Heckuva Sequel
Posted: April 4th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 165 Comments »Hollywood loves sequels, even though they rarely match the original. You can argue that Godfather Part II is better than the original. T2 is definitely better than Terminator. More often that not, you are stuck with something like Exorcist II: The Heretic. That movie was so bad that William Peter Blatty, the author of the book The Exorcist, called the studio and told them they should re-cut a few scenes and release it as a comedy.
Ouch.
2016 has already produce one great sequel…Howie Roseman II: The Reckoning.
I really need to wait until June to write a comprehensive piece on Howie, but it is worth talking about him at this point. I don’t know if he’s a different man. I’ve only interacted with him once and that was several years ago. I do know that Football Howie is different. Very different.
I remember an interesting exchange during the summer of 2011. Howie was talking to the media about a move the Eagles had just made (remember that was the lockout year so free agency took place in the summer). Someone from the media asked if there would be any more signings. Howie jokingly shouted to the back of the press tent to ask Joe Banner if there would be any more signings. Joe made some joke of his own, hinting that there was still money left to spend and the Eagles would keep doing that. The two of them were like bargain hunters having the time of their life.
That was an odd time. It was very much a buyer’s market. Players weren’t getting the money they wanted. The Eagles had cap room and were giving out deals left and right. There hadn’t really been a free agency period quite like that so you can’t completely blame the Eagles for being aggressive and trying to take advantage of the situation.
At the same time, they could have used a bit of advice that Dr. Malcolm offered in the original Jurassic Park. He explained that people had been too busy worrying if they could bring back dinosaurs to focus on the key question of whether they should.
Just because you have money doesn’t mean you should spend it.
Some people are frustrated that the Eagles haven’t made more free agency moves this year. I think Howie is playing the situation perfectly. He made big moves in the opening days and has since settled into the role of being a careful shopper. Add the right guys.
Go back to 2011.
Nnamdi Asomugha
DRC
Jason Babin
Cullen Jenkins
Derek Landri
Jarrad Page
Vince Young
Steve Smith
Ronnie Brown
Evan Mathis
Ryan Harris
Donald Lee
Sinorice Moss
That’s a lot of big names and new faces. Not all made the team, but most of them did. While the Eagles did add talent (Jason Babin had 18 sacks that year), they also added some complicated personalities and guys that had agendas. Smith wanted to have a big year so he could get a big deal the next year. Young was trying to save his career. Brown and Smith had to adjust to being backups, which was tough for them. Jenkins just wanted money.
Guys like Landri and Mathis just wanted to play. When given the chance, they both excelled. Mathis proved to be a guy who could sustain that and was a great signing. Unfortunately, Landri gave us just one fun season.
Compare that to this year.
Brandon Brooks
Rodney McLeod
Chase Daniel
Leodis McKelvin
Nigel Bradham
Ron Brooks
Chris Givens
Rueben Randle
Stefen Wisniewski
The 2011 group had 11 guys who had started with other teams. 5 of them were 1st round picks.
McKelvin is the only former 1st rounder of this group. Daniel is here to be a backup, as he was in KC. Brooks is here to be a key STer, as he was in Buffalo. Neither Givens nor Randle has ever been a star receiver. Brooks and McLeod did get major deals and both have big expectations. Both are in the prime of their careers and healthy. Both are good scheme fits.
Howie could still add some players. The Eagles could use depth at spots like RB, LB and DL. Maybe Howie will make a signing in the next couple of weeks or maybe he’ll wait and see how the draft goes. There isn’t anyone on the market right now that you are scared to lose. If a guy signs somewhere else, so be it.
The key is making the right signings. That means finding talented players who fit the roles you have on the team. Daniel knows Pederson from their KC days. McKelvin, Brooks and Bradham know Schwartz. The coaches know how to use these players. The Eagles had a big hole at RG. They spent big on a big body to fill that hole. Wisniewski comes to the Eagles to challenge for the LG spot, but he’s also able to be the backup C. He’s played both spots in the NFL.
Think about WR. The Eagles aren’t sure what they have there so they added a couple of young free agents who have talent and experience, but who also don’t need a ton of passes thrown their way. Anquan Boldin has averaged 123 targets per season the last 3 years. If you bring him in, you better feed him the ball. Randle has only been targeted more than 100 times in a season once. Givens career high is 83 targets. If Nelson Agholor emerges as a key receiver, he’s going to get a lot of passes thrown his way and there will be fewer targets for the free agents. You need guys who can deal with that. No one will like it, but you need players who can handle it.
Here’s a simple way to think of Howie and the kind of signings he has made. In the past, he made moves that impressed Jerry Jones. This year he is making moves that would be more likely to impress Ozzie Newsome.
First, you focus on your own players. The Eagles re-signed several free agents and gave extensions to others. When you do turn to outsiders, don’t just go out and sign the most talented players. Fight the right guys. Build a team.
So far, so good.
*****
In case you have not heard…
Eagles expected to sign OL Stefen Wisniewski this morning, source says. Heads to Philly as guard after one year with the Jaguars as center.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 4, 2016
One-year deal for Wisniewski in Philly. Steelers were also in play for the Pittsburgh native but he'll be an Eagle.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 4, 2016
*****
Browns, Eagles and 49ers begin their voluntary off-season workout programs today. And so it begins. Or never really ends.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 4, 2016
Nolan Carroll was the MVP of last year’s offseason program. And it did help him to play better.
Who will be the offseason stud this year?
I’ll go with Nelson Agholor.
Guesses?
_
[…] Tommy Lawlor Hollywood loves sequels, even though they rarely match the original. You can argue that Godfather […]
I’m not ready to call this Howie sequel a success until I see the results from these FA and the draft picks we take. Brooks and McLeod could be cornerstone Eagles. Or they could check out now that they got paid. We haven’t even seen the draft play out. Let’s all slow down here before we start talking about Howie the changed man.
Yeah….every signing could fail, but that’s not likely to happen. I think you have to at least give him credit for making the necessary moves to land some of these players in FA right? He can’t control every aspect of Free Agency…..players have to put in some time and effort to be successful in their roles too.
I understand where you’re coming from, but a GM doesn’t get credit for signing players to play positions that even the average fan knew needed an upgrade. Howie gets credit when the players he signs pan out – or when the draft picks he selects pan out. We have yet to play a game & we have articles putting his decision making on par with Ozzie Newsome! Let’s just slow this train down a bit.
The Hinkie defense, right? Because we buy the logic of “the process”, we are forced into its little universe. The flaw is thinking we can evaluate a method without reference to results.
I guess it comes down to how you perceive the craft. I tend to view results as pretty random. Kind of like black jack, you can count cards to make decisions informed by the actual odds of success, but winning or losing big on a given day is out of your hands. There is no science to knowing exactly what the next card drawn will actually turn out to be.
Obviously I understand that is an uncomfortable and unacceptable viewpoint to many people, accountability becomes incredibly elusive if you accept that view, and accountability is incredibly important to many people. The only thing I can hold him accountable to is his methods, by my standards. It would be nice to get the gm who just knows which players will work out and go get them, but I don’t actually believe that guy exists or ever has.
Exactly.
Exactly! I couldn’t have said it better myself. Ozzie Newsome is one of if not the best NFL GMs of all time. But he doesn’t win the Super Bowl every year. In fact, his Ravens have one just once. But he makes reasonable, well thought out decisions that follow a clear fundamental process that produces consistently good results and keeps his team in competition for the ultimate prize. If you make reasonable decisions based on proven time tested methods for building a contending team it doesn’t guarantee success, it just makes it much more likely which is what a GMs job essentially is. Optimizing something that will never be perfect and playing the odds to maximize the chance of success. If you go rogue and make big risky decisions and fail, you should be held accountable for that. But if you make smart savvy moves and some of them fail for reasons out of your control you shouldn’t be blasted just for that poor outcome. If the outcome is consistently poor then chances are your process or method is the problem and change needs to happen. But just going off of results is missing the big picture. It’s like saying a QB played terribly when he goes out and throws perfect passes all over the field and his WRs drop them all. You wouldn’t just say, well the results were poor so the QB sucks, you’d acknowledged that the QB excelled at the part that he could control and the results were poor inspire of his play not because of it.
Wow I thought Ozzie was part of both of the Ravens SB teams…guess not. Learned something new today.
Like I said…two super bowls ; )
The problem with applying this logic to Howie or Hinkie is that there are no positive results and their methodologies (esp. in the case of Hinkie) are unproven. It’s fine to say that these things _should_ work, but there are a lot of things that people once thought should work, but they never did. People once thought you could evaluate someone’s intelligence by the bumps on their head. What was, at the time, the state of the art science, we now know as bunkum. And people of that era knew it was bunkum too, if they paid attention to reality and not a shared paradigm. Hinkie’s gambit and Howie’s series of boring, yet reasonable moves may appear sound to some, but so far, there is no evidence to suggest they are better than throwing darts at a board. And given the noise in the system, there’s a good chance there never will be.
The draft is one thing, but I don’t see why if Howie signs a top player in his prime who everyone agrees is a top player at his position and a great scheme fit and signs him to a reasonable contract that we’d then blame Howie if the player decides to suddenly phone it in. That’s not that much different in my eyes than giving him a negative grade for signing Leonard Weaver (who clearly should be considered a good signing for any GM) simply because Weaver had s career ending injury.
Terminator 2 was better eye-candy, and a decent movie, but it wasn’t a better movie than the original. The original is a master class in pacing – George Miller was clearly emulating its pacing in Fury Road.
Pacing is so crucial and oftentimes ignored. Breaking Bad IMO is the premiere example of pacing. The tension that is built over the course of the series and finally released is so very satisfying. Ozymandias is truly an all time TV series episode, but viewed on it’s own would not have much impact. With everything that came before it however, it turns into something special. Such a treat to analyze BB, I can’t think of any other TV series that shows such discipline when it comes to pacing.
Breaking Bad was and still is the best start to finish series in TV history. And, the beauty of its pacing is in the relative simplicity of the overall narrative. That’s a show that literally went from point A to point B and did so in an unrelenting and uncompromising way. WW makes the decision to break bad in the very first episode and that decision and its subsequent consequences is played out to its most extreme conclusion in such a linear and unwavering fashion. So many shows seem scared to pick a destination that is completely different from the dynamic at the beginning of the series and follow through with it to its ultimate conclusion. Show writers seem scared and timid to really embrace that and follow it through to the end relying on too many Deus ex Machinas or oscillating conflicts and character developments to keep things from changing completely. Breaking Bad takes you from point A to point B at an ever accelerating pace and shows that you don’t need to throw in crazy curve balls that seemed forced because when you embrace the ultimate destination like they did those curve balls occur naturally and seem rather to follow logically rather than completely shock you. But, the overall product ends up being so much more enjoyable and exciting to watch.
Agreed, BB is uncompromising and unrelenting, and proves that TV is better off that way, rather than trying to force drama to happen, it allows it to happen naturally.
I really think BB is what happens when you allow talented people to do things their way, rather than chasing ratings. I can totally see some suit around season 2 saying: Our ratings aren’t high enough! Walt needs to murder more people! Jesse needs to have an affair with Skyler! There needs to be a subplot involving Flynn maybe or maybe not finding a cure for his condition! etc. etc.
100% agree. T-1 was the better film all day long. The first act of T-2 really was something to behold, though. Love both those movies, that’s for sure!
No offense Tommy, but this piece is incredibly premature. It reminds me of the “In Chip I Trust” piece you wrote in the middle of Chip Kelly’s first offseason. We have no idea of these moves will be worthwhile. On paper, I have been a big fan of what we have done this offseason, but you are using revisionist history if you try to argue that people were not unbelievably excited about the Dream Team offseason also. If these moves all fail, no one will be saying it was a good sequel because we were excited prior to the season.
Right now, we have seen most of the movie trailer, the draft still being left out. We will know of the sequel is actually good only once we have seen the full movie.
The difference is these moves are better fits than those in 2011. It’s inaccurate to suggest he judges the moves based on how “unbelievably excited” he is for them. It’s about fit.
Prior to trading Kolb that offseason for DRC, Tommy wrote several articles pointing out how BOTH DRC and Nnamdi FIT on the defense. Go back and read his articles about Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, Ronnie Brown, Evan Mathis, Ryan Harris. Looking at the original signing update, Tommy talked about how well they “fit” in every single one.
We know now that 2011 was a major failure, but using the outcome to discuss the 2011 class and the future promise of the 2016 class is simply not an effective way to analyze Howie. At the time, Tommy (and I really don’t mean to pick on Tommy, EVERYONE was saying the same thing), was arguing how well these players fit. So to me, I’m still going to take a wait an see approach with Howie. They fit needs with available players and did so without destroying their cap room. So far, all of that is good. We have no idea if the players will be though and even if they will in fact fit once the games start.
I haven’t gone back to read them again but it’s possible he was talking about pure football fit in those articles vs how he is talking about how these players fit in terms of how their career and ambition goals and match our current team? “These guys won’t cause too much trouble if they don’t get what they want” kinda thing. Also, now we don’t have Washburn/Castillo to mess up our free agents
Not me. I never like Asomugha and thought he was overrated. I wanted to stick with Samuel and DRC until a good player could be drafted to replace Samuel.
So there’s one.
Well in fairness, Babin fit the wide 9 like a glove and proved that with 18 sacks that year. Problem was the wide-9 sucked. But, Babin did exactly what his position coach wanted him to do, ignore everything else and just rush the passer every single play. Unfortunately, using that as a strategy 100% of the time is incredibly stupid.
DRC did fit the defense when we made that trade (as an outside CB) problem was we misused him and tried to shoe-horn him into the nickel role after we signed Nnamdi later in the offseason. Nnamdi (circa his entire career before arriving in Philadelphia) did fit the defense. Unfortunately he started a precipitous decline and seemed to lose all interest in playing football. Cullen Jenkins was a great fit as a DT for the wide 9 and averaged about 5 sacks a season his two years here. Evan Mathis was a great fit for our blocking scheme and became a perennial pro-bowler for us.
Ronnie Brown and Vince Young were pure trash though, so I’ll give you that.
Wayne’s World 2 just might have been better than the original. “Get up, get, you’re worthy.”
I think those who criticize Tommy’s piece as premature because the draft hasn’t yet taken place are missing the point. His apples to apples comparison is strictly about free agency and how Roseman & Co. Have approached this offseason vs. the one one in 2011. Then when the draft happens later this month, he can write an oranges to oranges article about that aspect of team building.
I also love when people complain about what Tommy chooses to write about during a dead period in the offseason. There is literally nothing going on right now and Tommy is pumping out engaging articles nearly every single day. How many posters on here that are complaining could do that while also adhering to their own arbitrary rules that you can’t talk about any of the few things that actually have happened so far this offseason because you won’t know for sure how it turns out until 3 years later. And, god knows, we should never discuss things or share opinions on a blog or message board regarding things that we don’t already know the outcome to. That’s why it’s absurd to talk about football at all in the week leading up to the game. You won’t know how the game ends until it’s already over, so let’s not talk about it at all until we know for sure whats going to happen.
Some folks seem to be missing an essential point here: there’s a difference between assessing talent prior to bringing it in, and assessing the move three years after the fact when hindsight evaluates the move.
I’m disappointed that the first few comments on here today espouse the myopic viewpoint that off-season moves can only be evaluated after the season.
Also, it’s a lot harder to talk about the present if you have to wait ’til the future to do so.
That’s a huge drawback to living with linear time.
Yep, and Tommy can only give us Iggles joy in the present.
I can certainly vouch for the fact that Tommy cannot give us free sunglasses as presents.
This is why I have opted out of linear time. Makes decisions so much easier.
Quite literally, the only assessment one can give to FA additions and draft picks is: “Did it fill a need, and is there potential talent there?”. That’s it. Whether or not the moves made are praise-worthy is a decision one can only make after the results come in. To me, that’s not myopic; quite the opposite actually: it’s balanced and rational. The alternative is the bipolar and very irrational take you find on talk-radio stations. And more to the point, Howie – a GM with an incredibly suspect track record – doesn’t deserve anything more than the wait-and-see approach when it comes to evaluating his moves.
You answered your own question.
Yes, but the answers to those 2 questions aren’t enough to start calling the moves a success – which is what Tommy has anointed this offseason. (“Heckuva Sequel”) Howie’s moves both have potential and filled needs. So, reason to hope exists. But we can’t start calling Howie 2.0 a success until the results come in. I’m not espousing the view that we should be criticizing the moves made; I’m just an advocate of the wait-and-see approach.
That’s totally fair.
This matches my view incredibly well. Very well put.
My argument against that is the fact, you would be hard pressed to find people who were against the 2011 offseason. Heck, having read Tommy’s articles for a loooong time, I’m not sure I remember an offseason that Tommy seemed to suggest he was disappointed about the offseason going into that season.
As for assessing talent prior vs. three years after, I agree it is important to understand that context at the time, but GMs are not assessed that way. Results are what matter. Most people here love to tell critics of a player after a single season that “it’s too early to rate a player a bust.” The same is absolutely true on the other end. It is way to early to rate a player a hit as well. We all can be optimistic about the moves, and I don’t have any issue with Tommy making that argument. However, “2016 has already produce one great sequel…Howie Roseman II: The Reckoning” goes beyond that IMO. Howie has looked promising so far in his second go around, no question. He has not nearly earned “great” or even close to it prior to us seeing any one of these players play in an Eagles uniform.
I guess my argument is in favor of having at least two different measuring sticks.
1. Off-season moves (FA/Draft) vs. other team’s off-season moves and historical Eagles off-season moves without the benefit of hindsight.
2. Off-season moves (as noted above) with the benefit of hindsight.
While I do think it’s fair to claim that method 2 is the preferred method because it has more finality to it… I don’t think that method 1 should be dismissed.
And I think you get into some really interesting stuff if you allow them both to exist and introduce a third method.
3. Weight the method 1 evaluation against the method 2 actual outcome.
Just like method 2, this method requires patience… and supports the importance of method 2, but points out the fact that method 1 is valid and helpful as part of the evaluating process.
2011 off season was pretty unique… the team felt they had found a new franchise QB in Vick, had gone 10-6 with a poor roster that if you added a some proven veterans who had 1-2 years left of quality production the Eagles could make a run at the Super Bowl.
Vick regressed, team chemistry sucked, and outside of Babin (who was a headcase) pretty much all the vets phoned it in after a couple of games and just collected pay checks.
The FA moves have been about signing 2 young starters with to their 2nd contract to fill needs, and then get young depth players to round out holes in the roster. These are ‘building’ moves towards being a good team in 2-3 years time. same thing with the contract extensions for a lot of our young players.
People blame that terrible season on all the FA’s we brought in and I think that while that has become accepted knowledge it’s not completely accurate. Having a team with so many mercenaries certainly didn’t help. But, the main issues were 1) we promoted our offensive line coach to defensive coordinator 2) we let our defensive line coach determine the scheme and asked Juan to cobble together a mismatch of schemes to fit the wide 9 instead of having one coherent scheme 3) Vick regressed quite a bit 4) DeSean took the year off to mope about his contract 5) Maclin missed the majority of the offseason with a mystery illness/thought he had cancer until about August 6) we had some Oline injuries and Reid decided to forget that his best player was LeSean McCoy who he criminally underused that year. 7) the team was full of mercenaries and was mentally weak and unable to handle the high expectations mixed with the early failures.
But, those signings were not really all that bad. We signed Babin who led the league in sacks that year with 18. He had issues with freelancing and playing just for sacks, but that’s what Washburn wanted him to do. His 18 sacks were not the reason why we failed to make the playoffs that year. We signed Cullen Jenkins who racked up 5.5 sacks as a DT which was another good signing. We signed Evan Mathis who became a perennial pro-bowler at LG for us. Nnamdi wasn’t nearly as advertised that first year, but he wasn’t horrible either. DRC was misused as a nickel CB and did not play well at all, but he was hardly the reason we finished at 8-8 that year. We signed Vince Young, who came in and beat the Giants in a tough division game that year when Vick inevitably got injured. Ronnie Brown was an unmitigated disaster as a back up running back, but let’s be honest he only had 42 carries and 1 pass attempt (ugh) so his lack of production wasn’t a huge issue since McCoy stayed healthy and effective for the vast majority of the season.
It wasn’t until 2012 that the wheels completely came off. Nnamdi started eating alone in his car and appeared on the field only to frantically point in Nate Allen’s direction as the receiver he was covering smoked him deep for a big gain. DRC decided he didn’t like playing football as much as he liked yelling at Kendricks to shut up in the defensive huddle. Washburn went completely rogue and started referring to Juan as Juanita. Babin gave up trying to do anything but pad his stats. Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman were Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman. Vick completely fell apart. The offensive line disintegrated. And, Reid lost the team.
But, how much of that was because our FA signings were so bad. At that point we had gotten rid of Vince Yound and Ronnie Brown. Cullen Jenkins and Mathis were still playing at a high level. And, who knows why both our all-pro CBs suddenly sucked something awful. DRC was young enough to move on and immediately go back to being a pro-bowler. Unfortunately it was too late for Nnamdi and he lost his speed.
The influx of mercenaries I think just happened to be the dry kindling that accelerated the fire rather than the spark that started it. There were major systemic problems with that team that dwarfed our free agency spending spree in terms of importance in contributing to our downfall.
“You can argue that Godfather Part II is better than the original” — no, no you can’t.
Sure you can. The prequel scenes are awesome.
I mean it the other way :). 1 was very good. 2 was better.
Still enjoy it the most cut in chronological order that AMC occasionally shows.
Flashbacks, flash forwards, and other literary devices are often the crutches of sub par writers.
Eagles signed OG Matt Tobin to a one-year, $1.67 million contract.
Howie enjoyed his most success in the draft of 2012, he has dipped back into that pool of players quite a bit during this FA period.
So are we penciling in Wisniewski as starter at LG?
Until at least the draft. I’m more excited that he can play center. If Kelce gets injured or is downright ineffective again, I like the idea of having a competent backup on the roster.
This guy was very highly regarded coming out of PSU a few years back. A second round pick I believe-which is high for a Center. What happened? He definitely has the pedigree and background
I wouldn’t go that far to anoint him the starting LG immediately. He has been pretty much a mediocre player for most of his career. I give Gardner a slight edge for that spot at this moment, only because his competition looks to be Barbre, Tobin, and Wiz, but I can see a draft pick also stealing that job from all the vets.
Pretty sure that he hasn’t played Guard in a few years. Andrew Gardner IMO is also better than Eagle fans give him credit for, and I would THNK that we will still draft an OL or two in this draft. so it’s far from a lock that Wiz on 1yr contract ends up being our LG, but it’s also not ike we have so much guard talent that we can write off Wiz and assume he won’t win the Guard spot.
..
Personally, every year I find myself holding my breath worrying about a KELCE injury killing our entire season, so for me the value of signing Wiz comes from finally having such a credible, capable backup at Center. I would hate to see Wiz get hurt playing Guard and not be available in case of an injury to KELCE, so im still hoping we are able to draft a kid that will be able to win the LG competition turning Wiz into Insurance for KELCE which is why I value him so much to begin with.
..
Id like to see us stack our OL group so we can have a high level competition this summer to the point where we are going to have to end up cutting some capable backups because of how much talent we have.
…
dennis Kelly, Tobin, Barbie doll, Gardner, Bunche, Josh Andrews, Barrett Jones…. I am hoping we build our OL up enough so that these 7 players have to end up Battling all summer for 2 or 3 Roster spots.
Maybe Roseman has learned & matured but Lurie has gone out of his way in the recent past including this offseason that the Dream Team debacle was Banner & then Reid’s culpability.
Lurie largely absolved for Roseman for any real responsibility for his role in it. I felt it was a ridiculous claim given Roseman’s role as the GM at the time. If you believe Lurie at face value, then Roseman was largely just in a limited advisory role with largely operational duties instead of being a true GM. The blame lie entirely almost on Reid which was and still is terribly convenient.
I’ll admit wasn’t a fan of bringing Roseman back and giving him all responsibility for player personnel moves. I still think the Eagles’ FO structure is convoluted at best too. At worst, Lurie has given way too much power to Roseman and they’ll crash and burn with him at the helm.
Roseman deserves at least 3 years with Pederson to show what he can do but I’m mystified at how so many fans were literally seething he was back as the GM are now thrilled with what he did this offseason including heaping all kinds of praise. Just the normal schizo nature of NFL fans but Eagles’ fans in particular.
I’ll admit I liked what he did this offseason generally with a few exceptions (Daniel signing, Curry extension, mixed on the McLeod deal and investing so much in the 2 safeties). Roseman also largely said the right things too although the sniping about Kelly was tacky.
Now just have to wait and see how the draft plays out & what unfolds next season. I may be in the minority but I won’t be upset if this team doesn’t make the playoffs next year. Winning is always tough for a first year coach especially a head coach for the first time implementing new schemes on defense and offense.
With some good luck and health especially for Bradford, I could see them winning 9-10 games but more likely 7-8 games with a pretty pedestrian offense.
Think when people look at safety spending you need to also look at CB commitment of salary cap. We are spending far less than league average at CB which allows the greater spending at Safety. In 3 years time hopefully Rowe will be getting a nice extension and we can replace one of our expensive Safeties with a cheap rookie deal player.
Generally i like what we have done outside of the QB position (i would have let Bradford walk), but i think a lot of people are expecting too much from depth/competition signings. The only guaranteed starters from free agency i see are RG and S, everyone else who has come in is going to be competing for a job/roster spot even.
I wasn’t a fan of signing Bradford at huge dollars especially to a long-term deal (4-5 years). Eagles avoided that.
Big question to me is do they go QB this draft with the #1 pick. I’m not a fan of that strategy given all of their other needs but if they think Goff (or Wentz) is the guy who can stabilize the position for the next several years I understand why they make the pick.
Just better be really sure about it since it will largely determine Pederson and Roseman’s fate in their current roles if they draft a QB with #8 or move up.
Where you in favor of handing control from Howie to Chip Kelly last year?
No. I’m not a fan at all of a coach/GM running an NFL franchise.
I was in favor of gm not being howie, but i think all of us made our opinions on bad info about chip
I know your probably the biggest Roseman supporter on here.
Now that there is no one else to pass blame to for shortcomings (which have been frequent the last several years) I want to see how Roseman does.
Just willing to be a bit patient though which I’m sure the Eagles’ fan base won’t be if this team misses the playoffs yet again next year.
If I remember correctly Roseman wasn’t fully the GM until 2012 after Banner was dumped. And, the 2011 Dream Team offseason was something that was set in motion years prior. Banner realized that there was going to be an uncapped year in 2010 which would allow them to structure contracts in such a way that they could end up with massive amounts of cap space in 2011 without violating the leagues rules (the ones the Redskins and Cowboys were punished for breaking) and would ultimately allow them to make a bunch of big FA signings in 2011. So they were planning on going nuts in 2011 for a few years prior to the actual execution of the plan. Howie was clearly the lead contract negotiator during the actual free agency period where we signed all those guys, but the plan was laid out for him to do so long before he took the reigns.
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/717022804999155712
I come in peace
That’s what Ambassador Normora said . . .
Right before the Japanese’s unprovoked and dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor.
Non-Breaking News!!
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/cc/ccef0a528f37c5e0f0629e78ee9d939ace8ff0c1b85b65183cfe7c621e53fbdf.jpg
I like the Wisniewski signing, at this point we have reasonable starters/depth along the line. Takes even more pressure off us to pick a position over BPA in the draft.
Really I think we’re going to stand pat most of the way and just take the best BPA… I’m not sure I buy these trade up for Wentz rumors at all. Doesn’t fit our MO.
What’s the Eagles’ MO, as you see it?
During the Reid years, the team traded up in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2012. (A couple years the team moved out of the 1st.)
Or, by MO, are you thinking beyond just the draft?
Not so much trading up, but more making a dramatic tradeup. Sometimes we move up some spots, but from 8 to 1 is a much bigger leap than we typically make. I associate those type of dramatic moves with more dysfunctional franchises.
The Wiz signing is a God send!! KELCE hasn’t exactly been Mr. durability since entering the League, it’s such a relief to finally be going into a season and not automatically feel like our season is over if KELCE gets hurt. We haven’t had a backüp Center of his caliber in years.
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Even if he doesn’t win the LG spot, it would still be a fantastic signing as far as I’m concerned. He hasn’t played LG since like 2011, but it’s not like Gardner, Tobin or Barbie is a murders row of LG competition. If he manages to also provide an upgrade at starting LG Spot, than this really becomes a brilliant signing.
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But Ideally, we draft a T or G, that proves to be an immediate upgrade at LG and beats out Wiznewski and the rest of the Guards, so that Wiz can just,sit the bench as backüp Center Insuramce, instead of having to start him and risk him getting hurt and not being available in case we need him at Center…. Unless Josh Andrews or Barret Jones are better than we think and can handle Being Kelce’s primary back up.
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Really Love what they are doing with the OL so far… Hit on an OL with one of our top 100 picks, hit on another one in the Following draft, and we should be sitting pretty at OL. Although I hope we consider drafting two OLineman this year. One in the top 3 rounds, and another with a 4th or 5th round pick.
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Hoping to see an abundance of OL talent in camp to the point where we can have a high level competition this summer for the backüp spots to the point where we have to end up cutting a solid lineman or two because we added so much OL talent
Wisniewski is going to present Howie a significant challenge to find a second player for his off season pairings. Of course, he could go another route…
https://twitter.com/ArkansasFred/status/716996692038533120
T-Law:
Regarding your question on Roseman . . .
You can have my answer now, if you like.
My answer is this: Nothing.
Not even a guess for gaming the question;
Which I would appreciate if you publish personally.
What?
Just tinkering with some GFII lines
coughI’veneverseenitallthewaythroughcough
What can I tell you . . .
Shhhh no spoilers for a movie that was released 17 years before I was born.
D3, you broke my heart.
Coach –
How far up in a trade for a higher 1st do you think the Eagles would go? The price?
To answer your other ?:
For a QB I’m comfortable moving pick 8, 77 and 2017 1st.
What
does that buy you? I’m not sure. As much as everybody loves the draft
value chart, it’s not super accurate especially this high. It’s a bit of
an illiquid dark pool market.
Probably not 1-1. The other
logical trading spots are San Diego (I think if they want Buckner he
could be there at 8) and Jax. I don’t think Baltimore trades back
because they have a bunch of picks in the first four rounds already, and
I don’t know that a future first would be involved there.
For a non QB? You’re probably looking at a third and a fifth and it probably buys you Jacksonville or Baltimore pick
“illiquid dark pool market” . . .
great, great point.
How do you say “banana daiquiri”?
https://twitter.com/Astonia67/status/716969669068988421
https://twitter.com/Astonia67/status/716969865198833664
https://twitter.com/Astonia67/status/716970314081681409
Turner
We’ll see on him. I’m less sure of his fit with Brooks in the fold. Turner is also a RG and while Brooks can pull a bit it’s slightly awkward so you would prefer a LG who is a little better on the move.
Coach –
Does Wisniewski — at LG — fit the description you gave for a more mobile counterpart to Brooks?
“illiquid dark pool market”
_____________
just a great insight to beat down the “Oh, But Washington Traded three 1st’s” crowd.
“the TCU kid”
Nice timesaver.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai kinda kills the character limits on twitter.
I’m in no way advocating the selection, but are you convinced that the Eagles won’t shock/bore us all and take Stanley at #8. It wouldn’t be a bad pick by any means given Peters’ age and recent injury issues and by all accounts Stanley is a fairly decent prospect even if 8th overall is a bit of a reach. Might be nice to have some inside info on how upset (or i guess possibly happy) I should be if the pick comes in for Stanley on draft day.
Oh I would be very happy with Stanley at 8. I’m more just looking at guys a little later on, most people are pretty familiar with Stanley
Should be a good read.
Source confirms that Jerry Jones has indeed employed a new sports science program combining the knowledge of animal husbandry experts with his second favorite football player Jason Witten in an attempt to create his own man-dog.
Jerry Jones is trying to create a mawg?
http://screeninvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Spaceballs_John_Candy_Barf.jpg
He’s hopeful at this point that his will be more useful than that guy.
Unlimited upvotes on the Spaceballs reference. My avi will stay up unless Schwartz shits the bed.
“I’m my own best friend.”
Its a good plan on Ol’ Jerruh’s part. The Eagles’ own man-dog is too much to handle for Mr. Witten so why not try and replicate it. Good think it is Jerry we’re talking about and he will end up with a Mawg like pictured below.
Not to beat a dead horse, but I am all over Howie’s strategy with this doing everything in pairs this off season.
Earlier in the season, Howie signed a FA WR named Seantavius Jones. Today, Howie release a WR named Seantavius Jones.
Coincidence? I think not.
I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable fan, when I saw that on my Twitter feed, I didn’t even remember signing Seantavius Jones on the roster in the first place. Although, I do like his name. I’m gonna have to ask my mom why she didn’t name me Davius.
I read way too much about the Eagles and I can honestly say I’ve never even heard the name Seantavius Jones before. It’s not like I forgot it, I’m quite confident I have never even seen it.
I predict she will answer, “Because I didn’t hate you.”
That dude’s mom really butchered my name. I mean, honestly.
” in the paste HOWIE made moves that would impress Jerry Jones, this yeàr he is making moves more likely to impress Ozzie Newsome”….. That’s a great way to put it Mr. Lawlor. Good stuff…
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“Some people are frustrated that the Eagles havent made more moves in free agency”… I really haven’t heard many people who are down on the work Roseman has done so far. Im sure there are some younger fans who still just want to sigń every big name in Free Agency, but for the most part. I think The FANBASE has responded well to our offseason.
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If Wisnewski was our last signing of this offseason, it still goes down as a masterful job by Roseman, but I am hoping we are able to make another modest Depth signing or two, even if the signing doesn’t come til June.
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najee Goode is our only backüp LB I feel comfortable about, and he is best suited to backüp KEndricks on the weakside. safe to assume we will draft a LB at some point, so im hoping that we can sigń a backüp middle LB or Strongside LB, that way when we draft a LB, we will have 3 solid/credible backups in place..
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When all,you have on your bench is beau allen, taylor hart and Raciti, it’s safe to say that DT help is on the way. But because we will spend a pretty penny extending both cox and Logan, the DT talent we add probably needs to be a kid we control on a cheaper rookie contract for the next 4 or 5 years…. Doubt we will pay for a DT upgrade in FA, but its a big need that we have to address in the draft.,.
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1 back up LB signing would be the cherry on the top of a really quality Free Agent Haul
Agreed. I haven’ heard anyone complain outside of Bradford/Daniels and even in those moves, most fans seem to understand the reasoning behind them. Only one I know who are complaining are ESP and Eckle, which IMO is telling me the Eagles are probably doing the right things.
i really hope we get a solid backup to Hicks. i sure hope he doesn’t get hurt, but after seeing how the defense turned to shit once he was hurt last year…. we need someone competent that can fill in if needed.
I assume we will draft at least 1 LB..
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Ideally, Lions eventually cut Tulloch and he agrees to sign on as a Backup in June. But it may be wishful thinking to ask him to accept a role he has no chance of starting in…
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We need two Backüp LB’s…..,unless Acho can handle being a MIKE or SAM in a 4-3…
2 OL in FA so we can really go BPA in the draft, should have happened last year. Feel decent about talent on the team. Feel like we don’t have to stretch to get people just so we can have reasonable starters.
We truly have, at the very least, a serviceable and reasonable starter already on the roster at every position. That’s a great place to be going into the draft. BPA all the way. Find spots on the field for good players, don’t try to find good players to fill a spot.
Amazing b/c we have 8, and two thirds and a #1 in the fourth – howie can’t lose really.
Presented without comment
Greg Hardy to Adam Schefter:
“I’ve never put my hand on ANY women,” Hardy said, in a partial transcript posted by ESPN. “In my whole entire life, No Sir.”
Did his ex beat herself up? Perhaps had a third party BDSM session? What a joke, Hardy can take notes from what Vick did and stay the hell away from social media.
sociopath disgusts me..adam Shefter interview video when this maniac had the nerve to say he never put his hands on a woman in his life Even tho there is a mountain of evidence that says other wise.
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Im hoping this vile disgusting human ISNT allowed to play in the NFL next year. I would be furious if the Eagles signed him.
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Id be much much more willing to give the guy a chance if he tried to own his mistakes, but continuong to deny everything IMO makes me hope his career is over… He has never even tried to friggin Fake any remorse. Im going to be really disgusted if a team signs him.
The sad thing is, he is “allowed” to play. The NFL did such an awful job at dealing with Greg Hardy. I’m thankful that so far no team has signed him, but I am fearful that once teams start to get ready for the season and see they have a hole, Hardy will eventually sign somewhere. Hopefully not, but the Cowboys aren’t the only team that have signed Greg Hardy types.
Certainly a concern!!! Hopefully he didn’t play well enough last year for a team to put up with his crap. But he does play a valuable position and all it takes is one disgraceful owner to give him a job…. I sure hope not.
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he hasn’t even been good enough on the field to put up with what a shitty teammate he has been, let alone good enough to put up with the public relations nightmare you deserve If you put his talent ahead of what a vile disgusting human he is…. He doesn’t deserve to earn another dollar out of the NFL… Im thankful he didn’t play well last year because has he had a 10 sack year, some disgusting owner like Jerry would sigń him with the quickness
So if it wasn’t his hand what part of his body did he use to bruise the shit out of his girlfriends back and neck?
http://deadspin.com/this-is-why-nfl-star-greg-hardy-was-arrested-for-assaul-1739117634
Does pistol whipping someone or slamming a toilet seat down onto their forearm not count as “putting your hand on” someone? Because, I’ve dated some women in my time and I’ve never known one to just spontaneously develop massive bruises all over their body.
It depends what the meaning of “is” is, doesn’t it? Or “hand” in this case?
I just saw the movie Spotlight last night (about the uncovering of child molesting by priests in Boston, really good, i recommend it) and Hardy’s rationalization sounds really similar to a line from an accused priest in the movie. the priest comes right out and says that he molested kids, but follows it up with (paraphrasing) “but its not rape, because i took no pleasure from it. i was just fooling around with them”.
its crazy how people can spin things like this in their own mind
Is a great movie, and it saddens me that investigative print journalism is dying discipline, due to lack of revenue for papers.
The interesting thing the movie does is it chooses not to really go after the Catholic Church (which it could easily do), but rather looks at the entire system of institutional cover up through out all levels of Boston society that enabled the scale of the abuse to go on.
Different society, picture is worth 1,000 words, maybe more.
disquis and twitter have to find out how to get along.
So he is “innocent” because of the terribly flawed legal system but he is openly admitting to doing something wrong. I don’t usually wish bad things to happen to other people but this guy is one guy that deserves to be found dead in a back alley somewhere.
Bam
We’ll see on Roseman. Again, until the results show up on the field and in the playoffs it is all speculation. Roseman, like the Eagles in totum, is firmly in Missouri territory: Show me!
We all said great things about that 2011 spending spree and all the FA we signed last season too and they were mostly flops. The Eagles and Roseman need to prove it before I buy in again.
I think Wisniewski not only allows more BPA drafting throughout, but it also reduces the likelihood of a guard in Round 3. Increases the likelihood of drafting Peters’s heir apparent at OT before getting a guard to develop over 1-2 years (Rounds 5 and later). Greater flexibility to use third rounder on developmental QB (if Goff does not fall to #8) than worrying about drafting guard with starting potential in Round 3. Or packaging one of Round 3 picks to move up to get Goff.
It’ll be interesting to see how Howie drafts Olineman since we haven’t seen him do it very often the past few years so we don’t really know what he’s going to look for. Add in a new blocking scheme and I have no idea what type of players we’ll target on the line.
For a while under Reid we had a habit of drafting college tackles that weren’t necessarily quick enough to excel at tackle in the pros and trying to train them up as guards. You ended up with some taller more athletic pass blockers at guard. Then we seemed to switch gears for awhile and Reid fell in love with giant meatball maulers for a few years. That didn’t work out as we ended up with Max Jean Gilles and then went back to the drafting tackles and if they couldn’t cut it as a tackle they’d be trained as guards. Will be interesting to see if Howie feels that’s the way to go.
I don’t think a Guy on a 1 year contract has any bearing whatsoever on who we draft.. Draft is about our Future..takes serious hubris from a GM for him to think that not only will he be able to draft a good player, but that he will be able to draft a good player that can be counted on to be NFL ready from day 1.
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Free agency is about next year, draft is for our future..
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Jury is still out on Howie imo, yea he appears to have on paper won FA again but does that translate on the field? Granted the field is the domain of the coach but that coach also is part of a Howie decision. Should the drafts and the coach fail over the next three years can we finally point at the common denominator…Howie.
But the only place to win the off season is on paper. That is where it is fought. Granted, the larger goal is that it leads to success on the field, but saying he only won on paper is like the high schoolers that say, “Sure, they beat us on the court, but wait until they come out to the parking lot.”
I think for the most he’s done his part, he’s gotten the players to help fit the coaches plan, the rest is on coaches and players…
True we are in the offseason and that is the place to work but some of the best teams “loose” in the offseason but win on the field. Bringing in folks is not a long term winning solution. If we draft and develop players right we won’t need to rely on winning the offseason.
In defense of Tommy’s post, I think everyone understands that we won’t actually know for sure how any of this turns out until it all actually plays out. But, there’s nothing wrong with stating your opinion on where you think it’s heading and why and saying, “so far so good in my eyes.” Otherwise, let’s just shut down this board until the day after the season ends, because there’s nothing to talk about and no opinions to be shared since we won’t know how the season ends until its already over. Where’s the fun in that? Just wait till its over and if we having a winning record come on here and say, “the moves were good and the team improved” or if we have a losing record come on and say, “the moves were bad and the team got worse”?
Well,said….I don’t understand the complaints at all… When a prominent offseason move is made, we all feel something about it. We are either excited about a move we like, or turned off by a move we don’t agree with, and then there are times when we aren’t familiar enough with the player to have an opinion either waty….. do we really want Tom to stop giving us his opinion and initial impressions/projections? Do we really want Tom to withhold his impressions and just write “We’ll see” after every signing?
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If we only want to talk about Facts, then we would have to spend the majority of this offseason talking about last season. Any Time you give your opinion on something that HASNT Happened yet it’s just a projection… If tom could speak with 100% accuracy on the future that hasn’t even happened yet, he would be one of the richest people in the world
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There WOULDNT even be close to enough content to talk about the Eagles all year if we eliminate projections. I don’t agree with Tommy all the time, but this sounds like some crazy nitpicking to me..
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When Tom says he views this offseason as a success, WOULDNT anyone with average intelligence automatically understand that it’s just his impression/Projection of something that hasn’t proven to be true or false yet?
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without projections this time of year, Tom could write a post draft results evaluation, and a post pre season games DGR and call it a summer… Where the hell are we getting enough content to talk Eagles all year without any projections?
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If Tom feels good about a player the Eagles sigń, what’s the problem? When the season plays out his projection will be validated or disproven, Once he gathers more Information on the matter, his feelings can change. A Big part of a blog is opinions and projections which are fallible. It would be a very boring place if we don’t ever talk about the future and only restrict content to factual info because what hasn’t hapoened yet can never be considered Fact, without projecting we can only talk about the past, and with the lack of success we have had, it would drive me mad if we never could discuss the future.
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We are ripping Tom for liking the moves we made now? Geez… Tôugh crowd
Not a howie lover, but he usually finds out a way to get what the coach/gm wants done, that it usually ends up getting that coach/gm fired is just a coincidence.
Well that is assuming Howie got the players the coach wanted. There was a tweet today that both Andy Reid and Chip Kelly both said…I’m paraphrasing here…there needs to be synchronization between front office and coaching staff.
And you didn’t quite vince young.. of course you wouldnt … all part of what makes Tommy Lawlor great.
81 off season mvp.
Bitch slapping
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/717137268503240704
https://twitter.com/JimmyKempski/status/717135733740449794
Bullshitting
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/717114975353843712
https://twitter.com/JimmyKempski/status/717116128598876160
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/717109269347246080
https://twitter.com/Southern_Philly/status/717106580819410950
This is like watching brain damaged children slap each other with wet pasta. No one comes out looking good.
Looks like Kempski doesn’t believe in taking the high road.
Here’s a picture of Jimmy
Dave, I’ll take a ‘C’, please.
What precipitated the Kempski – Allbright feud?
Anyone?
I think a few weeks ago Kempski called him out for throwing shit against that wall and seeing what sticks…and I believe he also called him out for basically reporting that “something might happen….but it might not”..
Thx
Some pretty good hardball by Jimmy K.
Bullshit!
In February, Allbright tweeted it was extremely unlikely that the Cowboys take a QB at 4.
Today, he said the Cowboys are trying to trade up.
Kempski called him out, Allbright said his sources now tell him Cowboys want a QB. Allbright said he reports what his sources said. He DMd Kempski and Kempski tweeted a picture of the private DM to up his Q rating.
Kempksi is trolling for exposure.
Kempski would never troll for exposure.
That’s sarcasm right?
Heavy sarcasm.
I agree that Allbright does sometimes play both sides of the fence but February was before FA began. The Cowboys probably planned on signing a FA backup QB and it didn’t pan out. Now I’d agree it’s hard to envision the result of not being able to sign a free agent backup to be a shift to trying to trade up for a QB in the 1st round but the general point is that the draft and free agency are fluid situations and just because the current information differs from the past info that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t legitimately received by the reporter from a source.
Kempski should also realize that if a reporter wants to continue to receive legitimate scoops from sources that sometimes he has to agree to be used by that source, knowingly or not, to regurgitate misinformation. That doesn’t necessarily mean the reporter is doing anything unethical. The whole pissing match to me comes off as silly and unprofessional.
I agree. I guess the bottom line is Allbright has legitimate sources and scoops. He is also very thin-skinned. Kemspki’s writing style tends to be negative and childish, apparently to elecit a strong reaction and gain popularity. Him trolling Allbright seems like just another juvenile attempt at gaining notoriety, just on a national stage this time.
Seems like every time I even check our beat writers twitter they have an axe to grind with someone.
Having a problem with someone is fine, but a grown man handling it in a way much like a 7th grader is actually kind of sad to see.
One doesn’t often see that type of reporter on reporter venom. Unless you count the Les Bowen / Jeff McLane fight.
I must have missed that one. I think I unfollowed both of them though.
No. It was an actual (sort of) fist fight.
At least that one involved a real punch instead of this public golden shower match.
Too true.
If this were pre new CBA and Reids TC I would go with Cox. Im acctually going with Mcleod or Rowe for offseason MVP.
I think Agholor has immense talent and wasnt used correctly, but im not as high on him as most. If Mathews does move outside on a much more regular basis im not sure why people seem to be writing Agholors name in ink as a starter on the outside.
T2 is definitely better than terminator??!? what!!! Blasphemy. T2 is more fun, sure, but better? No way.Terminator is a much more interesting movie.
This looks like it could be everything a championship game should be.
I was worried they used all their magic in the semis…looking good so far.
I still come in peace
For what it is worth, Adam Caplan was on 97.5 tonight and he thought the biggest need right now is a starting CB to put into Schwartz’s scheme opposite Rowe. One piece this defense is missing besides a true 3-down DE who can get to the QB consistently.
Doesn’t think Carroll doesn’t have the size/physical presence for the scheme and too much of a question mark to come back 100% healthy. Also doesn’t think they have another starting caliber CB on the roster right now. Wasn’t very high on McKelvin or Brooks labeling them as system guys.
Also labeled an outside WR as a big need (Matthews just isn’t a fit there) and OL line as #2 and #3 in terms of immediate needs next season.
Interesting enough, he said he thought the Eagles will stay at #8 and it very strong sense that they draft a QB because Bradford is on a one-year ‘prove it’ deal. Issue is that he thinks the Browns take Wentz at #1 and that some other team is going to take Goff before #8 by trading up.
Generally enjoy when he is on with Joe DeCamara.