00:00I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.
00:04You watch it and you see where into it. It's like really exciting. The storyline's good.
00:07And then you finish it and I'm looking at the film and I'm just like, I was watching it.
00:10Stop calling them films, Mike.
00:12I mean, that is gross and those people are getting paid.
00:14What do we do about Caleb Downs?
00:17Let's talk about it here in Below the Belt slash PostHutClarity,
00:20which is brought to you by D&M Leasing, dmautoleasing.com.
00:25I was going to ask Nick Harris a question with the R word that I am now getting attached to.
00:32Has Caleb Downs been regressing?
00:38So, no-ish.
00:42So here's the thing, is that he's been better in nickel than he has at safety.
00:47And he's had to play a lot more safety lately.
00:49And so I think it's where he's playing.
00:53He got got for a couple things the other night in the nickel.
00:57But in general, he's been better playing nickel for you.
00:59And he's been pretty good there.
01:01I am disappointed.
01:03I would have hoped through this many games there's been one or two dynamic plays that he made.
01:09He had the forced fumble against Jackson Dart that they did not recover.
01:12But that was kind of a blind blitz.
01:14Dart did not see.
01:15But I would have hoped for a dynamic play unless I'm forgetting one.
01:19I mean, he blew up a pass against Washington, right?
01:23Like he jacked up Terry McLaurin or something.
01:27I don't remember that.
01:27You clearly don't either.
01:29If it was that great, we would have remembered.
01:30I don't remember which play it was.
01:31It's that the Commanders have forgettable receivers.
01:33It was Henry.
01:34Well, they only have one receiver that we would ever know.
01:35So it wasn't McLaurin.
01:36It was somebody else.
01:37He blew up Henry.
01:38And he blew up whoever that was.
01:40That was like a third down throw that absolutely jacked him up.
01:43And we thought he was going to get flagged for it.
01:45But he's played well in the nickel.
01:48Like he's been stable.
01:50This is also like the Caleb Downs experience.
01:52Like I got to go back and look and see how many times we said over the summer,
01:56like when he's playing well, you're not going to notice him.
02:00And so it's going to be easy for a lot of people that could be upset with him.
02:02Because it's like when he's playing well, he's going to just be providing stability for you.
02:07That's kind of what he's going to do in the nickel.
02:08But I was watching this back and Kobe Durant was back in this game.
02:15And Kobe Durant has been good this season.
02:18He was one of the few players that was okay against the Giants.
02:21He was good against the Commanders before he got hurt.
02:25And he finally came back in this game and he played well.
02:29He looked good.
02:30Kobe Durant out there looked pretty good.
02:34And I think your best corners are Durant right now in terms of the way they're playing,
02:44Durant, Porter, and probably Downs as a nickel.
02:49I mean, it's Deron Bland who costs you some money right now is not one of those four.
02:55And in my mind, you might be better off just saying the starting lineup is Durant and Porter outside and
03:03Downs playing inside at the nickel.
03:05They played Downs and Durant a little bit together the other night.
03:10When they would, it was usually Durant inside at the nickel and then maybe Downs was playing safety.
03:18Or a couple snaps, they had him outside in place of Bland and Downs would play the nickel.
03:22So, they seem to want to play Durant when he's on the field at corner.
03:26They seem to want to play him inside at the nickel instead of playing him outside that often.
03:31They've done it a little bit, but they've wanted to work him in at the nickel it feels like.
03:35So, since that's Downs' spot, well, now the question is, do I play Durant out here since he's one of
03:40my best corners
03:41and then end up moving Downs to play safety where he's going to have some more responsibility
03:46and I don't know that he's been as consistent out there, or do I just say, hey, they've got to
03:50be uncomfortable with,
03:52they haven't wanted to put Durant outside, go ahead and put him outside and make him play that side
03:55and play Downs in the nickel.
03:57And then you've got Bland sitting on the bench, it's like, why is all this money on the bench and
04:00rotating in?
04:01But, when Durant was on the field the other night, they were, the Eagles in passing situations were 8 for
04:0713,
04:0874 yards in interception, no scores.
04:11They were 1 for 4 on 3rd down with Kobe Durant out there throwing the ball.
04:152 for 6 if you include the 4th down plays.
04:17So, they were holding, keeping everything in front of him.
04:20He played well, he played disciplined.
04:22Joey Porter Jr. obviously has been physical and really, really good to this point.
04:26Downs was playing well with him there together, but the best look to me is Durant outside.
04:31And keep Downs in at nickel, but I don't know that they want to do that.
04:34I think they want Durant to take snaps if he's on the field, giving Downs a breather
04:37and letting Downs play some safety in those instances instead of saying, let's play him outside.
04:41Yeah, I'm fine with it.
04:43Obviously, as fans, we don't care about the salaries.
04:46We want the wins first.
04:48Best player out there.
04:50High-paid player on the bench.
04:52That's a GM front office thing.
04:54Money, price tags.
04:56And to be fair, Bland's been better the last two weeks.
04:58He's not been a glaring eyesore like he was.
05:02I feel the best teams would not worry about the salary necessarily.
05:06It's just, who's playing the best?
05:08That's who's earned the job this week.
05:10They would have to get over the idea of putting Durant outside consistently.
05:15Because they don't want to do it.
05:16They've done it a couple times, but they seem to like to have him in the slot.
05:19I think they think he's a slightly built guy.
05:20And it's not even how the individual plays.
05:22It's like, does the collective unit play better in this situation with these guys on the field?
05:27Yeah, but it is about how the individual plays.
05:29That's how we evaluate you.
05:31If you suck, then the collective unit is going to not be as good.
05:35Correct.
05:36But if you replace that guy with somebody else, and things get shifted around, and while that
05:41guy may individually play better, with everybody else being shifted around, the unit as a whole
05:45plays worse.
05:46You know what I mean?
05:47Yeah, I know what you mean.
05:48What was Caleb Downs' nickel to safety ratio in college?
05:55At Ohio State, it wasn't much nickel at all.
05:57So this is what's blowing my mind.
05:59This whole damn thing is backwards to me.
06:02So now it's, we're afraid, there's a generational safety prospect to some, lockdown top 10, we're
06:09all doing backflips.
06:10But now we're saying...
06:12Can't play safety.
06:13If he plays safety, he's really out of, it's weird, it's unfamiliar.
06:17No, it's as a rookie, as a rookie, it's just there's going to be more of a, like, there's
06:21going to be more that he's going to have on his plate as a safety that he's probably not
06:24as ready to contribute now.
06:26He'll be fine.
06:27He'll be a pro-hole safety in the future.
06:29What do you mean?
06:30What do you mean?
06:30Safety is one of the hardest transition spots in the NFL, in terms of, like, being able
06:34to just immediately jump in and do it the right way.
06:37You've got a lot of responsibility on your plate as a communicator.
06:41Sounds backwards to me.
06:43Nickel, Nickel is, the modern Nickel is a lot of times a safety player.
06:46So, I mean, a lot of the responsibilities are going to be the same because you're kind
06:49of a box player who could give run support or who could go off into coverage.
06:54It's not like, I think when we think of Nickel from previous years, it's like, that's a straight
06:59up corner.
06:59And it's not.
07:00They get asked to do a lot of run support stuff and they're a big part of the communication
07:06of what they do and that's something that he can handle.
07:08But at safety, there's a lot more to process, specifically in what Vic Fangio does.
07:12Like, that kind of Fangio scheme, which Parker has emulated a lot of, there's just a lot more
07:17to process.
07:18And he's capable of it, but the reality is he's still 22 and a rookie.
07:22Like, there is as much as he's prepared and he's going to be one of the top processors
07:26out there.
07:27It's going to take time.
07:29Like, still, like, there's still stuff that you got to see at the NFL level that's like,
07:32this is new.
07:32And he was better prepared because of Matt Patricia.
07:35But, I mean, you're not going to play nearly as much just straight up 11 personnel NFL looks
07:41that would cause you to be in Nickel nearly as often.
07:44But at Alabama, with Saban, he did play Nickel a lot.
07:46He was asked to cover a lot more than he was at Ohio State.
07:50All right.
07:50Some of the other stuff coming out of this game as we do post-hut below the belt.
07:55Demar being overshone, really nice game.
07:58They need to do something at linebacker, though, because obviously he's not reliable in terms
08:03of his health.
08:04And I don't think Shamar James is good enough.
08:08And Jayshon Barham is still adjusting to being an NFL linebacker.
08:12God, when he is...
08:13What happened in the second half?
08:15With Barham?
08:16I mean, he wasn't out there.
08:17So, I don't know.
08:18Like, I mean, he wasn't out there.
08:20I don't know if he took any snaps in the second half.
08:22If he did, it was very, very little.
08:24But, no, it was just...
08:26It was Shamar James.
08:27It was Demar being overshone.
08:28It was Justin Barron.
08:29Like, those were the guys that were out there a lot more.
08:32In fact, let me see here.
08:35Jayshon Barham...
08:35But you think he got benched.
08:37I think that's what choppy's getting to.
08:39I don't know if he was banged up or benched.
08:40I'm not sure.
08:40He played 23 plays in this game.
08:42He played nothing in the second quarter.
08:46He had a handful of snaps in the third and then very late at the end of the fourth.
08:50And you talk about everything being thrown on Down's plate.
08:52I mean, Barham got a ton put on his plate, too.
08:55Oh, yeah.
08:56Right.
08:56Well, and this one with James taking on the green dot, like, the theory, like, you would
08:59think he'd be just freer to play.
09:01But, I mean, obviously, with Overshone being back in there and some things they do, James
09:05is just...
09:07I think James plays really hard, and I think he's physical.
09:11I think he just...
09:12He doesn't play under control.
09:13And there's too many times where there's cutback lanes or other things that can present themselves.
09:18And Ja'Sean Barham, to be fair, man, don't get him in space.
09:21If you can get a swing pass in the flat with Barham, that's a...
09:25He can make the tackle every now and then, but that's a good shot that you're going to
09:27be able to get him off balance and pick up 15 yards if you can do that.
09:31So, linebacker is back to being one of their big concerns right now.
09:34We're at the bad version of Kenny Clark again.
09:37Clark was bad in this game.
09:38He's had a couple games where he's not been very good recently.
09:41And he had stacked a couple good games early where it was like, okay, Baltimore, we're seeing
09:45a guy, right?
09:45Houston, we're seeing a guy who can play a little bit again.
09:48These last three weeks have not been great for him.
09:51And he's got to be better.
09:54I mean, this is still...
09:55The Oso-Odigizua thing is still kind of an under-discussed part of a decision that was
10:02made by Christian Parker.
10:03Because we all talk about what the personnel is and how things are clicking.
10:05That's a personnel call of his that he made, was that he doesn't fit.
10:09Jadavion Clowney doesn't fit.
10:10Both those guys are playing well, and Kenny Clark is struggling again.
10:13And then the biggest positive takeaway, and I think you can take away the biggest thing
10:16out of, regardless of it being the Eagles or not, what is something that you can extrapolate
10:21out?
10:22This is the version of the offensive line they wanted.
10:24Yeah.
10:25The first two weeks with Tyler Smith back, they looked out of sorts.
10:28They weren't communicating very well.
10:30This was dominant across the board.
10:33Pass blocking, run blocking.
10:35Guyton played great.
10:36Tyler Booker did have a dominant football game.
10:38He was mugging Jalen Carter in this game.
10:41Brian Baldinger put it out there.
10:44Louis Riddick said, if there was ever an occasion where an offensive lineman deserved to be
10:49recognized as the player of the game, Tyler Smith should be awarded that distinction.
10:53He kicked everyone's ass on the Eagles D-line.
10:56He went against over and over and over and over and over and over again from Louis Riddick
11:02on Tyler Smith.
11:03This is it.
11:04And Schottenheimer yesterday.
11:05Smith or Booker?
11:06Smith.
11:06Both were great.
11:08Booker was the one that I felt like I saw Booker move in people in a way that was similar
11:13to old Zach Martin.
11:15Not that he's that guy regularly, but it was that kind of a game.
11:18Offensive line, this was like 2014 Cowboys offensive line in terms of how well they played
11:21against a banged up opponent, but they played really, really well.
11:24And Zach Martin looked like Corey Majors nodding his head in agreement in the hallway.
11:29Post-Hut Clarity with Roberto.
11:31Post-Hut Clarity with Roberto.
