Eagles to start Joe Milton at QB, bench McKee amid 6-game skid

Another guy that is one of our best experts, he's the executive producer of sports right here at Fox 29. So I bring in Scott Grayson. When you hear that there is a change at quarterback, surprised? Yes, I am, because I thought that they would have gone into the bye at this point before they worried about making a change, because the bye week is next week. So it gives you two weeks at that point if you wanted to make a change to get Joe Milton up to speed. And I'm going to go ahead and And so, obviously, the report is out now, Adam Schefter and some of those others tweeting out there that Joe Milton will start. Now, here's the thing that boggles me, and I'm just going to tell you straight out, Jen, Nick Sirianni continues to fumble the PR side of this thing. Pun intended on that. You know, he was in his press conference just moments ago. I mean, within the last, you know, hour or two. And he was talking to the media. He was asked about Joe Milton and how he's been doing with getting up to speed on everything since he was brought over in the season from the Cowboys. And, you know, Sirianni talked about how he's been, you know, getting up to speed with some of the assistant coaches. He had an opportunity in there to name himself and say that Joe Milton would start this game on Sunday. Instead, we find out by reports that are out there. We don't know. This hasn't been confirmed by the Eagles at this point. But we will be down at the facility later today for practice and interviews with the players. And at that point, obviously, we will learn more. But to me, I just don't understand why when you have the media gathered there, you don't put that word out yourself as the head coach. And even if it's not asked and you want to play games with the media and wait till the end and then say, hey, guys, by the way, before I get up and walk away, I just want to let you know, Joe Milton is going to start this Sunday instead of Tanner McKee. Again, you're the one putting that message out. It's not coming out other ways. I don't know if this is the way the players found out. I would assume he had a conversation, if this is the case, with Joe Milton and with Tanner McKee. But again, Jen, I just think this is another fumble by Nick Sirianni on how to handle some of this messaging and this, just even with your fan base and with the media and just trying to stay on top of these stories instead of having them come out this way. Yeah, according to reports, it'll be Joe Milton on Sunday against the Giants, and we'll see what happens. I can tell you the differences between Joe Milton and Tanner McKee. Milton is a much more mobile quarterback, more like Jalen Hurts than Tanner McKee, who's a taller quarterback who is, you know, he's not quite as fast to get out of the pocket. Obviously, they have issues blocking on that offensive line. The pass rush has not been good. So Tanner McKee has had very little time to try to throw the ball. Joe Milton will have an opportunity to use his legs to maybe buy more time and try to have some productive plays on offense. Clearly, they need to do something. They're making a change. But I think the way they made this change and the messaging behind it, Jen, was, like I said, fumbled. Well, here's my question, and I love all the football references. Is there a chance that he wrapped up? This is just, you know, what do they call this, intense speculation. But here's my question. Is there a chance he wrapped up the press conference, Howie Roseman, Jeffrey Lurie, basically his bosses, Smolenski, all of them, are sitting here looking at this press conference, and they're like, you know what, Joe's starting. Like, does... Does Nick Sirianni alone make this decision, or could it be the guys from up top are like, you know what, we're done, we've just been named 32nd in the power rankings for NFL. Are they like, yo, we're done, get this guy out of here, let's try something new? Or do you authentically believe that Nick knew the whole day and just didn't say anything? Well, let's play it out, right? The logical side to this that I'm coming from, which may be the wrong side using logic here, would say that they come into the office on Monday, they watch their film as coaches, they look back at what's going on, they start thinking about how do we want to try to start preparing for the Giants. On Monday, and if not Monday, Tuesday, would be where I would think you would come up with this decision because you've got to put a game plan together for practices that are starting today with the guys. Now Joe Milton instead of Tanner McKee. So I find it hard to believe that they just... The light bulb went off in Nick's head, or whether it was Howie Roseman that came down and said, hey, we need to do something different, and today was the day that they decided to do that, because you've got to have practice plans ready to go. You have to have people informed that are involved in this decision, like Milton and Tanner McKee, and I've got to believe that those conversations were happening as early as yesterday, not today. Now, could it have gone down that way? Yeah, it very well could have, and if that was the case... I would further think that leads to more of the story along with the dysfunction that's going on over there if that was the case. Now, could they have done that because they didn't want Nick saying anything? I don't know why you don't want Nick saying anything when here we're finding out just a couple hours later, you know, via reports that it is Joe Milton starting Sunday. So, again, I would argue that this is. Not been handled well. The messaging on this is poor. It makes you wonder. We're all wondering where is Nick Sirianni trying to turn this team around. Now it looks like he has no control over anything. I just think the optics on this, Jen, are just poor. Okay. Agreed. All around. Regardless of how and when the decision was made, very bad optics. And then. The last thing is, I know that you guys and your team, you head down to the complex today. Would you have seen them practicing? Like, are there beat reporters or anyone that would have seen a practice today? Yes, there is practice that will be open. Only warm-ups, though. So I would argue that we would have not. In the part that's open to the media, I don't think we would have noticed a difference because we get kicked out by the time they start, you know, going into individual work and position breakouts. So I don't think we would have noticed that today. Now, the locker room is open today, and there's a good chance that somebody would have said something that might have tipped off the media that that was happening. Thank So that is around 4, I think, 25 today that the locker room will be open. you so We'll see what we find out when we get in there. Brie LaMoure will be down there talking to the players today, much and obviously this is going to become now the latest hot topic, and distraction potentially, you could argue, could be a good change. for being It could be, but we don't know. But I just think the way they've handled this, again, the optics behind it and the messaging have not been handled well. here. All right. Scott Grayson, I know you're a busy guy. Thank you. We yanked you out of your office and told you to come up here. I know you're going to join us again at three o'clock right here on Fox Local. We got Bob Cooney coming up. We know Breland's going to be there on site. We're covered right here at Fox 29, and we appreciate your help.