2011 Schedule Is Out – Eagles Likely To Go 16-0!!!
Posted: April 20th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 24 Comments »The 2011 schedule is out. I’m not a person that makes a lot of the schedule upon its release. You really don’t know what to expect from an opponent until you are about to play them. How many people had us facing QB Joe Webb on a Tuesday night when we saw Minnesota on the schedule last spring? A couple of years ago I was talking to my buddy Matt and he was fretting over the 3 straight divisional road games. We ended up winning all 3. Last year he thinking the schedule would mean 8-8 at best, because of games against Atlanta and Indy, as well as some we did lose. He didn’t see us sweeping the Giants. Heck, would we beat the Texans?
I’m not going to worry too much about who we play, but talk more about the logistics of the schedule.
* Streaky schedule. We open with 2 games on the road. Then 2 at home. 2 more back on the road. Then 3 at home. Then we have 4 of 6 on the road. Weird.
* We have 3 Sunday night games, 1 Monday night game, and 1 Thursday night game. I don’t like that many, but thats the price of being a winner and having Vick throwing bombs to DJax.
* We play NFC West and AFC East this year.
* The worst part of the schedule is playing the Patriots on a Sunday at 415pm and then going to Seattle for a Thursday night game. We’ll have to do a ton of prep work for the Pats and then turn around and face a team we don’t know well at all on a short schedule. Plus there is flying out west for a mid-week game. Depending on what kind of team Seattle turns out to be, it sure feels like we got the short end of the stick on this one.
* As for players…we get to see DJax go up against Darelle Revis late in the year. We open against Sam Bradford and the Rams. This will likely be our final chance to beat Tom Brady. We just took care of the Peyton Manning losing streak in 2010. It would be nice to get Brady this year.
* The game coming out of the bye week is a home game vs Dallas. Let’s hope Big Red keeps his streak of not losing after the bye intact.
* Our game in Toronto was almost as exciting as the 3 hours that Jeff Fisher was our defensive coordinator. Crazy rumors… (and the people who write about them).
Odds & Ends
* Someone asked a follow-up question on the UDFA situation. His question was how different the signing of UDFAs will be this year. Isn’t it just going to be delayed? Won’t it basically be the same result? Unknown. The UFL is talking about coming after UDFAs aggressively. We don’t know if the UFL is a viable league right now based on their financial problems, but if they are I could see some guys jumping over to them to get paid right away instead of waiting. Does the CFL make a run at some guys? Possible.
The time between the draft and whenever these players can be signed isn’t something we’ve dealt with. You just don’t know what will happen. Teams can do further study on the players who aren’t picked. The Eagles scout the whole country very thoroughly. The Eagles are prepared. Now that work won’t have the same benefit since the slackers (like me in high school) have extra time to do their homework. The Eagles scouts and coaches spend a lot of time building relationships with players and coaches all over the country. This is a huge help in signing UDFAs. Players want to come here. The extra time off will let players and agents really study all 32 teams thoroughly and decided the best landing spot. The relationships our guys built aren’t as likely to be helpful in this format. In a condensed time format you go with who/what you know.
Maybe nothing will be different about the late rounds and UDFA signings and I’m just reading way too much into things. We’ll find out soon enough.
* Someone asked about Howie Roseman and whether he placed a renewed focus on character. Yes, Howie did that last year. There were too many “me first” guys on the 2009 team. Players like Chris Clemons and Sean Jones were focused more on stats than wins. Quintin Demps was named starting FS that spring and was already preparing his speech for Canton. And so on. None of these players lacked talent. The problem is that they weren’t good teammates. Howie and Andy decided to get “football guys” who loved to play the game and be part of a team. The guys we took in 2010 were team captains, good students, high character people, and good players. Howie and Andy felt the team needed an infusion of those type guys. The overall locker room was fine, but it only takes a few turds to get the wrong vibe going on a team.
By strengthening the overall environment, the Eagles can now take another chance or two should they wish to. The Eagles still prefer high character guys. I don’t know if Jimmy Smith would have been on the Eagles 2010 draft board, but he is likely to be a coveted player in 2011. If his ceiling wasn’t so high and he wasn’t at a position of need, Smith might not be on the 2011 board. But he is.
* Someone asked if the team will be interested in Raiders OLB Thomas Howard. He didn’t play much in 2010 so it seems like the Raiders aren’t interested in keeping him around. He still doesn’t have 6 years in the league so the Raiders may not release him or rescind his rights. They may bring him to camp just in case. If Howard does hit the street, he could be a potential target. He’s big and has good speed/athletic ability. He would seem to be the kind of LB that Juan Castillo is looking for. I have no idea what the Eagles approach to free agency will be this year. The team has taken some reclamation projects in the past, but with a condensed time frame because of the CBA mess I don’t know if guys like Howard will be brought in.
* A few people have asked about the Eagles drafting a WR. Rather than address this here, I’m going to write a column about it.
* Will Eagles have any interest in OL Orlando Franklin or John Moffitt? I doubt it. Moffitt is better suited to a run-heavy offense. He’s not the athlete that Mudd wants. Franklin is an odd guy. I hear some people talk about him in the 2nd round. I have him rated lower than that. Played both LG and LT. 6’6, 316. At times is really impressive, but other times looks pedestrian. I just don’t think he fits the Mudd profile.
The short week with the trip to C@L after hosting the Pats is pretty pesky. The only thing we can say there is that the Eagles have hosted their last two Thursday night games (Cards in 08, Texans last year), both of which were pretty fortuitous for the Birds — especially the 08 game against the Cards, which gave them extra rest before heading to the Meadowlands the first week of December.
(Adding to to-do list: analysis of road teams with more than x hours of travel on Thursday night games against the spread….)
Hey Tommy. Since the Eagles can’t trade Kolb for this year’s pick, do you think they are more likely to trade their 2012 1st round pick to move up this year? Then they can get at 1st round pick for 2012 by trading Kolb after he labor situation is worked out.
As always, the best part of schedule release day is forecasting which games will be broadcast in my market (SF Bay Area).
Based on the PHI/SF/OAK schedules I came up with:
6 – Yes
2 – Questionable
4 – Doubtful
4 – No
(Although with the CBA situation, that list should really read 16 – Questionable)
@BountyBowl
C@L is sure a unique abbreviation for Seattle, Washington. Do we have to hop on a connecting flight?! Stupid, cheap owners!
Was the guy writing his HoF acceptance speech the same guy that started in that NFC championship game against the Cards? He must not have seen film from that game…
C@L ???
I didn’t even comprehend that the first time through. Brilliant, Mr. bountybowl.
And how dare you offer a bit of logic into the discussion when I’m trying to make us into the victims. I’ll have none of that.
“we get to see DJax go up against Darelle Revis late in the year”
Reading this made me all excited and I started thinking about how it would play out… stupid CBA
About Jimmy Smith and character, do you know how he is locker room wise? I know he has done some stupid things off-field, but that doesn’t necessarily means he is an idiot in the locker room, I think.
I miss having Fisher as DC, that was a good couple of hours
@ Sean…
The Eagles will likely at least consider trading next year’s 1st rounder. The problem is that I’m not sure what that will get us. We normally finish in the 20-31 draft range. With the pick being next year, that diminishes the value. We’d likely get an early 2nd for it, but is there a player worth that? I’m not so sure.
@ Stephen …
Laugh all you want, but Quintin Demps may one day get in the HOF…assuming they have a category for worst performance by a rookie Safety in NFC title game history.
Did the 49ers, Bears, and Falcons all join the NFC East at some point five to six years ago?
We play these teams EVERY YEAR.
Wow. I completely missed the read-it-out-loud C@L cleverness, instead reading it as a lame I’m-going-to-use-numbers-and-symbols-in-place-of-the-letters-they-mimic version of California. I apologize for the misguided snark.
What do you guys think of the chances of Shawn Andrews signing with Eagles (he’s a free agent isn’t he)? He seemed to play decent for the Giants last year. Or is he even a fit with the new blocking scheme?
I have no idea if those bridges were burned but he might solve our RG/RT issue to a degree. And we did take Trotter back…
RE: Shawn Andrews
Andy is a forgiving man. He’ll let players blow off some steam, so to speak. Andy sees the big picture and isn’t one to let a bad moment or incident ruin a relationship. That said, Shawn might have nuked the bridges between him and Big Red. There was a time when Andy would have shipped Shawn to Siberia, Mars, or even Fresno if he could. With a 1-way ticket, I might add.
I don’t know if Andy has softened on Shawn with time, but I think you’re more likely to see me in a hot tub with Megan Fox, Olivia Wilde, and Ben Franklin than you are the Big Kid in Eagles green again.
@ Morton…
Remember the mid-90’s when DAL and GB played every year and it was in Dallas for like the first 5 years? That seemed like a curse.
@ATG, no worries, dude. C@L is probably a little too cute for its own good.
Hi everyone
I’m living in Denmark, and I was wondering if anyone knew how I could watch the draft? I preferably don’t want to stream it, because of the stability… Can I buy NFL-acces for just the draft?
Thanks…
Also, I hear Mayock talking a lot of Pouncey to us at #23, but is Reid likely to use a 1st on a G? I know he did on Andrews, but still… he was a OT.
At his point I hope we move down if we don’t grab Smith at #23, and then pick up an early 2nd…
Tommy, do you hear any rumblings as to who the Eagles like leading up to the draft? Or is your guess as good as any?
@Jeppe I’m from Denmark too, I usually watch it on philadelphiaeagles.com with Spads and Merrill Reese. If you want NFLs own coverage and not as stream I can’t help.
And Eagles have apparently given their draft strategy to Eskin: “Get ready because I’m told its almost a lock The Eagles with take a D-Lineman w their 1st round pick in the draft. And they won’t trade up”
@Jeppe You can get a months offseason passs for NFL Gamepass which allows you to stream NFL Network, not cheap though! There are usually so many draft streams anyway its not really an issue.
@Tommy
Still wondering what exactly it is Shawn Andrews did that was so over-the-top…………?
I can’t get into everything, but do you remember the 2007 summer? Shawn told the media he had a career threatening injury. He had an ankle injury, but played it up like he was dying of cancer. He magically declared himself ready for the regular season and then told the media he was just having fun with them.
Shawn was a giant child. Depression issues aside, he did and said some things that made you wonder what planet he was on.
“Shawn was a giant child.”
I think he preferred the term “Big Kid.”
Tommy,
I was listening to a recorded segment of Eagles Live on the Eagles website. At the end of the segment the narrator said that you would be comming on with comments on the draft. I guessing you must have come too close to the true way the Eagles brass was thinking because your segment is not available on the website.
What did you say?
“I can’t get into everything..”
And if I can arrange a little meeting with Megan Fox in a hot tub and a six-pack of PBR…??
Its no secret I think the Eagles totally mishandled the Shawn Andrews situation. Its not that they caused it, mind you. Its their timing of his release that I question. Either it should have done two years earlier than it was, when the original meltdown occured, as they could have traded him for another player or pick, OR they should have kept him for the one more season, as one final chance to see the field, which he eventually did. I hated, hated, hated the thought of bringing Stacy in here, long before he was signed as well I might add.
Still, if he ever were to “grow up”, which I now sincerly doubt will ever happen, then I’ve always got ole #73 still hanging in the closet.