Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for being here. I want to start
Speaker 1: off by just thanking Brent Sellick. When we talk about
Speaker 1: people who have the traits we look for as a
Speaker 1: players in person, Brent epitomizes what it means to be
Speaker 1: a Philadelphia Eagle. You know, it's hard when you're with
Speaker 1: someone for as long as we were with Brent to
Speaker 1: not have that guy around anymore. But he's always welcome
Speaker 1: in this organization. Couldn't be happier for him that he
Speaker 1: ends up a world champion, just like he belongs. I
Speaker 1: know him, whatever he does in life, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: tremendous success, and I know Jeffers said this in his
Speaker 1: comments as well. He is always welcome back here to
Speaker 1: help and contribute to the team. So I want to
Speaker 1: wish him and his family all the best luck as
Speaker 1: he transitions to his new role, and I know we'll
Speaker 1: miss him and hopefully get him around as much as
Speaker 1: we can steal him from his family. Tough day today
Speaker 1: and yesterday we went through thirty seven conversations with all
Speaker 1: of these guys and doesn't get any easier. The worst
Speaker 1: part of the job that we have some guys who
Speaker 1: are part of our world championship team who contributed. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a day that never gets easier for us, and
Speaker 1: with the quick turnaround, probably a little bit different tone
Speaker 1: than normal, And normally you have the opportunity to do
Speaker 1: it without the other players in the building, but having
Speaker 1: the other players around, I think makes it even harder
Speaker 1: because these guys don't get kind of their moment to
Speaker 1: kind of absorb what's going on. So you know, now
Speaker 1: are our scouts are already harder work and they have
Speaker 1: been throughout the preseason getting a headstart on cuts and
Speaker 1: seeing if there are ways we can improve our fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster and our practice squad. They do a
Speaker 1: great job. Our entire front office and really the collaboration
Speaker 1: that goes on is fun to see. But it's a
Speaker 1: quick twenty four hours and again affected by the fact
Speaker 1: that we play on Thursday, So that's where we are.
Speaker 1: Certainly want to be open to any questions that you
Speaker 1: guys have that I can answer. Nick Foles will start
Speaker 1: week one. Can you confirm that, no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to talk about any playtime decisions, any starter decisions. You know,
Speaker 1: that's not my dojo, And certainly don't feel like we're
Speaker 1: in position to give any answers to any tests here
Speaker 1: about any position on our football team, but appreciate the
Speaker 1: question came along the way. Did you expect to see
Speaker 1: him make those kind of leaps in other improvement that
Speaker 1: he made? You know, we're very fortunate to have Jeff
Speaker 1: Stalin as our offensive line coach. And when we were
Speaker 1: in the draft room and decided to trade two seventh
Speaker 1: round picks for a rugby player, and he said out loud,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of funny. And you saw him in
Speaker 1: the off season and the strides that he's taken have
Speaker 1: just been incredible, and he saw it in the Cleveland game,
Speaker 1: he saw it against the Jets. He just gets better better.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to find guys who are sixty eight
Speaker 1: and three hundred and sixty pounds who can run like that,
Speaker 1: who have the core strength that he does. And you know,
Speaker 1: certainly there's no guarantees, but we want to develop players.
Speaker 1: And when you can find guys at hard to find
Speaker 1: positions to develop, it gets you excited. How different is
Speaker 1: it for you guys? Being last in the waiver claim
Speaker 1: priority makes it kind of tough to claim a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys. Yeah, it's a good problem to have, certainly,
Speaker 1: But I think for us, we've had a lot of
Speaker 1: conversations with teams and trying to figure out if it
Speaker 1: makes some sense to make some trades before this moment
Speaker 1: and get in front. At the same time, being last
Speaker 1: still gives you the first shot. It's almost like having
Speaker 1: the last pick in the draft in the seventh round.
Speaker 1: It's hard sometimes to get practice wild guys to change teams,
Speaker 1: and we've been in situations over the last couple of
Speaker 1: years we're uh, we try to get guys from practice
Speaker 1: squads and they stayed, so you still have an edge.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a ton of guys that will end
Speaker 1: up being activated from practice squads to active rosters who
Speaker 1: end up playing, so there are still the opportunity to
Speaker 1: act for our football team. UM. You have to be
Speaker 1: determined what we're going to do there on that. UM.
Speaker 1: And UM yeah, the report that you guys traded for
Speaker 1: DeAndre Oh? UM. Can I get to the end of
Speaker 1: press conference and then I can let you know that
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm I'm waiting to see if I can
Speaker 1: confirm or deny such reports, so I will have my
Speaker 1: phone that it was a finalist. Um. Let's go to
Speaker 1: other questions and hopefully I'll circle back by the time
Speaker 1: we're done on the what you're going from. You moved
Speaker 1: on from two draft picks from last year as as
Speaker 1: a as a personnel guys. That more difficult for some,
Speaker 1: but obviously everyone wants their draft picks to succeed out
Speaker 1: there closes up well, you got to be consistent in
Speaker 1: what you're looking for. And when we have our first
Speaker 1: meeting before training camp, we stand in front of the
Speaker 1: team and say, we're gonna go with the best guys,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter where you're from, what your pedigree is,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna do what's the best for the team.
Speaker 1: And so it's not easy to spend You spend all
Speaker 1: year for a certain number of picks to take those
Speaker 1: guys off the board, and you look forward to them
Speaker 1: and we got to study about why guys don't have success.
Speaker 1: Now the jury is still out, because there are guys
Speaker 1: that end up getting cut and coming back and having
Speaker 1: tremendous success in the National Football League. But that's not easy.
Speaker 1: But it's not easy to get rid of anyone. You know,
Speaker 1: every single person that was in this building was here
Speaker 1: because we chose them. We chose for them to be
Speaker 1: here because we saw a trade that we liked. And
Speaker 1: whether they're a draft pick or an undraft of free
Speaker 1: agent or a free agent signing or a trade, all
Speaker 1: those guys are here because we wanted them to be here.
Speaker 1: You know, beautiful thing about picking a roster. As you
Speaker 1: get to pick, you know who's here. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know, as as a front office staff,
Speaker 1: as a scouting staff, those picks, you know they're valuable.
Speaker 1: And so we'll go back and try to figure out
Speaker 1: what we've done wrong on all the draft picks that
Speaker 1: haven't had as much success as maybe we anticipated. What
Speaker 1: was it this offseason to keep Nick Foles around without
Speaker 1: knowing what Carson's status would be. Well, we believe in
Speaker 1: the quarterback position and investing in the quarterback position and
Speaker 1: having a great quarterback room, and so we know what
Speaker 1: we have in Nick Foles and the confidence level we
Speaker 1: have in him, the confidence level we have in Carson,
Speaker 1: and the confidence level we have Innate Sudfeld. And that's
Speaker 1: something that that is very important to us as we
Speaker 1: build the team, and we probably put a little bit
Speaker 1: more resources into it than some other teams, but it's
Speaker 1: worked for us. It's worked for us, not only last year,
Speaker 1: but we've had success with having a really good quarterback room,
Speaker 1: and so I don't think it's really any reflection on
Speaker 1: Carson as much as the position. And just like we
Speaker 1: keep ten offensive linemen, it's just a reflection of where
Speaker 1: we put our priorities and we like to do with action.
Speaker 1: But you're not commenting on the quarterback is starter? Is
Speaker 1: that because you don't know yet where You just don't want,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, give the answers to the tests. So
Speaker 1: we traded for Downdre. I'm sorry I was waiting for it.
Speaker 1: I was trying to be reflective of the moment we
Speaker 1: have here and that's why my phone out. So we
Speaker 1: traded for DeAndre Hall. Didn't mean to interrupt you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: but if it was going to be someone I interrupted,
Speaker 1: at least it was you. And he suspended for the
Speaker 1: first game. We did our background work on him. Joe
Speaker 1: Dougas was with Chicago when they drafted him in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: He's a safety who has a cornerbackground as well, and
Speaker 1: had a chance to get exposure to him certainly in
Speaker 1: the preseason and his tape and we'll bring him in here,
Speaker 1: we'll get him a physical, and then we'll have to
Speaker 1: send him home for a week and get him back
Speaker 1: in the building on Friday. Where's Brett? We don't we
Speaker 1: don't do that. We don't do We'll circle back down
Speaker 1: this discuss. That's part of the discussion. I wasn't prepared
Speaker 1: for this part of the three fifty three. Right now,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to at least two more tough decisions.
Speaker 1: Then after this week, you know, Nigel coming back to
Speaker 1: I'm sure there'll be more than that. Ums. It's the
Speaker 1: toughest part of the year, but at the time of
Speaker 1: the year, but you still have more to go. What's
Speaker 1: not going to be like too Well, it's all guys
Speaker 1: that made the team that really help pick the team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that that's our job is to continue to
Speaker 1: try to improve the roster and to year long process
Speaker 1: and we're constantly looking for ways that we think we
Speaker 1: can upgrade the roster. You know, through the course of
Speaker 1: last year, you saw it. You know, the roster changes,
Speaker 1: you have injuries, you have opportunities to add guys, and
Speaker 1: we take that part of it very seriously. So we
Speaker 1: understand that this day doesn't mean the end of the roster.
Speaker 1: There are other ways to acquire players, and the talent
Speaker 1: acquisition period really doesn't stop and continues. We have another
Speaker 1: one big one coming up, certainly trade deadline, but we'll
Speaker 1: go through all that and the next week and try
Speaker 1: to get everyone practice squad guys graded and be in
Speaker 1: a position to execute as the opportunity rises. Question about
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks, you say, you said you do. You guys
Speaker 1: know who's starting and you just don't want to give
Speaker 1: it away for competitive reasons or the duck said the
Speaker 1: decision will be mean by Friday. Yeah, I would defer
Speaker 1: all lineup related decisions towards the coach. You know, we
Speaker 1: we've been kind of locked in a room here in
Speaker 1: the last thirty six hours, so I would just like
Speaker 1: talk about the roster. A linebacker, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of experience behind Jordan X just yeah, Nigel obviously he
Speaker 1: comes back on Friday, and for us, we looked at it.
Speaker 1: Those guys when you think about our young linebackers can
Speaker 1: move Nate Gary. We picked up Loroi Renalds, who does
Speaker 1: have some experience. Now, those guys are just done a
Speaker 1: really good job throughout training camp and they've continued to
Speaker 1: grow and we feel comfortable and confident in that room.
Speaker 1: And the way the league is going, the linebacker position
Speaker 1: has really changed. I mean, you're really in nickel sixty
Speaker 1: plus percent of the time, and so it's almost become
Speaker 1: a sub role, that third linebacker role. So when you
Speaker 1: look at it and think about some traits that some
Speaker 1: of those guys have and how they play off each other,
Speaker 1: we think that that kind of balances the room. And
Speaker 1: so it's also a big perpessial team is a big
Speaker 1: part of that room and what we're looking for on
Speaker 1: special teams, and it's been a goal of ours in
Speaker 1: the offseason to improve the competition level on special teams
Speaker 1: and hopefully we've done that. With the roster, we buy
Speaker 1: a lot of how realistic did you view it as
Speaker 1: him actually making the fifty three when you drafted you
Speaker 1: know him? When we made this pick, we committed in
Speaker 1: the draft room that we knew wasn't going to be
Speaker 1: a short term process and if we were just going
Speaker 1: to get into camp and say, hey, the guys were
Speaker 1: all and not really have this developmental mindset that it
Speaker 1: was going to we had to give him a two
Speaker 1: year time period to get right, it wouldn't have made
Speaker 1: sense for us to trade two picks for him. So
Speaker 1: we had committed at that moment that hey, if the
Speaker 1: guy looks like he has the traits we think he has,
Speaker 1: then we're going to commit to him and we're going
Speaker 1: to develop him and we're going to have him on
Speaker 1: our fifty three and he's just going to be the
Speaker 1: fifty third guy. Now. That was our conversation in the
Speaker 1: draft room. The strides he's taken have been to us
Speaker 1: impressive and exciting, and that he's got to continue to
Speaker 1: do it, there's no question about it. And the level
Speaker 1: of competition increases certainly when you get into the regular season.
Speaker 1: But that was our plan for him when we drafted him,
Speaker 1: that we were going to make sure that we spent
Speaker 1: the time developing him and we're going to continue doing
Speaker 1: That's what's really fun to watch is our players have
Speaker 1: taken ownership of it as well. And you see a
Speaker 1: practice Lane Johnson, Jason Peters, our defensive lineman, you know,
Speaker 1: Michael Bennett, BG, Chris Long, guys like that who have
Speaker 1: also taken the time to sit with him and show
Speaker 1: him some of the things that they do or some
Speaker 1: of the things he can do against some of the
Speaker 1: moves they're showing, and I think that's fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Influential was Stout and convincing you guys to make the
Speaker 1: trade of two picks to do that. Well, you know
Speaker 1: Stout Stout. If you've ever talked to Stout, he's got
Speaker 1: a passion. And Stout and I my dad was a
Speaker 1: high school teacher in Staten Island and Stout went to
Speaker 1: the rival high school. So stud and I used to
Speaker 1: go to Alabama and see Stout and hear him talking.
Speaker 1: When you hear Stout talk, he talks with such conviction
Speaker 1: that it's not hard to get behind him. And he
Speaker 1: went to work Jordan out and he doesn't wait till
Speaker 1: he comes back. He starts shooting your videos on his
Speaker 1: phone and you just start seeing him on the phone
Speaker 1: and like, you know, you can't even load him because
Speaker 1: there's like forty videos of like Jordan, like you know,
Speaker 1: bending and doing his wall test and then like Ronnie
Speaker 1: and drills, and so he's only done that a handful
Speaker 1: of times with guys, So we knew the passion and
Speaker 1: then we saw the workout and it was incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1: And the thing for us was after we took Prior
Speaker 1: in the sixth round, and we had conversations about taking
Speaker 1: him in the set in the sixth but we were
Speaker 1: excited about getting Prior as well. And you know, Prior
Speaker 1: obviously has more of a body of work. And the
Speaker 1: conversation really became with all the time that we'd spent
Speaker 1: on this and the traits that he has in his body,
Speaker 1: if we'd rather see him fail in Philadelphia than have
Speaker 1: success somewhere else, you know, And and for that it
Speaker 1: we started right away trying to trade and get back
Speaker 1: in position to get him because of those reasons. Now, again,
Speaker 1: I think he's come along further at this point than
Speaker 1: we expect at that point. He still got a long
Speaker 1: way to go. But we did it for that reason
Speaker 1: because it's just so hard to find, you know, build
Speaker 1: ourselves set at one point. There are not many men
Speaker 1: on this earth who are sixty eight, three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty pounds and can move their feet like that and
Speaker 1: that or that athletic and that coordinated. So we wanted
Speaker 1: to get him in the program. And but Stout does not,
Speaker 1: you know, give us like the draft trade chart, and
Speaker 1: he's like, you know what, I'd be really good value
Speaker 1: like two sevens versus you know, when we asked him that,
Speaker 1: he's I don't know about all that, that's not my dojo.
Speaker 1: But went into the decision at running back, you know,
Speaker 1: keeping window over, you know, and now Pump three and
Speaker 1: Josh Adams in particular, like how how tough was that decision? Yeah, again,
Speaker 1: another tough decision, Another tough call, I think for us,
Speaker 1: you know, we look at it the roster, the forty
Speaker 1: six man roster, the fifty three and then the sixty
Speaker 1: three and as we get going here early on in
Speaker 1: the season, we want to make sure the coaches have
Speaker 1: what they need on the forty six man roster for
Speaker 1: you know, when we look at the totality of the
Speaker 1: situation and a lot of things come into play for that,
Speaker 1: especially in the backup roles. And again, you know, special
Speaker 1: teams are a part of it. And then a body
Speaker 1: work too. You know, some of these guys that we
Speaker 1: talk about that maybe we're perceived to be on the
Speaker 1: bubble have a body of work with us that we've
Speaker 1: seen in games in situations where we needed them. But again,
Speaker 1: tough decisions and tough calls, and these are the things
Speaker 1: that we've kind of been discussing over the last few
Speaker 1: days and a few weeks. You've got an audio of
Speaker 1: work you brought in week and kamar Akin two veterans
Speaker 1: at the receiver's button. It was DeAndre Carter, a journeyman.
Speaker 1: Then I ended up getting this about just talk about
Speaker 1: the conversation at the receiver. I think this goes to
Speaker 1: the question that we talked about about you got to
Speaker 1: go with what you see. And DeAndre came in late.
Speaker 1: Our scouting department led by Joe, who had him in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: recommended to us for a workout. He had a great workout,
Speaker 1: and every day he came to practice and made a play.
Speaker 1: And we went through all his team reps since he's
Speaker 1: been here and all his target since he's been here,
Speaker 1: and you see the separation. You see the versatility play
Speaker 1: inside or out. He's strong to the ball, he's got
Speaker 1: quickness to separate. He's got trade line speed. When you
Speaker 1: looked at his numbers, I mean he's got one four
Speaker 1: or five ten, I mean he's got incredible speed. And
Speaker 1: the play was really good. He can return punts as well.
Speaker 1: So we'll see how he does here as we get started.
Speaker 1: But certainly deserved the roster spot not even so yeah,
Speaker 1: question it's gonna be d M J. Carter. But but
Speaker 1: on Stephen means um, you know, I'm sure some decisions
Speaker 1: aren't tougher than others. And guys in the locker room
Speaker 1: talk about the effect that he has on the practice field.
Speaker 1: What about that decision? Yeah, Stephen was the last scot
Speaker 1: um and I think because of what he means as
Speaker 1: a person and a player, really hard, hard one. And again,
Speaker 1: you know, I think for us as we get going here,
Speaker 1: you think you have to think about where we are
Speaker 1: from a roster perspective, and where we are on the
Speaker 1: forty six and what we need to give our coaches
Speaker 1: the best chance to win this week and the week's
Speaker 1: going forward. And so we're deep at some positions that
Speaker 1: are hard to find and at the same time, it
Speaker 1: doesn't make it any easier. So incredible person who's meant
Speaker 1: a lot to us hunting off the field, and um
Speaker 1: a tough one. This is right now than it was
Speaker 1: this time last year. You know, I think that, Um,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say proof is in the pudding, but
Speaker 1: I felt like I've used that before. Have I used
Speaker 1: that before? Jimmy even know I've used it. I've used it.
Speaker 1: I've used it twice today. Proof twice us that proof
Speaker 1: is in the pudding. It said dojo, but dojo, but
Speaker 1: dojo wouldn't a pie of this. I'm just saying you're
Speaker 1: allowed to repeat yourself. I used jojo twice in this
Speaker 1: press confis ones. It was scouted using it. It was
Speaker 1: you was just talking about the proof is in the pudding.
Speaker 1: I just buy on the quarterbacks, Is it accurate to
Speaker 1: say that internal decision has been made, but you just
Speaker 1: want to like dug handle the announcing of it or
Speaker 1: whatever announcing there might be. I think it's accurate to
Speaker 1: say that I'm not going to come on on any roster, starting,
Speaker 1: starting lineup decision or forty six man decision that we
Speaker 1: have for Thursday or any game going forward. With DeAndre?
Speaker 1: Did you were you able to get his see his
Speaker 1: reaction when when he made the fifty three man It's
Speaker 1: obviously it's been a long time coming for him and
Speaker 1: he's got a story. Pretty let's see. Yeah, he said
Speaker 1: that that would have actually cheered me up on a
Speaker 1: day like today. I probably should have done that. Um
Speaker 1: I did not. I did not. I am familiar with
Speaker 1: this story I did not Um, I should have done that.
Speaker 1: I'm regretting that. When the when the team released when
Speaker 1: the team released Michael Kendricks a couple of months back. Wait,
Speaker 1: I just want to Anthony Denham came in and two
Speaker 1: days obviously made some plays in the game. Obviously he
Speaker 1: kept Perkings over him. Just talk about that decision and
Speaker 1: just how difficult what Denham did in those couple of
Speaker 1: days did Yeah, amazing. And he came in in the
Speaker 1: hottest days of the year. And I saw him at
Speaker 1: one point and he was over at the watercooler and
Speaker 1: spraying water on his face and he had those ice
Speaker 1: schoolers on the back of his neck and drinking a
Speaker 1: Gatorade And I said, you're gonna be ready to go
Speaker 1: on Thursday, and he goes, hell yeah. But really amazing
Speaker 1: to think about a guy coming in who hadn't been
Speaker 1: in camp and performing that way, you know. For Josh,
Speaker 1: Josh was a guy that our pro department had targeted
Speaker 1: as a future signing, and he's got special team's value.
Speaker 1: We've seen him at camp. He's another one. I think
Speaker 1: for us, it's not only the games, it's the whole
Speaker 1: body of work. And we have the ability. You know,
Speaker 1: Pat Dolan, our very team doing amazing job of doing
Speaker 1: cut up on every player of every rep they've had,
Speaker 1: where you can just pull it down. You know, we
Speaker 1: have this pro star system that you can pull down
Speaker 1: buy player of Jersey every rep he's had. So m
Speaker 1: Our training camps, our practices are hard so that those
Speaker 1: competitive periods are good for us as well. And it's
Speaker 1: hard to find tight ends in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: like it's a hard position to find right now. So
Speaker 1: that was a tough call, but we obviously we want
Speaker 1: with Josh