RB Drama
Posted: December 11th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 201 Comments »LeSean McCoy doesn’t want to shake Chip Kelly’s hand.
DeMarco Murray wants to go back to Dallas.
Eldra Buckley just wants someone to talk about him, in Philly or Dallas.
I don’t mean to pick on Eldra. He was a good role player in his time with the Eagles. I just needed a somewhat forgotten RB to make my bad joke work.
Let’s start with Murray, since he’s a current Eagle. He met with the media today for the first time since the report came out that he had a conversation with Jeff Lurie. Murray did his best to deflect the situation, saying he was only frustrated with the recent losses.
I don’t think anyone really believes that. Murray had a great year in 2014. His team won and he posted tremendous numbers. This season has been incredibly disappointing. We’re in December and his team only has 5 wins and he’s only got 569 yards. Murray has to be highly frustrated.
I have no issues with him talking to Lurie while on the flight. I have no issues with DeMarco expressing some frustration. My concern lies with Ed Werder’s report. Did Murray or someone in his camp leak that? If so, that’s not ideal. Talking to the owner privately is one thing. Going public is very different. And I don’t know who else would leak that.
Now comes a “report” from PFT that Murray has interest in going back to Dallas. It would make sense. That’s the team where he had his most success. He thrived in that offense, granted Tony Romo was his QB and not Matt Cassel. Of course, there is the small matter of the fact the Eagles paid him big money and the Cowboys didn’t.
Murray’s future is cloudy. First, we need to see how he does the rest of this year. Does Chip Kelly go back to feeding him the ball? Does Chip spread it among the 4 RBs? Cutting Murray doesn’t make financial sense in the offseason, but it is possible things will become so awkward that Chip does that anyway. There is also the possibility of a trade.
We also have to accept the fact Chip can bring Murray back. Chip will know his player better. Murray will know the team and scheme better. If the OL can be improved, Murray could have a bounce-back year with the Eagles.
The next month will tell us a lot about his future.
As for Shady, Chip Kelly dealt with that situation well today. In his PC, Chip explained that Shady left the Eagles feeling disrespected, largely due to the way the trade went down. Chip talked about how the trade didn’t go as planned, which kept him from talking to Shady before it happened. Chip took the blame for that (although it sounded like more of a league issue) and praised Shady as a good player and someone that did everything asked of him for 2 years.
I don’t know if Shady will end up shaking hands with Chip, but he should feel better about the end of things based on what Chip said. Chip praised his former star and took the blame for the awkward ending of McCoy’s time as an Eagle.
Personally, I’m tired of all the drama. I just want to see how the Eagles run the ball on Sunday and how well they do in shutting down Shady.
And somebody needs to find out what Eldra Buckley is up to.
*****
Good news on the injury front. Every Eagle practiced today. The team is getting healthy at the right time of the year.
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I would have gone with Reno Mahe, personally.
Morman bias was the original Duck bias.
It is a real shame that our coaches don’t choose to take my mock draft picks and free agent choices; it would really cut down on the Mormon / Duck problems on this team back to 1999.
Joe Blow brought Correa up and I was really impressed with him as a possibility to bolster the pass rush so I wanted to re-post this here: I was reading your post and thought I might take a look at Correa…… Boy was I impressed. I watched his only game on draftbreakdown and I’d like to offer some thoughts: On the very first play it looks like he got shot out of a cannon and that continues to be a theme throughout his snaps. He is immediately doubled but doesn’t give up, eventually getting off the blocks as the QB scrambles trying to make himself relevant again. I think in general he allows himself to get in too close to the OL but still does a good job of shedding blocks, which is impressive. Around 40 secs he drops into his zone coverage and looks good jamming his receiver as he runs his route. Although the qb still completes to the outside receiver for 6 yards, if Correa doesn’t alter his WR’s route and makes a bee-line to the side line, I fear it would have been a much bigger gain. He looks very comfortable in coverage. As he a pass rusher, he likes to bring the bull and an excellent example is at 1:28 where he drives the LT to the ground (the LT may have gotten tripped but w/e) and runs by him. He makes a TE looks like a rag doll at 1:48. I think he could develop a deadly bull and rip down move a la Graham a few weeks ago. Really has a nice punch move across the OL’s face as well. Not sure if that is legal or not. I saw him try to use a spin move once but it didn’t work well and the play was over to soon to see the final result anyway. Wicked swim move at 2:48 that gets the strip sack. The last thing I’ll say is that once he gets by his guy he shows the ability to square his hips to the line and not get run out of the play. Gets double’d multiple times but his motor is full go 100% of the time. Overall a very quick twitch athlete with explosive speed off the ball. I think he has a very good power set already with a decent array of pass rush moves. He seems more than capable in coverage. I think he is decent in run support although sometimes he can get too far into the OL’s body. Also size may be a problem, he is listed at 6’3″ 250 but I’m not entirely sure I buy that and I’m not sure how much more weight he could put on. Another 15 lbs? Perhaps. In summation this guys looks interesting and I had a good time watching him. I would say round 2-4 depending on height and weight is a great estimate.
cant cut him, and will another team even want to trade for that contract? murray will have to play better for that happen.
Cap goes up 10 mil next year. if we have to cut him we can absorb it. It would no doubt be an admission of a huge mistake, but it is what it is. There are ways to create cap space if needed.
$7, $7,5, $7.5, $7.5 salary numbers for 2016-2019 and the only remaining guarantees in the deal are a fully guaranteed 2016 and $2 mil in guarantees in 2017.
Dallas isn’t in the best shape for the 2016 cap. Carr, Witten, Scandrick, and Free look like the most lucrative contracts for a cut.
They could choose to fit Murray under that cap if they wanted to make almost all of his 2016 salary a bonus and/or do some strategic cutting.
that 7 million guaranteed for 2016 is a lot to just cut tho.. doubt dallas trades for him.
if I am Murray I would shut up and try to earn more snaps on offense by making things happen when his number is called. if he is cut due to performing poorly here he will have to sign a 1 yr prove it deal elsewhere with a massive pay cut. It is in his best interest to STFU and play hard. Meanwhile, if we have to cut him and take that cap penalty next year then so be it. The cap is going up about 10 Million for 2017 so we can absorb it if need be. Mistakes will be made when trying to go from good to great. We are all fools if we thought in year one as chip the GM we were going to be great. The only way that was going to happen was if Sam Bradford came here and played as an Elite QB all year long. He happened to look elite in a few quarters in limited play in Pre-Season so we all got our hopes up that this was going to be a special year. I don’t think anyone would argue that point. Bradford is only just now starting to look more like an above average QB based on his last several games he played from start to finish. We will need to address the O-line with at least 2 starting quality players get a deep WR threat and help at OLB and secondary along with above average to great QB play in order to become an elite/great team. I am still willing to give Chip time to get that done. In the meantime why not win this pathetic division, get a home game and root for the Birds to extend the season a bit into January. We all know we have to address these issues even if they were to win the NFC Least and even a home wildcard playoff game so why not learn about our current roster and try to enjoy the home stretch now that the Eagles gave us a huge surprise last week vs. NE.
If we cut him we hand him a $9 million dollar check for guaranteed salary due to him in 2016 and 2017. He’d still get $3-5 million in salary from his new team.
Trust me, financial consequences aren’t a deterrent for Murray
I agree. He can start by lowering his shoulder n bringing the pain like Mathews instead of running out of bounds. I just don’t understand how he can play like a wuss on game day then moan to the owner. Those years in Dallas must have infected his mind. Bradford is playing much better. can’t wait to see him after a full off season of training n conditioning.
Murray can’t be cut, so I’m sure it’s the last thng he is worried about. It’s cheaper to bring him back next year than to cut him.
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But Yes, if he starts to produce, chip will keep feeding him and all this drama dissapears, so hopefully he starts the bills game off strong
Murray should be as fired up as Shady in this game. He has a lot to prove and this would be the right stage for a big performance. I think he will get a lot of reps in the second half, especially if the Eagles get a lead.
I am with you 100%. Chip, Murray, and Bradford will all be back next year, so let’s hope Chip does a better job at GM, Murray improves behind a better line, and Bradford reaches second tier QB level. Yes, that’s a lot to hope for. Also Agholor is much improved in his second year and Kiko regains his speed in the second year removed from an ACL. I don’t get fans who wish the birds will completely tank so Chip is fired and we get higher draft choices. I want to see the birds play in January and let the rest sort itself out.
It’s going to be Rowe on Watkins this weekend. #mismatch.
If anything it favors Rowe. Watkins has honestly been nothing special. Not this year and not last year.
watch him run routes, just needs someone to pass to him.
Um.
Just because someone was drafted high and has good measurables doesn’t mean they play well on Sunday.
Watkins started slow but lately has stepped it up. He has been great lately, especially on the deep ball. Fortunately Rowe seems good against the deep ball.
25th ranked horrendous bills pass blocking OL vs our Ferocious front 7.. MISMATCH!!!!
Great Point. Fletch may be feasting again this game. That game against NE might have woken up this D line. Hopefully we see a lot of Curry too.
can someone help clarify for me how the draft order works? i get that its based off records but say the eagles go 8-8 this season and make playoffs due to winning our division and another team with a 9-7 record doesn’t even make wildcard who would pick higher than who in the draft? does it purely come down to record or does making playoffs play a role? also if teams have the same record what is the next deciding factor?
Playoff teams draft 21-32, with wildcard losers drafting 21-24, division round losers 25-28, etc. non playoff teams draft 1-20. tiebreaker goes by record, the worse record gets better draft slot. If same record then next tiebreaker is strength of schedule, where worse strength of schedule gets better draft slot. I think when a tiebreaker of strength of schedule is used then the order of those teams flop each subsequent round.
I really thought there was a coin toss in there too
If SOS is the same then teams flip a coin at the combine to determine order.
They should let the GMs arm wrestle for it.
Edit:
Or better yet a best of three events challenge.
Arm Wrestle
40 yrd dash
Dart throwing
Know we know why Howie had to go
Tradng McCoy for cap reasons, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Contradicts everything said in the off-season about McCoy not fitting the system, not being enough of a downhill runner. Yes, I’m bitter
Shadys 750 yds vs murrays 550… save 4 million
Actually chip maintained that he was traded because of the money when the trade happened. You Can’t find a single sentence of chip saying Shady didn’t fit his scheme.. The media drew that conclusion, it didn’t come from chips mouth. Since the trade happened, chip consistentky said it was about the money,and how we were able to get 3 guys for Shady’s money: KIKO, Ryan and Murray combined are less than Shady’s cap hit would have been
I don’t know if you guys realize this, but the cap applies to 2016 and beyond. We may have saved some money this year by trading McCoy but next year Murray will cost just as much as McCoy, and more than him in 2017 if he’s even still here. I can overlook some fans not thinking in those terms, but not Kelly. He’d better know this and be thinking about it.
What is the point of saving cap money this year, to then not win anything? For a one year rental of a quarterback? Chip bungled this deal in so many ways and if he means what he says about his cap considerations, then he needs remedial cap education ASAP.
He’s also sending the message to his players that the contract they sign means nothing, they could be cut to save money even when they are playing well. To cut an underperforming player, that’s an NFL reality, players know this may happen. To be cut even when they’re performing well, to save a bit of change? That should make any smart person wary of signing with the Eagles.
Trade Murray to Dallas.
Use $ savings to invest in O-line
Assemble running back group of Mathews-Sproles-Mostert-Tucker-Josey-draft pick-UDFA for camp to compete for RB spots on team.
I’m not sure if all of Murray’s dead money in 2016 against the cap is transferrable to another team. The guaranteed money paid would be transferred to the new team, but the eagles might still have to take at least a portion of the $13 million cap hit, which could probably be split across two years. Any salary cap experts out there?
So what r the running backs in the draft n free agency that fit Chip’s criteria… i.e. one cut n hit the hole, doesn’t go down on first contact, durable, blocks well and is totally invested in the team n looking to win? Did I forget anything?
Doubt we draft a RB, maybe the following year. Murray and Mathews most likely will be back, I assume chip wants to bring back Sproles for at least 1 more year, and im not sure chip will want to give up on Barner so soon… We have so many Needs. Poor allocation of resources if we draft a RB. IMO the 2017 draft is the soonest we would draft a RB in the first 5 rounds.
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bigger Needs:
Defensive End (3-4)
DB
RT
G
C….If Josh Andrews can’t play then we will need a center
WR if Cooper gets cut
OLB
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We have much bigger fish to fry than drafting another RB. Build an elite OL and our RB could end up looking like the Embarressment of Riches we thought we would see this year…
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I see bigger needs too… but what if his highest rated player in the 1st three rounds is a RB? I know we don’t have a 2nd round pick but we can always trade up. We said the same when we drafted Hicks. What players in the draft fit Chip’s criteria?
ZEKE Elliot, Ohio state is my RB Pipe Dream…. I’m scared to death that dallas will draft him in round 1
I’d call Chicago and see if they’ll move Ka’deem Carey for a late round pick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIwpQgmwmso
Agree not drafting a RB. OL and OLB are bigger needs. Will also need a DE since I don’t think Curry and Thornton are coming back.
great running to the outside
If we’re a dumpster fire of a team then Dallas is a junkyard inferno. Why would he go back to that?
Because if Romo can manage to play out, they’re still a 10 win team and we’re… I’ll let you finish that yourself.
Long term, the grass is not always bluer…
[…] RB Drama – Iggles BlitzMurray’s future is cloudy. First, we need to see how he does the rest of this year. Does Chip Kelly go back to feeding him the ball? Does Chip spread it among the 4 RBs? Cutting Murray doesn’t make financial sense in the offseason, but it is possible things will become so awkward that Chip does that anyway. There is also the possibility of a trade. We also have to accept the fact Chip can bring Murray back. Chip will know his player better. Murray will know the team and scheme better. If the OL can be improved, Murray could have a bounce-back year with the Eagles. The next month will tell us a lot about his future. […]
“I just needed a somewhat forgotten RB to make my bad joke work.”
Lorenzo Booker? Or perhaps you were afraid to hurt Spadaro’s feelings?
There is a filthy rumor that a disgruntled Mile Austin leaked the story. And that could make sense. Heard Bennie Logan on the WIP and when he was getting questioned about Murray he said that Murray and Austin usually sit next to Lurie on the team flights. I don’t know how many people picked up on that with Josh Innes talking over top of him. Anyway .. Austin could have easily heard the discussion and leaked it to Werder because he was upset about being inactive / being released.
I thought about that angle before since Austin is the only other link to the cowboys on our team..but i was under the assumption that he didnt even make the trip to new england for the game. Definitely makes sense that hes the leak
Good point. I don’t know if he made the trip. What I do know is that he sucks. lol
If Chip got wind of it, maybe that’s why Austin was cut.
Im not even sure Austin is disgruntled. His contract is GUARENTEED and with his disgusting Lack of effort, refusing to even turn his head so the QB can throw to him, he damn sure didn’t look like he wanted to play football. He gets to get paid to stay home, and with his lack of effort, im not sure he is upset about getting paid to stay home
I wonder if his lack of effort (if that is the case) is equal to indifference. If so, he could have easily leaked/mentioned the discussion to someone because he had no interest in the ripples it would cause.
Tom I agree… Very concerning if someone in Murrays camp leaked that crap to start trouble. Werder is based out of Dallas where he cultivated a relationship with Murray and his camp for years, so the fact that Ed Werder was the one who leaked this intel, I think there is a very good chance that Werder got this news from Murrays camp which would be really bad…
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Media members like Derrick Gunn, paint a picture that Murray is the new NNamdi who is only friends with Bradford and can often be seen sitting alone in the locker room…. I’m sure this is possible. But i have a hard time believing reports from gossipy bitch media like members,like Gunn
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As for the rest of this year, I don’t think vhip will just give him 25 carries to make him happy and put this noise to rest. I’m expecting all our RBs will get some carries, and the RBs that are having success, are the RB that will be getting the ball. It’s crunch time, the most productive have to play, and that has to come before Murrays feelings…
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Hopefully the OL stays healthy, and Murray starts producing with the carries he is given, so we can continue to feed him and make this problem go away. But if Murray continues to struggle when he gets a carry, chip is going to go with someone else, so it be great if Murray makes it easier on us, and help us HELP HIM!..
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Even if Murray never gets it going this year. Hopefully another offseason in this offense and upgrading our interior OL helps murray get back to his normal production next year so we can finally see the dominant power running Tandem we envisioned
James Thrash is on the NFL catch committee. Let the jokes commence:
I almost made a zinger about that. Figured it was a little too easy.
Does anybody understand how Murray’s contract if he was traded how much of the cap hit would the eagles have to eat? If the eagles are on the hook more or all for the cap hit, it might be easier to trade him. But if it is all transferrable, I don’t see any team wanting to take that on. I see his cap hit would be $13 million in 2016 if released, I think that can be split out over two years, but I don’t see how they cut him with that cap hit, considering they have kept Cooper for a lot less.
No idea WHATS true, but someone in the media on Twitter said it will cost us 9mil to keep Murry next year,but 13mil cap hit if we were to cut him..
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Not sure if that’s correct or if that is also the case if we trade him.
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My expectation is that he will be back for one more year but who knows…
Repost from the other day:
Murray’s contract situation as I understand it:
If cut the Eagles assume all the guaranteed money, both the prorated bonus hit and his guaranteed base salaries. Meaning it’s a $13 million dollar hit versus just $8 million cap charge to keep him (7 in base 1 in prorated signing bonus), so that’s not happening.
If traded however the new team would assume the guaranteed portion of the base salaries ($7 mil in 2016, $2 million in 2017) so the only cap hit would be the $4 millionin dead money from the remaining prorated signing bonus.
So the Eagles would get $4 million in cap savings to trade vs keeping him
(Effectively meaning we only paid him a total of $9 million for his one season)
The other team would get be taking on a guaranteed $7 million in 2016 and
$2 million in 2017 (they would probably renegotiate prior to 2017
season).
So you’re asking a team to take a 28 year old RB with alot of mileage for $7 million dollars next year. That’s probably doable if you ask for basically nothing. I’d ask for a 7 which conditions up to a 5 if he hits like 1200 yards. And I’m not sending him back to Dallas. The WIP crowd will kill Chip but it would be recognizing a sunk cost and making the best of a bad situation.
Yup. Murray had a relatively small signing bonus, so the accelerated cap hit isn’t so much. However his 7 mil salary next year is guaranteed, plus 2 mil the next year. If you trade that gets paid by the new team, if you cut that gets paid by the Eagles. No way we cut him.
I would be very leery of trading him back to Dallas. That half of the equation of signing him has definitely worked — it ruined their run game, and hurt their blitz pickup game. Maybe if Dallas offered a second rounder… but nothing less from them.
No way Dallas offers anything for him. They go for an RB early in the draft after they try to find Romo’s not so eventual replacement.
You mean Johnny Manziel? And I think it’s fairly likely given Dallas’ current drafting strategy that they focus on oline or dline in 2016 round 1.
I can see them signing Manziel considering Jerrah’s love of troubled players, but they are stacked on Oline, so I don’think they would draft that position warly.
That’s true, it’s more likely that they’ll add a player to their defense than oline. I just have a feeling the other guys in the room will talk Jerrah out of a RB pick.
They are stuck paying megabucks to Romo. Even after this year, they still have $32 million of signing bonus money still to be charged against their cap, so if they cut him this offseason, that becomes a $32 million cap charge. If they designate him a post-June 1 cut, then about $12 of that is on the 2016 cap, and $20 on the 2017 cap. If they play him next year, he has a $20 million cap number and about $12 million would come off of that, meaning they could take that $20 million charge in 2017 (while trying to pay another QB), or do the June 1 thing and pay some in 2017 and the rest in 2018. Romo is going to be a significant cap charge for them for years. If he can’t play, they are going to have a hard time paying for another, unless they get lucky in the draft. Or someone like Manziel becomes good if they pick him up.
Good information. Love the hole the Cowpatties have dug for themselves. The are welcome to Manziel. He and Hardy can get drunk together, beat on women, and wreck their cars, whatever a**holes do.
Eagles now have highest playoff odds in the division: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/playoffodds
How do you think we’d do hosting Seattle?
Depends on what eagle run defense shows up… If the beastly run defense we saw the first half of the season shows up. I like our chances. Seattle OL has been good against the run, but I saw them ranked DEAD LAST in pass protection. If you can’t pass block, Fletcher Cox is a friggin PROBLEM!
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I actually think facing the bills is stylistically similar to facing seattle. Zone read QB that both teams try to keep on a 25-30 throw pitch count, Both rank among the worst OL in pass protection, but are solid in run blocking. Both NEED to run the ball to win, both are capable of good defense.. We would have to worry about not letting either QB get outside the pocket
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With Cox dominating games, and opening things up for BARWIN, BG,Curry to make plays, I like our chances against bills and seahawks who both struggle to protect their QB…. Beat up the QB and I will always like our chances
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Don’t know, but I’d be Sleepless…
wouldnt be in Seattle tho
i feel like our crappy receivers would completely neutralize the LOB. can’t defend against receivers we don’t wanna throw to . . .
I get it, like in a tennis tournament, the shady practice of putting your worst singles player up against their best one, conceding that match. Then you put your best player up against their 2nd best player and hoping to pick up the advantage somewhere down the line.
precisely. instead of sherman following our best WR around, we’ll just have Cooper line up wherever sherman goes.
Why is that shady? That is coaching strategy maaaan. Its just like every team that wins in local billards tournaments (im told by friends to who play, I dont), always has a guy with a really high handicap.
Tennis is a gentleman’s sport.
Meh I have seen it in Golf too (something I actually do play), didn’t think about that before.
I never said golf was a gentleman’s sport.
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/521f9eeeecad043a1fff5393/17-examples-of-tiger-woods-insane-competitiveness.jpg
I think this game vs the Bills would be a good litmus test for hosting Seattle. I expect Kendricks to spy. If the offense can run the ball effectively everything else should fall into place. If the run is bad, we lose. Pretty easy to figure out.
I do not know why he is so upset. He is averaging over 100 yards per Eagles win. /s
I’m actually not happy with Chip’s addressing the Shady melodrama. I guess it was the gentlemanly thing to do, and he showed he’s the bigger man with his mea culpa. I would have preferred if he said something like, “I have more important things to do than be concerned with a disgruntled ex-player.” Then, maybe under his breath, “This is a selfish, immature young man who should be apologizing to me for daring to insult my character by implying I am a racist.” I really, really want to see our front seven shut down McCoy.
Extending the olive branch was the right thing to do, mainly because as a PR move so that the public, possible future free agents, and even the team will give Chip credit for being a human being under the Hal 3000 facade. It could also have the effect of softening LeSean’s motivation for the upcoming game.
“Chip, you have to call LeSean about this trade!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Jeffrey.”
You guys are probably right, Chip certainly comes across as more mature and the better man. Still, I think the apology should come from Shady. A business transaction not done properly is less significant than one man questioning another’s character and moral compass.
best case scenario – chip says the right things (check) and fletcher cox gets to give shady some hugs behind the LOS
No, I thought that was very cool and really well handled. Sounds like part of that was not handled well (by the league or the Bills, though Kelly did perhaps learn that you best call your guys right away and don’t leave it up to others).
If it makes McCoy less angry coming into this game, all the better.
eagles rewind has an interesting article about how murray actually had a lot of outside runs in dallas and he was just as productive, actually more productive than when he was running up the middle.
I for one think the whole situation is overblown. Speaking of blowing, Murray has every right to be frustrated but he needs to take the advice of Michael Jackson and look at the man in the mirror (what Tommy is the only one who gets to make bad jokes?).
Chipper ran Murray head first into the cinderblock wall over and over again with the inside zone to start the year. Murray knew that was going to be his downhill bread and butter long before he signed here. For whatever reason it didn’t work. Now everyone involved seems to be gun shy on that play.
The LAST thing I want this team to do is trade Murray back to Dallas, or to cut him. I have heard a 3rd round pick mentioned and I think that is kinda pie in the sky. Honestly if they gave a 3rd I think the help he would provide them and the harm he would do to us is in NO WAY worth.
At this point you are married. Go see a councilor, try something kinky and new, do it for the kids. Idc what makes it work, just make it work. Murray is too good and Chip is (supposedly) too smart, to not make this work.
As bad as this team seems right now, I still think this team really has the potential to win it all more than Reid almost ever did. I always felt like in the days of Reid we were going to beat the bad teams and lose to the good ones. Even when we were really good and highly favored. Every good team, or bad team with a good QB, left me feeling very uneasy for the whole week.
Even though this team has been very sloppy and frustrating, they seem to do OK vs the really tough teams. They beat the Jets, and the Patriots. They beat Drew Brees. They played the Panthers really close in my estimation even though the score got wonky at the end.
Even the most optimistic of us just wanted to see a good effort in a loss vs the Patriots. Now that they won they have a chance to go 2-2 the rest of the way and win the division, and still get hot in the process. Season is fun again at least for a few more day 🙂
the funny thing that games like last week remind us that there is, in fact, some overlap between an elite team’s floor and our ceiling, once circumstance is factored in. Maybe we squeak into the play offs, the who knows, maybe we win a game. And then who knows. Odds are bleak but it’s enough to stick around and watch.
The cool thought is that if they are elit (and they are), there shouldn’t be tons of room between their floor and ceiling because they are so good everywhere.
Let’s be honest Gronk changes that game, but it’s fun to think he may not have.
this is hilarious
How so?
Since 2001, the Patriots have lost 54 regular seasons games.
In 2013, they lost to Miami, KC, GB, Buff.
In 2012, they lost to CIN, Jets, Panthers, Miami.
etc.
GB was good, Buf Brady only played a quarter. The rest of those teams pretty damn meh.
“that there is, in fact, some overlap between an elite team’s floor and our ceiling, once circumstance is factored in”
2007 the 9-7 ginas LIMPED into the playoffs. I seem to remember they hoisted the hardware when it was all said and done. I have excellent hearing but I hear no “weight challenged” woman singing just yet.
Right, kinda my point. Actually the 07 Giants ROARED in didn’t they? ALMOST beating the undefeated patriots really fired that team up, and it turned their whole season around. Those Patriots were also injured. We actually beat them.
Odds aren’t amazing but they are good enough to make me interested again. I went into last weeks game being ready to turn it off and pout that the Orioles weren’t signing anyone. We won and the Orioles are putting in off-season work. Life has changed in 7 days!
Yeah, you’re right. They got hot the last month after underperforming. Hmmm…
Eli Manning stats 2007:
6.3 Y/A, 73.9 Rating, 56.1 comp%, 3.8% intercept%
Sam Bradford stats 2015:
6.7 Y/A, 83.5 Rating, 63.5 comp%, 2.8% intercept%
This just reminds me how much I hate Eli Manning and that Giants team. The fact that they won it all with the most overrated QB to ever play the game on a lucky fluke play just gets to me like nothing else.
I dunno about this. Reid had a lot of playoff success for a long time. I was sure we were going to win or at least go to the Super Bowl the year we lost to the Cards in the NFCCG. Not to mention the year we lost against Tampa in the NFCCG.
The one thing people often don’t mention when the look back on Reid was how good he was getting momentum in November and December (like he’s doing right now with KC). It’s a critical part of making a deep playoff run, particularly for teams that aren’t good enough to earn byes.
Typically we would have a first round bye with Reid and then play a lesser opponent in the next round, then lose in NFC title game.
2008 is just as good of an example to use as his tenure as a whole. They TROUNCED some horrible teams that year, but lost terribly to good teams. They had mixed results vs the so-so teams. Remember Donovan didn’t know they could tie in OT???
After this year they stopped beating up on horrible teams 100% of the time, and our success dwindled.
This sums up how I feel as well. Reid did a great job of curb stomping weak teams, but would get edged out by well coached/talented teams. Hopefully, Chip and Bradford can give us enough of an edge to start beating strong competition more consistently.
The difference is that Reid curb stomped weak teams, while Chip gets curb stomped by them.
He did have a couple really bad games this year.
i thought chip only beat up on the weak teams, damnit now i got to learn a new narrative
just no, that 04 team dominated. Also, when those teams were good, they were 12-4 good and teams couldnt stop Westbrook. Of course things tighten up in the playoffs esp championship games. To compare that to this and just take the Giants as the exception to make that point doesnt work. Compare those Eagles teams to a team that beat a horrible Saints D/team, a Jets team with Fitzpatrick and 2 ST scores and pick six vs Pats, cant do it. I like the optimism but it gets harder for me to accept based on what Ive seen this season. Now expectations are a huge part of that and thats on we fans, speaking for myself anyway.
I actually think if the team can just put it together we can be REALLY good. This is ta team that can score in all 3 phases. Just really need to tighten up the execution.
04′ was different.
The real downside of all the RB drama is that no one is talking about the game on Sunday, I hope the Eagles aren’t as distracted by all this as we are.
We saw the same thing last week, focused all week on two horrible losses and needing to get billy and chip fired. No one talked about the Patriot game last week, and it worked out for us. Hopefully we can do it again
yeah, mostly because we had written that one off. It was a matter of would we show up and be competitive or not. Heck the world writing them off might have even lit a fire under their butts.
Heard some players give credit to chip for getting their confidence back up. Showing the players that what we saw in terrible Detroit/tampa games Wasnt who they really are, and not only did chip tell his players, but chip showed them clips of the high level play they exhibited at times this season,,
..
I’m sure the “no one is giving us a chance to win this game” card was played. Every coach taps into that and tries to use it to pump the team up.
..
Some players gave LURIE credit for pumping them up pregame
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Other players gave a lot of props to Bradford for addressing the team right before they went back on the field to start the game.. Offensive players like lane and Celek talked about how SAM speech fired them up. defensive players like BARWIN said that the defense Wasnt privy to Bradfords Bathroom speech against the jets,but that this time SAM addressed the entire team and it was a “great speech that had the players feeling good while taking the field”-Whatever that means.
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Whatever was responsible for the win, im sure as hell appreciative. I was really afraid that the team had quit on chip, and once that happens, im not sure a team can come back from that, so whatever caused us to win that game, THANK YOU!
Agree. We need a player that just brings that fire / intensity on a weekly basis. I feel like everyone plays hard, but sometimes you just need that vocal leader that makes sure you’re keyed in.
Nothing anyone writes or says about a football has any influence on the results of the game.
Whatever “we focus” on is irrelevant.
distractions are real, teams are willing to sacrifice a lot to get rid of them
Coin toss is really giving it better odds than it deserves.
Losing is the really the biggest distraction. Win games, nobody cares if a guy who’s underperformed wants more carries.
yyep
The pain will come back on game day
I am a pretty simple football mind. But I say:
Run well, rest falls into place. Run poorly, rest falls apart.
Freeney now has four sacks and two forced fumbles for the Cardinals. He was on the street in OCTOBER and already has been as impactful as our starting OLB.
And Jason Babin had 18 sacks for us one year. Just because someone always rushes the passer and doesn’t do their other responsibilities doesn’t make them a good player. Sacks aren’t everything. Cox only has 5.5 sacks in 12 games. Freeney must be way better than Cox. Freeney just kept doing that spin move over and over, he must’ve done that move on the previous 4 plays. Can’t believe it still works for him, that is all he does.
I’m only saying that vets can produce in limited roles and can be found on the street. Not saying he needs to be an every down guy. But like when BG would spell last year he was SUPER effective, probably b/c he was fresh and the OL was tired.
I’m just saying there’s value left in some of these old guys that get cut (counter example is Colts who are getting basically no production out of anyone not named frank gore, but they do have Mathis who is 100 yrs old.)
I get what you’re saying. Our OLBs did have 2 sacks a piece against the Patriots though. Graham was definitely more effective in the back-up role, he seemed to flash every time he was on the field probably due to being fresh. The Eagles tried to bring in a vet. Miles Austin was brought in to help produce in a limited role and that blew up in their face. They brought back Demeco when everyone thought he was gone. For every vet brought in that has made a huge impact, I’m sure you can find a handful more that didn’t, like you pointed out.
You’re making it sound like BG hasn’t been effective this year, which is simply wrong.
Agree to an extent, i just meant pure sack numbers, BG is obviously asked to do a lot more whereas Freeney is just tasked w/ getting sacks.
Suggestion going forward. We know Lurie has his own “corporate / private jet”; use it rather than hopping a “free” ride on the team plane. End of opportunity for frustrated players to interact w/ owner after game on way home.
Lurie isn’t that type, and I don’t blame him. If I was an owner there is no way I wouldn’t ride on the team plane for a bunch of reasons.
People seem to be assuming that Murray and/or his agent leaked the news of him talking to Lurie to Werder. That’s possible, but it’s also possible that he confided in a relative or spouse/significant other in that he was frustrated and talked to the owner about and then that “source close to Murray” relayed it to Werder without his approval. Reporters cultivate sources and they have no qualms about using any one connected to the player to meet their agenda(or the sources). As far as these reports(not even sure they are credible enough to call them that) that Murray is trying to get himself cut so he can go back to Dallas), maybe it’s someone else(wife/girlfriend/baby mama/regular mama) that wants him back in Dallas. Now of course you can ultimately say that Murray is responsible for not keeping his conversation in-house, but he can be at fault for the news leaking without necessarily leaking it intentionally.
Kiko, please don’t do this in this game. Shady doesn’t need that much of an opening.
https://twitter.com/PFF_Mike/status/668834755094384640/photo/1
Easily his worst moment as an Eagle. I wouldn’t harp on it too much. He is improving as he gets back to normal health wise.
Yeah dude has been in and out of the lineup this year. I don’t he’s there 100% mentally or physically yet.
Between Herm’s wrath and Chip’s sincerity, I do wonder if Shady will just man up and show basic sportsmanship. He’ll look like a child if he doesn’t. I fully expect him to hold a grudge till the day he dies. He was well on track to have owned just about every team rushing record the Eagles track. And it got thrown out on a whim (to hear it described, it all happened very fast, bills called, made an offer, and it was done). Shady probably won’t be getting close to the HOF, any legacy Shady might have left in the NFL was snuffed out in that trade. But I hope he will be able to put the grudge aside for a handshake at least.
“I do wonder if Shady will just man up and show basic sportsmanship.”
______________
A lot of folks who comment here gave McCoy a pass for his shameful off-field incidents while in Philadelphia . . . because, you know, McCoy was on the Eagles then.
For me, McCoy proved he’s a real ass — the kind of person I’d never want to know or want my kids to know.
So why is McCoy’s attitude a surprise to anyone?
Moreover, why is it “man[ing] up” to shake Kelly’s hand?
Is McCoy — who’s a schmuck to start with — not allowed to hold a grudge?
Or to motivate himself with all this B.S.?
Bottom line . . . why on earth does anyone even care?
I’ve been told (this definitely isn’t firsthand) that McCoy tried to donate money to his high school’s new stadium and was rebuffed because “we don’t name stadiums after people” … following which, they accepted a donation from a local business man and named it after HIM.
Case closed!
A ROY . . .
Irony is a rare bird.
You found it with that very funny response to about commenters on this blog.
Well done.
Let a man have his naive childish hope for a happy ending! I just want peace!
He was a stupid, immature, selfish idiot whose actions suggest he is misogynistic to the core but…damn I just talked myself out of it.
A87:
I wrote a comment commending you. Totally agree.
Expectations for McCoy are very low, however.
As to why anyone even cares, it’s simple. People have invested not only time and love, but money into Shady McCoy. Myself included. I have a Shady jersey, and I even have a little Shady McCoy statue on my desk at work that’s still there.
It hurts when he insults our current coach. Even if it’s justified, it hurts to watch.
Shady’s attitude isn’t a surprise to me and like you said people overlooked his incidents off the field because he played here. What is appalling to me, or maybe it shouldn’t be, is the reaction from talking heads and newspaper people who act like Chip committed some heinous crime towards McCoy and needs to plead with shady to accept his apology. Apology for what? Is this where were heading in sports, where a coach needs to make a public apology for letting a player go? If anything it’s Shady who owes the apology to Chip for labeling the guy a racist.
That’s what you get when media stops being objective.
There are people in the media who wanted Chip to fail before he even coached his first game because he’s that College guy with the College gimmicks. So they blow up anything Chip related.
You have SAS who’s upset because Chip got rid of his boys. So there’s no objectivity there.
Didn’t Bill O’Brien stop off at PSU before going to the Texans? Mike Pettine was hired by the Ravens, at the time, out of HIGH SCHOOL. Houston hasn’t been so great this year, is O’Brien going to run back to college? Is Pettine going to run back to high school? Why not? Where are the idiotic ‘reporters’ on these questions?
Btw, Manziel was foisted onto Pettine’s shoulders by his GM! Like Ryan had Tebow dumped on him by his GM at the time! It is not always best to keep the jobs separate. Owners and GMs want to sell tickets first.
Heath Evans and others:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/fb/1d/d5/fb1dd590c8333fcf26ccb7c10f3d7559.jpg
I hate to admit it, but I’m one of those guys who gave him a pass because of his performance on-field. It’s a sad commentary that I was willing to look the other way when it served my own purposes. Alas, human to the end.
A87:
Your hope for sportsmanship is one that sailed so long ago among the current generation of players. (Many are sportsmen. Some, like McCoy, are not.)
But it’s a good one.
What the hell are you talking about, asshole?
Er, did you just out yourself as Shady?
I hoped someone would appreciate the irony. Glad you did.
Don’t expect it. He’s an idiot with a grudge. Haven’t you met those people before? They never quite seem to change, do they?
If shady gets over it and shows basic sportsmanship towards chip it would be after the game. No chance of shady shaking hands pregame, good chance he won’t shake his hand post game either… But it’s pretty common for sports competitipn to have a we of squashing beefs.. Countless time you see two fighters coming into a fight with genuine hatred for each each other sounding like it will never be squashed, yet after the fight, the sporting competition gets the anger out of them and they have a new respect for each other and we see them embrace each other,squash the beef and leave the hatred in the cage, ring, field. Court or wherever the competition took place.
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Shady has always shown blatant emotional immaturity so good chance he holds on to the grudge after the game.. MAYBE if we beat the bills, shady will change his mind and shake hands, but NO CHANCE of shaking hands if the Bills win, in which case we would see shady celebrate. Gloat trying to Embarress chip just like Desean did When we lost to skins…
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Most likely, when shady gets in his 30’s, he will mature and put and end to the hatred so that the Eagles can celebrate his career after he retires and chip has moved on from Philly.
he’ll shake if the bills win
The Eagles were the ones to initiate the trade so I’m sure they put a lot of thought into it. The trade did happen fast. If I remember correctly, the Eagles called the Bills and said we’ll trade you Shady for these 2 players. The Bills offered Kiko and we took it. It still has worked more in the Bills favor but the Bills are the ones that rushed into judgment, not the Eagles.
Hopefully his comments were just how he was getting himself fired up for the game hopefully a guy who makes $12m a year and got a raise and a coaching chemistry improvement out of the deal isn’t that butthurt.
Got to give up something to get something. Good players get traded quite often. Most of them get over it, remember it’s a business, and take the money. Even Jerry Rice finished his career with a different team. Same with Montana. etc. McCoy is still the same self-centered child who wants his own way. All the time. Maybe he’s the one AD should have taken the switch to. (Not in the same area of the body though.)
yeah i was making the point about picking up old guys that get dumped — usually not as expensive as mccoy, but just a fact of life in this salary cap era.
Kelly had said they had thought of a couple different approaches to reallocate the offensive / defensive money (especially in order to accommodate Bradford’s salary, a move they knew was likely coming at the time even if we didn’t). Trading McCoy was one of those approaches (and probably Kelly’s favored one). It would have to depend on the return, but it sounds like the Bills offered up Kiko then it happened quickly. But I’m sure the Eagles had been preparing to see what they could get for McCoy for a while — that was a prepared strategy.
HOF? With his off-field behaviour? Look how long Charles Haley had to wait. With his 5 Super Bowl rings. Because he was a jerk.
Pump the breaks
“HOF? With his off-field behavior?”
no.
I literally typed out “Shady probably won’t be getting close to the HOF” and that is the only context in which I brought up “HOF”
Eagles and the Bills both have a ferocious Front 7 so I think a major component is going to be which OL can do a better job of handling the nasty front 7s?
..
Our OL has been up and down all year, but There are some promising signs:
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1) starting OL practced together all week, which is a big deal considering jason Peters has been in and out of the lineup the past few weeks.. The Eagles will NEED our five starting lineman to play a complete game. If we have to shuffle the OL around because of injuries, that Bills front 7 will devour us.
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2) The Offensive line is coming off what might have been their best game against Patriots Defense that was,healthy and only missing 1 LB (we are missing Hicks, fair trade). Lane and Peters stepped up in a Big way stonewalling Chandler Jones, Ninkovich and keeping them from having a big game. Shurmur said the Pats game may have been Lanes best game which is great to hear because it came at a much needed time against some really talented defenders, As a Tandem, it was probably our Offensive Tackles best game of the season, and they got thru the game healthy and able to have a full week of Practice, hopefully they can do that again because the Bills Front 7 is Nasty.. Our much maligned Guards actually held their own against some talented Defenders Like the rookie Defensive Tackle from Texas. The OL did a solid job in pass protection and run blocking. And we wil NEED the OL to build on last weeks performance if we want to win this tôugh game
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3) The Bills are big on blitzing. They will throw a ton of blitzes at us and leave guys in man coverage against Sproles and our weapons. Fortunately, the Patriots Blized us a lot and we were able to handle it pretty well, which was probably good Practice for getting ready to face a Rex Ryan defense.. It also doesn’t suck that a team that wants to blitz all day and ask their guys to matchuo in Man coverage 1 on 1, is missimh starting LB Nigel and their best CB Stephan Gilmore
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I trust that Fletcher Cox and the Eagle front 7 will Show up for shady’s return hopefully get back to our top ranked stingy run defense, but I really expect our boys to take advantage of a very poor pass blocking OL and cause a lot of Havoc When they try to Pass. Tyrod Taylor is going to catch a beating, if Our OL can stand up to their front 7 and give SAM and the RBs time to execute we should win this game…. If we lose, it’s most likely means our OL couldn’t hold up against the Bills front 7, because I do think our defense will show up and do its part… Take the tampa and Detroit games out of the equation Amd Defense has clearly been the strength of the 2015 Eagles, and it seems like chip and SAM reminded our defenders of That..
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Ideally we get off to a nice first half lead, forcing them to abandon the run, and allow Cox and the boys to dominante their poor pass blocking… Cox and the boys showed up nasty they can be without blitzing if the opponent is forced to abandon the run. Forget BRady and his WR’s, our front 7 Kicked that patriot OL’s ass….
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cardinals are on deck, so we can’t afford a Let down. Gotta find a way to win this one
So as a West Point grad, and current West Point instructor, I must say that I am legitimately afraid that if Army pulls the upset, the cadets will riot and destroy Lincoln Financial Field less than 24 hours before the Eagles game is supposed to be played there.
Does Army ever win?
Go Navy!
I can’t think of a single West Point grad whose time in the NFL ruined a decade’s worth of Sundays in Philadelphia.
But I can think of one Navy grad who did that.
Go Army! Beat Navy!
Sorry, have to root for Navy, because of this:
https://www.facebook.com/collegegameday/posts/1084194868291475
As an Army vet, even I have to admit those are f’ing sweet
Roger Dodger! Blecch!
We can win this game, but agInst a Bills team that only wants their QB throwing like 25 times a game, I don’t know if we can stop shady from gettng in the ENDZONE, and I will not be able to stomach seeing Shady in a Bills Jersey doing his TD dance in our ENDZONE..
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With Karlos Williams injured, shady is going to get a ton of opportunities sunday, and I adore the Greg Roman run game portion of the playbook. He has all types of variations in his run game and as long as we don’t have too much of a big lead, they are going to continue feeding shady in a bunch of different ways. If they struggke to run the ball, you can bet Greg Roman will put extra lineman in the game and try to smash us, Shady is going to get so many opportunities that it’s going to be tough to keep him out of our ENDZONE all game
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The Coaches DEFINITELY have to learn from last weeks mistakes and keep KIKO on a 30-40 snap count because he played better than he is getting credit for in the first half last year, played way too many snaps, wore down and in the second half, he was always a step late on plays he was making in the first half.
Mufasa didn’t play much Last week because the Pats abandoned the run and threw for most of the game but against the Bills, they should run a lot more so we can use Mufasa more than we did last week, while playing KIKO less and keep him fresh…. HOWEVER, Whowver is in the game, Mufasa or KIKO, they better be fresh and Sharp becayse everyone knows shady is not easy to tackle and he is going to try and break some ankles out there, and if you miss a tackle or two against Shady, he can take off and put 6 on the scoreboard
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our Tackling Technique NEEDS TO BE SHARP, againsg Shady and Tyrod. we NEED to be Discaplined in our gap assignments since shady likes to cut back so much, our OLBs have to be sharp when it comes to setting the edge, can NOT allow Shady or Tyrod To get outside, and we have to rush the passer as a selfless cohesive unit which we are good at, because if we don’t cut off the QBs escape routes, Tyrod will make us pay…
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Bills OL is solid at runblocking, but one of the worst pass blocking lines, so when they drop back, we need to make them pay for it an expose their pass blocking . I see a Forced Fumble by brandon Graham this week. “you can call me Mystic Mack. I predict these Tinge”-Connar McGregor…. buffalo has won games because they have done a solid job at taking Care of the Ball but other than a two game meltdown which looks like was caused by team gettng deflated having zero confidence in Mark Sanchez, our defense has been exceptional at taking away the ball, and hopefully last week got our defense back on track in that regaurd, think it’s going to be very hard for the Bills to overcome turnovers on the road and win… Tyrod gets all the hype. But I really like what I been seeing from SAM since Carolina and I like him to outplay Tyrod on Sunday, but the bills have a Scary defense and some playmakers. If we aren’t sharp, we LOSE!!
Bills linebackers are terrible in coverage and banged up at that. Gilmore is going to miss the game leaving Darby as the only really good CB they have. Safeties are ok but not great. Kyle Williams is on IR and the rest of that d-line has underperformed immensely this year. Now on the other side the offense is actually really starting to click at the moment. McCoy is running well, the o-line has been a pleasant surprise for them, Watkins is finally starting to show what made him a top pick, and then Taylor has been playing well as well.
…
In regards to seeing Bradford outplay Taylor, I just don’t see that happening although I would love for it to happen and hope it does. This is a weird game and can honestly go either way. My predictions are if the Eagles win it will be a close game but if they lose I think they get blown out of the building. Here’s to hoping I eat my words and the Eagles blow the Bills out 45-0.
I’d be fine with a 3-2 victory with Sanchez being sacked in the endzone when Chip was resting his starters in the 4th quarter.
I’m with ya on that one buddy, I will happily take a 3-2 win with this team any day this year.
That game would be torture to watch
That it would Will but I would still take that win.
Round of applause to Hinkie and the Sixers for giving Brett Brown a two year extension… FANTASTIC NEWS
I would think it’s a 100% chance shady shakes Chips hand after the game.
I wouldn’t put money on it
He’s probably spitting on it before they shake hands.
Well isn’t spitting on the hand before shaking a more symbolic way men used to use to seal a deal or something of that sort? If that is the case I doubt he would show that much respect for Chip.
Or they didn’t have a washcloth handy so saliva it is.
Maybe in the ancient era but I wouldn’t shake some spitted-on hand. That’s just gross.
Why wouldn’t Bill Murray shake Chip’s hand? Is he a Dallas fan?
He’s too busy planning a heist.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/that-wu-tang-clan-martin-shkreli-2m-album-deal-has-an-amazing-caveat-a6767546.html
LolGiants:
#Giants DE Damontre Moore got into a fight with Cullen Jenkins, sources say, over not getting free @beatsbydre headphones like other players
Remember when he was the steal of the draft.
We’ll be seeing Landon Collins that way up there soon.
As long as Cullen Jenkins takes all the beats.
He more looks like he took all of the “eats” in the buffet line.
Kevin Turner or Leonard Weaver?!
Just not John Richie. He’s trying to run for the PA legislature.
Leonard Weaver.
As the story goes, Odell Beckham gave everyone on the Giants’ roster a
pair of Beats By Dre headphones this week. Jenkins claimed two of them,
leaving Moore without any. This was the most recent incident involving
Moore, but FOX Sports’ Mike Garafolo — a former Giants beat writer —
reports Moore was actually waived due to an “accumulation of incidents.”
His fight with Jenkins over headphones served as the final straw.
Isn’t the league min like half a million? why are you fighting over a pair of headphones?
Good question… why did Cullen Jenkins have to Deebo two pairs?
There are princibalities in this, man.
Also interesting that after he took2 pairs he was literally like no you can’t have this and i’m willing to fight you. #culture
They both should be embarrassed. Its just so ridiculous.
Not to mention those headphones are overrated
Really though those headphones are awful
Yes, get some $100 Grado SR80i, much better headphones.
Usage of Deebo: 10/10
Hrm. Who else do they have who can keep opponents drives alive with dumb penalties? He was a big help to the Eagles in that first game…
Reportedly, Odell was on Amazon ordering another pair when he got the news, “Well, I guess you need any, Moore.”
Chip can say all he wants that the move to trade McCoy was purely financial, but that loses all credibility when you realize that we never approached McCoy about a contract restructure and he signed a reworked deal with Buffallo that’s nearly identical to the one we game DeMarco.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/lesean-mccoy/
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/demarco-murray/
We could have McCoy and Mathews as our one two punch and have no more invested in the RB position than we do now. This has been a terrible move by GM Kelly in every conceivable way with how badly it’s worked out.
Idk man. If Chip actually gets above-average guards then Murray would be so much more effective. If Murray can get going then it’s going to open up the offense more.
It’s he said, he said but Kelly said they did talk with McCoy’s agent about a contract restructure and he said that wasn’t something they would do.
McCoy said at the time he’d restructure but not take a pay cut. Is what it is.
I suspect Kelly did want to redistribute money from offense to defense. It was probably between Maclin and McCoy as to where to get the money to sign Bradford (a move they knew was probably coming even if we didn’t). The move needed to be done before free agency while teams were still setting budgets. Unfortunately, we lost Maclin too. At that point, Murray might have seemed the best use of the dollars on offense. In retrospect, McCoy might have gone with a contract like that (although it was a way lower signing bonus; the guaranteed money was future salary mostly).
In retrospect, I think it was the loss of Maclin which hurt more. We’d have much better WR play this year and probably would have used the 1st rounder on someone else, and we’d probably have Matthews / Polk as the runners.
I also suspect Kelly has a distaste of dealing with Rosenhaus, but that is something he’s probably going to need to learn how to do.
McCoy’s contract is a lot less team friendly. Basically it’s an extra year before he’s cuttable compared to Murray’s deal.
Clearly the move hasn’t paid off because Murray kinda sucks, but the contracts aren’t the same.