Big Honor for the Big Boys

Posted: January 5th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 85 Comments »

Carson Wentz gets most of the attention, but the Eagles don’t win 13 games and score eleventy billion points without the Big Sexies doing a good job up front. Today, a couple of them got the recognition they deserved.

https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/949326400137453568

Kelce is All-Pro, but wasn’t voted a starter on the Pro Bowl. What’s the difference? The All-Pro teams are selected by people who know the game well. The Pro Bowl is more of a popularity contest. It is still an honor to be voted to the Pro Bowl, but being an All-Pro player is special.

Johnson made both teams, which tells you just how amazing of a season he had.

How crazy is that?

Some will argue that Wentz should have been the top QB. Losing out to Tom Brady, who is having a great season, is hardly something to feel bad about. If Wentz started 15 or 16 games, he would have gotten more support.

As for the rest of the team…

The only player who can feel somewhat robbed is Zach Ertz. He has developed into one of the best TEs in the league. The problem is that Rob Gronkowski is going to be the All-Pro guy. Everyone else is fighting for second place. Travis Kelce got the nod for that. He posted better numbers than Ertz and is a more physically dominant player so I can see where he was selected. Still, it is surprising that Ertz didn’t get any votes.

Back to the OL for a second.

Four of the five primary starters had a good season. Kelce and Johnson were All-Pro. Brandon Brooks was a Pro Bowl selection. Stefen Wisniewski didn’t play at that level, but had a good season. He brought stability and cohesion to the OL.

Halapoulivaati Vaitai was inconsistent and the weakest starter. He was still an effective starter. Think back to Demetress Bell in 2012 for an idea of what an ineffective LT looks like. Vaitai was good at times, but got beaten more often than you want.

The Eagles need the OL to get back to playing good football. They were too up and down late in the season and that hurt the offense. Foles got hit more than you want and the holes just were there in the run game.

Kelce and Johnson need to lead the way and to play like All-Pros if the team is going to have postseason success. Your best players must shine.

*****

Good pieces from PE.com.

Greg Cosell shows you how Nick Foles has success.

As he shows, one of the real keys is having things work in rhythm. That means a good snap, good blocking and receiver running good routes. When Foles can plant his back foot and throw on time, the offense looks good. That just wasn’t happening enough in the last two weeks.

Dave Fipp breaks down the STs highlights of the year.

The team could sure use a big play from Fipp’s STs next week. Would love to see him come up with a great design that can impact the game.

_


85 Comments on “Big Honor for the Big Boys”

  1. 1 sonofdman said at 4:01 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    “The All-Pro teams are selected by people who know the game well.”

    And yet Lane Johnson got a vote at LT and Brandon Brooks got a vote at LG despite neither of them playing on the left side at all this season.

  2. 2 Rob Jarratt said at 7:57 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Just looking at the general population, sono, a least one “expert” must be dyslexic.

  3. 3 Masked Man said at 12:30 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Obviously. He gave a pro bowl vote to Lane Johnson for TL…

  4. 4 or____ said at 8:01 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I upvoted you, but I think the concept might be that their philosophy is to select the very best ol, regardless of side. It’s a hypothetical “team” anyway and the technicality of side is intentionally overlooked.

  5. 5 sonofdman said at 9:48 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Good point

  6. 6 ColorSgt said at 5:14 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Eagles have done a great job putting together a good team in the trenches. The Oline needs a little tweaking this offseason, but I still hope Peters is back.

  7. 7 xeynon said at 8:05 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’d like to bring Peters back but I think they have to heavily consider drafting an OT with their first pick. Vaitai has played well at times this season and shown the potential to be a long term starter if he can become more consistent, but JP is ancient by NFL standards and I still think we want competition there in case Big V doesn’t ever develop into more than a swing tackle.

  8. 8 Dave said at 8:39 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’d be OK with bringing Peters back only if he hires Alex Guerrero as his full-time personal trainer…TB12 😉

  9. 9 ColorSgt said at 9:22 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Definitely. Drafting an OT is what I meant by tweaking. Peters can come back for a SB while the rookie learns from him. Then JP retires a SB champion, and HOFer. Birds have LJ and young stud OT for Carson’s prime. Fool proof plan.

  10. 10 P_P_K said at 11:27 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Love the plan.

  11. 11 kajomo said at 12:14 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I don’t think JP will be able to clear a physical until well after FA period starts. Since you can’t really use his cap dollars to improve the team we are probably better off keeping him.

    I really don’t like the OT crop coming out this year in the draft and feel we are better served trading down to recoup some of our trades draft picks. I’d rather focus on LG as it is the only spot that can really be improved if JP does indeed return.

  12. 12 xeynon said at 12:35 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’m not a huge fan of the college game but my understanding is there are some solid OT prospects available this year (McGlinchey, Rankin, etc.). I wouldn’t go out of my way to trade up for anyone, nor hand a rookie the starting job over Vaitai assuming JP isn’t back for camp, but if one of those guys falls to our first round pick we should consider him.

    I also would like to see them trade down though. No picks between the end of the 1st round and the 4th is tough as that would be an ideal part of the draft to target quality prospects who aren’t yet ready to start but could be developed behind some of our veteran starters at positions like S, LB, and DE.

  13. 13 xeynon said at 8:10 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Cosell’s breakdown is very telling. Foles is the kind of QB who can be very effective when all he has to do is execute the play as drawn up. But he really struggles when he’s forced to improvise and that’s where the massive downgrade from Carson becomes apparent. If we can give him time and receivers who are where they’re supposed to be he can be Brad Johnson and get us to the Super Bowl. But he’s not going to make the sandlot plays to bail everyone else out if they screw up the way Carson could. I hope the rest of the offense watches this tape, minds their Ps and Qs in practice all week, and comes out sharp next Saturday.

  14. 14 Dave said at 8:36 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    One thing Foles always seemed to possess is a good deep ball. Even more reason to bench Torrey and give Mack a shot to run deep patterns. Maybe even a few plays for Gibson.

  15. 15 ColorSgt said at 9:56 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Worth a shot.

  16. 16 xeynon said at 10:26 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’m thinking Mack must still be lacking in some key area of the game (perhaps he can’t yet run the whole route tree or isn’t reliable adjusting to coverages yet or something of that sort), because on pure physical ability, there’s zero reason to be playing Torrey over him. I don’t think Pederson or Reich are dumb so I suspect there’s a good explanation.

    I’m very excited to see what Hollins can do with an entire offseason to learn/master the offense. I think there’s a good chance he’s the starter opposite Alshon next year.

  17. 17 ColorSgt said at 9:53 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    On a broken play…
    Foles: backpedal, backpedal, throw it away, hope it goes out of bounds.
    Wentz: stay in pocket, scan downfield, step up in pocket, pump fake, roll out, keep eyes downfield, hold the line of scrimmage while moving sideways, look for Alshon, he’s still covered, turn on jets, first down.

  18. 18 xeynon said at 10:23 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    You forgot to mention one thing, which is that dodging or shaking off tacklers was often involved in that sequence of events for Wentz. Foles doesn’t have the athleticism to do that, so honestly, you probably want him throwing the ball away rather than trying to make something crazy happen on a broken play.

    The rest of the offense just has to minimize the number of plays that break down. Honestly, Carson isn’t yet a great QB from a clean pocket (he sometimes overthrows, lacks touch on his throws, etc.) so I think Foles can duplicate his performance level on well-executed plays, minus some of the rollouts and designed runs. He won’t be pulling any rabbits out of his hat to rescue plays that other guys screw up though. And given that, Doug should probably be building safety valves into the game plan – checkdown receivers, some screens and draws to slow down the pass rush, etc.

  19. 19 SteveH said at 2:03 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I was saying exactly that the other day about Foles. I think the reason he doesn’t do well when the play breaks down is because he seems to do everything too slowly. He moves slowly, he goes through his progressions slowly, he has a slow release, his decisions seem slow.

    If there was a way to put a FF 1.5x button on Foles he’d probably be a franchise quarterback.

    As it is, he just panics when things break down, which is the worst possible scenario for a QB.

  20. 20 CrackSammich said at 2:05 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Ah, so he’s Andrew MacDonald on the Flyers. I got him in context now. Thanks.

  21. 21 xeynon said at 2:14 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    He’s not naturally fast, and I’m sure not getting starters’ reps all season, and then getting only light, walk-through type reps for the first few weeks after he was thrust into action, have exacerbated that.

    The hope is that with these two weeks to prepare, including some physical, full-speed practices, he can speed up his execution to the point where it’s not an issue. We’ve seen him be quick enough at the mental part of the game before to compensate for his natural slow-footedness so it’s not like he’s physically or mentally incapable of it.

  22. 22 SteveH said at 2:35 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’ve never really seen Foles as someone who mentally processes things quickly. Once he gets a little rattled he gets that deer in the headlights thing going, locking onto one receiver, backpedaling, etc.

    This is where having Big V instead of JP could really hurt extra. Wentz is the kind of guy where a bad play happens and he doesn’t hang onto it, he’s 100% the next play. Foles is the kind of guy that can kind of unravel if things keep going wrong. He reminds me of Mcnabb in that way. Some guys just kind of crack under the pressure if things aren’t going well.

  23. 23 xeynon said at 2:47 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I don’t know if it’s lack of quick mental processing so much as that Foles knows he’s not a great athlete and that the longer he holds the ball the more trouble he’s likely to be in if he stays in the pocket, and thus he tends to bail out and run (generally backwards as he’s not fast enough to beat guys to the edge) and/or throw it to the first guy who’s quasi-open if the defense has the initial read(s) on the play covered.

    He’s quick enough at reading the coverage and making decisive throws when they are there (see e.g. that key first down conversion to Agholor in the Rams game).

  24. 24 SteveH said at 3:03 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Could be. I just hope the OL balls out for us because we’re going to need to make Foles comfortable in the pocket.

  25. 25 xeynon said at 3:23 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Yep, we will need the offensive line to take their game up to another level in the playoffs, no question.

    Can’t be getting beat on stunts and twists (the left side gets the most crap for this but Brooks and Johnson got beat bad on one play Cosell broke down last week as well), can’t get beat one-on-one in pass pro, can’t fail to execute key blocks in the running game that would turn 4 yard runs into 20 yard runs. The margin for error is smaller now.

  26. 26 Dave said at 8:34 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    During the transition after Chip Kelly was fired, lots of people on this message board were down on Lurie and Howie. Seattle, Green Bay, New England, and on occasion, the Giants, were franchises many emulated as top NFL ownership and front offices.

    How the times have changed.

  27. 27 ColorSgt said at 9:41 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Chip Kelly was a terrible NFL coach. I didn’t want him originally and I hate what he did to the team. But during that first season, he had a leg up on the NFL. If Copper catches that pass they would have at least won a playoff game… Maybe more. I bought in. I gave Laurie credit for trying something different. It’s hard to get an advantage in the NFL and they had it for a season. Giving Chip control didn’t seem that unreasonable either after the season he had. The Eagles went all in on the chip kelly experiment. It blew up in their faces, but chip turned out to be much worse than anyone could have imagined. So I wasn’t down on Lurie or Howie… But I did have concerns about the next coach they would hire and of Howie could play nicely with them. Well, I gotta give Howie credit from learning from the past because Howie’s killin it with Joe and Doug. The times have changed for sure.

  28. 28 ChoTime said at 10:29 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Chip’s college career was impressive, and his early returns in the NFL were spectacular. After that, it went south quickly.

    Roseman appeared to be better at surviving than putting together a good team, Lurie appeared to be losing his marbles.

    But hey, it’s going good now. Lurie’s course correction worked, Dug is good and everything Howie touched turned to gold this year.

  29. 29 xeynon said at 10:45 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Chip was like a pitching prospect who only has a 100 MPH fastball, or a basketball player who can go to the rim but can’t shoot – once opponents figured out how to sit on his best stuff, he couldn’t adjust and was ineffective.

    Roseman I think got unfairly maligned for his first tenure as GM. Some of his free agency moves were questionable, but he generally structured contracts to minimize long term downside risk and didn’t wreck the Eagles’ cap with them, so when they didn’t pan out it wasn’t a huge deal. And the two drafts where he was undisputedly running the show (2012 and 2013) both have to be considered pretty good:

    2012:

    -Cox (All Pro, franchise cornerstone)
    -Kendricks (above average starter)
    -Curry (solid starter)
    -Foles (solid backup QB)
    -Brandon Boykin (had a nice if short run as a nickel CB here, still in the league)
    -Dennis Kelly (backup OL, played a bit, still in the league)
    -Marvin McNutt, Brandon Washington (6th round picks who did nothing)
    -Bryce Brown (had flashes, solid value for a 7th round pick)

    2013:

    -Johnson (All Pro, franchise cornerstone)
    -Ertz (Pro Bowler, franchise cornerstone)
    -Bennie Logan (solid starter, left in FA but replaced by better player)
    -Matt Barkley (flyer on a previously highly rated prospect, didn’t pan out)
    -Earl Wolff, Joe Kruger, Jordan Poyer, David King (all late round picks who didn’t do anything here, although Poyer is still in the league)

    In two drafts, that’s by my count three Pro Bowlers and two solid starters who are still with the team five years later, plus several guys who contributed here before moving on – a pretty decent track record.

    I think Roseman’s biggest problem in go #1 was being unable to find a franchise QB. He appears to have solved that one with Wentz.

  30. 30 SteveH said at 2:01 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Roseman caught a lot of shit because we need scapegoats here in Philly, and they don’t need to be rationally thought out scapegoats either.

    Plus, unfortunately for him, he is a bit of a dweeb in a sport where machismo is valued. It’s all too predictable that he’d end up catching a lot of the criticism.

    Fortunately for us, being a bit of a dweeb doesn’t mean shit when you’re in charge of making smart long term decisions and structuring enormous and potentially franchise altering contracts.

  31. 31 P_P_K said at 11:25 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I’m with you on every single point.

  32. 32 Masked Man said at 12:21 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Howie playing nice? Well Doug is a more cute and lovable type of a guy. Like Yogi Berra but without too much of the quirky humor…

    Chip is a chunky little square-built fat arrogant type of a guy. Kinda like Kim Jong Un in a baseball cap…

    So it would be much harder to play nice with him.

    😀

  33. 33 Dave said at 12:47 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Sometimes people forget that Howie’s two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. I think that would qualify Howie as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

  34. 34 CrackSammich said at 12:55 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    …and Howie did it on his first try!

  35. 35 Gary Barnes said at 1:02 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Definitely not a child lol

  36. 36 Gary Barnes said at 1:05 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    One of the reasons is because Laurie and Howe were the ones who aggressively hired Chip and told us he was great. There was legit criticism of those mistakes. Gladly, they got appear to have gotten it right this time with Pederson.

  37. 37 Insomniac said at 1:11 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    The three cycles of Howie

    off season – Howie is a god
    losing season – blame Howie and his mistakes
    winning season – praise Howie

  38. 38 anon said at 1:11 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    well, he choses the players and the coaches…

  39. 39 Insomniac said at 1:15 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Yes but he’s the one that tries to put them in a position to succeed. He shares some of the blame but you can’t put all the blame on Howie for coaching failure and players quitting (see Chip Kelly).

  40. 40 Dave said at 1:19 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I would somewhat disagree.

    Ever since the 2011 “Dream Team” season, the prevailing wisdom of the beats has been “when is Howie going to be held responsible”.

    That just stopped after last season when it became apparent that Wentz was the real deal.

  41. 41 Ryan Rambo said at 8:57 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Saints signed WR Paul Turner to a reserve/future contract.

    A hyped 2016 UDFA, Turner spent this year out of the league after getting released with an injury settlement in early September. He should be fully healthy for the Saints’ offseason program.

  42. 42 xeynon said at 9:29 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Well I don’t know about 2017, but the Saints are definitely a lock for the 2018 Super Bowl, so we might as well hold Carson out and give him time to heal up. Nobody stands a chance against Brees if he has weapons like Paul Turner at his disposal.

  43. 43 ChoTime said at 10:29 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Turnerzzzzzzz! If only he hadn’t gotten injured, Tommy would be talking about him as an All-PRo

  44. 44 xeynon said at 10:50 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I honestly think they’d need to invent a new category for him, because really, consigning him to a category like “All-Pro” he’d have to share with mortals like Julio Jones and Antonio Brown would be an insult to him.

  45. 45 SteveH said at 1:57 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Man, I was so hoping the PT-Cruiser was going to be a thing.

  46. 46 eagleyankfan said at 9:51 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Truth be told…i hope no current eagle DC or OC leaves. If we can learn anything from NE…continuity counts. Would hate to be “this close” and have to learn new defense(for example). Ask Cousins what its like to lose a good(to poss. great) coordinator….

  47. 47 Tumtum said at 10:24 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Ertz is really good but highly inconsistent in every area. He doesn’t deserve an All-pro nod.

  48. 48 xeynon said at 10:28 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    I don’t think he’s on Gronkowski’s level (nobody is, at least among currently active players), nor Kelce’s (also in a tier by himself as the second best TE in the league), but Ertz is as good as anybody else out there. If there was a third team All Pro he’d deserve it but I certainly wouldn’t take him ahead of the two guys who were named to the two levels of the team that do exist.

  49. 49 Tumtum said at 11:05 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    Sure. He is the 3rd best TE in the league. I agree with that.

  50. 50 CrackSammich said at 12:54 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Gronk and Kelce are basically their own positions. It’s in the same way that Watt ruins all the DT rankings because he lives outside of traditional positions. Ertz does too, in a way, since he’s really more slot WR than TE, but he fits the mold a lot better than those two do.

  51. 51 SteveH said at 1:56 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    If Ertz was a better blocker he’d be on par with Kelce I think, but Gronkowski is a generational player. He’s like a meathead that was somehow pumped full of extra meathead juice, then injected with enough testosterone to kill a bull, and then given really great hands and route running ability for some reason.

    And for some reason he’s the only Patriot I don’t really hate, I think mostly because he seems too much of a caricature of a human being to really despise.

  52. 52 jshort said at 3:39 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    That had me laughing! Still am.

  53. 53 Tumtum said at 1:43 PM on January 7th, 2018:

    You hate Dion Lewis? Gotta like former Eagles succeeding!

  54. 54 P_P_K said at 11:29 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    If Belichick does come to the Giants, I hope the Eagles destroy NY twice a year during his entire tenure and he’s a dismal failure. Let his cheatin’ legacy be that he was nothing without Brady.

  55. 55 xeynon said at 11:38 AM on January 6th, 2018:

    As I said on the last thread, I think there’s a not insignificant chance that he’d be the football version of Phil Jackson in New York.

    He is without question a great coach, but you need both a great coach and great players to win.

  56. 56 anon said at 12:25 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    he also requires a certain kind of personality out of his players – he’d have to clean house in New York

  57. 57 P_P_K said at 1:50 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    He might go for the job because of the bright lights, big city appeal. I wonder if he’s patient enough to rebuild a team.

  58. 58 Dave said at 12:38 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Modern Hall of Fame coaches have one thing in common, they all played in the Super Bowl led by a QB who was an NFL-MVP (with the exception of Marv Levy who went to 4 Super Bowls with Jim Kelly, who was a franchise QB).

    I would be ecstatic if the Giants gave up draft picks to the Pats for Belichick.

    For 17 years, he relied on getting over 5 wins per year from weak division opponents that seemed to always have an impact on them having home-field advantage/byes for the playoffs. That would not happen in the NFC East.

  59. 59 xeynon said at 12:52 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Persistently weak division competition is an underrated factor in the success of the Belichick/Brady partnership. They’ve basically started with 4+ wins in the bank and the inside track on a top two seed and first round bye every year, which is a gigantic advantage.

    The only team in the AFC East that’s even come close to competence during their entire run was the Jets for a few years, and when they did, they gave the Patriots all they could handle, beating them in playoff games in Foxboro twice. The Bills have been one of the worst teams in football for years and Dolphins have never managed to be anything better than mediocre since Marino left.

  60. 60 Dave said at 1:13 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    They are 77-22 in the AFC East since 2001. Averaging over 4.5 wins per year. They have never lost more than 2 divisional games during any given year in that time frame.

  61. 61 P_P_K said at 2:25 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Except Phil is cool.

  62. 62 SteveH said at 1:52 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I hope they both fail.

  63. 63 CrackSammich said at 1:19 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    re: TB12

    Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re a fat, lazy, slob. Might be a real deep dive for some of us, but try real hard.

    If you do the littlest bit of effort–going for a short walk every day, taking the stairs at work, cutting out soda–most of your health problems are gonna go away. Step it up to exercising regularly (going for a jog! the horror!), cutting out soda and fast food, and eating a fucking salad occasionally, you’ll clear up a good 80-90% of your lifestyle induced health problems. Skin will clear up. You’ll lose weight. Those random aches and pains go away. You get sick less.

    And then you think, wow, I feel so much better! If I put in a little effort to get these huge results, then imagine if I go full time with this shit and optimize every part of my life! Crossfit 6 days a week! Juice cleanse! Crystal purification lamp! Essential oils! Organic water! TB12!

    All of this without realizing that you’ve already remedied most of your problems. You will never again feel that huge improvement because you can only go another 10%. Going down the irrational food religion rabbit hole is not going to ever give you the feeling you got when you first got in shape. TB12 will not get you there.

    And most importantly, if you’re not a professional athlete, all of that shit is a complete waste of your time, and you will never see a benefit from it.

    Just go for a fucking jog.

  64. 64 SteveH said at 1:51 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    “Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re a fat, lazy, slob. Might be a real deep dive for some of us, but try real hard.”

    I feel somehow personally attacked here.

    Seriously though I’ve put on like 60 pounds over the last 2 years. I badly need to clean up my diet and get back to the gym.

  65. 65 CrackSammich said at 2:02 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    my only point, is that that a $10 Planet Fitness membership has everything you need to stay in shape as a person that probably isn’t going to make the gym their singular life’s pursuit. You don’t need any pseudoscience mumbojumbo workout or a magic diet beyond the stop-eating-dumb-shit-you-idiot diet to see results. And I guess my second point is, TB12 is fucking dumb, but we knew that already.

  66. 66 SteveH said at 2:05 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    TB12 seems beyond dumb, it seems out of touch with reality.

    And yeah, fixing your diet is going to get you most of the way there, and my 10 dollar gym membership at the apartment complex has everything I need to do the rest of the work.

    I really need to watch my cardiovascular because I’m starting to become pre-hypertensive, which is bad at my age.

  67. 67 CrackSammich said at 2:07 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    For an extra tenner, I can call you every morning and yell at you to exercise. hmu. We got this bro.

  68. 68 SteveH said at 2:17 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Unfortunately I’d put the phone on mute and go back to sleep. I’m very unmotivated until about 9 am.

  69. 69 Julescat said at 2:46 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    my Planet Fitness had an all you can eat pizza night every Monday. Well worth the $10.

  70. 70 Mr. Magee said at 3:49 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Wait, you want people (me!) to eliminate fast food and soda from their diets?!!!!

  71. 71 CrackSammich said at 4:20 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    wawa and diet are fine by me.

  72. 72 P_P_K said at 1:52 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Is anyone else worried thinking Atlanta could be a contender? After their slow start, they’ve played good football the second half of the season. They’re a playoff experienced team. I think they’ve got a good shot at beating LA.

  73. 73 SteveH said at 1:53 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I thought we’d all agree that we’d prefer to face Atlanta than either Carolina or New Orleans.

  74. 74 ACViking said at 2:05 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    F–k it.
    I say, let the Eagles beat NO then MN

  75. 75 SteveH said at 2:18 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I like it, AC Viking showing some fire.

  76. 76 CrackSammich said at 2:09 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    I officially have no opinions on who we face. They’re all good teams. Bring them on.

  77. 77 xeynon said at 2:03 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Sure, they can be a contender. They went to the Super Bowl last year, and were one Dan Quinn brain fart away from winning it.

    There’s no easy route to the SB this year in the NFC.

  78. 78 xeynon said at 2:40 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    For those interested, ESPN’s playoff probability calculator is fun to play with:

    http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/21908942/2017-nfl-playoff-preview-guide-all-66-possible-matchups-bracket

    FWIW it gives the Eagles a 17.9% chance to win the SB, third highest after the Patriots and Vikings, which seems high to me with Foles. However a lot of the data that went into the model obviously dates from before Wentz went down.

    To the poster wondering where I got my 20% estimate of the Eagles’ chances of winning the SB a few threads back (I believe it was JErnst) – it was from something like this. Not this particular article, but something similar.

  79. 79 Ark87 said at 4:36 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    They favor us to win our first game at 66.1%. They also favor us in the NFC championship game at 57% and only slight underdogs in the Superbowl at 47.5%

    I think their model is off.

  80. 80 xeynon said at 4:49 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    As I said, a large part of the data that went into the model is clearly from before Wentz went down. Most of the DVOA data, for example.

    With Wentz, I think those odds are probably about right. Without him I think they’re too optimistic.

  81. 81 Ark87 said at 5:23 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Agreed, just seems like they need to tweak their model and weight recency a bit higher. But yeah, makes me sad we don’t have Wentz…

    which reminds me, with rumors of Brady tearing the dynasty into confetti for what he hopes will be another super bowl parade, how can voters seriously call him the most valuable player.

    WENTZ FOR MVP!

  82. 82 xeynon said at 5:36 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    They could do that, but that creates problems of its own – how do you weight week 17 when some teams played their hardest and others were treating it like a glorified preseason game? There’s no way to do it without introducing subjectivity into the process.

    I suppose you could look at these odds as saddening, but to me it’s a reminder that their chances of winning this year weren’t that great even with a healthy Wentz. Over a 10-15 year window, the chances you win at least one SB with an elite QB are good, but in one season they’re not. That makes the injury seem less of a blow to me, honestly.

  83. 83 SteveH said at 2:59 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Looking over the all pro teams a few oddities stuck out for me. First off I’m amazed Sean Lee didn’t make at least 2nd team all pro linebacker. I mean first team is TOUGH to crack with Kuechley and Wagner, but who the fuck is Telvin Smith and why is he better than Sean Lee?

    I also think Jake Elliot should have been considered for 2nd team all pro as PK. He missed a few kicks, but they weren’t really important ones, while he hit absolutely must have kicks like the 61 yarder against the Giants and the game winner against Oakland in bad weather. He might not have had the best %, but he made some CLUTCH kicks this year.

    Also really surprising to see Harrison Smith as first team safety, must have been a real down year for safety play.

    Wentz only getting 2 votes to Brady’s 47 is moronic, Brady had his worst season in years and Wentz still threw more touchdowns than him even playing 3 less games. I bet even if Wentz had stayed healthy and thrown 42 TD’s and passed Brady in QBR I bet the voters still give it like 45-4 advantage to Brady because slurp slurp.

    Brandon Brooks no respect from the voters either, I think he easily could have been 2nd team at guard.

    Brandon Graham, again no love. Would you really take Cam Jordan or Everson Griffen over Graham? I wouldn’t.

    Not sure I agree with Cam Heyward over Fletch at DT, but Aaron Donald is a beast can’t argue with that.

    Was Micah Hyde really better than Jenkins at safety this year? I haven’t seen him in Buffalo but he was only a solid to good player in Green Bay if I remember correctly.

    Hometown bias of course, but I think at the very least Brandon Brooks deserved more and Sean Lee got shafted. Maybe it was the injuries for Lee, didn’t play enough games.

  84. 84 xeynon said at 3:16 PM on January 6th, 2018:

    Has to be the first time in history an Eagles fan has complained about a Cowboy being underrated by the national media. 😉

    Seriously though, I am inclined to agree on Sean Lee. I have on the whole thought Dallas’ defense was overrated for years and never bought into the Rod Marinelli hype, but Lee is a great player. One of the few guys the Eagles play against I feel can single-handedly wreck their offense.

    Agree Brady over Wentz shouldn’t be that lopsided, I suspect Wentz’s injury really hurt him (as it will hurt him for MVP).

    Harrison Smith is a great all-around safety, don’t have an issue with that pick.

    I agree with you that Brooks deserved consideration as he was excellent this season and has really formed a dominant tandem on the right side with Johnson.

    As for the other Eagles’ players, I don’t really feel like any of those were egregious snubs. Graham is a really good player but so are Jordan and Griffen. Similar I think Heyward and Cox are on similar levels, can’t go wrong either way. Elliott missed too many short kicks. And while Jenkins is an outstanding all around safety, he didn’t make as many game-changing plays as some of the other top safeties did.

  85. 85 cshav10 said at 12:59 PM on January 7th, 2018:

    Demetress Bell flashback….oh the horror!