Eagles Make Some Interesting Cuts
Posted: August 28th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 127 Comments »The Eagles have to be down to 75 players by Tuesday afternoon. They didn’t wait that long to start making cuts.
Eagles have released Chris Givens and Rueben Randle, among others.
— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) August 28, 2016
Also released: John DePalma, Randall Evans, Andrew Gardner, Mike Martin, Denzel Rice. Placed on Injured Reserve: Joe Walker, Alex McCalister
— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) August 28, 2016
I was surprised they cut Givens. He did nothing to blow me away this summer, but the coaches seemed to like him. That gave me the impression he was good in practice and behind the scenes.
Right now I’m only sure about 4 players at WR – Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, DGB and Josh Huff. I like Paul Turner a lot, but he has physical limitations. I’m okay if they keep him, but there would be a case for putting him on the practice squad. The Eagles could then go with just 4 WRs or they could scan the waiver wire to see if someone of interest gets cut.
The Eagles knew they needed WR help and hoped that signing veterans to cheap deals would deliver at least one success. Nope. TJ Graham was cut last week and now Givens and Randle. Signing them was a low risk, so-so reward proposition. It failed, but I’m okay with taking chances like that. You also have to think if DGB wasn’t here that maybe Randle or Givens would have made the roster. Luckily a better option (DGB) came along.
Martin is very surprising, only because Doug Pederson talked about him as a virtual lock to make the roster. I’m glad the Eagles are letting him go and keeping Beau Allen, Taylor Hart and Destiny Vaeao as the backup DTs. Those are young guys who will bring good energy off the bench.
I love the fact the Eagles were able to put Alex McCalister on IR. He needs to get bigger and stronger. He can’t practice while on IR, but can lift weights and attend classroom meetings. McCallister can play in the NFL, but he needs this year to get his body ready. IR is perfect for him.
I have mixed feelings about the release of Gardner. I think he’s better than some players the Eagles are keeping, but the coaches just don’t seem to like him this year. Gardner can now go somewhere that he might get a fair chance to show what he can do. Listen, I know that Jeff Stoutland forgets more about football during his afternoon dump than I’ll ever know, but I’m just not a huge fan of what they did with Gardner this summer.
There is one big theme to these moves.
Of the 16 undrafted free agents the Eagles signed after the draft, they've only cut 4 so far.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) August 28, 2016
The team let go of vets and kept young, cheap players. There is something to be said for that in a season where the team clearly isn’t a juggernaut heading for the Super Bowl. Take chances on young guys and see who pans out.
Interesting that the Eagles got down to 73 guys. They will be working out a DE and WR from the Philadelphia Soul. They could sign them and try to force the guys into action on Thursday. The Arena season just wrapped up so those players are ready to roll. They would just need to learn some basic plays.
Beyond them, I expect the Eagles to possibly look for a WR and OLB. They could use depth at both spots.
This should be an interesting week.
_
I like giving the young guys a chance in the last preseason game.
I agree. I find it nonsensical that we’re forced to do cuts before the end of the last game anyway. I’d much rather let all of the guys we decided to cut play endlessly in the game and take all of the injury risk.
I couldn’t agree more. Use the last preseason game as a true audition for the roster or practice squad. Instead many teams play key special teamers and 2nd string players that risk injury and team depth.
Yeah, didn’t poor Long get bodybagged in preseason game #4 two years ago?
Yup, he was expected to make the roster too.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/eagles/Sources-LB-Travis-Long-tore-his-ACL.html
Thank you for the link. That kind of stuff is heartbreaking.
“Listen, I know that Jeff Stoutland forgets more about football during his afternoon dump than I’ll ever know, but I’m just not a huge fan of what they did with Gardner this summer.”
Terrific as usual Tommy. Also I’m way too high on DBG at the moment, I’m thinking he can hit 1k this year and a lot of TDs. Am I crazy?
No.. Just high.
hilarious.
And ProbablyDrunk.
1,000+ yards given how much the ball is going to be spread around might be tough. DGB can be a 48-64 catch player with 6 to 8 TDs……….at best.
That’s much better than what else we had, but he’s not going to show up here and be Brandon Marshall all of a sudden.
The funny thing is with his rookie YPC average, he could possibly get 1k with just 60 touches
But you’re probably right. I don’t know if he’ll start day 1 and there is a good amount of talent on this offense despite what people say
It all depends whether he excels in the scheme to a point where he is getting open on a regular basis and is making all the catches, both easy and the hard.
QB’s tend to fall in love with big targets that have speed and talent to match.
If he surpasses expectations then he will get 1k or more and lots of TD’s.
Look around the league and it would be difficult to find ten receivers who are this big and fast with upside.
You may not find even five that are at least 6’5 weighing in at 240 Lbs. and can run a 4.5.
Those tools are rare.
In fact, only Dez Bryants numbers are close.
Calvin Johnson was bigger and faster and a proven WR, but Dez Bryants’ tools are comparable to Dez more than any other current starting WR.
All he needs is to prove himself as a top tier WR.
If he does that, the Eagles are going to win a lot of games.
1K is probably way too high for him right now. At least early in the season he’s not going to be an every down player as they bring him up to speed on the offense. He’ll probably be sprinkled in here and there.
I could see him getting a bunch of TDs though. That seems to be a major focus for him from the coaches and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of 3 TE and DGB groupings in the red zone this year.
He just joined the team and doesn’t know many plays. I doubt he’ll start, and will probably just play in a few packages early on (red zone hopefully) so won’t get near enough touches for major yards. But, he could improve over the season. Or, the knucklehead off-the-field stuff could come back and he could barely play. He’s got the talent to be a top receiver though.
I see no reason why he can’t. You mentioned his average and I agree.
He is surely our biggest WR and has a lot of upside.
He can get 1K on this team especially if he has good chemistry with Bradford.
Who knows what he can do this season at 6’5 240LBS and runs a 4.5.
With those tools he should easily become our #1 WR and Sams favorite target IMO, especially if he catches the ball well.
It’s a confidence thing for this kid. If we can keep putting him in places where he experiences success he will blossom into something special.
I’m thinking 400 yards and 14 TDs.
500 yards, 7 TDs possibly.
[…] Tommy Lawlor The Eagles have to be down to 75 players by Tuesday afternoon. They didn’t wait that long to […]
Haven’t seen many interesting players cut so far but these guys might be worth giving a quick look to. Not necessarily as legit candidates for 53-man roster.
LB Jeremiah George – From what I’ve read, good STs player. Probably undersized for this D(5-11, 234).
LB Jordan Zumwalt – Liked him in draft, been injured, played OLB for PIT’s 3-4 but doesn’t have the size for that.
OG Jarvis Harrison – 5th round pick for Jets last year, not sure why he was cut. Worth a quick look.
Any 2016 UDFA that were cut by Bears – Joe Douglas connection(of course CHI plays different schemes so some of them might not be a match)
WR Matt Hazel – former 6th round pick of Dolphins. Played well enough to make roster past few seasons.
OT David Foucalt – Canadian OT who made Panthers roster last year, may be worht PS development
More cuts to come by other teams.
I’m all for having an OT named Foucalt. Discipline and Punish!
I liked Harrison during the draft but he has been a lazy underachiever. The talent is there but his head isn’t.
Lazy is the ultimate red flag.
Solid research.
Canadian OT isn’t a former fireman, is he?
Automatic hate him and want nothing to do with him 🙂
I mentioned this before, but like someone said, not sure how in shape either Roddy White or Jeff Maehl are.
随便看看，随便转转！
I’m shocked. If I were Pederson, I would have walked off the field immediately after Algholor’s drop / INT, turned over the game to Reich, and started the paperwork to cut his sorry ass. I’m still pissed. I’ve had it with him.
You’re easily shocked.
That’s very expensive.
It is. I know. But the DC and many others say they could not care less about pedigree, only performance. Wouldn’t be the only first-round bust. Even in that locker room. (looking at you, Marcus Smith)
Cutting a guy is more than just performance — it’s potential future performance. Starting lineup is about current performance. Very big difference between the two. If you know the guy has talent, but is struggling to pick up the offense or the drop thing has gotten to his head or he has other fixable problems, you keep him as a backup and work on it.
The Eagles do not have the cap space tp cut Agholor
It’s not about pedigree, it’s about the salary cap.
…and that’s the difference in mentality between a guy throwing his shoe at the TV and a coach for a $100 million team.
To quote another fan favorite following an incompletion, “For who? For what?”
To make room for Randle? We don’t get the pick back and we don’t have anyone better. Agholor (and Smith) is young, athletic, and skilled. That is the kind of guy you are patient with.
Sure, it sucks that we used a first rounder on him, but that is past. But cutting a guy because the FO allocated resources poorly to get him here is a mistake. You keep the guys mostly to help the team now and in the future, with a blind eye to how they ended up on this 90-man roster. Same with Smith, same with Barner.
He is probably mentally out of sorts right now. If you think you can still coax out the talent eventually, you keep that sort of guy for longer. He’s a 1st round pick and his salary is guaranteed, so you don’t gain anything cap-wise by cutting him. Not worth keeping a guy like Givens over, just based on potential alone. But he could find himself inactive on gamedays for a while.
Agreed. Agholor’s clearly talented, but his head and heart don’t seem in it right now. Whether he can get that straightened out or has to restart elsewhere is bugging us all. I’m not ready to cut him, but I wouldn’t complain if he didn’t play much or at all.
Like DGB, gotta give him some more time. It’s been one year.
It’s funny the reference to the guy who throws his shoe vs the level-headed exec of the billion-dollar organization – I say that all the time when I listen or read many knucklehead fans overreact. I’m actually pretty calm and am one of the few that still see potential in Sleeves. I was the Very Last Guy on the Andy Must Go bandwagon. Kickers get into funks. If you are an NFL receiver, you need to catch the ball. Period. If one year isn’t enough to evaluate someone who does not run crisp routes, does not have blazing speed and CANNOT CATCH THE FOOTBALL, then how did we accomplish that process in 6 weeks for Randle and Givens? I’m not a huge fan of either, but I’m saying if we had too many WR, Nellie should have been first. Smells like pride to me.
He’s probably not going to be any good, but it’s too soon to cut him. He’s not a disaster of Marcus Smith proportions, who didn’t notch a single tackle his first year (right?). You don’t cut 1st round draft picks who catch 23 passes as rookies in the preseason.
Here are some people with a worse drop rate than Nelson Agholor at 9%:
Kenjon Barner 25%
Ryan Matthews 13%
Demarco Murray 11%
These are all bad, though, especially considering these RBs are probably mostly catching (or not) dumpoffs and swing passes. What do all these receivers have in common? Maybe the guy in funny sleeves who’s throwing to them.
http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/drops/2015/
What those receivers all have in common is they are not receivers! Question was asked to BLG of Bleeding Green Nation this morning on WIP: “Based on performance, if Algholor were a 5th or 6th rounder, would he make the team this year?” Any honest person would answer as he did: “No.” This is a textbook example of the “sunk cost fallacy.”
“The team let go of vets and kept young, cheap players” ………………………… to get Benny Logan’s deal done before he blows up the stat sheet this year and gets way too expensive to keep.
Agree, i was going to say b/c they have no cap space and no draft picks
So the extra few million they’ve freed up could help out.
They have so much money tied up in the DL on new deals (Cox, Graham, Curry) and existing deals (Barwin) I really don’t know how they could afford Logan. They would probably have to trade or cut someone (and you probably can’t do that with the guys you just signed as the cap hits are too big). It might be between Logan and Barwin next year.
Logan please.
Barwin’s a great guy, but Logan has a much bigger upside. Also, we have two quality DE without Barwin. I’ve been impressed with how Allen has transitioned to the 4-3, but I still think there’s a pretty big fall off between Logan and Allen or Hart.
I think Barwin will be traded after this season. He has a good contract (only 600k in dead money next year) and there will be 3-4 teams who will be willing to trade for a proven OLB.
By dropping a lot of money at QB next year…and LT.
Hmmm is there a way to do that? (Yes)
getting rid of chase daniel
I’m excited to see how good sammy will be audibling at the line, seems that’s something he’s done a fair amount already.
I’m just hoping the Pederson / Reich passing routes and verbiage aren’t that different than Shurmur’s.
Why?
Because it would have lessened his learning curve from last year to this year. I assume Shurmur and Pederson both being from the Reid-Holmgren-Walsh tree should have enough overlap to have helped Sam be a little ahead that way.
Honestly, I’m more concerned with the receivers making the correct reads on option routes.
I don’t miss this though… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5679961f315d4bb1c152dc5835bdcdaccd09c86abbf4ac1e47895724bf589e6a.jpg
Their option is to choose poorly.
This is all I can think about when I hear that phrase.
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/77/77bba97ee8a5b990dcb9ad732811b62f821b1c16e4a2e0a08eeffa839f48e7b3.jpg
Thought that stuff was kinda neat, and hard to steal. Seemed to work well, and gets the plays in quick. The problem was the limited number of calls we had on offense in 2015, unlike the previous two years.
For whatever reason, the flash cards disappeared after 2013.
For some reason the Eagles team disappeared after 2013
Yeah, I wasn’t against it as a system, but the limited play aspect really hurt us by year 3.
I don’t know why we cut Gardner and like Tommy I thought he was one of the better backups we had. So we have Josh Andrews or Barrett Jones backing up Brooks? Guess we’re accelerating the youth development for the OL.
Not surprised that Givens and Randle are gone. Both veterans WRs failed to impress after all of these years in the NFL. Turner isn’t a lock for the roster (should be for PS) since there’s most likely a higher upside guy that will be cut soon.
Taylor Hart is still good trade bait. I heard the Niners need some DL help..
Evans is gone, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shepard is gone in the next wave of cuts. Is CJ Smith this years Denzel Rice?
We still need another backup OLB unless they really believe in Gause. Howie is probably going to work the waiver wire on that one.
Amen on the OLB need. Maybe that’s what you can get by swapping out Hart. Keep Destiny and Aziz. Or just go 4 “deep” at DT due to occasional pass rushing use of Curry there.
Really don’t think SF needs or wants a Hart.
Sure they do. They have Chip Kelly.
Loser of the Wiz/Seo battle for LG will backup Brooks. Both are better than Andrews or Jones.
So right on the LB depth. Really wasn’t thrilled with Kendricks this game and then Najee wasn’t very Goode in limited reps vs. Indy.
Corner is the one position I’m really not certain about at all. Rowe has talent, but has clearly fallen completely out of favor with the staff. I think both the fans and staff are more aware of Mills limitations now. That leaves older average talents in crucial positions.
Maybe Rowe gets traded to the 9ers for a LB. Don’t know if they have any decent depth there, but they just traded away a starting caliber corner to KC.
If Aziz makes the roster and happens to lose us a game Juqua Parker style, will the headline read “Shittu for Brains?”
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/moving_the_chains/Mer-Reese.html
I know I a minority here, but I can’t stand Reese. He’s like an emotional Tom McCarthy with more cliches to his call.
I also can’t stand Vin Scully, so what do I know.
that’s crazy talk.
You know I only vaguely remember that JP lost us a game. I remember clear as day the game Cole lost us his rookie year vs the Giants though. One of my favorite Eagles all time, but boy I hated him that day.
Getting rid of limited vet receivers while stocking up on limited vet QBs. Don’t know, guys…
Ive been tormenting my Cowboys friend about the Romo injury by text and he’s been silent, so I wrote him some new lyrics to Simon and Garfunkel’s sound of silence:
Hello darkness my old friend…
Tony Romo’s hurt again…
It’s a vision softly creeping…
His body left soundly sleeping…
And the vision that I’ve seen before…
Still remains.
Sounds like you’re his bridge into troubled water.
I can only hope.
Just pray that the backup doesn’t turn out to be better.
Exactly my fear. Id rather have Romo out there
Yea the last time they went from Bledsoe to Tony Romo
The thing I’m most impressed by in the preseason is how aggressively the team is starting to play. Schwartz obviously brings this mentality with the defense. The run game looks good, and Mathews is a big dude who plays rough (which is why he doesn’t always play). All signs point to multiple TE sets, JMatt is certainly a physical WR, and DGB looks like he can bring the bully at least sometimes.
The one big piece of the puzzle that’s not nearly as aggressive is Bradford, Though, Wentz is both physically big and seems to have an aggressive mentality to his game.
I guess I like the general thrust of how the team is moving. Kelly is all about being reactive on offense and defense. We’ll see about the results with Pederson, but I like the ideas he’s working with.
Really liked that they kept Turner and cut Givens/Randle. Especially Randle. Showed me that even though they did care about max effort guys in practice & preseason games vs vets who thought they had a spot made.
One of the many ‘ironies’ of the Kelly era was that they supposedly went after high character guys but some of those same guys turned on him last year while not giving max effort. Best example of that all season long was Austin on the INT to ice the Dolphins’ game which was really a turning point for this team.
No way Austin should have surprised even that night on the team yet Kelly not only kept him but evaded questions after the game about Austin & his effort. A bunch of other coaches including Belicheck would have shit canned him almost immediately after the game since it was at home.
Also happy Rube was cut. Nice try but he is who he was on he Giants. Glad we accepted it and moved on.
Not many times I root against players but I am actively rooting against Murray this year.
He ran harder yesterday in the preseason game vs. Raiders yesterday than at any time I saw him run last year with the exception of the first ‘Boys game. One of the biggest goats here last year.
Even in a meaningless preseason game, he didn’t shy away from contact last night and decisively hit the holes in between the tackles. Also even had a run where he made 2 guys miss. Probably could count the number of times he did that here on one hand last year.
Yeah Kelly’s scheme might have been a bad fit, the o-line was a mess, etc but Murray dogged it here big time too. Too bad the Eagles don’t play the Titans this year because Murray is one of the few players in recent years I would boo and boo lustily.
I don’t like Murray, but I have a hard time actively disliking him because I think he was put in an impossible position where he was getting hit in the backfield most of the time.
I do when it comes down to basic effort which he simply didn’t give at times last year.
My feelings don’t really have anything to do about his production either given the mitigating factors too. Simply was yet another guy who decided he wasn’t going to play hard almost from the get go, was a malcontent off the field, and some games his lack of evident was so glaring that even the broadcasting guys called it out.
This despite his cliches about dictating your will to the enemy team and finishing runs… lol
Murray gave up last year. Cowgirls ran his a$$ into the ground, just as we feared, but he also was just collecting a check most of last year. No passion, no determination. Only problem I have with hating him is I like Tennessee thanks to Mariota.
I like Tennessee thanks to DGB for Kelly.
So the reaction today from the media seemed to be ‘well we saw this last year’ and a pretty cynical reaction to last night’s performance. The same folks generally got super overhyped last year after a meaningless preseason game vs Packers.
I don’t get it. Yeah this offense is pedestrian but in general this preseason showed that they can be at least a competitive/semi-competitive as long as Bradford is healthy. I don’t know how you can be at least satisfied with what you have seen so far on the whole.
I dont understand what you are saying at all. We know that the preseason tells is nothing. You seem to acknowledge tbat, then suggest that you are drawing meaning from the Bird’s preseason so far this year.
He is just chaffed at the national media. Last year we were the best team in the history. Now it is meaningless and we are awful.
No one has any idea what this team will do, mostly due to the new coach. The way the NM is so matter of fact about who is good and who is bad every year is maddening. They get it wrong WAY more than meteorologist, yet remain employed.
This is generally it. It isn’t so much that they get it wrong but that they just seem to take such an extreme slant.
By competitive/semi-competitive I don’t mean a playoff team either.
I still think this is a 6-10 team as long as Bradford is the starter for most of the games. Not a good team but not a really bad team either.
Won seven last year w/bad coaching, horrible defense. I’m not a Sam fan at all, but I think eight wins is likely.
GOTTA SELL PAPERS!!! or something like that.
Oh i agree with that about the media for sure, but he basically sets up tbe agreement that we don’t know and then… Oh wait, Bob, did you intend to say “cant” instead of “can” in the last sentence?
Hey!
Whining about da MEDIAZZ!!
The Eagles are going to win the division.
Forreal, who else is there? Maybe the Redskins can light it up on O but as far as I’m concerned we have the best/only defense in the division and it’s not even close. Not to mention Washington hasn’t shown they could beat good teams yet, and the NFCE looks to have a pretty damn tough schedule plus they play two division winners that we don’t have to.
Dallas is done without Romo for half the season IMO. With that said I do find it a little funny how Birds fans will trash Romo until he goes down…then all of a sudden we recognize his value lol
New York hasn’t done anything in three years now. Their roster almost looks like flipped version of ours: Proven QB, good WRs, terrible o-line, two good corners, bad all-around defense. Eli had a great year in 2015 and they still couldn’t win. Speaks volumes to their front office
We know he’s talented. It’s just he’s dropped the soap on the biggest stage so many times, it’s hard to believe in him. His worst gaffe’s have all come at the absolute worst moments for Dallas. Best as far as we’re concerned 🙂
Edit he’s = Romo’s
Yeah he’s definitely a choke artist, especially when it matters. No doubt he gives Dallas the best chance at winning though. I want to see Dak fail miserably
Other than Dak being a Cowgirl and the preseason’s current darling, I’ve got no particular hate of him. Was really amused with the CBS article comparing him to Tebow 🙂
I think the Cowboys will be better than feared.
Many statistics showed that they underperformed last year http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/BarnwellNFLPreview160726/predicting-which-nfl-teams-rise-decline-2016-dallas-cowboys-san-diego-chargers
Wheels came off the wagon for them. Did they under perform, or did they give up? I know which I believe.
Damn that’s long. I skimmed it and see what the overall point is (you can only go up from the bottom, missed opportunities, etc) but would still argue that if they didn’t under-perform the record would still be average. And that’s pretty much what I’d expect them to be this year. Who knows though, if the run game is strong enough anything could happen
Yea if they just regressed to the mean, it would most likely have made them 7-9 and then add a couple of wins for QBs better than Weeden.
With Dak instead of Romo I think 9-7 will be their record as the defense is terrible
Feels like Dallas and the Eagles are polar opposites. Dallas is going to try to win despite an awful defense by relying on their offense to put up pinball #s. Eagles are going to try to win by playing keep away on offense and scoring just enough pts to allow their dominant D to shine. Much as I dislike him, Sleeves could actually succeed in this format.
that’s what happens when you lose your qb for most of the season, oh wait same position again this year
Skins D should be pretty good, they have enough offensive weapons, that even though I don’t believe in Cousins long term I would call them the odds on favorite right now.
Dallas and NYG have no D. Both are going to have to try to win shootouts every week.
No doubt. I agree and they may even have a game in hand.
The local media is completely convinced that mediocre is the absolute best we can hope for this season. I don’t think it matters what the Eagles did this preseason, they have already made up their minds. The national media is worse.
For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I see them as somewhere between a .500 team with ten wins not completely unbelievable, mainly because both the defense looks very good and the division sucks. I’m not a Bradford fan, but last seasons seven win team was sabotaged by a ton of poor coaching decisions. This years version doesn’t look any worse and frankly should be better.
Is there some place where I could make like a parlay bet that both the Eagles and the Sixers will make the playoffs?
bet a dollar make a million?
bet a dollar to lose a dollar 😛
Go for the trifecta. It’s not a given the Flyers make the playoffs this year either, but at least all the teams are moving in the right direction.
in 2 games demarco has run well
Two more than his entire Eagles career . . .
The team last year just didn’t work. Outside of that situation, I like him as a RB. I think there was a host of mitigating factors last year that led to everyone being bad. His QB was coming off a 2 year injury, the WR decided to use stone-em instead of stick-em on their gloves, the OL was inconsistent, and most importantly the coach ran the same 6-8 plays. Predictability hurt that team the most last year.
Oh yeah, he was great for us otherwise…
https://usatthebiglead.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/demarco-murray-slide-out-of-bounds-phi-mia.gif
He was awful. Didn’t even look athletic…
感觉很不错的样子！
Just me that think the starting offense should be the following:
Bradford (I want Wentz, but no chance)
Mathews
OL
DGB and Matthews on the outside with Ertz and Burton as TEs.
1st O play of game is a sack.. 2nd is an Agholar drop..
Yuck
Can we all just agree to stop signing former Giants to buy low deals?
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reports Carson Wentz (ribs) was still in pain over the weekend.
Jordan Matthews (knee) returned to practice Monday.