May 7, 2025 • 43 mins
NFL Senior Writer Matt Lombardo brings the heat with his Eagles and NFL In-depth knowledge in this fast pace round the horn dose of video serotonin with The Philly Pulse triumvirate!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Yeah, that's the big dog hunt Loo again. Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome to another episode of the Philly Pulse Your City
Sports Speed. I'm your host Joe stay Zach along with
my two co hosts, John lock Theer and Michael Ward.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
How you doing, fellas.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Fan tabulous?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You sounded? Can we get the energy up a little bit?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hello? I'm ready to go there?
Speaker 4 (00:23):
I use, I use?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He toned down the I try that again.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Does my microphone look good?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Runnier face and it'll be better.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Now, here's all about appearances.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
He just wants to without further ado, we do have
a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He's been waiting around while we've been cobitching for like
fifteen minutes off the air. He's Matt Lobardo. He's got uh,
mister substack. He's also one of the senior writers at
Grid Island Heroics, senior writer for He was senior writer
for Heavy. He just is basically an NFL senior writer.
Covers all the teams and let's bringing man. He was
also my partner at ninety seventy five The Fanatic for
(00:58):
many many years. Coming on right now to lend some
insights what's going on in the NFL. As we had
to do some more meetings in late Many. I think
the twenty first we'll be talking more about the push
push eye of the story coming out on that out
on that later tonight. And as we're still trying to
get Lumbo in meeting connecting the audio.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Joe, you probably pushed the wrong button.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
No, I just put there is.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Your little sideways, a little little upside down there sideways.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
No, he does that every time, every time he comes time.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Man, every time. Welcome to show brother.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thanks for having me doing Man, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Man? You look good? Brother, you look good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Still wearing that Super Bowl fifty seven shirt and it
still kills me every time I see him wearing that shirt.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Which one is this? I think this is fifty two?
I think this is never Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well it looks to me like a ten? All right?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Or is that officially an Eagles throwback super Bowl? We're
actually talking about having throwback super Bowls?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Great funny, Yeah. I try to get something from all
the super Bowls I've covered, like we got the we
got the pennant from all uh all five up there.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
So during Man, I'm taking that TV setup?
Speaker 5 (02:16):
You got you like that?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh, yeah, Command Center on Sundays during the season.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Three games at once, Man, do you have three for that?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (02:27):
No, they're they're smart TVs. So I stream. I have
YouTube TV, so I have Sunday tickets. So I've got,
like you red Zone on one for the one o'clock window,
I have red Zone on one and then uh three
different games and four o'clock. Sometimes you get lucky and
there's only three three games on the four o'clock windows.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You can zero is still on dial up, So I know.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I always I always ask Sean the fact stuff to me.
He never does.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
I think we need to be a substack call them
some Monday or a midweek feature of Like what's it
like watching a game with Lombardo on Sunday that the
editor on Sunday?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I'm getting my phones blown up by one guy boom
boom boom. I'm learning about all thirty two teams in
all sixteen games. He goes around the league. It's uh,
it's fun on Sundays. Man, working with you and watching you.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Was a past man. You make the content better, you
make it sick.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's got all these stories juggling I got it takes
me like nine hours to one brother, let's tell it.
Let's just keep it home first and then we'll spread
out a little bit. The Eagles not a lot going
on right now. I mean, I know they lost the
scouting director and we'll maybe we'll get to that later.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
But the Tush push, I don't know, if you saw Mike.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Florio with Rich Eyesen the other day, if PFF's Mike Floory.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Talked about people, I don't think do people know.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How shady it is by the league a little bit
that they actually these proposals.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The league kind of gives them.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
To teams and then says, yeah, you take this, make
it look like you're against the Tush push or or
you want to lead the resheetings they gave to the lines,
and that's what.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It kind of looks like. Basically, the gist of it was,
you know, if the.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
League won something, they'll they'll get it done, and it
looks like Roger Goodell instead of shelving the whole Packers thing.
Because of the intricacies of the you know, it has
to be a delay or wait a second after the
ball's handed out the way the Packers wrote it up,
they just pushed it another month and said we let's
we visit it and then maybe we'll get rid of
just the pushing altogether. What do you think of the process,
(04:29):
What are your thoughts in the process. You know, Rich
McKay from the Falcons has been doing it for a while.
Do you think they need to change kind of the
chair of the rules committee once in a while.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Yeah, I'm not sure about the inner workings of who
should be chairing the competition committee and all those sort
of things. But I do find it interesting that when
they couldn't get a consensus at one round of meetings
on this rule in particular, that they would give the
packers the opportunity to rewrite the proposal and open it
up again in about a week or two's time from now.
And what's going to be really interesting is that I
(05:00):
don't have the numbers in front of me. I wasn't
sure we were going to be going here tonight. But
the actual impact of the tush push by the Philadelphia Eagles,
the success rate juxtaposed against a traditional quarterback sneak. The
quarterback sneaked at all thirty two teams across the league
run it isn't that significant. The Eagles aren't getting a
(05:21):
significant benefit from the Toush push compared to just running
the quarterback sneak. Now, the push certainly helps, but I
think that what gives the Eagles the opportunity to be
so successful year in year outrunning this is they have
a dominant center. They have a quarterback who with the
very low center of gravity, a lot of lower body
strength in jail and hurts that can really leverage himself
(05:43):
in that pile. That if you take the push element away,
I'm not so sure that this still isn't If the
number at the top of my head is an eighty
three percent hit rate, I don't know if they're still
going to hit at eighty to eighty one percent even
without the push. So I think that this ruling, if
they do wind up outlawing and banning the Tousch push,
(06:03):
that it's going to take away innovation from the league,
which is disappointing. Whether it's an Eagles play or a
Dallas Cowboys player, a Buffalo Bills play, it doesn't really
matter in my opinion. It's which team came up with it,
which team ran it as efficiently as they have. But
I don't think from just a strictly Philadelphia Eagles standpoint
that banning the toush push is going to significantly change
(06:25):
what they do offensively. I'd still hazard a guess that
Nick Sirianni's going to go for it on fourth and one,
fourth in inches, fourth and two pretty frequently with or
without the toush push element of this.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I mean, it's just not sexy. Roger doesn't want it.
It just it doesn't seem like it's a sexy play
to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
The look of it, No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And Matt, to your point, the Eagles practice of it
as well, and they perfected it man right.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
And then my point all along has been sean if
there is a health and safety component to this, if
there is injury data that says that defensive players get
injured x amount percentage higher on the toush porstion on
a regular QB, sneak, if an offensive lineman or a
quarterback gets injured exponentially more often on a tush push
(07:14):
versus a quarterback, sneak, present the data and make a
public so that even if the teams have that data,
that the fans would understand the backlash. But my understanding
is that there isn't that significant injury rate. They don't
think that's kind of a cover.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They don't know. I mean, the only people that got
hurt who are the giants?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But that's just Lappable or Jones on the Chiefs say,
I mean he lined up sideways? What do you expect?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I mean the reason people don't do that.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I mean it's yeah, I guess the one thing that
I'm so excited is there's this huge debate about Jahad
Campbell's number thirty choice this week. I mean, it feels
good to be sitting pretty if that's all we're talking
about this week.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm a guy who's always
kind of tried to like they evolved the number of
the Big Game because at the end of the day,
it's a Jersey number, right. I know there are certain
reporters and and talk radio hosts in that city that
have built entire careers around things such as Jersey numbers.
I try not to get down in the muck and
(08:16):
the mire. And that's coming from a Kido war number
forty six as a tight end in youth ball, So
not a sexy number.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Nod it.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So, Matt, who you know, I haven't talked to you
since the playoffs. I mean, sorry, now, that's fine, that's fine,
Joe Numbers sig you got pulled in damn so so
Matt who like who surprised you? This playoffs leading up
to the Super Bowl where you just look back at
this total run and just be like, I mean, subtract
(08:50):
the big boys, subtract Saquon, subtract Jalen Who was that
one person when you look back and you're like, wow,
huge impact throughout the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, I'm gonna go slightly different direction here. I'm gonna
get myself a slight pad on the back. I'm not
known to do such things, but going into last year's draft,
I did have Cooper dejene as my number one rated
defensive player going into that draft, and of course he
has the pick six that really took the air out
of the balloon for the Kansas City Chiefs in that
Super Bowl. Was a real catalyst for what they did there.
(09:23):
And I think that when you look at other individual performances,
you know, thinking back Reblanket Ship emerged in a way
that I thought he elevated his game in the postseason
even higher than what we saw out of him in
the regular season and Josh Sweat, I mean, here's a
guy who made a legitimate case, a legitimate argument to
(09:44):
be the Super Bowl MVP with that performance against Kansas City.
Made himself some serious coin in free agency on the
back of that performance. But you know, buying large guys.
That playoff run was forged by Sakon Barkley and the
big runs against the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game.
It was forged by Saquon Barkley in the playoff win
(10:07):
over the Los Angeles Rams to put that game on
ice in the snow. It was forged by Jail it hurts.
It was forged by a j Brown rising to the occasion.
It was the superstars that powered that Eagles team. The
depth players, I think obviously rose to the occasion. But
the reason why you have to be so optimistic if
you're an Eagles fan moving forward is that CORP is
(10:27):
still in place on offense, and a lot of the
key pieces on defense are back, and they're all young
and all of a sudden.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
So they're all go ahead, Joe, So I'm sorry, no
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Maddie looked like for a long time the rumor mill
was swirling around Goddard and the trade rumors for him,
and they he was still here coming, you know, dead
draft Day, Dallas Goddter was and they didn't move them
and they didn't draft anyone on draft Day, So why
(10:59):
was there so much about moving him?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He has a year left.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I think he would be pretty physically sound to at
least let him play for that last year before they
don't have to do something with him and then maybe
you know, recycle or drafting another guy, or have another
guy coming through the ranks and you know, kind of
like the whole arch left and then got her and
maybe the next one. I don't think Calcatre is a
guy who's gonna fill either of their shoes. But what's
the deal with the tight end situation?
Speaker 5 (11:22):
You know, I think a lot of that was pre
draft speculation and formed speculation on my part. When you
start to look at the guys like Elijah or Royo
Ferguson out of Oregon, there were a lot of really
dynamic pass catching tight ends that the Eagles could have
selected in around two, around three, And you know, Dallas Goddard,
he's going to become expensive at some point. This is
(11:43):
the last year of his rookie deal. And I think
that a lot of the decisions the Eagles made, you know,
trading away c J. Gardner, Johnson, allowing Makai Becton to walk,
a lot of those decisions were made with an eye
towards the future. You're going to have to make Jalen
Carter one of the highest paid defensive tackles in the league,
probably approaching Chris Jones money. Nolan Smith is getting better,
(12:06):
You're going to have to pay Nolan Smith. There are
a lot of young core players on that roster, homegrown
players that need to be taken care of. And I
don't think that the Eagles view tight end when you
have an offense with an AJ Brown, with a Devonte Smith,
with the Saquon Barkley all already cashed up. The thought
process was that if you could restart the pay scale
(12:29):
at that position with a player like in Arroyo, like
a Ferguson, like any number of these tight ends that
would have been available one Day two or Day three
in the draft, that you could get by and get
an asset in return for Dallas Goddard. You can put
that money to work on some of your core players
at premium positions and have a young, affordable player that
(12:51):
you're developing at tight end on an offense that's already
loaded with weapons and.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
At eleven million. To me, if you're trying to run
it back, what were you going to get for him
in trade over the week of the draft weekend?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Five? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I mean to me, he's worth more to your team now.
Kind of to your point, Matt, when you talk about
bringing in someone else, I felt, since they drafted him,
this guy is so good and so athletic, they don't
really use him a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Granted there's one football.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, hurt Aj.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
DeVante, we're running out of footballs now, I get it.
But when they need him, I mean that Saints game,
would he have ten for one to seventy? Something like that? Matt,
my close.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Something of the game. They're late. I know the guy's
colliding with each other.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But on the mesh play he ran down the sideline
that was the ballgame.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
The Saints game, and down in New Orleans in the
regular season, right where they were behind, right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
The last to get him down there for sake, want
to punch it in, Yes, yes, because I'm thinking he
got the ball down. I've never seen I thought outside
of Jalen Hurt, he was the best player on the
field in Super Bowl fifty seven. I know Patrick Mahomes
didn't get all the bells and muscles. He was phenomenal,
played great in the Super Bowl. This year he comes
up and begins. The problem with him, knock on him
(14:12):
is yet he misses about four games a year, so
he's still.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
In the games of the year, and you'll have one
or two clutch moments like that, but you also have
a lot of moments where Dallas Goddard isn't involved in those.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Moments, so he's still on the roster.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I think he has.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
More value to you now at eleven million. And you
know what, and Matt you can comment on this too.
He wasn't the only tight end that was up because
my first thought is the Colts need a tight end.
Obviously they took Tyler Warren and I write about them
for Heavy so I know way too much about way
too minutia with that team. If Godard's available, we have
(14:50):
open communication. You know, certain teams trade better with other
teams between Sirianni Steike and obviously there's connections there. I
thought he'd be an easy trade for a fifth round
pick that could probably I don't even know making that up.
That's probably what even bets. But Mark Andrews was also
reportedly I don't know if he was openly on the block,
but when they talked to Ravens, people like, well, we'll
(15:10):
see that means he's available. Pick up your phone. And
Kyle Pitts for Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I thought Kyle Pits would be more apt to be
great to hear. But yes, you're right, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
There seemed to be veteran tight ends for those that
wanted him. It doesn't seem like anybody wanted them.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Yeah. The problem was it was such a deep tight
end class. I mean you had four or five, six
seven tight ends. I mean you mentioned Tyler Warren Coaston
Loveland was the first tight end allf the board. It
was a very deep tight end class. So I think
that the teams that needed tight ends knew that they
didn't need to trade an asset to bring in a
Dallas Goddard or bring in a Kyle Pits, that they
(15:46):
could get their guy through the NFL draft. Because this
was again you have four or five, six seven guys
that are legitimate pass catching tight ends. Because of the
way that position is used in college football today, not
necessarily as much as an inline blocker in the running game,
but someone you're gonna line up in the slot, that
you're going to move around, that you're going to target
(16:07):
in the passing game. That the trade value for a
Dallas Goddard with that eleven million dollar price tag for
one more year, it just wasn't advantageous when you could
take a guy in round three that's probably gonna start
for you and catch fifty balls.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Senior NFL writer Matt Lombardo from Between the hash Marks
and also from Gridiron Heroics, joins the Philly Post tonight.
Matt I wrote an article about this guy, but a
month ago because it came out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I forget who show he.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Was on, and we joked at it in time of
microphones and in front of his mouth, He'll tell you
whatever team is closer, I want to go there. He's
been saying that though he's been consistent, Justin Simmons of
safety has been simmoned, four time All Pro safety Justin
Simmons and he's still out there as a free agent,
that he wants to come to Philly. He'd like to
come to Philly. He has a thing with the defensive coordinator,
(16:57):
Big Fangio when they were in Denver together and they.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Got rid of CJ. Gardner Johnson, so it seemed to
be like a good fit. Why is he still there?
Speaker 5 (17:06):
This feels like one of those you know when, rather
than if situations about Justin Simmons landing in Philadelphia, you
talk about the fic Fangio connection. He's also played under
Christian Parker, the Eagles defensive backs coach, as a strong
rapport with him, and you know, I know the rebound
the blanket ship is there. I know they just drafted
Andy mc andrew mccoober, who has immediate starter potential, one
(17:26):
of my favorite picks in the NFL draft. I think
one of the bigger steals the Eagles were able to
land there. But this is a really young secondary. You're
talking about starting a second year corner in Quinjon Mitchell
played at a really high level. Second year corner in
Cooper Degen played at a really high level. But you
don't have that strong veteran leadership voice. I know they
have Sidney Brown back there who they really like. Well,
(17:47):
you talk about bringing in a safety you can you
can move around, play a couple of different positions, be
that coach on the field, be that veteran presence. Simmons
seems like an ideal fit. And when you start to
get through that first and second wave of reagency guys,
once it falls off where these signings don't factor into
the compensatory draft formulas. Sometimes veterans just don't want to
(18:08):
go to OTAs. Sometimes these guys just don't want to
go through the spring and go to many camps and
you know, go to these facilities from the middle of
May through the end of June. They'd rather just show
up in training camp.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Even then if they can skip training camp.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
And some guys do you know what I mean, God
bless them if they can get that deal. I do
think this winds up happening because if there was a
strong market for Justin Simmons, if he was going to
be a top of the depth chart type of player,
immediate starter or somewhere, he probably jumps at that opportunity.
The Eagles have the cap space, they have the need
to have the opening wouldn't surprise me in the least,
(18:46):
especially given his connections to the coaching staff, that he
winds up in filling.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Is that your boldus prediction for the Eagles offseason for
the rest of it.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
I just don't know, Sean what other moves there are
to make, right exactly right, you know the offensive line
that they have their two deep depth chart pretty much
set there. You're not going to go and add another
wide receiver. You bring in aj Dillon, You're not going
to go get a backup running back. It just seems
like if there's one more move to make, that would
(19:17):
be the move because it's the one spot where you
can look at and say, you know, this is one
of the deepest rosters in the league, It's one of
the most talented defenses in the league. Safety, though, you
might need a proven commodity because as much as Reblanket
Ship came up big in some big moments a year ago,
I don't necessarily view them as one of those top
flight safeties in the league. Justin Simmons would check that
(19:38):
box in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
So the move is not viral again, Yeah, right, so
the moves thus far, but I obviously we were all
shocked with you know CJGJ. We knew there were some cuts.
I think you know how he warned us before where
it's going to be a little bit different. Towards the end,
you might see some moves. I mean, what do you
(20:00):
think so far?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Yeah, Sean, you remember you saw Men in Black?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Right, you saw the movie Men in Brown? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
My Monday morning column on the sub stack after free agency,
when some of these moves started to go down, I
kind of called out Eagles fans because all of you
need to look into the natalizer and realize what just happened. Okay,
this is a team, this is a general manager who
built one of the deepest rosters across the National Football League.
(20:27):
They've been to two Super Bowls over the past two years.
Not to borrow a line from Aaron Rodgers, but people
need to r e lax here, all right, because you know,
if the Eagles move on or let McKay Beckton walk,
it's probably because Jeff Stotlin sees something in Green that
he can develop and get to that level. Because mckaie
(20:48):
Beckton was far from a Pro Bowl caliber linebacker when
he arrived at Stotland University. Kenyon Green might have been
a disappointment in Houston, but there's a chance Jeff Statlin
sees something he can develop. They've drafted really well, they've
had a lot of young guys rise through the ranks
across that death chart. And you know, there were people
that I saw on social media, on Instagram, on threads
(21:09):
that were just losing their minds about how can the
Eagles let this guy walk? How could they trade Gardner Johnson?
How could they do this? How could they do that?
Just look into the thing, wipe your brain, and come
back in August in training camp, look at the roster
and say, Okay, this is still the most talented team
in that division. They're probably still the favorites to represent
(21:30):
the NFC in the Super Bowl. They have the star power,
they have the depth, and eventually you're going to need
to sign some of those homegrown players. It's a lot
easier to do when you're not overpaying CJ. Gardner Johnson
and you're paying a rookie and a player Draft of
the year before.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
See, they didn't even if they didn't have the draft.
I felt like they could go to war with whatever
they lost in free agency and play to day.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I mean they could, because I think they're still loaded.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Are we looking at with losing slayh Are we looking.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
At hold on guys? Hold on guys? Would you rather
be in the Philadelphia Eagles situation with the roster they
have in place? Or would you rather be the Detroit
Lions losing two coordinators and you don't even none of
you could tell me who the edge rusher is starting
opposite of Er Hutchinson and they didn't draft one. Would
you rather be the Philadelphia Eagles. I'll make a case
(22:22):
that the Washington Commanders might be better positioned than Philadelphia right now,
based on what they did this offseason with Jayden Daniels ascending,
going out and getting Deebo Samuel drafting some of the
pieces they did. I'll buy the argument that the Commanders
might have closed the gap. But outside of Washington, San
Francisco a talent drain like you haven't seen Seattle. They're
(22:46):
betting big that the lightning in the bottle from Sam
Donald a year ago wasn't just the byproduct of Kevin
O'Connell's system, and Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on the
receiving end there the Rams, you're betting big that, looking
at Matthew Stafford, declining isn't going to start to happen
this year. So outside of the Commanders, who I was
(23:08):
bullsh on a year ago. I'm optimistic about this year.
I don't know that there's a situation in the NFC
where I look at and I say, even with what
the Eagles have lost, that I would rather be in
that situation than the team that Nick Sirianni's going to
lead out of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
In September, Joe was freaking out when they started making
these moves and I was trying to tell him the
relaxed top.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
It the uh.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
It was a question mark about what the Eagles were
going to do with the thirty second pick, And of
course I wrote a story and then everyone jumped on
the bandwagon and how we read my story to and
all of a sudden, Jehad Campbell become becomes a viable option.
He falls to thirty two, and of course, you know,
I mean we worked on that store together too, me
and you or maybe you gave it to me. Either way, Yeah,
(23:55):
Campbell drops like like I thought that they'd go up again.
My prediction was they'd go up and get him, like
maybe in the mid twenties with Minnesota who only had
four picks coming in.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
But he continued to drop, and then I guess just
to do the safe thing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They flipped with Kansas City, you know, one spot, fifth
round pick, and they got you hot Campbell, which kind
of irks some people who are just like all the
Eagles keep getting better and better. But why do you
think so many people were scared of him? You know,
we had the labor issue and maybe some knee issues,
but a lot of guys have that.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Yeah, what's funny, Joe is I was putting I put
together one mock draft every year going into the draft.
It drops the Monday before the draft. It's my tradition
for the last like four or five years. And I
try to actually like make some calls, talk to some
agents who are talking to every team, talk to some
of my sources inside of these buildings, some scouts, some coaches,
(24:47):
and I'm putting this thing together, and I'm like, oh,
JOHI Campbells still on the board. That's interesting, Oh, because
you're putting together based on like what you're hearing about
teams and what you think they might need, and to
I thought you Campbell is gonna be a great fit
for the Eagles, And I'm putting together my mock draft
and he's still there at number thirty. Two, and I'm like,
all right, fine, John Campbell thirty two. So the Tuesday
(25:10):
before the draft Threads, you can follow me there at
Matt Lombardo NFL kind of meta's version of Twitter, the
social network that we don't speak of. I was chosen
to take part in an NFL mock draft me in
about fifteen different NFL reporters, creators that have a strong
presence on Threads. I was given three teams to draft for.
(25:32):
It was the Las Vegas Raiders, it was the Chicago Bears,
and it was the Philadelphia Eagles. And I'm sitting there
waiting for pick thirty two to come around, and sure enough,
Joha Campbell keeps sliding, keeps falling, Lombardo on the clock
at thirty two, Johat Campbell to the Philadelphia Eagles. So
(25:52):
that's how the Stayzac story.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Because I like him. I don't know if I'll get it,
all right, I'm gonna go with that.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Freedown linebacker thumper, always around the football. And you know
they brought back Zach Bond all Pro. You can make
a defensive Player of the Year argument on the fringes
of that conversation a year ago. Now you have two
of them. Now you have two really good linebackers the
foundation of that linebacking corps. Who knows what Nikobe Dean's
health situation is going to be like coming off of
(26:21):
that injury. You kind of reset the clock there get
a playmaker in the middle of the defense, which you
Hog Campbell. And the reason they moved up to thirty
one is the Chiefs were getting a lot of interest
in that pick. You saw the clips of the Washington
Commanders released. The Eagles tried to move up with the
Commanders because there were teams trying to trade up to
go and get you Hog Campbell. So this was how
(26:41):
he's guy, This was who we wanted. That was kind
of the whispers that I heard going into the draft
and kind of formulated my own mock draft process.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Well, since you're talking about moving up, this guy was
the story of the draft pretty much last until Day three.
Sanders fifth round picked to the Brown. I know you
wrote about Joe Flacco today and maybe signs are on
the signs are on the wall about for Joe Flatterer,
(27:10):
what Joe Flacco is going to do? They signed him
and then they draft the kid from Oregon. They get
Kenny Pickett from Philly.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And they don't forget the Seawan.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, Deshaun Watson lurking out there somewhere at various you know,
massage salons around the Cleveland area.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
But Sanders, okay, I thought, okay, maybe a value picked fine,
But they were talks because the Browns traded up and
they picked him with the fifty picks after they picked
up Gabriel from Oregon. There was talk to the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I don't know how that gets out there, but the
Eagles might be looking at shir Door Sanders. Was that
Did you hear anything about that? And would that have
been a I don't know if there's been a good
spot for him. I know the Eagles how we think
she runs the quarterback factory here. But was there any
legitimacys SD that.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Yeah. I think that was a lot of connecting of
the dots because here's what happened with shod Or Sanders.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I've written about this in the column. I talked about
it on Fox twenty nine the night after the draft.
Shure Sanders was never going top five. There are certain
players every year going into the draft where the media
and we were all guilty of this we all get
people get into lockstep. They see Schnor Sanders the top
five pick, So you put together the mock draft, you
put him at number five. I think I had him
(28:22):
at number nine under the assumption that the Saints would
overdraft a quarterback. But everything I had heard going into
the draft was that he was going to slide. Now,
I didn't think in my wildest imagination he would slide
to the fifth round. But I talked to an executive
from an AFC East team immediately after the draft, and
I said, talk to me what happened here? And he
(28:45):
told me flat out that Dion Sanders, the media and
Colorado were a lot higher on Shore Sanders than anyone
else inside the league, and certainly any other team or
any other executive. His team had a late round three
grade on Shore Sanders. So if you start thinking about
the slide from round three to round five, that's a
(29:07):
lot different than slipping from number five overall to fifth round. Right,
And here's the issue. It wasn't just shud Or Sanders's tape.
I talked to multiple people in multiple buildings across the league,
as well as the agent who represents a player who
was in Las Vegas. His client was on a Top
thirty visit the same day as shod Or Sanders was
(29:28):
on a visit, and he said that Sanders came off
as arrogant, ignorant, kind of stammed Alfhish to the other
players who were on the visit at the same time.
Todd McShay reported the New York Post that during a
visit with the New York Giants, Brian Dable asked him
to identify a route concept for a play on the
big board, because that's what they do in these visits.
You've seen in the NFL Combine videos. Behind the scenes,
(29:50):
they'll throw a play on the board and that's the quarterback.
What happened here? How do you go through your progressions?
How's this supposed to go? So forth and so on?
Should or blew them off? Basically said he didn't know
what he was talking about. The Giants took him off
their board at that point. The Giants that are a
team that flew to Colorado twice. They're a team that
put them through a private workout they were in until
(30:11):
that visit. The Raiders moved him off their board after
their Top thirty visit. So when you start to hear
all this, right, you start to hear about all the issues,
it comes down to, Okay, this is now going to
be a backup quarterback, not a starting quarterback. This is
now going to need to be a situation ideally where
you have a strong, established veteran quarterback who there's no
(30:33):
risk that shoudor Sanders is going to rock the boat.
You have a strong leadership voice in your locker room
where they're not going to be distracted by people asking
the Shador Sanders questions. They're going to be able to
handle the media circus on the first day of OTA's
first day training camp and onward, and then it becomes
just background noise. That's where the conversation with the Eagles
(30:54):
came in. We know they drafted a quarterback, they took
him a cord late. They were in on Shador Sanders
just based on how the infrastructure to support that storyline
that was going to bubble up and oh, by the way, yeah,
there's some value there because let's say that he's mis
Sior Sandings that a lot of people saw on tape,
that a lot of media analysts saw, and don't wear
a top five pick. Now you've taken a top ten
(31:15):
prospect with the fifth round selections. He did incredible value there.
So I do think if he was on the board,
I do think there's a very good chance he would
have putting on an Eagle's hat. On draft weekend, Well.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Let me ask you this man, because I was talking
with a friend of mine who's been around the league
for years, was in the league for a while, and
I had the thought of because the Raiders had two
third round picks back to back at the end of
the third, didn't sniff him. And I thought, boy, I know,
Brady's got more influence than the average minority NFL owner.
(31:47):
If the Raiders have half a brain, he will because
whatever they're doing is not working. They've won two games.
I'm sorry, they've won had two winning seasons in the
last twenty years. That's terrible. And so I was like,
I wonder if Brady said, don't do it, and talking
to my friend, he goes, wow, you know what now
that now I think about it. Dion had Brady work
(32:07):
out with shador. I guess at some point in the
off season he's like, if that didn't go well, He's like,
you might be exactly right, Maybe bra I don't know this.
I was totally speculating. But if he had a good
workout with Brady, wouldn't he been like, find a way
to get this guy, especially with two late thirds at
that point. Do you think Brady had any influence as
to whether or not they were going to draft him.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
It's possible, But I can just tell you, Micah, that
visit was a disaster. They all were, matt and you
have you have these visits for a reason. But here's
the thing. Whether they all were or they all weren't,
each one of them happens in a vacuum, right, what
happens in Las Vegas. They don't care about what happens
in Buffalo. They don't care about what happens in New York.
If they can relate to the kid, if they like
(32:50):
the kid, If Tom Brady thought he owned the workout,
maybe you overlook some of those things. I'm just telling
you from my conversations, from what I told, well, they
don't him after that, after that visitor was off the board. No,
he's not on board.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
The general consensus seemed to be that he had an
attitude of you're in I'm interviewing you. I mean, that's
a very very different dynamic than these pre draft visits.
And for sure, the fact that he didn't have an agent,
an agent could have said this is what people are saying,
he could have prepared him. He never left his dad's bubble.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Right, that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Too, although his dad kind of did the same thing.
What they're picking when seventh better not been talking. I mean,
I'm gonna ask her the seventh Yeah, he would do that.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
He did that to the Giants.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
And then let me ask you this because I get it,
kids got a bit, maybe an attitude, or he's too
you know, maybe he shows up like Brian Bosworth or whoever.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Tell it matter if the kid could play, if the
kid was, you know, dying.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
He's cam Ward. If he's cam Ward, he's going top
five or top ten, So that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Wouldn't have mattered. But he was. She was kind of
like that wouldn't have mattered then, right.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
I spoke to an executive two months before the draft
to ask him and we probably worked on this story.
You and I, you know, tell me about the quarterbacks
in the draft? What should people expect one quarterback? And
maybe cam Ward is a franchise guy. And if that
executive is telling me then that there might be one quarterback.
What does that say about how he views sharor Sanders,
(34:23):
And you know, you think about what he did. He
had Travis Hunter on the receiving end in Colorado. He
was also sacked an obscene amount of times. And when
you start to look at some of the tape, there
were a lot of times where you scrambled into some
of those hits. It wasn't avoiding the sack in the pocket.
It wasn't getting rid of the football to avoid hits.
It was welcoming and playing your way into those sacks.
(34:45):
And listen, some of that stuff is correctable. But if
the tape is already the tape of a third round
prospect and the attitude only makes it worse, you're not
helping yourself. And then you think about he went to
the East West Shrine game, didn't compete in the practices,
didn't throw, went to the NFL combine, didn't work out,
(35:06):
didn't throw. So now you're having Dylan Gabriel go to
the senior ball. I wasn't blown away by what I saw,
but he was there, and he might have been the
best quarterback of a very mediocre bunch of quarterbacks. But
you have an extra week to evaluate Dylan Gabriel, You
have an extra week to evaluate Jalen Milroe. Then they
go to the combine and they throw, and they work out,
and they go to these meetings and you have all
(35:28):
of these extra touch points where you can get to
know the kid and maybe overlook some of the flaws
or realized that, hey, what I heard in New York
is it what this kid is? Right? But the Sanders
camp removed the opportunity for Shador to check those boxes
by limiting the NFL's access to him in the pre
(35:48):
draft process because they were convinced they were going top three.
They thought that doing the Senior Ball and the Combine
can only hurt them, when the reality was it was
only going to boost his stock. It was pretty low
to begin with.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
That's Deon, rightuse Deon runs that camp right.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Yeah, yeah, Matt, you should do a thirty for thirty
on this story. Man, I'd watch it.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Well.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
The other thing too, is that was that was great ship.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
It was really good. Starts to slide and you get
into the third round. Now teams are drafting backups, not
come play and start. So now it's do I want
to bring a backup in that comes with the circus
right and could absorb that better than other franchise.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
And and that's why the teams like the Eagles were
in play. That's why you know, I started to suggest
that maybe Kansas City or Baltimore even could be in play,
because you know, Lamar Jackson isn't going anywhere. That franchise
has had a history of rogue actors, right, the Bills,
Josh Allen isn't going anywhere. You start to think about
(36:53):
teams that have the infrastructure and the established quarterbacks. Only
so many teams check those boxes. I don't think the
Cleveland Browns do. And I think that by taking both
Shudor Sanders and Dylan Gabriel, you've now limited the first
team reps, so Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett if'renna have
some sort of competition, and the developmental backup reps are
(37:15):
now split between side Or Sanders and Dylan Gabriel as well,
so you have less practice time to evaluate these kids,
which is why I just have a hard time seeing
Joe Flacco on this roster Week one because, as I
wrote in the column on Monday, this can't be a
nostalgia tour. It has to be an evaluation year because
they have two first round picks going into next year
because of the trade with the Jaguars in a far deeper,
(37:38):
far more talented quarterback class. If you know that Dylan
Gabriel and Schudor Sanders aren't your guy, you know you
can go in trade for Arch Manning or Drew Aller
and get your quarterback and feel good about it. But
if you don't know, what do you do? What? You're
stuck in Cleveland Brown's quarterback hell forever?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
They've been there though they're used to it. What about
the Cleveland Browns quarterback room isn't dumb? So the guy?
No one even like, oh, they got four quarterbacks, I'm like, oh,
you're forgetting one, mister. Three first round picks, two fifty
fully guaranteed. Remember that guy that's hurt all the time
and stinks when he plays, he's still there. You got
five quarterbacks. Now, I'm not a huge college football person.
(38:16):
I'll say that off the bat. But people I saw
are you on Blue Sky, Matt? The people I was
talking to on Blue Sky, I'll follow you. Some people
that watched Oregon They're like, I can't believe he even
got drafted. I didn't watch. I don't know is this guy?
I don't know. They know more than I do. And
then you got the fifth round media circus, arrogant guy
and Joe Flacco is fifty four this year, I think
(38:38):
he is. And Kenny Pickett, who's trying to prove he can.
Kenny Pickett's not bad, He's okay, but he is what
he is. It's such a brown situation, and they're in
this situation like they are all the time. You know,
you're talking about trade up to get they could be
drafted one overall. They are constantly in the top three.
Speaker 5 (38:56):
But if you are, if you are drafting number one overall,
isn't a lot easier to take the best offensive tackle
or the best edge rusher knowing that one of those
two young quarterbacks is ready to roll? Or do you
go into not knowing what these two are and you're
just taking Arch Manning or Drew Aller and saying, hey, guys,
(39:17):
go figure it out in camp, and you're just resetting
the clock. It just feels like they're not going anywhere
this year. They're certainly not the Baltimore Ravens. They're not
overtaking a motivated Joe Burrow and an improved Bengals defense. Right,
who knows what happens in Pittsburgh with their quarterback situation.
But if I were running the Browns, every snap would
(39:38):
be evaluating whether Dylan Gabriel or Sure Sanders of the future.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That might be Week three, depending on where beings go.
The Browns are hysterical. For all the Eagles fans that
complain on sports radio, you talk about an unbelievable fan
base that is just kicked between the legs every year.
Those poor people at least they got Lebron years ago.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
I've been real quick before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
How is it that you mentioned Arch Manning might be
the consensus number one overall pick next year. The guy
who started in front of him went in the seventh round.
How is there such a disparities between the quarterback room
Yours went in the seventh round? What but open our backups.
He's supposed to be the number one, He's supposed to
be testaverity. Actually, what is that about?
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Have you missed the lineage that is the Manning family.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
By and he's got like you know, you've got some
distant relatives. You can throw a little bit, but I mean,
come on, appreciate you from between the hatch hash marks
on a substack and also uh Grida and her oach
what else you got going?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
What do you got going this week? The rest of
between the hash march.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
Yeah, the mailbag on Friday is always a lot of fun.
People ask their questions and I pose the questions to
NFL executives and get some answers for you. We're also
reading every single franchise between now and training camp getting
underway grading the offseason of all thirty two today was
the Arizona Cardinals Jonathan Gannon squad. I happened to like
(41:10):
a lot of what they've done, high grade A minus.
You bring in Josh Sweat, You bring in Walter Norwan.
You bring in Will Johnson, who was a top ten
cornerback who for some reason tumbled into the second round.
How that happened? He doesn't know how that happened. Apparently
word got out about some sort of knee injury. But
(41:31):
I'm told the knee injury was healed and handled two
years ago, and he slid into the second round. So
you added two top ten defenders after signing Josh Sweat,
after signing Dalvin Tomlinson for a defense that only around
allowed twenty two points per game last year. I had
an executive tell me they're going to be sneaky good.
I kind of believe them, especially in that division.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, we shall shay it. Good stuff, Matt Lombardo. We
appreciate a bubb We'll keep an eye out for your stuff.
I'm a subscriber subscribed to Matt Lombardo on sub stack,
and we appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
Pal, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Guys, thanks of course, thanks Matt.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Good All right, fellas, we got to run too.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
We've gone a little bit over our budget, so we
got a roll for the Philly Post. Joe stays act,
Shawn locked There Any final thoughts.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
No, it's a great episode, man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
A lot of info.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
He had a lot of info, absolutely a lot of
stuff on the door. And he used to cover the giants.
I was just his team one team. Now he covers
a few and Mike he almost covers many as Mike,
and Mike has covered like thirteen teams for the have.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
You Mike, I gotta get on board, man, come on,
let's talk.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
There's stuff to be written.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
No more teams.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah, they still I still have multiple people in my
section and they yeah, whatever, Well.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I'm getting all my work together for my first interview,
so fingers good.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Well, we're gonna work us tomorrow night, right, we gotta.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
We'll chat about it absolutely, all right.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Well, good stuff, fellas, we got it wrong.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
We'll see you next week and uh, Micah, I'll talk
to you also this week, and uh I'll be back
next Tuesday, so we'll rock and roll.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I might be in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Room or I might be back home Tuesday, says I
will bring my laptop and I'm so mused to be
home tuesday, so hopefully I'll be doing it for.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Don't we don't throw excuses here, not at all.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Prayers, prayers, Okay, you're gonna get you.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Absolutely, guys, thanks for watching. Everyone for the Philly Pulse
just stays act saying good night. We'll see you next week.
Yeah, that's the big dog hunt Loo again. Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome to another episode of the Philly Pulse Your City
Sports Speed. I'm your host Joe stay Zach along with
my two co hosts, John lock Theer and Michael Ward.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
How you doing, fellas.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Fan tabulous?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You sounded? Can we get the energy up a little bit?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hello? I'm ready to go there?
Speaker 4 (00:23):
I use, I use?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He toned down the I try that again.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Does my microphone look good?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Runnier face and it'll be better.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Now, here's all about appearances.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
He just wants to without further ado, we do have
a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He's been waiting around while we've been cobitching for like
fifteen minutes off the air. He's Matt Lobardo. He's got uh,
mister substack. He's also one of the senior writers at
Grid Island Heroics, senior writer for He was senior writer
for Heavy. He just is basically an NFL senior writer.
Covers all the teams and let's bringing man. He was
also my partner at ninety seventy five The Fanatic for
(00:58):
many many years. Coming on right now to lend some
insights what's going on in the NFL. As we had
to do some more meetings in late Many. I think
the twenty first we'll be talking more about the push
push eye of the story coming out on that out
on that later tonight. And as we're still trying to
get Lumbo in meeting connecting the audio.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Joe, you probably pushed the wrong button.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
No, I just put there is.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Your little sideways, a little little upside down there sideways.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
No, he does that every time, every time he comes time.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Man, every time. Welcome to show brother.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thanks for having me doing Man, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Man? You look good? Brother, you look good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Still wearing that Super Bowl fifty seven shirt and it
still kills me every time I see him wearing that shirt.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Which one is this? I think this is fifty two?
I think this is never Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well it looks to me like a ten? All right?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Or is that officially an Eagles throwback super Bowl? We're
actually talking about having throwback super Bowls?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Great funny, Yeah. I try to get something from all
the super Bowls I've covered, like we got the we
got the pennant from all uh all five up there.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
So during Man, I'm taking that TV setup?
Speaker 5 (02:16):
You got you like that?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh, yeah, Command Center on Sundays during the season.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Three games at once, Man, do you have three for that?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (02:27):
No, they're they're smart TVs. So I stream. I have
YouTube TV, so I have Sunday tickets. So I've got,
like you red Zone on one for the one o'clock window,
I have red Zone on one and then uh three
different games and four o'clock. Sometimes you get lucky and
there's only three three games on the four o'clock windows.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You can zero is still on dial up, So I know.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I always I always ask Sean the fact stuff to me.
He never does.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
I think we need to be a substack call them
some Monday or a midweek feature of Like what's it
like watching a game with Lombardo on Sunday that the
editor on Sunday?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I'm getting my phones blown up by one guy boom
boom boom. I'm learning about all thirty two teams in
all sixteen games. He goes around the league. It's uh,
it's fun on Sundays. Man, working with you and watching you.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Was a past man. You make the content better, you
make it sick.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He's got all these stories juggling I got it takes
me like nine hours to one brother, let's tell it.
Let's just keep it home first and then we'll spread
out a little bit. The Eagles not a lot going
on right now. I mean, I know they lost the
scouting director and we'll maybe we'll get to that later.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
But the Tush push, I don't know, if you saw Mike.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Florio with Rich Eyesen the other day, if PFF's Mike Floory.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Talked about people, I don't think do people know.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How shady it is by the league a little bit
that they actually these proposals.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The league kind of gives them.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
To teams and then says, yeah, you take this, make
it look like you're against the Tush push or or
you want to lead the resheetings they gave to the lines,
and that's what.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It kind of looks like. Basically, the gist of it was,
you know, if the.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
League won something, they'll they'll get it done, and it
looks like Roger Goodell instead of shelving the whole Packers thing.
Because of the intricacies of the you know, it has
to be a delay or wait a second after the
ball's handed out the way the Packers wrote it up,
they just pushed it another month and said we let's
we visit it and then maybe we'll get rid of
just the pushing altogether. What do you think of the process,
(04:29):
What are your thoughts in the process. You know, Rich
McKay from the Falcons has been doing it for a while.
Do you think they need to change kind of the
chair of the rules committee once in a while.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Yeah, I'm not sure about the inner workings of who
should be chairing the competition committee and all those sort
of things. But I do find it interesting that when
they couldn't get a consensus at one round of meetings
on this rule in particular, that they would give the
packers the opportunity to rewrite the proposal and open it
up again in about a week or two's time from now.
And what's going to be really interesting is that I
(05:00):
don't have the numbers in front of me. I wasn't
sure we were going to be going here tonight. But
the actual impact of the tush push by the Philadelphia Eagles,
the success rate juxtaposed against a traditional quarterback sneak. The
quarterback sneaked at all thirty two teams across the league
run it isn't that significant. The Eagles aren't getting a
(05:21):
significant benefit from the Toush push compared to just running
the quarterback sneak. Now, the push certainly helps, but I
think that what gives the Eagles the opportunity to be
so successful year in year outrunning this is they have
a dominant center. They have a quarterback who with the
very low center of gravity, a lot of lower body
strength in jail and hurts that can really leverage himself
(05:43):
in that pile. That if you take the push element away,
I'm not so sure that this still isn't If the
number at the top of my head is an eighty
three percent hit rate, I don't know if they're still
going to hit at eighty to eighty one percent even
without the push. So I think that this ruling, if
they do wind up outlawing and banning the Tousch push,
(06:03):
that it's going to take away innovation from the league,
which is disappointing. Whether it's an Eagles play or a
Dallas Cowboys player, a Buffalo Bills play, it doesn't really
matter in my opinion. It's which team came up with it,
which team ran it as efficiently as they have. But
I don't think from just a strictly Philadelphia Eagles standpoint
that banning the toush push is going to significantly change
(06:25):
what they do offensively. I'd still hazard a guess that
Nick Sirianni's going to go for it on fourth and one,
fourth in inches, fourth and two pretty frequently with or
without the toush push element of this.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I mean, it's just not sexy. Roger doesn't want it.
It just it doesn't seem like it's a sexy play
to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
The look of it, No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
And Matt, to your point, the Eagles practice of it
as well, and they perfected it man right.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
And then my point all along has been sean if
there is a health and safety component to this, if
there is injury data that says that defensive players get
injured x amount percentage higher on the toush porstion on
a regular QB, sneak, if an offensive lineman or a
quarterback gets injured exponentially more often on a tush push
(07:14):
versus a quarterback, sneak, present the data and make a
public so that even if the teams have that data,
that the fans would understand the backlash. But my understanding
is that there isn't that significant injury rate. They don't
think that's kind of a cover.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They don't know. I mean, the only people that got
hurt who are the giants?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But that's just Lappable or Jones on the Chiefs say,
I mean he lined up sideways? What do you expect?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I mean the reason people don't do that.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I mean it's yeah, I guess the one thing that
I'm so excited is there's this huge debate about Jahad
Campbell's number thirty choice this week. I mean, it feels
good to be sitting pretty if that's all we're talking
about this week.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm a guy who's always
kind of tried to like they evolved the number of
the Big Game because at the end of the day,
it's a Jersey number, right. I know there are certain
reporters and and talk radio hosts in that city that
have built entire careers around things such as Jersey numbers.
I try not to get down in the muck and
(08:16):
the mire. And that's coming from a Kido war number
forty six as a tight end in youth ball, So
not a sexy number.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Nod it.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So, Matt, who you know, I haven't talked to you
since the playoffs. I mean, sorry, now, that's fine, that's fine,
Joe Numbers sig you got pulled in damn so so
Matt who like who surprised you? This playoffs leading up
to the Super Bowl where you just look back at
this total run and just be like, I mean, subtract
(08:50):
the big boys, subtract Saquon, subtract Jalen Who was that
one person when you look back and you're like, wow,
huge impact throughout the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, I'm gonna go slightly different direction here. I'm gonna
get myself a slight pad on the back. I'm not
known to do such things, but going into last year's draft,
I did have Cooper dejene as my number one rated
defensive player going into that draft, and of course he
has the pick six that really took the air out
of the balloon for the Kansas City Chiefs in that
Super Bowl. Was a real catalyst for what they did there.
(09:23):
And I think that when you look at other individual performances,
you know, thinking back Reblanket Ship emerged in a way
that I thought he elevated his game in the postseason
even higher than what we saw out of him in
the regular season and Josh Sweat, I mean, here's a
guy who made a legitimate case, a legitimate argument to
(09:44):
be the Super Bowl MVP with that performance against Kansas City.
Made himself some serious coin in free agency on the
back of that performance. But you know, buying large guys.
That playoff run was forged by Sakon Barkley and the
big runs against the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game.
It was forged by Saquon Barkley in the playoff win
(10:07):
over the Los Angeles Rams to put that game on
ice in the snow. It was forged by Jail it hurts.
It was forged by a j Brown rising to the occasion.
It was the superstars that powered that Eagles team. The
depth players, I think obviously rose to the occasion. But
the reason why you have to be so optimistic if
you're an Eagles fan moving forward is that CORP is
(10:27):
still in place on offense, and a lot of the
key pieces on defense are back, and they're all young
and all of a sudden.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
So they're all go ahead, Joe, So I'm sorry, no
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Maddie looked like for a long time the rumor mill
was swirling around Goddard and the trade rumors for him,
and they he was still here coming, you know, dead
draft Day, Dallas Goddter was and they didn't move them
and they didn't draft anyone on draft Day, So why
(10:59):
was there so much about moving him?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He has a year left.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I think he would be pretty physically sound to at
least let him play for that last year before they
don't have to do something with him and then maybe
you know, recycle or drafting another guy, or have another
guy coming through the ranks and you know, kind of
like the whole arch left and then got her and
maybe the next one. I don't think Calcatre is a
guy who's gonna fill either of their shoes. But what's
the deal with the tight end situation?
Speaker 5 (11:22):
You know, I think a lot of that was pre
draft speculation and formed speculation on my part. When you
start to look at the guys like Elijah or Royo
Ferguson out of Oregon, there were a lot of really
dynamic pass catching tight ends that the Eagles could have
selected in around two, around three, And you know, Dallas Goddard,
he's going to become expensive at some point. This is
(11:43):
the last year of his rookie deal. And I think
that a lot of the decisions the Eagles made, you know,
trading away c J. Gardner, Johnson, allowing Makai Becton to walk,
a lot of those decisions were made with an eye
towards the future. You're going to have to make Jalen
Carter one of the highest paid defensive tackles in the league,
probably approaching Chris Jones money. Nolan Smith is getting better,
(12:06):
You're going to have to pay Nolan Smith. There are
a lot of young core players on that roster, homegrown
players that need to be taken care of. And I
don't think that the Eagles view tight end when you
have an offense with an AJ Brown, with a Devonte Smith,
with the Saquon Barkley all already cashed up. The thought
process was that if you could restart the pay scale
(12:29):
at that position with a player like in Arroyo, like
a Ferguson, like any number of these tight ends that
would have been available one Day two or Day three
in the draft, that you could get by and get
an asset in return for Dallas Goddard. You can put
that money to work on some of your core players
at premium positions and have a young, affordable player that
(12:51):
you're developing at tight end on an offense that's already
loaded with weapons and.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
At eleven million. To me, if you're trying to run
it back, what were you going to get for him
in trade over the week of the draft weekend?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Five? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I mean to me, he's worth more to your team now.
Kind of to your point, Matt, when you talk about
bringing in someone else, I felt, since they drafted him,
this guy is so good and so athletic, they don't
really use him a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Granted there's one football.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, hurt Aj.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
DeVante, we're running out of footballs now, I get it.
But when they need him, I mean that Saints game,
would he have ten for one to seventy? Something like that? Matt,
my close.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Something of the game. They're late. I know the guy's
colliding with each other.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But on the mesh play he ran down the sideline
that was the ballgame.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
The Saints game, and down in New Orleans in the
regular season, right where they were behind, right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
The last to get him down there for sake, want
to punch it in, Yes, yes, because I'm thinking he
got the ball down. I've never seen I thought outside
of Jalen Hurt, he was the best player on the
field in Super Bowl fifty seven. I know Patrick Mahomes
didn't get all the bells and muscles. He was phenomenal,
played great in the Super Bowl. This year he comes
up and begins. The problem with him, knock on him
(14:12):
is yet he misses about four games a year, so
he's still.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
In the games of the year, and you'll have one
or two clutch moments like that, but you also have
a lot of moments where Dallas Goddard isn't involved in those.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Moments, so he's still on the roster.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I think he has.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
More value to you now at eleven million. And you
know what, and Matt you can comment on this too.
He wasn't the only tight end that was up because
my first thought is the Colts need a tight end.
Obviously they took Tyler Warren and I write about them
for Heavy so I know way too much about way
too minutia with that team. If Godard's available, we have
(14:50):
open communication. You know, certain teams trade better with other
teams between Sirianni Steike and obviously there's connections there. I
thought he'd be an easy trade for a fifth round
pick that could probably I don't even know making that up.
That's probably what even bets. But Mark Andrews was also
reportedly I don't know if he was openly on the block,
but when they talked to Ravens, people like, well, we'll
(15:10):
see that means he's available. Pick up your phone. And
Kyle Pitts for Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I thought Kyle Pits would be more apt to be
great to hear. But yes, you're right, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
There seemed to be veteran tight ends for those that
wanted him. It doesn't seem like anybody wanted them.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Yeah. The problem was it was such a deep tight
end class. I mean you had four or five, six
seven tight ends. I mean you mentioned Tyler Warren Coaston
Loveland was the first tight end allf the board. It
was a very deep tight end class. So I think
that the teams that needed tight ends knew that they
didn't need to trade an asset to bring in a
Dallas Goddard or bring in a Kyle Pits, that they
(15:46):
could get their guy through the NFL draft. Because this
was again you have four or five, six seven guys
that are legitimate pass catching tight ends. Because of the
way that position is used in college football today, not
necessarily as much as an inline blocker in the running game,
but someone you're gonna line up in the slot, that
you're going to move around, that you're going to target
(16:07):
in the passing game. That the trade value for a
Dallas Goddard with that eleven million dollar price tag for
one more year, it just wasn't advantageous when you could
take a guy in round three that's probably gonna start
for you and catch fifty balls.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Senior NFL writer Matt Lombardo from Between the hash Marks
and also from Gridiron Heroics, joins the Philly Post tonight.
Matt I wrote an article about this guy, but a
month ago because it came out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I forget who show he.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Was on, and we joked at it in time of
microphones and in front of his mouth, He'll tell you
whatever team is closer, I want to go there. He's
been saying that though he's been consistent, Justin Simmons of
safety has been simmoned, four time All Pro safety Justin
Simmons and he's still out there as a free agent,
that he wants to come to Philly. He'd like to
come to Philly. He has a thing with the defensive coordinator,
(16:57):
Big Fangio when they were in Denver together and they.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Got rid of CJ. Gardner Johnson, so it seemed to
be like a good fit. Why is he still there?
Speaker 5 (17:06):
This feels like one of those you know when, rather
than if situations about Justin Simmons landing in Philadelphia, you
talk about the fic Fangio connection. He's also played under
Christian Parker, the Eagles defensive backs coach, as a strong
rapport with him, and you know, I know the rebound
the blanket ship is there. I know they just drafted
Andy mc andrew mccoober, who has immediate starter potential, one
(17:26):
of my favorite picks in the NFL draft. I think
one of the bigger steals the Eagles were able to
land there. But this is a really young secondary. You're
talking about starting a second year corner in Quinjon Mitchell
played at a really high level. Second year corner in
Cooper Degen played at a really high level. But you
don't have that strong veteran leadership voice. I know they
have Sidney Brown back there who they really like. Well,
(17:47):
you talk about bringing in a safety you can you
can move around, play a couple of different positions, be
that coach on the field, be that veteran presence. Simmons
seems like an ideal fit. And when you start to
get through that first and second wave of reagency guys,
once it falls off where these signings don't factor into
the compensatory draft formulas. Sometimes veterans just don't want to
(18:08):
go to OTAs. Sometimes these guys just don't want to
go through the spring and go to many camps and
you know, go to these facilities from the middle of
May through the end of June. They'd rather just show
up in training camp.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Even then if they can skip training camp.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
And some guys do you know what I mean, God
bless them if they can get that deal. I do
think this winds up happening because if there was a
strong market for Justin Simmons, if he was going to
be a top of the depth chart type of player,
immediate starter or somewhere, he probably jumps at that opportunity.
The Eagles have the cap space, they have the need
to have the opening wouldn't surprise me in the least,
(18:46):
especially given his connections to the coaching staff, that he
winds up in filling.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Is that your boldus prediction for the Eagles offseason for
the rest of it.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
I just don't know, Sean what other moves there are
to make, right exactly right, you know the offensive line
that they have their two deep depth chart pretty much
set there. You're not going to go and add another
wide receiver. You bring in aj Dillon, You're not going
to go get a backup running back. It just seems
like if there's one more move to make, that would
(19:17):
be the move because it's the one spot where you
can look at and say, you know, this is one
of the deepest rosters in the league, It's one of
the most talented defenses in the league. Safety, though, you
might need a proven commodity because as much as Reblanket
Ship came up big in some big moments a year ago,
I don't necessarily view them as one of those top
flight safeties in the league. Justin Simmons would check that
(19:38):
box in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
So the move is not viral again, Yeah, right, so
the moves thus far, but I obviously we were all
shocked with you know CJGJ. We knew there were some cuts.
I think you know how he warned us before where
it's going to be a little bit different. Towards the end,
you might see some moves. I mean, what do you
(20:00):
think so far?
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Yeah, Sean, you remember you saw Men in Black?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Right, you saw the movie Men in Brown? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
My Monday morning column on the sub stack after free agency,
when some of these moves started to go down, I
kind of called out Eagles fans because all of you
need to look into the natalizer and realize what just happened. Okay,
this is a team, this is a general manager who
built one of the deepest rosters across the National Football League.
(20:27):
They've been to two Super Bowls over the past two years.
Not to borrow a line from Aaron Rodgers, but people
need to r e lax here, all right, because you know,
if the Eagles move on or let McKay Beckton walk,
it's probably because Jeff Stotlin sees something in Green that
he can develop and get to that level. Because mckaie
(20:48):
Beckton was far from a Pro Bowl caliber linebacker when
he arrived at Stotland University. Kenyon Green might have been
a disappointment in Houston, but there's a chance Jeff Statlin
sees something he can develop. They've drafted really well, they've
had a lot of young guys rise through the ranks
across that death chart. And you know, there were people
that I saw on social media, on Instagram, on threads
(21:09):
that were just losing their minds about how can the
Eagles let this guy walk? How could they trade Gardner Johnson?
How could they do this? How could they do that?
Just look into the thing, wipe your brain, and come
back in August in training camp, look at the roster
and say, Okay, this is still the most talented team
in that division. They're probably still the favorites to represent
(21:30):
the NFC in the Super Bowl. They have the star power,
they have the depth, and eventually you're going to need
to sign some of those homegrown players. It's a lot
easier to do when you're not overpaying CJ. Gardner Johnson
and you're paying a rookie and a player Draft of
the year before.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
See, they didn't even if they didn't have the draft.
I felt like they could go to war with whatever
they lost in free agency and play to day.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I mean they could, because I think they're still loaded.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Are we looking at with losing slayh Are we looking.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
At hold on guys? Hold on guys? Would you rather
be in the Philadelphia Eagles situation with the roster they
have in place? Or would you rather be the Detroit
Lions losing two coordinators and you don't even none of
you could tell me who the edge rusher is starting
opposite of Er Hutchinson and they didn't draft one. Would
you rather be the Philadelphia Eagles. I'll make a case
(22:22):
that the Washington Commanders might be better positioned than Philadelphia right now,
based on what they did this offseason with Jayden Daniels ascending,
going out and getting Deebo Samuel drafting some of the
pieces they did. I'll buy the argument that the Commanders
might have closed the gap. But outside of Washington, San
Francisco a talent drain like you haven't seen Seattle. They're
(22:46):
betting big that the lightning in the bottle from Sam
Donald a year ago wasn't just the byproduct of Kevin
O'Connell's system, and Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on the
receiving end there the Rams, you're betting big that, looking
at Matthew Stafford, declining isn't going to start to happen
this year. So outside of the Commanders, who I was
(23:08):
bullsh on a year ago. I'm optimistic about this year.
I don't know that there's a situation in the NFC
where I look at and I say, even with what
the Eagles have lost, that I would rather be in
that situation than the team that Nick Sirianni's going to
lead out of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
In September, Joe was freaking out when they started making
these moves and I was trying to tell him the
relaxed top.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
It the uh.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
It was a question mark about what the Eagles were
going to do with the thirty second pick, And of
course I wrote a story and then everyone jumped on
the bandwagon and how we read my story to and
all of a sudden, Jehad Campbell become becomes a viable option.
He falls to thirty two, and of course, you know,
I mean we worked on that store together too, me
and you or maybe you gave it to me. Either way, Yeah,
(23:55):
Campbell drops like like I thought that they'd go up again.
My prediction was they'd go up and get him, like
maybe in the mid twenties with Minnesota who only had
four picks coming in.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
But he continued to drop, and then I guess just
to do the safe thing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They flipped with Kansas City, you know, one spot, fifth
round pick, and they got you hot Campbell, which kind
of irks some people who are just like all the
Eagles keep getting better and better. But why do you
think so many people were scared of him? You know,
we had the labor issue and maybe some knee issues,
but a lot of guys have that.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Yeah, what's funny, Joe is I was putting I put
together one mock draft every year going into the draft.
It drops the Monday before the draft. It's my tradition
for the last like four or five years. And I
try to actually like make some calls, talk to some
agents who are talking to every team, talk to some
of my sources inside of these buildings, some scouts, some coaches,
(24:47):
and I'm putting this thing together, and I'm like, oh,
JOHI Campbells still on the board. That's interesting, Oh, because
you're putting together based on like what you're hearing about
teams and what you think they might need, and to
I thought you Campbell is gonna be a great fit
for the Eagles, And I'm putting together my mock draft
and he's still there at number thirty. Two, and I'm like,
all right, fine, John Campbell thirty two. So the Tuesday
(25:10):
before the draft Threads, you can follow me there at
Matt Lombardo NFL kind of meta's version of Twitter, the
social network that we don't speak of. I was chosen
to take part in an NFL mock draft me in
about fifteen different NFL reporters, creators that have a strong
presence on Threads. I was given three teams to draft for.
(25:32):
It was the Las Vegas Raiders, it was the Chicago Bears,
and it was the Philadelphia Eagles. And I'm sitting there
waiting for pick thirty two to come around, and sure enough,
Joha Campbell keeps sliding, keeps falling, Lombardo on the clock
at thirty two, Johat Campbell to the Philadelphia Eagles. So
(25:52):
that's how the Stayzac story.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Because I like him. I don't know if I'll get it,
all right, I'm gonna go with that.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Freedown linebacker thumper, always around the football. And you know
they brought back Zach Bond all Pro. You can make
a defensive Player of the Year argument on the fringes
of that conversation a year ago. Now you have two
of them. Now you have two really good linebackers the
foundation of that linebacking corps. Who knows what Nikobe Dean's
health situation is going to be like coming off of
(26:21):
that injury. You kind of reset the clock there get
a playmaker in the middle of the defense, which you
Hog Campbell. And the reason they moved up to thirty
one is the Chiefs were getting a lot of interest
in that pick. You saw the clips of the Washington
Commanders released. The Eagles tried to move up with the
Commanders because there were teams trying to trade up to
go and get you Hog Campbell. So this was how
(26:41):
he's guy, This was who we wanted. That was kind
of the whispers that I heard going into the draft
and kind of formulated my own mock draft process.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Well, since you're talking about moving up, this guy was
the story of the draft pretty much last until Day three.
Sanders fifth round picked to the Brown. I know you
wrote about Joe Flacco today and maybe signs are on
the signs are on the wall about for Joe Flatterer,
(27:10):
what Joe Flacco is going to do? They signed him
and then they draft the kid from Oregon. They get
Kenny Pickett from Philly.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And they don't forget the Seawan.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, Deshaun Watson lurking out there somewhere at various you know,
massage salons around the Cleveland area.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
But Sanders, okay, I thought, okay, maybe a value picked fine,
But they were talks because the Browns traded up and
they picked him with the fifty picks after they picked
up Gabriel from Oregon. There was talk to the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I don't know how that gets out there, but the
Eagles might be looking at shir Door Sanders. Was that
Did you hear anything about that? And would that have
been a I don't know if there's been a good
spot for him. I know the Eagles how we think
she runs the quarterback factory here. But was there any
legitimacys SD that.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Yeah. I think that was a lot of connecting of
the dots because here's what happened with shod Or Sanders.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I've written about this in the column. I talked about
it on Fox twenty nine the night after the draft.
Shure Sanders was never going top five. There are certain
players every year going into the draft where the media
and we were all guilty of this we all get
people get into lockstep. They see Schnor Sanders the top
five pick, So you put together the mock draft, you
put him at number five. I think I had him
(28:22):
at number nine under the assumption that the Saints would
overdraft a quarterback. But everything I had heard going into
the draft was that he was going to slide. Now,
I didn't think in my wildest imagination he would slide
to the fifth round. But I talked to an executive
from an AFC East team immediately after the draft, and
I said, talk to me what happened here? And he
(28:45):
told me flat out that Dion Sanders, the media and
Colorado were a lot higher on Shore Sanders than anyone
else inside the league, and certainly any other team or
any other executive. His team had a late round three
grade on Shore Sanders. So if you start thinking about
the slide from round three to round five, that's a
(29:07):
lot different than slipping from number five overall to fifth round. Right,
And here's the issue. It wasn't just shud Or Sanders's tape.
I talked to multiple people in multiple buildings across the league,
as well as the agent who represents a player who
was in Las Vegas. His client was on a Top
thirty visit the same day as shod Or Sanders was
(29:28):
on a visit, and he said that Sanders came off
as arrogant, ignorant, kind of stammed Alfhish to the other
players who were on the visit at the same time.
Todd McShay reported the New York Post that during a
visit with the New York Giants, Brian Dable asked him
to identify a route concept for a play on the
big board, because that's what they do in these visits.
You've seen in the NFL Combine videos. Behind the scenes,
(29:50):
they'll throw a play on the board and that's the quarterback.
What happened here? How do you go through your progressions?
How's this supposed to go? So forth and so on?
Should or blew them off? Basically said he didn't know
what he was talking about. The Giants took him off
their board at that point. The Giants that are a
team that flew to Colorado twice. They're a team that
put them through a private workout they were in until
(30:11):
that visit. The Raiders moved him off their board after
their Top thirty visit. So when you start to hear
all this, right, you start to hear about all the issues,
it comes down to, Okay, this is now going to
be a backup quarterback, not a starting quarterback. This is
now going to need to be a situation ideally where
you have a strong, established veteran quarterback who there's no
(30:33):
risk that shoudor Sanders is going to rock the boat.
You have a strong leadership voice in your locker room
where they're not going to be distracted by people asking
the Shador Sanders questions. They're going to be able to
handle the media circus on the first day of OTA's
first day training camp and onward, and then it becomes
just background noise. That's where the conversation with the Eagles
(30:54):
came in. We know they drafted a quarterback, they took
him a cord late. They were in on Shador Sanders
just based on how the infrastructure to support that storyline
that was going to bubble up and oh, by the way, yeah,
there's some value there because let's say that he's mis
Sior Sandings that a lot of people saw on tape,
that a lot of media analysts saw, and don't wear
a top five pick. Now you've taken a top ten
(31:15):
prospect with the fifth round selections. He did incredible value there.
So I do think if he was on the board,
I do think there's a very good chance he would
have putting on an Eagle's hat. On draft weekend, Well.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Let me ask you this man, because I was talking
with a friend of mine who's been around the league
for years, was in the league for a while, and
I had the thought of because the Raiders had two
third round picks back to back at the end of
the third, didn't sniff him. And I thought, boy, I know,
Brady's got more influence than the average minority NFL owner.
(31:47):
If the Raiders have half a brain, he will because
whatever they're doing is not working. They've won two games.
I'm sorry, they've won had two winning seasons in the
last twenty years. That's terrible. And so I was like,
I wonder if Brady said, don't do it, and talking
to my friend, he goes, wow, you know what now
that now I think about it. Dion had Brady work
(32:07):
out with shador. I guess at some point in the
off season he's like, if that didn't go well, He's like,
you might be exactly right, Maybe bra I don't know this.
I was totally speculating. But if he had a good
workout with Brady, wouldn't he been like, find a way
to get this guy, especially with two late thirds at
that point. Do you think Brady had any influence as
to whether or not they were going to draft him.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
It's possible, But I can just tell you, Micah, that
visit was a disaster. They all were, matt and you
have you have these visits for a reason. But here's
the thing. Whether they all were or they all weren't,
each one of them happens in a vacuum, right, what
happens in Las Vegas. They don't care about what happens
in Buffalo. They don't care about what happens in New York.
If they can relate to the kid, if they like
(32:50):
the kid, If Tom Brady thought he owned the workout,
maybe you overlook some of those things. I'm just telling
you from my conversations, from what I told, well, they
don't him after that, after that visitor was off the board. No,
he's not on board.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
The general consensus seemed to be that he had an
attitude of you're in I'm interviewing you. I mean, that's
a very very different dynamic than these pre draft visits.
And for sure, the fact that he didn't have an agent,
an agent could have said this is what people are saying,
he could have prepared him. He never left his dad's bubble.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Right, that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Too, although his dad kind of did the same thing.
What they're picking when seventh better not been talking. I mean,
I'm gonna ask her the seventh Yeah, he would do that.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
He did that to the Giants.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
And then let me ask you this because I get it,
kids got a bit, maybe an attitude, or he's too
you know, maybe he shows up like Brian Bosworth or whoever.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Tell it matter if the kid could play, if the
kid was, you know, dying.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
He's cam Ward. If he's cam Ward, he's going top
five or top ten, So that.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Wouldn't have mattered. But he was. She was kind of
like that wouldn't have mattered then, right.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
I spoke to an executive two months before the draft
to ask him and we probably worked on this story.
You and I, you know, tell me about the quarterbacks
in the draft? What should people expect one quarterback? And
maybe cam Ward is a franchise guy. And if that
executive is telling me then that there might be one quarterback.
What does that say about how he views sharor Sanders,
(34:23):
And you know, you think about what he did. He
had Travis Hunter on the receiving end in Colorado. He
was also sacked an obscene amount of times. And when
you start to look at some of the tape, there
were a lot of times where you scrambled into some
of those hits. It wasn't avoiding the sack in the pocket.
It wasn't getting rid of the football to avoid hits.
It was welcoming and playing your way into those sacks.
(34:45):
And listen, some of that stuff is correctable. But if
the tape is already the tape of a third round
prospect and the attitude only makes it worse, you're not
helping yourself. And then you think about he went to
the East West Shrine game, didn't compete in the practices,
didn't throw, went to the NFL combine, didn't work out,
(35:06):
didn't throw. So now you're having Dylan Gabriel go to
the senior ball. I wasn't blown away by what I saw,
but he was there, and he might have been the
best quarterback of a very mediocre bunch of quarterbacks. But
you have an extra week to evaluate Dylan Gabriel, You
have an extra week to evaluate Jalen Milroe. Then they
go to the combine and they throw, and they work out,
and they go to these meetings and you have all
(35:28):
of these extra touch points where you can get to
know the kid and maybe overlook some of the flaws
or realized that, hey, what I heard in New York
is it what this kid is? Right? But the Sanders
camp removed the opportunity for Shador to check those boxes
by limiting the NFL's access to him in the pre
(35:48):
draft process because they were convinced they were going top three.
They thought that doing the Senior Ball and the Combine
can only hurt them, when the reality was it was
only going to boost his stock. It was pretty low
to begin with.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
That's Deon, rightuse Deon runs that camp right.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Yeah, yeah, Matt, you should do a thirty for thirty
on this story. Man, I'd watch it.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Well.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
The other thing too, is that was that was great ship.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
It was really good. Starts to slide and you get
into the third round. Now teams are drafting backups, not
come play and start. So now it's do I want
to bring a backup in that comes with the circus
right and could absorb that better than other franchise.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
And and that's why the teams like the Eagles were
in play. That's why you know, I started to suggest
that maybe Kansas City or Baltimore even could be in play,
because you know, Lamar Jackson isn't going anywhere. That franchise
has had a history of rogue actors, right, the Bills,
Josh Allen isn't going anywhere. You start to think about
(36:53):
teams that have the infrastructure and the established quarterbacks. Only
so many teams check those boxes. I don't think the
Cleveland Browns do. And I think that by taking both
Shudor Sanders and Dylan Gabriel, you've now limited the first
team reps, so Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett if'renna have
some sort of competition, and the developmental backup reps are
(37:15):
now split between side Or Sanders and Dylan Gabriel as well,
so you have less practice time to evaluate these kids,
which is why I just have a hard time seeing
Joe Flacco on this roster Week one because, as I
wrote in the column on Monday, this can't be a
nostalgia tour. It has to be an evaluation year because
they have two first round picks going into next year
because of the trade with the Jaguars in a far deeper,
(37:38):
far more talented quarterback class. If you know that Dylan
Gabriel and Schudor Sanders aren't your guy, you know you
can go in trade for Arch Manning or Drew Aller
and get your quarterback and feel good about it. But
if you don't know, what do you do? What? You're
stuck in Cleveland Brown's quarterback hell forever?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
They've been there though they're used to it. What about
the Cleveland Browns quarterback room isn't dumb? So the guy?
No one even like, oh, they got four quarterbacks, I'm like, oh,
you're forgetting one, mister. Three first round picks, two fifty
fully guaranteed. Remember that guy that's hurt all the time
and stinks when he plays, he's still there. You got
five quarterbacks. Now, I'm not a huge college football person.
(38:16):
I'll say that off the bat. But people I saw
are you on Blue Sky, Matt? The people I was
talking to on Blue Sky, I'll follow you. Some people
that watched Oregon They're like, I can't believe he even
got drafted. I didn't watch. I don't know is this guy?
I don't know. They know more than I do. And
then you got the fifth round media circus, arrogant guy
and Joe Flacco is fifty four this year, I think
(38:38):
he is. And Kenny Pickett, who's trying to prove he can.
Kenny Pickett's not bad, He's okay, but he is what
he is. It's such a brown situation, and they're in
this situation like they are all the time. You know,
you're talking about trade up to get they could be
drafted one overall. They are constantly in the top three.
Speaker 5 (38:56):
But if you are, if you are drafting number one overall,
isn't a lot easier to take the best offensive tackle
or the best edge rusher knowing that one of those
two young quarterbacks is ready to roll? Or do you
go into not knowing what these two are and you're
just taking Arch Manning or Drew Aller and saying, hey, guys,
(39:17):
go figure it out in camp, and you're just resetting
the clock. It just feels like they're not going anywhere
this year. They're certainly not the Baltimore Ravens. They're not
overtaking a motivated Joe Burrow and an improved Bengals defense. Right,
who knows what happens in Pittsburgh with their quarterback situation.
But if I were running the Browns, every snap would
(39:38):
be evaluating whether Dylan Gabriel or Sure Sanders of the future.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That might be Week three, depending on where beings go.
The Browns are hysterical. For all the Eagles fans that
complain on sports radio, you talk about an unbelievable fan
base that is just kicked between the legs every year.
Those poor people at least they got Lebron years ago.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
I've been real quick before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
How is it that you mentioned Arch Manning might be
the consensus number one overall pick next year. The guy
who started in front of him went in the seventh round.
How is there such a disparities between the quarterback room
Yours went in the seventh round? What but open our backups.
He's supposed to be the number one, He's supposed to
be testaverity. Actually, what is that about?
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Have you missed the lineage that is the Manning family.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
By and he's got like you know, you've got some
distant relatives. You can throw a little bit, but I mean,
come on, appreciate you from between the hatch hash marks
on a substack and also uh Grida and her oach
what else you got going?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
What do you got going this week? The rest of
between the hash march.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
Yeah, the mailbag on Friday is always a lot of fun.
People ask their questions and I pose the questions to
NFL executives and get some answers for you. We're also
reading every single franchise between now and training camp getting
underway grading the offseason of all thirty two today was
the Arizona Cardinals Jonathan Gannon squad. I happened to like
(41:10):
a lot of what they've done, high grade A minus.
You bring in Josh Sweat, You bring in Walter Norwan.
You bring in Will Johnson, who was a top ten
cornerback who for some reason tumbled into the second round.
How that happened? He doesn't know how that happened. Apparently
word got out about some sort of knee injury. But
(41:31):
I'm told the knee injury was healed and handled two
years ago, and he slid into the second round. So
you added two top ten defenders after signing Josh Sweat,
after signing Dalvin Tomlinson for a defense that only around
allowed twenty two points per game last year. I had
an executive tell me they're going to be sneaky good.
I kind of believe them, especially in that division.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, we shall shay it. Good stuff, Matt Lombardo. We
appreciate a bubb We'll keep an eye out for your stuff.
I'm a subscriber subscribed to Matt Lombardo on sub stack,
and we appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
Pal, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Guys, thanks of course, thanks Matt.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Good All right, fellas, we got to run too.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
We've gone a little bit over our budget, so we
got a roll for the Philly Post. Joe stays act,
Shawn locked There Any final thoughts.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
No, it's a great episode, man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
A lot of info.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
He had a lot of info, absolutely a lot of
stuff on the door. And he used to cover the giants.
I was just his team one team. Now he covers
a few and Mike he almost covers many as Mike,
and Mike has covered like thirteen teams for the have.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
You Mike, I gotta get on board, man, come on,
let's talk.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
There's stuff to be written.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
No more teams.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah, they still I still have multiple people in my
section and they yeah, whatever, Well.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I'm getting all my work together for my first interview,
so fingers good.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Well, we're gonna work us tomorrow night, right, we gotta.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
We'll chat about it absolutely, all right.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Well, good stuff, fellas, we got it wrong.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
We'll see you next week and uh, Micah, I'll talk
to you also this week, and uh I'll be back
next Tuesday, so we'll rock and roll.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I might be in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Room or I might be back home Tuesday, says I
will bring my laptop and I'm so mused to be
home tuesday, so hopefully I'll be doing it for.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Don't we don't throw excuses here, not at all.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Prayers, prayers, Okay, you're gonna get you.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Absolutely, guys, thanks for watching. Everyone for the Philly Pulse
just stays act saying good night. We'll see you next week.
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