Speaker 1: All right, you guys far away. So you got a
Speaker 1: question who you're first of it. Now, it would deal
Speaker 1: with the I've heard the other one people our cameras.
Speaker 1: The strengths and weaknesses of this draft. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that there's um you know, this this draft is not
Speaker 1: um any different than I think any of the last
Speaker 1: three years. You know, there's certain uh, there's probably eight
Speaker 1: to ten players at the top end that are true
Speaker 1: difference maker type quality individuals. Um at that you know,
Speaker 1: next tier of guys where you're gonna have solid starter
Speaker 1: level players. I think there's depth at the offensive line.
Speaker 1: I think there's certainly depth at wide receiver and at
Speaker 1: the corner safety position. So it's a it's a good
Speaker 1: draft in the mid round in that solid starter category
Speaker 1: for those guys. Adie said, there's ten difference makers you
Speaker 1: believe in pretty much every draft. But that being the case,
Speaker 1: and people always like the fact the teams can move up,
Speaker 1: how do you weigh that against the future of multiple
Speaker 1: picks and getting a difference maker in the top ten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the goal the goal with any draft is
Speaker 1: to get good football players, you know, and we view
Speaker 1: it as every pick as an opportunity to improve your
Speaker 1: football team. So the more picks that you have, the
Speaker 1: more opportunities you have to get great players. Certainly, if
Speaker 1: there's a great player that's up there and it makes
Speaker 1: sense from a compensation perspective, you know, we'll look at
Speaker 1: those avenues as well. But you know, philosophically, we'd like
Speaker 1: we have eight picks right now. We'd like to make
Speaker 1: eight picks or more, not less. So when you say philosophically,
Speaker 1: if you can find a difference maker as opposed to
Speaker 1: a player that you hope can be a starter rather
Speaker 1: than you really believe can be a starter, how do
Speaker 1: you weigh that? And I think you weigh Those are
Speaker 1: the conversations that we have, and I mean, we're not
Speaker 1: at that point right now. We've got another round of meetings,
Speaker 1: you know, this afternoon tomorrow in the beginning part of
Speaker 1: next week, where we'll really from a strategy standpoint, really
Speaker 1: kind of set our plan of what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: You know, at this point right now, our board is
Speaker 1: predominantly set. There's some small adjustments that will make, but
Speaker 1: in terms of the strategy of how we're going to
Speaker 1: approach it, that will take place at the end of
Speaker 1: this week. Beginning of next week the best available or
Speaker 1: there there have to be a certain amount of feed
Speaker 1: for now in the future, or do you just take
Speaker 1: the highest rank KI recordless or our philosophy is best
Speaker 1: player available for us. So it's not just the best
Speaker 1: player available for the league. We grade and we set
Speaker 1: our board for the Eagles, so it's according to our heightweight,
Speaker 1: speed parameters. It's according to how they fit in our system,
Speaker 1: how they compare to our roster. So it is the
Speaker 1: best player available, but it's the best player available for us. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're really good at running back right now? Because
Speaker 1: a free agency, if there's a running back who fits
Speaker 1: your scheme, who do you think is the best player
Speaker 1: where you're picking you'll take? It wouldn't preclude us from
Speaker 1: taking a player that's there. I think every situation is
Speaker 1: unique with that, it depends on the other players that
Speaker 1: are available the board. If you're looking at the board
Speaker 1: and you're looking at it horizontally, if there's if there's
Speaker 1: a number of players are in the same category at
Speaker 1: the same spot, you could defer to need at that perspective.
Speaker 1: But if if the running back is the best player
Speaker 1: on the board and there's a huge drop off at
Speaker 1: other positions. I think you need to consider taking the
Speaker 1: best player if he fits for us. Thank you just
Speaker 1: describe what your new role is and what your daily
Speaker 1: interactions are like what you Chip? Yeah, I think just
Speaker 1: from a big picture standpoint, my role, the way that
Speaker 1: I view it is, I'm here to support the head coach.
Speaker 1: So I think it's our responsibility. Everybody in the organization
Speaker 1: is to support Chip and his vision. My responsibility is
Speaker 1: obviously in the player personnel aspect of that, no different
Speaker 1: than Derek's responsibility with the media or Greg's responsibility from
Speaker 1: an equipment standpoint. We're all here to support Chips. So
Speaker 1: in terms of my day to day, I'm evaluating players
Speaker 1: for both the draft and free agency, organizing our department,
Speaker 1: making sure that we're all speaking the same language and
Speaker 1: that we're able to see players through the coach's eyes.
Speaker 1: And I think Chips done an unbelievable job of supplying
Speaker 1: us with that vision of what he wants his team
Speaker 1: to look like, what he wants each position to look like,
Speaker 1: and it's our responsibility to identify and go get those players.
Speaker 1: Look at the safety position and obviously that that's a
Speaker 1: position of need that a lot of people view you
Speaker 1: guys have having when you look at a guy like
Speaker 1: Landing Collins, there's a lot of thought that he might
Speaker 1: not fit your scheme and what Bill Davis covets in
Speaker 1: a safety. How do you evaluate Collins? And would you
Speaker 1: draft a player or a position of need if he
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily fit exactly what you are trying to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get into specific evaluations of
Speaker 1: specific players, but from a big picture standpoint, again, we
Speaker 1: want players that fit for us. I'm not saying Landing
Speaker 1: Collins does or does not fit. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: things that Landing does well. There's some things that he
Speaker 1: struggles with, just like any other player in the draft.
Speaker 1: But you know what, We'll consider him, we'll discuss him,
Speaker 1: we rank him accordingly, but we want players that that
Speaker 1: fit our system. I'm not saying Landing does or does
Speaker 1: not fit, but he's a good football player. Do you
Speaker 1: the Eagles want to extend Sam Bradford before the start
Speaker 1: of the season. It's not I'm not going to talk
Speaker 1: about the contract situation. I think it's, you know, more
Speaker 1: of an organizational philosophy that we're not going to discuss contract,
Speaker 1: whether it's extensions or terms. I think those conversations will
Speaker 1: be between the player and the agent. It's the hardest
Speaker 1: part of your job, the evaluation process for any of
Speaker 1: these guys, the hardest part in terms of part of
Speaker 1: the evaluation process for all the prospects. Is there one
Speaker 1: thing that is most of them? I think it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's probably it's probably the things that you can't see
Speaker 1: on film, which is really as we break the evaluation
Speaker 1: process down. Um, we've talked about this before. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really into three phases. You know, it's the size
Speaker 1: and speed for the position. It's their athletic ability to
Speaker 1: play the position, which are the critical factors, and the
Speaker 1: position specifics. And the third part is the character, attitude
Speaker 1: and intelligence. I think that's probably the most difficult part
Speaker 1: because that's the unknown, you know, and you've got to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time with these guys to figure
Speaker 1: out they're wiring their makeup, what makes them tick, you know,
Speaker 1: do they fit in this culture and do they have
Speaker 1: the right football mentality and temperament to be a successful player.
Speaker 1: A lot of the things from an athletic standpoint you
Speaker 1: can see on tape, but the majority of the reason
Speaker 1: why guys fail, especially in the upper the higher portions
Speaker 1: of the draft, is it's it's something from an intangible standpoint,
Speaker 1: whether it's the lack of love or passion for the game,
Speaker 1: some sort of mental toughness issues. So we're trying to
Speaker 1: dig in and find that. So that's probably the most
Speaker 1: difficult part. Bruce arians and I'm sure other coaches said
Speaker 1: the same thing. Character overrides talent, and I understand ship
Speaker 1: if it comes down to that, how do you evaluate
Speaker 1: character over talent and his character better than talent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that you're always going to have those conversations
Speaker 1: of character versus talent with every player, and character is
Speaker 1: a big part of what we do. We want guys
Speaker 1: that are wired right in that fit. But we're going
Speaker 1: to do our due diligence to make sure, you know,
Speaker 1: just because the guys had one the indiscretion in his
Speaker 1: past doesn't make you know, hit him and off the
Speaker 1: board candidate for us. We're going to make sure that
Speaker 1: we figure out does this guy have the right makeup,
Speaker 1: the right mindset to be a great player. And I
Speaker 1: think from a big picture standpoint, you want guys that
Speaker 1: that that live their life the right way. That approached
Speaker 1: their job the right way that's conducive to them being
Speaker 1: a really good football player. If they don't do those things,
Speaker 1: typically they're not going to be successful. Would you say
Speaker 1: in that regards, I mean, if you talk with Marcus Peters,
Speaker 1: are you allowed to kind of go into whether you
Speaker 1: feel you're comfortable with him as a person. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get into the specifics of that. Yes,
Speaker 1: we've met with him. We've met with every player that's
Speaker 1: in this draft, h and I mean multiple meetings with
Speaker 1: all these guys, But I'm not going to go into
Speaker 1: specifics of any individual player. How many guys do you
Speaker 1: think that you've already checked off because of character? No
Speaker 1: one is officially off our board at this point. Um
Speaker 1: next week, as we kind of finalize that process, there
Speaker 1: will be guys that will be considered off of our board,
Speaker 1: but nobody has has been pulled off to this point.
Speaker 1: You're not going to mortgage your future, and you'd rather
Speaker 1: have more picks than less picks. But in that eight
Speaker 1: to ten in this draft, do you think there's anyone
Speaker 1: that's that transformative, that's that sure miss that maybe you
Speaker 1: could be goaded into moving for them. Yeah? I think
Speaker 1: that certainly is, and then we would consider that. I
Speaker 1: think it's, um, you know, you just gotta you know,
Speaker 1: value and way the opportunity costs, you know, you know
Speaker 1: with that, but um, you know, well, we've had those discussions,
Speaker 1: we'll continue to have those discussions. But if there's a
Speaker 1: player that we feel like makes sense, that can really
Speaker 1: improve our team, that has a significant role for us
Speaker 1: next year, I think we'll certainly consider that wide receiver,
Speaker 1: right guard. You lost starters at each of these spots.
Speaker 1: How do you view the death on the roster now
Speaker 1: at those three positions. Yeah, well, I think and I
Speaker 1: think that that I mean, it's a really good point
Speaker 1: to bring up. Is I mean everybody at this you
Speaker 1: know time of year, no everybody forgets about the players
Speaker 1: that you have, you know, on your team. Everybody just
Speaker 1: wants to talk about the players that are available in
Speaker 1: the draft. And we've got a lot of really good
Speaker 1: football players on this team. We view the draft as
Speaker 1: an opportunity to supplement the guys that are currently in
Speaker 1: place here. So I think at each one of those positions,
Speaker 1: we've got guys on the roster that we're excited about
Speaker 1: them as players and looking forward to them competing for
Speaker 1: a spot and then whoever we bring in, if we
Speaker 1: address those positions in the draft, they'll have the same
Speaker 1: opportunity that the guys in our building currently have, and
Speaker 1: that's an opportunity to compete specifically. How do you think,
Speaker 1: how do you think that's that spot next to Malcolm
Speaker 1: Jenkins Wills. I think we've got players there. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've got some guys that UM that have played UM
Speaker 1: and we're confident and and those guys will need to
Speaker 1: improve a little bit, but they'll have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: compete for that spot. We've got, you know, enough people
Speaker 1: that are currently in place to do that drafting and
Speaker 1: offensive tackle to start off at guard? Do you feel
Speaker 1: like that's a waste if he's a really good tackle
Speaker 1: or it's it's a no. I think it's it's best player,
Speaker 1: his best role. UM, how they how they fit best,
Speaker 1: and what can they do year one, you know, their
Speaker 1: first year here to help the football team. So UM,
Speaker 1: you know, you we need good players at every position,
Speaker 1: So I don't I don't view that as a wasted asset.
Speaker 1: UM in terms of position versatility. The more player can do,
Speaker 1: the more valuable they are. So A guy that can
Speaker 1: play both guard and tackle is more valuable than a
Speaker 1: guy that can just exclusively play guard. A guy that
Speaker 1: can play maybe corner and safety maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more valuable than a guy that can only play safety.
Speaker 1: So uh, and that that's just with fifty three man
Speaker 1: value forty six man game day value. The more you
Speaker 1: can do, the more valuable you are. This week, can
Speaker 1: you tell us foot you saw the changes time you
Speaker 1: saw and how he fits in. Yeah, we worked him
Speaker 1: out and we saw improvement from the last time that
Speaker 1: we saw him. We had exposure him live when he
Speaker 1: was with New England when they practiced here. When we
Speaker 1: worked him out, we saw a great deal of improvement
Speaker 1: with him. Uh. You know, Tim, We've got sixty eight
Speaker 1: players that are on our roster right now. Tim's one
Speaker 1: of sixty eight, so whole I have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: compete for a roster spot here. And I've said this
Speaker 1: before and uh, you know this, this comes from coach.
Speaker 1: I mean, his role will be determined by his performance.
Speaker 1: So we're we're excited that he's a member of the
Speaker 1: organization and we're looking forward to him competing potential role
Speaker 1: change with point after a touch down influence that decision
Speaker 1: at all, there's been connecting the dollar Tebow could potentially
Speaker 1: help in that is that was that part of the
Speaker 1: thought process, not not not entirely, but I think again,
Speaker 1: you know, if if that, if that does come to
Speaker 1: fruition and there's a role there, um, you know, depending
Speaker 1: on his performance that may dictate maybe he'll have a
Speaker 1: role in that capacity. To wide receiver with two of
Speaker 1: your first three picks last year was obviously one of
Speaker 1: the deeper wide receiver classes in memory. What do you
Speaker 1: think of the class at that position this year and
Speaker 1: is that one of in your one of your top
Speaker 1: needs going into the next week. Uh. In terms of needs,
Speaker 1: I think are we have needs at a lot of
Speaker 1: different positions. That's no slight on any player that we
Speaker 1: have here, but we you know, we have a need
Speaker 1: for good football players, you know, at any position, uh,
Speaker 1: the wide receiver position in this in this draft. As
Speaker 1: I said before, Uh, there's a lot of good players
Speaker 1: at that spot, UM that that could help us, that
Speaker 1: could improve UM and we we evaluated those guys accordingly.
Speaker 1: I think we've got him in the right spot that
Speaker 1: obviously needs that you're not expressing that you think are
Speaker 1: more than others. If it gets to that point and
Speaker 1: you're at twenty, forget about top ten, and you see
Speaker 1: you can move up spot you have taught you will
Speaker 1: target some players, How likely or how heavy will the
Speaker 1: discussion be to try to move up? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know you try to do it last year and this
Speaker 1: is you ended up with what you ended up with.
Speaker 1: But how likely is it to try a little harder
Speaker 1: to move up if you have targeted certain players and
Speaker 1: you know they might not get to twenty, but they're
Speaker 1: within range. Yeah, And I think that those are things
Speaker 1: as the board starts to come off, you know, you
Speaker 1: start to get a feel for, you know, what players
Speaker 1: may or may not be there. But that's something that
Speaker 1: it's just it's an ongoing thing that you'll see as
Speaker 1: the board falls. There are certain players that obviously we've
Speaker 1: identified as really good fits for us in the three
Speaker 1: criteria that we talk about. They fit our system, they've
Speaker 1: got good skill set to play the position. They fit
Speaker 1: from an intangible standpoint. Certainly, we're looking to acquire as
Speaker 1: many of those type of players as we can at
Speaker 1: all different levels, certainly at twenty, certainly in the first
Speaker 1: three rounds, but in all levels of the draft. We're
Speaker 1: looking to get those guys. All right, you spent a
Speaker 1: great deal of time on the road, um, your first
Speaker 1: few years here last sou to kind of get equated
Speaker 1: with college scouting from from a national level road a lot.
Speaker 1: What was the biggest benefit? What did you take most
Speaker 1: from that time what you're doing now? I think I
Speaker 1: think anytime anytime you can see a player live, it's
Speaker 1: it's of great value. You know, whether it's in season,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly at practice, you know in their element
Speaker 1: uh to from not only from an evaluation standpoint, but
Speaker 1: the interaction how they practice. But anytime there's no substitute
Speaker 1: for seeing a player live, you know, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of work that you can do on tape, especially
Speaker 1: the way the technology is now, you get the tape
Speaker 1: so quick. Um, you know, you want to be efficient
Speaker 1: in terms of when you're going out, you're and you're
Speaker 1: kind of targeting the players that you really need to
Speaker 1: take a look at. But anytime you see a player live,
Speaker 1: you see them move around, you're going to know one
Speaker 1: way or the other it's either going to confirm what
Speaker 1: you saw on tape or it's going to deny it.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna have to figure out a way
Speaker 1: of Okay, well what now we need to go back
Speaker 1: and figure out what needs to be addressed. But there's
Speaker 1: no substitute for seeing a player live. Are you were
Speaker 1: interviewing for your job here? This job was your age?
Speaker 1: Part of Yeah, it was you have to have to
Speaker 1: answer any questions about that that they have any concerns
Speaker 1: about that. I never had to answer any questions about that.
Speaker 1: To me, age is not a factor in my opinion.
Speaker 1: I think if you look across all different professional sports,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of people that have been either
Speaker 1: my age or younger that have been in in some
Speaker 1: good roles. And I think, to me, it's more about
Speaker 1: the experiences that you've had, the people that you've been around,
Speaker 1: the habits that you've formed. To me, those are the
Speaker 1: traits and qualities that make you successful in this role.
Speaker 1: And um, I've got a lot of improvement left to do.
Speaker 1: I've got you know, I have that same approach that
Speaker 1: you know you never got it. You know you're always
Speaker 1: looking to improve and develop. But I feel confident that
Speaker 1: I'm uniquely prepared for this opportunity. This offseason, you and
Speaker 1: Chip had been on the phones negotiating trades and determining
Speaker 1: compensation those things. What work do you put in to
Speaker 1: make sure that when draft they rolled around, you know,
Speaker 1: to for lack of a better term, you're not getting pleased,
Speaker 1: you're getting the better end of these deals. Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: We've done a lot of We've had a lot of
Speaker 1: conversations with people that have been inside the building, and
Speaker 1: there are also people outside the building in terms of
Speaker 1: professional development, some guys that have been helpful for us
Speaker 1: in terms of consulting to making sure that we're you know,
Speaker 1: we're up to speed on that. So I'm confident in
Speaker 1: terms of our preparation and we're ready to go. Since
Speaker 1: Chip has added these new duties to his plate, how
Speaker 1: is he difference? He's longer, does he talk to you differ?
Speaker 1: He's always here So I don't think he's here any
Speaker 1: longer now than he is before. But he hasn't changed
Speaker 1: at all, you know, his approach. I mean, he's a
Speaker 1: he's a relentless worker. Um. You know, Chip has been
Speaker 1: a great guy for me to have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: work with. He forces you to over prepare. He's obviously
Speaker 1: extremely intelligent, He's very quick, so when you come to
Speaker 1: him with a certain topic or an idea or a
Speaker 1: suggestion something, you know, you better be prepared with plan B, C,
Speaker 1: and D because of the feedback that you're going to
Speaker 1: get from him. So I certainly don't think his approach
Speaker 1: has changed at all. Um, you know, we've had a
Speaker 1: really really, really good round of meetings. You know, in
Speaker 1: terms of our pre draft preparation that's involved obviously, you
Speaker 1: know myself, Chip and our entire staff, both coaches and
Speaker 1: personnel broached with all these great man Is there any
Speaker 1: great coaches? Is there anything that's different about him in
Speaker 1: this evaluation process than anybody else you've worked with as
Speaker 1: you have these meetings, I wouldn't say different. He's very thorough,
Speaker 1: he's very detailed. Um, he puts in the work, he
Speaker 1: puts in the time. Um, he's got a natural eye
Speaker 1: and knack for for talent evaluation, which I think that
Speaker 1: not a lot of people have. You know, Uh, there's
Speaker 1: there's varying degrees of talent evaluators from a coaching perspective,
Speaker 1: Chips unique in that regard. He's a he's got a
Speaker 1: really good eye for talent. Obviously, he's an exceptional play caller.
Speaker 1: So the combination of that I think makes makes him
Speaker 1: pretty special. Chips the guy that makes the decision. However,
Speaker 1: you get to a point you've evaluated more than he has,
Speaker 1: because obviously you have the ability when you get to
Speaker 1: that point. How much you feel comfortable and I know
Speaker 1: you're not in that situation to say, Chip, no, I
Speaker 1: think it's this guy, although Chip says it says it's
Speaker 1: this guy. How much you're willing to go to the
Speaker 1: wall for what you believe with what is your new
Speaker 1: boss right now? Yeah, I'm very comfortable in doing that,
Speaker 1: and I think that, Um, you know, the most important
Speaker 1: relationship in the building to me is one of the
Speaker 1: head coach and whoever's you know, the personnel director, and
Speaker 1: there's got to be mutual trust and respect for both parties.
Speaker 1: I told that to Chip. You know, we had that
Speaker 1: conversation before I accepted the position. I've never been one
Speaker 1: to agree, just to agree, and I've got no problems
Speaker 1: you know, speaking my mind. I've done the work, I'm
Speaker 1: confident in my preparation and uh, and that's what Chip wants.
Speaker 1: I mean, he wants checks and balances, he wants to
Speaker 1: hear the opinions and we're in this together, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna make good decisions. Thanks