Eagles Notebook
Posted: August 26th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 84 Comments »There are a few notes of interest this Monday morning.
One topic discussed in the previous comments section is whether to trade players to fix holes on the current roster. Bryce Brown was one of the players mentioned. Would you move him if you could land a good DB? The theory is that you use resources from areas where you are deep to fix weaker spots. The Eagles have good depth at RB. Use that to fix DB.
This is logical. But I’m not so sure I’d do it. First, is a team really going to be willing to deal a talented SS or FS? There aren’t enough good Safeties in the league. More than likely, you’d be trading for a declining veteran or a talented prospect. Either way, there would be risk.
Brown isn’t just any RB. He showed big time potential last year. I’d be willing to move him, but I’d want equal talent in return and I just don’t think that is likely to happen. Teams de-value RB. Heck, the Eagles found Brown in the 7th round.
What about Nick Foles? If Vick is the QB now, deal Foles while he’s got maximum value (coming off a good game & good summer) and get help for the defense. No way. QB is just too valuable and Foles is a young guy. He’s also cheap. You don’t trade guys like that. Jimmy Bama offered his thoughts on why you shouldn’t trade Foles. It’s amazing how smart Jimmy seems when he agrees with me.
I am open to trading players. And I do know you have to give something to get something. I’m not under the delusion we can deal Damion Square for Jarius Byrd.
I’d be willing to deal talented players like Brent Celek, Clay Harbor, Brandon Graham or Jason Avant for the right offer. I’m open to dealing Matt Barkley. I would just want to make sure I got good return on them, whether picks or players. I’d rather keep these players, but if I can fix some other part of the team, I’d have to listen to offers and weigh the overall situation.
You don’t want to deal young players with high ceilings. Those are the moves that can be disastrous because you’re too short-sighted. I’d rather keep a RB like Brown who has special potential and live with mediocre Safety play for a season than to give him away for a marginal upgrade. But what about Graham? He’s young and very talented. This is where scheme fit comes into play. If the player doesn’t fit into your long term plans, then he is someone you can deal. Bill Parcells dealt Hugh Douglas to the Eagles because Hugh didn’t fit the 3-4. Hugh was good, but not what Parcells wanted. I’m not pushing for the Eagles to move Graham, but just explaining the thinking behind the possibility.
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Buffalo cut WR Da’Rick Rogers. He is a rookie player that went undrafted despite having 1st round talent. Rogers was kicked out of Tennessee and that’s not easy to do. We all wondered how he’d adjust to the NFL. Not well. Rogers didn’t impress in practice or games.
Some wonder if the Bills did this to try and make teams think they’re down on him when they really want to bring him back to their practice squad. That’s possible. Hide him in plain sight, so to speak.
I’m not so sure. It takes more than talent to succeed in the NFL. Juqua Parker outlasted plenty of pass rushers who were more gifted than him. Parker was tough, hard working, coachable, focused and made the most of the skills he did have. Rogers is a very gifted WR. Some team may claim him. The Eagles could have interest. But don’t count on it. He failed in Buffalo after failing at Tennessee. That’s a couple of big red flags.
The argument that “we need him because we need talent” couldn’t be more off base. You can take chances with some character risks, but you need to know those guys will work their butt off and do everything they can to make the team. Rogers didn’t show that this summer.
The Eagles did pre-draft homework on Rogers. They’ve studied him this summer. If they’re interested, they’ll put in a claim. Just don’t think of this as a slam dunk move. I wouldn’t blame the team at all for passing on him.
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Brian Kelly was on the Dan Patrick Show this morning. He was asked about his interview with the Eagles and whether he considered taking the job. He took a very long pause and then answered that he wasn’t even sure he was going to be offered the job. Kelly said it was really just an exploratory move on his part. He figures he’ll get NFL offers in the future and wanted to know what he was going to be dealing with. You do wonder how close he came to being the Eagles HC.
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Chip Kelly will rest the starters vs the Jets (smart move). He will have Nick Foles start the game. I argued for this the other day. Foles needs every rep possible to get him ready in case he does have to play this year. Foles is only a 2nd year QB and young players need all the practice they can get.
Some don’t like the move. Why risk him? This is football. Players have to play at some point. Putting Foles on the field with a solid backup OL and some talented skill players is a reasonable risk. If the Eagles had him out there in the 4th quarter with 3rd stringers, that’s when I think you would have a beef with Chip.
There is risk in playing Foles, but I think it is worth it.
Matt Barkley will get the majority of the reps on Thursday.
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Tim McManus has a funny story about how Cary Williams made a huge mental mistake vs the Jaguars…before the game. Who knew that being a captain could be confusing?
I’m still working on the DGR, but Cary looked very good in press coverage. That was encouraging to see.
_
Poyer looked good in press coverage also
I hope that’s true. My impression from watching the game once-through was that he always seemed to be a step slow in getting to the ball. Considering it was against 2/3 stringers, I didn’t take this as a good sign.
grossly off topic here.
congrats to Derek for getting a gig at the daily news! is anyone else considering buying a subscription to read his stuff?
the digital subscription is something like $3/week for 4 weeks then $6/week after. getting this for the length of the football season (using 1 remaining preseason week and 4 postseason weeks) would cost me like $100 total. wow.
i really love reading Derek’s stuff, but… geez. i dont know if i can justify that kind of money. yea, i get lots more than just his writing, but to be quite honest, thats all i’m going there for. I wish there was a way to pay something less to get access to JUST his stuff there.
anyone else in the same boat? try to convince me to join?
Derek is a great writer and deserves the gig. His All-22 breakdowns are terrific.
Money is another question. I have yet to buy a subscription. Gotta think about that.
yea, that was pretty much where i got. lol. he really does have some great stuff. stuff that i would be willing to pay to read. i just don’t want to pay to read stuff from dozens of other writers that don’t interest me in the slightest.
Seems his stuff will sometimes be free http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/dneagles/In-Jacksonville-Vick-was-out-of-sync.html
nice! thanks!
as derek posted on igglesblog, “I’ll continue posting over here on an irregular schedule, but the Daily News will get the prime cuts each week.”
do you know why this article was also on philly.com for free? will that always be the case or what?
It seems to me like sometimes they hold the article back for a few hours before posting it to the free site.
Agreed – I have a longstanding policy to never pay for news sites, but Derek is now making me question things.
I don’t think I can afford that kind of financial equipment anyway, so I’ll just go back to hoping he posts things on his blog too.
Why couldn’t he have had the decency to get a gig at a free site like Kempski did?!
Never even considered paying for a news site
I think the Daily News using a paywall is an awful idea. Anytime a writer has to tweet out a promo code to read their article, I cringe. That being said, today was the day I actually signed up and used a promo code, because of Derek. But that price is way too high to read only one guy’s articles. I would pay that for Eagles Almanac-type of regular content, but not for just for 2-3 articles a week. Our Eagles writers do great work and deserve to make a good living off of it, but the value has to be there.
The general decline in journalism is directly attributed to the decline in paying readers. That’s what a once great paper like the Inquirer can’t afford to do investigative pieces or, it seems, hire a copy editor and fact checker.
For sports coverage, though, writers like Tommy and Derek and Kempski can do an equal and sometimes better job as old guard guys like Domo. These are guys we get for free, or one or two lazik surgeries.
Sports, though (and comics and classifieds) were the engines that drove subscribers to the papers and allowed for investigative and city desk reporting.
So, basically, if we decide on principle to only support free news sources we’ll be quickly headed down the road to Idiocracy.
Good stuff T-Law
I agree that Bryce Brown should stay unless a ridiculous offer comes through. He reminds me a lot of Tiki Barber. We can wait for Jairus Byrd in free agency next year (unless he gets traded before that, which I doubt because he could’ve been dealt already). I’m ok with Foles playing and Barkley getting a lot of reps. They’re the two most likely backup QBs to get playing time and they need preparation. My only question is why bother keeping Dixon and Kinne if they’re realistically not going to get a chance to play? Maybe they’d get a quarter or split a quarter, but how much would we really know about them. I seriously think Kinne could be worth stashing on the practice squad. So could Dixon. It’s important to get more film of them too.
Yeah I’m like the biggest Byrd nut around and I wouldn’t consider trading Bryce for anyone…like you said, wait a season
Brown isn’t going anywhere. As much as Kelly likes running the ball, he values RBs too much to let one go with such amazing talent and potential.
Lets give Rick Rodgers a chance, and a clean slate.
Sort of like, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” eh?
Moreau gave all those, uh, men clean slates.
But past performance remained a problem.
no more like chip gave vick bryce and the rest of the team a clean slate coming in.. pick him up and give it a go.. throw him into the fire vs the jets…
Something tells me quoting HG Wells to someone with the alias “I Drink Weed and Smoke Beer” might be a lost cause.
lol
good reference tho lol
This was a 4-12 team last year. No reason to mortgage the future to fill a hole, if you can trade a veteran or a later round draft pick for a young player with upside, sure, otherwise just go off the waiver wire and hope you get lucky.
I’d rather trade Cole than Graham, I’d hate to give up on Graham unless someone makes an offer I can’t refuse, his skill package is too much like Woodley, but Cole has a limited future here so I’d eat the cap hit if I could get a solid veteran safety for him.
If Brown plays 3 college season, does he solve his ball-protection issue?
Or would he have brought the problem with him to the NFL — like so many greats did in their first 2-3 seasons (Eric Dickerson, Franco Harris, Walter Payton, and others).
I think he’d still have the ball protection issue. A lot of these guys solved the problems in the pros. AP had this problem too when he came out.
Speaking of Brown, he should stay for now unless someone makes a really can’t refuse offer (a really top pick or top prospect). He was the #1 recruit his class in HS (not just at RB). He gets compared to Bo a bit much but asides from not being as versatile in multiple sports wise, he has a tremendous size / speed ratio. Assuming he didn’t have the issues with his handlers in college, it is likely he would have been a high 1st round pick. Even guys with shoddy college performance who had similar size / speed numbers still went extremely high in the draft (like Chris Henry from Arizona). He went in the 7th round due to very unusual circumstances.
If we trade Cole, do we still have the cap repercussions? I thought he contract that made him hard to trade.
Yes, but we have plenty of room to absorb the dead money. The bigger problem is finding a team willing to take on that contract.
Why didn’t we force Cole to restructure?
Because the current portion of his contract is not a problem. It will first be a problem in 2015.
The contract is not a problem for any team. The Eagles can get out of easy in 2015 and so can any team thats trade for it.
Couldn’t agree more with what you said above. Trading away young talent, especially a unique talent like Brown or a QB like Foles, on a rebuilding team, is short sighted. People get too enamored with other teams trash simply because it’s an unknown commodity to them. “The grass is always greener” type of mentality. Fans need to realize that talent is hard to find and you don’t just trade away your young talent for something new and different just for the sake of it being new and different. What you’d likely get for Brown isn’t likely to be a defensive game changer, in fact, they’d likely be a lot less talented than Brown.
Foles playing is good news for the receivers he plays with. Look at how different Russel Shepard looked with a good QB throwing accurate balls that allow for YAC.
Vick still lacks anticipation, holds the ball too long and makes questionable decisions while trying to be superman when things fall apart. The anticipation will never develop at this point. He’s 33 yr old, like McNabb he’s relied on a rocket arm and can wait till he sees an open WR before firing the ball, he isn’t going to develop into a timing, rhythm QB at this age. But, he absolutely can learn to take the check down and live to fight another day. Let’s hope Chip drills this into his head repeatedly throughout the year. This offense can be dangerous if Vick would stop trying to be a human highlight reel and instead just be the point guard.
Foles I still don’t think has the arm strength to threaten the field, or the accuracy to overcome his lack of arm strength, but I do like watching the offense function under someone that let’s the game come to them instead of forcing things like Vick has the last couple of years. If Foles ever is able to increase his arm strength the way Brady did early in his career, Vick might just be the perfect place holder for the next year, while Foles perfects his game.
“If Foles ever is able to increase his arm strength…”
I strongly (get it?) agree. I think Nick has the potential to be an excellent qb. Remember, too, the kid is only in his second year. I’m glad he’s got another year as backup, it will give him time to learn and to develop his skill sets. I expect this time next year he’ll be the starting qb.
Domo had a good stat on twitter that of Foles 25 PS attempts 0 traveled 20+ yds and only 5 traveled 10-19 yds.
Yea that’s just not sustainable NFL QB production
That’s not a good stat at all. It’s way too small of a sample size and no one knows what the strategy of the offense was either since Kelly clearly runs and ran a short passing , quick tempo offense at Oregon and was known for saying I want my QB getting the ball out in 2 seconds.
Vick runs around (and holds onto the ball too long AGAIN) and throws up picks (Foles did also) in game changing situation (after a turnover and what it was tied 10-10 correct?). Then everyone whines about a 60 yard run (it should not happen ) that may never have happened if Vick did what he needed to do which was actually drive down the field and go up 17-10.
25 whole attempts. I’ve seen him complete passes downfield and he ran a fast tempo offense and it worked on a few long drives. He barely played a full game total.
Foles has STILL not gotten enough of a chance to grow and runs Kellys tempo pretty well and just because he has not thrown downfield doesn’t mean he won’t eventually if given the chance to grow. And we don’t know what Kelly asked of Foles. Maybe Kelly wanted to get reps in the running game and reps in his one style of offense for EVERYONE.
And the beat writers are too concerned with reacting to every little thing and looking at the tiny picture – like we are going to be a Super Bowl team out of the gate and Foles is just going to magically have experience like Vick. Thing is it’s not put into context and that goes for the defense too and many things .
I agree Foles strength is the short passing game, very smart and quick decision making, ability to run the up tempo and he does need improvement in the intermediate and long passing but it’s too early still. And the beat writers need to shut the fuck up and stop trying to create shit with Kelly , QBs etc. reacting to every little thing this early in the process.
I think when we talk of improving arm strength we are really talking about building the ability to throw the ball hard and in a tight spiral. This is partly about arm strength (which can only be improved a little bit, usually) but mostly about core strength (which can be improved a lot) and technique (ditto). So for a guy like Foles, and a guy like Barkley, that’s what it’s all about.
Howbout the Bills starting Jeff Tuel week 1. Pretty crazy, Tommy had the birds targeting him in the 7th round / UDFA. At least he’s not facing a good team his first time out, it’s just the Patriots…
Couple things I’ve noticed that I think we will see play out this year:
1) Todd Herremans is no longer an above average player. I said this before after watching him at camp and through the first 3 games he has looked shaky. I think he might just be starting to break down. The Oline is tough to predict roster moves, because so much attention is given to continuity. Bad play for a few games will be overlooked because of the importance of keeping continuity. But, if Todd continues to struggle I expect to see Barbre at some point take his spot.
2) Celek has been breaking down for a few years now. He takes a long time to get up after each and every hit. There’s just something geriatric about the way he moves now, I can hear his bones creaking through the TV. Vick might have overthrown Celek on the would be TD pass, but boy did Celek look slow chasing it down. Look for his reps to decrease and for him to be moved or outright released at the end of the year.
3) Clay Harbor will make this team and contribute more and more as the year goes on. See above. He also is our best blocking TE and will be stealing some of Celek’s reps in the near future.
4) Jason Kelce looked hindered by his knee in the first training camp practice I saw. He was one of the slowest lineman through the warmup and individual agility drills. This isn’t something that I’d mention or even look at for most olinemen, but I was interested to see if he was athletically back from his knee injury and I was shocked to see him move so slowly. This is a problem when your biggest asset his your athletic ability and you are struggling to anchor and hold the point of attack. If Kelce and Herremans struggle and the middle of our line is weak, this offense will sputter just as badly as last year.
5) Believe it or not, Trent Cole, and not Nate Allen, is your weak link on defense. He’s regularly out of position and leaving cut back lanes for RBs. He’s also getting lost in coverage. Thankfully, its gone unnoticed since the ball is going elsewhere, but it’s something to watch as the year goes on.
6) I still cannot fathom why Vinny Curry is 3rd string. And, if what he’s doing is going against the coaches wishes, like Tommy says, the coaches should change what they’re asking him to do.
1. Agreed, Todd slipping might even give Danny a chance to step up.
2. Yes Celek is aging, but he’s tough and still is the best blocking TE. Highly doubtful they would consider releasing him.
3. Disagree that Harbor is the best blocker, he does have speed though so Chip could move him around.
I’d like to see Danny get a crack at Todd’s position. I thought he was doing a good job drive blocking the last few games.
Celek might still be the best inline blocking TE on the roster, but I don’t think it’s as clear cut as most make it out to be. I remember Harbor blowing up Demarcus Ware time and time again as Shady ran out the clock on the Cowboys the last few years. http://blogs.mcall.com/eagles/2012/11/film-breakdown-things-that-have-previously-worked-against-the-cowboys-probably-wont-work-this-year.html
yea harbor was pretty clutch on that play over and over again. it was great to watch!
I have wondered the same thing about Todd. He has always been consistently good, when healthy. This preseason, not so much. It seems to fit that he might be hurting more often than not and games where he really feels good (like Carolina?) might more of the exception than the norm.
I hope I am wrong, but I am worried too. Maybe Watkins will step up?
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000233214/article/patriots-eagles-among-nfl-teams-picking-up-pace-on-offense
Great article in case somebody has missed it.
Thanks.
Getting the right compensation in trade for players like Foles and Brown would be so tricky that I think it’s pretty much prohibitive. Unless you got a 1st round pick, which is totally unrealistic, you could make a case that either player has just as much if not more worth to us in primary back-up roles as compared whatever you’d get back.
Like Howie said the other day, I’d rather have a team with a really strong offense and a defense that clearly needs improvement, than a team that’s just OK on both sides of the ball.
I want to strengthen our weaknesses, but I don’t want to weaken a strength to do that.
*Fans* devalue RBs, not teams. RBs have the same value they’ve had since the early 80s, and the sell-out for the pass has been declining since the hey day of the Green Bay Super Bowl team. Most of the teams likely to do well will have good rushers. It’s quicker to name the favorites for a strong postseason that’s very big on passing, and virtually all of those few, thinking GB, ATL, etc, have seriously tried to upgrade with an eye towards above replacement level running.
RBs are the second most important players on the offense, for the simple mathematical consequence of touching the ball the second-most times. They are also critical blockers, and function as passing targets as well. They…ain’t…chopped…livers. You only have to watch Denver to see what happens to a pass-happy team with bad rushing attacks. Or GB/NO/DET last year.
All that said, the team isn’t trading Bryce Brown any more than Minn is trading Joe Webb. If he were actually on the block, the line would go out the door for interested teams. Seattle and SF, for example, are the only teams west of the Mississippi with adequate RBs. Take a look out there on the league…How much happier would Pitt be with BB rather than Felix Jones? Much, much happier, and Jonathan Dwyer would be out on the street.
How many RBs get drafted in the 1st Rd?
Teams absolutely devalue RB.
Three RBs were drafting in the 2012 first round, none of them transcendent talent. This year was even worse in terms of RB talent coming out of college.
What’s more, RBs bust… A LOT. They are as hard to draft for as WRs and QBs. And when there’s a CJ Spiller, guys like that get drafted pretty darn high.
AP, Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy to name a few. I kind of agree with Shah8 here..
I think both stances have an element of truth. Teams devalue RBs in the draft for a few reasons. Life expectancy is short. Difficult to justify spending a first round pick on a player with an average productive career around 3-5 years. This is also why runners get less money in their second or, rarely, 3rd contracts. The devaluation occurs due to lack of expected career length.
Secondly, good running backs can be found in later rounds. QBs get drafted early because you are unlikely to find a starter after the 1st round. Productive RBs can be found much later. Again, no need to spend 1st round resources when you don’t have to.
However, none of this is to say that teams devalue production from running backs. A productive and consistent ground game is essential (save for teams with QBs like Brady, Manning, Rogers, who can overcome lack of running games) to a productive offense.
This is still a passing league and a productive passing game will always be more important. The playoffs are littered with good passing teams, and many great running backs can be seen sitting at home in the playoffs when their QB and passing offense don’t produce (see: Peterson, Adrian last year). But, I don’t think any of these things completely devalue the gains made by a productive running game. And, in no way should you view a supremely talented RB as Bryce Brown, who has game changing skills, as something you should trade away without a second thought for marginal upgrades to the defense, simply because “running backs are expendable” and not a huge boost to winning in the NFL.
I feel like the point is entirely missed here. RBs aren’t devalued in the sense that they no longer matter, or that the running game isn’t as important in the NFL of the here and now. They’re “devalued” in that teams think they can find good ones without investing high level resources.
Arian Foster was undrafted. Alfred Morris was undrafted. Ray Rice was a 2nd round pick. Matt Forte was a 2nd round pick. Lesean was a 2nd round pick. Bryce came in the 7th round. Polk was undrafted.
Of course there are still a lot of RB’s picked in the first round, but you said yourself that in the recent past they haven’t exactly been “transcendent”. How have Mark Ingram, Ryan Mathews and Rashard Mendenhall looked? So, why would good teams draft an OK running back in the first round when they can get something similar later on? Even if it’s a need, it’s a poor use of resources.
Every team in the league would rather have an outstanding passing attack and a mediocre run game than an outstanding running game and mediocre passing attack. As a Vikings fan you’re probably well aware of that. Even with the best player in the game playing historically well they couldn’t get into the playoffs.
But all that doesn’t mean the run game isn’t still incredibly important.
That only speaks to scouting, rather than how replaceable RBs are.
Regardless of where decent one’s are drafted, I don’t think RBs are replaceable. You can find one in later rounds using less important resources, but it’s still difficult to find one. If you play fantasy football, you know this all too well. There are so few good, consistent RBs in this league that you literally need to draft a RB in the first and second rounds of any fantasy league to seriously compete, whereas there are so many good WRs and QBs that you can get away with taking them later.
I’m not saying that fantasy football is an accurate depiction of the NFL or how to build a roster, but it does reveal how few truly great RBs exist in this league. If you’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon a potentially great RB in the 7th round, you DO NOT trade that player away.
I wouldn’t use the word replaceable to describe running backs.
As to the point about scouting…I dunno. That’s true to an extent. Some positions are “easier” to draft for than others, and some positions are totally 1st round dependent.
Great QB’s are almost exclusively first round picks. So are great OT’s. Great running backs, for whatever variety of reasons, are able to be found all over the place.
Plus, RB is a position that can be very scheme dependent. Guys like Foster and Morris might not look so great if they weren’t in their specific offenses.
Morris was a 6th round pick… but yeah.
Oh boy, after watching the seahawks secondary against the Packers closer it felt like window shopping. Their backfield is so deep, it’s ridiculous.
Maragos (nice range and good at open field tackling), Lane (sack), Blackmon (with a nice int though pass interference which it wasn’t) and Guy (forced fumble) all made plays. It is almost unfair if you then take a look at their starters: Sherman, Brouwner, Thurmond, Thomas and Chancellor. Reminds me a bit of our famous DBs back in the days (Sheppard, Brown, Harris, Lewis, Dawkins)!
I want Tharod Simon from them..
…
Watching seatles defense last year was probably the most enjoyable part of the season for me
Who’s Tharod Simon?!
Big rookie CB for the seahawks..LSU
Didn’t stick out to me. Just finished watching the Seahawks/Broncos game. Add S Jeron Johnson and Shead to my wishlist.
That is what you get when you have a DB guru in Caroll.
Lol, I even forgot that they have Antoine Winfield on their roster too!
Sitting Foles Thursday never even crossed my mind. Totally agree on him getting more work in.
..
Chip said that as a group, he would take our RBs against anyone.
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We are so thin at CB that Coleman took 3rd team CB reps today.
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Chung is the only safety sitting out thurs, the rest are playing
well — to be fair — Allen will be on field — doesn’t mean he’s playing 🙂
I would love for the Eagles to trade Brown for even a competent backup DB. He just strikes me as a ‘flash in the pan’ without the drive and work ethic to address his defencies that are required to really get over the hump.
I don’t think I ever disagreed with a post this much…not a chance in hell Bryce gets traded
Very dissapointed that none of our reporters asked chip to talk about curry today”…he should be one of the top 3 topics we ask about every day
If Curry is an everyday point of conversation on this team, they will be utterly dreadful this year.
Uhh this time of year, who’s preseason performance has been better then Currys? What top performer has more questions sorrounding him…man I hate the way this fanbase devalues this kid…Kid could have been drafted in the first round, and people scoff at him because some senile hillbilly decided not to dress him for his rookie year
1. It’s preseason.
2. You act like he has been an unstoppable force. He came into camp in good shape and looks like he can be a real contributor this year. Good for him but let’s not go overboard.
3. Still is a lot of other more pressing issues with this team right now.
….it’s not about him being a great player, it’s about how he will be used, that we should be asking…or how about asking, what Chips thoughts are of Curry as a run defender since two weeks ago he said that was the question with him? To each his own, but That’s what I need answered….along with the starting safety….what other questions do you have TODAY that Chip might actually answer that are more important for you?
So fine Kelly gives an update on Curry as a run defender even though his opinion likely hasn’t changed all that much.
Slightly off-topic, but the “condensed” feature of the nfl.gamepass might be one of the best inventions in today’s modern age of football streaming on the internet. How nice is it to be able to watch EVERY single NFL game without any commercial breaks at all, shortening a game from 3 hrs to slightly over 30 minutes. I have just finished watching all pre-season games of week 3. Thank you, NFL!
I said a while back that the Eagles were thin at safety, but I stand corrected – the Pro Football Talk depth analysis says they are ‘deep’ at safety, one of five NFL teams with that designation, and the Giants are one of the five ‘thin’ teams, so Kenny Phillips may not have to move out of his NY apartment after all.
It sure sounds like something is getting deep around here…
I think you’ve got it wrong about resting the starters. It’s got nothing to do with risk. Kelly said he doesn’t want to put his players in a situation they’ve not seen in practice. He’s obviously just preparing them to sit in Week 17.
Couldn’t we just practice that after halftime throughout the season?
Just wondering what people think of Bryce’s comments. I am not at all into the trade Brown thing because it’s just not going to be value and he COULD be a great RB and another good thing about him is he doesn’t have a lot of mileage but you can see the talent.
I’m on the keep Bryce and see what happens for a while fence but considering Brown’s track record (here and before here), I sincerely hope what I perceive as a stubborn attitude to some extent isn’t going to be a permanent obstacle for him:
“He happened to put his helmet right on the ball,” Brown said. “It’s not really a traditional type of fumble where you get it knocked out between the tackles. It was an effort play and credit to him for that.”
As for what he is doing to prevent future fumbles, Brown said he is focusing on protecting the ball when running through the tackles.
“I spend a lot of time doing traffic (drills).That’s really what I put my emphasis on- keeping the ball tucked in traffic,” Brown said. “As far as getting out in the open, I’m gonna run how I run. Where I try to put more emphasis is when I am in between the tackles.”
You can read the whole article here
http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2013/08/bryce_brown_fumbles.html
Is it just me or does Desean come of as mature and likable in that interview? I didn’t know that could happen. I like it.
[…] over at Iggles Blitz is entertaining the idea of shifting Bryce Brown in exchange for a […]