Eagles Notebook
Posted: June 28th, 2012 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 33 Comments »For PE.com, I wrote about some of my favorite Eagles and players I think are under-appreciated. Any chance I get to write about guys like Andy Harmon, Brian Mitchell, and William Fuller, you bet I’m going to do it.
Check out the column and then let me know some of your favorite under-appreciated Eagles.
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The NFL is moving the kickoff on doubleheader games from 4:15pm to 4:25. Good move. There is normally one game a year where I miss part of the 1st Qtr because the early game ran long and DirecTV wouldn’t let me see the second game since it was a national broadcast.
I missed Shady’s long run vs the Colts in 2010. I missed part of the PIT game in 2008. I missed part of the Denver game in 2005. I’m drawing a blank on last year. Always made me crazy to miss some plays because of a weird snafu. Now that situation is less likely to occur.
The only question now…what happens with 60 Minutes? Do they just push it back to 730pm and plan accordingly?
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Chris Berman is going to call a game for ESPN on the opening Monday night. The feedback on Twitter is pretty bad. This doesn’t seem to be a popular move.
I love Berman in some settings. I think he is great with NFL highlights. I like him on baseball games. I like him on the NFL Draft. I listened to some of his US Open golf coverage this year and it was awful. The Masters would shoot him rather let him near a microphone down there.
What do you guys think of Berman calling an NFL game? I’m curious to see if he’ll do a good job. He loves football and fits it much better than golf. I do wonder if he’ll add to the game or be a big distraction.
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In case any of you have missed this, Derek has been posting some stuff this week over at Iggles Blog. What brought that hack out of retirement? I guess his cellmate let him get online for a few days.
Actually, since he did some writing for Eagles Almanac, Derek had some additional info he wanted to post. Those of you who love his stats and graphs will enjoy the bonus coverage. Derek is great with that stuff. Sadly, he’s not coming out of retirement. We’ll just have to hope for random updates as he gets spare time…or so mad at Juan Castillo that he just can’t hold back.
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Tweet of the day is from Evan Mathis:
Congratulations to my 11-week old daughter on her 77 days of sobriety.
He is nuts. Thank god he’s an Eagle.
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Sixers fans…the NBA Draft is tonight. Will they get Dontari Poe, Luke Kuechly, or Fletcher Cox?
Here is the SB Nation Philly Draft Guide. Not by me, of course. I enjoy college basketball, but know very little about the NBA and the NBA Draft. I just hope the Sixers get someone that can help sooner rather than later.
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I upgraded the Comments section to a newer version of Disqus. Let me know if you have any problems. It was working okay for me earlier.
Initially it was newer comments at the top. I changed that to have them go from oldest (top) to newest (bottom). I’m not sure if that change was for everyone or just me. Keep an eye out for that.
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New format? I like it.
I remember the Harmon draft, it was the first time I knew any 40 times for prospects, Harmon’s was very good.
Tommy, with my web browser, the first comment is at the bottom and the most recent comment is at the top. It’s kinda nice that way. I like the new style of being able to view replies. That may help to keep some good discussions going.
It seems you can click on the “Discussion” button and sort comments how you like. Could be a good feature.
If you sort it by “best” mine shows up at the top. I like that.
You Montana guys are all showboats.
Yeah, I see that now… thanks for pointing it out. And I think it’s an excellent feature. I can read the first posts first when I arrive and then as I check back in have the more recent ones at the top… very nice.
My favorite under-appreciated Eagle? Ben Smith. He was awesome across the field from Eric Allen. I remember a game in the early 90s where he shut down Jerry Rice. Rice had like one catch for 7 yards, if I remember correctly. An injury cut short what would have been a great career.
It’s cool that you included Mark McMillan in your list. I always liked him a lot. McMillan’s ability to shut down large receivers makes me feel better about Mychal Kendricks’ chances against big tight ends.
Mark was a good player, not just a novelty. I hope people understand that. He was tiny, but the dude could play. You don’t play at Bama and in the NFL by accident. And 23 career INTs is no joke.
Man, Irving Fryer and Eric Allen… I wanted to be those guys so bad back in the day playing backyard football. Haha, good memories.
The Eagles offensive line wasn’t a strong unit during the Buddy Ryan and Rich Kotite eras. I laughed out at this one. It could be said that after Noah loaded the Ark, for the era of 40 days and nights, the weather wasn’t the best.
Understated, just a bit you think?
The O-line played well in 1992, but that’s because we ran the ball so much (2nd in the NFL and over 2,000 yards). Other than that, the OL was pretty awful.
It’s rare that Kotite can come in to save Ryan’s reputation, if only by a little.
I have to hand it to Dave Rimington though. He was practically crippled and played tough anyway.
Berman is a more astute football guy than most of the roundtable dudes. If he tones down the act -which he can do -I think he could be a decent play by play guy. He’s a professional broadcaster with a strong knowledge of the game. A lot of the guys they have in the booth are neither.
Also, Mathis tweet would be better if he congratulated her on her 75 days of sobriety.
I must’ve missed 60 minutes…..
My favorite under appreciated Eagle on the current roster is Kurt Coleman. As I’ve said before, he can become a very solid SS for us (like Ryan Clark in Pittsburgh).
Carlos Emmons. No question. When he left the Iggles’ LB problems began.
He is a player that should probably get talked about more.
Love the new commenting section- now I can contribute to the insanity! The previous one wasn’t mobile friendly at all.
Plus one for irving fryar. It was before I really understood what was happening in football but I remember him being my favorite eagle at ages like 6-8…
The comments look prettier now, but clicking a “0” or caret to indicate you liked a post is somewhat less intuitive than a thumbs up icon. Bad UI design.
Fortunately, nobody has started a discussion about their favorite brand of sunglasses, so it hasn’t been an issue.
Damn, I just realized that I am actually in the Top 10 commenters. At least that makes my day better after losing to Italy last night…
where do they keep track of the top commentors here? i doubt i’m anywhere near the top, but with this sort of metric in place, i’d be inclined to try! haha
Click on “Community” and then you will see them on the right hand side.
Hey everyone! New to the comments section but have been enjoying Tommy’s work for a few years now. Was wondering if anyone new of a good Eagles podcast. I keep looking for one but all I find is Eagles Live which is cool but not from a fans perspective. I was thinking of starting one with my brother and would love any ideas.
Welcome aboard! Tommy’s blog is by far my favorite “Eagles” location on the internet, and it’s always nice when new folks decide to jump in and start sharing insight and opinions!
I haven’t had a whole lot of interest in the podcasting thing, but if you do decide to start one up, I’m sure plenty of guys from here would drop by to give a listen and share ideas.
Thanks I’ve been hesitant to join a board because of all the knuckleheads but this one seems to be free of all that! Plus it is pretty insightful and humorous. Glad to finally take the plunge!
I think Chad Lewis was pretty underappreciated.
I’m not sure if he counts as underrated, but I loved Clyde Simmons. I watched old games and while Reggie White obviously shows up, you also notice that tall, lean dude wreaking havoc on the other side. I also love Wes Hopkins, but I’m not sure if he counts either. He should though, because Andre Waters always got the hype.
Casual or younger fans would do well to do some research on Buddy Ryan’s Eagles. I doubt that anyone here would consider Clyde or Wes “underrated” in fact, if I recall correctly Tommy considers Wes Hopkins among his all time greats at the Safety position. I absolutely loved the dynamic duo of Hopkins and Waters… if Nate and Kurt could get even 60% of the way there I’d be satisfied.
As far as Derek’s little piece on Asante, I think this is an example where you have to be wary of football stats. Asante does one thing great, that’s anticipate plays in front of him, and he intimidates QBs. But to do this successfully, he needs a veteran safety who can cover for him, and that limits the rest of the defense (because you can attack that combo if you have a smart QB, a receiving TE, and a WR who has a good double move).
It’s not that Asante isn’t a good player (though I think he’s near the end, he looked a step slower last year and started cheating more), but he’s really a zone CB who doesn’t tackle, which kinda limits his value unless he’s getting you 8 or 9 Ints – because his poor tackling can make him vulnerable to WR screens and you’d better have a good run stopping LDE and SLB (cause they ain’t getting a lot of CB help). Mikell and Dawk covered his worst sins, and allowed him to showcase his virtues, not sure the Falcons have the safeties who’ll provide him the same support.
I think the Falcon’s need to make some kind of splash to appease their fan base. AS22 is well respected among fans, and I read more than a few lunkheaded comments on NFL.com about how this team and that team could have benefited from having him.
They fired both of their coordinators, and I think needed some positive press to appease a fan base that can’t understand their lack of playoff success. Unfortunately for the AS22 will get them some picks, but won’t lead them to playoff victory due to your aforementioned liabilities.
Tim Hauck and Damon Moore