Brooks Kubena does an Eagles deep dive going into week 1 vs the Commanders

0:00I'm Jennifer Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey and we're the office ladies. We're still talking about all the hilarious behind the scenes details from the office with icons from the show like Rain Wilson, Greg Daniels, Malora Harden and so many more. And we can't forget our two conversations with office ladies superfan Billy Eilish. Hello! So join us for brand new episodes every Wednesday and revisit the office rewatch every Monday. Hello and listen to office ladies wherever you get your podcasts. All of our NFL opening week conversation on the team 980 is presented by hands free sketchers slip ins. Just step in and go. Joining us right now is Brooks Kubina. Brooks covers the Eagles for the athletic. He is the Nikki Javala of the Eagles and you can follow Brooks on X at B. Kubina is spelled KUBENA Washington at Philly Sunday at 425 to open up the 2026 NFL season.

1:05So Brooks we all know is NFC East people that 21 years went by without a repeat division winner until last year when Philly went back to back. Nobody's won it three times in a row since the Andy Reed, Donovan McNabb eagles of back in 0-1 through 0-4. They actually won four division titles in a row from 0-2 from 0-1 to 0-4. So I'll just start with not burying the lead. Do you think Philly wins the NFC East for a third straight year? I do. I think they're most position to do it. Dallas is I think stronger this year and healthier and I like what the giants are doing. They're going to be better. I think they're the most complete team and have the most talent. I think that will drive out over a year that I think is going to start pretty slow for them at least offensively. But this is a defense that is going to at least be top five in the NFL. And last year they were an 11 win team by writing on a defense that wasn't as structurally

2:11talented on the depth chart. So I think everything's in position for them to three feet there as the NFC's title. By the way, is Grinard going to be ready to play Sunday or not? I looked out on yesterday's the first time that he was in full patch and I mean it's a sign that he wasn't on the public center of the season. So I mean I saw him go through workouts and we're going to chance to talk to folks in the locker room. So it seems that he will at least be practicing over the next couple of days and they will be kind of assessing just his spot. And the thing that I'm wondering is not necessarily his physical capability, he also will be practicing it. The parts of the game plan that the big fan show the edge rushers drop a little bit more in coverage and there's responsibilities that they have that Jonathan Grinard really wasn't doing in his past. And Vic talked about that during training camp. If Jonathan's up to speed, Jonathan Grinard's up to speed, then I think those are things that what else it might be a little bit more contained on the field in certain packages.

3:14I think if those the next couple of days look good and his, his pectoral is fine. I think he's at least active how many snaps and how involved he is in the game plan. It depends on those things that I've been told. All right. I'll come back to the defense in a moment because you said that you think it's possible that you know it'll start off slowly in 2026 on offense. And I'm assuming that's because there's a new offensive coordinator. But Alan Hertz has certainly dealt with that over the years. And there's no AJ Brown this year. So tell me what you're expecting offensively by first answering whether or not it appears to be a good fit at this point. The manion sort of you know, Shanahan McVey style offense with what Jalen Hertz does well. Well, it's all connected to the run game, which is what I'm going to start with. If you look at it last year, it just, it would sell off completely from what it was in 2024. What are that we do to their center cam jurgens and their left garland and take this and

4:19be in vain that the bit they lost their right tackle. I mean, Jonathan later in the year. And they just couldn't run the ball with the vertical power system that they had been using. And that impacted the past game too. And there were structural issues in that. They went to, you know, in the bottom half of the league in terms of running the ball. And that's always what the Eagles have been able to put their hat on in a seriana era. And that was, and that was the overhaul of the offseason. Yes, they changed off into coordinators. But what was to me a bigger change was that there are a lot of time off into line coach and run game coordinator and Jess Doutland. They moved on from him and committed to this wide zone scheme that is a big departure from what they would have been doing. And that was always going to impact the passing game. And it was to marry the past that Ron is understanding the concepts. Jalen Hertz is going to have to embrace more of that. And he has. And in training camp, I saw the growing pain there. We saw an uptick in interceptions. And that's partly because of Jalen Hertz connecting with his wide receivers on where

5:20they're supposed to be. This is a room that was only Devonte Smith and Darius Cooper, someone who really didn't have much involvement in the passing game last year. The only returning members at the age of Brown's departure. So a lot of people were learning this new system and how it works within the run game and all those things. But to put more of your point, whether this is going to be a fit, I haven't seen that yet. That's one of the things most curious that's going to be in his first week and those to come. I have seen Jalen Hertz with his technique under center in training camp. He had not been one of the things that I think is interesting is the way that they had been playing was more so built on great pre-determining before the snap. What matchups they could get. It was a great gamble to be looking at. AJ Brown and Devonte Smith both on the field and saying, okay, I'm going to go to this guy or this guy because of the high leverage situation. Now they're going to more pure progression reads under this under center.

6:23I look and it's something that Jalen has some experience but not much. These quick timing decisions that are working with receivers like Elijah Moore and Don Taven Wicks and Hollywood Brown guys he hasn't been around with. The McKay lemon, the first round pick. He was out for most of training camp at the hamstring injury. All of these things, these timing, these connections within the system, it's going to take some time. I don't know yet if it's going to be a fit. The things that I've noticed from Jalen Hurts, at least that he has committed to doing this. I could speak more on that but that there is confidence in Sean Manion that he has a deep conviction in his team and that was the number one. The number one thing that Nick Cereyani was looking at an offensive coordinator. Talking Jalen Hurts yesterday about that and he said that's a great word conviction in terms of what it goes to Manion. He's bought into the system and as we see them work through it, I think the effort will absolutely be there.

7:25Yeah, really interesting stuff because Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels are kind of going through the same thing. They're both going to play under center more. They're both going to play in a zone run centric offense with a lot more play action and a lot more bootleg off of it. For me, it's funny because I've been a big Jalen Hurts fan. I think he's played his best football in the biggest games for Philadelphia over the last few years and I don't think that that's built up as much among NFL fans. It perhaps it is with Eagles fans. But I kind of view Jalen differently than I do Jaden. I think Jaden's going to be a perfect fit in this David Blow, Ben Johnson, Kevin O'Connell, the same kind of thing. A lot of the same concepts. And for me, and watching Jalen during his career, I think he's much better when he's a big part of the run game. And look, you sound like you don't have an answer and no one will have an answer until

8:26we actually see it. But what do you say to that? Like I've always felt like he's at his best when he is a true dual threat quarterback. I agree. And the thing over the last several years, and it's been a point here in several stories across the past several years, the times that he has designed quarterback runs have steadily gone down over the last four years. It was around 110 in 2022. And it was down to I think in the high 60s last year. So the thing that is tied to that is that in 21, 22, 23, and even in 24, Jalen hurts had been dealing with some form of injury going into the playoffs. Last year was the first time that he didn't have it. It was fully healthy. And you could sense how that was something that he really liked. So it's a trade-off there to understand, okay, how much are we going to risk? I mean, people, the fans of the commanders, recognize going into the 24, that's when

9:29he got his concussion. And things that he was dealing with going into the 24 playoffs. So that remains as we've seen how much he'll be involved. I don't doubt that it will be. John Manion, Nick Seriani, Jalen Hersey, and yesterday when talking about using himself as a runner in this offense, they know that it's a skill. And they're going to have it be part of this offense. At what volume is the question at what times this question? And I don't think from the trends that we've seen over the last several seasons, that'll go up any more significantly than we're used to from last year. Brooks Kubino from the athletic joining us, he covers the Eagles for the athletic. So is there like a big exhale with no AJ Brown and no drama around AJ Brown, Jalen Herz, etc. Or is there a feeling like there's a big hole missing at that position? Are you looking for a football podcast that doesn't put you to sleep with a fog of analytics or insult your fandom with phony hot takes?

10:31I'm Dan Hanses. And I'm Mark Cessler. And we're the host of He the Call, the NFL podcast you've been waiting for. He the call covers the entire NFL, not just the same five or six teams you're sick of, delivering news, weekly power rankings, plus previews and recaps of every matchup. Yes, we cover your team and we do it with a touch of mirth because football is fun. Why shouldn't your football podcast be the same? Following listen to He the Call NFL podcast wherever you get your podcasts. There, I wrote about this a couple of days ago. Nick Sireana opened the first team meeting of the season by talking about take-out-dirtness. It was something he was saying over the off season. And Jalen Herz was taking notes during that meeting at any toll and supporters that he wrote down in his notebook, 100% alignment, zero entitlement. And he didn't name AJ and maybe he didn't even directly mean to include him. Some of the last couple of weeks just seeing how they talked about the take-out-dirtness factor of this team.

11:31It seems to be that they're moving forward. Jalen Herz and his opening remarks to start training camp said he couldn't emphasize how important it was to protect just the camaraderie of the team. And because they know the challenges are going to come. All these players know last year that they had access frustration and I don't know if they'll remember, but there was a point where it was so absurd toward the last end of the year. There was like this blow up, Easter bunny in the locker room that they called the positivity rabbit. And it was quickly deflated. But like it just was showing like how weird it was getting in terms of how people were able to express themselves and just wasn't getting fixed. So the room, AJ Brown was the most outspoken about his on field misery. And there's no disputes of that. Even he would attest to that. And he thought it was actually part of the accountability that would point towards some of the corrections that needed to be made. But in some ways it just traced out lines for them to be more miserable. So like the point for things this year seems to be directed towards constructive togetherness.

12:38So I've seen some of that play out in training camp. Obviously they haven't played a game yet. Obviously they haven't run into any problems. So that's going to be the test of whether that's actually true. However, they get an unscouted look that messes them up in a game and now they've got to figure it out. And then maybe it persists for four or five weeks. And Sean Manion is having trouble deducing how to stop that too. Where does that lead? These are questions that have come a probably midway through the season. But they're at least talking. And I'm seeing some of those things play out in the locker room and in training camp about how they're supporting each other. I thought going into last season we did kind of the top five players in the NFC East heading into last season. And I think I had Jalen Carter as either the number one or number two player in the division heading into the season. I just thought he was an absolute game record of the year before. And I'm curious as to how Philadelphia fans and you guys see the season in the rear view

13:39that he had last year and then what the expectations are for this year. I mean last year got off to a pretty weird star with a spitting on that crack. I mean that was kind of one of the questions about like if the Eagles are going to commit a historic record-breaking contract to somebody that their availability in their maturity is obviously one of the number one things you're wondering about. Him owning up to that, finding his spaces where he can be the defensive minor player that he wants to be or things that he talks about over training camps. And he played, I remember the Chicago Bears game last year was one of the biggest signs of where he was at physically. He ended up having two operations on his shoulders, one on each shoulder and then missed time towards the end of the year. He was dealing with those shoulder issues and now he's healthy. You know I see it in training camp. He's poised for what I think and what I know that Eagles believe that he can have the monster season. I think this is something where he can they're expecting him to take that all-prose step

14:42to be in the conversation or defensive player of the year. And he has the tools, we've seen it. Some of his pressure from the inside that would Vic Fangio likes to see from this defense and some of the ways that he schemes it up. But all of those tools are there for Jalen Carr to be there just his availability and his maturity, those things that he's kind of addressed over the last couple of months. We'll see if those come out because we know that he can be a dominant player and they commit, they don't commit that kind of money to people that they don't view as cornerstones of their team and now it's time to see that action. Is there a better corner back room than the one that Philadelphia has in the league anywhere? It's a good question. You know I was, I haven't analyzed the depth charts post 53 men or ostracut downs. I know that the Rams have picked up their defense a lot. What makes it so unique to the Eagles and why they're so good there is the Cooper Degene's

15:44versatility. I mean they're carrying three safeties on the 53 man roster which is not normal for them because he's going to play there in base packages. Last year he played outside cornerback in base packages and he's an all-prone nickel. The guy can play, he'd probably be an all-prone at any of those positions. And that allows Quinion Mitchell to basically be attentive on one side of the field or they can, you know, he can just be the outside cornerback that he needs to be. But like, yo, I don't know, he also just twice last year watching them play the commanders. But this was a weak cornerback to Spot last year that the Kandra did a very good job of masking partly by using Cooper Degene and base packages. But now bringing Rick Lul and into the equation. I mean, it's looked, it looked like it's looking night and day in training camp because what he has is, I mean, the things that he had in Seattle in terms of this physicality, some of the play press coverage, some of you can play in those ways. The thing that he's, and now they don't have to move Cooper Degene around in order to

16:48mask that issue, they don't have to worry about one side of the field as much. That's what brings strength to that secondary. The question for him is he was not much of a, you know, off coverage zone coverage type of cornerback. And Vic Fanger likes to use those mix, those max, match zones a lot. And that's things that he's even spoken to, who I'm asked about his development. But most of all, like, you see him in practice and the way that he's matching up against guys like the Montes Smith and even in joint practices against AJ Brown and others like he's holding his own. And like the question is how much more did he elevate, which I think is why this defense is going to be more of a get off the field team. In 24, their 3 and 0% was amongst the top in the league and it went down significantly last year. They can do that this year. That's really what's going to help to tie it back to the offense, something that needs as much help as it can get as it's maturing. They're going to get that. Part of that is how good the secondary is.

17:50By the way, I mean, I don't talk kickers a lot, but Jake Elliott had a rough year. I remember as he was going to do, it's like this guy's been money for his entire career. And he had a difficult season. He's back as the kicker, correct? He is. I mean, they've given him a lot of money and that's kind of part of the thing. You've got to commit to the guy that you've given a lot of guarantee of money to. And this is that last year where before it becomes feasible for them to part with that. But I mean, he also is capable. I've only seen a training cap and then practices some of the preseason games that he does have that accuracy still. The question is whenever there's going to be those, it really, his struggles were, apart from some point afters that were a problem, but his, from plus 50 where he had been very accurate over his course's career went down significantly in the late 40s. But this is a team that's going to plant in conditions and it's going to be some tight

18:52games. And that's the question for me. So it there seems to be a trend again towards a bad year for Jake. Like I wonder if they're going to start bringing in some competition whether they start making some moves or if they're going to commit to it. That's the question. They've always verbally stuck by him and to this point, haven't, haven't addressed that. This is the kind of year where financially speaking, there is a decision to be made. And as soon as you see something on the waiver wire or something where they add a ticker and camp, that's going to be a big story. All right. We'll finish up with this. Keys to a Philadelphia win. We do it from the other side here leading into the weekend. But keys to a Philadelphia win Sunday against Washington. You mentioned John from Goodnard earlier. I'm going to stick with that for the keys for this because you know, Laramie Thompson being really brings past protection into question. And we don't really know the full depth of this eagle's ed rusher room with.

19:53Goodnard. That's the whole reason why how heroism has been a couple of third round players to bring a man to giving him $96 million. And J.L.X. Hunt, the guy that's been around for a couple of years now, former third round pick. He's looked at the really good spots in certain games. So we haven't seen him have a complete breakout year in Nolan Smith and the other end. This is a big year for him, contractually speaking as well. Former first round pick. He's just not been available. He's going to hurt a lot. So how much past rush can they generate from the edge and how quickly can they get off the field, therefore? Because if they can get into some longer second and third down, that's the things where this fourth of the second area is really going to help them there. So I think that's the key. I know the defense has the design and the history to be good. But that is in place and they play like that. Then it's going to be very hard to say the Eagles don't win. Brooks, thanks. Really good stuff. Appreciate it. Yeah, anytime. Brooks, Kubina from the athletic covers the Eagles.

20:58Really good information on that team. Grenard is a key, man. I wanted Washington to go after Grenard when he was available. Reuniting potentially with Toronto Jones. He ended up in Philadelphia after a trade. He was outstanding last year for the Vikings as an edge pass rusher. Up next, we will have our Super Bowl picks. Also the two coordinators spoke today on Thursday in preparation for the opener on Sunday. We'll have some of that as well. Kevin Chiencho, the team 980 and the team 980.com. Every week on the Moth podcast, real people tell their stories live on stage. I burst into tears. And I wasn't sure if I was crying because I hadn't been kissed in a really long time or if I had just never been kissed like that before. To hear fascinating, heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious stories from astronauts, teachers, farmers and people just like you, follow and listen to the Moth wherever you get your

22:02podcasts.