The Eagles Speak
Posted: April 28th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 127 Comments »People begged for the Eagles to speak after the shocking cut of DeSean Jackson. That finally happened today and, predictably, the Eagles didn’t have a whole lot to say. I doubt anyone who was furious with the team got much in the way of satisfaction from today’s comments. Honestly, this is one of those situations where there isn’t a simple comment or explanation that will make anyone happy.
PE.com has the interviews.
They stressed, especially Chip, that this was a football decision. The media pushed hard to get Chip to explain how cutting the team’s best receiver made sense, from a football perspective. Chip refused to explain, saying that he wasn’t comfortable with discussing players who the team has cut. He gave the example that he didn’t comment on Jason Avant or Patrick Chung when they were released.
All 3 men shot down the idea that character had anything to do with this. I don’t fully buy that. The NFLPA did an investigation to make sure the Eagles made the move for football purposes. If they now said that character was part of the equation, the team could get into hot water with the NFLPA. They had to focus on the football side of things.
I don’t want to get too much into the whole DeSean thing again. All we can do is speculate and argue.
I do believe that football was a big part of the decision. Chip Kelly has very defined thoughts on the kind of players that he is looking for. This is a combination of body type, skill set and character. Obviously DeSean didn’t fit Kelly’s long term vision.
This isn’t a question about talent. Don’t make the mistake of thinking Chip is saying DeSean can’t play. We all know that DeSean can be a major playmaker at times. But he’s not the guy that Chip thinks will help the offense to run at its peak.
I understand many of you don’t want to hear this. Why is Chip Kelly’s offense so good it can just get rid of a playmaking WR? Isn’t that insanity?
This question ties into a discussion we had the other day about fit and scheme on defense. Should the Eagles pass on playmakers just because they don’t fit the scheme? Isn’t that dumb? This is a philosophical question.
Some coaches will tell you to acquire talent and they’ll adjust the scheme to fit the players. The Seattle defense is a collection of oddball players that Pete Carroll has shaped into a dominant defense. Other coaches have specific ideas of what they want. Bill Parcells believed in big defensive players. He inherited a top young pass rusher named Hugh Douglas when he took over the Jets. Parcells kept him for a year, but quickly saw that Douglas wasn’t meant to play in his 3-4. He then traded Douglas to the Eagles.
There is no right or wrong way to build a team. It does hurt when a coach takes over and gets rid of talented players. There is no disputing that. But the reason you hired the new coach is for his vision. As frustrating as it can be, you have to let him do things his way.
I’m not a big fan of 2-gap defenders. I prefer 1-gap players that can get upfield and be disruptive. But those aren’t the players that Kelly, Bill Davis or Jerry Azzinaro want up front in the defense. It pains me to watch explosive DTs like Aaron Donald and Dominique Easley and know the Eagles won’t be interested in them. I’ve learned to focus on DL who use their hands well and can eat up blocks. That’s not my cup of tea, but those are the guys Kelly wants so I focus on them.
It will be interesting to see what kind of WR the Eagles bring in to help replace DeSean. That will be one piece of the puzzle to figuring out what Kelly is looking for and why he didn’t like DeSean. The more moves we see in the next few years, the better we’ll come to understand exactly what Chip wants and, just as importantly, why.
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We’ll be back to draft talk on Tuesday.
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Ugh the stain from the Djax mess isn’t going to go away unless
1. Djax is no longer productive
2. Somewhere called Oakland
3. Chip really spills the beans and takes it like a man
4. We get Megatron/Gordon/J.Jones/D.Thomas somehow.
I good start to the season will end all talk
and 1 loss will bring it back up again.
Then just a good season. I don’t think this will pan out too long. And for the record I don’t think Jackson will be that productive
Why don’t think Jackson will be productive? Is that what you think will happen or what you hope will happen?
I’m no fortune teller, but on paper it looks like a pretty good situation for Jackson if RG3 stays healthy.
nah it’s what I think will happen. I don’t really care if he’s productive or not as long as we’re winning. But half his seasons were under 1,000 yards. His peak was 1300 yards with a historical offense that focused on throwing vertically (his game)…I don’t think RG3 has proven he can stay healthy or consistent and also wasn’t asked to throw deep a lot in his career yet. I’m not very confident in this prediction, but it’s just what I think as of now. Would have to see what Jay Gruden is planning to do
The biggest problem is Jay Gruden.
He had AJ Green, Sanu, Eifert, Bernard, Greisham etc and he still produced a league average offense.
Give Kelly that group and you have a great offense.
I am pretty sure at this point the team could go 19-0, but if we don’t beat all our opponents by 30 points, people will complain about Djax.
How dare you hate having a comfortable lead! Actually make it 42 points and then I’ll be over the Djax drama.
Anything short of a Super Bowl win will keep us wondering what could’ve been
Or some writers and commenters will move on and get a life!!
#3 please. Own your actions Chip.
you know 4 doesn’t sound bad
…and get sued.
I think it’s important to remember that “football decisions” don’t discount (but in fact include) financial components. DeSean’s being cut was a “football decision” insofar as — based on what Chip Kelly wants from his WRs — DeSean Jackson is not a $10m/yr player, and would not merit the number of snaps that a player paid at such a level would expect.
I’m sure this is part of the reasoning.
Unless DeSean quickly busts this season and I doubt he will, Eagles fans will be asking, “How much better would the Eagles have been this season if they had DeSean in addition to their current guys?” I know I’ll ask that question unless the Eagles manage to win the Super Bowl, in which case I will throw out my DeSean jersey and make an altar for Chip Kelly and bow before him. There’s no cap reason THIS SEASON (not next season, this season) why DeSean couldn’t stay alongside whatever offensive player the Eagles get to replace him.
That depends on what happens without him. If the offense is as good without him, fans will acknowledge that. There will always be some idiots on both sides, those who either refuse to acknowledge the actual outcome if it doesn’t fit their beliefs, but I think most fans will be objective about it.
I’m just saying that even if the offense plays really well, it is completely reasonable to say, “Yeah, these guys played great. But if the Eagles had one more great receiver like DeSean in addition to their current weapons, why wouldn’t they do better?”
Because there are only so many guys you can put on the field at once. If Maclin can mostly replace Jackson’s production, Riley Cooper does as well as or better than last season, Sproles contributes another 400-500 yards receiving, and Ertz continues to improve then I don’t think anyone is going to be talking about a lack of weapons.
If, on the other hand, Maclin goes down, then we probably won’t hear the end of it all season.
Why should it matter if some of these guys get fewer catches? Since when is it bad to have depth?
Very true.
It would seem salary and/or lockeroom considerations had to play a roll.
The problem was the Eagles had the most money tied up in WRs before the release of Jackson. Would you really say the Eagles had the best group of WRs in the NFL?
Top 5 at least. Besides the Broncos, whose are better?
HE’S GONE!! Get over it!!
Maggie, I’m glad you weren’t the one to break the news to me when my grandma passed.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to talk about him in an article that’s about him.
I’m 100% in dobut on the front front end, but if Foles makes the pro bowl again, Shady leads the NFL in rushing again, we win 10 games, win the division, and then win a playoff game…….. I’ll acknowledge the team adapted well to losing Jackson.
Shady might not lead the NFL in rushing, as that is highly volatile (look at last 5 years rushing leaders)
“How much better would the Eagles have been this season if they had DeSean in addition to their current guys?” is a fair question, but I have a problem with the THIS SEASON emphasis. There is also no reason THIS SEASON not to trade our 2015 1st rd pick for a 2014 4th rd pick. Nonetheless, I don’t think it would be a winning move.
Why wouldn’t it be a winning move to keep him? Is Rookie/Maclin/Cooper a better group than Rookie/DeSean/Maclin/Cooper?
Of course the WR corps with DeSean is better. The question is would it make sense to draft a WR in the first round and invest $30 mil in the WR position when DeSean isn’t giving you what you need to make the offense run at it’s highest capacity, will be gone next year regardless and not having that money to roll forward might make you have to lose Boykin or someone else that needs a re-up. And, you can’t just chose to over look that by cutting Cary, DeMeco, Herremans and Celek…you need to replace all those guys with viable starters that will ultimately cost money as well.
It wouldn’t be a winning move to trade a 2015 1st rder for a 2014 4th rder. Even if it might help us THIS SEASON.
GET OVER IT! Jackson is GONE! Get a grip! Endless posts all over the In Internet are NOT going to bring him back!
It’s a legitimate opinion Maggie. Chip Kelly and Howie Roseman will inevitably be judged by this decision in the future, positively or negatively. Releasing DeSean Jackson was a huge move.
If it turns out poorly and the Eagles fail, it will always be seen as the defining moment of the disastrous Chip Kelly reign. If it works out, it will be held up as an example of the young coach’s brash genius and willingness to make tough decisions to complete his vision.
Or I guess it could turn out to be a bad decision but the Eagles are good anyway and we’ll all just say, “well he really screwed the pooch on that one, but all’s well that ends well”
It’s not about crying that he’s gone and not being able to get over it. Like Cafone said, this was a HUGE move, an incredibly unpopular move and something that at the time seemed to defy logic. It is not a common occurrence for a team to outright release its most explosive weapon and its best WR while he’s in his prime coming off of his best season ever. Understanding this move and why it makes sense to Kelly is by far the most interesting and revealing thing that could possibly be discussed at this time. There’s so much that we can learn about Kelly and his offense by understanding this move. Further, it reveals a lot about the upcoming draft and who our targets might be. And, finally, the outcome of this move is extremely relevant in discussing the perception of this season when it comes to an end.
Very curious by this NFLPA investigation…can teams not cut players for character concerns? I thought teams could be penalized by the league for ignoring character concerns? I realize NFLPA NFL, but seems strange to have such a disparity. I am past the Djax thing, but found this comment odd.
I think this was a special situation because of all the gang rumors. The NFLPA didn’t want to find out the Eagles were bad-mouthing DJax around the league and hurting his value.
When were the Eagles bad-mouthing Jackson? The Eagles said nothing, which apparently pissed off many in the “media”.
They didn’t bad-mouth Jackson publicly. The NFLPA was investigating to see if they were doing it behind closed doors. According to the results of their investigation, the Eagles weren’t bad-mouthing Jackson in private to other teams either.
I don’t think Tommy was insinuating that they were. But, there also were whispers and leaked speculation that the Eagles had planted the NJ.com story and were the ones leaking all the reports about his gang affiliations. And, the NFLPA did investigate whether they were defaming DeSean’s character. They of course didn’t find anything, because it would be incredibly foolish of them to do that with basically nothing to gain.
I posted this over on phillymag, but I think the DeSean situation is a lot more intriguing than what most of the storyline has covered. The most interesting thing about this move is what it tells us about Kelly’s vision, his desires for his offense, who we are targeting in the draft and how he plans to scheme against defenses this coming season. There’s so much interesting knowledge to be gained by such a seemingly puzzling move.
Jackson is a high variance WR who is very small and relies on one extreme talent (his absurd speed) to compensate for all his failings and that talent is inevitably going to diminish over the next few yrs leaving him with nothing else. Kelly desires a large low variance WR who can consistently beat man coverage, break tackles and block in the run game. I might not agree completely with the decision, but that’s what just happened.
Kelly saw that the preferred way to defend his team was to put 7-8 in the box play press man w one safety shaded to DeSeans side and he didn’t like our lack of ability to counter that on offense. He’s stated multiple times since our playoff loss to NO that finding WRs that can beat press man on a consistent basis is paramount to our continued success and improvement on offense. That, coupled with DeSean’s release leads me to believe that they did not see DeSean as someone who could do that consistently.
DeSean, despite his speed and short area quickness, needs some space and time to let his speed really show. He needs longer developing routes that allow him to run away from DBs. He’ll never be someone that can take two steps up field, make a cut, catch the ball and break a tackle to get YAC, and that’s essentially what I think Chip would prefer. He wants the QB to have the
ball out of his hands in 2.5 seconds and the skill he wants at WR is the ability to make quick catches and overpower the DBs on a regular basis. I get the feeling he thinks he can scheme people wide open for big explosive plays, and doesn’t require 4.3 speed to do so. But, he can’t scheme someone to be able to catch a short pass in 2.5 seconds while boxing out the CB, breaking tackles and getting YAC as well as blocking in the run game. Those are the skills he requires, blazing speed is nice, but not a requirement.
Kelly would rather have a player that can consistently beat that single high press man look than one who can be taken out of the game for long periods and then make up the difference on that stat sheet w a big play. Low variance over high variance.
Just ask yourself what type of RB you’d like to have, one that was guaranteed to gain 0 yards on his first 19 carries then bust off an 80 yd td on his 20th run or one that gained 4 yrds on every carry 100% of the time? Obviously the examples are not quite realistic, but they show the effects at the extremes of variance. Both these players average 4 yards per carry, but I and every other coach would take the low variance 4 yrds guaranteed player every time.
The question you need to ask yourself is why was our offense slowed down
in that last playoff game and really quite a bit in the last month of the season? And, how can we combat that with either scheme or talent. If DeSean’s not able to consistently make good defenses pay for focusing on the run and playing press coverage on the outside, then how do we field a potent playoff offense that will ultimately be faced with a similar defensive scheme next year?
With 8 catches in his last 3 playoff games all against teams that played
us with press man coverage, I think it’s not out of line to question if
there’s something Jackson is not bringing to the table. If we can find
someone that forces teams to abandon the sell out against the run, play
press man and dare the WR to beat us coverage and makes teams pay for
that look, we win that playoff game. And, I think that’s the ultimate
goal. Finding someone that can beat that look on a consistent basis and
Jackson simply can’t.
Don’t kid yourself though, with only Cooper and a rehabbing Maclin on a 1 yr deal, and us checking out every WR in the draft with a 1st round grade (except Brandon Cooks) chip wants a weapon at WR, he just wants a different kind of weapon.
Interesting take.
you read fast tommy…
I get the impression that Chip feels that his offense, if given the right pieces and people able to accomplish what he wants, is capable of putting up 35+ points on everybody, week in and week out. I also believe that he knows he needs a specific type of player at WR to make that happen. He needs a specific type of WR that can consistently beat man coverage.
With him being an offense first guy who’s entire strategy of
winning football games is blowing people away with his offense and having his defense make enough opportunistic plays to get the ball back to his offense, he will make that happen…and I’d be highly surprised if the first pick off the board for us isn’t a WR. And, given his previous comments and the way he cut DeSean I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a bigger guy that can beat the press, who runs great routes and has great hands and good leaping ability/large catch radius.
And, that is the interesting angle that I take away from this whole DeSean thing. Lot’s of knowledge (or speculation) to be gained…
Your argument is certainly well-thought out, and I’ll even concede that your classification of DeSean as a “high variance” receiver is accurate. But why not draft a “low variance” WR this year, keep DeSean, and have a stacked WR group? Keeping DeSean, all else being equal, makes you better, not worse. Drafting a new WR and keeping DeSean aren’t mutually exclusive. You can do both. The Eagles have plenty of cap space this season. There was no financial reason to get rid of him unless Lurie suddenly decided he needed $10 million for his own personal use.
No, there actually was a financial reason since they can role over a percentage of the cap money to next year when they have a lot of contracts to sign.
Good rebuttal. I’ll concede that one. I’ll only add that there other players who are less talented who they will cut anyway like Cary Williams, DeMeco Ryans, and possibly Herremans and Cole who they will gain more savings from.
Another driver for releasing DeSean now not next year is his buy in to Chip’s programme.
If DeSean isn’t getting his sleep and drinking his smoothies, yet still gets playing time and paid, then it will not support the rest of the team buying into the programme.
I would think that this could be described as a football reason not a character issue as well.
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. But, first, the ability to roll that $6.5 mil into next year when we will need it is a huge advantage. Second, keeping DeSean as your number one WR means that the problem still remains if he can’t do what you want. If we want to run more screens and we anticipate seeing more press man coverage, DeSean is not going to be as effective. It might make sense to Kelly to just get the guys he wants and run the offense the way its designed now instead of putting it off. Add in the potential character problems, ect and their desire to go WR round 1 and perhaps it starts to make more sense.
Legit question from me, not an argument. Are Maclin and Cooper each better than DeSean against press man coverage?
I believe Maclin is for sure. He’s not as explosive, but much better against man coverage in tighter more crowded areas than DeSean. He’s also much better in the red zone. Cooper is legitimately better in the red zone, a better blocker and a darn good deep ball/fade player, but no he’s not better than DeSean. He’s also a role player in this offense. Sproles is perfect for forcing teams to stretch their LBs and Safeties out of the box to cover him in man coverage. And, the hope is a rookie will be able to make teams pay for this on the outside as well.
Cutting DeSean wouldn’t be my first choice either. I didn’t come up with this theory a priori to DeSean getting cut. At first, I thought it was the most ridiculous notion when Kempski first posited his theory. I’m working backward from what we saw happen and trying to make it fit with what I know and have heard from Chip. Him saying over and over that they needed to find WRs that could beat press man and seeing how that defense seemed to stifle our attack this is what it seems like Chip is going for.
I cannot agree with you on Maclin. I see him as the quintessential #2 receiver
Yea, I don’t see Maclin as a #1 WR either. The question was whether or not Maclin is better at DeSean at beating press man coverage. I think he is better in that area as well as better at running a more diverse route tree and better in the red zone. But, despite that I’m not a Maclin fan at all. I’d take DeSean over him all day, he just happens to be better than DeSean at the few things that DeSean stinks at.
Based on comments from Kelly, he seems to think Maclin is and Cooper has shown ability to box out CBs.
$6.5 this year and the extra $10 to $12 million more next year. That could, in theory, take care of a ton of the bonus money for the new deal for Foles and put it all on the 2015 cap.
Exactly!
With the ability to roll the cap over, we need to stop thinking of it as something we should continually spend every dollar of. Roll $10 million over this year, and next year you can roll $20mil over. You can think of it as the owner keeping money in their pocket, but with smart cap management, you can add on to your cap. Think of how many good players you can get with an extra $20mil, especially when you consider that teams like the cowboys have to cut their stars because they can’t manage a cap.
Yea the ability for a building team that expects to compete in 2-3 years for a Super Bowl to roll money over and exponentially increase its cap space is severely lost on the typical fan. Teams that are frugal early in this process while they build a contender will be the next dynasties of the latter part of this decade.
It will be interesting to see how this new “rolling money over to next year’s cap” rule works out. It seems like it gives owners a built-in excuse to not spend money. “We’re not cheap, we’re rolling money over to next year’s cap! For the future!”
With an owner like Lurie, who has proven to be willing to manipulate the cap in order to be able to consistently spend more than most other teams, the rule could open him up to criticism as spending under the cap decreases in some years as the Eagles attempt to manipulate this new rule to fullest.
In reality, the salary cap floor will keep teams from being too cheap. But, in public perception all the fans will see is this massive amount of cap “space” being rolled forward, even if we’re spending more actual dollars than other teams and Lurie will be called cheap for sure by the WIP crowd.
But, you’re so right, this is going to be really fascinating to see which teams learned from Banner’s LTBEs from the early 2000s and figure out how to manipulate this better than other teams. It’s one of the most under the radar parts of he upcoming few years.
Imagine if we can lock up Foles, Boykin, Kendrick, Maclin, Cox, Thornton, have a good draft this year and still end up with more cap space than most teams heading into 2015 and 16 to selectively pick up a stud FA or two. That’ll be a team hitting on all cylinders ready to put Kelly’s vision to the field.
Good list except for Maclin.
yea that was making the rather large assumption that Maclin stops tackling himself, dropping the ball at critical moments and actually has the break out year we’ve all been waiting for.
I love how they simply just allowed unused cap to be carried over because other GMs couldnt handle Banner outsmarting them with LTBE’s bonuses (Hello FB with a 10 mill cap hit to get 9 mill carried over)
At the same time the Eagles have to spend 89% of their cap over a five year period. There are certainly going to be games played with it. I think they will let it build up and then front load the extensions they give out over the next couple of offseason.
The ability to put huge sums on money into the first year of a new deal as a roster bonus and avoid prorated signing bonuses allows the team a vital level of flexibility, If they’d care to explain the Jackson move in that light, I’d be less aggressive in criticizing the move.
How many typical fans are going to understand that logic though? The PC would need to include a PowerPoint led by Howie on basic cap management to start off with.
it’s also important for smart money management, when you know what contracts are coming up when. We’ve got a couple of solid draft classes that are going to need to be paid in the near future, so now is the time to be putting that money aside. If losing Jackson means we can keep Cox, Boykin, Kendricks, and Foles, that’s a tradeoff I’ll take every time.
My problem is similar. Why not wait until the draft to cut him loose? If that was the ultimate plan, why not wait until teams were desperate to wheel and deal in the craziness of draft weekend? Worst case, you just cut him, like you ended up doing anyway. Best case, maybe you pick up a pick somewhere. No one was going to trade for him after those owner meetings when all this shit was fresh. Draft day would have been a different story.
Because of the part of the cut they’re still lying about; they obviously didn’t want him here for the off-season work prior to the draft.
The diva backwash of Djax getting significantly less touches, perhaps?
This also meshes with what type of WRs the Eagles have serious interest in.
Cooks while fast is also super quick, that means he can make those sharp cuts and break a tackle.
Mike Evans, has that size and leaping ability to just be open all the time
Guys like Latimer, Benjamin, Robinson and Matthews all have size to box out defenders.
It seems if you are a smaller WR you need quickness more than speed (so more Welker, less Jackson) and if you have size, you do not need speed, but ability to use your size.
Maclin while not big is also more quick than Jackson and he runs better routes and as is better in short area than Jackson as he had way more RZ TDs than Jackson.
Agreed. Also, I think it has something to do with attitude and the way players play in addition to their size. Pinkston could touch the clouds with those long gangly arms, but he never played big. Whereas someone like Steve Smith who is shorter than Jackson, is great in tight areas and across the middle and at breaking tackles and fighting for the ball. Jackson is a very unique WR that gets away with being so limited because his speed is so so dangerous. But, at the end of the day he’s not capable of doing the things Kelly needs from his WRs.
Cooks though small, has ~20 lbs. on Djax.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2014/4/29/5663142/kelly-already-gave-answers … I talked about that as well and point out that Chip Kelly saw his most
productive receiver have under 83 yards in 11 games. In 9 of those 11
games, that same receiver went under 64 yards.
He had under 50 yards in both games against Dallas
only 59 in the Lions game
only 34 yards against Denver (DRC)
under 36 yards in the Arizona game
29 yards against the Bears(the high scoring game)
and 53 yards in the New Orleans game.
These are people we will have to deal with in the playoffs for the next couple of years or teams we will be in competition with for a higher seed or a bye. We have to be able get more from our best WR in these games.
Exactly…it really puts DeSean’s overall statistics in perspective. He ate up some poor secondaries and racked up some great numbers and then for more than half the year was a complete non factor. High variance. High variance is exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat, but consistency wins games in the clutch.
Also note that a good amount of his poor performances were in the last 8 games of the season. In fact, only in the MIN game did DeSean do anything of note, the other 7 games to end the season he didn’t have more than 4 catches and no more than 80 yards. Teams figured out how to stop our offense and they were able to do it because we didn’t have someone at WR that could make them pay. Chip will not allow that to continue.
Well thought out, but I bet if Cooks is on the board Chip takes him in a heartbeat.
This is a more thorough explanation of what I’ve been saying for awhile about DeSean.
Am I really the only one who thinks this WR rookie class is overrated? Half of these guys are going to be busts, just like every other rookie class. I do not like gambling the team’s future by giving up a sure thing in DeSean and risking us getting another Freddie Mitchell. It’s a very reckless move by Chip when the safer move would be to draft a guy, wait a year to see if he’s better than DeSean, and then let DeSean go the following year.
Reckless is too strong a word. But there certainly is risk involved.
I like to think (and hope) that the decision to release Jackson was made without consideration of the draft. As you point out, if they were counting on the draft to fill a void it would have been a reckless decision. Hopefully Kelly looked at what he wanted to do next year and decided there would be no void without Jackson.
Yea we have to realize that we already added two receiving threats to replace DeSean. Maclin and Sproles will combine to do what Chip wants to make this offense hum along as he envisions. Scoring 24 points is not enough for Chip. He wants 35+ per game and he needs versatile players that put the defense in a bind by trying to decipher what they are going to do on each play and WRs that can beat press man when teams choose to go all out to stop the run.
Our offense is run based. What Chip really wants to do is run the ball up and down the field. The passes are designed to be constraint plays to put LBs and safeties in a bind to create space for the runs and to make teams pay for selling out on the run.
He needs versatile WR that can block, attack the middle of the field and beat press coverage. He’ll get one or two in about 9 days.
I like the idea of Chip wanting a more versatile receiver than Jackson. That would be in line with the current company line: “It was a football decision.”
But I don’t know if I completely believe it yet. Haven’t we seen plenty of film clips and all-22 snapshots showing teams keeping a safety deep to account for Jackson? Isn’t that helping the run game? Hopefully the more varied skills of more versatile players will add up to more than the things Jackson did extremely well.
Yea, I’m not sure I believe myself either. Who knows if it will actually work. We’ll have to see this season and next to know for sure. The interesting thing to me is trying to figure out what this says about Kelly’s offensive philosophy, because the move obviously made sense to him.
And, the only thing I can think that would make it make sense to a logical person is that either DeSean was raping the elderly/murdering bloods in his spare time and no one knows about it yet, or it really was a football, scheme-fit decision.
And, if he’s such the antithesis of what Chip wants, despite putting up such good overall numbers this year, then I think that’s fascinating as hell and I’d love to pick Kellys brain and get a real answer for him as to why.
The best I can surmise is that this all comes back to the fact that teams sat in single high press man coverage for the last 7 games of the season and we weren’t able to counter it consistently or well enough to Chip’s liking.
Sproles – yes. He’s a unique weapon.
Maclin – no. I’ll still contend you’re overrating his level of talent and production.
Maclin was thought of as a top 10 talent when he came out. Only reason he dropped was because of the Raiders took DHB.
Maclin has the skills but has seemed lost and disinterested in my opinion. He does tackle himself, I’ve seen him give poor effort blocking, drop routine catches, ect. He is far from my favorite WR. I was hoping we’d get rid of him this year. But, I’m willing to see what he can do in Chip’s offense. Remember he’s only 25.
Outside of Benjamin, I don’t think any player in the WR group is vastly overrated. None of them may be as good as Jackson however. There are more than a few Maclins in there however.
That’s because you still believe Chip doesn’t think Jackson can play. DJ can play and is very talented. Chip didn’t get rid of DJ because he stinks. What your saying is — let’s see if that old declining player has anything left in the tank and draft his replacement(like the might do with our ILB this year). That’s just not the case. If you believe it’s for “football reasons” — than I have a bridge to see you. After a player like DJ turns in his best season ever — after only 1 season in your system — you’d be thinking — OMG, imagine what this guy can do in 3 years in this system. Instead — Chip was thinking — OMG — how do I get rid of him. Chip has his reasons. We’ll never know the reason.
To answer your other question though, I’m with you on that. People keep saying “oh, the draft is filled with WR talent”. I don’t buy that garbage. That’s saying every WR in the first 5 rounds are talented enough to come in and be productive. It’s a success if all the WR’s in round 1 and 2 are successful. My only hope is Chip IS doing is homework to find the right WR for his system. Hopefully he finds him this year. Betting all your money on Maclin and Cooper is a gamble.
As I see it, Chip’s issue with Deseasn is his lack of versatility. Chip seems to enjoy creating situations where any player on his team could be doing two different things at any given time, so that there’s always a defender out of position. The big guys on the outside like Riley can be running a route, they can be blocking the screen, etc. If Desean is lined out in trips, and they run a WR screen, the defense knows Desean is the one getting the ball. Chip tried to create a versatile role for Jackson haviing him run end arounds or by lining him up in the backfield, but it definitely seems like Chip likes his RBs to do that and not his receivers (there’s no way Desean would ever take a handoff between the tackles like DAT).
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Desean isn’t a great receiver or was only a one trick pony, because he obviously ran more of the route tree than he ever did under Reid. But without being able to make the defense guess presnap, it almost made him a role player. And you don’t need a $10mil role player.
I could not have said it better myself. Excellent analysis!
We have to look at DeSean’s stats in context. You have to remember that teams had no idea how to defend Chips offense for the first half of the season. Once teams went to that primarily 7-8 in the box, single high safety, press man, stop the run and dare the WRs to beat us look, here were DeSean’s stats:
GB: 4 rec/80 yards/1 TD
WAS: 4 rec/82 yards/0 TD
ARZ: 3/36/0
DET: 4/51/1
MIN: 10/195/1
CHI: 4/29/0
DAL: 3/28/0
NO: 3/53/0
Decent numbers but hardly the type of production you’d expect for a player making $10 million plus a year. Those last 3 games really stand out too.
Knowing that we were going to continue to see the same kind of defense moving forward you can see how the offense would be better served to acquire a WR who is more prolific against press man and who can make teams respect their short to intermediate routes and move their LBs and safeties out of the box to counter this.
I really think Kelly didnt like Jackson sorta disappeared against man coverage and with us been a run first team and teams know we destroy zone, they will play Cover 1 all day.
I really think the WR we draft this year will be a bigger WR who has shown ability to beat man in college or fight for the ball.
Makes Lattimer look like a strong likelihood more and more.
Allen Robinson more likely IMO
Exactly! I actually think it’s nice that we finally have a HC that saw the very specific way that teams beat us and is actively changing the personnel to combat that. How many years did we watch teams play bump and run and man handle our shitty WR before AR finally gave in and got a WR who could beat that?
Why would they bring anyone in to “replace” Jackson?
If you believe that getting rid of Jackson was a “football/scheme decision”, then you’re right we would not “replace” Jackson at all. Brandon Cooks would not in any way be our draft pick. We would look to get a totally different skill set that was missing last year when the receiving corps was built around Jackson.
I’m not going to do the math, but looking at both Maclin and Jackson’s stats makes me wonder what the Chip Kelly bump could do for Maclin’s numbers next year.
I project 76 receptions for 1100 yards and 12 TDs. Sound about right?
(Acknowledging the need for the RGIIIesque “if he stays healthy” disclaimer)
Sounds right on par with what I would guess. I’ll go ahead and say Jackson ends up with 62 rec 1050 yards and 6 TDs. Washington goes 6-10 to 8-8.
Sounds about right to me.
If you’re bothering to give me an explantion, then I’d like a credible one, please.
Chip isnt lying, he is just twisting the truth and not telling the whole thing.
Thankfully the guys that cover the team will keep at it until they get a good answer.
Im gonna keep the ILB discussion here because I just rewatched some of Nadje Goode last night.
I really think he could take over for Ryans more than we think. He has better cover skills and while he was Kendricks replacement last year, he is also more physical. I really loved the way he attacked guards when he was going downhill, it was almost like watching a mini Trotter.
Goode is too short to help with TEs. At 6’0 he’s only an inch taller than Kendricks (who the Eagles seem to have added an inch to over his 5’11” combine height) who also struggles to cover taller players.
I don’t think having two short ILBs is helpful long-term.
I like Goode in rotation as the 3rd or 4th active ILB and special teams contributor.
Navorro Bowman and Patrick Willis, the best ILB combo in the NFL is 6’0 and 6’1.
I’m still trying to figure out what height has to do with playing ILB?
If you want somebody else than Barwin to cover a TE, height makes a difference.
But as I noted, the best ILB pair in the NFL is not that tall
Well sure, but typically, ILB aren’t responsible for TEs…OLBs and safeties are more responsible for TEs than ILBs…the fact that we ask that of Kendricks is a testament to his potential…
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Height does very little for an ILB, actually if you lack height you can use leverage to your advantage…
Next to nothing.
Chip’s decision to part ways with DeSean has as much to do with personal reasons as with football reasons.
Anyway, is it just me or do you also think that Chip literally loves the kid [Manziel]?!
Found it exciting to hear Lurie talk…think Lurie didnt ask Kelly WTF initially when he brought up getting rid of Desean? Lurie made sure to mention playoff performances when he talked about Chip wanting to reconfigure the WR position….believe it or not, Chip probably doesn’t care how much players are being paid…his sole intention is improving this team, and il find it very exciting that someone so obsessed with scoring points thinks he can make this offense better…Desean is gone, but the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet, and I can’t wait to see how Chip makes this offense better..
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To Chip Kelly, only scoring 23 points is death…if he thought we couldn’t hang 30 a game without Desan, than he would still be here…
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I have a feeling his vision is a land of giants arsenal of pass catchers, blurring the line e between TE and WR with a bunch of big fast weapons, who oponents simply won’t have enough size at DB to match up with..
Chip exploits the obvious match-ups. Run when you have 6 blockers and they have 5 guys in the box. Obvious. He’s the same way with personnel. Big, tough, imposing WR that can beat up, box out and break the tackles of the little tiny CBs and tiny super quick and fast guys inside that can’t be covered in space by LBs and safeties.
Yes sir….I do not believe we are taking a step backwards because of Desean. I expect this offense to be better then it was last year…just wait til Todd is a little more comfortable at RG, and now that Kelce!Todd and JP don’t have to spend the summer rehabbing injuries…Lane in year two…
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Chip will have cleared a nice chunk of cap space cutting Desean, and our offense will be better than it was last year…
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I love that Desean is a redskin! If he would have went to a strong Locker room that would hold him accountable like the Niners,Seahawks,patriots! I would be very afraid of Desean…I love to see him in DC or Dallas
Derreck Morgan, the pass rusher from the titans, may be dealt on draft night…has never played OLB, wonder how we view him..
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Still pissed we didn’t trade for Jabaal Sheard
eh — we’ll never know the real reason. We knew that already. One things for sure, Chip can’t draft a WR with the same height/speed as DJ. Otherwise, there goes all the “football reasons”. Chip almost has to draft someone taller than 6’1
I’d be very surprised if they didn’t bring in a totally different skill set at WR.
Speaking of WR targets in the upcoming draft:
Although size seems to matter to Chip Kelly (one way or the other), it would highly surprise me if the Eagles go after a WR that runs a 4.61, no matter his size advantages..!
There’ve been a lot of successful WRs in this league with that measurement.
yea Benjamin is not the pick
“I do believe that football was a big part of the decision. Chip Kelly has very defined thoughts on the kind of players that he is looking for.”
I am sorry Tommy, but I don’t buy that one second. This is the equivalent of dumping Megan Fox for looks reasons, because you’re more into blondes. If you get rid of Megan Fox for no back-up plan, she must be a crazy/psycho and expensive girlfriend. Or, if Scarlett Johansson comes around and you dump Megan for her, I could start to understand. But I don’t see any way that we’re getting Sammy Watkins, the Scarlet Johansson’s of this draft class. Plus, if we could, why not try to go for a threesome then?
Long story short, Sammy Watkins is not available, Maclin is not into threesomes, and Desean is a crazy/psycho high maintenance Megan Fox, hence why we released him Or something like that.
haha…for every stunning model girlfriend there’s a guy somewhere that’s sick of her shit
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If press man coverage is the reason DeSean got cut, who is the best rookie WR at beating press man coverage?