Locker Room Shuffle
Posted: March 29th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 64 Comments »Chip Kelly is one of those coaches who thinks about everything. Every decision is made with some reasoning behind it. You can say that he’s a control freak or micro-managing things, but Chip would argue that he’s just trying to do every little thing he can to help his team win. I started to catch onto this while in Mobile for the Senior Bowl. I heard about how Chip brought his guys from Oregon to try and teach the rest of the staff and players Chip’s Way. What may seem small or unimportant to others could be something he’s got a definitive opinion on.
I love Chip’s mentality. He’s looking for every edge possible. Why not do that? We know it works well in college, but have no idea if will work in the NFL. That’s what is going to make the 2013 season so fun. We’ll constantly be learning about the Eagles, Chip Kelly, and the success of his methods.
The latest move by Kelly is to mix up the locker room. In the past, players sat around guys from their position group. Now the lockers will be more random. You might have Alex Henery, Trent Cole, and Nate Allen in a cluster. I’m hoping for Damaris Johnson and new DE Clifton Geathers to be neighbors. Talk about the long and short of it…
Les Bowen did a good article on the changes.
The lockers are being moved in order to try and encourage players to get outside of their cliques. Last year we saw the defensive line acting as a separate entity. That’s not healthy for overall team chemistry. You need players to interact and start to care about each other.
Moving locker assignments isn’t going to be some magic cure-all for team chemistry, but it can help. We’ll see just how much it works. Obviously Kelly thought it worked well at Oregon and that’s why he’s doing it here. If it just helps a little, that’s fine by me.
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Les also gave us a good injury update in the article.
* “Kelce, who tore his ACL and MCL in the second game of the 2012 season, isn’t quite as far along in his recovery as Herremans, he said.”
* Herremans said he is completely cleared for the special early minicamp allotted to new coaches that starts April 16.
* Herremans said he has talked to the other notable o-line injury victim, Jason Peters, who is coming back from a twice-torn Achilles’: “He’s cleared, he said he’s ready to rock,” Herremans said.
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Jeff McLane dropped an interesting nugget on Twitter the other day.
“Scratch Vinny Curry from OLB list. Eagles intend to keep him at DE, although may require diff skill set and some extra lbs in new scheme.”
I’ve not been able to confirm this, but McLane got the info from somewhere. This isn’t the kind of item you just make up.
Curry as a 5-tech DE doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but let’s try to understand this move. I wonder if Tom Gamble had any influence. Justin Smith is a very good player for SF. He came into the league at 6-4, 267. He was drafted by the Bengals to play in the 4-3 and then signed away to play in the 3-4. Gamble was with SF when they signed him.
Curry is 6-3, 266. That’s a very similar build to Smith. Both guys have great motors. Curry played some DT at the Senior Bowl and showed the ability to beat blocks on the inside. Maybe that’s another thing that made someone think he could be a 5-tech DE.
I do think Curry would need to bulk up to the 280 range. That would still make him small, but it might be big enough for how the Eagles want to use him. Curry told Tim McManus earlier that he was getting in shape to play 3-4 OLB. That means he was probably right around 260 pounds.
Eagles coaches can’t actually tell Curry where he’s going to play until April 1st. How ridiculous is that? The new CBA does some good things, but little things like that hurt players. Let the coaches talk to them for 30 mins a week or something like that. The coach could then tell Curry what kind of training he needed to be doing.
One of the reasons this is so hard to believe is that the Eagles just worked out Princeton’s Mike Catapano. He is 6-3, 271. The Eagles had him working out as a LB. Height, weight, and body type can be different things, but just still seems funny to take a guy like Curry and bulk him up. It is possible McLane got bad info or someone simply mis-communicated, but for now we’ll go with it and think of Curry as a DE. I’m looking forward to Kelly or Bill Davis offering an explanation of what they’re thinking. The move might be great. I’d just like to know the rationale behind it.
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I helped a guy named Ryan Lownes do a mock draft for the Eagles last night on Twitter. I would do one pick and then he would do one. It made for an interesting exercise. TL = my picks, RL = Ryan’s picks.
1 – LB Dion Jordan – Oregon (TL)
2 – QB EJ Manuel – Florida State (RL)
3 – WR Marquise Goodwin – Texas (TL)
4 – CB Sanders Commings – Georgia (RL)
5 – OT Brennan Williams – UNC (TL)
7 – OG Omoregie Uzzi – Ga Tech (RL)
7 – FS Rontez Miles – Calif. PA – (TL)
7 – DE Kapron Lewis-Moore – Notre Dame (RL)
7 – TE Joe Fauria – UCLA – (TL)
The quick takeaway is that you can’t get everything you want.
When I do mock drafts for the Eagles, I never go for a WR in the 3rd. I wanted to do something different to make me look at a new scenario. I would prefer a S, OT, DE, or TE there, but what if Chip Kelly has fallen in love with a WR and the scouts have a high grade on him? That might be the best player available.
I really want us to use the 2nd round pick on an OT. I think we need someone with LT potential there. I hope we pass on a QB until the 3rd or 4th round. The Eagles might like Manuel or some other QB and take them in the 2nd. Still hard to get a read on things.
Let me know what you liked and hated. Keep in mind that I can’t answer for Ryan’s picks…good or bad. He knows the draft well to those picks are based on his tape study, research, and knowledge of the Eagles. Ryan knows his stuff.
_
In terms of Curry, Geoff Mosher also mentioned Curry was moving to DE.
Geoff Mosher
@GeoffMosherCSN
Geathers brought in to compete. #Eagles need another 5-technique opposite Fletcher Cox. Vinny Curry also will work in DE in the scheme.
This very easily could be him just repeating what McLane said, but I guess I would have expected him to credit McLane if that was all it was.
Didn’t see that. On Twitter, you don’t always have room to cover everything, but you’re right…could be Mosher’s heard that as well.
Exactly, that’s why I wasn’t sure whether he was independently reporting it or just repeating McLane’s tweet. At the very least, Mosher (or anyone else that I have seen) has not denied McLane’s tweet so far.
Could this whole “Curry at DE” thing be something like when they would have 4 DEs lined up on obvious passing downs?
It is possible that the Eagles will mostly play him at DE in the Nickel/Dime and not try to teach him OLB this year.
Tommy, you said the coaches can’t tell the players, like Curry, where they will be playing before April 1st. But is there a way around this like telling the media where they see a player playing and having it leaked. For example, could Chip or one of the coaches told McLane that Curry was playing DE. Or does this violate “the spirit of the CBA?”
Great question, the whole thing seems so inane, how do you enforce that. I’m going to watch what the Eagles said when we brought in the new Punter. Can we get fined for admitting the player is a punter? Are the coaches and FO supposed to be absurdly mum every time the subject of a specific player comes up?
Who said they are not allowed to talk about a player? My understanding is they are not allowed to talk to the player about anything football related hence they can not talk to Curry about it. That would be easy to enforce.
That is a great question. I really don’t know. The NFL is strict so nothing they say/do really shocks me.
I wondered the same thing. If the coaches can’t talk to the players, I wouldn’t think they could talk to the media about what they are going to tell the players. That doesn’t seem much different than Chip calling Curry’s Mom and telling her.
So either this was a leak that violates the spirit of the rule, or it isn’t as well sourced as we might have thought.
Or it’s just that they don’t want the coach talking to the player.
Sure they can just have an agent relay info to a player
The thing is they aren’t allowed to talk to the players about ANYTHING related to football.
Most people are talking about us taking a front 7 player at 4, or OT, is that because of need, fit, or is that where the talent is early in this draft?
Both. Lots of talent. Definite areas of need.
Is it April 16th yet?
Oh man, I can hardly wait.
You don’t have to wait, you can do your taxes right now!
better not be… still haven’t sent in my taxes
My opinion on the Curry move:
This information is based on me watching the 2009 Cardinals play the Texans. Assuming Davis is going to stay true to his past, run a 4-3 under and not have players switch their side based on where the offense’s strong side is, he needs (using 3-4 terminology) two DEs and two OLBs who can play both roles. IE, when the strong side is the offense’s right, the LOLB and LDE play as SAM and 5tech; when the strong side is the offense’s left, the ROLB and RDE do. A player like Fletcher Cox would have no trouble in this sort of scheme because of how many things he can do well, but the problem is who plays the other side. The coaches might view Curry as having the potential to be an adequate inside run defender at 280-285 and a good inside passrushing presence when he has to play the 3tech. If Curry was at OLB, he would have to play SAM as well as JACK, and they might not believe in his ability to play the former.
I can think of two other possible explanations. This could just be a smokescreen to make the appearance of the eagles not having a need at DE because they want Sharrif Floyd or Star Lotulelei. The other whackier possibility is that instead of using 3-4 terminology they are using 5-2 terminology. That is, the front seven would be comprised of 1 NT, 2 DTs, 2 DEs and 2 LBs. I think this is a possibility because this sort of terminology is much more accurate in terms of the roles of the players, and we know how Chip is a free thinker who hates conventional labels. While the outside pass rushers do drop into coverage more than a typical 4-3, they still mostly rush the passer like 4-3 defensive ends. The three big bodies inside serve roles most like that of typical 4-3 DTs: control the line, stop the run or provide an inside pass rush. Kind of an outside possibility, but in this case Curry would function as a 3-4 OLB while being called a DE.
Alternative smoke screen theory:
We have a log jam of pass rushers that…don’t quite fit, some COULD fit, but it is far from proven. I’m sure every team in desperate need for pass rushers (or pass-rush depth) has identified the Eagles as a possible trading partner to get depth or prospects cheap. Naturally the Eagles would love to make it look like we value and have a use for as many of these….square pegs if you will, as possible.
The immediate reason to dismiss the theory is hey, we spent a 2nd round pick on this guy just last year. And as it stands we would be lucky to get a 5th for him just 1 year later. Embarrassing. But I honestly think we would take a 4th to draft a player that fits in this new regime over a talented young prospect that will be warming the bench because he doesn’t quite fit right. But we need to convince trading partner that we do have a use for him to drive up our bargaining.
Man, I’m not crazy of giving up on Curry. out of our log Jam of Predators, Curry is the one I feel like might have the chance at becoming decent/capable in coverage…You would think they would have tried to move a run defender like Cole to 5tec before they moved Curry. I found that tweet very odd. not really even sure what my theory is…but I can’t imagine us trading him away for a 4th round pick at this point, when you have two of his former College coaches on the staff, which I thought believed in him. Interesting situation…Does anyone remember what Billy Davis was looking for in a NT and 5tec…would he go with a player who should be more of a 3tec like Sharrif Floyd, or is he looking for a Star/Hankins/WilliAms type anchore?
Also, what do you guys know about OT Roger Saffold? He was the starting LT of the Rams, who apparently isn’t thrilled with being moved to the Right side going into a contract year of his rookie Deal. The Rams have been calling him since bringing Long onto the team, but he hasn’t returned any of their calls..Rotoworld alerts that if this continues he could hit the trading block. Anyone know this kids game enough to comment?
Completely agree. Frankly I can’t see anyone making this decision for Curry before anyone even gets on a field. The kid has been prepping for being a LB all off-season, it would make zero sense to tell him to forget that, and go the other way, before you even see him on the field.
I was just trying to imagine a plausible scenario in which…it’s just hard to imagine these reports being accurate…but they just sound so certain.
totally agree. Kids been busting his butt all offseason to become an OLB, and his pictures are proof..yet they aren’t even going to consider him at OLB? I dont care who reports it, I just can’t believe it until I see it confirmed from a coach. It’s just too Odd.mDevils advocate says two of his former college coaches are on our staff, so maybe they have a real strong belief that he can play on a line, but how could that info not have been leaked to his agent? It’s such a drastically different offseason training Regime that it would require to get ready to make the leap from one position to the other, that I can’t believe we would be so incompetent and waste an off season by having Curry get ready for a significantly different position. I don’t believe it, and I really hope it’s not true. That’s some Andy Reid type ish, and I would like to think that the boneheaded decisions are behind us
The hints being dropped by the organization might just be deliberately misleading.
And also, how they list a player’s position and what he actually does don’t always amount to the same thing.
So we probably shouldn’t get too excited about these rumors about Curry.
If he is pissed that they want to make him a RT, he won’t be coming here in a trade. Our LT spot isn’t available.
As a corollary to your smokescreen theory, it would make us look more hungry for Dion at #4, perhaps spurring some other team to jump ahead of us for him. This would both help out Kelly’s former player and push down a player we might actually be targeting. Or push down a player, Geno for instance, that we know somebody wants and allows us to trade down.
This is like following a chess match where you can see one of the player’s arm move, but not which piece he moved and are completely guessing at what the opponent is doing.
I always thought a 5-2 would make a lot of sense. As long as the 2 were athletic enough to cover well.
If you were to group players based on how close they usually are to the line of scrimmage rather than if they are standing up, a 3-4 would be a 5-2.
Under this logic, Richardson is the perfect draft choice b/c he’s a clone of Cox, wouldn’t matter who was the “3” or “5”.
I’m good with Jordan at 4… lately I’m more excited about possibly taking Lane Johnson with our 1st (assuming a small trade back) or even just taking Lane straight up at 4.
Don’t get the EJ Manuel pick in round 2… If you take Jordan at 4 I don’t see how you use our 2nd round pick anywhere other than O-line, in that scenario I’m taking Kyle Long.
(as you can see I’m hell bent on adding some youth to our o-line)
Love the Goodwin pick for the 3rd round. I just see the potential there, and I assume DeSean falls off a cliff as he ages, and feel uncertain about Maclin’s future with the team.
I see what you mean when you said the team needs to add a 2/3/4 pick somehow…
I really dig the 4th round pick of Commings. I hope he lasts that long!
Also like the Miles pick in the 7th.
So I guess I like some of the picks…
Mac, I’m with you brother.
Dion Jordan, Kyle Long, Barrett Jones, Montari Hughes, Nick Kasa, Rontez Miles, Brandon Mcgee(we AQUIRE an extra 4th round pick in one way or another), Dexter McCoil, Luke Mrquardt
Is Commings the kind of guy that can play Safety as well? Or is he strictly a CB? Looking at his measurements, it sure seem’s like he could do both.
If he doesn’t pan out at CB, could play S. Has the size and is a good run defender.
They also looked at Willie Carter out of Tulsa, 6-1 1/2 232 lbs, ran a 4.45 and put up 28 reps at his pro day, not a great runner but caught a lot of passes, could be a big fast RB who can split wide.
There’s only two QBs in this draft with obvious NFL grade tools and at least some or more on-field common sense and moxie. That’s Geno and EJ. At this point, I’m nearly certain that EJ will not make it to the second round. If EJ *did* make it to the second round Eagles pick, like Geno if he drops, the Eagles are very likely-to-certain to draft him–so *someone* will eventually trade up ahead of the Eagles.
Tommy, with all this talk of Chip wanting to add H-back/TE/move guys, how would you feel about taking a late round flyer on The Juice? The Harvard one, not the stabby one….
Another guy we haven’t really talked about but is already on the team is Emil Igwenagu. He seems like he would be a perfect fit for Kelly’s offense in terms of versatility. Whether you can develop into a solid NFL player though, that’s a different question.
Great point. I almost forgot about him, but he’s a pretty versatile guy. I don’t know if he’s got the same talent and athleticism as Casey, but it would be interesting to see what he could do.
Stabby? Jim Rome would love that.
Kyle J could be a fit. I’m sure the Eagles loved what they saw of him in Mobile. Everybody did. Should be good STer. Will block and tackle. Can catch.
Saw the Curry thing mentioned on Jimmy’s blog earlier and posted the following comment.
“Looking back to Curry’s pre-draft profile on CBS, I spotted something that caught my attention:
“Plays with intensity and a nice anchor even when giving up 40-50 pounds against most blockers. Shows pop as a bull rusher. Stands up well against the run when lined up at five-technique, but must prove he has the bulk and strength to handle NFL linemen one-on-one or double-teams before moving inside.”
Seems to suggest that it might not be the craziest move in the world to have him bulk up and play end.”
Yeh I agree with this. If the rumour is true then you’d imagine the coaches have seen something in his skill set that they think would convert well as 5-tech.
We might be getting caught up in a players size because it’s one of the only things we know Chip likes in his players. I think if he and the staff believe a guy has the ability to be successful at a position then there’ll be exceptions made.
Either way I really liked the Curry pick so it’s exciting to see what we do with him.
“One of the reasons this is so hard to believe is that the Eagles just
worked out Princeton’s Mike Catapano. He is 6-3, 271. The Eagles had
him working out as a LB. Height, weight, and body type can be different
things, but just still seems funny to take a guy like Curry and bulk
him up.”
Wouldn’t read too much into it. Catapano played DE in college, so they have plenty of film, which means they want to work him out at LB to see if he has the athleticism to play there, just kicking the tires and taking notes. They know Curry very well (didn’t they hire his college coach?), so they have a pretty good idea what he can do.
Yeah but they also worked out the similar sized Ziggy by their Dline coach, indicating that they would draft Ziggy as a 5tec as opposed to OLB. Ziggy and Curry are similar sized….If we are to play an undersides 5tec, I would hope its Tank Carradine…if not, then give me some Hankins beef lol
Ziggy worked out at the combine and I think he was doing LB drills there. Catapano wasn’t invited.
Touché
Tommy
It seems more likely that we’ll see an OT and a 3-4 DE picked at #4 and #35. Roseman has acknowledged that holes in the line-up can drive early selections, and that it’s not just BPA–especially when the ratings of the top ten are so tightly bunched. The only FA miss of a targeted player was Ricky Jean-Francois, and there didn’t seem to be any other acceptable alternatives. OT has been ignored in FA even with able performers available.
This would suggest that Roseman/Kelly intend to bring in a youthful starter to buttress our aging o-line. That prospect seems high considering not just the age of the line, but also their injury history and the likelihood that at least one of OL will go down during the season. The need for a 3-4 DE starter seems to imply a high selection to fill that spot
As to which slot is filled first, it appears that there are adequate 3-4 DE candidates that should be available in the early second round. But the OT strength looks concentrated among the top three, with a huge drop-off afterward (other than Fluker, who’s probably not a mobility fit). That would argue for one of the OTs at #4 and the DE at #35.
I disagree. my humble oppinion is, Dion is a Unique player, so you take him with our Unique pick(not often that we pick in the top 5) Instead of taking an OT at #4 who might be the 4th OT on our depth chart next year..I would rather take Dion in the 1st, and then try and get Kyle long and Barrett Jones in RD2 and 3. Those two can battle it out with Watkins for the starting guard spot, yet you have a great Backup center to Kelce in Barrett, who can also play emergency OT(since he has done it in the SEC). Barrett and Kakua were instrumental in ruining the career of Manti Teo lol. Rocket Scientist type Intelligence, with a Runyon-like mean streak, plays injured, tough, played for Stoutland. Whats not to like?
Kyle Long, has already thrived in Chip’s high paced mayhem offense. Should be a heckuva nfl guard, yet he can definitely play RT for you for extended periods of times if the injury bug bites again.
We would still get our stud on defense in rd 1, get two guys that will fight with Watkins for the starting guard, while both backing up the OT’s and Barrett probably being even more intelligent then the Braniac he is backing up(Kelce) at Center. Add in Dennis Kelly, and that should be enough emergency depth all over the line for next season, allowing us to stack up the defense. if we are lucky, Watkins is reborn at the age of 40 and emerges as our starting guard, allowing Barrett and Kyle to man the bench, being able to fill in for the first two men that are injured
Very logical, Jay.
Only problem is that there may be other players rated above them. If that’s the case, you have to be careful about going for need over talent. We can’t ignore DE or OT, but the picks must have the right value.
Since the draft is deep at those spots, you have 3 or 4 rounds to get guys at those spots. I’m certainly okay with going DE/OT or OT/DE to start the draft. Would fit our biggest needs.
if Wang’s locker isn’t right before Chung’s than Chip should be fired! JK
I do really like the Brennan Williams pick, and he rarely gets mentioned by birds fans…I think he is a 5th round pick who will go on to be a very solid NFL starter.
Griffin in the 4th? Huh?
Here’s my little formula on projecting draft picks, since the Combine is a consensus opinion, if you don’t get invited, odds are you didn’t do enough on film to get very many scouts excited (or they’d lobby for you). Since they saw his Allstar game performance, they obviously weren’t too impressed.
So for noncombine players, assume they’re free agents unless they have above average pro days (i.e. athletic upside) and solid measurements, then they move into the 7th rd or so, great workouts 5th or 6th rounds.
Every year there are a couple noncombine players who make it to the 4th round, and they’re usually recognized as “misses” even before they work out, but almost no noncombine players get drafted in the first 100.
I’m very confused. Who is Griffin?
http://eaglesblog.net/2013/03/draft-watch-qb-ryan-griffin/
Is someone messing with your blog?
I’ve really enjoyed your last few posts.
Re the mick draft, i wd not draft a qb in rd2. Go for an OL or TE. People are iveremphasuzing the QB. There will be another Draft next year. A QB with a 2d round grade this year = Nick Foles last year. A QB who can’t mske himself a 1st rounder in a weak draft isn’t worth a 2d round pick. There will be another draft next year!
I think all the picks were pretty solid the two i liked the most were Jordan at 4 and Rontez Miles in the 7th.. If you take a close look at Dion Jordan he has a lot of potential and i think the connection Chip already has on him is huge but i really really like Miles out of Cal Pa his size isn’t ideal but i love how he plays his ability to blitz is crazy also he plays ST so that’s a plus i really hope they take him with their first 7th….Im not sure if anyone else saw him at the combine but he has the Steelers logo tattooed on his arm…i don’t really know what the story is on that its kinda weird to me but i think the guys a beast so I’m just going to look past it haha
Locker room shuffle? I don’t know, seems a bit rah-rah. Maybe I’m still nervous about Chip’s transition from college to the NFL. He comes from a world of dress codes, ethical contracts, and a lot of control over the personal lives of his players. I think he needs to be really careful about treating grown men, professional athletes, like a bunch of college guys.
NFL players like that stuff for a few years. That’s when it wears on them.
Do you mean player like it their first few years in the league, but vets don’t, or that a coach can get away with it his first few years with all the players?
Tommy, What do you think of the troubled young QB Peter Lalich? Does Chip Kelly and company give this kid a look ? Or does his troubled pass keep him out of the draft rooms altogether? For a 6-4 , 235 pounds mobile QB with lazer cannon for an arm. You would think teams would at least be talking about him.
With 4 7th round picks, I wouldn’t mind taking a flyer on a guy like that. The risk seems to be paying off with the Bryce pick from last year. No guarantees, but how many 7th rounders can you expect to keep out of 4? Might as well take some high risk/high reward types if you can’t trade one or two of those picks…
As far as Curry goes with this whole notion of staying at DE I think I sort of like the idea. At least in terms of sub packages. Like you said Tommy he has 2 former college coaches on staff here… not to mention Howie and the staff who watched him practice all year. I can get behind keeping a young guy in a role that he is comfortable with, even if it may put him slightly out of place in the base.
Lets face it the guy pretty much red-shirted last year. He was trained to do one thing under Wash and that is get after the passer. If he is someone that they really like (and I think we all hope that he is…) perhaps the logic is that they want him to focus on what he is good at right now. Perhaps this could also add to his versatility in the long run. If he molds his body as a 5tech or DE in general he could play that spot in the base and move to DT or even stay at DE in the sub.
I just hope this isnt a case of square peg round hole because the DL really isn’t shaping up like you hoped to this point.
As far as the mock goes:
I’ve not been sold on Jordan at #4 to this point. The thought does excite me, slightly because of Tommy’s man crush and slightly because it looks like he could be one of the few difference makers for that high in the draft. So I don’t love the pick but I don’t hate it.
Really don’t like Manuel at #2 simply because I’m not sold on the guy. It could also be a bit of sour grapes because I am a terps fan. Don’t get me wrong they whupped us, but I never felt like EJ was the reason. Im not a big college guy but I never really felt like EJ was the reason FS did well..
I really hate WR at 3. Keep in mind I’m a draft dummy… but it seems like guys that go in the 3rd don’t generally turn in to much unless they had some sort of character issue. Not to mention I think guys like Cooper Johnson and Mcnutt should all be viewed at as almost completely new picks because they are probably viewed very differently by this coaching staff.
As far as Commings in the 4th… were we assuming the Honey Badger was no longer available? I mean Jeff Lurie is known for wanting to give guys second chances. I think at this point Mathieu is gonna be by far BPA unless you have him going in the 3rd or before our early pick in 4 (which by most accounts he should be there).
Beyond the 4th round I am out of my depth even more..
What’s th fascination with the honey badger? We have Boykin..Can’t we do better than a Dime CB and a ST ace in the 4th round?
As far as ST ace goes. He was basically the next Devin Hester in the SEC or NFL lite. I think if the Bears were to go back in time and they knew what he was going to do, he would of gone well before the 4th. Especially if their return game was as pedestrian as the Eagles.
As far as a CB goes I really like Boykin at slot. Though some feel he could move to the outside. It’s not like TM could not play outside either. Heck drafting him in this position he could even be moved to safety. Tommy always talks about difference makers and this guy is a difference maker. He is a ferocious hitter who has a knack for dislodging the ball. He isn’t just blindly throwing his boyd around like Asante Samuel either (I can’t believe some announcers call him a big hitter or good tackler… I used to get embarrased watching him tackle, loved the guys but man). He has the speed, agility, and skill set to play ANYWHERE in the 2ndary IMO. He could even be utilized on offense.
The last Eagle he reminds me of is Lito Sheppard. IIRC correctly he was a 1st round pick, and he worked out REALLY well until he got all grumpy. To me TM is a better gifted Lito comming out.