“You play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don’t play to just play it. That’s the great thing about sports. You play to win. And I don’t care if you don’t have any wins; you play to win. When you start telling me that it doesn’t matter, then retire. Get out. Because it matters.”

Words of wisdom from the great Herman Edwards, who played for the Eagles from 1977 to 1985 and now coaches the Arizona State Sun Devils in the PAC 12.

Herm was on WIP with Jon Marks and Ike Reese Tuesday, and shed some light on receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who is projected to go late in the first round and has been linked to the Birds in some of the mock drafts out there.

The thing about coach interviews is that of course they’re typically biased. Nick Saban isn’t gonna come out and say “Tua Tagovailoa is messed up. That injury is the real deal.” Usually they talk up their guys and try to help their draft stock, which helps the player, helps recruiting, helps the college program at the same time. It’s a triple whammy. But Edwards is a little more blunt and honest than most, so I believe him when he says this about Aiyuk:

“He reminds me a little bit of DeSean (Jackson). He’s very explosive that way. He’s a good return guy. (Junior college) guy coming out, so he’s only played two years. He was behind N’Keal Harry, actually played alongside N’Keal I should say, who went in the first round last year to New England. This guy’s arrow is pointing in the right direction. Very competitive player, great body control, doesn’t miss any practices, doesn’t miss games, he’s been healthy since he’s been here. Someone’s going to get a good player.”

Aiyuk was healthy at ASU but did recently undergo core muscle surgery, so that’s something to keep an eye on. Here’s what else Edwards had to say about moving him from defensive back to receiver after transferring from JuCo:

“We needed him on the other side of the ball. He would always come up to me and say ‘coach, I can (play defense,’ but it was ‘no, just catch the ball and score touchdowns please.’ And we didn’t get him the ball enough, to be quite honest. When you look at his numbers, his numbers aren’t glaring, but he’s very explosive. He had almost 1,200 yards in receptions. He only had 65 catches. We were pretty balanced, a pretty balanced offense. We had a runner that was pretty good, too (Eno Benjamin). He’ll be a productive player. He did play inside, and that’s more of our fault. I moved N’Keal inside his senior year and it worked out well for him. We didn’t get (Aiyuk) inside because we needed too much outside, but he’ll be able to play inside as a slot guy.”

Here’s the full interview for your listening pleasure:

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME –