Eagles Get Their ILB
Posted: May 1st, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 212 Comments »The Eagles drafted Texas ILB Jordan Hicks in the 3rd round.
Solid pick. He is a tough, physical player. Good athlete as well. Ran 4.68. 38-inch VJ. Has a good frame at 6-1, 236. Good fit for the 3-4.
I had Hicks as a 4th rounder due to some injury concerns. He played 7 total games in 2012 and 2013. Hicks stayed healthy as a Senior and had a very good season. He led Texas in tackles, added 3.5 sacks and 2 INTs. That is the kind of production and playmaking ability you want in the middle of the 3-4.
Obviously this raises questions about the future of Mychal Kendricks. We’ll just have to wait and see about that.
Chip Kelly said the Eagles had a 2nd round grade on him and that he was far and away the highest rated player on the board.
_
Chip on Hicks: “He was our highest-rated guy by far. We had him late in the second round. Got great skill set, 3-down LB, can cover.”
Guess time will tell if moving on from Kendricks for this guy is smart. I’m guessing best case scenario is its a lateral move.
Chip says Jordan Hicks had a clear medical check from the doctors….Hicks has suffered torn achillies, hip flexor and broken foot
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CD9_M57UsAEVH_-.png
sit him a year and let him put on weight, hopefully he could be good.
hey at least it’s better than casey matthews’ chart!
What happened to big people beat up little people?
Jeff McLane
@Jeff_McLane
1m1 minute ago
Chip Kelly said that being an edge rusher is one thing Kiko Alonso can do.
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interesting he said before kiko wouldn’t be outside.
I doubt he means Kiko would be a full-time edge rusher. He never was that for Oregon or the Bills. He doesn’t have the weight or strength to do that regularly. In some specialized packages, he get might to have that role sparingly though. Perhaps something similar to how Boykin and Carroll have been used as OLBs in nickel and dime packages.
yeah bc kelly knows anything about building a defense
I think he knows what he’s doing. Jenkins was a great pickup last year, obviously Barwin was a great pickup, resigned BG, signed bmax, drafted rowe, has an elite dline in which he drafted a stud in logan…should I go on?
grossly overpaid maxwell, overvalued MSII, drafted watkins. id really like to pick howie’s brain on all of this
best cb on the market so if the Eagles didn’t sign him to that money someone else would have…jury is still out on ms2, drafted watkins in the 4th round the 4th so not a terribly big deal and adds depth at cb and could potentially be the starting safety next year.
…
So even for his one possible mistake in ms2 his other moves have been very solid
You have to know defenses to be a great offensive mind.
Yea but can he set the edge in the run game against 320 poung LTs that out weight him by 80 pounds? And, do you take Graham or Barwin off to put Kiko at OLB so you can get Jordan Hicks or Meco on the field? I say neither.
Meh. We already have three good ILBs. This was not a position of need and I don’t like spending a high pick on a guy who might, if he pans out, be as good as Mychal Kendricks, whose main flaw appears to be that he’s an inch or two shorter than what the coaching staff wants.
It would be a position of need when Ryans and Kendricks are gone next season. Plus, it was a position of need due to injuries last season too, and 2 of those 3 good ILBs are coming off major leg injuries.
We’re worried about our ILBs having leg injuries, so we drafted Jordan Hicks?
…ooooookay
Especially considering that Kendricks is heavier and his better vertical actually balances out the height difference.
“No one remotely close to Jordan on the board.”
-Chip
Evidently we had him rated waaaaay higher on our board than other teams out there. I’m guessing it’s the way he fits #culture.
Chip has said multiple times that BPA to him means BPA for the Eagles. Don’t pay too much attention to kipers or mayocks big board.
I could care less about Kipers or Mayocks big board, to me it’s interesting about how he relates to the other 31 teams boards. Not that it’s wrong, its just interesting.
Ignoring the other teams’ boards is a poor draft strategy. You want to maximize your pick value, and drafting someone a round or two early doesn’t do that.
I would agree with that, but Chip obviously walks to the beat of his own drum.
Bengals were going to take him according to one of the insider tweets.
Yup. It matters. A lot.
Howie understanding that is why we were able to get Smith and two extra picks, rather than standing pat and picking Matthews at 22, and then getting a guy they liked less than Smith in the second.
then trade down Chip
One of the NFL guys said Cincinnati was going to take him next pick.
Maybe he was looking at the board upside down and is just trying to save face. Hicks was so putrid that he was in a class of his own.
I think this pick brings up more questions than answers about Kendricks. If we drafted a 6’4″ ILB I could understand that Chip feels he need size in the middle. hicks isnt much taller than Kendricks and he is lighter and less athletic. I don’t have a problem with Hicks ina vaccum, but don’t understand why we would move on from Kendricks in the first place.
I’m starting to see a Chip pattern. When he doesn’t want to pay someone he just drafts someone exactly like them. See Agholor and Maclin. Now Kendricks and Hicks.
My only thought could be money, or Chip hates him for missing 4 games with a calf strain last year.
I don’t think any of the ILBs are traded. Chip’s stockpiling them.
for what?
Lots of injury questions at the position
chaz green goes to dallas
I bet the Pats take La’el Collins
id be so fucking mad if that happens
it’d be typical
true, they did draft hernandez
Doesn’t look like Dallas taking a RB….any theories?
Lots of depth, think they’ll take one Round 4
CHIP IS GOING OFF OMG THIS IS AMAZING
“put me in a trade, i don’t care”
-chip kelly
Trade Chip for Mariota?
CHIP IS GOING OFF OMG THIS IS AMAZING
YOU GUYS ARE MISSING AN EPIC PC
oh i didn’t miss that
“TRADE ME, I DON’T CARE”
-Out of Context Quote from Chip
Eventual headline: “CHIP: TRADE ME!(TO TENNESSEE)”
hahaha nice
Chip insists he hasn’t talked to anyone about trading Mathis, Boykin, Kendricks, etc. calls all reports false. Said he called all to assure.
I don’t believe this for a second, the level of anger gives it away. He’s overcompensating.
I didn’t take it as anger, it sounded more like amusement at the futility of the press
Still don’t believe it for a moment. Chip’s a crafty bastard.
I want live PC updates. LETS HEAR CHIPPAH ANGRY
Chip going off on the media will soften my anger
Cowboys select Stabby McManslaughter, Narcotics A&M
Was he the one I read about character concerns, or was that someone else?
That’s the only thing that has made me smile since the Hicks pick
washington got matt jones
Even if they already traded Kendricks, this pick makes no sense.
They have Alonso who they just traded Shady for, Ryans who was just extended, and then at least 3 backups.
Just saying I’d rather they reach for a position of need than reach for a 4th string backup / special teamer in the third round.
Chip is stressing BPA
We’re trading Demeco!! or at this is what my brain that’s in denial wants to tell me.
Peter Schrager
@PSchrags
1m1 minute ago
Proof of Draft’s subjective nature. A front office exec said he had a 2nd round grade on Colts DE Henry Anderson. Another said he was a 5th.
Same reason maybe Roseman had Hart as a 5th rd pick. Limited number of teams use a scheme that he fits
Hart had 3rd grade, but all other teams that play 34 had addresed position, had no real value until very late for 43 teams.
Had to do with Supply/demand valuation, not evaluation issue
He’s up to 305! Big year for Hart.
This pick confirms to me that Clemmings must be off their board entirely for medical reasons. They had clear interest. Met with the kid 2 or three times. He was a consensus first rounder. Yet, there was no one close to Hicks on their board left. Clemmings foot must be gnarley bad.
Pats traded 96 to CLE. Pats drafting at 97(comp pick).
Rate the draft so far.
7/10
solid picks but not something that I can be very excited about.
8/10. Very high on Agholor and Rowe. Down on Hicks. Awful player.
How can you say that? Have you ever seen him play? He is amazing. Mychal Kendricks never had a season in the pros or college even close to the one Hicks had this years. Im not saying that as a shot at Kendricks either I like him a lot. But Hicks played at a different level this year and for the Longhorns too. Who are horrible up front and in the secondary. He had to do everything himself and still killed it.
Yep. Went to draftbreakdown and watched his tape against Baylor and Oklahoma.
A peek inside the Eagles’ ILB training room:
http://generator.acmi.net.au/media/1342/1342_1750.jpg
blindchow! where the fuck have you been?
You mean today?
sure…?
Today I had to catch up on DVR before I could join in the comments live, but I’ve been around!
cool man, glad to see u made it. although you did it the right way, you got fast forward through all the commercials!
Would you use that image to describe Brady? Because he was great then got hurt then was great again. Same thing with Hicks. He was best in the country then got hurt then was great again.
Reporting that the Eagles spent a lot of time with this kid at the Senior Bowl. I’m listening to 97.3 since I can’t get Philly Comcast down here.
That’s true. It’s not an out of nowhere pick, at least for them.
Frank Duffy liked him for us
eagles draft central is streaming live on the official site
So we reached so much on hicks that the bengals wanted him one pick later
Most fans base the definition of a reach or steal on pre-draft draftnik ratings which particularly later in the draft are often vastly different than what teams actually think
What teams actually think vary wildly from team to team, so that’s how you end up with Hicks being far and away the highest rated player left on the board for us, but for another team he might not rate higher than a 4th or 5th round pick.
The whole damn process is subjective. The only thing I care about is I don’t like the pick.
He might end up being a player, I’m not fucking clairvoyant, but right now I don’t like it.
this is sooooo true. i’ll be the first to admit i have no idea who’s good and who isn’t. but it’s fun to bitch about stuff. that’s why i like the draft so much!
Yep, exactly.
Just like we “reached” on the MS II pick.
honestly I didn’t think we would draft a ILB this year
I’m interested to see how this defense is going to play next season
The new 3-6 defense. Maxwell and Rowe at corners. Chip unconventional as always solves the Eagles safety woes by eliminating the position all together.
3-7 i think you mean…
Graham, Kiko, Meco, Kendricks, Hicks, Barwin … who am I missing. No one cares about MSII. Even in the 3-6 he’s a backup.
Are they done overhauling it?
man what the hell are we going to do about the OL?
Barbre/Tobin/(insert draft pick here) battles for RG. Not much depth after that though…
(insert draft pick here) = (this space intentionally left blank)?
Yup.
When books say “This space intentionally left blank” why don’t they add “…except for this text.” to complete the statement?
Not addressing the oldest starting line in the league two years in a row is a really big mistake
GLOWINSKI!
Every team that is going to be a serious contender needs at least one Pollock.
So 3 rounds down. Could T.J. Clemmings possibly be there at our 4th rounder? And if so, do we take that as gospel that he in fact no longer possesses legs?
Hoping Daryl Williams drops. Something has to be up with Clemmings’ foot.
“Something has to be up with Clemmings’ foot.”
that mr. richards, is the understatement of the draft
Looks fine to me…
http://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/dead-foot.jpg
ewwwwwwwwww
The next photo in the series showed him chewing.
Here’s Tony Pauline’s scouting report on Hicks:
Jordan Hicks
School: Texas
Position: OLB
Bio: All-America
and all-conference selection as a senior after career totals of 147
tackles, 13 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. Played four games during the
2013 campaign before being lost to an Achilles injury. Started three
games in 2012 and was lost to a hip injury. Started eight games as a
freshman and finished with 65 tackles.
Positive: Fluid,
athletic linebacker whose development has been slowed by injuries the
past two years. Nimble, easily changes direction and quick in pursuit.
Covers a lot of area, effective in space and shows ability in coverage.
Instinctive, remains aware of what’s happening around him and stays with
assignments. Reads and diagnoses, quick up the field defending the run
and wraps up tackling.
Negative: Short
with average size. Struggles getting off blocks. Beset by injury two of
the past three seasons which seems to have sapped him of both quickness
and speed.
Analysis: When
healthy and on his game Hicks looks like a terrific weakside linebacker
prospect who can defend the run or pass. He’s a scheme specific prospect
who comes with starting potential if he stays away from injury.
I think that CK presser was a little oversold…
it was funny, but nothing shocking i thought, some good quotes though
Come on. That was pretty exciting when Chip threw down his visor and yelled, “If anyone questions my love for Sam, Brandon, and Mich-, Mikah-, Myca-, however he spells it – ONE more time, I am going to punch them in the kidneys!”
Thought for your consideration: does anyone believe Danny Watkins would have returned from a season-ending injury or two?
Maybe Chip sees these events as opportunities to evaluate character, love, and dedication.
I have no idea what they’ll do tomorrow, but Poutasi and Poole both met numerous times with the team.
Poutasi went top of round 3.
Oh, missed that.
What are your thoughts so far?
RD 1: Solid pick
RD 2: Solid pick (as long as he stays at CB)
RD 3: Ugh. I did one of two tapes of Hicks and he did little for me. Time to go back to the tape and see if I missed something.
Fran Duffy liked him pre-draft process.
One of the few 3-down LBs in the draft. Good size for Eagles scheme.
As a former O lineman you must be a little bit disappointed so far ?!
Downright pissy.
And I like Tobin.
But I dropped a few F-bombs when Morse, Fisher, and Sambraillo all went of the board in the second.
At least I’m not the only one.
This just goes to show how much more the NFL personal knows than us. I have to watch more tape on this guy. I wouldn’t consider him a playmaker but maybe all we need is a solid piece in the middle. A question I have is: We just drafted another ILB, who are we going to trade for what kind of compensation?
Maybe Chip wants his 5th rounders back. So Kendricks for a 4th and a 5th?
That would be rough but better than nothing. Once again, we value our players much higher than other teams.
Or we the fans overvalue our own players.
That’s what I meant.
According to Chip we’ve never offered anyone in a trade ever and that’s all baseless and irresponsible speculation by the media.
“According to Chip.” That could be just as baseless.
There’s a sitcom here…
No one is going to suddenly get moved to OLB.
STOP IT.
We have a glut of ILB’s but Kendricks/Hicks/Kiko aren’t playing 34 OLB.
plus remember MSII is moving inside too!
Agreed. But, Billy Davis thought Brandon Boykin made an awesome right OLB for like 4 games in 2013, so who the hell knows…
?????
Boykin was used as a blitzer and was showing too early on like 10 plays two years ago. Let’s not overstate things.
He was blitzing from the ROLB position. I’m overstating nothing. They would take Trent Cole off, play a base 3-4 and Boykin would rush from the ROLB spot.
If my words don’t convince you, perhaps the all-22 will change your mind … http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2013/09/26/all-22-brandon-boykin-the-nfls-smallest-outside-lb/
“This is not a slot corner blitz. Boykin is not stationed across from a Chiefs receiver. He is essentially an outside linebacker rushing the passer.”
“It really is like an outside linebacker,” Boykin said
“Kind of doing both positions at the same time, like a slot and an outside linebacker. I’m still learning and kind of honing in my skills at both.”
“Davis called Boykin’s number as a pass-rusher 11 times against the Chiefs”
“[On one particular play] Davis essentially flips the inside and outside backers. Boykin sets up where you might usually find DeMeco Ryans and blitzes outside of Trent Cole. On another play, he sets up at outside linebacker and is asked to set the edge in the run game. Sure, Boykin might have gotten crushed by Eric Fisher, who outweighs him by 124 pounds, but at least he didn’t let the running back get to the sideline.”
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2013/09/26/all-22-brandon-boykin-the-nfls-smallest-outside-lb/#WKboP8Bz4W0BLTAi.99
Billy davis defended this move for 4 straight games, telling reporters that he liked the matchup with Boykin at OLB because it created indecision for the offense. Stating, “The offense is like wow…how come this little guy is coming.” How do you not remember this? It was by far the dumbest thing I ever witnessed in professional football. I wish all teams would try to confuse us by taking their best pass rusher off the field on obvious passing downs and have their 187 pound best cover CB play rush OLB and use him to rush one on against our left tackle. What a match-up win for the defense!
“11 times”
Also it’s not the craziest thing in the world, using a much smaller faster player to disorient an offensive lineman isn’t that out of this world.
And lets all be honest, if it was Rex Ryan who tinkered with that for a short period of time in his first season, and moved on when it didn’t work? We’d call him a creative genius searching for mismatches.
11 times in ONE GAME. That’s a bit more substantial, than he did it “like 10 times [all season] 2 years ago.”
It is absolutely the craziest thing in the world to remove your best pass rusher on obvious passing downs, put him on the sideline, while simultaneously removing your best cover corner from covering and inserting that 5’9 187 pound CB in at rush OLB to rush straight up against LTs and set the edge in the run game. It’s not just crazy it’s downright moronic.
It disoriented and confused no one. Every single time we deployed this look they blocked it like they would any 3-4 defense that was rushing the ROLB and just destroyed Boykin who never got anywhere close to the QB. All it accomplished was making our ROLB a complete non factor in pass rush and removed our best cover CB from doing what he’s actually designed to do. And, even if you like the idea in theory which I think is insane, in practice, it worked precisely 0 times.
If Rex Ryan or the hoodie tried something similar with similarly and predictably terrible results and stuck with it for 4 games while everyone watching scratched their heads and defended this insanity week in and week out I’d say it was just as inconceivably stupid as I said it was the first time Billy Davis trotted it out there and just as stupid as the 30th time he tried it and failed a month later.
I missed the Den and KC games so that’s probably why I have no great specific recollection of it.
Good god I envy you! Dude, if you saw this look as much as we did in those two games, you would have thrown the nearest object through your TV.
It was the silliest damned thing I’ve ever seen. Confused no one, all it did was create a giant mismatch at one of the most important positions on defense for the offense to exploit. If that wasn’t bad enough the press conferences made your head spin.
Everyone would ask Billy why he kept putting Boykin in at OLB and watching him get destroyed while the offenses converted easy third downs against this criminal mismatch. And, his response was always some form of, “well it’s so unexpected that someone would do something so stupid as to put their smallest player in at rush OLB that offenses will just be totally confused ’cause theyd never expect someone to do something so seemingly dumb that they’ll have no idea how to block it.”
And, then when it was brought to his attention that through 4 games it fooled no one ever and had given up tons of yards and third down conversions and resulted in not one positive play for the defense, he finally admitted, “Yea you’re right. That’s not really the match up we probably wanted.” And, we never saw it again, after that.
It was full retard dumb…
We had Sunday practice during Denver and KC was Thurs night and college didn’t have NFL Network.
Be thankful you missed it my friend. Anyone with your amount of football knowledge would have been looking at the screen with that tilted head look dogs give their owners when they’re utterly confused.
Did they just take Trent Cole off the field on 3rd and 10 and put Boykin in at ROLB in a straight up 3-4 and just rush him straight at the LT so that he got pancaked into next week? Is that the 10th time in a row we’ve allowed a long conversion while the LT sat on Boykin and the QB had all day to throw?
It was painful to watch.
Well, one of the thinnest positions on our teams has gotten WAY beefier this off season. We have ILB’s for days. For 3 years in a row now Chip has gotten me to go, “hmmm” with the 3rd round selection. Bennie Logan I had never heard of (because I didn’t dig in very much that year), Huff was a solid pick but I thought it was early and I didn’t think Hicks would get picked at all. I’ll get one right eventually.
Could not be happier to have @JordanHicks join the @Eagles! Recruited the little bro to #Texas and we’re back at it again.— Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) May 2, 2015
I didn’t even realize Acho was still here. You’d think his excitement would wane when he realizes he’s 12th on the depth chart at ILB now.
Yeah when he walks into TC and looks at his ILB brothers in the locker room and thinks awww im fucked.
Draftbreakdown is crashed. Huzzah.
I just watched him against Baylor and it made me feel ever worse about this pick. First play he gets pancaked by the fullback and I count at least four missed tackles. It is not a very flattering game for him.
Word is he’s slow in play recognition and struggles to get off blocks. Haven’t watched much of him so take that for what its worth, but getting pancaked on the first play by a fullback is not a good look for an ILB.
D3FB will answer this better, and I may be totally off base, but I’m not sure “ability to get off blocks” is an important attribute for a 3-4 ILB. They’re supposed to be kept clean long enough to make a play. Also have ability to cover.
He’s gonna tell you they still need to do. That’s what he said to me with Thompson. The good news is, Hicks is a fair bit bigger than Thompson and can hopefully hold his weight better than Shaq. Even if our scheme is to keep ILB’s clean they still need to do.
They do but the Oklahoma tape I posted above shows that hes more than capable in the getting off blocks department. None of the guys are going to stack and shed 100% of the time, that’s simple physics. But Hicks shows an understanding of the technique and leverage required to do so and demonstrates it against a pretty talented offensive line in Oklahoma.
The North Texas game shows why they like him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQp4yYDxmao
Whoop de do. He can play against bumblefuck North Texas.
And he had a great game against Oklahoma.
You must have watched a different tape. He was atrocious against Oklahoma.
No he wasn’t. That was a terrific game.
Awful. He made Jamar Chaney look good.
Guess saturday will be O-LINE day for Eagles.
God I hope so. We had lots of injuries at ILB last year and Chip seems hell bent on platooning every ILB available to compensate. We lost most our Oline last year, our depth proved to suck ass and we have the oldest projected starting Oline in the league. Chips reaction…cut Herremans and tell Mathis to seek a trade while signing or drafting nobody. I’m shocked.
Kelly sounds averse to chasing needs in the draft. I am also nervous about the unaddressed OL, but I admire his determination to go after players that he wants. He’s meticulous in his preparation and he seems not to be wasting any selections. If we don’t get two likely starting OL tomorrow, bitch at my myopic optimism.
We have pick #113 tomorrow (14th of day), then don’t pick again until #191.
I have no idea what Carolina is doing.
Sounds like he was drafted to play mike, take over for demeco.
what do we do with Kiko and Kendricks then?
We’ll see, it’s a good problem to have….especially considering everyone’s injury history. I still think they move kendricks but who knows.
I dunno…I think it’s a dumb problem to have when we haven’t addressed glaring holes on our oline and a total lack of depth behind the oldest projected starting oline in the league.
Last year the glaring lack of depth at ILB was exposed as well…
They all got hurt last year (the 3).
Going through the draft team-by-team, you can really see how poor the depth was this year.
A lot of the 3rd round picks really feel like 4th and 5th round picks.
Cincy / AZ / GB all needed ILBs and picked within a couple of us in the 3rd. No way Hicks was gonna make it to #113.
You know what bugs me most about Hicks? He contradicts 2 of Chip Kelly’s player doctrines: Injuries and size.
You can’t let Boykin rot in the slot while Fletcher blows gigantic balls on the outside all season and then turn around and draft someone who is by your standards too small to play a position.
Lurie can talk about how complete and thorough Kelly’s player requirement bible is, and Kelly can talk about how you have to stick to certain specifications as much as possible, but it all ceases to lose meaning when he arbitrarily violates his own standards.
That’s it, that’s my word on it. Hope the kid can play.
Based on everything I’ve read he fits the size measurables.
http://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-select-third-round-2015-nfl-draft/
Look at his spider chart. He’s got all the athleticism in the world, but height weight he’s way down there.
He’s over 6’1. That’s solid size for an ILB.
I get it. I don’t think Chip has published his H/W/S requirements though.
He’s #5 LB in SPARQ, which is at least somewhat meaningful.
If he fits the height weight measureables then Chip must have them set pretty low, which I don’t have a problem with unless he flips it around and says Kendricks can’t play for us because he’s too small.
We’ll see what happens.
One thing that Mano said in his introductory pc: There’s H/W/Speed metrics; there’s how he fits our scheme; and there’s character. You ideally want all 3 boxes checked, but an exception in the first might work if there’s compensation in the other areas. When I think back to 2013 draft and Kelly said he was set to take Jordan, and Miami swooped in and snagged him, I am reminded of the character of the gaggle of Eagles that Kelly has brought in since then through to today. One word fits virtually all of them: professional. Kelly is not interested in being anyone’s daddy, enforcer, social worker or conscience. He confirms beforehand that anybody he selects is a solid professional in preparation, time management, self-improvement, and application to the requirements of the job. There will be no Freddie Mitchells or Terrell Owens drafted by CK. Hicks may be shorter than the ideal, but this guy fits the scheme in spades, and he’s another solid professional who seems to be dedicated to his craft. So far, I love this draft.
Isn’t he 6″ 2? That’s within tolerance for ILB. Wait…6″ 1″… too short.
The ILBs this year weren’t remarkable athletes.
I’m pretty sure that spider chart is compared to OLB’s.
Chart says ILB.
I would have preferred if our draft went Dupree, fisher(without the trade up), then trade up for grasu
Hindsight is a pretty powerful tool.
Dupree and fisher were up for the taking
The Eagles needed depth at the linebacker position. So adding another LB won’t hurt our defense is gonna be a force to reckon with. One guy gets hurt well have others to step up… Eagles did not have no linebackers last season.
We had gotten depth by trading for Alonso, signing … Jones?, and getting Goode back from injury. Travis Long maybe too. Now if he was by far the best player left on the board, it was a BPA pick, and deal with the logjam later. You just hope that they are right and a lot of the other teams are wrong, since not sure any other teams had him as 2nd round grade. It’s just not someone that the draft mockers had as the BPA.
I didn’t even have them picking him but when u look at the tape this guy is a beast . Eagles need players that put fear in the other team .. Brian Dawkins was the last eagle to do so. Travis long and Goode are probably are camp bodies. Kendrick is going nowhere..
I highly recommend people watch the Oklahoma 2014 tape.
You see the instincts, athleticism, and physicality required to be a good modern NFL linebacker.
I personally feel much better after this tape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRv9NQj0gl0
I agree. The Oklahoma tape is way better than his tape against Baylor. Against Oklahoma he actually shows the ability to mirror the runningback and move laterally down the line of scrimmage using his hands to get off blocks.
I’m inclined to cut him some slack against Baylor.
Their offense is designed to put linebackers and safeties in no win situations. Bail to quick to cover the mass of WR’s running verts, and you get run on for 10 yards a pop, play the run and they toss it over your head.
Question:
At 2:14 Hicks is destroyed.
But he is clearly playing to his assignment, and the result of the play is a negative gain.
How does this get “scored”?
I feel like old school scouting says: “can’t get off blocks”
And new school scouting would take an NBA approach, and give him a positive for being involved in a positive play (like an adjusted Plus / Minus).
Help?
Analysis says shit maybe we should try OK RT at DT because he straight up tackled Hicks.
2:37 shows me he understands zone
2:45 shows me he understands stack and shed
There are several times where he gets held by offensive lineman. I don’t think there is much you are going to do when you have a 100 lbs disadvantage and get bear-hugged like at 3:40.
Was going to bring this up as well but then I realized that Tackle is a damn monster and probably has close to 100 lbs on Hicks. I dont’ think he can do much there, lol.
Thanks D3FB. The tape changed my initial impressions.
I don’t know, to me he looked like the third or fourth best defender on the field. Number 6 was everywhere, and number 2 was always around the ball (except for the wide open TD).
Hicks did seem to use his hands well, get through traffic, and make sound tackles.
Initial impression: First couple of plays you can see his ability to get to the line of scrimmage, engage his blocker, read the play, shed/make the tackle. This is encouraging because if you’re going to watch tape and try to project college players to the NFL, it is extremely helpful to see them do in college what they will have to do in the NFL. Also, he is able to move down the LOS with his eyes in the backfield, the RB had no chance of a cut back, Hicks was there. I enjoy the way he waits a the line, diagnosing the play then flows to the ball. He doesn’t attack upfield like a madman, kinda like Kendricks. Maybe this is why they want Hicks in and Kendricks out. Fantastic diagnosis of a reverse around 3:10 which shows patients and intelligence. Once again, he isn’t a wild bull charging recklessly. Very light on his feet and quite frankly I am surprised how well he moves in space. Seems to not get flustered in his zone. Diagnosed a screen play well and was able to tackled the RB as he was getting the ball for a no gain. As D3FB points out below, if you watch around 2:30, there is a play where he drops into coverage: His first responsibility is the receiver running a post. Hicks stays on the recievers inside and then passes him off to his teammate. His next assignment/read is to take care of the RB because he sees the qb looking back at him. Very well played and extremely encouraging. Another thing that stands out is Texas had him blitz the A-gap quite frequently and to be honest I don’t remember many other ILB’s blitzing so often, maybe Anthony? Anyway, you know who else likes to blitz the A gap? Billy Davis that’s who. He seems proficient but not amazing. This is one of the reasons I wouldn’t call him a first rounder. He has a lack of explosion and if he had a bit more, many of his blitzes may have been sacks. Overall I see a player with excellent coverage, tackling ability (not sure if he missed one all game.) work ethic and from what I hear, a general culture fit. While he may be a bit undersized I don’t see a reason why he can’t gain weight because his game is founded on intense explosion that may fall off with added weight. To me his 2 biggest weaknesses are 1. he can be pushed around at the line a bit (you can see his ability to sit back and diagnose a play backfires on him at 6:35, he should have straight up hit that hole) and 2. he lacks some of the explosion you would want but that’s why he was taken in the 3rd. Looking at this game gives you a lot of reason to like Hicks and considering there were several ILB needy teams picking after us, this was a good pick. Mitchell approved.
It’s almost funny. So many times we hear that some player was great in college (even though they are in university), but can’t/won’t translate to the NFL. Maybe somebody who had ups-and-downs in college will be great in the NFL. i mean really.
Adam Caplan @caplannfl 3m3 minutes ago
My understanding: #Bengals were very interested in LB Jordan Hicks. Once he went off the board, they moved to Paul Dawson at bottom of 3rd.
Hate hate hate the pick. Probably more than how much Jimmy Bama hates Miles Austin. I watched Hicks against Baylor and Oklahoma. He was awful. He missed more tackles than Brian Rolle, Jamar Chaney, Casey Matthews, or Moise Fokou. He got moved around by o-linemen, manipulated by the QBs eye fakes and left passing lanes open, and ran into the wrong gaps. This was an awful use of resources.
More tape on Hicks. Like his hitting and tackling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob3buoGtSfg&feature=youtu.be
I really like the players the eagles took in the first two rounds but I have conflicted feelings because the Oline seemed to be the best value in the first and also seems to be the most important building block for the way this offense is being built right now. Don’t know what to think about ILB situation.
Giants and Cowboys look to be having a hell of a draft. Guess we’ll see.
Cowboys draft is decent. Love Jones. I think Gregory is somewhat overrated as a player, but the off field stuff drove his value down to its appropriate spot. I think the Giants had a meh draft. Don’t like Flowers and I’m meh on Collins.
Ah shit. I forgot that the skins took scherff not the Giants. A lot of people think owamagbe could be the steal of the draft though.
Yea exactly injuries in his first 2 season is the only reason he made it into the 3rd round. He was so good this year that if he would have stayed healthy earlier in his career and followed the normal progression of a college athlete, imo he would have been the 1st ilb off the board. But because it seemed like he came out of no where people held that against him. So even though he out played nearly every other lb in college football this year, 1 of 5 Bednarik finalists at the lb position, the fact that guys like Baby Kendricks had 3 years of production means they are ranked higher.
God are they wrong this kid wasn’t just some fluke. He has been the best his whole life. He was the top rated lb in the country coming out of high school back in 2011. I remember reading the hype on Rivals about him, and how he was swarmed by every major school. I wanted him to pick Linebacker U so bad but I guess getting him on my favorite pro team 4 years later is even better.
I’m telling you the Eagles are going to have 2 of the top 3 ilbs in the NFL on their team. Him and Alonso will be right up there with Kuechly.