Really Big

Posted: July 8th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 39 Comments »

Chip Kelly loves big players so it should come as no surprise that the Eagles were one of the teams checking out DL LaKendrick Ross for the upcoming NFL Supplemental Draft. Ross is massive at 6-4, 366.

Unfortunately, the most compelling thing about Ross is his size. He played at a school I’d never heard of, Virginia University of Lynchburg. And remember that I’m a guy with VHS game tapes of the Colorado School of Mines. When I haven’t heard of a school…it is small.

I watched a bit of tape on Ross and came away mostly unimpressed. Scouts will tell you that when you study small school games, good prospects should really stick out. Ross was the best player on the field, but not in an overwhelming way. He does fit what the Eagles are looking for. Ross looks most comfortable when reading plays and shedding blocks. He is not an attacking DL.

Ross needs a ton of coaching. He plays with poor pad level and uses sloppy technique. He was able to overwhelm smaller guys in college, but that won’t work at the NFL level. Think of him as a lesser version of Michael Bamiro, if that puts things in perspective. Ross would be a NT candidate for the Eagles on a long term basis, but he needs work.

The Eagles should not spend a pick on Ross. I have no problem with them adding him as a free agent after the Supplemental Draft, but he’s not worth a pick. One interesting question would be who got cut to make room for Ross. DL Frances Mays?

PFT has a couple of details.

BGN as well.

* * * * *

Pretty crazy to think how much has changed since then.

* * * * *

Blogging the Boys put together an interesting post that used Bill James ideas for making some predictions on the NFC East. Most of the data favors the other 3 teams and not the Eagles, but that is largely due to the theory that good teams come back to the middle and losing teams move up.

The writer made sure to point out a few times that this was a less than ideal system for evaluating NFL teams. But this is the offseason. You have to be creative to keep the content going. I thought it was an interesting read. Kudos for the idea.

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39 Comments on “Really Big”

  1. 1 BleedGreen17 said at 9:21 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    If they are so in love with big boys to play DT, why did they pass on McCullers?

  2. 2 Neil said at 9:35 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    Working out a guy who may soon be an UDFA hardly indicates they’re in love with his body type. I think they’d love size as long as the guy had some good mobility too. The fact that they pulled the trigger on Logan in the 3rd and passed on McCullers could mean they do lean more toward mobility. Or the story of those two players could just be a matter of character, who knows.

  3. 3 Sconces said at 10:50 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    McCullers isn’t any more big than Logan, he’s just tall. And when I say big I don’t mean height. NTs shouldn’t be that tall. McCullers can’t get low and is soft. Also, Chip/Howie aren’t gonna target every big NT in the draft or they’d take Nix in the 3rd/4th. It’s about fit too and who they thing will be good.

  4. 4 anon said at 7:43 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    think they said if they saw someone that they thought would be
    “the guy” they’d take him, my guess is it was just priorities last year.

  5. 5 A_T_G said at 9:40 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    “And when I say big I don’t mean height…”

    “McCullers… is soft.”

    “It’s about fit too…”

    Must…resist. Must…show…maturity.

  6. 6 Dominik said at 9:48 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    You, my friend, are a filthy mind, but you can control you’re jokes better than I can mine (see above). Have to show respect for that.

  7. 7 Buge Halls said at 11:08 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    Football is so dirty!

  8. 8 GEAGLE said at 9:21 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    Alejandro Villanueva who I pray every night will turn into the 6’9 JJ Watt (but I’ll settle for Margus hunt or Caleus Cambell)’would disagree,,,,,
    ….
    But yea, not at nose…

  9. 9 A_T_G said at 9:49 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    What? I don’t understand.

  10. 10 ICDogg said at 6:33 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    I don’t think they are all that interested in great big nose tackles unless they have rare athletic ability.

  11. 11 Daniel Norman Richwine said at 9:33 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    I love learning new ways to think about football. That’s been a big part of why the Chip Kelly era has been so much fun. thanks for the pointer.
    What really is Chip up to? He seems to have a real plan. What is it, and will it work, do you think?

  12. 12 Bert's Bells said at 8:02 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    His plan is to score some #%*&ing points, what’s your plan?

  13. 13 GEAGLE said at 9:23 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    Best answer of the day,,,.but he really teed that one up for you

  14. 14 Mac said at 10:18 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    No kickers up for grabs?

  15. 15 Andy Kunkle said at 10:37 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    Tommy, you haven’t heard of Virginia University of Lynchburg, VA? It’s the only school in the country with the initials VULVA.

  16. 16 Sconces said at 10:50 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    Go on….

  17. 17 Cliff said at 11:51 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    Don’t feel bad. I’m from and live in VA and went to Virginia Tech, so sort of in the area of Lynchburg. The only schools I’ve ever heard of in Lynchburg are Liberty University (Jerry Falwell!) and Lynchburg College.

    But this guy has a very interesting story. Sounds worse than The Blind Side. Well, DEFINITELY worse considering Oher at least made it to a SEC school and Ross had to settle for VULVA because of grades. Apparently he was shuffled around a DOZEN foster homes as a kid. I’ll be rooting for him to get a chance somewhere.

  18. 18 Cliff said at 11:59 PM on July 8th, 2014:

    Also, Ross graduated from Norcom HS in Portsmouth, VA which is the same HS where Plaxico Burress came from. Definitely not the nice part of town.

  19. 19 ICDogg said at 6:30 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    Is that where they taught him to carry a gun in the pocket of his sweat pants?

  20. 20 GEAGLE said at 9:24 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    I just bought a lovely time share a block from there šŸ™‚

  21. 21 GEAGLE said at 9:18 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    If you were gonna throw your gangs signs up to rep Liberty, you could have given a shout out to Walt Aiken! Jk

  22. 22 D3FB said at 1:22 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    According to wiki VULVA has 600 students is pretty much a historically black seminary school, and they play football in something called the USCAA. Not D1, FCS, D2, D3, NAIA, but the USCAA. What the actual heck?

    Here’s his freshman highlight tape. I don’t really see anything other than a guy who is playing against bad former high school players, while being a massive human being.

    http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1865092/highlights/50474394

  23. 23 T_S_O_P said at 3:40 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    On the Blogging the Boys article,I struggled with the second theory with regards of form carrying over by looking at the last 8 games of last year. This was a negative for the Eagles? I couldn’t follow the logic. My logic tells me that the Redskins, who scored highest in this category, will be the slowest out of the gate. New coach, new schemer etc… The Eagles, should be quicker out of the gate, particularly in comparison to last year. Isn’t that what happened last year? After a 4-12 2012, we went 1-3. So did reigning 2012 champs, but they had a QB returning after injury with zero playing a camp time under his belt. More over, they went 3-6 in their first 9 games which was mu her better than the last 7 game form.

  24. 24 ICDogg said at 6:29 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    B2B banned me for trolling. And I wasn’t trolling. They’re just oversensitive about the truth about their team.

    Anyway I think their article is crap.

  25. 25 RobNE said at 9:08 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    under which article were you arguing with them? I went to read it (just for kicks) but I didn’t see you under the Bill James article.

  26. 26 ICDogg said at 11:18 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that they just did it in this article, that was months ago. But it wouldn’t matter, they also removed all of my posts from their comments at the time.

  27. 27 GEAGLE said at 9:17 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    I got in trouble for calling a player a Queer and a sissy over there…
    .,,I said written ran queerer than a two dollar Bill, and that Murray. Ran like a sissy and I got banned for “homophobic” and “sexist” language…
    …
    SERIOUSLY, calling someone a sissy is sexist? WTF.. Just because I think you are poor excuse of a man, doesn’t mean I’m bashing woman….they just couldn’t handle the truth! Lol

  28. 28 MFlick said at 7:28 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    I was going to post the same thing. I think they outsmarted themselves with the math.

    The thesis: Hot ending = next season hot start
    The conclusion: Redskins were hot, Eagles were cold

    When any sane person who watched either team knows the 7-1 team should be the hot team and the 0-8 team should be the cold team.

  29. 29 Anders said at 9:37 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    Seems you didnt read.

  30. 30 MFlick said at 1:45 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    I read, here is the thesis:

    “Teams who play better in the second half of the season tend to improve the following season. It follows that teams who play worse in the second half tend to decline the
    following season. Because the NFL season is only 16 games versus the 162 in a baseball season, this indicator is closely related to the first indicator.”
    So if you play well at the end of the season it will indicate you play well at the beginning of the next season.

    They go through his Pythagorian theorm and his conclusion is :
    Redskins Trending up, Eagles Trending down.

    Therefore without going into detail about his process, there is no way you can convince me that the Redskins were a hotter team at the end of the year than the Eagles.

    So my conclusion is that his process is fundamentally flawed.

  31. 31 Anders said at 9:38 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    It wasnt about hot/cold. It was about how much better than your predicted pyth record you played. Problem is 8 game sample is way to little as accuracy of the 16 game sample is already bad

  32. 32 T_S_O_P said at 11:15 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    If using Pythagarus distorts hot and cold starts to show that using the law of averages, the Eagles won’t repeat 7-1 over their first 8 games and that he Redskins won’t repeat 0-8, then it is being used just for the purpose to be able to put a down arrow next to the Eagles team.

  33. 33 Mike Roman said at 8:36 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    “And remember that Iā€™m a guy with VHS game tapes of the Colorado School of Mines.”

    Anyone else thinking INTERVENTION?

  34. 34 Andy124 said at 11:56 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    I think you’d have a lot of upset regulars here if you intervened.

  35. 35 CrackSammich said at 9:02 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    There’s usually only a few guys in the supplemental draft, correct? I’d be surprised if an organization this dedicated to shaking every tree didn’t check this guy out in their month of no football. I don’t read into the size issues as much as some.

  36. 36 D3FB said at 1:35 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    It can’t hurt but this year the crop is just so bad. There are only 2 guys I know of this year. Ross, and Traylon Shead. Shead was a 5 star back that started out at UT-Austin, got beat out, transfered to SMU, got dinged up a bit and just didn’t play well. Only had like 200 career yards. His tape is very bad. No explosion, no power, no instincts, no speed. Neither of these guys could crack our 90 man.

    http://draftbreakdown.com/video/traylon-shead-vs-rutgers-2013/

  37. 37 GEAGLE said at 9:13 PM on July 9th, 2014:

    Yeah this year they are expecting them all to go Undrafted and become UDFAs

  38. 38 D3FB said at 12:34 AM on July 10th, 2014:

    Actually Darius Lipford isn’t half bad. I didn’t know he was available. I just don’t know what the hell he projects to in the NFL. Played 43 SAM as a freshman, got hurt sophomore year, played a hybrid “buck” linebacker (DE/OLB) last year, and was going to be the starting MLB this year. Academic issues. 6’3 235lbs, so if he goes undrafted, I’d love for us to take a stab at him and IR his ass for a year, to figure out whether to grow him for OLB or improve his instincts for ILB.

  39. 39 Dominik said at 9:28 AM on July 9th, 2014:

    Re: Really Big.

    Am I allowed to quote one of Scrantons most famous thinkers here?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIWrFNDKQ6o