(Credit: Get Up on ESPN)

ESPN’s morning show, Get Up, has become a platform for NFL personalities to showcase their skills in the media. While Dan Orlovsky, Ryan Clark, and Marcus Spears have used it to advance their careers with the network, the likes of Dominique Foxworth, Harry Douglas and Jeff Saturday have also benefited greatly from the larger audience and exposure provided by the show.

And recently, we’ve seen another former NFL player start to get more run time and make a name for himself. Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins, who most notably spent his time in the league with the Cincinnati Bengals (2011-13) and Cleveland Browns (2014-16), has offered another dynamic to the show, and he’s starting to make the most of his opportunity.

Wednesday was an excellent example of that.

The Get Up cast was discussing Shannon Sharpe’s comments from the day before, in which he suggested that the Philadelphia Eagles should run the “tush push” (Brotherly Shove) play on every play, as it seems to be the only play that works for the team’s offense. However, Wednesday’s cast of Hawkins, Saturday, Mike Greenberg, and Dan Graziano took a more comprehensive approach to analyzing what’s wrong with the 11-6 team. The Eagles will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round this weekend.

Hawkins, a former wide receiver who won two Grey Cups with the Montreal Alouettes, took a more nuanced approach to the team’s offense but offered quite the analogy to describe Philadelphia’s offensive inefficacies.

“They should beat Tampa. If nothing else, because I think their personnel matches up well against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,” said Hawkins. “And also, Baker Mayfield has an incredible year; sometimes you don’t know which Baker Mayfield is gonna show. That’s a reality, too.

“If you ask me, ‘Is the Eagles’ offense broken?’ No, this has been their offense the entire year. It’s like buying a pair of distressed jeans with holes in it and saying, ‘Oh, my jeans, holey.’ Yeah, they’re holey. That’s how it started. That’s how you got it out of the package.”

“The Eagles’ offense has struggled at continuity; they struggle to gameplan. They seem like they’re exciting plays rather than executing a game plan from the very beginning. They stood outside the facility with signs that said run the ball more. I hated it. And my hope was that they wouldn’t come back the next week and have this heavy influx of runs, and that’s exactly what they did. And that tells me you don’t have a strategy you’re sticking to.”

Using the jeans analogy to metaphorically point out that the Eagles’ offensive issues are inherent and not a recent development was brilliant.

Since retiring from football, Hawkins has transitioned into media roles, working as an analyst for NFL Network, co-hosting a podcast (Journeymen) with Amin Elhassan, working for Uninterrupted, and appearing on other shows like Are We There Yet? From the get-go, he’s demonstrated a willingness to explore different media platforms and his growing voice in the sports world. He has done so through his outgoing personality, humor and insightful commentary.

Hawkins connects well with audiences and can provide informative and entertaining analysis; Wednesday’s Eagles analogy and subsequent commentary were the perfect examples.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.