The Final Pick is the Biggest of Them All
Posted: May 2nd, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 377 Comments »The 2015 draft is over for the Eagles. In the 7th round, they drafted Boston College DE Brian Mihalik.
This kid is huge at 6-9, 302. He is surprisingly athletic. Check out these numbers:
40 – 4.89
BP – 23
VJ – 35.5
BJ – 10’2
SS – 4.37
3C – 7.23
Wow. I don’t know if you realize how good that is. Here is JJ Watt’s Combine workout at 6-5, 290:
40 – 4.84
BP – 34
VJ – 37
BJ – 10’0
SS – 4.23
3C – 6.88
Mihalik is a gifted athlete.
I am not comparing him to Watt as a player. Watt went early because he was dominant on the field. Mihalik had 4.5 sacks last year and is talented, but is nowhere close to Watt in terms of football ability or potential.
Mihalik played RDE, LDE and DT for BC. They mostly ran 4-man lines, but occasionally went to a 3-4 look. He lined up as a 3-4 DE vs Penn State and had a beautiful sack of Christian Hackenberg. Mihalik just threw the RG out of his way and engulfed the QB. Really impressive.
He is talented, but was awkward at 4-3 DE. I think he is best suited to play in the 3-4.
Taking a chance on a guy like this in the 7th round is smart. Ray Rhodes used a 1st round pick on a similar player back in 1997 and it was a disaster. Jon Harris was a complete bust in the NFL. Mihalik is a better scheme fit and is going to work with a terrific DL coach. I think he can definitely play in the NFL.
The Eagles wanted help for the DL. They looked at a variety of players from a variety of schools. In the end, they seemed to go with the biggest athlete they found.
Solid pick with good potential.
_
Known UDFA signigns by Eagles so far:
Brett Boyko OT UNLV
Mike Coccia OT New Hampshire
Cole Manhart T/G Nebraska-Kearney
John Harris WR Texas
Another ILB?
Mike Loyko
@NEPD_Loyko
6s6 seconds ago
Mike Hull LB Penn State to Philly
Not so fast, Alex Marvez of Fox Sports says Hull to Dolphins
Apparently now he is going to Miami…
Has a better chance of making it as position player in Miami
Could make it here because of our emphasis on STs where he excels
I was thinking the same thing
didnt we just sign john harris? lol
Texas WR John Harris. STs guy.
Matt BarrowsVerified account
@mattbarrows
San Jose State DL Travis Raciti heading to #Eagles
Good…. alot of people projected him pre draft, and he could be a good fit.
Adam Caplan
@caplannfl
13s14 seconds ago
UDFA RB Raheem Mostert (Purdue) has agreed to a deal with the #Eagles, according to his agent, Brett Tessler.
4 retweets
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Adam Caplan @caplannfl 41s41 seconds ago
UDFA RB Raheem Mostert (Purdue) has agreed to a deal with the #Eagles, according to his agent, Brett Tessler.
Info on Mostert:
1. led Div-1 in kickoff returns as a true freshman, averaged 33.5 yards per return (25-837)
2. Junior Year: Moved from wide receiver to running back
3. Sr Year: Won the Big-10 title in the 60m and 200m at the conference indoor track championship . . . Won the Big-10 title in the 100m and 200m at the conference outdoor track championship . . .
4. Sr. Year: 93 carries, 529 yards 5.7 ypc 3 TDs
Hadn’t had a chance to jump on yet.
Fun draft. Like the guys we got, HATE that we don’t have a RG worth beans and might lose our LG.
Hopefully these UDFA guys are good.
Andrew Gleichert @AndrewGleichert 29m29 minutes ago
So happy to be apart of The Philadelphia Eagles. Couldn’t have done it without the support of my friends and family and @Michigan_State
Details
He is a 6’5 Tight End
TE nice. Celek is way overpaid and almost done.
TE from Michigan State, 6-5, 258, Celek-sized
Here’s some background on MSU’s AG:
1. former walk-on
2. earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology in December 2014.
3. eight career receptions for 69 yards (8.6 avg.) in 33 games
CHARACTER
he’ll be managing the sports science aspect
Desmond Conner
@desmondconner
Former #UConnFootball DL B.J. McBryde is set to sign free agent contract with the #Philadelphia #Eagles
He was in that mega workout with all of the UConn guys when we were up there for Jones, right?
Yes
McBryde . . . HUGE.
6’4″ 320lbs (or thereabouts)
So Eagles got 2 of top 4 SPARQ DLs
Shoot Antwan Goodley went to the Cowboys
Adam Caplan
@caplannfl
20s21 seconds ago
#Eagles agreed to deals with UDFAs OT Malcolm Bunche (UCLA) and WR Josh Harris (Texas).
Harris already known.
1 retweet
0 favorites
harrris is 6’2 215 blocking wr, STs
Info on Malcolm Bunch
1. Father Curtis Bunche — defensive end / 8th Rd pick out of Albany State (Ga.) by the Eagles in the 1979 draft
2. hometown – Newark, DEL
3. 6’6″ 310
4. Graduated from U-Miami — transferred to UCLA
5. Played OG at UM — OT at UCLA
6. Lists the NFL’s Jason Peters as the athlete he admires most
My roommate was high school teammates with him. So we’ve both kept an eye on him.
I’m not putting money on him being here after first round of cuts.
Bryn Swartz
@eaglescentral
22s23 seconds ago
New Hampshire UDFA WR RJ Harris to the Saints. My top UDFA target. Eagles missed him.
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eric tomlinson
@eric_tom87
3m3 minutes ago
Excited to be an Eagle!! Can’t wait to get started!
Another blocking TE
Yeah he’s one of the best at that from this class.
Some ET info
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/utep/sports/m-footbl/auto_headshot/10235731.jpeg
1. Grad Student
2. 6-7 / 270
3. 19 rec. 134 yds 7.1 avg 1 TD
As promised, epic facial hair to boot.
How the first 4 rounds of my Eagles draft would have gone:
1. Byron Jones
2. Jake Fisher (Granted, they probably thought he’d be gone by their pick*, but even Ali Marpet would have worked for me)
3. Trade 3rd (and conditional 7th?) for a 2nd in next year’s draft, or a 5th and 6th this year.
4. Mark Glowinski
The rest: Load up on LB’s and DB’s and take Laurence Gibson in the 7th.
* – Seriously, What the Hell were the Chiefs thinking taking Mitch Morse when Jake Fisher and Ali Marpet were still on the board?
glad what happened happened then….. need that WR
Morse is more positional versatile, and is a hell of a player himself.
Alani Fua is joining the Cardinals. I suspect that Raciti was signed with designs on having him cut weight and play OLB. Very athletic for his size.
Tommy had speculated previously about whether they might like him as an O-lineman (after sending Stoutland to his pro day).
Jordan Matthews @jmattjmattjmatt 43s44 seconds ago
Welcome to the family @ShowTimeSheed ! Let’s get to work!! #RunAllDay
Rasheed Bailey signing with us?
6′ 2″ 205 WR from Delaware Valley College
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20150427_Philly_s_Rasheed_Bailey_a_D-III_receiver_who_caught_NFL_scouts__eyes.html
Love how supportive JMatt is. He’s an awesome teammate.
Dominated D-III the way a same-sized receiver from MSVSU dominated D-II in 1984.
Hope lives.
Fuck Del Val
I upvoted this simply because I love the idea of obscure rivalries that no one really cares about except the people who do, and who do hard.
Ha, it’s not even really a rivalry, I don’t know if we’ve ever played them (different conferences) although there is plenty of cross recruiting, and everybody played with or against kids from the other school in high school.
Chip said he understood Polk wanting an opportunity but that he would take Polk back tomorrow and he would definitely make the roster, carrying 4 RBs and 3TEs to keep polk…
..
Sounds like he really does like the kid, who knows down the round, Polk may find his way home..
cant like him that much
Ok
yeah doing the kid a favor must mean he doesnt like him
i mean if he liked him more he wouldn’t have signed two starters ahead of him and given him the lowest tender. i think polk will realize he’s not going to play in tx either, hopefully he’ll make it back.
Please Ryan Mathews would never be here if we thought we could have had demarco a week earlier
not talked about enough
I don’t think it’s necessarily true.
Matthews is a good player.
No. Like Matthews.
But I think if Murray’s looking around on Day 1 the way Matthews did, it works out differently.
Regardless, Murray needs to share carries in a big way this year.
gotta think dallas knows they can get ap right? you can’t have mcfadden starting and be serious.
Don’t know if AP’s the answer.
But Dallas’s approach of going with McFadden and Joe Randle (and there’s a third guy) pushes the edge of the envelope.
While it was all going down with Murray it really felt like the Eagles were trying to convince Matthews to honor the deal, not the other way around. At least based on Twitter chatter.
Mathews would have shared the load with old man Gore, but I doubt he will even play much with demarco healthy. Demarco is a legit #1 RB, would have been fine with Polk as demarcos #2, but you can’t make Polk the #2 to old man Gore… Doubt Mathews lasts more then two years here …
I’d give $100 to hear you tell Ryan Matthews he’s “soft” to his face.
Honestly Im in college and need money so I’d probably do it
How can you not like Polk? The kid runs like his hair is on fire and all he did was run hard every chance he was given.
We lost him because of our depth. When you have a stable of RB’s that are named, Murray, Mathews and Sproles, it’s tough to to try and crack that starting rotation.
I look at the loss of Polk as a blessing.
I have always thought that our RB depth has got to be tops in the NFL for the past few years IMO.
When your worst RB is starter worthy then you know your depth is at it’s best.
Heck, if we were forced to start Matt Tucker, I would bet he would be more than adequate, not stellar but more than adequate.
I really liked Polk and I think he will be a good back, no matter where he goes.
How did we lose out on the UNH wide receiver? Seems like he would have been a slam dunk.
Why go to a team that just drafted a WR #1 this year, and two more in Rds 2 & 3 last year.
Plus, of course, there’s Riley Cooper.
Stop with this sensible stuff.
Saints got OL Sean Hickey as well. WTF.
Geoff Mosher retweeted
Duke Football
@Duke_FB
12m12 minutes ago
#Duke DE Jordan DeWalt-Ondijo will join the @Eagles as a free agent.
35 retweets
27 favorites
6-4, 240 – Should be OLB for us
JD-O:
1. Graduated in December 2014 with a BA in political science
2. 6’4″ 240 lbs
3. played DE – stand up and hand in dirt
http://www.goduke.com/pics33/1024/EW/EWCPBYWJTBVXIIA.20150428142804.JPG
Man, that picture is truly worth 1,000 words, isn’t it?
Looks like he was born to play 3-4 OLB.
don’t know how he tests for Kelly purposes . . .
but he sure looks good in HD
one more for you (and that’s ASU’s Jamil Douglas whom JD-O just beat):
http://www.goduke.com/pics33/1024/NR/NRSBYLYJSTQYSFP.20150428142804.JPG
So, updating the list:
RB Raheem Morstert, Purdue
WR John Harris, Texas
WR Rasheed Bailey, Delaware Valley
WR DeVante Davis, UNLV
TE Eric Tomlnson, Texas-El Paso
TE Andrew Geichert, Michigan State
OT Malcolm Bunch, UCLA
C/G Cole Manhart, Nebraska-Kearny
OT Brett Boyko, UNLV
OT Mike Coccia, New Hampshire
DL B.J. McBryde, Connecticut
DL/OLB Travis Raciti, San Jose State
OLB Jordan DeWalt-Ondijo, Duke
CB Denzel Rice, Coastal Carolina
brad marquez
Marquez signed with the Rams.
how ’bout the kid from Duke? DeWalt-Ondijo?
signed?
_____
See him there. sorry [EDIT}
Nothing official yet, but it’s been reported he’s agreed to terms with us.
Geoff Mosher
@GeoffMosherCSN
1m1 minute ago
Geoff Mosher retweeted Cory Bailey
Denzel Rice, a 5-11 CB from Coastal Carolina
Geoff Mosher added,
Cory Bailey
@CoachCoryBailey
Chad Hamilton to Bears @chadrick73 and Denzel Rice to Eagles! @ONLY_D_1 two great guys. Congrats fellas!! @DraftDiamonds @CCUJoeMoglia
Chip was asked how long Jason peters has left and chip said he had no idea without knowing if injuries pop up but said that the way Jason Peters looks when he is working out these days he has no doubt that he will be the best LT in the NFL again next year and talked about how he just has a rare special body…
…
I guess we liked barbre more then we thought..Tobin too
…
Wish we would put a stop to this senseless bullshit and just give Mathis a bonus and tell him to shut up and get to camp..
…
All I ask from the OL is that Molk not make this roster
Just giving Mathis money like that sends a bad image to other players on the team. His pay this year and next year is right about in line with what it should be.
He is just trying to make up for money he wasn’t getting paid when he wasn’t really any good before he starts to decline or retire. He will report to training camp. Under the new CBA he will lose serious money if he doesn’t.
He knows if he forces the Birds to cut him the open market will just pay him around or less then what the Birds are paying him.
From all reports he is a bit immature and he is acting it now with that “deez” tweet meaning deez nuts.
He was plenty mature class act this time last year… Didn’t seem to get the man anywhere….when you play your way into the best player at your position, I don’t have a problem with this…..
FYI, S Kurtis Drummond signed with Houston.
Why? They have like 36 safeties. Give us one!!!
But they all suck
Did he go undrafted?
Yep
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CECcSE6W8AA3U45.jpg
possible convert this TE to OL?
his beard would fit in
Here’s a better photo — from the local PD?
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/utep/sports/m-footbl/auto_headshot/10235731.jpeg
I really like this kid. Was hoping we would draft him actually.
Looks like a “wildling”…. Manz Rayder would have been proud
ICD:
Kelly’s committed to developing a BIG blocking TE . . . almost a small OT-sized version. But bigger than Celek
This guy’s smart. Big. And can catch (apparently). Like the MSU kid
No ducks drafted or UDFA?
Amazing huh
I don’t know what happened to Washington yet though
Never mind. Just saw he signed with the Texans.
Tell u right now… Give you 5-1 odds a year from now we draft Deforrest Buckner… Chip will be back to his duck hunting with avengence
Armstead was the sexy athletic underachieving DE, where as Buckner was the overachieving high charecter DE… I really think chip will want him and Taylor Hart as backups
I’m kinda disappointed wanted some more ducks to root for
Deforest Buckner will be the next duck drafted… Unless there is a duck to be had in the supplemental draft
I’m fine waiting for Royce hopefully he stays for 3 more years
With all these blocking TEs wonder why we didn’t go after Burtons lil brother… Then again, what’s he going to compete with his brother for a roster spot at the same position? … Let me know is anyone sees where clay Burton ends up
He signed with Buffalo
Thanks
There you go GEAGLE, hopefully you stop whining now:
Zach Berman @ZBerm 1m1 minute ago
Chip on La’el Collins:”It wasn’t a hard decision …I don’t think we should be talking about draft picks. Two people have lost their lives.”
I’m really surprised no one invested a 7th rounder for La’El Collins. I mean this could turn out very ugly, but according to the police, he’s no suspect. So he has at least that going for him.
Thing is: he’s a 1st round talent. If you can snatch a 1st round talent in the 7th, I think this would be value, even if there’s a chance he can never play for your team. Because how high is the chance a 7th rounder will make your team anyway? And it’s not like he has a history of character issues, at least as far as I know.
Now, if he turns out to be responsible for the death of this woman and since yesterday sadly the kid also, he will be punished, and rightfully so. It’s just, if he turns out to be not responsible, you have control over a very talented player. Yeah, maybe he wants to hold out because he doesn’t like the 7th round salary, but you have the leverage. Now, he has the leverage and can sign with anyone he wants, if his name is cleared.
I hope he’s innocent (and that they find the person/s responsible, of course) and I really hope we can sign him as UDFA. If there are no other character issues, maybe Chip would sign him, if he’s innocent. We could be a good place for him, after all. A winning team who needs young talent at the position badly.
Edit: Peter King wrote an article about it. Collins wants to enter the 2016 draft and not sign with a team. Maybe smart from his side, altough I don’t know if there’s a maximum an UDFA can earn.
http://mmqb.si.com/2015/05/02/lael-collins-2015-nfl-draft/
He would do just as well as a UDFA, makes no sense for him to wait another year
I’m not sure about that. If he’s cleared and able to re-enter the draft he will probably earn 10’times more than an UDFA
Really hell be 2 years farther from FA,
cant re enter draft according to nfl.
Read that, too. There could be a legal fight, but we’ll see.
If he’s not allowed to re-enter the draft it will come down to old school recruiting. Every team will give him as much guar. money as they are allowed to and every team will guar. his full salary. Then it comes down to need at the position (potential playing time) and recruiting. We should be in good shape, if Kelly wants him and if it comes to that.
That is all under the assumption that his name will be cleared. If his name won’t be cleared he will never play a down in the NFL and rightfully so.
So Patriots it is
Well, being RG now/RT future for Chip Kelly could be very compelling, too. Especially since he can learn from one of the best in the game and take over the left or right tackle position as soon as he retires.
I don’t know if there will be other good packages, but the Eagles package is pretty good, imo (not saying that as a fan).
Good thing Chip spoke highly of Collins then :/
Well, did he said something negative?
Right now, I understand how Chip thinks. It’s not the right time to talk about Collins potential as a player. But if there aren’t any general concerns about his character and his name would be cleared by the police, it’s another situation. Then you evaluate him as a player and most people thought he has 1st round talent. Chip knows his OL is old and needs young blood.
If Collins was on the Eagles board before the incident and his name is cleared after the incident, I see no reason not to go aggressive after him. Under normal circumstances, there are no 1st round talents available as UDFA.
I’d be curious to know what we really thought about the young man two weeks ago before any of this horrible tragedy came into play?
..
Chip too the high road and talked about how it’s just not the time to talk about that when two people lost their lives, but I would have been interested to how we viewed his character before all this..
.
On one hand chip says the classy high road things, but on the other hand people have reported that his agent told us not to draft him, so who really knows what we thought about him…
…
I really hope for this young man that he had nothing to do with this,,..
Personally,I 100% agree with chip’s sentiment. His comment about discussing draft picks when 2 people lost their lives didn’t seem directed solely at Collins but at the general atmosphere surrounding the conversation.
Yeah it’s a dumb idea and I don’t really believe him anyway… Dudes been a broke college kid for years, you want to get to your 2nd NFL contract ASAPI… What’s he going to do, waste a year, sit on the side, take out all types of Loans to have money in his pocket this year.. Be one year further away from his 2nd contract and accumulate a bunch of debt this year? Doubt he will be Discaplined enough to live like. Broke college kid for another year, he would probably take a big loan from agent or Bank and blow big money before he even gets a rookie paycheck
I don’t get the bromance over this dude. Kelly stated he wasn’t on their board. I think they address depth in UDFA’s and that extra 3rd will be nice, possible trade this coming season for a player if it works out. They picked up Sproles for a 5th! Also, once you sign an agent, I’m pretty sure you lose your amateur status.
You don’t get the bromance over possibly getting one of the top OL prospects in this draft as a UDFA? Really?
Pass
Obviously he wasn’t on any board. But one thing is for sure: that’s because of the incident, not because of his tape.
Now if he’s cleared (there is no guar he will!), it’s a totally different situation. If he had nothing to do with the death of this woman, why in the world wouldn’t you want to sign him? He’d be like an extra 1st round pick without the salary.
I’ll be sick if he gets cleared on Tuesday and we didn’t spend a 6th on him,, starting him next to Lane next year would be so bad ass
“Culture beats talent any day” – who said that again? Look at the picks from Kelly, none of them have this kind of baggage. Dumb players make dumb plays, smart players rarely make dumb plays. Look at JP, Lane, Mathis, Kelce, no way would I want a dude even mentioned in that kind of stuff.
Nobody knows what he did wrong at the moment. It could be devastating, but it could also be the case that he’s totally innocent. If he is involved in the murder (doesn’t mean he was the one who killed her, but he could be involved) he will not play in the NFL. But if he’s innocent, why would he be “dumb”?
I get if you’re against him if he’s proven guilty of some kind of illegal actions. I get NFL teams didn’t want to draft him. But IF he’s cleared, why would you be against him?
Yes, nobody Kelly drafted is even remotely associated with that kind of stuff. There are plenty of players without those kinds of questions. If Kelly picks him up is all that matters, I just don’t see it. This isn’t being busted for smoking pot or getting free tattoos. 31 other teams agreed.
Sorry mate, but I see no logic in your argument. Kelly won’t sign players who have a bad football attitude, who don’t love the game. There is nothing that says Collins has a bad football character, at least nothing about the incident says that.
The accusations that he COULD be involved in a homicide is what made teams scared. IF (and only if) he’s cleared from that he will get a chance in this league. And IF he’s cleared and there are no football character concern, then Kelly will want to sign him. And he better does, because we could use youth and talent, badly.
If someone drafted him, he said he would not sign with the team, which would let him enter the draft again next year.
That would be wasting a pick, even if it was the 7th round.
He cannot enter next year’s draft if he goes undrafted. This means that assuming his legal woes clear up, he’ll be able to negotiate a contract fitting his market value in free agency.
I get that. But don’t forget the team would have had some leverage. One year salary is a lot for someone who hasn’t made any money yet.
But since I read about the “eligble for the next draft if drafted but not signed”, I understand it better why no one picked him in the 7th.
You might want to ask Beau Allen if a 7th rounder can make a team.
He has played well in his limited role and has shown he can be an effective starter.
La’el would have been a steal in the 7th.
It could be a culture decision and I am okay with that.
Geoff Mosher
@GeoffMosherCSN
14s14 seconds ago
Geoff Mosher retweeted Mark Anderson
UNLV beat writer with Eagles signing 6-3, 220 UNLV wideout …
Geoff Mosher added,
Mark Anderson
@markanderson65
Devante Davis also signs with the Eagles. #unlvfb #lvrj
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/devante-davis?id=2552410
Nice one. Roto has high praise:
Davis (6’3/220) was physically dominant in the Mountain West, parlaying 186 career catches into 2,785 yards (15.0 YPR) and 22 TDs. Davis would’ve reset the UNLV record books had he not missed five games with a wrist injury as a senior. Davis profiles similarly to Dwayne Bowe in his prime with 4.57 speed, a 35 1/2-inch vertical, and a 10-foot-1 broad jump. A top-notch ball tracker with sure hands, Davis has all the traits of an eventual No. 2 receiver with deceptive vertical ability. He is DFS aficionado Davis Mattek’s favorite wideout in the 2015 class.
Yes!!!! I got one right!!! So excited about this WR.
Might be the most talented UDFA we have signed since chip arrived
Chip’s first draft pick was an offensive lineman, and he hasn’t selected one since.
Chips first pick was a wr
Think he means his first draft pick in 2013…. which was Lane Johnson and he has not drafted another since.
I know what he meant 😛
I’m going back to 2013 when he was hired.
I knew you were I was messing with you
Did we have aLejandro Villanueva’s measurements and 40 times last year? He was a Big athletic Mofo, wonder about how the big Boy from BC compared to last year big ass athlete Villanueva?
So was that other kid from FAU. Francis something.
Frank Mays
http://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings/dl/
Mihalik is the most athletic DL in this years draft and its not really close.
I can with guarantee say that neither of the last two super long guys was close to this athletic.
I don’t really know how to judge this draft… Pretty friggin weird.
..
I like the first 4 players we drafted, but from everything I have heard, Philly isn’t that thrilled with this draft..
…
Thought we were on our way to a BIGTIME draft, and then we bowed out of rounds 4 and 5, two of my favorite rounds…
..
We got better, that I know… Whether or not we maximized our value guess that remains to be seen.
..
Kind of weird when our first 6th round pick is one of my favorite picks..
The fact they didn’t get any OL really hurts the perception of this draft. Even if there wasn’t value, they needed some OL prospects. Didn’t happen.
Spending so many picks on WR has really hurt.
I dunno,,,I didn’t view us as needing to fill starting holes so for me this draft was about depth, and we needed depth everywhere practically, like everyone I was hoping for OL as well, but we weren’t going to get all the depth addressed in this one draft, offense is going to score points like always, hopefully this draft means we don’t have to worry about DB’s for a few years… DBs, ILBs and DL are now deep with young talent, should make for some nice competition that will elevate players game, and the cream should rise to the top… Right now the Defense only lacks OLB depth…
…
If we go into next years draft and do what we did this year with DBs, add like two 3 young OL next year, add an OLB or two, a WR and a young RB, we should have a deep roster at all positions..
Agreed, I think Chip feels more comfortable with Tobin, Barbre and Gardner in a rotation.
We still have Kelce, Peters and Johnson to grade the road for Murray and Bradford won’t need nearly as much time as Foles when it comes to making quick decisions.
I think we will be better than most of the experts are projecting.
In fact, I think we could be the best team in the East at seasons end.
The fact they didn’t get any WR really hurts the perception of this draft. Even if there wasn’t value, they needed some WR prospects. Didn’t happen.
Spending so many picks on OL has really hurt.
Interesting how nothing they do will ever satisfy people.
The local consensus, is we nailed the first 2 picks. The 3rd is a bit of a head scratcher given the current roster, and many fear what it may mean for MK. Not having a 4th sucks, but is understandable after the OL run. A lot of people would have liked an OL picked, but the rest of the draft was fine.
Cowboys have signed some nice WRs as UDFAs – Antwan Goodley and Deonta Greenberry
Advantage to being in a college football rich area
Our local guys come from Temple and Delaware Valley
I wanted to draft goodley
same.
Don’t leave out Penn! they produced at least 1 HOF player…
ughhh Jones can go eat more shit
bud dupree was definitely BPA
He’s raw
Okay, going to crash. By my count we have roster spots for 1 or 2 more UDFAs(depending on if Hull is signing with PHI or MIA). Someone else find that info out and post it.
He Gore’d us
Chip Kelly: “We want to win a championship, this city deserves it & we are going to leave no stone unturned until we get that done”
All those LB’s has to mean he who shall not be named finally doesn’t make the team right………… right?
When we look back at this draft, I think Rowe will be our real Gem. personally, I think he may be the best safety to enter the NFL out of the past 3 Drafts.. I love him way more then Landon Collins and Damarious Randall, he is going to be better then Clinton Dix, last years top safety. And u like him more then Vaccaro, Eric Reid or Cyprien in the 2013 draft…I know we want to start him off at Cb where he can also be a stud. But I think this kid will go on to be a Probowl safety. For me, he is the player we drafted who I would bet on having the best odds of becoming a ProBowl talent
I know chip says Rowe will start off at Cb, but I’d assume there is a good chance he will end up at safety this year because I think the walter Thurmond/Nolan Carrol battle will provide a better CB then most people think..
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I trust Nolan/Thurmond to handle that CB spot, more then I trust Wolff/Jaylen to handle the safety spot..so sometime this summer, I expect Rowe to take over the starting safety spot, he is THAT talented, plus I think rookie CB are horrible. If we are going to start him next year, I’m way more comfortable with a rookie safety
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When asked to compare his game, interesting that he compared his game to a Kam Chancellor type, but he didn’t know who to compare himself to as a Corner… Thought the Chamcellor comparison was a little weird, but if he plans on playing that physical, I will LOVE him…
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Shepard I was shocked was still available in the 6th. Kid reminds me of a young Sheldon Brown,, opposing QBs ONLY completed 38% of passes against him… Kid is a willing tackler, will fight to make the tackle on a bubble screen, or fill in on run support when the WR he is matched up with goes and cracks the Safety in the run game, daring our CB to tackle the RB..
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I really like this kid, I don’t care what his 40 time says, put on a tape and you see he plays fast… If this kid was 6’1, He would probably go ahead of Jalen Collins….I could absolutely see this kid having a chance to grow into a starting CB in a few years..no matter what, I don’t believe rookie CB’s should start.
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Really excited about the plethora of versatile DB talent we accumulated. having those competitive SEAHAWK DBs and Malcolm Jenkins should really set a great example in practice and help us grow a few of these kids into quality NFL players that will be Longterm eagles..
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Should be some serious competition amongst about 10 talented young DBs in camp, excited to see who beats out who in the secondary
Overall a pretty meh draft. I don’t hate it, don’t love it either.
I would have taken Dupree over Algohor. I agree with the Eric Rowe pick.
I would have taken Sammy Coates in the 3rd round and tried to trade up in the 4th round to get Clemmings.
Kurtis Drummond and Daryl Roberts would have been my 6th and 7th round picks
100% but they needed a producer at wr
Agreed. I really liked Coates but I’m not sure how much you can count on him in his first year. Steelers got good value in receivers the last 2 years.
you can afford to do that when you have studs at the position already.
I’m really excited about Devante Davis. He was my late round sleeper. Does anyone know if Mancz signed any where?
Pretty damn surprised he went Undrafted.. I could see him make the roster this year, not just the practice squad..,of course that will probably depend on his ST ability, but he could be a real steal down the road.. THRILLED to have this kid.
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Thought it was interesting hear chip talk about Mile Austin today, seems to like him…. Talked about how we thought it was great value as a guy too sign for one years and that chip looked at every single one of his catches last year and was impressed that he came down with some contested balls, and made some really tough catches last year,,.. I have NO iCLUE how he played for the Browns, but it’s good to have a veteran like him, with Cooper to help our young talented we invested high picks in… Excited about the new era of eagle WR we are starting to usher in…
Can’t we just hand Mathis a bonus and put an end to the crap?
Sure, if you want to set the precedent for all players to handle their grievances the Rosenhause way. I find it interesting that they rewarded Barwin knowing Mathis was unhappy almost to say “you want us to take care of you, be a model teammate”.
What’s that precedent? If you play your way into the best player at your position you get a bonus the last two years of your career? Yeah Ill find a way to live with that….. Laughable, Barwin us under 30, Mathis is 33 and last year went about trying to get a new deal in the best way possible,and it got him no where… Shocker he is acting different a year later..l
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Precedents, game of chicken, whatever…… Our OL is at a delicate stage right now, and Id rather remove distractions, so you can either work it out or just cut the guy…. Doing this dysfunctional dance all summer helps no one… When one starting Guard spot will be disputed between Barbre and Tobin, neither which is a proven starter, you have to be ridiculuos to give yourself a headache on the other side…
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Feel free to cut Maths and take your chances with someone else blocking for the “durable” Bradford, but one way or another, this needs to be put to bed before June… Work it out, or cut him…
If you give him a bonus now you aren’t rewarding his play, you are reward his holding out and demand for a trade. Furthermore, No other team wants him, therefore you have the leverage. Paying him removes that leverage with Mathis and with future “disgruntled” players. This isn’t a hard choice for the Eagles, they have 0 incentive to give him more money and will lose more in the long term than they gain in the short term. Seriously, giving into his demands would be “laughable”.
Ok
We also have no idea what Mathis is asking for. He’s already the 6th highest paid LG in the league this year and scheduled to be the 3rd highest paid LG next year. I think that’s right where he belongs. Barwins “gift” was an extra $750K and guaranteeing an extra $3.5mil of the contract that wasn’t set to be guaranteed. Doubt something that small is what Mathis is huffing and puffing about. That’s a reasonable “gift” to a younger player that just came off a monster year that far exceeded his contract. Whereas Mathis is 34 years old and coming off a down year in which he was injured for half the season. Big difference.
Banner weighed in on La’el threatening so sit:
https://twitter.com/joebanner13/status/594695321088851969
got to say, i think he’s involved. a, i’d be screaming from the rafter if i wasnt. it’s not like he has any money, or nfl 1st rd money. i’d be going bonkers. b, nfl isnt restrained by law enforcement rules, they found out or found something in his background.
I have a feeling he has a lawyer dictating his actions, but whatever his motivation he definitely did not handle this situation well.
I posted this because banner answered the question of whether he would make more money by playing as a UDFA vs waiting a year. The answer is yes…unless he was drafted in the first 3 rounds (except that he would have lost a year of income). I found that interesting.
i’m not a lawyer, but if i was , id be directing him for the course of action to not lose him millions on top of millions of dollars.
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dont get his stance. he seems to be protecting someone.
I agree. I could see a lawyers preaching silence or the police agreeing to talk to him after the draft so long as he was silent about the case but I think that really did more damage than had he spoken to them immediately. I just don’t understand why he didn’t.
he might even be innocent though i doubt it. the nfl might have dug up new unknown bs on kid. nfl is restricted by no one, imagine what they could find on you when in ultra crosshairs.
better to be prepared then to go in half cocked
Hard to know who to weep for. Maybe the motherless 10-year-old.
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-draft-lsu-tigers-la-el-collins-situation-takes-another-tragic-turn-as-baby-dies-050215
That is horrible. Puts the draft in perspective…
“There have been reports the shooting occurred because she refused to lend her car to the suspect.”
My god, some people have a low threshold for murder. Is this really where we’re at as a society? Someone refuses to lend you their car and you shoot them in the face.
https://twitter.com/JeffSkversky/status/594694450443464705
He may need to develop for a year to get stronger, but I think we found something with Manhart.
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/153337/highlights/49187660/v2
Number?
64. He’s definitely athletic
The LT, the one who makes two, oh shit, ok I see you blocks.
I’m not entirely sure that big men are supposed to be that nimble…. The pulls are effortless and he literally launches himself in that first block. Great stuff.
The guy who went at pick 61 doesn’t have anything that impressive on his tape.
I’m curious as to why Mancz has not been taken anywhere.
He’s in Houston
Hmmm. I couldn’t find it. Good to know.
twitter
https://twitter.com/ToledoFB/status/594667379788918784
Thoughts on our draft overall? Particularly the O-line situation.
Solid overall draft. Left with a plug and play WR, Rowe should compete to start at corner Hicks is a nice LB who depending on how that logjam shakes out could be a good starter. I haven’t watched the day 3 guys but I like what they did.
As far as the OL, I’ll definitely be finishing my Tobin or not Tobin article now. I understand going with Rowe in the second round and then that run started and Fisher, Sambraillo and Morse all flew off the board, and I don’t think anyone else was going to start this year. I’ll have a better feel once I dig in on the UDFAs but I think at least one should crack the 53 and one should make the practice squad. I think Graf likely makes the 53 as well.
I’m glad we finally infused the secondary with some Damn talent. I’m glad the days of Carmichael starting are over.
d3fb, i’m on 24/7-gotta pick 1, but i come here to read your posts.
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question, rowe cb or s?
CB.
He has some nasty whiffs on some tackles at S. The oh shit there goes the running back for 50 yards kind.
thanks.
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while i have you, Shepherd? now, you must know, i’m a GSD snob, sorry, and love wolff and you see my pic, my old boy looked like a wolf.
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but seriously, i think shep can play.
Didn’t get to Sheppard in predraft, Kyle Crabs adores him though. He’s on the docket for tonight/tomorrow.
The Eagles must agree with you, they gaurunteed part of his salary.
There should be some good one on one blocking challenges this year. Hart-Manhart sounds interesting, but Manhart-Cox might be tough to watch.
Really good read on UDFAs through the SPARQ lens.
“What does it mean? While each of the Eagles’ current 14 undrafted free agent signings bring positive qualities to the table, SPARQ ratings suggest that Eagles fans should pay special attention Malcolm Bunche, Mike Coccia, Devante Davis, Cole Manhart, B.J. McBryde, and Raheem Mostert, in no order. I will continue updating this list and providing further information each time another signing occurs.”
http://sidelinesandheadlines.com/2015/05/03/evaluating-the-eagles-undrafted-free-agent-signings/
A former coach of my son has been arrested for felony child abduction, parents, keep your guard on. This happened at our fields. Just unbelievable.
The world is a sad place sometimes. I’m glad that creep got arrested.
he was detained by parents, go back to my son’s game… next thing I know, he walks to his car. tried to drive off, got busted for dwi too.
Yup. Just need justice to play out in this one.
Love the Devante Davis signing if it’s true.
Join the train brother! First time I got a pick right!
Did you check him out when you asked me what WRs that I liked? We finally got someone who can win jumpballs!!
Not sure. I have liked him for quite a while. He’s gonna replace Cooper.
Yup. He’ll be on the roster this year if Austin/Cooper gets beat out at camp.
Eagles official announced it, but he cant sign with em before monday, so that list might change
Awesome. We found our future #3 WR!!
So you think he is better than Huff?
I honestly don’t care about Huff. Huff is not tall enough, not fast enough, and he’s not reliable enough. We need a guy that can make tough catches and box out DBs. Davis can be that guy.
He’s plenty fast, and I think he’ll prove to be more reliable, but time will tell.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEDaibsVIAEeL6S.jpg
Finally! We have a guy named Kip on this team.
Hmm, you a marathoner or like hair-rock that sucks?
Not sure what this means!
Stupid joke. Kip Keino was a famous distance runner (not marathoner, I sabotaged my own bad joke), Kip Winger was an infamously lame rock singer (according to Beavis and Butthead).
Hold on. When scrolling down there was finally a comment deleted? Disqus might have finally met a moderator.
Wow. Can’t believe it. What on earth was said I wonder.
If i remember correctly it was something about the guy’s old youth coach getting arrested for child abduction. It didn’t seem offensive at all. I think he deleted it himself.
Then it would probably be best to respect the decision he made and edit it out of your comment as well.
Afair you can’t delete your own posts, can you?!
Those are the only posts you can delete.
Who did say this?!
sam bradford, mark sanchez, matty b and tebow. wow. letting that lineup marinate hard to be confident about the qb situation.
Seems we have signed this freak as well
He was the 3rd best athlete at DL this year.
It was reported earlier but not included in the official signings. So either there’s some complications with the contract/physical or he changed his mind and decided to sign with another team. We’re at 89 players right now so we have 1 more spot for either him or somoene else.
Interesting mix of guys overall from both a drafted vs. UDFA standpoint.
I’m not sure who stays or goes from the 53, but here are some of our general considerations.
We’re $10.5 (ish) under the cap. If Rookies eat up half of that, we’ll be appx $5 mil under the $143 cap.
The Eagles are scheduled to “only” be about $17 to $20 million going into next season.
Bradford, Thurmond, Carroll, Thorton, Austin, Kendricks, Curry, Ajirotutu, Biggers, Gardner, Prosinski, Tebow, Maehl, Boykin, Vandervelde, Goode, Kelly, Bair, Molk, Acho, and Tobin are all set to be free agents.
Lane Johnson (sort of, due to the 5th year option), Ertz, Logan, Barkley, and Earl Wolf will all be entering the final years of rookie deals and could be extended at that point.
Two things immediately jump off of the page at me
1) We don’t have a lot of money to sign free agents, so I don’t see us adding more than one key guy. If we do lose a few guys to decent deals with other teams such as Kendricks, Curry, Boykin we actually might not be signing multiple guys of note; so a few compensentory 2017 draft picks could show up. Maybe a 4th and 5th or a 5th and 6th or something like that. Certainly not a 3rd because we’re not losing people on a Mike Wallace level deal.
2) We’re going to need a lot of these young guys in general start making some plays. I can see a way forward at a lot of positions, but the O-line scares the hell out of me. Peters isn’t getting any younger, the Mathis / Chip pissing contest isn’t ideal and Mathis isn’t young, we have no “starting” quality right guard, and the rest of the guys on the roster not named Kelce or Lane are sucky bums.
We will have 25M + before cuts , we won’t spend the way we did this year but we’re in decent shape unless Bradford balls
If you look at the 2016 number on over the cap, I don’t think we’ll be at $25 mil +.
And I think you can expect a mid-range contract for Bradford in the coming weeks. Something that gets his number lower for the year, but only adds 2 years beyond it. It would get him some cash up front, but allow him to push that salary way higher if he has some health and success.
Well we will carry over like 8
I was thinking more like $5, but that could jump a lot depending of what we do with Bradford.
Rookies will push out some contracts so you can’t say we lose net 5 for rookies probably only 2
Well Rookies only will count about $2.5m once the offset people off the roster, so we will roll about $7.5mil to next years cap.
There are 2 obvious cuts for 2016, Mathis and Cooper, which is another $9mil saving which will help out some. that gets us to being about $35mil under the cap next year.
Now that still leaves some tough decisions, as we will probably retain at least 2 of the depth OL on contracts (~$5mil), Hopefully Bradford is worth an extension so will be a good $15mil against the cap. Leaving only $15mil for extensions of defensive players.
Think with what we have done in the draft both Kendricks and the Boyking are not going to be retained next year and be allowed to walk. Think they will try to keep Curry (i have a sneaky feeling they try to extend this year) and Cox, let Thorton walk as well unless his market is soft.
Mathis being cut with essentially stiffs behind him is quite scary.
Well lets see his play and health this year, If the ‘stiffs’ show no improvement you retain none of them and ‘spend’ that ~$5mil on retaining Mathis for his final year and go into the draft with the mentality of hitting OL often.
They’re not starting from a good spot. Each and every one of those losers blocked liked crap and/or were laying down on the job last year. I’m disgusted with the lack of future talent at o-line in the pipeline.
Couple of things – Babre (our principle backup) we lost early so he cannot be tarred with the same brush. Tolbin was playing hurt with a high ankle strain so i think he can still be a good player – he got strong reviews in Training Camp last year.
Also when we are chopping and changing OL not just every game but in game as well it is impossible to build chemistry and will be tough of guys making their first start.
I think the likes of Gardiner and Tolbin would have given a better account if they were alongside a settled group of 4 guys.
Now the only player who has a chance to be a long term starter out of the lot we have at the moment is Tolbin – the rest are career backups, but i think they can be better in a better situation.
Barbre lost early- laying down on the job when we needed him.
Tobin “playing hurt” – Flyers type mystery injury excuse to obfuscate sub standard play.
I found the lack of proper blocking from backups that were placed on a pedestal in the pre-season by the writers / team to be quite infuriating. Especially in the backdrop of a gutless choke of our division title down the stretch.
I’m not done spewing venom from 2014 yet.
But I get what you’re saying.
I actually think Curry might be in the teams long term plans after all. I really thought it was a foregone conclusion that he would leave after this year, but I’m starting to have a sneaky suspicion he is at least in play for an extension.
Guys that can consistently get pressure and put up 8-10 sacks per year are incredibly valuable, especially to a 3-4 team that doesn’t have a true stud pass rusher at OLB. Even despite his awkward fit in a 2-gapping 3-4, he’s an extremely valuable piece to have.
The thing that stands out to me, and maybe I’m reading too much into it though, is that with all the leaked reports we heard all offseason about players available in trades, we never once heard Curry’s name. Sure, some people speculated that he might based on him not being a fit and all. But, never once do I remember a report coming out attaching his name to anything specific.
I really don’t think these “NFL Insiders” just make things up completely. When they make those reports it’s because they are hearing things from people that would know. Despite what Kelly says, I’m sure they tried to move some of those players we heard about them offering up for trades. But, Curry’s name was never part of it and I think that might mean something.
In addition to all that, we need to remember that due to our lack of CB talent the last two years we were prevented from playing a lot of sub-packages. We didn’t even have a dime package until last year, in fact, let a lone quarter. With an infusion of CB talent, particularly nasty CBs that are good in run support, we might be more inclined to play more even front sub packages, and will therefore have more opportunities to use Vinny.
It’ll all depend on what Curry wants contract-wise and whether or not he’s dead set on being a starter on a 4-3 team rather than a role player on a 3-4. But, just like Graham who everyone thought was almost certainly not going to return, I think Curry is still very much in play.
A brief shot at a 53:
Spec teams crew (3) – Parkey, Jones, Dorenbros
QB (3) – Bradford, Sanchez, Barkley / Tebow
RB (3) – Murray, Sproles, Matthews
TE (3) – Ertz, Celek, Burton
WR (6) – Matthews, Agholor, Huff, Austin, Cooper, Ajirotutu
OL (10) – Peters, Mathis, Kelce, Johnson, Barbre, Gardner, Graf, Tobin, Andrews, Vandervelde
28 total O and Spec teams
NT (2) – Logan, Allen
DE (5) – Cox, Thorton, Curry, Hart, Michalek
LB (9) – Alonzo, Barwin, Kendricks, Graham, Smith II, Ryans, Hicks, Goode, Long
CB (5) – Maxwell, Rowe, Boykin, Thurmond, Biggers
S (4) – Jenkins, Wolff, Watkins, Maragos
25 guys on D
Both rookie CBs, Tucker, Reynolds, and some mix of the UDFA gang would round out my practice squad.
You don’t think Caroll will make the roster?
I ran out of space. He could easily be here over Biggers though.
Think they will go more on defence than just 23 guys – more special teams players come from the D side and they have greater ‘retained’ depth.
Think 2 more on Defence – 1 more LB and 1 more DB.
I need to edit. It’s 25 guys on D.
Yeah think we will have 9 o line think Braman and Caroll will be here too
I went with 10 O-line because a lot of the backup guys suck or have fragility issues and I can’t predict which sucky bastards will actually be kept.
I could totally see the roster having 9 O linemen and adding Braman back.
I think they will find a way to move Kendricks and especially Boykin. No need to lose a good young player for a 1 year rental on a guy you dont really like.
I also think 9 OL and no biggers
That could totally happen. I just wanted to take a first stab looking at the roster as is.
It looks okay early, but I’m interested to see how some of these UDFAs turn out. I love the size of those lineman, and maybe one of them makes the roster – not to mention maybe some of the other ones.
I’m not banking on it, and maybe some of the depth on the oline takes a step forward from last season.
I’d love to see one of the UDFA o-lineman blast his way into the starting RG job. I really didn’t care for the lack of effort, talent, and durability from our backups last year.
Braman will definitely make the team. Probably go with 9 OL others that might not make it I think are Biggers, Vandervelde, Goode, Long, Michalek. They all might but they’re my guys that I think could end up being beaten out by some unknown players at this point.
So what will be better long term;
Hicks and our extra 2016 3rd round draft pick
or
Any of the O-linmen I cherry pick from where Hicks was picked through where we should have picked Hicks at 4-14 and Hicks?
I don’t know about Hicks but I wouldn’t trade a third rounder for any lineman on the board at our 4th
The O linemen we didn’t want were;
Chaz Green, Daryl Williams, TJ Clemmings, Tre Jackson, Aire Kuanjo
Hope none of them come back to haunt us.
hicks would have been picked one pick after us in the 3rd of we didn’t pick him
Hicks was not going to be available any longer. Time will tell if both the Eagles and Bengals overvalued Hicks, or the pundits undervalued him, but projection doesn’t mean anything if it’s a guy you want and another team picking before you has the same grade.
If Hicks turns out to be better than Mychal Kendricks, then long-term I think that is a better pick. You are more likely to find good OL in the draft than good ILB (especially given Eagles scouts). We will save Kendricks’ money for a while and then be set with Alonso and Hicks as starters when Ryans moves on.
Given the projections — since the draft pundits basically create the fans’ “board” — I would have preferred OL there myself. I think, in a year with only six draft picks, we have overstocked the ILB and CB positions and may have to cut some decent players while having big depth issues at OL. But I guess the Eagles went BPA, and it’s hard to argue with that. If the Eagles had had a first or second round grade on TJ Clemmings or whoever, I would assume they would have gone that way, but they obviously did not.
If Kelly was ticked at Roseman for letting all the targeted players get picked right before ours in the first round last year, well, that’s exactly what happened to him in the 4th round this year. Granted Kelly did not let that happen in the 2nd round, and in the 4th instead of making a bad pick he punted to the future, which we’ll be happy about next draft.
3rd round pick.
I don’t get why everyone is having a hissy fit over us not reaching for O lineman
The guys we passed over at 3-20 wouldn’t have been reaches and Hicks would have been there at 4-14.
Reports came out the the Bengals who were picking right after us wanted Hicks so no we can’t just say he was going to be there
I see 4th or 5th round on Hicks from every publication available, so I’ll go with he would have been there at 4-14.
Paul Dawson is 110% the kind of guy the Bengals would have keyed on anyway, so I’m not believing those reports.
Because media evaluations always acurrately reflect how teams view players? I mean in the mid rounds so many guys publications had in an area went 2 rounds earlier or later
Best information available that somebody actually has their name behind as opposed to a report form an unnamed source. One isn’t any more or less valid than another I guess, but the O-line situation is deplorable right now and we clearly got caught with our pants down given o-line got cleaned out right in front of our pick at 4-14.
If I see more turnstile play from O-linemen at RG and at other spots if our starters go down that gets our QB injured, I’ll have to keep hammering our lack of investment in young talent on the line.
Thing to remember with a lot of these ranking sites with later round players is they never get updated, and tend to have limited access to players off the field situations. Players they had rated higher as pure prospects get pushed down the draft so those who are ‘clean’ tend to rise up. Also they all mark him down due to injury issues but have no access to his medical records.
Think if you objectively look at Hicks, excellent athletic abilities, excellent football commitment, significant upside due to having missed a lot of development due to injuries he fits the profile of a 3rd round player, and i think it is where he should have gone.
You could well be right, but we’re still not that far removed for the shit show the 2012 season became with the massive injury problems on the O line and lack of functional backups to plug in to the situation. It is frustrating to see many other teams go “next man up” with injuries, but our o-linemen became “next man sucks.”
I think every team tanks when they have multiple OL injuries. If we had the just above average 2 injuries during the season, Babre comes in and would have been solid and Tolbin coming into a line would have been functional. There are no teams in the league with 10 good quality guys on the OL – there are plenty of teams that don’t have 3 guys. We had our 6 guys we felt comfortable with and a project guy in Tolbin who we liked long term, thats pretty good in the NFL.
Think the hack Kempski had a statistic last year about OL continunity, and basically we had a historically good record considering the turn over we had on the OL.
I think they had 9 different line combinations during the season last year, roughly an average of a different starting oline every other game.
No one knows for sure if Barbre would have been solid and after watching him play I’m not so sure Tobin is functional at all.
Last year wasn’t so bad. It would have been really nice to draft a developmental prospect to groom for down the road last year. But, with everyone a year older and Mathis pulling his shenanigans and Herremans gone, I thought the situation was a lot more pressing and that we needed to add somebody. Could have been in FA or the draft. Ideally, I thought we’d add a starting RG in FA AND draft a G/T prospect to groom. Doing neither is really bothersome.
And yet somehow we still managed to win 10 games and be a top 5 offense. The Eagles needed to replenish the DB position badly – and obviously the coaches felt the ILB position needed help based on all the pre-draft interest they were paying to the position.
This year’s DB/S group is going to be far more competitive than what they’ve fielded these past 2 seasons. And in Hicks, it sounds like they found a player that can be groomed to run the front 7 – don’t forget the mental talent required to do so – Chip said he was valuing players based upon their fit to the Eagles culture/scheme(s).
The OL remains an area that could use a youth/talent influx, and the Eagles will address appropriately as the opportunities unfold.
Top 5 in total yards, sure. Top 5 in points if you include the ridiculous amount of return TDs last year both on defense and special teams. But, our offense was nowhere near elite last year. Football outsiders which uses DVOA put total offense at 13th, passing at 15th and rushing at 13th. PFF had our passing and rushing offense ranked at 23rd overall.
Yards per play we were 11th, rush yards per play 15th, pass yards per play 12th, INT rate 30th, sacks/pass att 11th, redzone % 23rd, goal to go 25th. Plus we led the entire league in turnovers. When you dig a little deeper, it’s pretty obvious….These are not the stats of a top 5 offense. The 2014 Eagles had a very mediocre offense last year.
Understand, and that’s part of the reason we now have Bradford, Murray, Mathews, Austin, and drafted Agholor in the first round.
Pull up Football outsiders rankings on the Eagles defense, especially passing D and tell me that there wasn’t a greater need to put new talent at those positions.
I don’t disagree that the Eagles need to add new talent/depth at OL positions, Chip has said as much, but he also said he felt the DB positions had the greater need for ingrown development.
yea, absolutely, I completely agree with that
Deplorable? Four potential pro bowlers is deplorable? Name the teams you would switch all oline players with, straight up.
Do you remember what happened last year? That was deplorable. He is obviously saying we needed to get guys to fill RG, provide depth, and groom for the future. Our guys are talented but old and injury risk. So if they go down the situation will be deplorable.
Big if, and true for every team. Still, answer the question – which teams would you wholesale trade our o linemen for? I’d be amazed if you can make a decent argument for even 5 teams. Deplorable is classic Philly exaggeration.
I do not think the word means what you think it means.
You didn’t ask me that question first off. That was to another commenter.
Don’t sit here and tell me what words mean what.
I don’t think you understand. I flat out said our starting 5 is talented. This isn’t just about our starting 5. This is about the future and having reliable backups in case a very likely injury occurs. This is about avoiding what happened last year.
Now stop asking me a stupid question of what OL would we trade for ours, because that is NOT what this is about. You want to tell me I don’t know what deplorable means. I say you lack reading comprehension and your questions are off the mark of what is being discussed.
Whoa, big fella. First off, it’s a movie quote. Major point deduction for not knowing Princess Bride. Second off, you cosigned on the op stating that the oline is deplorable. I found that statement absurd. You defended it. Kind of silly to try to change what’s right there in black and white.
Dude the OL play last year was deplorable because the starters got hurt. It’s that simple.
I can break it down for you: if we have one of the top 5 oline situations in the league, then by definition it’s not deplorable. Hope that is simple enough for you.
It is when they are hurt and not playing because then you have backups that aren’t good in. Why don’t you understand this?
Do you have memory lost? For probably the 3rd time I will say this. The starters are great, but when they get hurt because they are old they are no longer great on the field because they aren’t in the field!!!! What keeps you from understanding this? I have said multiple times the starters are good. Minus Barbre of course.
Besides being a common situation around the league, it has nothing to do with the op you commented on. The claim was made that our situation is deplorable. I maintain that there are very few teams in the league with a better situation, and this is classic philly fan worrying over nothing. If 3 rb go down, we are in a deplorable situation. Doesn’t mean our rb situation is deplorable.
Draft broke in a way that we didn’t get oline help. Can’t get everything, and the coaches clearly had other priorities. If we have as many injuries as last year we’ll be hurting. If Dallas gets that many, they’ll be drafting top 5. But we are in damn good shape right now, as a team.
Bro, my comment said that last years OL play was deplorable. Obviously I said that because the starters got hurt and backups weren’t adequate.
No our OL situation is not normal because of the age and lack of quality replacments. The age along that line is not normal.
Not sure that many teams have high quality replacements ready to step in. You can never have enough depth. But pick any team in the league and have the starters miss as many games as ours did, and there would be trouble. If it happens again this year, there will be trouble. But just because Peters and Mathis are 33 is no reason to think we are especially prone to injuries, or that we must have replacements ready to go this year. That’s a media creation. As Philly fans we tend to focus on the negatives far too much. I don’t see a position group that we are worse off in this year, and I see plenty with significant upgrades. 2015 has a lot of potential, but there are no guarantees. And there never will be, for any team.
It’s not a media creation. It’s proven in the NFL that when you hit over 30 you are more prone to injury.
Yes most teams do not have outstanding depth along the line, but we are exceptionally thin from not drafting a single OL in 2 years. That is not league normal.
Cowboys did this same thing. Didn’t address their aging OL and they suffered because of it. So then they decided to start drafting OL and look what happened.
It is not a media creation that we are very thin at OL. It’s a fact. It’s what happens when you don’t draft them.
Let’s stop saying deplorable. Lol I don’t even like the word and we have used it a thousand times each. It’s one of those words you use occasionally, not constantly.
Fair enough. I disagree that we are thinner than other teams on the OL. Sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. We had an abnormal number of injuries last year. It’s not expected this year, even with two 33-year olds (especially those two).
The Cowboys didn’t suffer from lack of depth, they suffered from shitty starters. They stood out last year because of the lack of injuries. The year before it was our oline that had no injuries and dominated. The year before, SF. I give the Boys credit for addressing an important position (finally). But we are not in the same boat they were in, no way. Give them as many games missed this year as we had last, and they will be drafting top 5. Probably to replace the broken 35-year old QB.
A major reason their starters got shitty is because they let them age and didn’t draft new OL.
If our OL breaks down again we may very well have a broken QB too. Happened last year.
You can say we will not be as ravaged injury wise as we were last year. I agree that chances are it will not be as bad injury wise. Keep in mind though we are minus Herremans so the depth is even less. Kelce himself has missed alot of games in 2012 and 2014.
At some point Mathis and Peter’s are going to sharply decline. It just happens, there is no way around it, and it’s going to happen sooner then later. Add the fact it appears Mathis will definitely not be here after this season.
Future is certainly yet to be determined. I’m rooting for my version, though. 😉
From a coldly analytical view, the cowboys are so much more likely to flame out than us. Other than oline, Jones is gambling big time almost everywhere. Giants have proven they can pull it all together, and the skins are showing some turnaround signs. But the Eagles are clearly the class of an improving division. Looking forward to watching the season come together. Predict we’ll see a lot more 2013 type games (Raiders, Bears, opening game). Last season was Kelly’s sophomore slump, and he seems determined not to repeat it. Not the type of man I’d like to bet against.
So who were you going to take because Clemmings was gone in teh first round…you know according to those publications
Williams or Jackson.
You ar really this upset over a shot at a couple of 4th round OL. I liked Williams and didnt like Jackson. I am not vertain either will become a starter. I feel Hicks has a better chance at starting.
We will get OL fixed next year.
I trust that you’re right that we’ll get on it next year, but the putrid play by our backups in 2014, lack of a starting quality player at RG, and nonsense breaking out with potentiall losing Mathis has me beside myself.
I’m still really irked over the gutless finish to last season and not in the mood to see anything less than 11 (+/- 1) wins, a division title, and a home playoff win in 2015. Our O-line could be what ultimately sabotages another year of progression towards a title.
And a 3rd round pick would make the difference? You’re fixating, this is a game of probabilities. The Eagles have stacked the deck pretty well, but yes, a couple of oline injuries could derail things. Is there a team out there that can say otherwise? Team has improved significantly over last year.
The OL were hurt, no continuity. Our CB play hurt us badly. Shady danced around here and there also putting us in worse long situations because he wanted a big play.We also lost our starting QB. He wasn’t playing very well but continuity is hurt and maybe Nick improved some. We also lost defensive captain.
That’s my biggest worry too. Team looks great. Bradford is sharp. But, the offensive line play tails off and the offense can’t get going for the majority of the year. God forbid someone gets injured. Anyone excited to see any of Tobin, Molk or Gardner out there as a starter again? Just no excuse to not address this position 2 years in a row with the age of our line.
Not sure that’s sound logic. Pundits are hardly the bible. Given that our 4 is now a 3, it all worked out.
Those same people were horribly off with many things in this draft as well.
You are wrong.
Please don’t believe everything you read on the internets.
Where did you read that the Bengals were interested?
It was reported (Caplan?) right after the Eagles made the pick.
Oh, so on the internet?
I think biggest knock on the Hicks pick is the redundancy on our roster. We already have 3 starters for the two ILB slots. Now we draft a 4th?
(Obviously injuries are a concern, though this guy hasn’t been a paragon of health himself…)
Kendricks will be gone before week 1.
I’m not so sure about that anymore. Doubt we get adequate return on a trade at this point. So I think we decide to let him play it out. I doubt Kelly is expecting much more than Leadership and a solid backup out of Ryans. How could he expect a 31 year old to recover completely from an achilles tear in less than a year and just pencil him in as a starter. Kiko, who Chip probably does have at least tentatively penciled in as a starter is still rehabbing and is no sure thing to be at top/peak performance by week 1. And, Hicks, while talented and smart is a rookie and it would be foolish to talk all offseason about the need for ILB depth as a priority and then start a rookie next to two injured guys that are still rehabbing. I think Kendricks plays for the Eagles this year. If he turns the corner and becomes elite and consistent he could end up being the long term starter next to Kiko if he recovers from ACL with Hicks as the top guy in the rotation, or Hicks if Kiko doesn’t live up to the hype.
Couldn’t have said it any better
Counting on Demeco to return in < 1year after his second Achilles — at his age — when he was less than ideal in coverage before that; counting on Kiko being fully recovered from his ACL; counting on them suddenly deciding Kendricks IS their cup of tea – and deserving of a big contract next year. That's a lot of counting on. Hicks is also a medical gamble, but saying we're stacked there is awfully speculative.
Hicks would have gone at 3-21. He was the pick for the Bengals had we not taken him.
Well no OL pick is not a ‘problem’ this year. But it is a big one in 2016 and 2017. We will have to go into next years draft probably needing 1 OL in first 3 rounds, and at least another one later. So may leave us having to ‘reach’ next year.
I do think we have under invested in the OL last 2 years – this system succeeds or fails depending on our Offensive Line, and if we had 2 young guys with high upside sat developing for 2016 we would be in a better place.
But we had 1 corners under contract next year so needed plenty of bodies with talent to actually start in the future as an even more pressing need and i think we got excellent value
I agree. People forget about looking into the not too distant future. Mathis is 34, Peters 33, Barbre 31 (and completely unproven). We’re setting ouselves up for a situation where we might have to replace 3/5s of our offensive line in one offseason with no one already on the roster that is even capable of being a legitimate starter.
Tobin, Molk, Kelly and Gardner are what they are and are most likely never going to be starting material.
But, don’t forget about this year too. Our lack of attention to the oline over the past 2 offseasons is not a problem this year only if nothing bad happens at all.
If anyone gets injured, we could be in a world of hurt, if Mathis holds out or forces his way out of town, are you really satisfied with Tobin and Barbre as your starting guards on a run first team with an injury prone starting QB. If Barbre doesn’t suddenly become starting material after a decade of being a journeyman backup we could have another bad situation on our hands.
to me it seemed like a solid Discaplined BPA approach,
..
At 20’the only picks to make were:
1) the 4th ranked WR Agholor
2)’4th rated CB Byron Jones
3) 5th rated OLB Bud Dupree..
4) 5th rated WR Perriman
..
None of those options would have been a bad pick..
..
Jordan Hicks’is only a medical question. If you are comfortable with his medical, he is a solid talent in round 2-3
…
Rowe will be a star…
I have no problem with any of the picks as players or as reaches that were taken too early. This draft in a vacuum was a completely reassuring and discaplined BPA draft that gave me a lot of confidence in Chip as far as running a draft is concerned.
The issue with Hicks that I have, at least, is that it seemed like a luxary pick at a position we were already stacked at when there were completely reasonable talents remaining at OL which is a position that I don’t think we had the luxary to ignore. If Chip had signed just one starting quality guard or high level back up with upside in FA, perhaps I’d feel totally differently.
Plus I think the pick of Hicks will eventually lead to Kendricks leaving, probably not this year, but definitely next. And, if it doesn’t lead to Kendricks leaving then I think it was kind of a waste to spend a 3rd round pick on someone that will sit behind two young studs like Kiko and MK and be relagated solely to special teams for the foreseeable length of his career.
I’m with you. We have a good OL. We have a top 5 player at 4 of 5 starting positions. We have Matt Tobin and Andrew Gardner who both got playing time last year and should be better prepared when called upon. We will be fine this year.
Next year we can easily sign a starting OL and draft one either in the first or with 1 of our (2) 3rds.
We cant solve very problem every offseason. I’m ok that we solved immediate needs and are waiting to solve future ones.
And I’m sure if a great OL prospect fell in our laps we would have jumped on him. The pieces are gonna fall a certain way. Would we have loved an OL this or last year? Absolutely but you can only take what the process give you.
To a certain extent. FA is always an option. So are trade ups and trade backs. We didn’t wait for Rowe to drop we went and got him. You can do a lot to help yourself to be in a position to address your needs.
One of those top 5 players is a 34 year old that’s holding out and was either hurt or playing below that level for the majority of last year. He’s the oldest projected starting lineman in the league. One is a 33 year old LT with a twice torn achilles tendon. He’s the second oldest starting LT in the league. One is a great young center that has gotten injured and missed time in every season he’s been a starter. The other guy is good, but not quite top 5 yet. And, the final spot is manned by a 31 year old journeyman who has never been a full time starter and missed all of last year with an ankle sprain that never healed.
Now, I’m not saying all is lost and this is a terrible offensive line. In fact, if Mathis returns and decides to play and continues to play well into his mid 30s, and Barbre turns out to be the next Evan Mathis AND EVERYONE stays healthy, this offensive line has the potential to be one of the best in the league. But, that’s a lot of “ifs”. If any one of those things doesn’t happen, we could be in a world of hurt due to the absolute lack of any quality depth on the roster.
Finally, the lack of young quality depth and talent in the face of the oldest projected starting offensive line in the league, while it could tank this coming season, is an even bigger problem looking further into the future. You’re looking at a potential situation in which we will have to replace 2/5s for sure and possibly 3/5s of our offensive line in one single offseason next year, with no presumptive future starters already on the roster waiting in the wings. It’s reasonable to be disappointed and worried that we did nothing to address these glaring issues this offseason.
Don’t forget they traded for Peters and picked up Mathis as a vet FA (for not much money, then, due to age and scheme fit.) Those avenues are open after the season again.
Of course, but it’s not something you bank on. Top teir LTs don’t often become available in trades and 30 year old journeymen don’t routinely become the top players at their positions. Best way to build depth and replace aging vets is with a systematic approach and through good drafting in advance. Leaving yourself open to the possibility of needing to replace 3/5s of your offensive line and almost assuredly 2/5s of it in one offseason, while also not addressing the glaring need for better backups for this season, because you’re banking on the unlikely happening isn’t a winning formula.
Can’t bank on third round draftees either; there are different ways to replace OL given our scheme differences with a fair % of the league. Thank God they drafted Lane in year 1 or it would really be a puzzle why they didn’t pick anyone at all, again.
I’m not saying you’re banking on a 3rd rounder. That’s why you don’t wait till half your offensive line retires to start trying to trade, draft and sign their replacements off the trash heap. You start building and grooming a year or two before that happens. You spend some resources now and increase the likelihood that some of them work out.
I think the difference is I am not under the illusion that we will be competing for a SB this year. I’m willing to roll the dice with the old guys one more year. If it fails we werent winning the SB any way. If they all stay healthy it should be a fun season. I’m all in for 2016-217 season. We are just building right now, so I am happy we solved a few issues with good players
I can see that. But, building for the 2016-17 season in my eyes happens now. Nows the time to develop those future starters. Not then when we’re ready to compete.
Plus if a Barbre ends up being a turnstile at RG, or Mathis doesn’t play here next year and LG is manned by the dreck we have as backups, or any of our starters gets injured, Bradford is going to have a tough time and make it hard to evaluate whether he’s the answer or not. Even worse, if he were to get injured under those circumstances that in no way helps to set us up to compete in 16-17.
Not a hissy fit, just concerned about what we have in 2 years.
Not a hissy fit. No one wants us to reach on a crappy lineman just so we can say we took one.
The guys at our 3rd round pick would not have been reaches, while the guy they took has a huge injury history, limited upside and is at a position that we are stacked at.
Ultimately, I think the issues most people have stem from the total offseason approach. Oline is a huge need. We have very little depth. Pretty much no quality depth. We have the oldest offensive line in the league and we have questions at both guard spots as well as a center with a substantial injury history.
The lack of any moves being made in both free agency and the draft was very disappointing. We knew we needed an infusion of young lineman last draft and played the board wrong and missed out. We then signed no one, released our starting RG and again drafted no lineman this year when there were some really good prospects available in the 3rd round, where we took a luxary pick on a player that will at best be 4th on the depth chart this year at his position.
Counting on Barbre to be good is a big risk. He’s never been a full time starter and is 31. Counting on Mathis even being here is a risk. Counting on full health of our starting 5 is a big risk with their age and history. And, we have little to nothing to mitigate that risk at this point.
One injury along our line could seriously derail our offense this year or lead to our starting QB getting killed. If we have to endure another year of Mark Sanchez because Tobin or Gardner or Molk is forced to start and get Bradford injured, we’ll all realize what a risk it was not addressing Oline this year either in FA or the draft.
Based on what they said, they had a 2nd round grade on Hicks, and he was by far the best player on their board. So, yes, to go with an OL there would have been a reach. Just because you see limited upside, doesn’t mean the Eagles do. If you combine his athletic profile with his intelligence, I really think they envision him as the long-term replacement for Demeco (but with 3-down capabilities). I’m still expecting Kendricks to be traded.
I can understand that. Still not addressing the aging offensive line for two straight off seasons, regardless of the Hicks pick, is really not defensible in my opinion.
Well, yeah, it is defensible. The defense is: you don’t reach for need.
I’m not talking about the specific pick in round 3 or reaching for a need. I’m talking overall, 2 rounds of free agency and 2 drafts, without us addressing oline at all.
You don’t have to reach for need, but there were plenty of FA lineman available and plenty of draft eligible players available in the last 14 rounds of the past two drafts and the last 2 free agency periods that one lineman could have been added without “reaching for need”.
It might have meant signing a FA, taking a non-reach of a lineman at any one of our picks in the past two drafts that we ended up going in another direction with, it could have involved trading up, or trading back and getting more picks to make it happen. But, last year Howie admitted it was a “dagger through the heart” that they didn’t come out of that draft last year with a lineman. To have the issue be even more pressing this year and not address it with a FA or any amount of urgency in this draft (whether it was the Hicks pick or not) is not defensible in my eyes.
Yeah, well you said below that it’s not so much about this year as building for the future. FAs don’t do that. You could just as easily sign a FA next offseason. Obviously everyone would have liked to get a good young lineman to develop and project as our longterm RT, but that’s easier said than done. I just think you’re making way too much out of not picking one up in the draft. I’m guessing we’re a lot more confident in Barbre, Tobin and Gardner than you appear to be. And there’s always the chance that some of the trade pieces like Kendricks and Boykin will be moved for a player and not future picks.
It’s not a hissy fit (unless you think it was a horrible draft just because of the lack of it). Part of it is just the mismatch between the Eagles’ grades on players and the projections.
I thought that WR, DB, and OL were the screaming needs to get depth guys now who could start in a year. Most draft picks are about picking for the future, not the current year. We did not draft OL at all last year, and did not get any depth guys beyond Johnson the year before. That is playing with fire if you want a stable OL. Reid took 1-2 lineman basically every year. Now we will almost be forced to draft for need next year, since we may need an OL starter as a rookie, unless one of the guys who was awful last year becomes a good guard, or we score with a UDFA. Barbre may pan out (we didn’t get to see last year) but he’s old already.
In general though, I really like continuity on the OL, and if we can find a young guard who can play long-term with Kelce and Johnson that would be ideal. Patching with veterans all the time does not sound great (and that is what Barbre is). Kelce/Johnson are getting older so the earlier you can find a lineman long-term, the better. I thought we needed a guy who could compete to be a starter (i.e. provide depth) and be a long-term answer at WR, DB, and OL this draft, and I guess we got two of them. I wanted the third as well though, and that didn’t happen. I guess the Eagles did not have TJ Clemmings etc. ranked nearly as high as Hicks, otherwise they would have taken him, and we would have been happy. If they correctly evaluated Hicks and Clemmings, then great. If Clemmings is just as good, that was probably our bigger need. But I’ll be happy if Hicks turns into someone as good as Kendricks.
Still, the Cowboys neglected OL for years and years in their drafts. They got by for a while since they had some great veterans, but when they got old, they got old quick, and the result was basically wasting many of Romo’s best years with an awful OL. It was only when Jerry got muzzled by his son during first round picks, and they went OL in the 1st round 3 out of 4 years (and hitting on them), that they got a good OL back. That took years. If you can find a future starter in the 3rd like Clemmings, that can free up a future 1st round pick.
Most of the aggravation though was based on the mock rankings vs the Eagles’ own evaluation. I think most had the available OL in the third as much or more desirable than Hicks, so in that case you go with the position of better need. If Hicks had been ranked as a late first round pick, and the available OL had been ranked as 3rd-5th rounds (which is probably what the Eagles board had) then you probably wouldn’t hear the complaining.
I screamed and cried, then pulled all of the hair out of my Barbies. Then I swore I was going to hold my breath until they drafted an OL. I woke up on the floor with wisps of plastic hair stuck to my drool. So, yeah, I guess that qualifies as a hissy fit. There was a lot of that going on?
Jeff McLane
@Jeff_McLane
17s17 seconds ago
#Eagles agree to terms with rookie free agent DE B.J. McBryde (Connecticut), giving them 16 UDFAs.
McBryde now officially signed putting roster at 90. Don’t know why he wasn’t included with other signings last night.
Well he probably had 2-3 offers and was deciding between the 2. Would not surprise me if one of the 16 was ‘lost’ over the next 24 hours as another team scrambles for a guy and offer a bigger signing bonus.
No doubt. Such a bizarre process.
I don’t know why the draft ends at 7 rounds, why not make it 10, with the final 3 rounds being ‘turbo’ picks every 2 mins.
Well back in the day…………………………………
I understand why we don’t have the 15-20 round drafts we used to – lots of teams don’t even have space for those guys and lets be honest most players are camp bodies at that point.
I think both the players and coaches unions should fight to increase the roster size, problem is that the NFL will use it to do something stupid like add more games during the season or add more teams to the playoffs.
I think the NFL needs a developmental league, would enhance the quality of the product and would help resolve some of the QB issues the league has.
they have one
No market for that.
I think they should get rid of comp picks and make the draft 8 rounds. Why the hell should a team get a pick if they consciously make the decision to let a player go. You want to keep a player? Re-sign them. I’m not going to reward you for losing a guy you could have kept.
The Eagles and their cheap ass old owner is the reason we have comp picks because he wanted it because he didn’t wanna pay reggie white
Instead of comp picks to help mitigate the loss of home grown talent, they should incentivize not leaving. If only 90% of a player’s salary counted against the cap as long as he stayed with the team that drafted him, it would allow the home team more room to negotiate, get players more money, and build continuity for fans.
Once they actually announce the signing that means they’ve signed their contract. It may not have been processed by the league yet, but they’ve signed.
Let’s see when we hear about a Sam Bradford extension. There is no reason to not extend him – salary cap friendly – anymore.
I expect one, but probably not until Training Camp or start of the season. No pressing need at this point and i don’t think the Eagles loose any money watching him throw some passes in this system in pre season before committing big $$.
I don’t think you wait until next year, because if he he really lights it up next year he could cost $5-$10mil more per year to retain, with significantly more guaranteed money.
He could also get injured or completely bomb, and you’ll be on the hook for $5-$10 mil for a dud.
I am pretty sure you can protect yourself with some terms and conditions from an eagles point of view.
Interesting Belichick quote on rookie transition:
https://www.facebook.com/AdamSchefter/posts/950630388322936
Wow, I think that’s the most I’ve eve heard him say anything. The basic gist I got was that the roomies have to buy in to the culture, and they want to separate the strong and the weak ones. It makes sense.
It seems like Chip attempts to mitigate the transition factor Belichick is referencing by selecting players that are already self-motivated. In other words, learning to approach football like it’s a livelihood isn’t as big a step for our draftees than for others. We frequently mock the #culture of-it-all but it’s interesting that Belichick has – in his own words – suggested that he has to instill that in his new players.
Great insight B. I do believe you are right. We should not be so quick to mock the culture focus.
I think Hicks lacks elite explosion but has enough athleticism and smarts to be a very good ILB in our system. Someone who can possibly take over for Meco later. I think he will evolve into a 100+ tackle, 2-3 sack, 1-2 int guy.
Yes, I just watched his interview with Wulf – seems very intelligent, hard working and understands what it is he is here for and what it is he has to do. Says he wants to model himself after Mychal K. Not sure but i think I’d rather have instincts and athleticism over raw explosion. We’ll see. Like the pick more today than yesterday. Also love the Rowe pick – that dude is going to be a beast.
Would we agree we had 3 main problems last year, bad secondary, inconsistent line and qb play? Chip got Sam which may or not be an instant fix to the qb situation, he loaded up on secondary talent but we didn’t get any impact OL. So arguably we fixed 1.5/3 of our problems depending on how Sam works out. Were going in the right direction Imo. Next year we’ll get the OL. Also, maybe Kendricks gets traded for another player, we’ll see.
IF Bradford works out this year it is highly unlikely that we will be big players in FA, i cannot see another kull of talent like last year (except maybe Mathis and Cooper), so will be a limited participant in FA. Considering that, we will probably see Kendricks and Boykin signed away at not trivial contracts as well as Austin, Carroll and Thurmond leaving we should be on track for a decent hall of comp picks for the first time in a long time.
I am thinking a 4th 6th, 7th in 2017 draft if we only sign 3-4 depth role players and no big additions.
That means trading Kendricks needs to be either for a player or a real hall of picks – makes no sense to trade a cheap contract for a 5th round pick when you can use him for a year on a rookie deal and let him walk for a 2017 4th.
The report pre-draft was that we were looking for a 2nd for him, and teams were balking. I would imagine at this point that a 2nd next year would be slightly less objectionable (and replace the pick we lost in the Bradford trade). The real question is when. Will some team who isn’t happy with their LB situation coming out of the draft fork over the necessary compensation, or do you have to wait for injuries to start cropping up once camps begin.
I meant trading Kendricks for a player, perhaps an OL.
We will likely move on from Mathis, Cooper, and Celek next year. We will easily have enough to get a quality starting OL. I like Alex Boone if we go for an OG or Cordy Glenn if we decide it is time to move on from Peters
With the McBryde signing (paired with Mihalik) that’s the 3rd and the 1st rated (respectively) D-linemen in the draft according to the SPARQ rankings.
https://twitter.com/zjwhitman/status/594922831030259712
We are well on our way to winning the Sparqer Bowl!
McBryde at OG?
I think Whitman (who is a Seahawks fan) was just speculating on what Seattle might have done with him had they drafted/signed him. McBryde fits the profile of athletic standouts they’ve swapped positions with before. With not having drafted an OL, I do wonder whether we’ll try anything like that with guys like Mihalik or McBryde though. Tommy had also speculated on Raciti after we sent our OL coach to his pro day.
2016 O-Line Free Agent Targets?
Since we’ll likely need to open up the purse to address the offensive line next year are there any guys from next year’s UFA list jump out to anyone as a fit?
Trent Williams
Marshal Yanda
Nate Solder
Anthony Castonzo
Russell Okung
Andre Smith
Matt Kalil
Andrew Whitworth
Donald Penn
Chris Chester
Joe Hawley
Alex Boone
Manuel Ramirez
Mackenzy Bernadeau
Stefen Wisniewski
Ryan Wendell
Ted Larsen
Ramon Foster
Todd Herremans
Brandon Brooks
Lamar Holmes
Ben Jones
Bobby Massie
Mitchell Schwartz
Chris Clark
Johnnie Troutman
Amini Silatolu
J.R. Sweezy
Kelvin Beachum
Cordy Glenn
Mike Harris
Gino Gradkowski
Don Barclay
Khalif Barnes
Jeff Allen
Tyson Clabo
Kevin Boothe
Peter Konz
Mike Adams
Richie Incognito
Kelechi Osemele
Will Yeatman
Jonathan Martin
J.D. Walton
Byron Bell
Lance Louis
Eric Winston
Josh LeRibeus
Donald Stephenson
Andrew Gardner
Sam Young
Tony Bergstrom
Joe Looney
Bradley Sowell
Benjamin Ijalana
Jamon Meredith
Nick McDonald
Troy Kropog
Brandon Mosley
Bryce Harris
Tim Barnes
Dennis Kelly
Dallas Reynolds
Chris Hairston
Chris Scott
Will Montgomery
Lemuel Jeanpierre
Corey Hilliard
Vladimir Ducasse
Willie Colon
James Brewer
Julian Vandervelde
Rishaw Johnson
Harland Gunn
David Arkin
Cody White
J’Marcus Webb
Derek Sherrod
Jah Reid
David Molk
Tyronne Green
Adam Gettis
C.J. Davis
Cameron Bradfield
Jacques McClendon
That Todd Herramans fella might be a good fit.
Redskins drafted OT Scherff 5th overall, even though they have a stud LT in Trent Williams already. Teams don’t usually draft RTs that high unless they plan on moving them to LT eventually, like we did with Lane. But, Williams is only 26. He’ll probably be a priority still for the Redskins to resign, but maybe they are planning on moving on from him next year.
If he’s available, I think you have to think hard about adding an elite piece like that, even with Peters and Lane under contract. Peters will be 34 next year and isn’t getting any younger.
I know this is super Madden-ish of me, but could you imagine if Peters starts to slow down a bit this year (he looked a little slower last year after the achilles tear and had some problems with speed rushers), and we decided that he could make a transition to LG to get a few more years out of his career. I’d do some questionable things to see an offensive line with Trent Williams – Jason Peters – Kelce – ?? – Lane.
I don’t think Scherrf is projected to be an LT. I think he is that special of a talent on the inside or RT.
It could also be a hedge with Williams signing with another team. If Williams stays great; you have a pair of bookend tackles. If not then you have a potential LT answer.
New thread
I agree we had the chance to address our weak secondary and it sure looks like we upgraded across the board with this draft and free agency.
I am betting that Chip thinks he can get 30-40 points a game from the remaining offensive players.
I really like Agholor to replace Maclin and I feel good about our running backs.
My only question is, is out offensive line capable of producing a productive running game without Herremans as our starter.
I know he lost a step and age has not been friendly to him, and Chip prefers a more athletic and younger player to man the RG position but can Tobin or Barbre or perhaps someone else perform at the necessary level to win in the trenches.
I think we are light one starting lineman and I have doubts about Herremans replacement.
I wish we could gave drafted a top RG but I guess they came off the board early.
I still think we should be able to run behind Kelce, Peters and Johnson so maybe we will be okay there.