The ULTIMATE Philadelphia Eagles 2025 Preview

The ULTIMATE Philadelphia Eagles 2025 Preview

Uh Philadelphia Eagles reigning Super Bowl champions, 14 and three last year. Ran through the playoffs, had a really nice run there. Uh second or first uh second Super Bowl for the Eagles in the last seven years, but uh first one for Jaylen Herz under center at quarterback. Uh we’ve got some turnover on the defensive line here. The Eagles question at right guard, but once again coming into the season, Eagles look like one of the best rosters in the NFL. Yeah, they do. Uh if not the best. uh like you said, they the departures they had were kind of planned. You know, they had ready made replacements to step in and and pick up the slack and just take on bigger roles this year. So, you’ve lost Milton Williams in the offseason, but Maro Amo is there. Um you’ve got Jaylen Carter ascending into becoming potentially amazing. They they bring in a guy like Ty Robinson. Uh and then on the edge, you know, you lose players there as well, but you’ve got Jayix Hunt ready to step in. You’ve got Nolan Smith. ‘ve got Josh Uch who should be or who could be a sort of situational player for them and and chew up some snaps. Um like they’ve got they’ve got the players the contingency to deal with that. Um the rest of the roster is just in really good shape already. What I was saying about the Dolphins a couple hours ago on this show and how, you know, how did they get here? Go back and see how well they drafted. The Eagles had that stretch of, you know, multiple first round picks and continuing to push those first round picks into future years and flipping one of the firsts for AJ Brown. The reason why they’ve been so good the last few years is because they laid this groundwork. And if you go through Howy Roseman and his, you know, tenure as general manager, particularly these last seven or eight years, I mean, the Eagles are one of the best at overall drafting, process drafting, and then, you know, manipulating, I don’t say manipulating, but working contracts to the favor of the cap and bringing in free agents or bringing in, you know, veterans, say, whether it’s via trade with AJ Brown or last year, the Zack Bond move at linebacker. um unreal what they did with him. Um what they did with Javon Hargrave uh a couple years ago as uh you know he was in a completely different scheme in Pittsburgh and then they unleashed him into their scheme. So I think just high level talking about the Eagles. I think they they attack every bit of roster building well whether it’s the draft whether it’s free agency trades at the right time. Doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Like you say Jan Dodson trade was like yeah you know is that that’s the key. But but the last thing but they’re also taking undervalued players Javon Hargrave Zack Bond players who may not have been incredibly productive at the NFL level and then maximizing their ability. That’s why they’re such a powerhouse these last few years outside of one second half collapse in 2023. I think the the key to their success is having the humility to recognize their mistakes quickly and and fix them and move on from them because it’s like you said, they’re not perfect and Howie has not been perfect and he’s made some bad decisions and they’ve been some big bad decisions, but they fixed them. Like they drafted Jaylen Rager one pick ahead of Justin Jefferson as their first round wide receiver as like a big impact splash play that’s supposed to come in. Jaylen Rhaegger has been a catastrophe in the NFL. He’s been a disaster relative to every other wide receiver basically in that draft. But they quickly recognized that, fixed it. You bring in Devonte Smith, you bring in AJ Brown, and now they’ve got two of the better wide receivers in the NFL. Um that’s why it’s about stacking as good process driven decisions, right? Jaylen Herz was drafted going to miss because the best are going to miss. Jaylen Herz was drafted in the second round. People were big mad at that because, you know, you already had Carson Wentz. The Wentz thing happened. Herz got that job. you hedged by getting an extra first round pick in the following draft just in case Jaylen Herz didn’t take a step forward and didn’t become a good player. He did and that let you spend those first round picks and and go nuts. Um, another one like you drafted Andre Dillard in the first round. He was supposed to be the left tackle of the future. Didn’t work out at all and then you get a little bit lucky. You get Jordan Milada who’s this, you know, seventh round guy who never played football before and suddenly he turns into an allp pro left tackle because you’ve got one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL. So, it’s this combination of getting a little bit lucky in a few places, uh, being very good overall, like their strike rate has been fantastic, and then having the humility to recognize and see your mistakes and fix them as quick as possible. Since AJ Brown has joined the Eagles, I’ve described their offense as being able to win in in several different ways. Every time you’re trying to say, how good is AJ Brown and you want to put him up against Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, the numbers are lacking because you just have this, you know, slower, more runheavy offense. But man, anytime it’s an AJ Brown game, you just see his ability to take over. So that’s what I think makes the Eagles offense so difficult to defend. Herz is good. AJ Brown and Dvonte Smith maybe the best one-two punch. They’re right up there with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, whoever else you want to rank there. Um Dallas Goddard at tight ends. That trio is right up there among the best as well. And then the best offensive line for the second straight year. Question at right guard. All the other four spots. You’ve got the best bookends in Jordan Milada and Lane Johnson at tackle. Y Landon Dickerson’s good at left guard. Cam Jurgens at center. He’s solid. Question at right guard. It was Mai Beckton who filled in last year and they rejuvenated him for a season. A couple weeks ago I said maybe it’d be Matt Prior. It seems like uh Tyler Steen’s going to be the guy that will get the first crack and we’ll see if they could bring him along, but um not a lot of holes on this offense. No. And even if right guard is bad for them this year and that’s the worst case scenario. Four out of five spots in the offensive line being good and the right guard being bad is still a pretty good spot to be in. That would still give the Eagles almost certainly a top five offensive line in the NFL. So like the worst case scenario for what is maybe their biggest uh weakness or red flag or hole on the depth chart is still the overall unit is fine, right? So that’s the level of strength that the Eagles are working from is that maybe their biggest weakness is still still not a problem. Yeah. And then you know the the Saquon factor last year, what what was it? Uh 20% of the 50 plus yard runs in the NFL were Saquon Barkley. um as great as he is at taking it to the house, that particular part of his game will be difficult to replicate. He still has these elements of um you know, a lot of one-yard runs and two yard runs that go nowhere, but behind this offensive line once you give him a crease, plus you have the Jaylen Herz factor, he’s a run threat. Um so that just opens up opportunities for Barkley to use his big play ability. That’s why that run game was so spectacular last year. and he was such a huge part of comebacks against the Saints, against the Commanders, against the Rams. The number of times he just puts this, you know, long touchdown on the board, what an advantage for the offense. It’ll be difficult to replicate that, but you know that Barkley always has that ability. He does. He has that ability. And the question is how Yeah. How close to that can he get? Because what was fascinating last year is that three different players tied for the most runs of 15 or more yards, right? So he’s almost like the anti-Bjan Robinson where he actually doesn’t have more of those like what what is generally seen as explosive runs than Derrick Henry Jir Gibbs with the other two guys. They all had 25 runs of 15 or more yards and the breakaway percentage was not you know like night and day higher than anybody else either. So the the sort of conventional ways of measuring breakaway runs, explosive ability, he’s actually I mean he’s good, but he’s no more special than the other good players in the NFL. But then his ratio of taking those conventionally explosive plays and turning them into 80 yard touchdowns was insane. Like off the charts nuts. So, was that just a weird freak of the of one year where for some reason every time Saquon broke a big one, he broke it all the way or is he actually that much better than everybody else in the NFL at those particular runs? Yeah, it’s one of those I it didn’t you asked me like if I’d be surprised if X happened. When it happened, I was not surprised that Saquon had those long runs, but to have that many of them this year, yeah, that’s difficult to do again, right? even in a very good favorable situation to sell. I mean because you would say guys like uh you know Jir Gibbs are really good at that kind of thing as well. Like is he I is the gap between him and Gibbs that big when it comes to if I get you 15 yards can you take it 80? It seems no but maybe it is. I mean he’s he’s got a really good feel. That’s what I’m saying. You know you would he was never in the at the second level with the Giants though. Exactly. I would love I would love to take away the explosives and I I bet his yards per carry are the same as they were with the Giants, but he just had all these 60 plus yard. That’s the thing. It’s like the the kind of the data analyst in you would want to say that that’s something that’s not repeatable yeartoyear, but actually when you look at Saquon Barkley and watch him do his thing, it’s like it he might actually be in this specific area. He might be that much better than the field. Hey guys, real quick. Only 40% of our viewers are actually subscribed. So let’s change that. Hit that subscribe button and now let’s get back to the action. Uh let’s talk Jaylen Herz for a minute here just because the media loves to discuss best quarterback in the NFL. Um I think he’s good. I think he I think it’s also fair to say that they’ve they’ve had the best roster the last few years. You know, the the very best roster on both sides of the ball the last few years. I think there’s always been this part of Herz’s game where there’s you know the it factor or winner what whatever you want to say. I think there’s there’s kernels of truth in that and whether it’s as a true freshman in Alabama um playing at Alabama elevating Oklahoma for a for a minute um and then stepping in for Carson Wentz and and even though I don’t think throw for throw he played better than Carson Wentz like there was a little spark to the Eagles offense and then it carried into 21 and then they’re in the Super Bowl in 22. He plays two great Super Bowls in 22 and 24. Um he’s got that uh run game element to him both with the tush push stuff but just as a scrambler or on keepers. So there’s a lot of winning football. Yeah. To to Jaylen Herz’s game. Jaylen Herz has been constructed in a lab to for for Nick Wright to perfectly troll the world with because he’s the perfect combination of he’s got the it factor. There’s the meme of him walking by the TV before the Super Bowl and everybody’s picking the Chiefs and he’s like all right. Goes out there. He’s outplays Patrick Mahomes for the second time in a Super Bowl. Um, and of course they won the most. You know, the Eagles are the most dominant team. Erggo, the quarterback of the most dominant team, is the best quarterback in the NFL. like he has been specifically constructed to be the perfect take to be the perfect take because I think if you were just watching football as an unbiased random fan from your couch like over there you would not put Jaylen Herz in the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. And I don’t think that’s an unreasonable or even particularly controversial take to suggest, but there’s enough about his game that you could fairly easily construct an argument that he’s he’s as good as he is that guy. He’s the next guy. He’s the next Joe Montana who just just gets it done when it matters the most. He’s got the clutch gene. He’s got the cool under pressure. And it’s and some of that’s real. Like I do genuinely think that Jaylen Herz does have a little bit about him where he he does raise his game in those critical situations where he doesn’t really feel that pressure where he is going to play his best football. Um and he also is a perfect combination for this Eagles environment. The fact that they do have a great offensive line, the fact that he is durable and powerful and you can use the tush push and get a first down every time we get to within one yard. Like there’s a bunch of ways where I think he is a little bit better than if you just pulled out his basic raw numbers, but it it’s not as much as like some people want to say. Then I think what you have was Cam Newton calling him uh more of a passenger than Cam Newton is on one recently. So the the only thing I So I would say just to touch on Cam Newton really quickly, I would say most of the most of his opinions I disagree with. Sure. much like uh I said I I think Chase Daniel like some other former quarterbacks I usually just disagree with their assessment of the football game which is fine. I don’t think they’re more credible than me just because they played NFL quarterback but where Cam they the the difference like when Cam when people disagree with Cam they’re like well what were you you only did this or you didn’t jump on a football. So, so then I empathize with Cam because I’m like, well, that’s dumb to look at just his opinion is different from what his career was, right? Because sure, no one’s like, well, you were a minor league p like sometimes they were, but like you were a minor league pitcher. What’s your opinion? So, just because Cam didn’t win a Super Bowl or didn’t jump on a fumble or I think had one elite season was good otherwise but not great. I think how he played or Chase Daniel was a backup, I don’t think any of that matters. Like, look at the content. I think he and I just disagree with the content and usually the way he conveys it. Oh, but I think he’s very quick to do that as well. I actually think that’s one of my biggest issues with how he presents things is Cam Newton is very quick to be like, I’m coming from a standpoint of having been the face of a franchise and been elite. Shut up. Yeah, I don’t like that either. I think he I think that was his most recent tack against Ryan Clark. It was like, Ryan Clark, you were a low drafted guy. What’s your opinion worth? I was, you know, the number one overall pick. Ryan Clark, did he have a better career than Cam Newton? It’s certainly debatable. I mean, it’s maybe his peak wasn’t as high, but like overall career, Brian Clark, Cam Newton, it’s not I don’t think Tom Brady’s opinion on football players necessarily. I don’t care who even if you like took that at face value, right? This is the thing is that Cam Newton a leans on that as a crutch. And I think as a general concept, it’s a crutch to use like where where was your standing in the game? That is the hierarchy of opinions we work with here, right? Because then you’re like, well, Tom, whatever Tom Brady says, we go with. Yeah. If Tom doesn’t have an opinion, then we move to the next guy down the list. Pton, you’re up. Right. Payton’s opinion is what we’re rocking. And then we just work our way down until until Chase Daniel and Dan Lofty are allowed to speak, right? Until finally once like once 8,000 people have abdicated their responsibility on this opinion, we can finally listen to Dano on first take because that’s where he ranks in this. Anyway, shouty shows are coming up soon. By the way, even if you gave, you know, if you put stock in that as a general way of functioning when it comes to football, and clearly it’s ridiculous. Even if you gave that credence, I’m not sure he he would rank ahead of Ryan Clark in the opinion hierarchy. Anyway, uh we’ll have a shouty show’s offseason. How did we get on to Cam Newton? I apologize because we’re talking about Jaylen Herz hot button issues. Shouty shows are talking about it. They need some content and figured we’d bring it in. Oh. Uh Jaylen Herd’s very good quarterback. I don’t think he’s in the top four or top one. Carry on. I think this offense is elite once again. Um I will say I have a few more concerns about the defense. Uh Josh Sweat out, Milton Williams out. You mentioned, hey, they have Mororrow Amo. Um they’ve got Jix Hunt. Like they have the players to replace them. I just think the depth has been chipped away at just a little bit on this defensive line relative to other years. Will they be bad? No, I just don’t know if they’re as dominant as they were per certainly not in the Super Bowl, but overall over these last couple years, the Eagles have never had a bad defensive line. 10 years running. Um, so they might be a little bit worse, but they might not be. Jaylen Carter, um, ready to take another step forward. He could take over and dominate. So, there’s still plenty of pieces on that Dline. I like their reclamation projects as well. Like, I like Josh Uch. I like uh Obo Okureno coming in as well. like they’ve they’ve signed some players that have in the past been very very productive situational guys in particular and Bryce Huff is gone now, right? Bryce’s gone. He went back. He went to San Francisco. Um right, to reunite with Robert Salah. Um but I like So I think that they could potentially get the best out of those reclamation guys as well, which would be huge. Yeah. All I’m saying is it’s like a little more question marky than it was in previous years, which could be completely offset by year two of Quinan Mitchell, year two of Cooper Deene in the secondary. Um, if you guys have followed this show for the last six, seven, eight years, I think the the one consistent part and when people say we’re going to build like the Eagles, we’re going to do what the Eagles do. We’re going to build in the trenches. The Eagles live it and they also execute that. They execute it by always having a top offensive line, always having a top defensive line. The difference maker has been in the secondary. When they actually hit in the secondary, they’re a Super Bowl caliber team. And again, it looks like they hit on the youth movement of Quinan Mitchell, Cooper Deene. There’s going to be a question with Darius Slay out Adori Jackson, Keely Ringo, Eli Ricks, whoever is going to win that quarterback two spot. So again, it’s not as, you know, locked in as maybe it was uh heading into last year, but man, if they’re good in the secondary with with the pass rush that they have, looks like another good defense once again. Yeah, I think it’s one of the best rosters in the NFL top to bottom. I think they’ll be one of the best teams in the NFC. Again, the only thing that can really derail them, I think, and this is true for a lot of teams, but is injuries. Um, I still it’s not so much their uh any area that I think has problems. It’s depth in a couple of areas I think is vulnerable to the to the injury. Like if AJ Brown goes down, I think this is a very very different football team. All right, man. Overunders is 11 and a half here for the Eagles. Uh over over I mean it’s this is the top one. This is tied with the Ravens, the Bills. I’ll go over again. I think I’ve gone over on all those teams. The the reasons you go under usually something injury related that is tough to foresee. That’s why it’s not, you know, 13. But I like this team once again. Think they’ll win a lot of games. Take the over. Mhm. Thanks for watching all the way to the end of our video. Check the Mic is live every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So, be sure to hit this subscribe button so you don’t miss a thing. The all- knowing algorithm is convinced that you’ll like these videos as well. And frankly, who we’d argue?

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Fresh off a Super Bowl victory, the Eagles enter 2025 with one goal — go back-to-back. Jalen Hurts returns to lead one of the league’s most dangerous offenses, stacked with weapons like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert, while a dominant offensive line remains the foundation of their success.

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