Monday Night Misc
Posted: May 26th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 45 Comments »The Eagles and Patriots held joint practices in Philly last year prior to the preseason game between the two teams. It sounds like that will happen up in Foxboro this year.
2. With Bill Belichick and Jay Gruden finalizing Patriots-Redskins joint practices in Richmond, Virginia, for Aug. 4-6, Belichick and Chip Kelly are now in the process of dotting I’s and crossing T’s for the Patriots and Eagles to do the same at Gillette Stadium the following week (likely Aug. 12-14) before the team’s preseason game. While high-priced preseason games are viewed as a drag by many because top players see such limited action, I think joint practices are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They are exceptional value. It’s free admission, you get closer to the players than most can at a game, there’s potential for post-practice autographs, and you get to see top professionals in a competitive setting while fine-tuning their craft. These joint practices have become a true highlight in recent years and are highly recommended for those who can clear their calendars.
Cool.
The best way for the Eagles to become a championship caliber team is to face good competition as often as possible. It also helps to go against guys wearing different colors. One of the problems with practice is that you generally face the same guys over and over.
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Brent from Eagles Rewind and I have had a discussion on the Eagles and the outlook for the future. We’ve gone back and forth on a few issues.
Go here to read Brent’s response to my previous post about his comments. (How’s that for confusing?)
We’ve each shared our thoughts. There is no right or wrong here.
The final point I’ll make…I agree with Brent that the team could take a step back this year in terms of record. The Eagles went 10-6 last year. They got out of facing Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo. RG3 wasn’t healthy in either game. Eli had a nightmare season. The Eagles had good luck with health. Nick Foles only threw 2 INTs. And so on.
The Eagles could slide back a game or two without having a significantly different season.
My point in all of this was to say that the Eagles have a better overall roster than last year. The team is more talented. Just because the team has more talent doesn’t mean the results will improve or even be the same. A lot of different factors go into that…schedule, health, etc.
I don’t have a prediction for the season yet. I want to get a better feel for the team before trying to figure out how the team will do.
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Run the ball. Then go play-fake and throw downfield.
Highest yds/attempt on first down in 2013: Vick 10.7 (58 attempts) and Foles 9.7 (145 attempts). #Eagles
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) May 23, 2014
The Eagles don’t throw as much under Kelly as they did under Reid, but they still get great impact.
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I guess you can be a glass half full guy or not.
Depends on your general mindset.
Seems like Brent is a negative Nancy, while Tommy has a more positive spin on the Eagles. Nobody really knows and all anyone can do is speculate.
I fall into that category where I really like most of what the Eagles are doing since hiring Chip and I am very impressed as a fan on how far this team has come in such a short period of time. 4-12 wasn’t long ago.
I remember wishing we had a little stability at the QB spot and how hard it was to watch them at times.
This team could take a step back if you want to compare last season.
Most offenses that played that well do take a step back. 27 TD’s with only 2 int’s is astounding and will be difficult to replicate by any QB.
Call me a homer if you want, I just love me some Eagles, now more than ever.
I think the team could go 8-8 or 9-7 and still be a better team than the 2013 version. As fans we are all inclined to look at W’s and L’s and use those as a measuring stick of where the team is at. It’s natural to look at results and make judgements based off those things. The best coaches don’t focus on that kind of stuff though. Kelly, Bellicheck, and Saban, and Carroll are all big time believers in process driven evaluations. When you turn out the lights everyday, you ask yourself is this team better prepared, focused, conditioned, and more intelligent than it was yesterday? If the answer is yes, then it was a good day, and tomorrow you get even better.
If this team doesn’t do as well in the record column but can go 15 rounds with San Fran, Seattle, Green Bay, then this is clearly an improved team. If this team loses heartbreakers to the Cardinals, Colts, and possibly the Panthers or Rams, I can’t make an argument that this team is worse. Record wise I think the Eagles will likely end up somewhere between 9 and 11 wins but short of a major Foles regression or a run of catastrophic injuries, the team will be improved over the 2013 version.
Well said… I hate the Wins and Loss total talk. It’s irrelevant from year to year, especially when you face such a drastic spike in competition…if we go 8-8, win the division, and then win a playoff game, can people really get hung up on the record and say we didn’t improve?
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I saw a team set the league on fire in the regular season, and they lost in the playoffs because the saints new how to win, and we didn’t yet.. Progress to me, is getting over the hump and wining a playoff game… Regular season totals are irrelevant, especially when we won’t lose more than 1 or two division games and your rivals aren’t equipped to face the Outter division schedule…we can beat teams like the colts, I doubt our rivals can
I think the thing people forgot was how disfunctional our defense was the first half of the season. If the team that played in november/december had played the scheduel in the first weeks of the season we would have won 12-13 games.
I think people look at the defensive stats and think a lot of work needs to be done, but we have better depth and fit across the D now in a 2nd year, and while we wont be top 10, i think we will be top half in points allowed, which should be plenty to let our offence go out and win games. I think we go 10-6 or 11-5, even with the tougher schedule.
Brent was very optimistic last summer. Just sees things differently this time around. I respect that.
Brent’s position is almost exactly the same as last year. The horrible stats of 2012 showed that the most probable outcome was a regression to the mean. He felt we would do slightly better than average, and he was about right on that one. This year he feels that the stats of 2013 favor a regression back to the mean again, but this time they would decrease out performance.
Brent actually took the time to respond to a post I made on that article and clarified that his position is predicting that the offense will take a small step back this year. He still thinks it will be a high powered offense, but that the loss of DeSean will make it harder on the other down the field receivers to get open.
In my opinion, he’s a stand up guy, and is coming at things from a unique angle. Definitely worth the follow. (I currently rank him as #2 after Lawlor in must read Eagles writing).
Read his original 05/16 post. Agree with him, except for the Bryce Brown part–far more valuable as injury insurance than a 2016 third round. Just the fact that you could get a third round pick of any sort should tell you the potential value of his play. Fit has got very little to do with what matters. Swimming with a functional running game under all circumstances does. See too many teams critically hampered by bad run game because of injury to starter–like Bush for the Snow Game.
The OL sentiment, I also agreed with, though I’m not sure there was any reasonably sure things at 26, and especially in the original second round pick spot.
Bryce Brown averaged 4.2 yards a carry last season. That’s quite a drop off from Shady’s 5.1.
Chris Polk, on the other hand, averaged 8.9 yards a carry. So if Shady goes down and Polk gets his 300 carries we’re looking at a 2670 yard season. That’s just simple arithmetic.
Polk got just 11 carries. But hey, far be it from me that I should dash any illusions. And sure, he could get a lot of yards, but it would be Mike Anderson quality yards, and not Clinton Portis or Terrelle Davis.
*WHOOSH*
That’s the sound of that joke, cruising at 13,000ft. Just above your head.
Just some RB’s who had better YPC than Brown in 2013:
James Starks
Andre Ellington
Donald Brown
Mark Ingram
Brandon Bolden
Mike James
Kendall Hunter
Chris Ivory
Roy Helu Jr.
Most of those guys have more attempts, and more chances for long runs, which tends to be what really lifts YPC.
That’s false.
Bryce- 75
Starks- 89
Ellington- 118
Brown- 102
Ingram- 78
Bolden- 55
James- 60
Hunter- 78
Ivory- 182
Helu- 62
Also Bryce’s 65 yarder on 75 carries is a much larger boost to his stats than anyone who carried the rock more often. The larger the sample size the less impact outliers have. You can’t ignore Polk’s YPC because he only had 11 carries and then say that more carries would lead to a high average. It does the opposite.
six out of nine is not most of those guys have more attempts?
Three out of Chris Polk’s eleven carries counted as explosive. That’s pretty unusual.
Anyways, I don’t need the stats…Polk has relatively little wiggle in his game, and mostly just hit the hole. He’s also not very fast. If you put him up against Alfred Morris, just the tape, Polk would look pretty bad in comparison. Brown is a rb that a defense will honor the threat of, and will tilt the field to however degree Brown has been showing his skills.
Because 78 is significantly more attempts than 75. Morris is a product of Shannahan his numbers will fall dramatically this year. Once again it doesn’t matter that the defenses don’t bring guys down into the box against this offense. Many of our plays are based on numbers in the box. If defenses don’t use an extra defender we have a blocker for every defender in the box.
Alfred Morris has good vision and can cut once. Since when has Polk ever done so? Two of the highlight plays I can remember Polk being involved in both came with large holes anyone could run through. If Polk was so damned good, wouldn’t he have more than eleven carries?
As for the box nonsense, remember, the *reason that the box wouldn’t be as crowded* would be because teams believe the responsible player can cover multiple options, rather than focus on Shady. That means that the short passing game is going to get clogged more if that happens.
YPC is varies a lot tho (same with Y per catch and YAC) where things like touches are more stable for top of roster guys
Reading the 05/22 post, I think there’s a weird sense that Desean Jackson has to fit within Foles capabilities in the back and forth between Tommy and Brent and in the comments section…
This made me recall the classic post on Daily Norseman by Arif Hasan where Jennings is always open.
While I’ve generally thought people have been getting too hyped about the roster being significantly better, I think there is a lot of reason for optimism:
* The Eagles started 1-3 last year. This season I would not be surprised if they start 3-1.
* No QB confusion if Foles stays healthy
* If you think Foles’ horrible game against Dallas last year was an aberration, we don’t have to worry about that this year.
* No Patrick Chung
That said, I think the Saints are going to the Superbowl.
You know…there wasn’t any real “QB confusion” last year, either.
I think that Drew Brees is pretty much done as a potential Super Bowl QB without quite a few stars in alignment. He’s getting old, man.
5000+ yards, 39/12 TD/INT radio, with a close to 70% completion percentage… I guess I’m going to need to see an actual drop off in his performance before I label Drew Brees as done.
Ah, no…like with Foles, I’m not looking at the number, just how he got them, and I see how he does with good defenses. He’s slowing down in his original great ability to navigate the pocket, and his passes are somewhat weaker than they used to be. Now, Drew Brees is still a very good to great QB, but he is definitely a step down from what he used to be. It was interesting that NO did not draft a credible replacement prospect (lotto pick on some high tools guy late in the draft).
Even when he was at his best, it took home field advantage all the way, plus putting Brett Favre and anyone else in their way out of commission. The Vikings had to make quite a few mistakes for the Saints to even get to the Super Bowls.
Remember, what I care about is the ability to make plays, to impose your vision of how the game is going, onto the other side. Brees is getting to be like Peyton in that he needs more protection and more good WR to compensate as he ages. Of course, not nearly so far gone.
Making plays is how you beat the good teams, man. That’s why Andy Dalton will always get wedgies in the playoffs. Sure, he can run the basic plays, and honestly, Dalton is a little underrated because he does max out what his little wang can do. Still, having a little wang pretty much disqualifies you from anything *exciting*. While a guy like Joe Webb, on a good day, can beat anyone. A guy like Mike Vick can simply obliterate everyone on a good day and can beat any team on a routine basis when he’s on his game.
That’s why I never pay attention to people who whine about how someone’s got the arm to “make all the passes”. No. When you have to say that, your boy doesn’t. I never pay attention to people who think that you can outsmart people who live in their offices, watching game tape and making plans, on a consistent basis from year to year. It comes down to whether your guy can make plays their guy can’t.
Brees has Jimmy Graham, Maques Colston, Brandin Cooks, Kenny Stills and Meachem. He’s not throwing to Pinkston and Thrash.
Yes, and he should still be good, but he seems to wilt against better defenses, and get lots of stats on the weaker teams. Has won against good defenses, like Ari and Car last year, but the trend…
You’re right it’s really a major flaw that he lost by 8 points to a historic defense on the road in one of the toughest stadiums to play.
*sigh*
First of all, when I really think about Brees being ineffective, my first thought is the second Carolina game. That was the game where I realized that he had very little chance of beating the NL West teams in the playoffs.
Second, the score in the playoff game was not as close as it looked.
How about the two regular season games your guy Kaepernick had against the Seahawks?
46.4% 127yard 0TDs 3INT 20.1rating
51.7% 175yds 1 TD 1INT 67.5rating
He also had 7 regular season games with 55.2% completion or lower.
Missing a bit of subtlety here…We’re talking about the impact of age. And of system, a bit. Carolina, even with not very good secondary, was able to take away what Drew Brees wanted to do–and Brees wasn’t able to do much about it. Kaepernick is far more able to make a play to live another set of down. And defensive slugfests, well, they happen. Carson Palmer had four interceptions, and one quite magical pass against Seattle. Even then, it took a dubious interception for Arizona to win that game, probably.
This explains Mike Vick’s stellar postseason record.
I’m pretty sure Drew Brees was never a super bowl QB. Look who he beat, another QB who can’t just make plays, Peyton Manning. Sure, you’ll say Peyton Manning has also won a super bowl, but the fact that it was against Rex Grossman (who can’t make plays) shows he is not a super bowl QB either.
I’m telling ya, Patrick Chung was a spy!
Hmmm… that WOULD explain a lot wouldn’t it. Pro athlete running the f around not only blowing all the assignments of his he could, but also picks off other players whenever possible. Yup, I’m with you here. lol
Chip Kelly is from a very different world than most NFL followers understand, that of a program. The NFL is all about what have you done for me lately, college programs are about building. You see that in Seattle and San Fran. You saw that in the 90s in Dallas. Though Saban returned to college and is therefore deemed a failure, I’m convinced if he had decided to stay in Miami he’d have succeeded there too.
Chip is building a program, and as a longtime college follower, I can say these generally take off starting in year two and hit their stride for real in year three. I think the Eagles will play a much higher level of football this year overall and will be a SB favorite next.
I can certainly agree that this team may take a step backwards in w/l record BUT still make improvements as a team. Building for the future, not this year. Division win was a nice surprise last year. This year, there’s more expectations. Not a win the SB expectations(the roster isn’t talented enough). Maybe more of a team gel with Chip type of season. Hard to put in words but I expect the team to be more of a machine…..
Two weeks ago I wrote that we were going to foxboro to camp. How is the media just finding out about this now?
While your writing style often annoys me, I’d actually love to see what you could do with a more traditional blogging gig and, god willing, an editor. I rarely see somebody with so much enthusiasm and spare time to write as much as you do.
RIP to JJ .. Fav coach in the history of philly sports
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Optimist? Pessamist? Load of crap. You either know what you are talking about and call it right, or you don’t.l.ill be watching Brent
I still think Buddy Ryan is the favorite for many. For me its JJ followed by Kelly
Vermeil is still very respected and has lots of goodwill around these parts.
Is it just me or is Barwin getting close to Nnamdi status in his non-football appearances?
Thou shall not bad mouth BRAMA bull Barwin! The man who bullied Jimmy Graham worse than incognito did Martin, can do no wrong…how dare you mention him in the same sentence as that BITCH NNamdi…
He just seems to be everywhere. He is even doing radio spots down here in Houston.
I don’t really care that we missed Rogers, Romo, or a healthy RGIII last year. We have a Pro Bowl MVP QB of our own that will be keeping THEIR coaches up all night. GO EAGLES!