Jason Kelce’s ‘dream guest’ explains the physics of the Tush Push, NFL trade deadline talk, and more from ‘New Heights’
And as it pertains to the Eagles and their misery, take it from Jason Kelce: a trade deadline fire sale won't fix everything overnight.
The NFL trade deadline is less than an week away, and Jason Kelce wants fans to stop thinking it will fix the Eagles’ season.
On Wednesday’s episode of New Heights, Jason and his brother, Travis, discussed the effect — or lack thereof — that one acquisition or draft pick can make on a team with deeper-rooted issues and other NFL storylines in Week 8.
They also hosted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jason’s “dream guest,” on to discuss some nonfootball questions, as well as the physics of the Tush Push.
One step forward, two steps back
Like many other Eagles fans, Jason said one of the only thoughts he has about this team and this season is that it’s “a frustrating team to watch right now.”
It’s especially frustrating when it seems like they could be improving, like they showed against Dallas, Jason said, before taking a major step back again like they did against the Commanders on Sunday.
And although sometimes losing can be beneficial to force teams to have discussions that make them better as a player and a team, Jason said that when it “happens over and over again,” like it has this season, “it really can have a compounding effect as a group in your psyche.”
Jason said he knows players like Jordan Mailata and Saquon Barkley are taking accountability and trying to right things. Particularly because if they try to run from it, Jason said their problems will only get “more exposed.”
“It’s going to challenge the leadership, and it’s going to challenge the integrity of the office, and you just got to keep showing up to work and keep finding ways and attack the problems,” Jason said.
» READ MORE: Eagles fans want to trade nearly every player we asked about in our 'Save or Trade' poll
This isn’t basketball
There are some key differences between the Eagles and the Sixers. For starters, the Eagles are 2-6 while the Sixers are 7-1. The other, Jason and Travis agreed, is that one new player usually doesn’t make the massive difference in football that a a single draft pick, trade, or signing can make in the NBA.
Amid discussions of the Eagles tanking for a draft pick or selling at Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline, Jason told fans something they might not want to hear.
“You can’t just lose games on purpose to get a high draft pick and think your team’s magically going to get better,” Jason said.
Travis added that while one player could make things better, Jason said that won’t make a massive difference for a team that’s trying to overcome “the culture of losing games in the NFL.”
Jason said this might be hard for fans to hear, but for him, hearing fans talk about a “rebuild” also is hard to hear. He said in most cases, that mindset doesn’t pay off, and rebuilds take years to complete.
Jason says his 13-year career with the Eagles, while featuring four full-time head coaches, speaks to the continuity the organization values.
“One thing that Eagles have done a great job of in all these transitions, they prioritize talented people, talented players, talented coaches, talented front office people, and they, in general, even in transitions, they retain players that they know are a part of playing the way they want to play, leaders, guys that play the game the right way and work hard, that they want to be in there,” Jason said. “We’re not going to get rid of these pieces. They’re going to be a part of what we’re building on in the future. … They always prioritize keeping talented individuals in the building.”
» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 9 vs. the Giants
The physics of the Tush Push
With an astrophysicist on a football podcast, the trio discussed all the expected things: flat earth and moon landing conspiracy theories, aliens, and the Tush Push.
For years teams have been asking how to stop the Eagles’ famous play. Now, they finally have an answer thanks deGrasse Tyson, who he called the play “brilliantly conceived.”
They key, deGrasse Tyson said, comes from having the quarterback, who is “functionally airborne,” still connected to the earth through the players who are pushing him on either side and pushing against the earth.
To counter it, deGrasse Tyson said the defensive line has to get as low as the offensive line — and get so low that it prevents the offensive line from moving at all. Then, whoever is going airborne to block the quarterback must also have a Tush Push on their side to root them back to the earth.
Along with answering how to stop the Tush Push, deGrasse Tyson also confirmed one more thing about the play’s effects, not just on the league, but also on the earth.
“If you push against Earth as much as you guys did, yes, it affects the rotation of Earth, as it must,” deGrasse Tyson said.
Around the league
Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs also are on an losing streak, albeit a much less concerning one than the Eagles, after dropping their second straight game this weekend to the Broncos. The issue, Travis said, mainly is Chiefs penalties.
“If we don’t have penalties, man, I think we can be as good as we want to be in this league, and that’s the message in building, and that’s the message from our leader up front,” said Travis, the Chiefs’ longtime star tight end. “I think we clean up a lot of these things, we keep executing at a high level, keep putting up points for our defense.”
The Eagles have problems. Eight games into the season, that much is sure. But which ones are symptomatic, versus the ones that are systemic? From the head coach to the personnel, from coordinators to the front office, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and David Murphy scrutinize the micro issues that point to some of the larger dilemmas the Eagles now face: should they start to pack it in, and who will be held accountable for the team’s shortcomings? Listen here.
Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.
