The Hits Keep Coming

Posted: September 2nd, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on The Hits Keep Coming

Injuries are an issue for all 32 NFL teams. They have mercilessly hounded the Eagles in recent years and 2020 is no different. Brandon Brooks and Andre Dillard are out for the year. Several other guys are banged up. Today we learned of a new injury.

Ugh.

You might think this isn’t a big deal. Parks was just a backup safety. How important is that?

Jim Schwartz likes to use three-safety sets. When he had three good and healthy safeties in 2017 (Malcolm Jenkins, Rodney McLeod, Corey Graham), the defense was fantastic and the team won the Super Bowl.

Safety has been an issue since then. McLeod missed most of 2018. Rookies haven’t developed. Graham had a major fall-off from 2017 to 2018. Andrew Sendejo was a major disappointment last season.

The Eagles addressed the position thoroughly this offseason. They moved Jalen Mills to Jenkins old spot. They signed Parks for depth. The team drafted K’Von Wallace and signed talented UDFAs Grayland Arnold and Elijah Riley. The team wanted multiple guys fighting for jobs. They haven’t had enough good competition in recent years.

Parks was going to be a key role player. Now he’ll miss a couple of weeks (possibly more). That opens the door for Wallace to show what he can do right away.

The Eagles also have Marcus Epps and Rudy Ford in the mix. They have played more on special teams than defense so they aren’t exactly locks to make the team or win roles. But those guys do have some experience and Wallace is a rookie at a complex position. And he doesn’t have the advantage of playing in preseason games.

Parks will be a key player this year and it will be interesting to see how the Eagles replace him for a few games.

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Feel like talking about LT again?

Jimmy Bama wrote a good piece on the situation. He wasn’t impressed by Doug Pederson’s focus on continuity, meaning Peters stays at RG while the team looks for a LT.

Most wouldn’t disagree that the “best five” offensive linemen right now are Jason Peters, Isaac Seumalo, Jason Kelce, Matt Pryor, and Lane Johnson.

In that sense, there’s no disagreement on who should be on the field. It’s just that the Eagles are playing their RG at LT, and their LT at RG. I don’t know. Maybe Pryor’s two practices at LT make for better continuity than Peters’ decade and a half there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It isn’t a good sign for Doug when Jimmy makes more sense than he does. That’s not good for anyone.

It feels like the Eagles will move Peters to LT eventually. And I don’t blame them for seeing what the young guys can do. But Doug needs to do a much better job of explaining the situation.

If the Eagles do stick with Matt Pryor at LT…I don’t even know what to say. I just can’t think of that as a real possibility. Pederson and Jeff Stoutland have forgotten more about football than I’ll ever know, but I can’t imagine there is a way they think Pryor can start at LT in the NFL, especially after his struggles in practice.

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RB Leonard Fournette signed with Tampa. Glad he’s gone. Some people wondered if the Eagles would have any interest. Fournette didn’t make sense to me. He’s a workhorse runner. You feed him the ball in a power run game. The Eagles already have a stud in Miles Sanders and this offense functions best when they mix in several RBs.

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I hope Fletcher Cox, Malik Jackson, Brandon Graham and the rest of the DL are ready to beat up on him.

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Sad non-football news.

To this day, I remember George Thomas Seaver. I would read Who’s Who in Baseball and The Baseball Encyclopedia as a kid. Certain names just stuck with me. Reginald Martinez Jackson. Lynn Nolan Ryan.

I used to go out and try to pitch like Seaver, the way his knee would hit the mound. Didn’t work very well for me, but he did okay.

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