Misc Eagles News

3 more players have signed:  Vinny Curry, Dennis Kelly, and Marvin McNutt are now officially Eagles.  No Bryce Brown?  He’s clearly holding out.  I knew that guy was trouble.  Send Rocco and Tony over to his house to encourage him to sign on the dotted line.

I’m joking of course.  As Sam pointed out in the previous comments section, there is no reason to worry about rookie deals until the summer.  When I said that I wanted Brandon Boykin signed ASAP…I guess I didn’t intend people to read that as a literal thing.  Poor wording on my part.  I was simply trying to point out that he and Kendricks are the most important rookies and getting them signed is a good thing.  Even though there isn’t a specific time crunch, my attitude is always going to be “the sooner, the better” when it comes to contracts.

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I put up a post at ScoutsNotebook yesterday morning.  I talked about an interesting column from Greg Cosell, that involved the Eagles.  I also talked about Shanny and RG3 and what an interesting situation they’re in.

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I’m curious to see what Mardy Gilyard can do this summer.  He played for the Rams in 2010 and had 6 catches for 63 yards.  That’s not real impressive to be sure, but their passing attack was small ball at its finest.  Gilyard did average 22 yards per KOR.  He could be an interesting slot receiver and RS for us.  He’s faster than Chad Hall.  Gilyard has to show that he can pick up the playbook quickly and that he’s hungry to make the roster.  I think being on a stable roster with talented players will be a big help to him.  I don’t know if that will be enough for him to earn a spot.

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The Eagles put in a waiver claim for DB Akwasi Owusu-Ansah.  Unfortunately, Dallas is ahead of us and they also put in a claim.  AOA was a 4th round pick for the Boys back in 2010.  He struggled with a shoulder injury and they cut him last year.  He played some for the Jags, but then was recently cut.

AOA played his college ball at Indiana (PA).  He is a CB/S tweener with good size at 6-0, 210.  He also has KOR ability.  I’m not sure if the Eagles liked him as a press corner or potential SS candidate.  He’s nothing special, but is an interesting guy.

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Stephanie Stradley is a Houston Texans fan and good writer/blogger.  She had an interesting column recently that ripped NFL.com.  Apparently someone at the site had a post up with pictures of players wives/girlfriends and asked readers to comment on them.  You can imagine that some crazy things were said.

Stephanie wasn’t real happy with the NFL for having content like this on the front page of NFL.com.  I don’t blame her.  I enjoy looking at gorgeous women as much as the next guy, but is that really the level of content I need from NFL.com?

Back in the mid-90′s I used to talk to my buddy Bob about how awesome it would be if we had a football only network.  We both loved watching ESPN’s NFL coverage, but that just wasn’t enough.  The internet existed, but not to us.  Who could afford a $2000 computer?  We got news updates by watching the scroll at the bottom of ESPN2.  I can’t tell you how many nights we watched the World’s Strongest Man competition and chugged beer while waiting for new NFL news to pop up on the scroll.

Here we are some 15 years later.  We have NFL.com.  We have the NFL Network.  I rarely use either resource.  I love Rich Eisen and Mike Mayock and Alex Flanagan, but far too much of the NFLN is Jamie Dukes saying dumb things or Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders mistaking volume for quality in regard to their comments.  I remember watching Combine coverage last year where it was Steve Wyche and some former player.  Wyche was supposed to just be the host/info guy, but he had a better feel for football than the player.  Put Wyche on the air more often.  So what if Jamie Dukes played in the NFL?  Wyche is smarter, more fun to listen to, and has a better feel for the game.

NFL.com has its share of idiots.  A friend mentioned to me reading something by Bucky Brooks prior to the draft.  My response?  ”Why the F did you do that?”  Bucky is an idiot.  The fact he once played in the league and served as a scout just depresses me.

There is some good NFL.com content.  Albert Breer and Jason LaCanfora provide good information.  Mayock is great, when he’s on there.  I love the fact that NFL.com is now providing old Combine info.  The site does have its merits.

Unfortunately the site panders way more than it should.  That means crap on Tim Tebow.  It means pictures of players wives.  It means stories about Ochocinco or whoever the hot dog of the moment is.

I am not a prude that wants NFL coverage to be totally boring.  It is, after all, entertainment.  I just wish that NFL.com would do less of that stuff and also mix in some smart content.  Mix in Football Outsiders type of stuff.  Have lengthy articles explaining the Wide-9 scheme or how the 4-2-5 Nickel works.  Chris Brown of SmartFootball wrote a brilliant piece prior to the Super Bowl on the Pats and the way they mixed the 4-3 and 3-4 at the same time.  That one post had more wisdom than NFL.com does in a 6 months (or more).

C’mon NFL.  There are smart fans out there.  Give us some quality content and we’ll start coming to the site a heckuva lot more often.

And please find something for Jamie Dukes to do that involves polar research or a long trip to somewhere that has no microphones.

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Rams fans have had a tough go of it for a while now.  That doesn’t mean they’ve lost their sense of humor.  One smart fan and blogger put together his ideas on how the playbook must have looked.  Very funny stuff indeed.