Undrafted But Very Talented
Posted: May 11th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 259 Comments »Texas WR John Harris signed with the Eagles as a UDFA. Watch this highlight clip and you’ll wonder how the heck that happened.
Nobody drafted that kid? Really?
He shows good hands, body control and physicality. That’s what you want from a WR who goes 6-2, 213.
His Pro Day workout wasn’t spectacular, but these are solid numbers:
40 – 4.59
BP – 19 reps
VJ – 33.5
3C – 6.82
SS – 4.45
That is a poor short shuttle time. Based on the good 3-cone time and the agility he shows on game tape, I’m betting he just did a poor job of running that drill as opposed to being so slow and stiff that he genuinely is that bad at the drill. Think of this as someone who knows the material and just happens to do poorly on the test.
Harris wasn’t on anyone’s radar as recently as last summer. He caught 9 passes in his first 3 years at Texas. He injured his foot in 2011 and that limited his playing time that year. He struggled to challenge for playing time in 2012. The coaches had him bulk up to 225 in 2013 and give TE a try. That didn’t work.
The funny thing is…you can see his talent. Watch this pre-halftime Hail Mary vs Iowa State from his Junior year.
That is one heck of a catch. I’d want that guy on the field.
Harris got lucky that there was a coaching change at Texas. New coach Charlie Strong wasn’t impressed with Harris at all initially. He saw talent, but not the consistent practice performance that coaches crave. The WR coach challenged Harris to step up. That helped a lot. So did a change at QB. Harris had caught a lot of scout team passes from Tyrone Swoopes prior to 2014. When Swoopes became the starter, the two of them clicked and that helped Harris to have a breakout season.
68 – 1,051 – 7 … 15.5 ypc
Harris is a good fit for the Eagles. He can play in the slot or on the outside. He will need to work on his route-running and making better cuts, but that is true for most college receivers. I love the fact he catches the ball so naturally and is such a physical player. He’s not afraid of contact and can take some good shots. He will catch short passes and work the middle of the field. He has good RAC ability due to a combination of some elusiveness and the ability to break arm tackles.
While Harris isn’t a burner, he is an effective downfield receiver. He locates the ball well. He can make contested catches. Harris can battle with a DB for a 50-50 ball and make the grab. That’s critical if you don’t run 4.4. You’ve got to be able to battle for the ball and win.
Harris is coming to the Eagles as a UDFA. He’ll have to work his butt off to have a shot at the roster. Harris played on STs at Texas and was an outstanding blocker. Those are areas where he can stand out even if the ball isn’t coming his way a ton in practice. He will need to do all the little things well if he is going to push for a roster spot.
Here are a couple of games from Harris. You can see he’s not just a highlights guy. He has good game tape.
Impressive player.
I don’t want to make Harris out to be something he isn’t. He isn’t 6-4, 225. He doesn’t run a 4.3. He wasn’t a college All-American.
At the same time, this is a much better UDFA receiver than the Eagles have had in a while. He’s far more than just a camp body. I do think Harris has the potential to play in the NFL. I’m really looking forward to seeing him play this summer.
* * * * *
I wrote about the draft picks for PE.com, trying to take a look at how they fit in.
I said some good things about JaCorey Shepherd. The more I watch of him, the more impressed I get. The Eagles might have gotten very lucky in finding that guy in the 6th round. Sure feels like a major steal.
_
Very interesting. Seems like the same qualities of Cooper. If Riley fails to impress, Harris may be a nice cheap solution.
I really really like JaCorey as well. I see one outside CB spot & MAYBE a nickle spot. We have Thurmond, Boykin, JaCorey and Rowe. Boykin back in the nickle with Thurmond backing up or competing. JaCorey at the CB spot & start Rowe opposite Jenkins.
Obviously camp will tell whose going to go where but that would be my ideal scenario. I like the way Watkins talks but I just don’t see it on tape & I like wolf limited tape
We have a really interesting set of DB’s fighting for the final 2 DB spots this year in camp. It is going to be by far the most exciting set of TC battles.
Thurmond/Boykin/Carrol are all experienced inside CB’s who can project outside as the vet competition.
Watkins/Wolff are athletically talented guys who know the system now and who could see significant progress if they put it together at the next level.
Rowe/Sheppard/Evans are an exciting set of rookies.
Couplin/Reynolds are 2nd years who could take a step up.
Proslinski/Maragos are vet special teamers
Thats a 12 guys fighting for 2 starting spots and 8 roster spots total. Think this is the most talent at DB we have had for a long time and i hope 2-3 guys really evolve and grab a starting role.
I even forgot EJ Biggers off that list….. although i am not sure i want him making the roster..
Maragos is a lock
Wolff was battling a micro fracture injury that they didnt know was there. He was the smart one protecting his career and body while everyone, coaches and fans wanted him to get “tough” and play, fans thought he was soft. Good thing he listened to himself. He does still have a lot to prove though but Im hoping he can step up and start. Im fine with Rowe at corner if he ends up being solid there, its a great problem to have if Jacorey is also a good player. Great depth for once with injuries probable and Boykin and Thurmond in slot.
Harris and Devante Davis have that Allen Hurns feel to them. Look like pretty good players.
We need to find a way to keep both of these guys. They both seem like guys that can contribute this season.
We’ll know for sure if they light up our secondary in practice…
I don’t like the contract situation of our WR. Agholor, Pope and Huff are locks to make the roster, obviously. Cooper is nearly uncuttable. Of course June 1st is possible, but the only benefit really would be to gain a roster spot. Cooper frustrated everyone last year, but he’s not THAT bad. If you gain significant cap room, of course you cut him. But “only” for a roster spot?
While Chip could put some of the blame for the Cooper contract on Howie, Austins contract is his mistake. Nothing against having Austin around and battle for a roster spot. Seems to be a good vet for the young receivers. But 1m guar.? With no competition for his services and a good base salary?
You should never get too exited about UDFAs, but Harris and Davis seem to have potential. Not future HoFer, but MAYBE capable 53 roster players. Problem is, there are three young players + 2 players where it makes financial sense to keep them. So even if Harris or Davis have a good camp, you can, at best, keep one of them on the 53 and only if you go with 6 WR – which is possible due to only 3 TEs this year compared to 4 last year. But it’s not like that roster spot couldn’t be filled with another bubble player.
Of course, if they have a good camp and you have a little bit of luck, you can park them on the PS. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just, it isn’t ideal if your WR #4 and 5 have some kind of bad contracts. There would be more of a fair battle if you could just cut them, if other (younger and cheaper) players are playing equally good.
After writing all of this, I see that I completely forgot Ajirotutu, a ST ace which we know is important for Chip (and which makes the Austin signing even more strange, to be honest). If Ajirotutu plays great teams, he’s almost certain to make the roster, just like Brad Smith last year.
I’d rather have Austin over Coop truth be told, but like you said, there’s no cap savings in cutting Riley. I just don’t see Cooper as significantly better than Austin.
Cooper would better if his ridiculous contract was counting against Dallas’ cap.
There is no evidence to say Cooper isn’t really “that” bad.
Even if you forget the metrics that rank him the worst starting receiver in the league -he’s has big drops in big moments that have cost the team the chance to win big games.
As for “blocking”, does his incredible blocking in the slot compensate for his stone hands and inability to get open or make contested catches? Is the difference between his blocking and Ertz’ so great as to keep the better receiver off the field?
He’s not a good player.
A #4 WR? OK. I’ll give you that. He’s pretty good depth.
“A #4 WR? OK. I’ll give you that. He’s pretty good depth.”
That was kind of my point. We should all hope that we won’t talk about Cooper as a starter in August. That would be really depressing, because it would mean Matthews regressed, Agholor not ready and/or Huff not making a leap. But those three should see the most snaps in Week 1, imo.
As a #4 or 5, Cooper is way overpaid, but since there is no financial benefit of cutting him, it makes sense to keep him if he’s the 4th or 5th best WR on the roster, overall (remember Cooper being a good teamer, basically the only reason Reid and Kelly kept him around to begin with? He better be good at it again this summer).
Kelly spoke pretty highly of him, but he also spoke highly of Fletcher and rightfully cut him the first chance he got. I don’t think, whatever Chip tells the media in PCs, that Chip was be happy with the way Coop played last year. There is no way he didn’t saw what we all saw.
“Cooper is nearly uncuttable.”
http://img.pandawhale.com/58669-so-youre-telling-me-theres-a-c-Sm9B.gif
Nice!
I dunno, maybe I’m daft, but what exactly is the problem with Austin’s contract? It’s 1mm, right? What’s the veteran’s minimum 900K? Am I missing something? Is it strictly that it’s guaranteed? Who cares if the team has the cap space, as it will only impact this coming year, right?
And isn’t the cap escalating madly?
Someone please let me know.
Problem is there wasn’t a market for Austin. He has a good contract in his perspective for his production over the last years (2.2m). Since there was no market for him, I think the 300k guar. he got from the Browns last year would have been enough to sign him.
Austin was a solid signing for insurance (no WR you like at your spot in the early rounds of the draft, f.e., or Huff struggling or injury) and maybe depth, if he can play teams. But if he’s not good enough in the end, we shouldn’t have 1m in dead money in our books.
And don’t forget, you can roll over unused cap space into next year. It’s not like we couldn’t use 1m more next year if Austin turns out to be not good enough for our 53 roster.
This is a pretty classic case of ‘first world problems’.
?
Of course it is. But every single thing we discuss about the NFL is, so where is the difference?
No, I meant within the league. Who gives a crap if Cooper or Austin gets outplayed by one of the younger guys and you have to cut them and eat some dead money this year? It hurts you zero going forward, and means you’ve discovered 1, maybe 2 cheap young receivers you can build around going forward.
I hope our GM gives a crap, to be honest.
You don’t have to be interested in those kind of things, but acting like it’s irrelevant, that’s not the right way, imo.
But if the difference between the veteran’s minimum and the salary he got is 100K, then what’s the big deal here?
Is the roll-over at a 1.00 per 1.00 basis?
You ask if it’s worth cutting Cooper for a roster spot, then worry that we won’t have enough roster spots for all the receivers?
Seems like you just answered your own question.
Eh … We have less cap space/real money devoted to the WR position than like 90% of the league. I think we can handle 1 mil for a veteran guy given our youth and questions about Cooper.
The thing is: if Austin gets beat out during camp, the 1m we will have in our books no matter what could have been rolled over to next year to make the extension for Cox easier, cap wise, f.e.
I’m not against Austin, it’s just that he will be a #4 or 5, if all goes according to plan, and you shouldn’t pay your #4 or 5 1m guar. because you should be able to cut him in no time if you feel an UDFA deserves the spot or a good players gets cut or whatever.
I see your point. I guess I just don’t see Austin getting cut barring a serious injury or a continuation of chronic hamstring issues that keep him sidelined all summer. I just think it was imperative to have a veteran (other than Cooper) on the roster with us banking so much on Huff and a rookie to produce right away. We’ll end up with $25mil in cap space next year so I don’t really see an extra couple hundred of thousand spent on Austin as being too prohibitive.
I’m not against the Austin signing. I get that he adds value going into camp. I just don’t know why you give a player with 0 leverage 1m guar.
He earns 2.2m and that’s right in his range. That’s a solid salary. 400k guar. would have been enough, imo.
But the team isn’t up against the cap, right? There are multiple, multiple, multiple ways to free up a million dollars. From cutting dead weight to restructuring bonuses.
In the era of great cap freedom for the Eagles and an expanding cap, is a million dollar guarantee (when the vet minimum is 900K) even a slight issue?
Again, you can roll over cap unused space. 1m cap space isn’t nothing for crying out loud.
And what’s your point with the vet minimum? He doesn’t earn the vet minimum. He earns 2.2m. 1m is guar. The guar. money alone is more than the vet minimum, so that has simply nothing to do with it.
I’ve seen enough from Harris to cut Cooper right now.
Ha!! Seriously.
Really hope Harris and Davis can push Cooper and Maehl off the roster
They will. Bet on it.
Maehl sure i can easily see that happening. I would take that bet about Cooper however…
Same.. Crazy talk
Any interest in S DJ Swearinger? Word is that he’ll be cut in Houston…
i’d sign him and let him destroy djax’s knees. otherwise no.
Unless we want a new type of defence predicated on giving up 15 yard penalties seems unlikely. For a rookie contract to be cut at this time of year tells you a lot about the player. He was not good enough to even keep in camp to compete with guys? (probably feared he would take out half the WR core to be fair)
He was a 2nd round pick from 2013 who was cut after his second season. Yeah, sounds great.
Worked for Jaiquan Jarrett, haha.
he is still playing tho. didn’t work out for us but he is still playing pro!! the www says jets paying him 1.5 mil this year!
So do our other options at S. 😉
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/10/jadeveon-clowney-bitten-by-d-j-swearingers-dog/
http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/05/houston-texans-dj-swearinger-allegedly-steals-own-truck-cops-investigating/
There were some even uglier comments about him on another site, but i didn’t care to repeat them here!
Have we already reached that Na Brown time of year?
Sign Na Brown: cut Cooper.
Personnaly I’d sign Kyle Arrington and move Rowe to Safety. Killing two eagles with one stone!
Too short! 5’10 aint getting reps outside for the Chipper.
Party. Pooper.
Chip has a thing about midgets.
Do you think he would attend Monday Night Midget Movie Maddness, or nah?
You are right, chip has a thing about midgets, but Chip has a thing against BUMS. Arrington is straight trash, I’d worry mor about how terribke he is instead of his lack of size..l, just silly Eagles fans gravitate to a name brand player who’s name they heard,….Even thinking about that bum starting on our much improved Secondaey is a complete joke..
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And starting him on the outsider? Lol laughable.. Chip won’t give our own slot corners a look on the outside yet he will start patriots slot trash outside? People are nuts
…
Afonso Dennard
DJ Swearinger
Kyle Arrington
,,
We won’t be interested in any of this name brand trash
Tommy, I was impressed with JaCorey Shepherd’s cover skills watching some games from DraftBreakdown.com. Watching the KU vs Duke game, I did not notice him directly giving up reception and he shut down Jamison Crowder. With that said, I had some real concerns over his tackling a willingness to be phyisical or initiate contact. Your thoughts?
Here’s what happens when corners try to tackle.
http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/shermblock.gif?w=650
While he absolutely needs to improve his tackling, I never viewed him as someone who doesn’t like contact. He seems fiesty and a willing tackler. our coaches have proven to be very good at teaching and improving our players tackling ability, which is impressive considering we don’t even allow full tackling at camp… Practicing with THUDS instead of TACKLING sure has done a great job of improving our tackling and avoiding camp injuries
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After watching Phillip Dorsett not be able to blow by him, I don’t care about his 40 time. Seeing how smooth and effortlessly he can turn his hips and transition to his back peddle, it’s so hard to believe he has only been a corner for two years.
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Wonder if your impression of lacking physicality is in part because he specialized as a mirror Press corner, where he got up close to his man, squared up on him, backpeddled, wait for the WR to declare his route, and then turn and run stride for stride with the WR…Eagles will ask and teach him to be a physical press corners get his hands on the WR, jam him at the line..IMO it’s probably harder to be really good at Mirror press, pretty impressive that he already can play mirror press at a high level after only two years playing corner,
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His style of “press corner” was hands off, so I wonder if that factors into the impressioni of a lack of physicality, when most of the press corners we see are very “handsy” and do a lot of Jamming at the Line of scrimage?
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Think he has a chance to go on and be an absolute steal. we won’t see him play as a rookie, but I’d bet he makes some noise on special teams. Can’t wait TIL second half of preseason games to watch this kid play
IMHO — way way too much is put into “Pro Day” and/or combine. I’m sure there’s a thing or two you can learn about the players but the game tapes are where(I’d imagine) most of the decisions about a player are already made. I can’t picture a scout seeing these types of film, going to pro day and saying — “this guy is undraftable because of his cone time”. A player only bench presses 15 time? Don’t draft him! There are reasons no team drafted this kid. I have no idea what they are, but 32 teams and all their scouts — not one said “let’s take a late flyer on him in the draft”. Maybe all those people are wrong. Maybe the Eagles got a diamond in the rough. Maybe there’s a reason why not 1 scout liked him enough to draft him….
There is a curtain athletic bench mark players need to have a high % to succeed at their position – you find it hard to play CB with a 4.7 time regardless of how good you are at everything else.
The reasons teams like combine measurables is it allows you to compare every player consistently. A player who looks fast in tape can be a 4.4 CB or maybe a 4.5 CB, depending on who he is playing against. The former has recovery speed, the other does not. Now both can play at the NFL level but the 2nd CB needs a specific skill set.
The problem is the 4.4 cb can run a 4.5 with a bad start. The problem is the track start as that just mastering that can be a difference in 0.1 or more
Yea the difference between 4.4 and 4.5 can easily be made up with technique. The fact they use 100ths of a second too is almost laughable. But there’s gotta be a cut off. A CB with, say, 4.7 speed, is basically guaranteed to fail at the pro level.
yea but they should test with a standing start like the WRs instead of the track start
why? b/c you have to learn a technique. It’s the same thing as practicing for 3-cone, you’re practicing the techniques for the drill.
Well I think the combine is bad in general that way, so why not test in a way that resembles actually things you do on the field?
No real answer, age old argument of standardized testing. But they have the opportunity in the Senior Bowl/ East/West Shrine game plus college, plus private workouts to put stuff on tape.
Im not against standardized testing, I just want testing that greater reflect the needed things for the NFL. Its why Nike’s SPARQ actually uses barrel toss instead of bench press
That’s a great point that they need measurables. So are they saying he had a bad combine or are we only seeing half the tapes on this kid? (trust me, I want him to be that diamond in the rough)
So with all these receivers we’re bringing in, I guess this means Cooper gets cut once and for all?
Dude, he’s the best blocking WR in NFL history. You can’t just cut a guy like that.
You’re right. We’ll trade him for a couple six packs of Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale.
Cheers!
I’m thirsty now.
Great label on that ale
No
Doubt it…. If the Eagles don’t care about the $ and would be willing to cut Coop now, I’d assume,they cut Miles Austin instead of Coop..
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If the Eagles cut either veteran WR, it would mean they are comfortable going into the season counting on a bunch of young WRs… IF THATS the case, it would mean they plan on starting and playing all our young WRs, which would mean the veterans left on the roster would move down the depth chart. Well if the veteran is going to move down the depth chart and not see many snaps at WR, he is probably going to have to contribute on Special teams, and Cooper would blow Miles away in terms of Special team ability.
….
If the Eagles are willing to cut Cooper after camp, then I’d assume Miles Austin roster spot is also in jeopardy because as a backup Cooper has way more ST value then Austin
Great stuff and I am excited to see Harris and Devante Davis compete for a roster spot. I think they will be in competition for the WR5 slot. Matthews, Algholor, and Huff lock up the top three.
I imagine Austin was brought in in case a Mariota trade or the draft fell in a way to prevent drafting a Maclin replacement. After drafting Algholor, having Cooper and Austin on the roster are superfluous. Ajirotutu is penciled in as the WR6 who will be active every week on Special Teams. The WR5 spot would be reserved as a developmental spot, who will be inactive a number of weeks. Why waste that on Cooper (or Austin)? Have Harris and Davis compete for that protected WR5 spot and assuming both are promising, try and sneak the lesser of the two on the practice squad.
Let Austin and Cooper compete for the WR4 to have some experience on the team in case of injury for the top 3 and occasional snaps. I would hope that the competitor who did not publicly utter racial slurs would end up victorious.
Yes, we save no cap space for cutting Cooper, but we would be replacing his roster spot with a UDFA, so the net spending wouldn’t amount to much more. And we would be rid of Cooper once and for all — a bonus that cannot be quantified by money alone.
I disagree with the notion the Riley Cooper is uncuttable. If you cut him *after June 1*, your cap savings this year come to 3.8M.
I disagree that he is uncuttable too.
if you cut him, he is cut. period.
If you cut Riley does he not bleed?
he does, but then he threatens to beat up all the black people at the concert
Him getting pummeled by the lone black lady at a Kenny Chesney show if worth the cap hit.
i mean can you imagine? stuck with a bunch of the whitest people on earth and some goldilocks says that shit right to your face? maaaaaan that was some self control
That’s the dead money value. Savings is 1M.
OK, so I read it wrong, but still far from uncuttable.
Sigh people do not understand the Salary cap system post 2010.
EVERY penny of his $salary is guaranteed for this year as of 5th day of the league year. He will get $4m from us in salary if we cut him today.
His total cap impact over the next 2 years is the same if we cut him today or after the league year.
Cutting him and keeping another player will cost us more money over the next 2 years.
Is this so hard to understand people?
Over the cap has not been updated to show he is now fully guaranteed this year (read the contract details on the site and it vested on 5th day of the year. (is also why it shows as a cap saving – when it isnt)
My understanding is it’s 5th day of the season, not of the league year.
The Philadelphia Eagles signed Riley Cooper to a five year contract extension worth $22,500,000 on February 26, 2014. Cooper received $8 million in full guarantees and an additional $2 million in injury guarantees. Those injury guarantees will vest to full guarantees if on the roster on the $5th day of the respective League Year.
Does the fact that it’s guaranteed mean that it necessarily is fully applied to the current year cap, though?
From a tweet at the time..
Andrew Brandt ✔@adbrandt
Riley Cooper to make $5M in 2014 – $4M bonus, $1M salary. Has $4M guaranteed 2015 salary and $1M of $4.5M 2016 salary guaranteed.
Now he was reporting it including the vesting injury guarantees of $1m in 2015 and 2016.
Without access to the contract – which no one in the press has – just what they have been told, you can say nothing for absolute sure (is the reason why there is sometimes differences between what is reported at times). But normally the league year vesting guaranteed money is for that year.
these vesting guarantees are put in the contract to force teams to cut players at the start of the FA process to give them a better chance to find a good landing spot.
has a team ever put out a bounty on its own dude? i’m not sayin, but i’m sayin
I understand and still say cut him.
we need his spot for younger better guys for the future.
money be damned.
Who are you going to magically get this year that is so much younger and better?
Keep him this off season for depth. Cut him next year.
davis and harris- already got them.
I just mean we shouldn’t lose those young guys for coopers one year
With Harris that is 6 WR. Both UDFAs, with Harris being the better. I think it would be foolish to cut Cooper for Davis before you have ever even seen Davis in TC. There is a reason he was an UDFA.
Perhaps a third option? Try, try, try to trade him and his abominable contract. Cleveland or Oakland. Front offices questionable. Could probably use a good blocker. Oakland allegedly has money to spare.
Oak and Cle suck, but nobody sucks enough to take that mess off our hands
If 6 different players come in and outplay cooper in camp, show they can contribute more this year as a WR and on special teams then Chip will cut him regardless of cap.
We already have 3 younger long term guys in Huff/Agholor/Matthews.
The 3 UDFA guys are all guys who upside and pro projection are basically Riley Cooper.
Seyi Ajirotutu – has yet to prove he is a NFL wide receiver and Cooper is a decent specials team player.
Miles Austin – injury prone, had same season as Cooper last year and doesnt play special teams. and a lot cheaper and easier to cut.
Im close but didn’t follow all that exactly ..could you type it again please so I can read it over ??
The fact that his money is fully guaranteed makes the decision simpler, since the money is now officially a sunk cost. The money is gone either way, so if someone outplays him, cut Coop.
He is cuttable. You just get no salary cap or financial savings (although no penalty either). $3 million of his salary this year was guaranteed, and the last $1 million vested in March (I had missed that in earlier comments), so you are paying whether he is on the team or off, and the salary cap will reflect that. Cutting him after June 1 is the same as cutting him after the season (before next March, when another $1million will vest). The rest of his signing bonus ($2.4 million) will be charged against the 2016 cap, so that is dead money.
If we keep another player over Cooper, then that player’s salary will be added to this years’ cap, basically. But if Kelly is determined to be rid of Cooper, and likes another (cheap) player better, it is possible that he gets cut. I have my doubts — he can do some things to contribute, and is the only real veteran with multiple years experience with Kelly, and it costs nothing to keep him (other than the roster spot). I imagine we will see how all the WRs look in preseason, plus what injuries happen, but while possible I think it’s an outside shot. Kelly might be giving himself options though based on all the WRs we have brought in.
The one thing is that the salary cap shouldn’t enter into the decision. Come next offseason, the salary cap implications will work against Cooper and be in favor of cutting him. Before June 1, it is the other way around. As of June 1 it’s even.
I struggle to see how Coop could possibly still be on this team in 2016, and I certainly don’t want to lose talemt, to keep Coop… But I’m not interested in replacing Cooper until we replace Jeff Maehl first…I believe in starting from the bottom of the depth chart, and working your way up instead of upgrading current players…of course that only works in cases where the money doesn’t matter. In this situation, we don’t save anything significant by cutting Coop now, so if there is little financial upside, I would prefer starting from the bottom of the depth chart..Upgrade Maehl’s spot first..
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We have a lot of youth in the WR room. Huff and Jordan are still puppies at the start of year two and Agholor is a rook. Miles Austin is New to the Eagles, it’s not the worst thing to have a veteran Eagle in the WR room when we will be counting on so much youth this year
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If this were a video game, where intangible and experience DONT matter, I would keep:
1) Jordan
2) Agholor
3) Huff
4) Tutu
5) Devante
6) Harris
…..
But I don’t see how you can be so young in the WR room, they will need a vEteran voice, who has some NFL experience, and Exprience in the Eale organization,,, Problem is I don’t want to lose any of those 6 young WRs, but I worry that they will want at least 2 Veterans Cooper and Austin
Tom Brady could pull it off
Deflate the footballs, inflate the contribution of young receivers…
unfadeable so please don’t trade to fade him ..now, back to the lesson at hand
They can afford to eat the whole amount now, so not a problem in my book if they choose to go that route. Cooper is totally useless without DeSean clearing out space for him.
wow harris looks fantastic in the highlights! there were a few catches there where he pretty much used his strength and reach to save his QB from looking stupid.
agree. but if you don’t look fantastic in the highlights…
you go undrafted. oh wait . . .
I prefer Davis over Harris. Maybe it’s because I’ve wanted a WR that can make catches with DBs draped all over him since like 2009.
Draftimg Jacory Shep was awesome. I love this kid…. I don’t want to hear about his bad 40 time, not when you can see him on video run stride for stride with Philip Dorsett, one of the fastest WRs in the draft..
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It’s amazing to me to see how much stud Corner ability he already shows after only playing the position for two years,
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Think this kid will go on to be one of the big steals of this draft class.
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Also very pleased with Jordan Hicks,, I was head over heals in love with Christian Kirksey going into last years drraft, hicks shows that freak Kirksey ability to slide over and cover slot Recievers. Just look at the play he tore his Achilles on, Hicks was running stride for stride with a kansas State slot recieve when he tore the Achilles. really good instincts, you can tell he is a film rat who knows his opponents tendencies and uses his study habbits to anticipate what opponents are doing… coincidently when Hicks first visited Texas, Acho was actually his guide… Years later they could both end up as Eagles, or Hicks could end up taking Acho’s job
Harris and Devante are both promising UDFA prospects who can’t be ruled out. But there ability to make the 2015 Eagles roster will come down to one thing.. What can they bring to the Eagles top rated Special teams..
..
Special Team ability, I assume will decide whether these UDFAs can make the roster or not…
Patriots cut Kyle Arrington their slot CB, aftert cutting Alfonso Dennard last week. On top of losing Browner and Revis?… I hear good things about the kid that won them the Super Bowl, but half their starting secondry is that of the 2013 Eagles….Wonder if Devin McCourty would have signed with us if he knew the slop he would be sorrounded with in NE this year?…
..
Arrington and Dennard aren’t very good, but they needed DB help before they cut them.. How do they get even weaker at DB after free agency and the draft is over? not to mention they basically spent their 2nd round pick on an Ed reynolds caliber safety from Stanford..
…
imagine how horrible the Patriots secondary would be if they also lost McCourty? If he gets hurt, they are screwed…. They literally may have went from a top 5 secondary to the worst secondary in the NFL… McCourty made a mistake,, He should be starting for the BIRDGANG with Byron Maxwell, Rowe and Jenkings, with Boykin and Thurmond as the nickel and Dime
So we trade Boykin to New England for a 4th?
I’m not interested in trading away playmakers,. Rather have the depth.. But I understand your argument.. I waited years for this defense. Like to enjoy it for a year before we start to piss It away. Love Thurmond, but not the most durable cat
If they don’t want to re-sign Boykin; trade him.
I don’t believe a team would make the decision to not sigń a young player without even seeing his 4th year first or even trying to open talks with his agent,, for all they know boykin wants to stay bad and would sign a more favorable deal then we expect in exchange for some security. For all we know often injured Thurmond has another major injury and Jaylen watkins struggles,. I belive chip when he says he wants ton age as many good football players as possible..
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I know what everyone believes,, but From what I hear, all the trade talks we heard were ON!Y about trying to get ammunitation to trade for Mariota. have to trade quality to get quality.. Mariota is gone, since we lost Mariota, I heard they turned down a 4th for Kendricks..
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Mariota is gone. no need to trade players for ammunition. It’s what had to do in REALITY, not the Bullshit fanboy media pipe dream/made up reports that told fans we could trade a few nice players on expiring deals and get MARIOTA,,. In REALITY, we had to trade those players to get draft picks to entice the Texans… We couldn’t pull it off, no reason to give away players now. Highly doubt any decisions have been made about young players before seeing their 4th season…
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For all we know, injuries happen at CB, boykin has to move outside, does a great job and changes everyones opinion,…. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we actually extended KEndricks if he manages to stay on the field all 16 games…
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We went crazy in free agency this year, I would assume a quiet free agency next year just like 2014 after signing so many players in 2013(chips first year);. If we aren’t going to be players in free agency next year, rather see how much better These kids can be this year, take the depth and accept a compensatory pick s a worst case scenario…
Re: Question about Riley Cooper’s Injury Guaranteed Money
Commenter Alistair Middlemiss mentioned that $4 million of Cooper’s 2015 compensation is guaranteed for “injury” only — starting on the 5th day of the league year.
So, if Cooper’s injured anytime between now and the day before the rosters are set for the Week 1, he gets the full $4 million.
But here’s my question:
Cooper’s salary is not guaranteed for “skill” . . . does that matter?
To: Alistair Middlemiss . . .
I just re-read something you wrote further down in the thread.
Cooper’s $4M in salary — apart from the $1 M in injury guarantees — sounds like it’s “skill” guaranteed.
Hard to know . . . as you wrote . . . without the contract being available
No, $3 million of his 2015 $4 million was fully guaranteed when he signed the contract. The last $1 million was guaranteed for injury, and also vested to fully guaranteed on the 5th day of the league year (which happened in March). So his 2015 salary is fully guaranteed, and is part of the 2015 cap. We save nothing by cutting him other than the roster spot.
He has another $1 million guaranteed for injury in 2016, and that will vest to fully guaranteed next March (5th day of 2016 league year). If we are going to cut him, it would make sense to do it before then. This year it’s basically whether he is worth his roster spot, or not.
FO:
Just realized that. And noted it in a comment.
Thanks for the clarification!!!
Shows how much worse the contract is than first appeared — and it looked bad then.
So much worse than it first appeared. So appropriate for Cooper.
Contract was basically a 2 year 9mil deal, with 3 1 year options at 4.5mil. That is not an awful contract at the time, considering his 2013 production.
2014 was poor from Cooper – but high ankle strain slowed him down early season, and he lacked any chemistry at all with the sanchize (seriously he cannot predict when a WR will become open)
He is not a great WR, and we would not do the contract again but i think Cooper can have a similar season to 2013 this year if Bradford stays fit.
It was always a two-year contract, for basically 2nd receiver money. If he played at 2013 levels, that was fine. Unfortunately he played like a 4th or 5th WR last year. It was not an utterly awful contract; it won’t majorly harm the team if he bombs (which it looks like). I think he had a certain amount of leverage at the time (Maclin also a free agent and coming off injury, Jackson was going to be released) and we had little else at the WR position and needed him back, or so we thought. You normally have to basically commit for two years in that situation. It’s just very unfortunate he hasn’t come close to earning it. He could redeem himself this season, who knows, but I’m not counting on it and I doubt Kelly is either. The real problem was not having enough viable options on the roster at the time, but that was another offshoot of the DeSean Jackson situation.
Too much time here talking about Riley’s contract.
offseason void is officially here. I still open up my multiple tabs with eagles articles. I can barely bother to click on them these days.
And not enough talking about his hair. Or blocking.
then we should get rid of it all together.
to be clear —
Igglesblitz.com is NOT a public forum.
I mean get rid of the coops contract… all together
I’d be tempted to give Coop a bonus out of the blue like we gave to Barwin just to Troll Shady and Desean.. 😉
You were understood.
I went off on a tangent, though.
would you believe we could add 200lbs to cooper and stick him on the line?
I mean he blocks already
As a back up, .Coop Dwarfs Miles Austin in special team ability..and Austin is also brand new to the Eagles..when you invest so much in young WR talent, might be a good idea to have a veteran Eagle in that WR room… Even guys like Pope and Huff still could use a veteran mentor
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I’d get rid of MAEHL,and Austin, before Cooper… But ultimately I would like all 3 to be gone by the beginning of the 2017 season.
..
on paper, I’d want to keep Pope, Agholor, Huff, Tutu, Devante, Harris… But I’m not sure we can have all young WR and No veteran. can’t imagine that being a great idea
no its not, and we have seen cooper play well on occasion. two catches he missed would have changed a lot.. New Orleans and San fran
Might depend on how you view the 2015 season and the relative importance of development vs winning “now”
Turning topics . . .
I assume Kelly kept the RTAs closed to the media. (is that right?)
Did Reid permit the press to access them?
————
As an aside, I understand the argument that Kelly wants to keep a lid on all information.
Sort of like the military during war.
I mean, look what happened when the press had unfettered access to American troops . . .
You ended up with the Vietnam-effect on the American public.
Okay . . .
How ’bout them Cowboys?!
—————–
I kid.
– Romo will get hurt.
– Dallas’s defense is a joke.
– Bryant will be suspended.
– Jerry Jones will screw up the ‘Boys drafts.
– Dallas signed the wrong FAs.
Just as all those things were predicted before (and during) 2014 . . .
Over and over and over again (loudly sometimes).
don’t forget ” we all know Romo is going to start choking in December”
ANON:
Ever watch “Mad Men”?
Damn, the Pats got hammered:
Adam Schefter
@AdamSchefter
40s41 seconds ago
Filed to ESPN: Tom Brady suspended four games, Pats lose 1st round pick in 2016 and a 4th in 2017, and team fined $1 million, per source:
You know Bellichick is laughing and saying “Fine, we won’t have the 32nd overall pick next year, bitches.”
wow, and like everyone guessed his suspension will probably be appealed down to 2 games. Still the picks, brutal
Actually hope his suspension is lessened on appeal as their 4th game is against Dallas.
I assume it will only be two games, steelers and Jags… Be awesome if the Jags pull a win out their ass… But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Patriots start the season 2-0 without Brady,,. bellicheat has a ton of time to get the young QB ready
Good!!! Tho I’m not sure he will actually miss 4 games. Might only be two games by the time the players association appeals it… But hopefully it is 4 games. 1 game has no impact on the season… penalty was ONLY this steep because of the timing of the infraction forcing the league to have to łet Brady play in the Super Bowl. They couldn’t punish him for that game. They got a SUPERBOWL out of it. They should get hammered.. Especially when you get caught lying to the public and trying to cover up the infraction,
,,
this was fare, this was a penalty that I think every can respect and we can put this crap to bed, and move on from it, feeling like the NFL actually got it right for once,.
Great, now he misses the cowboys and we get Patriots late in the season in a critical game for them pissed off with their backs against the wall.
It’ll be reduced to 2 games I’m sure.
eff ’em
Wow, didn’t think they’d fine them draft picks.
That’s more like it! Can’t stand cheaters. Liars are even worse.
What precise lie do you think Brady told?
What exactly — the actual words — did he say that was a “lie”?
He apparently gave valuable merchandise to the club employee and mentioned that he knew nothing, nothing. Kraft also lied about the level of ‘cooperation’ given to the investigators. As was stated elsewhere, Belichick has never taken public responsibility for previous questionable tactics.
It might have been more expedient to dump on Brady than to go after Kraft. The Commissioner does work for the owners after all, and Kraft has a lot of influence.
Here’s a link which I haven’t checked yet, but it leads to a story on NFLN apparently. May be informative.
He was as forthright and cooperating as they come… Nothing to see here.
#railroaded
We get a couple guys who could push for the final 53 at WR: CUT EVERYBODY! Cut Riley! Cut Austin! These guys are amazing players we must keep they are future super studs!
We get a couple guys who could push for the final 53 at OL: CHIP IS SO DUMB! We have no OL DEPTH!!!! We should have taken some guy who wasn’t a scheme fit in the 4th! UGHHHHHHH!!! Arrogant Chip!
Honestly, Boyko is the only one of those 4 UDFAs that I think has any shot. I’m fine with Gardner and Tobin as depth. I think Graf has good potential. Would like another backup C/G candidate brought in. Molk is horrible and Vandervelde hasn’t really shown a lot(good or bad).
Bunche is shit.
Cioccia should beat out Josh Andrews for the PS G/C and could push Molk.
I think with Manhart and Boyko, one makes the PS, the other the 53.
I like Graf’s chances to make the 53.
Peters-Mathis-Kelce-Tobin-Johnson
Barbre first off the bench, Boyko, Graf, Molk.
It’s not 9 all pros but it’s far better than popular opinion believes.
Manhart and Cioccia are nice PS guys.
O line looked pretty bad at several positions last year. We’ll see if your boy Tobin steps up. If he does, all credit to your scouting.
Your OL looked bad because you saw young kids play for the first time, and even worse was the fact that there were so many injuries, that even the healthy starters found a different player linnning up next to them every week. As someone who only ever played Tackle on offense, it’s pretty damn challenging to play next to guard you don’t know well especially when you are executing combo blocks and passing defenders off to each other. can’t imagine how hard it is for a guard to play who ISNT experienced playing next to the tackle or Center.. And it all has a trickle down effect,
,,
however, these players played 16 games at the highest level the year before last. jason Peters has been durable since he came back from the Achilles. last year was the first time Mathis got hurt for us. Lane has NEVER missed a game to injury. Kelce is the only player who’s durability can come into question, so I think people are under rating our OL way too much..
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Barber vs, Tobin battle should provide a more then capable RG, and Lane will be better then we ever seen him look. Barbre and Tobin are good enough to where even if we drafted two OL, we may have not even seen them this year. I don’t think Jake Fisher would have been penciled in to start day one. He may have eventually earned it, but more likely he would have started the season on the bench any way….
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Even if we have an injury or two it’s not the end of the world. backups will come in and get better with each games as they gain experience and gel with the man next to him… As long as it’s not such an injury mess like last week where we could never build any continuity and guys were playing next two a different player,every other week, we will be fine..
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And if our starting 5 plays 16 games like they did the year before last, we should be up there with the Cowboys OL… tobin/Barbre winner probably isn’t musch worst then cowboy weak link Doug Free….. All our OL are healthy today.mkeep it that way and we will boast one of the best OL in the league.. Suffer injuries, and it can get messy, but that also goes for everyone else’s OL…
CUT TEBOWZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The annual tradition of overhyping UDFA WRs is among the core tenets of Eagles fandom, and we’re not going to let RILEY FUCKING COOPER impede our right to celebrate this custom.
If you’re going to stand there and dishonor the sanctity of this ritual, then I’ll have to ask you to do it away from here, a virtual church that has long celebrated this practice, and considers it a rite of passage amongst younger fans.
WE WERE ALL ONCE UNDRAFTED FREE AGENT WIDE RECEIVERS D3FB. DO YOU NOT SEE?
DO YOU NOT BELIEVE?
La’el Collins. never forget!!!!! d3fb is a hack!!!!!!!
ok I’m not serious.
I am d3fb and these are my 95 theses
You Lutheran, you!
Growing up in Minnesota it rubbed off.
Nah, it’s just that we’ve seen Cooper drop enough passes in critical situations to confirm his rating as the worst in the league at his position. The devil we don’t know LITERALLY can’t be any worse.
Sarcasm aside, do you remember how nearly everyone was weeping and wailing because Chip pumped up the offense a year ago and oh, no! he was ignoring the defense. Terrible! Awful! Arrogant college-coach Chip. This year he goes heavy on defense and it’s now,oh, no! Chip is ignoring the offense. Terrible! Chip! Doesn’t he know he’s coaching grown men? Awful college coach. Okay, maybe sarcasm not aside.
In reading the conversation about Cooper, a parallel struck me. Or, rather, a perpendicular?
When Cooper was signed, DJax was on the way out and Maclin was in the wind, his return uncertain. It has been theorized that perhaps Cooper would not have received the contract he did if we had more stability at the position. It has generally been agreed that his contract was, at best, generous as a result.
Fast forward to this offseason. chip sees the secondary needs help. It would have been completely understandable to hold on to Williams for one more season because safety and the other CB were both being changed. Instead, Chip discards them all and carpet bombs the secondary in FA and in the draft.
I wonder if Kelly was influenced to handle the secondary this way because of the way the WR situation played out. I wonder if he wishes he had replaced the entire WR corp with a big crew and open competition that off season.
I also wonder if, in a way, Cooper cost Williams a job and would love to see someone suggest as much to Williams in an interview.
What the Pats did is worse then the Saints. the Saints LITERALLY got in trouble for absoluteky NOTHING. They got in trouble because the public found out what actually happens in NFL locker rooms. The Saints did NOTHING that every other team has been doing for decades. It might not sound pretty, but every defense that takes the field is trying to knock your QB out of a game
..
My direct quote from last year.. “Our OL needs to be careful against the Rams and Texans becaus you mess around and get your QB hurt against those defense”… Did people see how they were hitting FOLES? NASTY Hits, pulling, twisting his body, driving him into the dirt, falling with all their body weight on him…. the Texans defense, were blatantly trying to knock Nick out of the game, and I didn’t have a single problem with it. obviously it sucks and I don’t want them to succeed.. But they weren’t doing ANYTHING wrong, they were playing the game of football. That’s the reality of the game. everyone loves the game, everyone knows, but when public feels like taking their head out of the sand every once in a while they cry bloody murder at the game they Love…
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saints did NOTHNG wrong, NOTHNG. Not one infraction… Yet the NFL crucified them and took their Headcoach away for an entire year.
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The saints didn’t cheat anyone and the NFL threw the book at them, so how can they not punish the Patriots BIGTIME after SPYGATE in the playoffs and Super Bowl of 2007, AND now cheating up until the Super Bowl? They took ball after the refs checked them, and schemed how to alter the balls in the minute in a half window they had when the refs weren’t looking,… How can they Not drop the Hammer?
This is PFTCommenter worthy. Well done.
The Saints got caught in a explicit injury bounty system run by coaches at a time the NFL was being sued for the long-term effects of play (and playing injured). If the NFL hadn’t come down hard that would have been major evidence against the NFL in that case and could have cost the owners hundreds of millions of dollars more. There isn’t much bigger of a crime as far as the NFL is concerned, I’d bet 😉
Saints got in trouble for doing something EVERYONE was doing for decades up u til the saints got cut. If it’s not happening today, it’s ONLY because of how the saints got hammered. Defenses have been doing that money incentive bounty hunting system for over two decades. If the saints got punished for that, every single franchise should have been punished, you thibj the Jimmy Johnson Eagles dffense weren’t doing the same thing? In college they do it with helmet stickers, in the pros they do it with money…
I’m sure some level of that was happening before. But their timing sucked — the lawsuit by the past players was ongoing and the Saints revelation was probably going to play heavily in that if the league didn’t come down hard. They were probably the victims of bad timing… I imagine the threat to the owners’ pockets was the biggest reason for the penalty. But if it doesn’t happen anymore, then that’s a good result. The worst part to me was throwing the book at the players as well as team management — that seemed completely outsized. It took Tagliabue to have enough perspective to fix that. Goodell doesn’t seem to have that sense, which does give some concern that other penalties he levies really aren’t in proportion with the crime.
“Jimmy Garapollo Time”…
I heard garapollo loves inflated balls
1) I hope Brady’s suspension is reduced, we don’t need the Cowboys getting a free win here.
2) Brady is going to throw 8 TDs against the Colts.
Shit, the Raiders might be able to throw 8 TD’s against the Colts if they play like they did in the AFC championship game.
I’m not so worried about the Cowboys facing the Pats without Brady. Remember, Bellichick got 11-5 out of Matt Cassel at QB, and only missed the playoffs because it was a freak year in the AFC where 11-5 wasn’t a guaranteed spot.
Either way pretty surprised the NFL was this heavy handed.
To be worried about 1 game the first month of the season is absurd anyway…handle our business and what other teams do DOESNT matter. I don’t care about weaseing our way in as a bad team because everyone else sucks.. It’s year 3, time to handle our business
This is fundamentally misunderstanding the problem.
Past track record and not cooperating with investigation bit Cowboys in the ass. The Falcons had a more serious violation IMO in pumping in artificial crowd noise and because they came clean and straight up admitted they were guilty, their punishment was minimal.
context is what I’m missing. Do other teams do this to? Did other teams tape practices as well? We are only hearing about the Patriots and the Falcons getting caught. But to other teams to other, equally bad things? I don’t know. But I do wonder
It only matters in that its a common opponent, and I’d rather the Cowboys not have a significant advantage against a common opponent.
Not heavy-handed enough. They should have vacated all of last year’s wins, including the Super Bowl. Considering that soft balls were found in more than one game and the Patriots’ history. Also Belichick’s history of denial, denial, denial.
Would you rather our Eagles play the Patriots with Tom Brady or Jimmy Garropolo?
Check out Troy Vincent’s letter to TOM Brady… Good for you troy
Do you have a link? Sounds like an interesting read.
Pick a national site, any site..,pft, NFL.com, ESPN… Pick one
Troy’s an extraordinary writer.
He missed his calling.
Or maybe he just signed the letter Jeff Pash prepared.
I wonder who wrote it
Maybe we can trade Tim Tebow to the Patriots for their first rounder in 2016…
Only if we get Manziel in a three team deal.
Wow. and someone on 24/7 accused me of being silly! ;~D
I think the NFL should just work with the assumption that the Pats cheated in all their Super Bowl victories and award the 2004 season Super Bowl to the Eagles. I’d be fine with the damn asterik.
whens the parade
Patrick Daugherty
@RotoPat
35m35 minutes ago
Wow, NFL also forcing the Bills to start Matt Cassel for four games, Joe Philbin to coach and Geno Smith to battle Ryan Fitzpatrick.
58 retweets
47 favorites
Who is the Patriots backup QB nowadays?
Mark Sanchez, in 5, 4, 3, …
Can you spell B A R K L E Y
I assume Barkley will smoke TEBOW this summer. This will be Barkleys 3rd year in this offense, 3rd year with our trainers, I have to assume he is going to show obvious growth.
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Plus TEBOW is left handed, when Barkley, SAM and Sanchez are a,l right handed.. Everything switches for a left handed QB, I would assume he would have to be significantly better then Barkley to have a left handed QB as our #3’when all our other QBs are right handed..
A left-handed QB coming in for occasional plays could also screw up the opponents’ defenses as well. They wouldn’t have practiced.
Lol
Rumor has it that it’s going to be a 5 way trade that lands us Marriota and NE will land Bradford.
Urlacher is also coming out of retirement so we are going to trade Kendricks for Boldin.
Garafolo…
jimmy Garrapolo ..actually looked pretty good last preseason
Janeane Garofalo?
she’s little BUT she’s angry…
Isn’t she, though.
Great as Seinfeld’s girl friend.
Espn better not put that clown Bruschi on TV after this
Darnell Dockett: “you have to love the Patriots, they will do ANYTHING to win a SUPERBOWL”
Usually he says nothing of interest, but I really like Keyshawn Johnson’s take on the Brady suspension. He basically said that for anyone who thinks a 4 game suspension is too much, he wants them to put themselves in an opposing athletes shoes. And said, when you work as hard as these guys do and you dream of winning a Super Bowl every day of your life and you put your life and health on the line to achieve that goal and then you find out that someone cheated you or even possibly cheated you out of something, that’s just unforgivable. He doesn’t care if it’s for one quarter or one game or a little bit of deflation or something more egregious, it doesn’t matter. He did something that was against the rules and gave him an unfair advantage in a game that means everything to these players going against him. Because of that, he should be punished as severely as possible because cheating those other players out of anything is one of the worst things you can do in a sport.
They tried to circumvent the system and cheat to gain a competitive advantage, Taking Steroids is trying to circumvent the system and cheat to gain a competitive advantage,… 4 games is perfectly fair.
,,
Any chance it doesn’t get dropped down to two games on appeal and stays at 4 games?
Repeating some of post below. “The actions of the Patriots showed a lack of respect for the opponents, but most importantly, for the league itself. Changing the balls after they were inspected by the officials is an affront to the officials and the NFL. Whatever we might think of the NFL head office, there’s no way they could let these actions slide.” They hand out penalties in the NHL for actions that show disrespect for the officials, when a player is caught. Diving, for example.
That’s laughable.
As soon as he says Jerry Rice should be removed from the HOF, I’ll listen to this kind of drivel.
I wonder if the shows’ producers told him to take that tack.
Cowboys lost to the skins with a backup QB last year…
To us also if you count Sanchez…
He’s a helping of (what’s been called on this blog) “legal bulls**t”.
You know, parsing through actual facts instead of relying “common sense.”
_______________
In 1961, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle learned that future HOF RB Paul Hornung of the Packers and All Pro DT Alex Karras of the Lions were betting on NFL games — not their own, but betting none the less.
And their bets weren’t being made in any Las Vegas book. They were betting the old fashioned way — with the Mob.
Rozelle suspended them both for a full season for the obvious reason: their integrity was compromised.
Now with that precedent — a full season for gambling on NFL games — is 4 games and penalties on the franchise the right result?
________________
1. Brady merited some kind punishment because of his refusal to cooperate — not the nonsense about the inflated/deflated football.
That said, the investigation was not by his employer, but by the NFL’s own hired gun. (This was not like the Ray Rice matter, where Ravens employees turned over their phones . . . because there, the RAVENS required it. Here, the Patriots organization apparently did not. Hence, the Pats get punished.)
Tactically, Brady should have the Union involved when he was holding out on his cell phone. MISTAKE.
Generally, a target’s refusal to provide evidence may be used to infer that incriminating information was contained in that evidence — but ONLY IF the other evidence shows that a violation in fact occurred.
And that’s the rub here.
2. The Wells report — as reported already by PFT.com — completely disregarded the only affirmative testimony on the key point of which gauge was used to measure the footballs at half-time.
Referee Walt Anderson’s actual recollection was the gauge he used was the one that leads to a conclusion, based on the physics involved, that NO violation occurred.
Instead, the report relied on the referee’s pure speculation that it’s “possible” he used the gauge that showed a lower psi — but that was not his recollection.
Holly bulls**t . . . on that standard every employer everywhere can do whatever they want to employees and union members. GREAT, right?
Without using the referee’s speculation, the report COULD NOT have concluded the footballs were under-inflated when the game started, per PFT.com.
That’s a shameful piece of sophistry by Wells.
But when your client is paying you north of $1 million you try to deliver something that fits the client’s narrative — IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THEIR BUSINESS (and get other corporations to hire you for internal investigations).
3. The Wells report states the task was to investigate what amounts to one half of a single game.
Yet the NFL, as the Vincent “ghost-written” letter states, concluded that Brady was likely guilty of violations DURING the 2014 season, if not earlier
Zero EVIDENCE to support a finding “by a preponderance” of anything about any other game — except the fallacy premised on the speculation. Shameful.
And saying that it’s true based on “COMMON SENSE” is not EVIDENCE by a preponderance. (so don’t please.)
4. At least two other teams tried in the past (as PFT.com documents) to gain a competitive advantage by warming footballs during the game.
What about that investigation? Those punishments?
No consequences. Makes this exercise more ridiculous.
_____________
At this point, there is no proof that a football at >12.5 psi provides a “competitive advantage” because there’s never been any statistical data gathered to prove it.
The NFL’s psi standards date back to the 1940s, apparently. And the range was based on nothing anyone remembers. Should the rule be followed? Sure.
Does violating the rule provide an actual “advantage”? There is zero objective data one way or the other.
For all we know, the Eagles during the Reid era used >12.5 psi footballs — which became even softer during cold-weather games.
Didn’t help them win a Super Bowl. Or any other team as far as we know.
If the NFL was really concerned about a softer football, then why even allow a range of pressures for all footballs? Require all footballs to be a single psi.
_______________
Bottom line, the Wells report ignored the best — and only — “eye witness” evidence from the referee who tested the footballs.
That evidence, combined with the objective data and rules of physics, showed “no violation” occurred.
The report chose, instead to favor of purely idle speculation by the referee — i.e., it’s possible, but not his recollection, that he may have used a different gauge to test the balls at half time — in order to show that violation of the rule may have occurred.
_______________
The conclusions in the Wells report are a *client-driven* result.
The issue took on a life of its own — and you can’t have Goodell and the NFL looking stupid again.
_______________
Circling back to the punishment of Brady . . . the NFLPA’s statement and role, if any, in an appeal will be revealing.
Again, Brady should have had the Union involved from the start when the request for his phone was made.
At the end of the day though, is anyone shocked that the NFL kangaroo court chose to essentially just find a loose conglomeration of bullshit to justify their predetermined decision?
Was very anxious to know your thoughts. Good stuff.
AS ALWAYS.
I hope Killer Mike tackles this issue on his next album. Kangaroo Court is a classic title
This is amazing work as always ACV. Great stuff!
Without the legalese, a club employee was rewarded by Tom Brady. He was making changes to the balls AFTER they were inspected by the officials. I don’t care if they were reduced to 5 psi. These actions alone were an affront to the league and to opponents and to the millions of people who just enjoy watching a football game. The second affront, possibly worse, was lying. Displaying a complete lack of integrity may not be an indictable offense in court, but it’s used to point the way. Many a guilty verdict has been reached based on one eyewitness seeing somebody or other in the middle of the night, from a block away, and possibly because the accused had a previous record for running numbers. Lack of integrity. I won’t apologize because just reading about the whole mess,makes a person feel like they’ve soiled their eyeballs.
VIOLATION? WHERE’S THE VIOLATION?
For all I know, the “deflator” double checked to make sure the balls were at 12.5.
But here’s what I do know.
Wells shamefully disregarded of the actual recollection of the referee in favor of sheer speculation.
Think about that — and having your employer screw your life up on that kind of “evidence.”
I mean… I get that Brady totally didn’t get the best legal advice, and evidently that really gets you riled up, but we’re not really thinking he didn’t do it, or that his life is actually screwed up are we? Because I’m totally feeling a bit of schadenfreude over the idea that a rich cheating bastard actually didn’t get away with it – and because of poor legal advice to boot!
I replied in a longer post above, but I think the technical report said it was unlikely to be chance no matter which gauges were actually used and when. The 0.4% chance moved to 1.7% I think.
MLD:
The cooperation issue is where I’m bothered. Not the deflation.
Nothing upsets prosecutors more than a witness who jacks you around.
Brady was woefully advised on that aspect.
The problem is, you can’t talk about “without the legalese. ”
The investigation is based on a legal analysis.
Otherwise, why don’t we just assume Riley Cooper routinely uses the N-word-because you know he did it once before on video tape in a very loud voice and then a very nasty way.
“well, it looks like we have a mistrial…..” 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK_FgrIlYY
Hrrrm. The technical report in the footnotes states:
As shown in Table 8, the p-value for all of the above scenarios is less than 0.05. This indicates that regardless of which of the above four sets of assumptions are made about the gauges used to generate the Game Day data, the difference between the average pressure drop of the Patriots and Colts footballs is statistically significant. in other words, in all cases studied, the additional pressure drop exhibited by the Patriots footballs is unlikely to have occurred by chance.
I think, if the most favorable combination (to the Patriots) of which gauges were used for which measurements, I think that said the likelihood of it happening by chance was about 1.7% (as opposed to the 0.4% most commonly mentioned). The p-values of the four scenarios were 0.004, 0.004, 0.004, and 0.017. I have not seen the PFT piece but I wonder if a mistake was made in their logic (or maybe they caught something not in the NFL’s analysis).
I think the report was pretty damn convincing that McNally deflated the balls. There is about zero reason to 1) leave with the balls alone, and 2) to stop in a room on the way to dropping them on the field. He was caught on video and appeared to lie repeatedly about that sequence. Beyond that, yes I think there are assumptions being made for most of the punishments — 1) the belief there is no way that McNally would have done that without Brady’s knowledge, and 2) it has probably gone on a lot longer than one game. While I think those two things are quite likely, they didn’t have a lot of hard evidence for it. But I think the NFL thinks that the deflation was intentionally done, and therefore Brady and the Patriots denying it may have really heaped on the penalties (that and repeat offender status).
Brady may have grounds on appeal. The penalties were more severe than I was anticipating, though on the high edge. Maybe Goodell drops it to two games if he comes clean, or something like that. And maybe he can find some other arguments to an independent arbitrator if it comes to that. But the NFL may have built some future compromise possibilities into that penalty.
I was most surprised at the draft picks being lost. To me, this seems like a relatively minor competitive-balance issue when compared to the crowd noise thing in Atlanta. I guess I would be most interested in what other NFL players thought — if this kind of thing was gamesmanship on the level of which goes on, or if this was beyond the bounds of player etiquette. On the other hand, the Falcons copped to the crime, whereas the Patriots whined publicly for months and denied everything (although if the report is true, management may well not have known). The Patriots were overconfident in their scientific experiments though, and pretty sanctimonious about it. The Patriots are also repeat offenders so I wonder if that was the basis for the 1st round pick being lost, which is a really hefty penalty.
That analysis relies on the measurements that assume the referee used the gauge that showed a lower psi.
But as I understand the referee’s statement, he said he didn’t use that gauge.
The math works fine from there for the NFL.
Again as I understand his statement
As far as I can see in the report, they ran the numbers in four scenarios — for different combinations of gauges possibly used. I think the variation between the Patriots readings and those of the Colts balls (subject to the same atmospheric conditions) were of primary interest there — even in the most favorable scenario it was not likely to have happened by chance.
A lawyer, a scientist, and the igglesblitz forum section walked into a a bar and…
After just reading the report, it would seem that they make it painfully clear in their statistical analysis that it made no statisticallly significant difference regardless of which gauge was used, that no matter what assumptions you used, even using the most generous reasonable assumptions for the Patriots, there was no scientific explanation for the Patriots low PSI measurements at half time other than human intervention. At half time the balls were measured with both gauges and regardless of which one you use the decrease from 12.5 psi which is the lower limit, cannot be explained by the ideal gas law or any other scientific explanation and the high degree of variability between the patriots individual balls could only be explained by human intervention/deflation with an inaccurate needle.
Take that with the damning text messages and dishonest cover up and it’s pretty clear, the report is accurate in saying it’s more likely than not that they cheated and knew that they were doing so.
PFT.com has the whole analysis.
The halftime measurements used both gauges, true. The critical question, however, is which gauge was used at the start of the game.
The different gauges absolutely produce materially different results–depending on which gauge was used before the game began.
Again, without the wells report disregarding the referees actual recollection in favor of some hypothetical possibility, the numbers do not come out showing a violation of the psi rule.
The experiment company measured the two gauges actually owned by Anderson. One consistently measured 0.3 – 0.45 PSI less than the other regardless of the situation, and never measured higher than the other one. If Anderson’s recollection was right, then one of the later measurements of the lower gauge exceeded one of the earlier measurements of the higher gauge, which is rather unlikely unless the gauges were wildly more inconsistent that day than they tested afterwards. If you assume Anderson was wrong (has any human witness had a faulty memory before?) then the results still correlate with that consistent 0.35 – 0.4 difference, but otherwise it does not. That was the basis of the assumption, and that has merit.
From what I see, the PFT article completely ignores what the experimenters were testing, which was why the Colts balls didn’t have nearly the same level of deflation compared to pre game measurements that the Patriots balls did. That difference was one of the major things which could not be explained by chance, and in any event they ran the numbers given all possibilities of what gauges were used before the game, and even in the most favorable scenario the results were still statistically significant that the differences were not due to chance. I don’t think the PFT article debunks much if anything, honestly.
I think they had McNally pretty cold, and the assumption then was at least that Brady was aware of it, and that he lied (and the Patriots obstructed) from there. The penalty seems like it was mostly predicated on the Patriots not coming clean immediately like the Falcons did, to me.
The problem with PFTs analysis is that they rely on the ideal gas law to predict that 11.3-11.5 would be expected PSI if the ball was set at 12.5 using the logo gauge that read higher. However, the ideal gas law only works “ideally” in the vacuum of space. When you account for the effects of atmospheric pressure those expected values do not hold true. It also ignores the fact that even with the higher reading gauge, some of the balls were in the 10.5 range. It also ignores the fact that the level of pressure drop between the Colts balls compared to the drop in the Patriots balls was statisticallly significant. Simply stated PFTs analysis is wrong and they don’t fully understand physics or statistical analysis. The Wells report does an excellent job of proving that regardless of which gauge was used to set the initial PSI at 12.5, the halftime pressures still showed significantly more deflation than you would expect.
I am really interested if the Eagles put in a waiver claim for Swearinger.
I know he’s a walking 15 yard penalty, but I am also aware of our other options at S that are not really appealing…
He is god awful… i mean he is a 2nd round pick cut after 2 seasons who did not even make it into camp they wanted him gone so bad.
Jayquann Jayret tho
Jarrett might be better then Swearinger. He has been THAT bad..
One of the worst young safeties in the league. We knew he would struggle in coverage but he may actually be even worse against the run.. Just a big name clueless fans parrot,, we won’t even consider adding Him… Prolly end up with the Panthers… he sucks, but I also blame the Texans for not better developing their top 60 pick from the 2013 draft,,, and bill onriem allegedly can’t stand him lol character donkey… there is always a clueless fan or silly media hack that will want the Kyle Arringyon, DJ swearinger types, crappy players who’s name is bigger then then their game
..
I’d rather have EJ Biggers then this hack.. Swearinger is all talk, no game. Pretty dumb player too
He was accused of stealing his own truck and his pit bull bit his teammate. As if Clowney didn’t have enough injuries to contend with. He announced that he would not play for Houston anymore, well before the Texans got fed up and told him to get lost. The guy sounds deranged.
Lets hypothetically say that someone would make a new banner for Tommy. Which players would you like to see on it?
None, because whoever is on it will inevitably be cut/traded.
So..
Dez Bryant
ODB
Djax??
GR:
Top comment of the day
Chuck Bednarik. Benjamin Franklin. Randall Cunningham. They can’t be cut or traded. ;~)
Perfect!
Bradford, Murray and Agholor
Lovely…
You want last year’s secondary?
tebow, cooper,mathis
I have actually been putting a little work into one, I’m pretty new to Photoshop though, and I’m not even sure Tommy wants to replace it.
Anyway, I’ve been using Lane, Cox and Jordan Matthews
Fake Jimmy Haslam
@FakeHaslam
1h1 hour ago
Patriots will have to start a season without a quarterback. Big deal, the Browns do that every year.
Brady should have turned into a heel at least a few seasons ago. Should have died his hair platinum blonde too as a part of it and started calling himself ‘Hollywood’ Brady.
The Golden Boy image is forever tarnished, except in the most denial-addled minds of I’m guessing a pretty significant cross-section of Patriots fans.
Victor Cruz went undrafted! we’d love to have him even this coming coming off an ACL !!
Isn’t it a torn patella?
Yup, one of the worst injuries in pro sports. Much rather have an ACL injury then Cruz’s injury
Can he play OL? QB maybe?
I think Harris looks like a good player and am surprised he didn’t get drafted as well. He finds the holes in zone defenses on a consistent basis, doesn’t drop balls and wins his fair share of contested balls. He also, generally has a good stem of his route tree. You don’t want to see receivers drift one way or the other as they set up their routes. You want them to run straight at the defender so you don’t tip the DB off. Eat up the cushion and then make your move. Harris has to be good at this because he isn’t the quickest or the fastest athlete on the field. I think he can get better at stacking defenders once he beats them on deep routes though. Too often I saw him in front of the CB but he allowed them to stay just offset behind him instead of Harris going straight over the top of them making it impossible for the defender to make a play on the ball without getting called on a penalty. I hated on one play against Iowa st. where the smaller db was able to ride Harris completely out of bounds. Harris should of let himself get so close to the sideline in the first place where there was no room to catch the ball. While Harris’ route stem is pretty good when he is running routes, it is easy to tell when he is run blocking because he doesn’t come off the line with the same speed tipping the CB that the ball is being run. However, once he gets his hands on the corner, he is going to give you a pretty damn good block. He keeps his hands inside and locks them down. I think he could get more consistent at completely extending his hands for the ball during a catch. When he catches the TD against Oklahoma, he does a great job of trolling the back of the endzone and making the TD but I fear, in the NFL, if he doesn’t fully extend his arms for the catch, it would give the cb extra time to make a play on the ball (this is very nitpicky stuff). Overall he looks like a good reciever with great blocking potential and RAC skills, however because he lacks some natural explosion, he will need time to master the offense and route running in order to create the separation he needs in the NFL. Of course, it helps he already has the ability to make contested catches which is evident in the Iowa St. game where he literally reaches over the db who had good coverage to come down with the catch. Lets hope between him and Davis, it spells the end for my least favorite Eagle as of now, Riley Pooper.
[…] Tommy Lawlor of Iggles Blitz thinks UDFA free agent John Harris has a shot to stick with the Eagles: […]
http://huz6.com Harris and Devante Davis have that Allen Hurns feel to them