Carson, Carson, Carson!
Posted: May 21st, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 115 Comments »
You have to wonder if Donovan McNabb ever finds himself jealous of Carson Wentz. Both were the second overall pick. It was widely accepted that Wentz would be the Eagles pick so fans and the media were ready for it and most were on board with him as the choice. McNabb had to deal with The Dirty 30, the vocal group who attended his draft and booed his selection because they wanted RB Ricky Williams.
McNabb had to sit until Week 10, when he finally got to start. He ended up starting 6 games as a rookie. Wentz was the #3 QB for the spring and summer, but became the starter in September when Sam Bradford was traded.
McNabb did not have much to work with his first few years in the league.
1999 – Duce Staley, Eric Bienemy, Charles Johnson, Torrance Small, Luther Broughton
2000 – Staley, Stanley Pritchett, Darnell Autry, Brian Mitchell, Chad Lewis, Small, C. Johnson, Todd Pinkston
I don’t think you need to be an expert to know those are not great players. McNabb carried that 2000 team on his back and they went 11-5. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting (to Marshall Faulk). That’s what happens when you are the team’s QB and also lead in rushing yards and rushing TDs.
I wrote my PE.com column on Carson Wentz and how the Eagles really helped him out this offseason.
Dave Spadaro had a quote from Howie Roseman in a recent piece that stuck with me.
“We gotta make sure that we don’t sit here in Philadelphia five, 10 years from now and say, ‘You know what? We did a disservice to Carson Wentz.’ We take that very seriously,” Roseman said in January during a SportsRadio 94WIP appearance. “We wake up every day, we come in and we talk about making sure we surround this guy with the right talent, to give him a chance to play in games like (the conference championship games).”
Andy Reid was very patient and tried to build around McNabb. It feels like Roseman and Pederson don’t want to be as patient. They still want to build around Wentz, but instead of just drafting players or signing someone with upside (like the Eagles did with James Thrash), they went after the top WR on the market and landed Alshon Jeffery.
The organization still added a pair of rookie WRs and a rookie RB. They already had several young WRs and a young RB in place. They have a couple of young TEs already on the roster. It isn’t as if the Eagles are in panic mode and making crazy moves. There is a difference in being aggressive and being reckless. The Eagles didn’t trade away future picks. They didn’t give out dangerous contracts. They didn’t sign players with major character issues. These feel like smart, reasonable moves.
But still aggressive.
McNabb developed into an outstanding QB despite having such limited weapons around him for the first few years. It will be interesting to see how Wentz performs now that he has really good talent to work with.
One thing is for sure. The pressure is on Wentz. He’s been given the tools to succeed.
Can he deliver?
_
“Patient” sounds like pc. Reid was downright stubborn in more than one respect. Remember Winston Justice, night game vs the Giants? His conservative sluggishness regarding his WR’s was a luxury provided by Ray Rhodes and Jim Johnson. He had some great qualities: everybody knew he had their backs w/the tough local media, everybody knew what was expected of them, and he dealt with the mistakes, errors and fuck-ups all behind closed doors…until T. O. did his driveway workouts. But it definitely feels like Jeffrey Lurie learned from how DMAC was overused and underloved.
I take the signings as a sign they have zero second thoughts about Wentz. They likely think he’s going to have a big year with all of these one year guys, then they can use that to market the team to new FAs.
Seeing Brian Mitchell’s name up there helps remind me how much I hate the NFL HOF voters. B Mitch is the greatest return man in the history of the NFL and 2nd to only Jerry Rice is total yards; yet can’t get a sniff for the HOF.
Devin Hester.. but yes
Wentz benefits from the McNabb era teams as he should. Reid is a good guy, decent coach but poor personnel manager. Wasted a lot of draft picks while was here not to mention terrible in game manager. He will never be the head coach of a super bowl winning team. Birds I think are headed in the right direction though DP has to prove it this year.
you’re a moron, doltboy
Wentz had a good rookie season with little time to prepare as the number one including little preseason playing time, coming off an injury, worst wrs in the league, and a rookie coach. Now he has a year under his belt, a full off-season to work on mechanics as the number one, a returning coach with the same offense, and a legitimate #1 wr. I hate to get too excited at this point but its looking pretty good.
This post touches on one of my favorite aspects of the current FO: At each level – from HC to EVP/GM to owner – there is institutional knowledge on the importance of building around a young franchise QB. Roseman and Lurie appear to have learned from the McNabb era. Pederson knows the importance of offensive weapons after the Chief’s went a full season without a WR TD reception. And Joe Douglas’s has the experience of building a supporting cast around Joe Flacco (with offensive additions such as Anquan Boldin, Torrey Smith, Michael Oher, Matt Birk, etc.)
Have to give FO credit for learning a lot from the last two coaches. Also, can’t forget how the D switched from 34 to 43. D exceeded my expectations last year. If the CBs can be anything other than completely awful, they should be fine.
Have to love the weapons that Carson is going to have around him this year. Alshon alone is huge. You just need to throw the ball near him and hell get it. Now add Ertz to that and you have two big security blankets for a young QB.
I expect Torrey to be better than DGB and Agholor by a lot.
I’m excited about the possibility of Hollins and Gibson adding the the equation. Hollins has a large catch radius and can get over the top and Gibson is great at tracking the deep ball.
I think Alshon opens up this offense. Add in some deep theats like Smith, Hollins and Gibson, and the field is spread deep too. Then the running game can get going behind a good OL. Blount was a good pick up, because he can get it home in the redzone. There has to growth for Peds and Wentz, but the pieces are in place for at least the short term.
Blount was only average last year, in the redzone.
On the coaches more …
Duce Staley was great. McNabb leaned on him heavily until he got hurt for the season in game 5 that year. That injury forced McNabb to use everyone else on the team and probably excelerated his development. It wasnt like Reid didn’t try, but the team was much worse off then. Pederson inherited some good talent already in place. Reid had to build both lines from almost nothing. Pinkston was a 2nd round pick. Fred Ex was a 1st rounder. And Chad Lewis was no slouch. Let’s not forget Correll Buckhalter. Thrash was actually pretty good until the 2003 NFCCG vs the Panthers. But I think it took longer for Andy because he had more work to do.
I think part of the story of that era is in what you wrote:
“Pinkston was a second round pick.”
“Fred Ex was a first rounder”
That sums up a lot of the talent deficit that McNabb dealt with. Reid was a good, even great coach, in how he could build a program. But there were some issues with scouting.
I hope you are wrong…
“Matthews was a second round pick.”
“Nelson was a first rounder.”
…could easily project to the updated version of this conversation a year from now.
Thank GOD that we drafted those guys with Chip as a scapegoat. Can’t happen to Doug, can it?
Except Matthews is so much better than FredEx or Pinkston, it’s not even funny. FredEx had much better hands, I’ll give him that. But Matthews has literally had better stats on his own every season than those two ever had in one season COMBINED.
True, but if they are both gone next season, which is at least possible if not probable, that quickly becomes irrelevant in the discussion of how well we built around the QB.
Interestingly, Ags’ first years are statistically better than Freddie’s, too. But the rules are more favorable to the passing game now.
Thanks, you just made me throw up in my mouth.
As much crap as we gave Pinkston and FredEx, at least they’ve caught passes, and in playoff games (at key times). Yes, even Pinkston.
Good ‘ol Fred Ex…I can still hear him thanking his hands.
I’m sorry I don’t know how you could describe Staley as ‘great’, with all due respect to a warrior and great servant to the Eagles.
Buckhalter was hardly utilised post 2003.
With respect . . .
Reid inherited from the Rhodes regime 3 starting O-linemen — Tra Thomas, Jermaine Mayberry, and Bubba Miller.
On defense, Reid inherited a life boat full of talent:
– DLs Hugh Douglas, Hollis Thomas, Brandon Whiting
– LBs Trotter, Mike Caldwell, Ike Reese [special teams ace]
– DBs Dawkins, Troy Vincent. Bobby Taylor
Reid also brought in Runyun to bookend the tackle positions- which it did for nearly 9 years. The line (both offense and defense) was the position(s) they clearly valued more than others, and it showed. When we couldn’t run on a team, the passing attack wasn’t strong enough to overcome.
So, as AC pointed out- the offensive line (including a STUD LT and RT) was a major strength which didn’t need to be built from “nothing”
You are being kind by only mentioning those two years. His only real “help” was Westbrook panning out as a 3rd rounder and what we did to get TO. Once Maclin, Jackson, and Mccoy were coming into their own, is when we shipped McNabb out of town! It’s crazy how WE, Philly, actually drafted that kind of talent after pretty much all of those drafts after McNabb yielded no offensive power. Then we let a new coach piss it all away in 3 years and all we got in return worth keeping was Matthews (and FA stars sproles and Jenkins, no offense to them of course). But I digress! I love this new front office and the team they have built! I like how they saw the blaring weakness we had and they quickly addressed them. We have definitely learned from past mistakes and I hope it yields some hardware!
Seems like FO has direction. I really like the addition of Douglas. Howie can do his thing and leave the scouting to others. The only good thing about Chip was he showed me what doesn’t work in the nfl. And hopefully Howie and company learned from that too.
Only thing missing in your 1st two sentances is andy reid’s culpability in ALL that. .. if you keep writing ill keep reading
You are sooooo right! That was a very frustrating time of success. It’s like the whole football world knew it, but either his pride was in the way or he didn’t notice.
Double upvote
” …a very frustrating time of success”
Repeat.
Like he hated linebackers and recievers .. AHHH
Well you summed it up perfectly indeed. Thank you for that
Also, keep in mind Westbrook’s biggest years were when McNabb went down. He was underutilized as a runner otherwise. T.O. only played 20 games as an Eagle.
I was and still am a big fan of Big Red but Howie Roseman pretty much describes McNabb when he talks about the possibility of being a disservice to his QB.
Just imagine McNabb being surrounded by the weapons the Mannings and Bradys received.
We definitely don’t have to wonder. He sounds jealous every time he talks about him in interviews.
he’s been bitter since he left…
So excited, go to 1:36 of the video and you’ll see a cool Eagles’ bus, logo and everything, on an LA freeway. You can check out the cool crash before that, no deaths, no worries, but the bus, oh the bus!!!!!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CIuYf5T0d5U
Really like the OL and DL, they will determine how far the team can go this year. Giving Wentz enough time to air it out and not giving the opposing QB time will be key to W’s.
MMQB has us ranked 23rd. The article explains all the improvements and one notable loss – Logan – and then concludes by ranking us lower than we finished last year?
Why I have the Eagles 23rd: So many things about this team I like right now, including the drafting of cornerback Sidney Jones in the second round though he’s coming off Achilles surgery in March, and no one knows if he’ll play this year or at what level. This franchise is being built for the long term, with smart two-year pieces like Chris Long plugging temp holes. On offense, Carson Wentz will have more help from a motivated Alshon Jeffery and deep threat Torrey Smith, and Wentz has to progress or the whole program is in trouble. The defense will miss Bennie Logan, and the secondary had better hope Schwartz’s front can bring some pressure; the corners can be attacked. But improvement from Wentz is the key.
The rest is here:
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/22/nfl-power-rankings-offseason-peter-king-part-one
Problem is there are other sexier teams that people are backing and the best parts of the Eagles season were early 2016 and people have forgotten them and are instead focusing on the second half where we really struggled.
Personally this team will go as far as Wentz will take them. I foresee 2 different outcomes – one where he is pretty similar to last year, has sophomore struggles (common for QB’s), puts up ~3800 yards 25 TD’s 15 ints and we get 7-9 wins.
The other option is with better chemistry with his team mates, progress mechanically and being able to focus on studying the opponent rather than scheme he takes a real step forward with the new improved WR group and throws for 4500 yards, 30TD’s 12int type performance and the Eagles win 11/12 games, he is the hot new young QB in the league and we have a chance at winning some playoff games.
Then there is the third option–Wentz plays well, but the defense struggles (again) due to the secondary not being able to cover for 2 seconds, and we win 7-9 games, and no one really notices or cares that Wentz got any better.
Defence was decent last year, and i like their front 7 significantly more this year than last. We still have one of the best safety pairs in the NFL to go alongside. Our CB’s will get beat at times but Schwartz’s scheme does not demand elite CB’s to work and the defence should be decent all things considered.
It’s hard to do worse for analysis than Peter King. The casual fan knows that the Eagles had a nice start and then slid back into mediocrity, missing the playoffs. The early success registers as a flash in the pan, not the new normal that most homers believe it will soon be.
If someone can swap Lane’s PED dispenser for a PEZ dispenser, that may save the season.
Maybe… let’s hope that the PED thing wasn’t part of the reason Lane was good.
agree, Peter King’s thing is access not analysis.
That does seem pessimistic. I would peg this as a mid-tier team right now just as a rule-of-thumb.
Say 15-17th. Basically one of those team that is a playoff contender and fans should have a reasonable expectation (say 50%) that this team can win 9/10 games to make the playoffs.
For anyone out there interested in mock drafts- Fanspeak has up picking 7th this coming year.
Ug. Yuck.
Really like what Joe Douglas and Howie Roseman have done in a short amount of time to rebuild this roster. Not real crazy about the current CB situation but you can’t fix everything at once. Next year they have to deal with resigning the one year deals that work out, find a replacement for LT JP and hopefully address the CB position. If this year’s 2nd rd pick Sidney Jones works out that’s one and the birds will need two more CB’s. They should try Jalen Mills in the slot but I doubt he is good enough even there. We shall see how dynamic this D-Line can be which should help the back end a lot. Overall very exicted and like what’s going on with the Eagles this year.
We alreasy have the replacement for Peters, and it seems as though he will be a very good one. It’s LJ that we have to replace at RT which is easier then replacing a LT. Hopefully we have that replacement already in Big V. We can’t expect him to be as good as LJ at RT, (95% of the RTs in this league are not as good as him) but if he manage to be just good then that is enough.
Health is no longer an excuse for Curry.
Let’s not forget that a good Defense is a big help for a QB, too. See Russell Wilson or, as a counter example, Andrew Luck. McNabb had a good Defense and a very good coach. I’m not as down on Doug as many others, but even if he progresses, I can’t imagine him being a Top 5 HC in the NFL in 2017 (Reid is that, in my book, one could argue about when exactly he became as good as he is).
Carson could have a good Defense, too. They have a good DC and a good DL. Obviously CB is the huge question mark. We’ll see how good Douglas is. In 2018 we’ll see if Jones has lost something or not. Would be huge to have a #1 CB. He has the potential to be that, if he’s back at 100 percent. Probably would be the first true #1 CB in Eagles uniform since Samuel. It’s far easier to build up a good Secondary if you have a #1 CB. Especially since we already have 2 good Safeties.
Thank you! Reid realized he had a good D to build on and that would help McNabb and his O develop and perform. Yes, more could have been done to build the O faster i.e. before the D peaked, but they had 5 NFCCG shots at it and 1 shot directly at the ring.
This is why I keep arguing Roseman & Co. need to keep building the D into an elite unit. That will help Wentz A TON – shorter fields, turnovers, less scoring pressure etc.
The revisionist history that Reid was clueless and a bad personnel guy and coach etc. is hogwash. When Roseman and whoever his HC is even wins 1 playoff game, people can start comparing these regimes. Plus Roseman learned a lot of what he knows from Reid so give me a break about how much better this turnaround is going.
Agree in general, although I do like Reid the coach a lot more than Reid the personell guy. Reid is very good at game planning, QB development and he has a phenomenal EQ. One of the most underrated skills a HC must have. He knows how to talk to which personalities. And he brings the whole team to love him and walk through fire for him.
Reid was a frustrating guy and after our SB appearance I knew we were not getting the trophy with him or McNabb.
Great topic for the off season(sorry, no interest in a ‘look what a great draft for RB’s’ … again).
…
I agree mostly with the article. AJ is still a 1 year piece. Rookies = question marks. Carson has zero pressure this year(it’s only year 2 of a qb). I’ll assume the “pressure” is long term. Until AJ is signed beyond this year, we have no idea how the 2018 weapons will look. Until that’s true, we can’t say Carson is loaded with a talented support group. If AJ leaves after this year – Eagles have no starting rb or starting #1 wr. Of course we’re all hoping for best – but as it stands today 2018 is loaded with question marks.
….
The best news though is the commitment from management to build around Carson. Management also appears to have a commitment to the defense. Still, all good signs that are pointing to success, which is exciting….
The one important part that I think everyone is forgetting is this- the first year of a new offense is rarely successful. Pittsburgh, New England, hell- even the Giants with McAdoo as OC and HC- it takes time for offenses to click, for players to get on the same page, and for adjustments to the defense alignments.
Jeffrey wouldn’t have signed here unless he thought there was a great possibility that he would be here long term- and I don’t think that we would have brought him in; RB’s are devalued but still vital to a young QB, but with a stable of backs offering different skills, we can get by this year (as stated). The WR’s will really determine how this team takes shape, but there are going to be obvious growing pains as the team gels.
Big picture- I think they are setting themselves up for success. In the NFC, there is a new playoff window opening. Seattle needs to rebuild its defense; same with Green Bay. Dallas has a strong 1st team on offense, but they have question marks and a lack of depth. In other words, the division is tough but the conference is open and all about match ups once you hit the playoffs.
“first year of a new offense is rarely successful” — so, if the Eagles only bring back the players from last year, they will be successful? :). I surely hope so that this offense stays together(read AJ stays). If AJ has a great year…and I’m the agent…I’m licking my chops at FA….
No, but it takes time for players to mesh and gel- specifically the 4 new WR’s we brought in this year. We turned over between 66-80% of our WR corps from last year, which will take time for all parties involved to get acclimated with each other.
Think about the teams I discussed- they may add a player or 3 in free agency, but rarely do you see as much turnover as what we have coming in this year. New England brought in a bunch of RB’s, but Brady has had the same offense for nearly 5 years (or more) and has a core of skill players to distribute the ball.
The other problem is that those teams have a veteran QB and stable coaching organization (Giants being the exception, but Manning has worked with McAdoo for 3+ years now)– we have a 2nd year QB and 2nd year HC. Fortunately, we were able to retain the OC and QB coach, which “should” help with the development of Wentz.
This is Philadelphia. If we lose the first game, or Alshon drops a pass, or Smallwood fumbles the ball- the sky will fall within the fan base. People will want to blow up the whole thing, when that isn’t the answer. Football is a team sport, and chemistry cannot be fully developed between OTA’s, Pre Season, and the first half of the season.
We could be 6-10, or we could be 11-5. There’s not a lot of difference between those records, it really comes down to a drive or two, a dropped pass or a key fumble.
Last year, if Mathews holds on to the ball in the game against the Lions, we win. Same with Smallwood in the game against Dallas. And verses the Giants in the first game, if Matthews catches a ball which he and Wentz have practiced 1000 times, we win- and Carson has his first “game winning” touchdown.
In other words, we go from 7-9 to 10-6, and those are just the plays I can remember right now. It happens to every team, every year. But patience will be key, as this organization has had entirely too much turnover in the last 10 years.
Curry played through knee injury. Take that, haters!
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/05/22/vinny-curry-said-he-played-through-knee-injury-last-year/
A football player playing with an injury? What a unique guy.
I hope that was it. I love Curry!
Key section:
“He was on the injury report with a knee problem the first three weeks of the season, but then wasn’t listed.”
So the excuse ran out after week 3.
The injury report has nothing to do with it. You can either believe him or not.
I’m going with “not.” The Flyers do this garbage every year as well via post-season excuses for poor play stemming from injuries that nobody knew existed at the time the poor play was being ripped. Too convenient.
I have a minor knee injury from 2008 that still nags, and I’m talking about going up stairs–not tackling NFL running backs.
According to OverTheCap.com, Daniel was the 3rd worst contract in the NFL. Curry was 7th. Roseman has somehow avoided much scrutiny this offseason about the salary cap issues the Eagles had this offseason with the general default answer of ‘It was Kelly’s fault.’
http://www.phillyvoice.com/two-eagles-players-listed-among-nfls-10-worst-contracts-2016/
So you were itching for some good old Howie hating? I mean if we had more cap room we could have signed some good FA’s like Jefferey, Smith, Blount, Jernigan, Long…. even a CB like Robinson. We could even have resigned Wiz. Oh well..
Is your point that we could have maybe overspent for a CB because that always ends up working real well?
Fair point, but there is really no defending the Daniel contract. Even the Curry contract makes sense in hindsight. Chase Daniel’s contract was absurd from the start.
On one hand, I agree. While the Curry contract looks like it may turn out to be regrettable, it’s an entirely different situation than the Daniel contract.
The Eagles paid Daniel a ton of money for practically nothing. And they will pay him around 5 million this year to play for the Saints iirc. Vinny Curry is going to make 9 million this year. Is it too much? Yeah. But is Vinny Curry worthless? No. If he was making 5 million a year, nobody would be talking about his deal. So they’re overpaying him by a few million. It’s not a big deal.
On the other hand, as bad as Daniel’s contract was, it’s history after this season. It doesn’t affect the future. Curry is scheduled to make 11 million in 2018 and if he repeats last season’s performance, it would cost the Eagles $6 million in dead money to release him. And they can’t take that hit, it doesn’t get much better in 2019 when he will be scheduled to make 11.5 million with a $4 million dead money hit.
It isn’t about ‘hating Roseman’ and yes they would have been in a better place to address CB.
Not expecting that they would have signed a top-tier CB but they would have been able to address it a bit more sufficiently than Robinson. On paper, this team is weaker at CB going into the year than last year.
Roseman did a nice job this offseason of addressing a number of issues and my sense is this team is improved. Still doesn’t mean he gets a pass on the Curry/Daniel signings either which did handicap them a bit.
Fair enough. I think using hindsight to say “doesn’t get a pass for___” and is kind of weak. But I’m a glass half full guy and don’t think that negativity serves a purpose in most cases, including this one. We can’t fire Howie, nor can we effect any change, so to me (no offense), it’s really just whining and harping.
Many of us including Bob said this at the time too, this it was not “hindsight”. It was obvious when Daniel was signed, he was way overpaid and had few legit QB skills as we saw first hand in the preseason and they could have seen watching the rest of his career pre-Eagles.
Yep. It’s still annoying to harp on last year’s backup QB’s contract when he’s not even on the team now, and it’s May.
I know we’re still on the books for a lot of his salary and it would unarguably be better not to be.
What good does it do to harp on it?
Let me ask you this then.
Is the money that Daniels siphoned from us worth the price of accelerating Wentz’s learning curve? Wentz wasn’t even suppose to start last year which most people forgot. I think it was.
Roseman obviously thought it was a worthy gamble to make sure they had some type of QB to play regardless of scenario.
I agree with you that he overshot his skis and he could not fill some of our holes this off-season due to those decisions that may bite us in he backside, but we’ll have to see what happens.
Blaming Kelly just like blaming Reid is convenient, but an over simplified claim. Rarely are things as simple as us fans think.
Hindsight is easy.
Hindsight is 50/50 right
who are you and what did you do to the real daveh
I was making myself lol .. 20/20 and 50/50 same proportion .. har har
The Chase situation was a mess. He was overpaid, but it felt like Doug wanted him here and the agent knew it. Then the unlikely happened and Bradford gets traded, Chase finally gets the chance, except now the rookie who absolutely must be red shirted for a season is anointed the starter. And now the huge investment is pissed and wants out. So it was a dude getting paid too much, compounded by worse circumstance.
“The Chase situation was a mess. He was overpaid, but it felt like Doug wanted him here and the agent knew it.”
Correct
“must be red shirted for a season” is bullshit….
Thank you for the link, but I’m 99.9% sure that signing was at the behest of Pederson.
I’m with you on this. This was a case of ‘who you know’…
So easy to use hindsight as a weapon. Way to easy. Find me one person here that wasn’t thrilled with the Vinny contract when it came out. The dude came off of a 10 sack year in a part time role. Who knew that monstrosity of a season would ever come next?
Back up QB is always a role you can point to and call wasted money if the starter doesn’t go down. That signing was mega important in a bunch of ways. Sure you can look at what it produced for the team and poke at it, but that is really narrow sighted.
No one inside the organization thinks poorly of those decisions I’m sure. Unless of course we knew Curry was going to go full crook on us. I have a feeling that deal never gets made if that was the case. Seemed like a hard worker.
I really disliked the Curry signing (one of the few on here) and thought it was a huge overpay for a situational guy coming off a mediocre year.
If they don’t think the Curry deal was a mistake, then it makes you wonder about their player evaluation a bit.
Daniel singing was just foolish at the time and got its share of criticism even at the time.
It was a mistake because he played poorly. I think all of the check boxes were marked in a big way. 10 sack by a part time player, mediocre… man. those standards.
He stunk and the Eagles paid him to be a solid starting DE. He was anything but and his signing struck me as a move Roseman wouldn’t have necessarily made if he hadn’t drafted Curry.
I havent been this excited about an eagles season in a long time, and eagles football is usually the thing I look forward to EVERY year. Its going to be interesting to see how well this team does. They are better than last year in almost every way, so even though I hate to say if we dont have a better record its a failed season, it almost feels that way.
We could go 4-12 this year (since we did add a lot of new pieces) and then go 12-4 the following year (once they all fit into place) but I dunno, i feel good about a 10 win season this year.
I’m sorry Mr Scott but it won’t be “interesting” ..nope. it will never be interesting. Not “interesting to see how this team does” ..it will be great if we’re great and it will suck if we suck. We like all good loyal nfl lemmings will be here and excited nonetheless. .. but it won’t ever be , yawn, “interesting “.
..
Sorry had to do that. . It was only hammered into my skull for all our classes junior & senor years about 80,000 times each year by Mr Hallowell and professor Erskine. I feel like the dirty 30 booing mcNabb every time Tommy writes that also .. but he keeps wiring that sentance just to get under my wings I guess
..
Two great teachers by the way.
So thats my dos centavos
Michael Lombardi thinks Dak didn’t have better have better weapons than Wentz. That just hurts my head. While he’s right that Wentz had some accuracy issues (consistently threw high), to not acknowledge that WR corp’s role in turning Wentz into Alex Smith, it takes some real audacity to pretend to have watched film and that it informed your opinions. /rant
He was right about the accuracy problems though. Sometimes you see a player pick up some new mechanics and it sort of mess some things up. Hopefully thats all it is and Wentz will put it all together and with some weapons be the franchise QB we think he can be.
That is amazing, how do these commentators come up with such ridiculous statements! (not about the accuracy, but the weapons) Hot take I guess.
Cole Beasley was easily better than all of our WRs combined last year.
Yea that’s really idiotic. Beasley and Bryant, not to mention Witten and Elliott. Yea, same level of weapons.
Not to mention their OL was way better and they had a good running attack.
Beasley wouldn’t have been a top 3 receiver on the Eagles last year. He is a small slot-receiver who can’t play outside. Jordan Mathews is a much better slot receiver.
26 year old Zach Ertz > 34 year old Jason Whiten.
Dez and Zeke would be the #1 RB and #WR on almost any team in the NFL.
Beasly could possibly have been our best WR last year. Sure prototypically Jordan fits the slot better. Good coaches figure a way to make it work.
I couldn’t disagree more. Small, shifty, receivers who can run 2 yard slants with questionable hands are a dime a dozen. There is a reason many successful ones were 7th round picks and UDFAs…Beasley, Amendola, Edleman, Welker. They are scheme-specific players who are ineffective running the route tree.
IMO, Byron Marshall would be a better slot receiver than Beasley.
I think you are letting your green-tinted glasses skew your opinion of Beasley. I can’t stand the guy, but he is legit. You say he has questionable hands, but this site has him credited with 7 drops in his 5 year career and he caught over 76% of his targets last year.
https://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/players/460830/cole-beasley/#Dropped%20Passes
This site has credited Jordan Matthews with 17 drops over the last 3 years.
Apples to oranges…As I said in my previous post, Beasley was not asked to run the whole route tree. Catching a crossing route, 2-yard slant or a 5-yard out is nothing like catching a post, go, fade, or corner route traffic.
Yeah, but you also said he had questionable hands, which is false. And it doesn’t really matter how many different routes you run, if you can’t catch the ball (like Matthews has shown time and again that he can’t) what good is that? Give me the small, shifty guy that always catches the ball over a guy that runs a bunch of routes but has drive-killing drops.
The easiest ball to catch is a cross or 2-yard slant. Running full-speed 15 yards down field and catching a ball in traffic is much, much harder. Also, QBs do not zip fastballs to receivers running 2-yard routes. When a receiver runs a 15-yard comeback, a good QB will release the ball before the receiver finishes his cut…on top of that, they throw the ball much harder on those type of routes.
Comparing the two is like comparing a batter who only faces fastballs when at the plate. If that same batter was expected to hit changeups, sliders, curveballs, etc, his success rate would go down dramatically. Beasley is a one-dimensional receiver.
I don’t agree with you here, but lets say that Beasley is a one-dimensional receiver. He is one of the best in the league at it and can’t be stopped when the other team knows what he is going to do. I have seen Matthews drop the ball on that exact same route. Also Matthews has dropped would-be TDs that weren’t fastballs.
In your original post you mention “He (Beasley) is a small slot-receiver who can’t play outside.” Umm, Matthews is a bigger receiver who can’t play outside either. 2 different coaching staffs have coached him and both think that he is a slot receiver. I’ll take the one that catches the ball and moves the sticks.
It’s very hard to defend a 2-yard pass against any receiver.
Beasley is the 2nd, 3rd, even 4th read in the Dallas offense. That is not the same as being the #1 receiver, which Mathews has been in for the past 2 seasons. JMatt was the #2 read for the past 2 years.
Mathews is a great #2 receiver who can and has played outside but appears better suited in the slot. Beasley is a great #3 receiver who is never outside and has not been game planned for due to the presence of Dez and Zeke.
You’ve mistaken his high volume stats with Dez having the safety shaded towards him and the other safety shaded toward the run to stop Zeke. Remove Dez or Zeke from the equation and Beasley is a non-factor as he is always running patterns against a slot CD or zone defense.
Replace Mathews last year with Beasley teamed with Ags, DGB and Smallwood/Sproles at RB and Beasley is a non-factor. If Mathews was the slot receiver in Dallas last year, his stats would be much better.
Lombari is a turd. He’s also the idiot who refused to allow Belichick to draft Warren Sapp in Cleveland.
The guy who ran the Browns for a while? Yep, sounds about right.
How many Wentz interceptions were a result of bouncing off the receivers’ hands, I wonder?
Eagles cut Walker and Evans from IR with injury settlements.
Can someone explain the benefit of this to me? Seems to me that you’d keep them for the year and work with them in the film room and see if you have something next year. What’s the upside to cutting them?
Not a huge deal either way but I’ve never understood this.
What if a doctor says, best case scenario, they heal in 3 years at the earliest……
Nevermind, bleeding Green Nation has it all explained..
Good find…
“What’s the reason for this? Well, if the Eagles had kept Evans/Walker on injured reserve, the players wouldn’t have been able to practice or play at all this year. By reaching injury settlements instead, the Eagles will now likely be able to bring Evans and/or Walker back in time for training camp. (Assuming they don’t sign elsewhere first.)”
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/5/22/15678222/eagles-charles-walker-jerod-evans-two-rookies-injury-settlements-philadelphia-news-nfl-return
One of the guys laid out out perfectly on an earlier blitz comments section ..
Cut Walker to make room for Blount and hope they can get him back before someone else claims him
But we are past that step. They were resigned to IR but have now been cut from IR in this new move.
I really hope Carson can be as good as Don. As much as we like to bitch around here, for a at least a few years there he literally carried a garbage can squad to elite status. He was as much of a true MVP to his teams as any player as ever been. Having that again would be fun..
Sure the defense was really really good… but that offense he carried.
Garbage can squad? That’s revisionist history. He always had a good offensive line with great tackles. He usually had a very good or great running back. He often had good tight ends.
McNabb takes an undue level of grief. I remain a big fan.