- 6/4/2025
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00:0094 WIP HD1 Philadelphia, live from the Tasty Cake Studios, an Odyssey Sports Station.
00:12This is the WIP Morning Show with Joe DiCamera and John Ritchie on Sports Radio 94 WIP.
00:20What's going on everyone? Joe DiCamera and John Ritchie. It is 94 WIP. Great to be with you off
00:25and rolling on this Wednesday morning with the Phils. They got on the right side last night
00:30and they really got on it early. You know, jumping on that Blue Jays pitcher, six runs in the first
00:35and obviously a great job of the Phils. Sanchez as well. So we'll get into the Phils as they bounce
00:40back in a very good way. And Bryce Harper, of course, played, which was outstanding. And Homer.
00:45And Homer, that's right. Vic Fangio, he spoke a lot yesterday, so did others. We'll get to that.
00:50There's a lot from the Vic Fangio thing yesterday on the Eagles defense, obviously, for the coming
00:54season. Look, those two things, heavy focus today. Some other things as well with you
00:58at 215-592-9494. Rich, Rich! Hello, Joe. Hello there, Johnny. A chicken once lived for 18 months
01:08without a head. What? I mean, yeah, that is a what. Back in the 1940s, Mike the chicken. I don't buy it.
01:19But how many wings did he have? I love when Joe is just like, nope, I'm out on this. I am out on that
01:24one. I mean, what's the, what's the, according to who? What idiot? I mean, really? I mean,
01:32really. Great reaction. And John, you report this stuff to the public. Like, who are you?
01:38Nice. He's a report. I'll tell you who he's not. He's not Edward R. Morrow.
01:41The original. James. Good night and good luck. Did anybody under the age of 75 get the Edward R. Morrow?
01:48They should, you know. They should. They should. All right. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
01:52Boring people get that. Yeah, I know. All right, so now I'm not born older. All right,
01:56so we got a lot to do. Like, really nice job of the Philz. Bryce, right back in the swing
02:01of a tray with big damage last night. So, a very, and you know what? I mean, to me, and
02:07it's great to talk about the hitters, and they did wonderful work. But, you know, starting
02:12pitching. I mean, you get a great starting pitch game, and they did from Sanchez, six innings,
02:16one run. That's typically a formula to win, and it works. And so I hope people feel a little
02:21bit more calmed down. Look, in the end, we're going to find out in October how this team
02:25sinks or swims. I mean, the reality is, the prior four days, games, shows you things can
02:30end fast, because you can lose two or three games in a row, or in this case, four games
02:34in a row and get zipped out. But I will contend, and I will maintain contending, that with this,
02:40primarily, with this starting pitching, this is going to be a Phillies team that's going to
02:45be a team to be reckoned with in the postseason. Now, they might be reckoned to knock down three
02:49days, but they also might go for three, three and a half, four weeks and win the
02:53whole thing. I was happy with the Phillies last night. Obviously, you can weigh in 2-1-5,
02:575-9-2, 94-94. We encourage you to do so. It was a great job by Bryce.
03:00Trey's defense looks a lot better when he just goes yard, and then goes yard.
03:08And Boomer with maybe his best defensive player of the season last night.
03:11Yeah, how about it?
03:12Maybe ever.
03:13Maybe ever.
03:14Right. So the whole Phillies thing is on the table, and jump in at 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94.
03:21Let's get to the Eagles, John. So if everyone listening right now missed the Vic Fangio press
03:27conference, it was a pretty lengthy one for the offseason. We're going to play big chunks
03:33of it as we move through the show. There's a lot to get into, from Jihad Campbell to Cooper
03:37DeGene to the safeties and the cornerbacks and all this stuff. So know that we'll be
03:44playing it as we move forward. John, let's just start with this. I'm going to throw this
03:47out to you and everyone at 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94. What stood out to you the most? Because this
03:54is debatable what the biggest headline was.
03:55I learned all sorts of stuff.
03:56What hit you the most, John?
04:01Vic Fangio does not sound concerned with base at all. He went so far as to say when he was
04:09asked about Jordan Davis coming back, oh, that wasn't my decision. He said, well, how did
04:14he say it exactly? Oh, that's not me. That's Howie.
04:18Well, Howie makes those calls, yeah. Which he does.
04:20I didn't have anything to do with that decision. That's Howie's. Bringing him back, that's Howie's.
04:26choice. He got almost, I don't know, like game show hosty up there. Hey, how many snaps
04:36you think we were in base last year? He's asking the press conference, how many snaps
04:41you think we were in base last year? And the answer was 160. And when you look elsewhere,
04:49I mean, that number, I guess it depends on how you add it up, but somewhere close to 88%
04:55of the time they were in base. Not in base. They were in nickel or dime. Sorry. They were
05:06in base 12% of the time. Yep.
05:10Think about that. Yeah, it's not much.
05:12So that's Jordan Davis at nose tackle. That's when you have him inserted into the game. I
05:22thought it was fascinating when we found out that last season, a lot of why they were in
05:29nickel so much is because of the way Cooper DeGene burst onto the scene and his comfortability
05:35and his ability to play that nickel spot, their defense permutated into a lot more nickel,
05:42including the edge guys liked rushing from a nickel DN spot more than the wider base 3-4 spot,
05:54which I thought, I don't know.
05:56John, you got really deep there.
05:58I was not expecting any of this.
06:00All right, let me just jump in, ladies and gentlemen. The single biggest thing that stood
06:04out from the press conference yesterday is that Jihad Campbell, the rookie first-round
06:07draft pick, may not be ready for the start of the season.
06:09And Kobe Dean definitely won.
06:10Yeah, we're going to get to that in a second. Number one, Campbell might not be ready.
06:14Now, Vic Fangio didn't say it, but what he did say is he's not concerned about that as much.
06:18But what he did say is that Jihad Campbell's not going to practice until August.
06:23And by the way, he didn't say early August. He didn't say late August. He didn't say mid-August.
06:27He just said August, which obviously means it could be any portion of August, which if
06:31it is mid to late August, there's a really good chance Jihad Campbell's not going to be
06:34ready for the start. So just know with all the excitement. Look, guys, I'm not going
06:38gloom and doom here. That's not where I'm at today. But let's start drilling down on some
06:43realities. The Eagles got an incredibly talented player at a spot, 31, that they otherwise would
06:48not have gotten him because teams passed on him because he's injured. He's still
06:54injured. So just know that going in. He's going to be an inside linebacker for us this
07:00year. Yeah, we'll get to that also. But just know going in, we don't know when Jihad Campbell's
07:05going to play because the Eagles don't even know when he's going to play. That's number
07:08one. Well, we have a great idea that once training camp starts and he's out there and able to
07:14play, we'll feel good about the fact that he's out there. We don't know if Jihad Campbell's
07:18not going to start the season, my guess. If I had to bet, I would bet Jihad Campbell
07:23probably isn't playing until week four or something. If I had to bet on it, that's my
07:27guess. Because he's not practicing. He can't practice until August. Johnny's a rookie, too.
07:31He's never been in this system, all that. So that's number one. That does not mean...
07:35Hold on, hold on, hold on. It doesn't mean that he's unable to do anything, the fact that
07:39he's not practicing. He's not practicing. All right, number two, N'Kobe Dean. James, you
07:45heard the N'Kobe Dean thing. Frame this for those who missed it. Yeah, I don't think we're
07:48going to see N'Kobe until mid-season or later. If I had to bet, I had to bet. He used the
07:53phrase, we're not going to see N'Kobe for a while, is what Vic said. Think of it this
07:58way. He put August on Jihad Campbell. Exactly. He put no month on N'Kobe Dean. And we know
08:05that's a bad injury. It happened in January. Honestly, I think there's a better chance N'Kobe
08:11Dean doesn't play this year, then he makes a major impact for the Eagles this year.
08:15November is what a lot of people are saying. Yeah, I would guess November, December, come
08:18back, but then you're coming in mid-season, off this... Like, I just, I don't think N'Kobe
08:23Dean can be counted on for much this year. I agree with that. So put another way, the
08:27biggest thing, if you want to boil those two things down into one, is that they've got
08:31a linebacker issue. Oh, they're thin. I mean, Trot Jr. is the starter right now, right?
08:35Trot Jr. is the starter. Right now, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is the starter. So, I'll
08:41say this, it was a noteworthy press conference for early June to find out not one, but two
08:47potential Eagles starters may not start the season. And I agree, James, with your assertion
08:51and Ray, your assertion. N'Kobe Dean, who, you know, we all came to love last year after
08:55a couple of years. I mean, we liked him because you could tell he was admirable, but for a
08:59couple of years, he was not good. Okay, let's just be candid. Not good. And by the way, also
09:05not healthy at times. Is again not healthy. James, to your point, it's like a more serious
09:10injury than tearing your knee, for which he could come back probably much sooner, or
09:14at least sooner, maybe not much. So, this is a situation. You're talking about N'Kobe
09:18Dean? N'Kobe. He's talking about ACL. He did tear his knee, technically. He's talking
09:22about an ACL versus a patellar, is the point. Patellar's way worse. Yeah, so the reality
09:26is that they got an issue there. And it'll be fascinating to see how they juggle this
09:32around. Yeah, I think Jeremiah Trotter. We do have Smile Mondin. He did mention Smile Mondin.
09:37Smile Mondin. That make it happen? He's an inside linebacker that he actually said his
09:41name in this press conference. Yeah. You're making like we got no one else. There are other
09:46guys on this team who play linebackers. Well, it's not good to have two potential starters
09:49already, you know, not ready to rock and roll in June. We don't know that our... I'm excited
09:55to see Jihad out there. And that's August. That's training camp. They're waiting until training
10:00camp to let him practice. That's the way it is. He had surgery. It's okay. It's...
10:05It's not... I don't want to be alarmist. I think you guys are being alarmist about Jihad
10:11Campbell. I'm just reporting the facts. No, we're just saying that don't expect him to
10:14start the season. Like, this is not alarmist. He's still got a long career to be able to
10:18go out there in August. You expected Bryce Harper to play last week and they lost four
10:23straight games without him. Like, you gotta admit, sometimes you expect players to play
10:26when they can't play. Okay. You're right. And I do expect this kid to want to get out
10:32there. It's not a matter of what. In John's defense, Cooper DeGene missed all of training
10:36camp last summer. Yeah, and he played great. But it wasn't a planned thing. But not every
10:42book does that. I agree. He wasn't a starter until after the box. Exactly. Cooper DeGene
10:45was... That's my point. I think John Campbell could be a major player for the Eagles this
10:49year. I just don't expect him to start the season as a starter. That's it. Yeah, Vic Fangio,
10:53you know, laid out yesterday. It's not all smooth. So, look, we'll take your reaction
10:59on all of it. What do you make? I mean, it's interesting to have two different players
11:02at the same position group, if you will. And as John said, Jihad Campbell, as Vic Fangio
11:08indicated yesterday, expected to start when he does get in there from an inside linebacker
11:13standpoint, not edge rusher guy. So that was noteworthy. And then the Cooper DeGene thing
11:18yesterday, they clearly don't know when in base defense where he's going to play. It could
11:23be outside corner. It could be safety. Now, as John indicated, Vic Fangio is basically
11:27saying, listen, we don't even play that type of defense that much. Let's not make that
11:31big a deal of it. But he did indicate to a large extent where Cooper DeGene plays is
11:37going to be based. And this is interesting. We talked about this last week as a possibility
11:41based on how the corners and the safeties do essentially like against each other. Like
11:46it's not just corner versus corner or safety versus safety. It's corner group versus safety
11:51group. Where are they best? Where are they weakest? And Cooper DeGene might fill in where
11:55they're weakest. And they're not good. He's going to play. You got to remember what we're
11:59factoring here is how to who's playing linebacker also because these players, these smaller players
12:06when we're in dime, you know, you're, you're throwing a linebacker off the field and you're
12:11having a DB come onto the field to play linebacker like Cooper's so great at doing. So last year
12:16we went to smaller, smaller, smaller because we were so good at doing that because Cooper DeGene
12:24can guard a guy in both, both are both directions in the nickel in the slot. He became a linebacker.
12:30This is what we're talking about. The linebacker position, the small linebacker spot is what
12:36he was so great at last year. And part of why we won the Superbowl. And so what we're hearing
12:42from Vic Fangio is like, he's, he's becoming a staple and we're going to build everything
12:48around the deficiencies of others where he can fill in. No, he's going to be out there
12:54a ton. It's like a permutating the defense as it develops, like it did last season in
13:00season. We're, we're going to watch it develop again this off season with the new guys.
13:05My gut feeling is that Cooper DeGene is more likely to play safety than outside corner,
13:11but we'll say, I mean, it's clearly to be determined, but I think they're weaker at safety than corner.
13:18And I, I tend to think Cooper, and he's a great tackler. So, you know, he can play safety
13:22at an effective level. I kind of think that's where he'll be, you know, 15, 20% of the snaps.
13:28Vic Fangio insisted on throwing Tristan McCollum's name in there into the mix. You know, when that's
13:34the competition, Tristan McCollum, Sidney Brown, I don't know. It doesn't feel like that's,
13:41stiff competition, the same way it is on the outside with the corners.
13:44We're going to play for you a lot of this Vic Fangio audio. It was very interesting. Obviously,
13:48you can weigh in today, 215-592-9494. Also, your chance to win Phillies tickets. We'll get
13:53to that. We'll go through more of the Phillies game last night. Obviously, you can weigh in
13:57on a terrific bounce-back victory by the Phillies. So, all of it on the table today, 215-592-9494.
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