Jason Kelce defends his hat and questions some NFL rules, while Travis admits he’s a ‘geezer’ on ‘New Heights’

If you’re looking for someone to make you feel better after the Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday, Jason Kelce is here to help.

Jason and his brother, Travis, recapped Week 3 of the NFL on their New Heights podcast. Jason shared why he’s not too concerned by the Eagles’ loss, before the brothers finished Wednesday’s episode by interviewing actor Jamie Foxx.

Like many of the stories following Monday’s loss to the Bears, Jason and Travis focused on 38-year-old Case Keenum’s performance as a third-string quarterback.

Jason said it was a frustrating game to watch for Eagles fans, especially with how Vic Fangio’s defense played, but he’s not too worried. The former Eagles center pointed to outlier games like this in the past, including against the Bears on Black Friday last season and against the Buccaneers two seasons ago.

“I have confidence that they’ll get this rectified,” Jason said. “They have one of the best [defensive] coordinators and defensive minds in football over the last 30, 40 years, however long Vic Fangio has been coaching. But it was a bad performance on Monday night against a really, really good Chicago Bears offense.”

» READ MORE: Eagles defense ‘not on the same page,’ as Ben Johnson and Case Keenum pick them apart

With what Jason called “one of the best offensive lines in football,” featuring Jonah Jackson and Darnell Wright, and confidence from his head coach Ben Johnson, Jason said Keenum could execute the scheme “flawlessly.”

“The scheme is something that, when you’re 38 years old, you’re in the league for a long time,” Jason said. “A lot of the reasons you’re still there is because you know that stuff in and out mentally. So there’s no question that he’s going to be able to execute what Ben Johnson’s going to ask him to do.”

Along with defending the Eagles defense, Jason also defended his outfit choice after wearing a jeff cap for his Monday Night Countdown appearance as a studio analyst.

Despite the comparison to Peaky Blinders characters online and from his brother, Jason stood by the choice.

“Anytime you wear a jeff cap, now you’re impersonating a 1910s person,” Jason said. “People still wear jeff caps. Like, people are aware of this, right? Still a piece of attire.”

The Chiefs improved to 3-0 with a 24-10 win over the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday. And outside of the Florida heat and the struggle to put away the Dolphins in the second half, there wasn’t much else to discuss.

Instead, Jason took the opportunity to acknowledge Travis’ start to the season. Jason said many are wondering if it’s “one of the best starts” of his younger brother’s 14-year career. He included a statistic from Patrick Brennan that said Travis was off to the best start by any receiver his age in NFL history.

He’s also recorded 55 or more receiving yards in each of his first three games of the season for the first time since 2021.

“I’m the best geezer to ever play the game,” Travis said jokingly.

» READ MORE: Did the Eagles get ‘exposed’ in Monday’s loss to the Chicago Bears? Depends on who you ask.

In a brand-new segment called “Heights & Order,” San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk made an appearance on the show to discuss his $14,926 fine for “engaging in offensive demonstrations,” during a celebration.

Juszczyk, who was accused of imitating chugging a beer, has gone by the nickname “juice” for years and has a juice box on his thigh pad, said he was imitating drinking juice.

Jason defended Juszczyk, even if it was a beer celebration, because of the league’s promotion of beer in commercials and partnerships. And while Juszczyk has a hearing scheduled to appeal the fine, it seems the repercussions, including a new nickname to replace “juice,” are going to stick around no matter the outcome.

“It’s been incredible,” Juszczyk said. “I’ve got the chefs in the cafeteria calling me ‘Beer.’ The janitors are, ‘Hey, Beer.’ … They love it. ‘Juice’ is out the window.”

The rest of the Kelces’ conversations with Juszczyk revolved around the fullback position in the NFL, but even after he left, the topic of the rules kept coming up.

When discussing the Eagles game, Jason brought up the unnecessary roughness call on D’Marco Jackson against Jalen Hurts that sent Hurts into the tent for concussion protocol testing. During that time, backup QB Andy Dalton threw an interception in the end zone.

The unnecessary roughness call was offset by a holding penalty by Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. And Jason had thoughts.

“The fact that a holding call is offsetting with what happened to Jalen on the sideline is pretty crazy to me. Those two shouldn’t be offsetting,” Jason said. “That’s like the equivalent of like, ‘Hey, you got a jaywalking ticket and you’re being charged with aggravated assault. Those offset each other.’”

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It was a blowout, and it left a lot of questions. The Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears Monday night at Soldier Field featured an offense that fizzled, a defense that folded, and a coaching staff that looked outmatched. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Jeff Neiburg provide a postmortem of the defense’s disappointing start to the season, critique of offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s approach, and assessment of how some of general manager Howie Roseman’s moves have panned out so far. Listen here.

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