Roster is Set
Posted: September 2nd, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 95 Comments »The Eagles made their cuts and the roster is set. For now. There will be a lot of changes between now and February. Those changes could start as early as Sunday, if they made any waiver claims or have their eyes on any veterans that got cut. Let’s stick with what we know.
Here’s the roster:
QB -2 – Wentz, Foles
RB – 5 – Blount, Sproles, Smallwood, Clement, Pumphrey
WR – 6 – Jeffery, Smith, Agholor, Hollins, Johnson, Gibson
TE – 3 – Ertz, Celek, Burton
OL – 8 – Peters, Seumalo, Kelce, Brooks, Johnson, Vaitai, Wisniewski, Warmack
DE – 5 – Graham, Curry, Barnett, Long, Means
DT – 5 – Cox, Jernigan, Allen, Vaeao, Qualls
LB – 6 – Hicks, Bradham, Kendricks, Goode, Grugier-Hill, Walker
S – 5 – Jenkins, McLeod, Graham, Watkins, Maragos
CB – 5 – Darby, Mills, Robinson, Douglas, McDougle
ST – 3 – Jones, Sturgis, Lovato
*****
Let’s talk about some notable keepers.
Donnel Pumphrey – The Eagles really like him. They still value his long term potential and felt they saw enough in the spring to overlook a mediocre summer. He deserves a longer write-up.
Corey Clement – Good spring and summer. My only issue with him is that he’s not that good. He isn’t special in any way. I give him full credit for making the most of his chances this summer. I would keep looking around the league to see if there is a better RB available.
Shelton Gibson – Really struggled in the spring. Played better in the preseason. Seemed to get some of his confidence back. Big time playmaker at West Virginia and the Eagles clearly value his speed and ability as a deep threat. They are keeping him based on future potential.
Elijah Qualls – Won a job with his play the last 2 weeks. The light came on for him and he suddenly was disruptive. Rookies come alive at different times. There is no universal schedule. Qualls proved to be quick and disruptive, which is what the Eagles wanted when they drafted him.
Joe Walker – Glad he made it. Walker was good in the finale. Had some terrific moments when he blew up blockers and got in on tackles. Still learning how to play MLB in the NFL, but has a good combination of size and physicality. Athleticism is coming back as he continues to recover from last summer’s torn ACL. Could be a good long term answer for STs and backup MLB.
Kamu Grugier-Hill – Played his best game of the summer against the Jets. Still inconsistent against run plays, but had some good moments. Can impress you when he uses his hands and takes on blockers. There are times when he reverts to old ways and tries to run around blocks. Those are correctable mistakes. Really good athlete and plays well in space. Covers a lot of ground. Good tackler.
Jaylen Watkins – Had a good game vs the Jets. The Eagles love his S/CB/STs versatility. Looked okay at CB. Even tackled pretty well.
Dexter McDougle – Good game vs the Jets. Quick feet. Good tackler. Blitzed off the edge and deflected a pass. Confident and comfortable in the slot. Shows a good understanding of routes. Physical with receivers. Gets a quick break on the ball. Will push Patrick Robinson for playing time in the slot.
*****
Now let’s talk about surprise cuts.
Billy Brown – I thought the small school WR showed enough promise as a TE to earn a spot. He is still very much a project, but his combination of size, speed, and receiving ability is impressive. He is not ready to play this year so the Eagles are likely rolling the dice that no one will claim a project.
Nate Gerry – The 5th round pick was making the move from S to LB. He showed good potential, but got hurt and missed part of Game 3 and all of the finale. Didn’t have enough time to convince the Eagles he was ready to be part of the roster. He showed good athleticism. Size isn’t an issue. Just has to continue learning the subtleties of playing LB.
Bryce Treggs – Played well enough to make it. The Eagles just chose someone else.
Justin Hamilton – Not that surprising, but I wanted to make sure to acknowledge him. Hamilton had an outstanding preseason. Teams that need DL depth should be calling him ASAP.
Dillon Gordon – Last summer he made the transition from TE to OL and showed real promise. Gordon didn’t build on that. He was okay this summer, but you didn’t see the kind of progress you were hoping for. I think the Eagles will want him for the PS. Gordon did struggle at times and some people said “He sucks”. Gordon is still a project. He still is worth keeping around and trying to develop.
Dallas Thomas – I thought he outplayed Warmack this summer, but the Eagles prefer big, physical OGs. Thomas should get picked up by someone. Showed really good feet and athleticism.
*****
I’ll have more thoughts and some practice squad talk later.
_
thank goodness they didn’t keep 4 TE’s
I couldn’t disagree more. I wanted them to keep Brown.
Why?
Brown has rare combo of size, speed, and hands. A rare weapon.
i didnt see any of that
Am i correct that you base your opinion 100% off what you see in preseason and 0% off of reading practice reports/Tommy?
no i listen to all of the medias opinion, but i can only evaluate what i have seen
Fair enough.
If he is that good he should make the PS. Sounds like Mohma to me…only they never moved him to TE.
Celek is probably gone next year and Burton is on a one year deal. They could end up with only one TE on the roster after this season.
To do what? Sit the bench for a year or 2? Already too much money invested at the position. No need for a project.
Yo, Jaylen Watkins just wont ever go away lol
I respect it!! hes working hard!! hes gotta be!!
He can play CB if necessary. THAT made him the roster.
Poorly.
I have zero respect for Jaylin Watkins. Herpes keeps coming back as well, but it doesn’t need to be praised.
Lmfao Hes like Jason Voorhees
True. Both get burnt all the time, but it won’t kill either one off.
The first word that media guys and even some of the Eagles’ coaches seem to use about him is ‘versatility’ which is code for he kind of sucks.
Like when a backup QB is described as a ‘student of the game’ and a ‘efficient game manager.’
Beat writers talked billy brown up all summer, i didnt see anything
And Marcus Johsnon, idk.. he hasnt really impressed me, but hes another guy the media heads have be speaking positive about.. i dont see it
Preseason gives us such a limited look. Practice allows them to see consistency.
Roseman mentioned Johnson and the work & what he showed in preseason today in his press conference for what it is worth.
I would have cut Clement and kept Dallas Thomas, as i think he has more upside and long term potential with the Eagles than Clement who is going to be on the roster a year at most and then get beat out in camp next year.
Otherwise i really like the roster. Some have complained about the number of DB’s and LB’s, but a bunch of those guys are core special teamers like; Watkins, Maragos, Goode and Grugier-Hill.
The gameday 45 looks pretty solid, the CB group is really young but definitely has upside and the tools to be good players, so their play should improve over the year. The rest of the D looks pretty damn good and deep, especially on the DLine.
Offensively the OL looks good on paper, but will need to be a lot better than preseason. Ertz and Celek are a solid TE pair and the WR group looks solid and 4 deep with Hollins genuinely looking like he could become a starting WR in the future. RB is meh, but i like smallwood and the whole group will improve with Sproles playing 3rd down and no huddle. Wentz’s progress will decide if this is a medicore, solid or good offensive team.
And keep pumphrey yea
I can’t see Gibson over Treggs then you have Nelson stealing acheck.
Seems like the team wanted upside and you factored that in zero percent.
ehhh seems like they just chose to side with draft picks
treggs has upside
I don’t think treggs has as much as Gibson, and i believe Gibson plays more ST
i think treggs has more, hes faster, he plays faster and he timed faster, and he looked better than gibson.
but maybes it STs
but its most def the draft position
I don’t think Treggs timed faster. Gibson’s time was miscalculated at the combine — there is a photo with the clock at 0.13 just as he’s starting. Several scouts all had him between 4.38 and 4.44 on that same run, apparently. Gibson ran a 4.39 at his pro day.
Treggs is plenty fast, though this is also his second year, so he should look better. If the roster spot was about contributions to be made this year, it would be Treggs. But you also do have to plan for a few guys to be inactive on game days, and Treggs doesn’t really make sense for that. Gibson might. Who would be better a year from now with a year of practice under their belt?
Secondly, some of these decisions are also how likely they can get moved to the practice squad. Treggs obviously can’t, but they may have felt some team would claim Gibson — speed like that is a bit rare.
Also not convinced Gibson will be on the final 53-man as the season starts, to be honest — though if they plan on him being inactive, he still well might. The decision may have been Marcus Johnson vs Treggs in the end. Not sure I would have been disappointed either way.
But yes, GMs do have a tough time axing their draft picks — there was a reason the organization liked them in the first place, which doesn’t go away easily.
You saw enough of Gibson to know all that about him?
everything that WE have seen of him suggests it
I never saw him race ole Treggs.
oh, well what players have you actually seen race?
The Eagles are the 2nd team to cut him.
Yeah… i know… my point still stands
You know who else had upside…DGB;-)
Seriously though, it seems likely Treggs will be claimed by another team.
I hate that arguement. Guys get cut all the time only to go on and find the right fit.
Not many UDFAs
Weren’t there some character/dedication questions with Treggs, too?
What is his upside? Playing through a hangover? Pouting like a stud even though he isn’t good?
So you’re agreeing that Nate Gerry has no upside?
Ha. No. I bet they ps him and he develops.
Gerry has, hopefully, the ability to slide thru w/o being claimed. It’s more doubtful that a player changing positions will be claimed. Cuts aren’t always about ability.
Treggs is just a guy. Gibson has more raw talent, so Eagles are going to have him as an inactive and see if over the next 12 months he can put it together and become someone you would actually play on game days.
Pumphry, Gibson, Warmack and Qualls are not going to dress on game days unless there are injuries, but the Eagles think all 4 have enough talent to worth investing a year into to see what they can do in 2018.
Teams never keep the best 53 players, they always have 4-5 developmental guys.
Nelson gets that money no matter what. They didn’t trade matthews because they hate nelly. So we knew we were stuck with him then. Hopefully foe better than worse.
Yay! Can we play some real football now?
Soon!
If I was Pomphrey, Clement or Gibson, I wouldn’t sleep comfortable tonight…
Pumphrey isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Gibson given how Roseman talked about developing players today and him being a 5th round pick.
but Gerry was a 5th round pick too.
Yeah and he didn’t make the 53-man roster. Both of them did today and got mentioned by Roseman when talking about the need to develop players.
Gerry is a sixth round pick.
Clement for Mostert straight up.
I’m pumped my boy is on a roster for the time being.
Like this roster better than Tommy’s roster earlier.
A lot of people seem surprised about only keeping 8 OL, but apparently that’s pretty common around the league. According to Greg Richards on Twitter, all the other NFC East teams only kept 8.
I mean, sure they’re screwed if they have 4 of their starting linemen get injured in a single game, but that would be true with 9 or 10 OL. It’s not like all of them would be on the active 46.
My only question is why keep 5 RB’s? I have to imagine they plan on cutting one or more after all the other teams have made their initial waiver claims, making it less likely they’ll be poached themselves.
Conjecture among the media guys seems to be that the reason they kept Clement is because of the health concerns with Smallwood.
Is Smallwood really as much of a loser as some in the media make him out to be? Bowen doesn’t seem to think much of him among others.
Smallwood didn’t do himself any favors when he declared in camp he wasn’t in shape all last year and that is the reason he got hurt/underwhelmed last year.
Agree. Worst part is that they did it is because they don’t trust the guys atop the order. I think anyway.
Corey Clement…..you just don’t like him for no reason
Kempski had a similar opinion in his roster cut down thread: “Clement isn’t fast, doesn’t catch the ball well, struggles in pass pro,
and is the kind of player you can find anywhere. I don’t get it.”
I think Clement and Marshall looked good. But it’s important to remember that they are doing most of their rushing vs. backups and camp bodies.
“There will be a lot of changes between now and February.”
Good one, T-Law. Catch up with you on the 4th.
Gerry cut – excellent.
Watkins not cut – horrible.
I’m not totally sure if rolling with 8 o-line is smart, but because Gordon and Greene didn’t really step up like we needed it makes sense.
Meh. Watkins has versatility and coverage ability. With the high pick rookies here, makes sense to keep a known commodity. Hell maybe he is cut if Jones comes off PUP
Dorian Johnson was cut by Arizona. Many people thought he could go as high as the 2nd round. Fell to the 4th and couldn’t even stick on the roster,
Yeah, that was interesting to see.
Watching college football today and I frequently think, that WR made a better catch than any Eagles WR made in 2016.
Penn State’s guys who high point the football come to mind.
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Biggest shocker of all:
Marcus Smith made the roster in Seattle which arguably boasts the best front 7 in the NFL.
Funny how when you get him in a 3-4 / hybrid D that isn’t run by Billy Davis that you can get him to be productive.
Yeah I miss Billy Davis. Not.
Billy Davis was the worst coordinator/head coach here in the past 30 years. Even say he was a worse defensive coordinator than Castillo who was ridiculously miscast as one in 2011.
Watching Davis go out and there and refuse to make adjustments was like watching the same lame magic trick work over and over again.
Probably not – no one who knows anything about football would have been willing to replace Davis.
I don’t know. There still wasn’t the kind of stink on Kelly immediately after the 2014 season if they had tried to move on from Davis.
Keeping Davis though was obviously a Kelly call though.
I thought he was cut by them weeks ago
Dude was given every chance here. He didn’t want to be here.
I’m happy he made that team. They deserve him.
So, if you answer the question “who do they think is most likely to contribute to the S*******l run next year?” – Doee that help explain the choices?
Dallas sucks
http://www.phillyvoice.com/ranking-nfl-teams-age-after-53-man-cutdowns-2017-edition/
Always an interesting article from Kempski about 53-man roster age after final cut downs.
Eagles are still an older team (23rd oldest 53-man roster) but younger than the previous years 2 years (28th both years).
Kind of goes with what Roseman was saying during the press conference today about the need to balance organizational needs with developing players. It is also why you saw the Ealges extend McDougle and Womack too.
Not that either is a really good player but the Eagles don’t have a 2nd/3rd round pick & need to continue to stop-gap positions on the roster with so many pending FAs.
Roseman did a decent job of upgrading the roster this offseason to put this team in a place to contend for a playoff spot while still retrofitting this roster.
Still really hard to do both things at the same time – rebuild and while developing & integrating young talent and at the same time trying to make the playoffs. Puts Roseman in a tougher position than if the Eagles had just decided to engage in more of a rebuilding process.
Lurie has been really quiet this year since camp began. Didn’t address the team or media with a formal ‘State of the Team’ for the first time in a long time nor has he given any kind of meaningful interview with the media since camp began.
I’d love to hear what Lurie has to say about this season including what his outlook is for the season.
Omg dude. Its Warmack ffs.
Spell check on my phone.
For a different perspective, my cousin who is a season ticket holder and calls Roseman ‘Fredo’ (because Roseman thinks he is smart but not when it comes to player evaluation/personnel decisions) and was really frustrated with the 53-man roster.
Basically Roseman kept guys he drafted this year (Pumphreys, Gibson) or drafted previously (Watkins) because they are his picks.
I doubt many other GMs would have released their 4th or 5th round picks this year but I do think there are some kernels of truth his views about how Roseman handles player personnel decisions.
He also argued Pederson has as little say in who makes the 53-man roster as any coach in the NFL right now. This observation seems a lot more poignant.
Pederson didn’t come up once today during the press conference Roseman had (he wasn’t even in the room) and has pretty much mirrored what the front office has said this training camp.
It’s finding the balance of competing this year and developing youbg talent. Dallas Thomas is pretty much a finished product. He is an ok back up OL. Pumphrey and Gibson are worth developing in hopes that they may becoming more impactful players.
We are at the stage where we should be thinking future. 2 years from now hopefully we can have a SB or bust mentality.
He is a pretty tough critic and the usual Eagles’ cynic.
Basically has a ‘shut up or put up’ with Roseman at this point after his previous struggles.
Asked him why he is so down on Pederson and it was more of a the ‘buddy nature’ Pederson tries to have with the team & his doubling-down on stupid things he says including comment about it being fine Wentz was a leader blocker on that run last year.
I am a big HR fan. I think a lot of blame gets unfairly put on him. He had to deal with AR and Chip having tons of control during a few of his drafts. The draft where we KNOW he had final say/full control I think are his best drafts.
DP is just a doof. He doesn’t inspire much confidence, but he seems much better away from the camera. Wentz will make him or brake him (as with most coaches). If Mike McCarthy can win a SB, DP sure can.
If that is the case though, some of the moves the Eagles have made don’t make as much sense though including resigning Cox to that huge extension in June 2016.
If the focus was really 3-4 years down the road after Wentz was drafted in April 2016 (which is what Roseman alluded to last year before Wentz surprisingly became the starter), I would have rather the Eagles pursued things a bit differently than they have to date.
They are clearly trying to have their cake and eat it too (whatever that means).
If you have 5 mediocre RBs you have none. Or something like that. Not stoked on these moves but what do I know.
But still sometimes we give default benefit of the doubt to the front office pros, then stuff like Marcus Smith happens, and there is no accountability. I don’t think anyone outside the front office has an ounce of faith in Pumphery, it’s obvious to everyone he just isn’t an NFL talent or physically capable, yet here we are. Keep in mind he got most of not all his touches against 2nd, 3rd and 4th stringers and still failed to do anything but underwhelm. Whelp.
Explain what you mean that there is no accountability for bad picks like Marcus Smith, please.
Because all teams wiff on 1st round picks, especially in the 20’s where they have a 45% chance to never be NFL starters (20+ games). If you look at the numbers of starts (an imperfect metric – but the best available) the Eagles over Howie’s tenure have got slightly above league average production out of their draft picks.
I know we have 0 playoff wins since the McNabb era ended, but frankly the cause is pretty obvious when put in those terms. Teams without franchise QB don’t win many playoff games. Howie’s record as a GM: 10-6, 8-8, 4-12 (team gave up on Andy), 10-6, 10-6, 7-9. In those years only in 2010 did they have quality QB play with Vick (and that was slightly smoke and mirrors). Hopefully Wentz is the solution and he can convert some of those 10-6 seasons into 12-4 seasons with deep playoff runs.
Howie is obviously not the best GM in the league, but i think he is better than half the league at least, and if Wentz becomes a franchise QB i think he will pretty quickly be considered in the top 10 guys.
Howie is definitely the best GM in the league.
That Vick team gave GB the best game they faced all post-season. I truly believe that if we pulled that off we would of won the big one.
I know that it was the previous regime and all that, and they got fired and that pick was part of it, but just like with Smith we will have to hear for 3 years that Pumphery is making progress, it’s too early to call him a bust , give it time, blah blah and then he will get cut and everyone will say, yeah, that’s what we were saying three years ago.
They blew a pick, hey it happens, but don’t throw good money after bad and waste a roster spot. Pumphery is never going to happen in the NFL. Just like Smith is never going to happen and didn’t happen. Cut your losses and move on.
And as a fan posting on an internet blog I am perfectly entitled, nay required, to make early judgements and proclaim my riteousness.
Of course you are, I was just wondering what you meant. Irrational fanism is perfectly acceptable. Wouldn’t be fair to try and change your opinion, so I wont!
Elliott admits under oath what was rumored by walter football & others hahahahaha…
Nash: “And I think you said you liked her [ex-girlfriend Tiffany Thompson] because she liked to party, drink and do drugs?”
Elliott: “Yes.”
Nash: “You liked to do that, too?”
Elliott: “I do like to party.”
Nash: “And like to get drunk?”
Elliott: “Yes.”
Nash: “You like to do drugs?”
Elliott: “I did in college.”
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ezekiel-elliott-testifies-under-oath-that-he-liked-to-do-drugs-at-ohio-state/