Go Birds! Daily, Feb. 24th: Sirianni, Howie talk for first time in months about AJ Brown, Mannion and more

What's good, y'all? It's Vaughn Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk. Every week, I'm bringing you inside the game, from locker room stories to league-wide headlines. You want football IQ, locker room insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the league? Welcome to Free Range with Vaughn Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen and follow Free Range with me, Vaughn Miller, wherever you get your podcasts. what's going on everybody and good morning today is tuesday february 24th 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 today is combine day as nick sirianni and howie roseman will both speak at the Combine in Indianapolis today. They're going to speak at 2.45 and 3 o'clock. Not sure what the order is, but they'll each speak for 15 minutes at the podium. And I would say it's the first time we've heard from them since the end of the season. But a bit of exciting news. We got some Nick and Howie quotes to get into today. But in terms of hearing them, 2.45 and 3 o'clock today on WIP. So it's good to have a what's on the schedule again. I feel like we haven't had that since they were back practicing prior to their playoff loss. So that is what is on the schedule. You will hear from Nick and Howie today at three o'clock, but we are going to hear from them in a different way. So last week, Nick and Howie spoke to reporters prior to going to Indianapolis, spoke to each for about a half hour. And as a result, they talked about a lot of the things that you're going to hear them talk about today. Now, we're not allowed to use audio from there. So we're basically just going to go over some of the quotes, some of the things they said and some takeaways. but if you want to hear them talk, and we'll get into this on the Daily Pod tomorrow, that'll be at 2.45 and 3 o'clock. But as hopefully you guys aren't snowed in too much, it was, I will say, a lot of snow. Now, got up early Monday morning and shoveled out. Wasn't heavy snow, just a lot of snow. So hopefully you got out there and shoveled early because if you didn't, it could end up freezing potentially. Though it seems like it's going to be warm throughout the week maybe, so maybe it'll melt. Fingers crossed. But regardless, we got a lot to get into today. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to do the first part of the pod, Nick Sirianni, what Nick Sirianni had to say, Sean Mannion, A.J. Brown, Stoutland, the offense. We're going to recap everything he had to say. And then we'll do Howie. So going to be two parts of this pod. First Nick, then Howie. And again, these were quotes from last week and they each talked for about a half hour and we're going to go over what they had to say. So let's get this going. First up, first question, Nick sits down, obviously. What led you to hire Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator? And I will read his quote on this one. So quote, yeah, just a long process, just going through that. And the process kind of just revealed itself like, hey, this is the right guy for this. You know, you go in and you have thoughts of what you might be looking for and different things like that. And there was a lot of different things that I went in looking for. And it went to Sean, like some of the things he hit, some of the things maybe that I thought was important at the beginning, you know, didn't end up being that. But it's like, again, I think I interviewed 17 guys at the end of the day. And then you had double interviews with seven of them. I remember it was an interview, probably the third one of the day, whatever it was. And I'm like, man, you could just tell right away how sharp he was. And then we get him back in the building and we get him here in the building. And yeah, it was very obvious. Like when you do that and you cast a wide net and you go through the process like that, it reveals itself. It reveals itself to you on who the right one is, end quote. So my takeaway from this is that's basically what he said in the statement. Well, he said in the statement when they hired Sean, that they went in wanting one thing and they ended up hiring Sean. Now, I think the skeptic way to look at that is they went in wanting certain guys that didn't happen. And then the process led them to Sean. But what I do think there is true to, and maybe this is ultimately all that matters, is they were obviously very impressed with Sean Mannion. Now, does that mean he was their first choice? Probably not. Was he their second choice? Probably not. But I do think that they did not go into this saying, we're going to hire Sean Mannion. And you can be either excited about that in the way that they were open to hiring whoever they were truly most impressed with, or you could say, they didn't want to go in wanting this guy, and this is who they've ended up with, and we'll see how it works out. And I think there's some truth to that as well. But ultimately, Mannion is the guy and their their selling point on this is they went in with an open mind and this is who they ended up with. Now, a big part of the excitement about Mannion from fans is the idea that he is going to run a different type of offense than they have. than the Eagles have run in the past. And one thing that's very clear from talking to Nick, that is the case. They are going to try to run something different. Now we've talked about this, right? Like how successful they'll be. But Nick was asked flat out, did you go in wanting the type of offense with the Shanahan and McVay tree? Because there were a number of guys you interviewed that has coached it. So he was asked to like Shanahan, McVay, is this what you were looking for. And his answer was this quote. Yeah, there was obviously with the way the NFL is right now without getting too schematic, I guess to say with the way the NFL is right now, you've seen a lot of teams. Let's talk about the past game for a second. You've seen a lot of teams that have done things where they're reading pure progressions and stuff like that to handle all the junk that's being thrown at you by defenses. Well, this version of the run game is kind of is kind of in that mix as well. And it's the run game version of it. Hey, there's a lot of junk that's being thrown at you. this handles a lot of it. And then what I loved about it is just the way it meshes up and marries to the play action world and kind of how it fits to some of our guys that we have on the roster. And so you continue to go through it. I wouldn't say I went in and said, I have to have this system. But as it went through, it became obvious to me that I wanted to have this system. The more I learned about it, the more I thought about it, the more I talked to different guys. And that's where it kind of got to. So yes, the answer to your question, it was in the forefront of my mind to say, I'm interested in this, but I didn't necessarily say, well, I have to have this. And then as the process went forward, that's where I kind of got to with that. So very obvious, sorry, end quote, very obvious that they're going to try to run the Shanahan and McVay system. That's what they're going to try to run. And then they're also, and we'll talk about this in a little, going to mesh in some things that they have done. And the way I view it is this, on first and second down, I think you're going to see Jalen under center and you're going to see play action from them on first and second down. And then depending on how those downs go on third down, they'll probably try to go back to things that they are more comfortable with and have done. Like if it's third and 10 and the first and second down haven't worked, I think you'll go back to what has, they will try to go back to what has worked from them and what's comfortable. I also think that Nick is going to sprinkle in, as I've said, some stuff they've done in the past. And I actually think sprinkle is probably too light of a word. I think they're going to have a mixture of the new stuff, but have the old stuff still in there. So that is like the main takeaway, I think, in terms of the offense that they went in. And, you know, Nick says it was at the forefront of his mind, kind of. They went in wanting to run this type of offense. They think that Mannion can coach this type of offense and that knows this type of offense. And they're going to mesh together a combination of things. Some of the Shanahan McVay stuff, probably some stuff Mannion's done and then some stuff obviously that they have done here with Nick but that's the clear takeaway from Nick they went in and it as he says it became obvious to me that I wanted to have this system so they're going to try to run this system and they think Mannion is the one to do it now another concern that people have had about Mannion is that he has not called plays and Nick acknowledges he says quote you know I'd like for somebody to have some of the experience that's done this, end quote. That was kind of what he thought going in. Going into this, he wanted somebody that had experience doing it. But as he says later on, as they got through it, that kind of changed, right? And one thing that he highlights here is, you know, if you haven't called plays, but how do you go about thinking about calling plays in this particular area? And I'm quoting him here. Like the vision for the offense, the vision and the conviction for how you would call it. And all those things throughout, as you go through it, you know, became relevant that our apparent Sean was the guy for the job and quote. So again, went into this thinking he wanted to have someone with experience, wanted to have someone with play calling. And he ultimately ended up on Sean. So you could certainly look at that and go, they couldn't get somebody with play calling experience. But I think once they missed out on like the top guys, he probably decided I'd rather go with someone that's really impressing me as opposed to someone just because they don't have experience. And I think some names there would be like Matt Nagy, right? He could have said, no, I want experience. I'm going with Matt Nagy, even though Sean Mannion's the one that impressed me. And I just, I, I think that he decided to go with the guy that impressed him. Um, and he talks about conviction here, right? That's a word he used a lot throughout sitting down with him, that they are, they are strong on the conviction part of it. Now, another question Nick was asked, and I think this was a good one because we've talked about a lot on this pod is that Nick Sirianni has always put his offense to his players, right? It's what he said time and time again. When we talked last year about why there's no crossing routes, why they run so many hitches, that it's all about the players, right? Well, you can tell they're kind of stepping back from that a little bit, right? So he's asked about it and he said, quote, I think we talked about this when Kellen, when he came in, it was like, well, we're running Kellen's system. Yeah, but there's things that we'd like, we be crazy not to run some of the things that we been successful with in the past End quote So I think what they going to try to do is again is they are going to take this offense they going to try to install it and they are going to sprinkle in some of their other things, and they're going to hope that their players can do it. That's kind of it. They think they have great players, and they think their players are going to be able to run this system. Now, that is a departure from how they've done it in the past, because in the past, it's been we build it around the players. But now it's going to be we have good players that can run pretty much any system. And he talks about that a lot throughout the interview. He talks about how there's OTAs, there's training camp, there's mini camp for them to go out and practice these things. So I was asked a ton of questions about the offense. I'm sure you'll be asked some later today. But the main messaging, I think, is you're going to see a lot more of Jalen under center. They're going to do a lot more play action on first and second down. They're going to intertwine some of the things that they've done with some of the new stuff. You're going to see more of a Shanahan McVay style of offense. And they're going to hope the players can do it. And at one point, he really defends Jalen and goes, you know, when Jalen's done play action, he's been good at it. When Jalen's done motion, he's been good at it. And they just haven't done a lot of it. And he acknowledges this. He acknowledges that it's a small sample size, but he still says like when he's done it, he's done it well. So those were kind of all the talking points of the offense. hopefully that wasn't too confusing all right now he talks about stoutland so he's asked with stoutland what happened and is there anything that you could have done to to change him from leaving and he acknowledges like they wanted him to stay so he even says quote so obviously we wanted him to stay and be involved in this i wouldn't say rebuild but you know reclassification however you want to say it and at the end of the day we got to where stoutland got to where he was and I obviously wish him the best and I'm going to deeply miss him, end quote. So it's pretty clear that they wanted Stoutland to stay as the offensive line coach to help them kind of, you know, Nick says reclassification, that's probably not the best word, to kind of change the offense and he didn't want to do it, right? So they wanted Stoutland to stay. Stoutland didn't want to, whether that was because of hard feelings, whatever. Nick didn't get involved in that or Nick did not get into that, but they wanted him to stay and he decided not to. And so he was then asked, and there was a bit of back and forth about some of the reporting that Stoutland was mad about how things happened last year. And in terms of run stuff being taken away from him. And Nick basically said, look, I'm the head coach. I have to go in and help where we're struggling. He didn't feel like they took things away from Stoutland too much, but he did acknowledge that they tried to get things a little more on the same page and collaborative. he says at one point you know there's like a run pod and a pass pod and he kind of wanted those pods to be together so he does acknowledge that there was a bit of a change in how they do how they were doing things um but he didn't feel like he demoted stoutland or took things away from stoutland it sounded like they were all trying to get on the same page and that really is what jason kelsey talked about when he was on the wip show that as long as he has been there they have kind of done like a you do it this way you're you do this thing you do this thing you do this thing and then we all meet. Now it sounds like they're all going to be a little more collaborative. So Stoutland didn't want to be here for that. Um, and you know, that that's his right. I can understand him not wanting to change how he's done things for, you know, 15 years or whatever it is longer than that, obviously. Um, but that's kind of what his point on Stoutland what is, is that they didn't really switch things up. Uh, they changed it a little, but he didn't feel that Stoutland was, uh, was demoted at all. Um, all right. So I thought this part was interesting about why he wanted Parks Frazier to be the quarterback coach. And he said Parks is a good coach, but he mentioned two things that I think are noteworthy. One, he says that Parks has been in the style of offense when he was in Miami. So again, another nod to the Shanahan McVay, Mike McDaniel kind of offense. But he also said Parks can be a good bridge for them in terms of keeping some of the terminology the same, making sure they're not switching anything up, making sure they're not like a massive change in terminology. It can be a bridge for Jalen from the new offense to the old offense and the things that they'll mesh together. So I thought that was interesting in terms of just like, they're going to try to keep some things the same. Now the AJ Brown stuff, this is probably where Nick gave the answer. I would think he would want to have back. So first he's asked about how AJ handled his frustrations and is it the expectation that he wants to be on the team. And he gives an answer like, yeah, my expectation is he wants to be here and you want good players like that in your building. And then in terms of how he handled the frustration last year, Nick didn't really get into that. But then he was asked to follow up flat out. Will AJ be here next season? And here's what Nick said, quote, I mean, I mean, I think that we're still in a spot like I can't guarantee how anything's going to play out into next season. I can't guarantee that. I mean, I'm thinking I'm going to be the head coach, but it's like you can't guarantee anything past tomorrow. And so like Howie said, right? Everybody is, it's hard to get good players in this league. AJ is a great player and AJ is a good teammate and AJ is a good person. And so like I said earlier, does he want to be here? Yes. And I said, do I want him to be here? Yes. So, you know, hopefully that works. I've been around Nick end quote obviously to me this sounds like he's couching it and there's no reason to it would have been so easy just to say yeah he'll definitely be here but he says I can't guarantee how anything's going to play out in the next season and he's trying to do that in a way like so if he's traded we don't go well you said you weren't going to trade AJ but I think the mere fact that he's couching it is very telling and then he ends it with hopefully that works so he's acknowledging there is a chance AJ is not going to be here And we'll talk about that more when we talk about Howie on the other side. But yeah, I thought the AJ answer when I left was the highlight of this. I can't guarantee how anything's going to play out into next season. Does he want to be here? Yes. Do I want him to be here? Yes. So, you know, hopefully that works. Interesting. Interesting answer there. Now, he was asked about Vic Fangio. He kind of poo-pooed any speculation that he was going to retire. basically said based off his interactions, Vic's all in, Vic's all good to go, was asked about how far down the line they went to try to replace Vic. And he was basically like, you're always kind of looking because you never know what's going to happen. But he really downplayed the Vic stuff. So really not a ton of takeaways there. Now, he was peppered with questions on Howie and Jeffrey and how involved they were in the hiring process. And I think his message on that was very clear, is that everything's collaborative, that he's going to look to Howie and Larry for advice on everything. They're going to be involved. But he said, ultimately, it's on him to make the decision, right? He says, quote, it's like you're collaborative, collaborative, collaborative. And then somebody's got to make the call at the end of the day with all the information that they have. No different than Howie in the draft, no different than me with coaches or fourth down decisions, or you name it in the coaching world, end quote. So Nick's message was clear. I made the final decisions on the coaching staff. I hired Sean Mannion. I hired Josh Grisard. I hired all these coaches, but also acknowledging like, of course, Jeffrey and Howie were involved in it. And I understand there's some gray there. There's always going to be some gray. People are always going to think Howie's hiring the coaches, but I think there's truth to it too. Like Howie and Jeffrey are involved in this and then they all give their opinions. And look, do I think that if Nick was hiring someone Jeffrey didn't approve of, he would allow that? No, of course not. Jeffrey's the owner of the team. But I do think Nick had a lot of say. And so this world that they're just hiring coaches to replace Nick, I just flat out don't think is true. So outside of that, again, a lot of talk about how the players will fit into the scheme because they have good players. I did think one thing that was interesting was he was asked about the speculation that the job wasn't very attractive and he gave a defense of why it was. But he does kind of say, you know, he's talking about why people would want the job. And he goes, because of the GM we have, all the different things, Jalen, AJ, Devontae, Saquon. So, you know, saying AJ there, I thought was a little noteworthy, maybe a bit of a Freudian slip in terms of saying like AJ will be back. But again, I just don't think they know, which we'll talk about with the Howie thing. But outside of that. I wouldn't say there was too much more. He will be asked a lot of these questions today, but all these quotes are going to be hitting your timeline this morning. So I wanted to talk about them. So that was a lot of interesting stuff. Like I said, to kind of recap the Nick aspect, doesn't know if AJ is going to be here, hired Sean Mannion because he was impressed with them and kind of shifted what he wanted as the search went on. They're going to run a Shanahan McVay type of offense, or at least try to. And I think play action on first and second down is going to be a big part of it. Jalen under center, play action, passing, play action, running is going to be a, a big part of it. So that was really the Nick takeaway. Um, on the other side, like I said, Howie Roseman also spoke to the media, uh, and there was a lot from that as well. So we'll get into that on the other side, but first a word from our sponsors. Hey, this is Richard Deitch, the host of the sports media podcast. If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the sports media podcast has you covered. I've been turning down interviews all week. Hoda Kopi reached out, Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said, no, I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Okay. So like I said, we heard from both Nick and Howie last week. So we talked about the Nick stuff and God, I'm so mad. We couldn't play audio for you guys, but regardless, hopefully those quotes were informative for you. The Nick stuff kind of complicated, right? Because there's a lot of gray there and the offense, you don't want to give things away. There's just a lot of gray there. The Howie stuff, a lot more simple and it is funny. And you know, I'm the inventor of Sirianni Island but just the difference between listening to Nick and Howie is night and day Howie has been doing this for a long time Howie been playing the media game for a long time He is a surgeon at getting through these questions and not making headlines. But that being said, Howie did talk about quite a bit in the media session. So first, it started with Howie kind of giving a big picture thought of where things were. And I'm going to read this to you line for line because I think that while we're going to talk about a bunch of different things, this was like the core of his message. So here's what Howie had to say to open. Quote, I think from a big picture perspective, we want to build a team that every year has a chance to compete for championships, that drafts really well and signs their own players and just sporadically goes into free agency. That's what we're trying to do. And sometimes as much as you want to add from outside and want to change it up, you got to make a decision to keep the players you know have played well and are a part of your culture. Can we keep all our guys considering we have, for example, a lot of key defensive players coming off rookie deals in the next few years? No, we are going to have to make choices. For us to sign them, that's going to limit some flexibility with outside players. So then you combine that with the fact that teams, because there's more cap room, because the cap has gone up, teams have done a great job of signing their own players. And so you can, you know, just shuffle deck chairs, right? And just say, hey, I'm going to trade out this guy because he's not ours. And maybe it's a better PR move than, hey, we're in the way that we're active. Look, they signed this guy and that means we're going to have to get rid of our own guys, you know? And so everything we do at this point is a trade-off. If we do this, we're going to have to get rid of that. But I think that that's the right way to really build teams here to draft, develop, resign. And I know that's not flashy. That doesn't mean we can't do splashy things, but from a broad perspective, if we can keep our players, if we can keep a lot of these young, really good players that we know that we live with, so we know who they are as people. And then it's just like a cake. It's like a layer cake. Then you build on top of it with more good draft picks and more good young players. And then the cycle starts again. And that's ideally how we'd like to do this. So that's my little macro version of how this works and how this should work. And I think last year I said to you guys over a two year period, it's going to be hard for us unless we make major moves to subtract, to really make some sort of splash moves that cost money because we like the players we have drafted and want them to be as big of a part of our next few years as well. End quote. So the message there is very clear. They're not going to be active in free agency and they're going to sign their own players. I think that's pretty clear. Now, as with everything Howie says, you can take it with a grain of salt, right? And as I've said during this free agency preview, they're going to sign people. Like last year, they spent not a lot of money in free agency and they signed 11 players. So they'll still add guys. It's just going to be low level money flyer guys, right? Like guys that are undervalued, injured, those types of things where they think they can maybe get good value. But the message from Howie is clear. They have a lot of guys coming up that are going to make a lot of money and they're going to have to give a lot of their money to those guys. But the other part that's clear is they're not going to be able to keep all of those guys. So he talks about key defensive players coming off of their rookie deals. Well, who could those guys be? I think there's 10 of those players, including Jalen Phillips. So the 10 guys, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Jalen Phillips, Mauro Jomo, Nolan Smith, Reed Blankenship, N'Kobe Dean, Jalex Hunt, Quinian Mitchell, and Cooper DeGene. That's a lot of really expensive players like Carter, Davis, Phillips, Ojomo. I mean, really only Reed and N'Kobe are not going to get huge money because like Quinion Cooper, Hunt, Phillips, Davis, Carter, like they all play premium positions. So they're not going to be able to keep all those guys. So what I'll say is from being there, from listening, here would be my guess on where things are going to go. They're going to re-sign Carter. They're going to re-sign Davis. I think they're going to re-sign Jalen Phillips, which we'll talk about how he talked about him more later on. So I think those three guys stay. I think Reed and N'Kobe are gone. I don't think they re-signed them. Nolan Smith is an interesting one. Nolan Smith is eligible for a contract extension this year, but if they re-sign Jalen Phillips to big money and next year, I think they're going to re-sign Hunt, Quinion, and Cooper. Those guys will get signed. I don't know what you do with Nolan. So I think some guys are clear. Hunt, Quinion, Cooper, Carter, Davis, Phillips, I think are going to stay. Phillips, you never know, but I think they're counting on him staying. then the other four that are up in the air, I think N'Kobe's gone. I think Reed Blankenship's gone. Mauro Jomo, I have a question next to. I think he could truly go either way. I could see them signing him. I could see them keeping him for another year. I'm not as clear on that one. And then there's Nolan Smith. This time last year, I thought Nolan would get paid this offseason. He didn't have a great year. And if you re-sign Phillips and you re-sign Hunt, I don't think you can also re-sign Nolan Smith. So would they trade Nolan Smith? Would you get a first round pick for him? Would they keep him for a year, pick up his fifth year option and just have him at cost controlled for two more years? Maybe. Then he's probably not a very happy Nolan Smith, but that's kind of the message how he is sending. There are a lot of guys they have to sign and they are going to sign some of them. And again, I think those guys will be Carter, Davis, Phillips, Hunt, Quinion, and Cooper. And then Ojomo, Nolan, Blankenship, and Nekobe are up in the air. And some of those guys are going to go, if not all of them. So as far as dipping into the free agency pool, I think there's maybe one move they would make, like maybe two medium moves, but it's mostly going to be lower level guys. And that's why we've been going through all these free agents. I've said like, they're not going to pay big money to guys. Now, if they trade AJ, maybe you can pay a receiver, right? If they trade Nolan, maybe you bring in like a little bit of a higher level edge, but I think they're mostly going to bargain Benchop in free agency to re-sign their own guys. And we can debate on future pods if that's the right thing to do, but I think that is what they're going to do. And that was pretty clear from what Howie said. Now, Howie was asked, obviously, about A.J. Brown. And remember, this is coming off of Nick Sirianni talked first. So we heard Nick say, you know, you can never guarantee, right? So Howie, first question he was asked, will A.J. be back next season? And here's what Howie said, quote, I go back to what I said at the end of the season. It's really hard to find great players. I think AJ is a great player. I think that from my perspective, and we're looking to improve in all areas, and you don't do that by subtracting, end quote. Then Howie was asked, do you go into the league year listening to offers for him? And this is the interesting answer, quote, and this is Howie, quote, I think you go into the league year, you're listening to offers for everything and anything. I don't think that you can go into any conversation with anyone and just shoot things down without hearing what they have to say because you never know. You never know with any player. You never know. If someone's going to give you something that you didn't anticipate and you don't even have the conversation, I don't think you're necessarily doing your job or really servicing the team that you're with. You never know what someone's willing to do. And certainly, we've been in situations where there are guys that we didn't anticipate trading that we got an offer that was too good. And then you balance it with the guy you can get there. So, you know, without getting into specifics on any player, we're always listening and we're always kind of open. There's very few things that I would shoot down without even hearing what that means because how does it hurt to listen? End quote. So first of all, that last part really describes Howie. How does it hurt to listen? And this is why whenever there's a player available, we always talk about it because Eagles always talk about it. But the message there is clear. Like they are willing to listen. if a team is going to call about AJ they're willing to listen now the line Howie is painting here is you'll listen to offers for anybody right but I think it's clear like they're they're ready to listen for AJ offers now another part of this is like does AJ want to be here and as we talked about in the first part of the pod Nick Sirianni says AJ wants to be here but Howie was asked if a player doesn't want to be here how much does that factor in like it was the question was back to AJ, have you been able to gauge his desire to be here and how much influence will that factor into decision if you take calls on AJ? And here's what Howie had to say. He said, quote, always consistent with never going to go into conversations we have with any player. I think that opens a door to do that. But again, just like each individual's player's goal is to maximize their ability in their career, our job is to do the same for the Philadelphia Eagles, end quote. So he's saying in there, like players are going to want what they want, what they want, but we want what we want. Now, I don't think Howie will keep an unhappy player here. I think we've seen that throughout his time with the Eagles. So if AJ doesn't want to be here, I think the message is clear. We'll listen to offers for him. And so he was asked it again in another way. What's your philosophy on players who don't want to be here, right? Do you feel compelled to grant them their wish and let them go? And he says again, I feel compelled to do what's best for the Philadelphia Eagles at all times. And there's another follow-up about it. And Howie says, quote, I think any trade we've made, we've done because we thought that was the right thing to do for the Philadelphia Eagles. I can't remember any time that I've done anything that when I did it, I didn't think it was in the best interest of the team. It's always going to be about the team. It's always going to be about our players. If I start doing things that are about individuals, as opposed to the team, I'm not doing my job, end quote. So to summarize this all up, Nick says, you can never guarantee if AJ is going to be back and he hopes it works out. Howie says, We always listen to offers for players and we're going to do what's best for the Eagles. I think after talking to Nick and Howie on Friday, it's pretty clear where this is at. They would trade AJ for the right price. And in a world where AJ is excited about going to that place, I think AJ would put a little bit of pressure on trying to make that happen. Like if the Patriots call and say, we'll give you a second round pick and they're telling AJ we'll give you a new contract, I think it happens. If they don't get a good offer for AJ, I think they'll bring AJ back. and I think they'll count on him being a good soldier. And I mostly think AJ would be a good soldier. So I don think AJ is going to demand a trade in like a TOA I don think the Eagles are looking to trade AJ but I think this offseason both sides will come to the conclusion that it probably for the best that they move on The Eagles save a lot of money, and we just talked about how much money they have to give other positions, and AJ gets to go somewhere where he really, truly wants to be. So yeah, I think after a bunch of words from Howie and Nick, they're probably going to listen to trade offers, and I probably think AJ gets traded. How he also took a lot of questions on Stoutland and the offensive line. And he talked about how him and Stalin have a great relationship. And he talked about how, you know, there's this perception maybe that Stoutland had a very specific set of things he's looking for in an offensive lineman and that that's going to be different now. And how he said that's not really the case. They see things very similarly. They always have. And he still thinks they'll draft similarly. the one thing he did say that I thought was interesting was he was talking about um he was asked kind of now that you're making a switch in philosophy on offense will that change the type of offensive players offensive linemen you draft so not so much about Stoutland but more about you know with this new scheme does that change what you look for in an offensive lineman and he said ultimately look you're going to draft great players great players can do a lot of things but he did acknowledge this he goes will there be you know maybe a bit more emphasis on movement and athleticism, maybe a click. So that's interesting because that's not really Tyler Steen's game. It's not Landon's game at this point. It's Lane and Milata's game. Now they're both, you know, to a certain degree, banged up and older. And Cam, it is his game if he can be 100%. So I do think in the offensive line, as always, they'll look for athletes. But it is interesting that he mentioned, you know, athleticism and moving around and that being more important maybe in this new offense. He was asked some questions about Tanner McKee. He said, how do you view the question of Tanner McKee, or he was asked, how do you view the question of Tanner McKee in relation to what the market could be for him and your guys' desire to retain him? Howie said, quote, yeah, important position, you know, in this league and sports and a lot of confidence in the player. Then there was a follow-up. Will there be a market for him? Howie, quote, you know, I can't speak to what everyone else thinks of our players. I know what we think of our players. And you know, there's always been a position that we put a great deal of priority on and to have a backup quarterback that we have a lot of confidence in. And we have a lot of confidence in him. Again, I go back to how we started this conversation. And like my job is to listen to anything about anyone, whether I pulled the trigger is a totally different story, end quote. So I think they'll listen for offers for Tanner McKee. And I think it's the right off season to trade him. He's going to be a free agent after the year. He's going to be an expensive player to resign even as a backup. And I think now's the right time to cash the chip in. Now, of course, it's going to depend on what they get. Like I wouldn't trade them for a fifth round pick, but if you get a third, that could be a second or you get a third and a player. I think now's the time to cash it in. And I think they'll have, I think they'll have serious talks about replacing Tanner. And I think you'll re see them bring in a quarterback, maybe like Sam Howe, bringing him back and making sure you have that spot set. How he was also asked about Nick Sirianni. Cause if you remember at the press conference back in January, how he kind of unprompted went through the list of everything Nick does well and why he thinks he's such a good head coach. And so Howie was asked why he did that, right? And here's what he said, quote, because I'm kept abreast of what goes on. You know, PR rep Bob Lang keeps me posted on what's going on and I don't think it's fair. I think that to be a head coach in the National Football League for five years and to make the playoffs five years and to be in two Super Bowls is hard. I think that a lot of the strengths that he has are things that people don't get to see that I get to see every day. And, you know, I thought it was important to get that out there, to understand what he does, because I hear it. You know, Bob tells me all the time. It's like, well, if you're not the offensive coordinator, you're not the defensive coordinator, you're not the special teams coordinator, what do you do as a head coach? And there's more to being a head coach than just that. I think that these jobs sometimes it's like, it's the same in my role. Well, you know, is the GM just scouting? Well, it'd be fun if we just sat in our office and watch players all day, but that's not really the job that I have. That's part of the job, the fun part of the job. And it's the same thing for him. The things that he does really well are a huge part of our success. And I thought it was important that that was out there. So Howie's sticking up for Nick. I've always said, I think Nick and Howie's relationship is one of the underrated reasons the Eagles win. Everybody likes to say, you know, again, Howie says, like, what does Nick do? And he just gets carried by this roster. Well, the roster is great because Howie and Nick get along and they complement each other well. Howie brings in great players and Nick develops them. They're both very clear in their roles and they both excel at them. So I do think it's important that how he stands up for Nick and that he defends him because Nick will see that and Nick will like that. And I think them having a really good relationship is important in the team continuing to be good. Now, he also took a lot of questions on Jalen Phillips. And, you know, there weren't like a ton of really noteworthy things. He talked about how Jalen Phillips being in the building gives him a chance to better reevaluate for the future. They were really impressed by him. He said, unbelievable worker, unbelievable leader, incredibly talented player who cares desperately about winning. He was asked about the fact of whether he traded a third round pick would impact if they would resign him. And he said, not really, because we traded a third round pick for last year. Now we kind of have to make an evaluation on our own on what works best with contracts. And I'm kind of paraphrasing there. I do think they're going to resign Jalen Phillips. I think he's one of the guys they would like to. Now, the difference is another team could come away and blow Jalen Phillips away with another offer. And I think Phillips, rightfully so, will take the most money. But I think Eagles are planning on having Jalen Phillips back is just my read on the situation. He had some other one-off stuff. He was asked about how the tight end might be different with Mannion and just the different things tight ends do in this offense as opposed to the last offense. and I thought Howie gave a really honest answer. He said, you know, quote, actually, I'll just read the whole thing because I thought it was good. Quote, I would say that the tight end position starts with me and evolving. You know, I think that from my perspective, I've always had an affinity for kind of the receiving tight ends. I think that's shown in my work. Unfortunately for me, I can't hide behind anything other than the product we put out there, which I'm proud of. And so I think there's also something that as you evolve as a GM and as an evaluator and you watch what's out there, you get to be cognizant of the fact that at some levels the game has changed. And so there's certainly room for both of those spots. I think when you look at our room this year, probably need a more of a more of a diverse skill set at that position. All good players we had there, but probably could have used that end quote. So I think he's acknowledging there. They didn't have good blocking tight ends behind Goddard. And that was an issue for them. So I think you're going to see them look for better blocking tight ends. That's like pretty clear there, right? Like they're obviously going to need receiving tight ends, but I think they're also going to look hard for, uh, for blocking tight ends. Um, so he also had another interesting answer about the idea of not re-signing players in season. As you know, like Milton Williams is a poster child for this now, Zach Bond, like if they signed Zach Bond after week one, they probably would have gotten him way cheaper than waiting all the way towards the end of free agency. Had they successfully signed Milton Williams prior to him hitting free agency, they would have got him for cheaper, right? But they don't do in-season extensions anymore. And it's something that has changed. And Howie said he doesn't regret that. He basically says, if you sign one guy, it creates whisper down the lane. Like, let's say there's two linebackers that are going to be free agents, right? If you sign one of them, essentially that other one starts to think, well, does he like, you know, does he, do they like that other guy more? The agent starts to say, well, why aren't you signing my guy? And Howie says, you know, you can convince them all you want and tell them the truth about the reasoning behind things, but it's human nature to kind of get worked up about it. And so he said he's not going to do it. Now, to me, this is either one of the biggest ways Howie has changed as a GM, or it's a lie to make up for some other excuse. Because Howie, I think early in his career, people will probably tell you the personal side wasn't his strength, right? He was very cold cut. I think now he is, and I just know from talking to people around him and being around him. He is a warmer guy, I would say. But to me, to make such huge million dollar decisions based off this is crazy. So I get what he's saying. And if it's the truth, it is like maybe a Nick Sirianni influence, the fact that this is so big. But it just seems crazy to me. Could there be another reason? Maybe it's like in-season money type of thing. I don't know. But it's just wild to actually stick with this. He was asked about the 2025 draft class, and he said basically Jihad didn't play as much as we thought because of the unique situation with the depth of that position. He said Makuba is someone that got hurt but was going to be a big guy for him. And basically they have to develop the day three guys because they didn't really get a lot from their day three guys. And that's me saying that, not him. So I think they're hopeful those guys will develop. um he said that there was buzz around the league about sean mannion um he said his name kept coming up as we were doing things and as we were talking about the way we are kind of moving from an offensive perspective so again another sign that they wanted a certain offense and sean mannion coached that offense so that was i thought noteworthy um he talked about how he thinks Jalen does fit in the offense. Obviously only time will tell. Yeah, I think that's kind of it. So, you know, obviously AJ, a big topic, Jalen Phillips. But that's really the takeaway from Howie is that they got a lot of guys they need to pay. They're not gonna be able to pay all of them. And we'll find out who are the guys that they're able to bring back. So like I said, later today, Nick and Howie will talk. So we'll get a lot of these quotes in audio tomorrow. So you won't have to listen to me try to you know relay them to you i know it's a tough tough way to do it um but go out enjoy your day listen to wip today as always but from 245 to 315 we'll have howie and nick on and uh until then talk to you guys later he's elliot i'm james talk to you guys later