Jalen Carter TAKING OVER Eagles Defense + Devin White LOVES Fangio’s System & AJ Brown Looks JACKED

sounds like Jaylen Carter has already taken over the Eagles defense heading into year two despite a pretty sluggish end to his 2023 campaign the young DT at OTAs looks ready to explode in 2024 also Devon white seems very at home in vic fangio's new defense and AJ Brown shocked reporters with his Fitness during week one of OTAs I'm Thomas M this is the Thomas M show the eagles's first week of OTA practices is officially in the books and as the birds get back to the novare complex and gear for week two coming up this week the talk of the Philadelphia media after just three practices one of which was open to the media has to be Jaylen Carter who's entering year two and has some massive shoes to fill on that defensive line despite struggling towards the end of this past season after really especially in that Rams game flashing very very early and it was Carter who told the media during a press conference a couple of days ago that overall my first year was okay it wasn't how I wanted it to end a lot of stuff that I see on film is stuff I need to fix it's okay we're here now and I'm ready to be better than last year and according to reporters who were actually at OTAs Carter apparently is in fantastic shape and more importantly had a very quiet offseason to very important keys for the young defensive tackle I think all eyes are now going to shift to Vic fangio to see if he can maximize Jaylen Carter in year two which it shouldn't be too hard if he just follows the Christian Wilkins role in the new fangio system like Wilkins exploded in his first year in Miami under Vic fangio going from Seven quarterback hits in 2022 to 23 last year and raising his sack level from 3 and 1 half to 9 in 2023 let me know how many sack do you think jayen Carter is going to get down below in the comments section while you're at it let's give away this jayen Carter Nike t-shirt to one lucky subscriber who comments Carter Down Below in the comment section of this video next week I'll go ahead and pick a random winner of course you got to make sure you comment down below and be subbed one of you guys is going to get the Carter t-shirt and we did get a small update on fellow defensive lineman Josh sweat over the weekend with new indications suggesting the star pass rusher is changing his number from 94 to 19 which is formerly worn by Tanner mcke who is now going to Dawn the number 16 now I'm shocked by the number 19 kind of an odge Ed rusher number but I was actually more shocked he actually came back this year after a full offseason of trade rumors Philadelphia is going to need him to have a massive year in 2024 because the new number 19 is going to have to get pressure on the quarterback in order for this defensive line to not set for a big setback now it is worth noting that Josh SWAT was not at the Eagles OTA practice the one open to the media on Wednesday however doesn't seem to be any sort of frustration or upsetness there are multiple Eagles who missed that OTA practice as we talked about very curious though to see if the new number 19 is going to be at OTA practices this week another player who had a really impressive week was linebacker Devon white who seems to be taking on a very strong leadership role on this football team and in this defense and he posted this picture on his Instagram of himself breaking up this pass from Jaylen Hurst to saquin Barkley that reporters hinted at earlier on in the week I think White's a Darkhorse maybe even comeback Player of the Year candidate in 2024 after being benched in Tampa Bay in 2023 a lot of people thought hey his time of being one of the top five linebackers in the league was officially over but the speed the leadership the ability all still very much is there according to report from people who are at OTAs here's the hoping the birds got the steal of the off season a cheap one-year contract for a top five linebacker in 2024 also speaking of stealing AJ Brown definitely showed up to OTAs looking like he's probably in the best shape of his entire playing career after a few practice Clips showed off maybe some new look speed he reportedly was working on this off season and then this picture posted to his Instagram this weekend showing off a more chiseled and more jacked number 11 was even crazier is that brown didn't need to get more ripped he didn't have to get faster he had an incredible probably top three wide receiver campaign in 23 but I think all the bogus media slander attacks during this past season really fueled him to show everybody up and be even better this season either way at least the birds gave us this sweet clip of qb1 throwing to wide receiver one earlier this morning from practices just a couple of days ago which I personally took as the bird social media team giving us an Ever So slight look at Jaylen Herz after a wild week of the provably manipulative report suggesting Kenny picket had outperform Herz at one practice which I decided also to get to the bottom of what actually went on at practice between Kenny picket Jaylen Herz and the rest of this offense when I spoke with someone who was actually there in bleeding green nation's managing editor Brandon Lee gon let's start with the big news that happened just a couple of days ago I did a show on this yesterday but Kenny picket he's in the news now Kenny picket outperforms Jaylen Herz is the headline that rips through Eagles Twitter talk to me about what you saw from Kenny picket and Jaylen Herz and why I would believe that you would disagree with this whole idea that Kenny picket looks better than Jaylen Herz yeah I think we have a problem uh when it comes to like Twitter and whatnot a collective problem of you know some things and look I'm in the aggregation business at some level but I think there's a point where you know things kind of get you know messages get mixed and misconstrued down the line and my understanding was that was from you know an article that was kind of uh being a little bit tongue and cheek and so you know I think but then you know people lose all context and nuance and then it just becomes its own thing um my honest first impression of Kenny picket is he looked better than I expected um now expectations are pretty low considering how much I've seen him struggle at the Pittsburgh Steelers but I think for his first day um I thought he made some good accurate passes ball was getting out on time uh made some good quick decisions so you know first impression looks solid looks like a guy who certainly is going to be given every opportunity I believe to win that number two quarterback job I don't think Tanner mcke is really going to have a fair shake at that one and he looked fine now I want you to kind of take viewers of this show into what you're actually witnessing at OTAs and I think a lot of people kind of think that oh you know Brandon has a media pass so he gets you know Walt into practice and gets to walk around the field and see it from this angle and see it from that angle he's up close and personal when in reality my experience at training camps with the Falcons and the Carolina Panthers is you're kind of put in this one little section you can't leave it and there's multiple football fields in front of you so they could be defense on this field offense further back is it the same thing for Eagles training camp yeah so in OTAs we're we're in a spot where more so we're limited a bit and um you're right along the sideline line there basically I don't let's say like you know uh a 30 yard stretch of where reporters are really standing and so some of the drills uh the team drills leagal were doing and I say team lightly here no 11on 11 action in OTAs which has been consistent with really the whole entire Nick syriani era the most they do is seven on seven um but you know when they're doing like individual drills and whatnot sometimes you have a defensive lineman all the way like two football fields away so you know some things aren't always easy to see and also even if they you were allowed to run if you were allowed to move around I mean you're still looking at 90 players on an offseason roster so there's just so much to see that naturally even if you're paying attention you know you're going to miss some things especially if you're just one person and you're not multiple people at the same Outlet kind of working together covering the same thing so uh uh you know there's a lot you can miss there but depending where you're looking there's also a lot you can see sure I want to go ahead and put a bow on the whole pick it Hurtz Twitter controversy how many throws did you see in seven on sevens between jayen Herz and CNY picket on Wednesday yeah I mean we're talking about a limited sample size here maybe like 10 each if that somewhere around there so you know we're not seeing this huge it's not even like a traditional training camp practice which typically have been like Anyway under xani but yeah it's it's not this huge sample size by any means one of the big takeaways at least I saw from people who were like me monitoring you guys covering OTAs on Twitter was the Kell Moore offense and again seven on sevens we're not getting the full Playbook it's as as toned down and and chill as you could possibly expect but Jaylen Herz was under Center he only did that 7% of snaps this past season most were brotherly shoves and we saw pre- snap motion what was your takea away from again a very limited Kell Moore offensive Peak but really your first look at what the new OC is going to bring to Philadelphia yeah my honest impression is that you know I'm not seeing like a night and day difference now again as you just said there's a lot of qualifiers and caveats to say there when you're not even doing 11 on 11 you're only in seven on seven and thus you're only passing the ball you're not running the ball in seven on seven obviously so uh again really kind of hard to take too much away I think from major schematic things but certainly you know I noticed Kell Moore you know kind of being that direct person there working with the offense as should be expected as the offensive coordinator he looked a little bit out of sorts to me just from a standpoint of he has you know A kelly green shirt on and then the midnight green hat I think you get to work on the combo there I think he kind of got to get get in sync a little bit better but he was right in there you know working with the quarterbacks and kind of the offense there where I think Nick serani taking more of that walking around practice kind of monitoring everything that CEO type overall approach some of the other big headlines this week I think the first was James Bradberry not being there very similar to the Kenny picket Firestorm it was like oh bradberry's upset he's skipping OTAs drama drama we clearly found out later that Smitty wasn't there Lane Johnson Josh s a whole bunch of the guys but Isaiah Rogers did get the start opposite of Darius Slay in those limited seven on seven roles do you see Isa a Rogers as a real threat to be a starting cornerback even competing with James Bradberry in training camp or is that more just a hey bradberry's not here so next guy up mentality yeah real quick on Bradberry and those players not there obviously you know voluntary practices at this stage of the offseason Eagles will have a mandatory mini camp coming up in the first week of June so it'll be interesting to see what happens there and players who do not attend will be fined if they they're not there also you know again it should be noted that know Eagles reporters are going to one day of multiple days of practice um per week it's possible that Bradberry or some of those other players have been at those practices and just weren't at the one that we saw so just want to put that out there in fairness to the players there um but when it comes to Isaiah Rogers um you know certainly he was also helped by key Ringo curiously not being at practice um it seems like he has been in Philadelphia so I'm expecting him to be back that next week OTAs but uh I as Rogers I thought took advantage of that first team work on Wednesday and I thought he looked pretty good in coverage he had a pass breakup um he he played pretty tight coverage from what I saw so um you know I think he's on a good spot here to to make the roster you when it comes to the starting position there's just so much competition across from SLE that I can't say you know he's just the favorite to start all of a sudden but he's legitimately in the mix it's hard to go ahead and kind of get a read on where the rookies are at at least you know three OTA practices in and they've only been there for just a couple of weeks at rookie mini camp and just trying to get acclimated to being a a pro at the next level give me just one takeaway from the first or from some of the draft piics right quinan Mitchell Cooper deene get his name out there and some of the others is there any big takeaway from what you've seen in a very limited capacity from the rookies yeah so I thought it was interesting to see you know where those guys were lining up I I would have been really impressed if Mitchell was with the first team because this is not what typically happens in OTAs coaches don't really do that with rookies they want to make the young guys feel like they have to earn it and not just be handed a starting job so certainly we saw quinon Mitchell with a second team I think you could see his tight coverage his ability to really you know be sticky now I I thought he was a little bit too grabby again he is a rookie in his first OTAs so not really too alarming to me but certainly something there where you know there's a learning curve there's an adjustment period certainly from playing where he did in the Mac to the NFL uh he also did have a nice pass break up later in practice where you could just see um his ability to break on the ball and have those ball skills that he has certainly you saw the you know the highs of quinan Mitchell as well and then with Cooper de Jee you know lining up second team nickel to start out so it seems like that's where the Eagles kind of want to have him Focus to maybe mostly to begin with he could compete there conceivably with Avante Maddox for a starting role but also the Eagles were using coer deene on the outside as well so they're not just keeping him to one spot in one spot only um but you know encouraging things from the young guys in the secondary early on I think the Eagles thr a little wrench at least in in my mind just the other day whenever they sign John rash to a one-year deal which doesn't guarantee he's going to be wide receiver three or wide receiver four because Devonte Parker had a one-year deal and he retired you know a couple of weeks later what are your expectations from seeing John Ross in person and really the overall wide receiver room behind AJ Brown and Devonte Smith that's been called very you know thin very weak at this moment what are your expectations there for everyone behind the two superstars like I get it I get that the Eagles don't have amazing depth there but you know you you have to talk about the these things like relatively and which team I mean teams around the league would kill to have one of AJ brown or Devonte Smith the fact that you both is already incredible and now look I do think it's a valid concern just you know knock on wood here and I'm not trying to jinx anything but you know AJ and Devonte have been remarkably healthy over the past two seasons since Eagles have had both of them together and you know you might not get that same kind of injury luck again so I get having to be prepared and everything um and it's not an amazing spot if one of those guys go down all of a sudden but still uh you know you have options here Paris Campbell was getting a lot of targets from Jaylen Herz now Paris Campbell is a player who probably is more designed to stick out in this setting and has seemingly had some offseason hype before before not really doing too much in the regular season for most of his career but I think it's significant because Jaylen Herz just doesn't automatically trust any receiver or tight end or whoever he's thrown out with we we've seen that before there's guys who've been open um it's like last Year Jack sto or Albert o and Jaylen Herz just didn't have trust in those guys always when they were open or or looked their way and it seems like he has that with Paris Campbell so that was kind of one of my more noteworthy takeaways on day one I'm interested to see what John Ross can do you know he obviously retired last year after a couple training camp practices with the Chiefs but um it seems like he might still have that speed and if he can be that guy then that's something of a quz Watkins replacement so really intrigued to see what he can offer you can kind of tell how how I view the Eagles offseason through a lens of Twitter right through Reading reports and websites like like um beding green Nation because the next question is Jordan Davis is he fat is he Slimmer how did he look in person because there's a picture circling around that oh at the Eagles autism challenge bike race he looks pretty slim give us your Jordan uh Davis overall weight guess or not really weight guess but overall Fitness assumption based on what you saw at TR at a o at OT practices yeah I am going to downplay this because I'm not going to say there's nothing to it he he certainly looks good in that picture but I never think Jord I mean you know depending on the picture you look at I don't think Jordan Davis is pro I've always said like in in training Camp's past I feel like Jordan Davis for as massive of a man as he is he looks pretty spelt for relative to you know again a guy listed at his size I don't think he's ever looked like a bowling ball or super chunky or anything so I don't put a ton into that it's it's nice to see I guess that you know he doesn't look super out of shape from what we saw from that picture but you you know look he's in a a really crucial spot here because you know futcher Cox retires obviously you have Jaylen Carter here he's going to step up and he's talked about you know working on his conditioning more even more so than his technique that not that I'm saying he hasn't worked on his technique at all but he's really focusing on conditioning because with Cox gone he's going to have to be that number one defensive tackle and Jordan Davis in a similar kind of boat he's going to have to play a lot more and we saw Jordan Davis look you know I think pretty good at the beginning of the 2023 season and he wasn't the same player ultimately down the stretch uh for the most part so you know I think this is a spot for him where there's a lot of pressure he has to step up and I'm sure he's aware of that and you know sometimes it takes time for these defensive tackles to kind of catch on and really start producing and this should be the moment for him where he everything crystallizes and he does that the linebacker spot is under a massive microscope every single year in Philadelphia because they don't have good talent or they need to you know go out and find somebody to actually make the linebacker core great and then this off season you get Devon white they draft Jeremiah trer Jr fans absolutely love that move but then of course niobe Dean is still recovering from his LZ Frank injury he's on the sideline at OTAs this week not really doing much and so Zack bond gets inserted as kind of your linebacker to next to Devon white what is your overall opinion on Zack Bon I think I've asked this to you before is he a legit inside linebacker legit starting linebacker player on this roster is he just filling in because it's OTAs and the person ahead of him is missing give me your take on the linebacker spot for Philadelphia well it was really interesting when Vic fangio was asked about the off ball linebackers the inside linebackers as he called them and the first person he brought up was Zack Bon so I don't I don't think it's nothing that Zack Bon is out there and as you noted ncoe Dean still only doing position drills not in the team drills yet as he comes off not one but two foot injuries from last year so um you know it'll be interesting to see how that linebacker rotation looks when he is healthy here but you know I think Zack bond is going to have some kind of role and it's a little weird because the book on Zack Bon seemed to be that um offall linebacker wasn't his strongest spot as much as he showed some juice rushing the passer in a situational kind of role there and you know the versatility is nice I would think that Eagles will have him do some kind of both maybe some kind of that you know Vic or Andrew van GLE role that Vic fangio was using in Miami with the dolphins um but that being said I just seems to me from the day one of OTAs where we're seeing Zack bond out there that he might be playing off ball linebacker more than any of us really expected you've been to a ton of Eagle practices over the years training camp OTAs even practices during the season you've seen a lot of Eagle Running Backs from you know miles Sanders and DeAndre Swift the brand new one there is saquan Barkley and from you know my viewing Twitter and watching videos that you posted and others did bleeding green Nation about saquan Barkley just wearing the Jersey wearing the helmet and looking great what's your take on what you saw from number 26 for your first time covering the Philadelphia Eagles yeah it's funny right I mean this is a guy that we've seen a lot you know just from watching the Eagles play the Giants over the years and even dating back to Penn State potentially depending on you know your college football uh viewing experiences and yet like seeing saquan in person especially next to other Eagles running backs he's he's big he's he's a big dude and not just big in terms of like you know Leger blunt was you know big in a different kind of way like almost like massive and not what you usually see at a running back saquon's big but he's also like he's like thick he just you know it makes sense you know we all know he's uh very prolific athlete and a guy who is very strong and whatnot and you know likes to be in the weight room so it's not shocking from that stpoint but still it's a little like jarring and surprising to see actually out there on the field um he looks like a guy that can handle a whole lot of touches which I'm sure he will be getting this year in this Eagles offense so you've seen all the reaction to OTA coverage you were at OTAs on Wednesday is there something that all of us are missing all the people who covered the phot off Eagles but weren't at OTAs were focusing in on Herz under Center and the kellmore offense and saquan and the receivers and the new rookies give me something that maybe we overlooked or didn't talk about enough following Wednesday's practice that you kind of left and said that was definitely noteworthy I mentioned in my practice notes here that Brandon Smith who was on the practice squad at times last year um a linebacker like looked active had a force fumble on Tyrion Davis price who not really good when you're fumbling in non- cont drills here um so you know I think it's the little things you look for like that and it's funny because you know last year this time I don't know if you remember if people remember but like Christian Ellis was really standing out in the OTS practices and it wasn't insignificant because at the time people probably didn't really even like realize who Christian Ellis was or at least most people a lot of people and he made the team so that was significant and he actually played a little bit early on in the season but then certainly you know he got cut and whatnot and which was a akake because you know sha leard wasn't really a great option when heagles brought him in but uh point being that you know there's things like that that are just unexpected that can kind of pop up so what's the next step as I wrap up this interview here with you for your OTA coverage how how many more are open I know Philadelphia has OT next week and then they have mandatory mini camp early June how many of those practices will you actually get to go ahead and be at yeah so my understanding that legal you know they'll have multiple practices next week um starting you know uh the week of Memorial Day and media will be allowed to attend one of those we don't currently know which one Eagles haven't told us yet and then so that's the the final otaa practice we'll see before the Eagles again have their mandatory mini camp which I believe will be open in its entirety from June 4th through June six where again players must be there so uh that'll be our last look at the team before training camp begins in Late July there you go well listen Brandon i' I mentioned it multiple times but covering Philadelphia from afar it's always fun it's always difficult though for stuff like this because you're actually there you're the eyes and ears and everything you put on Twitter is what we all kind of go off of we read the articles on bleeding green Nation so I appreciate that for one but I also appreciate you coming on the show uh and giving your firsthand account of what you saw at OTAs love to have you on in the future and break down more OTA practices obviously the manor mini camp and into the training camp as well absolutely awesome thanks Brandon I appreciate it [Music] la