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Former Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks made headlines last week with his comments seen on HBO’s Hard Knocks about how the Browns “have so much more talent in this room than what I did in Philly, it’s not even funny.”
Kendricks had some more things to say about his former team in this week’s episode.
LB Mychal Kendricks addressing the Browns on tonight’s Hard Knocks:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 29, 2018
“Playing with Nick Foles, I realized on his long balls he has like a tear-drop effect. So (CBS), he’s a little slower on that ball coming in.”
“No. 86 is the best receiver on the team. Notice I say receiver...”
In case it’s not clear what he said there, Kendricks is telling Cleveland’s cornerbacks that Foles has a bad deep ball. And that Ertz is a bad blocker. More on that second point:
Mychal Kendricks on Hard Knocks about TE Zach Ertz’s blocking ability: “You f**king hit his ass over and over, he doesn’t want any smoke.” #Eagles
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) August 29, 2018
And some more commentary on Halapoulivaati Vaitai:
Mychal Kendricks also pointed to #Eagles OT Halapoulivaati Vaitai’s confidence issues when he’s struggling: “He doent have the quickest speed and he's not the strongest. He doesn't trust his speed at all. You get on him, his confidence will go down."
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) August 29, 2018
Now, I get that Kendricks isn’t taking shots for the sake of taking shots. He was trying to give his new team a scouting report on some of the players on his old team prior to the Eagles-Browns preseason matchup last week. That’s is totally reasonable.
Kendricks also isn’t entirely off base with his comments. Foles has a tendency to float passes at times. And Ertz isn’t a great blocker.
Still, did Kendricks really need to say these things when the cameras were on him? He knew this stuff would get out. Why the need to publicly throw some shade (even if that wasn’t the intent) on some former Super Bowl teammates? He couldn’t have done this in a more private setting?
Between this stuff and last week’s comments, Kendricks clearly still has his old team on his mind. I’m sure the Eagles don’t really think about him at all.