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.
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.
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.
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Posted: August 27th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 177 Comments »The Eagles beat the Colts 33-23. That score is misleading, though. The game wasn’t anywhere near that close. The Eagles were efficient and explosive, while the Colts looked like a major mess until late in the game.
The defense had been outstanding the first two weeks and that continued tonight. The offense took a big step forward, gaining 388 yards and scoring all 33 points. There were no short fields off turnovers. This was good offense. We do have to factor in the Colts defense, which was missing their top 3 CBs and top pass rusher. To make matters worse, they lost another CB early in the game.
Sam Bradford had a clean pocket and picked the Indy secondary apart. He went 17-20 for 167 yards and 2 TDs. And a couple of those passes were dropped. He had time and made good throws. I liked the fact that Bradford spread the ball around and was willing to work downfield. He mixed in some checkdowns, but got the ball down the field on a few plays.
You can’t have a good passing game without some receivers to catch the ball and those guys came alive tonight. Josh Huff apparently decided keeping his NFL job was better than becoming Jimmy Kempski’s gardener or Les Bowen’s hair stylist. Huff caught a short pass and flew up the field for 38 yards. That’s exactly the kind of play the coaches have been waiting for. They know Huff is a weapon when he’s got the ball, but he has to show that he can catch it and make those plays. He later got the ball on a jet sweep and ran for a 13-yard TD. He has speed.
Chris Givens caught a 19-yard pass on 3rd/17. Dorial Green-Beckham caught a short pass and fought through a tackle to turn that into an 11-yard gain. He later caught a fade pass for a TD. See how easy that was? No one had to turn into Jerry Rice. Just go make some plays. One guy who didn’t do that was Nelson Agholor. He had one pass thrown his way over the middle and couldn’t make the grab. The DB beside him did make the grab and that set up the only points the Colts got in the 1st half.
The starting O-line had a strong night. Stefen Wisniewski played LG with them and they were even better than last week. I do think the Colts defense was part of that. Trent Cole, one of my all-time favorite Eagles, was supposed to be their primary pass rusher. That should give you an idea of how non-threatening they were. The OL opened good holes for the runners all game long. The Eagles were 23-131 on the ground (leaving out a Chase Daniel kneel-down).
Jim Schwartz got another strong performance from his defense. They sacked Andrew Luck 3 times, limited the Colts to 18-39 on the ground and took away big plays for most of the game. Oh yeah, and they picked off another pass in the end zone. Let’s hope that trend continues in the regular season.
The thing I liked most about the defense is that Schwartz mixed and matched players all game long. Marcus Smith played in the 1st half. CB C.J. Smith came into the game in the early 2nd quarter and stayed for a long time. Schwartz mixed his LB pairings in the Nickel to get reps for everyone and to see how guys played together. I thought Jordan Hicks had another outstanding game and Nigel Bradham played well.
STs were up and down. They gave up a blocked punt and missed an extra point. Caleb Sturgis nailed a 47-yard FG. Kenjon Barner had a 25-yard PR and a 35-yard KOR. Wendell Smallwood added a 30-yard KOR. It looked like the gunners did a better job this week.
There were some injuries. Smallwood took a big hit on an inside run and left the game with a possible concussion. Taylor Hart got hurt. Vinny Curry has a knee injury, but it doesn’t sound serious.
The Eagles are now 3-0. I could care less about that. I am happy that they have improved each week. This was a fun game to watch, but I can’t stress enough that we have to factor in how poorly the Colts played for 3 quarters. I watched the game on NFL Game Pass and we got the Colts announcers (who were dreadful). They said several times that Eagles penalties were the Colts best plays of the game (until late). That’s not good.
As a quick aside…how bad were the announcers? The play-by-play guy got their backup QB’s name wrong for most of the 3rd quarter. Scott Tolzien was somehow Scott Tolziel. The guy corrected himself, apologized and then got it wrong again. They listed the Colts offensive coordinator as Rod Chudzinski. His name is Rob. And then this.
Nice.
*****
Quick thoughts on a few players
- Matt Tobin appeared to have a really good game.
- Josh Andrews played LG and C. He had some good blocks.
- RB Byron Marshall is a quality prospect. He will block. He runs better inside than I would have guessed. Should be PS guy.
- CJ Smith played well. I think he is in the mix for a roster spot.
- Marcus Smith had a quiet game.
- Rodney McLeod looked terrific. Can’t wait to watch him this year.
- Beau Allen had a sack. I’m loving this guy in the 4-3.
- Mychal Kendricks failed to stand out, good or bad. He was playing late in the game. My guess is that the coaches wanted him to get reps, but he might have taken that as an insult.
- Trey Burton was 5-35, including a TD. Glad to see him get the ball and show his skills.
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