then we get predictions okay so we did the positive version of this the negative version if the Eagles fit if I tell you the Eagles are gonna finish under 500 and it's not because a bunch of starters are missing games because of entry so you can't tell me Jalen herger's out for this season it's like they got league average injury luck

1:20:21whatever that looks like use your imagination and tell me what went wrong how did we get there where this team finished eight nine or worse this season all right on the defensive side of the ball so what a Jonathan Grinard just never really comes to fruition you know the pen just that you know he's never impact guide Jalen's hunt the hike train turned out to be nothing more than hot air and he said you know he's good but he's not you know we're pumping him up a little too much and the edge rush just isn't getting home for them on a consistent level and then I've been thinking about this too on in the defensive secondary you know the amount of love that Christian Parker has I think rightly gotten for you know he he was dynamite I think when he was here got a lot of credit for coaching these guys up to their max but when he leaves and then people say well what's gonna happen everybody's like wow it's still gonna be the you know it's gonna be the best defense football so you know will there be any kind of brain drain there in terms of the defense of efficiency in the back end just a question if we're talking about how it could possibly go wrong

1:21:26and then on the offensive side it's really about the offensive line not being healthy it's about the seat the scheme not really fitting the quarterback and the personnel and all of a sudden you're talking about a clunky offense with a more leaky than expected defense I think that's that's the way that you get to a less than record than most people are expected I like that Parker call quite a bit I hadn't thought about that but that's one in my head I can picture like week seven you know maybe that defense just got lit up and someone's you know I'll you know I haven't been to say no one talked about it in August that they lose Christian Parker he was supposed to be this great assistant coach of course the secondary is not gonna play as well how did we miss that so I like that call what do you think Jimmy what does it look like I got another week seven thing for you okay week seven rolls around and teams have just identified we're just gonna give Devontes Smith a ton of extra attention take him away and then they got nothing in the passing game if you

1:22:27know guys like like Don Tavion works and McCoy Limon don't step up facing favorable coverages from you know opposing defenses that's you know one concern you know maybe lead Johnson goes into some kind of decline I don't think he's gonna fall off sharply or they're only he's gonna decline it all really but if he were to he's 38 years old of course that would be normal if he did if Landon Dickerson just isn't the same guy if my read on Cam Jergens just not being the guy you know a little closer to 2024 then then he was in 2025 if that's wrong and that can all kind of go downhill so I think we're all kind of on the same page that like it's for for the offense you know the offensive line is is really where when they've been amazing that's when they've had their best seasons and they've had their worst seasons when they're not so there's that and then you know if it just that's Tim said like if it just doesn't come together with with the new scheme and and hurts is of running it efficiently and I mean for me it's just like they just can't get anything going offensively I like I can't I really struggle seeing how the defense is going to be

1:23:33like anywhere near bottom half of the league yeah like I can't I struggle figuring out a way that could possibly happen but I guess I mean maybe you could say there's so many teams running some version of the Vic Fandy offense that they kind of it's find some kind of fix for it find some way to solve it out Vic's done a really great job of evolving as he's gone along like he hasn't you know he hasn't run the same scheme for his entire career it's it's evolved over time but maybe there's some point where there's so many teams running some version of it that I don't know there's a fix for and it takes it takes a little while for them to counter it I don't believe any of that but I know it's hard to get there just if we're just throw it out scenarios then maybe that's one and then Jake Elliott like what if he just he affected a lot of games last year like that late in the season he missed a lot of kicks where you where you go oh they could have used those points

1:24:34and he had a good camp like I think he missed the three kicks of a camp there was two in the joint practices that he missed he was perfect during the preseason games but if he has a season like he did the last two seasons now maybe it was a big mistake that they didn't bring in somebody else yeah I think the obvious ones you guys hit on offensive line wider past catchers other than Devonta Smith those are great ones the only other thing I could think of for the defense would be a freak woolen it's like a real roller coaster and it's you know we're expecting a little bit of a roller coaster but if it's oh this is why the sea ox didn't bring him back this is why he didn't have a huge market now if you combine that with the safeties maybe not being as good a Christian Parker not being there again I don't believe that either I'm with you guys I think it's going to be a top three defense in the NFL before this exercise that was one I thought of and then since we're doing the week seven game here's another one I've actually been thinking about both with the Eagles and in respect to the entire NFL what if this offensive scheme changes like two or three years late

1:25:36I mean how often have we been covering stuff sure it's like everyone's moving towards this we all remember the chip Kelliara and it's like at some point if everyone's moving towards that the other side of the ball gets better at defending that it's it's like what you were saying with Vic but Vic I give the benefit of the doubt that he's going to be able to adapt but he's the guy whereas the Eagles are running some other right like some bastardized version of McVeighans and yeah that is like if you look around the NFL literally the entire NFL is trying to do this this year like I think there's I forget I think there's like one team who's kind of not doing some version of hey we got to get under center we got to marry the run in the past we got to use play action like the commanders go read their cover they're trying to do the same thing the Ravens go read their coverage they're trying to do the same thing Joe Burrow who his entire career has been like I'm not doing that I hate doing that paid manning hated doing that I want to be in shotgun I want to see what's in front of me they're trying to do this they're living this was the biggest story in Cincinnati this summer so if

1:26:40everyone's going in that same direction like there's going to be halves and have not it's not going to work for everybody like just because you know it's and it's like defense is now are seeing that every single week where I've had to take that like who's going to be the team now who's going to be like we're going shotgun spread tempo this year you know like the Rams hired Cliff Kingsbury and I'm kind of like huh is McVeighan like it'll be funny if it's not yeah the team that ran it all along now they change yeah yeah if they're going to be like no everyone's doing that now we have to do something else like that to me is just a big league wide storyline this year where I'm like I understand the benefits of it I understand you want to create explosive plays I understand why you want to marry the run in the past but if everyone's doing that some teams are going to be good at it some aren't and defense is are going to be better at defending it so that's that's kind of in the back of my head with the with the Eagles as well here all right the time has come for Jimmy Kemsky and Tim McManus to go on the record here hopefully I didn't tell you guys this right you're

1:27:43able to go on the record with record predictions okay just making sure you know you're might be saving it for someone else and now you're like great now not the company that pays me they're not getting this first and you're getting the first for your podcast you got to give me a heads up so I didn't do that Jimmy will start with you I need your regular season record prediction only and then we'll get Tim's regular season and then we'll come back to you for your playoff prediction Eagles 2026 what do you got 11 and six 11 and six there is that good enough to win the NFC East I think that that is good enough to win the NFC East I think the Cowboys are a little overhyped the commanders seasons already over and the giants will be better than they've been but not they're not close big Cowboys injury losing their best offensive lineman one of their best players guard Tyler Smith for four weeks so it's like yeah and to be fair I have them as a playoff team but now it's like oh here we go with the Cowboys again it stays before the opener and all of a sudden

1:28:47this guy's put but it's gonna miss the first month of the season all right 10 Jimmy's got 11 and six what do you got I'm gonna go 10 and seven okay I think it's going to be the exact scenario that they probably were hoping to avoid by years then defense was good yeah everybody knew the defense was good offense was shaky Jalen Hertz had some high moments and also some some low ones and we don't really know how to evaluate this this thing going forward so I think it can have like I'm not sure it's gonna have the best taste in the mouths of the organization exiting this year if it plays out that way but it seems like because of the expected ups and downs to the point of the system like the people who are gonna be best at running this system are the ones one who invent it and two have been running it for years like I don't know if it's I mean is it a fair expectation that this equals offense is gonna get right off the off the floor and run with this thing and be like super good at it I don't know if that's really possible usually scheme changes take

1:29:51some time so I have them as a wildcard team at 10 and seven with the Cowboys taking the division big loss as you mentioned with Smith but also a pretty high powered offense and we just showed some love for Christian Parker I think that he's gonna elevate that defensive side of the ball for the Cowboys this year good enough to give them the division crown the Eagles coming in second all right there you go playoff team 10 and seven not NFC East champs all right Jimmy playoff time 11 and six NFC East champ fill it off the Eagles what happens yeah so I think they're the three seed they play a game that looks a little like the 49ers game playoff game last year but which really could have gone either way I think this year they they eat it out let's say that's over the Bears the Bears of the 6C they come to fill the Eagles beat them close close game but a game that inspires not a lot of confidence for the following week when they have to go play you know the

1:30:53two seed on the road and that's gonna be one of your big boys like the Rams or the Seahawks or something like that they go out to the West Coast and get smoked in the division around okay smoked in the division around all right there you go David something that has never happened before the Cereoni Hertz Eagles losing in the division around that was my prediction as well uh-huh but it was like oh either they are they're in the wild card round or they are in the Super Bowl every year all right Tim what do you got I have them sneaking an upset in the first round on the road against the likes of uh say like the Lions got and then uh and then getting bounced pretty earnestly and that next one against one of the heavyweights like Jimmy's talking about like the Rams and it's just it's it's a no contest and that's it all right division around loss so on this pod so far I know some listeners will be upset or for four actually five for five I think Cliff had the same thing too uh me Cliff McManus Jimmy and Zebra are all say divisional round

1:31:56for the Eagles okay this year we'll say beta listen there's a spot for if you're doing content out there go one way or the other if everybody's saying divisional round you either say Super Bowl Chaps or you say they're not making the playoffs you'll be the only one maybe uh who says that much so there you go those are the predict nobody cares nobody's listening nobody cares nobody's listening as I've always said that's right all right Jimmy what do we got what we got to to plug here other than the Ripken streak uh just Philly voice Philly voice Google my name go to my author page so they're that's about it right there team back she I was just thinking if what if Jimmy's planned post for the next day is is his record prediction and you just ruined it any any wins this is straight now I can't publish it yeah oh my god this is so near streak uh yeah espn.com uh you know appear on uh the the tv waves every once in a while just come check it out I wonder I wonder what it would take to end Jimmy now you got my brain thinking what would

1:32:56it take to actually end Jimmy's streak it would uh yeah I don't even want to think of the things because they would have to be so bad for him not to post I don't think there's just a random thing well the the streak the the last day that I didn't publish something was the day after my dad died remember you say oh if like if somebody close to me died or something like that yeah that I wouldn't you know I this that streak is just gone all right so I don't know but not to choose you out of all right my head on like I'm like ranking but would be the worst the worst deaths in my family yeah good good good way to end it all right listen just so we're on the record we don't want Jimmy out the ringer's official does not want Jimmy's streak to end under that circumstance because of what it would take for the streak to end our check out all their work as I do thanks to Jimmy thanks to Tim thanks to ace producer Cliff Augustin will have zbe on Thursday we'll be talking about the week one

1:33:57match up and of course bring you the weekly mailbag until then I'm shill kapati we'll talk to you next time on the ringers billy special otics 21 plus present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas stark ozino or 18 plus and present in DC Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem called 1-800-Gamber or 1-800-Myreset Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland Hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-32750 for 24-7 supporting Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 hope N.Y

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