Go birds! What's going on everybody and good morning. Today is Wednesday, April 1st and this is your daily Go Birds Morning Update giving you all the Eagles news you need to know as well as what to keep an eye out for today and happy April Fool's Day. I do have to be honest, I don't think April Fool's jokes are funny. Like look, there's a rare occasional one, there was that time the Phillies trick died, I think it was Kyle Kendrick into thinking he was being traded to like an overseas league in Japan. That's kind of funny, like things can occasionally be funny, but like most April Fool's jokes, not very funny. But maybe I'll try to play April Fool's joke on my wife today. I probably won't because it probably won't be that funny, but overall hopefully you're not doing lame April Fool's jokes today. Hopefully you're just going out and enjoying your day. But I hope everybody is having a good start to the week. I'm still in Arizona coming back today, so I'll be back in Philly later today. Can't wait to get back in Philly. But then a full annual meetings came to a close on Tuesday as they always do. They always end earlier than expected. I feel like the first few years I covered the annual meetings, I wouldn't fly out until like Wednesday at 7pm because I was always like, oh, I don't want to miss anything. They always end like a day and a half early now. So the end of full annual meetings ended on Tuesday and of course it was an eventful few days for the Eagles as we heard from Howie Roseman, Nick Siriani, and Jeffrey Lurie. So we're going to do things a little bit different in this daily pod. Jeffrey Lurie talked and said a ton of stuff. And if unless this daily pod is going to be an hour, hour and a half, and that's not really the purpose of the daily pod, I'm going to have a separate pod in the feed with just Jeffrey Lurie stuff. A lot of his quotes, my takeaways, you can hear what the owner had to say. Look, he only talks once a year. So it's a big deal whenever he does talk. But there was also a bunch of other stuff that happened around the league and with the Eagles on Tuesday. So I want to update you all on that in this pod, this daily pod. And then the Jeffrey Lurie pod will be in your feed as well. And I know the purpose of the daily pod is to kind of be in and out, right? News updates, those type of things. The Jeffrey Lurie press conference, I think, deserves its own pod. So this pod strictly news Jeffrey Lurie pod in your feed as well. So let's start actually first, I do have to say this. I took away mo for the first time in Arizona. I went to those, the party for the NFL owners, GMs and head coaches that for some reason they let media into. There was that and I went with two friends and they called a, they called it a Uber and what showed up away mo and it was wild and it was wild in the way of how not wild it was. It felt so normal. When it first pulled up, I was like, I'm not getting in this car. I'm going to perish if I get in this car. I ended up sitting behind the driver seat. It felt like being in a regular car. I mean, maybe because I couldn't see the driver anyway, even if there was one, but it was nice. We all just got to talk. There was no awkwardness with the driver. It was surprisingly normal and it truly does feel like the future, which was crazy. So if you haven't tried one, try one. It is interesting to, it's an interesting thing to experience, but let's get into the news of the day. The Eagles have signed a linebacker. They have signed linebacker Chandler Martin. Martin is six three, 230 pounds, a UDFA out of Memphis from the 2025 NFL draft. He spent his rookie year with the Ravens in Baltimore, was on the practice squad, got elevated a few times, mostly a special teams player, but even then only played 34 special team snaps. Unfortunately though, did suffer a season ending ACL tear in week 13 and the Eagles have signed him now to a two year deal. So why are they bringing in Chandler Martin and what is, what does the two year deal mean? Well, first of all, I think it's just a shot in the dark on someone that can be a good special teams player. Like I said, six three, 230 pounds, super athletic, at least prior to the injury, obviously coming off the injury. You never know. The Eagles special teams, they're always looking to add guys to the bottom of the roster. That can be good in that, in that regard. But I do think making the roster is going to be pretty tough for Chandler Martin. You look at the Eagles linebacking core, Zach Bonne, Jihad Campbell, Jeremiah Trotter and smile, Monden Jr. are all going to be on the team. Now I should say are all not going to be cut. They're not obviously not going to cut Jihad or Zach Bonne and Trotter and smile, Monden, I would think are not going to be cut as their world where they're traded maybe because I do actually think Trotter and smile, Monden Jr. could be starting linebackers on the majority, not maybe not the majority, but a lot of NFL teams. But it's going to be tough for Martin because Monden Jr. and Trotter can both play special teams. Certainly Monden Jr. can. He's super athletic. So it's going to be tough for Chandler Martin to find his way onto the roster. But I could picture him being a practice squad guy again recovering from a torn ACL. You get him in the building, you try him out. You see if that athleticism is still there. You see if he can be an impact special teams player. What I think is interesting about the two-year deal that they gave him is normally with these type of things you see a one-year deal. And the reason you see a one-year deal is because it benefits both parties. The Eagles don't have to commit money in the second year and the player gets to be a free agent after one year. The fact that they got him on a two-year deal, I do think speaks to the lack of leverage he had in this situation because the Eagles, I would guess, haven't seen the contract but I think it's safe to assume probably didn't give him much money and probably did not have to guarantee much of any money but certainly not money in year two. And if it did, I would imagine it's like an extremely small number. So what the Eagles get is they get to bring him in for a year. They get to have him on the practice squad. Again, I don't think he's going to be on the 53-man roster. You never know, but I don't think he's going to be. You know, I'm sure he'll rehab the rest of the summer with the Eagles. They'll help him recover. And then if he were to end up having, you know, let's say a big year on special teams because he's healthy, he gets out there, he's crushing it for the Eagles, they own his rights after this upcoming season. So Caleb Martin gets a job, first of all, right? Like he's not somebody that's guaranteed in an NFL roster spot and the Eagles get to have him after this upcoming season. So the two-year deal does speak to, just again, the lack of leverage he had and like the fact that there probably wasn't a lot of good offers around the league. So excited to watch him in camp when he does eventually practice. We'll get an update, I'm sure, soon on his health and when he's supposed to be back on the field. I think special teams is really the name of the game for him. All right. So there was a lot of talk about the Brandon Graham press conference that he announced on Instagram and wasn't in Phoenix and wasn't at 11 o'clock Eastern Standard Time. So Brandon Graham, there was a lot of speculation that maybe this would be about, you know, him retiring or him coming back to the Eagles. It wasn't either of that. So if you were looking for it and didn't see it, no news on the Brandon Graham front in terms of whether or not he will be back, Brandon Graham, of course, retired last off season, the Eagles asked him to come out of retirement. He came out of retirement, played, played well, and now they're going to decide if they want to bring him back. I've been clear that I think to a certain degree they owe him a roster spot. I think they were influential in him retiring and I think they were very influential in him coming out of retirement and not least out of retirement and wants to keep playing. I kind of think they owe a franchise legend who played well for them last year, both Edge and defensive tackle a job. So we will see if they end up signing him, but no news yet on the on the Brandon Graham front. All right. So Tuesday morning at the NFL annual meetings was AFC coaches meetings, which means we heard from all the AFC head coaches. And don't you worry, we got some Mike Vrabel and AJ Brown audio for you on the other side. We're going to hold that for the second half of the pod in case you're tired of hearing about AJ Brown. But we do know that this year, the Tush push was not on the list of potential rule bands from, from, from the league. They've given up on the Tush push. Coincidentally, it comes after the Eagles didn't win a playoff game and didn't run it that well this year. But we know the Tush push will be back this upcoming season. And last time I was at the NFL annual meetings last summer, the big vocal head coach against it was Sean McDermott. Now, Sean McDermott is no longer the head coach of the bills, which means he did not talk on Tuesday morning, but the bills head coach did talk new head coach, new head coach Joe Brady talked and shout out to Olivia Reiner of the inquires. She asked Joe Brady about the fact that the Tush push will not be around anymore and why they continued to run it anyway. Last year, despite the fact that Sean McDermott made it clear, he thought there were some health concerns about running the play. So, Olivia asked Joe Brady, why? And here's what Joe Brady had to say. Quote, as the former offensive coordinator, if former head coach Sean McDermott was like, Hey, look, I don't want us doing this. We wouldn't. And to his credit, it was like, Hey, yes, I might be against it, but there's a lot of rules that sometimes as coaches, as personnel, we might not be in favor for. But once the rule is, Hey, this is what it is, we want to make sure as an offense, defense, special teams as a team that we're doing whatever we're capable of. But once it got to the point that he was like, if the rule is in and you feel like it's in the best interest to help us win, he was for it. As to why there was not a renewed attempt to ban it, Brady said, quote, sometimes I'm surprised that when a rule proposal comes and it doesn't pass, do they make it to the next year or there as I'm learning in the league? Is it just like, we're like, Hey, we went all in, it didn't go, we're going to keep it moving. The success that we have with it, I was fortunate for it to be a part of our offense last year. End quote. So, you know, look, I do think it's pretty hypocritical of Sean McDermott to say it's a health hazard to a certain degree on paraphrasing to run the play and then to run it. But I do think Joe Brady's logic is good. Like Sean McDermott can be against it. Sean McDermott can think it's a bad play. But if Joe Brady thinks it's a good play for them and it helps them and he calls it as the offensive coordinator last year, I guess to a certain degree, you have to give Sean McDermott credit for not hurting his team, despite what he thinks personally. But the tough part of that is if you think it's like a health hazard or like a safety issue for the players to run it, the man, it's a tough look to run it. So like I said, Sean McDermott, not a head coach right now, didn't get a chance to ask him about it. But I thought that Joe Brady's perspective on it was interesting. A shout out to Olivia for asking it a little behind the scenes inside the dugout baseball. I was I was standing at the Patriots table listening to Mike Vrable. I saw Olivia at the Bill's table and I said to her, like, what are you asking Joe Brady about? And she kind of kept it on the low. Here's why. So good job by her to think of the question and to not tell me. Great, great friend. I like Olivia, but it was a well done job by her. All right, some other interesting things that were said at the coaches meet at the coaches meeting or availability on Tuesday morning was Jaguars head coach Lee and Cohn said that the Tampa said that the Jaguars tried to hire Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Josh Grisard. Of course, now Eagles pass game coordinator Josh Grisard during the off season. Instead, Grisard went to the Eagles. We even talked a ton about Grisard. Manion is clearly the big name in terms of who they hired. He's the offensive coordinator. The most pressure will be on him. But Grisard has been an offensive coordinator, has called plays, has worked in the offense that they're going to try to run and they were able to hire him as the pass game coordinator. And I think it's a good sign that Lee and Cohn tried to hire Grisard. The two worked together in Tampa before Cohn got the job as Jaguars head coach in Jacksonville. Grisard took over for Cohn, didn't work out in Tampa, got fired. But I think Lee and Cohn is clearly a good head coach. You look at what he's done in Jacksonville, a team that traditionally struggles to win, a team whose offense hasn't been great. He went in there, they were a really good team, lost a tough playoff game to the bills, really tough first round playoff matchup, got to play it at home, had a pretty good offense. So I think that he's a good, he is a good head coach. And the fact that Grisard wanted to, the fact that he wanted to hire Grisard, I think is a good sign. Now, fully transparent. I don't, I didn't like Grisard as an offensive coordinator candidate. The fact that he failed in Tampa Bay, you look at what people in Tampa Bay said about him, now that is not always accurate. People ripped Patula to shreds with Eagles last year. In my opinion, Patula was not the problem, but Patula was also not the solution. So I think it's fair to be skeptical of the Grisard hire, but as a pass game coordinator to pair him with Sean Manion and to hear that Lee and Cohn wanted him back, I think is good. So we will see how Grisard plays out. I thought it was encouraging sign that Lee and Cohn tried to try to excuse me, tried to hire him back. All right. As part of the NFL annual meetings coming to an end, we do now have decisions on some of the rules that were proposed this year. And a big one is on special teams. So the NFL owners approve four rule changes, one of which is that they are now allowing a teams to permit their allowing. Let me just read this in the beginning because I'm messing this up. The competition committee to permit the kicking team to declare an onside kick at any time during the game. So in case you don't remember in 2024, when the NFL adopted the dynamic kickoff, onside kicks had to be declared in advance. And that first season when they did it, the league only permitted onside kicks by a team that was losing in the fourth quarter. Last year they amended it in the NFL change a rule so that onside kicks could be attempted at any time during the game, but only by the trailing team. The rule change that they made in this year's NFL annual meetings means that a team can attempt an onside kick at any time in the game and regardless of whether they're winning, losing or tied. So onside kicks are back to an extent, but we all know onside kicks are not actually back because they are not going to run on. There's not going to be many onside kicks. It's impossible, borderline impossible to get an onside kick, but especially when you have to tell the team, of course, the famous surprise onside kick. I would say the two in my lifetime, one, the Super Bowl between the Colts and the Saints, but in Philadelphia, of course, the onside kick called with our guy Ike Reese there against the Cowboys. I think it was Andy Reid's first year, maybe second year actually, as head coach against the Cowboys. They get the onside kick. They blow the Cowboys out into a certain degree. It's the beginning of the Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb era. Yeah, it was a second year because McNabb was starting that game and it was week one. So I like the fact they can do it at any time, but the fact that they have to still alert the other team they're doing it, still pretty whack. So NFL onside kicks are kind of a thing of the past, but at least now you can do it at any point. I don't know why you would in the first like three quarters if you're not trailing, but it's at least an option now. Some other rule changes that were approved, they are eliminating the kicking teams incentive to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds when kicking off from the 50 yard line. They've modified to kick off alignment requirements for the receiving team players in the setup zone. And this is the really noteworthy one for one year only to allow the NFL officiating department to correct clear and obvious misses made by on field officials that impact the game in the event that there is a work stoppage involving the game officials represented by the NFL referees Association. And what's interesting about this is it seems like there's that caveat in the event that there's a work stoppage allowing the game officials represented by the NFL referees Association. So I guess this would only go into effect if there's a strike, but allowing the NFL to correct clear and obvious misses made by on field officials that impact the game. I think is a good thing for the game. It's not a good thing for the referees because now they're not needed as much. If back in New York, they're able just to call in and be like, hey, you missed the call or hey, this is the call. And now they're allowed to do that as well when it comes to personal fouls and things like that, the league office in New York can essentially be watching the game and show up people whose job it is to monitor this stuff and say, hey, you missed this. This guy needs thrown out. If maybe a punch is thrown in the official misses it or something like that. So I like the idea of trying to get the correct call. I like the idea of being able to have obvious misses corrected. But if I'm the officials, I'm not super thrilled about this because it just is a slow beginning of their job becoming less and less meaningful because pretty soon they'll be able to just make all the calls from the league office. So that was an interesting one. We will see what ends up happening with the referees and whether they are fully, whether they're back for week one or whether they're going to have to go and train referees to replace them. So a couple of other things that happened at the league meetings. First of all, I thought there were two things said by head coaches that are fireable offenses, in my opinion, like just absurd things that happened. So the first one is Jets head coach, Aaron Glenn, said that hiring that bringing in Geno Smith was because Geno Smith is the one that's going to lead the Jets to the promised land. Look, I get that if you sign a guy, you believe in him. I get you're trying to show public support from. I get that if you're the Jets, you want people to be excited. But if I'm the Jets owner and I see that my head coach said, Geno Smith is the one that's going to lead them to the promised land. First of all, I'm like, bro, why are you putting these type of expectations on Geno Smith? They won three games last year, I think maybe it was even two games. They're not winning the Super Bowl this year. And they're certainly not winning it in the next two years with Geno Smith. I think Geno Smith is a good quarterback. I think Geno Smith has carved out a nice career for himself. He has probably made more money and accomplished more in the NFL than it looked like he was going to initially when his career started with the Jets. But this is such a bad. It's such a good example of setting bad expectations up. This quote is going to be used against Aaron Glenn, like all season when Geno Smith struggles, because let's be real, Geno Smith is probably going to struggle. So if I'm the Jets owner, I'm looking at this and going, what in the world are you talking about? The other thing that this just feels like a major red flag for Cleveland Brown's head coach, Todd Munkin. So they had the NFL head coaches picture taken picture where they put all 32 head coaches in it. That was on Tuesday. They'd earn sorry, Monday they did that. Nick Seriani getting getting flamed a little online. People saying he looks both swole and fat at the same time in the picture. I will say he was put in a tough spot. He was kind of off to the side. Like if you look at the picture, either you're sitting down where, you know, probably a little more complimentary for like the angle or you're standing behind somebody who is sitting down, which means you're covering the gut. And you're really only seeing like your chest up, right? Nick Seriani was off to the side of one side. So he was not, he both A had to stand up and B didn't have anybody in front of him. So he got put in a tough spot and look, people are saying he looks swole. People are saying it looks like he's both been lifting and drinking Guinness at the same time. So, you know, a bit of a mixed reviews there for Seriani. But the red flag to me is that Brown's head coach, Todd Munkin, missed the NFL coaches photo because he was getting his hair cut for the NFL's coaches photo. And this is by Mary K. K. Baud of Cleveland.com. She writes, Brown's coach, Todd Munkin, solved the mystery of Tuesday on Tuesday of how he missed his first NFL group coaches photo. Munkin was actually getting a haircut for the photo, which is supposed to feature the coaches from all 32 teams. He thought he had it timed up perfectly because the photo was scheduled for noon specific time. It was even written on the agenda that way. Instead, the photo ended up being at a bit of a different time. He messes up the haircut timing and he's not in the photo. A red flag. If I'm the owner, I'm like, bro, A, I like the haircut for the photo. I think it's important you look good in the photo and you represent the franchise a good way. But also, what in the world are we doing missing the photo because of a haircut? I think it speaks to poor, poor time management. So just thought that was a bit of a red flag for for the Cleveland Browns. But let's be honest, the Browns always have red flags when it comes to their head coaches. All right. On the other side, we are going to get into everything Mike Vrable had to say on Tuesday morning about, of course, everyone's favorite receiver, AJ Brown. So that'll be on the other side, but first, a word from our sponsors. OK, so on Tuesday morning, the AFC coaches talk, which means Mike Vrable, head coach of the New England Patriots, also talked and as you might imagine, that means there was lots of AJ Brown questions. There's kind of like an unspoken rule at these things where if you are a beat reporter from another team, you let the beat reporters of the local team ask the first few questions. Right. Like with Eagles, normally it's like 25 minutes of local reporters because there's so many of us. But a lot of Eagles reporters were at the table when Mike Vrable spoke. And the Patriots reporters, as you might expect, asked about AJ Brown early on. The first question was about if he's happy with the receivers. The second question was about how they're going to replace Stefan Diggs. And just a few questions after that, the name everyone was thinking. The name all the Eagles writers were waiting around for was said. And Mike Vrable was asked about the possibility of adding AJ Brown to their roster. And here is what Mike Vrable had to say. We we've talked about this since last January. We're going to try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster through the draft, through free agency, multiple ways of player acquisition. So anything that we can continue to do to strengthen the roster, we're going to try to do. So certainly didn't deny it, right? Didn't say something like AJ is on the Eagles and it's going to stay that way. Or AJ is on the Eagles and he's not going to be on the Patriots. He was, you know, steadfast and kind of what he said throughout that they will add to help improve their roster. Now, later on, Mike Vrable was asked about AJ Brown more specifically. So this was via Josina Anderson. She asked the question. I thought it was a good question, so I want to give her her props for that. She asked Mike Vrable if a player like AJ Brown, who there's some time discussion and we've had it on this pod, if he is a good teammate, well, also, if he can be a good teammate while also wanting his numbers and how great players balance that. So Mike Vrable was asked about that and he gave a long answer on it. And here's what he had to say. Sure. I will say this. I love the relationship that I have with my players on our team and the ones on other teams that I've either coached or come in contact with. That's the beauty of this league and having played it and being able to coach it, the men and the people involved on the field is something that's special, that I hold very near and dear, have communications with a lot of those players. Now, we all understand in professional sports, players that are talented and get to this level, have some sort of ego to them. And there's a balance, right? You know, they have to have that edge. And so I think as a coaching staff and whatever that is, you have to balance that edge to make sure that that's helping the team. And we all have everybody wants to excel. What receiver doesn't want to catch the ball? What pass rusher doesn't want to sack the quarterback? What DB doesn't want to intercept the ball? That's just what's the running backs want to score touchdowns. That's how this thing goes. So there's a balance between their own personal success and their mindset and then how they can help the team. So a couple of main takeaways from from what Mike Vrable had to say. First, I'll start with that quote right there, since you just heard it. To me, that sounded like Mike Vrable letting future Patriots receiver, AJ Brown, know what things are going to be like when he gets to New England, that yes, he understands great players want to put their numbers up. Yes, he gets that receivers want to put up big numbers. And he knows that the reason AJ wants out of Philadelphia is because he he feels he can put up bigger numbers in a different offense. That is not the Eagles passing offense. But the message there is clear that in New England, they are about winning games and they're not about putting personal goals over team goals. Now, that's true in Philadelphia, too. Right. So I'm not like praising the Patriots or anything. But what I am saying is it felt like Mike Vrable was giving the first message to AJ about what things will be like when he's with the Patriots. Now, obviously, Mike Vrable has coached AJ Brown before he coached him in Tennessee. AJ has talked about that. Vrable has talked about what a good relationship they have. Still, despite the fact that they no longer work for the same team, at least for now. And with with that, like, I think AJ knows what he's getting into. But there was another comment or question during the press conference where Kevin Byrd, who played for Vrable in Tennessee and is now going to play for him in New England, the question was basically saying how excited Kevin Byrd was to to work with Mike Vrable again and what Vrable thinks of that. And Vrable made a joke like, yeah, wait till training camp. Right. Kind of like saying, yeah, he worked with me before, but that doesn't mean things are exactly how they're going to be like they were before. Mike Vrable is in a different job now. Vrable is having more success in tennis in New England than he had in Tennessee. And I know it's only one year, but he reached a Super Bowl at the Patriots. He never did that with the Titans. So things are done differently in New England than they are any other place. Just like things with Eagles are done differently than they are any other place. So I thought that Mike Vrable, you know, made it clear to AJ, like this is what things are going to be like if you come here. But the other main takeaway, and I've talked about it this week being here in Arizona, is the main topic when it comes to the Patriots is also AJ Brown. I know people might be listening to this and saying, all Eagles, people talk about as AJ Brown. All they talk about is AJ Brown. Patriots, people also talking about AJ Brown. Like I said, the question was waiting in the air until it was asked at the press conference. The first few questions were about the receivers. Like as much as there might be pressure for the Eagles to get a good return for AJ Brown, there is also pressure on the Patriots to get him. Like we've talked about this joint practice, Eagles versus Patriots in the summer or in training camp and what that could be like from an Eagles perspective, right? Like if AJ is on the Patriots and AJ is lighting them up and he's, you know, lighting up Tariq Wollin and blah, blah, blah. And like the Patriots look awesome. And it's this moment of like, oh man, the Patriots look awesome with AJ Brown. The Eagles are running this new offense and they're growing pains and all that. Like it could be different, right? But let's flip that around. Let's say the Patriots don't get AJ. Let's say AJ comes to training camp with the Eagles and he comes to New England and practices against the Patriots and he's lighting up the Patriots. And the Patriots have open practices, right? So fans can go, fans can just show up. Imagine the pressure on the Patriots if Romeo Dobbs is not lighting it up. If AJ comes there and he's lighting up Christian Gonzalez and, you know, Jalen looks awesome. Now it would be tough, I think, to acquire AJ at that point. But you never know. Maybe at that point, the pressure would be so strong. They would have to give up like a first and a second or a first and a third or whatever it might be. So as much as we talk about this from the Eagles perspective quite a bit, I think it's important to point out that there's also pressure on the Patriots side to get this thing done. I still think they hold the cards because while the Eagles have the player, the Patriots, I think no, the Eagles don't really want to bring AJ back and they're ready to move him. But I still think that like when you hit, when you're there and it's not the Eagles press conference, not Nick Serrani press conference, and he's still being talked about in the receiver position, his view to such a weakness, it highlights how the Eagles still have some control in this situation. All right, that'll do it for today's Daily Pod. Like I said, I talked about everything Jeff Lurie had to say in another pod. But if I did it in this pod, it would have been way too long and, you know, I want to get your daily morning pod going, your commute going. So go out, enjoy your day. I will talk to you soon. Until then, he's Elliot. I'm James. Talk to you guys later.
