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Grant & Danny bring on The Athletic's Brooks Kubena to breakdown the Eagles offseason and expectations in week one.
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00:00Eagles, Brooks Kubina, who covers the team for The Athletic, joins us on the Rude Guest Hotline, Rude,
00:05the most reliable heating and air conditioning products in the DMV.
00:08Brooks, I guess I'll just start with a broad-brushed question here.
00:12How do people feel about this Eagles team? They're favored to win the NFC East.
00:16How are you feeling after watching them all camp long?
00:19Yeah, there's a lot of questions I have.
00:23Finally in action, but this is one of the best defenses that I've seen in training camp
00:29as they're entering a season.
00:30I think that's really what's going to drive this season.
00:33It allowed them to reach the playoffs last year while they were dealing with one of the worst offenses
00:37they've had in a while.
00:39And the question is if their ceiling is kind of dictated by the offensive side.
00:44And we'll see how this wide receiver room shapes up with A.J. Brown, without A.J. Brown.
00:49But the run scheme, all of those things, it's going to be really interesting to see on Sunday.
00:54Brooks, I want to get into that offense, you know, specifically with the receiver position in a minute,
00:59but just kind of broad brush, it's been my thesis that the time to play this Eagles offense is now.
01:04I think by November, December, whatever, they'll be playing much better football maybe than some
01:09of the learning curve or kind of getting used to the familiarity here of a brand new system,
01:13something that Jalen Hurts hasn't done a ton doing.
01:15Do you get that sense that they might be in for a slow start on that side of the ball
01:19and the defense will kind of win or lose games for them?
01:22I do, and injuries didn't help them.
01:24Devontae Smith, who's been their best receiver in camp and is the most tenured in the locker room,
01:30he dealt with a hamstring injury.
01:31And then also Makai Lemon, their first-round pick, also dealt with a hamstring injury.
01:35I'm actually driving back from the Eagles facility right now where I just chatted with Makai Lemon,
01:40and he did deal with, you know, some learning curves just at the end of training camp.
01:44Only got one week of practices before they broke to the 53-man roster,
01:48and still this week is still getting on the same page with Jalen Hurts.
01:54And that's what led to a lot of the interceptions.
01:56I don't know if listeners or anybody that kind of like paid attention on the outside training camp,
02:01but there was a bit of an uptick of that.
02:02But some of that was really just wide receivers needing to be where they needed to be.
02:07And I think that's really kind of the questions as they go on the first couple of weeks is, you
02:13know,
02:13are they in tune?
02:14Are they timing?
02:16Is that all together?
02:17And also talk to Devontae Smith at his locker today.
02:20One of the things is, Sean Mannion, this time being his first time ever as a play caller,
02:24I mean, the Eagles are used to that over the last couple of years, but specific to him,
02:28they're not really even sure how he calls a game, what his rhythm is,
02:31whether they'll be shot plays or what things he likes to do.
02:35So there's a lot of figuring out of each other right now.
02:38And Sean Mannion, even through training camp,
02:40is trying to figure out whether he was calling plays from the sideline or the booth
02:43and ultimately chose to be up in the booth.
02:45So, I mean, I think those things, just getting familiar with the process and the operation,
02:51as well as the scheme, all those things together,
02:53I don't think they're going to hit 100% on the clip for that.
02:56So there'll be some mistakes.
02:58They'll fix those, I think, with the talent that they have
03:01and the confidence that I'm hearing about Sean Mannion,
03:04for all accounts through the players and coaches that have talked about him and said that he's pretty brilliant
03:08and his work ethic is there, and fundamentally, Nick Sirianna, the head coach,
03:12he was looking for conviction in an offensive coordinator,
03:14someone that really believed in what he had to say
03:17and would have the back and forth with players to give him all of the answers to their whys.
03:21So, yes, I think it'll be a slow start, but given what we'll see, I think, yes, like you said,
03:26later in the season, I think they'll hit their full stride.
03:28It sounds a lot like Washington's situation to an extent with David Blau, a first-timer here.
03:34Brooks Kubina covers the Eagles for the Athletic with us on Grant and Danny, scouting Philadelphia.
03:38Brooks, on Jalen Hurts, how much pressure's on him?
03:42Tell me if I'm wrong, but it feels like they are betting on a system
03:46that isn't one that would be Hurts-proof, so to speak,
03:50and it almost feels like a vote against him in the long term.
03:54Am I wrong about that?
03:56I think so.
03:58The belief in Jalen is always there.
04:02From Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Eagles and on,
04:05the thing that's pivotal about this change is not so much the quarterback position,
04:10it's the run game.
04:11The run game was terrible last year.
04:13That really contributed to the reason why things needed to be overhauled.
04:18So they went from one of the key issues, it was a trend across the NFL.
04:22I wrote a story about this a couple of weeks,
04:24but a lot of teams were going up to the line.
04:27Washington was doing this to a certain degree and reading the secondary to try and dictate matchups.
04:33The Eagles, that's how they bought and sold their passing game between A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith,
04:39just basically dictating what advantages they could do and exploit.
04:43But doing that runs down the play clock.
04:46They led the league last year with 150 plays with one second left on the play clock.
04:51What that does is it gives you advantages as a passing team because you can figure out what you want
04:55to do,
04:55but it's terrible for the run game.
04:58The defensive linemen are jumping off and know when to go.
05:01And in those situations, whenever there's one second left on the play clock,
05:05the run game was terrible, extended to the other things,
05:07and there were some predictability issues within the system as well.
05:10To shift that over, to be more aggressive, to be more intent on the offensive side,
05:16dictate what they're going to do, part of that was changing towards more of what the Sean McVeighs
05:21and the college hand-to-hands are running with the wide zone scheme.
05:24And then marrying that up with the pass game, because they have to look the same,
05:29was always going to influence it.
05:31I think it actually speaks in a different way to how much they value Jalen Hurts
05:35because over the last several years, it's been what he's been doing in smaller ways,
05:39which is adapting to new play calls.
05:41He's played for 10 different ones dating back to his college years.
05:43But the willingness has always been there as long as his whys are being answered.
05:47And I think it's more of a vote in confidence for him than it is against him.
05:51He's going to have to fulfill it, and he's had a timing in his contract
05:54where there's less security as the years go on.
05:57So he has to prove himself again, as he always has to do.
06:00But that juncture is different in this point in time.
06:03Scouting the opponent with Brooks Kamina covers the Eagles for the Athletic.
06:07Kind of have to join us here on GND.
06:09So let's get to that receiver position specifically.
06:11Obviously, sort of off-field or on-field consternation with A.J. Brown aside,
06:15that's an excellent football player, right?
06:17He's a security blanket.
06:18He's really, really good.
06:20And you don't get better without him.
06:22But I like the fit of Wicks.
06:24I like kind of an ascension of role for Devontae Smith.
06:27I was into Lemon, obviously, but his training camp was hit and missed
06:32because of all the injuries.
06:33Where's that receiver position now?
06:35And kind of then fit that in with the new scheme.
06:38How much of a threat are they?
06:41Yeah, Mackay's couple weeks have been rocky, from what I've seen.
06:44His preseason debut was.
06:46It was kind of clear that he was still figuring out where he needed to be on the field
06:51and where his spacing was and it wasn't as tight as it needed to be.
06:54And there were some drops there.
06:56And he talked about how valuable it was to have that instead of it be a week one game.
07:01And I think there's still some things he's going to have to work through.
07:04But, I mean, the athlete is there.
07:07Obviously, we saw what he was capable of at USC.
07:09The very fact that the Eagles are considering using him in the punt return game
07:14shows what they think of him with the ball in his hands.
07:16This is a guy that led his conference with 500-plus yards after the catch,
07:23and that's a huge emphasis in this offense.
07:25So once he's fully integrated to this game, I think you'll start to see that.
07:29We did see over the last couple of weeks how he's been more of the motion man,
07:33somebody that was going to play inside and out.
07:35They're going to try and create ways for him to get on the run
07:37and for Hurts to hit him in stride with space to go.
07:41He's hard to tackle, and we've seen some of those things.
07:44He just needs to be on time within the plays, and that will come with time.
07:48Dontavian Wicks, we haven't seen much from him over the years
07:51because he was buried on the depth chart,
07:53and they really are betting on that he was just an kind of overlooked guy.
07:56And from what I've seen throughout training camp, I mean, his build is great.
08:00And in terms of being a physical wide receiver,
08:03they're going to miss that without A.J. Brown.
08:05He was a guy that could really fight off press man coverage,
08:09and they don't really have anyone on the roster that can do that quite like him.
08:14But, you know, on the other side of the football, they brought in Rick Woolen,
08:17who, a cornerback at Seattle, was very physical.
08:20He was 6'4 and plus 210.
08:23And Wicks was the only one that could fight him off in training camp.
08:26So that's one of the things that I think is important on the wide receiver court,
08:29that they do have somebody.
08:31And some of those high-leverage scenarios where they're going to get some press man,
08:35whether that's in the red zone or in goal-to-go scenarios
08:37or some third-down situation,
08:38I think Wicks is going to be the guy that can fight off and get some separation.
08:41So that might be his role.
08:44Otherwise, everything else, it's kind of how is this pure progression read
08:50going to work out with this offense?
08:51Because we've never seen it from how Jalen Hurts runs.
08:54We've never seen Sean Mannion call a play.
08:58So a lot of things there.
09:00But I can kind of start to see the vision of what they see in this wide receiver
09:04court.
09:05Whether that comes to fruition is obviously going to show up on tape.
09:10The new OC, Sean Mannion, comes from Green Bay, where they pound the football.
09:15I want to know about the run game with Saquon Barkley.
09:18Went from 2,000 yards two years ago to 1,100 last year.
09:21Yards per attempt went from 5.8 to 4.1.
09:24And this O-line's been a mainstay, and the power staples that they have
09:28have been really effective.
09:29Now they're going to go with more zone stuff, presumably.
09:31What do you make of some of the changes up front?
09:34I mean, that's the whole basis.
09:37Going back to kind of my answer to you guys about Jalen Hurts earlier,
09:41this is the biggest thing about the offense, in my opinion.
09:44And Saquon Barkley entering his age 29 season still feels like he's in his prime
09:47and he wants to challenge kind of the history of that, of the players that were
09:52able to get above 1,200 yards.
09:53This is a good story that my B partner, Zach Berman, wrote about that was
09:56published today.
09:57I think watching him behind this offensive line over training camp, you're starting
10:02to see how he's able to make great cuts and have time to do so and push towards
10:07the sideline and get some explosive runs.
10:09And every offensive lineman is just saying every lovely thing there could be about
10:16this game because beforehand, it was a power vertical scheme that was putting a lot
10:21of pressure on them in one-on-one scenarios.
10:23And also, they had to exert a lot.
10:25Not that they couldn't do it.
10:26Obviously, the last couple of years were very successful at that.
10:28But they also dealt with injuries.
10:30Cam Juergens, their center, had a back injury.
10:32And Landon Dickerson, their left guard, has had almost a dozen surgeries over the course
10:36of his career.
10:36And both of them went and got stem cell therapy down in Columbia over the offseason to address
10:42those things.
10:43So, you know, this system, as we've seen, as it dates back to Mike Shanahan with the
10:48Denver Broncos and on, this elongates offensive linemen's careers and it makes it easier on
10:53them.
10:54They are able to work in tandem with each other.
10:57They get sideways.
10:58And all those things seem to be an advantage for what they have on the offensive line.
11:02And definitely in Saquon Barkley.
11:04So, the question is, for me, whenever I'm watching this on Sunday, as it relates to last
11:09season, the Eagles were very predictable when it came to when they ran the ball and when
11:12they didn't.
11:13When they were under center, mostly it was like 90% run.
11:16Whenever they were in the shotgun, they were passing.
11:19And when you look at some of the Shanahan, McVay-type offenses, sometimes that number is
11:24flipped.
11:24And Green Bay is saying that as well, too.
11:26So, how much variance is there in the run game?
11:28When are they deciding to use it?
11:30And there's kind of a quote that lives in infamy from last year with Kevin Petula, where he
11:33kind of said, well, they were running it just, you know, when they were running it to run
11:37it.
11:38There's got to be intent.
11:39There's got to be aggression.
11:40They're talking about all those things about how they're going to finally have time on their
11:43side and be more proactive about what they're going to do.
11:48The run game, as it relates to everything, is really going to drive how this offense goes.
11:53All right, Brooks.
11:54Let's get to the unit I'm terrified of, this defense.
11:56What makes it so special?
11:58Who are the guys to watch if you're a Washington fan?
12:00And again, what makes them so good?
12:03They're just complete.
12:04I mean, one of the best depth all around in the league.
12:09You know, up front, they just got both of their top defensive tackles under long-term
12:15extensions, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis.
12:17You know, Zach Bond is still in his prime at linebacker.
12:20He's still playing at an all-pro level.
12:21And then the secondary is one of the best of the NFL, having, you know, two all-pros in
12:25Quinnion Mitchell and Cooper Dejean, who mainly plays nickel.
12:28But his variance, he's going to be playing safety in base packages.
12:31The thing last year, as you all saw watching the Eagles twice a year, was Adoree Jackson
12:36and, you know, a couple other depth players at that CB2 spot.
12:40That was the shortfall that a lot of offenses were trying to exploit.
12:43And the way that the Eagles played throughout the year by putting Cooper Dejean out there
12:47in base packages in other ways, schematically, was masking that.
12:50Now they don't have to really do that as much if Rick Wollin plays to his level.
12:53That's what makes it kind of scary.
12:54In 24, they were getting off the field, a lot of third down, I mean, three and outs.
12:59They didn't do that so much last year, but were still very effective.
13:02I think this is a system that really is going to be getting off the field a lot more.
13:07And, you know, now one of their safeties, Drew Makuba, their second-round pick last year,
13:12they liked him because coming out of Texas had seven interceptions leading the SEC.
13:18That's something that they lacked last year.
13:20So I think there's going to be more turnovers this year,
13:22and they're getting off the field more quickly.
13:24There's just not a lot of vulnerabilities on this team.
13:27I wouldn't know how to attack it.
13:29Brooks Cubina of the Athletic on the Eagles.
13:32Well, I'm going to ask you that anyway.
13:33I mean, based on what you saw, I know you're saying no susceptibilities,
13:37but you've got to draw up a game plan.
13:39What would you try to do?
13:42I mean, just extrapolating from the idea that I didn't know,
13:49it's one of those things where at least commit to what you're able to do.
13:53If you can find, you know, one of the things that I think right now,
13:58the question throughout the week was whether Jonathan Grenard,
14:02their top edge rusher, was going to play.
14:04And I talked to him at his locker yesterday, and he wasn't 100% yet.
14:09And I wonder if the Eagles are going to take that risk,
14:12even in a small package for him where he's maybe playing a, you know,
14:16a pitch count of reps, that's an edge rusher that was supposed to be the leader
14:21of that group.
14:22So, you know,
14:23are you going to try and get the rotation to exploit across the edges?
14:27Like, can you run?
14:28And, you know,
14:29I think Washington has a way of expanding on that this year.
14:34I've been noticing that, you know,
14:36Blau is going to try and commit more to some of these, you know,
14:39tight end packages and using some of the run game.
14:40And I'm curious if that's something that they try to extend,
14:43whether they try and get the Eagles out on the sidelines and try to work the
14:48edges because of Grenard not being available this week.
14:51So maybe that's the stressor point.
14:53And then also Marcus Epps, you know, he's the starting safety,
14:58came off the practice squad and was elevated last year.
15:01Can you catch a moment deep downfield with this team?
15:07And, like, I would be looking for those things.
15:11All right, give us a prediction.
15:12Call your shot.
15:14I think this is going to be 30-17 Eagles.
15:17I just think this defense is going to dictate the game.
15:22And I think the Eagles offense is probably going to be figuring itself out just as much
15:26as the Commanders is.
15:27But, you know,
15:28I think there's more depth on the offensive line.
15:30And in Saquon Barkley, I think they get the run game going.
15:33And I think, to my point earlier about turnovers and such,
15:35I think they will give this offense more opportunities and they'll cash in.
15:40That's what I think will happen.
15:42Brooks, thank you for the time.
15:43We appreciate it.
15:44And thanks for scouting the Eagles for us.
15:46Appreciate you, buddy.
15:47Anytime.
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