Impact on Jalen Hurts and Offense

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That's what I have flipped. It's all good. Anyway, they've said two picks to the Packers. You do it. You're the you got the news. The newsman, the stone cold newsman . So they make those two they may they send those two picks 2026, fifth, 2027, sixth round pick in exchange for wide receiver Don Tavian Wicks. And they're signing Don Tavian Wicks to a one-year contract extension that'll put him under contract through the 2027 season, two-year deal now. And the deal is worth up to up to 12.5 million dollars. Okay . So I'm going to get to you, Fran, in a minute to break down what Don Tavian Wicks is as a player. But EJ, the Eagles making this move two weeks before the draft , what do you think it means I mean , we're not talking in absolutes here, but we are getting closer to talking in absolutes, is what I would say here. The path for AJ Brown out of Philadelphia is becoming more and more solidified and paved here. Uh this is a trade that you can make this type of trade and keep AJ Brown on the roster . You don't have to keep AJ Brown on the roster as much because of these types of moves. And now listen, Dontavian Wicks isn't going to be like a number one type receiver as Fran will breakdown, but it does feel like they are laying the groundwork to life after AJ Brown with this type of move. So uh especially when you consider how expensive their wide receiver room already was. Um and again, maybe that 12.5 is doing up to is doing a lot of work there, but it's still a significant addition to a receiver room that they've already been addressing. I think that this does signal that they are making plans for life after AJ Brown. This is the kind of Sean Manion connection that we were kind of expecting them to to make at some point this offseason. There's an obvious overlap here, so Sean Manion can speak to Dantebian Wic,ks but I agree with you, EJ, it is it is very hard to believe that this is not the precursor to an AJ Brown trade. Because this is not the case of, hey, this is great value. We couldn't pass it up. You know, Hollywood Brown on the market. You know, they're going out and seeking a top three caliber player at the wide receiver position. They're sending picks, they're signing him to an extension. Now you, could say that this is uh this is cover for what if we trade AJ Brown next year because you have your you're you're keeping somebody else on the roster . But Fran, I'm gonna let you talk. I mean it it is it's really hard to think that that is this is not setting up for that. Yeah, uh you could make the argument either way to me. And I think the organization would make the argument either way. Right. I so I think when you look at don Tavian Wicks the player, um there are some things I I really like. You know, just kind of buzzing through his film and just watch having watched the Packers over the last few years. Uh, he was a fifth round pick back in 2023. So we we've got a little bit of a runway here. Uh pure possession receiver, uh, good route runner. Uh, he's got some savvy to him. I think he works blind spots well in the intermediate area and down the field. He is not a deep threat, right? So he this is not he ran four five seven at the combine. It's funny because when he was a UVA, he was like outside the numbers vertical weapon. That's kind of how he was used in that offense. But this is he is not a deep threat. And so what you're really looking at here is a guy that's going to win at the intermediate area. He's going to win on in the in the quick game, quick slants, hitches, like that. That's kind of his bag. So I think when you're looking at his ability to win through contact, that's something I always place a lot of value on. The route running I think is is is good by NFL standards. So there's a lot to like. The volatility with him, I talked about the lack of speed. He's not a yards after catch guy. Like he's not gonna be like you know game breaker that way. The issue has been if you're gonna be a possession receiver, possession is uh a big part of that. And he's had issues with drops. He had nine drops in 2024. This is an issue that has gone back to college with him. It was one of the reasons why I was a little bit down on him compared to consensus coming out of college. But uh he has been able to kind of fight through that. He only had three drops last year. So I think when you're looking at Wicks, it is a quick game, intermediate game it's it's third and five hey he's a guy that can get you five he can get you seven he he's that type of player uh to kind of move the sticks keep things rolling nice blocker can line up inside and outside they put him in motion a decent amount and try and get him space that way to work, but just not a game breaker as a receiver. This is a fun bet to make on a player. He's he's still very young. He has not yet turned 25, despite three years uh of playing. Um as you said, friend, yak is not his thing . Ninety first out of 109 wide receivers in Yak over the past two seasons, but he does he does some things well. Um 62nd out of 109 receivers in in yards per route run, which is a little bit behind Marquise Brown, but it's way ahead of you know Jahan Dotson. Uh, and so the Eagles now have with AJ Brown here, four capable wide receivers on the roster. Um, it might be three, and it might be, we'll see what happens in the draft. Um, you know who he kind of reminds me of as a route runner, friend? This is gonna be this is very silly. Um he reminds me of Josh Ushe because he has a very unique style that is that is kind of different than most wide receivers. Like Ushe has this weird kind of hesitating style that's different than most edge rushers. Yeah. And it it kind of explains to some degree why Wicks's production has dropped each of the three seasons. It's it's as if a little bit the the book has gotten out on him, whereas he was more unique right away. I think that's fair. And it's funny because you know watching him, one of the best routes that I think he runs, he he runs a nice comeback route. And it's that honestly that's a credit to him because it is hard to be a good comeback route runner if you are not a deep threat. We covered that actually with Marquise Brown uh on the uh in the film session on Wednesday night was like, Oh, like you see him here, you know, kind of like push vertical and sell vertical, but he can throttle down and work back towards the line of scrimmage. If you're a DB and you're not worried about getting deep beat or getting beat deep by Dontavian Wicks, like it's a lot of work for Wicks to sell that sell vertical and then work back and still create that separation. He actually caught one on Quinon uh in the game this past fall on a route just like that. But uh his ability to fight through contact has always been admirable. He's a bigger kid. Um I like the skill set, but he is he's definitely in my opinion, you know, he's a he's a complimentary piece offensively . I don't know, man. It's interesting. Uh let me tell you just a break, because we're brought to you by Xfinity, our friends at Xfinity, got that five-year price guarantee. A lot can change in five years. You're probably going to go through a lot of wide receivers over that time, but the price of your internet is not going to change. That's thanks to our friends at Xfinity. Thank you for bringing us this emergency podcast. Um, Fran, how or EJ, how much do you think the the Sean Mannion of it all played a factor here? I'm sure it certainly helps. You know, the the Eagles have talked about having translators in the in the room and at the different positions, guys who kind of are familiar with not only the concepts, but maybe even some of the terminology that Sean Manion will bring with him. So uh yeah, I think that it certainly is it's it's very eagles-y to add a player that's familiar with a new coach and a new coaching staff and a new system that they'll be implementing. Um, and yeah, there's like proof of concept. I'm curious because uh Dontavian Wicks is such a departure from the two guys they signed in free agency in terms of like stylistic fit in the scheme, you know, and I I I understand like again, I I probably put it at like a 10%, 5% chance that him and AJ Brown are in the same receiver room by the time we get to training camp at this point. But how those two might look on the field together is interesting because of the fact that I have they have talked about that verticality and you know that that you know dynamic having those like um you know guys with real speed and being able to threaten vertically uh you know trying to get those guys for that third receiver spot so he is definitely not really a a fit in that mold. Um, but again, I think that there is proof of concept with him in these systems. If I'm gonna here here is the the case that I would make if you're trying to pretend that this does not pres age a AJ Brown trade. Howry Roseman told us at the owners' meetings that they they felt like they identified that they have not done a good enough job with wide receiver depth over the past couple years. Uh he was he was talking about that in the Elijah Moore signing. So with Elijah Moore and Hollywood Brown and Dontavian Wicks, you now have three capable receivers. Hopefully, Darius Cooper makes a leap. And what I would think is this is their signal that they don't quite like this wide receiver draft class. They don't expect to draft a wide receiver. You know, you're you're trading uh a fifth round pick this year, a sixth round next year for a guy who you think is is definitely better than anybody you could draft with a fifth round pick this year. It's just, it's crowded. The resource allocation of it, I it's it's it's hard to really buy. But maybe it is also we need to be prepared for the possibility that somebody blows us away for AJ Brown. We don't necessarily have something done yet, but we don't feel like we can properly protect ourselves for that possibility in the draft this year. This does that. Yeah, I definitely think this could just be like raising the floor on what it looks like post-AJ. I want to push back a little bit. I think I think I like this trade the most if in uh a couple weeks' time we are talking about the Eagles adding a receiver early in the draft. Um, I kind of like, you know, rebuilding the room in a post a post AJ world with a rookie with real upside and you pair him with somebody like Dantevian Wickson. Obviously, Devontae Smith is your number one. So I I agree that it's probably an admission like you're not expecting to get a player of his caliber in the later rounds, but I don't think that this precludes them from targeting wide receiver early in the draft. Well, it's if Fran, this is interesting because if if we fast forward to pretend that AJ is gone, and you've got, let's say they do add, let's say they add a third round wide receiver. So you've got Devontae Smith and a young wide receiver, Hollywood Brown, Dontavian Wicks, maybe somebody else gets involved. And you think about how the the Packers wide receiver room for the past few years has been has been a spread of targets. All guys who have different roles, that sort of basketball on the field thing. Yep. Everybody has a different thing. And Jordan Love spreads that ball around. It is obvious ly very different from the way that the Eagles offense has operated, which has had the most narrow target share in the league. AJ and Devontae and Dallas Goddard and everybody else, you might get a target one once a game. That's it . It will be a very interesting test, if that is the case, of Jalen Hurts, because the question has been has that been him sort of trusting the talent or is that the way that he wants to play ? It's it if we get there, it's gonna be really fascinating to follow. Yeah. Uh and I think that it's uh look, the this passing game is gonna be one of the, I don't know, like five, ten most interesting subplots in the entire NFL this year. Like and honestly, it's probably closer than in the top five. I think when you're looking at Jalen Hurts fitting in this system, it's going to be a huge topic of conversation. We talk about the under center and I the whole the everything about this. I think the big thing that is interesting is and it's one of the reasons we talked about the volatility of the past game a year ago and really over the last few years with Jalen is like the amount of times that every dropback turns into a scramble, right? And it's just the the volume of pure scramble um and how that can create volatility because it's a it's there's a lot of randomness that becomes involved in it and typically in scramble situations if you're a quarterback you're looking for your guys like you're looking you're looking for you know if you're Jalen, it's it's AJ and Devante. And uh one note though it was funny just kind of going through and watching all of uh Wick's targets from the past two seasons. But Jordan Love kind of has an element to that too where he's gonna extend and he's gonna scramble and he's not doing it to run, he's doing it to throw. And he never looked Wick's way in those scrample drill situations. Like very rarely did I see a target that was like outside of structure for Dontavian Wicks. So uh I did think that that was interesting as well. For the truly sick among you , let me tell you how the what picks the Eagles are sending to the Grand Bay Packers. This year's fifth round pick is the pick that they acquired for uh moving down five spots in the third round when the Falcons traded up to draft Xavier Watts last year. So that's the first pick. And then uh I believe it is the second of two sixth-round picks next year. They have two, they have their own, and then they have the sixth-round pick they acquired from the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Darien Connard. So it could be the Packers just getting that same pick back for Bignard. Bignard. They still have uh decent draft capital, we should say, uh on day three of the draft. They've got two fourths, a fifth rounder, and a sixth rounder. And that's mostly I mean half of those picks, two of the four picks, uh are from comp picks. And this is kind of an important thing to note is that the Eagles have the luxury of using these types of picks because they've lost so many players in free agency. So um yeah, still pretty well situated on day three of the draft. Uh no seventh round pick, which is a big win for the beat reporters. You don't have to wait all day uh waiting for them to make that last pick. No, Crime I mean, first of all, they're definitely gonna trade down now and get it pick up a couple sevens. I mean that's fine. That's what you're doing. Yeah, get out of here. As if you're not gonna be live on the show anyway. It doesn't matter for me. I said the B reporters. You know, I got people in my life who would benefit from they're not gonna go any earlier. They still gotta wait around because they gotta duly undrafted guys and they gotta wait for the end of the draft. No, they won't. Because they have they have to wait for the end of the draft for the free for to see how undrafted free agents. Sometimes they get a jump on that and you know You're kidding yourself. That's the worst. That's the w yeah. That's that's your worst take. Give me all the peanut butter and jelly burgers. Uh you know, all the all the chocolate cake with yellow with the yellow filling. All right. Let's wrap this bad boy up. Gave you 15 minutes. We will have more on this as the situation develops next week as we also continue our draft prep. But