Backup ILBs and More on Barner
Posted: August 20th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 126 Comments »Jason Phillips is out. He had played okay through 2 games, but my guess is that the Eagles saw he no longer had the agility or athleticism to play in the NFL. He could attack downhill, but that’s just not enough in the NFL. ILBs must be able to cover a lot of space. They must be able to tackle athletes in tough one-on-one situations. That requires agility and body control.
The starting ILBs look just fine. That’s the good news.
Behind them is a bit of a mystery. Najee Goode is the #3 ILB. He played well last year. He played well in camp. But he has yet to stand out during the games. That’s not really a concern, but it would make you feel better if he had one game where you could go “Yep, that’s exactly what we wanted to see.”
After Goode, things are wide open. Jake Knott is the player the team hoped would have the #4 spot. Things are very complicated with him. Knott is suspended for the first 4 games of the year. Just as bad, he’s been hurt part of the summer. Knott hasn’t played yet in the preseason. The team would really love to get a feel for where he is. They need him to play in a game.
Emmanuel Acho looked like a combination of Byron Evans, Jeremiah Trotter and Chuck Bednarik last summer. He made a ton of plays in the preseaon. This year he’s been okay, but hasn’t stood out at all. He could be the #4 ILB for now, but that’s hardly written in stone.
Believe it or not, Casey Matthews can still make this team. He can be a good STer and he can play ILB or OLB. Chip Kelly loves versatility. Josh Kaddu is the forgotten man at ILB. He’s last into the games. Kaddu is the longest of long shots. Reportedly, Travis Long will get crosstrained. The Eagles like him as an OLB, but will also get him snaps at ILB.
You can bet the Eagles will be scanning the waiver wire to see who gets cut. Keep in mind, they don’t need a starter. They don’t need a veteran. The Eagles are looking for depth. There could be some player from recent drafts that gets cut who the Eagles had interest in. They don’t have to make a move, but if the right guy is available, they certainly could.
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More on the RB situation.
Someone posed the question that “shouldn’t the Eagles have just kept Bryce Brown?”. No. The Eagles got really good value for him. And remember that Darren Sproles has taken his spot as the primary backup. Also, the Eagles want help in the return game. Brown got mixed in there a bit, but it wasn’t an area where he was much help. Barner has a track record of success from college. We’ll have to see how that translates to the NFL.
Should we be annoyed at adding another Oregon player? I’m not. Chip can add as many Oregon players as he wants, as long as they can fill the required role. If Chip names Barner the starting RB over Shady, I’ve got a problem. If he says Barner is here to compete for a spot in the RB rotation, I’m fine with that.
Chip isn’t over-drafting Oregon players. He’s not handing them deals that are out of line. He’s not giving them starting jobs for no reason. As of now, all of them are backups and role players.
Some of the guys are camp bodies. You have a 90-man roster. There aren’t always 90 guys available that you have a high grade on or think can definitely play in the league. Josh Kaddu and Will Murphy are camp bodies. They have virtually no chance of ever becoming NFL players. How many people remember WR McKay Jacobson or MLB Terence Thomas? They were camp bodies from late in the Reid era. I have no problem with Chip choosing some camp bodies from Oregon. Practice is critical for Kelly. He needs things done a certain way. If the 89th and 90th guys on the team already know how to practice, that saves the coaches having to spend time teaching guys that have no chance. Isn’t that actually a good thing?
SI did a nice little feature on Barner where he talks about his rookie year and beyond: http://t.co/byYPsg7SnS
— Patrick Wall (@ByPatrickWall) August 20, 2014
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If you want to see Graham traded and Casey Matthews cut, is that a good thing or not? I prefer keeping Graham over keeping Matthews. I’d prefer keeping Acho over keeping Graham if we could get a 5th rounder for Graham, let’s say.
Tough to say. I see no real reason for them to take 8 LBs. It will be 10 DBs and 7 D-Line, I think the offense can life with 24 spots, so there is room for 9 LB. 5 OLBs (with Graham or Long being the 5th) or 5 ILB (we don’t even have 4, so why keep 5?).
Cross training was a bad sign for the players last year. I remember Harbour and Avant getting that treatment, this year Johnson. Avant made the team, of course, but he didn’t survive this year.
I selfishly want to keep Curry and Graham as long as possible. I think Barwin should not play DE in nickle. I think it should be Cole Cox Curry Graham. Starting in nickle is basically starting imo…
I see it for curry not for graham — he doesn’t flash enough to make up for the fact that he’s not versatile enough. If we had more depth i think he’d be gone.
So you just want us to be a 4-3 team?
Haha… fair point. Not really though, I think I actually prefer the 3-4 base, but I prefer the 4-2-5 to the 3-3-5 nickle. Perhaps Barwin could play as a coverage linebacker in the 4-2-5.
Acho, long, Casey Mathews and kadu are all cross training at OLB and ILB
Doesn’t Oregon have any damn kickers?
If they had, we wouldn’t have to assume that Chip, for whatever reasons, doesn’t care about the position. 😉
So you have a bit of flavor . . .
The PK for Kelly’s last two years at Oregon became the Ducks punter in 2013.
And he didn’t double at the other job during those 3 years.
Alex henrey li serve un calico in culo
da lungo tempo
LOL can’t we just get Luca toni’s old ass, kidnap him, force him to quit soccer to kick field goals for us?
Egli e una bestia
Avoglia
If they had, Kelly would have a national championship
Rob Beard was great at first and then lost his confidence on FGs. By the end of Chip’s run with the Ducks, Beard was a kickoff specialist and Alejandro Maldonado (who also sucked) kicked FGs. Oregon lost multiple big games because of bad FG kicking. It has really been Chip’s achille heel, for some weird reason.
Re: Barner as a Return Specialist v. Nolan Carroll
T-Law,
You wrote, “Barner has a track record of success from college.”
His numbers while at Oregon, compared to his teammates also returning kicks and punts, were pretty pedestrian — particularly when looking at D’Anthony Thomas as a KR and Cliff Harris as a PR.
That’s not to say Barner won’t light it up, even a little, in Philadelphia.
After all, does Kelly want to risk an injury to Nolan Carroll as a KR?
Huff wasn’t a good returner at Oregon, either. I’d be a little curious if Chip wouldn’t know the players this good.
It’s true about huff…but I always thought he projected as good NFL KR with a little coaching and experience…
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A WR, who’s built like a RB, physical, likes to explode straight up field….. Sounds like a KR description to me
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Wouldn’t be surprised to see Huff become good at covering kickoffs down the road,, saw last year offensive players Brad smith, James Casey and Polk perform like tackling beasts on kickoff coverage
huff is versatile, can play ST, out of the backfield and WR. but it’s unclear if he has route running ability to beat man coverage.
Yeah cuz Chip would have drafted a WR he knows like the back of his hand in the 3rd round if he “may not be able to beat man coverage”.. I think their is nothing “unclear” about huff to Kelly, which is why Kelly wanted him so bad… He KNOWS when it comes to huff,.. I wasn’t high on Huff pre draft, but I don’t dare question Chip about a guy he KNOWS and doesn’t have to project with…
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I wasn’t high on huff predraft…but the fact that Chip is so high on him, makes me thrilled to have him
i’m talking about the transition from college to pros. some people dominate in college and can’t transition. it’s not like he was bodying out dbs in pre-season like jmatt. i don’t think kelly has a great sense of where people should be drafted so i don’t put much stock into him being a 3rd rounder, just like you cant put much stock into smith being a first.
If huff didn’t need to be drafted in round 3, we wouldn’t have drafted him in round 3… If we could have gotten Marcus smith in round 2, we wouldn’t have drafted him in round 1.. Where we picked huff has nothing to do with Chip…because it’s a known fact that when Chip wanted to reach for Taylor hart! Howie stepped in and assured Chip that he didn’t need to draft,hart now and that we would still be able to get him in the 5th round, so because Howie stepped in, we were able to get Watkins and then still get Hart…
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If we could have gotten Huff in round 4 or 5, Howie would most likely know, and tell Chip who listened to Howie when we were about to reach for hart…
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I definitely didn’t think you were talking about the transition from college to the Canadian football league…
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Riddle me this… Chip spent all year coaching the eagles, game planning to score on defensive coordinators, game planning to put his WRs in positions to beat CBs, game planning to free up Desean…. On top of that he got a front row view of all the best WR’s in the NFL…. So I assume you would agree that after a year of NFL experience Chip knows what it takes to be a successful NFL WR, no?
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If Chip now knows what it takes to be a successful NFL WR, who could he be better qualified to judge how he will transition to the NFL from college, than a kid like Huff who he recruited, coached and was practically a father figure to?
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I wasn’t high on huff pre draft…. But Chip Kelly knows huffs game probably better than he knows Jeremy Maclins. If you had to trust Chips opinion about how a WR transitions to the NFL from College, who could you trust him to evaluate and project to the NFL more than Huff?
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You didn’t see huff in any of my wish lists… But I just watched Chip install an offense that set franchise records in it’s first try in the NFL.. How can I not trust that Chip knows that he can do damage in the NFL with Josh Huff in his arsenal?
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I don’t get who you could possibly trust Chip to project to the NFL from College, better than his evaluation of his former players?
Pittsburgh was high on Huff, and it’s been said they were gonna take him with their 3rd round compensatory pick
Keep in mind Chip’s penchant for WRs blocking. Huff is physical and knows what Chip wants. He is going to be a versatile football player and that fits Chip’s scheme to a T.
Kenjon was rocked on a KR his junior year during Washington State game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1aeAnxecdGM
He was taken off the field in an ambulance and missed quite a few games. Not sure he’s ever been quite the same when it comes to returns.
Great bit of info.
Is that the same ambulance from Madden on Genesis?
Nah, this one drives AROUND the players.
See this bothers me… I def don’t want to risk Nolan on KR, the problem is I want to risk Sproles even less lol, even if ST is a big reason of why we like him so much…. I would have been fine with Huff back there even if he isn’t an established stud KR, I feel I like he has all the Tools to grow into a quality KR.
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Stylistically none of our other RBs that have a shot at making the roster can return kicks…before Barner, I assumed the 3rd RB was Polk vs. Tuck, but now that Huff is down for the count we may have needed another capable KR…
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Wish we could know chips honest thoughts behind the aquisition if Barner, curious to know what he expects to get from this move? Is Barner here to compete with Tuck and Polk for the #3 RB spot, or will we keep one of the big backs AND keep Barner as a 4th RB and KR?
Re: TLong at (occasional) ILB
Paging D3FB . . .
Your thoughts on the challenges Long — or any OLB — faces when moving inside to improve versatility?
ILBs are inside, obviously, so things happen more quickly — and, as you wrote a few days back, lots of mental checks have to be made.
But your full treatment is welcomed.
ALSO — how do read the Birds giving Long some inside time?
Long isn’t the only LB that is being cross trained.. I know of ATleast 4 LBs who are getting looks at both OLB and ILB this week…
Barner has been a successful player in a Chip Kelly system. There was a time when it was thought he would be an NFL start. I think this is a terrific move and really don’t understand anyone who doesn’t.
Philadelphia fans like to latch on to some pretty stupid ideas. If Andy Reid called someone a fastball… it was over for them with a bunch of fans. Now it seems like any Oregon players added are getting the same treatment.
T . . .
Compared to Oregon teammates LaMichael James and D’Anthony Thomas, Barner would rank third in efficacy — by a noticeable margin, I think.
Makes me think that chip really like smallish quick RB/KRs despite his big people and little people mantra.
I’m not sure what you’re saying. Seems most of us are calling Barner, someone who wasn’t going to make another nfl team, a camp body. Is more than that? I’m note sure what treatment he’s getting other than what’s expected of him.
Why would you assume that Barner wouldn’t find another team? Yeah, he was a 6th round pick, but RBs don’t have real draft value at the moment. He barely saw the field for the Panthers, but that’s because the Panthers pay their 3 RBs a ridiculous amount of cash. They are #3 in RB salaries behind the Eagles and the Vikings, and those two have the two best RBs at the moment. They are overpaying this position and therefore it’s no wonder he couldn’t see the field.
Nobody says that Barner will be a stud, but he was a good RB in Oregon, why shouldn’t he be a capable back-up here? If it turns out he sucks, ok, cut him. Not now, but in season or next offseason.
Fozzy Whitaker took his job, that’s why he’s not playing in Carolina.
Whitaker had that one good Preseason game, Barner hadn’t. That’s all.
If there wouldn’t be scheme familiarity, I’d maybe agree.
Would you have been as upset as you are (apparently) if we would have traded a 7th rounder for LMJ? He was better at college, but wasn’t good in San Fran either. And he has one more year in the league. People tend to forget that Barner was a Rookie last year.
i’m not upset. it’s a conditional 7th, they need someone with kr/pr and scheme familiarity. fluellen was injured and not making the team. i just don’t want people to think barner is better than he is.
Don’t think you have to worry about people thinking we got the next Jamaal Charles with a conditional 7th rd pick..
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I haven’t paid any attention to him since he made the NFL , so I have no opinion. All I can do is sit n wait and hope for a pleasant surprise
Because there are tons of good RB’s in college that never sniff an NFL field. Eagles are not(or should not be) thin at rb. With Polk hurt, the assumption is we need camp bodies. But if someone isn’t good enough to make a team, I’m not sure how well he can contribute here…
Why would it need to end? If the guy’s good enough, he’s good enough. Let’s see if Barner is Reno Mahe reincarnate AND makes the team before getting on Kelly. 7th round flyer is all they’re doing here.
If you are going to trade a 7th rd pick for a guy who isn’t a lock to make your roster, might be a good idea to get a kid who may be able to pick up some of your offense fast since we need to decide if he will make the roster in two weeks….
If he doesn’t make the roster, then they don’t give up the pick.
Yeah I know… But you still have to think that the guy has a realistic chance to make his mark with such a limited timeframe or there is no point even going thru the trouble…trading Fluellen also factored into the decision making I would assume.. I doubt these were two seperate moves that just popped up…assume these two trades were factored into the decision making process, instead on deciding on each of these moves individually
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We seem to have an eye for RB talent… Which makes it strange that we would waste time with that worthless cowboy trash “queen” Felix last summer
I was just saying that I think he has a chance to actually being a productive player in a Chip offense, even if just as a role player. Of course he could wind up being cut. I guess as the conditional 7th he would have to make the team for any compensation to go to the Panthers.
I do agree at some point the Oregon connection will die out, but that’s because every year away from there is a year he becomes less familiar with those players in his system. I think at this point there is no reason to look at Oregon players on the Eagles in a negative light.
Eagkes cut RB Fluellen.. Shame he got hurt, would have liked to see him play more than just the first game vs. The bears…
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4th preseason game where we don’t play the starters should be interesting.. Hope our RBs are all healthy for that game because I’d like an extended look at our young stable of talented RBs..
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I want Polk or Tuck on this roster. Be a shame if we cut Polk, but if we do, I will understand because it will be an injury thing… Shame, because if that kid can get healthy, I would expect him to have a nice year…
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Kid can catch for a big back, and I enjoy his tough style of running…. He also has developed into a little badass on ST.. Kid makes some nice ST tackles
Do you think they wanted to make room for another move? Why cut him now if you don’t want to? Do you think the six days until the first cuts would have harmed him in any way finding a new team?
Interesting…that finding a new team stuff is usually just for veterans, don’t hear that used often about UDFAs..
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Figure Phillips was cut to make room for Barner, and now Fluellen is gone…very well could be waiting for another shoe to drop.
The unspectacular version could be: we really wanted to give Phillips another chance, traded for Barner and cut Fluellen for Barners spot. But hey, it Howie has a quality ILB for a conditional 7th rounder in 2016, I won’t say no. 😉
Fluellen actually wasn’t cut. Now it’s reported we traded him for colts rookie kicker.
..,Finally some real fuckin pressure for Alex henrey.. Put that dude on notice… Jaywalking leg didn’t put pressure on anyone
So many running back trades with this team, send Brown to buffalo for a 4th, pick up Spoles for a 5th, send a conditional 7th for barner, send Fluellen for a kicker. Most RB transactions for the Eagles in an off season ever?
Right… Has to be most ever.. 4th preseason game is going to be interesting. Figure Polk, Tucker, Barner and Jose all play a quarter each in the last game, if they are all healthy of course….
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Anyone hear the status for Tucker, is he playing Thursday? Dying to see Polk play, but he won’t go tomorrow
The eagles aren’t just cross training Long… They are doing it with all the fringe roster spot linebackers to see if versatility can break the tie for backups I assume… long, Casey Mathews, kadu and I’m pretty sure Acho are ALL cross training between ILB and OLB this week
It’s a shame there is no tie in this universe Casey Matthews should be breaking – but maybe he still does.
This cockroach really might survive again… Grrrr ATleast Initially.
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What’s going to happen is eagles will take advantage of jake Knott’s suspension in that keeping him won’t count against the 53 man roster while he is suspended…so whoever wins the 4th ILB spot to start the season, is basically going to have an extra month of tryout in September, and when Knotts suspension is over, we will decide if we think Knott is better or if that #4 ILB surprised us and if we would rather keep him than bring Knott back….but because Knott doesn’t count against the roster while suspended, no reason to decide his fate yet..
Sadly, they couldn’t see Knott this year. He made no Preseason game so far. That’s more bad news than the suspension, I guess.
True dat… What’s up with his injury status anyway? When is he due back?
I believe that once they practice they are ineligible for the PUP list.
I do not think there is a cap on IR, but it needs to be a real injury and the player needs to agree to it. If you try to get too cute using it to stash players, it will be investigated. If a player thinks he can make a roster, he will balk at the idea.
Gotcha…thanks.
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Any of our players look like realistic IR possibilities?
I know reports say otherwise, but from watching the hit, Huff.
It did look really bad
headline on philly.com – Sacks no big deal for Cox
this just in, i’m 7 years old and i think this is funny.
One of my all time favs concerning Cox is a quote from Washburn: “When God made Cox, he was supposed to play in this system. [the Wide 9]” Well, when God made Cox, he probably had something else in mind.
Both God and Washburn probably had “penetrating” in mind for Cox
Fluellen wasn’t cut. He was traded to the Colts for kicker Cody Parkey. Led the nation in touchbacks last year.
Finally put some pressure on Alex
college nation in touchbacks
Yeah I don’t get why people complain about all the Oregon players, when in reality they are the safest additions we can make, no projecting involved, coach knows everything there is to know about them already…. Adding them last summer, I understand having a problem with it because coach had no NFL experience… But now that he has seen the league up close, better understanding of what works and what doesn’t work in the NFL, and what it takes io succeed, im get excited everytime we add an Oregon player because 99%’he will be, exactly what are coach expected him to be when he decided to add him……
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I do start to wonder if last years draft really pissed Chip off. Miami traded ahead of us for Jordan, Kyle long didn’t make it out of round 1, Kiko went round 2…. Got the impression that he went into this draft wanting to make sure he didn’t miss out on the Oregon players he wanted…
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Anyone know what happened to Oregons Biseko Lokombo?
GE:
Want an example that confirms your theory . . . that Kelly wouldn’t miss out on the guys he wanted in the 2014 draft?
The Birds moved up — very far — to ensure they drafted JMatthews. Just a few picks after MLee went off the board to JAX. I seem to remember that rumors had Lee ahead Matthews on the Eagles’ board. Maybe, maybe not.
But the point is, no way was Kelly getting robbed again . . . Oregon connection aside.
Good point…
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Also how Chip credited Howie knowing when guys would get picked. Chip wanted to take Hart at the beginning of round 4 but Howie promised him he would still be on the board for us on the 5th so we were able to use the 4th on watkins
sweet move
That’s nice team work from our HC and GM….
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Our “war” room is probably a lot less Dysfunctional now, then when banners ego was in that room and Andy Reid had to give certain picks to that miserable miser to make….lol the room probably smells better now too
I believe Lokombo went undrafted and went to the CFL.
Question about how IR works:
..Example Colt Lyerla..
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He got injured, out for the year, packers cut him. I saw a report saying packers are hoping he clears waivers so they can stick him on IR… The guy is injured for the year, what else can you do with him besides sticking him on IR? Why would anyone else pick him up before he cleared waivers and the pack can IR him? What would a team that would steal him from the Packets who want to IR do with Lyerla? Why would a team pick up someone’s injured player, what could they do with him other then IR him? I don’t get what a teams other options are?
They could stick him on the roster, IR and therefor have him on your roster next year.
So a team would have to like an injured player so much that they put him on the 53 man roster all year to steal an injured player away from the team sticking him on IR?
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For example, if we wanted to steal Lyerla now, we would have to count him as one of our 53 all year? I assume we can’t steal him and then IR him because how would the be fair for the packers? Why would they have to cut him and hope he clears waivers to be able to stick him on IR?
Nah, if we picked up Lyerla, we could just put him on IR.
My comment about roster was more about how some players my hit IR, but might be able to play in week 8.
The Patriots “stole” Jake Ballard from the Giants and did something similar this year with an injured player where they picked him up on the wire.
So the Rotoworld report must have been wrong.. That the packers are hoping Lyerla clears waivers so they can IR him…because it makes no sense for why they have to waive a player and hope no one claims him to put him on IR, yet we can just pick him up and stick him on IR…..if we can just claim him and IR him, the report about the pack has to be wrong
Before the final roster cut down, if a team wants to IR a player to open a roster spot (on the 90 man roster), the team needs to put him through waivers and any team can snag him and put him on their roster. After the rosters are cut down to 53, anyone can get put on IR without going through waivers and not count as a roster spot.
So, if the Eagles wanted Colt Lyerla, they could put in a waiver claim for him and he would count against their roster limit until they cut down to 53, when they could IR him and free up that spot again for the season.
Good stuff. So, the Packers are “hoping” he makes it through waivers, but only a little. If they really cared, they would have made due with 89 players until cuts.
Does that sound about right?
Exactly. They would like him to make it through waivers so they can keep him for next year, but it wasn’t worth one of their 90 roster spots to them.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Actually, not exactly right. It wasn’t worth having to cut somebody else and risking them getting picked up. You see, Lyerla would have to be on the 53, so whoever your last cut was would be exposed at that point. If nobody signed them, then you could stash Lyerla and re-sign them, but more risky than exposing a guy who can’t play this year.
Except if that somebody was a vested veteran they wouldn’t have to pass through waivers, so the team could officially cut them for the day without having to worry about them being poached by another team. I believe we did this with Avant a few years back.
Oh Ok… Thank you for the clarity
I think Matthews makes it again. No backup LBs really stand out and he’s the best special teamer of the group.
I also think Graham is going to get traded or cut. It shocked the crap out of me to see him be demoted to the third team defense against the Patriots. The message is clear to me: Travis Long will be the #4 OLB. The fact that Long is being cross-trained for ILB tells me Chip is inclined to keep him. IMO Graham is a much better player than Long could ever hope to become. Long does absolutely nothing on pass rush. If Graham got the same reps Cole does, he could easily have around 10 sacks per season, if not more. The problem is Chip values “jack of all trades” OLBs more than very good pass rushers who struggle in coverage. It seems completely asinine to me, but that’s how Chip values the position. I think Graham will be gone and he’ll be the next Chris Clemons for some other team who becomes an elite pass rusher for them.
I have said long was a real threat to BG since April, but I don’t think the snap count in the last game meant anything. I actually expect it to be balanced out in the next game. If last games distribution of snaps between those two meant anything, than Long will still play ahead of BG tomorrow because Long played well in the last game. It’s not like he got a bunch of reps against the pats first team and choked. So if Long was ahead of BG last week when he played ahead of him vs. The pats! then he is still ahead of BG now and that will be reflected in tomorrow’s snap distribution…. But I don’t expect that to happen.
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While I do think there is a real chance long takes his spot! I think the last game was just wanting to see what long could do against starters and this weeks game we will play BG ahead of long and try to get Graham snaps against the Steelers ones…
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I would really be ready to go all out and say the roster spot is Long’s but one thing bothers me… I find it hard to believe that we would cut a guy we drafted and has been with us for years so late in August… If we cut BG I expect us to try and do right by him and cut him early in the process if we couldn’t trade him…
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Hopefully Howie has had an offer on the table for BG for a while now, and the only reason we haven’t traded him is because Howie is trying to get more value, one of those cases where if Howie can’t find a better trade, he will pull the trigger on the deal he has had on the table…
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It makes more sense to me than seeing us cut BG right before the season starts…I don’t care much about long for this season, but he is one of those young players who I would like to see what they can grow into with a year of coaching before we decide to cut him and let another franchise get their hands on him… Like Marcus Smith, the way he was used in college translates well to what we do on defense. Experienced pass rusher standing up and with his hand in the dirt
Re: Graham on 3rd Team v. Pats
Post-game story, at least at Graham told it, was his back was flaring up and he finally got it loose in the 2nd half.
“I also think Graham is going to get traded or cut.”
Why? He was very good in both preseason games.
Yeah if we keep BG, we can def use his pass rush on 3rd down.. People love to dwell about how BG and Vinny aren’t fits for our base defense, but they tend to leave out the part where Curry and BG happen to be the absolute PERFECT FITS for our nickel defense when we play 4 man lines…everyone likes to point out that they are suited to play on 4 man lines, but they leach it the fact that it’s exactky what we need on the money down aka 3rd down which is one of the most crucial aspects of defensive success…3rd down conversion percentage is everything!!
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I will enjoy having Curry and BG as long as we have left with them, the problem isn’t now with them…the problem is we can’t extend their contracts long term and we won’t be able to outbid 4-3 teams to keep them…
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IF BG isn’t on our team this year, I don’t think it will have anything to do with his play…if BG isn’t here, it means that Travis Long looked good, so good that we don’t want to lose a young player like him who we have under contract for Brandon Graham who we know for a fact will leave us at the end of the year…
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I don’t really see it as BG vs. Long… The reality is Long is competing with himself.. He either plays well enough to make us not want to lose him, or BG will be back and we get to enjoy his pass rush in a backup role on 3rd down for a year, and then lose him…we prob end up with an OK compensatory pick.
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Think BGs eagle future is all in Longs hands, unless a team offers juicy value for him, then we would take the value regardless of how long looks, extra draft pick is better then losing him in January for nothing
Good for Fluellen. Given the troubles the Colts have at RB, he might actually get some playing time.
On Cody Parkey, if you’re going to try to replace Henry, then you’ll have to bite the bullet at some point on somebody a little less accurate than him (at least historically). If you’re waiting to find a kicker more accurate than the one that has the accuracy record in college, he’s not coming. Maybe Parkey is it. But it’s getting to that point where Henry is not it.
CS . . .
You’re dead on.
Big legged kickers who hit with regularity from 45-55 are NOT available.
Surprised the Niners didn’t come calling for a RB…
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I’d bet a few teams have their eyes on our RBs to see which we cut…I really don’t want to lose Polk but I don’t feel like putting up with an injury ROLLERCOASTER… ATleast we aren’t waiting on that shoulder of his again
Here’s the link to NFL.com’s scouting report on K Cody Parker.
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/cody-parkey?id=2543694
Reads like a lesser version of Henery coming out of Nebraska.
except Cody is also very good on KOs and most of his misses was from 50+ any way
that’s not what the scouting report says.
just saying.
This means “jaywalking leg” is going to get cut, no?
…
If Spears,gets cut, what’s the next shoe to drop? Then again we don’t neccessarily have to replace people we cut since we have to get the roster down soon anyway
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Over and unders for Cary Spears cutting cut is 31 hours which would be midnight tmrw after the game… Anyone like the unders? Lol
“Jaywalking leg” . . . best I’ve seen in weeks.
That what his stats say.
Cody lead college in touchbacks (so really good on KOs) and he was almost 100% inside 50 (think he had 1 blocked and missed 1), but only 1-5 on long FGs (over 50)
Man, Anders, you really led me to a more positive thinking – despite you like to defend Henery sometimes. 😉
I read that on 24/7:
“His long in college was from 52 yards. He was 1-for-2 in the BCS National Championship against Florida State last season, making a 22-yarder but missing from 33 yards out.”
And thought: what’s going on with Howie? But if you put it like you put it, he at least sounds like a better prospect than Spears – which isn’t that hard, to be honest.
On one hand, I don’t ever remember seeing an eagles team hurt worse by kickoffs than us last year. So going and getting the kid with the most touchbacks in the nation is about the best I could realistic ask for..
….
But on the other hand, the kid missed a 32 yard FG in a BCS championship game… Alex missed 3 FGs IMO from 40 – 49 last year and I feel like that’s horrible…am I over reacting over missing 3? I just feel like an NFL kicker should be automatic under 50 yards, is missing 3 kicks in that range as bad as I think it is, or am I over reacting and it’s more common then I think?…
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Numbers and percentages Alex has always been good… Besides kickoffs I feel like his problem is the lack of “clutch gene”..
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You gotta feel for Chip. He watched the kid kick well all offseason, as soon as you get to games, he hits his foot on the ground and messes up his kick… Never felt confidence having Alex during any important kicks, and now his new competition missed a 33 yard kick in a championship game? Not surprised it only cost us a UDFA RB
remember when we had a kicker that made the all-decade team and we didn’t have to worry about this shit, man i miss akers
Holding out hope that Phylbin doesn’t get his head out of his ass, and doesn’t let Dion Jordan play linebacker at all this year, Dion struggles again and we can trade Curry for Dion next offseason…
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But another dream Scenario would be Vinny curry having 6-8 sacks as a 3rd down pass rusher this year, the bengals get over the hump and make it to say the conference title game but Margus hunt struggles all year to develop so after making the conference title game they fancy themselves as Super Bowl contenders next year, take Vinny Currys sure thing at 4-3DE and get sick of waiting for Margus to develop…love to see Azzinaro get his violent hands on the Estonian
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If we can’t trade him for the OLB we need, with Cole and BG not going to be here next year we should move Vinny to predator for the last year on his contract, as a last desperate attempt to see if he can be a Longterm fit for us since we all know that if he plays DE again for us next year, it will be his last year in philly…
I think T.Cole will restructure to stay.
Hard to say. He’s a team player, for sure, but there are plenty of 4-3 teams that would overpay him for two or three years. If he can get it, he should take it. Last chance at an NFL payday.
Depends on his options…I don’t rule it out, but it don’t count on it either,.,because we aren’t going to ask him to take some tiny pay cut…it’s probably going to be a pretty significant pay cut…of course it’s possible that he wants to end his career competing for a SB under Chip, but he would have to be ok with a big pay cut, and probably going from starter, to some situational pass rusher role
Wow… I just missed my stop, didn’t get off the train, distracted reading about our new pedestrian kicker…. Considering no other team has 3 kickers, this can’t be good…. Kick In my nuts to miss my stop over this…smh. .
Read the comments from Anders, it will make you feel better, mate. I was totally down at the beginning, but if you put his stats up the way Anders does, he maybe is no Casey Spear after all, despite missing that 33 Yarder at the CCG.
What I don’t get is: how can you be good with Kickoffs and bad with long FGs? It has to be a technique thing, hasn’t it? I mean the leg strenght is there if you lead College in touchbacks and perform those well in the NFL Preseason.
Hearing he has a problem with hang time on kickoffs, and he is prone to kick some line drives…
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When you have 3 kickers on your roster, it’s probably not a very good sign…
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The good part is we finally acknowledging that we have a damn problem, which is the first step lol… If we traded for a FG kicker this late in the preseason, you can bet your ass it’s a fluid situation and that we will have our eyes on some of the other kicker battles around the league and the waiver wire…
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So while I’m not thrilled about who this kicker is, we finally have hope that we aren’t just going to settle for Alex’s bullshit anymore… Better late then never
Well said.
I’ve come close to missing train stops so many times but have yet to do so. Even when I fall asleep I seem to wake up just in time.
Didn’t feel Iike waiting for the next train, cost me. $30 In cab…SMH…
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Not used to this 4 hour per day train commute,,
Where are you commuting to?
Reading this, I feel safer on the road. With the volume of posts you provide, a little piece of me worried that one day you would be doing so while driving a vehicle coming towards me. A job and a 4- hour train ride probably means you don’t need to post while driving.
Polk revealed he suffered a grade 2 partial hamstring tear the second day of camp…really like the way this young kid runs, and how he turned into a special teams badass..hope,this isn’t the end of his eagles career, but I don’t feel very good about it
So Pittsburgh’s starting backfield (Bell and Blount) were busted for weed…
Probably looked something like this
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvhVb_TIAAAoCBF.jpg
i don’t condone drug use of any kind, but have to admit parts of that movie made me laugh out loud back then. R-A-A-L-L-F!!!
Wow, hard to believe a guy named Blount was smoking pot…
In other news, I heard a kicker named Lighter Spoon Syringe was just released. Wonder if we will have interest?
I would prefer to sign Kush Spleef…
I don’t get why athletes can’t smoke weed
Cn you imagine how good our special teams would be if we actually had a decent kicker abd return man?!?! Aruably the 2 most important positions for special teams and we dnt have much.
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