Eagles Season Preview & Predictions with Brandon Lee Gowton | On the Shane Page #47

[Music] we may live over 5,000 miles from Lincoln Financial Field but what we lack in proximity we make up for in film study and each and every week starting next week we'll be bringing you in-depth film breakdowns from across the pond and the sooner state welcome to on the Shan page I am your host Shane half you can follow me on Twitter at Shane half NFL and I'm joined by BG's own film Guru Johnny page give him a follow on Twitter Johnny page9 Johnny how are you doing this evening yeah just sort of started thinking this is probably the last non-film podcast we do till what February maybe January um depending on how the season goes which is till the week four by week or week five by week yeah but we'll find film from the first three weeks there'll be something to do so it's probably the last non-film show for a while yeah it's a bit weird isn't it we're talking off there about how strange it is The Season's actually back but it doesn't begin on a Sunday um I'll get in there before the comments about people moaning me for not staying up but I'm not staying up Friday night because I have too much work as an adult and I cannot deal with no sleep at all sadly so a few years ago I would have stayed up but it'll be a Saturday morning for me which just feels so wrong like watching starting the eagle season on a Saturday morning is about as bizarre as it gets but except for that I'm incredibly excited it would just be a very strange start of the season for me um but there you go yeah Johnny not a real fan page yeah brilliant thank you but we are joined by a guy who is a true fan a journalist uh he's definitely gonna be watching the game on Friday night it is Brandon Lee gon from bleedinggreennation.com give him a follow on Twitter and Instagram Brandon gon Brandon I mean I assume you're watching the game right I will indeed be watching the Eagles first game of the season on Friday night against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil uh we've known about this game for what a long time now like especially like longer than we would for most week ones right because like the the international factor and how big of a deal that always is and clearly Eagles players and coaches are really fired up to go down to Brazil so uh can't wait for this one yeah and we are gonna get into that a little bit we got a comment here that already made me laugh so I have to go to it Eagles Eric on Twitter H says if Shane stood on Johnny's shoulders they still wouldn't be taller than blg um since since Johnny and I have never been in the same state at the same time we can't confirm or deny that but maybe one day it'll work out so gonna say is that is that is that a criticism of me or you Shane I'm not sure if Eric F shots at me or you there but I think it's just more of a test I'm British yeah it could be probably English we're smaller than you guys in general so I'm going to just assume I'm smaller than Shane even though I've never asked him how T he is but we'll leave it a mystery now we we need a what we really need is like the mck draftable version of spider charts for podcasters and blg would be like the full spider chart and that's right I would just be like the little blip in the middle because you know I'm slow and not tall and all that stuff but we didn't come here to talk about my lack of athletic ability or blg's physical stature we came here to talk about the eagle season as a whole we're going to do a season preview episode we're going to go through a few different categories and make selections for Team MVP breakout players disappointments and then Johnny's absolute favorite we're going to do a record prediction at the end and so um that should be fun I can never get Johnny to predict a game or a record but we're gonna get it all on the record today and so we will start off with the offensive side of the ball we're gonna go offensive MVP and Brandon I'll throw it to you first tier who is your offensive MVP for the Eagles this year yeah glad I get to go first tier cuz I'm going to go chalk and I'm going to go with the most important player on the team I'm going to go with Britain cvy I'm kidding I'm going to go with Jaylen Herz uh had a fantastic training camp I think he was not helped clearly by the coaching staff last year in a lot of regards and I think that will be different this year he obviously has a really good support system here um I just think everything's the arrows pointing up for Jaylen Herz I feel really encouraged after after watching him have a great training camp again best training camp of his career he looks um faster than he ever has in training camp as well as looking I think more developed as a passer as he ever has uh some of the things I've really liked in that regard are just how he's processed information I feel like I've seen him be more comfortable going through his reads and then making a quick decision as opposed to in years past there were training camp practices where I would just be like why is he holding on to the ball for forever and then just drifting out and either taking Tak off running which is like pretty useless in a practice setting a lot of the time especially or just throwing it out of bounds um and I just didn't see as much of that this year I think he's leveled up and I think he's gonna have a really big year all right Jaylen Herz is the official pick here from blg uh I guess we didn't establish this before but am I allowed to also pick Jaylen Herz or we going like three you can pick the you can pick the choke I've gone choke occasionally depends on what order we pick but yeah can double down on HS yeah to me it's hurts too I I I tweeted out a or I quote tweeted a video that Kurt B Kurt put out on Twitter just talking about the Eagles lack of like you can't say that Jaylen Herz can't beat zero pressure because he was never given an option to beat zero pressure and that's something I've said all the way back to the Super Bowl season with siken I was critical of their hot answers that year it just never was a problem whether that was because Herz was was more healthy and thus more able to escape that pressure uh maybe defenses hadn't fully clued in on that yet um they were certainly a lot better in the RPO game that year which negated some of that pressure as well but it's been something I've talked about for a couple of years this is the first time that we're going to see Jaylen Herz with a system that fully builds that in and that's going to put a lot of responsibilities on Jaylen Herz um and as long as he's able to process all that and able to get through it's going to be a radically different offense in terms of what he's asked to do if he fully gets the mental aspect of that I have no doubt about the physical tools and I think he could be primed for the best season of his career so I will also take Jaylen Herz as chalk as that may be H Johnny what about you yeah if I've sort of written down names in case I went last so thanks for picking the most obvious one as well it's clearly jayen Herz um but I did write down a couple of names just in case you both went with the same one and this is one of them where I did write down too and I think I'm gonna go a little bit random but I wrote down saquon Barkley and I'm sort of basing that just on the fact that I feel like everyone else would sort of say AJ brown or maybe in Devonte Smith there's a huge amount of hype and I feel like the Eagles have historically always been a running back by committee and I think we know that that's what the sort of Team believes in but I also think the team believ in sort of marketing efficiencies and I think running back has gone so downhill of late I sort of get the feeling they might just run Barkley into the ground over two years and not in like a horrible way in like a strategic way not like could sign him just to ruin his legs but I think if he stays healthy like I've got the King his running game is going to be exceptionally good I think you can make an argument that in pass protection it's a worse offensive line than they've had in recent years because I have not seen beckton at Right Guard in pass protection and I think cam Jurgens May struggle a little in pass protection and I think even Jordan mil as good as he is can be susceptible to really good pass rushers when you look at them as run blockers they are extremely good like sort of ridiculously good if maai beon can be what we hope he can be as a Right Guard I think his run blocking is going to be out of this world I think cam Jurgens can do stuff in space that else he could and I think obviously Dickerson Johnson and my ARA are unbelievably good run blockers and I think the Eagles are going to run him a lot I might be wrong and fantasy guys I know are sort of unsure about him I know some have him as like top four running back this year some have him more in that tier two because they think game will might still carries and Herz will score touchdowns and Herz is going to run in touchdowns in the goal line I think with um the tush etc etc but I think the Eagles are going to have a really really interesting Run game this year I think it's going to be a different Run game I think they might catch teams by surprise a little bit early on a lot of counter a lot of power and I have a feeling that Barkley may just have one of those like ridiculous years that running backs can have and is he going to be picked as MVP no um but I'll will make a case for Barkley where I think some people are still maybe overhyping uh the running back by committee I think that's maybe what the Eagles used to do but I don't think they're G to pay a running back top dollar money and not use him a lot so I expect Barkley to do really well this year um so I'll give you a little bit of a random one there and go with sequan all right I like it and I could certainly it's so hard for me because I thought about saying AJ Brown to there's so many weapons on this offense it's so hard you know we're going to do a bold prediction later and I I really wanted to be like Jaylen Herz is going to be a 4,000 yard passer but again I'm like man the Run game is going to be so good like there there's multiple good receiving targets it's so hard to like predict one person to have just this statistically absurd year because there's so many mouths to feed in the offense but uh that should you know certainly make it fun to watch and really hard to stop um so let's flip over to defensive MVP and Johnny since you you moaned about going last on offensive MVP I'll kick it to you first here who do you have for the Eagles defensive MVP oh this is perfect because this was the only one I wrote down one name and blg knows who I'm going to say um I basically didn't write down a single other player rather than Jaylen Carter um so I don't have an option two like it's quite weird actually because I was trying to think of an option two and you guys might have one but it feels to like his head and shoulders already the eagles's best player and I think there's basically question marks on every single other player on defense except jayen Carter and I know that's weird to say of a second year Pro but I'm not sure there's anyone that I can confidently say is basically going to have an extremely good year on defense except Jaylen Carter um I really do think there was question marks about every single other player and I think Carter's question marks are more maybe conditioning off the field and even off the field is more of a pre-draft thing we've never heard any bad noise of him uh sort of in season so I'm going to keep it short and sweet keep nice and easy I think Jaylen Carter will quite sort of easily be defensive MVP and I yeah I don't have a backup for that one so I'm glad you started with me as well Shane all right I I kind of suspected this one would be a crowded room on the Jaylen Carter bandwagon but blg Jaylen Carter or did you go somewhere else here yeah impossible not to pick Jaylen Carter but it's now I'm thinking I was thinking like Johnny's question here like who who would I think this is also kind of telling like who would be that second person um maybe you can make a case for CJ GJ just because of like well of like both I think personality but also just the big play ability you know just um I think it's going to be hard for him you know to have the kind of season he had when he was here in 2022 but if you're looking you know for a playmaker who could just have that kind of impact in addition to go with the swagger like and the and I think there would be some highs and lows but maybe just the highs standing out uh and could challenge him could challenge jayen Carter for that or at least not really but to come close uh but yeah I mean Carter had I thought I think a great summer and as Johnny has said like I don't think it's even it's not and notice he's not putting in this as a bold prediction I don't even think it's a bold prediction to be like Jaylen Carter could be uh you know first team all pro this year especially with Aaron Donald gone like I think he could really take over that mantle as soon as this season yeah I so on Chalk talk when Mark and I did our Awards draft draft I selected Jaylen Carter as defensive one of my Defensive Player of the Year options he's plus 5,000 right now I think that's a good bet if you're a betting person out there um because you look at how good he was early last season and yes he fell off at the end of the year the entire defense was a disaster under Matt Patricia um you get a little bit of that rookie wall as well that's well documented I expect Carter to bounce back and the concern might be that like if you're if you're an offensive coordinator you you want four hands on Jaylen Carter every play like you're going to double team you're going to slide to him double team him every snap well fangio doesn't just line up his guys and Rush this isn't a Jim Schwarz this isn't a Jonathan Ganon he likes to Blitz he likes to you know Blitz a linebacker drop at an edge like we talked about that makes it really hard to consist if you are so predictable in double teaming Jaylen Carter I can promise you that Devon white is going to have free runs at the quarterback and so you can't be that predict with how you call your protections so I think Jaylen Carter is primed for a huge season he's going to be my pick as Johnny was talking I was trying to think you know who else would I pick and I I settled on chony Gardner Johnson being the other guy I could see you know CJ GJ having a great year he he's gonna play in the slot he's gonna play in the Box he's gonna play at safety we saw the ball production he had two years ago which Johnny and I kind of said at the time was not necessarily a result of him making good defensive plays but he was making some great catches when the ball did come his way ultimately if you're going to be a defensive back and be an MVP it's tied to a lot of interceptions and that's real fluky but I think constantly disrupting the line of scrimmage it is something we can expect and we'll see more readily so I'll make the queen Clean Sweep here with Jaylen Carter um but I wouldn't be surprised to see chony Gardner Johnson have a great year as well so let's move on to offensive break breakout player blg who is your breakout candidate on the offense this year yeah kind of a tough one just from a standpoint of a lot of guys are so established here as we've talked about and I I don't think I can pick cam Jurgens like even if he has a good season like I really gonna be like oh he was a breakout it's like it's hard to kind of like call your Center the breakout player maybe I'm wrong but uh I'm actually going to go with Devonte Smith here because I think Devonte had a great camp and we already know he's a great player like so it's not like breaking out into being that but I think I'm looking at specifically how the Eagles are going to use him and I think we're going to see him in the slot a lot more than we've ever seen and I think right now and I think Johnny kind of touched on this really well in the uh Jan doson breakdown on bleeding green Nation where I think there seems to be kind of a perception that like datson just is the slot guy because he's the third receiver and I don't think that's necessarily the case I think we will see Dotson in the slot sometimes of course I think we'll see almost everyone in the slot at some point but I think majority of that is actually going to be Devonte and I think that's going to be able to get him some easier matchups um not that it's a one for one situation but we saw how CD lame really has benefited from working inside in the slot and obviously we know Justin Jefferson can do some damage in there as well so I think Devonte is gonna get some more favorable matchups than he's seen before early in Camp vonte Maddox was talking about how he saw Devonte Smith in the slot a lot more than he ever has in his career so I think there's something real to Devonte operating in the slot and he's just so good and again yeah not like taking this leap to we already know he's a great player but I think maybe even hitting a new level or at least just like a new utilization and that maybe kind of changes some things for the offensive equation as a whole all right Devonte Smith I love that pick uh Johnny where where are you leaning for offensive breakout player of the year yeah Devon Smith is a great shout and I didn't know if he was already good enough and I guess your argument BG would be he's going to go sort of Next Level maybe that top 10 uh receiver rber League I'm going to very Rand I'm going to go M beckon um very hard to pick an eagles guard and I'm doing this purely on the basis that and BG probably knows more than me than well he does know more than me because he watch training camp in the person but I am pretty sure that this didn't really feel like a competition to me from reading it from the outside it seemed like they were giving beckton this job and the way they used him in preseason was basically like he'd won the job already you know I have a feeling that they were almost just playing him to get him some reps rather than actually giving him a fair shot of the competition and I think if you compare what they said about Tyler Steen sort of when we've heard him in the past it seemed to me like he was going to be the guaranteed starter when I did my tler steam breakdown at that point um it was quite funny because I'd written the whole article and i' basically concluded well he should start unless something goes horribly wrong and then you tweeted I think it was you who tweeted the Brian baldinger quote saying well beckam's gonna start if he's healthy and then I actually added it to the end of my article on tius Ste saying however little spanner in the works and when B says something on the offensive line I normally listen very carefully so so I trust everything stoutland does from an offensive line basically perspective and I think Makai beckon is a good example of a breakout because he's basically been not very good and I think he's playing next to an elite Right Guard sorry an elite right tackle and if he can just hold up in pass protection I think he's going to be one of those guys GNA have those weird like highlight real blocks in the Run game where he just pancakes like a lighter defensive tackle and it goes like viral so I'm going to go with M beckon purely on the basis that I think I trust the Eagles hugely and just gly BG do you agree that it like a little bit of a not competition or am I being harsh there do you think early on in training camp when you watching it did beckon just run away with it or um you think the coaches always wanted him to win it really they clearly you know like going back to OTAs they were like looking for opport because then because uh at first it was Lane Johnson who didn't show up to otaa so beckon was at right tackle and then Dickerson missed mini camp due to some reason so then beckon was in at left guard so they were clearly like you know looking for spots for him to get in when they could um um I think you know if Steen hadn't gotten hurt there's a chance that he wouldn't have lost that job but uh that's the thing we'll never know because he did get hurt yeah fair enough fair enough I guess I forget the Ste got hurt as well it just seemed like towards the end it was like a really big done deal which surprised me personally so yeah I'll gra xon Chan all right uh I am with blg on this one I I went with Devonte Smith and I thought about cam Jurgens just sliding into his natural position I didn't ultimately end up going that direction but I just think I mean if you look at last season Devonte Smith had more yards per Target than AJ Brown 9.5 to 9.3 um he just didn't have the volume that AJ Brown had and that makes sense when your offense is hey AJ brown run fast and far hey Jaylen just Chuck it up and that doesn't play to Devonte Smith's strengths although we've seen Devon Smith be a really good uh contested catch guy downfield which is baffling at his size but coming out of the draft one of the things I talked about with Devonte Smith his best skill was his route running and his ability to get off press coverage now getting off of press coverage isn't something you have to do in the slot because you're off the line of scrimmage however when you give that guy a two-way go he can break inside he can break outside he can sit down you can use him and his football IQ to be the guy that is making these side adjusts on you know free blitzers and things I think that Kell Moore is going to use him so much to help beat the blitz H I think he's going to scheme up things for him and I think we're F not that not that Devonte Smith hasn't been fantastic like it feels silly to pick a breakout candidate that through three seasons is averaging over a thousand yards a year right but I think he's going to be so much more impactful this year because I think the offense is going to play into his strengths instead of asking him to do something that should be outside of his skill set and yet he's such a good player it wasn't in the contested catches so I think you see his production come up this year maybe at a little bit of expense of AJ Brown's production obviously not because Brown's not still GNA be great I just think that Devonte Smith is not mentioned as like a potential top 10 wide receiver and I think he is and I think he would be if AJ Brown wasn't there and I think by the end of the season people will start to see him more that way so I'll go Devonte Smith Shan can I just add as well it's a bit of a weird take but when I was going to pick the vonte Smith I did look this up um I'm pretty sure he's barely ever been injured with the Eagles so he's basically played in every single game I think his rookie season he maybe missed one but anyway when you look at his ESPN numbers he has started 17 games he missed one last year week 18 was it was it one last year uh perfect and what that sort of tells you is when you actually look at yes you are correct he played 16 last year when you actually look at his like numbers although you can say he's a thousand yard receiver when you consider he played every single game on a per game basis that's not like Elite like his numbers are good but they're not like off the charts good I think sometimes a thousand yard seasons can look better whereas if you were to say in 2022 for example when his best year 1,196 yards in 17 games he only actually 70 yards a game so sometimes when you I think like he may not because the odds are players get hurt but I think if you're G to pick him as a breakout You could argue like that number will go up I think he can easily Eclipse 70 yards a game and I think sometimes when you look at totals you're right because in a weird way it doesn't feel like Devonte has put up extremely good numbers um and I think that's because he's been sort of fortunate in some ways but he's played pretty much every single game and if he had missed like two or three all of a sudden he's got 900 yards a season all of a sudden he's less spoken about so I think that's another shout for him being a breakout player is looking at what he does on a per game basis I would to throw it out there because I was going to mention it if I picked him but I change my mind went for beon instead yeah he played 82% of the snaps as a rookie and then 92% and 91% of the snaps each the last two years I'm a guy who was really concerned about his size and his durability at moving to the NFL level when he came out so I'm really happy to have been wrong about that I'm also really happy I didn't let that sway me on Bryce young but that's a whole different thing so H let's flip over to the defensive side of the ball same question here we're going breakout Player of the Year Johnny I'll throw it to you first this time who's the breakout guy on the Eagles defense I'm actually GNA do a really bad podcast thing and just PR back to you Shane because you haven't haven't started one at all yet and I've got a few for this so I feel like I'm going to take my chances and not go first and you haven't started any so at the moment you're just picking what we've picked so I'm put the pressure on you yeah this is the one this is the one I want to start the least because there's there's so many different guys that you could call out so I was actually gonna see uh where it went for you guys um I will go with give [Music] me stress lot of pressure here yeah there's there's so many I I really want to pick key Ringo I just don't know that he's going to get on the field enough like if he had won that starting job and I think he should have Grant it I've only seen preseason but um I'm gonna pick him anyways he's gonna get on I think he'll get on the field enough injuries are bound to happen he's goingon to get into that rotation I was so impressed with what I saw from Key Ringo in the preseason it lined up with what I saw from him last year when he finally got into the games near the end of the season I thought he was a good Prospect I've said it on this show before I understood why he fell out of the first round him falling to day three is absurd there's no reason that should have ever happened I think he's got tremendous speed he's got tremendous athleticism there's some stiffness in his hips and things but we we walked through a play on I think it was the week two preseason recap where he got beat and he makes it up with the speed and is able to impact the catch point I think he's going to be used a lot as that uh solo receiver Defender against trips to press and run with a guy to allow the safety to cheat over to the trip side and if he can master that role if he's able to take that away he's gonna be super impactful for this defense so give me ke Ringo all right I was gonna say oh so that's a rubbish one for you to go first because you definitely could have got Ringo at first because there's no way your BG taking a backup Corner um but anyway um I will go and I this is one that yeah I could have gone lots of different ways um people probably expect me to go Joo but I'm going to go with a different defensive I'm going to go Milton Williams I think mil Williams is already a very good player but I don't think maybe around the league he's seen as a very good player um I think the best thing all offseason I heard was that Vic fangio said that he wanted to trade for him last year and and I know coaches say things but I would assume that's true and assuming that is true then and BG nodding his head yeah fio just doesn't like say stuff he's very honest yeah Fair Point and that is a really really good sign because like I'm not really sure why he thought the Eagles would trade him number one except for maybe coming up to a contract year but I assume like I maybe F's the kind of guy that does just like tell his GM or that looks good with no understanding of whether they can actually get him or not just maybe he just throws it out there that Patrick Mahomes guy I wanted to trade for him that tells me that he really likes him and I think firstly I think he's already really good but his numbers haven't really reflected that I know it's not all about sacks but he only I think he only had about half a sack last year yeah um I could easily see him hitting like four or five sacks and maybe that's enough just to take him to another level because in run um defense he's really really good already and who knows maybe we see more four down fronts maybe we see Les Jordan Davis if things aren't going well this year or maybe we do see a lot more um sort of Carter um Milton Williams and the J Mo's three techniques if things don't go to plan with Jordan Davis and I think even if Jordan Davis plays well then that means they're playing fiveman fronts and that means you got a good chance of Jordan Davis with Carter and milon Williams the side of him and if that's the case he's going to get one-on-one matchups all day long because there's no authentic coordinator that is ever sliding the line his way so I think he's in a sort of perfect position to take advantage of some favorable matchups so I will throw out Milton Williams as someone who I already think is very good but maybe we take like another step forward as my breakout player H what about you blg I'm with you Johnny Milton Williams was the guy I was going to take um he had a really good training camp I thought there would just be like plays where you weren't even really focusing in on him at all and oh there's Milton Williams again making a play in the backfield whether it's of stopping the run again tfl in quotes for practice or getting to the quarterback sack in quotes for practice um but certainly was disruptive and we're going to see a lot of fiveman fronts the Eagles are actually listing on their you know team issued depth chart the fiveman front like as their base defense and uh you know I also don't know for sure if we're going to see as much of a defensive tackle rotation as we've seen in years past I think we are at some like level it's not going to literally just be the three guys starting out there all times but just going off fangio's history I think he tends to kind of like to play the starters a little bit more than the Eagles as an organization I think like to kind of rotate that a little bit more so I think there will be plenty of snaps for Milton Williams to get these chances and yeah the perception thing is really going in his favor because even if he goes even if he has like what five sacks to go from half sack last year to five is like that's gonna be considered a breakout uh for him and he's in a contract year there's all the reason in the world for him to you know be motivated and make sure he gets his payday whether that's here or elsewhere um I just think things are in place for Milton Williams to really click here and hit a new level and I think even though his sack total was a half last year I've heard like Fran Duffy uh and I think others too talk about how his pressure you know rates were like way better you know than the sack number indicated so it just feels like he's just again just tailor made to take a Next Step all right so a lot of a lot of love here for Milton Williams I should have guessed that's where Johnny was going to go I should have sniped it from him but if I was going to try to do that I definitely would have guessed Moro aomo so I would have guessed the wrong defensive tackle yeah that is good to hear though can I just give you one other name Shane not that we're doing this but just because I have him written down I'm just gonna throw him out there with no explanation at all um if if BG had gone before me I would have gone with Reed blanken chip who I think is heavily underrated on this defense but that's all I'm going to say that people can wait till we talk about blankens ship in the season but he would have been my other pick that I had that I believe at one point Johnny said he was the next Buddha Baker or something like that so that might be about Sydney Brown actually oh was that was you're right that was Sydney Brown oh okay try take me out of context at least get me correct Shane at least get at least get the C right okay well let's turn the page now we've been real positive H now we're gonna take the other side of the coin here we're gonna talk about a guy on each side of the ball that we think could be the biggest disappointment um and so blg I'll throw it to you first let's go offense here who do you think is potentially poised to be a disappointment on the offense I'm going to go beckon I'm going to go against Johnny's uh breakout player and go beckon just because like and I I kind of was saving this for this answer I didn't answer it in the previous question uh I don't think he he didn't run away with that job like he was so good that he simply had to be the starting Right Guard whereas by contrast Jordan Milada in 2021 when he was quote unquote competing with Andre Dillard I mean like milata looked good and also Dillard looked like a disaster it was a no-brainer that uh milata should have been the left tackle and clearly has gone on to be a really good left tackle and meanwhile Andre Dillard not quite that in the NFL I think is Dillard on the Packers now I think he might be I forget where he went anyway uh you can look that up but uh yeah I think beckon there's some really good things especially as a run blocker that I'm intrigued by encouraged by he's so massive but there were some things in pass protection at times that kind of made me like a little like I don't know about this and there were just uh some practices there too where I don't know if it was always just his fault but there was interior pressure being allowed and obviously that could be on cam Jurgens and Lon Dickerson too they're all factors in there but I just think between those things and also just from a standpoint of beckon had a really tough time staying healthy like throughout his career last season was really you know his first healthy season so I think even if he is playing well there's injury risk here just based on his history so I just think again my the interpretation of this question to me is like I think expectations are a little bit higher than they should be for him just because it's like I think the perception is oh he like stepped up and he ran away with this job and he's going to be great as much as it kind of was like well he did some good things but also I think him winning the job was also about Tyler Steen falling off and getting hurt and and not being able to establish himself there so I'm not saying that he only won it by default but Want It by default a little bit so uh I'm just and and I think there's a question mark there still so I'm going to go with Beck um I swear that's is what I had written down before blg talked but maai beckon is also my guy that I had written down you look at Beck I mean we know how hesitant teams are to give up on first round draft picks and the Jets drafted McKai beckon very highly in 2021 and 2022 combined he played in one game um they declined his fifth year option he ends up walking from the team after four seasons into free agency where he didn't sign a big contract with the Eagles it was under $3 million and the Jets let him go and then they went out and they signed Tyron Smith they signed Morgan Moses and they spent their first round Draft pick on an offensive tackle this is a team that knew they needed offensive tackle help and they let beckon just walk and part of it's been he just hasn't panned out part of it's been his injuries that we mentioned but part of it is he was bad last year and now I know saaks are sacks are not just an offensive line stat and the Jets had horrendous quarterback play last year but per PFF charting H Makai beckon was assessed 12 sacks and 50 pressures allowed last season and he also committed 18 penalties so oh my gosh 18 18 penalties so more than more than one a game more than one a game so this is a guy who has struggled to stay healthy has only played left tackle except for like a two game stretch last year at right tackle so he's being asked to switch positions stay healthy and stop committing penalties I know Jeff statland is really good I have some concerns with maai beckon and so I think he's a guy that could be primed to disappoint H I think especially given the expectations I think people see Jordan Milat what Jeff statland did with him and they're just it's like Jeff stoutland can make anybody work they're immediately going to become an all pro and I don't know about that so I'll take McKai beckon as the potential disappointment it's also why I didn't react much when Johnny said that was his breakout player because I didn't want to tip my hand but Johnny thoughts on that and then you can also give us your your disappointing candidate well I just spent five minutes being abused people on the podcast I why Shane said people think it's like just at me said it about 10 minutes ago um no one's going to believe this but I actually didn't have beckon as my first breakout player and now I'm massively regretting going with him I had him was second and I had first as Jurgens and I wanted to go with Cam Jurgens but I always talk about cam Jurgens I was like I go beum what could possibly go wrong well tog his with like I can't you can't say cam Jurgens so yeah that didn't that I think maybe that didn't help and then secondly you just for had 18 penalties last year so if I could just change that in like the post just try and get me just try and get me like in post production saying another name and somehow make it work 18 penalties oh my goodness um right let's biggest disappointment me uh for picking beckton as breakout play of the year no in all seriousness um I have two that I'm like I'm really struggling with I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with the player that I like but I think I'm gonna go with Jan doson um just purely because I feel like the eagles drafted him because they just badly need it drafted him traded for him because they badly needed like competency at wide receiver free and I think long term he might have a better role like in the future but he's just joined the team I don't think they're going to completely go away from giving cvy or Johnny Wilson any snaps at all I think the offense is going to run through Goda AJ Brown de Smith and tquan Barkley I think if they stay healthy I just don't really see the way there's enough targets to go around to actually make doson a real like producer and let's be honest the way that people look at receivers is they look at fantasy points they going to look at yards and touchdowns and I could easily see him like scoring like not to one maybe two touchdowns at best and I could easily see him having significantly less than like 700 yards or something and I think that would just not people will say they tryed the third round pick for him but I think what he'll do for the offense could be really valuable but I think from like a numbers point of view I think maybe people are predicting too much just simply because I don't think the Eagles have the targets to go around um and I as I mentioned ear on I think they're going to run the ball a lot as well I also think they're G to be quite good which means they could be running a lot in the second half as well and I just don't really foresee a situation where he can really Excel so I will go with Jan doson nothing personal against him I just can't see him putting up numbers that maybe people think he will that's so interesting to me because uh Johnny I felt more encouraged about Dotson after reading your breakdown I thought some pretty good but I I mean I don't I don't think you're wrong I'm just I was I'm not I'm surprised you brought it up because I kind of think I I've felt a little bit more negative relative to the consensus on the doson trade I think it was worth while move making I just don't know that it was like oh Howe season steel no-brainer like totally robbed the commanders that some of the reaction I saw like I'm just a little skeptical of like okay why are the commanders who have a Young quarterback and need wide receiver help clearly do not have anyone established outside of Terry mclen like why are they giving up on this guy like that makes me a little bit like what's going on here uh and I think for the Eagles you know uh he certainly can be viewed as successful because the bar is lower than it would be in Washington cuz you're just have to be the third receiver and have to be BAS Bally like kind of more like competent you to be better than quz Watkins that's not really a high bar in theory like you should should be able to clear that bar but I think that's a good point by you um and I think his usefulness might not be best measured in like you know these gudy volume stats so I think that's a good call out yeah you have to know BG that you always have to plant your flag in both ends as well so if things go well I'll just say how much I liked in Pre and things don't go well I'll just quote this podcast so I've covered all bases um no it's weird because I I really really like dson as a player like I mean pre-draft I liked him too much like I clearly got that wrong but I also think I was quite fair in why I said he wasn't the number one it was a weird one I really liked him yet even though I really liked him I made it very clear that he would never be a number one in his size was a big problem there's like there's a tiny part of me that's still doesn't really see him as a great fit for Kell Mo's offense as well like I think kellmore would love a wide receiver free do a lot of like the Jeet sweet stuff yards after the catch stuff and the thing I struggle with is that he just never did it last year like honestly I mean I I had to watch three or four of those of Washington games from last year that was quite painful at times and every single time there was something short I was like oh is that no no it's not it's CT Samuel oh oh no it's CT Samuel it was just repeatedly Curtis Samuel so is it a case of that Johan Dawson can't do that role or is it just a because Curtis Samu was actually quite efficient at that role he just can't do anything else so it made me wonder like I'm not really sure if it's a negative or not on dson it could just be that he wasn't as good as G Samuel doing that one very specific thing and actually if the Eagles see him as like a proper wide free and they give him like screen passes bubble screens they give him like jet sweeps then I think he could actually put up decent numbers but I can't help but feel like Jody Wilson still going to get some snaps in run blocking and I maybe think cvy will get a more touches of that role as well um maybe even someone like ship leag and gain well as well so it's just a weird one where like I really like the player I just don't see the numbers this year um but I do really really like him and there's just that sort of sort of thing at the back of my mind I'm thinking can he really have a successful season numbers wise considering the amount of talent the Eagles have got um but there we go SP enough time onson one last thing just quickly I think it's also fair and sorry Shane but I think it's also fair to wonder like you know jylan Herz I think such a big part of his game when it comes to his receivers is like trusting them like that sounds obvious and I think is important for any quarterback but I think especially with him there were times last year where you guys saw it especially on film where he would literally not throw a wide open players and like yeah obviously I think dodson's better than that but my question here is they just got Dodson like he has not had a lot of time to practice jayen Herz I think it's going to be very interesting to see how much Herz trust him yeah it's funny you you guys mentioned Johan doson actually first of all you mentioned he's just got to be better than quz Watkins quz Watkins you know signed with the Steelers who notably the Steelers if there is one position they get it's wide receiver and he's on their practice squad he didn't even make their roster and this is after they like had a deal worked out with Brandon iuk and didn't get him desperately receiver and they got quz Watkins like yeah you can go to the practice squad so that's a low bar um I actually I I remotely considered Jan Dodson for my offensive breakout player of the year because I think like I think he's going to be better Fresh Start the focus isn't on him but at the end of the day I was like for the reasons you guys talked about it's like I can't pick a wide receiver on a team with AJ Brown and Devonte Smith and saquin Barkley to be a breakout candidate I just can't do it because he's not going to get the volume stats um so just my little tidbit on Jan Dodson I'm excited um I could definitely see fans being disappointed with the ultimate outcome although I think he'll still be a solid player but let's flip over to the defensive side and let's ask the same question who is the potential biggest disappointment on the defensive side of the ball and I'm gonna go first here so Johnny can't say that I'm stealing answers because I have a suspicion since nobody said this person for the breakout candidate he is is going to pop up as the disappointment I'm going to go with Bryce Huff I think that you bring in a guy who last season played a career high snap total which was still only 481 snaps um he had career highs and pressures career highs in sacks but he's a remarkably light player there's questions how he's going to hold up against the run because he just wasn't asked to play against the Run much last year only 132 run defense snaps I think expectations are Sky High I think when Eagles fans think of Bryce Huff they think this is the guy brought in to replace H reck and when they think of Hassan reck they don't think of the Hassan reck of last year they think of the Hassan reck that had 17 sacks in the Super Bowl season and so I think Eagles fans connect those dots and Bryce Huff it's like he he's gonna have 15 sacks this year I just don't know that he's gonna be able to do that over that volume like honestly if he comes out and has like I don't know 10 sacks this year I think that's a good year I also think Eagles fans would be disappointed with that year so I think Huff is just primed to be like a disappointment candidate for the Eagles and if that happens it's going to be very visible because there is a lot of questions about the depth at Edge rusher so if this team struggles to get to the quarterback I think a lot of it is going to be uh pinned on Bryce Huff rightly or wrongly uh blg am I right am I wrong did I steal your guy what are your thoughts no and I want Johnny to go next but just to comment on Huff I think Johnny and I are gonna I think there's two players that Johnny's between and I'll probably I'll just take the opposite one the other one he doesn't but with Huff I think he you know a slower start to Camp Again part of that was you're going up against Lane Johnson I think part of that is also that like I was thinking about and saying here that Assan Ric never necessarily like totally lit it up in practice so I wasn't really super worried about that but he did finish Camp strong I thought kind of came on that Patriots joint training camp practi and then the preseason game which he played in as well um I do agree that you know expecting reic production is is like is that's a lot and uh uh and I think the the biggest thing with him is just he's a projection and Johnny's talked about that and you guys have talked about in your breakdowns like you don't he's not a sure thing and that's and that is such a Jos of Hassan reik who is very much a sure thing and and is just such proven commodity uh unfortunately the Jets don't seem to realize that and he's still holding out but uh that's tough uh so uh yeah I think it's I think it's fair I did consider him for breakout behind jayen Carter because I do think you know there is kind of like I guess Boomer bust potential here I think there's a path where he doesn't look ready for this role but there could be one where he totally just he the projection of him being this part-time player pass rusher who to this bigger sample size I think that's also possible yeah there there was a small part of me that considered him as a breakout candidate as well like I it could go either way I don't think he's going to have a season that everybody's like yep that's what we expected like he's gonna break out or be a disappointment and he fit he fit better for my award categories as a disappointment so Johnny Be G says you're up next H who is your disappointment candidate on the defense yeah I think you uh got that wrong Shane I have half he was my I mean I said I have many breakout I him was my break out as well behind blanking ship so yeah I think has that's a tough disappointment I don't think people are expecting that much that's the thing I don't really see that much stuff around him online but anyway um I might be wrong I'm maybe not in tune with Eagles Twitter as much as I used to be as well or as I am when the season kicks off anyway um now I'm really intrigued because BG said he's gonna take one of the other guy that I have and I have two and I think one's really obvious but I don't think the second one is so I'm sort of and the thing is I know BG reads everything all right because he has to because it's for his own website so he knows very well so I'm gon to guess he thinks I'm going noan Smith or Devon white is that like a is that true one of those two yeah is right so okay no I don't know who the second one is you're gonna tell me after who the second one is I'm just going to take the obvious layup I didn't even want to do Nan Smith why didn't you take Nan Smith Shane why have you left me to become the Nolan go are you taking Bryce Huff over Nolan Smith because at this point because at this point if Nolan Smith plays a 100 snaps and has no sacks I'm not even sure that I consider that a disappointment it's about what I expect yeah that's where I am as well I don't really it's it I think the stock is so low like I think I might be now Smith fan compared to the consensus is bizarre like some of the stuff has online like people just think he's utterly hopeless and I'm like no he just hasn't got a pass rush move but he's GNA be fine as a r Defender um do you know what oh I don't even want I I don't even want to pick any of these players I I hated this category um I really like this was the one I really didn't like because oh you I know who BG is going to go for it's I figured out now um I think I know anyway um I'll take the one that no one thinks I'm going to say um just because it gives me a chance and I don't really believe this um but I'm gonna go that's a great way to start an answer by the way yeah well no all right let's put it this way I think the other two players of the position are going to be very successful and if they play a lot he just simply won't get a chance um so I'm going to go with Sydney Brown um sorry Shane and it's nothing to do with Sydney Brown like literally nothing to do with him I just think he's coming off a serious injury he's going to miss what the first four weeks at least am I right is that correct so he's going to miss the first four games and then they have a buy in week five so he'll probably be back for week six so he's going to miss a quarter of the Season uh already and I think blanken chip and johy G Johnson are really good and I think they're going to play a lot of snaps and I think by that point who knows maybe Cooper de has worked in like a safety free role maybe avonte Maddox has shown he could be the next safety up so I'm just thinking like I think Sydney Brown might play a specialist role where he does a very specific thing against certain teams on like third down or I just can't see a situation where he starts unless like there's a really bad injury crisis at safety so it's nothing against Sydney Brown I think if he was healthy I wouldn't say this and it's not a net sort of knock on him I just think the Eagles have got a lot of good secondary players and if coopa dein can get up to speed if avonte Maddox can stay like as good as he looked in preseason he just might not get on the field very much so I will go with um Sydney Brown I the answer is noan Smith here but I'm not going with him because I think the stock is so low as Shane said that like I don't even know what a disappointment season is I think like noan Smith could play 10 snaps and people would be impressed at this point because people have been talking about being an active um so I mean yeah I'll go with Sydney Brown um now I'm really in Che BG I'm guessing you knew I was gonna go noran Smith I almost picked Devonte Maddox for my defensive breakout player so but I I again I was like I don't know if he's gonna play enough as a third safety but I I'm really intrigued by him at safety so I can see brown not playing much as well but blg who do you have for your your disappointment yeah I was between Nolan Smith and who I know you guys are saying like you know who's like really rating him right now hard to say he's like overrated if no one's really rating him and might actually be underrated if everyone's hating him like Johnny said but I mean just from the standpoint of he was a first round pick last year like that's that's pretty disappointing if he doesn't have a significant role which is like what is his role on this team when he's out there playing in the final preseason game with like a minute left in in the second quarter like that's just not that's not good especially when you see how this team handles key players like they don't get see the field the offense didn't see the field at all other than beckon and the defense saw a little bit of time but um certainly did not at all in that final preseason game so that's concerning but I was also between him and his fellow Georgia Bulldog teammate Jordan Davis that's when I realized that's who you gonna think yeah I mean I I like I've been a Jordan Davis guy and I think it's like it's just hard to I don't really know how to feel about him right now because I don't really think there is a great gauge on where he's at right now because that's not really the question about him like if he starts the season good okay we saw that last year so the question really we're going to find out you know like week eight or whatever like throughout the season if he can hold up and it's not like he needs to become Aaron Donald in the middle but we need to see some kind of more pass rush than none I think at all which is kind of what we've seen for the most part so far or too much more often than not so um I'll go with Nolan just from the standpoint because I think it's it's possible that Jordan Davis is just fine which is disappointing but is also just like okay maybe he's just fine and that's okay whereas if noan SMI like not even playing on defense again in year two as a guy was a first- round pick last year I mean that's just like it's like unacceptable like you can't you can't have that as a first round it's just not good so I guess I'll go with Nolan that you're you're talking about Nolan Smith's stock and how he's rated just makes me it takes me back to personally one of my favorite yearly Traditions was listening to you and RJ on the NFC mixtape argue about the definition of overrated and underrated it was my favorite thing may it rest in peace but that's what came into my mind while I was listening uh Johnny any any thoughts on the Jordan Davis pick or shall we move on to records no I feel like we've covered enough I think the smashed it which is basically at this point if we don't see any pass rushing this year I don't think we will and I think if he doesn't do that at all then you need to be like the most elite run Defender basically on the planet um to be considered like worthy of where they picked him um if you don't do anything from a pass rushing point of view and we didn't see much in preseason and BG obviously watched him in training camp but I haven't really read anything that seems to have changed my mind as of yet so I'm in like wait and see mode and I also think with Jordan Davis even if he does it week one or week too it sort of doesn't mean much to me because I need to see it week 13 week 14 week 15 because we know conditioning has been a problem in the past um so yeah I'll leave it there with Jordan Davis all right well let's go to record predictions and Johnny since this is the topic that you really lobbied me to put in the podcast you know I don't like to do record predictions but Johnny was like we have to do a record uh Johnny what's your record prediction for the Eagles this year I mean for the first time I this is really weird because I've been a sports fan like forever and I don't think I've ever gone through the Eagles like you know everyone just goes through the Eagles schedule and picks win loss I I don't think I've ever done it until now so seeing as I've done it and now of course I can't find where I saved it on my computer because I thought I loaded it up so all going really well but I promise I did do as I'm frantically trying to find as I'm frantically trying to find where the hell I saved this stupid record prediction here we go Johnny Johnny is choking harder than a Matt Patricia defense in December I've got it shut up got it um so I ended up going at 12 and 5 um I went back between 12 and 5 and 11 and6 but I sort of changed it so I have I won't I I won't bore you G by week by week by week but I had the Eagles uh sadly losing this week because I think Green Bay a bit more sort of um less new faces should we say in the eagles with two offensive coordinators I think first game of the season there might be a little bit of growing pains for the Eagles um then I had them splitting with Dallas and Washington I just think Washington always seemed to play well against the Eagles um I was very boring and just said we'll beat them at home and lose to them away then I think the Eagles will sort of maybe struggle in that stretch where they go to at Dallas and then Washington Los Angeles Baltimore so I had them winning sort of one of the Los Angeles and Baltimore games I don't really care what one but I had them losing at Baltimore and winning at La and then I did throw them which is a bit depressing because I'm actually flying all the way across the world to watch the Eagles playing Cincinnati but I feel like that could be a game that the Eagles will struggle with just because I think if the cincity offense is healthy they're really really good so I sort of went uh I I was sort of I guess I was in a range between 11 and 13 so I went safe and ended up falling on 12 and five um I will have them as division winners I'm definitely not going through the Cowboys record one by one um ever but I think the Eagles are a better team so I will go with the Eagles at 12 and five this year all right BG what do you have for your record prediction slash division place for the Eagles I'm scking with what I did back in May when the schedule came out and I did you know my usual game by game prediction on bleedinggreennation.com and I came down to 13 and four and I you know that's obviously High especially for a team that was really bad by the end of last year but I think I think almost too much has been made of how just how bad they were from a standpoint of I always hated in 2012 or at end of 2011 season when the Eagles were like 4-8 I think then they finished the season strong 4-0 to get to eight and8 they just missed the playoffs and everyone was like well this means good things for next season like they're going to carry this positive momentum over and I always hated that cuz like that's not necessarily true so to be fair I also I feel like have to say like it's not just always the negative momentum will carry over as well it could I I'm not saying it can't but I'm not going to just merely assume that's definitely the case I think there it gets talked about a lot um I also like I just think there's a a lot of things working in their favor Jaylen Herz again coming off of his best training camp you look at the Eagles schedule unlike last year where you had that Gauntlet and not only because of the opponents but also because like the big rest disadvantage they don't even play a team coming off their buy I think or Thursday night the only like significant rest disadvantage I think they have this year is like that Saints game coming off a Monday night football into week three or whatever that is like there it's a relatively favorable schedule in terms of the things that matter with rest um so and especially compared to last year so I just and I also look at the fact that there is no repeat winner in the NFC there has not been since 2004 like to assume the Cowboys are just going to do it again is like foolish to me eventually it'll happen but I'm not going to assume that especially when the Cowboys Vibes aren't good and speaking of Vibes I think things feel good with the Eagles like coming out of training camp I think that's something you can kind of generally measure and by contrast I think back like you know it's always clear in hindsight but you look at like 2020 and um Wentz doesn't have a good training camp and I think zachar like wasn't happy with this contract there's like a lot of different weird things just going on and Doug Peterson s seems burned out with um not having enough power like there's just there's a lot of weird things going on and I think the Eagles although they have some weird things going on the offseason I guess earlier where Jaylen Herz didn't give the best endorsement to Nick serani I think the camp ended stronger than that what happened there um so I have him winning 13 games uh I think the part that then gets confusing to add the nead Delphia here is they win one playoff game they then lose the next playoff game and it sets up like this unclear situation of what they should do moving forward it's like some people will be like no we got to have to keep serani we're on the right track and other people will be like no he's the reason we lost the game and we're never going to get over the hump with him so I think it's the most fitting result where they have this good season and they don't flame out in the playoffs but they only get like one win and then uh they don't quite reach that next level and it creates the pretty much the worst case scenar of like there's no clear-cut decision of what you should do with serani all right uh I I am convinced that the same team will just never win the division back-to-back years I mean you cannot look at last year and explain the Eagles after week 12 having a two game lead with the tiebreaker over the Cowboys so essentially a two and a half game lead with six games left and winning one of their final six games and losing the division by a game like that mean aam's Razer the simplest solution is the NFC East is cursed to never have a repeat winner so I have the Eagles winning the division um I just it seems like it's never going to happen at this point that somebody wins it back Tob back and that seems crazy considering only two teams in this division have been relevant in like the last five to eight years I can't remember when the last time wash or the Giants were good was I'd have to go check but regardless it seems crazy that they haven't had back-to-back winners but I waffled back and forth between 11 and six and 12 and five and and I ultimately settled on 12 and five so I I have him going 12 and five winning the division uh and you know we'll see where the playoffs go from there so that leaves us with our last question it is our bold predictions and I'm GNA go first on this one I don't want Johnny accusing me of there's a whole wide openen world of predictions you could make and just in case one of mine lines up I don't want this to be you know stolen from me but I I tried to come up with one that wasn't this this one could be disproved really early in the season and it's best when you make a bold prediction if enough time elapses that everybody forgets about it except you so you can either claim it or just you know forget it ever happened but my bold prediction is that the Eagles will start the year 0 and2 back-to-back losses everybody's freaking out uh and they will not lose a game again until the month of December they're going to be nine and two going into Baltimore in week 13 and I think that's the first game that they potentially lose since week two when they lose to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football after losing the opener to the Packers so 0 and2 to everybody freaking out to nine and2 clearly in command of the division with a great game against Baltimore in week 13 that is my bold prediction that could totally be disproven in like three days but there you have it uh Johnny definitely won't clip that if it happens H Johnny what do you have for a bold prediction for us yeah I don't really know what bold essentially means talking about this off there because I'm incredibly boring um I don't know if this counts as bold but I'm going to say it anyway I will go with the Eagles is are the best offense in the NFL this year in terms of points scored per game that's B yeah that count that count that b oh fair enough I'm not saying I'm not disagreeing I'm just saying that does count yeah awesome awesome put it out there um I think like obviously there's 49ers there's a few other teams that are out there with very very good offenses as well and Chiefs obviously Bengals etc etc but I think the Eagles might have the best talent in the NFL on offense and I think I think blg hit something on the head that I've been so fed off of people talking about the end of last year people you make it seem like the eagles were the worst offense the world has ever seen last year and jayen Herz was like completing one pass a game like they still ended up with pretty good numbers they just had one obvious weakness and it was so obvious that everyone in the world knows what it was every player knows what it was they just couldn't handle zero pressure like it was just like it was so basically obvious to everyone in the world who watched the Eagles including every single Eagles player I cannot imagine that smart guys and bringing in their offensive coordinator and jayen Herz and Lane Johnson have not sat there over the offseason and thought right let's fix this one giant floor because as weird as it sounds if you take away their inability to basically play against the blitz last year the offense was pretty fine like it wasn't the problem is there's a lot of scheme guys online these days and some of them are fantastic but they do openly admit that like they love fancy schemes and sometimes the Eagles scheme was was boring and I think a lot of scheme guys like don't have the Eagles at the top 10 offense this year and I think it's because they just don't really like the scheme but sometimes football's not as sort of interesting as it has to be and it's just really good players can beat not so good players and the Eagles might have an unbelievably good run blocking offensive line one of the best pass bling offensive lines probably the best one two3 punch at receiver arguably a top five running back uh in the league and I think jayen Herz is gonna absolutely bought out this year so I'm like why could they not have the best offense in the League this year um so I will go B prediction that yeah they will be the number one offense in terms of scoring and I'm so glad that blg mentioned the end of last year because yes they sucked but they sucked at one very specific thing they also then played a playoff game against the worst team in the world led by the worst coach to face in Todd bows because Todd bows is like if you don't want to play against zero pressure Todd bows is basically like the worst match up ever the Eagles could have had the Eagles could have weirdly played like some really passive defenses in the playoffs ended up doing quite well on offense because they could still play they just couldn't do one thing and I don't really understand this stuff online where I don't see the Eagles as a top 10 offense from certain analysts and I'm just like I I I tweeted this other day I know I'm biased because I'm an Eagles fan but I actually don't think I am an optimistic fan in general in my life I think I'm quite a pessimist um so like my team's necessarily over the last like 15 years of watching High Level Sports the Eagles have won the Super Bowl once my English football team Arsenal have not won a lot the past 15 years like I'm not an optimist and I I even I find it really hard to see like teams being ranked above the Eagles and I look at their talent I'm like they are nowhere near the Eagles level of talent so I will go for the Eagles being the number one uh scoring offense in the NFL this year and I will leave it to blg to end with his b prediction sorry Shan you're gonna interrupt yeah I will say I've been doing like my stat preview posts and since you know it's week one and we don't have stats from this year I just looked at Weeks 12 through 18 of last year which again the Eagles went two and five their offense ranked seventh in dropback EPA seventh in rushing EPA 10th in dropback success rate fifth in rushing success rate and Jaylen Herz ranked ninth among quarterbacks in EPA per play so the Eagles offense like there was a major problem last year with the Eagles the defense and also zero pressure but the offense was still quite good throughout the year I I I'm on board I coach sign your take here and we'll throw it over to blg now for blg give us your bold prediction I promise that we won't tweet it out unless it comes true what do you have for us I do want to uh honorable mention bold prediction because it uh I have the Eagles losing in week one too which I think uh has like really bothered some people from what I've seen it's like I I because I think it even when I tweeted out that my schedule prediction back in May I got some like for that they're like how could you have us losing and I'm like I had them going 13 and four like I'm not saying they're even going to be bad I just think the Packers are a lot better than a lot of people he negative P always negative okay they lose week one the season is over of course it does usually feel that way if that actually comes to fruition but I'm saying I don't think that's the case clearly even if they do I think I just think I the Packers second in my power rankings that I did for BGN today I just think the Packers are a really good team anyway uh although I will say the last thing on this um it is B of Shane to say they're going to lose to Kirk Cousins in prime time because that is you know not his Forte typically but that's what makes it a bold prediction uh you guys went positive for sure at least more than I'm going to go here um we talked about so sequan a little bit Johnny had him what as your MVP yeah yeah one of the yeah are you GNA do a saquon b prediction as well then then we can just double down but it's not going to be a positive one I'm going to it's not going to be it's not super negative I just think I'm lower on S then consensus and part of that's just because you know you Shane you mentioned the NFC mixtape and the overrated players that we've done over the years and I've often had saquan as my most overrated player not because he's terrible he can't play at all he can't be good according to Nick serani had a great run and practice on Monday so take that for what it's worth um took his sunglasses off yeah a non-c contact practice had a great run um nice to see uh I just think like the idea saquin is better than the reality of saquin when you like factor in Penn State guy number two overall pick fantasy football guy um only good player on a bad Giants team I just think there's like a lot more shine on him than the reality meets I think he will be a I think he'll be fine but in that vein uh I don't think my bold prediction is that seon Barkley will not have more yards from scrimage than DeAndre Swift had for the Eagles last year and I think that comes down to there's injury concern with saquin I think that comes down to there are still a lot of other mouths to feed in this offense I think he is going to be the top running back but like Kenny gainwell was still getting like decent amount of first team work in training camp and will Shipley even has been mixing in there so that's still something it's not nothing the Eagles have had weird running back usage dating back to last year as we know with Kenny gainwell getting like the line share of work in week one over DeAndre Swift for really no good reason I don't think that situation is going to happen quite again but to stick with gainwell for a moment who was a player I not been high on in part because of how the Eagles overutilize him I think relative to what his role should be um like Kenny gain had a really good last practice of training camp I'm not saying that means he's gonna have an awesome year but the point I want to make highlighting that is that like saquon did not have that moment this summer or in the spring and that doesn't mean everything running backs it can be harder for them to stand out and you know non-c cont practices again unless you're Nick serani on Monday but um I just like I was always waiting for that saquon moment and outside of a really nice wheel route touchdown that he had against the Patriots in that practice which was great and like that was really the only time I thought like he he really flashed and I'm not saying he's cooked but I like I don't know that he's going to be this revolutionary player that kind of like the conceptual idea of him is so I think he's just going to be more fine than a revelation or amazing and and I think not to make him the disappointing player but I think if he does not have more yards than DeAndre Swift from scrimmage which is my prediction that' be pretty disappointing for what you're paid you know what you paid for saquon like top-of-the Market running back money um so that's my bold prediction all right well there you have it everyone our season preview with blg uh you guys be sure you go back and listen to this episode and clip out everything Johnny was wrong about everything I was right about tag and Twitter throughout the season it'll be a good time uh blg thanks for joining us again always love getting you on the podcast uh before we get out of here H anything you got coming out that you want to plug uh plug your stuff man the floor is yours yeah just check out bleedinggreennation.com you may have heard of it Johnny has some good uh all 22 film breakdowns uh that will be coming obviously after the game I also believe he has a uh some some stats to look out for for this Eagles Packers week one matchup that'll be relevant to this game um also my work there available at bleedinggreennation.com also check me out as you said earlier on Twitter and Instagram that's just my first and last name Brandon gon and that's just about it I think anything else to come will uh you know stay tuned to those and then hopefully there's you know more news if there is any to be announced uh on those platforms yeah we're hoping to hear announcements on that uh soon uh Johnny any final thoughts anything you want to plug you know do you got another concept of the week article you're going to put out because I love personally that people are tagging us every time they see Dart happen in a game now it's great yeah it might just become Run game of the week um I think it's definitely going to start with Run game of the week um not really just looking forward to getting into it I guess um yeah I'll be I'll be doing the usual for bit for beding green this year so the offensive all 22 piece the defensive all 22 piece I think it's probably going to be the most difficult year to do because the last couple of years have been quite easyish because the scheme's been quite stagnant whereas this year we're going to have to watch a little bit careful a little bit more closely because I think I don't really know what to expect so nothing major to plug just the usual really and get on the patreon as I'm sure shame with a plug as well but if you can support us over there uh please do and hopefully um we'll get some more comments on the Discord as we go throughout the year as well because Twitter is quite difficult to see notifications as well so if you do have any like really specific questions or things you want to ask us during the week is a lot easier for me personally to check the Discord as well um than it is with Twitter because it is a slight mindfield with lots of weird things there um as we currently stand so yeah um that's it for mate yeah absolutely uh thank you guys for joining us as Johnny mentioned if you want to support the show on patreon you can do that at patreon.com onthe Shan page uh we have a $3 and a $5 a month tier and you get some exclusive perks like access to a Discord that Johnny mentioned where you can chat with us uh a little better than on Twitter you also get a adree podcast feed you get some creative control for our film reviews we'll be posting a player of the week Spotlight poll uh each week that we'll give special attention to in our film review as well as some other things so go check that out uh if you want to and are able uh blg thanks for coming on the show always great to have you on H you guys keep it tuned here to the Eagles pinple Network we got a lot of shows to cram in to this week before a Friday night game again it's really weird not starting on a Sunday but all the shows are going to come out H you'll get like six shows in your feed between today and Friday so uh be sure you're subscribed there five star rating and reviews are greatly appreciated and we will catch you guys next week we will be back in the film we can finally say our intro without giving the caveats doing in-depth film breakdowns that starts next week hopefully with an eagles victory over the Packers we'll catch you guys then [Music] a