Eagles Items From Indy

This is NFL Scouting Combine week. That means every coach, GM, agent and NFL writer/reporter has descended upon the lovely city of Indianapolis. And it is story time.

The Bears like Jay Cutler, but they’re talking to QB Josh McCown. The Cardinals worked out a deal with Larry Fitzgerald so he can stay in the desert for 2 more years. The Browns aren’t committing to Johnny Manziel as their starter for 2015. And so on.

There wasn’t any hard-hitting Eagles news, but there are some items worth mentioning.

The Eagles don’t have anyone scheduled to meet the press. The Eagles writers sought out Andy Reid to get his take on the front office shake-up. Big Red offered his thoughts.

“Listen, I’m a big Howie fan, I’m a big Chip fan,” Reid said. “It looks like everybody’s happy, which is important, and in good positions. Nobody was released. That’s a positive. And whatever they’ve done, they feel they’ve done what’s best for the Eagles.”

Saying that everybody is happy is probably stretching things a bit. I doubt Howie is on cloud nine right now. But we should all be so lucky to be suffering the way he is…with job security and a big salary.

This is still different than having someone out on the street and ripping the team and keeping a negative story line rolling along. I don’t know if you can fully say there is closure, but there is some semblance of peace.

Reid also talked about Ed Marynowitz.

“Just a sharp guy,” said Reid, who is now head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. “Good evaluator. He’d tell you a good player from a bad player. Stays one step ahead of it. Could look into the future on things. I think he’s going to do a great job there.”

“Remember at Alabama, they had full trust in him,” Reid said. “Nick didn’t want to lose him.”

Nothing groundbreaking there, but always interesting to hear what someone like Reid has to say.

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The Bucs have the #1 pick and did some talking about that. Jimmy Bama has the details.

“We have over two months yet,” explained Licht, “so it would be a little ridiculous to come out and say, ‘Well, this is who we want right now.’ We want to use every avenue that we have, every resource that we have in the next two months to make the final decision. But it would be an insult to sit here after two rounds of Draft meetings and watching every play of Lovie and I, or Jon Robinson, our personnel director, Mike Biehl, our college scouting [director], all of our scouts, to watch every play and say that, ‘Okay, we have two guys tied at the top.’ We have a favorite, but we want to let the process play out.”

So they have a favorite right now, but want to let the process play out. Who might the favorite be?

Jimmy highlighted an interesting comment from Coach Lovie Smith.

“We need a quarterback that can throw the ball and make a variety of throws, we need a leader, a guy who makes great decisions. We’d like to have a guy who is mobile in the pocket.”

Like vs need.

The first two sound more like Winston than Mariota.

Check out what draft analyst Rob Rang had to say after hearing from the Bucs brass.

“I feel more confident than ever that the No. 1 overall pick is Winston’s to lose.”

Wow. That’s pretty strong.

I still lean the other way. Lovie Smith said he was okay with Winston’s character issues since the legal system had run its course with the rape allegation and no charges had been filed, but you wonder how much of that is Smith trying to say the right thing and Smith truly believing that.

There is no doubting that Winston is very talented and could turn out to be a great NFL QB, but I still question his maturity. He was a good college leader, but are grown men going to put up with any of his stupidity?

I’d love to be wrong since it would help the Eagles to have any shot at Mariota. We’ll see.

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Jimmy Bama has some random Combine notes here. Lots of OL talk because that is the first group. They’re getting measured, weighed, interviewed and doing the medical stuff.

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The Plan

I can’t wait until the summer. First, it will be warm and fun to go outside. Children will run through the park, eating Funyuns and telling stories about the horrible Jimmy Bama monster that lives in the woods and will attack anyone who doesn’t love stick-figure drawings.

We’ll also have a series of signings and draft picks to review. We’ll have a better feel for how Chip Kelly did in his first turn at running the personnel side of things.

Pablo Torre wrote a great piece on Sixers GM Sam Hinkie for ESPN. I don’t know what you think of Hinkie. I find him utterly fascinating. Regardless of what we think, one thing we know for a fact…he has a plan. You may not like the plan. You may like his ideas, but question whether the plan will work. But the plan is there.

I don’t pretend to know enough about the NBA to know if the plan will work. I still think of Steve Mix and Clint Richardson as Sixers so that should tell you just how out of touch I am.

I do wonder if Chip Kelly has any type of plan for building the Eagles roster. Some guys believe in having a specific plan. Others have a more casual plan. Some simply focus on talent.

Jimmy Johnson loved trading back in the draft to load up on picks. He felt that helped his odds. He loved having big draft classes if he could help it.

Ernie Accorsi focused on pass rushers and the QB when building a roster. This worked well when putting together the Giants title team of 2007 (most of the guys were his players even though he retired prior to that year).

Ozzie Newsom and the Ravens seem to keep things simple and focus on finding the best players.

All of these strategies helped build good teams and champions. You don’t need to have an in-depth Hinkie type of plan.

I tend to like GMs/coaches that go into a draft with a plan. You can’t force things, but you can have specific goals. Ron Wolf went into the 1999 draft wanting big CBs to help deal with Randy Moss, who had just come into the league and looked dominant. Wolf also wanted to draft a QB, either to develop as a player or asset. He also liked taking chances on small school guys late in the draft.

1st round CB Antwaun Edwards was more role player than starter. 3rd rounder Mike McKenzie became a very good starter. QB Aaron Brooks was a 4th round pick. A year later Wolf dealt him to the Saints for a 3rd rounder (and a couple of forgettable players were involved). In the 7th round, Wolf took WR Donald Driver from Alcorn State. Wolf’s ideas didn’t work all the time, but they certainly did that year.

Based on Kelly’s talks with the media, you would think he would be the type not to have a specific plan. I can see him saying “Let’s go find some good players.” But Kelly doesn’t open up for the media very often. We might get simplistic soundbites, but they may not accurately reveal what he’s thinking.

As long as Chip gets good players, I’ll be a happy camper.

I will be curious to find out his thoughts and ideas behind the picks. It doesn’t mean anything significant, but I like to know how the Eagles drafter thinks. I understood Big Red for most of his career (although he got different at the end). I had some feel for Howie Roseman and what he liked. I’m back to square one with Kelly.

Can’t wait to see what he does…as long as he gets it right.

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