Why the Eagles were right to jump on chance to get Kevin Byard | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz is joined by senior NFL reporters Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein to discuss the team’s move to acquire the Philadelphia native and what he brings to one of the top squads in football. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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JASON FITZ: Kevin Byard gets traded, the safety from the Titans moves to the Eagles that I honestly think, C-Rob, is a difference-making-caliber player. I've watched enough of him over my career. I think the Eagles get a steal out of this.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Big time leader, I mean, big, big time leader of a defensive unit, backbone type of guy. And it's interesting to me because you knew, if there was a slow start, this was coming. Offensive line fell apart. Ryan Tannehill got hurt. Now you're staring at a couple of young quarterbacks going, should we probably get a measure of these guys now since there's a great quarterback draft coming up?
We don't anticipate taking another quarterback if we just traded up to draft Will Levis in the second. But let's make sure we get a look at everybody. And then you have Philadelphia and Howie Roseman, who's always out there looking, had a massive need at safety.
And Byard made a ton of sense. He knew for weeks that this was potentially a guy that he could go and get. I thought it was interesting that he went and got him when he did, I don't want to say early, but early-ish. He jumped on him quite a bit before the trade deadline.
I talked to another general manager about this. And he said, look-- I'm paraphrasing here. But he's like, this is smart by Howie because he didn't give Tennessee the opportunity to reel off one more win before the deadline and then go, oh, wait, now we're 3-4, and, wow, either Levis or Willis came out there and, with the added practice, had a great game. Maybe we can still turn this around.
No. Howie was like, I'm going, I'm getting my guy. I'm not letting anybody else jump in front of me. I think it's a really good addition for Philly. It made some sense for Tennessee. And actually, I thought-- it was what, two late round draft picks and a player? Good return for Tennessee, given the fact that most people knew they're going to be a little bit of sellers, and this is one guy who makes obvious sense.
JORI EPSTEIN: I just love this idea that we're getting another Titans-Eagles trade after how the last one went for each side. AJ Brown trade basically lost a general manager his job. And hey, let's do it again.
But another thing that's great to know about Byard is that he doesn't miss games. And I'm knocking on like seven types of wood as I say this. But I think that at some point, it's like he's played every game since '20-- I mean, every game. You look at it, it's like 16, 16, 16, 17, whatever, 6-- and so I think that that's something that-- a guy who's shown the durability, who's shown it during the season can show it in the postseason, that's the type of guy you want to bring in your building as well.
