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00:00It's Adam Kaplan, our NFL insider, who has covered the NFL for almost 30 years.
00:06You can follow him at KaplanNFL.
00:08He's getting ready to join Uncle Futrelli in New Orleans on Bourbon Street for another
00:15year at the Radio Row at the Super Bowl with a magnificent week of plans and interviews
00:22and chaos.
00:23But we've got him today for a double shot, and he's already said that he's got an early
00:28lean for us on Bust a Cap in Yo Ass, which will not air until next week in New Orleans.
00:35But he's going to give you an early lean, which is different than a tease, because a
00:39tease is a two-team teaser in our world.
00:43So he won't do teases.
00:44He'll do the early lean special today in the second segment on C2C this afternoon on a
00:52Friday.
00:53All right, let's start with the game itself.
00:56Here we go again.
00:57Season two.
00:58It's the Eagles and Chiefs at the Superdome in New Orleans.
01:02That's right, Scott.
01:03So here we go.
01:04And we're not going to have to worry about slipping, okay?
01:08Remember two years ago, when players from both teams were slipping due to the slickness
01:13of the grass, and that's not going to happen in this one.
01:16So we're going to be clean.
01:19You know, it's interesting, Scott.
01:20Most people don't know this, but this is the same site in the Superdome that the Eagles
01:24lost their first Super Bowl in 1981.
01:28They lost to the Raiders.
01:29So now they've got a chance to avenge that loss.
01:32But this time it's against the Chiefs.
01:34So let's get started with those Eagles.
01:35Now, Scott, both teams are practicing this week.
01:38Both teams are practicing three days.
01:40Eagles, what they did is they gave their players off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
01:44They practiced yesterday, today, and they're going to practice tomorrow before they fly
01:47to New Orleans on Sunday.
01:49The Chiefs practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
01:52Let's get started with the Eagles here, who right now are a one-and-a-half-point dog.
01:56And the overrunner, by the way, has dropped from 49-and-a-half to 49, of course, depending
02:00on which book that you're looking at.
02:01But the Eagles are getting healthier.
02:03Now, this story is unbelievable, Scott.
02:05Brandon Graham, who tore his left triceps, folks, if you don't know what that is, your
02:10triceps is your outer arm from your elbow to near the top of your shoulder.
02:15He tore it.
02:16He had surgery.
02:17Now, he got hurt in Week 12 at the Rams at SoFi Stadium, where he was having an amazing
02:22game.
02:23He was their third edge rusher, the first guy off the bench.
02:24And, Scott, he told reporters he's done for the season.
02:27Well, guess what?
02:29In recent weeks, he kind of hinted on WIP in Philly in his radio interviews that he
02:34thought if they got to the Super Bowl, he'd have a chance to play.
02:36And voila, here we go.
02:38He's getting some light work in.
02:39This is the test week for Brandon Graham, number 55.
02:43At 36 years old, Scott, what he's doing is this week, he's testing it.
02:48He's trying to see what kind of power he has.
02:50By the way, he's wearing a brace on his left elbow, so he's trying to see what kind of
02:55power he has, what kind of punch he has.
02:58And they'll make a decision off of that with what he'll do in practice next week when they
03:03start practicing next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in New Orleans.
03:07But this is amazing news, Scott.
03:09The typical surgery for left triceps, or any triceps injury, quite frankly, when you have
03:14the repair, is four to five months where you get full healing.
03:18Obviously here, you're not getting full healing, but he kind of hinted to reporters, Scott,
03:22this week that it's working.
03:25So right now, he said he's working before he throw it, but so far it's working.
03:29I find it hard to believe, but you know what?
03:31I've learned in this business, never count a guy out.
03:34I remember covering the 05 Super Bowl when Terrell Owens has come back from this ankle
03:38fracture.
03:39He came back four weeks to six weeks in advance, and he said he was about 75% of healing and
03:46effectiveness.
03:47And guess what?
03:47He had a great game against his Patriots.
03:50Yeah, I'm a little sketchy on, A, if he should play, and that he's wearing this brace, and
03:58that he thinks he's ready to go and healed and all the rest.
04:02When a doctor like Dr.
04:05Chow would say, it's four months, it's five months, and this guy's trying to pull this
04:11off.
04:11I'm a little leery of it, but what I really want to know is, is he going to retire?
04:16That's the question, because he's old, and it's over, and he's got all this other stuff
04:20going on, podcasts and everything else.
04:23Certainly, he's opened his mouth up a lot, and it got him in trouble putting his foot
04:26in his mouth.
04:28And what do you think he's going to do?
04:30And then talk about the Chiefs.
04:33So BGA, as we call him here in Philly, number 55, the first-round pick out of Michigan in
04:382010.
04:39Now, he announced before the season started that he was going to be retiring.
04:42This is it.
04:42But he's backed off in the last four to six weeks.
04:46This is before he knew that he might be able to play.
04:48What he did say was that, and I'm just going to paraphrase here, he wanted to see how the
04:52rehab went for this repair to that left triceps.
04:57But I look at it this way, Scott, knowing players as I do, and just talking to them
05:00over the years about retirement, let's say they lose this game by three.
05:03It's really close.
05:05He may change his mind and want to come back for one more year, try to win another ring.
05:08Remember, he won in 2017, as you know, the strip sack against Tom Brady.
05:12They needed it against Brady there in Minneapolis.
05:16But the bottom line is he's still leaning towards retirement, but he's not definitely
05:20going to do it.
05:21He's kind of hedged.
05:22I'll be honest with you, he's kind of hedged it.
05:23And I'm sure what happens here in this game next Sunday is going to go a long way to doing
05:28it, and he turns 37, Scott, in April.
05:31As we know, Scott, no one plays this late in their career.
05:33I mean, it's just remarkable what he's done.
05:35You know what's interesting, Scott, in Philly, if you remember, the fans wanted Earl Thomas,
05:40they wanted Jason Pierre Paul.
05:41They got neither, and who's the guy who's outlasted them all?
05:45One Brandon Graham.
05:46All right, let's shift to the Chiefs.
05:49Yep, yep.
05:50And by the way, Scott, with the Chiefs here, now, you know, one of the things, one of the
05:54underrated parts of their run yet again to try to win the first ever three in a row is
06:00the health of the football team, Scott.
06:02All 53 players, barring any kind of setbacks, will be available for this game next Sunday.
06:08That's a big reason why teams make it, Scott.
06:10Now, the Eagles have gotten healthier, by the way, late in the season, but the Chiefs
06:14have barely had players listed on injury reserve.
06:16The only player, Scott, the only player, key player, who will not play in this game is
06:21Raychee Rice, who suffered an ACL injury very early in the season, so he won't be back to
06:26next season.
06:27But other than that, Scott, look, they made the trade for Hollywood Brown.
06:31No, I'm sorry, he signed a one-year contract that got hurt.
06:36And look, they made the trade for DeAndre Hopkins.
06:39He's done a nice job.
06:41And then, look, when you look at this past target group, they got Xavier Worthy from
06:46Carver's Bills.
06:47The Bills decided to trade a big chess piece.
06:51We said it during the draft for SportsGrid.
06:54We were sitting on the set.
06:55We could not understand why would you do this.
06:57My reporting on this story, the Bills did a lot of background on him, but they decided
07:01they didn't want him.
07:02And you look at the problem with the Bills passing game, despite scoring all those points,
07:07where are the explosive plays downfield?
07:09Well, the Chiefs, they're not that deep in their passing game.
07:12It's more short to intermediate, but Worthy is well ahead of schedule.
07:15He wasn't expected to play very much this season.
07:17Right now, he's their top receiver.
07:19He is so far ahead of schedule, Scott, and he's a gadget guy.
07:23You'll see them hand it off to him in the backfield.
07:26They throw it 10, 15 yards downfield, and he runs after the catch.
07:29He's been a great story, and I don't know where they'd be without him.
07:32He's an explosive player, and against Philly, this is going to be a fun matchup next weekend
07:36for him.
07:37Let's talk about their running game.
07:39Everyone thinks it's Pacheco, but it really hasn't been.
07:44How about this one?
07:45So this has been interesting.
07:47Kareem Hunt, who was a third-round pick out of Toledo, I believe, in 2017 for the Chiefs.
07:53He's back, obviously, this season for them, and he's been a great story.
07:57In fact, Scott, what happens is Pacheco starts, but as we saw last week in particular, Hunt
08:02is the main ball carrier.
08:04If you're doing player props, and we'll talk more about this next week when we're at the
08:09Super Bowl together, but if you're going to be in Vegas putting money down or you're going
08:12to do it online, the bottom line is you've got to understand what roles are happening
08:16here.
08:17Pacheco may be the first guy in, but he's not the last guy, and Kareem Hunt, as you
08:21saw last week, looked great against those Bills, and he looks great.
08:24I'm a little surprised.
08:25He looks really, really good, and by the way, he's good in pass protection.
08:29He catches the ball well.
08:30He's a guy who will put up yards, and that's going to be a game.
08:34When you look at the over-under total, I know that both defenses are playing very well,
08:39but the offenses are potent, and Kareem Hunt's a guy that could probably do better than you
08:43think.
08:44When we come back, we'll talk to Adam about Jalen Hurts and how it's a fact.
08:50It looks like he's going to have a sixth different play caller offensively next year.
08:58It's unbelievable what he's had to deal with, yet he keeps coming through in the clutch.
09:03Here he is in another Super Bowl.
09:04All right, let's talk first about Kellen Moore.
09:08It's the worst-kept secret in football now.
09:10It looks like he's got the Saints job, and they're just waiting until after the Super
09:14Bowl to announce it.
09:16Yeah, yeah, and they cannot negotiate a deal.
09:19It's kind of like undercover.
09:21Yeah, he's going to get the deal.
09:23He's going to take it.
09:24I've talked to people close to him.
09:25He absolutely wants to be a head coach, and, look, he called a heck of a game last week.
09:30He pulled out a lot of stuff.
09:31I mean, handing the ball off to Dallas Scott, Eagles tight end, and Devontae Smith, he called
09:35a great game against Washington.
09:37Now, here's the thing, Scott.
09:38You alluded to it before the break, and it's really important to note, and this has been
09:41part of Jalen Hurts' struggles at times, and Jalen talked about this before the season
09:46started.
09:47He's gone through a number of play callers.
09:48It's crazy.
09:49Actually, going back to his high school team, Scott, his dad was his high school coach,
09:52and if you look through it, remember now, Alabama, Oklahoma, and the Eagles had nine
09:57or ten play callers, and we're going to have another one, so let's look at a 2020.
10:01Doug Peterson was last year with the Eagles.
10:04Nick Ceriani did the first seven games.
10:07Then in that 21 season, he handed off to Shane Steichen, and, boy, did that thing take off.
10:11Steichen was a play caller during their Super Bowl I and XXII.
10:15Then Steichen became the Colts' head coach, Brian Johnson, who he's known since he was
10:2010 years old.
10:21Yeah, yeah, that, yeah, exactly.
10:24Back in black, man.
10:25One of my favorites.
10:26There you go.
10:27Yeah, I got you.
10:28I got you.
10:29Brian Johnson was his play caller, who's now in Washington, who's been a lifelong friend
10:32of Jalen's and of Kellen Moore this season.
10:34It's going to have somebody else next season, and my early, the earliest I've gotten is
10:39they'll probably look outside the team, and, oh, by the way, you should know this, Scott,
10:42for your listeners or Eagles fans, the Eagles were going to help, were going to actually
10:46hire Cliff Kingsbury.
10:47They wanted to, but they could not agree on the coaching staff, so he did a great job
10:52with the commanders.
10:53He'll be back there.
10:54He's not going to be a head coach, and Moore, barring something highly unforeseen, is going
10:56to be the Saints' head coach, and they're going to have another play caller.
10:59Look, Scott, if you look what happened after the XXII season, right, what happened to the
11:03Eagles?
11:04Okay, they fell apart, as you know, with that collapse, losing six out of seven.
11:07Well, they lost both play callers.
11:09Both became head coaches.
11:10That matters.
11:11When you have so many coaching changes, that's a problem.
11:14So let's talk about the Senior Bowl and everything and where the Titans are, and it sounds to
11:20me, like from your reporting, that they have no clue yet what they're going to do, or at
11:26least they haven't shown any signs of it.
11:28Right, but there are a lot of people around the league who say, if you're in the Titans'
11:33spot, being what they need, first of all, they need to know the future of quarterback.
11:37You've got Brian Callahan in his second season who inherited Will Levis.
11:41You have a brand-new front office that inherits Will Levis, who was his second-round pick.
11:46Wildly inconsistent, very talented, but wildly inconsistent, and he just has not been good
11:50enough to be the future quarterback, and there's a saying in the National Football League,
11:54you never want to be picking this high, but when you do, if you don't know about your
11:58future quarterback, you figure it out, and Cam Ward is by far the clear-cut best quarterback
12:04for this draft.
12:05Now, if they don't want to go quarterback, you've got Travis Hunter, who a lot of people
12:09think should be the first overall pick based on talent, he's the best player for this draft.
12:12Now, you and I talked about this weeks ago.
12:15My intel on this thing is very clear.
12:17Yes, he could play wide receiver, but he's going to play cornerback most likely because
12:21it's a higher-value position.
12:23The late Gil Brandt told me when he built his value board for the Cowboys running all
12:28those drafts in the 70s and 80s, it's quarterback, left offensive tackle, cornerback are the
12:35top three-value positions.
12:37That's why Hunter's going to be highly valued, and then Abdul Carter from Penn State, who's
12:42by far the best edge rusher of the draft.
12:44Those three players are the clear best players for this draft, clearly the highest-valued,
12:51and that's pretty much it for the Titans, and they're a team that's had a total rebuild
12:55here.
12:56They need a lot of talent on both sides of the football, and they also have to figure
12:58out that quarterback position.
12:59Listen, did you know that I used to do a show for a year every week with Gil Brandt on Fox
13:09Sports Radio?
13:10Did you?
13:11Did you?
13:13Wow.
13:14I did with Gil.
13:15I loved him.
13:16He was great.
13:17What a guy.
13:18What a football man.
13:19What a football brain.
13:20He just was a blast to talk football with, like you are.
13:24He was an incredible guy.
13:25I love Gil Brandt, without a doubt.
13:27Let's talk about guys that are having issues.
13:31It did not go well for Milrow.
13:35Now I have heard, literally, that the Steelers liked Milrow going into the Senior Bowl.
13:41Do they have the same opinion going out?
13:43All right.
13:44So let me explain.
13:45This is my 24th Senior Bowl, and I had to learn the hard way.
13:48You got to be careful with just three practices, right?
13:51They're always Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
13:52Today they had a walkthrough.
13:53Tomorrow and Saturday is the game.
13:55Now, the game is different because it's cool, yeah.
14:00It's tackle.
14:01You don't tackle in these practices, but the rotations are kind of weird.
14:05The practices, as I'm told, for many years, are way more valuable.
14:09Not that the game is invaluable, but the practices are more valuable because you get
14:12to work through a lot of things.
14:14Now, Jalen Milrow is very inconsistent.
14:16You see the arm strength, which is large.
14:20He's an over-the-top thrower, like Jalen Hurts, by the way, who was a former Alabama
14:24quarterback, and he had a lot of throws that were just off the mark.
14:28Every once in a while, Scott, you go, wow, that was a great throw.
14:33But it's really hard to get your timing down because, for the most part, you're working
14:36with players you've never played with before or practiced with before.
14:39So, you've got to be careful of grading players hard.
14:42I know there's a number of, because you're allowed to shoot video there if you're a fan
14:45or someone in the media, there are a number of throws where people are putting video out
14:48there where the passes were off the mark.
14:50I get it.
14:51I was there.
14:52I saw it.
14:53They also had some good throws.
14:54But some of that's concerning.
14:55And you and I have talked about this.
14:56I know it's a pet peeve of yours, but Jalen Milrow is another quarterback who's got small
15:00hands, like Kenny Pickett.
15:02Kenny Pickett's in the Super Bowl.
15:06Yeah.
15:08And, by the way, Kenny Pickett, that's where he wears gloves to get that traction.
15:10So, that's going to be a problem for some NFL people, Scott.
15:14But he's not going to the first round.
15:16That's not going to happen.
15:17And, Scott, as I told you weeks ago, there's still only two quarterbacks that are projected
15:22to go in the first round.
15:23Now, I know our friend Craig Misch on Newswire told me this week, he goes, look, everybody
15:27says that and four to five go in the first round every year.
15:30He's right.
15:31And there's a quarterback we'll talk about in a minute who's not going to go the first
15:34round.
15:35But he's probably moved up through some good practices this week.
15:37But I'm telling you, man, it's not a good quarterback class.
15:41So, is that guy, I got 10 seconds.
15:44Is that guy Jackson Dart?
15:47And who's your early lean?
15:49Real quick.
15:50Yeah.
15:51Oh, well, Jackson Dart is the guy who's going to move up.
15:52He's had a good week at Mississippi.
15:54We'll talk more about him in the future.
15:56Who's your early lean?
15:57Here he goes.