Geritol Smoothies
Posted: September 7th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 294 Comments »It’s that time of the year. I don’t mean Labor Day. Or the beginning of the NFL season.
I’m talking about Jimmy Bama releasing his list of the oldest/youngest teams in the league. He does this every year right after cutdown Saturday. There is no specific reason behind this. Jimmy just does it as a point of reference. I don’t think he’s ageist. I mean, I’ve never seen him go after Les Bowen.
The Eagles are…one of the oldest teams in the league, 28th to be precise.
This might be something to be concerned about, but I’m not so sure. As always, you need context. There are six Eagles entering at least their 10th NFL season. That sounds bad, but look who they are.
Jason Peters
Jon Dorenbos
Donnie Jones
Miles Austin
DeMeco Ryans
Darren Sproles
There is only one true starter in there (Peters). The other players are backups or specialists. Compare that to the oldest team, the Colts. They have six projected starters in Year 10 or more. And that may jump to seven depending on the comeback of Robert Mathis.
Back to the Eagles. Ryans might be in his final year. Austin is probably a one year guy. The others will stay as long as they continue to perform at a high level. Brent Celek is the only Eagles in his 9th season. The team will start to look for his replacement possibly as soon as next offseason. Zach Ertz is a terrific receiver, but he can’t replace Celek’s blocking.
The Eagles have a slew of draft picks. They will start to cycle in some more young blood to get the overall roster younger. I’m sure they’d also love to replace Brandon Bair with Brian Mihalik and E.J. Biggers with JaCorey Shepherd. That would get more youth mixed in.
The overall core of the team isn’t old so I’m not concerned. The age of the roster is something to keep an eye on. You don’t want too many guys getting old at the same time.
The Eagles could always cut Jimmy’s hero Donnie Jones to get the team younger. That would be the ultimate Catch-22 for him. Get the Eagles younger, but at the cost of his favorite player. The horror, the horror.
And somebody remind Les Bowen to be careful when he’s around Jimmy.
* * * * * *
Sam Lynch brought up the question on Twitter of whether there was any correlation between age and record. One person did some research and came up with this.
@shlynch @JimmyKempski Getting older is correlated with more wins (about 0.4 wins per year added to avg). pic.twitter.com/DuLZ0Xg3J1
— Sean J. Taylor (@seanjtaylor) September 6, 2015
Interesting.
_
In fact, the Eagles are one of the YOUNGEST teams in the NFL. Sam Bradford is 27; if he stays healthy, he could be our QB for the next DECADE. Imagine that! How old is Brady, Romo, both Mannings…?
With the exception of Jason Peters, almost every key player on this team is young. Bradford, Matthews and Agholor both 22, Murray, Maxwell, Alonso. Cox only 24, Ertz, Parkey, etc.
Heck, If Kelly had bigger tits, he’d be nursing a lot of these guys….
This is a great example of why averages alone are not enough to make a statement about a distribution. As tommy pointed out, context changes the conversation (as would standard deviation to even show whether the differences are statistically significant). This is true for all statistics,
Averages only work for bell shaped distribution curves or so-called normal distributions. If the data is skewed left or right, or contains numerous nodes, then average is generally wrong. That’s when median, mode, or non-parametric statistics come into play.
“The mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data. The mode of a discrete probability distribution is the value x at which its probability mass function takes its maximum value. In other words, it is the value that is most likely to be sampled.” Wiki
Exactly. However, Even in Gaussian distributions averages only tell you a fraction of the information. Without standard deviation you have no idea of the width of the distribution or the range over which you can’t statistically differentiate between 2 values. You can also apply averages to some other distributions, such as Poissonian, but that means you have to consider other factors as well.
I would argue that the majority of the roster is coming into their prime. I am not concerned about the age of our roster one bit at this point and I agree that the roster will have youth brought in next year when some aging players are finished.
BS… I don’t care what the averages say, no one would look at our roster and say, the eagles need to get younger., we have plenty of young players in starting roles that could be here for years to come .. JP is up there in age but it doesn’t matter as long as he is still the best of the best at LT, and I wouldn’t bet against him playing another 3 seasons at a high level..
..
Sproles is showing no effects of slowing down and he is in a time share with two other RBs, 3 if we dress Varner
“Age is but a number” as they say. Unless “they” is Jared from Subway, because that’s not right.
That’s a dark turn.
I think that correlation is a good example of how, although you can always draw a trend line, sometimes you just shouldn’t.
Agreed. I just finished a master’s degree in economics and I would’ve gotten a D+ at best if I’d ever turned in a paper with data analysis like that.
https://twitter.com/seanjtaylor/status/640341367936319488
The dangers of trying to have a meaningful public conversation through tweets.
Or it could be a British spy sending a code to “M.” Huh? Huh? * looks to others expectantly*
I think if I ever stumbled across a numbers station I would shit my pants.
Like rationally I understand them.
I would still be freaked out.
The combination of Peters and Celek on the left side probably is what made Mathis dispensable. Celek is not the receiver he once was but the Peters/Celek tandem as run blockers is good for another two seasons, I would imagine.
There’s been no diminution in Dorenbos’ skill that I can see, nor that of Donnie Jones. Replacements for Austin, Ryans and Sproles already are on the roster.
When it comes to age of a roster I prefer this:
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2015/snap-weighted-age-2014-nfl-rosters
or this
http://www.footballperspective.com/2014-av-adjusted-team-age/
as it adjusted based on performance or snaps
As long as we don’t have any position groups where there is an excess of aged players it shouldn’t be a big deal.
There isn’t a single position group I look at and think that we need to get younger at that position,.. Even positions filled by veterans for the most part have young backsups being groomed behind them
Even the offensive line, which is the oldest group, is not an emergency to find a replacement.
Peters (33) – Barbre (31) – Kelce (27) – Gardner (29) – Johnson (25)
For being a freak, Peters is OK, and Barbre and Gardner will only be urgent if they play badly, but some up and downs are expected. And then, we have the option of signing a veteran and/or draft a young guy as soon as possible, which I believe will happen next year.
BTW, in order of need, I expect OL-OLB/DB. QB only if Carlos did not stand out, obviously.
Seems “First round worthy pick” and part of great OL of all time La’el Collins couldnt even beat out Ronald Leary for the LG spot and Leary was terrible last year
I guess murdering your girlfriend rather than being in the weight room isn’t good for building the core strength needed for playing guard in the NFL.
but but you didnt see his super illegal block against a 3rd string LB in his first preseason?
I’m sure loser Benoit from MMQB did and used that to determine that a 4th grader in a wheelchair could still rush for 1500 yards behind the Cowboys line.
How terrible was Leary really? I mean, their OL was very, very good. Maybe not an all time great, but very, very good.
Doesn’t mean a “first round” OL shouldn’t be able to beat him out, but let’s keep things in perspective. We don’t want to become as hysterical as the Cowboys fans, do we?
He was crap and the way people talk about Collins he should have him beat out
Very over rated.. I wrote a million posts last year detailing what a pigeon he was
3 FIRST ROUND PICKS!!!!!!
RBs have the shelf life expectancy of field mice. I have been most concerned with the starting RBs as a group. Age 27 and 5 years in the league is the usual point of decline for RB’s – the stats show this and the decline is usually sharp.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/123542/inside-slant-running-back-cliff-after-age-27
Matthews is 27, turning 28 in October and Murray, 27, turning 28 in February. Both have over 900 career rushes and over 100 receptions – who knows what the actual treadwear factor is for each? Sproles is 32 and has over 400 rushes and 400 receptions. Kenyon Barner is no rookie at 25 with only 6 NFL carries and an injury history. IMO, this, along with Sam Bradford, 27 also turning 28 soon, but is not old for a QB, is by far Chip’s biggest gamble and test of the sports science he has brought in.
We’re well well backed up. There is a 2000 yards from scrimmage RB waiting on the practice squad.
point well taken – in the right system with a good OL, RB’s can seem interchangeable
first thing that comes to mind are the Shanahan teams in Denver. From Elway w/ Terrel davis through the Brian Griese/Jake Plummer years of the 2000’s where they seemed to have a new back gaining at least 1000 yards every year
Good example. I think we have the truly great RBs, then the rest are almost a dime a dozen, who can thrive in the right system. Ryan Mathews is probably one of them. Interesting that in 2014, several 1,000 yard rushers are over age 27: Marshwan Lynch – 29, Arian Foster 29, Frank Gore 32, Matt Forte 29, Jamaal Charles 28. To think Chip almost got 32 year old Frank Gore…….. and oh, Adrian Peterson is now 30 with over 2,000 career carries.
What your pointing out is that just a few older players can schew the average age upwards to where it doesn’t give a clear picture of the team’s make-up. An analysis of the mean age should shed more light on the overall composition. If Jimmy is having problems figuring out mean, median, mode, etc., the good news is that he has a whole year to learn them before he posts his next yearlyaccount.
The median would be much more interesting than the average, I agree.
Median would be more meaningful, but additionally, context that includes average (or better yet, median) age of starters would really give us information about whether we should be concerned about the age of our team moving forward. I do think Jimmy does do that latter analysis (although using average) in a separate post, maybe immediately after the first game when “starter” is clearly defined.
Re: the Eagles almanac. I don’t get why you release this one week before the season starts. I bought it last year and it was a fun read, but it would have been a lot more fun if it came out during a time when there isn’t real football played. Second week of Training Camp, f.e., I would have LOVED to read some good researched articles about this crazy offseason. Now, with the College season under way and the first regular season game of the NFL in two days, I have my football dose.
I’m sure it’s well written, don’t get me wrong, but I personally don’t like the timing – at all. And if I had knew how late it would actually come out, I wouldn’t have bought it last year, either. There are times where I’m dying to get some good reads about football, but football season is not one of these times. I get enough of it, then.
I know from Sheil and the Birds 24/7 guys that their articles are written waaaay before the release, like 3 months ago or so. I would imagine as a writer, you have the most time to write for the almanac in the offseason, when there is basically nothing else to write about. Why not release the almanac like a month ago? I guarantee you I would have bought in back then. But the way it is, I can only say: probably great content, but horrible timing.
You do know it is over 1 month ago that it was released?
I got mine 12th of august
OK, than that was some bs from my side. My bad. I just saw Tommys link from the previous post and assumed it just came out.
I remember being disappointed about the late release last year, which is why I didn’t order it this year. Also, it would be nice to know when it will be released before you pre-order it. At least last year, there wasn’t any info about that.
According to my records, this year’s was released on 12th August, last years was on 19th August, if that’s any help.
I received an email telling me that this years edition was available for pre-purchase sometime in April.
I’ve bought it every year it’s been available and it’s always great. My biggest complaint though is that pretty much every writer that contributes that also has a website, releases their article for free around the same time. Jimmy released his for free on his website, the guy over at Chip Wagon just released his, Tommy basically wrote about the rookies which he had covered extensively here already, and the guys over at 24/7 repeated their almanac article in a post over on their site. At this point, I just basically consider my purchase of the almanac to be a donation to these guys for their great yearly work.
The donation angle was the one who almost made my buy it despite the late release date. But then, on the other hand, Birds 24/7 is from PhillyMag and Jimmy is with Philly Voice, so they get paid for their job, altough probably not enough in terms of the value they bring to me as a fan.
Tommy is another story, though, which is why I always donate when it’s Senior Bowl time.
Sorry to break in here… pretty clear now what a massive bunch of cheaters the Pats are.
It is most assuredly continuing with more sophisticated methods now. Goodell protected them. Espn running with that.
This is going to get ugly, but thankfully it could spell the end of Goodell. There are officials from the Patriots admitting to them stealing play sheets from other teams.
Wow.
I’m pretty certain they were doing some EW stuff and intercepting signals from the headsets. Not that it was hard. The league just had everyone agree not to do that kind of thing, and the Pats decided to ignore it.
To add on to ac134spectre’s post, here’s the ESPN article/video ahead of the magazine article.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart
What a great read. Probably be banned in New England.
This is glorious. Finally, vindication for those of us who always suspected spygate was more huge than the official story, and those of us who knew that the Patriots were bigtime fucking cheating dickheads.
Also, adds fuel to the fire about whether or not the Patriots spygate activities influenced the outcome of our super bowl against them. If you’re an Eagles fan and this doesn’t rankle you… I don’t know man.
LOOK AT THIS SHIT:
“Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team’s offense.”
” At Gillette Stadium, the scrambling and jamming of the opponents’ coach-to-quarterback radio line — “small s—-” that many teams do, according to a former Pats assistant coach — occurred so often that one team asked a league official to sit in the coaches’ box during the game and wait for it to happen. Sure enough, on a key third down, the headset went out.”
https://twitter.com/JoeBanner13/status/641274475229659136
We are so freakin’ close to football. I seriously can’t stand it! All of a sudden I’m having heart palpatations, getting sweaty and can’t concentrate on anything. I guess it could be the drugs……….. No, its definitely the football.
Need some heroin man?
Like Wonder Woman?
I hear you man,.. Watching Dario Saric all week to help pass the time
“During games, Adams sat in the coaches’ box, with binoculars and notes of decoded signals, wearing a headset with a direct audio line to Belichick. Whenever Adams saw an opposing coach’s signal he recognized, he’d say something like, “Watch for the Two Deep Blitz,” and either that information was relayed to Brady or a play designed specifically to exploit the defense was called. A former Patriots employee who was directly involved in the taping system says “it helped our offense a lot,” especially in divisional games in which there was a short amount of time between the first and second matchups, making it harder for opposing coaches to change signals.”
“The Patriots turned over what they turned over, and the NFL accepted it. Sources with knowledge of the investigation insist that the Patriots were “borderline noncompliant.” And a former high-level Patriots employee agrees, saying, “The way the Patriots tried to approach it, they tried to cover up everything,” although he refused to specify how. Glaser adamantly denies that assertion, saying all the Patriots’ evidence of stolen signals was turned over to the league that day. On Sept. 20, Glaser says the team signed a certification letter promising the league that the only evidence of the videotaping of illegal signals had been destroyed two days earlier and that no other tapes or notes of stolen signals were in the team’s possession. The letter does not detail the games that were recorded or itemize the notes that were shredded.”
If we get to change the commish, I voting for Condeleeza Rice. Politics aside, the NFL could use this change. IMO, if she can handle heads of state, she can deal with a bunch of billionaires (not to mention dealing with them in her own party). She’s a huge fan, and frankly, the NFL could use a woman to help shape the image. Being a former Secretary of State, I think she understands the political game and how to handle big incidents.
http://www.businessinsider.com/support-is-growing-for-condoleezza-rice-as-nfl-commissioner-2014-9
I think it’s pretty obvious that in the interests of globalizing the game they should get in Sep Blatter from FIFA.
I don’t think the owners want a strong commissioner. They want a competent lackey. But I’d be all for your suggestion if I had a vote. Her and Colin Powell were the bright spots of that administration.
might as well get W then.
he’s busy
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–DKH1ol0h–/663731962904639921.jpg
odd choices for painting.
weirdo
Well at least Laura knows why he takes so long in the shower….at least some of the times
the image in the mirror how is it straight on? should really only show half his face right?
Perspective was never his strong suit.
Maybe that’s the reflection of the guy standing behind him in the shower?
Sandusky?
They de want a commission they can order around
which they have now. Which is why he’s still around despite being absolutely reviled by everyone.
Pretty much….
I agree. Bush and Cheney are monsters but she’s smart and tough and way easier on the eyes than Goodell.
“We” don’t get to change anything, and you don’t get to vote. The NFL Commissioner is not an autonomous position. When the owners have had enough of Goodell, they’ll replace him with somebody else you hate.
*rolls eyes*
Okay, I don’t care what the record books say, in my mind I’m going to say the Eagles actually won the Super Bowl against the Pats.
I’ve been waiting for an in-depth investigation to come out on this shit for so long, I *knew* that the cheating went way deeper than the story that was accepted. It’s just who Bellicheck is, and Brady doesn’t give a shit as long as he has his rings.
Eagles fans in particular should be incensed. That was our moment, to finally capture the lombardi, and it was cheated away.
The whole thing makes me feel pretty crappy, past and present. Especially since we rely on signals so much, and hearing teams seemed to have figured our stuff out at one point. Just seems like a point of vulnerability that can strike us again in a big game. I can only assume Chip has obsessed on this and hopefully he figures it out.
If you know someone has picked up your signals?
Dummy them.
It’s not hard to do.
Funny they said in the article that some teams started leaving dummy playbooks (Giants?) for them to get.
That’s a whole new level of awful on the NFL’s behalf if these stories are true.
I mean it doesn’t even have to be that complex.
You think they know you’re blitzing. Make it super obvious your totally going to blitz. Then bail everybody.
They know it’s a outside zone to the right? Quick toss left to the back.
You don’t even have to do it full time. You can just say “ok guys on this drive if I say bannana 2 spider y gruden instead of doing this, do this other thing”
You get the other team to realize you’re messing with them and they stop paying attention.
ok but then how could the Pats cheat for so long? you would think word would get around, everyone would change their calls all the time, and this story wouldn’t have such legs. But it seems like they did this for years. the Steelers game was 2002 right? Are the Eagles stupid for not realizing this was going on and adapting by the time of their SB?
Because usually it’s because you have a smart DT that’s picking up your protection calls and literally yelling “ITS A SCREEN!” or “TOSS RIGHT!(Would be better if he yelled it’s a trap) and you know he’s not picking it up from down/distance or tendencies or you have a guy on the other team that knows your playbook so in that instance you change a handful of calls and add some dummies to counteract it.
I think spygate worked because it was never really confimrnd until it was. Coaches probably whispered about it but no one knew for sure, and it was also far more extensive than you usually deal with, and was done with final prep walkthroughs so you can’t completely alter calls at that point you can really just patchwork some thins here and there and if the Pats were doing this systematically they knew that odds were still in their favor you weren’t dummying. Simple probability.
also, a team that says “nuh uh! you cheated!” would just be ridiculed to death if there is no proof to say so. no one is going to call out the pats on this just because they are pretty sure they are cheating.
its also possible that only their AFC or divisional opponents ever really caught on to this. i doubt anyone on the eagles would have reason to suspect anything so why would they be on the lookout?
apparently word did get around and upwards of 18 teams would literally leave fake calls and stuff.
True, but Andy was never one to adjust well in game. 🙁
I think we’re underestimating the speed of the game a bit here.
You sure? Not doing it the way you practiced it seems like a big no no at Nova Care. Off the cuff changes don’t seem like our thing. We seem bigger on being pro active, reactive doesn’t seem like our thing.
And to think poor JJ’s reputation was hurt after the Pats torched our brand new dime look that he had never shown before! But now it comes out they may have stolen the actual playbooks!!!! Damn, if I am not a touch upset currently.
Might not be factually accurate but that doesn’t stop all these Cowboy-slurping media idiots from saying “The Cowboys had 3 1st round picks!”
“In my mind I’m going to Carolina…”
And tying up Ricky Manning Jr. and Greg Favors before their flight to Philly in January of 2004.
I read the espn story on the Pats. I don’t know, I was hoping for more. If you are a Pats defender, where is the smoking gun? where is the ex player saying they cheated? it all just seemed like rehashing the same old stuff to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad that Goddell covered up Spygate and destroyed the tapes. I just don’t know if this article really told me much new.
I think the biggest thing that is kind of being glossed over is them actually stealing game plans from locker rooms.
Sorry, but i’m not buying pretty much any of this. They stole gameplans from Locker rooms? When? And how did the teams not notice their game plans were missing? were they in a book, a laminated chart?
It states right there in the article that some teams started planting fake scripts and playbooks, because they already knew the pats would try to take them.
There’s a lot in the article, I’m not going to go through point by point for you, but there’s some substantial stuff in there.
No ex-Pats player, but an ex-Pats assistant is verifying the claims.
verifying which claims? that they stole signals? we knew that. I’m just not sure what this story is breaking as news.
OTL says the Patriots recorded 40 games of opponents from 2000 through 2007.
This is in stark contrast to the statement of Goodell before the Super Bowl in February of 2008, when he told the media he believed there were “six tapes.”
“I believe there were six tapes,” Goodell said. “And I believe some were from the preseason in 2007, and the rest were primarily in the late 2006 season.”
Patriots organization structured to run using plausible deniability:
Plausible deniability is the ability for persons (typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others (usually subordinates in an organizational hierarchy) because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions.
It wasn’t new to you because you are an Eagles fan. But there are plenty of NFL fans out that aren’t aware of this some of this stuff.
Looking for a smoking gun, at this point, misses the impact of ESPN sustaining the argument and growing the skepticism that has become part of the public record. The Mike Martz’s and Hollis Thomas’s of the NFL probably already outnumber the Patriot defenders. The history is already revised, and no amount of whining from hither and yon that tries to reframe this as sour grapes can carry the day. The BIG meaning of this story to me is the absolute shitstorm that the league and Patriots faced was averted by Goodell’s decision, but the public was never party to the length, breadth and depth of NE’s cheating ways. Now we are all getting a clearer idea of what was going on, and how various persons reacted. Understanding that Goodell’s Deflategate decision was an attempt to set straight the Spygate flub adds a context to the former that had been missing. If ANY NE players were aware of the cheating, my bet is they were few and far between.
it does put into context more about just how quickly Goddell acted to shove Spygate under the rug. It’s incredible really.
The kiler for me is Belichek stating that he didn’t realize it was an infraction, that there wasn’t a clear description of what they couldn’t do. He “thought it was legal as long as the material wasn’t used in real time.”
So, if he thought it was legal, why was every Pats employee who was recording HIDING their Pats gear either by wearing it inside out, taping over logos, or otherwise claiming that they worked for “NFL Films” or “Kraft Productions”? None of that would be necessary if it was an honest misunderstanding of the rules.
So, yeah, Belichick is a f**king cheater, and a liar to boot. Plain as day. While there’s ambiguity over the EXTENT of the cheating, there’s no question that it was cheating, that they knew it was cheating when they did it, and that they subsequently lied about it.
NE is the Lance Armstrong of the NFL. I think the only reason that the owners Goodell pissed off with his “solution” to Spygate kept him on as Commish – 2 reasons, actually: 1) He sold the bottom-line argument…Senate investigation would be devastating to the league; and 2) He had been sufficiently cowed (in their eyes) that he would handle ALL of the league’s heavy lifting from that point on with no wavering. For anybody scoring: Patriots 2/NFL 0.
The signal stealing stuff makes me think of Chip’s signal system.
It’s like he doesn’t even care, since there’s no way for an opponent to crack the code from week to week.
It also is immune to crowd noise and to the headset going out
I had the same thought. It’s almost like he specifically designed it to be immune to this kind of cheating.
The thing about chip’s offense is that I don’t think it matters. As many have said it is a fairly simple offense with simple concepts. The difference is tempo and execution. It’s the “think fast” offense. Chip could literally hold up a sign that said what play they were running to the opponents sideline and it wouldn’t matter because by the time they even read the information and processed what they need to do the quarterback is three steps into his drop. Thus the “think fast” offense.
Bill Barnwell says we’re taking a step back this season.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nfl-2015-season-predictions-part-2-the-falling-stars/
I don’t buy it. He spends two paragraphs talking about how we led scoring int he preseason but then says it doesn’t mean anything. Then says lot of our guys could get hurt. And the WR’s aren’t good enough. What a debbie downer. Of course health is in play, but I see upgrades at QB, RB, ILB, and DB and a downgrade at WR 1 (Maclin leaving).
He also says we lost both guards and didn’t replace them. Can writers stop acting like Todd (though we love him) was HOF?
What gets me is that Dallas isn’t on that list as a team that could take a step backwards. They have a revolving door of RBs they are trying out, and will not have the same running game.
Oh well. Heath Evans took a shot at the team earlier saying they can’t play in December (but forgetting the run we had in 2013).
This is why I can’t wait for the season to start.
Simmons and his henchmen have never given any respect to the Philly teams. They especially put down the Eagles and Sixers.
He should start to worry, especially when the Sixers will be a better team at the end of the year than his Celtics.
It’ll be worse for him if we get the 2nd chance to beat them in the Superbowl.
Yeah, there was nothing wrong with Barnwell’s article. Teams that turn over half their roster do tend to take a step back. Teams relying on players coming off major injuries could very well be asking for trouble (Bradford, Peters, LBers). Teams that sign up a oft-injured, mediocre QB whose team was happy to let go don’t usually mow down the NFL. Homer love for new WRs is less reliable than proven Probowler production.
That being said, I think the Eagles will beat 10 wins this year. They were mowing down people in the preseason. It _does_ mean something.
I agree, they were scoring those points against starters, not the backups. I believe they make 11 though, simply for the strength of schedule.
I get the what if’s. I just don’t get the whole “un-proven” thing. I mean I get it from a descriptive stand point but every player i at some point early in his career “unproven.” I always think it’s lazy hand waving when writers use that as any kind of argument for or against something.
Reading 24/7, Todd may be in the process of being replaced in Indy. Suspect with Herreman’s age and injuries D3FB could replace him at this point.
Not surprised to hear that.
I liked Herremans as much as the next fan, but it was clearly the right move to cut him. There’s no question about it -the team got better at RG.
Bleep him. He’s a Giants fan.
Where Sean J. Taylor sees a correlation between age and wins, I see a frozen Space Invaders screen. But that could be because I have a rare medical condition that causes me to occasionally see Space Invaders screens.
I’m so happy your back.
See, it’s already made me a more cheerful person.
Damnit, fight the happy feelings.
REASONS WHY BALOOPHI IS AMONSTER AND MUST BE STOPPED:
FIRST OFF…
If that is your Space Invaders screen, you are getting you ass kicked.
Baloophi who??? Glad you’re back. I always enjoy your posts, even though I have to think.
hey did you hear we traded for Bradford.
We did?? Hey, sounds like we fleeced the Rams! Wait, WE gave up a second? Terrible trade! Wait, it’s obviously to move up in the draft for Mariota! No??? This is terrible – Bradford can’t stay healthy! Hold on, now that see a highlight of all of his passes over 15 yards, I’m cautiously optimistic. WHAT?! He’s not playing in the first pre-season game??? He’s obviously not healed – PANIC! Terrell Suggs can eat me! Hey! Bradford just lit up the Packers – I’m back on board! Super Bowl!
I think we got the Ram’s first round pick too. Hold on for 15 minutes while I confirm….
Well done in paraphrasing most of the offseason in a couple of short sentences.
If only he had included IHSH.
Reading this makes me think I may not have made wise time management choices with my summer…
right this took me like 100 days to come to terms with all this. It sounded way more important to me at the time. I wouldn’t want Baloophi to summarize my life like that.
That was an amazing summary of the offseason!
For those of you under age 80 who don’t get the reference in the title (luckily, my grandmother who lived into her late 90s, used this stuff, so I did), here it is:
And let’s not forget Serutan…
I thought espn was the NFL’s lap dog. this article seems out of turn.
The guys who did this piece are with OTL and are real journalists. Not the typical NFL guys like Mortenson and Schecther.
NFL =/= Goddell. The owners are nakedly trying to torpedo him. His reign as commissioner will not last much longer.
aha, maybe that’s what this is. They are coming for Caesar.
Not sure if appropriate. Dude is a figurehead and apparently those he represents have decided a scapegoat is needed.
I feel like he’s been a bit more than a figurehead. I think he was SUPPOSED to be a figurehead. Then he started suspending people like he was drunk with power. Buried the spygate story as quickly as possible and tried to wait out the deflate thing as long as possible hoping it would blow over.
I tried to think of a better analogy, but I just can’t. Sorry.
I have to think that this isn’t by accident. They still are the lap dog, but this could be precipitated by the NFL to have them put this out there. Once Kraft came out against Goodell/NFL League – he put himself at odds with the other 31 owners. If they were mad about Spygate, Deflategate just gave them more reason to hate Kraft/Patriots than before – and now they are coming out against them.
who is they and them in your last line?
The NFL/31 other owners.
I think it is odd these articles are coming out now…3 days after Goodell got his ass handed to him, why are people bringing up spygate again?
It took more than 3 days to write that ESPN story.
i’m sure it did
Don’t you think that the arrival of NFL Network put ESPN a notch back, and closer to an outsider? I do think AG’s response to you about the abrupt coexistence of 2 independent articles rehashing and re-slamming NE is on the mark. Court can save NE’s image, but if enough franchises are determined to take it to Kraft and Co. there’s no better way to hit them with DETAILS in the public sphere.
spygate is the gift that keeps on giving!
how is it that espn and si both have stories on the Pats on the same day?
Because the owners are tired of where the league is, and they all are mad at Kraft. This isn’t by accident. Money talks, Goodell walks, and Kraft balks.
First game of the season is in two days. Patriots are SB champions and in a heap of controversy.
Makes sense that there would be a lot of sports writers on top of this story.
Revised patriot pat:
is that tony eason?
good guess, but this guy is a “little” bit older. Think 1776.
Benedict Cumberbatch?
Well, except Cumberbatch is British!
Steve Grogan?
I just read the SI article. I thought someone had written an article saying the assertion that the Pats may have deflated balls to prevent fumbles is likely not true b/c even though they set new records for low fumble % after the rule change, [lies lies lies].
anyone remember that?
I don’t know how SI and ESPN go down the same trail coincidentally to write these articles.
Who was the author of SI article?
So… when I peruse the comments regarding getting cheated out of the SB, there seems to be a lack of GEagle comments. And then I get it…he was only 7 at the time.
LOL
somewhere Jim Johnson is turning over in his grave.
JJ’s defense is getting turnovers in his grave.
National perspective from Bill Barnwell at Grantland:
“The Eagles should be good. I think they’ll make the playoffs at 9-7, and they were very nearly on my list of top eight Super Bowl contenders. If everyone stays healthy, they could very well be the best team in football.
But there are so many risks and so many question marks attached to just about everybody on this roster that it would be crazy to think everything will go right. Maybe Bradford stays healthy. Maybe DeMarco Murray defies that crazy workload and his history and makes it through 16 games. Maybe the wideouts develop fast and the guards work out and Maxwell’s really a no. 1 corner and Brandon Graham’s a top pass-rusher and Kiko Alonso comes back and covers everything. Any one of those things is possible. Asking for them all to happen at the same time is a little much. If most of them occur, the Eagles make the playoffs. If most of them don’t, they’re on the outside looking in.”
I think some of those ideas don’t hold up, but there are others, like you can totally see a way in which this secondary doesn’t come together the way it needs to. Anyway I think Barnwell sums up the source of all anxiety for an Eagles fan. This team is a lottery ticket. It definitely has the potential to be the best team in football. This COULD be the year, but we really need some help from the football gods.
I think it’s a good overview, although he overstates how much needs to happen for this to be a very good team. For example, Graham doesn’t need to be a top pass-rusher, just a decent to good one, while not being horrendous at dropping back. If the Eagles are depending on Graham to be a top pass rusher, then IMO, this will not be a good year.
He just needs to be competent at both. He and Cole do well getting after the passer, we just hope BG is better in pass def.
I agree, I think if things break even we are over-under 10.5 wins. If things go right we can get 14 wins, if things go wrong it is looking like 8 wins.
I think some of the nuance of Barnwell’s argument is off, but the idea is sound. He still undersells us though.
Yeah, when I read this, I wondered why Dallas wouldn’t be on this list of teams. Frankly, losing a back that gave you close to 500 carries last year is going to be very tough to replace.
The bigger point is I think after years of being 8-8, he doesn’t see a team that wildly over-achieved in 2014. That alone puts them on the list.
If 12-4 was their standard, and you figure the D was improved, you might be able to figure they’ll stay 12-4. But 12-4 isn’t their average season.
If SB stays upright for 16 games, we’ll see Eagles playing a 17th at the Linc. Murray can miss some time, Mathews can miss some time, two new guards can get mixed reviews, new receiving corp can be just “okay” and offensive points will still amass. After Bradford’s indispensability, Kiko is the 2nd biggest concern. He is a playmaker and a difference maker, and significant down time for him can limit our defense’s ability to dominate.
agreed.
The thing about articles like that is that you can replace the team names and player names with ANYONE and it will still work it’s like a mad-libs. I mean I get it’s a fluff piece and I do have a soft spot for top 10 lists (the ultimate in fluff pieces).
I also love how if Demarco murray was still on the cowboys no one would probably be bringing up his workload. Well we would cus we’re dicks like that but the national media would be all like “yep 1800 yards check.” Now that he’s on another team it’s some sort of mystery,
It isn’t like Kelly didn’t go out and get another stud to back him up.
I think what’s different is the stakes. This team COULD be the best in football if it all goes right, but there just so many things that are coin flips. Sure every team has question marks, which i mean as in it could go either way, not the lazy devolution that has come to mean “bad”. But most teams you see the ceilings on, this one I don’t see, like if everything goes right for the Panthers….eeeeh.
But it’s true, before you even talk about health which can strike any team we have a ton of stuff we haven’t seen in regular season play yet.
To win a Super Bowl:
1)Sam Bradford needs to be the dominant force he was in the preseason.
2)O-line has to prove 3/5 of a great line is still really good.
3)Secondary featuring a former #2 CB who is now a #1 CB. a former middling safety as a brilliant vet. A nickel CB turned safety for the first time ever, a journeyman CB stepping up to be a #2 CB and a nickel CB that depends on who we’re playing, all playing together for the first time. We all see the potential for every move, we’re Eagles fans. But understand things like these, only Malcolm Jenkins has been the guy we envision him being in the regular season for us. Everyone else we are projecting to be better than they’ve ever been before (in the regular season).
4)To me the run-game is a gimme, not worthy of discussion, that run game will be scary. But maybe an outsider might think the line might not be as good and Murray lost a step and Mathews was over-hyped.
5)our injured players come back all the way. Meco, Kiko, and Ertz come to mind. They need to play peak football.
6)yes, we are all projecting career years for all of our young receivers. Shouldn’t be hard for huff who hasn’t been on the field, and Matthews if Chip smartly keeps on the field, and Agholor who is a rookie. To me the only sure thing there is Matthews.
I’m an Eagles fan, I look at each individual thing there and feel pretty good about it. The potential there is so high if it all works out. But you have to admit some of it probably won’t work out, and that will slow us down.
And that’s before injuries, which can wreck any team. Completely random.
Honestly, if one can make a list of things that need to happen to win the championship and that list is only 6 items long, none of them involve aliens, pandemics, or bionic limb replacements, and one can argue them as approximating a 50/50 coin flip, I think that is a season to be very excited about. I would be surprised if there are 5 teams with shorter, more likely lists.
I’m excited for the season, not many teams you can envision a bunch of things nor working out and still being in the play off hunt, but I left off injury concerns. Take the packers. The list is 0 items long. Add in injuries, it is 1 item long, does Rodgers stay healthy through the season/post season. If that stays true they are are a contender.
And I think our item number 3 is a doozy, that even I myself haven’t critically examined. I’ve been pretty optimistic and completely disregarded a world in which it doesn’t come together to be a tremendous upgrade.
I am certain Agholor will have a career year.
But this is to win the SB. To go 10-6 or better I would guess you only need either # 1 or parts of the rest.
I think the patriots have proven there are no football gods.
I will fully admit to being biased, but I don’t understand how anyone can make a prediction that we’re only winning 9 games. I think 9 wins is a pretty comfortable number for me as a FLOOR if Bradford gets seriously hurt, and everything else falls apart.
That’s basically what happened last year and we went 10-6 against a MUCH harder schedule. My expectation is 12-4, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s anywhere between 11-5 and 14-2.
I also think 9-7 is pretty close to the floor. We would have to be decimated by injuries to go any lower.
last year was literally everything going wrong and we still showed glimpses of being good.
Bill Barnwell is horrible. I haven’t seen one intelligent insight from that guy ever.
Is this sarcasm I don’t get? I hope not…I’m with you, I feel like effin Mugatu when I listen all the praise heaped on him. Incorrectly using statistics goes a long way these days…analytics and stuff I guess.
VStarting to worry about Monday night…the line being only 3 really scares me… Home team gets 3 points so If this game were in philly, we would be 6 points better then the Falcons and Its making me uncomfortable… Even if you are down on this Eagles team, it’s mostly because you worry about all these guys staying healthy, but we are healthy going into tbis game, so our injury concern shouldn’t apply going into the Falcons,.. When I look at all the matchups. I don’t understand how we are only 6 points better then this atlanta and its making me uncomfortable….. I’m hoping this is just because of the uncertainty that comes with week 1, but we are a nightmare matchup for this atlanta team
..
For starters, the interior of their OL has issues, trading for Levitre last week, they keep playing musical chairs with the center position… Cox. thornton, and Bennie should be a nightmare match up for the interior of the Falcons OL..
..
We are an Elite run defense matching up against an OL with issues and average at best RBs…if our OFfense continues scoring in the 1st quarter, it shouldn’t be Long before we force Atlanta to become 1 dimensional and pass the ball 50 Times….. most teams are going to try to test our Nickel and Dime corners, but I doubt the Falcons OL can block our,pass rush without keeping TEs in to block so I don’t see Atlanta being the team that puts 4 WRs on the field and spreads us out because Matt Ryan will get killed if the go 4 WRs..
..
For a team that’s going to be forced,to throw 50 times, they really don’t have many dangeous weapons besides Julio.. Stick Maxwell on Julio, or put NOlan on him with Safety support over top, and trust that Maxwell can handle old man Roddy on his own…
..
IMO we are on another level from this 6 win Atlanta team.. For Atlanta to stand a chance they have to force turnovers and Devin Hester needs to score on ST.. Easier said then done against our ST…. doubt that Maragos, Braman. tutu and the boys łet HEster run wild on us..
.,
Defensively they aren’t anything special. Shede Hageman is in year 2, Rookie edge rusher Vic Beasley needs to spend this yeàr putting on weight. If they dare stick the undersized rookie in front of Jason Peters, run directly at him at least 15 times…. Desmond Trufant is one of my favorite young corners, but he will be on the outside matched up with Huff or wasting his talemts on Coop while Jordan and Sproles torch the middle of their defense..
..
I’ll chalk up only being 6 points better thein Thisis group of Chumps due to week 1 uncertainty… But the way we matchup with this Atlanta team, we should win by double digits…. Hopefully we steamroll them the way we did Monday night in Washington to start the 2013 season, instead of playing down to the level of the Jags inferior talemt like we did in the first half of the Jags game to start last season
I really don’t see Atlanta as being as bad as the record indicated.
and as dallas proved, you only need one weapon receiver and he can score 3 TDS. but we are better there now, but Julio is scary no matter who is on defense.
matt ryan is pretty decent too.
but hey I am worried about every game no matter who we play.
and turf sucks!
I think Atlanta Wins 6 games this year and picks in the top 10 Of the next draft again…. They are average AT BEST on both sides of the trenches.. Some weaknesses can be overcome, being weak to average in the trenches ISNT one of them… Our front 7 is better then last years front 7 that led the league in fumbles and were #2 in sacks against a mess of an Atlanta OL
if we can really get in ryans face and dominate the line we can do really well.
Cox and Logan are a terrible week 1 matchup for Atlantas Interior line. That OL is pathetic. They traded for Levitre and let him keep his big contract out of desperation, and they are working out always injured Jake Long.. Their center is a joke!.. Our front 3 should cause a ton of chaos Monday night…, hopefully our offense helps the defense by scoring early, pressuring Atllantas offense to try and keep up
First game, odds likely to be out of wack. But will say that our secondary is still suspect, we gave up the second most passing yds in the league in pre-season and that Matt Ryan / Julio connection is real, he could pop off for 200yds. That said i think we’ll blow them out. I can’t wait for 4quarters of sammy b dropping dimes.
I hate that we play monday.
ok i’ll go with that.
Rookie HC (defense guy), new OC starting rookie RB. I expect Shanahan to call pass often because he knows he’ll only get yards on the ground if he has us concerned about pass. Strong pass rush is called for. On the other side, this could be a game where TOP is actually in Eagles favor. They will miss Reed, and Eagles should get Atlanta’s back 5 worried about our ground game. Eagles offense more of a sure thing than Atlanta’s.
I think it’s just week one. Which is bizarro-football. When explainable things happen that seem to be completely disjoint from the rest of the season.
I can accept that.. Week 1 is always crazy… But if it was like week 7 and we were as healthy as we are now and Vegas only had us at 6 points better then this team I would be fearing an upset right now..
…
Play a clean game this week.dont give them a couple turnovers and don’t let their special teams unit give them a boost and we should be fine..
..,
QUESTION: How many of the Falcons offensive players besides Julio(obviously better then Coop) would start ahead of our current eagle starters? Lol not many!!!!
The only piece that you could build a case for is Matt Ryan. Guards maybe? No one else is really worth considering.
People suddenly have hope for their D because of a few new pieces and new coaching, but they forget just how abysmal that D was. At best they can hope for competence, anything more would be unprecedented, which shouldn’t be good enough against us.
Their guards suck . Curb stomp these frauds
I don’t give a flying flip what some idiots in Vegas think.
That’s nice
Vegas odds are, in many ways, “wisdom of crowds”. They tend to reflect where money has been bet by the public and as such, can be a better predictor of results than the vast majority of individual experts.
I disagree with the general logic involved there. I don’t think the fact that it’s an aggregate of opinions of the general public necessarily makes it more worthwhile.
No, the vast majority of the public actually fall within the bell curve, with half of them being above average intelligence and half of them being below average intelligence. What you mean to say is that the average person is an idiot relative to yourself.
I laid down some good money on the Eagles covering. Week 1 is where you can make money betting on underdogs though, the science isn’t as good as it gets later in the season.
I don’t gamble..but I hear you,,,
As ODNS states below, it’s all about the money.
You spent a lot of words worrying about a gambling line. Hope it was theraputic for you.
Sal Pal is such a blowhard…. How bad did he rip chip kelly all offseason? After every move Sal Pal ran his mouth about how chip didn’t know what he was doing as a GM and how he was making terrible news..
..
fast forward a few months, about 18 bradford pass attempts later and this blowhard now has the audacity to compare Dhalsim Bradford to friggin Joe Montana? Smh,…what a tool… Rather have everyone bad mouth us, doubt us and write us off allowing us to fly under the radar as much as possible. Thankfully there are still some Heath Evans Morons out there..
There were plenty of people screaming bloody murder when Foles was traded. Plenty of people laughing at Chip’s incompetence. I am more dumbfounded by the ones that don’t admit even a stirring of curiosity yet and are sticking to the hardline.
At least Sal saw the error of his ways. That puts him ahead of the curve for reporters.
Joe Montana? Really? I’m passionate and excited about my eagles too, but Joe Mon-friggin-Tana? Come on…
Well, yeah. Perhaps his pendulum swung a bit too far the other way.
Bedard has us going 12-4, which is good, but losing to the Falcons and Cardinals. That’s unacceptable.
we have to win both of those games I agree, anything less is unacceptable.
remember we almost could have started 0-2 last year, but thanks to sproles we were 2-0.
Trouble in rainy Paradise…
..
Teams all start getting ready for Sunday’s games, and Kam Chancellor still hasn’t joined his teammates who were asked what they think Kam will end up doing, and some apparently seem to think he will hold out all year which is pretty crazy and not something we see every year.
..
And I’m not so sure Seattle is going to give in. How could they? They can’t make an exception for a guy with 3 years left on his deal, especially at a crucial time in their franchise were everyone is trying to get paid and they have to Try and keep as many of their core players here longterm..how can they afford to make an exception for a guy with 3 years left on his deal, when guys like Bennett are also trying to get new deals? I don’t see how Seattle can give in to Kams demands, and if he is crazy enough to start missing games when he has 3 years left on his deal, it’s a major blow to that franchise who’s window is already starting to close with beastmodes career coming to an end..
..
Saints got seattles first round pick and their starting center for Jimmy Graham.. Trading for Kam won’t be cheap, and you can trade for him without giving him a new deal that will make him happy, so I don’t see the Eagles doing what it takes to get one of my favorite players into philly, but hopefully he doesn’t end up with one of our division rivals like the Giants who have the worst safeties in the league..
..
Apparently Dion Sims can play, but even if he has a bright future, he isn’t ready to play at Kams level. Losing Kam might be worse for Seattle then Losimg Jordy is for GB..
Would you do Rowe and next year’s 1st? Purely for the sake of argument.
Cammy isn’t a scheme fit unfortunately + you’re going to have to pay draft consideration + pay Cam more $$. I’d love to have an extra starting corner though or maybe a solid nickelback
90% confident Kelly would never come close to offering that. He clearly appreciates the value of rookie contracts.
He is the same kind of player as Landon Collins and I think if the Eagles wanted that type they would have drafted him.
Sure. Rowe ain’t Revis and how good a player can you really hope to get at #32?
No… Kam will require a new contract. Paying him big money, losing Rowe and next years #1, when we probably have to give the Rams our #2nd round pick is too rich for my blood, even for one of my favorites like Kam..
..
I expect to be quiet in free agency next year while we are busy extending our own players, if we aren’t going to use free agency to improve, need to hold on to our 1st round picks
I don’t want a guy who holds out less that half way through the deal he signed. Either enjoy the security of a long term deal or accept the risk to renegotiate often. But honor your choice.
Asking for a new deal when you have 3 years left on your contract and you know it’s other teammates time to get paid before you is absurd…you start redoing contracts with 3 years left on them where does it stop?
..
Sounds like he is serious about missing NFL games…Id be willing to eliminate his fines if he returned to practice but if he misses a real game, I would Make him pay the fine for every single day he didn’t show up to camp.. 3 years left on a deal and you may sit out a season? Who’s giving Kam Chancellor career advice? Evan Mathis?
probably felt like a fool for not getting max $$ when everyone else did. Will say a a team will 100% cut you 3years into a 6yr deal,
I’m fine with Kam going to NY. Seahawks probably more of a threat this year than the Giants, even with Kam they are not a good team.
Kam to the Giants hurts NY longterm (and they’ll still suck this year) and the Seahawks short term (which is more important to the Eagles this season).
Bloviating guy up there is too full of beans to realize that.
No one player will turn the Giants into a scary team. They need a lot more then a safety.. Still I would rather not see Great players join our rivals…out of all the teams in the NFL I would prefer him NOT going to our rivals
..
Seattle would get at least a first round pick from the Giants if not two first rounders or a 1 and a 3…, Seattle will soon reach a point where the current window will close (Lynch retiring, not being able to extend guys like Bennert and JR sweezy, Bruce Irvin and they will have to try and “retool on the fly” to remain contenders… If Seattle trades Kam, I do NOT want them to trade Kam to a bad team because the first round pick Seattle will end up getting would be close to a top 10 pick from a bad team like the Giants.. I’d rather see Kam go to a team picking in the 20’s because my nightmare would be, Lynch retiring and the Giants giving Seattle a high enough pick to replace Lynch with the Monster RB from Ohio state…
..
Ideally Kam joins an AFC team like the Colts so the pick Seattle gets won’t be high enough to get zeke Elliot, which is my nightmare
how can Seattle cut a new deal? you answered yourself, b/c their window is going to close.
We are apparently still looking for a QB. We tried out Thad Lewis and Josh Johnson this week.
we’d had that in before, last year i think. Did we keep 4 last year? 3 + 1 on the PS?
Kinne was the 4th on the PS but also got reps at other positions and on STs.
Please elaborate. This is since signing Morris?
Yes, this happened today.
Thanks.
Free agent QBs Josh Johnson and Thaddeus Lewis worked out for the Eagles on Tuesday.
Coach Chip Kelly is updating his emergency list. For now, Stephen Morris is sticking on the roster behind Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez.
Thank you, Ryan. Who is reporting this?
Sure thing boss. Appears to be Field Yates. Link below..
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/641356106602668033
with all of this talk about the patriots going on, i can’t help but think…
Chip and Belichick are pretty close, right? what is one of the first “new” things we see from Chip on the sideline? the crazy way they send the plays to the defense – a lot of guys, including some decoys.
makes me wonder if Chip knew what Belichick was up to and immediately took steps to protect his team from another team spying on the defensive signal calling.
(not saying that having a guy watch the other team during the game and watching their signals for trends is against the rules, it is not as far as i know)
The signal thing goes back to college (#collegecoach), but that’s not to say protecting the calls isn’t part of it.
i know that Belichick and Chip were friendly while Chip was still coaching at Oregon. Wonder if there is a correlation between Chip meeting Belichick to talk football strategy and Chip starting this defensive signal calling.
If I recall correctly isn’t the reason Bellicheat wanted to meet with chip to learn how Oregon was able to play so fast and learn chips system of signals and 1’word play calling? Wasnt chip being invited to Foxborough before that season where the Pats used the hurry up offense all year?
..
We travel to Foxborough this year, a place infamous for all types of cheating occurring, Jamming opponents communications and all types of cheating… Chip is always prepared, he would never make it public, but I’m curious to find out if chip makes any special changes for the trip to Foxborough,,,take any special precautions against cheating the Pats might try when they host us?
This was all Chip getting inside to interact with Bill to collect info/intel to turn the tables on him.
former-hawkeye-tyler-sash-dead-at-27 R.I.P.
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/former-hawkeye-tyler-sash-dead-at-27-20150908?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
thats crazy. sounds like they don’t know much about what happened other than foul play is not suspected.
Scott Reister @scottreister 3h3 hours ago
Just confirmed terrible news Tyler Sash has passed. Found at home 8 this morning by family member who came to walk dog. Can’t confirm cause
We are fine in that regard. Herremans, Cole, Mathis gone and replaced with younger talent. Chip has a plan and it involves younger guys on rookie deals for sure. Today as I write this I am certain in my head that the Patriots cheated us in the super bowl. Having been a fan of the NFL for 40+ years, NEVER in my life have I seen a team call the perfect play over and over again against another teams Defense. The patriots cheated then and now. The NFL found out about it but other than vacating Lombardi trophies nothing substantial could be done except to sweep under the rug with a small fine and draft picks. The evidence was destroyed for no reason other than it would have destroyed the credibility of the games. Brady was not exonerated in deflate gate. The process was found to be flawed but all of us know what happened. We just don’t know for how long it was happening. Both Brady and his coach should never be in the HOF and I believe that their punishments were far too lenient. I can honestly say as I write this that I hope Brady is injured this year. And I am a doctor.
While Gardner and Barbre are younger then Mathis and Herremans their age coupled with Peter’s is still going to force us to considerably address OL in the draft next year or possibly FA. Mofffit wasn’t a spring chicken but I was really hoping he would work out for us. Just couldn’t knock the rust off. I think our scheme along the OL didn’t help him out much either because he is more of a power guy then athletic O linemen.
I think its ok that we draft OL in the next draft. We can grab one in rnd 1 and then maybe one is the 4th or something. I thunk we should spend another on a secondary player as well. Other than that, what needs do we have? Maybe OLB? This team is really taking shape.
I think the OL can use depth and/or an upgrade at the OG. Some depth at OLB,S and CB as well.
I would actually love to invest in G with our multiple mid round picks unless there is a tackle or maybe event dominant G that can someday switch to RT in the 1st.
What I would love to see is a pass rushing OLB in the first. It’s not because I think Smith will be or is a failure. I actually think Smith could develop into a more athletic version of Barwin and eventually be his successful replacement. The Jack position best fits him, not the predator position.
I am worried about the predator position not necessarily due to fear of injury but because I think the predator position is most effective when there is some type of rotation. As a tackle battling 2 relatively fresh guys is alot harder the battling one that towards the later stages is getting tired. The T also will get used to ones style and then may be caught off guard by the others. Sort of like pitching where you throw fast balls and then fool the batter with a curveball.
I do worry that BG may not be as effective as a full time starter that doesn’t have much of a rotation backing him up. When Cole was hurt for the last two games last year BG simply just did not look as effective as a full time starter and the pass rush suffered because of it.
I just think having another pass rusher will mean that this D can really soar as long as the secondary is improved in which it seems.
Alot of it has to do with Curry’s future with this team as well. If he leaves after this season then I do think you are absolutely forced to draft a pass rusher unless you land a good one in FA which will be very expensive.
I agree. I was a little frustrated when Chip passed on Bud Dupree but we’ll see how Agholor plays. I also would have liked us to invest in Fua out of BYU. I think both could have been options for an early or late OLB. Im excited to start scouting for OL, S and CB this next year again. I think Geathers will end up being the best saftey in this class. I was gaga over him and excited to see how he does.
Dupree would have been nice, but I’m not sure if I would have taken him over Agholor upon reviewing it all.
I think it was actually me and you debating over Perriman or Strong. You wanted Strong I wanted Perriman.
I was initially surprised and angered after the Agholor pick. Most of that was due to lack of knowledge regarding him. I really think he has the chance to possibly be the second best WR coming out of that draft possibly immediately but also in the future.
I would have liked the Dupree pick as well. However with the departure of Maclin, the ineffectiveness of Cooper, Huffs disappointing rookie season (at times showing flashes), and lack of any other good receiver on the team besides Mathews I understand the pick upon further review.
WR was simply more pressing of a need at the time over OLB. The argument could be made that the draft was deep at WR. Perfectly true, but we needed a WR that wouldn’t need that much of an adjustment compared to other rookie WRs. Agholor fit that bill being arguably the most NFL ready WR in the draft class. I also think he fits perfectly as to what Kelly is looking for in his scheme.
While Dupree would have been a really good pick as well I think Agholor may have been the slightly better pick. Time will tell though.
Lol I am happy that we didn’t select Perriman or Strong though.
Strong in the 3rd was a complete steal.
Ehhhh… I guess this goes back to our discussion from March or early April. Then I would have agreed with you that him in the 3rd is a steal.
However I am more down on him now then before. He hasn’t exactly had a good off season even by rookie standards. Him showing up to I believe it was OTAs over weight really turned me away. That is something you do have to question. It’s the equivalent of showing up to your first day of your office job dressed in a wife beater and basketball shorts without bringing any of the office gear you may need.
Talks between the Giants and “stumpy” Pierre Paul have broken down!! JPP thinks he is ready to play Sunday, Giants want stumpy to go on non-football injury list missing the first half of the season with No Pay..
..
Greedy JPP played hardball when it was time to sign his big money deal, and then proceeded to blow his fingers off..finally he let the Giants see his hand, and now he is being asked to forfeit his pay for half a season.,, being Greedy
Never pays in the long run.. JPP is finding that out now..
..
How much longer til the Giants and Stumpy officially part ways?
I usually have pretty high tolerance for this stuff, but calling someone who lost a finger (and counts on it for a living) “stumpy” seems kind of mean.
I guess a joke makes me a “meanie” then….
.l
Out of respect I won’t say what I think about people who make an issue out of a joke
..
You are welcome to not read my posts… Just tap that minimize button at the top right of my posts and they will disapear from your screen… problem solved.. Good day
If you didn’t post at all, it would make it easier on all of us.
Well I just learned there is a minimize button for posts. Have been reading and commenting on this site since 2010 I believe and I never noticed it. Not saying I’m going to minimize your posts, (for the most part I find them knowledgeable) just saying I never knew it was there.
Yeah the minimize feature is pretty awesome,, once I realized that button was there, it made this site much more enjoyable… For those that haven’t noticed, I usually only respond to the same few people each day, I don’t even see half the posts lol..
..
By now, you should know which regulars you respect and get value out of interacting with. No reason to waste time seeing crap from he same trashy fools that bring nothing to the table. Minimize posts as soon as you see the name, and let them roll around in the mud with soe other fool… It’s the anti Troll feature,
i think he stayed away long enough b/c giants were always going to put him on PUP, whether out of spite or precaution
What did staying away solve? Now they are 5 days from the start of the season and having to deal with drama…
He can’t be put on the PUP list because until he signs the tender, he isn’t technically a signed member of the team. And because he never signed it, they couldn’t put him on the NFI list either, which is why he waited until this week to show them his hand. He’s no longer eligible for the NFI list. They either pay him the whole year, or don’t pay him at all.
Junior, you are just too easy to troll.
Good news or bad news???
..
the Good news is there is a report saying Ertz has been cleared to practice..
..
Bad news is it comes from jackass ESP and I can’t find anyone else confirming it yet…
.,,
Of course just because he is cleared to return, doesn’t necessarily mean he will be ready to play on Monday…be great to see Zack ready to go for game 1.
..
This morning Mufasa claimed that he is playing in Atlanta..
I convinced my friend down here in Florida who is not to familiar with the Eagles because he is naturally a Phins fan to pick up Ertz in FF. He was skeptical simply due to the fact that he like most non Eagles fans is not to familiar with Ertz. He is now pissed because according to Yahoo (the FF service his league used) Ertz is out against ATL. I barely put any credit to the report but I am starting to believe that Ertz may not be ready for week 1. We will see though.
While Burton is not on Ertzs level I do believe that he has enough talent that it may be best to play it safe and give Ertz another week and have him rest untill week 2.
I have no problem sitting Ertz against Atlanta, but if he sits,I hope it’s because he isn’t in shape yet, Instead of missimg the game because he hasn’t been cleared yet…
..
“it’s a Marathon, not a sprint”…
Agree on all accounts.
From BGN:
“When Spygate broke, some of the Eagles now believed they had an answer for a question that had vexed them since they lost to the Patriots 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX: How did New England seem completely prepared for the rarely used dime defense the Eagles deployed in the second quarter, scoring touchdowns on three of four drives? The Eagles suspected that either practices were filmed or a playbook was stolen. “To this day, some believe that we were robbed by the Patriots not playing by the rules … and knowing our game plan,” a former Eagles football operations staffer says.”
I really wish there was a name to this quote. Not that I don’t believe it.
Why? Thie is old news. eagles playërs felt this way since the game.. Heck the steelers playërs made a ton of noise about how Patriots shouldn’t have even played in that Super Bowl necause in the AFC championship game, Patriots defenders were literally calling out Puttsburgw offensive plays before the steelers QB even told the plays to the teammates in the huddle.. Jerome Bettis and multiple steelers playërs said this on the air..
..
I also heard (off the record) that the Patriots filmed T.O running routes the week of the Super Bowl..
..
It’s a disgrace. The league made a bigger issue out of deflated balls then spygate… Also heard rumor that Goodell helped sweep Deflategate Under the rug because it would have significantly effected the new TV deals that were being negotiated..
..
All this has been known for years, this report just says that it was on an even bigger scale then what was reported
…
Do we really need a new report to know that they cheated their asses off?
Why do you need a specific name for that? It’s common sense from all the reports the organization talked about it.
What sucks is that Bellicheat escaped Deflate-gate without being connected to it… After bellicheat was fined 500k for SPYGATE, if the NFL could have connected Bellicheat to deflate gate, at the very least Bellicheat would have been suspended for an entire season, if not longer….. Which is pretty much why Bellicheat had to throw Tom under the bus telling the media To go ask Tom about it…. If evidence surfaces connecting Bellichek to Those deflated footballs, he will be in serious trouble
As far as spy gate you are aware that video taping from the sidelines was perfectly legal up untill the 2007 season in which during that offseason it then became illegal?
It became a problem when they did it the first game of the season when the rule was first enforced against the Jets.
Video taping to this day is still perfectly legal as long as it is not done from the sideline.
So yes, NE cheated during the first game of the 2007 season. They were promptly caught and punished.
Anything before that was not cheating and was justly done under the rules. Do you really think other teams didn’t do it? Cowher came straight out and said he did it.
The whole spy gate thing is very media driven for attention and viewer ship. It preys on the average fans emotions and lack of knowledge of the subject. Why do you think after nearly 10 years it has suddenly surfaced with such a force right after this whole deflategate thing?
Regarding deflategate. Another enormously driven media instance that was horribly handled by the NFL and Goodell specifically. What made it worse was how the NFL handled it allowed the media to pursue it even harder. Misinformation was presented to the media in which they (specifically ESPN) ran with it, and once it was found to be untrue or not really or properly proved they never issued a statement or correction on those said facts. Again heavily pursued, at times misconstrued, to prey on the average persons lack of knowledge of the situation or emotions leading to massive attention, clicks, and viewer ship.
Do you honestly think that deflating footballs has not been done by other teams and QBs? It has probably been done more times then anyone can possibly count or keep track of. After seeing what has happened any QB would be nuts to admit he has done it. Past or present player.
That being said, Rodgers early in the process did come out and say he likes his footballs over inflated. That statement was largely ignored.
I don’t like the Patriots but in all reality they haven’t done much that other teams haven’t done. It’s all largely media driven without the public knowing the full and true facts. Just simply look at the timeline of these stories and you can see that.
We didn’t lose the Super bowl by any account to them cheating. The video taping they did at that time period was perfectly under the rules. Just like the eligible OL during the Baltimore game last year. BB was smart enough to take advantage of something that was allowed but unlike the video taping just wasn’t thought of. That’s the sign of a good coach, not a cheater.
I am not saying you said we lost the SB because of that. I am just simply throwing it out there.
Furthermore this is on the NFL and specifically Goodell just as much as it is on the media. They grossly mishandled situations and never attempted to lay the facts out. Goodell with the lack of addressing facts has allowed the media to dive in it and have a field day. By doing so he has done the exact opposite of what he claims he is all about which is protecting the integrity of the game. To me part of integrity is honesty and stating what is true and what isn’t, and letting the general public know the full facts of all of it. He has horribly failed at that and continues to do so.
For what it is worth, the Eagles finished 1st in 2013 and 4th in 2014 according to the Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Games Lost (AGL) metric
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2015/2014-adjusted-games-lost
It would be easy enough to run a correlation between this stat and the team roster age by year.
Kind of funny to see the pathetic steelers defense running their mouth, talking trashy out how they know how to stop Gronk.. SMH poor simple bastards… As if Pyscho Tom and the Pats won’t be fired up enough on Thursday night, a crappy defense has the audacity to give the Pats bulletin board material?
..
I don’t know if I should congratulate boykin for making his outside corner debut or If I should feel sorry for him this week?
surprised I didn’t see this one on here yet. Shady speaks:
1. “McCoy said “I think Murray’s good, but I don’t see him as competition as far as the best backs. I like my game a lot.” ”
2. ““[Ryan] lets you be a man. He won’t say, ‘Be in bed at ten o’clock,’ or
check your sleep. He’s just like: Be professionals,” McCoy told the
magazine.”
I guess he’s trying to get the McNabb treatment.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/09/08/lesean-mccoy-demarco-murray/
Better than insinuating that Chip is racist
In fairness Shady is right. Murray isn’t a competitor as far as the best RB goes…Theres no competition in winning the rushing title in dominant fashion.
I knew it was try sleep m monitors! These guys are millionaires they sing want fucking sleepiing principals
JJ Watt talks about the importance of sleeping 10 hours a night(which is more then chip asks) because that’s what Olympic athletes do…. Find 53 players that don’t mind sleeping like world class Athletes! JJ Watt a millionaire goes to bed at 8PM because he wants to be great. 8pm!!!!! I hope every player like shady that has a problem with this gets kicked to the curb.. Wish my boss insisted on me sleeping 8 hours a night.
Gardner 3 year extension, signed thru 2018.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2015/9/8/9284381/eagles-andrew-gardner-contract-extension-right-guard-offensive-line-details
Guess they must be happy with him. I wonder if the still look to upgrade the position during the draft
I really hope they draft an OT that is a bit of a project. Someone with the tools there, but needing some technical growth, etc.
A guy who can come in and play OG right away but move to OT later?
I hope not. We have been down that road. I want a guy like Clemings (minus the injury concerns). A guy who is a guard, nothing else, and good enough that it is enough
his 3-yrd deal is worth less than Mathis was making per year.
Who said anything about Mathis
just saying that K super cheap,
Yeah, I get that. I’m just curious to see if we take any OL early next year.
yeah i don’t think the K means anything, not spending any money on him – probably more like an “option”.
NICE!!!
3 years under 5 million with incentives to make it higher? Sounds pretty can’t lose.
Unless, of course, he takes a page from Kam and holds out tomorrow now that he only has three years left…
Hope this means he’s playing well
On one hand, this is bad news for the Eagles. Philadelphia only receives Pittsburgh’s fourth round draft pick if Boykin plays at least 60% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps. If Boykin isn’t in the top three, there’s a very good chance he won’t play enough to fulfill that condition. Therefore, the Eagles are likely to only receive a fifth round pick for Boykin.
On the other hand, maybe this is a sign Boykin isn’t good enough to get on the field on a more regular basis and the Eagles made a good deal by trading him away. Especially considering Boykin was on the last year of his contract.
It’s not like Boykin is buried behind great players, either. He’s stuck behind the likes ofWilliam Gay, Antwon Blake, and Cortez Allen.
One could argue the Eagles would still be better off with Boykin right now. The team currently doesn’t have an answer at the nickel position after trading him away and seeingJaCorey Shepherd, his potential replacement, go down with a season-ending injury.
But what’s done is done. Boykin is gone and he’s not even starting.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2015/9/8/9284671/brandon-boykin-pittsburgh-steelers-trade-eagles-cornerback-starting-nickel-outside
I was counting on that being a 4th. So does that make Boykin #justadime now?
Last year, steelers Nickel CB played 60%’of the snaps.
..
Have you seen the Steelers DBs? NOT Very Good!… Boykin should see the field plenty, as long as he doesn’t get hurt,… And if we don’t get the 4th round pick, it’s not the end of the world becayse chip wipes his ass with 4th and 5th round picks: Barkley? Wolff? Watkins? reynolds?.. Missing out on another one of these players isn’t the end of the world. But with as bad as that steelers secondary as, Id be pretty surprised if we don’t see plenty of boykin..
..
I’d rather still have Boykin, even if you just want to sit him on the bench as insurance for the year… But it’s water under the bridge
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Daily_News_Agenda_Eagles_optimism_reigns.html
Concensus 11-5 and everyone seems really upbeat. I can’t remember a time when 15 passes from a QB in the preseason changed the perceptions of a team this much.
14/15 3tds no sacks is pretty amazing, but still it was very limited play.
Well, we were 10-6 for 2 straight years with arguably a better run game and defense this year. Regardless of qb, we may just get to 11-5.
Surprised PHil sims isn’t ripping us this year. Inside NFL rankings:
Boomer:
1) Seattle
2) GB
3) Eagles
4) Cowboys
.
Phil Sims:
1) Packers
2) Cowboys
3) Seattle
4) Eagles
…
Pretty shocked to hear PHil Simms talk well about us, I figured he would be taking shots at Bradfords durability and all the changes, but he actually made a joke ripping all the analysts that said chip didnt know what he was doing… I couldn’t believe my ears…. His smart pills then wore off and he said the colts are not a top 5 AFC team
Didnt he call tje Eagles offense a bottom 5 unit a few years ago? Schmuck.
I would imagine every time Phil saw Foles he would seethe with anger that Napolean Dynamite was more successful than the fruit of his own loins.