Progress
Posted: August 19th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 134 Comments »No Ben Roethlisberger. No Le’Veon Bell. No Anotonio Brown.
More importantly, no points.
The Eagles shut out the Steelers 17-0 on Thursday night. Had the Big 3 been playing, things would likely have been different. Still, the starters were only in the game part of the time. The Steelers had a lot of the 2nd quarter to work against backup LBs and DBs. They still failed to score.
Anytime the Eagles opponent has a goose egg, I’m a happy man.
The big story of the second preseason game is that the overall team showed progress. The offense still has a long way to go, but it was worlds better than last week. The return of Jason Peters allowed Matt Tobin to move back to the second O-line unit. That stabilized both groups and the blocking was much better this week.
I’m not a huge fan of what the Eagles did with the backup OL. They had this look:
LT Matt Tobin
LG Barrett Jones
C Josh Andrews
RG Stefen Wisniewski
RT Lane Johnson
I would rather Andrew Gardner have played RG. He played well there in 2014 and last summer. You could have then shifted Wiz to LG. I think that is important because if Isaac Seumalo struggles, you need someone ready to step in at LG. I want Wiz getting more of his work there. Jeff Stoutland knows Barrett Jones from Alabama. Maybe that’s a player he really likes and wants to make it. I just feel like Gardner has shown he can start and at least be an effective RG. Why not build on that? He also has some value as a backup because he can play OT in an emergency.
The WRs actually looked like…WRs. They didn’t suddenly turn into elite studs, but Nelson Agholor had a very impressive catch. Rueben Randle took a big step forward from last week’s embarrassing effort. Rookie Paul Turner was terrific. He now looks like a player who will make the team. He impresses over and over. That isn’t to say he’s some big time playmaker that scares defenses, but he is a solid role player and that has real value.
Sam Bradford was efficient, but hardly inspiring. To be fair, penalties hurt him and the offense. That is a major issue that has to be corrected. There is still to much sloppy play. Chase Daniel looked like a functional backup QB. Amazing what happens when you have a LT who can actually block and your receivers make catches for you.
The defense wasn’t facing the best Steelers players, but still had a good night. They picked off backup QB Landry Jones 4 times, including one that went for a TD and 2 others that came in the end zone. Those are big time plays. The defense also had 4 sacks and shut down the Steelers run game, after giving up a few yards early on.
CB Nolan Carroll had the pick-six and played well all game long. He broke up a deep ball and drew an OPI call on another deep throw. He and Leodis McKelvin look like they will be the starting CBs this year. Eric Rowe did some good things. He broke up 2 passes and played with more confidence. He also looked better on STs. That’s progress. Struggling players don’t magically turn awesome overnight. They get better one day at a time.
Jaylen Watkins had another strong game. He had a couple of tackles and picked off a pass. He is making a strong push to be the #3 Safety for the Eagles. I thought his tackling issues would kill him in this defense. Kudos to the young man for taking a big step forward and getting his career on track.
Marcus Smith had been quiet recently due to suffering a concussion. He got back on the field and actually played pretty well. He was the backup RDE. He was in on 4 tackles, had a sack and TFL. He showed serious burst off the edge and also made some effort plays. That’s progress for him. Steven Means was the backup RDE last week, but moved over to LDE last night. He was terrific again. He got regular pressure and was disruptive. If Smith can build on his performance, he Eagles are going to have some interesting decisions at DE.
DT Destiny Vaeao had a beautiful sack in the game. He exploded off the ball and fought through a hold to nail the QB. He and Taylor Hart are likely battling it out for the final DT spot.
There was some bad news last night.
Understand Joe Walker did suffer ACL tear, MRI confirmed. Out for season. Aaron Grymes AC sprain on his int., might miss rest of preseason.
— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) August 19, 2016
The Eagles now need a backup MLB. You’d have to think they’ll call Stephen Tulloch at this point. Walker had played well in 1.5 games and looked like a sure bet to make the team. Now he’ll focus on getting healthy for 2017.
Grymes had a legit shot to make the team as a backup DB. That can still happen, but other players can now try to take advantage of his absence.
The Eagles are now 2-0. That doesn’t mean anything for the most part, but the team has found a way to win a pair of ugly games. This year’s team will likely need to win some ugly games so it does say something that they’ve been able to do it in the preseason.
Remember that last year’s Eagles were dominant in the summer, winning 36-10, 40-17, and 39-26. That last score is misleading. The Eagles were up 25-0 in the 1st quarter. The point of this is that the team had early success and built big leads. They weren’t tested at all. Then came the regular season and suddenly the opponents were the ones with the lead. The Eagles struggled to deal with that because things had been so different and so easy in the preseason.
Winning ugly this preseason could help the team because that’s the likely formula for success when September rolls around.
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I will be absolutely shocked if Means (DE) and Turner (WR) won’t make the team. No matter how MS II or Randle/Givens will be playing down the line..
If turner doesnt make it and get to play some, then my faith in peterson is already gonna take a dive
[…] Tommy Lawlor No Ben Roethlisberger. No Le’Veon Bell. No Anotonio Brown. More importantly, no points. The […]
any way to stash Grymes on the roster due to his injury? i doubt his injury is serious enough to prompt the IR for the whole season (though we have seen weird stuff with that before…) isn’t there a ‘temporary IR’ sort of deal?
If the player agrees to it you could IR him for the whole year. Guys get stashed with high ankle sprains. I think they keep 6 and right now he’s probably CB6. But there’s two weeks to go and Rice, Sheperd and CJ could all make strong cases to be kept.
Grymes probably won’t clear waivers, so they can’t just offer him a ton of money for PS. So you either 53 him or IR him. I’m sure he’d love to play but 4x the salary he made in the CFL plus assurances he’s in the long term plans to take the IR could be enough to dissuade him from forcing his way onto waivers only to have to deal with new coaches, scheme, fit issues, how seriously will he be considered for PT there etc that would then be out of his control.
There is a temporary IR but you only get 1 and it’s basically for a starter who tears an MCL or has a bad ankle sprain and is going to miss 6-8 weeks.
Are we overrating him based on one play? Everything else I saw (tackling, special teams) was negative
i remember Mayock singling him out for good ST Play, but then showing another DB (i think it was countess?) for poor ST play. this was when our punt returns were having trouble blocking the gunners
Wow what a goal!!!!
I was shocked but Barrett Jones was blowing up defensive linemen on the few plays I focused on him. Very curious to obtain Tommy’s thoughts after he rewatches the game.
One of the concerning things about the offense is that the last 2 drives, when they were finally moving the ball some, came against the 2nd team defense, but they still couldn’t score any points without the help of a turnover. I’m really hoping this is just growing pains and that Jordan Mathews return will help, but I feel like this has the potential to get ugly.
No gameplanning. It’s not going to be a juggernaut and will be dull at times but it’ll look better than it has as long as they don’t have to max protect every play because of injuries to Peters and Barbre.
I hope you’re right.
I mean we were 24th in yards per play last year.
Yards per play is misleading when taken by itself – Kelly was sacrificing some efficiency in each play by making it up with overall volume of plays.
To illustrate my point: if you give up 10% in YPP but are able to get 50% more plays, you end up ahead in yards gained.
Ultimately, what matters is total yards gained. Kelly had his issues as a GM, but getting that production out of that offense last year (rusty QB who only started coming into his own in the second half of the season, no WRs, no RB) was pretty damn impressive.
“Ultimately, what matters is total yards gained.”
No.The other team gets to play offense, too. If they’re more efficient than you, they’re probably going to win. The offense last year was bad and did not help them.
Simplified example:
– 50 plays at 5 YPP = 250 yards
– 65 plays at 4 YPP = Rs 265 yards
Obviously, it isnt as simple as this, as red zone efficiency and number of drives have to be factored in (ie, better to have two 80 yard drives rather than seven 30 yard drives). If that is your point, then yes, i agree.
But that’s a different metric – my point is that simply looking at YPP is insufficient.
Ultimately what matters is points scored
Well if you want to be pedantic, it is points scored vs what your opponent scores. In the context of the discussion i was having, either is irrelevant, no?
Exactly. Chip’s system was one that gave teams fits if they didn’t prepare for it, but was crushed by decent defensive coordinators who game planned specifically to stop it. I get the feeling that Doug’s system is kind of the opposite. Chip never seemed to scheme or plan for a specific opponent. Chip’s system was by its very nature difficult for a defense to deal with, but made no use of trying to out-scheme the opponent. So, whether we were in preseason or the playoffs the offense was exactly the same. It’s basic form and the speed at which it operated were what were supposed to give the defense fits. However, once you figured out the machinations and how to derail the machine it was actually pretty simple for defenses to overcome, which they did once they started scheming specifically for it in the regular season.
Doug’s system, like Andy’s, seems more predicated on actually out-scheming and creating mismatches that benefit the offense rather than just overwhelming the defense with speed. So, whereas under Chip were there would no apparent benefit on offense once the regular season started and we began specifically scheming, and, in fact, a noticeable negative effect because defenses would start specifically scheming to stop us, Dougs system might actually look a lot more coherent once he’s able to attack mismatches and scheme plays.
Seemed like Chip’s playbook got smaller instead of bigger
That’s also very true. He seemed to whittle the damn thing down to 2 run plays and 3 different pass plays by the time 2015 rolled around.
Kelly played Tecmo bowl and knows you only need 2 running plays and 2 passing plays with the defense only guessing right 25% of the time.
Hopefully y’all played the roster google game posted on the last thread.
I felt very good about myself cutting Barner, Huff, and Countess!
wow cutting the number 2 rb huh?
wow.
#3, Sproles counts.
I kept Barner. Sorry. Huff and Randle can console each other, however.
I hate how Bradfords passes flutter along with no real ka POW.
We’ve definitely been spoiled by having QBs like Cunningham, McNabb, Vick and now Wentz who truly had/have cannons for arms. Watching the Kolbs, Foles, Bradfords of the world for the past few years has been painful. Every pass I’m hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for it to get to it’s target. Bradford actually has a decently strong arm, but my god, compared to the other QBs we’ve had in the past few decades his passes seem to take forever to get to where they’re going.
balloon is easier to catch than a bullet. I really like the balls that sammy throws – ball doesn’t jump off his hand like it does for Wentz but it’s accurate.
It definitely should be easier to catch…hasn’t seemed to make a difference with our shitty WRs or really throughout his career since he’s always been plagued with WRs that drop the ball
Vick, greatest spiral in nfl history
I’d prefer BAMPF! instead.
Yeah!
(Whats the P stand for though?)
arm talent, baby!
Okay guys, I think we are ready to open the roster predictions up to a larger audience. Thanks to everyone for the error checking. Here is the tweet I put up. If you are on Twitter, please retweet it.
Maybe I will even get the elusive Tommy retweet?
https://twitter.com/ATG_Iggles/status/766780153284308992
Awesome!
Watkins and Reynolds performance this preseason make me wonder about all the other dbacks that came through the past few years, entering with high expectations and leaving under a cloud. How many had the skills and were just developed poorly?
Our corners are suddenly and unexpectedly playing a lot better. It helps of course when they’re coached to look for the ball.
Safeties too. Suddenly they can tackle.
Yep. Honestly I don’t know if the looking for the ball thing actually is better than how they were doing it, but I know as a fan its a hell of a lot less frustrating to watch than what we were doing.
Same DB coach. He coached them to turn and find the ball last year as well.
Schwartz could be demanding different techniques than what Billy Davis wanted in his defense..
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Jim Shwartz says that “There is ONLY his way, and the wrong way”-Fletcher Cox…
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Schwartz has been perfecting his schemes for a long time. I don’t think he allows Undlin to just coach the Corners to use whatever techniques Undlin sees fit. But I don’t know that for a fact since I can’t expect our media to ask any interesting meaningful questions like that
Last year the DBs stated that Undlin was telling them to turn around for the ball. Years prior they were taught to play the WRs hands.
There has definitely been some schematic changes for the DBs, but how they play the ball doesn’t seem to be one of them.
Also helps when the other team is missing its #1 QB and top WR. Honestly, the CBs need to show me they can match up when it counts for me to have faith in them.
I think there’s an alternate timeline where Earl Wolff is drafted by a team with a better defensive infrastructure, and doesn’t have his knee mismanaged, where he’s a pretty decent starting Safety in this league.
I think the same thing has happened to our WR’s, though I’m not sure Greg Lewis is going to prove any better at developing them than Bicknell.
Every WR coach in the pros is probably better than Bicknell
Actually all of the DBs that have left here besides Poyer have been worse off since they left.
Surprisingly under Chip we have acquired DB talent that has by far done better here then anywhere else. Biggers and Carroll played the best ball they have ever played in their careers here. Jenkins developed into a top 5 safety. Thurmond played at a high level at safety. Rowe looked like he was going to be really good under Chip.
Maxwell is the only one that we don’t know about yet.
Reynolds and Watkins showed the same thing last year minus the tackling.
I didn’t think MS2 played nearly as well as his stats seemed to indicate. He still has no answer whatsoever to an offensive lineman getting his hands on him. He got around his guy with his initial get off once or twice. Other than that, the moment their 2nd or 3rd string LT got his hands on him he was toast. Just stopped dead in his tracks with no counter move to free himself and shed the block. There were some pass rushes where it seemed like if the QB had wanted to sit, flat footed, in the pocket for 12 seconds MS2 wouldn’t have been able to get to him.
As opposed to Means who uses his hands very effectively to break contact with the blocker and free himself up, who has shown both inside, outside and spin moves to get around a blocker and who generates consistent pressure even if it’s not showing up on the stat sheet.
I haven’t looked at the cap ramifications at this point, but judging them purely on their play as DEs, I’d say Means is squarely ahead of MS2 from the limited action I’ve seen the two participate in.
saw the same thing. good burst but if the tackle does not get caught too much inside, then smith just keeps going straight into him, trying to bull rush but not effective because still looks to lack lower body strength. no counter moves that i saw.
Cowboys have A. Mo and Zeke?? Our RB corps looks pretty uninspiring…
What happened to “we can just get RB’s in the 5th round” cliche that we love to throw around? We got our 5th round RB and now people aren’t happy?
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If we can get 13, 14 games out of Ryan Mathews, we should be fine especially with Dougs heavy/power/Jumbo packages. we only get 8-11 games out of him it could be an issue. I was never a Barner fan, but he hasn’t looked bad and im not going to hate on him just for the sake of hating on him. He is looking better than I ever expected him to look in the NFL, hopefully it translates to regular season action.
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Hopefully the smallwood kid finally gets on the field for the last two PS games
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It’s a shame that while Lane is suspended we can’t see Peters and Brooks linning up next to each other in the run game, add Celeks blocking to that powerhouse run blocking tandem and we could do some damage with the crazy collisions Ryan Mathews can create running behind those 3
Does anyone else feel like handball is not a legitimate olympic sport?
How about
http://www.wired.com/2016/08/olympic-golf/
Dressage though…
A lot of questionable Olympic events but dressage won as the worst Olympic sport:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/best-worst-olympic-sports-survey-ranked/
Yeah I just mentioned it because it was on the telly at the time.
I don’t know if I agree with that ranking, even if it was crowdsourced… I mean handball came in ahead of gymnastics, and water polo beat out basketball. That kind of blows my mind.
Is it just because US suck at it? Yes I’m a Dane and handball is huge in Europe, it’s a much bigger sport than basket. Also what is wrong with a sport that is more physical than basketball?
acutually handball is a sport for idiots and yes, my friend, you are one
Im not sure how the USA can become great at something they have very little interest in…. although we did grow up playing “Chink”….excuse the name because I don’t even know what else to call it and im not even sure if it’s the same as handball, basically when you use your hand to bat the ball against the wall but you lose if it bounces on the ground twice or if it “Chinks” aka ball lands right in the middle of the right angle Where the floor meets the wall….. Is that the same thing as “handball” or am I talking about something different?
That is a playground thing, not remotely the same as Olympic handball. That sport is sort of a cross between soccer and basketball; team sport where you have to dribble, with a ball you can carry, and can pass, but have more of a soccer-style net and goalie. Smaller net relatively, though, so goalies have somewhat of a chance albeit at close range. Seems like the elite goalies save maybe 40% of shots, so scoring is high.
Handball is a lot like basket except in handball you are allowed to take 3 steps with the ball and you have a goal like in soccer with an area where only the keeper are allowed
We just don’t see it in the US. It’s a legitimate sport, and easily enough for the Olympics, though mostly played in Europe. There are many, many Olympic sports I can’t fathom, but handball is not one of them.
synchronized diving?
That is one that I don’t get. Or synchronized swimming.
At least some of the equestrian ones (even dressage to a point), biathlon, etc. have their roots in necessary life skills in days gone by. The synchronized ones… don’t get.
Should we sign him to cover DJax?
https://twitter.com/nick_underhill/status/766790150680477696
OMG – but we have no money.
Maybe we won’t need much…
https://twitter.com/billbarnwell/status/766813233684553728
And Breer hints at health issues…
https://twitter.com/albertbreer/status/766791089474842624
HOW THE FUCK IS MICKEY LOOMIS STILL EMPLOYED?
Wouldn’t hurt to have some competition for the legendary Jacorey Shepard.
I don’t think we need another 30ish year old CB.
McKelvin will be 31 , Carroll 30 in Jan (FA), Brooks 28 in Oct. If we kept 5 cbs., that leaves room for just Rowe.
No, agreed. I was just recalling the game for which I most remember him.
Nolan is 29 already?
His hip is messed up, similar to Boykin situation
Hope Wentz was looking at Prescott’s performance. More fuel for the fire.
yeah seriously – will be annoying if dallas gets their next qb in the 6th round.
All day to throw with open receivers can make anyone look good.
Also throwing to Dez makes life easy and keys wait to see how he responds to actually pressure
If he can get his head on straight, DGB has the same upside as Dez.
What’s the trade-off there, Dez is faster and DGB is bigger? Both being big, powerful, and fast receivers in general of course.
According to mockdraftable, DGB is faster, taller, and heavier. Dez’s effort has never been questioned though, while DGB is more like Randy Moss in the effort department.
I’ve heard a lot of comparisons with Moss, even that they have a similar run
But he moved the ball well and didn’t make any bad throws or decisions. There weren’t any flaws you could point out.
Dallas had the same roster last year and couldn’t get the same production from other veteran QBs
Yeah because those “other veterans” where facing very DIFFERENT defenses than what Dak is playing against in the PS
I would argue those other veteran QBs were horrible on other teams as well. Remember, Foles with a clean pocket and receivers running wide open was unstoppable too.
It’s beyond annoying.
He looks great. All the caveats aside (it’s preseason, vanilla defenses, etc.), it’s not like other QBs are putting up video game numbers right now.
Considering the draft capital we gave up for Wentz compared to Dak (a 4th round pick)……I’m annoyed right now.
Wish Wentz could play and make us all feel better about the situation.
He also has a better name.
Jones and Gardner are the same size. Jones is 4 years younger.
Tommy continues to be the only person who believes in Andrew Gardner, the guy was never good, at his best he was below average, he never looked natural at RG, the idea of him at RG again makes me want to puke. I have no problem with him trying to earn a roster spot, but he has 0 upside, he’s coming off a bad injury, and looks to have lost a step, not that he had one to begin with. I was very happy Dennis Kelly was traded for anything, let alone DGB a player with talent. I doubt Gardner is on the final 53, I am almost positive the Eagles will be on the waiver wire during final cuts looking for oline help. At this point I don’t really want to see Tobin play anything other then LT, he has never looked natural or confident at any position besides LT, that hurts his value but Peters has proven to need plays off almost every game the last few seasons, so atleast Tobin could offer value there, I would be for giving Tobin some snaps at RT to see if he looks anything close to his LT form. But Gardner is complete trash. Barrett Jones was an award winning college player at Alabama, where Nick Saban runs a tough program, he was good enough to play for him, I am more then confident he has more upside then he has shown in the NFL. I don’t think he was someone Chip wanted or even knew was available last season, I believe he was a stoutland signing. Eitherway we need oline help.
While my opinion of Gardner tends to be as low as yours, it seems more and more likely that he will make the team! Why?! Because he just recently agreed to a pay cut…
I will seriously consider not watching football anymore should Jerry Jones have found their next franchise QB in the 6th round…
At a time when Eagles 1st rounders are getting cut (Smith), being suspended (Lane), struggling (Agholor), and getting injured (Wentz). Sigh.
Smith was cut?
The announcement comes 2 weeks from today.
When will i get a raise?
4th round.
But yes.
Not sure he “found” anything. More like lucky because that’s all that was left.
As much as I loathe everything Dallas and wish them nothing but eternal misery, pain, longevity for Jerry Jones, embarrassing losses (44-6!), intestinal cramps, and blemishes upon their vestiges, I quietly admit, to myself, that Eagles football is more fun when both teams are competitive and the games have more meaning then who gets to claim 3rd, instead of 4th, place in the division.
“blemishes upon their vestiges…” Great line! Is that original?
Not sure where it came from. Sounds like Monty Python to me or just my tired brain stringing nonsense together as usual.
As long as I don’t have to pay royalties, I’m going to be using it. Anyone asks, I’ll tell them I got it from Dragon Eagle.
He is not showing anything that we did not know before the draft. Go through the highlights and see the actual passes he makes – pretty much every one is to an open receiver, and for most of the game he had the cleanest pockets you will ever see, being able to stand on a spot for 3-4 seconds while he waited for someone to be wide open.
He does not respond to pressure particularly well, goes into scramble mode immediately, lacks arm strength, has a slow throwing motion and is not that accurate. Preseason production is not very meaningful if it is not replicating what you need to do in genuine NFL games.
Having said all that – their offence has been disgustingly good so far in preseason – clean pockets, open holes for running, WR’s getting open effortlessly… If Romo stays upright they could have a top 3 offense.
The trait of finding the open man should not be under rated. Right Sam?
Well said…
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Scout Team QBs face more complicated defensive schemes in practice than what Dak is facing in the preseasons where defenses aren’t showing disguise and defenses aren’t gameplanning to take certain weapons and reads away from him
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I think it’s almost worthless when I see young QBs having a lot of success throwing to their first read all game, that’s not sustainable success in the NFL, defenses will figure you out by year two and start taking those reads away from you and make you uncomfortable. In Fairness to Dak, it’s not his fault defenses aren’t throwing anything complicated at him in the preseason. If he looks like this against real regular season defenses then I’ll worry. What he is facing now isn’t even close to the challenge that is regular season defense. But the kid certainly has a nice offense around him with a top notch OL, a workhorse RB, and a WR he can just throw it up to.
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What you are at the beginning of you Roookie season isn’t that important because it’s too hard of a posituon, no rookie will ever come into the league Ready to carry a team to the SB…His development from here will determine what type of career he will have. hopefully he isn’t already capable of playing at this level in the regular season when it gets real, and DC’s confuse him with Disguises and take away his first reads making him uncomfortable. He isn’t even playing real football until DC’s get to know his game well enough to design schemes that will make him uncomfortable
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Dak may end up being Legit, but we can’t know that by watching him light up the Preseason. If we are to believe the preseason, RG3, Terrell Pryor, Will bring an offense juggernaut to the LINC in week 1, but we know better than that..
and so was the eagles preseason last year, so it really means nothing, if romo goes down, dak will dazzle people with his legs early on, then he’ll get figured out and then you’ll see who he really is
The Cowboys should have a great offense if healthy, no reason to think otherwise. They have the RB, the QB, the line, the WR. One comfort is they might not have the QB or at least they won’t have the QB for very long. But that goes out the window if Dak ends up being good. The other comfort being that their D should be hot garbage.
Should make for some fun match ups with us, Strength against strength, and they should be one of the few teams that our offense is watchable against. (luckily the other teams are all in the NFCEast as well).
It’s impressive how they’ve been able to draft/sign 4 offensive lineman in 5 years that were able to start and play at a high level their rookie year.
2011: Tyron Smith
2013: Travis Frederick
2014: Zach Martin
2015: La’el Collins
In FootballOutsiders’ QBASE article, where they try to predict how good the QB prospects would be, Prescott was actually second to Goff. It was a distant second, and they noted Wentz is more difficult to model than QBs at the bigger schools, but they did have Dak rated a little above Wentz, with a lower bust potential.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2016/qbase-2016
Okay, guys, here are the first results of over 30 people. Interesting stuff.
And in case you want to get in…
https://goo.gl/forms/gBR6sAvFILLNkRgJ2
Who the hell cut Wentz?
They probably figured he would never develop in time without the PS reps. Reading too much Lombardo, I guess.
And someone cut Cox? That’s just wrong on multiple levels.
Someone filling it out while attending a briss?
I do mohel work on the side.
I was about to ask the same thing.
FYI – the TJ Graham count is wrong. It is counting the Brandon Graham responses as well. I will fix it in tomorrow’s graphs.
lol, I read the graph before the replies. I’m thinking to myself, I didn’t vote for TJ Graham, how is he 100%, and what does everyone else know about him that I don’t.
Just watched the 2nd preseason game. It’s year 3. Huff simply does not have NFL WR hands. He’s got the athleticism, quickness, and strength, but not the hands. It’s time to get creative with him or cut bait. Sure, he’s a good KR, but I believe one of the RBs could take that on. (Maybe it’s more complex than that?) And because of his hands, he’s a liability back there catching pop up kick offs too.
I’m not seeing any lack of effort from Huff, just lack of NFL ability w/ the hands.
Matthews, DGB, Agholor, Turner, and “someone not yet on the roster.”
I’ve always been a Huff apologist. I had a real hard time putting him on the roster for ATGs roster prediction form.
Dak reminds me of McNabb
I saw shades of Tom Brady lol
Marino mixed with Montana in a cloak of Johnny Unitas.
I agree with Tom about the second team OL! But I would have went with slightly different personnel:
RT Lane
RG Gardner
C Barrett Jones
LG Wis
LT Tobin
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I stopped paying as much attention in the 4th quarter, but I remember Barrett Jones making some solid blocks. Hard to know exactly what that means other than he is better than the steelers 3rd string DL
If either Seumalo or Brooks – or maybe even Kelce goes down, Wiz is the first man up. I think he should get time at all three spots in the preseason. 77 starts in his NFL career – mostly at center. Wisniewski should be well out in front on experience alone at all three interior line positions. This shouldn’t be a debate. The fact that it is a debate makes me wonder if the O Line is in better shape than we think.
Unless Seumalo starts playing much better than he did against the Steelers, he may not keep that starting LG spot for much longer
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Curious to see how the Eagles play this. Do they give Seumalo the 3rd preseason game to show improvement, or do they demote him and start Wisnewski in the next game since it would be the last chance to get Wisnwski some game reps at LG with the starting Unit?
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The Eagles game is re-airing on CSN. They are kicking off right now, I want to watch Seumalo closely because I didn’t like what I saw watching it live
Fran Duffy’s always excellent Eagle Eye piece has the one-handler by Turner. What I didn’t notice during the game was how long he was tracking the ball in the air. He had time to move over towards the ball, but stayed against the CB until the last moment, giving himself room to work. This guy needs to make he roster.
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Eagle-Eye-Encouraging-Signs-On-Offense/67e0005b-0f45-42c4-baf7-3bb685635946
Like this part on Seumalo 7th one in analysis. It’s encouraging because of the mental aspect. He also finished off the first guy before taking care of LB Vincent Williams.
I was really excited to see Seumalo get his chance to start at left guard and go up against more first-team defenders. I thought he took another step in the right direction on Thursday night. Sure, he had a couple of mistakes and wasn’t perfect, but there were a couple of plays in the run and pass games that really impressed me. This play, however, was my favorite from the rookie third-round pick.
It’s second-and-5 in the second quarter, and the Eagles are driving downfield looking for their first offensive points of the night. Right before the snap, the Steelers show blitz from the right, with the linebacker, No. 54 L.J. Fort, approaching the line of scrimmage in the B gap between Brooks and Barbre. The Eagles slide their protection to that side, with Barbre, Brooks, Kelce and Seumalo all moving in that direction.
Watch Steelers linebacker, No. 98 Vince Williams, after the ball is snapped. He is responsible for Kenjon Barner in man-to-man coverage. When he sees that Barner is staying in to pass protect, he decides to Green Dog, adding to the pressure scheme by blitzing Bradford.
This is where Seumalo really steps up. So often, when linebackers Green Dog, they get home for the sack because they were not initially accounted for in the protection. Here, the rookie is able to quickly recognize the extra rusher, knows that Kelce has the slanting defensive tackle from his side, and peels off to take on Williams on the blitz. Doug Pederson has consistently praised Seumalo’s football IQ, and it showed up on that play on Thursday night.
Offensive lines can slide? Chip Kelly says this is blasphamey.
Those were very good, might have added a critique to go with the praise of Barrett Jones on the last one. He got the block done because it was a nice quick play, but tried to leave his feet and ended up being put on his butt by a much smaller man. You want to take the guy you are blocking out of the play completely, usually by maintaining your block until the whistle, he attempted to go the decleating route, can’t blame him, fun to see big guys get a running start and throwing themselves into people like a bowling ball through pins. Pretty impressed that the defender judo’d him to the ground actually, some of those still-shots I just can’t understand the physics of how he didn’t get blasted into the stands.
Jones is fine. Those kick out blocks are ones Guards love because it’s set up for a kill shot. If he runs his feet he buries the LB, but it looks like he expected to blow the guy up and it didn’t quite happen.
The important thing was making the block with the helmet on the left side of the defender. That little thing was the difference between still making the block and the LB falling off the block for a tackle.
If Taylor Hart can’t provide more pass rush than beau Allen who is best suited to be a 3-4 NT, then there is really no reason in this scheme to continue spending a roster spot on Taylor Hart
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I assume MIKE Martin will be the #3 DT, Beau being the #4….. I don’t see any reason to keep Both Beau and Hart, one or the other is enough.
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Since no starters play in the 4th game, I’d like to see Schwartz give Destiny “The stripper” And “The Shitzu” a few reps against the starting OL of the Colts since it’s our last chance to see those Undrafted rookies in live action against starting OLineman
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I assume schwartz plans on keeping 4 DT’s, but we could see a 5th only if someone really steps up and earns it
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But the Interesting Roster decision will be MS2 vs Braman. The emergence of Means probably makes it unlikely that we could keep both
Schwartz’s scheme does not need 4 players to be consistent pass rushers. If one of the DT’s can push the pocket and defend the run effectively that is still very valuable. Think Hart has been decent so far in preseason, and i think there is a tough fight for 3rd 4th and 5th DT. Not sure who makes it but the next 2 preseason games will probably decide all 3 positions.
Hart has been solid, but I don’t think the math works out for him, or it shouldn’t. I’ve heard he is something of a coaches’ player though, which is always a factor we don’t really see from our vantage (arguably being an advantage for us). Call it the Damion Square factor.
MSII has the upside, and is finally showing some progress (glacial as it may be), but the special teams might really need Braman. Getting less reps on ST shows, so Fipp could use as many ST aces as we can get him. Whatever decision they make will give decent insight into the philosophy this team has going into this year. MSII being the off chance of paying dividends down the line to offset his cost, vs a ST ace for the foreseeable future. One odd factor in the regular season roster math: Braman must be active on game day, MSII does not.