Trusting Chip
Posted: November 20th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 211 Comments »I use the phrase “I trust Chip Kelly” more than a few times. I think most of you read that and get what I’m saying. I’m sure some of you take that to mean blind obedience and a refusal to question him. That’s not the case at all.
I trust Chip because of his track record and his style of coaching. He was part of the staff that helped build New Hampshire into a I-AA football power. Chip then went to Oregon and had success as an assistant and as the head coach. He took Oregon to a level they’d never been to and the program has stayed there even the past couple of years due to his foundation. Chip headed to the NFL where he is 17-9 and on pace to make the playoffs 2 years in a row.
Beyond winning, his teams have all kinds of statistical accomplishments. Chip isn’t winning based on fiery speeches, luck or grit. He knows how to develop outstanding units that can operate at a record-setting level. That isn’t an accident when you do it for more than a decade.
Beyond results, Kelly gets style points. He hires good assistants. His players love him. Kelly is open to being questioned on why he does things. Andy Reid’s obsession with the passing game made sense to him and a very small minority of coaches that worship the forward pass. The rest of the world was utterly confounded. Chip wants the right results. He doesn’t care if the team runs or throws. He wants to score points. He asks logical questions and then follows the line of thinking to the logical conclusion.
Chip has definitive reasons behind just about everything he does. There is a plan. There is a method. Success isn’t an accident.
So when fans start to grumble about something…Chip can’t beat good teams or Chip doesn’t know how to draft or Chip can’t handle star players…a lot of times I mention that I trust Chip.
The most precious commodity for a coach is time. He needs time to implement his ideas. He needs time to adjust the roster the way he wants it. He needs time to develop young players. He needs time to mold the team how he wants it. And so on. We are only 1.63 years into the Chip Kelly Era. So far, he’s done nothing but win.
Are there concerns with the Eagles? Yes, absolutely. I just think we need some perspective at times. Eagles fans are desperate to win the Super Bowl. But that takes time. Pete Carroll won in his 4th season in Seattle (8th overall as NFL head coach). John Harbaugh won the SB in his 5th year with the Ravens. Mike McCarthy won in his 5th year with the Packers. Sean Payton won in his 4th year with the Saints. Noticing a trend?
Coaches need time to figure out what is working and what isn’t. The good ones adjust. Chip isn’t married to one single idea. He has made adjustments to his schemes over the years. He will tweak things to get the best results. And there will be some problems along the way.
It is fair to question the past couple of drafts.I don’t think anyone will have issues with Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz or Bennie Logan. After that, things are less impressive. The Eagles tried to trade up into the 3rd round to get Matt Barkley, but had to wait for the 4th to take him. Barkely hasn’t played enough to be called a bust, but he hasn’t played well enough in the offseason or at Training Camp to even push for a job. After him you have Earl Wolff, Joe Kruger, Jordan Poyer and David King. Wolff has NFL ability but injuries have ruined this season for him. The other 3 are gone from the Eagles and never impressed all that much.
A lot of people are questioning the Marcus Smith pick from this past draft. Josh Huff is someone that fans love to rip. Jaylen Watkins, Taylor Hart and Ed Reynolds are total wild cards right now. The best players are 2nd rounder Jordan Matthews and 7th rounder Beau Allen.
Howie Roseman runs the drafts, but he is taking players that Chip wants. Remember that Matthews, Watkins and Reynolds all came to Philly on visits and wowed the coaches in their pre-draft visits. That had some effect on their grade or where they were placed on the board. Matthews has clearly panned out (future star), but the other two are huge question marks. Should Kelly focus as much on how the players did with showing football knowledge on pre-draft visits? This is a fair question.
Chip and Howie will evaluate how they’re doing things. They’ll look for trends, both good and bad. They want to get this right. All teams miss on some picks. The draft is an inexact science. The key is to limit your mistakes and hit on your early picks.
Think about big games. The Eagles lost at Denver last year. They lost at Green Bay this year. They lost in the playoffs last year. There were very close losses at SF and ARZ. Is there something Chip needs to do differently? Does he need to mix in a fiery speech on occasion? Does he need to be more aggressive (onside kicks, fake punts, going for it on 4th downs, etc.)? Those are all fair questions. Chip won big games at Oregon, but this is the NFL. Maybe he does need to mix things up. Maybe more psychology is required.
As for star players, Chip had to deal with Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson in 2013. Both were unhappy in the offseason, but Vick changed his tune very quickly. He didn’t want to have to win the QB job. Once he moved past that as an issue, Vick went and won the job. Problem over. There wasn’t one issue with Jackson, but clearly he didn’t fit with the culture that Chip was trying to establish. I’m sure Chip learned from the experience. He’ll have to deal with a diva WR or CB at some point in the future. Hopefully that situation will go better.
Chip is not a perfect coach. But he is smart and he’s open-minded. Guys like that tend to learn from mistakes and situations that don’t work out as hoped. Most of his decisions have proven to be right the first time around. As for getting the other situations fixed…I trust him.
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defensivley? no. he is kinda hamstrung with these CBs and nate allen.
injuries hasnt ruined wolffs season.. the fact that HE cant deal with little injuries is the real problem.. he is what we call in the streets.. a pussy. jussayin’
Huh?
If anything, him being placed on IR for a knee lesion confirms that he was indeed injured and needed to heal.
nah, he has said himself that he has had lil nagging injuries and that they dont want him out there if he cant go 100%, try to pay attention to whats really going on fam.
and WOLFF has the final say if he can play, so when he says THEY he really means “ME”
tell’em tommy.. handle my light work. lol
When asked specifically what the knee injury is, Wolff said: “a lesion, in my knee, kind of like between the bone.”
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2014/11/18/eagles-place-earl-wolff-injured-reserve/#lKImZXKX87LutHuh.99
yeah whatever.. he cant play thru it.. so..
Should we call demeco a wuss for not playing through a ruptured Achilles as well?
no, thats a rather silly question.
you call Wolff a wuss and call his explanation weak sauce yet everybody except you agrees that a knee lesion isnt something you just play trough
well, to be fair it something earll wolff cant play thru.. second year in a row he cant play thru injuries real football players play thru….
No real football player plays trough an injury that required surgery
you speak in absolutes….
`yeah whatever.`
insightful, well thought out, very articulate
and very brave of you to put it all out there for the internet world to learn and benefit from the wealth of knowledge that is you…we`re all extremely anxious to read more, and the real Chip Kelly now knows who to turn to when question the health of a player on his team arises.
earl woff is weak… cant play thru injuries… malcome jenkins looks down on him in disgust
Charlie Kelly – He must be Greg Oden.
Or Wolverine
10 minutes of research supports the idea that he had the lesions last year, they didn’t catch them on the MRI (because apparently you have to be more or less specifically looking for them). The doctors could not find any structural damage, and cleared him. Wolff was still in pain because he had the injury, and could not perform. Finally after almost a year with no improvement the DR’s finally found the root cause of the problem.
So either you think Earl is a wuss (which is so internet tough guy it hurts), and somehow fabricated a story about an injury that perfectly lines up with the facts, despite the fact he majored in sports management, not any kind of biology or exercise science.
OR
You back off this childish commenting spree, stop insisting you are tougher than Wolff, take two seconds to logically apply the facts to the matter, realize you’re wrong, and shut up.
weak sauce
dick
As D3FB said above, you’re an internet tough guy – so, just shut up unless you’ve seen the doctor’s report.
dont need to.. wolff decided he wasnt man enough.. nuff said
Go home Charlie, you’re drunk. Looking for this guy?
http://youtu.be/zKhEw7nD9C4
From Explorer51 on 24/7 yesterday:
“Actually, the way he describes it “between the bone” may be a lesion on the meniscus (otherwise known as cartilage); it’s not unusual for this to only show up on MRIs and it is not only painful but it can be totally debilitating. If you research this a bit, you will see that treatment includes surgery but it is really dependent on the grade of injury. Perhaps the concerns and confusion can be traced back to the severity of the injury, which isn’t always readily apparent.
I’ve been critical of Wolff but I admit I have to take a step back; his body may have been telling him one thing and the medical folks just didn’t see it and he ended up trying to play through a worsening injury. Hopefully, he and the doctors are now in sync and the knee will be treated properly.”
…from…. who? explorer51 ?? sounds like one big excuse to me..
Wolff him self said it was a lession in the knee, so any body can read up on it. Fact is it is super painful and can rob players of explosion
No.
u meant, Yes.
He’s a sheep in wolff’s clothing
he has a lesion on his knee
he has a wittle wession…. n cant play thrun it..
He had surgery for it dummy, sounds more than a wuss move if it required surgery. You’re probably the only wuss here to speak of. Microfracture surgery. I think you need brain surgery, perhaps a lobotomy would do you well.
denim chicken?
Oh Andy, I remember this story…
This is awesome:
https://twitter.com/ESPNNFL/status/535655141681033216
The nfl is crazy
Here’s something I made up in my head, but I think it could be possible: The Eagles wanted Jordan Matthews as their first pick, and wanted Marcus Smith as their second pick. Then Howie went to Chip and said, “Look, we aren’t going to get Smith with our second pick, but I am reasonably sure Matthews will still be on the board.” So they switched ’em.
Something like that is possible.
With the draft thing, people have tried to give Howie the benefit of the doubt but the guy has had one good draft since he became GM, 2011. 2013 could end up being good but ertz can’t displace Celek when we are dying for another offensive playmaker In the passing game bc Cooper (Howie extension) is God awful. Logan and Johnson are hits. And Barkley, I can’t get through a thought without wanting to punch something bc of what a waste of a pick he was.
Marcus Smith was a terrible use of resources and they are basically admitting it out loud right now. The guy is either an idiot that can’t learn the playbook, or is so bad that he will end up a third year cut like Danny Watkins. Sure, maybe he gets better….magically…without playing…without game situations…without building any rapport with his defensive teammates…with no confidence from his coaches. He thinks his head is swimming now? Just wait til he’s making no impact again next season, then gets to play finally and gets his ass handed to him over and over and over and he has nothing to fall back on.
The defense needed secondary help, and there was secondary help available but we took a guy who literally can’t beat out an UDFA to contribute on special teams. Project or not, that is a terrible look for the player and the GM that took him.
Can you really evaluate draft picks after less than 2 years?
No
First off let’s throw out 2011. Andy was almost certainly strongly in charge of the draft. In addition to that, Free Agency hadn’t occurred, causing the draft to be different than most drafts as team kind of had to fill needs because they weren’t sure what they could get in free agency.
Also if you are going to criticize the Cooper contract, why do you not simultaneously look at the value of players such as Barwin, Sproles, Demeco, and Jenkins?
Ertz is a good player. Despite the fact he’s not playing the majority of the snaps, he still has the 14th most receiving yards at the position. Ertz needs time to develop his blocking game.
If you become so enraged over a 4th round pick, who have about a 50-50 shot of ever really developing into anything anyways, that you can not think about him without becoming enraged to the point of punch things, I would suggest therapy or some kind of yoga/meditation.
As far as your Smith criticism, I quite literally don’t know where to begin.
1. Do you understand NFL playbooks? I’m not talking you can totally beat all your friends at madden because of your “sick defensive playcalling bruh”. An actual NFL playbook.
2. He was moved to inside linebacker. Because you clearly do not understand how a defense works, I will try to use small words. That is a different position than OLB in the 3-4. It’s not something he’s ever done consistently before. It’s about as similar as asking Kelce to play TE, and then wondering why he isn’t starting.
3. Danny Watkins failed in football not because of a lack of talent or physical ability. Danny Watkins failed in football because Danny Watkins decided that he didn’t like football very much, and all of the grueling hours or preparation it takes.
4. You are right, players only get better by playing games on Sunday. That’s why you see young players routinely improve between one season and the next. It’s all the NFL starts they are getting in Feb-June. If only fans were smart enough to realize this. Film study, whiteboard work, practice, a full time strength and conditioning program, proper nutrition, are all just media creations.
5. All the other players all hate Marcus. This is because he doesn’t start. They beat him up and haze him. If he started they would get along with him. They would form a boy band and tour the world together in the offseason, solving hunger and fascism through their harmonies.
6. The deal he signed is worth $6.3 million guaranteed. I think he has something to “fall back on”.
The secondary did need help. I would contend with your argument that there was secondary help available. From pick 23 (our original spot) to the end of the 2nd round the following DB’s were selected.
Dennard: Has played fewer snaps than MSII
Verett: Is the same height as Boykin, shorter arms and smaller hands
Buchannon: Has tight hips, can’t play man, not a scheme fit.
Ward: Small. Has played poorly for the 49ers.
Roby: Poor Tackler, Bad Character, got trashed by good route runner
Joyner: Smaller. Lacks position. Ran slow.
Oh and the top DB taken, Justin Gilbert, has been benched for a UDFA, not on special teams, on defense.
Serenity Now. Upvote.
One of the most cogent arguments ever posted. You ,sir ,get a GOLD star. Full disclosure. Justin Gilbert was my man crush in the draft..so i really don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing smith. i still think both will turn out to be good players though.
In fairness.. Justin’s struggles don’t mean he is destined to be a bad pick, some kids make the transition quicker than others, but that doesn’t mean anything….
Gilbert could go on to become a great CB especially having a studlike oe Haden To learn from. Just because other rookie CB are playing and Justin isnt, doesn’t mean Gilbert won’t go on to grow into a top CB from this draft class.
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People need to get it in their head that rookie production isnt the end all be all… It can be very misleading…
yep, there’s a reason those rookie contracts last longer than a year. You draft for that first contract, if not a player’s career arc if they’re special enough, not first-year impact.
just…
http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/slow_clap_citizen_kane.gif
what are you talking about? Marcus had an entire month to learn ILB a new position, this kid can’t even learn to play a brand new position well enough to play it at an NFL level in a month, clearly he is destined to be garbage 😉
The Cooper contract was ridiculous b/c he isn’t good and I have a hard time believing he would have gotten similar money elsewhere, especially considering the locker room issues with signing him to a new team. 5M/year for a slow bottom tier #2 WR with one solid year? Why?
Ertz is a a good player, I agree. And if the OL wasn’t getting hit left and right with injuries I’m sure he’d see the field more. But that isn’t where we are, and while the Backups have performed their duty well in general, Celek is essentially a 6th OL most of the time.
The “hit something” comment is more along the lines of hitting the table with a fist and just saying “Man, why?” Barkley was a wasted pick. They traded up for him, otherwise I wouldn’t care. Tough to say he’s terrible with such little playing time, but it isn’t like we should expect much right? Wasn’t much in the 4th that year anyway.
Go as in depth as you want. Wasn’t the fact he played in such a multiple defense in college supposed to be a positive? They constantly mention that he is smart, and I don’t doubt them, but now he is basically getting called out whenever he’s mentioned to Chip or Davis. Forgive me if I don’t take that as a good sign.
Sure guys get better in the offseason all the time, but isn’t at least part of that built off of experience, which he has essentially none of?
I always feel compelled to post this when someone starts harping on “a first round pick should be…”:
http://eaglesrewind.com/2013/03/20/1st-round-breakdown/
As noted in the post, there’s a HUGE drop off, on average, after pick 15 – the “1st round” is really picks 1-15 in the normal year. And if you’re looking to get an impact player at one of the premier positions in the league – QB or pass rusher – and you’re not in the top 15, you need to take gambles on developmental players or settle for one-dimensional players with serious flaws. That’s just the facts. It’s WAAAAY too early to start evaluating the Smith pick. Then, you take a look at Pittsburgh’s history with drafting LBs for this 2-gap defense, and you can see that they often wait a year or two before they become starters. Kelly’s been pretty strident that he thinks it’s funny that people obsess over the draft and how rookies are doing, and that becoming an NFL player is a project. Weird how people still doubt what Kelly says about his philosophies. His stuff about “culture” is part of this too – it’s not about having angels on the team, it’s about having professionals who treat their game as a craft. For all the whining about Ertz, I think Kelly’s done a great job with him, because he’s getting production, but clearly still has Ertz busting it to get better at blocking. The biggest problem with this team all year has been, and continues to be, the OL. QBs can’t the ball to Ertz down the seam when they’re on their backs consistently. If the OL gets its act together, Ertz’s snaps will go up; alternatively, if Ertz has improved his blocking, his snaps will go up regardless. Right now, Kelly needs to shore up the sieve that his OL has become, and Celek and to a lesser extent Casey are better at that than Ertz.
Would you trade Marcus Smith & Jordan Matthews for Kyle Fuller?
(Recognizing its very early to ask that type of question, but also factoring in position scarcity)
Is your glass half fuller or half emptier.
Ugh. Fuller was my favorite player. Is blah blah blah I don’t do hypothetical because this one is hard, an acceptable answer?
YES! I have a hard time with it, but I think I would. I hope I’m wrong.
stacks on stacks on stacks on stacks of logic
Smith will BE awesome…get a clue, another typical philadelphia donkey
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And to whoever asked me if I’m not worried that Marvus can’t even play Special teams… Use your brains donkeys..chip addressed it this week. he can’t long snap, can’t be a gunner or personal protector, we only use 3 players with his body type on special teams, how can we play Marvus on teams, when 3 players with his body type ahead of him, Chip called some of the best ST players in the league: Braman, Burton, James Casey..l. Heck BG has played like a BEAST on ST, and there is no room for him
…
Takes a real jackass to let instant gratification rule their thinking. I dId my homework on the kid predraft, he will grow into a fantastic OLB that this city loves, shame that fakes fans aka Donkeys, have been shitting on this young man since the moment he got drafted. Bad enough he is trying to make a very difficult transition, he has an entered brand new city crapping on him….. Can’t stand this stupid fanbase. I should be a fraud like Maggie and just switch teams after like 30 years and start rooting for someone else out of the blue lol
If he was progressing how they wanted/expected, I doubt he’d be getting called out whenever he comes up in PCs. “We can’t trust him” Is not the same as “he’s progressing.” I don’t normally get irked by draft picks, but the guy has shown and done nothing. Can’t get him on the field in a 40 pt blowout? That’s more than “isn’t comfortable in the D” yet.
I was just about to edit my statement to tell you not to take it to heart, I was speaking about our fanbase as a whole, not anyone in partcular. I blame our media more than anything…. If I knew Marcus wasn’t making it out of the top 50, then the media should stop crapping on this kid, turning fans against him because Kiper evaluati him wrong and said he was a 3rd rounder.
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I was worried about the Cowboys taking Marcus in the top 20… I wanted the Eagles to trade back twice, and take Marcus at the beginning of round two, clearly Howie did his homework and knew if we traded back a second time, the Carinals would have stolen him, and the skins were hot on him too…. Why in the world is our media taking that hack Kipers word over multiple NFL GMs that viewed him as a pick in the 25-30 range?
Those are the same donkeys that thought Sanchez should be our starting QB because of his mad skillz in pre-season!
Apologies for nit picking, wasn’t it the 2012 draft that I assume you’re referring to as Howies “one good draft”? Kendricks, Foles,Cox etc etc…
“And Barkley, I can’t get through a thought without wanting to punch something bc of what a waste of a pick he was.”
That statement makes me wanna be your friend.
Carrol. Harbaugh, Payton…none of them won until they found their QB Tommy, The coaching cemetery is littered with the corpses of coaches who fell shoet because they could never find the right guy at QB. Even the great belichick didn’t win until he landed brady. So chip might be the most brilliant coach in history but he’ll never win the big one if he dos have THE guy ant QB Foles and Sanchise are clearly not the answer. So howie and kelly better figure out the whole QB situation first or chip will just be another sad coaching story of a guy a great guy, with innovative ideas but never could take his team to the promise land.
That’s why this year’s draft is paramount for the iggles. it takes 2-3 years for a young QB to truly develop. So a QB picked in this years draft would theoretically be at the helm in chips 4-5th year. Would the iggles trade the farm for mariotta?..stay tuned!
The Eagles would need a lot of luck to have a shot at Mariotta. We’ll have a pick in the 20s. The Jets will have a high pick and could take him. The Bucs will have a high pick and could take him. Maybe the Skins will shock us and take him.
Mariotta is the longest of long shots to make the Eagles.
I do agree that Kelly needs the right QB. Might be Foles or Sanchez, but also might not be those guys.
If I had to bet on the eagles drafting a QB this year, I’d probably give Hundley the best odds (factoring in where we pick of course)…. But I don’t expect us to draft any QBs this year because I think chips #1 priority is trying to have both Sanchez and FOles for another year(if he can pull it off)…if that holds true, we would have to be ready to give up on Barkley to draft another QB and I’m not sure they are ready to give up on him.
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Us fans want instant gratification, but I doubt smart coaches would give up on young QBs a year and a half after drafting them…. I assume Barkley will get ATleast 1 more training camp as an eagle before we give up on him, unless someone makes a good offer, but why would anyone do that?
Chips #1 priority should be to man the QB position with someone who ‘HE” believes will lead this team to a championship. Foles ihas a commendable work ethic but has an average arm, questionable mechanics and comical athletic ability. Sanchez is who is . A quality back up QB, there is no shame in that. Both have shown that they are not going to help us compete against the elite teams which barricade the road the the SB. Our O line is aging ( see peters best tackle in football) so we don’t have the luxury of time to sit around playing musical chairs at the QB position. I’m not saying mariotta is the answer because he has played as many NFL games as i have, but it’s obvious that neither Foles nor Mark is besting Rodgers, Brady, Manning, Brees, Wilson on Sundays. You have to go through those guys to earn the Lombardi Trophy
Bet you that guy chip believes in is FOles… Bet beer, dinner NYTHING anyone wants…healthy Nick is CHIPS GUY….I also started to wonder, but I have heard a lot this week that re strengthens my faith
I think we’ll likely look at a QB, but more likely in the 2nd/3rd round. Of the current field Bryce Petty/Shane Carden (whilst imperfect) look like they might be interesting. I’d expect them to compete with Foles & a veteran we sign – might be Sanchez, might be Locker.
I hope not… see the situations in Atlanta and Washington. Trading away tons of valuable resources for one valuable resource is not a winning combination.
I think the Eagles might actually have more holes right now than Washington had when they made the RGIII trade. Eagles draft a QB 1st round, let alone trade multiple picks for one, I predict another 3 years before they’re legit contenders.
I agree, when I look at this team I see the most glaring needs in the secondary and the o-line. Plenty of folks won’t like this answer, but I think Foles is Chip’s QB for the at least the near future (2-3 years).
One safety (I’m less down on Nate Allen than many, but there’s no way you can say that the position is settled), at least one CB, ILB (at the very least, they need to improve the depth, but I’m worried about DeMeco’s ability to return from that injury, and they need to start grooming his replacement anyway), OLB (again, depth at least, likely more given Cole’s age and BG’s limited scheme fit/contract situation). Marcus Smith will hopefully address one of those starting LB issues, but the other one still exists.
OL is screaming for high picks in the near future to get some more youth. Peters is declining, slowly, but declining just the same. Mathis is getting old – any serious injury may be one he can’t come back from 100%. And probably the only true hole on the current team is RG – no one’s played very well there all year. Tobin and Gardner have been consistently below average to awful. Who knows about Herremans at this point. Can Molk become a serviceable backup C? Early returns aren’t encouraging (again, I’m actually one of the people who thought he’d be serviceable this year – mea culpa). The one thing I’ve learned this year is that the one place Chip can’t get by with substandard talent is at OL. He’s going to have to invest substantial resources here going forward.
WR needs depth, and possibly more if they can’t re-sign Mac. If you’re less a fan of Huff than me, you probably think another high pick is called for to replace Cooper. Heck, I’m not convinced that Huff won’t eventually be more of a TAZR, and you still need to find Coop’s replacement. Perhaps the dark horse need is at TE. Chip’s going to want another toy there, I’m sure. Maybe Burton satisfies that itch, but who knows? RBs are needed, but will probably be later round picks in this scheme. If Sanchez leaves, backup/developmental QB will need some attention.
The team is playing well as a team, so I acknowledge that this analysis is overly doomy, but they are certainly old at some key spots, and dangerously thin at some others. DL is the only place they’re “set,” and I think 2-gap DL is not a key spot, unfortunately. They can’t be wasting draft picks or cap space going forward, IMO.
if the birds stacked the defense and sured up the line we don’t need to get mariotta because we can score points with anyone.
peyton landed brees via free agency, carrol landed wilson via 3rd round pick. harbaugh landed flacco with a 1st rounder(no trade up), belichick got brady in the 7th…great teams arent built by wasting a whole draft for a single player. plus why would we follow a formula that the redskins used and failed miserably on? build the team the right way eagles and the qb will come!!!!dont trade house pleeeeease or we will be lolskins part2
Maclin is closing in on a thousand yards and he doesn’t even care.. The anti Desean! Can’t wait til Maclins new extension is announced. The man deserves it… He has transformed himself into a legit #1 WR. Playing with new level of physicality, blocking, fighting to make some huge contested catches to extend drives for his QB in crunch time. All while mentoring Pope Jordan
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IMagine facing this years offensive adversity with Desean here? We had some bad times this year. But no players are fighting on sideline, no arguments with coachs, no quitting on plays, no one cares about their individual yards, 53 men with the sole intention of trying to do whatever it takes to win.
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As long as this isn’t just contract-year bravado!
BUGE Halls.. Mac has BIG BALLS… MAC ATTACK IN FULL SWiNG… his understudy the J MAT is coming into his own.. get the SnowCaps ready for the winter show..
Almost all (or maybe all?) of the big games you mentioned were on the road. Trend? Although I can’t really blame Cooper dropping a TD at San Fran or many of those other losses on Chip either way.
Kansas City loses to Oakland….and the madness continues. Crazy crazy season. Beat seattle one week, lose to Oakland the following week
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Leave it up to andy Reid, In a close game to only let their best player, Jamaal Charles touch the ball once during the last two drives of a close game….
That isn’t news for any eagles fan. Weirdly I know like 5-6 (unrelated) Chiefs fans in Eastern Shore of MD. Told them this is a game Andy loses once or twice a year. didn’t believe me,
AR’s short track record in his first two seasons with the Chiefs is still highly impressive though. He has definitely earned to be amongst the finalists for coach of the year.
he inherited a pretty stacked team talent wise. awesome defense and then Charles on offense.
He landed on his feet in a very good situation.
Oh for sure. Still this kind of loss isn’t anything new.
I hope eagles watched this and were reminded anyone can beat anyone anytime. The titans are better then the raiders
What’s Celeks contract situation…Chip called him best blocking TE in the NFL. Chip is a big Ertz fan, he has Ertz on the bench for Celek, you can count on him valuing Celek too much for this to be his last year…. Thinking Brent retires as an Eagle….smart Man. First half of his career he was a pass catching weapons… Now that his athleticism will slow down with age, he made himself indespensable, lengthening his career by turning himself into an elite blocking TE
I’ve been meaning to ask you if you were on twitter. You should add me sometime if you think of it . I have the same handle over there.
Chip Wagon has a good post on the GB punt return, basically saying it was Carroll’s fault not Huff’s.
Even with the pictures at chip wagon, more blame should be on huff than Carroll. Hard to get around the fact that huff was unblocked waiting for PR to catch the ball. When pr catches it, tackle him.
Any way, huff won’t make that mistake again.
WTF.. The bills lose a home game, and the game is being moved to a stadium in Detroit? WTF…. So what are all the bills season ticket holders going to do? Drive to Detroit in a blizzard?
Just curious: what would your solution have been?
The game cannot be played in Buffalo. This is for real. This isn’t like the Eagles game that got pushed to a Tuesday for a few inches of snow. We’re talking 6+ feet of snow in places around that area.
I have no clue man, but I would hope that the NFL would reimburse ticket holders who can’t travel to a different city for a game they paid for since its Prob not realistic to be able to help ticket holders ,with travel arrangements on short notice.
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Tough situation for sure, above my pay grade ;)…
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Fortunately Jets vs, Billa probably won’t have playoff implications, although Bills are 5-5 Prob not mathematically eliminated yet..NFL could have gambled against Bills making playoffs and moved this towards the end of the year just to give the Bils fan their home game… Didn’t they already give one of their home games to London?
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Crazy situation, that I hope we never have to go tnru. 6 feet of snow is out of control
Yeah – I also hope the Bills ticket-holders can get reimbursed. Those are fans that have been paying to watch a non-contender since Jim Kelly left. They deserve to get a little something back.
I also hope that this region never gets 6+ feet of snow. That Buffalo region is more accustomed to heavy snowfall and they’re still struggling!
I’m glad that they’re moving the game to Monday night. That whole Tuesday night mess that the Eagles had to deal with back in 2010 was just ridiculous. The Eagles lost and then had to turn around and play another game just 5 days later. I think it messed with the Eagles’ mojo for the rest of the season / post-season.
I wish they could have found a venue in Toronto… close enough to being a home game for the Bills.
who cares about the Bills and where they have to play?
I’ll echo nopain23 that none of those coaches included in the post won a SB until they had a:
Legit QB who takes care of the ball
A solid defense who takes it away
Eagles ranked 4th in the NFL last year in turnover differential at +12. This year they rank 27th at -9.
Every team around them in those standings has a losing record until you reach the 21st ranked Steelers team at -2
If we look even deeper, we find the QB have thrown 14 INT (10 Foles, 4 Sanchez) and the offense has fumbled 18 times, losing 11 of them. 6 of those were from the QB.
The defense has generated 7 INT and forced 16 fumbles, but only recovered 9 of them. 25-16 = -9
Until Chip figures out how to get his QB to take care of the ball and run the offense effectively and get his defense to turn the ball over more this team’s goal of winning the SB or even advancing deep into the playoffs are going to be hard to achieve.
I trust Chip too and continue to hope he can bring the Lombardi trophy here. At some point, however, if things are not progressing as expected (and the media and fans tend to be impatient) that trust will start to slip as it has for every other Eagles HC and the wolves will start sharpening their knives. I also believe Chip will not want to stay longer than 5-6 years especially if things start to go south. We are still in the honeymoon phase with Chip; we’ll see what happens as time goes by.
In the last 8 years NO TEAM has ever made the playoffs with 35 or more turnovers in a season, let alone having a winning record.
The Eagles are on pace for 40 turnovers…
Amazing stuff GE…wow that is not good. I mean it has been incredible already what the Eagles have been able to do despite being negative in the turnover differential, but at some point if it does not change the odds are a regression for the team is likely. One can buck such a strong trend for a series of games, half a season etc. but usually over a full season, like you illustrate, reality will win out. Hopefully, they’ll get that fixed.
i’m not a college football aficionado but my best friend who is claims there is a lot of DB talent coming out in this years draft. So maybe this is the year we find palymaking DB. While flawed i am confident in our defense. Insert someone competent next to jenkins, especially when we’re in safety high formation plus one DB that can lockdown the opposing teams star WR and we have a top 10 defense, no doubt. years later and Allen still bits on EVERY pay action pass!
if kam ever hits free agency…iggles better pounce on him. he and jenkins would make a lethal tandem.
Can’t believe after all the public outcry against Roger Goodell, no one even,cares any more. All he has to do was wait, til no one cared… Now that Hack of a commissioner is making rules as he goes along, throwing the book at adrian Peterson essentially suspending him for a year for a misdemeanor charge? How is that ok? What really disgusts me was the letter he wrote to AP via the public. Who the hell is Goodell to geT on his moral High horse Nd talk down to AP the way he did. Happy that AP lawyer pointed out that this joke of. Dirty liar commissioner has some audacity to be talking down on AP the way he did.
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How is it ok that now we are letting Goodell just make up rules and judgments as he goes along? Where in the rule book does it say that you can keep AP from playing for an entire season over what the court deemed a misdemeanor?
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It’s not OK that he drops the hammer on AP to make up for and save face on his butchering of the Ray rice situation. Something has to be done. Goodell can’t just make shit up as he goes along amd do whatever he wants
I wouldn’t necessarily label “child abuse” as a “misdemeanor”…
What do you mean? The courts ruled it that way. IM not trying to defend AP, Im speaking out against this Liar Goodell making up whatever rules or punishments he feels like making as he goes along. What I found really despicable is that Letter Goodell wrote
I really don’t care what the court labelled it. But maybe I am just “biased” as I have two little daughters myself…
I’m with you GermanEagle. The boy’s scrotum was scared by the beating. AP needs to be punished severely.
The important part ismt making an example out of AP, and allowing Goodell to redeem himself for the Rice crap by throwing the book at AP and crucifying him for ignorance and stupidity with no malicious intent whatsoever,,,,… The importamt part is that hopefully AP will now be a better father to 6 children and the important part is that six kids will be getting healthier parenting, while hopefully raising nationwide awareness to people who still use the “old ways” to discaplin their kids, and how those parents can no longer say, they didnt know they were doing anything wrong because that’s the way they were raised…. This is what’s important, not allowing Goodeel to build back the publics fickle trust by crucifying AP
I hear you, trust me I umderstand, I can’t even lock my dogs in their cage without feeling too bad, I can only imagine what a sucker I would be for my own kids..
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But In APs Case, I think INTENT is crucial. I don’t at all believe he had any malice, sadistic intent..I believe that he thought he was being a good parent, giving him the tôugh love and discaplin that he received growing up that helped raise him into the productive member of society that AP did today……. When dealing with child cases, you don’t screw around. Someone who is bad for kids, gets their kids taken away from them with the quickness,.,
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Hate to say it, but this was just a case of stupidity and Ignoramce of AP not knowing any better. It’s crazy for us to grasp our minds around how an adult in this day and age could be so stupid to think that’s acceptable parenting in 2014, but it just so happens that in this case, YES. AP is THAT dumb and THAT Ignoramt..I do think he loves his kid, and that he will be a better parent hopefully to all his kids because of this ugly situation…
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But if there is no real malice, this wasmt APP losing his cool and flipping out, he was just so ignorant that he believed thats what he had to do to be a good parent.
nah it was pretty bad. misdemeanor means nothing, its a plea bargain.
No malicious intent. The man hasnt seen his son in 5 months. If he does really love his son, imagine how that feels.. This wasn’t cruel intent… It was a case of stupidly where a guy thought he was doing the right thing… And this isn’t even my point. I don’t even care what crime or what kind of incident we are talking about… Under NO circumstances should Godell be allowed to make up policy as he goes along or make rulings that go against whatever policy is in place…
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Why would anyone want a KNOWN weasle Lying,scumbag who thought you should miss two games for knocking a woman’s head off and dragging her knocked out body out of an elevator to be judge jury and executioner of Morals? Who the hell is he to be talking down to anyone? Shouldnt Be that hard fpr the NFL to find someone else or a committe to make these judgements, actually you should
Really just go by the rules that are in place….. BUT WHAT can’t happen is continuing to allow this absolute judge hurry and executioner to Goodell, not after disgracing himself, not after showing what he thought knocking a WOmans head off was worth (two games), not after he watched the video, lies about. Amd just hide under ground til the public who has the attention span of a toddler found the next schmuck to hang in public
Productive members of society don’t whip their children with a switch dude…..he deserves more than what Goodell gave him, I agree with Q mikell someone needs to go Marcellus Wallace on his arse.
Man I saw the photos of that poor little guys whipped up legs & it’s AWFUL. Regardless of how the courts ruled, he’s TRASH to me.
I agree that we should question Kelly and the draft picks, but can we really make a definitive judgement on all the picks from the 2014? None of that have completed their first year as players, so I think there is plenty of time to make something out of the rest of the picks outside of Matthews and Allen. I am not saying we shouldn’t be concerned/disappointed, but I think it is unfair to not give these guys, and the team, a chance to really develop the rookies.
I agree…draft picks should be evaluated no sooner than after 2 seasons IMO…the jump from college to the NFL is large and players develop at different speeds even in the best environments. I think the Eagles have one of the better coaching/development environments, but with injuries, position changes etc. there can be a lot of flux that delays progress. Look at Graham – he was drafted as a 4-3 DE for a 4-3 system, but struggled with injuries, then the system changed to the Wide 9 and then with Chip/Davis to a 3-4 where Graham would have to play OLB….or look at Allen, this is the first time in his career he has played in the same system 2 yrs in a row…Smith, Huff and all the rest are not busts
Silver Linning from The Packers game: Pope Jordan the 81st was Balling. Kid is really starting to “win on his routes”, making tough contested catches in traffic. Getting Physical picking up some YAC yards….Maclin and Sanchez often rave about him, and how he has “what can’t be taught” that will give him the chance to be special, but that right now we need,him to grow as a blocker. Maclin also spoke about how for now we are developing him as a slot machine. Once he gets it down, we will start growing him as an outside WR..
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Really liked how hard and how tough Jordan was playing no matter how out of hand that game got on Sunday….
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Only 7 players in the NFL Have more Redzone TDs than Jordan Mahews..music to the ears of a team that has struggled in the RZ ?.
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Packers Nickel CB Casey Hayward hadn’t allowed his man to score a TD all season until he met the rookie Pope Jordan the 81st.. casey Hawyard only gave up a combined total of 69 Recieving yards this year in 9 games til he met Pope Jordan
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How does Mathews in an erratic eagle offensive measure up with all the top rookie WRs?
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3rd(Tie) in TD catches
5th(tie) in receptions
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Yesterday we finally heard what I have been waiting to hear all year… “the game is now slowing down for me”…” I asked Ertz around what time last year did he start to feel like he was in college again, Ertz sid Round week 9″…’so Mr. Pope Jordan the 81st is “starting to feel like he is in college again”,..that’s a SCARY thought for opponents considering what he did to the SEC lol
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Kids about to BLOW UP for a big seconds half of the season. He has reached, must start every week in fantasy zone!
but why doesn’t he heal Wolff??
Busy walking on water and turning my 7up into Colt 45….one Miracle at a time mate
I have Dem Thomas..Hilton.. Cobb .. N Jordan Mathews… I’d love to start Jordan but I can’t sit the other guys…. Love watching him play…
Good article.
I trust Tommy Lawlor.
Andrian Peterson to the Cowboys rumor mill. Where else would a child beating scumbag end up? He beat the kid on his testicles and left visible injuries? What a piece of filth.
He’d be happy in the sewer with Dallas.
I’d rather not have to tackle him twice a year… I’d welcome him in Philly lol… Lurie’s next rehabilitation project? Lol chip would never! He speaks to highly of “trusting this group” “I don’t have to worry about that with this group”…you can tell that he really cares about Charecter,.. I used to get mad and think that you can’t have all choir boys, but as I got older, i see how many teams have great players who they lose to suspensions and stupid stuff outside that game, and it’s bad enough losing all the players you u lose to injury every year. Can’t be worried about losing key players to stupidity because we have a 40mil jackass in our locker room
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The most hated Eagle is Cary, and people may not like what comes out of his mouth, but ne isnt a bad dude. Ultimate Family man, never out in clubs, never on Twitter, neve in trouble, durable…
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Doubt too many Eagles will be missing games due to suspensions under chip
I’m not sure I’d consider Cary the most hated Eagle by a long shot. For better or worse, Eagles are hated in in Philly for what’s done on the football field. IMO the power ranking for most hated Eagle:
Earl Wolff
rookies who aren’t starters yet
Nate Allen
Bradley Fletcher
large margin
Cary Williams
The “sconces talk” has died down a bit, and the de,usional fans just started to realize that Bradley is the bigger liability instead of continuing to judge our corners by what comes out of their mouths. Lol delusionally thinking Brad was the better corner because they didn’t like the words that come out of Cary’s mouth…
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cary has his faults, he also makes some big plays when if matters, he has plenty of struggles, but it’s been PROVEN that you can go in the playoffs, face the best QBs in the world like BRADY and Manning and win a Super Bowl wifh Cary as one of your starting outside CB… It’s a proven fact! Just look at the recent shiney Super Bowl ring on his finger having to overcome denver and New England…. not a lockdown corner that you can build around. But if you have enough talent on your defense, you can get away with cary on the outside…
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I would try to keep Bradley Foetcher too. I don’t want him starting but he is a high character guy that would accept going to the bench once a young player ks ready to take over, and having Brad on gne bench is great because he is versatile enough to backüp the slot and outside cb spots…
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I also like that he didn’t completly unravel, he came out after halftime against the Pack and fought back to have a much better second half…not all players are mentally strong enough to comeback from a putrid first half like that against an assassin like Rogers
I think Cary is a good enough athlete to play CB even after the rule changes. I think Fletch is screwed. He has good skills, generally owns the older vets. But when the guy is significantly faster (many WR in the league are) he just has to watch them run by and pray for a bad throw or give them an automatic first down. I feel for the guy, but that’s just the new rules
He pisses me off when he is afraid to jam his WR… Often you see him play up on his man, bump n run, but leave out the “Bump” and just run with his man. That means he is afraid he will miss his “bump” get out of position and the WR will blow by him…but without the “bump” WRs are running by him anyway, so he might as well gamble and try to bump them
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I can’t stomach watching him up playing bump n run, without even getting his hand on the WRs…
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The one thing Brad has over Cary is Brad also has experience playing the slot. He is also a quiet high Charecter guy who would teach a young corner to take his job, and then not make a big stink about going to the bench once the young corner is ready to start. Brad would go to the bench where he can provide depth outside and in the slot, even play Dime if we need him to…
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Out of Nolan, Cary and Brad, we need ATLEAST two of the three back next year to start in September while we wait on young kids to develop
Might have to shade Jenkins to his side, let Fletcher be brave, jam away Fletch.
Fletch can only jam away when his DC tells him to. Bill Davis has the final word, after all.
Might as well, if WR are just gonna up past him anyway…….
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Then again, Jordy Nelson was spectacular.. the,way he was stacking Fletch was flawless. Jordy used Bradley to put on a technical clinic of how to play WR in the NFL
um, where is Riley Cooper on this list?
oh crap, massive oversight! thank you!
My dumb comment removed by me.
no worries, I did definitely miss Riley Cooper on the list initially, wish disqus automatically updated edits withoutout having to refresh.
Removing ones own dumb comment is an indicator the poster is not dumb.
both parties might like that but Dallas can’t have anywhere near the cap space to make that trade unless they are trading Tony Romo.
Also they have a running back, not sure about his contract situation, but I don’t see how or why they would want to keep both.
Murray is a free agent. The theory goes, they ride Murray into the ground this year, he gets nothing in FA due to his workload and Lynch also being on the market in addition to the devaluation of RB’s with a strong draft class coming up, and the Cowboys sign AP on the relatively cheap.
this is a rumor about a player under contract. Pure speculation.
I know but, Adrian and Jurry, BFF
Chip is stubborn. There are some schemes he refuses to use because of the BIG picture. I fear he will never leverage the advantages of under-center schemes, like the Shady runs. They are successful and Shady loves the visibility he has with this formation.
As you know, I’m a big Chip fan. But his stubbornness drives me crazy sometimes – like RZ run plays.
I agree, he used it against the giants and it worked perfect so why stop?
I’m going to post a bunch of screen shots sometime this weekend and hope I don’t get banned or something for uploading too much. Sadly the other teams aren’t loading the box anymore. We are getting fantastic looks for the run and we just aren’t getting any push up front, no holes are opening. It’s been really discouraging to go back and watch.
You don’t even have to bother going thru all that trouble, Chip already addressed this yesterday, said big misconception is teams are stacking the box against us when that hasn’t been the case. Only teams that stacked the box are Cardinals and the Titans this week whos both play “cover zero”
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That’s why i think this has to be the week we catch opponent off balance and run out of other sets….this week against cover zero. I see two options
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1) switch to some “heavy set” power formatilns to run over the box and everyone in it or
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2) struggle to run out of single back gun against stacked box
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We have had NO OL continuity whatsoever. When you are playing next to a different Offensive lineman every week you most likely will struggle in our run schemes that require team work to execute those combo blocks… I don’t even thiink we have an offensive lineman who played more than 3 weeks next to the same guy this year….
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We got Kelce and Mathis back, but they havent shaken off all then use to provide their elite level of blocking yet,,they each got another game and another week of practice under their belt so they should be closer to the best center and guards in the NFL that they are…. I’m thinking we will see some good runs to the left side this week….but Lane is a second year player, can’t keep sticking someone different next to him. Tobins injury sucks. He has been cleared to return, but I think Garner is starting this week. Gotta stop jerking Lane around and give him continuity playing mext to the same LG…
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Like to see us stick Lane between Peters and mathis this week and pound them out of our unbalanced Line… This defense is very aggressive often problems overpursuing perfect for Shadys cutbacks… Gotta get the 3 headede monster eating up yards….
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It’s pretty simple. IF lineman stop getting hurt, we can get the continuity to be able to run the ball. If our guys find the,selves trying to execute combo blocks with a different lineman each week, we will continue to struggle..,…..We NEED some Stoutland Magic right about now…
“2) struggle to run out of single back gun against stacked box”
that’s the thing, check this out
To give you context to what your seeing, we got Maclin and Celek stacked to the left of this shot, 58 is playing the bubble screen, 1 safety is 10 yards directly behind a press CB incase Mac runs a route, to the right of the shot is Coop and i forget who also stacked, they got 2 CB’s stacked, 1 10 yards behind the other in press with a safety way shaded to their side.
This is on the 20 yard line, we got 5 blockers with 5 in the box, shady gets a hole, he has that 1 safety to beat for a touchdown. How many more pounds do you think our 5 guys have against their 5? 1 yard gain. This is a run where we keyed the blocks wrong if we wanted to run up the gut, Lane burst off the line (very impressively) to attack #58 blocking for the screen that wasn’t happening. Ended up 4 linemen getting no push against 4 linemen with Kuechley’s freakish instincts easily cleaning up. and stopping the run for 1 yard.
These were touch downs last season.
Oh I see you’re saying Titans are going to stack the box, reading comp fail.
I meant not being able to run against the stacked box we will see this week and that we saw against the cardinals, the two teams that will line up in cover zero against us
The rest of this years trouble Running the ball comes from lineman lining up next to a different guy each week. We need continuity. Lane lined up the last two weeks with Tobin next to him. This week he has Ganer next to him…that’s not healthy, consequently we probably struggle to run to the right this week. Kelce,mathis, JP have a few weeks playing next to each other, so they should execute combo blocks better, and the timing running and throwing screens to the left side should be better this week
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If an OLineman keeps getting hurt each week, we will struggle to run the ball. But if our boys lineup next to the same man these next 5 weeks, I’m sure we will see our run game get going for the playoffs..,
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All OL requires chemistry…. Especially run schemes with combo blocks and passing defemders off to each other. We need the same 5 lineman to play the rest of the season! Keep throwing a new guy in the mix, we will continue to struggle
yeah I saw that after the fact lol, didn’t see you were talking about anticipating the titan’s stacking the box this week.
Anyway I would agree with load up heavy in the box but we need our big nasties getting their stuff together if we want to load the box with extra blockers to get hats on hats. Hat on a hat needs to start yielding us some better results with 5v5 too. If our the best 5 blockers on the team can’t win a 5v5, I’m not sure our best 8 blockers win the 8v8 is what I’m saying.
Gotcha…Throw Lane in between Peters and Mathis and unbalance the crap out of them… This defense gets caught overpursuing often, so it could provide shady the cutback lanes to get off…the problem is every team talks about not over pursuing and watching the cutback lanes all week when they are about to face shady..
..It doesn’t help that shady sat at a podium and told the world watching steelers vs, Titans on Monday night he saw some nice creases and lanes against the Titans, and he saw how the steelers OL was able to stick their blocks against them…shady gave them some good bulletin board material, as if Ray Horton wasn’t going to focus on shutting down shady as it is….
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Ray Horton is going to leave his corners on an Island.
Maclin needs to use his crisp route running to make them pay..
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Coop needs to use his body, seal off his man, and win some jump ball 1 on1s this week
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Jordan mathews yesterday sang sweet music to my ears. All year I been waiting for him to have his “the game is slowing down for him moment”…ITS HERE!!!! He was talkimg to Ertz about how he is starting to feel like he is in college this week. jordan going to get all the 1 on 1 opportunities he wants this week. Time to devour your man and put on a show!!
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On the other side of the ball, what do you do yo young Qbs? Blitz the heck out of them. Use our multi front defense to line up in a million different ways, twist, stunt, loop, green dog, throw everything and the kitchen sink at a rookie…defense forcing 3 to 5’Turnovers this week. Expect a ferocious defense pissed after giving up 50 points,.. I’m expecting eagkes D amd ST. to give me some serious fantasy production this week against the rookie QB
On Coop, I hear you, haven’t paid real close attention to him. What I’ve noticed this year is he was dropping a bunch of passes especially early this year. He didn’t really get open last year either, doesn’t seem like we’re giving him the same chances as the second half of last year. Possibly because our QB’s are throwing so many picks we have become gun shy to giving him the opportunities to go up and get it? What’s your take, is he getting the same opportunities he got last year?
He did a few times and he dropped them. Also, Foles was simply not the same player he was this year compared to last. I think his confidence may have been shook, and he may have been unwilling to make some of those throws he made to Cooper last year this year. Another thing is, Sanchez probably does not have a good rapport wit him like he does Mathews, so expect even less balls to go Coopers way.
You practice one style of blocking for 89% of the time all off season, all the weeks during the season, all during the game and then you expect the OL to be able to be successful at doing something different?
We don’t have OL that’s built for power, it’s built for zone and I think that matters.
Has anyone thought about whether there’s a regression to mean in terms of NFL coaching styles? It’s not often that you see new stuff in the NFL that works on a consistent basis.
You think the plays and formation chips using are the only plays and formations that can work with a zone blocking scheme? You think we are the only zone blocking team? Plenty of other offenses with other formations use zone blocking.
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I don’t really view chip as some new coaching style. It’s all basic stuff, dressed up to look like there is so much going on….. The only think really different is not caring about time of possession
I think the “dress up” is becoming less effective.
The problem with that is Chip has been PUSHING that misconception all year to explain/excuse the lack of running attempts and/or running success…now he admits that has not been true which leaves my trust in Chip shaken a bit…I agree on the issues with the OL, but again Chip, if he is the offensive genuis he is lauded to be, should be able to adjust and Geagle has some good suggestions: cut down on the shot-gun/line up under center and give the RB better angles/momentum; run power formations and run it down the opponents throat at times etc. I get that Chip wants to take what the defense gives him, but with a average defense, average QB and struggling OL it would seem to make more sense to stay balanced in run/pass rather than putting too much on the average QB and expecting your average defense to bail you out when turnovers occur or the offense stalls again due to passes not working.
A87 wrote:
“I’m going to post a bunch of screen shots sometime this weekend and hope I don’t get banned or something for uploading too much.”
__________________
Sherlock Holmes said:
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
__________________
So post away — because I’m betting the information will help us learn something new.
I gave a small sample below in response to Geagle. Wasn’t a proper response to his post, but it still serves as a sample of what I’m talking about lol, perhaps I’ll throw a few more up after work.
AC: remember when you said WOW about the AP ruling, and thought there was more to the story because no one gets this type of punishment for a misdemeanor?
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Lol there is nothing more to the story bud…Goodell trying to fix his imagine on his soft stance two game suspension of Ray rice beating a woman, by making an example on AP and showing how tough Roger the moral compass of the NFL is going to be from here on out…. AP shouldnt be punished excessively so Roger cam weasle out of and repair his image after giving a two game suspension for a man knocking his wife’s head off
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AP should be punished, but he shouldn’t be used to repair that scumbag Goodells image
1. The NFL — and Goodell in particular — have been racing to undue the damage from the Rice case.
As you say, AP’s the lynch-pin of that plan.
2. The NFLPA has identified Troy Vincent — based on what’s expected to be testimony from AP and his agent Ben Dogra — as the guy who said “time served” for the missed early games. [NFL and Vincent deny, sort of.]
That evidence is consistent with AP taking a nolo plea to end the criminal process, rather than proceed with a December 1st trial, to get back on the field sooner rather than later.
I’m inclined to believe Vincent said TOO MUCH, because the worse that happens to AP if he’s convicted of injuring a child is — in terms of his NFL career — exactly what happened.
And a conviction could hardly injure his reputation any more than it already is.
3. NFL could easily have fined AP all the game-checks he received while being suspended w/ pay.
But — as you say — this is about Goodell as much as AP.
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Were I King of the World, AP gets fined 10 game checks — the number of games during his “paid suspension — and he’s returned to active status.
What he did was — in the view of a lot of folks (but not all) — criminal. Excessive parental force on a child.
The scary part of parenting is the power that states’ Family Services Agencies have over you.
If an outsider calls family services accusing you of abuse, there’s a good chance you lose your kids pending investigation.
If you spank your child but he slips and gets concussed by banging his head, the doctor calls Family Services — and you lose your kids.
You grab your child’s arm to keep him from running in front of an on-coming car, but cause a spiral fracture of the humerus bone purely by accident — the doctor calls Family Services . . . and you lose your kids.
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It’s easy to arm-chair what AP did.
But it doesn’t require using a switch to get cross-wise with the law. ‘specially when kids are involved.
The legal system is a crazy world sometimes.
Well said..
I believe the abundance of caution we see from Family Services is due to meth family tragedies. We see this in Oregon all the time – a really sad, sad situation for kids.
Rice deserved more, but that doesn’t mean that AP doesn’t deserve a full season. He absolutely does. He left marks on his kid’s scrotum. Multiple marks.
Think about that for a second. Your dad beating you so bad with a switch on your butt to miss twice and hit your balls. And leave marks. Absolutely unacceptable.
I’m actually fine with whatever punishment they want come up with, I just don’t thnk Goodell should decide, and I don’t like seeing that Transparant weasle to compensate for his mistake on the rice ruling to use someone else to make him look better…
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First of all, there should be no reason for Goodells “judgement”..there should be rules and a code in place, with punishments already decided on…. Goodell just went thru the song and dance of reforming the domestic abuse policy to change it to automatic 6 games on first time abuser. So he just rippled up the old rules, put in place these new rules like a Month ago, but because the public caught him lying, he wants to save face, already rip up the new rules, and decide any punishment he wants for AP?
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Decide a damn policy that spells out all punishment so that this commissioner can’t make things up as he goes along, to restore his public image. He is a damn liar, the last person whp should be the moral judge jury and executioner, appoint a committe of people to decide these things, Goodell is a proven liar, cover up, no way he should be single handedly in charge of ANYONEs fate.. Appoint a committe to do it
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By the way, anyone even know what happened to the “Independant” investigation they appointed the FBI guy to investigate? Or did that just go away two weeks later?
From what I read, the switch whipped around and tagged him in the front, which AP could not see. In any case, a switch is going to leave a mark no matter where it hits you. I know the belts that hit my butt left some. I think it is borderline to call it child abuse.
I had wondered about this. I look forward to seeing the screen shots.
I agree 100%. I don’t think I’d trade Chipper for anyone outside of maybe a certain wizard like coach in N.E., but constantly having Shady run out of shotgun concerns/irks me a bit.
Yeah with 20+ games of tape there’s no surprise left.
You do not want the starting QB not getting the reps he’d need in any new system. Again, favoring backup QBs is exactly how we ended up in a situation where we have nobody who can elevate play as needed.
Lots of QBs get all the reps and still suck and the situation is that much worse in case of injury. B/c of the system we have a prayer of winning games which is more than you can usually expect with a backup QB in a system that requires him to throw the ball 30-40times a game.
Re: Jordan Matthews
Production way up since Foles’s injury and Sanchez taking over at QB.
Besides that factor, has Kelly’s play-calling changed to give Matthews deeper routes?
No. They just have a bromance like chemistry together. Since training camp….
Not uncommon for rookies who,see playing time to get better as the year goes on.
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I actually don’t think we have seen anything yet, game just starting to slow down for him, I think ACT 2 on his rookie season is just starting now
I think it’s just that Matthews gets more throws because Sanchez trusts him.
I think part of it is the trust and familiarity with Jordan. The other part is Sanchez tendency to only throw between the numbers. The outside breaking routes and deep sideline passes are pretty much non existent.
The only throws to the outside are the wheel routes or bubble screens. You can see he has not been effective with them yet.
If he continues with only throwing to the middle of the field it will make it harder on the backs as the D won’t have to defend anything deep and outside. More LB and Safeties in the middle of the field means more people to rally to the run game.
I would love to see what he could do with Ertz.
I’m not sure that I am as lenient as Tommy. I don’t think it’s fair to “question” the last two draft classes. Question last year’s after next season if you wish. This year’s you are going to have to wait until after the following season. That is just the way it is.
I’m mostly with you, but I’d like to see more production out of a #1 pick than what we’re currently getting out of Smith. That guy needs to be a decade long impact starter for this team, so I agree we can’t assess that in year one, but we only have him for cheap rookie salary for so long.
Friday afternoon and I got goose bumps thinking about sunday. it’s not just about the Eagles, so many important games this weekend. From here on, everything is almost a must win situation.
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Very Curious to see how real the lions are, a dome team going to play outdoor at NE… Packers on the road FA. Mike Zimmer(don’t sleep on his defense) division road game could be tougher than it seems on paper.
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Seattle is close to crumbling. Hopefully arizona chips away some more at their Psych… Look at that. Awesome seattle run game, struggling to run the ball, without their starting center and a banged up LT…when the run game struggles, Golden boy Russel Wilson comes back down to earth and doesn’t look so special. Like FOles. Wilson’s development isnt just a straight line that keeps going up. Like FOles, there will be peaks and valleys during the development of Luck and Wilson.
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Niners suck at home. Have some locker room drama, and the skins are coming to town the week that coacg Jay Gruden publically lectured RG3’oh how crappy his basics are and how his footwork sucks…..any chance that RG3 raises his game and has a monster performance? Lol doubt it, his fundamentals of the QB position are so screwed up, you ain’t fixing it in one weeks time..lol us even if RG3 plays great. That locker room is so screwed up that someone else will play horrible. They don’t have 53 hungry players out there playing for the man next to them. Bunch of selfish individuals.
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Lol @ Peyton manning crying about his OL and run game this week. “Two weeks isn’t enough for OL to get continuity. Ideally you want your line to be healthy togetner thru mini camp, training camp, and the season”…really Peyton? You Don’t say…..welcome to our season of 37 different OL combinations, where once again we have a different OL than last week now that Tobins out… Peyton threw 3’INTs these past two weeks, crying about their OL….try perservering thru an entire season of a mismatch OL…. That’s why I get mad that fans don’t realize how impressive our record is.. We have the type of OL issues this year that forces normal teams to have 5 win seasons…. We are 7-3 top of the division, with a 5-11 Offensive Line mess, and people don’t appreciate how BIGTIME it is that we have battled thru it to still be a top team….
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Shady is on pace for 1200 yards with this jerry springer dysfunctional OL mess… That may be more impressive than franchise records last year with the best OL in the history of our franchise….. Wish fans and media really understood how BIGTIME it is that we have been able to perserver thru all this crab and still have as much Chance as anyone to win
We can look at this next game in simple terms. We can bet a Ray Horton defense is going to be blitzing us a lot!… What do you do when you face a rookie QB? Blitz, blitz, and more Blitz…
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So we should be seeing two high volume blitzing defenses on Sunday. I still don’t know Eactly what to expect from Sanchez on a weekly basis, but I would like to think that Sanchez is Going to be better equipped to handle an NFL blitz than rookie Mettenberger will…. At home, defense needs to come out blood thirsty and not accept anything less than 3 Takeaways this week. Sanchez also has the better weapons Amad safety nets like shady, Celek, Sproles to check down to
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Hopefully those pathetic Giants have some type of pride and play spoiler at home against their rival Cowboys.
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RG3 Sucks, his coach basically admitted as much publically this week lol and Desean has had a productive week telling his team mates how much they all suck, so probabky shouldn’t count on them to help give the Niners a loss, HOWEVER the Niners suck in their new stadium, and the 49ers played the crappy Giants last week, who are on the skins level.. Niners got 5 INTs off of Eli manning and they only scored a combined total of 16 pathetic points..heck, they practically needed the 5th INT to win the game. THEY MAY have lost if Eli only threw 4 picks instead of 5 lol……so the Niners arent any juggernauts, but RG3 is just a Loser.. Doubt he will be starting in the NFL come 2016… Kapernick is also capable of his horrible games, when he is completely Incompetant and throws like 4 INTs,.. FOles bad games look like a day in the park compared to Kapernicks bad games
Also, on paper we are a much superior team to the Titans, and they don’t have much to lose going into a game no one expects them to win, so I hope our special teams is on the look out for Fakes, Tricks, onside kicks, watch out for this inferior team with nothing to lose, trying to Junk up this game…..special teams needs to get back to kicking ass, but be very alert this week for special teams tricks
Its one thing when a player like Djax makes negative comments about the team. Lol what was it that he said? “You cant do special S**t with basic people.” Honestly, i thought his comment while he shouldnt have said it was pretty hilarious yet true. However i think Gruden still while being honest went way over the line, esspecially due to the fact he is the HC. S**t just went from 0 to a 100 real quick in Washington ladies and gentleman.
The thing with RGKnee is that he isn’t Gruden’s QB; he’s Shanny and Allen’s (and Dan Snyder’s) QB. Gruden has no ties to the horrific draft pick and the even more horrific decision to give more value for that pick than indicated on the draft point value chart.
He is simply……basic.
Dear Tommy,
I don’t wanna sound critical but since Xmas is approaching I wish you’d write more about the upcoming Eagles opponents again.
I really enjoyed your analysis in the past but this year it seems to be more ‘general’ articles during the week. I even had to remind myself that we’re playing the Titans in a must win on Sunday, and it’s already Friday.
Besides that keep up your great work. You’re awesome, man.
Here’s a game day snack sure to satisfy.
http://i.imgur.com/76HA09d.jpg
A time-saving start to the day for sure!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but Wolf just went through micro fracture surgery in his knee. Not really familiar with the procedure, but if he did have to have surgery i.think its possible to say maybe his injury was slightly more severe then what we all assumed.
if it took them a year to catch it it probably says more about the team than wolff. additionally, i think some of his issues were decision-making related and not just physical.
Then more blame need to be assigned to the team’s medical / training staff and somebody’s head needs to be on a platter. The DB group isn’t good enough and Wolf would be 100% healthy and playing right now if he’d been diagnosed properly 14 months ago.
Anyone know what type of time table we are looking at for when he will be ready to go again? Is he expected back for training camp
It was said he will be ready by May.
I don’t blame Chip for inheriting at best a defense that was average and trying to change schemes. I will blame him if he continues to neglect trying to improve it if he doesn’t draft defense next year. I”m not going to pretend that Chip doesn’t have any influence on Davis but some changes will be needed soon if the secondary gets destroyed every week. You can be smart but being stubborn is also what undid Andy here.
Lol he spent a 3rd rounder on bennie logan
Spent a first onMarcus smith
4th on Jalen
5th on hart and reynolds
7th on Beau
The top two free agents signed under chip are Barwin and Jenkins
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But he needs to stop ignoring the defense? Lol…….ok
I don’t see the D as being ignored, but the unacceptable level of play from 3/4ths of the starting DBs needs to be addressed ASAP.
Easier said than done..,
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CB market is trash this year, the past couple years all the best safeties just recently signed Longterm deals. Safetoes in college are Meh…
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We can draft corners, but they won’t be ready to help in September, and I hate drafting first round corners because half dont pan out….my fav corner these past few years was probably Desmond Trufant, he is still trying to find his way in the NFL. Will watch him closely this week since he drew the task of shadowing Josh Gordon tomorrow…
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We can’t go into next season starting rookie corners in September in a year we can be contenders… Gotta keep our current corners in place ATleast the first half of next season til the young corners we draft can hopefully prove that they can no longer be kept on the bench.
…We can’t put a gun tp teams heads and force them to give us corners,,
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Look at the free agents market, slim pickings…
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But Im accustomed to watching Bobby taylor, troy Vincent, al Harris, Sheldon, Lito,.. Believe me I can’t wait to see good quality Philly corners again, I just understand that it’s not going to be easy to get them, and I don’t expect to see different corners playing in September
I don’t really care about degree of difficulty. That’s why we pay our GM and coaches to be better than the other 31 at all times. It needs to get done.
I’m really head over heels in love with FSU safety Jalen Ramsey, but he is too young to come out this year.. 6’1 205lbs, playmaking safety who can also play corner so he comes with the man cover skills that billy requires his safeties to have… Kids going to grow into a special NFL free safety
Hopefully he doesn’t go exactly 1 pick in front of us.
Think he has Charecter issues but don’t quote me on that
@’New York Giants
home vs. Eagles
@ Chicago Bears
@ Eagles
Home vs. Colts
@ Skins
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Looks ripe for a classic “DECEMBER collapse” for Dallas…
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Bears sucked all year, but they are the type of team that will get it together and play spoiler down the stretch once they are eliminated
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Gotta beat dallas twice and really show our complete dominance of this division
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Luck vs. romo in December? Lol Clutch vs. Choke?
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Hopefully the Giants can steal a win tomorrow. But I like that Cowboys are @ New York tomorrow, then they have to Fly home and get ready for the short week to play us…
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Watch the Cowboys have some epic collapse and go 1-5 only winning the last meaningless skins game lol
Using my detailed knowledge of football; I playoff machined Dallas down to 8-8 on ESPN. It felt great.
Lol…. I’d like to see them go 9-7… So that in theory, they can say they improved from the 8-8 seasons of the past 10 years(feels that long), but in reality they are still the JOKE that looked good early on but couldn’t escape its yearly DECEMBER collapse… It’s tradition at this point lol… Ground hog day, when you see the Cowboys implode, you know it’s DECEMBER
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This might be one of the more satisfying collapse for all the idiots that thought they actually had a good defense, a top OL, romo finally gets it, secondary is no longer a joke, Blah blah blah… Lol same consistent losers… The best was reading some moron praise Rolando McClain for his “leadership” Bwahahahahahahah I never thought I would hear that
Who are the best coaches we’ve had and what were their records and the quality of the team at this point in their progress, towards the end of Year 2?
I think it’s unfair at this point – not even two years as the head coach – to think that Chip has had enough time to shore up all or even most of the problems on this team.
The Eagles have had 20 HCs in 81 years.
I’d say 7 of the 20 qualify as successful coaches — i.e., they built teams that reached the playoffs. (Consequently, I’m not including Kotite.)
The seven are:
1. Greasy Neale, 1943-50.
3x NFL Title Game, 2x NFL Champs
2. Buck Shaw, 1958-60.
Went 2-9-1 in his first season.
Won the NFL Title in his 3rd and final season — going 10-2 with Norm Van Brocklin at QB and defeating Lombardi’s Packers for the title.
3. Dick Vermeil, 1976-82
Made the playoffs his 3rd season — when NFL Dynasties still existed.
NFC Champs in Year 5.
Burned out — and retired — after Year 7.
4. Buddy Ryan, 1986-90
Made the playoffs in his 3rd season as NFC East Champs
Wild Card Teams in ’89, ’90.
Never won a playoff game.
5. Ray Rhodes, 1995-98 (free agency era)
Reached the Playoffs his first two seasons
Team progressively deteriorated — especially after losing OC Jon Gruden.
6. Andy Reid, 1999-2012 (free agency era)
Reached the playoffs in Year 2 (free agency era).
NFC Title game: Years 3-6
NFC Champs – year 6
etc, etc.
7. Chip Kelly, 2013 – present (free agency era)
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Seems to me, you have to separate head coaches in the pre-free agency and post-agency eras.
What Vermeil did in the NFL Dynasty Era — when drafting was the only way to build — is probably the most impressive.
He had no draft picks in Rds 1-3 in 1976 (Year 1), no draft picks in Rds 1-4 in ’77 (Year 2), no draft picks in Rds 1-2 in ’78 (Year 3). Yet by Year 5, he led the Eagles to the SB.
Reid’s run, in the free agent era, is remarkable in its own right. Only Belichick’s had more success over the same period.
So Kelly’s off to a great start. But too soon to tell, for sure.
2 years simply isnt enough. Just look at the turn around from 2012 to now, and i think that exceeded immediate expectations when he was hired. I.dont think many people thought we were going to make the playoffs at the begining of last year. You also have to factor in the fact that we did a 180 on defensive scheme, and the multitude of injuries we have had this year. It takes time to change from a crappy team to a SB worthy team, esspecially when.you do not have a franchise QB. There is always going to be something to complain about, no team is perfect, and there isnt.a coach and FO that makes the right decion 100% of the time, but we are definetly headed in the right direction. We have OBVIOUS holes that need to be adressed, and some are so obvious (secondary) you just know they will be adressed this upcoming offseason.
Re: Earl Wolff’s Recovery
Most likely 6 months of rehab, at a minimum, before he can get on the field. Maybe more.
There is no reliable data on the likelihood that Wolff’s physical performance will be restored to pre-injury status — i.e., 2013.
However, microfracture surgery among athletes has shown more success among those in non-contact sports.
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Some background on his injury.
The “lesion on his knee” is about a 15mm area of damaged “articular cartilage” — which is the smooth surface that covers the end of the femur and the tibia as well as the back of the patella.
So the lesion could be on any of those three bones.
The lesion typically results from trauma to the knee joint.
A word on “articular cartilage.” It is 5x smoother than a freshly polished ice surface.
Imagine the ice at an NHL rink after the Zamboni readies it . . . then multiply that smoothness 5 times. HUMAN BODY — AMAZING.
Awsome post, thanks for the info…very interesting. And yes the human body is amazing.
Some are more amazing than others, but yes.
Lol very true sir, very true.
Grazie Zio…
Now that Jimmy isn’t going to be that busy for a while will you guys do a new podcast?
Feel bad for Huff. “Everything i have done has been bad”. You can tell he really loves this game and is a hard worker. He wants nothing more then to succeed, and i think he will. He is pressing really hard right now, and sometimes the harder ypu press it just takes you off your game and you just arent yourself. Many of us on this blog have played sports and particularly football at some level. I know when i was a freshman and i wanted nothing more then to to be on the varsity HS team i just tried too hard and over thought everything. It took me till nearly the end of TC, and a few talks with my coach to pretty much reset my mind and just be me. Made a world of a difference and i ended up starting on varsity. I honestly beleive the same goes for Huff, the talent is there, always has been, he just needs to reset his mind and be himself. It may be to late this year, but i beleive next year we will see a different man.
Jason Avant signed by the Chiefs. Other former Eagles on Andy Reid’s squad include Kurt Coleman and Joe Mays. Three guys who hustle, none of whom I’d give up a roster spot to acquire.
Im flabbergasted. Didnt see that signing coming.
The Cowboys are in so much trouble… For starter it’s gonna be cold in NY tomorrow, and the cold probably isn’t ideal for Tony’s back, tighten up… The Giants suck, we certainly can’t rely on them beating Dallas, but after Eli 5 INTs last week this has to be the Giants “Last stand” at home, against a hated Rival, I am expecting NY to step up and ATleast play Dallas Tough. NICE PHYSICAL DIVISION GAME, but some good Hits on Romo, bang him around a bit….
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Thinking the short week is a NIGHTMARE for Romo..cowboys are in NY right now, tomorrow night or Monday morning they fly home. Both teams bodies wjll have to recover for a short week…THAT can’t be good for Romo and his back. Keep in mind the guy usually doesn’t even practice Tuesday and Wednesday during a regular week so he can rest, now he is going to have tp travel home, recover, he will have to practice earlier in the week than he normally would in order to learn the game plan for Thursday, and then he has to play the most important game of his season, 3-4 days earlier than his normal week…
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This can’t be easy for Romo’s body,..
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We hear a ton from our players all the time about all the awesome stuff we do for “Robert” and how it’s such a big priority under chip.
not sure if he is the type of kid we want in our locker room(don’t know anything about him), but if he checks the character and intelligence boxes for chip, I wouldn’t mind spending a draft pick(maybe the extra one we got from Bryce trade) to draft a falling Todd Gurley coming off ACL surgery…. I have no idea,what this injury will do to his stock, how far he will fall, but pre injury this kid was an explosive serious Runningback prospect. With Shady, Sproles and Polk we can afford to,draft a kid that probabky needs a redshirt year on our IR. No reason to rush a kid at runningback. Let him get completely healthy and by then Sproles contract will expire and shady would be 27 or 28 yrs old…
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If the injury drops him til like 3rd round, preferably 4th…. May be a good Longterm investment…
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Then again, i also think highly of healthy Melvin Gordon and a few other healthy backs this year…
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Also gotta be careful drafting injured runningbacks. It’s not a given that if you redshirt one that they will pan out for you… One just retired recently, can’t think of who it was. Maybe the kid Lattimore from the Niners