Super Bowl 59 Analysis: Jason Avant's Insights & Predictions

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00:00All right, everyone, it's Adam Kaplan here for SportsGrid, and it's Super Bowl 59.

00:04And a guy to my right, number 81 in your hearts, the great Eagle, Jason Avant.

00:10Great to see you, my friend.

00:11It's good to see you, Adam.

00:12Yeah, good to see you, buddy.

00:13All right, man.

00:14So from the Q&A show with Quentin Michael and yourself on Inside the Birds, and you're

00:18here for another Super Bowl, man.

00:20So this is what I find interesting.

00:22So you're a former Eagle, right?

00:24You love the team, but you're a former head coach's coach in Kansas City.

00:29So I know you're rooting for the Eagles, but Andy also drafted you.

00:34So how do you handle all that?

00:36I don't think about it.

00:37Philadelphia's been my home for so long, and the fans have treated me well, the organization

00:42have treated me well.

00:43So I want Coach Reed to have success, just not this game.

00:46Right?

00:47Got it.

00:48So I root for him, but just not in this game.

00:49All right, let's break down the game.

00:50So you were just telling me off camera, I know you're watching tape, anything for your

00:55Eagles you're concerned about in this game?

00:57I think that the way that Coach Reed has figured out a way to negate or to help his offensive

01:04line by running a lot of RPO stuff, and they're better at the pass option than we are, and

01:12we run the ball better than them, is that Mahomes can see the field so much better than

01:18most quarterbacks.

01:19So he's able to pick up on a guy off outside, oh, I'm going to throw this hitch, oh, this

01:24guy is off inside, I'm going to throw this slant, oh, here's a screen back side off RPO,

01:29oh, I'm going to keep it around the edge.

01:31So the way that they're able to generate offense and being Xavier worthy, how much attention

01:36that he gets from Coach Reed, like besides Travis Kelsey, that's the number one guy that

01:41he is trying to get the ball to, and he's an explosive player.

01:44So there's some cause for concern there.

01:46So speaking of that, I'm looking at the Super Bowl two years ago, and Kansas City got him

01:50twice with, I don't know if you want to call it gadget plays, but quick plays inside the

01:55five-yard line.

01:57Sky Moore got him, Gadaris Tony got him, and I would be worried about, I know Oren Burks

02:04is playing well the last couple weeks, but that's a guy who's 6'3", I don't know if he

02:07moves all that well, he's rangy, but he's not explosive like a N'Kobe Dean.

02:12Do you worry about anything like that?

02:13Well, it all depends on if they can catch him in man.

02:16Our team is not a high man team.

02:19They play man when they need to, but they're not a high man team, and usually those plays

02:23to the flat when you're going through defenders and things like that, you have to catch the

02:27team in man-to-man in order to get that.

02:30And our team needs to do a better job, and yes, me and Quentin talked about that on the

02:33Q&A show, is that when we are in man, we tend to call lock.

02:38And what lock is, is that you guard the man that is right in front of you.

02:42You don't pass anything off, you don't make adjustments.

02:45Against the Kansas City Chiefs, you cannot run lock.

02:47You have to make adjustments.

02:48You either go in or out, or the guy that's on the ball takes the lower guy.

02:53So you have to communicate more than just, okay, I got this man, you got that man.

02:59So if you do that, you'll be fine, or you play zone.

03:01Okay, let's get to the start of the season.

03:04What were your expectations for the football team?

03:06The start of the season?

03:08I would say, I had the Eagles, once they made all the trades and Saquon and all of those

03:13things that happened, and Vic Fangio, I had them winning, I think, over 11 games.

03:19But I didn't know that they would be this good.

03:22I didn't think that the defense could turn around, because no one knew who Zach Bond

03:26was.

03:27No one did.

03:28Literally no one did.

03:29And no one knew who Zach Bond was.

03:30We didn't know what the rookies would be.

03:31We didn't know that Quinion would be locked down from day one.

03:34We didn't know Cooper Dejean would be the guy that turned the defense around when he

03:38got implemented into the defense.

03:42So we didn't have these expectations of the defense, and now that the defense came around,

03:47we saw that this can be special.

03:49All right, so let's look at Sunday.

03:52How do you break this down?

03:54Well, let's look at it from this.

03:57The Eagles are going to, of course, try to run the ball.

04:00Spagnuolo is going to have a huge ego and say, hey, we can't allow you to run the ball.

04:05So what we'll do is bring an extra guy into the box, which is either a bigger defensive

04:09lineman, so five down, or you add a linebacker up.

04:13Your linebackers are small, so I would tend that they probably would go with five down.

04:17So you add that guy to the line of scrimmage.

04:18You try to limit the Eagles' run game, and now they're at least one-on-one outside.

04:24Can Jalen Hurts make throws?

04:26And will we connect on the fade balls that he loves so much?

04:29He loves to.

04:30He loves those.

04:31When he sees single high safety, that ball's coming out, right?

04:34It's coming out.

04:35So will we make an adjustment there?

04:37Here's the matchup that I think we can win pretty consistently.

04:40Jalen Watson vs. Devontae Smith.

04:43Trump McDuffie vs. A.J. Brown.

04:45A.J. Brown can win that, but that's good on good.

04:47Jalen Watson is a good player, but he's not Devontae Smith good.

04:52So I think that matchup, not jump balls, but just basic routes outside, Devontae has to

04:58win this one-on-one matchup.

04:59And also Dallas Goddard will have Justin Reed or Brian Cook.

05:03I think he can win that matchup.

05:04So I'm assuming you're picking your Eagles, correct?

05:07I definitely am.

05:08You have a score?

05:09I don't have a score right now.

05:10Give me a little bit later on.

05:11All right.

05:12You got your Eagles.

05:13All right.

05:14Here's the thing.

05:15I will say about that before we go.

05:16Yeah.

05:17It's either a close game.

05:18It can go either way.

05:19Yep.

05:20Or it's the Eagles blow out.

05:21The Chiefs do not have the ability.

05:22By the way, you're like the third person who said that it wouldn't be surprising if the

05:24Eagles blew them out.

05:25I know the Chiefs have trouble scoring, but really?

05:26No, the Chiefs don't have the ability to blow the Eagles out.

05:29Right.

05:30But the Eagles could.

05:31Yes, yes, yes.

05:32That's what people are saying.

05:33Okay.

05:34That's what people are saying for 81.

05:35Jason Vaughn, I'm Adam Kaplan.

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