Better D?
Posted: July 29th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 218 Comments »There seems to be quite a bit of optimism in regard to the Eagles and the upcoming season. Fans are excited, but that’s to be expected. The local media seems optimistic. Even the national media is going out of their way to say good things.
Mayock on the Eagles: "Regardless of who plays quarterback, I believe they make the playoffs."
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 27, 2015
"I think (the Eagles) have potential to be a 12-13 win team" – @AlbertBreer
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 28, 2015
.@BaldyNFL "If the Eagles don't win 11 games at the minimum, then I look at it as a disappointment."
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 28, 2015
Interesting stuff.
The thinking seems to be that Chip Kelly, DeMarco Murray, the OL, the skill players and Bradford/Sanchez will be a productive enough offense. The STs will be good once again. And the defense will take a major step forward.
I’m not sure what to think about the Eagles defense. There is absolutely reason for optimism. Check out this from a recent Jimmy Bama article.
In many ways the Eagles’ defense was good in 2014, especially the front seven. However, all it really takes is to have one glaring weakness to diminish all the good, as noted by defensive coordinator Billy Davis after the Eagles’ loss to the Redskins Week 16.
“The deep pass ball has got to stop,” said Davis. “That is what is giving up yards, and our points (allowed) aren’t where they need to be. There are a lot of aspects of the defense that have grown. Our run average per attempt is (good), our takeaways are in the top five, our sacks are in the top five, our opponent completion percentage is in the top five. But the one that matters most is points, and that’s the one we have to get down, and we’re not doing that. That’s a product of the deep passing game.”
The defense did some really good things. They finished 6th in takeaways and 2nd in sacks. They held opposing RBs to 3.7 ypc, which was 5th in the NFL. They only allowed one 100-yard rusher all year (Frank Gore). The defense held opposing QBs to just a 58.4 completion percentage, which was 3rd lowest in the league. If you look inside total yards (28th) and points allowed (22nd), you can see some good signs.
But the pass coverage was dreadful. More from Bama.
The Eagles’ secondary was perhaps the weakest area on the team in 2014. It was a unit that gave 72 pass plays of 20+ yards (4.5 per game!), which was the third highest total in NFL history.
That deserves a “Yikes!” for sure.
And even the good stats are a bit misleading. One of the reasons the Eagles held opponents to a low completion percentage is that teams threw deep on them. The Eagles gave up 7.8 yards per pass attempt, good for 28th in the NFL.
Think about the Eagles 49 sacks. 22 of them came in blowouts over the Giants, Panthers and Titans. Those teams had poor OL play and the Eagles feasted on them. In the other 13 games, the Eagles had a total of 27 sacks. That’s still 2 per game, but it helps put things more in perspective.
Kirk Cousins threw for 427 yards against the Eagles. Austin Davis lit them up for 375. Not exactly Brady and Manning.
Against playoff teams, the Eagles went 3-4, allowing 28 points a game. The wins came against former #1 overall picks Andrew Luck and Cam Newton, as well as a banged-up Tony Romo on Thanksgiving.
I don’t think anyone would dispute the statement that the defense is more talented in 2015. The question is how good will they be. Some people think the defense could be pretty darn good. I hope, but I’m hesitant to fully buy in.
Let’s look at the depth chart for now.
DE Fletcher Cox … Brandon Bair
NT Bennie Logan … Beau Allen
DE Cedric Thornton … Vinny Curry
LB Brandon Graham … Marcus Smith
IB Mychal Kendricks … Jordan Hicks
IB Kiko Alonso … DeMeco Ryans
LB Connor Barwin … Travis Long
SS Malcolm Jenkins … Earl Wolff
FS Walter Thurmond … Jerome Couplin
CB Byron Maxwell … JaCorey Shepherd
CB Nolan Carroll … Eric Rowe
NB Brandon Boykin
The DL could be outstanding, especially if Allen takes makes a leap in his second season and Taylor Hart wins the backup RDE spot. Depth is crucial to a good DL.
The ILBs could take a big step forward with the addition of Alonso. When healthy, he is big, rangy and a playmaker. He and Kendricks give the team a pair of athletic guys to cover the middle of the field. That should help with pass coverage. Ryans will see plenty of snaps and can still be good. He’s just not as athletic as the other two.
OLB is a mystery. Connor Barwin is coming off a career year. I expect him to play well, but chances are he won’t come up with 14.5 sacks. Brandon Graham will start at ROLB for the first time in his career. He was outstanding as a backup in 2014, but now must become a workhorse defender at a key position. Graham could be a breakout performer, or he could have trouble sustaining his level of play with an additional 20 snaps per game. Going from productive backup to key starter is a huge move. And who will replace Graham as the top backup OLB? Marcus Smith has a chance to be quite valuable, but has yet to show anything at the NFL level. Brad Jones and Travis Long can play ILB or OLB. The x-factor here could be if Vinny Curry gets mixed into the LB rotation. He is a terrific pass rusher. The OLBs have a lot of potential, but several question marks as well.
Safety is the biggest question on the entire defense. Malcolm Jenkins is an above average starter and a very good fit for what the Eagles want, on and off the field. Walter Thurmond is new to the Eagles and new to the position of Safety, unless you count some practice snaps here and there. Can he prove to be an effective starter? Can he be any kind of a playmaker? Can he stay healthy? Thurmond has been in the NFL for 5 years and he’s played 36 games. He makes Sam Bradford look like Cal Ripken. Thurmond does make sense for this team and for this situation. He is an ideal fit at Safety in the Eagles scheme. And the team’s Sports Science program should give him the best possible chance to stay on the field. After those two, things are wide open. Earl Wolff has potential, if his knee holds up. Jerome Couplin has potential, but he has virtually no on-field experience. Can Chris Prosinski play on defense? Jaylen Watkins could be the x-factor here. He’s played both CB and S this offseason. The Eagles seem to want him ready to go to whichever spot is more desperate.
CB should be better. Byron Maxwell is coming into his own and has outstanding potential. Nolan Carroll had a great offseason and is completely healthy. He is on top of the depth chart for now, but will be challenged by Eric Rowe, JaCorey Shepherd and possibly Watkins. Brandon Boykin is one of the better nickelbacks in the league. The Eagles lack experience at corner, but have more size and talent than in recent years.
If the Eagles stay healthy…
If Byron Maxwell plays to the level the Eagles expect…
If Walter Thurmond can be an effective starter…
This defense can take a step forward and become a pretty solid unit.
But this is no sure thing. There are a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of “ifs”.
I think the defense will be improved in 2015, but can this group be a Top 15 type of unit? I’m more hopeful than confident on that.
Watch this video and you’ll think the D was right on par with the ’85 Bears last year. It’s a bit misleading, but is well done and a lot of fun to watch. And you see big plays from a lot of returning players, which does make you feel good about the defense in 2015.
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Apologies for the delay in not posting. Go Daddy had some serious issues that affected a lot of sites. I assume Danica Patrick will be stopping by to personally apologize to me. That would be great so that we could talk about the Eagles RG situation and I could get her thoughts on who will win the job.
_
I think if the secondary comes together under Undlin then this defense could be top 5 easy.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how there are parallels between now and the second year of the wide 9. The big difference I come up with is scheme. That may seem brain dead obvious but let me explain.
In the wide 9 we practically never blitzed. We blitzed very rarely and the vast majority of the time we just rushed 4. The second year teams adjusted and just chipped our edge rushers to death.
In the 3-4 under Billy Davis teams do not know where the pressure is coming from. We can throw out all sorts of crazy looks that will have their heads spinning even after the snap.
We may not have as many sacks as we had last year but I still think we can get a ton of pressure. And we will still get a chance to go up against some bad offensive lines to beat up on as well.
In the secondary I don’t think it will fall apart like that team did. DRC checked out. Nnamdi gave no effort. People just showed up to collect paychecks. Does anyone see anyone on this team doing that? Do you see the players ALLOWING that to happen? Do you see coach Kelly allowing that to happen? No. Maxwell and Carroll will play hard and they have the athleticism to go against anybody. Pair that with the technique and skills Undlin will teach them and I think we will have something special.
Safety is still the biggest concern. I remember going into the off-season people fussed so much over corner. I never worried about it. Safety was always my concern and it still kind of is. I have faith in Thurmond though. Cornerback turned safety in a time of need. Hm, where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, Jenkins did that for New Orleans.
Even better, he has experience playing inside as a slot cornerback. He is athletic and long enough to play safety and come down to cover man to man. He has all the physical traits required to be a great safety for the Eagles. Hopefully he just puts it all together.
if eric rowe turns out to be a stud, we good!! i have faith in maxwell.
Rowe is a serious talent, but I’m not sure how soon we can expect him to make a strong impact.
all we need is better than bradly fletcher lol
Which I think they can do with several other guys for the time being. I’d hope Rowe is starting at a high level for game 1 of 2016.
nolan carrol? meh. Im hoping rowe shows he the real deal off the bat
I can’t ask a rookie corner to come in and be ready for all of the nuance that position needs at the NFL level. If Rowe comes out and grabs the job I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
no doubt
Do you guys really think Fletcher was that bad??? He was left in 1 on 1 press coverage against Dez and we showed it before the snap. Every corner on our roster (maybe even Maxwell) will lose that. Fletcher was often in excellent position. He just didn’t locate the ball so QBs had no fear at attacking him. Carroll or Rowe’s shadowing will more than likely be inferior.
The issue was the defensive coordinator and he still exists. We got burnt 2 years straight with no adjustments. In Seattle they expect a lot out of their CBs (outside technique). Here we expect even more. Very difficult place to play CB.
Yes. The reason was the DC, it was fletcher AND it was the DB coach. We have a new DB coach and a new CB. I feel good!!
He’s slated to be NE’s starter. Williams is slated to be Seattle’s starter. Just about every DB that we said sucked and cut is starting elsewhere (safely and corner). They aren’t struggling either. Allen (who I think was average at best…lol) was the best safety free agent to hit the market this off season.
When will we admit it’s us and not necessarily them. How many times will we overhauled the position before we adjust the scheme?
how can they be struggling when…. the season hasnt started yet?? its not the scheme, that why.
I was referring to DRC, Demps, Chung, Jarrett, and the list goes on. According to the NFC East blog the DRC is the best CB in the division.
I got a feeling that NE and Seattle will make the necessary adjustments to make them successful. Chip said when he came that you change the scheme to fit the personnel. I’ve seen the opposite.
Granted some of these moves were before Chip, but the trend seems the same. He is also pretty hands off in regards to the defense. Our DB coach changed a bunch of times during all of this too.
DRC earned his way out of here, and he isnt playing that good.. for the rest of them they were young when here still developing. You do know that some players fit other schemes better, and its not the fault of the scheme but the fault of the team for drafting and signing them. here in this scheme we want Ss who can cover and play the box, chung and jarrett cant do that and dont do that on the teams they play for now.
You missed my point where Kelly says you change scheme to fit your players. Trying it the other way around makes us lose seasons while we search for matching talent.
Adjust your scheme while you transition your roster to fit yours. Our current scheme requires more from a DB than any other system out there. Our safety must also be able be cover man. Our corners are in press man and don’t have inside (or over the top) help. Sounds like 4 pro bowlers to me. We get them in 3rd and long and can’t get them off of the field…smh
kelly is talking about his offense. you should have known that.
Chip is the coach of the entire team. In Chip we trust… I justify all of the moves by hoping that Kelly is smarter than us. Telling me this is all Davis makes me worry.
I’m hoping that he isn’t completely absent from the D. It is his philosophy that has set the size requirements. The reason Boykin will never be seen on the outside in a Philly uniform. So I believe that when he makes statements it’s not just the offense he’s talking about.
davis is the defesive HC, chip letting him do his job is why our front 7 is GREAT!!! If yo want your offesive minded head coaching getting in the way of your defense thats crazy. did you want andy teaching defense?? lol cmon now
boy kin has to win the outside job. he does that and he will get the job.
Our 4-3 front 7 was great before he got here. He ripped it apart and is building is back up. Let’s not break out the anointing oil.
Our offensive minded coach is defining the specific characteristics of our defense players. He’s now the GM. That’s not being hands off.
Boykin never got a far shot. Simple fact you think he did/is is why I’m done with this convo.
he ripped it apart? its damn near the same players? and it IS built.
all he is doing is not puutting ALL undersized players on the field, thjank god!! our defense was getting ran over before he came here because of that.
boykin didnt play as well last year as the year prior. his shot will be in training camp. its up to him.
Talent has been added to this D in several spots. If they’re still giving up long TDs this season, Billy Davis should be executed in public and the hunt for a new DC should begin in earnest.
LOL, yes and yes. Billy has been given a boatload of talented players to work with and Undlin just might tweak the players technique enough to allow for this defense to thrive beyond our expectations.
However, if we suck, Billy gets blindfolded and sent out to the firing squad, and yes publicly.
Yeah, there’s no excuses left for Billy D, and I think we won’t be talking about him next year anyway. If Undlin does a better job, Billy D looks good by default and probably gets a head coaching job – especially if they are top 5.
If they have issues like they did last year, he’ll probably get fired and won’t be here.
I think you might be a tad quick on Billy Davis as a head coaching candidate.
My thinking is that if CK does well next year, people will want to raid his staff. So Shurmur and Billy D are coaching candidates, while Undlin and some of the position coaches may be Coordinator candidates.
I can’t see his staff not getting raided next year if he has a good season.
Shurmur, yes. He did a solid job in Cleveland and was axed prior to getting a fair shake and should 100% get a chance to coach again.
I just can’t buy Davis as a HC.
I don’t either, but there’s still bad franchises out there grasping at straws.
If we get 12, 13 wins the defense gets middle of the pack counting stats wise, which would be like top 8 efficiency wise, I could see him getting interviews. He could probably even get an offer from a middle of the road FBS team.
I hadn’t thought of college squads, but please keep the names as I-A and I-AA. FBS and FCS are dumb.
Never. I have adapted, I have adjusted. I’m a lean mean calling things by their new names machine.
I mean Davis doesn’t have a ton of college experience on his resume. He GA’d at Michigan State, and played at Cincinnati. MSU won’t happen, but if Cinci came calling, I think he’d at least be interested. I don’t think he would be considered a super sexy commoditiy but if a Illinois, Maryland, or NC State type program that need stability more than flash could be realistic options.
I never thought of college either, but if he comes to Maryland, I’m hanging out with him. This school needs a better program, and ever since the move to the Big 10, we’ve been talking about how poor we look compared to the other schools.
Last year they were still letting students go to games for free, so that should tell you something about what the stadium and fans are like.
I love Maryland. It was my top choice, and I got in immediately, but the out of state $ was ridiculous. So I’ll always pull for the terps.
I think what Maryland really needs is their version of a Kirk Ferentz. Not a sexy hire, but someone who establishes and idenity and makes them relevant over a long period of time, if not necessarily Rose Bowl or BCS hopefuls.
I work on campus and I’m pretty cool with the main IT guy in Athletics. The school is great, and I’m debating whether I want to get another master’s from here or if I’m leaving the area altogether. If we stay, I’ll probably do an MBA or something similar.
I live in state and couldn’t afford MD. I don’t blame you.
If you told Chip Kelly’s that philly was down on Billy Davis, he would call you an idiot and get so mad with how wrong you are About Billy
..
I’m actually waiting for a dumb reporter to bring up questioning the job Billy Davis has done to chip, so chip can flip out and own the reporter for such a horrible judge of overall coaching job,
..
I can’t wait til a reporter brings this up to chip. It will be the angriest you have seen chip since he has been here, because of how solid billy has been for us
The Defense. Great timing Tommy, as always.
I have been torn with the inexperience, but I have no doubts that our talent level has spiked with the addition of Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell,
Also Chip should be commended for what he is trying to do in one incredible off season, by taking huge yet calculated risks.
He clearly did a whole lot of self scouting and made sweeping changes on both sides of the ball, by sacrificing a proven veteran in Shady and taking a chance on a guy who only has one amazing rookie season under his belt.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like what he did there, but would like to point out how gutsy of a coach we have, as it cannot be said enough IMO.
And that was actually an encore performance of that ballsy move shipping Foles to the Rams for Bradford.
In retrospect I love both of these moves, as it shows everyone that he is not one to play it safe, and he is willing to do just about anything imaginable for the sake of making our team better, even if it costs him his job.
Since Chip was previously labeled by the media as strictly an offensive minded coach, he must have shocked many of those so called “expert analysts” of the NFL by investing so heavily on the defensive side of the ball.
It is crystal clear to me that Chip wants to win a Superbowl and that he has the intelligence to make that want a reality.
The truth is that every coach in the NFL wants to win a Superbowl, but very few are willing to take chances in fear of failure.
I love the fact that win or lose, Chip does not waver and never conforms to any mindset that does not make his team better.
Our defense can and will be better, as I trust that Chip has focused his vision on making that endeavor a reality.
He made sure to draft for depth and possibly one or two potential starters on defense in the draft and has put the defense in a position to succeed.
We still have many holes on both sides of the ball. but none of them are nearly as glaring to me to me, as they were last season.
I believe this defense will ascend up the rankings and as Tommy stated, if we can somehow stay somewhat healthy, we should expect no less than 12 wins.
That’s a lot of “ifs” and “maybes”, but not every team can say this when they are at full strength.
The Eagles can say this with confidence and as a fan, you gotta love it.
“but would like to point out how gutsy of a coach we have…”
You’re right, because he even said we weren’t good enough last year. He’s not looking to get incrementally better, he want’s to be light years better and will do anything to make it happen.
Junior Galette visiting the R-words. Why does it seem like every other team in the division is hell bent on signing as many scumbags off the street as they can?
Prioritising “talent” over character has certainly led them to so many wins over the past decade and more.
Keep it up WAS!
It is all part of the cosmic storyline that will have people looking back 20 years from now and wondering how the whole world wasn’t rooting for the Eagles right from the start of their dynasty.
I’m a little more pessimistic than others. I feel like we’re either 4-12 or 12-4, no in between. Chip Kelly is either going to end up being the new Jimmy Johnson or the new Rich Kotite.
Not sure what fans want. The players that were brutal on defense are gone. New players brought in. Even with horrid play by the defense and a back up qb, the Eagles still won 10 games. Not sure how 4 is even a guess.
….
How well the new players gel is a total different question, but the Eagles are trying. Eagles could have beat a dead horse for another year and brought back those players. Kiko alone improves this D.
I took the comment as a sarcasm post.
I was listening to Ray Diddy on the radio and I’ve realized something about the Philly media – they don’t like chances. RD was saying he would have given Foles another year and see what he had.
My thinking is that why wait a year, you might not get the talent at QB next year with a trade. Plus, they won’t be bad enough to pick top 10.
I can’t stand that these media blowhards like Diddy and Zack Berman say that chip showed his lack of GM experience by trading that 2nd round pick for Bradford…. What a blowhard comment! It’s a FACT that atleast 1 other team (the Browns) where trying to trade for Bradford. If you don’t know what else was being offered, then you have no friggjn clue if we needed to include the 2nd round pick or if we gave away too much for Bradford.. Your value is what you can negotiate. If the Browns had a competitive offer, and Foles wasn’t enough to get the trade done, you have no right to say that it was a mistake to give up the 2nd round pick..
..
When the Browns announce they acquired Bradford cause you weren’t willing to include the pick, then what’s Diddy going to say?
..
And the pick is protected anyway, if he gets hurt we get a pick back.. I hate hearing media put shit in fans minds that they have no clue whatsoever if it’s true or not… Unless you know what all the offers the Rams had on the table for Bradford, STFU and stay in your lane instead of polluting fans brains with your crap.. And if you want to make that argument, do some digging, get a few sources with the Rams and find out exactly what else was Being offered before you make that blowhard statement acting like you are qualified to judge Chips GM experience when you have a fraction of the information
A big reason we lost against those playoff teams is because of the secondary. We beat the cards if Nate Allen doesn’t bite on that route, we beat the Cowboys if we had a competent corner ( one who doesn’t give up 3 TDs) covering dez, but I still think we would have lost to the packers. With an improved secondary, there’s no doubt in my mind we can win vs playoffs teams.
Allen was support on that Palmer bomb to win it for Arizona. It was Williams primary, but it was Arians outcoaching Davis too. And if that play was stopped, it was not a certainty, but a probability that Cards kick the FG and take the game to OT. So maybe Eagles win, but it was never a done deal.
I’d argue that bad QB play led to that result too. I think Nicky had a couple INTs and maybe a fumble that game (can’t remember). But the offense didn’t do it’s job either.
And the Huff fumble in the red zone.
isn’t that also the game with this abomination of a redzone play with Brad Smith? or was that a different season?
h/t jimmyk’s twitter
edit: no idea why this is showing up 3 times (or more??) if anyone knows how to embed tweets here, let me know what i’m doing wrong.
That is two seasons ago. Last year’s debacle of a loss was in Arizona. Unless they jacked our logo, your clip was in Philly in 2013.
good note, thanks! i don’t remember where any of these games are played anymore. lol
I don’t think it was that game.
You are absolutely correct, sir. I think we get in our heads that, as the fourth quarter is winding down and the Eagles are leading, that the defense is responsible for losing the game in the waning minutes, but holding Arizona to 24 points for as long as the D was on the field is not really a bad job overall.
True. I actually couldn’t watch that game so idk the specifics but still in that situation it shouldn’t happen.
http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/texas-rangers/post/_/id/4916395/rangers-gm-jon-daniels-a-winner-in-trade-for-lefty-ace-cole-hamels
Goodbye Ruben. You’ve failed enough times.
Most people I have seen talking about the trades, said it was a fair trade for both parties.
We needed to get Gallo and Mazara as well.
He was going to fail because is name is Reuben Amaro.
They were never going to get both but I agree there should have been one of them. Needed Gallo.
This was a McPhail or Gillick trade. I don’t think Amaro could have done nearly as well — it was certainly much better than the rumored trades in the offseason. We were never going to get Gallo. Mazara would have meant 1-2 of the others wouldn’t have been there (probably Williams, who could turn out better, who knows). It’s a fair trade.
It’s much much harder to get prospects these days (something Amaro realized much much later than most of the rest of baseball; the price paid for Pence was ridiculous). We got a bunch, from a stacked system — those would have been ranked higher in most other teams’ systems. Prospects could certainly fail (Dom Brown was our Gallo for a while), but we got several, so hopefully a couple turn out well.
Amaro was also probably hamstrung by idiotic management above him (who on earth dictated trading away Lee once we traded for Halladay?) but he was pretty awful at his job anyways (the return for Lee among many others). He took a team on the top and ran it way underground, with a high budget. I’m glad he’s basically gone, but am happier that Middleton etc. has swept away the Montgomerys of this world too.
Eagles D under CK has been stellar v the run, but I am reminded of Jim Johnson who said he didn’t worry about the run, but worried about the alternative. I think Bill Davis has to pick his moments for committing to stopping the run more selectively. I definitely think Alonso helps to clog the middle of the field on pass plays, but maybe MJ does not have to play in the box so often.
Interesting compare and contrast, but I’d go JJ vs. Billy Davis rather than JJ vs. Chip.
Why is that?
Its Kelly who have told Davis that he wants to focus on the run first, going with a 3-4 2 gap system
But I don’t think Chip is positioning the guys on D or failing to make the correct calls on who starts in what position. Chip also isn’t directly supervising the position group coaching / teaching on D.
Most of the mistakes have nothing to do with Davis.
That Allen cant recognize shit when playing deep or that Bradley Fletcher went from average to toast have nothing to do with Davis.
There is also a reason why the DBs coach was “fired” and a new was hired
We’ll find out either way on the Monday Night opener if things have been fixed or not.
I don’t think any defense in the nfl gels the first week. Give them a bunch of weeks to find their stride. Hopefully week 13 they hit their stride…
Beating Atlanta, and their gutter trash fan base, is essential for week 1.
:). Of course.
That last time we opened there on a Monday night, that arch criminal piece of shit DeAngelo Hall started that pre-game melee that got Trotter kicked out. We need revenge.
That was a crazy game all around.
Normally, I’d go DC to DC, but the role of Jim Johnson under Reid was that of HC of the D. Reid deferred to Johnson routinely on issues involving the defense. And while Davis may be calling plays for the D, he’s following a script written by Kelly.
Like I said to Anders, I’m not sure Chip can be blamed for a lot of the poor decision making with actual deployment of players, who to start, etc.
The wide 9 is the ultimate “stop the pass” defense. It’s literally lining up like you would on 3rd and long every play. The entire premise of run defense in the wide 9 is get in the backfield, hopefully the back has to dance.
The wide 9 should be burned with fire. For all peoples nonsensical complaints about our current defense, it’s a philosophically and schematically sound.
We also aren’t dominant against the run due to loading the box. MJ doesn’t play in the box. He’s typically lined up over the slot against 3+ receiver sets. Against 2 or fewer WR sets, it would be dumb to not roll a safety down, you would be providing the offense with a numerical advantage of blockers v. defenders. But we don’t have a box safety. It’s one of the reasons we had no interest in Landon Collins.
Our success against the run stems from the DL. All three starters are very very very good against the run. The linebackers do a good job of filling holes and making plays.
If you can take away the run, you make an offense one dimensional. In addition to our offense being prolific. If you have better secondary players, you give up fewer X-plays. Will we probably always give up more X-plays than average? Yes. If you force teams to throw, they are going to have more big plays than if they only need to score 17 points, and can just run it on you for 5 yards a pop.
The defense worked great last year. It did exactly what it was designed to do. And then we got to third and long, brought our sub packages on and teams trashed our shitty DBs.
If we can decrease 3rd and long conversion rate by 5%, and limit a few early down X-plays simply through better talent, it’s going to make a huge difference.
For clarity’s sake, Jim Johnson was not a proponent of the wide 9, but he schemed to stop the pass first. and I was not suggesting that our D loads the box but that one safety is at LOS on majority of X plays, and that look could be feigned periodically when Davis feels an aerial strike is imminent. Davis has access to more flexible play-calling this year, so I think he will do more post-snap shifting.
1. I am aware that JJ didn’t run the wide 9. You’re also being massively oversimplistic about JJ’s philosophies.
2. The S is not playing press coverage on a slot WR. Slot WR’s line up off the ball. The S lines up the equidistant that any slot CB would.
3. I do not understand what you mean by post snap shifting. That’s not a thing. That would be lining up out of positon. That’s fundamentally unsound. and STUPID.
4. We play a cover 3 shell (quasi cover 1 hybrid). Lining up in 2 high and trying to play our defense leaves you exposed.
5. I think you hold the common misconception that motion/chaos = effectiveness. That’s incorrect. For every Rex Ryan defense with all it’s gimmicks, there is a Seattle defenses that lines up the same way every play. For every Jim Johnson double A gap or Lebeau zone fire, there’s a Tony Dungy Tampa 2.
6. If Davis “feels an aerial strike is immenent” he’s playing a subpackage, and we have extra DBs, so the S alignment isn’t an issue.
I may be a blithering idiot, but I am fairly aware of my intellectual limitations. I don’t tend to enumerate my thoughts because I have no interest in tallying. Jim Johnson literally expressed his primary concern as DC was stopping the pass and limiting the opponents scores. Am I obligated to illustrate how he went about it? And, yeah, we play a cover 3 except when we don’t. We also feature a cover 4 when Davis calls zero blitz from time to time, and it was not I who suggested putting both safeties high.
Belichick and LeBeau have acquired quite a few rings, and they frequently line their guys up far enough away from their area or man to create doubt or questions. I don’t agree that it is unsound. And if it is a misconception to appreciate the defensive genius of Rex Ryan or LeBeau, well call me common. Tony Dungy and Jimmy Johnson in Dallas were also brilliant tacticians who valued athleticism over versatility. I also appreciated them.
To me it seems like both sides of this question want to stop the pass. It’s just easier to get big plays/scores when you’re throwing the football in general, so this is correct in my opinion.
One side focuses its energy on stopping the pass and is a little more nonchalant about the run. Look, if we give up a few runs of 5-10 yards it’s not the end of the world. Each one of those is another first down and another series of plays the offense can either fail on and reach fourth down or we can get a turnover or whatever. Those runs are better than ANY long touchdowns of any kind because as soon points go up on the board they don’t come down. It’s obviously completely unacceptable to be giving up either long running gains or long running scores for every defense.
Then we get to “stopping the run to stop the pass”. This philosophy is based on the observation of just what happens to the passing game when the run game is getting stuffed. If the offense wastes a play every time it runs the ball, it hurts the offense’s confidence and flow and creates the fabled third and longs. It means the defense is dictating what play the offense can call before third and long, but by third and long the offense’s options are now incredibly limited. This means Dlinemen can passrush at full intensity with impunity when there’s no threat of a run. The defensive backs have a good feel for what the offense is limited to and will try and that can help create turnovers.
On the other hand, when a team is consistently running successfully, it means the defense now has to defend the whole offensive playbook, including the play action game and deep passes built off it.
No defense can afford to consistently allow the offense to run in a sustainable manner. If the offense can turn a profit running the ball, you’re toast no matter what your scheme is unless the offense’s quarterback is so bad they turn it over a lot. And when the offense can’t run at all, there are probably about five quarterbacks in the league who will be able to keep the situation from turning into a distaster for their offense, assuming the defense doesn’t have chopped liver for defensive backs.
Sacrificing run defense to focus on the pass is more forgiving of the secondary talent, I think we can generalise and say. Davis’s scheme would have been fine if he had personnel who could run it, but he didn’t. Everybody can choose who they want to blame for that.
Well explained and good points. I am intrigued by the statistical variance from 2013 to 2014 where Eagles D fared poorly on 3rd downs and could not get off the field in the former, and where the X plays were the D’s achilles in the latter. Both issues were concerning pass coverage, but receivers in 2013 were not getting behind the secondary like they did a year later with mostly the same personnel.
I attribute that to the the injuries at ILB more than anything. When Najee Goode went down last season, any depth the Eagles had at that position immediately vanished into thin air. I’ve criticized Davis before, but I don’t know how anyone could say he wasn’t handcuffed in 2014, especially when DeMeco was put on IR for the year. Whenever Kendricks and/or Ryans were out, Davis was forced to overrely on a terrible secondary and routinely play nickel/dime packages and, when the Eagles were in base D, single-high safety to hide the limitations of Casey Matthews/Acho/MSII in coverage. Teams predictably went bombs away on us.
Yes, the Eagles finished 32nd against the pass in 2013, but they didn’t play as badly versus the pass as the stats may indicate. A lot of that was due to having a healthy trio of ILBs in Kendricks, Ryans, and Goode, and it enabled Davis to scheme around his flawed defensive backfield with moderate success. He had nowhere near that luxury last year.
Good stuff. Thanks.
The thing that stood out for me most on defense, and that is something that shows up on this video again and again, is that they played as a team. Rarely if ever it is a single player making a great play (except on the occasional deep ball) with nobody else around. The gang tackling mentality was there the whole year. Yes, the defense made mistakes, but in general their mentality and intensity they played with is something we have missed for pretty much a decade.
Critical to the defense should be the ability of the offense to actually score and sustain drives. As angry as one can be at Nate Allen for giving up that TD against the Cardinals, the way the offense had played the whole game we should not have been in that game in the first place. The amount of points the offense left on the field that game was staggering – IIRC 9-21 points by sheer stupidity alone. Same goes for a good number of other games (San Francisco, Seattle for one – and in that one the defense got hosed by the refs on just about every crucial play in Seattle scoring drives).
The offense NEEDS to sustain drives, and needs to score. Yes, the secondary is the big question-mark. But if that retool turns out the way we hope (and that based on some measurements by the drafted DB’s could happen), this could become a defense on par with the best defenses the late JJ ever fielded for the Eagles.
And having the O sustain drives was the key bit of reasoning given to us as to why DeMarco is going to be a better fit for the team than Shady was; so we can assume that’s been taken care of…………or somebody needs to be held to account.
People forget how questionable the refereeing was in that 3-game slide. Glad the team doesn’t cry like Arians, and they certainly could have played better. But calls affected the game in all 3, and not favorably.
Watching the highlights…
…I am going to miss Cole. He was always fun to watch. Time can be cruel.
…the Nate Allen highlights mark the potential that never developed. If not for the knee and Washburn, what might have been.
…’85 Bears? They look better than that. Heck, they almost look like the ’91 Eagles.
Okay, lets not get ahead of ourselves. I think that ’91 Eagles defense is the best that I ever saw on any team. That’s quite an accomplishment if they do it.
Cole was pretty much the only guy on the team I thought could solo tackle beastmode (outside of Fletcher Cox who is just so much bigger).
What’s a good number of rushing yards we should expect this season from all RBs? I’m watching a video on NFL.com and they are saying 2200 yards is around the number we should expect.
So maybe something like Murray (1400), Mathews (600), and Sproles (200)?
What do you guys think?
almost 2000 last year and about 2550 in 2015. 2200 seems about right if you’re splitting the difference between 2013 and 2014.
I’m picking 4th in my money league, so I’ve been trying to do some 12 team mocks on ESPN to get ready. Here was today’s:
1. Peterson
2. Jeremy Hill
3. DeAndre Hopkins
4. Jordan Matthews
5. Latavius Murray
6. Travis Kelce
7. Ameer Abdullah
8. Breshad Perriman
9. Jerick McKinnon
10. David Cobb (Titans)
11. John Brown
12. Sam Bradford
13. Phillip Rivers
14. Roy Helu (Oakland now)
15. Vikings D
16. Blair Walsh
No Brady, Manning, or Rodgers at the top of the list?
Pulling the trigger on QB didn’t seem like a good fit early.
never does.
i think jmatt has a down year
and nelson, huff, ertz pick up the slack. i think riley isn’t as much of a dumpster fire. nelson could have a huge year, but hard to say b/c he’s a rookie
Somebody has to pull in the WR1 stats on an Eagles team that seems to generate great numbers for the top WR, so it figures to be Matthews.
Jackson was 82-1332-9 in 2013
Maclin was 85-1318-10 in 2014
Matthews should be in line for a big year in 2015. I’m hoping for about 70-1100-8
but matthews playing slot, not outside. i think nelson could get those numbers, but hopefully ertz goes big
That does nobody any good if they all split those catches. And if the coaching staff would care to commit to Ertz as the starter at TE or Nelson as the starter outside before I draft, that might help as well.
when do you draft? hopefully we get some clarity in TC. i’d put both those guys on the sleeper list.
$ league will be the week before Labor day or two weeks before it. My other two leagues will be Labor Day weekend.
I F-ing HATE drafting any earlier than Labor Day weekend.
I’ll disagree. No matter where he plays, last year wasn’t a fluke. CK will scheme to get the ball in his hands…
Talent, in the hands of good coaches, that comes with a top level work ethic will pay off!
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ESPECIALLY when Defenses can’t key in on him when we have matchup problems on the field like Sproles and ERTZ that commands the attention of defenses…and if our Run game gets going the way we expect it to, kids going to make a ton of plays
Brown would be a steal that late.
I worry about Kelce’s numbers this year. Avant got a lot of work in his limited time in KC (he actually may be a good value play late) now with Maclin in the fold, plus DAT in year 2, and Chris Conley pushing for PT, he may not be a great workhorse.
That’s alot of backs. Hill seems really early given Gio’s talent. Similar situation with Abdullah and Joique. Murray is going to be boom or bust.
I think you need to relook at your WR’s. Nuk still doesn’t have a real QB, plus Strong and Shorts are both volume type receivers (depending on your league scoring)
I don’t think the Matthews is a safe play as I see a fairly even distribution. (unless Sanchez is QB, then try to trade for him before others catch on)
Perriman is really raw. I think he could really struggle.
I tend to woship at the alter of Silva for a lot of my picks.
I’ll 100% disagree with you on Hill, he was a flat out stud once he got full carries (2nd half of last year) and Cincy plays best when using a power running game. I think he’ll kill it again.
I agree with you on Kelce being somewhat of a risk at TE, but Silva is very high on him for the year as well.
Nuk was a really high target volume guy last year as the WR2, so he should benefit with the departure of Andre Johnson.
I totally agree with you on Jordan Matthews being a bit of a ?, but somebody has to get WR1 level targets for the Eagles…. so I’ll own that risk.
I see Abdullah as the legitimate (and healthy) heir to the production Detroit got from Best and Bush when healthy. Bell is nice, but I see Abdullah locking down that job mid-season.
Murray, by virtue of “competition” from fat boy Richardson also seems to be a guy who will get the bulk of the carries by default.
I think you’re right on a lot of the stuff with Perriman, but I think he can match the “go get the ball deep” production of Torrey Smith there over the last few years.
In either case, thank you for the feedback. It helps to get extra eyes on my decision making process with fantasy projections.
I think Kenny Stills and Kennan Allen are both going to put up monster years at WR, and neither have the household name of some of the other guys.
And I’d keep an eye on Brandon Marshall if he slips a bit.
And take a late flyer on Quinton Patton and Markus Wheaton.
Allen is a guy I’ve gotten in some mocks as I’ve gone. The Miami situation with Stills scares me, I’d feel better if he remained a member of New Orleans roster.
Marshall should get targets, but will there be anybody functional to throw the ball to him?
I was a Wheaton fan coming out of Oregon State, but he seems to have been jumped by Bryant on that depth chart.
I ‘ll need to look more at Patton.
I’ve seen some stuff on twitter that Wheaton has looked really good this offseason. They have Bryant and Brown, but Bryant still scares me (how does he react to expectations), and no matter what Mitchell says I don’t see Coates pushing for touches this year.
For me I loved Patton coming out, and Boldin is going to slow down at some point (or be discovered to be a terminator, both equally possible) Smith is blah, and Patton has a work ethic akin to our group of WR’s. I think that coaching staff is going to eat it up.
I think Tannehill is solid, Greg Jennings isn’t very good anymore, and I don’t think Parker is ready to be the guy in year one. Matt Hazel is the only other WR i’ve even heard of on that roster. Plus they run tempo, should help artificially inflate numbers a bit.
Geno’s not a good QB, but they have Devin Smith to threaen deep, and Decker to workhorse. I think Marhsall could have a lot of jump ball TDs.
So many rookie rbs, I’d look there. This year’s crop is better than last year even.
I agree on Hill. Gio is too prominent in that offense. However, after the picks snake back to him, probably not much left at RB. Knowing picks 3,2,1,1,2,3 probably go wr/rb, I’d probably skip a part time rb and look for top WR. round 3, look for an rb who’s potential is there to be the number 1. I can’t trust Hopkins or Jmat (as the ball is shared a lot.) as top wr’s on a team. Grab a higher tier wr and fill wr in later rounds as it’s the deepest pool.
junior galette headed to washington for a visit. Mathis still without a job as training camp begins, honestly feel bad for his poor decision making — early retirement or will he play someplace for 2mill this year?
He’s going to play for less money, but he’s probably holding out to see if someone gets desperate enough to pay him closer to the money he’s lost.
Yeah at this point he will have to wait and hope a good team that doesn’t run a power blocking scheme loses a Starting guard in camp
Graham said Tebow will make the team. Is this a sign of how awful Graham is in coverage or..will the inevitable Tebow circus stay in Philly for a year. Oh the horror
Tebow is a terrible QB, a general dope, and an employee of a known hate group. I want no parts of him on this team.
Yea I was mad as hell when we signed him and didn’t think he would stick to the team. Now the slight chance of him making the team somehow? OH GOD NO
He might have the most insufferable group of fans on the planet as well. I like having a big tent of Eagles fans, but I don’t want that gang inside of it.
When he knew he was Mic’ed up for a game, and he was stretching and practicing before the game while singing church songs out loud to make a spectacle, that was enough for me… I have no problem with being religious.. cedrick Thornton is as religious as it gets, but don’t be obnoxious with your religion.. I don’t give a shit who you are, you can’t tell me that singing church songs before a game is pumping you up. You are MIC’ed up and you are doing it for attention..
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I assume Tim TEBOW is a Genuinly good person, but I don’t like how he plays up the religion thing for his image. I’m sure he is legitimately religious, and a legitimately good person, but he goes overboard and exaggerates it. A lot of the times he goes overboard and it comes off Forced… as opposed to a good Kid like Mariota who doesn’t even want the attention for being a good guy, It’s naturally who he is, no exaggerating it, or playing it up..
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Speaking of Mariota, Oregons coach claims that NFL coach and A GM told him that Mariotas Red flag, is that he has no red flags…. How ridiculuos. talking about over thinking it and I’m not even that big of a fan,,,. Wonder how different the draft would be, if it was the first week of March. no combine, No senior bowls and all star games.. Strictly Draftimg based off of College film
It’s such a shame that most Americans have no idea what a real Christian looks or sounds like since they’ve never seen or heard one. I had nothing against Tebow until I became aware of who he has been hanging around with lately. Aren’t they the same “Christians” who formed the KKK?
You don’t ever waffle MM which I respect, but who has seen TT since House has reconfigured his throwing motion? I’ve read a scant few comments from 24/7 and others who were unimpressed, but with the caveat that they didn’t see a whole lot. I thought at first that Chip brought Tebow in to light a fire under Barkley’s ass, but that was just based on Tebow’s past performances. For me, Tebow is just one of many players I am anxious to see in pre-season.
“Poor Tebow. I think he’s had the most dropped passes. He’s struggled more than the other quarterbacks, but he hasn’t gotten help from his third team receivers, unless Agholor has been out there. I counted three drops alone on Wednesday. During one red zone set of plays, Tebow had difficulty finding anyone open (or perhaps trusting himself to fit the ball into a tight circle). He held the ball, held, held, and held, before either dumping down to a receiver that eventually got open against no pass rush or throwing the ball out of the back of the end zone.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/eagles/Eagles-Practice-Observations-Agholor-Cooper-Ertz-Shine-JaCorey-Shepherd-active-Bradford-status-quo.html
Can’t throw, can’t read, can’t pull the trigger. He’s a runner. No thank you.
Players are awful at talent evaluation.
Players are super awful at roster construction.
I highly doubt Brandon Graham is particularly versed on the nuances of Tebow v Barkley.
Players when asked about their teammates are going to say good things.
Grain of salt..
I also had GoDaddy issues, where my site was down for hours yesterday morning. That can play huge in my ranking and loss of revenue. I called at the time of the servers being down and there was “nothing they could do at this time.” Any suggestions on how to handle the situation to get compensation?
Switch hosts. The GoDaddy CEO is a douchebag. Jerry Jones + Jerry Richardson + the shithead MN dentist.
I really want to switch, but of course I just was granted my EV SSL for the site through GoDaddy which was not only a pain to get but dont think it can intergrate with another host since it was thru GoDaddy.
I hear ya. That’s a drag. They’re now one of two official registrars as well.
If you purchase an SSL cert, it’s for a specific domain name. GoDaddy does not own that; you do. They make it seem like it’s all through them, but it’s not.
My suggestion: move everything off of GoDaddy. Use someone else for your DNS (I recommend DNSimple), find another actual web host. There are plenty of cheap ones out there that are also reliable. GoDaddy’s service is terrible, and their admin tools are a flaming bag of shit.
Truth. And I called today, they were firm on ‘no compensation’ which is blowing my freakin mind. Turning into comcast they are.
Tom take that silly question mark off if the title and replace it with Better D!!!
agholor gave a real good interview at Brent Crleks bowling charity night..
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Agholor speaks with a lazy type Twang, reminds me a little of “Mos Def” the way he speaks
I would love to hang with Agholor, seems like such a genuine, down to earth guy. Who’s your top three that you would want to hang with? I’ll go 1. Agholor 2. Rowe 3. M. Jenkins
1) Shady – he has all the ladies
2) Trent Cole – I need see if he knows any good fishing spots
3) Chip – just to see what the heck he does in his free time
But mostly I’d love to see what types of girls would hang with Shady.
I feel like Shady wouldn’t share the ladies though, and probably about 3/5 of them would have crabs anyway.
Too true.
just follow his party bus, he kicks women out along the way.
You’re confusing shady with Winston
so bring Shady and trent and go crabbing lol.
Id rather go out with Mykal Kendricks when he is single… Rihanna never threw her cyber panties at shady.
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Figure I could ask Ertz to hook me up with Carli Lloyd… I’m not too proud to be Mr. Carli Loyd
Heath Tobin might have taken Alex Morgan’s spot in my heart lol, and Ali Krieger did the body issue….
Give me MMA fighter Meisha Tate over all these chicks.. I’ll even let you have Ronda, just leave me My Meisha..
Sidney Leroux…… boom.
Wayne Gretzkys smut of a daughter….In the words of great Sopranos Capo, Ralphie Cifferedo.. “She is a Whooo-er”, and I love her for it…
If Shady already had all the ladies, he wouldn’t have to advertise his availability.
http://bnwordpress.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/07/mccoy.jpg
Did you see the meme of this pic but with Bill Cosbys pic instead of shady? I was on the floor laughing when I saw it
http://www.crossingbroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Voila_Capture-2015-07-23_10-32-37_PM.jpg
Wow!
Lol Greatness!!!
that is the face of anticipation.
Vinny Curry is a real good, down to earth guy, but he is a lot of fun..
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Kiko because he is dumb as a brick but I love him
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Kelce, a modern day Viking
Kelce, and Curry! definietely would be fun to chill with.
I met Curry at Crabbie’s in Northern Libs (i think it was our bye week, Giants were on the TV)…. being that he is an Eagles fan he was rooting against the Giants just as much as everyone else in the bar, it was great, very approachable.
Really Really cool Dude and it’s genuine…
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He really is just what you would expect from a kid who grew up as an eagle fan and now is living the dream of playing for his team
Awesome.
I’d like to hang with Barwin. He seems like a truly interesting individual,way more than just a football guy.
I agree Barwin would be the most fun and interesting.
Actually I bet hanging with Sacho is fun too.
1) Dorenbos (Eagles historian at this point)
2) Parkey (my buddy in Indy hangs with McAfee all the time and says he is a shitshow)
3) Connor, the hipster scene is getting pretty big (plus cheap PBR, looking at you Tommy!)
Jenn Aniston, Margot Robbie and Julia Stiles
bit of an age gap there
I will not be part of any age discrimination!
No. 1 would be Chip Kelly. He seems to have a sly sense of humour and a quick intelligence. He seems to have an interest in life, not just football. No. 2 might be Sam Bradford for pretty much the same reasons. No. 3 – Jason Peters. We could chat about being a good driver. ;~)
Last nine games of the season Fletcher Cox was the #2 rated 3-4 DE, only behind Watt… Cox led all 3-4 DEs In plays against the run..
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Not to mention he Was directly responsible for about half of his teammates sacks, at least 1/3rd of them
nelson Agholor says that Bradford was looking great when he worked out with him last week, was moving around real well, looking good n Healthy to Agholor..
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We NEED josh Huff to elevate his game and hold his own with guys who were drafted in his range like John Brown and Martevis BRyant.. If Huffs development can keep up with that of the Pope and ArchBishop Nelson, we will have a Beastly young 3 headed Monster at WR, with veteran Big Body WRs like Coop and Miles in a smaller role…we don’t talk about Tutu often, but I assume he makes the roster, unless something crazy happens and GJ Kinney out performs him on ST and WR, which I woldnt count on..
so far some good ink on Huff. Fingers crossed.
Individual pass rushers get all the glory, but one thing that doesnt get enough credit is how selfless our pass rushers are. No one is out there worried about his individual stats, it’s RARE that we see a defensive front that rushes the passer as a unit the way we do. guys were really Discaplined in their roles and they were just as happy to do the dirty work freeing up another teammate to get the Sack Credit… So when you say, “BARWIN probabky won’t get 14.5 sacks again”, im not sure he cares, and I’m not sure it matters…
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BARWIN, Graham, Curry should each reach double digit sacks.. BARWIN is a very good pass rusher, he gets the job done, yet he doesn’t get his respect as a pass rusher, I expect BARWIN to have his best year THIS year, even if he doesn’t reach 14.5 sacks.. And if he doesn’t reach that sack number, I’m sure he opened up a sack opportunity for his other teammates,,..
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Our pass rushers have talemt to put up numbers, but Coach Azzinaro has them really buying into pass rushing as a cohesive unit. Guys are very Discaplined in their responsibility and worry about rushiñg as a cohesive unit, instead of pinning their ears back and worry about the stats… When you have a front that really rushes the passer as a unit, simple individual stats are pointless and misleading…even if BARWIN doesn’t get 14 sacks again, I’d bet he improves on last years play… He is still in his prime,and he is still hungry. Not the type to rest on his Laurels after a 14 sack year
Is this going to be the last month of Earl Wolffs Eagle career? That would be a damn shame considering how much untapped potential he has, but I’m not sure how much patience the coaches have left for him.
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Hopefully Wolff can make it hard on them, show up day 1 of camp, 100% healthy in his mind, ready to cut it loose, fly around and put on a show. it would be great to see him perform at a level above our young safeties Reynolds, Couplin, Watkins…but who the hell knows what to expect when it comes to Wolff. So far, Getting good news from his doctors and training staff has NOT translated..
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I really hope this kid understands that he better not dare take a day off in Camp, and even if he does, THAT may not be enough to save his eagle career. He better take every single Rep the coaches offer him. Drag his leg around the field if he has to…. if Earl Wolff thinks he is going to spend training camp days off to the side, stretching with the training staff, he might as well not even waste his time showing up.
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There is no doubt he has the talent to make the team, but he has exhausted the coaches Patience, and his untapped talent and potential probably is no longer enough to keep him on the Roster. He needs to Perform, and show toughness! He claims that he knows his role like the back of his hand, and that he put in a lot of film work with Malcolm Jenkins, but I can’t even remember the last time he practiced for 3 straight weeks, I have NO CLUE how all the time on the sideline stunted his growth…. By year 3, he should start showing that he is a player, like Cox, Curry, Kemdricks, did last year….but he missed so much time, that im not even sure it’s realistic to hold him to the standards of a year 3 player in terms of his development
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this is a damn shame. No leg injuries prior to his NFL career, good kid, family of Eagles fans, all the athleticism we could hope for from a safety in round 5.. And it’s looking like this will be the last month of his Eagle career…damn shame..
I agree. he really does have potential to be a good safety.
what a bummer for the kid.
I’m rooting for him.
Hopefully he can take every single rep offered to him, not sit out of any training camp session, and put on a show in the preseason especially when he is up against other teams backüp offense….but I don’t see how anyone can have any confidence in that at this point..
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Should have cut Wolff and kept Jordan Poyer at this point..
He’s gambled everything on this camp. He traded (I think knowingly) what little leeway he had left with the coaches to be as healthy as he can possibly be for camp. Basically he’s banking on being able to get healthy and stay healthy if he heals all the way, and then being able to impress and regain some good will. I hope he will go all out regardless of how he feels, knowing this is his last chance.
Well said.. I’d def agree with that.
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But if I see any report of him spending any training camp session off to the side, stretching with the Trainers, I will assume his career in Philly is over.
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I just hope that he understands the gravity of his situation and the corner he painted himself into.. And plays thru any issue to at least give himself a chance
seems like more than half of his tenure has been on the sidelines watching …
Unless he thinks another year of recovery n latch onto new team next year as another option is actually doable. Otherwise totally agree, hes got zero leeway left. Now or never with birds
He also had a front seat view of a safety with a higher pedigree, gobs of potential, and flashes of brilliance being shown the door because he couldn’t put it all together when it matters.
If not now, it isn’t going to happen.
Especially since this is a very winnable competition. It’s a group of CB/safety Hybrids and Special teams aces. The front runner is a CB who’s never played safety in the NFL and has an even more troubling injury history than Wolff. Wolff Isn’t versatile, and he hasn’t been too useful on special teams, he likely won’t be kept as a back up because of this, so it’s win the starting job or go looking for a job for him (although if he really dedicated himself to special teams he can greatly increase his odds of making the team as a viable back up).
I’m honestly at the point with Wolff that I hope the Eagles just cut him and be done with him. I understand fully his injury situation and what transpired but at this point in time being medically cleared and his toughness being questioned on a daily basis, it is in the best interest to move on from him.
This is just a game, and I don’t want to see any human get maimed for life. I don’t wish for any man to blow his fingers off, and I don’t find that funny…. But you can’t tell me it’s not pretty funny to see one of the most talented Giants refusing to show his hand to anyone in the Giants organization. I don’t laugh at his injury, I laugh at what a mess it must be to have your best defender on an expired contract, and a month has passed and he still refuses to show the team his injury… Like this is a new level of dysfunction that you don’t see every day. This is even dysfunctional by like Clevelad Browns standards..
And its isnt that he wont show them his hand he also hasnt spoken to anyone in the giants organization and has refused to reply to any of Tom Coughlin’s calls or texts. I am starting to think this is a more of a ploy to have them rescind the franchise tender and let him hit free agency.
#foolish
I’m wondering if he thinks this injury will rob him of the elite player he once was and he is taking this stance because he lost confidence and thinks this may be his last chance at a money grab….. I wouldn’t be able to cope with having to go thru this with Fletcher Cox right now, it’s really a terrible situation to be in for Giants and Their fans..
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Wonder if we ever see the monster we saw as a rookie. I prob wouldn’t bet on it at this point
Roto said if he wouldn’t pass physical they could put him on nfi and not pay him. Yes staying away until he can pass the physical.
How does he pass a physical? He either has enough fingers to pass it today, or he is never going to pass it… It’s not like holding out is giving him time for his lost fingers to regenerate..,, Giants owner just said he doesn’t even know how many fingers he has…, #MESS
1. “But this line of thinking ignores the human element of coping with a traumatic injury, which, in addition to the finger amputation, includes skin grafts, a thumb fracture, and possible further damage.
Dr. David Chao, a former NFL team physician for 17 years, believes that the psychological aspect of a NFL player confronting his own mortality has more to do with Pierre-Paul not meeting his team, than any perceived slight.”
2. “Beldner, co-director of New York Hand and Wrist Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, is one the foremost hand surgeons in the city who has worked on former NFL as well as NHL players. However, there are differences in the complexities of restructuring a finger or hand following a fireworks accident in comparison to other accidents.
“I would much rather prefer to have my finger cut off with a machete than to have it blown off with fireworks,” he said. “The tissue get cooked and it’s destroyed so it’s not a situation where you can just sew the pieces back on again,” Beldner said at his office in Midtown. Additionally, he said there tends to be stereotype when it comes to individuals who suffer a fireworks injury. “It tends to be young males who feel that they are indestructible and when they are doing something like this, they feel like it’s not going to happen to them,” he said. “It always happens to the other guy until it actually does happens to them.”
Doubt it. Who would be willing to pay him the bucks he wants if he is unwilling to show what he is dealing with.
Raiders, Jags, Titans, Bears.
No, not the money he wants without his injury being fully disclosed. He couldn’t get the money he wanted before his finger was cut off.
If he is sacrificing fingers in hopes of getting out of the tag, he is one hardcore negotiator.
Not saying that he blew off his fingers just to get out of the tag, I am saying at this exact moment he seems to be using what happened to him and the fact that he refuses to get back to the giants as an excuse to possibly get out of it.
I know that at this time last year I felt far better about the team, but I guess that is to be expected. Nick Foles was coming off an amazing year.. so was Shady.. so was the O-line. The defense had been vastly improved from the prior year. Things were good.
After seeing the way the season actually played out last year, compiled with the off-season moves, I am very much in wait-and-see mode. I have no real expectations. I like Byron more than Cary in general. However, on this team I don’t feel 100% confident he will out preform Cary so vastly that there is an obvious difference in results. I also like B. Graham, but I feel like there is going to be a decline in overall play at that position with the loss of Cole (maybe that is because Cole is my hero.. but I feel as though that is objective). Across from Byron I anticipate better play, but if we locked in an wacky inflatable-flailing-arm tube-guy as the RCB I would feel the same way.
Overall I felt like the offense was pretty bad last year. Sure the numbers were ok, but they felt like a McDonalds Big Mac Meal. It tastes good and fills you up but doesn’t provide any subsistence. I can buy in that Demarco will actually be better for the offense. I can’t buy that the line or WR are better with the loses we have had. I really can’t get behind Bradford until we get 16 consecutive games out of him.
I also feel like there is no way the ST can reproduce the same number of big plays.
All-in-all I HOPE none of these concerns turn out to hold merit. I am not down on the team, I’m just nowhere near as optimistic as these quotes. I am back in year 1 with Chip mode. Wait and see.
I am more excited than last year! Yes special teams won’t be as good, but you didn’t expect them to be that good last July. I am stoked about Bradford, Murray and Matthews. And Kiko. We have added some talent.
Look we can at least do what Dallas did and run the ball all day, need less out of the defense and the QB. We could do that and then improvement from the DB’s etc. is icing.
I share all of your optimism, I really do! I just also see dark clouds in the distance. Hopefully they miss us!
1) Foles/Bradford = a wash, i like bradfords arm better, but obviously not injury history, Foles via eye test didn’t look like he was feeling pressure to well last year which is an immediate red flag to me.
2) RB = Upgrade, depth is much better
3) WR = slight downgrade, but i think we are looking for (2) 1,000 yd receivers who block well instead of a 1,500 yd stud who don’t block…. so mentality in general has changed.
4) OL= Downgrade, but the key pieces are still there continuity wise.
5) LB = UPGRADED PERIOD. I love Trent too, but in this case the LB Corp. as group more than covers the loss of Cole ( i ain’t budging off that argument lol)
6) Secondary = Slight upgrade, but remains to be seen and the obvious sore spot on the team, thus trying to throw shit on a wall and see what sticks.
Well, if you look at the photo, it takes the entire defense to bring Murray down! Glad he’s on the right tram this season.
I don’t, and never will, understand all the write ups about Sanchez and his ‘chance’ to be the starter. I’m barely OK with him as a back up. We are in terrible shape if he beats out Bradford. That’s the unthinkable. If Bradford goes down(or simply stinks) and the Eagles do not sign him next year, I still don’t see Sanchez starting. IF that were to happen, I fully expect the Eagles to sign/draft a clear starter for 2016 and have Sanchez as the back up once again.
I feel great about Sanchez… as a guy who might play 1-2 games a year or in mop up. That’s it.
Exactly. I’m glad Sanchez says the right things like “I’m here to compete” etc…that’s all good stuff. But our starter? please no.
Think Sanchez has guaranteed $$ next year, think there’s a possibility coaches would be ok with him. If his arms better he could be not bad. Plus that pump fake is crazy #jukethecamera
Sanchez is better than some starters around the NFL.
Don’t get me wrong about Sanchez. I’m excited he’s here. I’m glad he’s the back up. And yes, I’d rather him over a few starters(what is happening with the Jets qb’s?). Part of me thinks if that un-athletic Giants QB can win, then anybody can win. Even as one of the quotes up top says ‘regardless of who plays qb’ — I don’t want that. I don’t want an avg joe at the helm. IF Bradford got hurt for a game or 2, bring in Sanchez and I’ll cheer for him.
If he’s the best QB he should start.
If he’s the best QB, we’re getting a very low pick next draft.
do yourself a favor and read Tim McManus article: Behind the “Legend of Kiko Alonso”.. Posted today, and get back to me lol
..
#WOW
#GREATread!
#JackedUp trying not to tackle the next random person that walks by me.
I’ll give you a nickel if you post the link here :). I’m already on the Kiko band wagon ….
http://Www.phillymag.com/Eagles
good stuff!! thanks
GEAGLE, did you get you nickel?
He said I owe him 20 bucks already due to late fees and that he better not have to come visit me. I send 40.
Wise move!
Good article. Thanks for the link. I even went to the comments. Part way through the 75 comments explaining the differences between ultimate frisbee and disc golf, I retreated back here, though.
I could have saved you a lot of time. One is kind of, maybe like flag football. The other is kind of, maybe like golf.
I hadn’t realized how many FA’s we brought in were former Oregon alums. Chip definitely likes his old boys.
Kiko sounds like he has some of that old school not all there crazy frothing dog in him. Glad he’s on our team and not a division rivals, dude would lay waste to our receivers.
Oh yeah he def a wacko, but just the type of wacko football savant we want running around the middle of the field. Should look amazing next to Mykal when Kendricks has those tackles he makes in the backfield where it looks like he was shot out of a cannon…
He is one of the most explosive ILB I have ever seen when running sideline to sideline or going up the middle. Alonso and Kendricks have me very excited, especially when you mix some of Ryan’s in there.
The minute I saw the pic.
http://bleacherreport.com/arti…
I’m so freakin pumped by that you can tackle me through the computer!
This is interesting. We apparently tried to bring in even more depth at WR.
Ian Rapoport
@RapSheet
6m6 minutes ago
WR James Jones, who chose the #Giants over offers from #Eagles, #Chiefs, #Seahawks & #Bengals, will be signing a 1-year deal with NYG.
Depending on Cruz recovery that may be his best bet to get on the field. He sure fell off fast.
So Sheldon Richardson was arrested for going 143 mph in a late night road race with police, all the while with a 12 year old in the back of the car. Also had a loaded gun & noticeable smell of pot in the car.
#culture ftw
JB died gunning a ‘vette out of a ditch stone sober in broad daylight. Sigh…….
Remember the last time there was near universal optimism about the Eagles heading into the season? How’d that turn out?
I don’t think this will be Dream Team 2.0. There’s too much talent and too strong a culture for that. But 12 or 13 wins seems wildly optimistic to me. To do that you need to not only have a great roster, but have almost everything go right for you. I think the Eagles are still a few players short of a great roster, and they have a lot of question marks, including at some critical positions, so I doubt almost everything goes right.
I think it’s going to take time for all these new guys to jell, and I don’t think the offense is going to be dominant right off the bat. I’m prepared for a slow start with a stronger finish and another season much like the last two.