Jason Avant, Former NFL Wide Receiver

Back inside Radio Row, final day, day number five, and now joining us in the Phoenix Convention Center.

Played for the Eagles, played for the Chiefs, is an Andy Reid guy, of course, and that is former NFL wide receiver Jason Avant. Jason, how are you? I'm doing great, Zach. Great to see you, buddy.

Well, good to see you, too, and I appreciate you coming on. So, I've had on Dawkins, I've had on Donovan McNabb this week, and I've asked him this question. Well, I'm the best looking guy out of all of those guys, right? So, that's one thing.

So, you guys are upgrading here. You argue on that one. I think you're right.

Then who's two and who's three in your mind? Donovan's last, so there it is. If he was still throwing you the football, he'd be the best looking person in the world.

He'd be the best looking person in the history of people. So, when you go into this entire outlook of the game, it's obviously Andy Reid going up against the Eagles. Is this weird for you with Andy coaching against the Birds? It's definitely weird because I want the Eagles to win.

100%, right? But I don't want the national narrative to be that Andy can't win the big game, and usually if you lose the Super Bowl again for Andy, it's one and three in the Super Bowl or one and two in the Super Bowl. So, I don't want that narrative for him, but I want to see the Eagles win a little bit more.

So, I guess I'm conflicted a little bit. It's weird to me because when you look at Andy Reid's legacy, and I'm glad you brought it up. For years it was, can he just win one?

Yeah. And then he wins that one Super Bowl. So, for someone like me, who I called him a very, very, very good coach before that, then you put him in that great category. We know he's going to the Hall of Fame. So, this just adds on, I think, for him because if he wins this one, that throws him in a different kind of category up the ladder. Yeah, it throws him.

It would be the greatest win of his career for sure. Just because you're starting five rookies on the defensive side of the ball. You have one returning receiver.

That's McCole Hardeman from last year. You have a totally makeshift, mismatched team. The only two stalwarts on your team is Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey. So, when you look at that dynamic, I believe that this will be, especially with the Eagles' roster, every GM will tell you, every scout will tell you that this is the best roster from top down. So, you're going into this game as the underdog. With rookies playing and with new receivers, for him to win this game would be one of the best coaching jobs in his career and one that we've seen, you know, in the last 10, 15 years for sure.

Because this Eagles' team is definitely a better football team. I agree with you on that, but it would be disappointing. And I don't know how much longer Andy Reid's going to coach for. Like, let's just say he coaches five more years. Probably, you know, could be more than that.

Yeah. But if he doesn't get another Super Bowl in the next five years, yes, he could. Yes, he's going to Hall of Fame, but you're right. There would be a little disappointment there. Especially with Mahomes.

Yes, it would be some hating there. And I just don't think that he gets enough credit. Because the NFL, when you look at the NFL and you look at offenses, you see teams for years steal all of Andy Reid's concepts. They take his coaches every year. Like, he has a bunch of, yeah, a good coaching tree because he allows coaches to coach. He allows creative people to be creative people. And unlike most coaches, I think I've played for a bunch of coaches.

Usually it goes like this. This is my system. You have to fit into my system. I don't want much deviation from my system because my system works. Coach Reid looks at it from a totally different perspective.

He understands his system, understand what guys can do what. But if you find yourself to be one of those qualified special guys, he will allow you to be creative. So this is where I need you to be. It's up to you and your creativity to get to point A and point B.

And I'm allowing you to be a creative artist. That's why Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have such a great connection because they're able to play off time and off schedule. And Coach Reid is okay with it. Most offensive coordinators will hate their guts and hate their life dealing with players like that. But he allows them to be special.

And that's part of what makes his mystique and his coaching career legendary is because he not only comes up with great schemes, but he allows players to be themselves and be creative. The Andy Reid you saw in Philadelphia compared to in your final few years in the NFL, you saw him in Kansas City. Was there a different person at all? Different coach? Totally different.

Totally different. So 2006 is when I was drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles. During that time, Coach Reid was more in a general manager, overseer, head coach role because Tom Heckert was coming, you know, health problems and how he was being instituted as a bunch. He was more helping out the general managing side of the team, transactions and that part of it, right? So I've never seen him really install anything or go over plays that much because he was just overseeing in Philadelphia. When I got to be with him in Kansas City, he was in a Tommy Bahama shirt, relaxed, chilling, going every day into the film room and installing every game plan and coaching.

He left the general managing up to John Dorsey at that time. And then Brett Veatch, he doesn't want any part of that. He just wants to coach. Therefore, you can see his growth and development with Patrick Mahoney because he's doing that. He did that with Brett Favre. He's a quarterback coach, right?

So he's been doing it for years and now he's doing that. He's happier being that. He's happier being creative and being offense coordinator. So that's the difference between Philadelphia, Andy and the Andy of today. I love Philadelphia and sometimes I think too much gets made out of the fans, but when you're in the Northeast, you know, the media pressure, you know, the fan pressure. I think going to Kansas City kind of took a little pressure off of Andy Reid, where a little bit more uptight and stressed out in Philadelphia, where you go to Kansas City. You're right. He's got the Bahama shirts on. He's talking about all the cheeseburgers that he eats it.

It does seem he's had a little bit more stress free, let's say in Kansas. Yeah, this also helps you have homes. Yeah.

Well, the standard is different, right? You're in the Northeast, right? So that region has what I want to say, maybe five out of the top six most grossing NFL teams, right? And all of those teams around you have fans that have won Super Bowls.

So there's a lot of pressure for the Eagles fans. Like, dude, the the the commanders have won Super Bowls. The Patriots have won Super Bowl. The Giants have won our rivals at down, you know, South is one multiple Super Bowl and Cowboys, right? So I hold on the Cowboys. What I'm what I'm saying in my lifetime, they've been what drama Dallas choking Cowboys. They can't beat anyone in a big spot, but I'm just saying they have, but in previous years, 30 years ago, historically, right? So there's a lot of pressure from a lot of people in order to win and then you take them to the precipice multiple times and then you lose and heartbreaking fashion. So you take all of that burden off in Kansas City.

They were so bad. They were just happy to get a good coach and it's just the Midwest is more laid back. So yes, it's definitely less pressure and then you get the golden child and Patrick Mahomes. Here's the interesting thing from me breaking down every one of coach reads, you know games and this is real thing before I talk about the game before I talk about it. I watched the game three times one TV version one condensed copy one coaches tape, right? I talked about the game Andy Reid runs the same exact offense of when I play for the Eagles. It's the same offense and people think it's like new and it's different.

It's the same stuff. There's a few different wrinkles because of some players but it's the same offense. The difference is that the quarterback can see more and he's able to get to things that coach Reid always talked about getting to because he's just a superior talent when it comes to the field of the game. No one alert is at an all-time like alert and football terms is this is not really a part of the play. But if something was is going to break down this an alert to this backside per post Patrick Mahomes just has the feel of knowing when these things should be and he has an instinctive very second like level movement. If something breaks down, he doesn't panic.

He does this you put that guy in this spot. It's an easy life for for Andy Reid and that's the difference that guy makes a lot easier for every coach Jason Avant here with us. So when I look at this game, I don't think the Eagles are a disrespected team, but I think their defense is disrespected going into the 49ers game. No one's talking about the Eagles defense. Everyone's talking about the 49ers defense. This is a defense that has 70 sacks in the regular season.

It's the most the league by by 15. I'm pretty sure yeah, this matchup to me really comes down to the Eagles defensive line up against Chiefs offensive line because we saw in the Super Bowl a few years ago and I know left tackle right tackle was out for Kansas City. But that Eagles defensive line if they win this game, it's going to be the biggest reason. Oh, yes, I think that there will be a really big reason Orlando Brown and Wally the two tackles for Kansas City are definitely having troubles their turnstiles a bunch of the times and the Bengals kind of expose that so I believe that they definitely have some weaknesses. The problem is you give two weeks to coach Reed to try to sure it up and to come up with schemes to kind of combat that but yes, you know what? The Eagles defensive line and defense.

They do get disrespected and you see it in a way people think that it was just an unfortunate incident that Brock Purdy was hurt. It wasn't on it was unfortunate, but it wasn't luck. It wasn't happenstance block us on Reddit. You have your quarterback. Here's the thing you go into the game plan and you say that I can block us on Reddit with the backup tight end.

Yeah, that's stupid. That's that's that's that's dumb couple plays before that you have them blocked by Kyle you check which is the fullback. Yeah, couple plays after that you go get with kiddo and Juwan Jennings and get Johnson up for his first bang up because he before the concussion that took him out of the game. He had one prior to that head hit the ground and he was days.

They didn't catch it, but it was Hassan Reddit, right? Right. So like they are disrespected in some of the schemes that people come up with them against their defense and I think that yes, it's going to be a huge part of why the Eagles will win this football game you using your player glasses here. Jason about what do you like about Nick Sirianni as a head football coach? I think that he's extremely upbeat.

I think he extreme he has extreme confidence in this team and he doesn't throw people under the bus and he allows players to be themselves. He's okay with that. He's okay with like some demonstrative and somewhat, you know, sketchy, you know, comments and conversation. He wants guys to be themselves. So I think he works at it. He's built a rapport outside of just football because if you ever noticed that he always has a player shirt on he's showing up to their charity events. He's making it.

I hate the word family because it's a business is not family. But what I will say is a college feel. Yeah, he's making it more. He's making more of a connection with these player and it's becoming more than football for a lot of these guys.

And I think that he's caused these guys to believe in that. And let me be clear when I say college feel that's not being disrespectful or anything. But I think that is now the modern day coach where it's not rah rah like college.

It's not drill sergeant as well like college. It's my way or the highway because we are talking about adults here in the NFL. But I feel like the people skills of college coaches are sometimes better than NFL like coaches. Yeah, and not that college coaches make great NFL like coaches, but you see a guy like Nick Sirianni I would envision more like a college coach, but he's doing that in the NFL. He's having a lot of success. Yeah, it's about and the NFL and any position of leadership.

You have to have some charisma and you have that people skills. Yeah, and I think that he does a great job of having emotional intelligence to connect with certain guys. Know what their their things that make them play better or not. He's always fired up. He's always positive.

He believes in it. And he's put together a damn good coaching staff. And when you when you have the general manager basically of the year the executive of the year and how we this year putting together this team. They literally capitalize on every right move that you could in the NFL season in order to be successful.

So I think it's a lot of things aiding Nick Sirianni, but definitely those are some things that's making him successful. You did sidelines for Michigan this year sideline radio and color for University of Michigan. Now we're talking. I've kind of been adopted by the Michigan fan base because my two best friends attend to Michigan.

Oh, nice. I've been to countless games in the big house this year. I took the extra step got the Michigan sweatshirt on nice got the throwback Leroy Hoard jersey as well. Yeah, so I've become a Michigan football fan little difficult now because I'm a Matt rule guy. He's going to Nebraska, but it's on the same division. So I could kind of still root for Michigan also double dip with Nebraska. Hopefully my temple owls get moving back in the right direction. I like Stan Drayton, but that Michigan season up until the last year. Yeah, some bad coaching there up against TCU how long it took him to run the ball with McCarthy horrible start in the game. Just run the ball at the one yard line not do you know with the whole fumble and everything but it was a bad ending. I'm just curious because they got a lot of guys back.

Yeah, I do. It's the whole I love Blake quorum and you get Edwards back, you know McCarthy's obviously back as the quarterback that a lot of the offensive linemen are coming back. Are they going to take the next step though? Now they beat Ohio State twice that won the Big Ten twice. Will they take that next step and get into a national championship game maybe winning it with horrible.

I'm going to make a correlation for you that will make sense for most people. Yeah, I remember Nick Saban at LSU remember Nick Saban at the start of Alabama. Yeah, Nick Saban was so afraid to open it up that he would get into these games where Alabama will win 13 to 6 or 20 to 15 or whatever it is. And they were always in that situation Michigan has the same problem Michigan has this problem. They can dominate these inferior teams with just Smash Mouth football, but that doesn't correlate to the college football playoffs where there's teams that's going to open it up and score points until they can play the game in a versatile way. They're going to always find themselves in this situation where they can game plan against Ohio State and come up with some creative schemes in order to beat them because they start watching film on Ohio State, you know starting now which ways can we you know play this game. They have guys assigned to that game starting now in order to come up with a game plan. They work on it each week throughout the entire year.

So what I'm saying is that they're going to have to open it up and get some more some better receivers and talent and be able to open up for the college football play playoff in order to take that step forward. You got to take my buddy Josh to a Michigan game this year. He can come whenever he can come in every one.

Get him a little Zingerman sandwich at the deli. Yeah, you know Josh would like this thing. I mean, there's no doubt about that. So before we let you run, are you surprised Jason Avant that Harbaugh is back because it seems like the last two years he's trying to leave. But then he winds back up at Michigan. You know, it's a hard place. It's a hard place to leave because they have all the resources, you know, and they can pay him whatever he wants to get paid.

Yeah. And you've had success. You beat Ohio State multiple times now.

The only thing that Harbaugh is looking at, it's a tough college game now with the NIL. You got to kiss this 15, 16 year old kids, but they haven't done squat. And he wants one hundred thousand bucks or he not he's not coming to your school. And some of the good ones, the kid from Florida that end up transferring 13 million dollars that the kid wanted.

Right. It's just asinine that you have to do all of this stuff. So the good coaches are like, dude, this is the last thing I want to do is to be in someone's kitchen, telling them how great he is for every year of his life. Usually back in the day, once they got you, you had to stay. But now you have to kiss their butt every year and come up with more money and more money.

It's a nightmare for him. And you have the salary cap, easier system, 53 man roster. It's a lot easier to be NFL coach. Going back to something you said two answers ago, you said inferior teams when Michigan goes up against them. One of those teams are Penn State.

My producer over there, hot take. He's a big Penn State fan. Man, he gets delusional every year at this. He's already thinking they're going to be in the college football playoff next season. I know they got a good team, but they do not say anything positive about that. This is no Penn State propaganda allowed on this.

No more of that. We cannot stand Penn State here. Look, I can't say anything about it. James Franklin, good recruiter. I don't know about the coach. He can't coach the big game. Who's the more overrated coach? Jimbo Fisher or James Franklin? Jimbo Fisher.

But Jimbo at least has an addy. Did you see who's on that team? I get it. That was a great team. Did you see who's on Franklin's team this year? I know, but it's not every first round.

It's not Jalen. It's a bunch of guys on that team. There's many things I'm logical about when it comes to Penn State. No logic for me.

So tell us what you're doing. Great show on Inside the Birds. Yeah, Inside the Birds. We have that show, Inside the Birds platform, YouTube channel. They had a good guest on this week.

They've had a lot of them. Yeah, me. Yeah, there you go.

There you go. And I do a show on there as well called Q&A Podcast. One of my teammates, Quentin Michael, both of us had to understand football at a high level in order to stay in the National Football League.

So it's a great breakdown segment for a lot of the fans that want in-depth knowledge. Also, I do the Birds Huddle on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Run a business called Launch Trampoline Park. If you're in the South Jersey area in Deford, New Jersey, we do rock climbing, laser tag, slam ball, arcade, full cafe, corporate events. We do pretty much everything in there, right? Trampolines, interactive games where you can be inside a video game and jump on trampolines. All types of things we do. Dodgeball, I'll hit your kid in the face for you.

Give him some discipline. Especially if he's wearing a Penn State shirt. Well anyway, good to see you. Thanks so much for doing this. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey.

And Westwood One brings it to you streaming live for free Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey.

And Westwood One brings it to you streaming live for free Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Kevin Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day to day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said, if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said, after you got through a hundred plows, you'd want to quit the business and never, never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling podcast with Evan T. Maxx. Subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast.