Bottoms Up
Posted: July 23rd, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 47 Comments »The thought behind the 2004 Super Bowl team, at its most basic, is that you had a foundation of Donovan, Dawk and Westy and then the Eagles added TO and the Freak to put that team over the top. While that is true, the 2004 Eagles were also strong at the bottom of the roster. Tom Modrak, Tom Heckert, Mike McCartney and others had found contributors all over the place and they helped the team in a major way.
Think about the UDFAs that started or were key role players: Quintin Mikell, Artis Hicks, Rod Hood, Sam Rayburn, Reno Mahe, and Greg Lewis. There were players taken off the NFL scrap heap. Darwin Walker was a 3rd round pick by the Cardinals, but they cut him after one year and one game. He looked like a major bust. The Eagles scooped him up and developed him into a solid DT. David Akers was with the Falcons, Panthers, Skins and Berlin Thunder before landing with the Eagles and becoming a star kicker. Hank Fraley signed with the Steelers as a UDFA, but got cut and the Eagles signed him. He sat for the 2000 season and then started from 2001-2005. Dirk Johnson (aka Dirk Diggler) was the punter for that team. He had one NFL punt under his belt when the Eagles signed him. LB Keith Adams was a 7th round pick by Dallas that got cut early in his rookie year. He came over to the Eagles and was a good STer and even starting WLB.
Why bring this up?
The Eagles have made small moves in recent days.
The Eagles are signing former Alabama safety Nick Perry, per source. He spent last year on the Ravens' practice squad
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) July 22, 2016
Former Villanova LB Don Cherry is going to sign with the #Eagles. Was originally signed after the draft by the #Bears (waived in June).
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) July 22, 2016
The Eagles recently cut DT Derrick Lott and WR Jonathan Krause. They are tinkering with the bottom of the roster. None of this is a big deal by any stretch of the imagination. At the same time, you never know when the personnel department is going to find a player that will develop into a solid contributor (or even better). No one was excited when the Eagles signed Akers or Fraley. They were “we’ll see” kind of moves.
BGN has some more details on the players that got signed. I thought Brandon Lee Gowton made a terrific point here:
One interesting note about these two potential signings is that both players share connections to Philadelphia’s new vice president player of personnel Joe Douglas. Douglas originally signed Cherry to the Bears before getting hired by the Eagles. As for Perry, former Ravens scout and current Eagles assistant direct of player personnel Andy Weidl is familiar with him. These potential signings are minor, but we’re already seeing the influence of Philadelphia’s new player personnel executives.
Douglas did a terrific job with the Ravens of finding UDFAs and building up the bottom of the roster. With the Eagles trading so many draft picks away, it is crucial that the team find talent in other areas.
Back to the players.
Cherry is here to add depth at MLB. He is just over 6-1 and 237 pounds. Cherry runs well, but lacks top agility. You can see that in his highlights.
Put a play in front of him and Cherry will attack it. He has good straight-line speed. Good burst. He has stiff hips, though, and that will keep him from making plays sideline to sideline. Cherry could be a good STer. I like the signing because this is a year where the Eagles need to find and develop young talent. The Wide 9 tries to funnel things to the middle. Cherry can play between the tackles so he’s a good fit for this scheme. We’ll see how he does soon enough.
Here is Gil Brandt on Perry’s Pro Day from a year ago.
Defensive back Nick Perry (6-0 3/4, 201) ran the 40 in 4.62 and 4.65 seconds. He really looked good in the workout, and could go as early as the sixth or seventh round of the draft, or be a priority free-agent pickup for a team following the draft.
Good combination of size and speed. Perry impressed last spring and summer in Baltimore so you wonder why he got cut. Maybe he got complacent and didn’t make the kind of progress they were expecting.
Perry is another depth addition. The Eagles have a terrific pair of starting Safeties. Blake Countess looks like he could be a good backup. Chris Maragos is more of a STer than a DB. Ed Reynolds faces an uphill challenge. He is an inconsistent tackler in a scheme that requires DBs to be very good tacklers. There is room for another Safety to add to the mix.
The Eagles will keep cycling players in and out, looking for those hidden gems that can help put a team over the top. Hitting on the 1st round picks and the big free agent signings is still the key to building a great team, but don’t overlook the value of the guys who come from other places. If you have the right personnel guys doing the looking and a good coaching staff to develop those players, they can be a big help.
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[…] Tommy Lawlor The thought behind the 2004 Super Bowl team, at its most basic, is that you had a foundation of […]
Just landed in Milwaukee .. any yoo dudes live here ??
Is that a neighborhood in South Philly?
From my college education, I learned that Milwaukee is a sewage treatment plant/ beer producing facility. All of the pipes are interconnected, apparently.
Same with Philly. We could have a Schlitz vs. Schmidt’s competition.
Ill dtjnk emv all
The Fonz. First time I ever heard the term ‘jump the shark’. Laverne and Shirley. Laverne played by Penny Marshall who was married to Garry Marshall. One’s mind wanders sometimes. The ladies did work in a brewery. Or a treatment plant. 😉
Garry Marshall was her brother, not her husband.
I hear the beer sucks.
No man, it’s the best
nice writeup, interesting to see how they’ll develop. I didnt know Akers bounced around so much. He’s my fav kicker evah!
You lost me with Reno Mahe there. I don’t think he was a Modrak/Heckert/McCarthy bottom of the roster guy who turned into a key role player. He was a BYU guy who was on the team because he was an Andy Reid pet and he had absolutely no business being in the NFL.
Way too harsh. Reno was a terrific college player. The Eagles made the mistake of turning him into a RB. Should have tried to keep him a slot receiver/RS. Effective role player.
He must have been the slowest RS in the league. Surely a 4.7 40 isn’t near the league standard.
At least he didn’t drop the ball, as far as I remember.
He was a sure handed punt returner who actually lead the league in PR average one year IRC.
He should not have ever been back to return kickoffs though, he was way too slow for that.
The 1 guy you wouldnt bum out if he got injured. Wasnt a fan but loved his drive
Yup get out to the 20 or 25 and get drilled. Slow and limited agility too.
He was a poor man’s Louie Giammona.
Jevon Kearse was such a major disappointment in the end. Looking at his stats its amazing how his sack numbers drop in a linear fashion from his rookie year to the end of his career.
And a total no-show in the Superbowl vs. “meh” OTs.
<<o. ★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★:::::::!!be456p:….,..
Thanks AR for anither game mismanagement that got him injured. Painful painful painful memory
<<o. ★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★:::::::!!be623p:….,….
In my memory, that was the first time I really questioned Reid. Everyone makes some mistakes but that was a sure win with conservative play in the 4th quarter. Kearse looked awesome those first two games too… He would have bucked that downward trend easily. In the end we only got one good year out of him but it turned on that injury.
What a shitty, annoying game. I was outside the stadium tailgating while my brother was in. Losing Kearse to that bullshit hurt more than was necessary.
Is it my imagination or has the Football Operations potion of the Eagles FO grown substantially? Don’t know if they are just listing more positions and titles, or if I have been completely distracted by the Doug Pederson, Jim Schwartz, Carson Wentz buzzes.
Greg would know for sure, but it’s mostly just alot more guys having titles. Half the damn department is VP of scouting now.
Hasn’t really grown. As D3FB said guys who were before listed as area scouts now have Senior Director, Director, or Asst Dir titles.
If you’re just looking at the “Football Ops” portion, they now list some guys that have been with the team previously but were unlisted at the website. Roseman and Halaby were listed previously even if they weren’t really involved after Chip had his hissy fit.
If you look at the scouting department, for the most-part there have been one-for-one changes. If we discount Tom Donahoe’s temporary gig as senior director of player personnel(he’s back to his former gig as senior football advisor).
Joe Douglas essentially replaces Ed Marynowitz
Andy Weidl’s position of Asst Dir of Player Personnel is new, although Marynowitz had that title when Gamble was here
Joe Pannunzio remains in place as Director of Personnel Operations. When he was hired, I thought he was a direct replacement for Marynowitz’s previous position but it doesn’t appear that is the case. His role hasn’t been defined in detail.
Chris Shea, who was hired in Chip’s regime, is also still with the team. He had a slight change in title form Director of Scouting Administration/Strategic Management to Director of Scouting Administration/Personnel Scout. That is probably because some of what he was doing last year is now done by Halaby.
Anthony Patch returns as Senior Director of College Scouting. We didn’t have anyone last year with the title of Director last year let alone Senior Director but I think in practice Michael Davis, who was listed as “Personnel Executive” functioned in that role. Davis is no longer with the team.
Trey Brown was promoted to Dir of College Scouting from Asst Dir of College Scouting. Mike Bradway was promoted back to Asst Dir of College Scouting. He was demoted last year under Chip to SW Area Scout.
Rick Mueller was re-hired as a Player Personnel Executive. It sounds
like in practice he replaces Louis Clark, who was Senior Director of Pro
Personnel. Clark is now with SDG.
There are some other changes that we don’t really need to go into detail in. It seems like in general they beefed up the Sports Science dept a little but got rid of some of Chip’s overseers like James Harris(“Chief of Staff”). In pure numbers though, it’s about the same.
Did anybody replace Tom Gamble as “leaker in chief?”
Helps to realize just how many things have to go right to have a chance at a SB. All star talent at QB, RB, WR, DE, Safety, etc. wasn’t enough.
This just in from the boy bites dog files: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/college-athlete-credited-with-saving-unconscious-woman-being-raped-behind-bar-dumpster/
Jameis Winston has a lot of guts partying in a UF bar.
Who would of thought Joey Rickard getting hurt would start trade talks for outfielders when spring training started? Can’t under estimate the impact of the under dog!
This fall is going to be great for Philly sports. The new look Eagles and the Sixers young guys, a double whammy of hope for the future.
This summer; not so much. Aaron Nola is dogging it and the Union pissed away first place by losing to BS teams.
But the fall holds a lot of promise for sure.
You forgot the Flyers who I think are quietly building a very strong team.
Their talent is still VERY young, so it’s going to be a few years until it all comes together, but if you watch the top picks from the last few years, you can see that they are absolutely oozing with talent. Seems like they have a good staff in place to develop them, too.
I’m real curious to see if Morin and Hagg take steps forward this year. Both had rough years last year, but they’re both really young and you could catch glimpses of what they can be.
Sanheim and Provorov both have the talent to be stars. Hagg and Morin would just be cherries on top if they worked out.
Provorov can be a #1. Sanheim strikes me more as the offensive guy on a 2nd pairing. Since Ghost fills that same role (in defensive ability, Sanheim has the better measurables, obviously, but Ghost is a try-hard, while Sanheim just doesn’t seem that interested in anything but offense), and watching the Caps physically dominate this year’s defense along the boards, I’m now focusing on the D prospects who can fill the “stopper” role when paired with Ghost or Sanheim. A guy who can reliably stop a cycle by just imposing his will physically. Obviously, Morin has the ability to be more, but if he can at least reach that level, he’s got a spot in the top 4 in the near future. Hagg doesn’t have the ceiling, and probably won’t be physically intimidating, but he can be a solid to very good stay-at-home defenseman for a puck-possession team. He might make a good partner for Provorov, who has Norris level potential.
Are the Eagles going to be really ‘new look’ when Wentz isn’t starting in a rebuilding year?
Sixers will be more interesting though if it is a really ugly roster right now that isn’t hard to see players bitching and complaining about minutes from the get go especially Noel.
Yes. Watch how Schwartz has these guys on D getting all kinds of rowdy.
The Eagles are new look because this is going to be a defensively oriented team this year. Plays will be made on defense, while the offense is pretty much going to be tasked with “don’t screw up.”
In 2-3 years, all 4 Philly teams should be contenders with the Eagles as the one with the longest shot as it pretty much depends on Wentz.
[…] Bottoms Up – Iggles BlitzPerry is another depth addition. The Eagles have a terrific pair of starting Safeties. Blake Countess looks like he could be a good backup. Chris Maragos is more of a STer than a DB. Ed Reynolds faces an uphill challenge. He is an inconsistent tackler in a scheme that requires DBs to be very good tacklers. There is room for another Safety to add to the mix. The Eagles will keep cycling players in and out, looking for those hidden gems that can help put a team over the top. Hitting on the 1st round picks and the big free agent signings is still the key to building a great team, but don’t overlook the value of the guys who come from other places. If you have the right personnel guys doing the looking and a good coaching staff to develop those players, they can be a big help. […]
I always appreciate posts like this Tommy instead of the usual beat-to-death topics and trampled to death stories typical for this time of year before camp.
Kempski has a camp preview up.
http://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-2016-training-camp-preview/
Highlights are a predicted cut of Barner and Seumalo winning the jog at LG.
Lowlight was his order of discussion / depth chart at safety.
Make the EAGLES great again!