Jonathan Joseph – Good Target or Not?

Posted: June 27th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Tags: | 28 Comments »

For my SB Nation Philly column I took a look at Jo-Jo and whether he’s a good fit for the Eagles.  I also talked about the free agent futures of Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook.  Where the heck will they end up?

* * * * *

So Michael Vick came in at 20th on the Top 100 players list as compiled by the NFL Network.  Interesting.  I haven’t really followed the list too closely because I’m confused as to what it is exactly supposed to be.  For the 2010 season?  2011?  Career?  The voting seems to be all over the place.

I’d love the NFL Network to do something like this with scouts and GMs voting.  That would be must-see TV.

Back in 1995 the thought of a network solely dedicated to the NFL would have been a fantasy.  The problem is their coverage is based on the 1995 world.  The stories they cover and shows they put on are geared toward casual fans that are obsessed by celebrity.  With the internet we can read about the things the NFLN covers.

They should do a lot more with reviewing game tape and the technical side of things.  That could be their niche.  That’s the kind of thing other networks and websites can’t do.

I do love the fact they show preseason games.  For those of us who live out of market, preseason games used to be the ultimate challenge.  You’d drive from sports bar to sports bar trying to find someone showing it.  That was a torturous experience.

NFLN also gave us Mike Mayock.  For that, I’m eternally grateful.

* * * * *

Terrell Owens tore his ACL and won’t be football ready until November.  That might be the best thing that could have happened to him.  He can now shop his services to whatever contender loses a receiver or needs a boost on offense.  I’m not sure just how much of a market there would have been for him if fully healthy.  TO can still play, but he’s not so good anymore that teams are willing to put up with the nonsense.

* * * * *

The NFL is reportedly shopping a Thursday Night package.  This is supposed to be 8 games.  They want a full 16 game schedule in the future.  I’m not a big fan of this.  Thursday night is for college football.  The NFL already has all day Sunday plus Monday night.  Late in the year when CFB is over the NFL adds some Thursday and Saturday games.  I like that.  I’d rather not have 8 or 16 of them.

I’m sure plenty of you will disagree.  Those who don’t follow college games would love more NFL action.

What do you guys think?  Is a full set of Thursday night games a good thing?  Is there any worry with over-saturation?

28 Comments on “Jonathan Joseph – Good Target or Not?”

  1. 1 Snoopy said at 12:18 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    When college football bans Boise State’s blue field or Eastern Washington’s red field from Thursday and Friday games, I’ll stick up for them. Until then, I’m OK with both on television on Thursday nights.

  2. 2 Jonzee said at 12:25 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Naw, Thursday night games don’t feel right, I don’t like the short week. Living in the UK, it’s hard enough staying up late twice a week without the Thursday, too.

  3. 3 Iskar36 said at 12:29 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    I can’t say I am a fan of Thursday night games, but if you view it as an alternative to the push for an 18 game season, I will gladly take it.

  4. 4 McG said at 12:29 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    The one thing I dislike about the thursday night games is that it costs extra to get NFL network with comcast… ugh

  5. 5 Thunderlips said at 12:43 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    As much as I would love an extra game each week, it may lead to my girlfriend killing me in my sleep.

  6. 6 Jason said at 12:44 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Thursday night games blow. First, the commentators suck. The production quality is barely better than CBS, and it’s such an inconvenient night. I can say to my wife “Sundays are for football.” I can usually get away with MNF as everyone in the house is busy with stuff. Thursdays don’t happen unless the Eagles are playing. If the Eagles are playing, the family knows I’m not going to miss it. I can’t justify watching football for the sake of football unless it’s Sunday. I can’t watch college ball, so that doesn’t affect me.

  7. 7 Jalarsen1 said at 1:07 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Some scheduling guru in the NFL will undoubtedly send us from a home game Monday night to a west-coast game on Thursday against a team coming off their bye.

    I’m fine with the idea (b/c I don’t follow college ball), but I don’t trust the league with scheduling

  8. 8 mcud said at 1:09 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Spot on with your analysis, as usual. Age is a great attribute. However, fit is more important. I like the “Jo Jo” nickname. Reminds me of “Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo”, one of my favorite Simpsons moments.

  9. 9 slandog said at 2:22 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    I’m not a fan of Thursday night football. It’s too much. Like you said Tommy the NFL already owns Sunday and Monday night. Keep with that, it’s working perfectly. Thursday nights is for college, which I do watch and enjoy.

    If they go 16 games on Thursday nights is it going to be on the NFL Network or will it be on CBS, FOX, NBC?

  10. 10 CVD said at 2:25 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    i agree w jason. the commentators sux on thrusday night. and if it aint the egales playing, i cant watch a game w bad commentators. and when they do do an eagles games u can tell they know nothing about our players, other than vick and desean maybe.

  11. 11 Tommy Lawlor said at 2:45 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    NFL Network is going to put Mike Mayock on their Thursday night games so that will be a big help.

    The 16-game package would be sold to FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, or ESPN. I’m sure they’d put good broadcasters on. Or at least guys they consider good. I don’t always agree with their choices.

  12. 12 CVD said at 4:16 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    then it wouldnt be bad. i dont watch colleg ball and i like mayock. please no theisman.

  13. 13 CVD said at 4:31 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    i am an absolute football nerd. i would watch nfl all day if i could. but i always put nfl network on and wind up changing it after 5 minutes

    during the season its pretty cool because they have the show called playbook with baldinger and sterling sharp. and i watch the recaps of games with rich eisen. but offseason is just boring. they should do more breaking down film stuff.

    even their draft stuff could be so much better. all they wanted to talk about over and over was the top 4 qb’s. or about first rounders. they need to do more stuff on middle round players. and you know mayock knows about the middle round guys but i am sure nfl network wanted him to just talk about the popular guys

  14. 14 oz said at 4:48 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    What about someone like Ronnie Brown as Mccoy’s complement? Obviously if it’s cost effective…

  15. 15 Midnight Greenville said at 5:43 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Honestly, if I could have the Eagles play every Sunday at 1, that would be my preference. I’m probably not gonna watch another team on Thursday unless it’s a great match-up, particularly one later in the season that impacts the playoff race. I don’t even really watch Monday Night Football anymore unless the Birds are playing. SNF is really the marquis primetime game now–in my perfect world, that would be the only night game anymore.

    As far as Jo-Jo, after Tommy’s review he doesn’t sound like the perfect piece for us. DRC still seems like the best fit, assuming Nnamdi is priced out of our range. I’d also be curious to hear what Tommy thinks of Ike Taylor, given recent interviews that suggest he’s very open to leaving Pittsburgh. Like the idea of someone with a reputation for being tough and also who knows what it’s like to win a ring or two.

  16. 16 DB said at 6:55 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Hey Tommy,

    What’s your take on Carlos Rogers? I know he has hands of stone, but he seems to be a pretty good cover guy. Because of his hands, he might come cheaper than Joseph.

  17. 17 Jason said at 6:56 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Midnight Greenville said it. MNF blows too. And I only watch when the Eagles or the Redskins play (the wife). SNF has the he’s quality, production, and announcers. I hate Troy Aikman at times, and I always hate Joe freaking Buck, but Fox comes in at #2 because of production quality, and the occasional Goose sighting in the Eagles end-zone.

    The fans should be the one’s voting on this kind of shit. We pay for the NFL machine to roll.

  18. 18 mcud said at 8:00 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    Neither here nor there…but the today’s article on Philly.com (referencing an earlier effort by ESPN’s John Clayton) outlining our cap is questionable at best…

    http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/moving_the_chains/Eagles-cap-space-.html

    Even if the NFL goes back to the 2009 salary cap #, we would still have $28,000,000+ to spend, not the $13,000,000 Clayton claims we have. I don’t know where he got his $120,000,000 overall estimate. The cap hasn’t been at that level since 2008. Perhaps Sam can shed some light on that one.

    One other thing: we’ll take a pretty sizable cap hit when we finally trade Kevin Kolb, but that will increase our available $ by nearly the same amount when we release Leonard Weaver and the tag from David Akers is cancelled.

  19. 19 CVD said at 8:34 PM on June 27th, 2011:

    mcud,

    why does trading kolb hit our cap? other than the obvious, i dont know much about the way the cap works.

    and as much as i hate the cowboys, i kind of like troy aikman as a commentator

  20. 20 D3Keith said at 3:01 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    Re: Thursdays, I guess I’m in the minority, but I’m a ‘more NFL the better’ guys. Even when I have the Ticket I don’t get to really sit down and watch certain teams. Having the Thurs, Sun and Mon national games really help a fan get to know other teams.

    My only Thursday beef is the early lineup deadlines for fantasy. So if that becomes standard there’s at least no more confusion.

    @CVD, I agree about NFLNetwork. I like certain shows, but as much as I like the NFL, you’d really think I’d watch it more. That Replay show where they cut the game down to an hour and splice in the postgame … they should really do that all week, again because of the ability to watch teams you don’t normally get to see much of. And in an hour.

    Another point on the Thursdays; in this world of DVR, it’s really not as bad conflict to have two games running concurrently. Plus college has just as much of a TV monopoly as the NFL … except for the games I like to watch.

  21. 21 D3Keith said at 3:16 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    I’m okay with the idea of Carlos Rogers, but not before we make our runs at Nnamdi, Joseph and DRC. I think Rogers is a fine consolation prize and an update on what we had last year. Guy is solid all around and while he might not pick off many balls, he could team with Asante to be more of a Sheldon and Lito pair.

  22. 22 Cliff said at 8:45 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    Agreed with Tommy on the Thursday night schedule. The NFL should just *own* Sunday and Monday. The problem with the NBA – and i love the NBA, actually – is that there isn’t one night you can plan for and say “can’t wait for ____ night. The _____ game will be on.”

  23. 23 Joe said at 9:01 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    Is there a reason that we wouldn’t seriously consider Antonio Cromartie? He’d be a solid RCB that’d bring some much needed height to our CB core, while still at a price that’d allow us to pick up a few other free agents.

  24. 24 JimmyK said at 11:36 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    I’m not a fan of Thursday night games… at all. But for different reasons.

    Frankly, I couldn’t care less about CFB. I watch it because it’s on, and because I like to project the players to the next level, but without a playoff system I just can’t take it seriously.

    I dislike Thursday games because they give a huge advantage to the home team, as they have an extra day to prepare. Every year, my family has to hear me bitch and moan about the Cowboys getting a major advantage every year by playing at home on Thanksgiving. Another example would be this year – The Eagles play a late Sunday game against the Pats, and then have to fly 3,000 miles to play in Seattle on Thursday. That sucks. Over time, it evens out I suppose (the Eagles had a home Thursday game last year against Houston), but I’d rather just not worry about it at all.

    Money always wins, so the NFL is going to do what it wants no matter how the fans feel anyway.

  25. 25 CVD said at 11:55 AM on June 28th, 2011:

    d3keith

    totally agree about the replay games. you get to watch pretty much the whole game in an hour. they should do that more. i would love if you could pick what game you wanna watch. when i see they are replaying eagles games i always dvr it so i can watch it when i am bored in the offseason

  26. 26 Cliff said at 1:12 PM on June 28th, 2011:

    I agree with everyone on the NFL Network. It’s generally crap. I guess that’s the nature of running a 24/7 channel focused on one topic, but with access to all that film they could be doing so much more to attract a niche audience.

    I guess they’re targeting casual fans, but they’re diluting their content so much it has little value to above average fans like us.

  27. 27 CVD said at 2:22 PM on June 28th, 2011:

    Joe

    i would take cromartie, its def an upgrade. but i dont know if he is an andy reid type of guy. doesnt cormartie have issues? i feel like reid will take a chance if the guy is a stud but not if he is just good. but i would take him, he could return kicks too

  28. 28 Midnight Greenville said at 8:19 PM on June 28th, 2011:

    It’s an interesting contrast between NFL Network on TV and NFL Radio on Satellite Radio. I assume they’re both owned and operated by the NFL, but the radio really does seem to take pride in speaking to the expert fans. I guess they don’t have to worry about ratings, since they’re part of a satellite package, but it would be nice if the TV network would take a page out of their notebook.

    I like the idea of Carlos Rogers, even more than Joseph now. I think he would be a better compliment to Asante.