Sunday Night Thoughts
Posted: November 13th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 369 Comments »Huge win by the Eagles today. It keeps them in the playoff discussion, with the NFC being wide open. Take out division leaders and the only teams with better records than the Eagles are the Giants and Skins. The Eagles host them and will have the chance to take care of business themselves. It is kinda crazy to think that Carson Wentz has more wins this year than Drew Brees, Cam Newton or Aaron Rodgers.
Other thoughts…
- Malcolm Jenkins had a terrific game. He led the team with 7 tackles. He had a TFL on a series where Atlanta had driven into scoring territory. That play put them behind schedule and the Eagles held them to a FG. Jenkins also covered well. He had tight coverage on Julio in the slot a few times.
- Leodis McKelvin is an interesting guy. Why did he give up the long TD you might ask?
Leodis McKelvin on the big TD he gave up: "Shit, got greedy! … I'm like, 'I'm finna jump this bitch & make a play! Oh, shit. Wrong time!'" pic.twitter.com/YFrsBmgrn1
— Josh Paunil (@JoshPaunil) November 13, 2016
I don’t like him taking that chance in that situation, but he redeemed himself with the INT that sealed the game. Jim Schwartz wants his DBs to take some chances. I’m not sure he wanted that one, though.
- Game analyst John Lynch wondered why Doug Pederson went for 2 with the Eagles up 19-15. I was shocked that he was so confused. If you kick the PAT, you’re up 20-15. That’s really no different than 19-15. If you get the 2-point conversion, it helps in a few ways. You are up 21-15 and that means Atlanta needs 2 FGs to tie you. The 6-point lead also means if the Falcons score a TD, they have to hit the extra point to take the lead. They had already missed one earlier in the game. And finally, if you’re up 21-15 and you kick a FG, you have a 2-possession lead and the game is all but over. Seems pretty obvious to me.
- I had a dream about Kenjon Barner the other night. I was explaining to someone about how Barner had the speed to hit the hole harder than Ryan Mathews and that might help the Eagles run game. Clearly I need therapy. Back to Barner. He didn’t get any offensive snaps, but impacted the game as a KOR. He averaged 38 yards per KOR, with a long of 52. Give Barner credit, but also his blockers.
The Eagles have 3 players with a kick return of 50 yards or more (Smallwood, Huff, Barner).
First time in franchise history in same season.
— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) November 14, 2016
Dave Fipp does a great job with STs. Say what you want about Chip Kelly, but he made one great hire and then made sure to give him good resources.
- Someone needs to take the page in the playbook that has bubble screens and tear it in half. Then do that again. Then burn the shreds and flush them down the toilet. The Eagles just don’t run that play well. It takes good timing, good blocking and WRs that are elusive. Eagles receivers block well on run plays, but don’t seem to be great on the quick screens. There is no WR who is dangerous after the catch in that scenario. I hate that play.
- Mychal Kendricks played more today than in recent games. Atlanta uses a FB and some 2 TE sets. That meant the Eagles played in their base look more than usual. In most games, they go Nickel a lot and Kendricks is stuck watching. He played well on Sunday. Kendricks had 3 tackles, broke up a pass and hit Ryan once on a blitz. He still has good talent. He just took a while to adjust to the new system.
- Finally, a couple of OL topics.
@lawlornfl You think Vaitai's the future at RT?
— Eagles Nation (@EaglesUpdater) November 13, 2016
Too early to tell. I see a lot of promise, but Vaitai has not played so well that he’s locked up the position. There is no question that Vaitai struggled in his debut against the Skins. Since then we don’t hear his name called that much (a good sign), but he hasn’t done anything to wow us. OT is a premium position. You prefer really good players there. Vaitai isn’t at that level yet.
The tricky part of this is player development. Go watch Todd Herremans in 2005. Go watch Jamaal Jackson early in his career. Look at the way Brent Celek developed in his career. Same for Jeremiah Trotter. The Vaitai we see now vs what he might look like in a year could be very, very different. We need to revisit this topic at the end of the season when we’ve got lots of game film on Vaitai and we’ll have a better feel for where he is.
@lawlornfl I asked this last week, but you didn't answer. Honest question: is Jason Kelce a legit starter in this league at this point?
— Brian Ambrose (@PhillyFanRuns) November 13, 2016
There was a time when Kelce was one of the better C’s in the league. That’s no longer the case. That said, he is absolutely still an effective starter. We see the plays where he is called for holding or makes a mistake, but Kelce still does a good job most of the time. He remains a very good athlete. He is very smart and does a good job of adjusting protections. Kelce does drive me nuts when he holds on run plays. Just let the guy go and if he hits the RB, so be it. Better that than a holding call.
I do think there are long term concerns. Kelce is 29. Athletic guys at some point start to lose a bit of their athleticism. When that happens to Kelce, he will start to struggle more than he does now. That might happen next year or 2018 or beyond that, but it will happen. The Eagles might decide to go with a bigger, stronger player at C. Isaac Seumalo could be in the mix for that job. They also have a guy named Aaron Neary on the practice squad that they like as a C prospect. We’ll see what happens.
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[…] Tommy Lawlor Huge win by the Eagles today. It keeps them in the playoff discussion, with the NFC being wide […]
Prediction and worth Noting- The Cowboys will lock up the division and 1st round bye by week 15 or 16. They will end up resting most of their starters in week 17 in Philly and the 9-6 Eagles will win that game easily and get into the playoffs as a wild card team at 10-6. We will go on the road as the 5th seeded wild card team to face the 4th seeded Detroit Lions ( NFC North winner) and avenge our loss to them earlier this season. Then , you guessed it we will return to Dallas for the Division playoff game. I will predict that game after we beat Detroit in the W/C game. 🙂 Hey..is the above really that far fetched??
Do they try and save Dak and at game 15 or 16 we see Romo..
Possible, but they will also rest Zeke, Dez, starters on defense and banged up players. They will just be looking to survive without any injuries. I doubt they even subject Tony Homo to the Eagles in that scenario. So we might end up facing the Sanchize on that week 17 game. How much fun would that be? Marc Sanchez LOOOOOOOOOOOL
If the season ended today, 3/4 NFCE teams would be in the playoffs with the 4th in the number 7 spot…. Crazy how a year can change things. This is a good division and the Eagles are playing good teams, several of which were coming off a buy and are still 5-4. Well done.
There is a strong chance that the NFCE will have both wild card spots. The Eagles control their own destiny right now if they can win their home games and one of Sea, Cinci, Balt. on the road.
I think the Seattle game is the only one I’ll say is a definite loss. Every other game is a winnable game.
I think Seattle will have a letdown after last night’s game, being at home may save them though.
Do we really control our own destiny? Both NYG and Washington are ahead of us.
It is my opinion that 3 teams will make the playoffs in the NFCE. I now believe NYG will take the top wild card. The Eagles control their own destiny to get teh 2nd Wildcard. The Key will be beating out Washington. Since we play Washington again and assuming we beat them then we do control our own destiny to reach the playoffs as the 2nd wild card. We also must beat GB so we have the tiebreaker over them.
I think we have a shot at beating Seattle this week, as they are coming off that hard-fought win in NE. All winnable games vs. GB, Cinn and Balt as well.
I think, though, that it will all come down to having to beat both the WFT and the G-men at home. G-men are definitely do-able, but this damn Kirk Cousins curse will need to be overcome.
Yeah the defense isnt what it used to be but our offense isnt very good. If the OL can show up like they did today it will go a long way in helping.
And on D we have to stop Baldwin and Graham; while containing Wilson in the pocket.
I really hope the offense shows up next week
It sure would be nice to have Game 1 Carson Wentz back…
didn’t realize that dallas has only lost one game and has the best record in the league. sad!
They are 4-1 in 1 score games (the Eagles are 1-4). Normally you would expect a team to only win half of their 1 score games.
Watching highlights from the Dallas-Steelers game. Zeke keeps running untouched straight into the endzone from 15 yards out, its ridiculous. And Dak finds Bryant wide open for a TD after 4 seconds holding the ball because the Steelers can’t get any pressure with 9 in the box. The fucking cowboys are good. (Barf.) But its not really Dak or Zeke. Its that freaking O-line. And we had them beat, in Dallas, two scores up with 10 minutes to play in the 4th. Damn that game will haunt this team for the whole season…
Pittsburgh D is awful.
yeah thats why when people say we need all these weapons i’m like no build the deepest best o-line. b/c who was dak prescott really anyway?
Admit it. Dak and Zeke are good.
There are about 20 qbs who have shown more than dak so far this year. Wentz being one. Zeke… Is very good. How good is hard to tell when he is running untouched and trucking dbs at full speed. He looks like AP right now, but we will see.
NO. Product of the line.
Also, yes, like I said above, the cowboys are good. And we had them beat with ten minutes left in the fourth. Soundly. By confusing dak and bringing down Zeke.
Re: bubble screens. Commentators ripped the Eagles for the bubble screen play call to Matthews but I think it was a good call. Watch the replay and you’ll see DGB running a slant instead of blocking (Wentz killed the play so I think that’s where Dorial got confused). With such a huge WR blocking, given how the defense was set up it should have been an easy 5 yards at least. I’m fine with that call in this situation.
I agree that we should not see it 10 times per game though.
Bubble screens are actually something we should be good at. We’ve got speed guys on the outside and some bigger blockers in our TEs. Honestly, the biggest issue is Carson Wentz’s poor accuracy here in my opinion. He rarely throws these well. WRs have to turn their backs, make tougher than necessary catches – all of which saps any chance at getting that quick first step burst and the play immediately misses any chance at momentum. Carson and Doug need to work on his placement here – over and over again.
I think you’re confusing a regular screen, where the lineman lead the way vs a bubble screen/wide receiver screen, where the receiver actually bubbles away from the line of scrimmage to catch the pass while the other wideout blocks the defensive back, giving the receiver a chance to run after the catch. Our wide receivers do not block this actual play very well and our wide receivers are not elusive.
No, not confusing the two. We run the regular screen behind the OL with Sproles, in particular, quite well. We can run the bubble screens with Ags or DGB, but go back and look at Carson’s throws on these. They need work.
The quick pass to Matthews in particular highlights that. The ball was very high (likely due to the DE being in the throwing lane).
disagree, we havent got the elusive WR to make this play work, but yeah you’re right on wentz accuracy on the throw, if his throw makes the wr turn much to get it then the timing is all off, with huff catching that screen it always seemed he needed about 5 yds to get going, but still not elusive enough
I’m not sure I follow you. A bubble screen is when the WR takes a steps backwards and faces the QB. I can’t remember which play you are talking about so I’m not sure where the ball was thrown. The WR should have turned 90 degrees, how far did he actually turn?
They’re not great but Huff was basically the only receiver who understood how to attack them once he had the ball. JMatt is particularly awful.
You’re right that JMatt is not the best at this. However, DGB can (and has) run this by breaking tackles rather than being elusive. I’d like to see more of that.
Not sure why we aren’t seeing more of these from Nelson, with Matthews blocking.
Never mind, he can’t catch.
Yeah Huff was the one WR I didn’t mind seeing them running a bubble screen because:
1. He has good speed & acceleration
2. Has natural ability to make a guy or two miss
3. Didn’t have to run a route precisely or know where to space himself
OK, you referred to TEs blocking. TE’s block on regular screens, not the bubble screens with 2 wideouts.
I don’t really expect to win in Seattle next week, but one benefit of playing Atlanta this week is that they both play a 4-3 under with a Cover 3 on the back end. This week was like a practice game against the lesser copy before we take on the original.
Atlanta is a better team than Seattle this year
Maybe all around, but I still think Seattle’s defense is superior, especially in Seattle.
I have concerns about all the false starts at home. Playing in Seattle we might have 5+ false starts
The definition of insanity…Nelson Agholor played 91% of snaps, Trey Burton played 11%.
https://twitter.com/caplannfl/status/798150562248204288
Paul Turner 40 yards dash at LSU Pro Day: 4.55
Jarvis Landry 40 yard dash at Combine: 4.77
Antonio Brown 40 Yard Dash at combine: 4.56
Not saying Turner is good as these two, but this lack of speed thing is overrated.
Jarvis Landry ran the 40 at the combine on a bad hammy
4.51 at his pro day, 0.04 faster than Turner.
EDIT, sorry, 4.61 at his pro day.
http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=119383&draftyear=2014&genpos=WR
I know, just pointing out that the 4.77 was because of an injury
jerry rice ran a 4.61
Ags ran 4.42. It’s not much of a difference.
I just read that Bo Jackson ran 4.12. That’s filthy.
People still trying to catch him in Temco Bowl. I did like the new Kia commercial with Bo Jackson and a nod to Temco Bowl.
i just cringe because we missed Landry, who is probably the best set of hands in the league next to Golden Tate. Both those guys are 70% catch rate guys.
I think that’s a reasonable assessment. He projects as a #4 or #5 so that means he’s easily a #1 or #2 on the Eagles.
Had to do with the personnel they wanted to see on defense. Given the run game, hard to argue with that decision.
At this point you’re better with any other skill player taking Agholor’s snaps.
Again, the success in the run game says otherwise. Any other WR, maybe.
Explain. (not being dick-ish, seriously would like to know)
Are you just saying putting the D in nickle or dime and running?
Right, putting Burton in for Agholor changes the defensive personnel and alignments. They liked what they were seeing, it was working, so they stuck with it. Can’t really argue with that. Believe me, in no way am I arguing the Agholor doesn’t suck.
I guess they’re hoping the light’s going to go on…
So, why is Agholor a bust? Not no production (he doesn’t have any) but the actual technical reason. He is at least a good athlete, better than most and has good (not great speed). He was very elusive at USC and back then if you watch his videos he did fight for the ball.
Seth Joiner said a couple weeks ago, he doesn’t think he knows how to run routes. He is very quick but he doesn’t try to fool anyone (sell another direction, fake where he is going) he just goes where the route says. I recall there was a poster on another site (amateur football) that said the Eagles do not catch the ball properly (how to hold their hands). DGB should be better as well though with him it seems like he doesn’t care. I wonder if the coaching on this (Greg Lewis) isn’t good.
The Eagles need a lot more production but it would be good if they didn’t waste a middle 1st round pick and have to blow another high pick on this as they have a lot of other holes to fill.
I am going out on a limb here, but I believe that any positional coach, for any position, on any NFL team knows vastly more than some poster on the internet (frequenters of this fine establishment excepted, of course).
Trying to drill down any deeper than the receivers aren’t performing so the coach is suspect to evaluate his approach to teaching hand techniques when catching is a fools errand.
That said, the receivers aren’t performing, so the coach is suspect.
I don’t normally pay much attention to people saying they know the problem but as I remember the person saying they were not using their hands correctly was supposed to be a successful HS coach. But Seth Joyner saying Ags is not running the routes correctly does get my attention.
He is cut, but very skinny. We saw on his deep balls he is easily outmuscled for position. We already know he cannot get off of press coverage. Add in the lack of concentration/hand-eye coordination, it is a recipe for disaster when you don’t have speed and quickness like DeSean. Even Maclin was much more physical than Ags against defensive backs.
https://twitter.com/caplannfl/status/798157675234205696
Interesting observations. I am kind of with ATG, though, that I think NFL coaches basically know what they’re doing, so it seems–to me–a stretch to think the fault could lie in simple technique. We also talked about the CB coaches not looking back for the ball the last few years.
I tend to think it’s a talent thing. After all, look how many gifted athletes enter the NFL each year, but how many of them are able to stay in the profession?
I’m concerned we pick another WR high and it is another bust. WRs have a pretty good ‘bust’ rate; even guys who have an ‘elite’ skill. Phillip Dorsett was supposed to be as fast as DeSean and he’s done as bad as Ags. I would feel better if I saw “some” improvement out of the guys that maybe if we did get a high draft pick WR again (Corey Davis, John Ross, etc.) they would either be good right away or they could develop.
Apples and oranges though. Celek is the guy who jockeys for PT with Burton in the 2 TE looks.
I’d like to 3 TE sets as we saw in the preseason. On the flip side, let Trey learn the WR positions too, he just a big WR or a small TE. He’s almost the same size as Riley Cooper without the stone hands.
You beat me to it, Tommy. I just read that Kendricks played 19 snaps yesterday, realized that I didn’t curse him once and thought of a few positive plays he made. I came here specifically to give him credit, since I was down on him earlier (for good reasons) and I find you posted a new thread noting the same sentiment.
Maybe when his brother got hurt, their cosmic connection allowed Mychael to channel both of their powers?
19 snaps is only 19 chances to screw up.
A question open to all, but inspired by Media Mike’s views:
Does the fact that his abilities allowed the decision to part ways with disappointing former-Duck and poor decision-maker Josh Huff have any redeeming quality for Kenjon Barner?
No, not until Barner can break a tackle by a kicker instead of running out of bounds.
The first time I wanted him to hit that guy so hard, worst case scenario you get tackled but that kicker will be done, and I thought it was Bryant who I still hate for breaking the FG distance record on a game winner to defeat the Eagles in the most Eagley way possible. Turns out it was the punter, who ended up gettin hurt later on a Kickoff and STILL managed to make the touchdown saving tackle (again). And it turns out Bryant punts just fine. So all around a vexing ordeal.
There is something extremely awful about the syntax of that sentence.
Yeah, I looked back it, but it seemed too far gone to try to fix.
Since you asked; Mostert would have most certainly outperformed Barner in the exact capacity
That evades the question, though.
Good kick returns made Huff easier to remove from the roster, but Barner’s are less good than Mostert’s would have been. Also, one can also argue that the return yards are a major function of the blocking.
Damn, your grudge-holding powers are strong.
I wonder if the state of his hamstring played into McKelvin’s decision to gamble instead of playing it straight up. As frustrating as I thought was to watch, I am comforted a little in the fact that he admits it was a gamble and he was burned. Maxwell would have deflected blame, somehow.
Poor decision, but a lot of CB’s gamble from time to time. If his gamble results in a pick-6, our opinion is obviously different. He’s been in position to make some plays this year. Hopefully he starts to catch some of those.
Somewhere, Nnamdi pointed fingers in the direction of a safety in sympathy.
I wish I didn’t want to up vote your comment
Somewhere?
http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Bentely-Mulsanne-Interior-placement-626×382.jpg
I thought he was summoning his inner Asante Samuel.
Huge win indeed, good job all around to pull it out.
Did anyone notice how Julio Jones often didn’t have separation against man coverage, yet Matt Ryan still threw it to him, and he still made the catch? Weird!
Anyway, hope to hear lots of talk this week about how lack of separation is the reason our receivers suck!
Tbh I was more surprised that our CBs managed to stay so close most of the time
Me too! Every time he threw the ball downfield I cringed, totally expecting a wide-open Julio streaking towards the end zone.
But the one time that happened, Julio just dropped it lol (whew)…
Ergo: Don’t cover Julio, he can only catch when covered.
I am comforted by the belief that we no longer have coaches who might test this theory in live action.
Notice his cap hit, too. Not that we don’t need an upgrade at wideout, but comparing to Jones is unrealistic.
Is he paid based on how little separation he gets?
I think Dez, Julio, the retired Calvin Johnson all broke the argument that WR’s aren’t worth substantial cap hits. When you have a stud, a true game changing player- you pay him.
I think we all know our receivers suck because they couldn’t catch a steel ball with a magnet.
Ags couldn’t catch a pizza
Are you saying that we should use a top 1% outlier to inform judgement of bottom 99%?
To me that logic is like “Everyone should be smart as Albert Einstein was because he proved it’s possilbe”.
Just pointing out that it isn’t “separation” that makes receivers great. There are guys on every team who are functional receivers without needing a 3-yard defender-free window .
But hey, you do you buddy!
https://i.imgflip.com/1e4ys2.jpg
This is a key aspect of how to use larger recievers, big WR’s don’t get wide open, but they are always open to some degree against smaller corners as long as the QB is willing to sling it. These make for some potent offense if you use them right (and your QB is good enough). Doug’s offense clearly needs a dynamic player that can get separation and the turn a short pass explosive with yac skills. I wish in the meantime we would utilize what we have correctly though.
Chemistry has a lot to do with it though; they’ve been playing together for quite some time.
But then again, all of our WR’s added together do not equal the sum of Julio Jones. Dude is a beast.
There is more than one way to be an All-World player, and there are lots of ways to suck. Not getting open is one of those ways.
Our WRs just cant catch. The separation thing is just narrative.
Julio is Julio lol.
Stone hands is why. Throw it to Agholor with a DB in his pocket and it’s 50/50 you’re getting picked.
Good receivers are able to get separation and make catches. Great receivers are able, too, but still make catches without separation. Around here, we are just aiming for good at the moment.
And Paul Turner is sitting right there!!!
But our receivers get separation just fine:
https://twitter.com/JoshPaunil/status/797963784786583552
That is just awful.
…which is only one of the two conditions to be good.
But that’s exactly my point. If it was only about separation (as so many have insisted the last few weeks), there wouldn’t be a problem.
Ah, so it is. Carry on, then.
NFC East = Best Division in NFL currently?!
I think it’s gotta be the AFC West. Raiders, Chiefs, and Broncos are all better than WFT, Giants, and Eagles, and the Chargers are better than their record. NFC East is a close second though
i agree with ya there. The development of Carr has been pretty interesting and Andy getting KC to 7-2 is also impressive.
Okay, what does WFT mean?
Some people mean Washington Football Team. When I call them the WTFs i mean What the F___.
Oh, for some reason I thought you were referring to Dallas. I call those guys the Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons, a la Easterbrook (although I haven’t read his column in like 10 years I think?).
I prefer Foreskins
Interesting. I’m circumcised and never felt I was missing out on anything.
LOL!
(3) Division Games @ Home down the stretch during a season we are undefeated at Home?
CAN’T WAIT!
I love how every time the run game got clicking and looked unstoppable we would follow it up with an empty backfield look, multiple times. Like, Doug, I get Andy always ran to set up the run, fine, but that only works if they have to think about crashing down on a run play bud. That second half had me stressed “this is why we don’t win close games”, “wtf refs”, and “bang bang” were the greatest hits of the second half on loop
I was surprised that we didn’t move the pocket more with how well our run game was working. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to get some TE’s across the field on corners/post routes. Perhaps they are saving some tricks for the upcoming games.
This was the kind of game we always lose. And we tried. This team has a little too much WTF. Maybe next year they’ll put it together.
Some thoughts on yesterday:
– Great team win, still don’t think our problems are gone or solved, but at least we won a close game.
– The Steelers losing to the Cowboys on an epically (not a word?) dumb facemask penalty is exhausting. We are three games back to them and have already lost one head-to-head. Making that up with our schedule would be nothing short of a miracle (If they even lose four games).
– Our team is good. I thought we had a chance to be contenders earlier in the year with the lack of top-end NFC talent. We seem to play to our competition, whether good or bad, and we do have some glaring weaknesses. The lack of consistency and questionable coaching decisions has really cost us in our division losses. And you can’t win a good division by going 0-3 to start. Before you say our last three division games are home… I am aware but even 3-3 won’t do the trick in my eyes with Dallas sitting at 8-1.
– We have a shot at a Wild Card, and without our own first round pick there is no harm in trying to go as far as we can. It is nice to always root for wins and not really have to worry about our draft stock.
– The Vikings pick is starting to look better. With them trending down, and both of us sitting at 5-4 is it possible their pick could be better than ours? We could have never envisioned that a few weeks ago.
– We really need some game-breaking talent especially on offense. CB and WR need to be addressed badly this offseason.
– I don’t think our “closing games out” problem is solved. Whenever our run game is stifled, Wentz still has a huge problem when defenses are keying on the pass. We pushed around Atlanta’s DL and that won’t happen every game.
The incredibly dumb face mask was infuriating, but did it really do more than expedite the inevitable? I don’t remember down and distance, but I thought at the time that Dallas was moving right along anyway. Essentially, it probably amounted to Zeke ending up with 209 yards instead of 224.
Dallas would have had the ball at Pitt 46 with 12 seconds and forced to use their last Timeout. Not only did the penalty give them 15 yards but also stopped the clock. Saving DAL their last timeout.
Okay, that is more dire than I remember.
The amazing thing is that Pittsburgh committed an even more blatant one on Beasley the previous play, and it wasn’t called. They got away with it once then immediately did it again.
That looked like a scene from The Exorcist.
I still think if you put Jeffrey on the team at the beginning of the season we could easily be 8-1 as well. Gym Shorts has done a pretty damn good job with the defense and while a pro-bowl/all-pro CB would be great, I think the bigger need is, sadly, at WR. I guess OL could be put up there at the top but it looks like they are holding together pretty well despite Lane’s absence. Despite if the whole OL was all-pro, if the WR literally can’t catch, it doesn’t matter. I think the best course of action would be to grab your stud WR in FA, take OL/CB in the first and second, grab RB in the 2nd/3rd. Once again It looks like Howie did his magic and got the first pick on day 3 by getting the Browns 4th round selection. Could very well nab a developmental WR at that position.
I am all for Jeffery, but so will about 10 teams. Also his injury history: Is top WR money worth 10-12 games/ year? We can trim space and have some carryover, but I have to believe Bennie Logan will be a priority as well. And if we franchise Bennie, that would leave us less flexibility without cutting guys like Peters, Barwin, Kelce, Mathews (and creating more holes); I would love to see Chase Daniel traded though. That salary is absolutely ridiculous for a player-coach.
Maybe not Jeffrey but what about a guy who was just marginally better than Matthews, you know? It doesn’t have to be a rank S player but a rank B+ to A would be great. It just goes to show how terrible the WR corp is at making plays. I’m just trying to give an example. I’m not gonna get too enamored with Mathews after just this game, he will have to show more for me to justify him staying. Smallwood had a good game too. Agree on Daniels and depending on Seumalo, Kelce may be a goner too.
I all for moving on from Mathews. Think Smallwood and Sproles will give us just as good production. Also, dressing 4 RBs every week is a waste of an active roster spot. It is pretty easy to go to OTC and predict some of the moves we will make this off-season. Unfortunately there are not many WRs in this years free agent market that are marginally better than Jordan. And they will probably be overpaid. I still wouln’t mind. But will we replace Peters or does he have another year? Can we count on Lane? Are we moving on from Kelce– please God? Does Seumalo fill that role? There are a lot of moving parts on OL and that usually does not equal success. Also if we draft CB, those guys usually take time to develop. Same with OL. I don’t necessarily think we have a ton of “holes” but we need some top-end talent and to marginally improve in certain areas. Kelce is killing us with stupid penalties and bad snaps. Ertz can’t break a tackle (or 3!! false start penalties this past game), key drops, bad CB play, Mychal kendricks inconsistent tackling, DL depth and stopping the run when Bennie is down, Doug’s decisions (that is a laundry list of problems– but he is a rookie), and the list goes on.Sorry for thoughts all over the place, but we really need another good offseason from Howie and finally some good drafting.
Unfortunately, i think the perspective for next year needs to be one without Sproles in it. If he is able to continue at this level, bonus! But his wear, age, and size is going to catch up with him soon.
We need to ask if Smallwood/Barner is enough or do we need to bring someone in to replace Mathews. I think the latter. And I think the draft will be loaded.
Add to RB group in draft. Very deep draft for RB and we have a weakness. Need to take advantage of that.
I thought Pederson mostly did a very nice job with the play calling.
Except running it wide at the goal line when the OL had been manhandling the defense.
I’m not sure but I actually think they ran that same play that got blown up on 3rd and inches/goal on the go ahead touch down. It looked very similar except Kelce didn’t get blown up.
I didn’t love the call either, but if we would have ran straight ahead he would have been tackled at the 5. Kelce got pancaked right at the snap and Wis got pushed back too. Other than a naked boot I don’t think any play was working there.
Sure, it’s a possibility he would have been stuffed. Hard to know how the line call would have changed. Running it up the gut was working really well on that drive, is all.
run game had been bananas all day – best running performance in over a year? Stick it up the gut.
Minus the massive brain fart the last minute before halftime, I’d agree.
Yea the bubble screen always looks bad. It ends up with Matthews standing for 2 seconds at the LOS waiting for the ball, telegraphing the play, followed by no gain. Pretty painful to watch.
I’d like to see a WR screen to Treggs. Seems to have a quicker burst. He might be all we have for that role and allows Jordan to block with a bigger body. DGB for some reason cannot block at all. His lack of effort is extremely concerning. You would think after being traded he would start putting in some effort. Agholor is too inconsistent. I would prefer him if I didn’t see the ball hitting off his hands for a pick 6.
Also hit the WR in motion, like you imply, would do wonders.
I am not so sure that JP is on a decline…
Jason Peters had a great game against the Falcons. Peters did not allow a single hit or hurry on Carson Wentz in 41 pass blocking snaps.
Been their best OL again and by a decent margin.
That’s why I find it amusing that some fans here seem to wish him good bye next off season.
I honestly believe that JP got at least one more season in his tank, even at next year’s salary.
If anything, Kelce is the guy I bet who is more likely to go at this point.
Johnson was our best before the suspension but it would be great if peters has at least one more year 1
He’s really been solid all year. At this point, you 100% milk another year out of him.
http://overthecap.com/player/jason-peters/756/
$11.2 million cap hit next year might need to be looked at however.
To me, this was one of those ‘defining wins’ that an inexperienced team has during the middle of the season on their way to a playoff birth.
Finally won a close game against a very good team to keep control of their own playoff destiny. More importantly for the first time all year they had a game where they established some kind of offensive identity I see Reich/Pederson sticking pretty close until circumstance dictate otherwise.
More optimistic today than I have been pretty much all season because this was a game where they got significant & meaningful contributions finally from all 3 phases of their team.
Still an uphill climb to make the playoffs but still well within reach too.
I have only one complaint from yesterday. Nelson Agholor got 71 snaps and was only targeted 4 times. Bryce Treggs should get more snaps period.
Oh, and Agholor is PFF’s worst rated receiver this week.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-10-worst-players-from-sundays-week-10-nfl-action
I’m all for giving guys a shot, but Agholor has just been brutal.
Basically has the 2nd half of this season to show he belongs.
The current coaching staff and front office really don’t have any ties to him. I’d doubt they would simply cut him this offseason but it isn’t hard to him being regulated to a 4/5 next year.
Basically is MS2 and becomes a situational/depth guy only.
Agreed. Jimmy tweeted numbers today. They can’t cut him this year and next year wouldn’t make financial sense either. But year, bottom of the depth chart and a question mark to dress.
Also, cutting him isn’t the right move. He has been horrible and what appears to be a wasted pick sucks. Still, the pick is gone. Despite everything, he still has more potential than Aaron Grymes or Taylor Hart.
We just want a sacrificial lamb. “You’re fired.”
But one wonders how many snaps someone so ineffective should get, and the balance of hoping the light goes on versus getting production from someone else.
No argument there. Bench him, put him on special teams, make him inactive.
He most likely has offset language in his contract, so if he is cut, they would recoup some of that. The biggest problem with benching him is that he doesn’t play special teams at all. Making him inactive seems less palatable than just cutting him.
Interesting, i am a definitive “Agholor apologist” but i dont know that i agree that “he still has more potential than Grimes or Hart”.
Grimes and Hart were both cut multiple times because they lack the physical abilities. Agholor needs to pull his head out of his ass so he can make sharper cuts and see the ball coming. There will always be Grimes and Harts waiting to sign. If there were Agholor’s waiting to sign, we would have them parading through here.
Ok, so i agree with that. But at the same time, i feel like its 50/50 that Hart or Grimes ends up a better player than aghs.
Yep. I won’t be putting any money on any of the three.
MS2 though is making plays as a rotational guy, Agholor isn’t. MS2 looks like he can keep improving and be a solid player moving forward – Ags not so much.
I’m not so down on MS2 as he’s played far better this year than last.
In his third year. This is Nelson’s second, and we guaranteed his salary for 2017 and 2018 since he was a 1st round pick. He’s only going to be cut if we have 5-6 WRs we prefer on the roster (right now we have about 2), or if we can get something meaningful in a trade, I think.
I’m really having a tough time understanding why they don’t give Turner a bunch of Agholor’s snaps. Agholor gives us virtually nothing on the field. The worst that happens is Turner does the same, but Pederson sends the message that performance is going to be rewarded. The best that happens is we end up with a real player. I’ll take anywhere along this spectrum.
It’s because Turner is not on the roster.
That is probably a big part of it, yes.
Interesting that the Eagles will play the 2 teams I see as most likely to end up in the NFC Conference game right now (Seattle and Dallas) within a month of each other on the road.
Should have won the Dallas game and I’m really interested to see how they stack up against a team that has been pretty much impossible to beat at home the last 5 years:
– Seahawks are 31-5 at home since ’12; just 5-3 last year though
– Did show a few cracks at home last year including losing a 4 PM ET game to an East Coast for the first time since ’11 (Panthers 23-27 in Week 6)
Eagles still aren’t getting much respect from betters though including Vegas ones. The line opened initially at -4.5 for the Seahawks and it has jumped to -6 or -6.5 as of this afternoon. Big swing especially considering the Eagles win yesterday. I guess people though the Seahawks’ win was that more impressive last night.
I think that line is correct. Seattle can play both the run and the pass. If they single cover our receivers (which they will), it will leave more to stack the box to stop the run. Most likely they will dare Wentz to throw it downfield because they don’t respect our receivers.
And they fear not the pass interference, holding, face mask, and personal foul penalties.
Agree with the line too. However, I do think there is a chance for a letdown on the Seahawks part. They were way up for that game last night, got the win in an emotional atmosphere, and had to fly all the way back after. I think we probably lose, but may have a chance to jump them if they come out flat. I feel like the Eagles would come out flat if the situation was reversed.
Yeah chances of high balls getting picked skyrockets, hopefully ol plays as well as they did this week
They’ve got some weakness on their o-line, whereas our d-line is an obvious strength. So that’s a matchup in our favor.
Not sure I can think up many more matchups in our favor beyond that, though.
Our quarterback is taller.
And our bird mascot would kick their bird mascot’s ass. A seahawk? I’m picturing those little white birds that flee when a wave washes in.
Apparently there is no such thing as a “seahawk,” and their mascot, Taima the Hawk, is actually an Augur Buzzard.
Here is the tale of the tape, two large specimens:
Wingspan:
Augur Buzzard 35″
Bald Eagle 86″
Advantage Eagle
Weight:
Buzzard 3 lbs
Bald Eagle 14 lbs
Advantage Eagle
Range:
Buzzard A few tiny areas in Africa
Bald Eagle Most of North America
Advantage Eagle
Prediction of next Sunday’s game: Easy win, just like last week.
Augur Buzzards are part of the Buteo family, which also contains Red Tailed Hawks.
Buteos should not be messing with members of the Eagle family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OPsUXdOgGo
Wow, that is a truly epic beatdown. Nature is some savage shit.
My previous impression of Eagles had been from the Blue Planet videos, where they just catch a bunch of salmon and steal them back and forth from each other.
http://www.arkive.org/bald-eagle/haliaeetus-leucocephalus/video-08c.html
It might not look quite like that, since we are playing at their nest Sunday, but the outcome seems pretty much inevitable.
Ok, how about this?
Handle your business at the :55 mark.
Wow, that was violent.
Touche
The Seahawks are tough at home and we’re lousy on the road (1-4), so the big swing isn’t that surprising.
If you kick the pat then you make Atl go for two if they score a TD, if you don’t make the two point conversion then Atl only needs an extra point to go up by three. So basically you’re talking about Atl having to go up by three with a two point conversion and if they miss the Eagles can win the game with a fg. Even if Atl makes it the Eagles can tie. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong, just a thought. Anddd I melted my brain.
Cliff Harris… sighting…
http://deadspin.com/former-oregon-football-player-cliff-harris-is-not-doing-1788956578
That’s what happens when everyone around you wants you to cover up your pain with opiates, doctors willingly prescribe them, then you get cut and don’t have access to those drugs, so you take up heroin.
At least that’s the narrative I’m going with.
Alshon popped for 4 games for banned substance.
He’s just become a lot cheaper next off season.
Was thinking the same thing.
In all seriousness which team will give him a huge contract knowing that his second suspension will be a 10 games ban?!
Only some team being really desperate for WR help maybe, like the Eagles. Lol
And I’d do it too.
I’m sure any team he signs with will have language in the contract that would allow them to recoup bonus money if suspended.
Sure. But in that case his acquisition becomes almost pointless when he’s due to miss 2/3 of a season.
I don’t think you sign him unless you believe it was an isolated incident. They can have Lane talk to him beforehand;)
and after just losing a player to that second suspension, hes probably less likely a candidate in Eagles FA bin
Probably smoking weed to deal with the fact that he has to catch passes from Jay Cutler.
alshon jeffries is a doper, just got suspended
Tommy you mention the small benefits to getting 2 points but you didn’t examine the implications if they were up 20-15 vs. 19-15.So it’s definitely not obvious or a no brainer. It’s debatable imo.
If Atlanta scores TD and adds extra point they go up 22-20 vs 22-19 so if Eagles responded with a FG, they win instead of going to OT.
They would have certainly gone for 2 up by 1 in your example. It is a no brainer. 5 just isn’t that different from 4 plus the chance to get to 9 with a FG is huge.
So then you force them to go for 2. You stop them and a FG wins. They make the two point conversion and you kick FG and you tie and go into OT.
No, it clearly wasn’t a no brainer. I just showed how they could score a TD and we could still win in regulation with a FG. That would have been huge too. It is different or we wouldn’t be discussing it.
Tommy discussed the positive for going for it. This was about the implication of kicking an extra point which wasn’t discussed.
All the coaches have a chart which tells them when to go for it…They hired someone else to do the math for them.
It definitely seemed confusing at the time, but when we ended up 9 points ahead instead of 8 it suddenly made a lot more sense.
couple things I saw yesterday was that Smallwood is pretty decent, he’s fast and seems pretty tough, I like him, he got chunks of yards. Nelson must be in his own head now, and that’s too bad. he can’t be that bad at catching, he is having mental issues. If Leodis could a football better then Nelson we would have won the Dallas game and the Atlanta game would have been over quicker. Julio proved the point that you can make a lot of catches but if you drop the 2 important ones, you lose. period.
Smallwood’s got a great, underrated spin move at the end of his runs that usually give him a couple more yards as he’s being tackled…
yeah he does.
he seems like a pretty good RB. he is fast and hits the hole, no dancing.
I really like how hard he runs. Mathews is a more violent runner, but Smallwood does a damn good job getting upfield.
McKelvin was 1 for 3 yesterday. He dropped two pretty sure ints as well.
I think that still beat’s Agholor’s catch rate…
Would you toss the last beer to Agholar or let him come get it
Tricky. Not sure if his hands are as bad as his route running. He’d trip over the cooler for sure.
If your boat was headed for Niagara Falls and Agholar and a little girl was safely on shore waving for you to toss your life line. .. who would you aim for
The falls
Imagine Agholar as Phillies centetfielder
Or, don’t.
Imagine him as our #1 WR .. ha, or even better.. dont
So just to lay it out………………….
Zero expectations vs. Seattle next week. Kelce is going to get slaughtered by Rubin and Reed; I just hope Wentz doesn’t die in the process.
Moving forward; I like our schedule.
Green Bay, Cincy, and Baltimore are a bunch of a-holes who choked games to garbage Dallas and NYG.
Dallas, Washington, and the Giants are all here.
I like our chances to make a run at double digit wins.
The basic premise is that I only have respect for Seattle in this conference and Dallas/Washington/NYG is a pile of overrated trash. F them and grudge F their fans.
Dallas is a much better team than Seattle
Does
Not
Compute
No they are not.
Yeah Seattle is going to be tough. They should win at home. The one thing we have going for us and worries me a bit if I’m a Seattle fan: Anytime you have 2 strong defenses going against 2 weak offenses, you get pretty dramatic variance. Basically 1 special teams play, one PI, one unlikely catch can single-handedly determine which way the games go. Seen it happen repeatedly against the Rams, and this year against the Cards.
Did Deandre Hopkins get paid? Wonder if he’d want to leave Houston
1 year left…2017
The WR situation is gonna be ugly I think. We’ve invested time and draft stock into Nelson Agholor. He looks good on paper. He has moments (very occasionally) where you think he can put it together…. then he drops an easy pass.
It’s gotta be really hard to cut bait on someone like him. But that’s what you essentially need to do. Not a straight cut, but anyone new you get that you want to play will be basically replacing all of his game reps. At that point you have given up on developing him. Jordan Matthews is fine, I guess. He has critical drops all the time, and I’m holding out hope that he improves that. He also seems to make ordinary catches look very difficult, which I don’t look at as a positive.
WR3 is anyone’s guess. It would be nice to see DGB develop. At least he’s cheap to keep around for another year. Come FA and 2017 draft, whichever stud WR they can get their hands on will seriously derail the career of either DGB or NA, more likely both. For this reason, I’ve completely given up on Nelson Agholor. I no longer give him the benefit of the doubt, because I don’t see any way he’s on this team after his rookie deal is up.
Ugh, my friend says that was Dak’s “statement” win. I asked him if the statement was “personal foul: facemask” or “I can hand off to Ezekial Elliot with the best of them!”
Chip Kelly formation in the Giants game
What you guys thinking about our first round pick next year? Go best OL? best WR? or one of the stud RBs of the draft class?
Non-QB BPA. We have holes and / or poor depth everywhere. I just want guys on this team who make plays.
agree, i guess to rephrase — lets say you have a RB, WR and OL ranked equally. Which position would you go for?
Color me boring, but OL. I’m of the opinion that we can attract enough improved talent at WR/RB to put around a well protected Wentz.
Consider how well the OL is playing right now, not sure the Dallas OL would help at all for our WRs
Offensive line. You win football games by controlling the trenches. I *hate* our wide receiver situation, but if we can’t protect the franchise, it doesn’t matter who is catching passes.
This is a horrible, I mean horrible draft for OL. I know everyone is watching a Dallas and saying “I want that”, but get it in your head now. This is not the draft to do it.
there has to be a couple OL no?
Right now I only have Cam Robinson and Garrett Bolles as possible 1st round OL. Robinson should be long gone and Bolles is 25 years old already. There are a few interior guys I like, but are likely to be overdrafted.
I personally want us to give our young guys a shot. Seumolo and Vaitai could both improve this OL next year. I’d like to add weapons around Wentz and add one of these good looking CBs coming out. 2018 already looks like it may be significantly better OL draft
CB.
Media Mike was ahead of me w BPA.. i hadnt scrolled dowm
OL OL OL – just look at the cowboys. Schwatz is pretty good with what he has – imagine wentz behind cowboy’s oline
BPA
there’s 31 teams looking at the Cowboys’ success right now thinking the same thing. Seller’s market. A lot of teams are going to get straight up swindled trying to replicate it.
If the BPA is an OL, take the OL. If he’s not, don’t pick Danny Watkins just to say you took an OL in the 1st round.
yea same thing happened when the Seahawks won and their defense.
In theory a team like the Eagles have an advantage because we have a DC who is not afraid of 5’10 when everybody wants the next Sherman
Based on the talent in the draft, give me a guy like Desmond King in the 1st and then one of the many talented WRs in round 2.
I’m not sure King goes first round. I love him but he’s shorter than most teams want and I’m not sure he’s gonna run 4.4. I think you can go BPA in round 1 knowing Jourdan Lewis or King should be around roughly around where we pick in round 2.
A few shorter guys has been going in the 1st last couple years tho, but the combine will be big for a guy like King
Next question — would you spend the money on Jeffery this offseason, knowing he could be in another Lane-esque situation?
Can I get him on a Lane contract structure? If he’s stuck having to take below top of market money AND have to give up his guaranteed $ if he messes up again; then I’m interested.
i think any contract he gets would have offsets for suspension
Gotcha. I have a limit on his $ though. $11 mil /year. (Maclin, Fitz, Sanders)
He will get 14 easy…
Exactly. Give him big money, don’t have to pay it if he’s suspended.
no
no other decent FA WRs unfortunately
You had me at next question TO
Interesting tidbit — over his first four years, Jeffery only has 14 drops. I think Ags had that last game alone.
Yea but drops don’t matter because he a USC winner
Who was the last good WR from USC?
Lynn Swan
robert woods isn’t terrible
Keyshawn Johnson was the last one I could think of
Lynn Swann.
Burfict may kill a Giant this game.
How has Eli not been killed behind that line
He was undrafted… there was a handful of guys here in and amongst these very commenters that were calling for the Burds to scoop him up . . Hes a bit of a challrnge but heck of a player.
Look at the mock drafts that year if you can find him. A lot of them had us taking him in the first round. It wasn’t an isolated thing.
Are we 0-3 in the division right now?
yes, somehow
Yesh but not counting division leaders only the Skins & Giants are ahead of us
damn beckham catches everything…
I don’t understand why no one even covers ODB? He’s always wide open?
Odell can get 10 yards of separation from the 5 yards line. Our receivers have never even had a dream about that much separation.
Odell is also one of the best WRs in the NFL and pace to be one of the best ever.
sneaky quick and fast
people complaining about separation? did I not predict this?
https://i.imgflip.com/1e4ys2.jpg
Look at these damn holes. It’s filthy.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/Barnwellx161114/the-dallas-cowboys-offensive-line-nfl-mvp-not-close
Same story different running back. Get a big and fast RB to play behind that OL and you have a 1500-1800 back.
kind of a sidenote but Zeke has the goofiest looking face I think I’ve ever seen
Wentz. Hands down.
Edit: I also submit Ben McAdoo, who looks like everyone’s step dad.
Wentz looks a little goofy too, but Zeke is on a whole other level
ODB at 3500yds in 36 games. Ags might never make 3500yds in his career.
Ill take that under
hes more annoying then djax ever was
Ags should start doing the finger wag every time he drops a ball.
We definitely should have drafted ODB instead of Agohlar. Thanks a lot Howie and Chip.
Eagles would have had to jump from 22 to 12 to have the opportunity to draft him. They did not have the opportunity to select ODB in their draft position.
And Agohlar was in 2015, OBJ was 2014.
Other than that…
Thats the joke
That’s a good effort then, because I couldn’t tell.
Definitely joking. I guess the sarcasm didn’t com through.
Thank you. I thought it would be pretty obvious I was joking since they weren’t even in the same draft class.
Shudve gone for Mariotta .. wonder why Chip didnt
Stupid Bengals. Let him score. Down by 8 and chance to tie.
Effing Bengals smh.
You know, before the season the Bengals looked like a tough game, but I do not fear them at all.
I don’t really the Giants either. We have to atone for letting them off the hook.
Any road game is tough for this team until shown otherwise.
So…upset in Seattle?
When Taima met Swoopie.
we gotta teach our players to run this route
they’ll just drop it
We had some WRs that used double moves but some idiot let them go a few years ago.
Everything looks better when you’re more athletic, agile, and skilled than the other guy.
When did it happen the last time in the NFL that all teams from the same division ended the season with a winning record?!
It is tougher than it first appears. Remembering that there are 12 games within the division, they necessarily supply 12 of the maximum 28 losses. So yeah, that makes for a tough division.
Can someone answer my question please. 🙂
Yeah, it must be annoying to keep seeing someone responded, but not find an answer…
From the Googling:
“At the unofficial midpoint of the 2014 NFL season, the AFC North Division has all four teams sporting winning records. (…) If all four remain above .500 at the end of the season, it would be the first time in NFL history that all of the teams from one division finished with a winning record.” (http://heavy.com/sports/2014/11/could-the-afc-north-make-nfl-history-in-2014/)
The Browns ended 7-9, so never.
Awesome, thanks mate.
Not sure how I felt if the NFCE made history this year while the Eagles were still missing out on the playoffs.
Great, great footwork. (obviously) So impressive.
The NFC east is back to beast.
So weird, they have a lot of the same problems that plagued them for last few years.
Think Giants, Cowgirls and Eagles are better than they were last year, and the Skins have stayed relatively consistent. Think there are very few great teams in this 2016 season – anyone could make it all the way to the superbowl. Reminds me of 2012 when the Ravens played the 49ers – no great teams that year, just a whole bunch of good ones.
Jared Goff is finally starting this week. With Wentz, Dak, Seimian, Garropolo, and even Kessler all doing better than expected, the kid is just going to get roasted in the media. It will be savage. Good job, Rams.
*shrug* maybe he’ll play decent. But it’s almost inconceivable that he plays as well as the others because of his situation
Piling on:
Wide receiver Nelson Agholor was one of the worst players from Week 10, according to Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus.
7. Nelson Agholor, WR, Philadelphia Eagles
Agholor was on the field for 71 snaps against the Falcons and was only targeted four times. That would be bad enough, except from those four targets he could manage just two catches for seven yards, and one of them required a pointless challenge to secure as he bobbled a pass going to ground at the sideline. That turned 2nd-and-20 into 2nd-and-16, but cost the Eagles a challenge where a clean catch would have spared it. Agholor also dropped another of the targets and was effectively a drag on the entire Eagles’ offense in Philadelphia’s close win.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2016/11/15/philadelphia-eagles-carson-wentz-ryan-mathews-darren-sproles-desmond-king/#gPyWibXdrSIyUBhH.99
“One of the worst” is an improvement, right?
Nope, he was the worst wide receiver,. Some other position players had a worse day.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-10-worst-players-from-sundays-week-10-nfl-action/
4. Chris Chester, G, Atlanta Falcons
Chester surrendered seven hurries against the Eagles, a league-high figure among all offensive linemen, let alone guards. He allowed that total on 35 pass-blocking snaps and was also flagged for a false start as he tried desperately to keep his head above water against the Eagles’ defensive front and Fletcher Cox in particular. As if his pass blocking performance wasn’t enough, he also struggled in the run game, giving up a tackle for loss to Destiny Vaeao and losing on a couple of other blocks in Atlanta’s loss.
Bennie & Fletch should be productive again this week.
“The only returning starter from Super Bowl XLIX is Justin Britt, who started at right tackle in the Super Bowl but started at center for the Seahawks on Monday night. He has performed admirably this season, with a 79.5 overall grade, according to Pro Football Focus.
That, however, is where the good times end for the Seahawks offensive line. Their remaining projected starters – tackles Garry Gilliam and George Fant, and guards Mark Glowinski and Germain Ifedi – have averaged an egregious overall grade of about 44.0 from PFF. The line has especially hurt the Seahawks in the running game, as they rank 30th in the league in rushing yards per attempt (3.2) and yards per game (75.4).”
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/11/08/patriots-seahawks-whats-changed-for-seattle-since-super-bowl-xlix/
Against Wilson, they’re going to be mush rushing all day, with a lot of spies. That’s going to significantly eat into the sacks.
Schwartz doesn’t mush-rush. He will have them stay disciplined in their lanes, but they will be going balls out to get him. Kendricks and Hicks match up favorably with Wilson athletically.
And since Kendricks can’t cover, but he’s a hell of a blitzer- I can see him being the spy
oh yeah – they are gonna feast
The cool part about that is that he is pretty damn solid.
His problem was lining up against a difference maker!
So you’re saying he’s consistent!
It only cost the team a challenge if our next challenge was wrong…
Not really, you’re only given three challenges, and you only get the third if both the first two were right. It’s rare you need three. but technically it does use up a challenge.
i thought u keep getting challenges if you get them all right.
nope, max 3
A twitter recap from 18 months ago
https://twitter.com/GeoffMosherNFL/status/593962420068032512
https://twitter.com/lawlornfl/status/593963153488240640
https://twitter.com/ZBerm/status/593963204092497920
https://twitter.com/EaglesInsider/status/593963467209646081
https://twitter.com/CollinsworthPFF/status/593963708621201408
https://twitter.com/MattLombardo975/status/594253815492120576
http://www.insidesocal.com/usc/files/2015/02/AGHOLOR.MAC_.png
Those tweets were realistic at the time, which is why NA is so frustrating. It’s not like he was a scrub picked late that we’re disappointed didn’t develop. He SHOULD have developed, but didn’t, which sucks to watch.
I wasn’t knocking the analysis, as everyone (including myself) seemed to think Ags would flourish in the NFL. Just amazed at how in 18 months his career trajectory has drastically changed.
USC Wrs… They fool us all the time
Just like Penn State running backs…
Except Larry Johnson. . So GOOD they had to take him out most of the time
I don’t count him because he was such a piece of shit as a human being.
Yeah i started reading that. .holy crap. .. and his dad was a penn state coach if i remember corrrctly
Franco Harris was Penn State.
Curtis Enis, RB, PSU, No. 5 overall pick in 1998
Ki-Jana Carter, RB, PSU, No. 1 overall pick in 1995
Blair Thomas, RB, PSU, No. 2 overall pick in 1990
And USC QBs
yup
When I post something that sounds dumb 18 months later, I track it down and delete it. History shows I’m never wrong.
I forget about what I post immediately after I post it, so in my mind I am never wrong either.
I may not always be right,
but I’m never wrong
…the greatful dead
once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right….
Genius.
He didn’t suck as a prospect or draft pick. He sucks as an NFL player.
“He will make wonderful things happen on the football field”. Lol…
for the defense sure
This is way Agholar has been so frustrating, but it’s also why I don’t think we can give up on the kid a year and a half into his career. Not all great NFL players performed that early in their career. There are some really great NFL players that needed more time to figure out their transition to the Pro’s and traditionally speaking the WR was always one of those positions that required Patience which has recently been skewed by kids like ODB Beasting the NFL from day 1
..
We have plenty examples of this in Eagles history. Look at how much more capable Of contributing on defense MS2 has been in the first half of his 3rd NFL season compared to when we couldn’t even put him on the field during the first year and a half of his career,, BG was on his way to Bust status at the year and a half mark of his career,. Was Brian westbrook even beasting already in the first half of his Sophmore season?
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Begrudgingly, I think we have to be more patient with Agholar (Big Picture). But with that said, his play on sunday was fucking infuriating, I try to respect the player development process and the Patience it can require especially with kids we need to play immediately, but I wish Nelson DIDNT have to make it so hard to be patient… But at this point, dealing with all his struggles, and the pressure that comes with struggling that much in Philadelohia, I have to assume the kid is drowning in quicksand right now… I can’t think of an Eagle who more desperately needs a big break out game than Agholar. We have to hope that once he has a big performamce in a big win, it will take some much needed pressure off his back and spring board him into some more success and eventually gradually realizing his potential. This kid has the ability to be an NFL player, he is just still struggling to transition to this new level…. Although i also wonder about playing with a rookie QB. Hard for me to really know what’s going on down field since I haven’t seen a single all 22 film of these games. is Wentz throwing to open WRs, and not throwing WRs open us much at this stage? If Wentz isn’t confident enough to consistently throw guys open yet, I certainly wouldnt expect him to then be confident throwing To a WR struggling as much as Nelson has..
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Hopefully there is still hope for Nelson, as both Nelson and Wentz continue to Develope as individuals, as well as building on their chemistry… Going to be really interestng (or horrifying) to see how Nelson does this week on the road in such a hostile envirnoment against the “crabbiest” most physical corners who will Ragdoll Nelson and throw him all over the field if Nelson DOESNT step up.. hopefully Nelsons gets pissed off, fights back and it miraculously gets him going this week. Sooner or later he is going To have a big game, and when that happens hopefully it gets him going and he builds on it, but the kid is sure making it hard on fans to be patient. give us something, throw us a Bone this week, give us something to cheer for. Pederson might have to dail up a jet sweep of reverse early in the game to try and get Nelson going, although seahawks may not be the defense to try that against
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Props to Jordan Mathews. Although he had some infuriating mistakes, the kid played like a Warrior, getting up after that hit and not missing a play. Great to see Doug make SPROLES a big part of the passing game, and start getting ErtZ involved
Can Ags do palm catches like all leading recievers are now doing ?
In what sense did he compare favorably? Maclin was considered a possible star, explosive and athletic; Agholor a 2nd receiver/slot guy. Google the scouting reports on both players. They’re much more revealing than Twitter comments from Michael Irvin and Chris Collinsworth.
Scouting reports on Ags varied, some saw him as a slot, some saw him as Maclin version 2.0. I think it was Mayock that made the comparison. The spider charts actually give Nelson the edge…too bad it couldn’t take into account his stone hands.
http://www.mockdraftable.com/player/1061/
http://www.mockdraftable.com/player/4778/
I remember when Maclin was drafted, nobody thought he would be better than DeSean, even though he was drafted in the first and DeSean in the 2nd. It’s ironic in retrospect that most felt assured that Nelson could replace Maclin. Maclin was underrated when he came in, and underrated when he left.
Here is some stuff from the 1st page of Google, from the same authors when possible. It’s pretty obvious that Ags was considered a low-risk, low-upside type, and Mac was the freak with the raw route running.
Interestingly, in the NFL I never really saw the explosiveness from Mac, maybe I was watching Desean too much. He has more just seemed a very competent WR, not a game changer.
Ags, I am not seeing the polish and skill the scouts did. It might be that he needs a change of scenery… maybe he’ll figure it out here, if we give him a chance. But right now, he’s a black hole and is sucking the life out of the offense.
NFL.com
Mac:
*After accumulating more than 5,600 all-purpose yards in two years, Maclin is a threat to score on every carry (scored six career rushing touchdowns), reception (22) or return (three punts, two kickoffs). His solid frame, elite speed and elusiveness are reminiscent of an early Joey Galloway, and could translate into a top 15 selection.
Ags:
*Intelligent, instinctive receiver with an advanced feel for getting himself open against zone coverage and off man. Play speed doesn’t match timed speed. Needs to force cornerbacks to respect him over the top.. Agholor’s best position could be working from the slot as a reliable possession receiver who can step right into the punt-returner job on Day 1.
SBNation:
Mac:
* Maclin is about as explosive of a player as there is in this year’s draft.
Ags:
Bleacherreport:
Mac:
*Maclin, a 6’1” 200 pound red-shirt sophomore, is now looking to take his explosive speed and electrifying play-making ability to the next level.
Ags:
*A polished, productive receiver running out of a pro-style offense, Nelson Agholor has the look of a very talented No. 2 receiver in the NFL
Walterfootball:
Mac
*Extremely high upside.
*Agholor is a well-balanced receiver but he isn’t overly fast or overly physical. Thus for the NFL he looks more like a very good No.2 receiver rather than a true No.1. Agholor also needs to work on his hands as he can be prone to some drops.
Low risk? Ha! Agholor sure showed them!
Even a low risk is a risk.
Good find
Maclin got soft after he started getting hit by NFL players. Either that or he really wanted to make money and prolong his career by taking no chances. He was blowing by guys and making them miss in college but I guess some injuries made him think twice.
So what are you trying to say, he fell down to avoid getting tackled;-)
self-tacklin maclin!!
He’s pretty tough now- once he got past the ACL injury, he became a much stronger player.
Compare that to AGS- dude plays soft. He doesn’t have the “it” factor
Aghs is just garbage. Maclin was a speed WR that turned into a possession WR during his plane to Philly.
Agreed with Ags currently being garbage; my hope is that he can continue to grow and mature, but I’m not sure he projects positively.
Even watching his USC tape, he was a finesse player, which has translated horribly to the NFL game.
I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it- Chip drafted for #culture. Players that had the physical characteristics, but mentally they fell in line and got in with the group. Looking at the NFL landscape, the “stand alone” guys are there for a reason– they have the physical, mental, and emotional strength and makeup to be the alpha dog. Ags doesn’t
A number of people loved the comparison; college tape, ability to return punts in college. Fluid athlete. Quick and smooth. Fast, but not afterburners on his feet.
I think the biggest factor with AGS right now is he has lost his confidence; he’s pressing which only compounds his mistakes.
Yuck. 6 downvotes. Or more
I was lost and confused for quite some time when we took him. Still didn’t know wtf Chip Kelly was doing at the time and still don’t to this day.
I can’t even attempt to lie; I liked the pick at the time. I preferred Perriman to Agholor, but was good with it.
I can’t find that quote from Revis but damn was he wrong about Aghs going to be good.
That was before anyone knew he couldn’t catch the ball.
https://twitter.com/Mfranknfl/status/649237331463901184
I think we figured out why Revis fell off a cliff this year.
Sunday was so beautiful in so many ways.
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offense was brilliant. Not flashy, but they executed the perfect strategy to give us a chance to win that game against a tough team. finally we dominated with a RB by committee getting everyone involved while Wentz contolled the clock completing such a high percentage.
Loved the way Smallwood and R-Mathews ran. The OL was fantastic led by a big game by Kelce And Jason Peters reportedly didn’t give up a single pressure playing at a high level. Loved how Pederson found a role to get Suemalo some game action replacing Tobin as an extra lineman. Vaitai keeps getting stronger each week and Wisnewski is doing a good job filling in for Barbre.
Finally the passing game focused on Jordan, Ertz and SPROLES which we knew were our best weapons going into this season. Think we could have even ran the ball a little more and gave ERTZ a few more throws.
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Great to see Kenjon Barner step up filling the shoes of Josh Huff in our return game.
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welcome Back Bennie Logan helping to eliminate the Falcons run game from the equation, Seems like Cox tends to get more Sacks with Bennie in the lineup. The DL is one of our strengths and they need to be a big factor for us to win games, Mission Accomplished against the Falcons. BG continues to play at an all pro level each week, and both Barwin and Curry had nice games sunday.
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The LB and DBs tackled really well limitating most of the Falcons yards after catch opportunities which played a huge role winning the game, Bradham and Kendricks blitzed and tackled really well, and Baldi was raving about Hicks game talking about how on Film you can see he was so sound when dropping into coverage that he took away the routes in the middle eliminating the threat of Sanu as an inside weapon to the point where Matt Ryan stayed away from throwing inside most of the game. The Front 7 shutting down the run was so Huge! That offense would have tore us a new asshole if we didn’t make them so one dimensional having so little success running against us
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Malcolm Jenkins and McLeod continue to be an Elite Force as a safety tandem but that’s nothing new. I was more hype about seeing young Jalen Mills do a pretty solid job against another ELITE WR. He held his own against an Elite smaller WR in Antonio Brown, and now he held his own against the King of the Big Physical Freak WRs. Jim Schwartz and Mills have some serious balls with how often Schwartz was dialing blitz that left Mills one on one on an Island against Julio Jones, often without even rolling the coverage to that side.. Antonio Brown and Julio Jones put up numbers against him but Mills kept both out of the ENDZONE and didnt allow them to make huge game changing plays they have made a career out of. Great to see our secondary hold up even tho Leodis was hobbled and Nolan was lost for the game
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We don’t win that game without playing complimentary football getting contributions from all 3 phases… and that has to continue if we are going to give ourselves a chance @ Seattle
Hopefully seattle will be like last years road win against the Patriots that no one expected the Eagles to win… but I would feel so much better about facing seattle if this game were in Philly…
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I fear rookies like Wentz and Vaitai playing in such a noisy environment that makes it so difficult to communicating with. So many 1st, second and third year young players on the offensive side of the ball that we have to count on communicating well enough to avoid costly mistakes that keep us from beating a team of Seattles caliber… Fortunately, we got some good practice in this past week against a Falcons defense thats being built in the image of the seahawks defense,…we got a run game rolling at a great time because you can have some success running inside on Seattle just like the Falcons and I’d like to see a similar strategy of using TE’s and extra blockers(Seumalo) to pound Seattles defense inside..
It’s great to finally see the passing game focus on Ertz, jordan and SPROLES because we probably won’t have much success throwing against the seattle cornwrs that will be grabbing our Wrs all day trying to Ragdoll us… Hopefully that pisses Nelson and DGB off enough to start fighting back. I don’t know if you want to get too physical with DGB, because he is capable of throwing you out of the way and getting open.. But can’t count on outside WR this week, need to attack the seattle defense very similar to how we attacked the Falcons. Heavy dose of Physical run game by committe while throwing to Jordan, SPROLES and The TE’s
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We need a big spark form our special teams this week like we had against the patriots,
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But the most important matchup this week is we need our DL to step up and dominate the suspect Seattle OL, eliminating their run game, making them one dimensional so we can pressure Wilson all game. Assume he isn’t completely healthy to where he can run all over us, but we do a good job of rushing the passer as a coordinated unit cutting off escape paths and collapsing on a QB… brandon Graham, Cox, Logan and the DL Need to take over and dominate this game.. While Bradham and the safeties hold their own against Jimmy Graham
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Winning in Seattle could be huge, giving us some much needed momentum going into a winnable stretch of games against the unraveling Packers, the stupid/Undiscaplined Bengals, the imploding Ravens, and the 3 home games against our Rivals… TĂ´ugh test, but a winnable opportunity that would be huge for this team that has a chance to get hot at the right time
So, if we didn’t need Barner to take over Huff’s previous role, we could be discussing replacing Barner with Christine Michael.
At very least, we should be grilling him for the Seahawks signs tomorrow morning.
Josh Paunils all 22 on Eagles 24/7 is very good if you guys want to sink your teeth into some good analysis and good clips
So whose name will I be cursing on sun day, Doug Baldwin or Jimmy Graham?
Rubin and Reed. They’re going to destroy Kelce all game long.
Sherman.
Agholor
Schmertz catch and tackle
Baldwin no doubt