DGB Done
Posted: July 1st, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 33 Comments »
What a difference a year makes.
Last spring and summer the Eagles were desperate for WRs. They brought in underachieving free agents. They had underachieving players returning from 2015. In August they traded for Dorial Green-Beckham, who had underachieved for the Titans. The Eagles hoped receivers coach Greg Lewis, a former NFL player who was an overachiever, would be able to bring out the best in them.
That didn’t happen.
Lewis failed to connect with his players as hoped. He proved to be the wrong fit for the group of receivers and the Eagles let him go this offseason. Underachieving vets Reuben Randle, T.J. Graham and Chris Givens were cut last summer. The Eagles stuck with their own young players and kept DGB as well, hoping the light would go on for the players as they had time to develop.
That didn’t happen.
The time for patience is over. The team signed Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith in free agency. Mack Hollins and Shelton Gibson were drafted to add speed to the offense. Mike Groh, a veteran receivers coach, was brought in to run a tighter ship and to really push the players. He did just that and the players responded in different ways.
Nelson Agholor had the best spring of his young career. Bryce Treggs played well. Marcus Johnson did some good things. Hollins caught the eye of everyone who watched practice.
Two players struggled, DGB and Gibson. Since Gibson is a rookie, the team is willing to be patient. DGB is entering his third NFL season. The pressure was on him to really step his game up. That didn’t happen and he got cut.
DGB wasn’t going to play on STs so he really had to stand out as a receiver. Instead of learning from Jeffery and Smith and feeding off the improved competition in the receiving corps, DGB regressed. The Eagles saw no reason to be patient with him. They want competition, but that doesn’t mean having players with raw talent. They want players who will really compete. If you aren’t willing to battle for a roster spot, are you going to do whatever it takes to win in games? Not likely.
The Eagles still have good depth at WR.
Alshon Jeffery
Torrey Smith
Jordan Matthews
Nelson Agholor
Mack Hollins
Shelton Gibson
Bryce Treggs
Marcus Johnson
Paul Turner
Greg Ward
David Watford
The first five guys are likely to make the roster. The next group is battling to see who makes the practice squad or could push for the Eagles to keep six receivers.
Cutting DGB now was a smart move. The only reason to keep him is if you believe he truly had a chance play up to his potential. Howie Roseman, Joe Douglas, Doug Pederson and Groh must have felt that just wasn’t going to happen. Certainly there weren’t any hints that DGB was going to play well this summer.
The message here isn’t that a player can’t struggle. Not every player is going to be at his best all year long. The Eagles want to see players who are going to handle things the right way. That means competing hard in every practice. That means playing on STs. That means working to get through your struggles. DGB wasn’t doing those things and it cost him his job.
Marcus Smith is so jealous right now.
*****
The Eagles added QB Dane Evans to fill DGB’s roster spot.
Evans, 6-1, 210, posted gaudy numbers as a 4-year starter at Tulsa. He threw for 11,860 yards and 84 TDs (that’s his career…not just one game). He is in Philly as a camp body, but the Eagles saw something they liked. We’ll see what he does in Training Camp.
For now, enjoy his Tulsa highlights.
_
Fuc$k Dallas!
urine idiot, I own your people
Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!!
was rooting for DGB, prolly the only one who did so lol
I was too; because he was on our team. But good lord was he useless.
he had a nice skill set
rookie year he avg 17 ypc
and while he didnt do much last year he showed an ability to break tackles that was rare from a player with his size
He was the highest rated high school football player in the country (all positions). I watched him a lot at Missouri- could absolutely dominate at that level before asked to leave team. Downhill since. Drafted in second round by Titans. Bust. Traded after ONE year for 6th round swing o lineman. Now cut again. His size/speed is a 10, his head is a zero
you smell like old democrat socks, you moron
He’s the Kiko Alonso of WRs.
not the brightest but Kiko did get a second contract
What do you think happened? Did he run out of talent? Not motivated?
I think he was always a physically gifted player, but not the world beater that some made him out to be.
He was shit as a freshman. As a sophomore he was on a really good team that had 4 future NFL OL starting, ran for 3000 yards, and four WR 6’4 or taller. They just spread you out with 4 WR and ran all over you and when in doubt just throw the football to your army of Ents at WR. For all the hype he got he finished 59-883-12. L’Damian Washington finished 50-893-10.
It’s not like he set the world alight.
Classic case of recruiting hype and physical gifts outweighing the glaring red flags.
Thanks, great explanation.
It speaks poorly of my character I think that I would want something like this to happen, but I want Marcus Smith to be cut in some spectacular fashion after he decided to skip OTAs this spring.
Maybe resurrect the old Andy Reid push the sled all day and cut em technique.
Spectacularly cutting a player after missing voluntary practice wouldn’t go down well with the league office or the union.
Always someone to dash the dream.
I’d prefer he be cut at a point that makes his ability to sign with another team impossible until after the regular season starts.
That should be his punishment for attempting to leverage the team into an early cut. He need to take as much injury risk as possible away from the guys we intend to keep.
I think thats why he is still on the team… Usually teams will be respectful and cut guys when the know its not going to work out, so maybe they have time to sign on with another team and get somewhere before camp and preseason. But since Smith hasn’t put in the effort and missed OTAs they aren’t giving him that respect.
Don’t worry, Marcus Smith doesn’t get coffee.
I think he’s owed a roster bonus on the 3rd day of camp, so cut him on the 2nd day. Just long enough to hurt his chances at getting picked up somewhere else. Make sure he gets very few reps, too–wouldn’t want him to get hurt.
Hard to get hurt pushing a sled for a couple of days.
Oh the irony that he got… DROPPED.
Not irony: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/irony
I think you mean poetic justice.
I was actually thinking about that after I posted it, since irony is the opposite of what you expect to happen and this is exactly what you would expect when he can’t catch. Good catch… I hear there is an opening on the Eagles roster for a WR.
lol!
Now that they have Alshon, Torrey Smith, Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, Mack Hollins, and Marcus Johnson, plus Shelton Gibson, Paul Turner, and others competing for the practice squad, I don’t think they have any room for an unathletic guy like me…
Didn’t
Get
Better…
DGB was signed on potential. This off-season they proved that Greg Lewis is not a good excuse for him. The NFL is a combo of physical and mental ability, and obviously he was lacking in the latter. Kind of the opposite of a Chad Hall/PT kind of receiver.
The Eagles must have spent a little time scouting Evans (or at least another Tulsa player) and he caught their eye. At 7:17 of the video clip you can clearly see a video camera man in the back of the endzone with an Eagles jacket on. Obviously everyone looks good on a highlight reel and there’s a reason he went undrafted in a weak QB class, but he shows decent arm strength, accuracy and mobility and likes the deep ball. Should have no problems stashing him on the practice squad. McGloin has no practice squad eligibility and I don’t think the Eagles keep 3 QBs on the active roster, so Evans has a real chance to end up the #3 QB if he shows anything in camp.
That’s an amazing spot of the cameraman.
Someone get this guy the JFK tapes.
Press Taylor is a Tulsa alum. He got two of their guys tryouts. Evans obviously made enough of an impression.
Evans is likely the PS QB, but if Wentz goes down, McGloin probably gets called back in from the street over Evans being promoted.
Am I the only one who watched that video and wondered how Keevan Lucas doesn’t have a job in the NFL?
“Underachieving” is a great word to describe many of our players last season.
Due to the lack of concentration and talent at WR and CB, it seemed to infect players like Ertz and Matthews where they seemed more reliable the prior year.
Cutting DGB IMO is a great sign in that the Eagles have gotten better at WR from signing Alshon and Torrey then drafting Hollins and Gibson.
We also have a couple WR’s in Johnson and Treggs that seem to have developed into NFL caliber players
At CB allowing Mckelvin and Carroll to walk was also a good sign, that mediocre or below par performances is not good enough, but I do not think we did enough to solidify this obvious weak position.
I guess you can only fix so many things from one season to the next, but the CB’s that appear in the lead to start are not inspiring in Mills and Robinson.
I can only hope that the development of Douglas pans out and he proves to be above average this coming season. Since he is a rook, I am not expecting that to happen, but I am hoping that Smith and Grymes can handle playing this season and earn starting time.
With all of the changes I think we will see less underachieving and maybe some overachieving players this season.
God knows we deserve better than a 7-9 season. That’s for sure.