00:00Makai Lemon, is this a breakout game for him finally?
00:03Do you think we start to see a little bit more from him?
00:06I mean, you don't have Dallas Goddard.
00:07And he was drafted, Xander, to play in that slot to challenge the middle of the football field.
00:13This is one of the main reasons that Howie Roseman, the general manager, went out and got him and moved
00:18up into the draft.
00:19Could this possibly be a breakout game for him and getting him going?
00:23I think it's an opportunity for it to be a breakout game for him, for sure.
00:26Now, I don't know whether it will be.
00:28I think the concern with him is actually, for me right now, less about the player and more about the
00:32way they're using him in the offense.
00:33Now, it hasn't been all peaches and cream from a player perspective, but this is a rookie player.
00:38He was the 20th overall taken.
00:40I think he was the third or fourth wide receiver taken in the draft.
00:43He didn't have any training camp because he missed due to a hamstring.
00:47And now you're kind of ramping him up slowly.
00:49And the way they've been using him is all behind the line, all bubble screens.
00:52And that's not the type of player he ever was in college.
00:54If you watch, and I'm a college football fan myself, if you watch the way he won, and he was
01:00a Bolitnikov winner in college at USC, none of it was behind the line.
01:04None of it was manufactured touch.
01:06It was all over the middle of the field.
01:07It was all winning against zero, and it was all creating space and winning after the catch.
01:12And they haven't used him in that way at all.
01:14Now, will they start to use him more?
01:16That would be the hope if you're an Eagles fan out there to get Makai Lemon going.
01:19I'm not going to predict this to be the breakout game, but I think it's time they let him start
01:24running some routes down the field and letting him play receiver as opposed to, you know, trying to rely on
01:29Dontavian Wicks to make a block, you know, on the outside for him to get going.
01:33I think they've got to let him run routes downfield, and you could see some production from him tonight.
01:38Boy, I'll tell you, you know, you just mentioned Dontavian Wicks.
01:41Maybe we're talking about the wrong breakout guy because in the first eight quarters of football, he's been a viable
01:47number two for them.
01:48You know, they were looking for that number two.
01:50They were going to talk about it, you know, and go by committee, but he's kind of stepped into that
01:55role.
01:56Absolutely, and he looks great in doing it.
01:58And the other thing about it I've noticed is Jalen Hurts in his career has typically liked to have a
02:04good chemistry relationship and a trust factor with the guys he throws the ball to.
02:09He has it with Dallas Goddard.
02:11He has it with Devontae Smith dating back to his time in Alabama.
02:14He had it with A.J. Brown in the early parts of their tenure together.
02:17And he seems to have developed that very quickly with Dontavian Wicks.
02:22He trusts them.
02:22He's given them some big 50-50 opportunities, even on that game-winning drive last week for the Eagles where
02:28Jalen Hurts led them right down the field and went 6 of 8 for 61 yards.
02:31His first 20-yard completion, which was kind of a 50-50 ball, came to Dontavian Wicks, and he put
02:37it up there and let him go make the play.
02:39So he's really trust Dontavian Wicks early, and to Wicks' credit, he's really seized the opportunity and has been, I
02:45think, the leader right now in splash plays for this Eagles team.
02:48He had the big 64-yarder in week one, and he had a couple big plays last week as well,
02:52including a touchdown.
02:52So he's really stepped up into the role, and looks like he could be a viable target for this team
02:57throughout the course of the year.
02:59Hey, that relationship, has it been an upgrade from Kevin Petullo a year ago, who's now down in Miami, to
03:06what you see with Sean Manning here, a first-year play caller now in Philadelphia?
03:10Has it been an upgrade in the first eight quarters of football this year?
03:14It's early to say. It's early to say.
03:16But it does appear to be that that is the case, especially with the way Jalen has spoke throughout the
03:22offseason through training camp at some of the pressers.
03:24I think one of the things I picked up was last year the Eagles tried to abandon a philosophy that
03:29worked for them in the middle of the year.
03:31And I don't think Jalen ever subscribed to it, maybe because he didn't believe it was the right thing to
03:36do.
03:37And they never explained to him why they wanted to do that.
03:40And Sean has appeared to really go into the teaching phase of this offense, and why we're going to run
03:45each play, and what each play is setting up.
03:47And I think that's the positive that Sean has had with Jalen Hurts.
03:50But it is early to tell.
03:52I can't make any grandiose proclamation about their relationship through two weeks.
03:56You know how it is.
03:56This is September football.
03:58There's still a long way to go, and a lot to learn about these teams.
