Players, Not Positions

In the previous post, a discussion broke out about how Ifeanyi Momah would fit onto the roster. Is he a TE or a WR?

Momah played both spots at Boston College. He’s 6-7, 240. That is more of a TE build than a WR. He runs 4.45. That is more WR speed than TE. Momah is somewhat of a tweener, a man with unique ability but no obvious position. So what do you do?

Chip Kelly would tell you not to get caught up in positions. Kelly loves creating favorable matchups. Momah could thrive in that role. Put him out wide. If the defense puts a CB on him, throw the ball up high. If the defense puts a bigger S or LB on him, have Momah run by them. That may sound incredibly simplistic, but that’s actually how Chip Kelly thinks. Where Andy Reid plotted moves, counter-moves, counter-counter-moves, and so on, Chip keeps it simple.

* Run if the box is empty, throw if it is stacked.

* Find tall guys that can move around and catch the ball.

* Find quick/fast guys that can catch short passes and create big plays.

* Throw the ball to the open guy, whether short or deep.

Really, I think a lot of Kelly’s offense will be that simple. Now getting the players into those positions is a bit on the complicated side. That’s where years of coaching come into play. You must be able to design plays, call them in the right sequence and set them up for maximum effect. Kelly did this brilliantly at New Hampshire and Oregon.

Back to Momah. He is more of a WR. He runs fast, but doesn’t have ideal cutting or change-of-direction ability. Quickness and agility are more important to TEs than pure speed. That said, Chip Kelly just drafted Zach Ertz to play TE and really wanted him in large part to his ability to play like a WR. Kelly isn’t concerned about what position title Momah has. He wants a player that he can use creatively. And Momah is just that.

Dave Spadaro did a good interview with Momah that I somehow missed. Momah says he will block and that he will play STs. He’s already got the right attitude. No matter where he plays, Momah is going to be a role player in 2013…if he is even on the final roster. He isn’t a polished player and could be a practice squad candidate. We’ll see how things go.

I’ve got his good 2011 game on DVD (8 catches, 157 yards).  I’ll see if I can find that and put the catches on YouTube. I’ve also probably got some 2010 games to check out. I’ll look into that this weekend.

* * * * *

Cecil Lammey dug up some pretty impressive Matt Barkley stats. I am so curious to see him play and find out if we got a major steal or just a solid prospect with 1st round stats.

I got the stats from Sam. If you are on Twitter, make sure you follow Sam. Great source of info and opinions (unless he’s using his “facts” to pick apart my opinions).

_

Depth Talk

Yesterday Jimmy Bama put up a good post on the Eagles depth. He took a look at how things have changed since late in the 2012 season. He also ran through the various position groups and how things stack up.

Projecting depth at this time of the year is always tricky. At this time last year, Danny Watkins was a starting OG and a player we had high hopes for. Julian Vandervelde was a player we expected to be a solid backup. And no one had heard of Nate Menkin (except for Ma and Pa Menkin, of course).  Things are even trickier this year because of the coaching change. The new coaches and new systems will have a positive effect on some players and an adverse effect on others.

I want to wait until after the first mini-camp to do a first depth chart. It will help to find out where some guys are lining up.

Here is the roster breakdown I’m expecting for the final 53:

QB – 3

RB – 4

WR – 5

TE – 2

H-back – 2

OL – 9

DL – 7

OLB – 4

ILB – 4

S – 5

CB – 5

STs – 3

Nothing is set in stone. As Chip Kelly likes to say, it is up to the players to set the depth chart. That will also be true with the roster. Kelly will keep the best 53 players. There are minimums at some positions, but you can go light or heavy at many spots, depending on what the coaching staff wants and which players play well.

* * * * *

A lot of people are making a big deal out of the fact the Eagles have 5 QBs. I don’t really see the big deal. GJ Kinne is a camp body. He’s really not in the equation. Is it theoretically possible he could turn out to be the next Kurt Warner? Sure, but that is less likely than Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale fighting to the death over me (despite those two, the new Total Recall is not good, by the way). You really have 4 QBs fighting for 3 roster spots. This is exactly what the Eagles had last year (Vick, Foles, Kafka, Edwards).

* * * * *

WR is the group that might be the most competitive. The team will keep 5 or 6. You have DeSean, Maclin, Avant, Riley Cooper, Damaris Johnson, Arrelious Benn, Ifeanyi Momah, Marvin McNutt, and BJ Cunningham battling it out. Momah is the guy that I’m most fascinated by. Avant is the one I’m most curious about. Does he still fit in?

* * * * *

LB is still a mystery. At OLB, the big 3 are good (Barwin, Graham, Cole). After that, who knows.  Phillip Hunt and Everette Brown are not natural fits for the 3-4. The Eagles brought in Trevor Scott for a visit yesterday. Chris McCoy is a potential backup, but is more of a longshot.

There are plenty of bodies at ILB. Now it is a matter of seeing who can play well and earn a backup spot. If the guys don’t impress early on, the Eagles could bring in a free agent.

* * * * *

DL is somewhat of a mystery. We project Cox, Thornton, and Sopoaga as the starters. Bennie Logan will have a spot. For now, we’ll leave Vinny Curry as a DE. That’s 5 guys. The other 2 spots would be between Antonio Dixon, Paul Kruger, Ronnie Cameron, Clifton Geathers, David King, and Damion Square.

* * * * *

Safety and CB are going to be very competitive areas. Kurt Coleman started 27 games over the last 2 years and is now the #4 Safety, at best. Chung, Allen, and Phillips are ahead of him. Earl Wolff is there to compete with him. And the tough part here is that Colt Anderson is really the #5 Safety. He’ll be active and play because of STs so there are really only 4 open spots. Coleman might be on the outside looking in.

We know the top 3 CBs, but after that, things are wide open. Could this be the year that Trevard Lindley actually makes the team and sticks? Curtis Marsh is no longer keeping a spot because he was a 3rd round pick. He must earn that spot. Brandon Hughes was a favorite of the previous staff, but the new coaches might prefer Lindley’s size. Eddie Whitley is a S/CB tweener and that versatility could help him. I think Jordan Poyer has an excellent chance to make the team, if he does his part on the field.

* * * * *

Mike Vick and Shady McCoy raced. Vick won. To some, this was a big deal. Shady has never been fast. When Vick was in his prime, he was one of the fastest players in the history of the NFL. Vick has slowed down over the years, but he still should be faster than Shady. If Vick outruns DeSean, then we’ve got a story. Or if Nick Foles beats Shady in a race…STORY!!!

* * * * *

Just a reminder…make sure to check out EaglesBlog from time to time. I’m still posting regular links and updates over there.

* * * * *

Sheil Kapadia has a couple of good items on Matt Barkley and Bennie Logan.

_

Earl Wolff vs Florida State

I decided to pop in the NC State/FSU game to check out Earl Wolff. He didn’t have a bunch of tackles in the game and FSU had a very good run game so I was curious what was going on.  Plus. FSU has some serious athletes on offense.

Overall, he played well. He’s far from perfect, but you can see why the Eagles liked him.  Some observations/notes:

* Wolff was credited with 6 tackles (2 solo).

* Plays boundary Safety. This means that he lines up on the short side of the field. In college, offenses/defenses have to make strategic decisions based on the width of the field. Defenses want 6 players to the wide side. Offense like to attack the short side since there are fewer players and more chances for big plays. The rule of thumb is to put the best tacklers and most physical players on the boundary side.

* Generally lines up 10 yards off the ball.

* In this game, Wolff was aggressive. There were a handful of plays where his assignment was to drop deep, but mostly his first step was going forward.

* He tackled well. I saw one missed tackle. RB Chris Thompson made an amazing play by the sideline to break free from a defender and then got by Wolff as well.

* My favorite play came in a 3rd/short situation. Wolff lined up close to the LOS. The play went to his left. He went over and put his shoulder into the RG. That clogged the hole and someone else got the RB from behind to force a punt. Eagles Safeties haven’t been real keen on engaging OL in recent years.

* Wolff did give up a short TD. He bought the play fake and took one false step. The TE/H-back got behind him and got the pass for a TD. Wolff was just a bit out of position, but his aggression got the best of him there.

* I still don’t have a good feel for his coverage skills. He wasn’t in man coverage hardly at all. There weren’t many good shots that showed him covering deep.

* Wolff didn’t have a chance for many plays. FSU ran to the wide side quite a bit.

* I thought Wolff generally took good angles. There were 2 runs by Thompson where he was a bit out of position, but I have to stress that this is due to Thompson’s explosive speed. Watching this game reminded me just how much I loved Thompson. If 100 percent healthy, he’d have been my #1 RB. Wolff adjusted to his speed and was better on other plays.

* Wolff didn’t have to deal with much in the way of trash or blockers. He got tangled up with a WR on one edge run.

* I love Wolff’s wrap-up tackling.

* No big hits, but he did come up very aggressively vs a WR and was going to pop him good, but the guy ducked. Too bad. Would have been nice to see what kind of hit that was going to be.

* Wolff is just a good, solid player. There is nothing compelling about him (size, playmaking, game speed, etc.). I think that is why he fell down to the 5th round. I think he has the potential to be a starter in the NFL. At the least, he should be a good backup and STer.

I’ve got a few more games to watch. Hopefully I’ll get a better feel for his cover skills and his ability to diagnose plays.

_

Draft Stuff

PE.com got Howie Roseman to sit down for about 10 minutes and discuss the Eagles draft. Good interview by Dave. There were no hard-hitting questions about Dion Jordan or players we missed on, but Dave did get Howie to share a couple of good nuggets.

The best story is that Howie said the Eagles tried to move up into the 3rd round on Friday night to get Matt Barkley. The teams at the bottom of the round didn’t want to deal. They had players that they were set on taking. When the round was over, Howie started making calls to deal up to the top of the 4th round. They really wanted to get Barkley.

Howie also said that the Eagles considered taking Earl Wolff in the 4th round (had Barkley been gone). They happily grabbed him in the 5th round. Had Wolff been gone at that point, Joe Kruger and Jordan Poyer were targets. The 6th round was pure torture since the team had no pick, but saw players they wanted still sitting there. Amazingly, both Kruger and Poyer were there for the taking in the 7th round.

Time will tell if the Eagles were smarter than everybody else and got very lucky or if Kruger/Poyer fell to the 7th because they were talented, but too flawed to succeed in the NFL.

I love the fact that Howie is willing to let us have a bit of inside info. I don’t think his comments are going to help the other teams. They do help us on the outside understand what they were thinking in the draft room as things played out over the weekend. Kudos for not being overly secretive, as so many teams are.

* * * * *

Paul Domowitch used his connections with NFL scouts to get some really good nuggets on the Eagles picks.  I thought the Bennie Logan comments were the most interesting.

Bennie Logan, DT, LSU: “I was down there for LSU’s Pro Day. Bennie was by far the leader of that defensive group. He had to push (Sam) Montgomery through the workout. You maybe expect a little more out of his play at times, but they had so many guys there. But he’s got the right attitude.

“He’s not real tall, but he’s a good athlete who can move around. He’s pretty versatile. He can play the 1-technique. I wouldn’t count him out as a 3 either. And he can play the 5-technique (end in a 3-4). He can be a productive rotational player for them right away.’’

Very good piece. I love it when Domo does this type stuff.

* * * * *

Reuben Frank covered the angle that Chip Kelly passed on his former Oregon Ducks. Good piece, but circumstances really were the key here. Kelly didn’t get a chance to take Dion Jordan. Kyle Long and Kiko Alonso went earlier than I expected. Kenjon Barner was drafted in the 6th round, when the Eagles didn’t have a pick.

Kelly didn’t over-value his guys and demand Howie trade up for them. I think Chip is too smart for stuff like that, but it was good to find that out for sure.

* * * * *

In case I hadn’t linked to it already, here is my PE.com draft review.

Jimmy Bama has some info on NFC East draft picks and shares a couple of thoughts on the numbers that the Eagles rookies are going to wear.

_

More on Matt Barkley

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the player the Eagles traded up for and drafted in the 4th round (pick 98):

Matt Barkley
USC
6-3, 227
40 – 4.91
Hands – 10 1/8

USC bio

Stats – NCAA

Stats – ESPN

Key accomplishments:

* 4-year starter at USC. Also started all 4 years in high school, at major powerhouse Mater Dei.

* 34-13 record as starter at USC

* Barkley set Pac-12 career records for passing yards (12,327), completions (1,001), touchdowns (116) and total offense (12,214) as he won the 2012 Wuerffel Trophy, was a finalist for the Manning Award, Unitas Golden Arm Award, Senior CLASS Award and ARA Sportsmanship Award and was a National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete. USC’s first-ever 3-time captain, he set 20 USC career, season and game records (10 were Pac-12 standards). Last fall, he completed 63.6% of his passes for 3,273 yards and 36 TDs.

Barkley is a talented QB with NFL ability, but he is not a sure thing to even become a starter, let alone a good starter. There is a reason that Barkley fell down to the 4th round. Great value or not, he was still the 98th pick in a league that is so desperate for good QBs that teams were happy to acquire Matt Cassel, David Garrard, and Chase Daniel this offseason.

Let’s talk about what we know with Barkley. He has great experience. He played for a tough coach in Lane Kiffin. Barkley played in a system that combines elements of the WCO and the spread. He threw a ton of passes at or behind the line of scrimmage (LOS). Barkley benefited from his extremely talented WRs racking up run-after-catch (RAC) yards. The flip side is that Barkley got the ball out quickly and accurately so that the receivers could then make plays for him. He wasn’t throwing lollipops out wide and then watching them just run 50 yards against low-level competition.

Let’s talk about competition for just a second. USC is one of a handful of schools that has never played a I-AA (FCS) opponent. They play league games and regional or big time opponents. Barkley played in 11 games this year. 8 of the defenses he faced finished in the Top 50 in the nation. By comparison, Geno Smith faced 4 such defenses. EJ Manuel faced 5 of them (in 14 games). Smith played one game vs I-AA competition (James Madison). Manuel’s first 2 games of the year were against Murray State and Savannah State. FSU won by a total of 124-3. Say what you want about Barkley, but he has played good competition.

Now for the breakdown:

Accuracy - Good. Barkley is an accurate passer. Please don’t mention completion percentage. That’s not what we’re talking about. An accurate QB puts the ball in a specific spot, time after time. Chip Kelly unloaded a new phrase on us the other day – repetitive accuracy. That’s exactly right. The point is that you want a QB who will get the ball to his receivers the same way over and over so that they know where to expect it. That helps the receivers get their hands in position to make the grab. The goal is for the receiver to catch the ball on the move so that he can then get RAC yards. Most QBs are taught to aim for a player’s midsection. Drew Brees has an interesting theory. He aims for a receiver’s eyes. He says they will never lose sight of the ball that way.

Kelly likes Barkley’s accuracy quite a bit. And he should. Barkley consistently puts the ball out in front of his receivers so that they can catch it on the run. I was surprised at how good Barkley is with some intermediate and even deep balls. He is very good with fade routes down the sideline. Barkley truest his receivers to make a play and will put the ball right there on them and the DB. His deep accuracy is inconsistent, but as a point of reference it is much better than Nick Foles from 2011.

My favorite passes from Barkley came on throws to the sideline. He put the ball behind the CB and in front of the S. He would even do this vs man coverage when the WR was covered. These throws had a combination of touch and velocity. Great play and a pass that Barkley threw as well as anyone could.

Arm Strength - Average. Too many people rip Barkley as if he has a terrible arm. That’s not the case. He has an average arm. He actually is a better deep passer than most realize. The key there is that he can use his lower body to help generate throwing power. There was a play in the 2nd half of the Utah game where Barkley threw the ball from his 9-yard line to Marqise Lee and Lee caught it at the Utes 32-yard line. That ball traveled 59 yards in the air. Lee had to slow down at the last second, but that was a good deep ball. Barkley does have more underthrown deep balls than you’d like. You’ll see his WRs slow down for the ball and make the catch. Good result, but still an underthrown pass.

To me, the bigger issue is that some of Barkley’s intermediate throws lack the kind of velocity you’d prefer. This led to some INTs and incompletions. Defenders have a chance to jump routes that they shouldn’t be able to get to. There was a play in one game when Barkley drifted to his left. He saw a WR open over the middle. Barkley didn’t have time to turn his body and step into the throw. He was parallel to the LOS and threw with an odd motion. The pass was right on the money and complete, but had little velocity to it. In the NFL, a DB would likely get to that pass. He will have to adjust to NFL game speed. I don’t think Barkley has the arm strength to throw from different platforms and get the ball to his targets quickly.

Barkley is an excellent touch passer and there are times when he’s trying to throw a catchable pass rather than a bullet. It will be interesting to see if Barkley adjusts this in the NFL and tries to put more velocity on his throws.

Pocket Presence - Inconsistent. Barkley at times is a savvy veteran that moves around pretty well and is able to buy time. There are other plays when he shows no feel for rushers being near him. The USC offensive line was a mess in 2012 so it was tough to get a feel for him based on that. Put on the Stanford game and you’ll see the OL just getting manhandled. Barkley isn’t afraid of sitting in the pocket when under duress. In fact, there are times when he’s too tough and would be wiser to move around.

Athleticism - Average. Barkley isn’t going to scare anyone with his mobility, but he ran a respectable 40 time. Barkley ran for 6 career TDs. Geno Smith had 4, Landry Jones 3, and Ryan Nassib 5. Those guys are all pocket passers. Barkley can throw on the run. USC did a lot with bootlegs and Barkley is effective on them. I wouldn’t call it a strength, though. Barkley isn’t very elusive when trying to get away from rushers, but he does know how to slide. He will run when there is room and no better option, but don’t expect more than a few yards. His long run at USC was 27 yards.

Mechanics - Good. Barkley has played under Center and in the shotgun. He never played in a pure spread offense so he understands how to take snaps, drop back, set, and throw the ball. His motion is fluid and natural. His footwork is good. There aren’t wasted steps. He doesn’t have busy feet. Barkley is smart enough to adjust his body when making different throws. He’ll adjust his release point depending on if he wants the ball high or low. Barkley doesn’t have a cannon for an arm so he does a good job of stepping into throws to help drive the ball. Way too many QBs are casual with their feet and make arm throws. Barkley has been well-coached over the years and it shows. Barkley does a good job with play fakes. He extends the ball to the RB to sell the run action.

Instincts/Reading Coverage/Decision-Making - This category is really hard to judge without seeing coaches tape and knowing the USC offense really well. From a simplistic level, I see Barkley generally finding the open receiver. There are times when Barkley makes a mistake and puts a ball into coverage. Some times these are aggressive throws, but I also saw some where Barkley didn’t see a defender and flat out made a bad read. Barkley was too aggressive at times. He isn’t afraid to put the ball into a tight window. You like the fact that he’s fearless, but he threw 48 career INTs and that’s too many. Geno Smith and Ryan Nassib combined to throw 49 career picks.

One of Barkley’s biggest strengths is also a major weakness. He doesn’t like to give up on plays. This led to him taking some dumb chances. When defenders got into the backfield, Barkley’s internal clock sped up a bit, but he kept looking downfield. There are some plays where he would throw the ball away as he was being hit or slung to the ground. Dumb, dumb, and dumb. Take the sack. Don’t risk the turnover. Eli Manning is the best QB I’ve ever seen at doing this and getting away with it. Ben Roethlisberger is up there, but he does fumble too much. Barkley didn’t fumble much at all, but if he tries that stuff in the NFL, he’s going to be in trouble.

In defense of Barkley, he went into a lot of games knowing that he had to score a lot of points. The USC defense ranged from average to awful during his tenure. The running game was mediocre. That meant Barkley and the passing attack had to make plays. Barkley was 8-8 in games where USC scored 24 points or less. He knew that points had to be scored and that meant being aggressive and taking chances.

I don’t have stats for Barkley as a Red Zone passer, but he passed the eye test. He showed the ability to make quick reads and get the ball out immediately or to give his guys time to get open. I didn’t see reckless throws or decisions in the RZ. Barkley threw 116 career TDs. The only active QB with more is Landry Jones (123) and he played in 5 more games.

I also like the fact that Barkley gave his receivers a chance to make plays. He would put the ball near them when single-covered, knowing that he had talented WRs that could go get the ball. Think about the Super Bowl and the 3rd down pass that Joe Flacco made to Anquan Boldin. Flacco threw to a covered WR, but Boldin went up and got the ball. That was a huge play. It wasn’t a high percentage play, but you must be able to take chances like that in some situations. Barkley got to play with skilled receivers in college and that will serve him well in the NFL.

Intangibles - Very good. I cannot stress this enough. Matt Barkley is not Mark Sanchez or Matt Leinart. Those guys played at USC with complete teams that could dominate. Sanchez was only the starter for one full season. USC had the #2 defense in the nation and the #22 running game. In Leinart’s 3 years as a starter…he lost a total of 2 games. Those teams were loaded with great college talent (and some pretty good NFL talent). Barkley had defenses that ranked 40th, 54th, 84th, and 60th. The rushing attack was 44th, 25th, 53rd, and 71st. It was up to Barkley to carry USC in his time there.

Sanchez and Leinart also played at USC in the glamour days. Snoop Dogg was there at practice. Will Ferrell was on the sideline at games. Life was good. Life was fun. Barkley was there when the glamour was gone and football was the focus. Leinart stayed at USC for his Senior year despite having a chance to be a high pick. He took one class…ballroom dancing. Leinart wanted to enjoy the good life for another year. He was dating gorgeous SoCal babes, learning to dance, and playing football. Heck, that’s a lifestyle that NFL players would be jealous of.

Barkley showed great leadership after his Freshman season when Carroll left and things started to get ugly. Barkley went to the football office and got a list of recruits. He called them to let the guys know he was staying and that he wanted the guys to still come to USC. There was no coach in place. There were rumors of NCAA sanctions coming down. Barkley was doing everything in his power to keep things together. He was the leader of the program and wasn’t even a Sophomore. Think about where you were at that time in your life. Could you have done that? I had a hard time getting to Friday classes after Thursday night drinking.

I don’t want to paint Barkley out to be a saint, but his family seems to have done a good job of keeping him grounded. They have stayed active in charity work over the years. Back in 2010, with no bowl game to go to, Barkley took a trip to Nigeria during Christmas break. That’s no joke. He went to do some help with a missionary that was friends with his mom.

We’re always judging players from far away so one can never be sure, but Barkley sure looks like the kind of guy you would trust as your franchise QB. He’s smart, driven, successful, and doesn’t project the glamour boy image that other USC QBs did.

SUMMARY

Projecting Barkley to the NFL is tough. I could see him having a terrific career or getting stuck as a career backup. I don’t doubt that he’ll be in the league for a while. He loves football and seems like the kind of guy who will do whatever he can to stick around. I do question if he’s got the physical ability to be a good starter. Put him in the right situation and I think he’s got a chance.

We don’t yet know what Chip Kelly’s offense will look like. We anticipate lots of quick throws and plays designed to create 1-on-1 matchups. There will also be plenty of running the ball. If that is the case, Barkley is a good fit. He’s not going to hit DeSean Jackson 60 yards down the field very often, but Barkley will get the ball out quickly on short throws and give the Eagles talented receivers a chance to make plays for him.

Kelly will give all his QBs a chance to show what they can do. Barkley has the experience to step in right away and challenge for a job, but I don’t expect him to beat out the competition. It would be a great story if it happens, but don’t count on it. Barkley has never faced competition like this, either in terms of the defenses he’ll face or the players he’ll battle for the QB job.

I know many people are going to talk about the fact Barkley was just a 4th round pick and how it is rare that those guys pan out. There is an x-factor here. The Eagles had a higher grade on him. Back in 2000 the Patriots got Tom Brady in the 6th round, but they had him rated much higher. Brady wasn’t your typical 6th round QB. Barkley isn’t your typical 4th rounder. I had Brady rated as a 2nd rounder back then. I had Barkley rated as a 3rd rounder this year. I’m not comparing the players, but rather the circumstances around them and where they got drafted. I liked Tom Brady a lot back then. I’m more ambivalent about Barkley. I hope he pans out in the NFL, but don’t feel overly confident that it will happen.

________________

I watched Gruden’s QB Camp with Barkley after the draft. I was a bit disappointed in the episode. Gruden got stuck discussing protection, but it was frustrating because Barkley explained the play in question very well. Barkley told Gruden what the defense was, what the protection was, and what went wrong. The LT missed an assignment. The rest of the offense did their job correctly.

I did like the fact that Gruden was beating it into Barkley’s head that he needs to make his teammates focus on protection. Gruden showed some good blocks by the RB and told Barkley that he should be praising the heck out of the guy for plays like that. Those blocks are crucial.

My favorite part came when Gruden was focused on a simple play. It is a play-action pass where the FB goes to the flat and there are a couple of players downfield. Gruden showed the play in the Arizona game. It was 4th/2 and in scoring territory. The FB was wide open in the flat. Barkley threw downfield for the TE, who wasn’t able to make the catch. Gruden lectured Barkley on making the smart read and going for the FB. As he said, “You’ll never go broke making a profit.” Great line. If you have an open receiver, get him the ball. Don’t force the situation and go for big plays when you’ve got easy yards right there for the taking.

________________

How does Barkley do with the Bill Parcells QB requirements?

The candidate must be a senior.
The candidate must be a college graduate, and he must hold a 4 year degree.
The candidate must have a B average or better in school.
The candidate must have been a 3 year starter in college.
The candidate must have made 30 starts in college.
The candidate must have 23 victories in college.
The candidate must impress us as a strong leadership figure
The candidate must be strongly recommended by his head coach.
The candidate cannot have a rap-sheet, or run-ins with the law.

Barkley meets all of the requirements that we know of. The only question we have is whether Lane Kiffin gave him a strong recommendation. I’d be shocked if that didn’t happen.

There is a new system some believe in. 26-27-60.

The QB prospect needs to score 26 or higher on the Wonderlic, win 27 or more games in college, and complete 60 percent or higher of his passes. We don’t know Barkley’s Wonderlic score, but he seems like a bright young man and I’d be surprised if he was below that. He meets the other two requirements.

* * * * *

Do you remember the Eagles Almanac from last year?

It is back and will be even better.  This is a publication that a bunch of Eagles writers are putting together to cover all kinds of angles on the team and what might happen in 2013.

Here is the link with all the info.

Make sure to pre-order your copy. If not, you’ll be missing out on this incredible group of writers:

Eagles Almanac 2013 will include detailed analysis, essays, scouting, statistics, and more from your favorite writers and bloggers:

I haven’t seen such a wretched hive of scum and villainy since the last Justin Bieber tour, but boy can these people write.

_